Back to newsletter list 06/03/2008 23:22:05 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Canada expecting NATO help in Afghanistan - Search for leaker of memo about U.S. vote widens - World body critical of Canada's drug policy
OTTAWA: FM CONFIDENT NATO AID IN STORE FOR AFGHANISTAN Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier has emerged from a meeting with his NATO counterparts confident that their countries will eventually lend Canada a hand in Kandahar with reinforcements. He told the Canadian Press news agency that he explained to them the recommendations of an independent panel that offered recommendations on the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. The panel suggested that it be prolonged beyond February 2009 to 2011 on the condition that NATO provide 1,000 reinforcements, as well as unmanned aircraft and other advanced equipment. Mr. Bernier says he had a "constructive dialogue" with the other ministers. NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, says the ministers prepared the ground for the meeting of heads of state and government which will meet next month in Romania to approve and political and military plan for Afghanistan. He didn't offer details of what it will comprise. OTTAWA: PLOT THICKENS IN LEAKED MEMO FLAP Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the investigation into the leaked memorandum that may be playing a role in the U.S. presidential election will be expanded to include his own office. Mr. Harper has told the House of Commons that he will take whatever action in response that is recommended by the clerk of the Privy Council, Canada's top civil servant. Previously, the prime minister had said only that there was an investigation at the foreign affairs department. But it has emerged that his chief of staff told reporters last week that Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters had given assurance that her talk of reopening the North American Free Trade Agreement wasn't to be taken overly seriously. The flap began last week after a memorandum of an alleged conversation between a Canadian diplomat and the camp of her adversary Sen. Barak Obama emerged on Monday, the day before several major primary elections. The memo was similarly reassuring on the subject of NAFTA. Both said two weeks ago that if elected he or she would reopen the accord to obtain better environmental and labour standards. VICTORIA: UN CRITICIZES CANADIAN DRUG POLICY The UN has attacked federal drug policy. In its annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board has called on the Canadian government to close Vancouver's safe injection site. The document also says the distribution of safe crack kits in Toronto, Ottawa and on Vancouver Island are in violation of the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs. Federal Health Minister Tony Clement says the UN agency has criticized the programs in the past and that they're under review. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has reacted by accusing the UN body of being out of step with common sense, science and sound public policy. The lobby's executive director, Richard Elliot, says it continues to insist on the same war against drugs rather than to support public services that protect health. OTTAWA: GOVT. GIVEN POOR GRADES ON ENVIRONMENTAL DUTIES The federal environmental monitor has issued a report that takes a dim view of the government's enforcement of its own policies. The environment commissioner, Ron Thompson, has issued a report in which the government is found wanting in nine of 14 areas. His report to the House of Commons notes that the government has promised for years to protect wildlife and habitat but has fulfilled the promise. The report says that auditors recommended six years ago that it draw up an inventory of species at risk but that the list hasn't yet seen the light of day. The document also notes that while foreign species continue to invade Canadian waters, the government doesn't know how they arrive, which are the biggest risks and how to deal with them. TORONTO: PROVINCE SAID CONTINUING PAY DISCRIMINATION The Ontario government is again being accused of pay discrimination against its female employees. A report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives claims that the Liberal Party government is ignoring its own pay equity legislation by failing to pay adjustments owed to the women. The study's author, Mary Cornish, says the government is achieving budget surpluses at the expense of female child-care and community health workers. According to the study, women in the public service earn 29 per cent less than men. Unions and individual workers launched successful pay equity challenges in 1996 and 2001 based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Labour Minister Brad Duguid says the Liberals are proud how far they've come on the pay equity issue but declined to say whether they'll go farther. MONTREAL: POLITICAL PARTY WANTS FEWER IMMIGRANTS TO QUEBEC An opposition leader in the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec wants the Liberal Party government to stop increasing numbers of immigrants. Mario Dumont says that if the situation goes unchanged, francophones will become a minority in the province. He was reacting to recent research by l'Office de la langue francaise that more than one resident of the island of Montreal speaks a mother tongue other than French. Mr. Dumont has called on Premier Jean Charest to freeze immigration at its present level. Quebec will receive 49,000 newcomers this year and plans to increase the number to 55,000 by 2010. The government says the province's economy needs them. But Mr. Dumont says 45,000 are the most that Quebec can absorb and that if there are more they risk reversing the progress achieved by the province's language law in protecting French. OTTAWA: MALAYSIAN HOMOSEXUAL DEPORTED Canada on Thursday deported a Malaysian homosexual despite his fears that he'll find himself back in prison. Kulenthiran Amirthalingam had been living in Montreal before being put on a p*** to return to Malaysia, where homosexuality is illegal and sodomy can be punished with whipping and a jail term. Mr. Amirthalingam had said he came to Canada in July 2002 and applied for refugee status in January 2003 after returning from a visit home, where he was imprisoned for five days and harassed by the police. His refugee claim was rejected because members of the panel hearing didn't find it believable. In its travel report for Malaysia, the Canadian government warns travellers that homosexuality is illegal there and that "Convicted offenders may face lengthy jail sentences and fines."
