By Canadian Press

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

Feb 8, 2017 | 4:00 PM

Highlights from the news file for Wednesday, Feb. 8

———

CANADA ISSUES WARNING ON U.S. TAX IDEA: The Canadian government is launching a pre-emptive warning for American policy-makers considering a tax on cross-border trade: If you hit us, prepare to be hit back. As she concluded a two-day trip to Washington, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday that she told U.S. politicians that Canada would strongly oppose new tariffs — and would respond in kind. That early warning comes as Congress begins a debate on a once-in-a-generation reform of corporate taxes, following a series of stalled efforts over the years under successive legislatures and administrations. Freeland said Canada doesn’t intend to provide running commentary on this debate. But she used her trip to register, for the record, Canada’s feelings about one idea being floated: She told lawmakers that if the final legislation includes a tariff-like penalty on Canadian imports, Canada would retaliate.

———

CANADA’S BIG CITIES HOME TO BIG SHARE OF 35M CANADIANS: The 2016 census data released Wednesday shows that Canada’s population of 35.15 million is settling in the bigger cities, ensuring they and their suburban neighbours keep growing, while small cities get smaller. The three biggest metropolitan areas in the country — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — are now home to more than one-third of all Canadians with a combined population of 12.5 million, with almost one half living in Toronto and its suburban neighbours, the data shows. Canada is once again the fastest growing country in the G7, Statistics Canada says in the first of what will be seven tranches of 2016 census data to be released over the course of the year. Wednesday’s release focused on population and dwellings; the next one, in May, will be focused on age and sex. The latest figures also show that the once yawning gulf in growth rates between the spreading suburbs and their urban centres has continued to narrow, with young professionals and aging baby boomers alike opting for the downtown-condominium life. The census shows that 82 per cent of Canadian population live in large and medium-sized cities across the country, one of the highest concentrations among G7 nations.

Health

Saskatchewan warned of helium supply cut because of Middle East war

1h ago

Fire

PAFD investigating morning house fire

1h ago

Out of this World

WATCH: Canadian Space Agency's first space to Earth video call with Jeremy Hansen

2h ago

———

BOMBARDIER AID PROMPTS TRADE BATTLE WITH BRAZIL: The federal government’s aid to Bombardier has triggered a new trade battle with Brazil, which launched a formal complaint Wednesday with the World Trade Organization. “Canadian subsidies artificially affect the international competitiveness of the sector, in a manner inconsistent with Canada’s WTO obligations,” the Brazilian government said in a statement. Brazil said Bombardier received at least US$2.5 billion in government support last year and that additional contributions may hurt the country’s interests by further distorting the aerospace industry. Last year, Bombardier received a US$1-billion investment for the CSeries passenger jet program from the Quebec government in exchange for a 49.5 per cent stake. The company also sold a 30 per cent stake in its railway division to pension fund manager Caisse de depot for US$1.5 billion. On Tuesday evening, Ottawa announced it will provide $372.5 million in new loans to Bombardier to be paid in instalments over four years to support the Global 7000 and CSeries aircraft projects. Although the loans are interest-free, the government said it expects to earn a return, as it has done with past loans, through royalties for planes sold.

———

FEDS’ BOMBARDIER AID CRITICIZED IN QUEBEC: The federal response to Bombardier’s request for financial assistance is yet another sign of Ottawa giving short shrift to Quebec, Parti Quebecois Leader Jean-Francois Lisee said Wednesday. In a familiar refrain, Lisee bemoaned that the $372.5 million Ottawa has offered the Quebec-based aerospace giant in interest-free loans is chump change when compared to the money the federal government has given Ontario’s automobile industry. Lisee’s conclusion: that Quebec is always the big loser in the federal system and that its interests would be better served by independence. The federal money for Bombardier will be handed out in instalments over four years to support the Global 7000 and CSeries aircraft projects

———

ATTEMPT TO BLOCK ’60s SCOOP RULING SLAMMED AS GALLING: An extraordinary 11th-hour government attempt to stop a judge from ruling on a bitter eight-year legal fight over the so-called ’60s Scoop is under fire from the plaintiffs and observers, who denounced it Wednesday as galling and unprecedented political interference in judicial proceedings. In a blistering note to Ontario Superior Court, the plaintiffs urge Justice Edward Belobaba to reject the Liberal government’s request to put his decision on ice one week before he was expected to issue it. Belobaba reserved his decision late last week on whether the federal government is liable to about 16,000 at-risk indigenous children in Ontario taken from reserves and placed in non-aboriginal homes from 1965 to 1984. The plaintiffs, who seek $1.3 billion in damages in the class action, maintain they suffered a devastating loss of cultural identity.

