By Canadian Press

A Nerf ‘gun fight’ in North Delta, B.C. and spy kids; In The News for Dec. 20

Dec 20, 2019 | 1:26 AM

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. 20.

What we are watching in Canada …

The premier of Nova Scotia is expected to issue a decision today on the fate of an aging pulp mill that supports thousands of jobs across the province.

Almost five years ago, Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government passed a law that says the Northern Pulp mill near Pictou, N.S., must stop pumping wastewater into lagoons near an Indigenous community by Jan. 31, 2020 — but the company is asking for more time.

The company, owned by B.C.-based Paper Excellence, has submitted plans to build a pipeline to pump 85 million litres of treated effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait.

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But the government has twice told the company it failed to provide enough science-based evidence to allow for a proper assessment of the potential impact on human health and the environment.

On Thursday, the mill owners repeated their warning that the operation will be shut down unless the premier extends the legislated deadline and grants approval for the continued flow of effluent into Boat Harbour, which is next to the Pictou Landing First Nation.

Former Nova Scotia environment minister Iain Rankin once referred to the toxic mess as one of the worst cases of environmental racism in Canada.

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Also this …

The Toronto-born son of Russian spies, whose Canadian citizenship has now been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada, will speak to media in his hometown this afternoon.

Alexander Vavilov and his brother Timothy were born in the 1990s to parents who were later arrested in the United States for conspiring to act as secret agents on behalf of a Russian intelligence agency.

Alexander Vavilov, 25, is set to address reporters this afternoon.

A registrar concluded in 2014 that his parents were agents of a foreign government, meaning their children could not be Canadian citizens.

That decision touched off the court battle that culminated with Thursday’s decision.

In its judgment, the high court upheld a Federal Court of Appeal decision that effectively affirmed the citizenship of Alexander and his brother Timothy.

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ICYMI (in case you missed it) …

Police responding to a “gun fight” found four men battling each other with plastic weapons outside a home recently in North Delta, B.C.

Spokeswoman Cris Leykauf of the Delta Police Department says officers arrived to find the men battling each other with Nerf guns, without a clue they were carrying on at 2 a.m.

She says a neighbour called to report that several people were arguing and threatening to shoot each other.

The only injury turned out to be a minor welt for one of the men.

Leykauf says those who weren’t occupants of the home south of Vancouver were sent on their way after the noisy gathering on Dec. 10.

She says the call that could have been big turned out to be small for the department that has the motto No Call Too Small.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

President Donald Trump railed behind closed doors about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Republican Senate, putting an expected trial in limbo.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump GOP ally, emerged from a White House meeting with the president with a message.

“He is demanding his day in court,” Graham said in an interview on Fox News Channel Thursday evening. “I just left President Trump. He’s mad as hell that they would do this to him and now deny him his day in court.” The White House did not immediately respond to questions about his account.

Trump has seen a Senate trial as his means for vindication, viewing acquittal as a partial antidote to impeachment’s stain on his legacy. But that effort has been threatened by Pelosi’s decision to delay sending the articles approved by the House Wednesday to the Senate until, she says, Republican leaders offer more details about how they will handle an expected trial.

“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” she said Wednesday night, dropping a surprise procedural bombshell just after the House cast its historic votes making Trump only the third president in the nation’s history to be impeached. House Democrats had argued for weeks that Trump’s impeachment was needed “urgently” to protect the nation.

Democrats do not have enough votes in the Republican-controlled Senate to convict Trump and remove him from office, but have been pushing for a trial to include witnesses who declined to appear during House committee hearings, including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.

Trump, meanwhile, has been hoping the trial will serve as an opportunity for vindication, and continues to talk about parading his own witness list, including former Vice-President and 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden, even though there is little appetite for that among Senate leaders.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

The United States renewed its offer to engage in talks with Iran but warned it will do everything in its power “to curb malign Iranian behaviour” if Tehran continues to destabilize the Middle East.

The U.S. ambassador at the United Nations, Kelly Craft, said the Trump administration also “rejects Iran’s use of nuclear brinkmanship to normalize its destabilizing behaviour.”

She commented at a U.N. Security Council meeting on implementation of a resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and key world powers.

Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi called the U.S. offer of unconditional talks “disingenuous.” The U.S. wants to enter dialogue from a position of strength from maintaining sanctions and maximum pressure, “and not based on equal footing,” he said.

“Iran does not negotiate under the threat of a sword,” Ravanchi said.

He said U.S. implementation of the council’s 2015 resolution endorsing the international Iran nuclear deal “will pave the way for a genuine dialogue to start.”

The Trump administration withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and has since stepped up sanctions on Iran.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Dec. 20, 2019.

The Canadian Press