Scaling back federal aid and search for Quebec father; In The News for July 14

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of July 14 …

What we are watching in Canada … 

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests Canadians are torn on whether the federal government should turn off the spending taps to keep the resulting deficit from flooding the nation’s future.

The Leger/Association for Canadian Studies survey found 41 per cent think that COVID-19 support programs and payments must immediately be scaled back.

Forty-four per cent think the payments to Canadians and businesses ought to continue even with the $343-billion projected deficit. 

The poll suggests 78 per cent are worried about that bottom-line figure, and 60 per cent think the way out of the hole is to cut government spending, while 21 per cent say raising taxes is the solution.

The poll surveyed 1,523 Canadians between July 10 and 12 and cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered truly random.

Yesterday, the Liberal government announced that one of the biggest aid programs — a federal wage subsidy — will be extended until the end of this year.

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Also this …

ST-APOLLINAIRE, Que. — The search continues today for the father of two girls whose bodies were found Saturday in a small town southwest of Quebec City.

The bodies of Norah and Romy Carpentier, aged 11 and 6, were located in a wooded area in the community of St-Apollinaire, Que.

The girls had last been seen Wednesday and became the subject of an Amber Alert the next day.

Police have said they and their father, Martin Carpentier, are believed to have been in a serious crash on Highway 20 in St-Apollinaire on Wednesday evening at about 9:30 p.m.

But police say they did not find any occupants inside the car when they arrived on scene.

They say they have found “pertinent elements” in the area on Sunday that were sent to a laboratory for analysis to see if they are linked to Carpentier.

Police did not specify what the items were, but as the search spanned a fifth day, police raised the possibility Carpentier could be unconscious or dead, given the weather conditions and the possibility he was injured in a car crash right before his disappearance.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The Trump administration was moving ahead early Tuesday with the execution of the first federal prison inmate in 17 years after a divided Supreme Court reversed lower courts and ruled federal executions could proceed.

Daniel Lewis Lee had been scheduled to receive a lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at 4 p.m. Monday.

But a court order preventing Lee’s execution, issued Monday morning by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, remained in place.

A federal appeals court in Washington refused the administration’s plea to step in, before the Supreme Court acted by a 5-4 vote.

Still, Lee’s lawyers said the execution could not go forward after midnight under federal regulations.

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What we are watching elsewhere in the world …

LONDON — The British government is reportedly poised to backtrack on plans to give Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei a limited role in the U.K.’s new high-speed mobile phone network, a decision with broad implications for relations between the two countries.

Britain’s decision to re-examine the question, the results of which will be announced Tuesday, came after the U.S. threatened to sever an intelligence-sharing arrangement because of concerns Huawei equipment could allow the Beijing government to infiltrate U.K. networks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also under pressure from rebels in his own Conservative Party who criticize China’s new Hong Kong security law and its treatment of ethnic Uighurs.

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In entertainment news …

NEW YORK — Naya Rivera, a singer and actor who played a cheerleader on the hit TV musical comedy “Glee,” has been found dead at a Southern California lake.

Ventura County sheriff’s officials confirmed Monday that the body found floating in Lake Piru earlier Monday was the 33-year-old Rivera.

She began acting at a young age but rose to national attention playing a lesbian teen on “Glee,” which aired from 2009 until 2015 on Fox.

She is survived by her parents, a younger brother and sister, and her four-year-old son.

After the show, Rivera sought success in film and music, making her feature film debut in 2014’s “At the Devil’s Door,” and released the single “Sorry” in 2013.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2020.

The Canadian Press