———

CANADIANS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF ACADEMIC EVENTS IN U.S.: Canadian intellectuals are in the thick of a global movement to protest the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump by boycotting academic conferences hosted on American soil. Hundreds of professors at universities across the country have joined more than 6,200 academics around the world pledging to stay away from international conferences held in the United States. Some Canadian groups have gone further, either rescheduling previously booked conferences or breaking ranks with counterparts in the U.S. who discourage such boycotts. Most academics say their decisions were prompted by Trump’s executive order temporarily banning travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. They say the executive order, which has been temporarily stayed by U.S. courts, puts intellectual freedom at risk by silencing the voices of those who cannot enter the country. They also argue that excluding some Muslim colleagues compromises the intellectual integrity of academic discourse, adding that the order helps entrench racism.

———

OVERPAYMENTS DUE TO PHENOIX PROBLEMS ‘WILL BE RECOVERED’: The federal government will get back all of the money it has overpaid civil servants through its problem-plagued payroll system, the deputy minister in charge of overseeing the system vowed Wednesday, adding that overpayments to government employees are commonplace. A number of government employees who have left their jobs or moved on to other positions are still being paid too much, Public Services and Procurement Canada deputy minister Marie Lemay acknowledged. But anyone who received too much pay will eventually be required to return the money, she said. “All overpayments will be recovered once we process these outstanding transactions,” Lemay told a news conference. The CBC reported this week the government has overpaid more than $68 million to thousands of its workers and has so far reached agreements to recover only about one third of the money.

———

NOVA SCOTIA PLAGUED BY SYSTEMIC RACISM, REPORT SAYS: African Nova Scotians continue to grapple with systemic racism in a province that has a long history of discrimination, a new report says. A preliminary report from the restorative inquiry into abuse at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children orphanage said some black people attending its information sessions were reluctant to interact with public agencies because they feel they are treated as “second-class citizens.” The 16-page document also said participants noted African Nova Scotians continue to be over-represented in the child welfare and correctional systems, and black children are suspended at disproportionate rates. The inquiry was launched in 2015 with a mandate to examine the experience of former residents of the Halifax orphanage, and systemic discrimination and racism throughout the province.

———

QUEBEC CONDEMNS WASHINGTON POST OPINION PIECE: The Quebec government is denouncing a recent Washington Post opinion piece that claimed the province is more racist than the rest of Canada. Legislature members voted unanimously Wednesday to condemn the article, which ran three days after six men were killed at a Quebec City mosque. A spokeswoman for International Relations Minister Christine St-Pierre says the government will send the newspaper a formal letter of complaint. Last week, the House of Commons in Ottawa refused to debate a similar Bloc Quebecois motion that denounced the article as hateful. The article, entitled Why Does ‘Progressive’ Quebec Have So Many Massacres? was written by Vancouver-based political commentator J.J. McCullough and ran Feb. 1. The author argues that Quebec experiences a disproportionate number of mass shootings due in part to what he calls a history of “anti-Semitism, religious bigotry and pro-fascist sentiment.”

———

ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE TO REVIEW ABOUT 4,000 SEX ASSAULT CASES: Ontario Provincial Police say they will be reviewing approximately 4,000 sexual assault investigation reports that were designated as “unfounded.” Commissioner Vince Hawkes says the review will cover allegations made between 2010 and 2014. The announcement follows a report by the Globe and Mail that the newspaper says exposed deep flaws in the way investigators treat sexual assault allegations. The Globe says that as a result of its investigation, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has called on police to reassess how they manage sex-assault complaints. Hawkes says the OPP takes all reports of sexual assault and violence seriously and “uses all resources necessary to conduct complete, thorough and professional investigations.” He says the OPP will examine the cases over the next several weeks and release a statement at the conclusion of the review, which will include a summary of the analysis.

___

The Canadian Press