à la Bibliothèque! Thursday Jeudi

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1 Thursday Jeudi Ask the Library! Services for Parliamentarians Demandez-le à la Bibliothèque! Au service des parlementaires Telephone: IntraParl: Library and Research Website: Courriel : biblio@parl.gc.ca Téléphone : IntraParl : Bibliothèque et recherche Sur le Web : INFORMATION. KNOWLEDGE. UNDERSTANDING. INFORMATION. SAVOIR. COMPRÉHENSION. QUORUM TEAM L ÉQUIPE DE QUORUM : D. Bosnjak, C. Gingras, C. Gravel, P. Perron Issue Numéro : 1958 CONTACT US POUR COMMUNIQUER AVEC NOUS : Tel. tél. : quorum@parl.gc.ca

2 QUORUM TABLE OF CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES Thursday, October 1, 2015 / jeudi, 1 octobre 2015 [News / Nouvelles] Niqab issue bolsters Tory support: pollster... 1 Comme un voile sur cette campagne... 2 Integrity of citizenship enhanced by shedding niqab, top court told... 3 Canadians could go to polls on Oct. 19 without knowing much about TPP... 4 Ag Minister Ritz blames media for weakening Canada's negotiating power on TPP... 5 Sparks fly over supply management at agriculture debate... 6 Canada, Mexico seek auto-sector trade-off... 7 TPP... 8 De bonnes nouvelles pour l'industrie aéronautique montréalaise... 8 Stephen Harper gonflé à bloc devant ses militants à Québec... 9 Saudi deal puts Mulcair in tricky spot Stuck in the mushy middle Mulcair veut un gardien de la science A 18 jours du scrutin - Le NPD redirige ses flèches vers Justin Trudeau Grits vow $3B for home care Trudeau: Pot tax revenue not in the Liberal fiscal plan - yet Les autres partis en rupture avec les citoyens Ahmed challenges revocation decision Nine more set to be stripped of citizenship MPs to repay claims for events after writ drop Légaliser un faux pas par une loi rétroactive Lisa Raitt demande aux transporteurs aériens de ne pas séparer les familles What wasn't talked about at the Munk Debate Foreign Affairs considered expelling Syrian diplomats weeks before government took action Has Canada really taken in 15 per cent of Syrian refugees? Not exactly Refugees call for end to crippling government loans Canada not doing enough for world health, says Stephen Lewis Canada misses the cut for EU's proposed investor-state dispute court Canada spent $20 million on North Pole claim mission Northern Gateway challenges set to bring scrutiny to federal environmental approvals Canada's economy bounces back from recession Changements climatiques - Une grave menace pour la stabilité financière mondiale, dit Mark Carney Sea Kings working past retirement... 30

3 L'ex-vice-reine déchue ii [Commentaires / Comments] The pretty lies we tell ourselves as Canadians On questions of war and peace, we're a nation divided International: un bilan consternant The domestic fallout of Harper's foreign policy Harper's big bet: it's not about oil Perspectives - Pari perdu (bis) Election candidates neglect China at their own peril How Harper's Australian enforcer pulled his campaign out of the weeds New election rules discourage voting, not fraud Now, comrades, a national housing target Green schemes all about cash On climate change, Ottawa needs to lead Bracing for the grey wave Has the gun registry really been deleted? Female faces on banknotes would pay off Shame on CBC brass for debate failures Trudeau wrong on Canadian citizenship Tiers and fears Canadians are Canadians, good and bad TPP agreement raises concerns of dairy farmers To cover or uncover: the great niqab debate Mulcair now scrambling to avoid tailspin in Quebec Entre l'arbre et l'écorce Dismantling dairy system will be costly Une gestion de l'offre dépassée So why all the secrecy on TPP?... 54

4 1 TORONTO STAR (ONT) NEWS Page: A6 Niqab issue bolsters Tory support: pollster Conservatives would win a majority if election were held now, recent survey finds Donovan Vincent Toronto Star With little over two weeks left before Canadians vote, the Conservatives have jumped out to a "clear lead" in public support, according to new results from polling firm Forum Research. The survey of 1,499 Canadian voters has Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's party ahead with 34 per cent support, compared to 28 per cent for the NDP and 27 per cent support for the Liberals. The Greens and Bloc Québécois each drew 5 per cent support, and 1 per cent of respondents said they support "other." Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff attributed the latest bump in Tory fortunes to the party scoring points amid the recent flare-up in the controversy over the niqab, the Muslim face veil. Two-thirds (64 per cent) of Canadian voters are opposed to having fully veiled women swear the oath of citizenship, while just over a quarter (26) support it, the poll found. Ten per cent don't know, according to Forum's results. "It appears the Conservatives have scored a palpable hit with their hard line this past week on the niqab," Bozinoff said in a statement. The latest poll results from Forum show an increase in support for the Conservatives from last week's survey, where the party was at 31 per cent support. The Liberals saw a four percentage point drop in support from 31 per cent last week, and the NDP remained stable at 28 per cent support over the same period. In an interview Wednesday, NDP campaign adviser Brad Lavigne said the "substantial" decline in Liberal support since last week shows that party is "bleeding" support to the Conservatives, while the New Democrats are remaining stable. The Liberal campaign did not provide a comment for this story. Conservative campaign spokesman Stephen Lecce said in an ed statement that "Canadians know that this election presents a serious choice between experience and dangerous risk. A choice between our Conservative low-tax, balanced budget plan, and the Liberals' dangerous approach that will raise taxes on all workers, cancel benefits to families and (plunge) our country into permanent deficits." Though the poll's findings are just a snapshot in time, if the same results occurred the night of the Oct. 19 election, the Conservatives would win a minority seats in the 338-seat House of Commons. The NDP would form the opposition again with 105 seats, the Liberals would seize 76 seats, the Bloc six seats and the Greens one. Respondents to the Forum poll were asked which of the federal parties they're decided on, or leaning toward. Bozinoff said the niqab issue "resonates clearly in Quebec" - 79 per cent in that province oppose the niqab during citizenship oaths - and also appeals to the Conservative base, whose characteristics include being older, male and lower to middle income. According to the Forum poll, 56 per cent of respondents agree the niqab oppresses women, 29 per cent disagree and 15 per cent don't know. Forty-two per cent of respondents said they have positive feelings toward Muslim people, 39 per cent said neither positive nor negative, 18 per cent said negative and 1 per cent said "don't know." Earlier this month, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the Conservative government's policy banning the wearing of the niqab during citizenship oath ceremony is unlawful. The Conservatives are promising that if re-elected they'll bring forward a law banning the face covering during the oath within 100 days, and plan to seek leave to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal ruling to the Supreme Court. During the leaders debate in French last week, Harper expressed his support for the niqab ban, while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau voiced opposition to the ban. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said that women should have a right to wear a veil at citizenship ceremonies, but must remove it when they have to identify themselves. The Forum poll was conducted between Sept. 28 and 29 and is considered accurate plus or minus 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The poll also shows the NDP have dropped sharply from their high of 40 per cent voter support on Aug. 23 to Aug. 24, while the Conservatives have climbed steadily from the 23 per cent support they had on that date. During that period support for the Liberals has dropped off 3 per cent from 30 per cent. Bozinoff believes a lot of the NDP support in late August was from progressive voters who "parked" their support with the party, but who, according to Bozinoff, drifted over to the Liberals. Forum's poll is weighted statistically by age, region and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest census data. The weighting formula has been shared with the Star and raw polling results are housed at the University of Toronto's political science department's data library Torstar Corporation

5 2 LA PRESSE ACTUALITÉS Page: A5 / FRONT Comme un voile sur cette campagne Vincent Marissal Thomas Mulcair s'est pointé devant les journalistes, mardi soir à Iqaluit, avec un carton de jus Tropicana dans les mains. «Vous savez combien j'ai payé pour ça? a-t-il demandé. Je viens de payer 11,75$ au supermarché d'iqaluit un produit que les Canadiens peuvent acheter pour 4,75$ dans le sud du pays. Ça n'a pas de sens: le programme Nutrition Nord est un échec lamentable.» Le chef du Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD) a blâmé le gouvernement Harper, rappelant au passage que le vérificateur général a critiqué l'inefficacité et le manque de suivi du programme Nutrition Nord. Hier matin, M. Mulcair s'est installé en surplomb du majestueux bras de mer de Koojesse Inlet, à Apex, pour parler, cette fois, de la protection de l'environnement des communautés du Grand Nord, millions de dollars en engagements à l'appui. Pendant que le chef néo-démocrate prenait des photos avec des partisans, sa femme, Catherine, m'a parlé de la préservation de ces lieux fragiles, de la pauvreté des autochtones et de l'épidémie de suicides chez les jeunes avec un mélange de passion et de colère sourde. «Je n'accepte pas cela, c'est inacceptable, a-t-elle répété. Il ne faut plus se taire, il faut agir, ces gens sont nos égaux. Moi, je ne veux plus me taire.» Les problèmes sociaux et économiques de ces communautés éloignées sont effectivement criants et constituent, même si on préfère les ignorer, une honte nationale dans un pays riche comme le Canada, mais il y avait comme un voile cachant en partie le message de Thomas Mulcair tout le long de cette visite de 24 heures au Nunavut. Comme un niqab, pour être plus précis, qui a collé sur la campagne néo-démocrate à Iqaluit, comme il colle d'ailleurs depuis deux bonnes semaines. M. Mulcair a eu beau parcourir 2500 km plein nord pour changer d'air, rien à faire, le niqab est accroché à sa campagne. Faut dire que le NPD ne s'aide pas beaucoup: mardi, trois candidats orange ont exprimé publiquement leur opposition au port du niqab lors des cérémonies de citoyenneté. Le signal internet est peut-être faible et irrégulier à Iqaluit, mais la nouvelle a toutefois fini par remonter jusque là. Les conseillers de Thomas Mulcair l'admettent: cette histoire de niqab colle. On sent d'ailleurs clairement la frustration dans le clan Mulcair. De même que de la grogne contre Stephen Harper et contre le Bloc, qu'ils accusent de faire du surf sur cette histoire. Le clan Mulcair est, dans un autre ordre d'idées, en beau fusil contre «la gang à Charest», qu'il soupçonne d'avoir déterré des histoires comme les déclarations passées de M. Mulcair sur Margaret Thatcher et, plus encore, sur les tribulations entourant la privatisation du parc du Mont-Orford. La relation entre MM. Charest et Mulcair s'est mal terminée et, visiblement, elle a laissé des cicatrices. Mais revenons à l'indécollable niqab. «On entend toutes sortes de choses sur le niqab depuis quelques jours, déplore M. Mulcair. On oublie que le jugement dit clairement qu'il faut se découvrir le visage au moment de l'identification lors de ces cérémonies.» De retour au Québec pour se préparer au Face à face fédéral de TVA, demain, et à l'enregistrement de Tout le monde en parle, ce soir, Thomas Mulcair doit absolument trouver une façon de se sortir de ce bourbier; autrement, la glissade dans les sondages risque de se poursuivre. Répéter que les tribunaux ont tranché et qu'il se range derrière leur décision est un réflexe juridique, pas une position politique. Cela dit, ne vous attendez pas à voir Thomas Mulcair changer son fusil d'épaule et évoquer, comme le font les conservateurs et les bloquistes, le bannissement complet du niqab lors de ces cérémonies. Les espoirs du clan Mulcair se tournent maintenant vers Atlanta, où se tiennent les négociations de l'accord transpacifique (ATP), qui créerait la plus importante zone de libre-échange au monde (17 pays, dont les États-Unis, le Japon, le Mexique et le Canada). Thomas Mulcair accuse Stephen Harper de vouloir sacrifier la gestion de l'offre, chère aux producteurs laitiers du Québec et de l'ontario, et le secteur automobile, crucial pour l'économie ontarienne. Contrairement à l'accord de libre-échange avec les États-Unis, enjeu central de la campagne de 1988 et cheval de bataille de Brian Mulroney, la présente négociation de l'atp semble bien loin des préoccupations des Canadiens et vient tout juste d'apparaître, après 60 jours de campagne, dans le décor électoral. Le NPD s'inquiète, les libéraux aussi, mais les syndicats et autres groupes civils, opposés aux accords de libre-échange par le passé, sont devenus bien silencieux. Auparavant, ces groupes étaient des alliés naturels du NPD. Les doutes quant au maintien de la gestion de l'offre pourraient faire mal aux conservateurs dans les régions rurales du Québec et de l'ontario, croient les néo-démocrates. Torpillés par la manoeuvre de Stephen Harper sur le niqab, les néo-démocrates s'accrochent à cet espoir. L'impact du niqab est indéniable, mais dans une si longue campagne, le NPD a visiblement manqué de carburant. Se présenter comme la solution de rechange naturelle aux conservateurs n'a pas suffi. Il fallait aussi mettre en vitrine un ou deux produits-vedettes. Les garderies? Promesse mal reçue en Ontario et inconséquente au Québec. L'abolition du Sénat? Oui, mais comment? Le retrait de la mission en Syrie et l'annulation de la

