Back to newsletter list 14/03/2008 00:00:14 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Canada's Afghanistan mission prolonged - Canadian PM sues opposition for slander - Canadian jailed in Mexico threatens suicide
OTTAWA: COMMONS EXTENDS AFGHANISTAN MISSION The House of Commons has voted in favour of a motion presented by the Conservative Party government to extend the current Canadian mission in Afghanistan to 2011. The extension is conditional on the deployment of 1,000 NATO reinforcements in Kandahar province, and the procurement of drones and battle helicopters for the Canadian contingent. The vote was 198-77, the Liberal voting with the government and the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois opposed. If the motion had been defeated, a national election would have ensued. OTTAWA: PM UNPRECEDENTEDLY SUES OPPOSITION Canada's prime minister has filed a lawsuit against the official opposition Liberal Party. It's the first time a sitting prime minister has ever sued the opposition for libel. Last week, Stephen Harper threatened to sue Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and the Liberal Party over statements on the party's website. The statements question Mr. Harper's alleged involvement in financial offers widely reported to have been made to late Member of Parliament Chuck Cadman in exchange for his vote during a crucial showdown in the House of Parliament. The Liberal Party rejects a demand from Mr. Harper's lawyer to remove the statements from its website and apologize. OTTAWA: GOVT. TO PRESENT CONTROVERSIAL BILL The Conservative government on Friday was set to present legislation that would give the immigration minister the authority to cap numbers of immigration applications if the backlog in processing them grows too long. Immigration Minister Diane Finley says that at present it takes three to six years for an application even to be looked at much less processed, a situation which she calls unfair both to the would-be immigrants and to their prospective employers. Immigration wait times since 2004, with more than 800,000 applicants on waiting lists. Mrs. Finley blames the previous Liberal Party government for allowing the lists to grow by 15 times since 1993. She declined to state whether she intends to use the new power if the legislation is approved. The opposition says the solution is to hire more immigration officers. The New Democratic Party accuses the government of wishing mainly to bring great numbers of temporary workers of Canada rather than allowing families to come. According to the Canadian Press, the government will announce on Friday that a near-record 429,000 foreigners were allowed into the country, including 251,000 permanent residents. OTTAWA: GOVT. MPs SUPPORT DEATH PENALTY MOTION Most Conservative MPs voted in favour of a Liberal Party motion that is in variance with the government's policy on the death penalty. The motion condemning capital punishment was introduced in reference to the government's refusal to request clemency for a Canadian convicted of murder and who sits on death row in the U.S. state of Montana. The government said it wouldn't intervene on behalf of Canadian convicted of capital offenses in democratic countries at fair trials. Previously, the policy was to request clemency for all such offenders. The vote was 255-17. Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not attend the vote. GUANTANAMO: FRAUD CHARGED IN CASE OF GUANTANAMO CANADIAN The military lawyer defending the only Canadian held as a terrorism suspect at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, has raised an accusation of fraud against 21-year-old Omar Khadr. The lawyer, Navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, made his allegation at Khadr's pre-trial hearing. The Canadian would be the first of 275 prisoners at Guantanamo to undergo trial under a military tribunal. He's accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. According to the lawyer, the original report by a military commander said that the soldier's assailant was killed, which would exclude Khadr's responsibility. However, the attorney claims that the document was later altered under the same date to say only that the dead soldier had "engaged" his assailant. Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler interprets the "updated" document as meaning that "the government manufactured evidence to make it look like Omar was guilty." Khadr was 15 years old when captured and is one of 80 of the 275 detainees whom the U.S. government intends to put on trial. TORONTO: VERDICT REPORTED RENDERED FOR CANADIAN JAILED IN MEXICO The Canadian Press reports that a 51-year-old Canadian woman who has spent the last two years in a Mexican jail has said in a telephone interview she will commit suicide if found guilty of money-laundering. Brenda Martin told CP she believes only Prime Minister Martin can save her. The agency also reports that the judge presiding over the case has written a 500-page verdict without allowing her lawyer to complete his response to the prosecutor's accusations. CP