Good morning,
The Supreme Court of Canada today upheld the military justice system in a 5-2 ruling.
Several members of the military who had been accused of serious crimes had argued unsuccessfully that they should be allowed to be tried by juries in the civilian system.
The judges in the majority ruling said there was no such constitutional right for members of the military.
Other issues about the military justice system have been raised before. In separate research The Globe reported on last month, a law professor found soldiers tried in the military system for sexual assault were acquitted at much higher rates than people tried in civilian courts.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
An Egyptian cabinet minister made a comment and gesture at a Toronto event that Egyptian-Canadian groups say they are interpreting as a threat. “Anyone who says a [negative] word about our country – what will happen to him? Will be sliced up,” Egypt’s Emigration and Expatriate Affairs Minister Nabila Makram said, according to a translation of a video of the speech. Ms. Makram later said in a statement that the phrase was “colloquial” and taken out of context. Ehab Lotayef, a member of the Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy, said he didn’t agree “that even if this is said in a joking fashion, it does not have a dangerous, hidden message, because we know that many countries, and some of them close allies to Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, are following the dissidents abroad and harming them.”
Justice Nicholas Kasirer, who was been nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada, played his cards close to his chest when questioned by MPs yesterday. Kim Campbell, who headed the advisory group to fill the vacancy, said that the government could plan longer term if it wanted to increase the diversity on the top bench. Of 12 applications to the position, she said, 11 were from white men.
The Liberal and Conservative parties have each spent about $90,000 on Facebook ads since the beginning of June, much more than their competitors.
Canada Strong and Proud, an anti-Liberal organization known for robocalls and mass text messages, has registered as a third-party group for the election.
A joint federal-Alberta review panel says a Teck oil sands mine can go ahead, because the economic benefits outweigh the serious environmental concerns, which include increased emissions and destruction of wetlands and old-growth rainforests.
The Canadian government opened an investigation into Volkswagen four years ago amid the auto maker’s emissions scandal, a scandal that led to billion-dollar fines in the United States and Germany. So far the company has faced no charges in Canada, but an environmental group is pressing the Environment Minister’s office to finally take action.
A new map shows which of Canada’s coastlines will be affected most by climate change.
Export Development Canada says an internal review has found no evidence of employee wrongdoing for a controversial insurance policy given to SNC-Lavalin to support work on a dam in Angola.
A bipartisan duo from the U.S. House of Representatives have tabled a motion offering support to Canada in its ongoing tensions with China and calling for the release of two Canadians detained since December.
And The Globe’s Washington correspondent, Adrian Morrow, travelled to Alabama to find out how the state, which was the cradle of the civil-rights movement, has become one of the most restrictive places in the United States to get access to abortion services. Jamie Johnson, 65, said she got an abortion in 1973, shortly after the landmark Roe v. Wade opened up access to the procedure. “Back then, it was free access,” she told The Globe. “Today, it’s just tightening, tightening, tightening.”
Globe and Mail editorial board on when we vote: “This year, voting on a day other than Oct. 21 will be neither difficult nor unusual – but it should still be easier, and more common. One way of making that happen: keep regular polling places open for an entire week, or two, instead of just one day. Include Saturdays and Sundays. Every day of Election Week (or Weeks) would be a regular, normal voting day.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on calls made by a senior bureaucrat to two former envoys to China “This was clearly an attempt by the Trudeau government to have two ex-ambassadors censor themselves.”
Tom Rachman (The Globe and Mail) on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “He’s an entertaining shambles of English poshness: the haystack of befuddled blond hair, the old-fashioned elocution, his history of mischief that seems composed for a greedy biographer. Yet his rise to power – during a crisis worse than any Britain has known since the Second World War – is a witticism that falls dead. You wouldn’t want this man flying your plane. Why would anyone choose him to fly a country?”
Marni Soupcoff (National Post) on food and morality: “It still feels, in my heart, less than compassionate to eat adorable creatures. Which is why I prefer living in denial and pretending the meat I eat was assembled out of mysterious inanimate substances like protein isolate and refined coconut oil.”
Peter Coffman (Policy Options) on the public outcry against a proposed addition to the Chateau Laurier: “Ignoring all of these paths to compatibility is not really making an ‘addition’ to the historic building at all — it’s just marking territory. And that’s what is happening at the Château Laurier. The Château is picturesque, romantic and playful. Its towers, turrets and gables are an integral part of the sublime, rugged silhouette of Parliament and its surroundings. The planned addition is essentially a box: all straight lines, right angles and mathematical precision. It does not echo the older building’s forms, nor does it join in its romantic spirit.”
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