6 3 loi C-51? Peut-être, mais quel est le bénéfice immédiat pour les électeurs, ici, maintenant, dans leur vie et dans leur poche? Contre Justin Trudeau, qui mise sur un programme d'infrastructures et sur une aide financière directe non imposable aux jeunes familles, et contre Stephen Harper, le maître du message simple, le NPD a du mal à s'imposer. Et beaucoup de mal à se déprendre du piège du niqab. «Dans une campagne de 36 jours, on aurait gagné. Quarantecinq jours? Peut-être. Mais 60, 70, 80 jours, ça devient plus difficile», résume un stratège de Thomas Mulcair. Pour joindre notre chroniqueur: vincent.marissal@lapresse.ca OTTAWA CITIZEN (EARLY) NEWS Page: A6 Integrity of citizenship enhanced by shedding niqab, top court told Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen The politically-charged federal policy that forbids the wearing of Islamic veils during public citizenship ceremonies "enhances the integrity" of becoming a Canadian, the government says. In the latest move in the hot-button case, Department of Justice lawyers have filed an application with the Supreme Court asking it to grant an appeal in the dispute. The government wants the high court to overturn two lower Federal Court rulings that found it is illegal to ban Muslim women from wearing niqabs at citizenship swearing-in ceremonies. The application cites five central issues for the court to consider. "The citizenship oath is the means by which immigrants acquire the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship," it says. "Upon recitation of the oath they become full participants in Canadian society. "The policy in question enhances the integrity of obtaining citizenship and promotes the broader objective of having the oath recited publicly, openly and in community with others. Citizenship judges consider these important public objectives in exercising their discretion to apply the policy." But both the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal found citizenship judges have no such discretion and must adhere to the 2011 Citizenship and Immigration operational policy implemented under former Conservative Immigration minister Jason Kenney. Both courts upheld a complaint by Zunera Ishaq, a Pakistani national and permanent resident of Canada since 2008, who completed citizenship requirements but wouldn't take part in her swearingin ceremony because she would have to remove her veil in public. The courts found the policy violates administrative law and is illegal, making it unnecessary to address Ishaq's challenge that the policy violated her charter rights to freedom of religion and protection from religious discrimination. The government has applied to the Federal Court of Appeal for a stay of its Sept. 15 decision until the Supreme Court decides on the request for an appeal. In the meantime, the case has become a heated election issue, with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper declaring it was "offensive" that newcomers would hide their faces at the moment they are joining the "Canadian family." A poll by the Privy Council Office in March, the results of which were only released last week, suggest wide support for the Conservative position. The NDP and Liberals oppose the policy. Getting the case before the Supreme Court for a final decision is an "issue of pressing public importance," the government says in its petition for an appeal. Yet the Department of Citizenship and Immigration said Wednesday it is aware of only one other woman in the same situation. Maiia Mykolayivna Zaafrane, a Ukrainian living in Montreal, filed a discrimination charge in 2014 with the Canadian Human Rights Commission after she was not allowed to participate in a citizenship ceremony because she refused to remove her niqab. Ishaq, by putting her Canadian citizenship on hold, seems to have all but run out of time in her push to become a citizen in time to cast a vote in the Oct. 19 general election. The federal appellate court has yet to rule on the government's petition for a stay and the Supreme Court has yet to respond. Additional reasons cited in the government's leave-to-appeal application include: The Federal Court of Appeal was wrong to conclude the policy is a mandatory practice for citizenship judges and other officials. Rather it was drafted as an "internal guideline" to provide nonbinding "guidance" to citizenship judges. Since Ishaq never attended the ceremony, there is no way of knowing whether the policy would have been applied to her. The main argument considered by the two lower courts, therefore, is abstract. The Supreme Court's "guidance on the proper analytical approach when such a policy is attacked in the abstract, before it has been invoked, is an issue of public importance." imacleod@ottawacitizen.com Twitter.com/@macleod_ian 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.

7 4 ipolitics Canadians could go to polls on Oct. 19 without knowing much about TPP Andy Blatchford - Canadian Press - Ontario If Canada's efforts to secure a massive Pacific Rim trade deal indeed pan out, voters may find themselves marking a ballot on Oct. 19 without having had a chance to examine the fine print. Teams of negotiators, including Trade Minister Ed Fast, are in Atlanta to continue talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership - a long-awaited 12-country pact that could generate an agreement in principle as early as this week. Canada, however, finds itself in a unique situation: it's the only country in the talks that's in the throes of an election campaign. With the election less than three weeks away, it's not clear how much Canadians will learn about the deal, which has stirred up bitter opposition among stakeholders in the dairy, poultry and automotive industries. "I guess the headlines (of any deal) would be made aware straight away, but it's probably quite true that it would be a number of weeks before the detail surrounding the agreement would happen," Noel Campbell, the president of Australian Dairy Farmers, said Wednesday from Atlanta. "That may well be the case - that the finer detail would not be known (before Oct. 19)." With speculation that a long-awaited deal could be reached in the coming days, the TPP talks have been prominent on the campaign trail this week. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair have both accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of keeping Canadians in the dark about the talks. Canadian sources say it's true the final text might not be publicly available for weeks, but they add they would likely release briefing materials and consider different ways of releasing information to the public and opposition parties. On Wednesday, Fast said his delegation has asked that the text be made available "immediately" after an agreement. "We certainly requested that and there are some discussions on the timing of the text, but I believe it is certainly possible." If the deal is signed before the election, the Conservatives would surely use it to woo voters, trumpeting the agreement as evidence of their prowess as builders of economic prosperity through freer global trade. But the Harper government's trade pacts have a tendency to take months - sometimes years - to see the full light of day. The agreement in principle for the Canada-Europe free trade deal was signed in October 2013, but the treaty still has yet to be finalized as it undergoes "legal scrubbing" by lawyers. An overview of the deal is available online. In another case, the Harper government's initial announcement about its foreign investment protection agreement with China - FIPA - turned out to be different than advertised when the final text was released eight months later, said international investment law expert Gus Van Harten. "We do have examples where the government has taken advantage of the absence of a public text, which of course it controls, in order to make misleading claims about its supposed achievements," said Van Harten, a York University professor and author of "Sold Down the Yangtze," a book about the FIPA deal. In February 2012, Van Harten said Harper indicated the FIPA would protect foreign investors from discrimination to create a level playing field that would prevent a government from favouring domestic companies over foreign firms. But when the details were made public in September 2012, he said agreement had a very broad exemption for existing discriminatory measures, meaning any law or policy that existed at the time the pact was put into force could continue indefinitely. Van Harten said he was "pretty shocked" to see how many concessions Canada gave up in the deal when he read the final document. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to withhold specifics, especially during the negotiation period or when lawyers comb through the text after a deal has been signed, he added. "The problem is when I see a kind of manipulation of timing to maximize the political benefit when the text is not available," Van Harten said, adding that he doesn't expect the public to see a copy of the text until after the election. If full details of the deal aren't released before the vote, Campbell said he believes the Harper government could find itself in an uncomfortable position as the election campaign winds down. "I think that government would come under a fair bit of scrutiny in that time frame to try and get them to open up as to what the deal was about," said Campbell, who is also chairman of the Australian Dairy Industry Council. "Yeah, it would be quite a difficult situation." Online: Copyright 2013 ipolitics

8 5 Published Publié : Hill Times Ag Minister Ritz blames media for weakening Canada's negotiating power on TPP 'It certainly is not helpful when you're negotiating with 11 other countries and they start to see that there's these kinds of discussions at home. No one else is doing that at home within their country. We seem to be the only ones doing that and it does create problems for our negotiators at the table,' says Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. Tim Naumetz Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz accused CBC and Canada's major news outlets Wednesday of weakening Canada's bargaining power at historic negotiations over a Trans-Pacific trade deal through reports the government may cede ground on the country's regulation-protected dairy industry. Mr. Ritz took the shots at the media during an election debate in Ottawa where the Atlanta, Ga., negotiations over a Trans- Pacific Partnership Free Trade agreement drew the most sparks in an at-times heated exchange with opposition candidates, as well as Green Party and Bloc Québécois candidates, over Conservative agriculture policies for the past nine years. As about 100 farmers protested under watch by Ottawa Police officers outside the Chateau Laurier debate site, with at least four RCMP protective service officers monitoring the crowd and media around Mr. Ritz inside, the Agriculture minister chafed at claims the Conservative government is set to allow U.S. dairy producers access to up to 10 per cent of the protected Canadian industry. "This has zero impact on supply management at the end of the day, simply because we value that system," said Mr. Ritz, running for re-election in Battlefords-Lloydminster, Sask. "We know the cornerstone that it is in rural Canada." He discounted claims the negotiations have been taking place "in secret"-a response to opposition claims the government should have disclosed its intentions as the negotiations continued, and criticized recent news articles that sparked dairy industry concern. "I listen to the media, that this is some secret deal," Mr. Ritz said. "Certainly we don't negotiate through CBC. They won't even tell you what they earn and you pay their salaries." Mr. Ritz alluded to recent controversies over attempts by Conservative Senators to extract specific salaries for CBC personalities, and earlier attempts by the defunct and Conservative-oriented Sun News to obtain CBC salaries through access to information requests. "Why would we negotiate through the major media?" Mr. Ritz said. "We already get enough twisting in the wind from the way our media reports on things, and of course the other countries pick up on and know there's some sort of antagonistic system here at home." Mr. Ritz said "it's not helpful" and told reporters to "tell your bosses to stop doing that." A reporter asked Mr. Ritz later where he thought the media may have picked up details of the possible concessions on dairy, including cheaper milk and cheese exports from the U.S. into Canada, which also prompted a protest on Parliament Hill this week, which included a half-dozen milk cows the demonstrators had brought near the grounds. "That's a good question. I'd like to know myself, but it certainly is not helpful when you're negotiating with 11 other countries and they start to see that there's these kinds of discussions at home. No one else is doing that at home within their country. We seem to be the only ones doing that and it does create problems for our negotiators at the table," Mr. Ritz said. There were reports this week TPP negotiations between 12 Pacific countries that could lead to the largest free-trade zone in the world were near completion and an agreement or agreement in principle might be announced by Friday, the day of a key televised French-language election debate in Montreal, possibly the final leaders' debate before the Oct. 19 election day. Mr. Ritz disclosed during a brief media encounter following the debate that the government is awaiting a decision by the Privy Council Office on the possibility a little-known "caretaker convention"-which restricts government actions and statements during a general election-might affect the government's freedom to sign any agreement before the election period ends. Among other things, the convention could at least prevent Prime Minister Stephen Harper, running for re-election in Calgary Heritage, Alta., and his Cabinet from ratifying the trade treaty for the time being, although International Trade Minister Ed Fast, running for re-election in Abbotsford, B.C., who's attending the negotiations in Atlanta, would likely be free to sign it. "Let's wait and see how it all comes together," Mr. Ritz said. "Of course, ministers are scheduled to meet today, tomorrow, we'll have to see how all that turns out and analyze it from there.... It will be up to PCO as to whether or not the caretaker convention applies or not in that regard." Mr. Ritz disclosed during the debate that the Privy Council Office has invoked the election-period caretaker convention to prevent Ottawa from transferring emergency cash relief to apple orchards in Nova Scotia that were devastated earlier this summer by an airborne bacterial blight blown into the province by tropical storm Arthur.

