Highlights from the news file for Monday, March 13
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PRESSURE MOUNTS ON SENTATOR TO RESIGN: The chorus of voices calling on Sen. Don Meredith to resign in the wake of a damning ethics probe into his sexual relationship with a 16-year-old is growing, along with expectations that a vote on his future should take place before the end of the month. The question is whether the Senate has the right to boot one of its own, something it has never done. Senate sources, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, say that internal legal advisers believe the upper chamber has the power to expel a senator and declare the seat vacant and do so by a simple majority vote. Other experts, inside and outside the Senate, point to three sections of the Constitution that give the Senate the power to punish its own without an outside body like the courts interfering. The ethics committee will decide what punishments, if any, Meredith should face following a damning report from the Senate ethics officer last week.
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KHADR IN ICU AFTER 19-HOUR SHOULDER OPERATION: Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr is recovering from a 19-hour operation on a shoulder that was badly injured in Afghanistan 15 years ago, his lawyer said Monday. The Toronto-born Khadr remained in intensive care at the University of Alberta hospital and it was not clear when he might be able to go home, Dennis Edney said in an interview from Edmonton. Three surgeons were involved in Friday’s complicated surgery that Edney said should have been done years ago. “What they did was take bone from different parts of his legs and muscles from other parts of his body to try to rebuild his right shoulder,” Edney said. “There’s no prognosis — it’s almost experimental in some ways, and hoping that it works.” Now 30, Khadr was horrifically injured as a 15-year-old in a four-hour bombardment and firefight with American soldiers, who captured him in Afghanistan in July 2002. In addition to the shoulder injuries, he was blinded in one eye and still has shrapnel in the other that threatens his sight.
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CANADA’S SPY CHIEF RETIRING IN MAY: The head of Canada’s spy agency says he is retiring. Michel Coulombe told employees at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service today that he will leave the service at the end of May to move on to the next stage of his life and spend more time with his family. In a statement on the CSIS website, Coulombe says it has been an honour to work in the national security agency. Coulombe became director of the agency in October 2013, marking the first time the director had come from within the service. He first joined as an intelligence officer in 1986, two years after the service was created. Coulombe’s departure marks the second high-profile retirement this month after top Mountie Bob Paulson announced he would step down as RCMP commissioner at the end of June.
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‘COME FROM AWAY’ EARNS RAVES IN BROADWAY DEBUT: The Canadian smash musical “Come From Away” has scored widespread critical raves in its official Broadway debut. Created by husband-and-wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the story is set in Gander, N.L., in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The remote East Coast town saw its population double in size after local residents sheltered 6,579 passengers and crew from 38 planes diverted when U.S. air space was closed following the tragedy. Sunday marked the show’s official opening on Broadway, which had been in previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York since mid-February. Prior to its arrival on the Great White Way, the homegrown production had earned strong reviews as it criss-crosssed the continent with shows in La Jolla, Calif., Washington, D.C., Seattle and Toronto. Broadway theatre critics followed suit with a series of mostly favourable stories in praise of the musical. The true-life tales of humour, hospitality and heroism collected by Sankoff and Hein during a month in Gander helped inspire “Come From Away.” Several critics appeared to draw parallels between the welcoming attitudes reflected by Canadians following 9/11 and the treatment of immigrants and outsiders in the current political climate.
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RECORD-BREAKING RUNNER ED WHITLOCK DIES: Decorated marathon runner Ed Whitlock, who famously smashed records well into his 70s and 80s, died Monday, just a week after his 86th birthday. Whitlock’s family said he died of prostate cancer in a Toronto hospital. “His wisdom, guidance and strength of character will be greatly missed by his wife Brenda, sons Neil and Clive, and sister Catherine,” Whitlock’s family said in a statement distributed by Canada Running Series, the organizer of the annual Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The British-born resident of Milton, Ont., became the first septuagenarian to run a marathon in under three hours when he posted a time of two hours 59 minutes 10 seconds at age 72 at the 2003 Scotiabank event. A year later he improved that record with a time of 2:54:49, a result that, if age-graded, is considered by many to be the fastest marathon ever run. Eventually he set world master’s marathon records for age 75-plus, 80-plus and, most recently, 85-plus with a time of 3:56:38 on Oct. 16 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
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BANKING OBUDSMAN CONCERNED ABOUT TD REPORT: The head of Canada’s main financial services ombudsman says allegations about aggressive sales tactics by TD Bank employees raise “serious concerns” and the watchdog will be keeping an eye out to see if similar issues persist in the broader industry. “We’ll certainly be monitoring our complaint volumes and monitoring the situation,” Sarah Bradley, the head of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, said in an interview Monday. Bradley’s comments came in the wake of several CBC reports in which current and former employees at TD alleged they broke the law to meet sales targets in order to stay employed. In some instances, unnamed employees claim to have made unauthorized transactions on behalf of clients. TD has denied the allegations. Bradley is urging consumers who have encountered such issues to file a complaint with their financial institution. “Financial institutions have 90 days to deal with it, but if they’re still unsatisfied then that’s where OBSI comes in,” Bradley said. “We’re here to help them resolve those disputes.” OBSI is an impartial arbitrator that serves as an alternative to expensive legal battles by resolving disputes between banks or investment firms and their clients.
