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

Nov 13, 2017 | 2:00 PM

Highlights from the news file for Monday, Nov. 13

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DUTERTE GETS TRUDEAU A SEAT AT SECURITY EVENT: Rodrigo Duterte went “out on a limb” to secure a key invitation for Justin Trudeau to attend a prestigious Asia-Pacific security event alongside powerful world leaders, government officials say. But one senior insider insists the Philippine president’s helpful gesture won’t have any impact on whether Trudeau confronts him about human-rights violations in the southeast Asian country that have shocked people around the world. Trudeau has hinted he might bring up the issue of human rights with Duterte, if he gets the opportunity. Thanks to Duterte’s effort, Trudeau will have a coveted opportunity Tuesday to participate in a working lunch in Manila ahead of an ASEAN-affiliated meeting known as the East Asia Summit. Trudeau will join leaders from 18 countries, including China, Russia and the United States, to discuss security issues.

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FILIPINOS CALL ON TRUDEAU TO TAKE OUT TRASH: Justin Trudeau’s visit to the Philippines brought him within a short walk of a Canadian controversy that has lingered in the Port of Manila for years: about 100 stranded containers crammed with thousands of tons of rotting trash from Canada. The case of the rancid Canadian garbage, festering in Manila for about four years, is well known in the Philippines — it has made headlines and led to protests by environmental and public-health activists. They’ve been calling on Canada to repatriate the waste, which is said to include old wires, CDs, used plastic cups and soiled adult diapers. Estimates in local news reports say there could be as much as 2,500 tons of trash in 103 shipping containers. The shipments were allowed into the country because they were allegedly disguised as recyclable plastics. Upon inspection, however, customs officers discovered they were stuffed with reeking household trash — or worthless landfill junk.

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CANADA REVENUE AGENCY SEEKS OFFSHORE RECORDS: The Canada Revenue Agency is seeking information from three Canadian banks about customer transactions linked to an Israeli financial institution as part of a federal crackdown on offshore tax evaders. Newly filed court records reveal the agency wants to see account records associated with Bank Hapoalim to determine whether Canadians are concealing income or assets. The Federal Court of Canada filings come amid renewed public pressure on the government to show it is taking steps to find and penalize Canadians who improperly use offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes. Like many foreign banks, Bank Hapoalim has correspondent accounts in Canada to conduct Canadian dollar transactions on behalf of its customers. The revenue agency is asking the Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank and Toronto-Dominion Bank for records of deposits, cheques and electronic funds transfers associated with Bank Hapoalim’s correspondent accounts.

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CANADA, UNITED NATIONS IRONING OUT PEACEKEEPING DETAILS: A senior United Nations official says UN staff are in talks with their Canadian counterparts about when, where and how Canadian military personnel and equipment will be employed on peacekeeping missions. But Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the undersecretary general of UN peacekeeping operations, tells The Canadian Press that no final decisions have been made. The comments come as the government is gearing up to host a major peacekeeping summit in Vancouver this week, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scheduled to drop in Wednesday. It was widely expected that the Liberals would announce their plans to deploy peacekeepers either before or at the summit, with options including sending helicopters to Mali and a transport plane to Uganda. But Lacroix’s comments indicate that more than a year after the government promised up to 600 troops and 150 police officers for peacekeeping, Canada’s contribution appears to be very much a work in progress.

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SHOPPERS DRUG MART SEEKING POT BRAND MANAGER: Shoppers Drug Mart is looking to hire a medical marijuana brand manager as it tries to position itself in the burgeoning cannabis market, even though it is not currently legal to distribute the drug through pharmacies. The pharmacy retailer says in a job posting that the senior brand manager role will entail leading its strategy and marketing activities to doctors and health-care providers in the cannabis space. The online job posting adds that the winning candidate will also ensure that the Shoppers’ medical pot marketing material is compliant with Health Canada regulations. This comes after Shoppers’ parent company, Loblaw Companies Ltd. in October 2016 applied for a Health Canada licence to dispense medical marijuana. Currently, under federal regulations, the only legal distribution method for medical marijuana is by mail order from licensed producers direct to consumers.