9 6 "As I mentioned, we've got an agri-recovery package ready to go out for apple blight in Nova Scotia. It's being held up by that," Mr. Ritz told reporters after the debate. "I think that's ridiculous because it's farmers' money. It needs to go out. I mean there's no credit given, but it's being held up," he said. Canada's constitution does not require treaty ratification by Parliament, but the Harper government in 2008 established a policy that any international treaties would be considered by the House of Commons, which could vote on a non-binding recommendation of ratification or not by the Cabinet after three weeks of considering an international agreement. tnaumetz@hilltimes.com The Hill Times Online: Published Publié : ipolitics Sparks fly over supply management at agriculture debate Kelsey Johnson - Ontario Concerns about the future of Canada's supply management under the pending Trans Pacific Partnership had Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on the defensive Wednesday, with critics arguing the sector never should have been on the bargaining table in the first place. "The idea of bargaining, putting all the things on the table, we never did that ever when I worked for the auto workers with General Motors, Chrysler, Ford," said an emotional Malcolm Allen, the NDP's agriculture critic. "That is the way you lose - to put it all on the table and say, 'Why don't you pick off the stuff you don't like?'" "Don't put it on the table if you don't want to lose it." Canadian dairy, poultry and egg farmers are worried Canada's supply management system will be undermined by the pending TPP deal. Hundreds of farmers gathered on Parliament Hill Tuesday with cows, spilt milk and tractors in hand to demand the federal government protect their sectors by keeping the borders closed to imports. On Wednesday, Ritz said the federal government "values" Canada's supply management system. "We know the cornerstone that it is in rural Canada, the great things (supply managed farmers) bring to the rural economy." Farmers, Ritz said, are "briefed every night" on what's happening with the TPP, while industry representatives are at the meetings in Atlanta. But Ritz said the federal government will not negotiate a multibillion dollar trade deal in the media. "We don't negotiate though CBC, they won't even tell you what they earn and you (farmers) pay... Why would we negotiate through the major media?" "We already get enough twisting in the wind from the way our media reports on things that of course the other 11 countries pick up on and know that there's some sort of antagonistic system here at home. It's not helpful and guys, tell your bosses (industry groups) to stop doing that. Thank you." "Wow, blame it on the media," Liberal Agriculture Critic Mark Eyking muttered in response. Eyking has said repeatedly that supply management should not be on the table, noting in an interview with ipolitics earlier this week his party will not support the TPP deal if dairy concessions are made. But Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has opted for a 'wait and see' approach on TPP, refusing to say before he sees the text whether he would ratify the deal if supply management concessions are made. During a campaign stop Wednesday, Trudeau said he had not been approached by anyone in government about the ongoing talks. Negotiators and trade ministers are in Atlanta to try and hammer out a final TPP deal by the end of the week, and agriculture market access continues to be a sticking point. The United States, New Zealand and Australia all want more access to Canada's dairy markets, with the Americans pushing for 10 per cent access. Canadian negotiators rejected that demand in July. While Ritz insisted the federal government is working to protect the three pillars of supply management - imports, price and production - the minister said the government is prepared to compensate farmers and processors negatively affected by the looming deal. "The prime minister has said that... if there is a loss on your farm... you will be compensated," Ritz said. Representatives of all five federal parties were in Ottawa for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's Agriculture Leaders debate. The two-hour, wide-ranging debate focused on issues that affect Canadian farmers, including trade, labour, business risk management and public research. With files from Canadian Press Online: Copyright 2013 ipolitics

10 7 Globe and Mail News Page: A1 Canada, Mexico seek auto-sector trade-off Countries push for changes to proposed TPP pact that would boost domestic-content requirements for sophisticated vehicle parts STEVEN CHASE - ATLANTA Canada and Mexico are looking for a compromise on autosector rules in Pacific Rim trade talks as they try to bridge differences with Japan over a major obstacle to a deal, seeking changes that would boost the proposed pact's domestic-content requirements for the most sophisticated of car parts. In Canada's case, were it to succeed, this would mean under a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, there would be higher Canadian-content requirements for more value-added vehicle parts, such as engines, transmissions and chassis. The kind of components Canada is championing are made by the biggest players in the Canadian auto-parts sector, such as Linamar Corp. and Magna International Inc., and these are the companies most expected to thrive in the years ahead, particularly if there's an influx of foreign car parts under a TPP deal. Twelve countries, including Canada, are huddled in Atlanta right now trying to finalize a wide-ranging TPP agreement that would comprise 40 per cent of global economic output. A deal, which would eclipse the North American free-trade agreement in importance, could reduce the level of domestically made auto parts in vehicles sold in Canada but also boost the access this country's businesses are granted to Japan, traditionally a closed market. Canada and Mexico walked away from the table at the last meeting of trade ministers in Maui after learning Japan and the United States had struck a deal to lower domesticcontent requirements for automobiles, to 30 per cent for parts and 45 per cent for vehicles. NAFTA rules stipulate more than 60 per cent domestic content, and Canada has been seeking at least 50 per cent in TPP talks. In Atlanta, the Japanese have agreed to raise the floor to 35 per cent from 30 per cent when it comes to what portion of an auto part must be made locally under the TPP in order to avoid duties. The Canadians and Mexicans are seeking a higher threshold for more complex auto parts - as much as five percentage points higher than this floor. The United States and Japan, as the biggest players in the TPP, are anxious to wrap up the overall deal after more than five years of negotiations. In late September, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman even met with Canada's ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, as part of this new push to complete an agreement in Atlanta, according to a U.S. source. A Canadian federal election is less than three weeks away, though, and guidelines released by Ottawa's Privy Council Office in August show it "may be appropriate" for a caretaker government to consult opposition parties, "particularly where a major decision could be controversial or difficult for a new government to reverse." International Trade Minister Ed Fast, in Atlanta for negotiations, said the Conservatives did not intend to consult the NDP or Liberals should a TPP pact be reached. He said Ottawa has already sought input from Canadians. "We have consulted broadly and the opposition parties - they are privy to information that is available to all Canadians." Mr. Fast said he hasn't booked a flight home yet and he's ready to stay as long as necessary to cut a deal. A senior Canadian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he put the chances of an agreement in principle in Atlanta at Sources familiar with the TPP talks say Ottawa, in negotiations, has secured the removal of tariffs of as high as 5 per cent that other TPP countries currently apply to Canadian aerospace goods, such as engine aircraft parts shipped to Australia or aircraft seats sold to New Zealand. Canada has also obtained a commitment by other TPP countries to strike tariffs, again of as much as 5 per cent, that are slapped on Canadian manufactured goods such as medical, surgical or laboratory machinery. Canada is at the centre of two major obstacles that have prevented a TPP deal so far, including dairy and, most important, autos. An agreement will almost certainly expose the Canadian auto-parts sector, which employs 80,000 people, to far more foreign competition and erode the preferential position the industry enjoys under NAFTA. It will also open up Canada's dairy industry, protected by high tariffs, to significantly more foreign imports. The Canadians were criticized in Maui for holding up a deal by not giving enough on dairy. Australian farmers, however, on Wednesday were blaming the United States for holding up a deal, saying the Americans are offering Canberra far too little dairy access. Canadian dairy farmers, who have sent a contingent to Atlanta to defend their sector, say they don't want more foreign milk producers given access to their market, especially after a CanadaEuropean Union deal in 2014 gave Europeans quotafree import rights for an amount of cheese equivalent to more than 1.5 per cent of Canada's domestic dairy consumption. Wally Smith, president of the Canadian Dairy Farmers, said Canada is far more generous than many of its peers, including

11 8 the United States, when the level of foreign dairy imports already allowed into this country are measured against total domestic consumption. Published Publié : Canadian Press Newswire TPP 'We believe we are on track' toward a trade deal, Canada's envoy says ATLANTA _ The Canadian government is eager enough to complete a historic trade agreement this week that the country's lead minister has no idea when he'll be back home campaigning in the federal election. In his first full day at the meetings that could ultimately clinch the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, Ed Fast said he's willing to stay as long as it takes. He said he doesn't yet have a return plane ticket to British Columbia where he's in a re-election fight because, he says, completing the deal is critical to Canada's economy. ``What I can say is that Canada is prepared to negotiate, to stay here until we have a deal,'' the international trade minister said Wednesday. ``We believe we are on track to do so.'' He insisted that he's also willing to walk away if necessary: ``I can't prejudge whether there will be a deal this weekend... We are only going to sign a deal that is in our national interest.'' Some countries are expressing a sense of urgency that a deal be completed now before several governments involved in the talks face uncertain re-election campaigns, starting with Canada's. But the biggest impending concern for TPP proponents is the fast-approaching U.S. presidential primaries, which could play havoc with attempts to get the agreement ratified in Congress. The Canadian government faces the dual pressure of having to run a campaign at the same time. While Fast chats about dairy and auto quotas in Atlanta, his colleagues back home are weighing the potential impact in dozens of ridings that could hold the key to Conservative re-election chances. The government left the last talks dismayed by a surprise Japan-U.S. agreement that would have upended autoproduction, with tariffs eliminated on cars that primarily use cheaper parts from non-tpp countries like China. Fast called the last proposal unacceptable. He added Wednesday that there has been movement since the failed round in July: ``We have continued to make progress,'' he said. But the Canadian government also desperately wants to change the conversation. It's attempting to steer attention toward companies and industries enthused by the TPP. It hopes those voices drown out some of the skeptics: the auto-workers union warning of lost middle-class jobs, and the dairy farmers urging against even a one-per-cent increase in foreign cheese imports. The government has been circulating quotes from supportive stakeholders in multiple industries: mining, seafood, pork, cattle, and even from the bigger auto-parts companies with foreign plants. One enthusiastic stakeholder is the Canadian beef industry. It predicts exports to Japan could potentially triple if tariffs fall as low as reported in Japanese media. John Masswohl said the industry shipped $100 million to Japan last year _ and lost almost 40 per cent in duties. But that's not the biggest issue: It's that Australia is gnawing away at everyone else's market share, he said, because it already has a tariff-reduction deal with Japan. ``It's a bad scenario for us if there is no TPP because Australia's rate continues to get lower and lower,'' said Masswohl, director of government relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. In Quebec and Ontario, the concerns of dairy farmers have received widespread media coverage. Those two provinces also happen to produce more than half of Canada's hogs. And the pork producers are delighted. Martin Rice of the Canadian Pork Council predicted that joining the TPP would increase the $1 billion in pork exports to Japan by more than 30 per cent within four years. He warned that the exact opposite would happen if the TPP happens without Canada. ``Our processors just wouldn't be able to compete anymore,'' he said. Expect to hear arguments like those from the Conservative party repeatedly in the last weeks of the federal election, should an agreement come together in Atlanta. Another emerging debate has to do with transparency. The deal is being negotiated in secret; the final text might not even be made public before Canadians vote; and the government hasn't involved opposition parties despite the fact that one of them might actually have to implement the deal if they win Oct. 19. Fast said Canada would push for the full text to be released instantly. He offered no guarantee when asked about consulting his election opponents. LA PRESSE LA PRESSE AFFAIRES Page: LA PRESSE AFFAIRES2 / BREAK De bonnes nouvelles pour l'industrie aéronautique montréalaise Joël-Denis Bellavance

