By Canadian Press

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

Jan 16, 2017 | 3:45 PM

Highlights from the news file for Monday, Jan. 16

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ETHICS WATCHDOG LOOKING INTO TRUDEAU VACATION: Canada’s ethics watchdog plans to take a closer look at Justin Trudeau’s recent family holiday at the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas, fanning the flames of a controversy the government has so far been unable to snuff out. Trudeau’s holiday with the Aga Khan — a family friend, noted philanthropist and hereditary spiritual leader to the world’s approximately 15 million Ismaili Muslims — bears closer scrutiny, ethics commissioner Mary Dawson confirmed Monday. In a letter to Blaine Calkins, one of two Conservative MPs who filed formal complaints, Dawson said she will examine both Trudeau’s stay at the island and his use of the Aga Khan’s private helicopter to get there. The vacation included Trudeau, his wife and three kids, Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan and Liberal party president Anna Gainey, all of whom took part in helicopter flights between the capital city of Nassau and the secluded island.

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REPORTS: ISTANBUL NIGHTCLUB ATTACKER CAUGHT: A gunman who killed 39 people during an attack on a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year’s celebrations has been caught in a police operation, Turkish media reports said early Tuesday. The suspect was caught in a special operations police raid on a house in a housing complex in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, private NTV television said. The report said he had been staying in the house belonging to a Kyrgyz friend. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the nightclub massacre, saying the attack was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The man identified as the suspect had been on the run since the attack. Hurriyet newspaper and other media have identified the gunman as Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national. The suspect was to undergo medical checks before being taken to a police headquarters for questioning, the paper said in its online edition.

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MILITARY VICE CHIEF RELIEVED OF POST: One of the military’s highest ranking officers has been swiftly removed from his post with no public explanation. Vice chief of defence staff Mark Norman was relieved of his military duties by his boss, defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance, in a letter dated Jan. 13 but made public Monday. The tersely worded letter did not give a reason for the sudden change of command and a spokesman for Vance did not elaborate, saying only that “for the time being,” Norman would not be carrying out the functions of the job. The defence minister’s office also provided no detail. The RCMP would not say whether they had Norman under investigation for any reason, noting they never generally confirm or deny who is or isn’t under scrutiny. But Canada’s military police said they were not involved.

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TRUDEAU TAKES GOODWILL TOUR TO THE EAST COAST: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began the East Coast leg of his cross country tour Monday with visits to several Halifax cafes, where he was greeted by happy owners and a handful of protesters. Trudeau walked around Java Blend Coffee Roasters shaking hands and taking dozens of selfies with shop customers and Liberal party supporters and then crossed the harbour to drop in at the Two If By Sea cafe in Dartmouth. Three men stood by the entrance of Java Blend holding signs saying “Do Better Please,” “Respect Indigenous Rights,” and “Military Support to Saudi Arabia is Murder.” A large crowd is expected to gather at a town hall in Dartmouth in the evening to raise questions with Trudeau about regional issues as he begins the second week of his roving campaign to reconnect with ordinary Canadians. Mayor Mike Savage tweeted Sunday that the event has been moved to the 3,000-seat Dartmouth Sportsplex arena due to “overwhelming positive response” over the weekend.

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ONTARIO BOUNCER AMONG DEAD IN MEXICAN SHOOTING: Tributes are pouring in from friends and colleagues for a longtime Toronto bouncer who died in a shooting attack Monday at an electronic music festival in Mexico. Kirk Wilson has been identified in several Mexican reports as among those killed at the Blue Parrot nightclub. Longtime friend Neil Forester says Wilson was working security at the annual BPM Festival and was one of several people from the Toronto area lending a hand to the festival’s Canadian organizers. Forester says Wilson, 49, was married with two children and living in the Hamilton area. Mexican authorities say two Canadians were among the five dead in the shooting. Global Affairs Canada is confirming one Canadian death and is working to confirm whether there was a second. Federal officials say at least two other Canadians were wounded in the deadly incident at the club in the popular resort town of Playa del Carmen.

