Back to newsletter list 15/04/2008 22:56:09 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Sports | Weather Headlines  - Top Canadian soldier resigns - Police raid governing party's HQ - U.S. court considers Guantanamo Canadian's case
OTTAWA: TOP SOLDIER QUITS General Rick Hillier is stepping down July 1, after three years at the helm as Canada's most senior military officer. In a statement, the chief of defence staff said he had achieved his goals of the rebuilding of the Armed Forces and that he believes Canada's military will be invigorated by new leadership. Gen. Hillier was the most visible military chief in a generation and became known as a leader who put troop welfare above everything else. He had clashed with the government over Canada's current mission to Afghanistan. In the House of Commons, he was praised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a great Canadian, someone with whom the government was proud to have worked. Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Gen. Hillier made an enormous contribution and was not leaving because of any conflict with the government. OTTAWA: POLICE RAID TORY HQ The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Tuesday morning raided the headquarters of the governing federal Conservative Party. The search was carried out upon the request of the commissioner of Elections Canada, John Corbett. The purpose of the search wasn't specified. Elections Canada and the Conservatives are at loggerheads over alleged spending irregularities during the campaign preceding the national election of January 2006. Party leaders allowed candidates to request reimbursements for TV advertising which had been produced for the campaign, requests which the party insists were legal. WASHINGTON: COURT WEIGHS CASE OF GUANTANAMO CANADIAN A U.S. Court of Appeals has taken under advisement the question of whether it should intervene in the case of the only Canadian terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo, Cuba. Lawyers defending 21-year-old Omar Khadr want the court to invalidate a decision last year by a military tribunal which restarted the extraordinary proceedings underway against him. U.S. government lawyers argued on Tuesday that the Court of Appeals has no jurisdiction until the suspect has had a full trial before a military tribunal. But one of Khadr's lawyers argued that it's not even clear yet whether his client should be considered an "unlawful" enemy combatant. Khadr is accused of the murder of an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. BRAMPTON: CHARGES AGAINST TERROR SUSPECTS ABANDONED Charges against four Canadian terrorist suspects have been stayed. The four appeared in court in Brampton, ON, near Toronto, where the charges against them were suspended for a year. If the Crown does not reactivate the charges, they will be considered dropped. Police arrested 18 people in Toronto in June 2006 after a joint Canadian-U.S. investigation. Three of the original 17 will not be charged. Eleven others still face charges. It was reported at the time of the arrests that the suspects planned to kidnap and decapitate Canada's prime minister, and launch terrorist attacks in Toronto and Ottawa. MONTREAL, TORONTO: TAMIL GROUP SHUT Canada's federal police, the RCMP, has shut down a Tamil organization operating in two of the country's major cities, Montreal and Toronto. They suspect the group of fundraising for the Tamil Tigers, a militant independence organization based in Sri Lanka. The Tigers were added to Canada's list of recognized terrorist groups in 2006. The lawyer of Montreal's World Tamil Movement denies the group is involved in illegal fundraising. OTTAWA: HAITI CONFERENCE PLANNED Canada and France have agreed to propose an international conference on Haiti with its focus on economic development. The country is still reeling from recent food riots. The French secretary of state for co-operation and la francophonie, Alain Joyandet, announced the proposal in Ottawa after a meeting with Canada's minister for international co-operation, Bev Oda. The sponsors of the conference propose it be held in Haiti next summer or fall, and that it involve local authorities, international organizations active in that country and Haiti's main donors, France and Canada being the biggest. Meanwhile, a donors' conference that had been scheduled for April 25 has been cancelled. Former Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis, who had been preparing it, was dismissed Saturday by a Senate motion of censure because of the food riots. OTTAWA: SUBSTANCE BAN IMPENDING Health Canada is expected to classify bisphenol A as a dangerous substance as early as Wednesday. The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that could lead to regulations on the chemical also known as BPA. The U.S. National Institutes of Health carried out tests on the chemical, which is used to make many hard plastic toys, baby bottles, other plastic bottles and dental sealants. Americans biologists say it can cause, among other medical problems, breast and prostate cancer and early puberty. In Canada, many retailers say they are pulling all water bottles that contain BPA from their store shelves OTTAWA: MOVES DEVISED TO IMPROVE WATER FOR NATIVES The Canadian government has announced a plan to improve drinking water for First Nations communities across the country. Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl says the government will spend $330 million over the next two years to assess the water quality in native communities. The minister says there will also be money to improve infrastructure and train more water-system operators. The government will also set out standards for First Nations water systems, wells and septic systems. OTTAWA: NATIVE PROTESTERS WARN OF NEW DISRUPTIONS The Mohawk protester who caused the shutdown of a stretch of Highway 401, Ontario's busiest highway, last June 29 warns that Canadians can expect more disruptions on May 29. Chiefs have picked that day to demonstrate again against native poverty. Shawn Brant says many natives who remained passive last year intend to participate fully in this year's protest. Brant served two months in jail after organizing the blockade of the main Canadian National Rail line and a secondary road, which led police to shut down Highway 401 for 11 hours. The disruption caused the diversion of thousands of commuters, trucks and millions of dollars of goods.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Rescue workers have recovered 21 bodies since a p*** crashed and burst into flames in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The p*** crashed into a busy market district in the city of Goma shortly after taking off. Seventy of the 85 people on board were hurt. At least three people who were not passengers died when the p*** crashed on houses near the end of the runway. A Red Cross official says more casualties are expected on the ground. The p*** was bound for Kinshasa. It is the fifth fatal p*** crash in the country since last June. ZIMBABWE Opposition leader Morgan Tsangvirai says he'll take part in a runoff vote for the presidency if one is necessary and provided international observers are on hand to monitor the exercise. The head of the Movement for Democratic Change, who had claimed outright victory in the ballotting on March 29, had until now ruled out taking part in a runoff election as demanded by the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe. The president's party claims that neither candidate had won the 51 per cent of the vote needed for election. The National Electoral Commission, meanwhile, claims that it is still counting the votes from the first round. On Monday, the MDC called for a general strike on Tuesday but few heeded the call. RUSSIA Russia President Vladimir Putin says he has accepted an invitation by his United Russia party to lead it. United Russia won 63 per cent of the vote in the national elections last December. The president's acceptance speech was broadcast on state television. Mr. Putin yields the presidency on May 7 after serving two terms. He'll be his successor Dmitri Medvedev's prime minister. In an open letter, the opposition Union of Rightist Forces criticized Mr. Putin for supposedly trying to "preserve his power for an unlimited time...", comparing him to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader from 1964 until his death in 1982. UNITED STATES Pope Benedict has arrived for his first papal visit to the U.S. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church arrived from Rome at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington DC, where he was welcomed by U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife. In the hours before his arrival, he discussed with reporters the American church's most painful subject, sex abuse by the clergy and pledged that pedophiles will not be priests. Pope Benedict said he would discuss immigration with Mr. Bush, particularly the difficulties of families who are separated by immigration. Although the two disagree about such issues as the Iraq war, capital punishment and the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, they find common grounds on questions including abortion, homosexual marriage and stem cell research. FRANCE A Paris judge says that six Somali pirates who seized a French luxury yacht off the coast of Somalia will be brought to France to face trial. French troops arrested the pirates in the Somali desert on Friday after they had handed over their hostages and fled with their ransom. The pirates are being held by French troops in Djibouti. An armed group attacked the yacht some 850 kilometres off the Somali coast. France has called for greater international co-operation to police the waters off Somalia, where piracy is rampant. PAKISTAN The Olympic torch has arrived in Islamabad in its first stop of its Asian tour. Pakistan's pro-China government is hoping the various events will be festive and trouble-free. Protests against China's human rights record and its behaviour in Tibet led to protests in Western cities last week.