12 9 L'industrie aéronautique de la grande région de Montréal pourrait devenir plus concurrentielle sur le marché asiatique avec l'abolition des tarifs de 5% imposés par certains pays sur ses produits si les négociations visant à conclure le Partenariat transpacifique débouchent sur une entente formelle au cours des prochains jours. Selon des informations obtenues par La Presse Affaires, les équipes de négociation des 12 pays qui sont réunies à Atlanta cette semaine planchent sur un vaste accord qui viserait l'abolition des tarifs dans divers secteurs, dont celui de l'aérospatiale. Au cours de la période , les exportations canadiennes du domaine de l'aérospatiale vers les marchés du Partenariat transpacifique valaient en moyenne 10,2 milliards de dollars par année. Les entreprises qui fabriquent des pièces de moteurs d'avion ou de sièges d'aéronefs, par exemple, pourraient améliorer leurs chances d'augmenter leur part de marché dans cette importante région du globe grâce à la disparition des tarifs que plusieurs pays imposent sur leurs produits, selon une source gouvernementale. Les fabricants d'équipements médicaux obtiendraient le même avantage, puisqu'ils doivent aussi composer avec des tarifs d'environ 5% sur leurs produits. Dans le cadre de ces négociations entre le Canada et 11 autres pays (les États-Unis, le Japon, l'australie, Brunei, le Chili, la Malaisie, le Mexique, la Nouvelle-Zélande, le Pérou, Singapour et le Viêtnam), le gouvernement canadien s'est formellement engagé à protéger le système de gestion de l'offre qui assure une certaine protection aux producteurs agricoles (produits laitiers, oeufs et volaille). Des pays comme le Japon tiennent aussi à protéger cette industrie sur leur territoire. «En concluant un accord sur un Partenariat transpacifique, on protégerait et on créerait des emplois canadiens, on ferait croître notre économie en ouvrant aux entreprises canadiennes certains des marchés les plus dynamiques du monde», a soutenu hier le président du Conseil du Trésor, le ministre Tony Clement. Selon divers observateurs, le Canada ne peut se permettre d'être écarté du Partenariat transpacifique, qui représente un marché de près de 800 millions de consommateurs ainsi qu'un produit intérieur brut (PIB) de 28,5 billions de dollars, soit l'équivalent de 40% de l'économie mondiale. Selon nos informations, les conservateurs croisent les doigts pour que les négociations débouchent sur une entente formelle d'ici 48 heures. «Les ministres impliqués dans le dossier ont été informés de se préparer à une annonce imminente», a-t-on indiqué. Si tel est le cas, cela pourrait permettre au chef conservateur Stephen Harper de présenter cette nouvelle entente de libre-échange, la plus importante dont le Canada ferait partie, à Montréal avant le cinquième et dernier débat des chefs de la campagne électorale. Journal de Québec Actualités Page: 30 Stephen Harper gonflé à bloc devant ses militants à Québec Le Journal de Québec Plus convaincu que jamais d'être sur le point de «renvoyer les cônes orange dans leur garage», c'est un stephen harper gonflé à bloc qui s'est présenté devant ses militants réunis à Québec, avec une cinquantaine de candidats conservateurs. Visiblement encouragés par leur remontée dans les intentions de vote à l'échelle nationale, les conservateurs ont cru que le moment était bien choisi pour fouetter leurs troupes avec la visite de leur chef, la quatrième à Québec depuis le début de cette longue campagne électorale. Dans la Belle Province, le PCC se classe toujours troisième dans les sondages, derrière le PLC et le NPD, qui domine toujours malgré l'impact du débat sur le niqab. Dans la Vieille Capitale, tous les députés sortants sont néo-démocrates. Qu'à cela ne tienne, «plus que jamais, on sent le vent de la victoire à Québec et au Québec», a lancé la vedette conservatrice dans Louis-Saint-Laurent, Gérard Deltell, pour réchauffer ses partisans avant d'accueillir leur chef de façon triomphante. «RETOURNER LES CÔNES ORANGE» «Ensemble mes amis, nous allons retourner les cônes orange dans leur garage et remettre Québec à la place qu'elle mérite: cette place historique au centre de la Fédération canadienne, dans toute sa force et toute sa fierté», a déclaré Stephen Harper, sous un tonnerre d'applaudissements. Désormais, plus nécessaire de parler de ce que ce «gouvernement a fait pour votre ville et votre région», a dit le premier ministre, qui souhaite envoyer à Ottawa «toute une nouvelle génération de députés conservateurs du Québec». M. Harper s'est réjoui de pouvoir compter sur «la meilleure équipe de candidats et candidates qu'on a vue au Québec [...] depuis très très longtemps». UN VOTE SUR L'AVENIR Le 19 octobre prochain, a exposé M. Harper, les Québécois voteront sur leur avenir, a-t-il prévenu. Celui de l'économie du Canada, «le meilleur pays du monde», a claironné le chef conservateur, flanqué d'une pancarte ayant pour thème «protéger notre économie». Sous son gouvernement, a-t-il fait valoir, le Canada a su demeurer «un havre de stabilité», et ce malgré la situation économique mondiale difficile. Affirmant que le fardeau fiscal des Canadiens est maintenant à son niveau le plus bas depuis plus de cinquante ans, M. Harper

13 10 a souligné que son parti est le seul à s'engager à continuer à baisser les impôts et les taxes. «GROS BON SENS» «Je sais que la tentation du changement peut être forte», a-t-il reconnu, mais un vote pour les libéraux ou le NPD serait un choix risqué, pour le risque, l'inconnu et l'incertitude économique, a répété le chef conservateur, sans ne jamais s'attarder au Bloc québécois. Rappelant les positions de son parti sur le niqab et l'accueil des immigrants, notamment, Stephen Harper a indiqué que le parti conservateur est le choix du «gros bon sens», celui qui protégera les citoyens «des terroristes violents et des criminels fanatiques». Globe and Mail News Page: A7 Saudi deal puts Mulcair in tricky spot Conservative-made pact to supply country with arms tests NDP Leader's commitment to human rights, loyalty to unions GLORIA GALLOWAY - OTTAWA Thomas Mulcair and his New Democrats are walking a delicate line between job preservation in the rust belt of Southwestern Ontario and taking a strong stand against arms sales to a country with a deplorable record on human rights. Mr. Mulcair has qualms with a deal, brokered in secret by Ottawa, to supply Saudi Arabia with $15-billion worth of light armoured vehicles produced by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada. But Unifor, Canada's largest private-sector union, which represents employees at the General Dynamics plant in London, Ont., has warned the NDP Leader against publicly criticizing the contract because its cancellation could throw thousands of people - and hundreds of its members - out of work. The NDP prides itself as being a staunch defender of human rights. It is also a party that was founded by the labour movement. Fighting for workers' jobs and rights remains a top New Democratic priority. And that may be especially true in the region of the country stretching between Toronto and Windsor, Ont., which has been hard-hit by plant closings and where the NDP has designs on Conservative seats. After The London Free Press newspaper quoted a Unifor official on Wednesday as saying the union had contacted Mr. Mulcair to warn him against making the arms contract an issue in the current election campaign, Unifor issued a statement deflecting heat from the NDP and blaming the Conservative government for secrecy surrounding the deal. "The bottom line is that the contract has been signed," said the union. "The NDP have indicated that they will respect the contract. No one is losing any jobs. What we will gain with a change in government is the transparency Canadians deserve." Unifor has not endorsed any party in this election. Its bosses are instead urging members to vote for any candidate that has a legitimate shot at defeating a Conservative. The NDP does have endorsements from other unions, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers union. But New Democratic officials say the support of big labour has been less critical to the party since election laws were changed to forbid unions from making political donations. And, they point out, no union can deliver the votes of its members. Still, it would be more than awkward for the NDP Leader to find himself in a public fight with one of Canada's predominant unions at any time - let alone 21/2 weeks before the country goes to the polls. The exchange between Unifor and Mr. Mulcair took place after the issue was raised during the French-language leadership debate last Thursday night. On Friday of last week, the NDP Leader suggested that the contract should not have been signed in the first place because federal rules oblige the Department of Foreign Affairs to examine whether arms shipments to countries with poor humanrights records would further endanger civilians there. "I think Mr. Harper is in fact breaking the rules that we set up here in Canada a long time ago. Look, you have to look at the record of human rights of people before giving a contract," Mr. Mulcair told reporters in French. "The real issue here is why weren't these questions asked on the human-rights record of Saudi Arabia beforehand." Irene Mathyssen, the New Democratic candidate running for reelection in the riding of LondonFanshawe, says that, despite her leader's concerns about how the contract came to be, it would not be scrapped after the election of an NDP government. Ms. Mathyssen said she has had many conversations with the management at General Dynamics and Unifor since she was first elected in 2006, and she has also had discussions with Mr. Mulcair about the importance of the company to her community. "So yes, he is very aware," Ms. Mathyssen said Wednesday in a telephone interview, "and that's why he was very clear in the debate that we would honour the contract, we don't renege on contracts. It's a signed contract and we will honour that contract."

