The Monday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

RIGHT-WING PROTESTERS UNWELCOME, QUEBEC MAYOR SAYS: Quebec City’s mayor says right-wing protesters are not welcome in Quebec City but he believes an anti-immigration group won the popularity contest during duelling demonstrations over the weekend. Mayor Regis Labeaume thanked members of the right-wing group, La Meute, for collaborating with police while some counter-protesters turned violent. He nonetheless told La Meute to protest elsewhere. “Their world doesn’t interest us,” he told reporters a day after anti-immigration protesters marched through Quebec City’s streets, denouncing what they say is a too-charitable refugee and immigration policy by the federal and Quebec governments. It was counter-protesters, however, who received the most attention from authorities Sunday, with Quebec City police spokesman David Poitras saying they assaulted officers and caused vandalism. Police arrested only one person Sunday before releasing him without charge, but Poitras said other arrests are in the offing. La Meute was supposed to march through the streets on Sunday afternoon but its members were confined to an underground garage for hours after the counter-protesters blocked their exit.

———

VANCOUVER OVERDOSE DEATHS EXCEED 2016 TOTAL: More people have fatally overdosed in Vancouver so far this year compared with the total number of illicit-drug deaths for all of 2016, the city says. It says 232 overdose deaths have been recorded since the beginning of the year. The BC Coroners Service reported 231 fatalities for Vancouver last year, many involving the opioid painkiller fentanyl. The numbers suggest more than 400 deaths are anticipated by the end of the year, the city said in a news release Monday. Mayor Gregor Robertson called the rising number of overdose deaths “horrendous and absolutely heartbreaking” and said the city will work with the new provincial government and pour its resource into tackling the issue. First responders have handled an average of 135 overdose calls a week this year, he said. Decriminalization of illicit drugs and expansion of injectable treatment options, such as medical-grade heroin, must be explored, he said, echoing a report issued last week by the BC Centre for Disease Control.

———

TORONTO UNVEILS INTERIM SAFE INJECTION SITE: An interim safe injection site in Toronto will save lives as the city grapples with a spike in suspected overdoses, public health officials said Monday as the temporary location opened its doors. The site, which can accommodate three people at a time, is at Toronto Public Health’s downtown harm reduction facility, known as The Works. It launched a day after receiving approval from Health Canada and about a week after harm reduction advocates set up an unsanctioned injection site in a city park. The city is currently constructing three permanent supervised injection sites, but they won’t open until some time this fall. Toronto received approval for three permanent facilities in June. Recently, however, the city sought approval from Health Canada to open an interim spot due to a worsening overdose crisis, which many officials blame on the deadly opioid fentanyl making its way into the drug supply. There have been 325 suspected overdoses in the four weeks leading up to Aug. 13, according to the most recent data available from the city’s Toronto Overdose Information System. Police and health officials have warned of a spike of drugs tainted with fentanyl in recent months.

———

JERRY LEWIS TELETHONS LEFT THEIR MARK IN CANADA: The passionate advocacy work of Jerry Lewis has left an indelible mark in Canada, says the head of Muscular Dystrophy Canada. CEO Barbara Stead-Coyle credits much of today’s research breakthroughs to the tireless fundraising efforts of the comic and telethon giant, who died Sunday. Lewis’s star-packed telethons ran every Labour Day weekend from 1966 to 2010, a family viewing tradition for Stead-Coyle and many others who caught a homegrown feed that included local content and pleas for funds that would support Canadian families. It wasn’t clear how much money went to Canada, where firefighters have also driven significant donations since 1954 and now raise about $3 million a year. Stead-Coyle salutes Lewis for raising awareness for a relatively rare condition, which in turn boosted her organization’s efforts to lobby the government for access to education, jobs and clinical trials. Lewis, who had battled the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis, heart issues, a debilitating back problem, and addiction to pain killers, died of natural causes, according to his publicist.

