Back to newsletter list 21/10/2008 00:06:10 (UTC) Canada | World Briefs | Business News | Weather Headlines  - Canadian federal leader bows out - Ottawa reported set to intervene in world crisis again - Provinces want federal-provincial conference on crisis
OTTAWA: LIBERAL LEADER QUITS The leader of Canada's official opposition Liberal party has decided to stay on until a new leader can be chosen. Stéphane Dion made the announcement on Monday in the capital, Ottawa. Mr. Dion said that he had had the pleasure and honour of serving as a Member of Parliament for the people of his riding. Mr. Dion also expressed his apologies for what he called a disappointing result for the Liberal Party in last week's election. Mr. Dion has held the position of leader for only 22 months. He gave no indication of what he would do after a new leader is chosen. OTTAWA, TORONTO: GOVT. REPORTED SET FOR FURTHER FINANCIAL INTERVENTION The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that the federal government is set to intervene again to allay the effects of the world financial crisis. According to the newspaper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is prepared later in the week to announce that the government is willing to offer guarantees for interbank lending to ease the credit crisis. The Globe's informants say that Mr. Flaherty was meeting his officials on Monday to review ways to match steps taken by governments including those of France and the U.S. to ensure that Canada's banks are not put at a competitive disadvantage internationally. The informants say the government is afraid that world banks will be more inclined to lend money to other banks based in countries where the government has guaranteed inter-bank loans. MONTREAL: PROVINCES WANT SUMMIT ON ECONOMY Canada's 13 provincial and territorial premiers want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to hold a federal-provincial meeting on the economy as soon as possible. The premiers made the request after a meeting in Montreal. Quebec Premier Jean Charest says such an event will need careful preparation in view of the stakes. Mr. Harper said last week he intends to call such a meeting without specifying when it would be held. The premiers also demanded that the federal government not seek to keep its budget balanced by cutting programs in such areas as infrastructure, health care and education. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says it's important that new federal measures to deal with the global financial crisis don't "...harm Canadians and Ontarians." Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty refused to speculate on Sunday whether federal budgets would run a deficit in future years. OTTAWA: GREENS DEMAND PROPORTIONAL ELECTORAL SYSTEM Green Party leader Elizabeth May has called on the Conservative government to introduce a proportional voting system before the next national election. Mrs. May says seven million Canadians who voted in last week's federal election were "orphaned" by the outcome. Under the present "first-past-the-post" system, the candidate obtaining the most votes in a riding is elected. Mrs. May's party didn't elected any MPs but she says that under a proportional system the Greens would have won 23 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. The governing Conservatives won 143 seats, the Liberals 76, the Bloc Québécois 50 and the NDP 37. OTTAWA: KYOTO CHALLENGE FAILS Federal Court of Canada has rejected an attempt by an environmental group to force the federal government to comply with the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The court dismissed an effort by the Friends of the Earth lobby to comply with the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, which the three opposition parties in the House of Commons voted earlier in the year. Lawyers for the lobby argued unsuccessfully that the Conservative government had missed three deadlines and other associated obligations under Kyoto. But the court ruled that it lacks the jurisdiction to evaluate the government's own climate change plan. The government maintains that Kyoto's requirements to reduce greenhouse gases by six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 and that an attempt to do so would take 6.5 per cent out of the country's gross domestic product. The Conservatives have offered their own less ambitious plan. OTTAWA: REPORT ON TORTURE CLAIMS HANDED OVER The judge who conducted a 22-month inquiry into accusations that three Canadians were tortured in Syria with the complicity of the federal government has turned over his report to the latter. Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci investigated allegations by Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin that they were wrongly described as terrorists by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. The three say they were then arrested and tortured in Syria and claim that the Canadian government tipped off the Syrians about their travel plans and suggested questions to their Syrian interrogators. A version of the report abbreviated for security's sake is expected to be made public on Tuesday. The men's lawyers and rights advocates say the import of the report is diminished by the fact that most of Justice Iacobucci's labours transpired behind closed doors. VANCOUVER: DAY BLOCKS RETURN OF PRISONERS IN U.S. Two Canadian prisoners serving time in the U.S. against federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day have sued him for blocking their transfers to Canadian jails. Papers filed in Federal Court of Canada earlier this month claim that Mr. Day's decision in the separate cases is "incorrect in law and unreasonable in fact." Steven Czinege was convicted in January 2007 after being caught trying to smuggle 110 kilograms of cocaine from Washington state into Canada. Winnie Lam is serving a seven-year sentence for having been caught in possession of 1,000 ecstasy pills in Seattle, WA. The court papers say the minister has no jurisdiction to deny, to refuse or to postpone the prisoners' entry to Canada and that they don't constitute a threat to national security. In August, Federal Court ruled that Mr. Day didn't have the power to cite national security to justify his refusal to allow a convicted child molester to be transferred from a U.S. prison to a Canadian facility. HAMILTON: AIDS MURDER TRIAL STARTS The unprecedented murder trial of a man accused of having unprotected sex with 11 women despite his knowledge that he was infected with the HIV virus has begun in Hamilton, ON. Fifty-two-year-old Johnson Aziga of Hamilton faces two accusations of murder because two of the women died of HIV-related cancers and 11 counts of aggravated sexual assault. In his opening remarks, the prosecutor said Mr. Aziga had put his partners at risk of serious bodily harm without their knowing. There have been several criminal prosecutions in Canada and the U.S. related to the spread of HIV, but this is evidently the first case involving an accusation of lethally infecting partners. NORTH BAY: HEALTH SCARE A BIT LESS SCARY The health authorities have reduced the number of suspected and confirmed cases of E. coli contamination from the 159 reported on Sunday to 141. The number of cases confirmed by laboratory tests rose by two on Monday to 28. The area's medical officer of health forecasts an increase in cases but says she believes the epidemic is waning. The E. coli contamination has been traced to a fast-food restaurant. MONTREAL: RCI FILMFEST STARTS Radio Canada International's second annual Migr@tions Online Film Festival and Competition has begun. The organizer is RCIviva, RCI's web-based service, and will feature 80 short documentaries and dramas, 40 each in English and French from more than 22 nations. The web event is the country's only online film festival that deals with issues involving immigration. TORONTO: MEXICAN REFUGEES FLOCK TO CANADA The Globe and Mail reports that record numbers of Mexicans are seeking refugee status in Canada on the grounds that their country's authorities cannot protect their safety. The newspaper says that are now 9,070 refugee claims filed by Mexicans, the greatest number since the Immigration and Refugees Board was established in 1989. More than 3,000 Mexicans have been killed in the past year in violence related to wars between drug cartels and between them and the public security forces. Mexicans account for one-third of all refugee claimants but only 11 per cent of the claims are accepted, compared with a rate of 34 per cent overall. The Board has said it believes the stories of violence but contends that the refugees must turn to their own governments for protection. However, Federal Court of Canada has recently overturned half-a-dozen such decisions on the grounds that people cannot have recourse to the state for protection when the police themselves are perpetrators. VANCOUVER: IMMIGRANT FACILITATOR FIRM IN ACCORD WITH CHINESE BANK Vancouver-based RCI Capital Group has signed an agreement with the Bank of China to help finance its program to expedite the emigration of Chinese business investors. The Canadian company is in the business of facilitating the immigration of business applicants. Such applicants typically pay $400,000 under a federal or Quebec program to gain permanent resident status for themselves and dependants. The applicants often make a downpayment of $120,000 and borrow the rest. The Bank of Canada will work with the Canadian firm to finance the emigration of the Chinese business people with a credit facility. Critics of such arrangements criticize them as a cash grab for visas. But supporters says they expect the newcomers to promote investment in Canada.
