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

May 16, 2017 | 2:45 PM

Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, May 16

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RCMP MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AILING, AUDITOR SAYS : The RCMP is failing to meet the mental health needs of its members due to a lack of resources, poor monitoring and meagre support from supervisors, says the federal spending watchdog. While the Mounties were among the first federal organizations to introduce a mental health strategy, they did not make its full implementation a priority, auditor general Michael Ferguson says in a report tabled Tuesday. Some RCMP members even told the auditor that coming forward with mental health concerns led to reprisals from bosses. The findings come one day after a pair of sharply worded federal reviews on harassment in the RCMP called for greater civilian oversight and expertise to ensure the national police force is a healthy and respectful employer. Ferguson’s report says although more than half of members received timely access to the mental health services, one in six members did not. In more than one-quarter of cases, the RCMP did not even have records that would allow the auditor to assess whether members got the help they required.

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PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS STOPS AIRLINES FROM BUMPING WITHOUT CONSENT: Airlines won’t be allowed to bump passengers from a flight against their will under a new passenger bill of rights introduced Tuesday by Transportation Minister Marc Garneau. That change is part of a package of amendments to the Canada Transportation Act, which also introduces new foreign ownership limits for airlines, requires railways to install voice and video recorders in locomotives and improves transparency and efficiency in the freight rail industry. Garneau promised the bill of rights last month in the wake of widespread alarm after a United Airlines passenger was seriously injured when he was dragged from a plane in Chicago. The minister said there will be minimum levels of compensation for people who voluntarily agree to be bumped from a flight and if airlines can’t get a volunteer, they will have to decide if they want to up the ante to persuade someone to get off. The bill will apply to airlines flying within, into or out of Canada.

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AMBROSE BEGINS GOODBYE TO POLITICAL LIFE: Interim Opposition leader Rona Ambrose began to say goodbye to life in politics Tuesday. The longtime Conservative MP, who has led the Conservatives since they formed Opposition in 2015, will resign her seat in the House of Commons when MPs break for summer. She addressed a crowd of MPs and other political watchers Tuesday in Ottawa for a speech on the state of the Conservative Party, what she described as likely her last public speech before she begins her “post-partisan” life.  She said serving as an MP has been one of the greatest honours of her life and she is optimistic about the future. The Conservatives are in the midst of choosing a new leader and the winner will be announced on May 27 at a convention in Toronto. Ambrose called the race “competitive,” and noted it’s drawn hundreds of thousands of new members to the party. Ambrose will stay on to help manage the transition before making her way into the private sector, which will include work on public policy files and possibly a book.

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TRUMP’S REVELATIONS TO RUSSIA ‘WHOLLY APPROPRIATE,” ADVISER SAYS: The White House on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s disclosure of classified information to senior Russian officials as “wholly appropriate,” as officials tried to beat back criticism from fellow Republicans and concerns from international allies. One day after officials declared that reports about Trump’s discussions with the Russians were false, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said the president had been engaging in “routine sharing of information” with foreign leaders. Trump himself claimed the authority to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia, saying in a pair of tweets he has “an absolute right” as president to do so. Trump’s tweets did not say whether he revealed classified information about the Islamic State, as published reports have said and as a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official said the information Trump divulged came from a U.S. intelligence partner.

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MINISTER ECHOES CONCERNS OF MURDERED, MISSING WOMEN’S FAMILIES: Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett says if families of missing and murdered indigenous women have concerns about the national public inquiry, she does too. Bennett was responding to questions about an open letter released Monday by advocates, indigenous leaders and family members expressing their misgivings to the inquiry’s chief commissioner. The group says it is aware the commission faces a difficult challenge, but says immediate action must be taken to prevent damage and shift the current approach. The inquiry — expected to take two years at a cost of $53.8 million — comprises Marion Buller, the first female First Nations judge in B.C., and four other commissioners. The commission is set to hold its first public hearing May 29 in Whitehorse but other community meetings won’t take place until later this fall at the earliest. A spokesperson for the inquiry says the chief commissioner needs to time to carefully consider the contents of the letter before she can respond publicly to the concerns raised in it.