14 11 NATIONAL POST (ALL_BUT_TORONTO) CANADA Page: A1 / FRONT Stuck in the mushy middle Positioning Mulcair as the gentle centrist may be backfiring for the New Democrats Richard Warnica, National Post At the beginning of the Munk debate on foreign policy Monday, moderator Rudyard Griffiths welcomed the participants, then leaped in with one of the great moral questions of our age. "Right now, the world is witnessing the largest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War," he said, speaking to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. If the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant doesn't justify a military response, he continued, what exactly would? What Mulcair said in response - he slipped around the question, basically, before returning to it later - was perhaps less interesting than how he said it. Faced with a moral dilemma that has vexed and divided generations of human rights activists, he turned to the camera. He smiled. He spoke in warm tones. He gave the impression, in other words, of a man determined to appear even-keeled, no matter what the topic. That moment represented nothing new. Long before this campaign, the New Democratic Party began positioning Mulcair as the calm, responsible, even moderate, option for change. By doing so, it hoped to counter the image of a hotheaded Mulcair ("Angry Tom") while presenting a more mature alternative to the younger, notionally flighty Justin Trudeau. But with less than three weeks to go until Election Day and with the party's lead in the national polls - the public ones at least - definitively gone, some are wondering if that strategy has backfired. By running a cautious, front-runner campaign, the NDP has not only failed to find new converts, it may now be at risk of losing its base, too. Nothing is over yet, of course. Nineteen days can be a lifetime in politics and, in the words of Ian Capstick, a former NDP strategist, "You'd have to be incredibly stupid to attempt to predict the election" right now. "At this point in the last campaign, people had all but written Jack Layton off." Nonetheless, there are serious signs the New Democrats are in trouble, and the gentle, centrist Tom strategy may be partially to blame. New polling numbers released by Abacus Data Tuesday suggest the Liberals are winning the battle for the "change" voter. Among those who told the company they want "ambitious change," 44 per cent said they preferred Justin Trudeau, compared to 36 per cent for Mulcair. Mario Canseco, vicepresident of Insights West, a Vancouverbased polling firm, says voters in British Columbia fell in love with the Mulcair who aggressively held Prime Minister Stephen Harper to account in the House of Commons. "The campaign has been a little bit more different," he said. "He's been smiling a bit more. He's been a little bit more subdued." By pushing for the centre - with a focus on balanced budgets and a drama-free leader - the New Democrats have failed to secure their B.C. base, Canseco believes. The Conservatives, on the other hand, have relentlessly focused on theirs. Now, even undecided voters in the province, who often see-saw between the NDP and the Conservatives, are beginning to slide Harper's way, Canseco said. Bill Tieleman, a former NDP strategist in B.C., also thinks the federal party should have done more to secure its core voters. "The NDP campaign, if anything, I would fault for playing it too safe," he said. "I don't know that they've been terribly aggressive to date." There are obviously other factors at play. The Liberal Party made an aggressive bid for the progressive vote by vowing to run deficits for several years if elected. In Quebec, the niqab issue and a rejuvenated Bloc Québécois have been eating into the NDP's most important base of support, hurting its standing in national polls. But this is not the first time an NDP campaign has been accused of losing voters by wandering to the middle. That was the fate of the Ontario NDP in the 2014 provincial election, which saw its support in Toronto collapse after it appeared to run away from its own base and toward the middle. "When the NDP pushes too far to the centre, they seem to lose some of their momentum in the process," Kelcey said. "Objectively, if they want to regain that momentum, they need to get back to speaking about how they're different." For his part, Capstick doesn't think it's worth reading too much into publicly released national polls. The NDP campaign, he believes, is going just fine. Still, he expects the central campaign to recalibrate somewhat in the next several weeks. The party has already stepped up its anti-liberal ad war, targeting Trudeau in new radio spots and handing out anti-liberal flyers in key Toronto battlegrounds. Capstick thinks voters can also expect to see more highprofile faces at major NDP events soon. "You may see more of Tom Mulcair's team show up," he said. "There's some really impressive candidates out there." National Post rwarnica@nationalpost.com twitter.com/richardwarnica 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.

15 12 LE DEVOIR ACTUALITÉS Page: A4 Mulcair veut un gardien de la science Le NPD créerait un directeur parlementaire des sciences pour protéger l'expertise gouvernementale Colin Perkel En visite au Nunavut, mercredi, le chef du Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD) a promis de créer un bureau de directeur parlementaire des sciences qui informerait directement les élus des travaux scientifiques et leur donnerait un accès à des analyses factuelles. Thomas Mulcair a également réitéré son engagement de mettre fin au musellement des scientifiques du gouvernement fédéral. De passage à Iqaluit, ville qu'il a qualifiée " d'épicentre " des changements climatiques, M. Mulcair a vilipendé le chef conservateur, Stephen Harper, qui aurait censuré les scientifiques du gouvernement. " Alors que le premier ministre aurait dû s'attaquer aux changements climatiques, Stephen Harper a créé un climat de peur dans notre communauté scientifique ", a tonné le chef néodémocrate. M. Mulcair a reproché au gouvernement conservateur d'avoir congédié plus de 4000 chercheurs ces quatre dernières années, et d'avoir interdit aux autres de partager leurs travaux. Le bureau de directeur parlementaire des sciences aiderait à rétablir le respect envers les scientifiques du gouvernement fédéral et à renforcer les données scientifiques dans le cadre de la lutte contre les changements climatiques, selon le NPD. M. Mulcair estime d'ailleurs que le réchauffement de la planète est l'enjeu " décisif " d'une génération, et qu'il est particulièrement important dans le Nord. " Je ne pensais jamais qu'en tant qu'élu, j'aurais à dire un jour que je crois à la science. Mais c'est le point où nous en sommes avec Stephen Harper ", a-t-il pesté, alors qu'il se tenait devant la baie de Frobisher, dans la communauté d'apex. Ce nouveau bureau du Parlement permettrait au gouvernement de prendre des décisions fondées sur des preuves et non de " se baser sur des décisions pour faire des preuves " comme l'a fait M. Harper, a expliqué le chef néodémocrate. Transition énergétique Thomas Mulcair a par ailleurs rappelé que le NPD avait promis 100 millions pour une initiative qui permettrait à 25 communautés nordiques éloignées de réduire leur impact sur les changements climatiques. Ces millions seraient investis dans l'énergie éolienne et d'autres formes d'énergies vertes, diminuant ainsi la dépendance au diesel. Le diesel importé représente la majorité des coûts énergétiques au Nunavut. " C'est un paradoxe, parce que nous sommes dans l'un des endroits les plus vierges de la planète Terre ", a-t-il affirmé. D'après le chef du NPD, cette promesse permettra de faire des économies sur le prix des énergies dans le Nord, améliorera la santé des habitants et réduira leur impact sur les changements climatiques. Le chef néodémocrate avait annoncé dimanche que son gouvernement établirait une Bourse du carbone afin de diminuer considérablement les émissions des gaz à effets de serre à travers le pays. Il permettrait par ailleurs aux provinces de se retirer du programme fédéral si le leur obtient des résultats égaux ou supérieurs en matière de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Le chef néodémocrate a également profité de son séjour à Iqaluit pour faire la promotion de son plan pour aider les communautés nordiques à payer les coûts exorbitants de leurs aliments. Thomas Mulcair passera les prochains jours à Montréal, où il prendra part vendredi au dernier débat des chefs, qui sera présenté en français au réseau TVA. LE DEVOIR ACTUALITÉS Page: A1 A 18 jours du scrutin - Le NPD redirige ses flèches vers Justin Trudeau Hélène Buzzetti; Marie Vastel A 18 jours du scrutin, Thomas Mulcair sent le besoin de hausser le ton contre son rival libéral. Dans une série de publicités lancées cette semaine, le NPD prévient les électeurs qui seraient tentés de donner une chance à Justin Trudeau que celui-ci ne leur offrira pas la voix du changement espérée. Cette salve d'attaques survient au moment où une série de sondages montrent que les néodémocrates perdent de leur élan et que Thomas Mulcair doit à son tour avouer son malaise par rapport au niqab. Les deux dernières semaines ont été difficiles pour le NPD. En tête dans les intentions de vote depuis le début de la campagne électorale il y a deux mois, les néodémocrates sont désormais systématiquement au troisième rang. Les reproches au premier ministre sortant Stephen Harper ne suffisent plus. Le NPD doit maintenant convaincre ses électeurs de ne pas l'abandonner au profit de Justin Trudeau, qui semble s'imposer de plus en plus comme le challenger du chef conservateur aux yeux de l'électorat. Le NPD a donc réajusté le tir, cette semaine, à coups de publicités qui ciblent précisément ceux qui pourraient se mettre à lorgner le Parti libéral. Le message y est le même : Justin Trudeau n'incarne pas " le vrai changement ". Trois nouvelles publicités radio accusent le chef libéral, en anglais, de manquer de jugement. Le NPD lui reproche d'avoir facturé des discours à $ à des commissions scolaires ou

16 13 des oeuvres caritatives, pendant qu'il était député. Et qu'une de ses élues, Chrystia Freeland, a affirmé que les fabricants automobiles auraient dû se sortir du pétrin eux-mêmes, plutôt qu'à coups de milliards en fonds fédéraux. (Mme Freeland parlait en fait du fonds de sauvetage du gouvernement américain.) Le NPD déplore enfin que Justin Trudeau ait appuyé le projet de loi antiterroriste C-51, après s'y être opposé, et ce, simplement pour éviter de payer le prix politique. " Justin Trudeau, il vient de perdre mon vote ", concluent tour à tour ces messages publicitaires. " Cette campagne porte sur le changement, a fait valoir mercredi Thomas Mulcair. Que ce soit en environnement, sur les questions sociales ou l'économie, Stephen Harper et Justin Trudeau sont du même avis. [...] De le rappeler aux Canadiens [...] je crois que c'est tout à fait juste. " Une quatrième publicité, écrite cette fois-ci, prétend que les libéraux couperont 6,5 milliards dans les services publics. " Ce n'est pas un vrai changement ", déplore la carte postale, qui sera distribuée à Ottawa et dans la région de Toronto où le NPD, le Parti libéral et le Parti conservateur se livrent encore une course à trois. Dans les coulisses néodémocrates, on assure qu'il a toujours été prévu d'attaquer les libéraux en fin de campagne, quand les électeurs seraient revenus du chalet. " On frappe quand ça paye. " Et le NPD frappe sur un dossier qu'il juge gagnant. Les électeurs seraient très réceptifs, disent-ils, aux critiques de la position de Justin Trudeau sur C-51. Thomas Mulcair fera en outre une tournée éclair dimanche dans six circonscriptions ontariennes détenues par les conservateurs pour y marteler qu'il y est le mieux placé pour remplacer Stephen Harper. Chez les libéraux, on ne s'inquiète pas de ces attaques néodémocrates. On rappelle que c'est Thomas Mulcair qui avait " promis de faire une campagne positive ". Ce changement de ton ne passera pas auprès des électeurs orange, croit-on. Dans l'ombre du niqab... Si le NPD s'affaire à empêcher l'exode d'électeurs vers les libéraux en Ontario, du côté du Québec il doit en outre encaisser le mécontentement entourant sa position sur le port du niqab. Thomas Mulcair a une fois de plus dû y répondre, alors qu'on apprenait que seules deux femmes ont refusé de se dévoiler pour prêter le serment de citoyenneté depuis Deux femmes, sur les personnes qui ont obtenu la citoyenneté canadienne depuis quatre ans. " Je comprends que c'est très sensible. Et je comprends aussi que ça met les gens mal à l'aise. Et je ne suis pas différent. Je suis comme ces gens-là. Moi aussi ça me met mal à l'aise ", a convenu pour la première fois le chef néodémocrate. Mais il ne changera pas pour autant sa position -- même si une poignée de ses candidats québécois s'en sont distanciés. " Une fois que les tribunaux ont statué, c'est ça ", a-t-il tranché. La Cour d'appel fédérale a statué que le gouvernement n'avait pas le pouvoir d'interdire le port du niqab aux cérémonies de citoyenneté par la simple voie d'une directive ministérielle. Mais le tribunal ne s'est pas prononcé sur la pratique en tant que telle.... et du terrorisme Stephen Harper profite quant à lui d'une remontée dans les sondages, tout comme Gilles Duceppe, les deux chefs s'étant farouchement opposés au port du niqab et n'ayant pas raté une seule occasion de le marteler pour faire perdre des plumes aux néodémocrates ou aux libéraux au Québec. Autre sujet de prédilection de M. Harper : la lutte contre le terrorisme et les terroristes. Le chef conservateur sent visiblement une ouverture chez l'électorat. Après avoir vivement dénoncé au débat des chefs de l'institut Munk lundi le fait que ses rivaux s'opposent à la loi C qui permet de retirer la citoyenneté canadienne aux citoyens reconnus coupables de terrorisme ou de trahison --, Stephen Harper en a remis. " C'est la rectitude politique des élites, gonflée aux stéroïdes ", a scandé M. Harper dans une entrevue réalisée mardi avec le journal Metro. Aux néodémocrates et libéraux qui arguent que sa loi crée deux classes de citoyens -- ceux qui n'ont qu'une nationalité, et ceux qui en ont deux et qui peuvent perdre la canadienne --, M. Harper rétorque qu'" on ne peut pas avoir une classe de personnes qui sont des criminels de guerre et des terroristes condamnés, en opposition à tous les autres ". En soirée, le chef conservateur n'a pas manqué de faire allusion à la controverse autour du port du niqab lors du serment de citoyenneté. " Nous voulons des nouveaux citoyens qui se joignent à notre famille canadienne à visage découvert ", a-t-il déclaré, s'attirant des applaudissements nourris et des cris enthousiastes des quelques centaines de personnes réunies dans un hôtel du centre-ville de Québec. " C'est juste le gros bon sens ", a-t-il ajouté. M. Harper a insisté sur la nécessité de réélire un gouvernement conservateur afin de revoir la législation en cette matière afin qu'elle reflète davantage " les valeurs québécoises, les valeurs canadiennes, les valeurs conservatrices ". Avec Marco Bélair-Cirino THE LONDON FREE PRESS (FINAL) NEWS Page: B4 Grits vow $3B for home care FEDERAL ELECTION 2015 STEVE LAMBERT, THE CANADIAN PRESS SURREY, B.C. -- Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is promising to pump $3 billion over the next four years into improved home care and an unspecified additional amount to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and expand mental health services.

