By Canadian Press

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

May 9, 2017 | 2:15 PM

Highlights from the news file for Tuesday, May 9

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DISGRACED SEN. DON MEREDITH RESIGNS: Disgraced Sen. Don Meredith is resigning from the Senate rather than wait to see if his colleagues expel him for engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl. The Senate was poised to vote as early as Wednesday on a Senate ethics committee report, which last week concluded that Meredith is unfit to serve as a senator and recommended that the upper house take the unprecedented step of expelling him. But in a statement Tuesday, Meredith says he recognizes that the Senate is more important than his “moral failings.” He says he’s decided to move forward with his life, with the full support of his wife and children, and expresses the hope that his absence from the chamber will allow senators to focus on their good work.

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FLOODING SITUATION SLOWLY IMPROVING IN QUEBEC: As water levels in Quebec showed signs of dropping slightly Tuesday, authorities urged people to be patient and warned the situation will not return to normal for several weeks. Meanwhile, the number of soldiers helping municipal and provincial officials in flood-battered parts of the province rose to 1,730 from 1,650, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in Ottawa. Earlier, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed the federal government will pay for the military-related costs. As of Tuesday, heavy rains and melting snowpack had resulted in 2,733 flooded residences in Quebec and forced the evacuation of 1,940 people in 171 municipalities. The floods claimed at least one life in the province — Mike Gagnon, 37, whose car ended up in the surging Ste-Anne River in the eastern Gaspe region. Police were still searching Tuesday for a two-year-old girl who disappeared with him.

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FATE OF B.C. POLITICAL LEADERS IN VOTERS’ HANDS: Voters across British Columbia are marking their ballots as a sometimes bruising 28-day election campaign fought on jobs, the economy and the influence of big donors in provincial politics wraps up. Polls opened at 8 a.m. and Green Leader Andrew Weaver was among the first in line at a middle school in his Victoria-area constituency of Oak Bay-Gordon Head. Liberal Leader Christy Clark represents the Okanagan constituency of Kelowna West, but her itinerary showed she would vote later in the day at a community centre on Vancouver’s west side. Speaking at a campaign office in her riding, Clark said she’s confident the Liberals have done everything they could to reach voters. New Democrat Leader John Horgan voted at an advance poll. This election is being fought on a new electoral map and 87 seats in the legislature are up for grabs, with 371 candidates vying for them. The B.C. Liberal party has been in power for 16 years and is attempting to build on four straight majority governments by running on the party’s record of economic growth and financial stability.

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ONTARIO TEACHERS THE LATEST TO PULL SUPPORT FOR BOMBARDIER CHAIR: The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has joined several large institutional investors in voting against the re-election of Bombardier’s executive chairman and the company’s executive compensation plan. “Our assessment of recent events confirms the need for independent board leadership,” the Toronto-based pension plan said in a report on its website. Teachers’ added it doesn’t typically support the role of executive chairman, but did back the election last year of Pierre Beaudoin, whose family controls the company through multiple-voting shares. The pension plan also said it has concerns about the board’s approach to executive compensation despite Bombardier’s improving performance. Teachers’ also voted against the executive compensation plan in last year’s non-binding vote. The pension plan does not disclose its holdings in Bombardier since it is below its $150-million threshold. The Caisse de depot pension fund manager and Quebec Federation of Labour’s Solidarity Fund said they have cast similar votes ahead of its annual meeting Thursday.

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TEARFUL MOUNTIE TESTIFIES ABOUT NEW BRUNSWICK SHOOTING: An RCMP officer choked back tears Tuesday recalling how he tried to perform CPR on a wounded colleague as a gunman continued a shooting spree that left three Mounties dead and two others wounded. “I was trying to save the life of a friend,” Const. Andrew Johnstone told the RCMP’s Labour Code trial in the June 2014 Moncton massacre. Moncton provincial court heard that people were outside enjoying the warm weather as Justin Bourque opened fire on police with a semi-automatic rifle in an attempt to inspire a rebellion against the government. Johnstone was among multiple Moncton RCMP officers who responded to the scene. The Labour Code charges against the RCMP allege it failed to provide members and supervisors with the appropriate information, instruction and training in an active-shooter event, and didn’t give members the appropriate equipment. Bourque was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 75 years after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

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LIBERALS DEFEAT SAJJAN NON-CONFIDENCE MOTION: The Liberal government has used its superior numbers in the House of Commons to vote down a non-confidence motion brought against Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. The Conservative motion was defeated by a vote of 171-122. The motion came after Sajjan exaggerated his role in Operation Medusa, a key battle involving the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in 2006. The minister apologized for the comments, but the Tories said that wasn’t good enough. They accused him of a pattern of misleading statements which they said hurt his credibility and standing with the troops. Sajjan is currently on his way home from an anti-ISIL meeting in Copenhagen and is expected to roll out the Liberals’ new defence policy next week.

