July inflation rate, Tories win in NS : In The News for Aug. 18, 2021

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 Aug. 18, 2021…

What we are watching in Canada …

The election spotlight could shift today to Canada’s pandemic-ravaged economy and debt-laden federal finances as Statistics Canada reveals its consumer price index for July.

The annual pace of inflation was 3.1 per cent in June, down from 3.6 per cent in May when the consumer price index posted its largest yearly increase in a decade.

The inflation rate has exceeded the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent since April and some economists expect it to creep as high as 3.9 per cent in the fall.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has argued that price increases are temporary — the result of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 lockdowns — and that allowing inflation to remain temporarily high will help the economy rebound from the pandemic-induced recession.

He has said Canadians can be confident that the central bank will keep the cost of living under control as the economy reopens, even as it maintains its record-low benchmark interest rate of 0.25 per cent.

However, some economists believe inflation could spike higher and last longer than Macklem suggests.

And persistently high inflation would put pressure on the bank to increase interest rates, which would make it exponentially more costly for the federal government to carry its staggering debt load.

The 2021 budget forecast that the debt will double to $1.4 trillion by 2026.

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Also this …

Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives surged to an upset election win Tuesday over the governing Liberals after capitalizing on their main opponent’s early stumbles and promising a big-spending fix to the troubled health system.

During the campaign, Tory Leader Tim Houston unveiled a left-leaning platform that promised hundreds of millions of dollars in the first year of the party’s mandate to increase the number of family doctors, bolster the mental health system and create more nursing home beds.

In his victory speech, Houston said the public responded to the solutions he put forward and decided against simply rewarding the Liberals for competently handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Regardless of what the polls may say, what we know is that if you provide real solutions to real problems then the voters will pay attention,” the 51-year-old chartered accountant told the crowd.

“Not just here in Nova Scotia, but in all of Canada, we proved that just because there is a pandemic doesn’t mean government gets a free pass.

Houston’s party has also become the first to unseat a government in Canada since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other elections that have taken place during the course of the health crisis _ in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Yukon and Saskatchewan _ all saw incumbent leaders remain in power.

Liberal Leader Iain Rankin told supporters in Halifax he didn’t have immediate plans to step down, despite the resounding defeat.

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And this … 

The senior military officer who oversaw Canada’s vaccine rollout campaign is poised to be charged with one count of sexual assault, though one of his lawyers is raising questions about the timing of that decision in relation to the federal election.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin is scheduled to present himself to police in Gatineau, Que., this morning after being told a warrant had been issued for his arrest in relation to an alleged incident dating back to early 1988.

Fortin, who previously served in Afghanistan and commanded NATO troops in Iraq before leading Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution effort, is expected to address reporters after he appears before police.

The military officer was removed from the vaccine rollout on May 14, five days before the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service referred a sexual misconduct investigation to the Quebec prosecution service to determine whether criminal charges should be laid.

Fortin, through his lawyers, has denied any wrongdoing and says his reputation has been badly damaged by the allegation. He is now fighting in Federal Court for reinstatement to his previous position at the Public Health Agency of Canada, or an equivalent post.

The military officer and his legal team were surprised by the decision to lay charges, said lawyer Natalia Rodriguez, who is representing Fortin in his Federal Court application and is not a member of his criminal team.

She added Fortin’s legal counsel have so far been provided little information about the allegation against their client, “so he doesn’t know what this is about at all.”

Rodriguez went on to question the timing of the charge against Fortin, which comes days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched an election.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. _ Northern California wildfires that incinerated two mountain communities continued marching through the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday while a utility purposely blacked out as many as 51,000 customers to prevent new blazes.

Two weeks after the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, the Caldor Fire a few miles southeast exploded through tinder-dry trees and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a forest community of around 1,200 people.

Fire officials estimated that at least 50 homes had burned in the area since the fire erupted Saturday and two people were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in El Dorado County, where authorities were considering closing the entire El Dorado National Forest.

Both fires grew by tens of thousands of acres from Monday afternoon through Tuesday, torching trees and burning up brush left tinder-dry by high temperatures, low humidity and drought. Afternoon gusts drove the flames.

Late Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric said it has begun shutting off power to as many as 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires for the first time since last year’s historically bad fire season. 

The utility said the shutoffs were focused in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the North Valley and the North Bay mountains and could last into Wednesday afternoon.

Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

VATICAN CITY _ Pope Francis is adding his voice to a campaign to overcome vaccine skepticism, issuing a public service announcement insisting that vaccines are safe, effective and an “act of love.”

The video message released Wednesday is aimed at a global audience but directed particularly at the Americas. It features six cardinals and archbishops from North, Central and South America as well as the Argentine-born pope. It was produced by the Vatican and the Ad Council, which has produced a series of pro-vaccine ads in a bid to get more people vaccinated.

In his comments, Francis said: “Being vaccinated with vaccines authorized by the competent authorities is an act of love. And contributing to ensure the majority of people are vaccinated is an act of love.”

He added: “Vaccination is a simple but profound way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable.”

Francis had emphasized at the start of the pandemic the need to ensure equal access to the vaccine, especially for the poor. But faced with increasing skepticism about vaccines especially among religious conservatives, the Vatican has vowed an all-out effort to overcome hesitancy and encourage widespread vaccination.

The Vatican has declared that it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines, including those based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses.

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On this day in 2006 …

The Quebec government was ordered to give more than $13 million to nearly 45,000 women who had to pay for abortions. Justice Nicole Benard of Quebec Superior Court said the government misinterpreted its own medicare law by paying only a portion of the cost of abortions performed in certain women’s health centres and private clinics.

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In entertainment …

Canadian comedy star Jay Baruchel’s penchant for pot began with his discovery of a severe alcohol allergy.

The Montreal-raised actor-filmmaker, who’s played a stoner in films including “Knocked Up” and “This Is the End,” says he turned to cannabis many years ago when he found out his liver lacks the proper enzymes to process alcohol correctly.

“It took five years of drinking for me to realize this, but what this meant was, every time I would drink anything, I would vomit violently for like two days afterwards,” Baruchel, 39, said in a video interview from his Toronto home.

“Then I discovered weed and it had quite the opposite effect. So rather than vomiting constantly, it made me hungry.”

It also helped his clinically diagnosed anxiety disorder, added Baruchel, who explores Canada’s recreational cannabis legalization in the new Canadian Audible original podcast series “Highly Legal.”

“Highly Legal” debuted Tuesday as part of Audible.ca’s brand new Plus Catalogue, which gives members access to 12,000 titles at no extra cost. Other new projects on the service include the audiobook “Oracle” by Toronto writer Andrew Pyper, narrated by Vancouver-born actor Joshua Jackson.

In the series, Baruchel talks to industry experts about the history and future of cannabis in Canada after federal legalization on Oct. 17, 2018.

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ICYMI …

The Trudeau government is dropping its quest to have a court prohibit the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada’s highest security laboratory.

A House of Commons order to produce the documents was terminated, along with all other business before the House, when Parliament was dissolved Sunday for an election.

Consequently, a Justice Department official says no purpose would be served in continuing the government’s application to the Federal Court to block the release of the documents which it maintained would be injurious to national security.

The government has served the Federal Court with a notice of discontinuance in the case.

The decision leaves unresolved the question of whether the House of Commons is supreme and has unfettered power to demand the production of any documents it sees fit, no matter how sensitive and regardless of privacy or national security laws.

Opposition parties joined forces to demand the documents in hopes that they’d shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired last January.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021

The Canadian Press