17 14 Trudeau's promises are contingent on negotiating a new, longterm health funding accord with the provinces, which have exclusive jurisdiction over health care and may have different ideas about how best to spend federal transfer payments. He indicated he won't impose his agenda on the provinces, but professed confidence his priorities are shared by premiers. "Every single province is challenged with an aging population and a need for better home care," Trudeau said. "We are committed to renegotiating, to re-engaging on the health care accords, on the Canada health transfer, with the provinces... and we are bringing to the table $3 billion for something that has been a priority for provinces and for Canadians, which is greater investments in home care." Trudeau did not commit to increasing health transfers by six per cent a year, the so-called escalator built into the 2004 federal-provincial health accord that expired last year. Stephen Harper's Conservative government did not attempt to negotiate a renewed accord; instead it unilaterally informed provinces it would scale back the growth of health transfers. Starting in 2017, increases in health transfers are to be tied to nominal economic growth but guaranteed to be at least three per cent. That change could mean as much as $36 billion less for the provinces over 10 years. "We need a federal government that is willing to sit down and work with the provinces, not dictate at the provinces, but set clear targets and expectations," Trudeau said. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has committed to reinstating the six per cent escalator, but that will include some of the $5.4 billion worth of promises he's made to improve health and seniors' care, such as working with the provinces to develop a universal prescription drug plan, hire more doctors and nurses, build more clinics and expand home care. Mulcair has faced questions about whether he'd make his promised funding conditional on the provinces accepting his priorities for spending it. He's been clear at least with respect to Quebec, which has always jealously guarded its jurisdictions from federal intrusions, that the province will be able to take the money with no strings attached. "When it comes to Quebec: a right to opt out; full compensation; no conditions," Mulcair said during last week's French-language debate. While Mulcair's top priority is a universal drug plan, Trudeau's is home care. More than two million Canadians receive care at home, and Trudeau said that number is increasing rapidly as the population ages. On prescription drugs, Trudeau said a Liberal government would join the provinces in bulk-buying drugs to reduce costs, and would support research to reduce unnecessary overprescribing of medications. As part of his promise to almost double federal investment in infrastructure, Trudeau has promised to spend almost $20 billion over 10 years on "social infrastructure," including affordable seniors' housing and long-term-care facilities. The Canadian Medical Association, which has been calling for a national seniors' strategy, said Trudeau's focus on investing in home care and long-term care is "very welcome." The CMA has also welcomed Mulcair's plan. Rona Ambrose, the Conservative health minister who is seeking re-election, defended her government's record, saying it has "significantly increased" annual health transfers to $34 billion from $20 billion and will continue to increase them to $40 billion by the end of the decade. "While health care transfers to the provinces are now at record levels under our leadership. On their watch (in the 1990s), the Liberals cut health care by 30 per cent to balance their budget on the backs of the provinces," she said in a written statement. Published Publié : ipolitics Trudeau: Pot tax revenue not in the Liberal fiscal plan - yet BJ Siekierski - Ontario The Liberals didn't include revenue they'll generate from legalizing and taxing marijuana sales in their fiscal plan because they haven't decided exactly how and when they'll go about it, Justin Trudeau said Wednesday. At a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C., where drug-related gang violence has made headlines this year, Trudeau acknowledged the legalization plan still needs to be fleshed out. But a Liberal government would move quickly, he said. "We are going to get working on it right away. The fact of the matter is, we didn't book for tax revenues from marijuana, because we don't yet know exactly (at) what rate we're going to be taxing it, how we're going to control it, or whether it'll happen in the first months, within the first year, or whether it's going to take a year or two to kick in," he said. "We know there will be revenues from it, but we can't make any predictions at this point in terms of the levels of those revenues. And the same applies to how much we will be spending on this. We see this as a responsible approach. Yes, we will legalize marijuana, and we will start right away by speaking to experts here in Canada and conferring with people around the world. But we will do this responsibly," he added in French. In April, the City of Surrey held a community meeting attended by 700 people to discuss a turf war between Somali and South Asian gangs that had led to over 20 shootings and homicides in just six weeks. The Conservatives responded by adding RCMP officers in Surrey.

18 15 "Our government is taking action to support the fight against gang-related violence," Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said in July. "Earlier this year, the Harper government committed to providing 100 additional RCMP members to the City of Surrey to help fight against gang-related violence. The deployment of officers has already begun and will continue until Surrey receives the full 100 officers requested." On Wednesday, Trudeau reiterated his criticism of the Conservatives' commitment to the war-on-drugs approach. "Mr. Harper continues to defend a system that endangers our children by giving them easier access to marijuana than to beer or cigarettes. And at the same time, he is financing street gangs, organized crime and gun-runners," he said. Online: Copyright 2013 ipolitics LE DROIT ACTUALITÉS Page: 14 Les autres partis en rupture avec les citoyens Pierre Saint-Arnaud, La Presse Canadienne Gilles Duceppe estime que la question du niqab en est une de principe fondamentale, même si Immigration et Citoyenneté Canada ne rapporte que deux cas de femmes ayant refusé de se dévoiler pour prêter serment depuis 2011, selon des informations obtenues par Radio-Canada. Plus encore, le chef bloquiste estime que tous ceux qui voudraient prétendre qu'il s'agit d'une question périphérique ont perdu contact avec la réalité des citoyens, dont l'opposition au niqab est bien documentée dans les sondages. «Ceux qui invoquent le fait que ce serait marginal, pas important, sont également en rupture avec la réalité québécoise et même canadienne», a-t-il déclaré alors qu'il faisait campagne à Montréal, hier. Gilles Duceppe en a profité pour placer les conservateurs sur le même pied que les néo-démocrates et les libéraux sur cette question, puisque leur opposition au niqab se limite à la prestation de serment aux cérémonies de citoyenneté. «Je regarde les trois partis fédéralistes, parce que les conservateurs sont d'accord pour le vote à visage couvert et les services rendus à visage couvert», a-t-il dit. «C'est plutôt aberrant que quelqu'un se rende pour un passeport, doive se découvrir, enlever tout ce qui pourrait être sur sa figure et se faire servir par quelqu'un qui aurait le visage couvert. C'est caricatural. Ça n'a pas de sens», a dit le chef bloquiste. M. Duceppe a invoqué l'unanimité de l'assemblée nationale sur la question de la prestation de service à visage découvert pour se dire en parfait accord avec la position et l'opinion des Québécois, au contraire de ses adversaires. «Un gouvernement qui est en rupture et un parti qui est en rupture avec l'opinion publique sur des questions d'égalité fondamentale entre les hommes et les femmes ne mérite pas la confiance des Québécois», a-t-il tranché. Prix des médicaments M. Duceppe ne rencontrait toutefois pas les journalistes pour parler du niqab, mais bien du prix des médicaments d'origine, qui sont plus chers au Canada que presque partout ailleurs dans le monde. Le chef bloquiste a proposé de faire passer de sept à 13 le nombre de pays de référence qui servent à établir les prix des médicaments d'origine au Canada, une démarche qui pourrait générer des économies annuelles de 800 millions $ au Québec et de 1,3 milliard $ à l'échelle canadienne. C'est le Conseil d'examen des prix des médicaments brevetés qui est responsable d'établir les prix des médicaments d'origine, ce qu'il fait en se basant sur les prix dans sept pays de référence (France, Allemagne, Italie, Suède, Suisse, Royaume-Uni et États-Unis). Or, il s'agit des pays où les médicaments se vendent le plus cher. Une étude du Conseil a déjà permis d'établir que d'étendre le panier de référence à six autres pays développés (Finlande, Australie, Nouvelle-Zélande, Autriche, Pays-Bas et Espagne) permettrait une diminution d'environ 11% du prix des médicaments d'origine. «Ce sont des pays tout à fait comparables au Québec ou au Canada en la matière, mais où les prix sont moins élevés», a-til fait valoir. Gilles Duceppe se dit confiant de pouvoir convaincre tous les partis d'adhérer à sa proposition, mais avoue ne pas savoir pourquoi les gouvernements précédents n'ont jamais agi sur cette question. «J'aimerais entendre M. Harper nous expliquer pourquoi, également les libéraux, qui étaient au pouvoir avant», s'est-il borné à dire. Bien qu'il se soit gardé de condamner le lobby de l'industrie pharmaceutique, le chef bloquiste estime qu'il faudra l'avoir à l'oeil advenant une proposition concrète de changement. «S'il y a protestation des compagnies pharmaceutiques, on pourra en conclure qu'il y a un problème. Mais on devrait agir en fonction des intérêts de la population et de l'économie du pays. Si des compagnies s'y opposent, elles devront s'expliquer», a-t-il dit.

