In the news today, May 2

Jason Kenney will meet face-to-face today with the political foe he attacked relentlessly in his successful bid to become Alberta’s premier: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The two are to meet this afternoon in the Prime Minister’s Office, just hours after Kenney is to testify before a Senate committee studying the government’s bill to re-write the rules for environmental assessments of energy projects. Kenney, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, calls the bill the “No Pipelines Act” and wants it scrapped.

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B.C. CHALLENGES ALBERTA LAW IN COURT

British Columbia’s premier fought battles over the Trans Mountain pipeline on two fronts Wednesday, going to court against Alberta’s premier, who wants the line expanded, while urging Ottawa to start shipping more gasoline through the pipe that’s already there. John Horgan, speaking to reporters in Victoria, announced his government has filed court documents challenging the legality of an Alberta law that gives that province the power to squeeze B.C. over oil and gas shipments. The law was proclaimed a day earlier by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney on his first day in office.

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PERMAFROST MELTING FASTER THAN THOUGHT: STUDY

Permafrost in some areas of the Canadian Arctic is melting so fast that it’s gulping up the equipment left there to study it. Biologist Merritt Turetsky of the University of Guelph says she’s lost dozens of field sites because the frozen ground melted too quickly for her to rescue the cameras and thermometers she left behind. In a newly published paper, she warns that rapid melt could dramatically increase the amount of greenhouse gases released from ancient plants and animals frozen within the tundra. Scientists previously thought permafrost was warming up slowly and gradually.

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RESEARCHER OFFERS THEORY ON TRUDEAU’S ‘BAD’ FRENCH

Quebec’s media elites are unfairly criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s spoken French because they see him as an outsider pretending to be a real Quebecois, an American academic argues in new research. Journalists will forgive Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s mangled pronunciations or former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s use of Anglicisms but Trudeau is held to an unrealistic standard, according to Prof. Yulia Bosworth of Binghamton University in New York. Her article, “The ‘Bad’ French of Justin Trudeau: When Language, Ideology, and Politics Collide,” was published in the most recent issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies.

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ANDREESCU RESUMES ON-COURT ACTIVITY

Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu, who has rocketed up the WTA Tour rankings after a breakout start to the season, has resumed on-court activity after a five-week break to rest a shoulder injury. Coach Sylvain Bruneau said Andreescu hit balls this week for the first time since she was forced to retire from her fourth-round match at the Miami Open on March 25. They plan to travel to Mallorca, Spain over the coming days to begin training at the Rafa Nadal Academy in preparation for the French Open. He says it’s been a long break so they need to go slowly and surely and smartly about it.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS:

— Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan attends a stone-breaking ceremony to mark rehabilitation work at the North Park Armoury in Halifax.

— Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks to the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources about Bill C-69.

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers remarks at the Canadian National Prayer Breakfast.

— Abdulahai Hasan Sharif has his last chance to return to court with a new lawyer on five charges of attempted murder. An Edmonton police officer was stabbed outside a football game and four pedestrians were hit by a man driving a U-Haul truck in October 2017. The Crown will apply for one to be appointed if he doesn’t have one.

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The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In the news today, May 2

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