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BODY OF CANADIAN KILLED IN SYRIA BACK HOME SOON: The mother of a Canadian man killed while fighting Islamic State militants in Syria says his body will soon be back on Canadian soil. Tina Martino, of Niagara Falls, Ont., says a Kurdish group that fought alongside her son, Nazzareno Tassone, recovered his body and will be arranging to fly it back to Canada in the coming weeks. The 24-year-old died in December while fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. The leader of a Kurdish community centre in Toronto that’s been working with the family says Tassone’s body was recovered on Saturday after ISIL fighters abandoned the site where it was being kept. Martino says she spent the past five months hoping her son’s body would be recovered so she could give him a proper funeral.

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TEEN IN LA LOCHE, SASK., KILLING WAS SHOT 11 TIMES: A sentencing hearing for a teenager convicted in a deadly shooting at a school and a home in northern Saskatchewan has been told that one of the victims was shot 11 times. Dayne Fontaine, who was 17, was killed along with his younger brother at a house in La Loche in January 2016. The hearing in Meadow Lake, Sask., has been told that Dayne said: “Don’t shoot me” and “I don’t want to die” before he was shot. His 13-year-old brother Drayden was shot twice in the face and the head. The shooter then went to the high school where he killed a teacher and an aide, and wounded seven other people. The teen has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder. He can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 17 at the time of the shooting. Two weeks have been set aside to determine if the killer should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.

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GREENS PLAN ‘CHESS MOVES’ AFTER B.C. VOTE: While British Columbia’s Liberals and New Democrats are gridlocked as they await the final ballot count from last week’s tight election, the Green party is setting priorities to use the leverage its three newly elected members achieved. The splintered election result could leave the upstart Greens with the balance of power in a minority government, and leader Andrew Weaver is pondering a series of chess moves that could shake the direction of the province. Green party deputy leader Matt Toner says they are looking for specific proposals from the Liberals and New Democrats on electoral and campaign-finance reforms before supporting either party in the legislature. Toner says the Greens want to see firm details of potential co-operation agreements before deciding where to throw their support in what will be a historic period in B.C. politics.

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COUPLE SAY AIR CANADA CANCELLED TICKETS HOME: A Newfoundland couple say they were left stranded at an airport in Portugal after Air Canada suddenly cancelled their tickets home. The couple from Conception Bay South say they were forced to book new one-way flights to St. John’s at nearly three times the cost of their entire round-trip fare to Lisbon. Randell Earle says he arrived at the Lisbon airport with his wife for their return flight but was told their tickets were suspended and they could not board the Air Canada Star Alliance flight, operated by Portuguese airline TAP Portugal. The 67-year-old Earle says he called Air Canada from a local pay phone in the airport but was left on hold and then redirected to the airport ticketing counter, where agents told him they could not assist him. The retired lawyer says he was forced to stay overnight in a hotel and spend more than $6,000 on two tickets home, and although he tried to call Air Canada several times and launched a lawsuit in small claims court, he was only reimbursed his out-of-pocket costs after the CBC called the airline for a story.

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SNOWBIRDS CANCEL SHOWS OVER TRAINING CONCERNS: Canada’s famed Snowbirds acrobatic flying team is cancelling appearances at a number of airshows in Ontario and the United States so some of its pilots can get more practice. Officials are blaming bad weather earlier in the year for having shortened the team’s training time. The nine-plane team has flown a number of shows this year, including a joint flight with a French team over Parliament Hill at the beginning of May. But Maj. Patrick Gobeil says it was determined that more practice was necessary after some of the planes were seen deviating from their positions mid-flight. As a result, the Snowbirds are pulling out from two airshows later this month in Ontario, and four other airshows in the U.S. The Snowbirds, in their iconic white, red and blue Tutor jets, have been entertaining airshow visitors in Canada and across the U.S. since 1971.

The Canadian Press