By Canadian Press

Last GM cars roll out and watch for the 2019 newsmaker; In The News for Dec. 18

Dec 18, 2019 | 2:24 AM

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 Dec. 18.

What we are watching in Canada …

General Motors is winding down production at its Oshawa assembly plant as an era of vehicle production comes to a close for the Ontario city.

Some of the roughly 2,600 direct employees at the plant are expected to produce the final vehicles today, though the company cautions that the exact timeline could still shift.

GM announced in November of last year that it would effectively shut down the plant along with four others in the U.S. as part of a wider restructuring.

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In May, the company committed $170 million to convert the plant to a stamping and sub-assembly operation and keep about 300 jobs, as well as convert part of the complex into an advanced technology test track.

The end of production will have a ripple effect among the many workers and suppliers who rely on the plant, as well as the wider community.

GM started producing cars in the city in 1918 and opened the Oshawa assembly plant in 1953. At its peak in the 1980s it employed some 23,000 people and could produce as many as 730,000 cars and trucks a year.

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Also this …

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is back before a judge this morning as the engineering giant prepares to defend itself at trial following the conviction of a former top executive last Sunday.

The criminal cases are separate, but both relate to allegations of corruption and fraud in Libya going back roughly two decades.

The company and two of its subsidiaries face charges that they paid nearly $48 million to public officials to influence government decisions under the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s regime between 2001 and 2011.

The case also includes charges of fraud and corruption against the company for allegedly defrauding various Libyan organizations of roughly $130 million in a case that ensnared the company as well as the federal Liberal government in a political controversy.

Experts say the jury verdict Sunday that found  former executive Sami Bebawi guilty of paying off foreign officials as he worked to secure contracts for the firm may have a bearing on the prosecution of the company. They say the case could hinge on whether senior SNC officials acted with the company’s blessing.

Today’s pre-trial hearing in a Montreal courtroom is a case-management conference, which can involve setting timetables and bringing motions on the admissibility of evidence.

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

OTTAWA — A green economy think tank at the University of Ottawa says the federal government’s promise to plant two billion trees over the next 10 years is a cheap way to pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign to spend $3 billion on land and water conservation projects between now and 2030. Among those projects will be planting two billion additional trees.

The promise was met with some eye rolls as different parties kept upping the ante on tree planting, including the Green party’s pledge to plant 10 billion trees by 2050.

But Dave Sawyer, an environmental economist with the Smart Prosperity Institute, says “two billion is a good start” when it comes to using nature to help Canada cut greenhouse gas emissions.

A study Sawyer helped write found that planting two billion trees is possible and helpful as trees are one of the best natural ways to absorb some of the greenhouse gases produced from burning fossil fuels.

The study suggests planting that many new trees could reduce emissions between two and four million tonnes a year in 2030. By 2050, as the trees mature and can absorb more carbon dioxide, that amount could more than double to between four and almost nine million tonnes a year.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

On the eve of almost-certain impeachment, President Donald Trump fired off a furious letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denouncing the “vicious crusade” against him, while Democrats amassed the votes they needed and Republicans looked ahead, vowing to defend Trump at next month’s Senate trial.

Trump, who would be just the third U.S. president to be impeached, acknowledged he was powerless to stop Wednesday’s vote. He appeared to intend his lengthy, accusatory message less for Pelosi than for the broad audience of citizens — including 2020 voters — watching history unfolding on Capitol Hill.

He accused the Democrats of acting out of “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” still smarting from their 2016 election losses. “You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish, personal political and partisan gain.”

Portraying himself as a blameless victim, as he often does, Trump compared the impeachment inquiry to the “Salem Witch Trials.” Asked later if he bore any responsibility for the proceedings, he said, “No, I don’t think any. Zero, to put it mildly.”

Pelosi, who warned earlier this year against pursuing a strictly partisan impeachment, nonetheless has the numbers to approve it. According to a tally compiled by The Associated Press, Trump is on track to be formally charged by a House majority on Wednesday.

“Very sadly, the facts have made clear that the President abused his power for his own personal, political benefit and that he obstructed Congress,” Pelosi wrote to colleagues. “In America, no one is above the law.”

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

India’s Supreme Court postponed hearing pleas challenging the constitutionality of a new citizenship law that has sparked opposition and massive protests across the country. The court said it would consider the pleas on Jan. 22.

