dailynewsnblog
We’re starting tonight’s newsletter on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response.
Carney seems unshaken by the United States’ abrupt decision to pause a joint defence board and put its future under review.
Speaking at a news conference in Quebec today, Carney says the long-standing Permanent Joint Board on Defense has a long “heritage” but cautions that he wouldn’t “overplay” the significance of the U.S. move.
The prime minister says his government will continue ramping up defence spending and is clearly taking action on defence through measures such as upgrades to Norad’s infrastructure.
On Sunday the U.S. undersecretary of defence policy announced the board is being frozen and claimed Canada had “failed to make credible progress on its defence commitments.”
Ottawa and NATO announced this spring that Canada had met its alliance defence spending target of two per cent of GDP for the first time over the past year.
The Canadian Press has more.
At the same press conference, Carney, Québec leaders and executives with Nouveau Monde Graphite braved the rain in Saint-Michel-des-Saints Tuesday to celebrate the launch of construction at the Matawinie Mine.
Taking the stage, Carney thanked Québec Energy Minister Bernard Drainville for sharing his umbrella, joking that the image of the two huddled together to stay dry captured the close federal-provincial collaboration required to help advance the project.
It has been a challenging year for Nouveau Monde Graphite, which lost one of its main clients, General Motors, last fall as automakers scaled back their electric vehicle ambitions.
To make up for the loss and keep the project on track, Ottawa came to the rescue with a seven-year offtake agreement for 30,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually.
Aya Dufour’s got this one.
Opposition MPs are urging the Liberals to reverse course and accept Senate changes to Bill S-2 after the government lost a bid for more time to pass the legislation to comply with a court order.
As iPolitics exclusively reported on Monday, the the B.C. Supreme Court rejected Ottawa’s application to delay the deadline to implement the terms of the Nicholas ruling until October.
That bill would make changes to comply with last year’s B.C. court decision, which ordered Ottawa to restore Indian status to the descendants of enfranchised First Nations peoples.
Ottawa was requesting a six-month extension. A request last month to extend the deadline to the end of May to wait for the decision was granted.
The feds have 30 days to appeal. If that period elapses with no further extension granted, the Nicholas ruling will go into effect.
Marco Vigliotti has more.
Locally, Mark Sutcliffe is narrowly leading a crowded race for the mayor’s chair despite his poor approval ratings, according to a new poll from Liaison Strategies.
Sutcliffe, who hasn’t officially announced his intention to run for a second term, was the top choice of 37 per cent of decided and leaning voters.
The poll, commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, tested Sutcliffe and four other prospective candidates. This includes Coun. Tim Tierney, who has announced his plans to seek re-election in Beacon Hill-Cyrville rather than run for mayor.
Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper finished second to Sutcliffe, drawing the support of 32 per cent of respondents. Homebuilder Alex Lawson followed with 14 per cent, while Tierney drew the backing of 11 per cent of voters.
Sydney Ko’s got this one.
In Other Headlines
Internationally
Elsewhere, Global health leaders are considering whether vaccines or medicines still in development could be used to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the World Health Organization’s chief said he was deeply concerned by the outbreak’s speed and scale.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola and 130 suspected deaths in DRC since the new outbreak began – up from about 200 cases and 65 deaths when it was announced on Friday.
Dr Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior director of health at the International Rescue Committee, which works in the DRC’s Ituri Province, where most cases have been reported, told the Guardian he expected current known cases were “the tip of the iceberg”.
Spread across the porous border to South Sudan, he said, was probably “a matter of when”. He warned that a weak public health infrastructure there meant “we are actually flying blind.”
The Guardian has more.
Three people were killed when two suspects opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday morning in an attack that sparked widespread shock and condemnation.
Police swarmed the center after receiving calls of an active shooter and found a crime scene that expanded across several blocks in the area.
According to police, officers arrived within four minutes of the first report. Authorities said two males, 17 and 19 years old, arrived at the center and opened fire.
When officers arrived around 11:45 a.m., they found three adults dead in front of the center, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. One of those was the center’s security guard, whose actions saved lives, Wahl said.
As officers searched the center, going door to door looking for a gunman, police received additional calls about gunfire several blocks away.
The Los Angeles Times has more.
In Other International Headlines
The Kicker
And finally, the Montreal Canadiens are heading back to the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2021, possibly reviving memories of the franchise’s last Stanley Cup in 1993.
After winning against the Buffalo Sabres yesterday, the Habs will now head to Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes.