———

OFFICIALS IN CORNWALL, ONT., SEEKS ANSWERS ON HAITIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS: City council in Cornwall, Ont., wants the federal government to explain how it is supposed to deal with an influx of Haitian asylum seekers crossing to Canada from the United States. A special meeting is scheduled at city hall Monday evening to give municipal leaders an update on the situation. Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, says officials from the Immigration Department and the Canada Border Services Agency are expected to attend the meeting, which is open to the public. Const. Daniel Cloutier, a Cornwall police spokesman, says almost 300 Haitians have arrived recently and, so far, there have been no problems and none are anticipated. About 3,800 people crossed into Quebec in the first two weeks of August following the 2,996 who crossed in July after the Trump administration said it was considering ending “temporary protected status” for Haitians in the U.S. following their country’s massive 2010 earthquake. Last week, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced a temporary shelter would be set up in Cornwall.

———

MP OFF TO MIAMI OVER HAITIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS: A Liberal MP born in Haiti is off to Miami this week as part of the federal government’s efforts to address the flow of Haitians crossing illegally into Canada to seek asylum. Emmanuel Dubourg was appointed last week to a federal-provincial task force formed after thousands of people — mostly Haitians — crossed into Quebec since July. They’ve come to seek asylum in the wake of a change in U.S. immigration policy that could lead to an increased number of deportations to Haiti and misinformation circulating on social media about Canada’s own policies. The unexpected surge has forced the establishment of temporary camps along the border, with security and immigration officials working flat out to try and process the flow of people. But the government has also begun trying to stop them from coming in the first place and that’s where Dubourg comes in. Fluent in Creole and with strong ties in the Haitian diaspora, he’s being dispatched to Miami to give interviews and hold meetings in order to correct the record about Canada’s own immigration and asylum policies.

———

NAFTA INDIGENOUS CHAPTER CRITICAL, BELLEGARDE SAYS: Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde says it will be important to work with Indigenous Peoples south of the border to garner support as Canada looks for a chapter of NAFTA focused on Aboriginal rights. Bellegarde tells The Canadian Press that Indigenous Peoples were not included in the NAFTA discussions of the 1990s and he is pleased to see Ottawa working to change that in a renegotiated trade agreement. He says a modernized NAFTA needs to include a section that recognizes Indigenous rights as an indispensable part of trade agreements. Last week as negotiations began, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland thanked Bellegarde personally for the suggestion to create a chapter focused on Indigenous rights. The federal government is looking at how provisions in the agreement can support Indigenous economic development while it is also considering how to make it complaint with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

———

MANITOBA SIGNS HEALTH DEAL WITH OTTAWA: Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government ended its status as the lone holdout among the provinces when it signed a health-care funding agreement with Ottawa on Monday. The governments signed a deal in which the province will receive an extra $400 million over the next 10 years for specific areas such as home care, mental-health services and addictions treatment. The money is the province’s share of an $11-billion, 10-year proposal developed by the federal government last fall. Other provinces and territories signed on in the ensuing months, but Manitoba balked and said overall federal health funding was not keeping up with demand. “This is a great day for Canadians … we now have a pan-Canadian agreement,” said federal Health Minister Jane Philpott, who was in Quebec City at the Canadian Medical Association’s annual meeting. Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the new money for specific programs is welcome, but the province will continue to fight for higher overall federal transfer payments for health care.

———

GRIZZLY-HUMAN CONFLICT RISING, STUDY FINDS: Scientists say conflict between grizzly bears and people in southwestern Alberta is growing. University of Alberta researchers combed through 15 years worth of data on contact between humans, black bears, grizzlies, wolves and cougars in the province’s southern foothills, mountains and plains. They found encounters have remained about the same for all of them except grizzlies — in that case contact increased fourfold between 1999 and 2014. Lead researcher Andrea Morehouse says that’s likely to be related to other recent findings that grizzly populations have been slowly growing and the bears are expanding their range. Morehouse also found that a provincial program designed to reduce conflict by supplying bears with roadkill didn’t work. Morehouse says people want large carnivores to remain in the area and are coming up with innovative ways to live with them.

———

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

The Monday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

More Local News