obtained the information from a longtime friend, who says Mrs. Martin was informed of the existence of the verdict by Mexico's deputy attorney general in the presence of a Canadian embassy official. Her Toronto lawyer, Guillermo Cruz, has said that his client's rights were abused because police failed to provide her with an interpreter during her interrogations which prosecutors used to claim an admission of guilt. A court rejected a constitutional challenge by Mr. Cruz earlier in the week. Mrs. Martin was working as a cook for an Alberta man who is now serving a 10-year sentence in the U.S. for having perpetrated a $60-million fraud through the Internet. Alyn Waage has signed an affidavit swearing that she know nothing of his activities. OTTAWA: SECURITY AGENCY HIRES NEW SPIES The Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency says it has hired 100 new intelligence officers. Director Jim Judd says in the agency's annual report that those taken on include spies, analysts, computer scientists, linguists and others. The report says that the main worries of CSIS are threats from terrorists inspired by the ideology of al-Qaeda, the radicalization of citizens of Western countries and espionage by foreign governments. CSIS says it has hired 500 new personnel since the Sept. 11 attacks. OTTAWA: SPONSORSHIP JUDGE COMPLAINS RECOMMENDATIONS IGNORED The former Quebec Superior Court judge who conducted the inquiry into the scandal involving federal public relations contracts complains that his recommendations aimed at prevent a recurrence of such an affair have been ignored. John Gomery told the House of Commons government operations committee that there's a growing concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office to the detriment of the prerogatives of Parliament. The former judge delivered two reports which described how $100 million of money during the previous Liberal Party government was squandered for political purposes and greed. Mr. Gomery says that the political staff at the present Conservative Party government isn't subject to any rules of law and that its power is growing. He complains that the 19 main recommendations, including an end to the prime minister's exclusive power to name deputy ministers and senior bureaucrats, the limitation of the power of the Clerk of the Privy Council and the provision of more funding for the Commons public accounts committee, have been ignored. CALGARY: NUCLEAR FIRM WANTS TO BUILD ALBERTA'S FIRST REACTORS Bruce Power, the operator of the Bruce nuclear complex in Ontario, has set into motion the legal moves to become the builder of Alberta's first nuclear reactors. Bruce Power announced Thursday that has bought out privately held Energy Alberta, which had proposed a $6.2-billion plant for the Peace River region of northern Alberta. Bruce Power says it wants to build a nuclear complex in the same area that could generate 4,000 megawatts. The regulatory process for the project could take up to three years.
UNITED STATES Gasoline and crude oil prices continue to establish record highs, as the two commodities have done in 12 of the last 13 trading sessions. Gas rose 2.1 cents to a record US$3.27, while oil closed at $US110,33 a barrel, a 41-cent rise, after trading as high as $111 earlier in the day. POLAND NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, says the western alliance hopes to improve its relations with Russia when President Vladimir attends its summit in Romania early next month. Mr. Scheffer says NATO wants to repair relations despite disputes over Kosovo and the U.S.-proposed anti-missile shield that would be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic. Another subject of dispute is the potential joining of NATO by Georgia and Ukraine. Mr. Scheffer says such disagreements should not be permitted to interfere with co-operation on fighting terrorism and drug smuggling. The secretary general says as well that the summit should send a strong signal to Serbia that its long-term future lies in Euro-Atlantic integration. The latter's government collapsed earlier in the month over disagreement about how it should react to Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. IRAQ The corpse of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped on Feb. 29 has been found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq. The abductors of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Fahho had called to reveal his death and the location of the body. It's the latest attack against Christians by Muslim extremists who consider them "crusaders." Many Christians have fled Iraq in response to attacks against churches, priests and businesses owned by Christians. Meanwhile, a parked car bomb in central Baghdad killed 18 people and injured dozens. CHINA China's foreign ministry says that the situation in Tibet's capital of Llasa is stable after what rights groups called the biggest anti-China protests there is almost 20 years. The ministry claims that thanks to the efforts of local government and the administration of the Buddhist temples, the attempt by "a few monks" to stir up unrest have come to naught. Pro-Tibet independence groups claim that hundreds of monks and others and demonstrated on Monday and Tuesday to mark the anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
