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

CHONG, OBHRAI DENOUNCE ‘LOCK HER UP’ CHANT: Two federal Conservative leadership contenders are denouncing what happened at a weekend rally in Edmonton attended by rival Chris Alexander. Some in the crowd called for Alberta Premier Rachel Notley to be jailed over the province’s carbon tax. They chanted “lock her up” — a slogan used by Donald Trump supporters against his U.S. Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. MP Michael Chong says free speech must be used responsibly and fellow MP Deepak Obhrai calls the chanting “Trump-style politics invading Canada.”

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MOUNTIES ADMIT FABRICATING ACCESS RESPONSE: The RCMP has admitted that an employee fabricated a response to an access-to-information request. Supt. David Vautour says the employee has been disciplined. The fabrication came to light last week in a letter Vautour sent to Bruce Cheadle, a reporter for The Canadian Press who, in May 2015, requested information regarding the now-defunct long-gun registry. Cheadle did not receive a response to his access request until March 1, 2016, but that letter was backdated almost five months. Vautour says a note included with the tardy response claimed that the letter had originally been sent to Cheadle in October 2015, but was returned to the RCMP due to an incorrect postal code. He says the Mounties have since determined the backdated letter and the explanatory note were fabricated to avoid a possible complaint about the delay in responding to the access request.

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STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DROP IN WAGE, JOB QUALITY FOR YOUNG WORKERS: A new study from Statistics Canada says young people have seen their job quality decline over the last four decades, even as the unemployment rate has remained virtually unchanged. In a report released Monday, the national statistics office says fewer young Canadians, who are not full-time students, are working in full-time jobs today than in 1976, a result driven mainly by the rise of part-time work rather than increases in unemployment rates or decreases in labour force participation. The youth unemployment rate in both 1976 and 2015 was 2.3 times higher than the rate among those aged 25 and older. The study says people under age 25 who were employed full-time have seen their wages fall behind the cost of living since the early 1980s.

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DEATH TOLL CLIMBS TO 36 IN OAKLAND WAREHOUSE FIRE: The death toll in the Oakland warehouse fire climbed to 36 Monday with more bodies still feared buried in the blackened ruins, and families anxiously awaited word of their missing loved ones. The laborious job of digging with shovels and buckets was suspended overnight because of a dangerously unstable wall but resumed mid-morning. Officials said 70 per cent of the building had been searched. Flames tore through the building, known as the “Ghost Ship,” during a dance party Friday night. The cluttered warehouse had been converted to artists’ studios and illegal living spaces, and former denizens said it was a death trap of piled wood, furniture, snaking electrical cords and only two exits.

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MINISTERS TO DISCUSS SEXUAL ABUSE ON RESERVES: The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations will meet three federal cabinet ministers soon to discuss the issue of sexual abuse within indigenous communities. The discussion will include Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu, Bellegarde said Monday in an interview. First Nations leaders, set to gather for an annual meeting beginning Tuesday in Gatineau, Que., have also faced pressure from the national chief to have the courage to publicly confront sexual abuse and incest on reserve, following an investigation by The Canadian Press. During a months-long investigation by CP, a number of leading indigenous experts have flagged alarming levels of sexual abuse in some communities and links to the suicide crisis among aboriginal youth. Some victims have also cited widespread silence about the issue.

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WHITE HOUSE DOING DAMAGE CONTROL AFTER TRUMP’S TAIWAN CALL: The White House says progress in the United States’ relationship with China could be “undermined” if the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty flares up. The comments from White House spokesman Josh Earnest follow President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call last week with Taiwan’s president. Earnest says Obama administration officials have been in touch with their Chinese counterparts to reiterate the U.S. support for the “One China” policy. The policy does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Earnest says it’s “hard to determine” what Trump’s aims were in speaking to Taiwan’s leader. He also said it’s unclear whether it helps Taiwan if this issue is raised.

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TRIAL RESUMES FOR TRIO LINKED TO POLYGAMOUS SECT: The prosecutor in the trial for three accused from a British Columbia polygamous community says Brandon and Gail Blackmore knew they were taking a girl to the United States for a sexual purpose. Peter Wilson told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in Cranbrook Monday that records from the now-imprisoned U.S. polygamous leader Warren Jeffs show that he instructed the teenager be brought to him so he could marry her. In his closing arguments, Wilson says border records from late February 2004 show the Blackmores and another girl crossed into Idaho, but the 13-year-old girl was “conspicuously absent.” Wilson told the judge the girl must have crossed the border somehow, because right after the two Blackmores were given orders by Jeffs, priesthood records show the polygamous leader married the teen on March 1 that year.

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MOM TAKES STAND IN TRIAL OVER SON’S DEATH: A woman who treated her son with dandelion tea and oil of oregano before he died testified Monday that she didn’t understand how sick he really was and that he was still alive when she finally called for help. Tamara Lovett, 47, took the stand in her own defence to answer to charges that she failed to provide her seven-year-old son with the necessaries of life and is guilty of criminal negligence causing his death. Ryan Alexander Lovett died in March 2013 after getting a strep infection that kept him bedridden for 10 days. Alberta’s acting chief medical examiner testified last week that the boy’s body was full of group A streptococcus, which had caused most of his major organs to deteriorate and eventually fail.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

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

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