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Good evening, readers.
The Lead
Jagmeet Singh said the Liberals will need to work hard to gain the support of the NDP in the 43rd Parliament.
The NDP leader met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa Thursday to find common ground ahead of the Speech from the Throne, set to be delivered in early December. Singh said the NDP will be looking for the speech to indicate support for greater health-care investments, climate action, and Indigenous justice.
“I’m looking to see some indication from the government that they’re willing to work with us,” he said. “They can’t just expect us to support unless they do things that show a commitment to deliver for Canadians.”
Singh said he’s looking for the government to show support for single-payer national pharmacare and dental care.
In Canada
The federal budget officer is forecasting slower economic growth and higher federal deficits.
The independent office released its latest economic and fiscal outlook on Thursday morning, offering a snapshot of the federal finances ahead of a new parliament.
The PBO predicts real GDP growth to be 1.7 per cent next year and 1.6 per cent in 2021. The projections are 0.3 and 0.2 percentage points lower compared to its last report in June 2019.
The remaining nine members of the Senate Liberals announced on Thursday that they were rebranding themselves the Progressive Senate Group, further distancing themselves from the federal political party that they have had no connection with since 2013.
Liberal leader New Brunswick Sen. Joseph Day will also lead the new group. A press release says the group is made up of “like-minded individuals with different backgrounds, strong convictions and often differing opinions.”
“The name reflects the new group’s progressive approach to governance, aiming to restore balance in the evolving Senate,” the announcement press release says.
Mitra Javanmardi, a Quebec naturopath, has been acquitted of two criminal charges in a case where her 84-year-old patient died as a result of an intravenous injection.
Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a 5-2 decision, restored the acquittals Javanmardi received at trial in 2015 for the charges of unlawful act manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.
Javanmardi was educated in naturopathy in the U.S. where she learned to give intravenous injections. Although seven provinces in Canada allow naturopaths to give intravenous injections, Quebec does not. Even so, Javanmardi, who has 30 years of experience in her field, often injected patients intravenously and had been fined three times in Quebec for doing so.
Leslie MacKinnon has this story.
A new report from one of the globe’s most prestigious medical journals says Canada’s health-care sector produces the third-highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’s annual report for 2019, published Wednesday, claims that the global health-care sector is responsible for approximately 4.6 per cent of total emissions, with emissions from the U.S. “substantially higher than those of any other country and have risen steadily” over the study period of 2007 to 2016, driving up some 19 per cent.
According to the study, in 2016, the U.S. health-care sector produced nearly 1,800 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per capita, with the next biggest producer, Japan, contributing around 1,000 kilograms per capita, though this represents a 37 per cent increase from 2007. Canada’s health-care sector was the next biggest emission producer, contributing some 900 kilograms or so per capita of CO2 equivalent.
Finally, a new Conference Board of Canada report says reimbursement costs for drugs used to treat diabetes have been increasing by 13 per cent per year on average since 2010.
The report, called Accessing Diabetes Medications – A Pan-Canadian Analysis of Patient Experiences, also demonstrates that the experience of Canadian diabetics sharply differs depending on whether they are privately or publicly insured. Reimbursement costs refer to the money spent by insurance companies or individuals on prescriptions.
According to numbers found in the document, glucose lowering medications represent the second largest drug spending category in Canada, and Canadians living with diabetes spend $1.8 billion on them every year, a figure the Conference Board says is expected to continue to grow.
It also notes that the number of Canadians living with diabetes increased by 28.7 per cent from 2010 to 2017. Vigliotti has this story too.
The Drilldown: Cuts to ‘inefficient’ fossil fuels subsidies by 2025 expected to be delayed
The Sprout: USMCA breakthrough could be coming, Pelosi says
In Other Headlines
Inside the divided Conservative Party of Canada (660 News)
Ex-ministers Baird, Rock part of delegation that warned Beijing Canadians are souring on China (Postmedia News)
For the opposition, a dilemma: work with Trudeau, or cut him down early? (CBC News)
Internationally
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters paralyzed parts of the city for a fourth successive day, forcing schools to close and blocking highways, as students built campus barricades and the government dismissed rumors of a curfew. (Reuters)
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing President Donald Trump of committing bribery when he withheld vital military assistance from Ukraine at the same time he was seeking its commitment to publicly investigate his political rivals. (New York Times)
Authorities in the U.S. say a second victim of a Los Angeles area high school shooting on Thursday has died.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva says a 14-year-old boy died at a hospital. Earlier, a 16-year-old girl died from the shooting at Saugus High School in the city of Santa Clarita. Authorities say a student gunman shot five students and then himself around 7:30 a.m. in a school quad. His .45-caliber handgun was found with no bullets remaining when it was recovered.
As of press time, three surviving victims remain hospitalized and the suspected shooter is in grave condition. (Associated Press)
An international inquiry into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 says high-level Russian officials were directing separatists in eastern Ukraine linked to the attack.
Investigators say a top aide to President Vladimir Putin was in contact with rebel leaders on a regular basis, though Russia’s foreign ministry has rejected the latest findings. All 298 people on board the flight were killed when a missile struck the plane over Ukrainian rebel-held territory on July 17, 2014. (BBC News)
In Featured Opinion
Sen. Tony Dean: More changes in the Senate as new ‘Progressive Senate Group’ launches
The Kicker
Some folks might call this karma.
“Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change,” Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.
Have a great night!