TORONTO: CENTRAL BANKER REASSURING ON CREDIT CRUNCH The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, says the first phase of the effort to overcome the international credit crisis has ended with a better understanding of what caused it and how to prevent it from recurring. Mr. Carney describes the present situation as "the end of the beginning of this turmoil." In a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade, he said that regulators and bankers now recognize that overconfidence and the lack of transparency and sufficient thoroughness in investigation of loan applicants have been acknowledged and that many of such practices have been stopped. On Tuesday, the Bank of Canada has again intervened in tandem with its U.S. and European counterparts to inject cash into financial markets to alleviate the world credit scarcity and to avert recessions. However, Mr. Carney says the central bank wont be distracted by the credit situation and will continue to tend to its main task of using its loan rate to manage inflation. OTTAWA: PROPOSED SALE OF CANADARM GETS MINISTERIAL SCRUTINY Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice says he won't allow the sale of a division of the Canadian company that manufactures the robotic arm used on the U.S. space shuttle and at the International Space Station unless the transaction offers a "net benefit" to Canada. Mr. Prentice was discussing before a Commons committee the proposed sale of the space business of Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. to the U.S. firm Alliant Techsystems for $1.3 billion. MDA also controls the Radarsat 2 satellite. MDA shareholders voted earlier in the week almost unanimously in favour of the deal. Last week, former Canadian astronaut and former head of the Canadian Space Agency Marc Garneau warned against the sale, saying that MDA is the only Canadian company able to construct a satellite. EDMONTON: OILSANDS PERMIT DEMANDED WITHDRAWN An environmental group has filed a request that the permit granted by Ottawa for the $7-billion Kearl oilsands project planned by Imperial Oil be quashed. The lawyer representing Ecojustice says the permit granted on Feb. 12 should be set aside on the basis of a ruling last week by Federal Court of Canada. That court agreed with Ecojustice and a second group that a federal-provincial panel erred in reporting that greenhouse gases emitted by Kearl would be insignificant when in fact they would be the equivalent of gases emitted by 800,000 cars. The ruling invited the panel to reconsider its evaluation. Kearl is expected to produce up to 300,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day. It would strip-mine 200 square kilometres of boreal forest and wetlands north of Fort McMurray. DENVER: BREWER CUTS 390 JOBS Molson Coors says it will eliminate 390 jobs in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere and confide their tasks to the U.S. firm Hewlett-Packard. Molson Coors says the cuts will be carried out equally at its human resources divisions in the U.S., Toronto, Canada and England. The company expects to save $250 million over three years through the reductions. Forty of the employees affected will find new jobs at Hewlett-Packard. MONTREAL: BOMBARDIER SELLS P***S TO IRAQ Bombardier Aerospace Inc. says it has sold six CRJ900 airliners to the Iraqi government in a transaction worth US$239 million. The deal has an option for four more of the aircraft which if exercised would bring the value of the contract to US$400 million. The CRJ900 model was launched only last year and provides operational savings because of greater fuel efficiency and lower maintenance costs. Iraq's state-owned airline is trying to re-establish itself, having been mostly grounded since the international sanctions imposed by the UN in 1991. MARKETS TSX on Thursday: 13,443, up 146. Canadian dollar: US$101.46 cents, up 0.47 cent . Euro: C$1.5390, down 0.18 cent. Light sweet crude: US$110.33, up $0.41.
Sports The Canadian baseball team has booked its ticket to the Beijing Olympics. Canada edged undefeated South Korea 4-3 at the qualifying tournament today in Taiwan to improve its record to 5-1. The victory put Canada in a three-way tie with the Koreans and Taiwan atop the standings.
Weather British Columbia on Friday: rain south, mix of sun, cloud north. High 9 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut: sun. Whitehorse -10, Yellowknife -24, Iqaluit -23. Alberta, Manitoba: snow. Saskatchewan: sun. Edmonton -1, Regina 0, Winnipeg -6. Ontario: rain south, mix of sun, cloud north. Quebec: mix of sun, cloud. Toronto 4, Ottawa 0, Montreal 2. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador: sun. Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island: mix of sun, cloud. Fredericton -2, Halifax -1, Charlottetown -8, St. John's -5.
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