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

MORE AMERICANS LOOKING FOR JOBS IN CANADA: A growing number of Americans are setting their career sights north of the border, according to government and other data, and experts believe that is partly due to the spectre of a Donald Trump presidency. Data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows a significant spike in the number of work permits being granted to American residents. The number of people receiving Canadian work permits in the first eight months of the year soared 54 per cent over the same period in 2015. Both the government and immigration lawyers say there have not been any policies to account for the increase. Elsewhere, job seeking company Monster Worldwide released figures showing the number of American site users searching for jobs based in Canada has surged 58 per cent so far in 2016.

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PROTECT CHILDREN FROM SEX ABUSE, INUIT LEADER URGES: The head of the country’s leading Inuit organization is urging Canada’s leaders, indigenous and otherwise, to protect children from the scourge of sexual abuse and suicide. Natan Obed says no child deserves to have their innocence taken away. Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, says his own father struggled with alcoholism after falling victim to sexual and physical abuse at residential school. Extensive interviews with researchers, indigenous leaders and victims by The Canadian Press show sexual abuse in some indigenous communities is widespread. In the 2007-08 Inuit Health Survey conducted in Nunavut, a staggering 52 per cent of women and 22 per cent of men said they experienced severe sexual abuse during childhood.

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CODERRE SAYS HE DID NOT ASK POLICE TO SPY: Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre is defending himself against accusations he triggered an investigation by city police into a journalist’s sources. Coderre said Monday he contacted then-police chief Marc Parent in 2014 because he felt he was being unfairly targeted by the police union. The mayor says rumours were circulating in 2014 that he had used his contacts in the police force to avoid paying a traffic ticket. La Presse reported that columnist Patrick Lagace was targeted twice by city police for surveillance, once in 2014 and again this year. The news organization said police began a surveillance operation on Lagace in 2014 after the mayor called Parent in order to discover who in the force had leaked information.

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EXPERTS CALL FOR NATIONAL OPIOD PLAN: Addiction experts say Canada needs a comprehensive national strategy to curb rampant overprescribing of opioids and reduce escalating rates of overdose deaths from the powerful drugs. Dr. Benedikt Fischer of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto says Canadians are the second-highest consumers of opioids worldwide, after the U.S. Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Fischer and co-authors say an estimated 2,000 Canadians died from opioid overdoses last year, and many provinces are “on track” for a record number of deaths in 2016. Fischer says an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Canadians have died from overdosing on prescription drugs like oxycodone, hydromorphone and fentanyl in the last 10 years.

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STUDENTS RETURN TO CLASS AFTER FATAL STABBING: Students returned to a high school in Abbotsford, B.C., on Monday where a Grade 9 girl was stabbed to death last week, with some expressing apprehension about being back in class. Grade 11 student Samwel Uko said dealing with the death of Letisha Reimer and injuries suffered by another student at Abbotsford Senior Secondary last Tuesday has been difficult. “I think we’ll get through this,” he said, adding that he is scared about going back. “I hope the school moves on but we’ll still be missing (Letisha).” Police and school district officials have said a homeless man walked into the school and attacked the girls before staff confronted and restrained him. They have said the accused did not have a connection with the girls and that the attack was random.

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CHIEF BACKS BANISHMENT OF CRIMINALS: The chief of Saskatchewan’s Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations says he supports First Nations that exile criminals. Bobby Cameron, who represents 74 of the province’s First Nations, says he backs banishment if it means getting rid of drug dealers or protecting young people from drugs and alcohol. An outraged Cameron says drug dealers in some communities are selling to 10-year-old kids and something has to be done to stop it. The chief says he supports a recent move by the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation to banish six non-band members and give warnings to more than a dozen band members because of a crystal meth problem. Cameron says the RCMP has a big role to play too, helping band councils identify and stop drug dealers.

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APPEAL COURT TO HEAR STAFFORD JUROR PTSD CASE: The case of a woman who claims she should be recognized as a victim of crime because she developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving as a juror in a horrific murder trial goes before Ontario’s top court on Tuesday. The woman, who cannot be identified, was a juror in the trial of Michael Rafferty, who was convicted in 2012 of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, of Woodstock, Ont. The 57-year-old argues that she suffered psychological injury as a result of coming “face to face” with Rafferty’s horrific crimes and is seeking compensation as a victim of crime.

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BILL “SPACEMAN” LEE WANTS TO DISSOLVE BORDER: Former Montreal Expos pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee says he’ll work to dissolve the borders between Vermont, Quebec and the Maritime provinces if he is elected governor of the northeastern state Tuesday. Erasing the borders would allow Vermont to get its energy from the “biggest tides in the world” off the Atlantic Ocean, Lee says, describing his main election platform issue during an interview with The Canadian Press. The state will choose its governor the same day as the United States elects its president, and the former Major League Baseball pitcher is running with the Liberty Union Party, which describes itself as non-violent and socialist. “We should form an alliance with the Maritime provinces,” Lee, 69, said Monday. “That’s an energy issue. We’ll get all our energy from Canada.”

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

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

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