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END PROGRAM PUTTING COPS IN TORONTO SCHOOLS, REPORT SAYS: A report by staff at Canada’s largest school board recommends eliminating a controversial program that placed police officers in certain Toronto schools after finding the scheme left some students feeling intimidated or uncomfortable. The report from staff at the Toronto District School Board follows a six-week period during which students, staff and parents at the affected schools were surveyed and student focus groups and community meetings were held to assess the School Resource Officer program. The report, which is subject to approval by board trustees, said the program should be discontinued, but the board should continue to work with police to ensure a safe school environment. The SRO program, which was suspended at the end of August, saw police officers deployed at 45 TDSB high schools in an effort to improve safety and perceptions of police. It was implemented in 2008 after 15-year-old Jordan Manners was shot and killed at C. W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute the previous year. Critics of the program argued that armed officers in schools intimidate students. They also raised concerns about racial and anti-immigrant bias.

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ONTARIO COLLEGES, FACULTY CLASH AHEAD OF VOTE: Ontario’s colleges and the union representing striking faculty members are accusing each other of spreading misinformation ahead of a contract vote in the labour dispute that has left half a million students out of class for a month. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the striking faculty, said the dispute was the longest strike in the colleges’ history. The council representing the province’s 24 colleges said acceptance of the latest contract offer would mean students could be back in the classroom as early as next Tuesday. Talks between the College Employer Council and the union broke down last week, with the council asking the Ontario Labour Relations Board to schedule a vote on its offer. With the vote set to begin Tuesday and end Thursday, the council was reaching out directly to faculty to address what it called the union’s “continued misrepresentation” of the contract offer. The council launched a new website — www.collegevote.ca — and posted an audio webcast on Monday in which it discussed the contents of the offer. But the union said the offer contains “serious concessions” that were not agreed to, and which would erode faculty rights and contribute to an unsustainable staffing model.

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QUEBEC SMOG ALERT COULD LAST UNTIL WEDNESDAY: Environment Canada says a smog alert it issued for southern Quebec late Sunday is expected to continue through Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday morning. The areas of the province affected run from Montreal through to Quebec City and also include the Eastern Townships, the Beauce region and Montmagny, northeast of Quebec City. The federal agency says the alert can probably be blamed on the increased use of wood-burning stoves because of colder temperatures as well as cars and industrial activity. Spokesman Bruno Marquis says atmospheric conditions have remained stable in the affected areas, there is not much air circulation and winds are calm, leaving pollutants close to the ground. Smog can cause a number of harmful effects such as breathing difficulties, coughing and eye irritation. It can also aggravate the symptoms of people who suffer from cardiovascular diseases like asthma, bronchitis or emphysema.

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COULD CALGARY NAME CHANGE TO WICHISPA OYADE? If a group of First Nations get their wish, Calgary will be renamed Wichispa Oyade — Stoney Nakoda terms that roughly translate to mean elbow town. The Stoney Nakoda have applied to have a long list of well-known places across southern Alberta changed to reflect traditional names given by their people. Their application letter to the Alberta government also includes Canmore, the Bow River, Mount Allan and dozens of other sites that they consider to be part of their territory. “The Stoney Nakoda people are the original occupants of the land and place names should be changed to their traditional Stoney Nakoda names in order to allow the culture and history of these lands to become more known and respected,” reads the letter. The First Nations argue that the English or Cree names many of these places have fail to reflect their specific Indigenous history. The Stoney Nations, descendants of the Sioux, include three bands with the largest reserve located west of Calgary. They have been suing the province and the federal government over their aboriginal and treaty rights, including land and resources, in a complex case that was originally filed in 2003.

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CANADIAN AMONG RESEARCHERS TO FIND EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF WINEMAKING: Archeologists from Canada are among a team of researchers who say they’ve unearthed the earliest evidence of winemaking in the world, dating the origin of the practice back hundreds of years earlier than previously believed. The discovery, reported in a study being published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, was made in the South Caucasus region in Georgia, a country on the border of eastern Europe and western Asia. The excavations on the project were conducted by a team from the University of Toronto and the Georgian National Museum as part of a larger research project investigating the emergence of viniculture in the region. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania were involved in studying materials recovered from the sites. Previously, the earliest known chemical evidence of wine made from grapes was dated to 5,400 to 5,000 BC in Iran, but the archeologists say they can now trace the practice to about 6,000 BC in sites about 50 kilometres south of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The Canadian Press