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NATO SAYS CANADIAN DEFENCE SPENDING AMONG LOWEST: The head of NATO threw down the gauntlet Monday, saying he expects all members to increase what they spend on their militaries even as a new report showed Canada lagging behind most of its allies. Speaking in Brussels where he released his annual state-of-the-alliance report, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it is incumbent on all members to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. That is the target all NATO members, including Canada, agreed to work towards in 2014. “All our efforts must be underpinned by adequate resources and fair burden-sharing,” Stoltenberg said. His report said Canada saw a small bump in defence spending in 2016, which pushed the percentage of its GDP spent on defence to 1.02 from 0.98. The increase helped Canada move up to 20th from 23rd in terms of spending among NATO’s 28 allies, putting it in a three-way tie with Hungary and Slovenia. But it was still the smallest share of GDP that Canada has spent on defence since 2012, while only Belgium, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg and Spain spent less. The figures have taken on new importance following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has complained about NATO allies not spending enough on defence.
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QUEBEC PAPER NIXES COUILLARD CARTOON: A Montreal-area weekly newspaper has removed an editorial cartoon from its website depicting Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard stoning a former Muslim colleague. The work shows Couillard dressed in a djellaba, a long robe worn in North Africa, lobbing stones at Fatima Houda-Pepin while saying “Happy Birthday, Fatima!” to mark International Women’s Day last week. Couillard said his office signalled to the owners of Le Courrier du Sud last Friday he found the cartoon to be in poor taste, but the premier insisted Monday there was no request for it to be removed. When asked by a reporter why he was so offended by the cartoon, Couillard said it depicts murder. “Do you believe that’s OK? I’ll leave it up to each citizen to make their own judgment,” Couillard said. The cartoon was published in print and digital formats last week but was removed from the weekly newspaper’s website Monday. Jean-Marc Phaneuf, the longtime cartoonist behind the work, said he sees nothing controversial about it and believes Couillard is going too far by saying it shows a slaying.
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B.C. PREMIER AGREES HIGH HEELS NOT JOB REQUIREMENT: Legislation that would make it illegal to require women to wear high heels on the job in British Columbia is getting support from Premier Christy Clark. The bill he introduced on International Women’s Day would prevent employers from setting footwear requirements based on gender. Clark’s Facebook entry posted Sunday promises that the government will take action, saying “this practice needs to stop.” There’s no indication in Clark’s post if the Liberals will back Weaver’s bill or bring in separate legislation. In the United Kingdom, MPs debated a ban last week on mandatory workplace high heels in response to a petition started by a receptionist who was sent home without pay for wearing flat shoes. The debate was non-binding, but the government promised to act against heel-height rules, makeup guidelines and other corporate codes that apply to women but not to men.
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GIRL GUIDES CANCEL U.S. TRIPS INDEFINITELY: Girl Guides of Canada says it will not approve any new travel to the United States. The organization says it decided to cancel future trips due to uncertainty over whether all of its members would equally be allowed to enter the U.S. It says in a statement that the organization values providing safe, inclusive and accepting experiences to its members, including when travelling. Although the U.S. is a “frequent destination” for its members, the organization says all trips including travel that requires connecting through an American airport will not be approved. The statement says provincial advisers on international travel will contact a small number of groups that were already approved for trips to the United States about how they should proceed. A nationally sponsored trip to a camp in California that was scheduled for this summer is also being relocated.
