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

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INDIGENOUS FAMILIES WANT MORE RESIGNATIONS FROM INQUIRY: There were more calls Wednesday for major changes to the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, including the resignation of all remaining commissioners. “We think that it would be in the best interests of the Indigenous women of Canada that the current commissioners be brave and resign — step down,” said Sandra Delaronde, co-chair of a coalition of Manitoba relatives of missing and murdered women. “The national inquiry, in its current form, is not hearing the voices, is not inviting the consultation … of the families and those that work on a daily basis with families.” Delaronde’s comments came one day after one of five inquiry commissioners, Marilyn Poitras, resigned saying she could not continue under the inquiry’s current structure. In recent weeks, the commission has also seen resignations from executive director Michele Moreau, director of operations Chantale Courcy and others. Delaronde says families don’t want the inquiry scrapped, but want several changes including a slate of new commissioners who are related to victims or who have worked closely with victims’ families and an Indigenous-led process that is less like a courtroom hearing.

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KHADR FIGHTS BACK AT WIDOW’S EFFORT TO GET ASSETS: The widow of an American soldier killed in Afghanistan has failed to show there’s a real risk former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr is hiding his money as a way to avoid paying people he might owe, new court filings show. In urging Ontario Superior Court to dismiss a request for an injunction against Khadr, his lawyer argues Tabitha Speer and another former American soldier have not shown a strong case to back their demand for an urgent freeze on any money paid him by the federal government. “The scant evidence offered in support of this pleading consists of double and triple hearsay statements drawn from media reports and Wikipedia,” lawyer Nate Whitling writes in his factum ahead of Thursday’s court hearing. “The hearsay now relied upon by the applicants is so vague and unreliable as to be of zero probative value.” Speer, the widow of Sgt. Chris Speer, and Layne Morris, who was blinded in the 2002 firefight in which American forces captured the badly wounded 15-year-old Khadr, are trying to have a US$134.1-million wrongful-death judgment they won in Utah enforced in Canada.

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TRUMP PRIVATELY RAGES AS RUSSIAN SCANDAL TOUCHES SON: The snowballing revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year’s presidential campaign have broadsided the White House, distracting from its agenda as aides grapple with a crisis involving the president’s family. The public has not laid eyes on the president since his return from Europe on Saturday. But in private, Trump has raged against the latest Russia development, with most of his ire directed at the media, not his son, according to people who have spoken to him in recent days. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that his son was “open, transparent and innocent,” again referring to the investigation as “the greatest Witch Hunt in political history.” The president also questioned the sources of the media reporting on the story, despite the fact that his son personally released four pages of emails in which he communicates with an associate claiming to be arranging a meeting with a Russian government lawyer.

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SLIGHT UPGRADE IN FORECAST FOR B.C. FIREFIGHTING: Fire officials in British Columbia say they’re relieved by a slight reprieve in the weather forecast that had been calling for strong winds where dozens of fires are burning. BC Wildfire Service chief information officer Kevin Skrepnek says an incoming system will bring lightning, but it is also expected to carry some rain. He says the overall pattern is for continuing hot, dry weather, but crews have taken advantage of calmer conditions to make progress on fire guards near Williams Lake, where 10,000 people remain on evacuation alert. Skrepnek says 12 new fires were sparked Tuesday, a fraction of the more than 100 that broke out daily over the weekend, for a total of 198 fires burning province-wide.

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EX-BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT CONVICTION OF CORRUPTION: Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was convicted of corruption and money laundering on Wednesday. It’s the most high-profile conviction yet in a sweeping graft investigation that has jailed dozens of the Latin American country’s elite. Federal Judge Sergio Moro sentenced Silva to nine and half years in jail, but the former leader will remain free while an appeal is heard. The decision was widely expected, even by Silva’s own defence team, but is still stunning. The charismatic leader left office with sky-high popularity and is credited with pulling millions of Brazilians out of poverty and turning Latin America’s largest country into an important player on the world stage. The case is part of a massive corruption investigation centred on state-run oil giant Petrobras that has led to the conviction of dozens of business executives and politicians.

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U.S. AGENCY SUSPENDS LARGE WHALE RESCUES: An American agency that responds to marine mammals in distress has halted its efforts to free large whales trapped in fishing gear following the recent death of a whale rescuer in New Brunswick. Chris Oliver, assistant administrator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, extended condolences Wednesday to the family of Joe Howlett of Campobello Island. Howlett, who also worked as a lobster fisherman, was killed Monday after freeing a North Atlantic right whale that had been entangled in fishing gear near Shippagan, N.B. A close friend of Howlett’s said the 59-year-old veteran fisherman was hit by the whale just after it was cut free and started swimming away. “Because ensuring the safety of responders is of paramount importance, NOAA Fisheries is suspending all large whale entanglement response activities nationally until further notice, in order to review our own emergency response protocols,” Oliver said in a statement.

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GROUP’S PLANS TO HONOUR DE GAULLE HIT SNAG: A Quebec nationalist group is accusing the City of Montreal of thwarting its plans to commemorate a now-iconic speech by former French president Charles de Gaulle. The Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste says it wanted access to the balcony of city hall on July 24 to re-enact the moment when de Gaulle famously shouted “Vive le Quebec libre!” in 1967. Former Quebec premier Bernard Landry says he’s disappointed the city refused the group’s request to honour what he calls a turning point in the province’s independence movement. The organization intends to hold the event in front of city hall instead. The City of Montreal is organizing its own week-long exhibit to mark the 50-year anniversary of the famous speech. It’s also planning to open the balcony to the public for 30-minute guided tours on July 24.

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CROSBY HINTS STANLEY CUP WILL RETURN TO HIS HOMETOWN: Hockey superstar Sidney Crosby is hinting that he will once again parade the Stanley Cup around his hometown in Nova Scotia. Speaking to reporters at his annual hockey camp in Cole Harbour, N.S., Crosby confirmed he will have the Cup on Aug. 6 and 7. He says his plans for the trophy have not been nailed down, but he noted there is an annual parade in Halifax on Aug. 7 — Crosby’s 30th birthday — and that seems like a “good fit.” Crosby says he wants as many people as possible to see the trophy. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain paraded professional hockey’s most prestigious trophy around his hometown of Cole Harbour twice before, in 2009 and 2016, drawing thousands of fans. Each player of the Cup-winning team gets brief custody of the trophy.

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COLD WAR BUNKER COULD HOUSE BROADCAST ARCHIVE: It could give a whole new meaning to the term “buried treasure.” A national foundation wants to store millions of videos, films and other recordings 60 storeys underground in an old Norad bunker near North Bay, Ont., in an effort to preserve the vast electronic record of Canadian history. The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation is talking to federal officials about turning the mothballed complex into a secure repository for the country’s endangered audio-visual archive. The foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to preservation, is working with the CBC to document its analog collection dating from the 1930s — a move that will help smooth its eventual transfer to the foundation’s custody. Kealy Wilkinson, the foundation’s executive director, says the space needed to safeguard the CBC/Radio-Canada collections alone will be about one million cubic feet. The foundation is also aware of other significant collections held on a makeshift basis in institutions around the country.

The Canadian Press