IRAQ Two co-ordinated bomb attacks killed at least 55 people in Baghdad on Thursday. More than 120 others were wounded. The first attack involved a roadside bomb that exploded in the central neighbourhood of Karada. When police arrived, a suicide bomber entered the crowd and detonated a second explosion. After six months of relative quiet, Iraq's capital has witnessed an increase in violent attacks over the past month. ISRAEL At least eight young people were killed and 35 others were injured in an attack at a Jewish seminary near Jerusalem. Witnesses said two gunmen disguised as students entered the yeshiva, or religious school, and opened fire. Unconfirmed reports say that the gunmen were later killed in an exchange of gunfire. A Lebanese television station described the gunmen as members of a previously unknown group, Martyrs of Gaza. In Gaza, the Islamic Jihad said that four of its members were killed in an Israeli missile strike near the southern town of Khan Younis. NORTH KOREA According to a South Korean aid group, North Korea publicly executed 15 of its citizens who tried to enter China illegally in search of food. The group, Good Friends, says 13 women and two men were shot on a bridge in Juwongu district in the northeastern town of Onseong on Feb. 20, as local residents watched. In London, Amnesty International called on North Korea to end its policy of summary executions, and urged neighbouring China and Japan to set an example by following a UN moratorium on the death penalty. NICARAGUA President Daniel Ortega says his country will break off diplomatic relations with Colombia to protest against that country's raid on a Colombian guerrilla camp last weekend. Mr. Ortega says his government's gesture is one of solidarity with Ecuador, whose own leftist President Rafael Correa was visiting Managua. It was the latest move to isolate Colombia by a leftist Latin American alliance angry with the bombing that killed the second-highest military leader of the FARC guerrilla movement and 24 of his fighters. Venezuela and Ecuador have reacted by sending troops to their borders with Colombia. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will meet regional leaders later in the week in the Dominican Republic.
MONTREAL: ENGINEERING GIANT MISSES EARNINGS TARGET Canadian engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin saw its earnings decline in 2007 for the first time in 15 years. The company had a profit of $153.2 million or $1.00 a share, compared with a figure of $267.3 million or $1.04 per share in the previous year. SNC-Lavalin attributes the dip to a loss in its power business due to the bankruptcy of a key supplier to the Goreway natural gas generating station in Brampton, ON. The company predicts a return to its traditional target of seven to 12 per cent annual profit growth this year. TORONTO: RESOURCE FIRM HAS RECORD RESULT Natural resources firm Sherritt International Corp. has achieved a record profit of $370 million for 2007. CEO Jowdat Waheed says all business units were profitable and that Sherritt was particularly helped by strong commodity prices for nickel, cobalt and oil. Sherritt has considerable investments in Cuba and is expanding an agreement to provide power to the island. The Canadian firm has stated it wants to solidify its stake in Cuba so as to be well positioned in the event that the political régime changes. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro resigned last week, leaving the presidency to his brother Raul. TORONTO: BMO STOCK CONTINUES PLUNGE The credit crisis in the U.S. took its toll on the value of Canadian banking stocks on Thursday. The Bank of Montreal's fell by seven per cent to $42, the stock now having dropped 22 per cent in the past week. BMO was trading at $54 on Feb. 27. BMO has said it's uncertain about the fate of two asset-backed commercial paper trusts which it administers, trusts which have been seriously affected by the subprime mortgage crisis. Shares of the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commercial also fell although less steeply than BMO's. NEW YORK: OIL HITS ANOTHER RECORD The barrel of oil closed at another record high on Thursday of US$105.47 in New York. A factor in the latest increase was traders' concern at an overnight attack by Colombian rebels on a pipeline that transports 60,000 barrels a day for export markets. There is also worry about the continuing tensions between Colombia and Venezuela because of the former country's military raid into Ecuador last weekend. MARKETS TSX on Thursday: 13,360, down 243. Canadian dollar: US$101.32 cents, down 0.11 of a cent. Euro: C$1.5193, up 1.44 cents. Light sweet crude: US$105.47, up $0.95.
SKATING Canada's Kristina Groves of Ottawa raced to a bronze medal in the 1.500 metres speedskating event at the world long-track championships in Japan. London, Ontario's Christine Nesbitt finished fifth. FOOTBALL Kerry Joseph has officially joined the Toronto Argonauts. The Canadian Football League's reigning Most Valuable Player was introduced after being acquired in a trade from the Saskatchewan Roughriders. RUGBY Rugby Canada's national select team will face an all-star squad of professional players from England later this year in Chatham, ON. The match will be played June 13 at the Chatham Kent Sports Complex.
Weather British Columbia on Friday: rain. high 10 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon: rain. Northwest Territories: mix of sun, cloud. Nunavut: sun. Whitehorse 4, Yellowknife -8, Iqaluit -27. Alberta, Manitoba: sun. Saskatchewan: mix of sun, cloud south, sun north. Edmonton 6, Regina -3, Winnipeg -14. Ontario: snow south, sun north. Quebec: snow. Toronto -2, Ottawa -1, Montreal 0. Atlantic Canada: sun. Fredericton 8, Halifax, Charlottetown 5, St. John's 0.
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