dailynewsnblog
Call this the last “summer Friday” before the Parliament comes back into session, but you can bet that the entire iPolitics team is bracing for a busy and exciting season. Before that, here’s what we got on tap.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says the federal government will not interfere with workers’ right to strike as Ottawa considers legal changes to improve labour relations.
Hajdu’s department held months of consultations with unions, employers and other stakeholders over the spring and summer about the state of the Canada Labour Code. Feedback from those sessions is meant to inform future legislation.
A report summarizing what the government heard during that review found that unions and employers were split over the degree of power Ottawa should have to intervene in disputes.
Most employers argued the government should have the ability to step in to quash a labour action when Canada’s national interests are at risk. Unions were staunchly opposed to any measure that could threaten their right to strike.
Hajdu was asked Friday in Ottawa whether she would respect unions’ concerns.
The Canadian Press has more.
Conservative Larry Brock says he has resigned from the House of Commons, ending five years as the MP for Brantford-Brant South.
Brock announced his plans to step down last month, saying he planned to return to the office of the Crown prosecutor.
A byelection will be called in the Ontario riding, along with five others that are currently vacant, in the coming months.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is planning to hold a rally in Brantford on the weekend.
Brock is the sixth MP to leave Poilievre’s caucus over the past year.
Four members defected to the Liberal government and Richard Martel joined the Senate this summer.
More from CP.
In Other Headlines
Internationally
President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone Wednesday as the two countries close in on a trade deal, according to a person familiar with the call and a U.S. official.
The person familiar with the call, granted anonymity to discuss it, described the conversation as “so-so” and said that it “created a bit of noise” as “new topics” were introduced into the leaders’ discussion. It was not immediately clear what the new topics were or which side brought them into the discussion.
The U.S. official, also granted anonymity to discuss the conversation, confirmed that the leaders spoke Wednesday but described the call as “constructive.”
“U.S.-Mexico talks are active and continue to move in a positive direction,” the official said. “Any notion that the call didn’t go well is wrong.”
More from Politico.
The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program.
The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said.
It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was.
The report, according to one of the sources, was “entirely false.” But it also “almost started a war,” the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.
Read more from CNN.
In Other International Headlines
The Kicker
To commemorate the mini eve before the House resumes sitting on Monday, here’s a picture of Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne greeting Larry the Cat.
Have a great weekend!