19 16 OTTAWA CITIZEN (EARLY) NEWS Page: A1 / FRONT Ahmed challenges revocation decision Glen Mcgregor, Ottawa Citizen An Ottawa man convicted of terrorism offences has launched a constitutional challenge of the government's decision to strip him of his Canadian citizenship, as party leaders on the campaign trail continue to debate the law that allows revocation of the citizenship of dual nationals found to have committed serious crimes. Misbahuddin Ahmed, convicted last year of two offences stemming from the Project Samossa terrorism probe, filed documents in Federal Court Tuesday, asking that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's decision to strip him of his status as a Canadian be quashed. Ahmed, 31, argues that revocation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore prohibited under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is "wholly disproportionate to any legitimate government objective," he argues. It also violates protection of the security of the person, because it risks exposing the subject to the risk of mistreatment if deported to another country, he argues. "Labels placed on the individual through the revocation process, such as 'terrorist' or 'traitor,' may enhance the risk of mistreatment or persecution." Because determination of citizenship is left to the minister, the application argues, it risks the possibility that revocation of Canadian citizenship could make someone stateless if the other country does not agree. Ahmed's application raises the question of whether he holds Pakistani citizenship, noting that Pakistan does not observe dual citizenship except in cases where there is an agreement with another country. The minister only "alleges" that Canada has such an agreement and that Ahmed holds Pakistani citizenship, the application says. Ahmed alleges that the law on revocation, passed last year by the Conservative government in Bill C-24, also offends the fundamental principles of justice by imposing punishment on convicts retroactively. That is, the punishment came into effect after Ahmed's crimes were committed. Ahmed is currently serving a 12-year sentence at Warkworth Institution, a medium-security prison in Ontario. Ahmed was born in Pakistan and became a Canadian citizen in 2004, after living here for six years as a permanent resident. The father of three was working as a radiology technician at the Ottawa Hospital before his 2010 arrest. Police claimed that Ahmed was among a group of conspirators who had planned to build improvised bombs, though it was uncertain how they planned to use them. Handing down the sentence in 2014, Judge Colin McKinnon said Ahmed had renounced his terrorist tendencies and would have been a good candidate for a non-custodial sentence had the offences not been terrorism-related and carried "an utterly deplorable stigma." Ahmed received notice in July that the government intended to revoke his citizenship, which would cause him to be deported to Pakistan after his release from prison. But because the law does not allow for proper judicial review, he argues, there are no fair avenues to challenge the decision. He is represented by Lorne Waldman, a well-known Toronto immigration lawyer. The law allowing revocation of terrorists' citizenship has become a charged issue on the campaign trail, with both the New Democrats and Liberals saying they would rescind the provision if they formed government. The government's decision to rescind the citizenship of a man convicted in the Toronto 18 terror case last month led to a heated exchange between Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at a debate on foreign policy Monday. "A citizen is a citizen is a citizen," Trudeau argued, accusing Harper of trying to stoke fear of terrorism to win votes. Harper said Trudeau was defending people who wanted to stage a potentially devastating 9/11-style attack on Toronto. The government has yet to file a response to Ahmed's application. Previous to C-24 becoming law in June, Canadian citizenship could be revoked only in cases of citizenship fraud, a provision used to deport accused war criminals who came to Canada. The bill expanded the provision to include treason or high treason, espionage, terrorism offences and fighting with the enemy against Canada. gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com Twitter.com/glen_mcgregor 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. NATIONAL POST (ALL_BUT_TORONTO) CANADA Page: A5 Nine more set to be stripped of citizenship Terror Offences Stewart Bell, National Post The government is in the process of revoking the citizenship of nine more Canadians convicted of terrorist offences, including

20 17 one serving a prison sentence in the United States, according to various sources. The nine are in addition to Zakaria Amara, leader of the Toronto 18 bombing plot, whose citizenship was revoked last Friday. All 10 have been targeted by new citizenship legislation that has suddenly become an election issue. The law, which came into force in May, allows Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to strip convicted terrorists of their Canadian citizenship, provided they are also citizens of a second country. The National Post revealed Saturday Amara had become the first to lose his citizenship. The list, compiled from several sources, is dominated by Pakistani-Canadians but others are from Jordan, Egypt and Iran. Most belonged to the Toronto 18 group of al-qaida inspired extremists who plotted to attack Parliament and detonate truck bombs in Canada's largest city in Two others were convicted as a result of the RCMP's 2010 Project Samosa probe into a plot to conduct bomb attacks in Canada. The ringleader, Hiva Alizadeh, trained in Afghanistan before returning to Ottawa to build a terror group. One is a Canadian imprisoned in the U.S., making him the first to be at risk of losing his citizenship for a terrorism conviction handed down by a foreign court. The law applies to terrorists convicted abroad only if the evidence would have also resulted in a conviction in Canada. The relatively few terrorist convicts being targeted for revocation appears to support arguments that it is only being used against the worst cases. Defence Minister Jason Kenney said on the weekend the government had determined it was "only applicable to fewer than 30 people in the last decade." Craig Forcese, an associate law professor at the University of Ottawa, said he had "very serious" doubts about whether the citizenship legislation was constitutional and questioned its value, calling it "symbolic anti-terrorism." "I worry to the extent that we seem to be relying on measures that to some large extent run the risk of endless legal battles," said Forcese, co-author of False Security: The Radicalization of Canadian Anti-Terrorism, a critique of the government's national security policies. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and former Toronto 18 member Asad Ansari are already challenging the law in Federal Court, arguing it creates "two-tiered" citizenship by treating dual nationals differently. Forcese said if federal authorities believe convicted terrorists would be deported after serving their sentences, they would not appreciate the need for terrorism disengagement programs, which do not exist in the prison system. "That's the risk. They've been inert on this. Do they think they're going to be able to prosecute and deport their way out of this problem? And the reality, of course, is that they won't because even if they succeed in revoking citizenship, they're going to have endless battles, at least with some of these guys." The revocation process began in June, before the federal election was called. Those identified as potential candidates are notified by letter and have 60 days to respond. Their submissions are taken into account by the CIC decisionmaker. On losing their citizenship, they may be deported. In addition to terrorists, the law applies to dual nationals convicted of treason and spying for foreign governments, and members of armed groups at war against Canada, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "This is about respecting the value of Canadian citizenship," Kenney said in an interview on the weekend. "If someone hates Canada so much that they're prepared to demonstrated violent disloyalty to the country, they forfeit their citizenship. It's a simple principle." He cited the case of former Montreal resident Sami Elabi, who posted a video online from Syria, where he was allegedly fighting for al-qaida. It showed him burning his Canadian passport and then propping it against a wall and shooting it with an assault rifle. "I think it's bizarre in the extreme that he should be able to show up at a Canadian embassy... and that we should then be obliged to issue him a new passport and welcome him back to Canada," Kenney said. sbell@nationalpost.com Twitter.com/StewartBellNP 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. OTTAWA CITIZEN (EARLY) NEWS Page: A4 MPs to repay claims for events after writ drop Glen McGregor, Ottawa Citizen Six incumbent MPs who charged hospitality expenses to their House of Commons office budgets for events held after the election campaign kicked offare pledging to repay the money. Three New Democrats and three Conservatives all claimed expenses, mostly small, for various events in or near their ridings that were billed as meetings with constituents after the Aug. 2 writ drop. Contacted by the Citizen, all of the MPs said they were planning to reimburse the House or already had done so. The NDP's Jean Rousseau, running for re-election in the Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead, filed a claim for $400 to attend Festival des traditions du monde, in Sherbrooke, on Aug. 11. He reported meeting with three constituents on the trip. "First we were told by the HoC (House of Commons) that they would pay for that expense because the incumbent MP was asked to go but then they released a memo saying no to any expenses claim after the election was called would not be

21 18 fulfilled, so I paid with my own money," Rousseau said in . His caucus colleague, Pierre-Luc Dusseault, attended the same event on the same day and met with one constituent, charging his House of Commons office budget $200. Dusseault charged $4,519 in hospitality expenses between April 1 and June 30, more than any other MP save for one, according to quarterly financial statements released Tuesday. Montreal-area NDP candidate charged $125 to attend a police association event in August, the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Longueuil. All three New Democrat MPs will repay the House of Commons for their expenses, the party said. "They basically have the same story," said spokesperson Valerie Dufour in an . "They didn't know the election was going to be called early. They (all) intend to reimburse the HoC." Peter Braid, running again for the Conservatives in Waterloo, charged his budget for a $237 payment to the City of Waterloo for a park rental for his annual barbecue. "When the writ was dropped early, all expenses relating to the barbecue were transferred to the campaign," said Braid campaign spokesperson Liz Seymour. "As this particular expense had already been paid, the campaign will be reimbursing the HoC for the full amount." The use of parliamentary resources is sensitive for the NDP, which is currently in Federal Court fighting a $2.7-million claim the Commons' Board of Internal Economy says 68 NDP MPs collectively owe for the costs of staffing so-called satellite offices in Quebec with House of Commons employees. The Board also required the party to repay more than $1 million in House of Commons mail-outs that the board said were partisan in nature. The NDP disputes both findings and has denounced the board as a "kangaroo court." Two other Conservatives expensed small amounts for events during the campaign. Conservative Maxime Bernier, seeking reelection in the riding of Beauce, said he had already sent a reimbursement cheque for $55 for a ticket to a chamber of commerce event in Saint-Georges that he said he had bought before the writ drop. Bernier ed a copy of the cheque he sent to the Receiver-General. Incumbent Conservative candidate Lois Brown submitted two expense claims of $25 each for what appears to be a chamber of commerce event in her Newmarket, Ont., riding on Aug. 8. Brown's campaign said she has also repaid the amount. gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/glen_mcgregor 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. LE DEVOIR ACTUALITÉS Page: A5 Légaliser un faux pas par une loi rétroactive Des dizaines d'universitaires accusent les conservateurs de violer des règles de droit Marco Fortier Le gouvernement Harper a violé des règles de droit fondamentales avec des amendements rétroactifs à la Loi sur l'abolition du registre des armes d'épaule (LARAE), selon 82 universitaires canadiens et québécois. Dans le projet de loi " mammouth " C-59, les conservateurs ont soustrait le registre des armes d'épaule à la Loi sur l'accès à l'information et à la Loi sur la protection de la vie privée, de façon rétroactive. Ces amendements sont entrés en vigueur au moment où le projet de loi a été déposé, le 25 octobre Ces modifications permettent de décriminaliser après coup des violations aux règles d'accès à l'information pour tout ce qui touche le registre des armes d'épaule. La commissaire à l'information, Suzanne Legault, avait découvert que la Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC) avait détruit ou retenu des documents alors que l'abolition du controversé registre n'avait pas encore été adoptée au Parlement, en avril " Un gouvernement ne devrait pas décriminaliser ses propres actions si elles étaient illégales au moment où elles ont été commises. Des lois rétroactives peuvent équivaloir à réécrire l'histoire. Ces changements rétroactifs à la LARAE constituent un dangereux précédent qui aura des conséquences importantes ", écrivent les professeurs, issus d'universités parmi les plus prestigieuses au Canada. Tribunal de l'opinion publique Le gouvernement Harper ne peut être poursuivi en justice pour ces violations de l'esprit de la démocratie, qui remontent à la Magna Carta, il y a huit siècles, ajoutent les auteurs. " Le tribunal de l'opinion publique jugera : les citoyens auront raison de s'alarmer de gestes du gouvernement qui auront de profondes conséquences sur la démocratie canadienne. " Le constitutionnaliste Frédéric Bérard, chargé de cours à l'université de Montréal et à l'université McGill, est l'un des signataires de ce coup de semonce contre le gouvernement conservateur. Selon lui, cet accroc à la règle de droit n'est que le dernier d'une série de gestes des conservateurs qui violent l'état de droit. Il cite le projet de loi C-51, qui accorde des pouvoirs substantiels à la police et aux espions canadiens pour lutter contre le terrorisme, comme une des initiatives condamnables du gouvernement Harper.