NEW YORK: OIL SOARS TO RECORD HIGH Oil traders on Tuesday pushed prices as high as high as $113.99 a barrel before the price closed at $113.79, up $2.03 from the record close on Monday. Light sweet crude for May delivery went as high as $114.08. Concerns about global supply evidently stoked the trading, due in part to a report by the International Energy Agency that warned that Russian oil production will drop this year for the first time in a decade. Gasoline rose as well, with the American Automobile Association reporting a new average U.S. price of $3.386 a gallon. Analysts predict that prices will keep rising with the oncome of summer. OTTAWA: BEST MANUFACTURING WORKERS LOSING JOBS A report by the Toronto-Dominion Bank says that Canada's shrinking manufacturing sector is losing some of its best and most productive workers in mass layoffs. TD's report entitled "Is Canada's Job Machine Unstoppable?" finds that 130,000 factory jobs were lost last year and 212,000 since 2002. Most of the lost jobs were unionized, high-quality and high-productivity positions. TD says that other sectors of the economy have been able to provide alternative work but that the replacement jobs have not always been of the same quality or pay, most of the latter jobs paying 25 per cent less. TD blames the U.S. economic slowdown, the high Canadian dollar and foreign competition. MONTREAL: SHOEMAKER LAYS OFF 670 Crocs Inc. has announced the closure of its factory in Quebec City in July with the loss of 670 jobs. The company said on Tuesday it had already laid off 262 employees there, the job losses due in part to lower sales of the Colorado-based firm's foam clogs. Crocs says its North American production needs will be shifted to Mexico. TORONTO: DRUG FIRM INVESTS IN CITY French-based pharmaceuticals firm Sanofi Pasteur has announced an investment of $100 million on a new research and development facility, creating 30 new jobs. Wayne Pisano, the president of the faccine division says the chief factor that affected Sanofi Pasteur's decision was the Ontario government's recent creation of a $150-million fund for drug companies to promote research and to keep good jobs in the province. Premier Dalton McGuinty said his government will contribute $13.9 million from the fund, money which will help create 30 permanent jobs as well as 300 construction jobs. TORONTO: FACILITATORS OF DEBT MESS GET EXTENSION The committee that is trying to make more than $32 billion of stranded debt eventually liquid has received from a court a 45-day extensions for its efforts to reach that goal. The court granted the extension to the Pan-Canadian Investors Committee for Third-Party Structure Asset-Backed Commercial Paper. The extension prevents lenders from foreclosing or suing while the restructuring process remains underway. The $32 billion of short-term commercial notes became frozen last August as a result of global credit crisis that originated in the U.S. mortgage sector. The committee headed by Toronto lawyer Purdy Crawford is proposing that the short-term debt be exchanged for new notes that won't mature for years. The noteholders will vote on the plan on April. At least one-half of them must accept for the plan to be implemented and these must represent at least two-thirds of the value of the debt. GATINEAU: QUEBECOR SHOCKED BY CBC DEMAND Hearings on the future of Canada's television industry held by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission continued on Tuesday. The Commission heard from media firm Quebecor, the owner of the Videotron cable service, the conventional broadcaster TVA and the LCN cable speciality service. Quebecor made a pitch for greater deregulation of the TV industry, citing 520 regulations which it obliged to observe. Quebecor also expressed agreement that conventional broadcasters should have access to some of the revenue generated by the cable operations that carry their programs. However, the company says this should only apply to private stations like its own TVA, professing "shock" that this could also be the case for the public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. MARKETS TSX on Tuesday: 13,851, up 112. Canadian dollar: US 98.13 cents, up 0.05 of a cent. Euro: C$1.6094, down 0.30 of a cent. Light sweet crude: US$113.79, up $2.03.
HOCKEY Canada improved to 2-and-0 at the world under-18 hockey championship on Tuesday with a 4-1 win over Denmark. Corey Trivino led the way with three goals and an assist. Canada takes on the host Russia team on Wednesday. FOOTBALL The Canadian Football League has named former head coach Tom Higgins as its director of officiating. Higgins has twice won the CFL's coach of the year award and in 2003 guided the Edmonton Eskimos to a Grey Cup title. He will assume his new post April 28.
Weather British Columbia on Wednesday: cloudy south, rain north, high 12 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon: rain. Northwest Territories: sun. Nunavut: snow. Whitehorse 3, Yellowknife 2, Iqaluit -8. Alberta, Saskatchewan: sun south, mix of sun, cloud north. Manitoba: rain. Edmonton 11, Regina 10, Winnipeg 14. Ontario, Quebec: sun. Toronto, Ottawa 16, Montreal 15. Atlantic Canada: sun. Fredericton 14, Halifax 13, Charlottetown 10, St. John's 8.
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