Hello,
The CN Rail strike has ended. Workers are set to get back on the job starting at 6 a.m. local time tomorrow.
That sound in the air is the sigh of relief heard round the country: businesses that can once more get their products to market; hospitals that can stop rationing propane; and Liberal cabinet ministers who no longer have to order 3,200 picketers back to work.
Details of the agreement were not immediately available. The CN union says the results of a ratification vote should be available in eight weeks.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
International climate experts with the United Nations warn that the world is on track for 3.2 C of global warming in the next century, more than twice the limit agreed to by countries in the Paris accord.
Social conservative groups say they think Andrew Scheer should resign as leader of the Conservative Party. Those in the movement who spoke to The Globe say they don’t feel Mr. Scheer stood up for their values during the election. Mr. Scheer has also been criticized by the progressive wing of the party as not standing up for their values either.
A federal lawyer argued the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal was wrong to award compensation to First Nations children harmed in the welfare system, even as the Liberal government tries to take steps to settle a class-action lawsuit on the same topic.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives joined the NDP in a rare show of cross-partisan unity in voting to condemn Quebec’s law that banned the wearing of religious symbols for some public servants.
And the Senate will pay a former public servant $1,500 in damages and $700 in court costs for failing to put the French instruction “pousse” on Parliament Hill water fountains. The utilities had only the English word “Push” or, in some instances, the word in Braille. “Language rights are part of who we are as individuals and that’s a core value to protect and defend,” former public servant Michel Thibodeau told the Canadian Press.
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on threats to Andrew Scheer’s leadership: “For starters, his tactical judgment is unconvincing. On the weekend, he fired his chief of staff and communications director, more than a month after the election. Such bloodlettings are best dealt with immediately after a loss. This was yet another example of the leader’s chronic inability to head problems off at the pass. (Not dealing with the question of his American citizenship before the election might have been the worst such example.) A politician needs to have a certain touch. Mr. Scheer lacks it.”
Frank Ching (The Globe and Mail) on the situation in Hong Kong: “The protesters’ gravitation toward the United States, and the West in general, corresponded with their rejection of China and the Communist Party and reflected the dismal failure of China to win the support, if not the allegiance, of Chinese nationals born on Chinese soil who have lived their whole life on Chinese territory.”
Terry Glavin (Maclean’s) on Canada-China relations: “For several weeks now it has been increasingly evident that Trudeau’s government is willing to surrender a great deal and to draw that line where Beijing has always wanted it drawn—with diplomatic and corporate relations inside the relationship, and all those bothersome “Canadian values” about human rights, democratic accountability, the international rules-based order and the rule of law left entirely outside of it.”
Lise Ravary (Montreal Gazette) on Quebec and Alberta: “Alberta and Quebec share a unique can-do spirit, a sense of being different and a desire to run their affairs as they see fit. Both provinces are energy powerhouses, but fate alone dictated that Quebec would end up with hydro and the west with petroleum. Nothing to do with morality or superiority.”
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Chris Hannay