In the news today, March 8

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CROWN WON’T APPEAL STANLEY VERDICT

The father of a young Indigenous man who was killed on a Saskatchewan farm says he is heartbroken the Crown will not appeal the acquittal of the man accused in the fatal shooting. Last month, a jury found Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Colten Boushie. The Crown said Wednesday there is no legal basis to appeal the verdict. “There’s no justice there,” Pete Boushie told The Canadian Press from his home on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. “What else can I say?”

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FREELAND PUSHES IRAN TO RELEASE PROFESSOR’S WIDOW

Canada’s foreign affairs minister says she is “outraged” that the wife of an Iranian-Canadian professor who died in prison in Tehran has been prevented from leaving Iran. Chrystia Freeland tweeted Wednesday evening that she is demanding that Maryam Mombeini “be given the freedom to return home” to Canada. Kavous Seyed-Emami was a 63-year-old sociology professor who died at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison earlier this year. Iranian authorities have said Seyed-Emami’s death was a suicide, but the family and others have questioned that finding. The family’s supporters distributed an email from his son on Wednesday that said he and his brother were allowed to leave Iran. In it, Ramin Seyed-Emami says his mother was “banned from leaving the country” at the last minute.

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CANADA CHASING MERCOSUR DEAL AFTER NEW TPP

Canada is expected to announce Friday the start of formal free trade negotiations with the four-country South American trade bloc known as Mercosur. A spokesman for International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the negotiations could begin in earnest in the next 10 days. That announcement will come after Champagne formally signs the reconstituted and much larger Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement later today in Santiago, Chile. Mercosur is made up of permanent members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

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NEW $10 BILL HONOURING VIOLA DESMOND TO BE UNVEILED

Viola Desmond’s trailblazing act of defiance — overlooked for decades by most Canadians — will be honoured in a Halifax ceremony this afternoon that cements her new status as a civil rights icon. At about 12:30 AT, a new $10 bill featuring Desmond will be unveiled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz. Desmond will be the first black person — and the first non-royal woman — on a regularly circulating Canadian bank note. The bill marks a growing recognition of Desmond’s refusal to leave the whites-only section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre on Nov. 8, 1946, and the seminal role it played in Canada’s civil rights movement.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY:

— Environment Minister Catherine McKenna holds a teleconference call to discuss her visit to Mexico where she’s attending the World Ocean Summit.

— International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne holds a teleconference call on the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

— National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls holds a second day of community hearings in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador.

— Statistics Canada releases building permits for January and the new housing price index for January.

— The national council of the Bloc Quebecois holds a news conference in Montreal.

— Parliamentary budget officer releases a report entitled “Income Sprinkling Using Private Corporations.”

— Alberta legislature resumes in Edmonton.

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers remarks at a Laurier Club donor appreciation reception in Regina.

— In Vancouver, Jaspal Atwal speaks about attending a reception for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in India last month.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In the news today, March 8

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