Protests and widespread condemnation have been growing against the Citizenship Amendment Act, with demonstrations erupting in India over the last week.

The new law applies to Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally but can demonstrate religious persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It does not apply to Muslims.

Critics say the new law is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government’s agenda to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims and goes against the spirit of the country’s secular constitution. Modi has defended it as a humanitarian gesture.

University students across India have been leading a campaign to have the law overturned.

On Sunday, marches by students at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh descended into chaos when police fired tear gas and beat unarmed protesters with wooden sticks.

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Weird and wild …

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas — A 13-year-old girl who was arrested for making her fingers into the shape of a gun and pointing at classmates has been placed on a juvenile diversion program.

The Overland Park girl, who was originally charged with felony threatening, was set to go before a judge, but the Johnson County Juvenile Court hearing was cancelled.

Under diversion, a charge can be dismissed if a juvenile successfully meets certain conditions set by authorities.

The girl’s mother has told the Kansas City Star reports that on Sept. 18, a boy asked her daughter who she would kill if she could kill five classmates.

The girl reportedly made the shape of a gun with her fingers and pointed at four students, then herself.

Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez has confirmed the mother’s story but said there are more facts that he could not disclose.

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Know your news …

The Canadian Press will reveal today who editors have picked as the newsmaker of the year for 2019. Who were The Canadian Press newsmakers of the year in 2018?

(Keep reading for the answer)

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On this day in 1998 …

Former Nova Scotia premier and federal cabinet minister Gerald Regan was acquitted in Halifax of eight sex-related charges dating back more than two decades.

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Your health …

VANCOUVER — Family doctors in British Columbia are being urged to annually screen every patient starting at age 12 to prevent addiction to alcohol.

The guideline developed by the BC Centre on Substance Use and endorsed by the province encourages primary-care doctors to provide treatment and ongoing care themselves unless a complicated addiction has taken hold.

Dr. Keith Ahamad, an addiction specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital who helped write the guideline, says most alcohol-related issues including withdrawal management can be treated by family physicians, but patients needing help are often not identified or treated.

Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria data says there were 17,000 alcohol-related deaths across Canada in 2017, up by 2,000 fatalities from three years earlier, according to

Ahamad said B.C.’s guideline is the first in the country. It provides family doctors with a screening tool and urges them to provide ongoing support for patients with chronic alcohol use, as well as offering physicians online training.

It recommends prescribing under-used medications to curb cravings instead of potentially addictive drugs, such as Valium.

Family doctors are also advised to educate patients about Canada’s low-risk drinking guidelines, which recommend no more than 10 drinks a week for women, limited to two drinks per day, and up to 15 drinks a week for men, not exceeding three drinks a day.

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Your food …

Bagged salad is a quick and easy way to get your greens but a series of recalls is highlighting a not-so-appetizing fact — prepped produce also carries a greater risk of bacterial contamination.

Amid yet another salad recall falling in the midst of holiday season, health experts say there’s no need to drop the fresh fruits and veggies from your holiday spread, but there are ways to mitigate the risk of food-borne illness.

The first thing is to understand that pre-washed and chopped produce is not always as clean as it looks, says food safety expert Jennifer Ronholm, an assistant professor in the agricultural and environmental sciences faculties at McGill University

“When you cut leafy greens up for one of the bagged salads, the bacteria can actually go and enter the wounds of the plant and hide out inside of the leaves… These leaves are washed in chlorinated water to surface-decontaminate them, (but) once they’re cut you could have bacteria inside the leaves,” says Ronholm

Meanwhile, a head of iceberg or romaine gets a single cut at the root, she says.

Food researcher Sylvain Charlebois says such frequent recalls show the system is working.

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Celebrity news …

NEW YORK — Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette is slated to be among the performers on this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” broadcast.     

She is to be joined by the cast from “Jagged Little Pill,” the Broadway musical inspired by her hit 1995 album.

Other performers include Post Malone, K-pop group BTS and country singer Sam Hunt.

“Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” is anchored in Times Square and broadcast on ABC. Ryan Seacrest is now the host.

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Know your news answer …

The Humboldt Broncos. Sixteen were killed and another 13 were injured when the junior hockey team’s bus collided with a truck at a rural Saskatchewan intersection on April 6, 2018.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2019.

The Canadian Press