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

Jul 19, 2016 | 1:40 PM

Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, July 19

 

PILOTS ARRESTED FOR SUSPECTED DRINKING: Two television personalities whose flight from Scotland to Toronto was postponed by a day after both pilots were arrested on suspicion of drunkenness said they were frustrated by the delay but relieved that their safety wasn’t jeopardized. Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan — best known for their interior design shows on HGTV and other networks — were among the passengers whose travel plans were derailed by the arrest of two Air Transat pilots at Glasgow Airport on Monday, shortly before the flight was due to take off.

———

LIBERALS SWEEP TOP DIPLOMATIC RANKS: The Trudeau Liberals have replaced several high-profile political appointments made by the previous Conservative government with a major shuffle of the top ranks of Canada’s foreign service. Almost all are career public servants, with three of them replacing political appointees of the Harper government in the United Kingdom, Iraq and Israel. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion announced the appointment of 26 new ambassadors, high commissioners and others — 13 men, 13 women — in a major shuffle the government says is intended to ensure diplomats represent a wide diversity of Canadians.

———

TRUMP CONFIDANT: FIRE SOMEONE OVER SPEECH: A longtime adviser to Donald Trump suggests somebody should be fired after an embarrassing flub on the first night of the Republican convention involving stolen snippets of an eight-year-old speech from First Lady Michelle Obama. “It’s sloppy staff work and somebody should go,” Roger Stone said Tuesday. About seven per cent of the speech was copied almost verbatim. Michelle Obama delivered similar lines in a similar setting eight years ago at a party convention where she was introducing herself to the country.

———

HALF OF FAMILIES ON RESERVES COULD MISS OUT ON NEW CHILD BENEFIT: Half of the country’s aboriginal families living on reserve could miss out on the federal government’s new child benefit aimed at raising hundreds of thousands of Canadians out of poverty. Tax returns are the basis for calculating how much a family receives under the new benefit and internal government estimates peg the tax filing rate on reserves at about 50 per cent. That means millions intended to help indigenous children could end up left in the federal treasury. The new non-taxable, income-tested child benefit rolls out Wednesday with the average family receiving about $2,300 under a program that was a cornerstone of the Liberals’ campaign platform.

———

TRUDEAU LAUNCHES YOUTH EFFORT: Justin Trudeau skipped over normal government communication channels Tuesday in a bid to speak directly to young people he wants to see serve on a national council to advise him on their priorities. Trudeau launched the application process for the council on Twitter, then spent an hour taking questions on the social media site about how the council will work. Between July 22 and Aug. 12, anyone between the ages of 16 and 24 can apply for seats on the 30-member council, which will advise the prime minister on issues affecting youth, including employment, access to education and climate change.

———

MORE DELAYS LIKELY FOR SOME SYRIAN REFUGEES: Delays in the resettlement of Syrian refugees from Turkey to Canada are likely to grow even longer after a failed coup attempted there last week. There are an estimated 549 Syrian refugees in Turkey who have been approved to come to Canada but haven’t been cleared to travel, and a further 3,815 applications from that country are in progress. Efforts to get them out of Turkey have already been met with lengthy delays in part because of the Turkish government’s slow approvals process for exit permits.

———

LAYOFFS LED TO POST-SECONDARY STUDIES: REPORT: A new study says there is a significant correlation between job layoffs in Canada and full-time enrolment in post-secondary studies. The Statistics Canada research says 3.1 per cent of men who lost their jobs in 2008 — at the start of the recession — went back to school on a full-time basis. In contrast, the study says only 0.6 per cent of men who did not lose their jobs between 2001 and 2011 enrolled in full-time, post-secondary schooling. The report also says 3.1 per cent of women laid off in 2008 enrolled full time in a post-secondary institution compared with one per cent for women who did not lose their job.

———

CANADA TO PLEDGE $200M TO IRAQ FUND: Canada is to pledge up to $200 million in new money to help Iraq’s economy during a major conference in Washington on Wednesday. Sources tell The Canadian Press that “up to” that amount will be pledged through the World Bank to help Iraq’s government implement economic reforms. The Canadian pledge is over and above the $1.6 billion over three years that the Trudeau government announced in February as part of its reconfigured mission to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

———

NO SAME-SEX WEDDINGS FOR MARITIME ANGLICANS: Anglican bishops in the Maritimes say they will not allow their clergy to participate in same-sex weddings for the time being, even as some bishops elsewhere have given the green light. The Canadian church narrowly voted last week at its General Synod to allow same-sex marriage, but the resolution still needs affirmation at the 2019 synod before it becomes church law. Although some Ontario bishops said they will immediately allow priests to officiate at same-sex weddings, Bishop Ron Cutler of the Nova Scotia and P.E.I. diocese and Bishop David Edwards of New Brunswick say they won’t follow suit.

———

U.S. SKIER LAUDS VANCOUVER TREATMENT FOR BRAIN RECOVERY: A competitive skier from Utah is crediting a new technique at Vancouver General Hospital for a swift recovery from a brain injury she suffered in Whistler, B.C. Jamie Crane-Mauzy was the first patient in British Columbia to undergo autoregulation monitoring, a process allowing doctors to determine the precise oxygen and blood pressure levels in her brain. The 23-year-old was hospitalized for eight days and her family was told she might die after she crashed during a double backflip at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in April last year.

The Canadian Press