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

NEW SPENDING MUST BRING ECONOMIC GROWTH, SAYS MORNEAU: Any new spending measures being pitched for the federal budget will have to demonstrate potential to help grow the economy if they expect to find favour with the Liberal government, Canada’s finance minister says. Bill Morneau said that as he crafts his second budget as finance minister, the economic-growth test is the first of multiple screens he is using to ensure debt levels don’t spiral out of control.Too late, the opposition parties might jeer. The Liberals used up a lot of their fiscal wiggle room this week with a fall economic update that included $32 billion in infrastructure spending over the next 11 years, accompanied by an equivalent amount of red ink on the federal books.

KINDER MORGAN PRESIDENT SAYS HE DOESN’T KNOW WHO IS RIGHT ON CLIMATE CHANGE: The president of Kinder Morgan Canada says he “doesn’t pretend to be smart enough” to know which side is right in the climate-change debate. Ian Anderson says he has read the science on both sides and doesn’t know whether humans are contributing to climate change. The federal government is expected to decide whether to approve Kinder Morgan Canada’s proposed $6.8-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion before the end of the year. Anderson says he does know the broad public view is that over time, humans should reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and he accepts that.

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NEW RESEARCH CLARIFIES REASONS FOR DISAPPEARING SEA ICE: New research is cutting through the confusion on disappearing Arctic sea ice. It’s replacing complex computer models with simple math that links everyday activities to the health of Earth’s climate regulator. A new paper outlines an easy-to-understand relationship between increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the slow vanishing of summer sea ice in the North. The paper says for every new tonne of CO2 that enters the atmosphere, the southern edge of the sea ice loses another three square metres.

TRUDEAU DEFENDS MONSEF OVER BIRTHPLACE FLAP: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing those who have raised questions about his minister of democratic institutions of trying to score political points. Maryam Monsef said in September she recently found out she was born in Iran and not in Afghanistan as her mother had always told her. That prompted some people, including former Conservative MP Tony Clement, to say she should step down from her position pending an inquiry into her citizenship application. Trudeau says Monsef’s case is very different from those of people who lie or choose to not divulge information so they can get into Canada.

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FEDS URGED TO REDUCE FEMALE PRISON POPULATION: Prisoners’ rights advocates are calling on the Liberal government to help reduce the number of women in jail. Former inmate, Alia Pierini, spoke at a news conference Thursday, saying she still suffers from anxiety thanks to time spent in solitary confinement. Recently, the Trudeau government gave Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould a mandate to restrict the use of solitary confinement and improve treatment of prisoners with mental illness.

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GRAPHIC EVIDENCE HEARD AT N.B. PYTHON TRIAL: A pathologist testified that an escaped python that killed two young boys in Northern New Brunswick bit them repeatedly and strangled them. Dr Marek Godlewski is a witness at the criminal negligence trial of Jean-Claude Savoie. Godlewski told the trial that most of the puncture wounds were found on the boy’s faces. The boys were killed during a sleepover with Savoie’s son in 2013. Savoie’s African rock python had escaped its enclosure and travelled through a ventilation duct.

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POLICE GIVE MORE INFO ON SUSPECT IN B.C. HIGH SCHOOL STABBING: Police have released a picture of the 21-year-old Alberta drifter charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with a deadly stabbing at an Abbotsford, B.C., high school. Police say the photo shows Gabriel Klein just hours before the attack, but investigators aren’t revealing where the picture was taken. Friends have identified 13-year-old Letisha Reimer as the teen killed in the attack in the school’s atrium.

TRUMP TRIES TO WOO MODERATES: Donald Trump spent Thursday trying to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independents who’ve been holdouts of his campaign. At a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, he reminded supporters of the impeachment battle of the 1990s, saying, “Here we go again with the Clintons.” Meanwhile Clinton allies like President Barack Obama are looking to keep the spotlight on Trump and his disparaging comments about women and minorities — saying that he’s unfit for office. Obama told college students in Miami, “This isn’t ‘Survivor.’ This isn’t ‘The Bachelorette.’”

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SOME CANADIANS WISH FOR TRUMP PRESIDENCY: They don’t always like what they see or hear but Canadians hoping Donald Trump becomes the next U.S. president believe him to be a straight shooter that will bring economic and other benefits to Canada. Calgary businessman Daniel Erikson says a lot of honest blue collar people have been thrown under the bus by an “elite donor and political class.” Many Canadian Trump supporters say they fear Clinton’s views on gun rights and abortion.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

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

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