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In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Dec. 7 …
What we are watching in Canada …
Even Canada’s smallest province is introducing sweeping new measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 as other parts of the country continue to shatter records for new diagnoses.
Prince Edward Island is heading into a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown beginning this morning and ending on Dec. 21, meant to stem newly discovered community transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Ontario and Alberta led the country by far with the highest number of new cases reported on Sunday.
Ontario plowed through its own record twice over the weekend, reporting 1,924 new infections Sunday to top the historic 1,859 new diagnoses logged the day before.
Alberta logged 1,836 new cases of COVID-19, with 19 more deaths. It was the fourth straight day that the province recorded upwards of 1,800 cases.
Quebec reported another 1,691 cases of the virus on Sunday. That came after the province pushed above 2,000 daily cases for the first time on Saturday.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, highlighted the outbreaks that continue to occur in high-risk populations and communities such as long-term care homes, Indigenous communities and more remote areas of the country.
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Also this …
VANCOUVER – The legal fight against extradition to the United States for Meng Wanzhou is back on in a Vancouver court amid a report that the American Justice Department is discussing a deal in the case.
A Wall Street Journal report says U.S. officials were discussing an agreement that would see the Huawei executive admit guilt to some of the allegations in exchange for dropping the extradition request.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wouldn’t comment on the report Friday, except to say Canada’s absolute priority is the safe release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, whose arrests and charges have been widely linked to Canada’s detention of Meng.
Lawyers for Meng are in B.C. Supreme Court today gathering evidence for an abuse of process claim they expect to make next year.
Her lawyers have alleged officers with the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency hatched a plan to unlawfully search and interrogate her when she was arrested at Vancouver’s airport on Dec. 1, 2018.
Meng and Huawei face charges in the United States over a claim they violated American sanctions against Iran — allegations that both deny.
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And this …
TORONTO – A psychiatrist retained by the defence today will testify for a sixth straight day at the trial for the man who killed 10 people while driving a van down a Toronto sidewalk.
Dr. Alexander Westphal has said Alek Minassian lacks empathy and does not understand the moral wrongfulness of killing 10 people, but said a finding of criminal responsibility is a legal matter rather than a psychiatric one.
Minassian has told Westphal he knew what he did was morally wrong, but the psychiatrist did not include that statement in his final report.
Minassian has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
The defence argues he should be found not criminally responsible due to autism spectrum disorder.
Minassian has admitted to planning and carrying out the attack, which leaves his state of mind at the time the sole issue at trial.
The prosecution will enter the third day of a tense cross-examination of Westphal.
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ICYMI …
MONTREAL – Scaled-back ceremonies and pandemic-muted tributes did little to mask the raw emotion of those who gathered to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the misogyny-motivated massacre at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique
On December 6, 1989 a gunman motivated by a hatred of feminists opened fire on campus, killing 14 women and injuring a dozen other people.
Survivors and activists held sombre, physically distanced events Sunday to mark the occasion and redouble their calls for more urgent action on the long-standing issue of violence against women.
The Polytechnique killings are commemorated annually, but this year’s events were scaled down significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event in the park was streamed online.
Fourteen beams of light, representing each of the victims, were projected into the sky from a lookout on Mount Royal in the evening.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement describing the Polytechnique massacre as “a tragic and senseless act of violence” that cut short the promising lives of “daughters, sisters and friends.”
Canada has designated Dec. 6 as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, a chance to mourn and demand concrete policies to protect women across the country.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor is again telling lawmakers that he won’t call a special session to overturn Georgia’s election results.
Four Republican state senators have launched a petition to force Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to call lawmakers together so they could appoint 16 presidential electors who will support Republican President Donald Trump instead of Democratic president-elect Joe Biden.
Republican Brian Kemp issued a joint statement Sunday with Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, saying it would violate state law for the General Assembly to name electors.
Current state law calls for the governor to certify electors after results are certified.
Trump on Saturday pushed Kemp to call a special session, but Kemp refused.
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Also this …
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump says his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump’s inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S.
Giuliani was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The 76-year-old former New York mayor has travelled extensively to battleground states in an effort to help Trump subvert his election loss.
On numerous occasions he has met with officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask.
The extraordinary spread in Trump’s orbit underscores the cavalier approach the president has taken to a virus that has now killed more than 280,000 people in the U.S. alone.
Those infected also include the White House press secretary and advisers Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller, as well as Trump’s campaign manager and the chair of the Republican National Committee.
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
LONDON — Shipments of the coronavirus vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech have been delivered in the U.K. in super-cold containers.
The deliveries arrived Sunday, two days before it goes public in an immunization program that is being closely watched around the world.
Tuesday will be the start of Britain’s biggest-ever immunization program. Around 800,000 doses of the vaccine are set to be ready.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly dubbed Tuesday “V-Day,” a nod to triumphs in World War II.
Last week, the U.K. became the first country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for emergency use. In trials, the vaccine was shown it has 95 per cent efficacy.
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Also this …
CARACAS – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s political alliance claimed a sweeping victory Monday in congressional elections boycotted by the most influential opposition politicians and widely criticized internationally as being fraudulent.
The win gives Maduro control of the last major branch of government outside his grasp.
“We have recovered the National Assembly with the majority vote of the Venezuelan people,” Maduro said in a televised address. “It’s a great victory without a doubt for democracy.”
The National Assembly has been led by U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó, who has pressed to oust Maduro for nearly two years and end Venezuela’s deepening crisis.
He’s backed by Washington and dozens of nations, including Canada, that consider Maduro’s presidency illegitimate.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2020
The Canadian Press
