Trudeau heads to Italy as shadows of war in Ukraine, Gaza loom over G7 summit
By: Nojoud Al Mallees
OTTAWA (CP) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to Italy on Wednesday to attend the annual G7 leaders’ summit, which is taking place as two major geopolitical conflicts weigh on the international community.
The three-day summit kicks off on Thursday in Apulia, Italy, where leaders of the seven wealthy democratic nations are expected to discuss the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, the energy transition, artificial intelligence, migration and collaboration with Africa.
Trudeau is also set to attend the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland on Saturday and Sunday before flying back to Ottawa.
“It’s an unprecedentedly large, interconnected, complex and demanding agenda,” said John Kirton, a political-science professor who heads the G7 research group at the University of Toronto.
Leaders of G7 countries — Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Japan — meet annually to collaborate on shared goals.
“In a world in which many international institutions have become paralyzed because of divisions, it is even more important for this group of like-minded democracies to be able to work together,” said Roland Paris, an international affairs professor at the University of Ottawa who previously served as a senior adviser to Trudeau.
Among Canada’s top priorities at the summit will be the clean energy transition, misinformation and foreign interference, as well as artificial intelligence.
In a publication previewing the G7 leaders’ summit co-edited by Kirton, Trudeau emphasized the clean energy transition as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity that Canada along with our G7 partners are helping lead.”
Trudeau is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with other world leaders. Canada is set to host the G7 summit next year.
Conservatives oppose Liberal tax changes that include adjustment to capital gains tax
By: Mia Rabson
OTTAWA (CP) – A motion increasing the proportion of capital gains that are taxed in Canada easily passed the House of Commons Tuesday, as the governing Liberals and Conservatives traded barbs about whether it will harm the middle class or make the country’s wealthy pay more.
The NDP, Bloc Québécois and Greens voted with the Liberals in favour of the motion while the Conservatives voted against, moving it past the finish line with the tax adjustment now set to take effect June 25.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland looked extremely pleased as she gathered her belongings in the House of Commons after the vote. The measure was a key part of her recent federal budget and she introduced it as a stand-alone motion Monday in a challenge to the Conservatives to vote against “generational fairness.”
“We are stepping up for Canadians, the Conservatives are stepping up for the rich,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shouted in question period.
“Mr. Speaker, if it did not have real world impacts on Canadians, it would almost be amusing to watch the Conservative leader tie himself in knots to try and justify voting in favour of advantages for the wealthy Canadians when they sell really profitable investments.”
Not so, responded Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who insists the wealthy will find ways to move their money out of Canada to avoid paying the tax, which will negatively affect farmers, small businesses, doctors and homebuilders.
“Why is it that every time the prime minister mentions the middle class, they get poorer,” Poilievre exclaimed.
The Conservatives had not taken a stance on the tax change until Tuesday. But in a statement released just over an hour before the vote, the party indicated it would not support it, pointing to its impact on farmers, homebuilders, small business owners and doctors.
‘Finally getting started’: Plan approved to search landfill for women’s remains
By: Steve Lambert
WINNIPEG (CP) – The Manitoba government has given environmental approval to a planned search of a landfill for the remains of two slain First Nations women.
For some family members who have been fighting for a search for more than 18 months, the news was a welcome relief.
“They’re going to be starting right away, hopefully by the end of summer or something, and they can work right through winter. So it’s good,” Donna Bartlett, the grandmother of Marcedes Myran, said after meeting with Premier Wab Kinew on Tuesday.
“We still have a long road ahead of us, but we are finally getting started,” read a message posted on social media by Myran’s sister Jorden Myran.
Police believe the remains of Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris are in the Prairie Green Landfill, a privately run facility north of Winnipeg.
Jeremy Skibicki has admitted to killing Harris, Myran and two other Indigenous women — Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found in a different landfill, and an unidentified woman an Indigenous grassroots community has named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been located.
Skibicki’s first-degree murder trial wrapped up Monday with closing arguments and the judge has reserved his decision until next month. Defence lawyers argued Skibicki should be found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.
Manitoba’s former Progressive Conservative government earlier rejected calls to search the landfill, saying asbestos and other materials would pose a threat to searchers and the effort has no guarantee of success.
New pipe arrives for water-restricted Calgarians; full service still days away
By Lisa Johnson
CALGARY (CP) – A new section of water pipe was set to arrive in Calgary on Tuesday, as the city’s mayor urged residents to stay the course, conserve and keep the taps from running dry.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said residents need to keep limiting their water use, including by taking short showers and not watering lawns.
“Everything you’re doing matters for all of us,” Gondek told reporters at a briefing, as the city of 1.6 million entered a sixth day of voluntary and mandatory rationing.
The measures were imposed after a main feeder pipe – one of two servicing the city – fractured Wednesday, flooding a neighbourhood in the northwest and sending water levels dropping precipitously.
Nancy Mackay, the city’s director of water services, said crews have since isolated and removed the broken section of concrete pipe (which is large enough to drive a pickup truck through) and a placement pipe was set to arrive later in the day.
The new pipe is to be installed over two days, but Mackay said it could then take up to three days to flush the entire water main.
Filling the pipe, and testing water quality, could add another two days to the timeline.
SpaceX staff collect cosmic junk found on farmer’s field in Saskatchewan
By: Jeremy Simes
ITUNA, SASK. (CP) – Two men with SpaceX descended on a Saskatchewan farm in a moving truck Tuesday to retrieve cosmic junk that fell earlier this year from one of its spacecrafts.
The workers, who didn’t give their names while at the farm near Ituna, lugged the large scorched pieces of carbon fibre and aluminum into the back of the U-Haul before leaving.
They declined to say why the fragments failed to burn up before slamming into the field, what spacecraft the pieces came from, where the wreckage was going and what the company plans to do with it.
They confirmed they work for SpaceX, founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, and directed further questions to a company email. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The retrieval comes months after farmer Barry Sawchuk found the debris and said he was contacted by SpaceX for its return.
One fragment, taller than Sawchuk, weighs 44 kilograms. A second, smaller one is about 10 kilograms. Other pieces were also found on neighbouring farms.
Sawchuk said SpaceX paid him an undisclosed amount of money to get the junk back, and he plans to use those dollars to help fund a new rink in the community northeast of Regina.