22 19 Published Publié : Presse Canadienne Lisa Raitt demande aux transporteurs aériens de ne pas séparer les familles OTTAWA _ La ministre fédérale des Transports a discrètement écrit aux dirigeants des principales compagnies aériennes au pays dans l'espoir d'éliminer les cas où des parents sont obligés d'être séparés de leurs enfants pendant les vols. Dans la lettre envoyée en mars, Lisa Raitt a indiqué que "la logique devait prévaloir" dans ces situations et a encouragé les transporteurs à s'assurer que les parents étaient assis avec leurs enfants le plus souvent possible. Elle a demandé aux compagnies aériennes de trouver une façon d'éliminer de tels incidents, d'offrir une meilleure façon pour les parents de prévoir où ils s'assoiront et de "minimiser les défis auxquels font face les parents lorsqu'ils voyagent en avion avec leurs enfants". Une note d'information accompagnant la lettre suggère que celle-ci ne signifie pas que le gouvernement fédéral prévoit légiférer à ce sujet, mais vise plutôt à promouvoir ce que les représentants de Mme Raitt ont appelé "une solution choisie par l'industrie pour éviter de telles situations". Les représentants de Transports Canada ont malgré tout écrit dans la note qu'ils "exploraient les occasions de régler ce problème et que l'apport des transporteurs serait utile". Une copie de la lettre et de la note a été obtenue par La Presse Canadienne en vertu de la Loi d'accès à l'information. Aucune règle fédérale n'oblige les transporteurs à s'assurer que les parents puissent s'asseoir avec leurs enfants en avion, et les politiques des compagnies aériennes ne garantissent pas qu'un parent ou tuteur sera automatiquement assis à côté de ses enfants de moins de 12 ans. Certains transporteurs exigent des frais pour qu'un voyageur puisse choisir lui-même son siège au moment de l'achat. Certains passagers choisissent de ne pas payer ces frais, espérant pouvoir choisir leur siège au moment de l'enregistrement, ce qui les place en compétition avec les autres voyageurs, les sièges étant distribués sur une base de "premier arrivé, premier servi". Air Canada, Porter, WestJet et Sunwing ont tous dit que leurs politiques existantes fonctionnaient bien pour limiter le nombre d'occasions où des parents doivent être séparés de leurs enfants. Sunwing, par exemple, réserve "un certain nombre de sièges" pour que les mineurs puissent être assis avec leurs parents. WestJet affirme que 96 pour cent des enfants de moins de 12 ans sur ses vols arrivent à s'asseoir avec leurs parents. Si les membres d'une même famille se retrouvent séparés, les transporteurs assurent que du personnel tente de trouver des sièges libres ou demande à d'autres passagers s'ils veulent changer de siège pour permettre aux enfants d'être avec leurs parents. "Les transporteurs tentent d'accommoder les parents et les enfants lorsqu'ils prennent place, mais cela dépend aussi de la volonté des autres passagers d'accommoder ces parents et enfants", a expliqué le président de l'association du transport aérien du Canada, John McKenna. "Peu de gens sont prêts à donner leur siège près de l'allée ou de la fenêtre pour un siège au milieu." M. McKenna croit que les parents devraient s'assurer de réserver le plus tôt possible quand il y a beaucoup de sièges libres sur un vol ou payer les frais permettant de choisir son siège. Published Publié : Embassy What wasn't talked about at the Munk Debate China. The Saudi arms deal. UN development goals. Fighter jets. Veterans. The niqab. Marie-Danielle Smith A lot was covered in the Munk Debate on Sept. 28, which had Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair participating in the first-ever election-time foreign policy debate. But almost as interesting as the wide array of foreign policy issues that leaders did weigh in on were the ones that they did not mention. The controversy over whether women should be allowed to wear a niqab during citizenship ceremonies, which has been dominating the election campaign in Quebec and was the subject of a memorable exchange in the Sept. 24 Radio-Canada debate, is a notable example. But leaders also barely scratched the surface on major areas such international development and national defence. Apart from an exchange about how to deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canada's activities in Ukraine were not mentioned-perhaps because that's one of the only foreign policy issues on which all three parties have agreed. Stephen Saideman, who holds the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University, was on a panel of individuals consulted by the Munk Debate organizers on what questions should be posed. Aside from a general lack of attention on defence issues, he said he noticed that China was omitted from the debate-though in a section about trade, Mr. Trudeau noted that Canada has not made much progress on deals with China or with India.

23 20 It's not the end of the world that no questions on China were posed, Mr. Saideman said, "given that it would not have produced much in the way of significant differences or specific policies." 'Grassroots problems of inequality' Observers say that what all three party leaders lacked was a comprehensive vision of Canada's role in the world that extended beyond the values they said Canadians share. None went into much detail about which regions Canada should focus its attention on, especially when it comes to development objectives. There was some discussion over official development assistance-with Liberals and NDP saying they would put more funding towards it and raise it above the current 0.24 per cent of GDP level-and the Muskoka Initiative, a funding scheme to support maternal and child health that has been championed by Mr. Harper's government. However, the Sustainable Development Goals, a new framework recently set out at the United Nations General Assembly to replace the Millennium Development Goals, were not mentioned. Chantal Havard at the Canadian Council for International Cooperation said she would have liked the leaders to talk more about the importance of re-engaging in international development issues-beyond committing to reaching a funding level of 0.7 per cent of GDP for official development assistance. "We would liked to have heard the leaders make reference to those [Sustainable Development Goals]. Each, more specifically, on how they plan to implement it at home and abroad," she said. "It tackles the grassroots problems of inequality. It's also a universal agenda. It means we can no longer speak in terms of developing countries versus developed countries. The framework recognizes there are pockets of inequality everywhere, and each country needs to adopt its own plan." Military procurement, fighter jets and veterans Though Canada's military mission against ISIS and whether it should commit more peacekeepers to the UN were both discussed in the debate, other defence issues such as military procurement only received passing mentions. Veterans affairs, though arguably a more domestic defence issue, did not come up at all. "My big regret is that I think we should have had one of the question sessions dedicated to defence," Mr. Saideman wrote in an to Embassy. "The Arctic question kind of approached it, but I would have liked to have heard about how to manage increasingly expensive defence procurement-what kinds of hard choices will next government make." David Perry, with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said that the prime minister didn't address the procurement issues that have plagued the national defence department over the past decade. With the CF-18 fighter jet replacement program, he said it surprised him that he didn't see the leaders debating the F-35. "For something that's not exactly in the distant past, and the subject of some discussion, it's kind of surprising that that didn't come up," Mr. Perry said. "Not so much for particular virtues or one aircraft or another-but what kind of aircraft do we have, and what do we want to do with it?" He added he'd have liked to see the leaders fit the procurement in to the overall financial picture at National Defence. Walter Callaghan, a PhD student in medical anthropology at the University of Toronto, was set up outside Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto prior to the debate, representing Canadian veterans with a sign that read "ABC" (anything but Conservative). He said he served in the armed forces from 2001 until On veterans affairs, he said, "we're the ones sent overseas to do the dirty work. It better well come up." "Hopefully both Trudeau and Mulcair will start hammering Harper over his treatment of veterans. If you can't afford to take care of us after the war, you shouldn't be sending us to war in the first place," Mr. Callaghan said. He added, "it's a complete joke that Harper's been the best for defence." He said the spending record under the current government has been less than rosy, saying it was just as much a decade of darkness for the forces under Harper as it was under Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien. Biggest arms deal in Canadian history omitted from debate Not at all mentioned in the debate was a controversial $15- billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the most substantial in Canadian history, though Mr. Harper was attacked over the fact that Canada has not signed the UN Arms Trade Treaty. The arms deal had come up in the French leader's debate Sept. 24, though Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, who were not invited to participate in the Munk Debate, were the two strongest opponents. Though Mr. Mulcair attacked Mr. Harper on signing a trade deal with Honduras despite its poor human rights record, the human rights record of Saudi Arabia didn't come up. Mr. Perry noted that neither Mr. Trudeau's Liberals nor Mr. Mulcair's NDP have said, concretely, what they would do any differently-whether they would outright cancel the contract to sell light armoured vehicles to the Saudi Arabian government or not. "I'm not really sure what the actual differences are, clearly, between the parties," he said. Online:

24 21 Published Publié : Embassy Foreign Affairs considered expelling Syrian diplomats weeks before government took action Press release announcing expulsion had been drawn up six weeks before Canada acted alongside allies. Marie-Danielle Smith Foreign Affairs was "considering" expelling Syrian diplomats from Ottawa at least six weeks before government took the decision in concert with allies, documents show. On March 5, 2012, two days after Canada condemned the Syrian Army's heavy shelling in Homs, Syria, Canada suspended its embassy and consulate operations, and its diplomats evacuated in a convoy to Lebanon. Documents obtained in a federal government access to information request contain a draft press release dated a month later-april 12, 2012, days after it became clear that a peace plan for Syria would fall apart-announcing the expulsion of Syrian diplomats from Ottawa. But it wouldn't be until May 29 that Canada actually took the decision. The draft press release was part of an chain created May 28, a day prior to the decision, that was reacting to a recent order by John Baird, the foreign minister at the time, to declare three Syrian diplomats in Canada persona non grata. As officials scrambled to come up with a statement, one circulated the draft from April, "drafted last month when we were considering this action." The others on the chain, he offered, "may wish to draw on it in light of [Mr. Baird's] direction." A copy of the draft press release ciculated to officials ahead of the May 29 announcement. 'No room for error' The expelling of diplomats May 29 came shortly after more than 100 people were killed in Houla, Syria. Mr. Baird also declared that the timing of the expulsion "should coincide with our allies," according to the . Canada began looking to the United States and the United Kingdom for a "coordinated timing for all to announce simultaneously." Canada ended up co-ordinating with the United States, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and others in the timing of its May 29 announcement-to "maximise the impact of the decision," one stated. "There is no room for error on the timing of the release of this statement," one Canadian official warned other staff. Australia appears to have made an announcement earlier than anticipated, however, with some minister's office staff inquiring as to whether the Canadian press release should come out sooner than 8 a.m. to more swiftly follow the Australian one. Canada went ahead as planned. There was also concern about whether the US, UK and others would be making a joint statement, rather than separate but timed announcements. "Canada is acting in a co-ordinated effort with our closest partners," the press release eventually read, when it was released at 8 a.m. sharp. "Canada and our partners are speaking loudly, with one voice, in saying these Syrian representatives are not welcome in our countries while their masters in Damascus continue to perpetrate their heinous and murderous acts." Mr. Baird had also requested an "urgent" phone call with William Hague, then the British secretary of state, as well as a "20-30 minute meeting" with Kofi Annan, then a UN-Arab League joint special envoy on the Syrian crisis who had unsuccessfully tried to broker the peace plan. Communication lines still open Though expelling diplomats gives the impression of cutting off relations altogether, Canada still maintains some thin diplomatic ties with Syria. "Canada's suspension of diplomatic relations means that we maintain the ability to communicate with each other in cases of emergencies or consular issues. We do not maintain contact with Syrian diplomats or officials on political or commercial issues," DFATD spokesperson Rachna Mishra wrote to Embassy in an ed response. When Canada's diplomats left Syria March 5, a press release had said that Canadians requiring emergency consular assistance on the ground could go to the Hungarian embassy in Damascus. Other consular matters would be handled by the Canadian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Canada's protecting power in Syria is now Romania, Ms. Mishra wrote, exercising consular functions on behalf of Canada through a Protecting Power Arrangement. "Communication can also take place through representatives to international organizations, such as the United Nations," wrote