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

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TORONTO GIRL SAYS A MAN CUT HER HIJAB: An 11-year-old Toronto girl says she was walking to school this morning when a scissors-wielding man cut parts of her hijab. The Grade 6 student says she was with her younger brother when she felt someone behind her. She says a man pulled off the hood of her jacket and started cutting the back of her hijab. The girl says she then turned around, screamed and the man ran away. She says the man returned a short time later and continued to cut her hijab from behind before he smiled and ran away. Police say they are looking for a suspect in his 20s.

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TRUMP COMMENTS RELIEVE NAFTA SUPPORTERS: A string of calming comments from Donald Trump about NAFTA has trade proponents across the continent breathing some relief that the U.S. president’s trigger finger may not be about to blow up the deal after all. Trump made about a half-dozen such remarks to The Wall Street Journal — soothing context after days of blazing speculation in Canada, fuelled by news reports that said Trump might be planning to issue a notice of withdrawal from NAFTA sometime after this month’s round of bargaining.

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ACCUSED EDMONTON ATTACKER FIT TO STAND TRIAL: A man accused of attempted murder in a knife attack on an Edmonton police officer has been found fit to stand trial, but an assessment on his mental state at the time of the alleged assault is not yet complete. Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30, was in provincial court Friday to face charges related to a Sept. 30 attack outside a football game in Edmonton. His lawyer, Karanpal Aujla, said an assessment at Alberta Hospital, where his client remains, has found that Sharif is currently fit to stand trial.

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STUDENT GUILTY OF SEXUAL INTERFERENCE BARRED FROM CAMPUS: The University of Calgary says a student who has been convicted of sexual interference would be escorted away if he tried to go on campus. Provost Dru Marshall says 21-year-old Connor Neurauter has been advised not to return to school this term and the university will continue to review the situation. The university has said it does not have the grounds to outright expel Neurauter because his crime took place before he was a student there.

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NATIVE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION ‘OUTRAGED’ BY INQUIRY DEPARTURE: The Native Women’s Association of Canada says it was “shocked” and “outraged” to learn that the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls had lost its executive director — the latest in a long line of delays and staff departures. The association says families are enduring “very upsetting news” from the inquiry, on top of the personal tragedy of their lost loved ones. The federally funded commission confirmed Thursday that Debbie Reid has quit her post as executive director, but declined to comment further on a personnel matter.

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LABOUR MIN. SAYS NEW HARASSMENT RULES WOULD HELP HILL STAFF: Labour Minister Patty Hajdu says it is too early to begin claiming the pendulum is in danger of swinging too far the other way when it comes to concerns over sexual misconduct on Parliament Hill, as young political staffers remain especially vulnerable to abuse. “We’re not there yet,” Hajdu said in an interview. “I would say that we would be there when I would talk to young staffers and they wouldn’t have any experience of harassment or sexual violence or when staffers would tell me that no, there is no one they are uncomfortable getting into an elevator alone with,” she said.

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N.S. REPORT CALLS FOR ‘RECKONING’ WITH SYSTEMIC RACISM: A culture of silence and shame allowed the abuse of orphans to persist for decades at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, according to a new report that calls for a province-wide reckoning with the historic legacy of systemic racism. The second report by the public inquiry into abuses at the Halifax-area orphanage said former residents felt abandoned by the systems designed to protect them, allowing the abuse to go unchecked and unreported.

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‘MORE WACKY WEATHER’ LIKELY COMING IN 2018: When it comes to extreme weather, 2018 has a throwdown message for last year’s show of hurricanes, forest fires and non-stop rainfall: hold my beer. Predicting when and where extreme weather will hit can be difficult, if not downright impossible. But Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada, said Friday he has no doubt it will happen. “I can say with certainty that we will have more wacky weather in 2018, and quite likely more than we did in 2017, as the world continues to warm,” Gray said in an interview.

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B.C. PRISON STAFF SEIZE DRONE-DELIVERED DRUGS: Vigilant staff members at a federal prison in British Columbia have seized a package of contraband they say was being smuggled into the institution by drone. Gordon Tanner, the assistant warden at the Matsqui Institution east of Vancouver, says in a news release issued Friday that the package was dropped onto prison property at about 10 p.m. on Dec. 23. Staff at the medium security institution intercepted the package. It contained drugs and tobacco which the release says were worth an estimated $26,500.

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The Canadian Press