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YOUNG GIRLS PRESSED TO SEND NUDE PHOTOS, COURT TOLD: A Nova Scotia court has been told that more than 20 girls, some as young as 13, felt pressured to send intimate photos to boys and were unaware they were being shared. Six boys were charged in July 2016 in Bridgewater, N.S. An agreed statement of facts submitted in Bridgewater provincial court Tuesday says one 13-year-old girl was repeatedly asked for sexual photos over several days and felt pressured to send them, as she felt a rumour would be spread about her if she did not. The document says the girl felt “horrible” and “guilty” after sending four or five intimate photos that she did not give permission to distribute and was told would not be saved. It says two Dropbox accounts were created for the purpose of sharing intimate images of girls aged between 13 and 17 in various states of undress, including bare breasts and fully nude. The document says most photos were sent through an app called Snapchat — in which images disappear after 10 seconds — but the boys circumvented the time limit by using other phones to take a photo of the photo.

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HOME CAPITAL MAY SELL UP TO $1.5B IN MORTGAGES: Shares of Home Capital Group shot up Tuesday after it announced that an independent third party expressed interest in buying up to $1.5 billion of its mortgage assets, a move intended to restore confidence in the cash-strapped lender. The company — which has seen customers withdraw more than $1 billion from their accounts recently — said the unidentified party has indicated a non-binding intention to buy at least $500 million of qualifying uninsured mortgages immediately. The unidentified buyer could also purchase up to $500 million of additional uninsured mortgages and up to $500 million in insured mortgages, Home Capital said. The lender, which uses money deposited into GICs and savings accounts to help fund its mortgage products, didn’t disclose what the buyer would pay or when a firm deal would be concluded. The company’s stock price soared 17.86 per cent, or $1.22, to $8.05 in early trading on the S&P/TSX composite index following the news.

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NOVA SCOTIA PREMIER AIDE QUITS AMID ASSAULT QUESTIONS: Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says his campaign communications director resigned because he felt “under attack” after the Tories questioned the appropriateness of hiring someone convicted of domestic assault. The resignation by communications aide Kyley Harris on Tuesday came a day after the Liberals dropped Pictou East candidate Matthew MacKnight over 2013 comments on social media. McNeil said he didn’t talk to Harris before he resigned, and added the aide had made a personal decision. In a letter to campaign chairman Chris MacInnes, Harris said he had tried to make amends, but “it is clear that is not possible in the current political climate.” MacKnight was ousted late Monday as a candidate in the May 30 election after MacInnes said he was made aware of unspecified “highly inappropriate” comments. MacKnight issued a brief statement Tuesday saying he takes full responsibility for the tweets and didn’t intend for them to be derogatory or hurtful. MacKnight apologized to two groups that represent people with Down syndrome, saying “it was an immature comment” that was not meant to be malicious.

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CHARGES LAID OVER ALLEGED FAKE KOSHER CHEESE: A Toronto-area food manufacturer and distributor is facing criminal charges after allegedly trying to pass off ordinary cheese as a kosher product. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has laid five charges against Creation Food Co. and one of its officials, alleging the company forged documents to knowingly sell non-kosher cheddar cheese to Jewish summer camps in the summer of 2015. The alleged forgery came to light when a kitchen manager at one of the two Ontario camps discovered irregularities in the labelling and paperwork related to the cheese, which had already been delivered to the two Ontario camps. An organization that certifies food as kosher in Canada alleges that Creation altered certificates in an effort to pass the cheese off as kosher when it was not. Court documents show the CFIA laid charges against creation and executive Kfir Sadiklar, alleging they created and used forged documents as well as unlawfully sold non-kosher food to the two camps.

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The Canadian Press