By Canadian Press

The Tuesday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

Jun 6, 2017 | 3:45 PM

Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, June 6

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FREELAND SAYS CANADA NEEDS TO SPEND MORE ON MILITARY: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canadians need to spend billions on “hard power” military capability because they can’t rely on the U.S. or others for protection. In a major foreign policy speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday, she didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, but made an unabashed pitch for the international rules-based order that the U.S. president’s America First policy is attacking. The speech is meant to foreshadow the release of Wednesday’s defence policy review, which is expected to make the case for billions in new military spending.

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FAMILIES HELP 18% OF FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS: Nearly one in five first-time homebuyers received help with a down payment from a family member, according to a survey conducted by the federal housing agency released Tuesday. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said 18 per cent of first-time buyers polled said they received a gift from a family member as part of their down payment. It was the first time CMHC included the question as part of its annual mortgage consumer survey.

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MORNEAU DEFENDS INFRASTRUCTURE BANK RISKS: The federal finance minister came to the defence Tuesday of the Liberals’ promised, $35-billion infrastructure bank, insisting it would create less risk for taxpayers than if the government shouldered the financial burden for projects alone. The infrastructure bank is a key component in the Liberals’ economic growth strategy. Finance Minister Bill Morneau argued Ottawa would shift more of the risk to private investors and put them on the hook for the majority of cost overruns. Government would take on a smaller role, he added.

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COSBY ACCUSER SAYS SHE WAS DRUGGED: Bill Cosby’s chief accuser took the stand at his sexual assault trial Tuesday to tell her story publicly for the first time, saying the comedian groped her after giving her three blue pills that left her paralyzed and helpless. “In my head, I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move, but I was frozen,” said Toronto native Andrea Constand. Cosby, 79, is charged with drugging and violating Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

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FORMER HOMELESS MAN DONATES $10k TO SHELTER: An Ontario man who was homeless for years has donated $10,000 to a shelter that supported him after receiving compensation from a residential school settlement. The act of kindness has triggered a slew of donations for Shelter House in Thunder Bay, Ont., which closed an outreach program on April 1 after it ran out of funds for the operation. That program, known as Street Outreach Services, or SOS, involved two staffers driving around and checking on the city’s homeless, intoxicated and others at risk on the streets, and taking them to hospitals, detox facilities and shelters.

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LIBERALS MODERNIZING SEXUAL ASSAULT LAW: The Liberal government is changing sexual assault law to make it clear that an unconscious person cannot consent to sexual activity, part of an effort to bring legislation up to speed with the courts — and the times. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould also wants to expand rape shield provisions to include text messages and other communications of a sexual nature or for a sexual purpose, either from before or after the sexual activity in question.

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DATA SHOWS OPIOID CRISIS WORST IN WESTERN CANADA: New national figures released by public health officials show an estimated 2,458 people died in Canada from opioid-related overdoses in 2016. The data from the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests a death rate of 8.8 per cent per 100,000 people, and that western provinces are feeling the brunt of the impact. The agency says data from Quebec is not currently available. The numbers were released by the agency on behalf of a federal, provincial and territorial advisory committee on the opioid overdose epidemic.

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MOVE TO UNIONIZE WESTJET FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: A recent successful bid to unionize WestJet pilots has prompted a push to organize flight attendants at the airline. The airline, Canada’s second-largest, has long prided itself on its relationship with its employees, whom it refers to as co-owners. The WestJet Professional Flight Attendants Association says it has ramped up efforts, while the Canadian Union of Public Employees says it’s considering launching its own campaign to unionize flight attendants.

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NATIONAL PARK COULD LOSE HERITAGE STAUS: A national park in Alberta could be listed as endangered by the United Nations World Heritage Committee by the summer of 2018 if Canada doesn’t meet new deadlines to prove it is taking action to protect the park from development. The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization has given Canada 17 recommendations to help improve the status of the Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta. And it has set a deadline of February 2018 for Canada to show its plan to meet those recommendations and another deadline of December 2018 to show progress on that plan.

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VANITY PLATE DISPUTE HEADED TO COURT: A Nova Scotia man who made international headlines when the provincial government decided his personalized licence plate was offensive to women will have his day in court early next year. The letters on the plate read GRABHER, which is Lorne Grabher’s last name. The province’s Registry of Motor Vehicles revoked his personalized plate, saying it was a “socially unacceptable slogan.” Grabher wants his name reinstated on the plate, and his lawyers from intend to argue the removal violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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The Canadian Press