Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, March 6, 2023. Trudeau is calling on the committee of parliamentarians that reviews matters of national security and the national intelligence watchdog to independently investigate concerns about foreign interference in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of March 14 …
What we are watching in Canada …
New polling suggests the majority of Canadians want the federal government to call an independent inquiry into foreign interference in the last two federal elections, but still feel the country’s electoral system is safe.
Market research firm Leger surveyed 1,544 people between March 10 and 12, asking a range of questions about Canada’s electoral system and allegations of foreign interference.
The results suggest 71 per cent of Canadians feel the electoral system is safe, while 29 per cent feel it is not.
And the majority, 69 per cent of respondents, said they generally trust the results of elections in Canada. One in five said they do not trust the results, and another 11 per cent said they don’t know.
The poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.
Allegations that China meddled in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections have dominated debate on Parliament Hill for weeks, following a series of media reports published by the Globe and Mail newspaper and Global News.
The reports, based on leaks from security sources, detailed allegations that China attempted to interfere to support candidates considered friendly to Beijing, and to ensure the Liberals won a minority in 2021.
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Also this …
Two people were killed and nine others were injured Monday afternoon when a pickup truck plowed into pedestrians who were walking beside a road in the eastern Quebec town of Amqui, police said.
Provincial police spokeswoman Sgt. Helene St-Pierre said the 38-year-old driver, a local resident, turned himself in to police immediately after the crash and was arrested under suspicion of committing a fatal hit and run.
Police said later Monday the accused was facing murder charges in connection with the deaths.
“For now, the investigation tends to show that the collision was a voluntary act committed by the suspect,” St-Pierre said late Monday evening.
She said the two people killed were both men, one in his 60s and the other in his 70s. Among the injured, three suffered serious injuries and were in critical condition and six others were being evaluated for non-life-threatening injuries, she said.
Regional health authorities in the Lower St-Lawrence region confirmed six of the injured were transported by plane to a Quebec City hospital.
Provincial police would not discuss a possible motive behind the incident.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
The Biden administration’s approval of a massive oil development in northern Alaska commits the U.S. to yet another decades-long crude project even as scientists urgently warn that only a halt to more fossil fuel emissions can stem climate change.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow project would produce 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak, and using that crude would result in at least 263 million tons (239 million metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years.
Demand for oil isn’t dropping as the planet heats, and a bitter political dispute over the project, which was approved Monday, has underscored the Democratic administration’s struggle to balance economic pressures against pledges to curb fossil fuels. The proposal in the remote region north of the Arctic Circle also highlights the paradox facing the U.S. and other nations: The world’s transition to clean energy lags the realities of an economy still largely driven by oil consumption.
“At some point, we have to leave oil and gas and coal in the ground. And for me, that some point is now _ particularly in a vulnerable ecosystem like the Arctic,” said Rob Jackson, a climate scientist at Stanford University.
For Alaska, the project promises an economic boost after oil production dropped sharply since the late 1980s, and political leaders from both parties in the state united in support of it. Oil has long been the economic lifeblood of the still-young state, with revenues also helping remote communities and villages on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope invest in local infrastructure.
But the state has also felt the impacts of the changing climate: coastal erosion is threatening Indigenous villages, unusual wildfires are popping up, sea ice is thinning and permafrost promises to release carbon as it melts.
The International Energy Agency has said new investments in oil and gas drilling must be halted if nations, including the U.S., hope to reach their 2050 goal of net-zero emissions, meaning only as much planet-warming gas is released into the atmosphere as can be absorbed.
The energy sector accounts for 90% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide and three-quarters of the total human-made greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
Yet global demand for crude is expected to continue rising, according to industry analysts and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
Australia’s defense minister said Tuesday a deal to buy nuclear-powered attack submarines from the United States was necessary to counter the biggest conventional military buildup in the region since World War II.
Australian officials said the deal will cost up to $245 billion over the next three decades and create 20,000 jobs. It comes at a time that China is rapidly building up its own military.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said it had made a huge diplomatic effort for months ahead of Monday’s announcement of the deal, including making more than 60 calls to regional and world leaders. Australia had even offered to keep China in the loop, he said.
“We offered a briefing. I have not participated in a briefing with China,” Marles said.
Asked by reporters if China had rejected the briefing or responded at all, Marles replied: “I’m not aware of that response.”
Without specifically mentioning China, Marles said Australia needed to respond to the military buildup in the Pacific.
“A failure to do so would see us be condemned by history,” he said.
China has said the deal poses serious nuclear proliferation risks and stimulates the arms race.
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On this day in 1868 …
Emily Murphy, the British Empire’s first female judge, was born in Cookstown, Ont. A prolific writer, she took the pen name Janey Canuck. In 1916, Murphy was appointed police magistrate for Edmonton, and later Alberta. Murphy was among the “Famous Five” women who led the battle to have women declared legal “persons” under the British North America Act. Their 1929 victory before the British Privy Council allowed women to be appointed senators. Murphy died in Edmonton in 1933.
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In entertainment …
A wildly unpredictable Juno Awards unfolded on Monday as a topless protester charged the stage, leading to some feisty words from Avril Lavigne, while an absent the Weeknd emerged as the top winner this year.
With a few twists and turns, Canada’s biggest celebration of music did away with its typically tame proceedings shortly after the broadcast got underway. Lavigne was interrupted by a topless woman who leapt on the stage wearing pasties with paint on her that read “land back” and “save the green belt,” a reference to Ontario’s decision last fall to open a protected area of land for housing.
The pop-punk princess appeared blindsided by the crasher and proceeded to swear at her, demanding she get off the stage. The person was quickly escorted away by security.
Unfazed, Lavigne moved on to introduce a performance by Punjabi-Canadian singer and rapper AP Dhillon.
She returned later to accept this year’s fan choice award with a few choice words and another expletive: “Nobody try anything this time or the Canadian is going to come out of me and I’ll (mess) a bitch up.”
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Did you see this?
Canada’s omission from a military pact involving three of its closest allies is symptomatic of a larger problem in how this country is perceived by its friends, experts are warning, as the U.S., Britain and Australia move ahead on their deal.
U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian leader Anthony Albanese were at a naval base in San Diego on Monday to confirm the next steps of the trilateral agreement, known as “AUKUS” after the three countries involved.
That includes formalizing American and British plans to help Australia develop a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines in response to growing concerns about China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Trudeau government has downplayed the importance of AUKUS to Canada, saying Ottawa is not in the market for nuclear-powered submarines, even as others have lamented its absence.
Those include a senior Canadian Armed Forces commander, Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, who worried in a recent interview with The Canadian Press about Canada not having to the same cutting-edge technology as three of its closest allies.
The head of the association representing Canada’s defence industry, who criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for dismissing AUKUS as simply a “nuclear-submarine deal,” has also warned about the potential impact on Canadian military exports.
Canada’s exclusion is being seen as further evidence that its allies do not believe Ottawa is not serious about pushing back against Chinese ambitions, despite the recent release of a new Indo-Pacific strategy late last year.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2023.