UNITED STATES President George W. Bush says Americans' attitudes toward the world financial turmoil have shifted from "near panic" to "more relaxed." The president added that although people are heartened to see the effects of freed-up credit, the country has far to go before getting out of the woods. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Bernanke, meanwhile, has told the House of Representatives budget committee that the time has arrived for the Congress to approve a second government stimulus package. The Congress passed a $700-billion rescue package on Oct. 3. SWITZERLAND The International Labour Organization says that the global financial crisis will has caused at least 20 million lost jobs, bringing the total to 210 million by the end of next year. The ILO says this will be the first time the figure has exceeded 200 million since it started keeping records 10 years ago. ILO Director Juan Somavia said on Monday that world leaders need to concentrate on the impact of the crisis on individuals not just financial institutions. TURKEY Eighty-six people are on trial in Turkey on charges of trying to bring down the government. The suspects include retired army officers, politicians, lawyers and journalists, who are accused of planning assassinations and bombings to sow chaos, and to force the military to step in. The case has shed light on what many Turks believe are ultra-nationalists linked to the state willing to take the law into their own hands to defend the secular state. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated against the trial, chanting that the real traitors are in parliament. The trial is expected to take months to complete. AFGHANISTAN The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the killing of a British aid worker, two German soldiers and five Afghan children. The aid worker was shot to death as she walked to serve at a British-based charity that helps the disabled. This year 232 international soldiers have been killed, more than in the whole of 2007. BOLIVIA President Evo Morales led a march of tens of thousands of supporters into La Paz on Monday. The marchers were demanding that legislators approve a referendum on a new constitution. The procession had started out last week from the south of the country. Mr. Morales wants to revise Bolivia's basic law to give greater power to Bolivia's indigenous majority through redistribution of land and wealth. The changes are opposed by half-a-dozen governors of the eastern states where much of the country's mineral and natural gas are found. A vote by two-third of the legislature's 157 lawmakers is required to effect the constitutional amendments. ARMENIA Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says his country demands permanent access to the anti-missile radar facility that the U.S. will set up in the Czech Republic. Upon arrival in Yerevan, Mr. Lavrov said that a non-permanent presence or limited visits would only reinforce Russia's suspicions about the facility. Last month, the U.S. and the Czech Republic signed an agreement authorizing the radar site. The radar would be coupled to 10 interceptor missiles based in neighbouring Poland. The anti-missile system is purportedly directed against such states as North Korea and Iran, but Russia claims the system is really aimed at neutralizing its own missile defences. UNITED STATES The state department says the U.S. could impose further sanctions on Zimbabwe if President Robert Mugabe reneges on a power-sharing agreement with his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirei. The department spokesman declined to specify possible further measures but other officials said new travel restrictions could be imposed on Mr. Mugabe's associates. Meanwhile, a regional attempt to mediate a settlement has failed. Mr. Tsvangirai refused to attend a meeting of the Southern African Development Community in Swaziland because Mr. Mugabe's government has refused to supply him with a passport.
TORONTO: GM-CHRYSLER MERGER COULD THREATEN CANADIAN AUTO JOBS The president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Ken Lewenza, says the rumours of a merger between General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC worry him. There has been speculation that GM wants to buy its competitor from U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP. Both automakers are struggling with declining sales. Mr. Lewenza says that in the event of a merger, some Canadian plants, such as Chrylser's minivan plant in Windsor, ON, would likely survive because they produce unique products. But he says Chrysler's plant in Brampton, ON, probably wouldn't be as lucky because it makes products comparable to plan GM already produces elsewhere. The CAW leader says the uncertainty surrounding a GM-Chrysler merger is only the latest specter hovering over the country's auto industry, which has suffered from the high Canadian dollar, a slowing economy and high gasoline prices. OTTAWA: CHEESE MAKERS TRY TO BLOCK REGULATIONS Canada's three biggest cheese makers have asked Federal Court of Canada to block new federal regulations that are to come into effect on Dec. 4. The regulations will require them to use more full-fat milk and fewer milk solids ingredients. Kraft Canada Inc., Parmalat Canada Inc. and Saputo Inc. argue that the regulations are a maneuvre to provide extra revenue for dairy farmers and will cause higher prices for consumers. The producers predict that any gains for the farmers would be short-lived because the higher prices will discourage consumption. The rule changes are supported by the dairy farmers. MARKETS TSX on Monday: 10,251, up 689. Canadian dollar: US83.77 cents US, down 0.48 of a cent. Euro: C$1.5905, down 0.30 of a cent. Light, sweet crude: US$74.25, up $2.40.
Weather British Columbia on Tuesday: sun south, mix of sun, cloud north, high 10 Celsius Vancouver. Yukon: rain. Northwest Territories: mix of sun, cloud. Nunavut: snow. Whitehorse 3, Yellowknife 0, Iqaluit -3. Alberta: sun. Saskatchewan, Manitoba: rain. Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg 7. Ontario, Quebec: rain. Toronto 8, Ottawa, Montreal 6. Atlantic Canada: rain. Fredericton 7, Halifax, Charlottetown 10, St. John's 14.
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