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CROWN SAYS COUPLE, GRANDSON KILLED, BURNED IN RURAL AREA: The first witness in the Douglas Garland murder trial said Monday she found blood everywhere when she want to her mom and stepfather’s Calgary home two years ago to pick up her five-year-old son. Garland is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their grandson Nathan O’Brien. Jennifer O’Brien said Nathan was having at an impromptu sleepover with her parents following an estate sale. She said when she arrived the next morning, the door was open and there were pools of blood and bloody hand prints on the wall. O’Brien said she couldn’t find any sign of her three family members and knew something was wrong. The Crown opened its case by telling the jury that the three victims were violently snatched in the night and taken to a rural property where they were killed and their bodies burned.

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MP SAYS NATO WITHOUT U.S. MEANS CANADA TO DO MORE: The head of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee says Canada will have to contribute more to NATO if the U.S. follows through on president-elect Donald Trump’s musings on withdrawing from the alliance. Liberal MP Bob Nault cautions that Canada and its NATO partners need to see how U.S. foreign policy formally takes shape after Trump’s Friday inauguration. But he says Canada remains committed to the 28-country alliance, and can’t let it become weakened if the U.S. — its largest financial and military contributor — scales back its involvement. Nault is leading an all-party delegation to Latvia and Poland, two of NATO’s eastern European members and nervous neighbours of Russia, which annexed part of Ukraine almost three years ago.

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IMF EXPECTS CANADIAN GROWTH TO PICK UP: Canada is headed for stronger economic growth in 2017 and 2018 than last year, but it’s too soon to predict how the Donald Trump administration will affect the global economy, according to an International Monetary Fund report. The IMF estimated the Canadian economy grew by 1.3 per cent last year and predicted in its world economic outlook Monday that gross domestic product will grow by 1.9 per cent in 2017 and 2.0 per cent in 2018. The revised estimate for 2016 is up 0.1 of a percentage point from October, when the IMF estimated annual growth for Canada would be 1.2 per cent. Its 2017 estimate is unchanged and its 2018 estimate is up 0.1 of a point. By contrast, Mexico’s estimate has been lowered by 0.6 of a percentage point for both this year and next year, compared with the IMF’s October estimate — prior to Trump’s victory in November. Mexico’s growth is still expected to outpace Canada’s in 2016 at 2.2 per cent, but is expected to slow to 1.7 per cent in 2017 and 2.0 per cent in 2018.

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WOMEN’S RCMP SEX SUIT CERTIFIED AS CLASS ACTION: A proposed agreement to compensate women who endured sexual harassment as employees of the RCMP has passed a key hurdle, with a Federal Court judge agreeing two lawsuits against the police force can proceed as a class action. In certifying the class action, Judge Ann Marie McDonald said she was satisfied the women have shown they have reasonable grounds to press their lawsuit. McDonald also approved the proposed definition of class members — essentially all women who work for, or did work for, the RCMP starting in 1974. While individual claims will have to be assessed, McDonald found that a class action is preferable to forcing victims to press claims on their own. Former RCMP officers Janet Merlo and Linda Davidson, both of whom say they suffered gender-based discrimination and harassment, are appropriate as representative plaintiffs, the ruling states. Certification of the class action, which Ottawa did not oppose at a hearing last week, paves the way now for the court to give its blessing to a tentative settlement reached last May between the federal government and the women.

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HERITAGE MINUTES MAKERS ENCOURAGE A REFRESH: Kari Skogland, who directed two early instalments in the series of bite-sized historic moments, said it’s about time that filmmakers push the boundaries on Canada’s “Heritage Minutes.” Skogland said the latest call out by Historica Canada for another two instalments of the series opens the door for artists to draft a few edgier proposals. He said the next step could be acknowledging how our Canadian artists have impacted the world. A timely and important example, she suggests, would be dedicating a Heritage Minute to the story of Leonard Cohen. Historica Canada CEO Anthony Wilson-Smith said he’s open to all new ideas, but that he’s particularly hoping to fill glaring omissions in the series. In particular, Heritage Minutes haven’t paid much attention to stories of the LGBTQ community, young people, religion and the environment. Wilson-Smith said he’d like all of those themes captured in vignettes sooner than later.

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The Canadian Press