Morning Update: Ottawa plans foreign-influence registry, new powers for CSIS to combat threats

Good morning,

In an effort to combat foreign interference, the federal government unveiled legislation yesterday that would create a mandatory registry for people undertaking “influence activity” in politics or government on behalf of foreign powers and giving Canada’s top spy agency more authority to combat threats.

However, it’s unlikely the foreign agent registry will be in place by the next federal election. Ottawa said it expects a year delay between passage of the bill and the establishment of the registry.

The bill follows revelations from the foreign-interference inquiry, after months of reporting by The Globe and Mail and other media on Chinese foreign interference and disinformation campaigns, drawing on confidential national-security sources and leaked secret documents.

• Campbell Clark: The Liberals’ delays on foreign interference carry profound cost

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Israel launches invasion of Rafah after rejecting ceasefire deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejected a ceasefire deal accepted by Hamas Monday as the Israeli military launched a long-threatened invasion of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. By Tuesday, the Israeli army reached the Rafah Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, blocking aid from reaching the 2.3 million Palestinians sheltering there.

Images and videos emerged online showing long lines of Palestinians travelling – many walking, some crowded onto carts pulled by donkeys – away from parts of Rafah after the Israeli military told them to evacuate. Hours after Israel sent the evacuation warning, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, said that he had accepted a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and Qatar.

Any deal would involve the release of some of the 100 Israelis that Hamas has been holding hostage in Gaza since Oct. 7, but Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Rafah assault will continue, in parallel with new negotiations.

• Ontario Premier Doug Ford says universities should remove pro-Palestinian encampments
• Columbia cancels university-wide commencement ceremony after protests
• Tony Keller: The campus occupations aren’t protected by free speech, because they aren’t speech
• Opinion: Ontario’s keffiyeh ban dares to define the scarf’s meaning for everyone
• UN says ‘full-blown famine’ is in northern Gaza. What does that mean?

India forced meeting about Sikh activists by keeping Trudeau’s plane in air during 2018 trip

During a visit to India by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2018, the New Delhi government refused to let his plane land unless he and then defence minister Harjit Sajjan agreed to meet with a government official to discuss Sikh separatists in Canada, including Hardeep Singh Nijjar, according to a source with direct knowledge.

India’s minister for the Punjab gave Trudeau and Sajjan a dossier containing the names of about 10 Sikh activists whose activities the Indian government wanted curtailed, the source said.

The dossier was part of a years-long effort by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press Canada to take legal action against Sikh separatists, whom India views as terrorists. Those frictions have boiled over in the aftermath of the slaying last June of Nijjar in British Columbia, which led Trudeau to suggest Indian agents may have been involved in the killing.

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Also on our radar

Defence to argue man who admitted killing women not criminally responsible: A man accused of killing four First Nations women admitted to the crimes in a Winnipeg superior court yesterday, but his defence lawyers intend to argue he was not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

Alberta told renewable energy driving away investment: New restrictions placed on renewable energy projects by the Alberta government are hurting rural communities that are banking on revenue from these projects. TransAlta Corp. has recently cancelled projects for a wind farm, a solar farm, a battery storage venture and a gas-fired power plant because of the province’s new rules.

Ministers called to committee over illegal job sale scam: Two federal ministers have been asked by MPs to testify before the immigration committee about what is being done to clamp down on illegal job selling to immigrants – abuse of a federal program to bring in workers from abroad.

Refugee pilot program set to be expanded: The federal government’s Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, a pilot program to recruit skilled refugees to fill jobs, is set to be expanded and made permanent. Since being launched in April, 2018, the pilot has helped 257 refugees and other displaced people fill job vacancies here.

Ethiopia razes historic neighbourhood: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ambitious drive to attract foreign investors by building modern skyscrapers is drawing criticism from heritage experts who are mourning the loss of dozens of historic buildings in one of the capital Addis Ababa’s most famous neighbourhoods.

Morning markets

Global shares traded at about one-month highs, boosted by renewed confidence in U.S. interest rate cuts following Friday’s weaker than expected jobs data.

Europe’s STOXX 600 index climbed 0.6 per cent as bank earnings beat expectations. In early trading, Britain’s FTSE advanced 1 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.48 per cent and France’s CAC 40 added 0.24 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.57 per cent to 38,835.10, its highest closing level since April 15, while Hong Kong shares retreated 0.53 per cent to 18,479.37 after a 10-day winning streak.

The dollar traded at 73.09 U.S. cents.

What everyone’s talking about

Editorial: “There always was an uneasy mix between the promise of more oil and lower emissions. Canada finally has the new pipeline. Now the focus must fully shift to slashing greenhouse emissions as fast as possible.”

Cathal Kelly: “A scapegoat is a person unfairly blamed for misfortune. Is this how the Leafs see themselves? As victims of a cruel and unsupportive city? Forget the power play. Could that be the root of the problem? Watching them roll their eyes through questioning, I could think of worse hypotheses.”

Today’s editorial cartoon

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Living better

Four ways gardening is a great workout

Many Canadians garden just for the simple joy of it, but the pastime also offers some real health benefits. Here are four reasons why gardening is great exercise.

Moment in time: May 7, 2022

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Taliban order Afghan women to cover their faces

The world had averted its gaze. With the new Ukraine conflict dominating the headlines, the Taliban were no longer feeling the full weight of international opprobrium. The fundamentalist fighters, returned to power after a 20-year hiatus, had months earlier ousted the U.S.-backed Afghan government. And they were now ensconced enough to defy foreign pressure and officially roll back the clock. Their edict was that religious morality police would once again enforce a signature policy of Taliban 1990s rule. Afghan women were told that if they leave their homes, they must wear garb shrouding them from head to toe: a niqab or, ideally, a burka. No one knows how many tears have been shed behind the obscuring eye mesh of blue burkas since that garment returned to obligatory prominence. A generation of girls and young women had grown up without such strictures. Now they are disappearing, and not merely under the fabric of their clothing. The Taliban have ordered women out of schools, workplaces, parks, airplanes, buses – even hospitals. “The space for Afghan women and girls continues to shrink at an alarming pace,” Alison Davidian, a United Nations special representative, said recently. Colin Freeze

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