The Wednesday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

Highlights from the news file for Wednesday, Nov. 2

MORNEAU SAYS INVESTORS WANT INFRASTRUCTURE AGENCY: Canada’s finance minister says the country needs a new agency designed to pump private dollars into infrastructure projects because private investors are clamouring for it. Bill Morneau says pension and equity funds want a dedicated agency to contract with on long-term infrastructure investments that make sense for their members, and that also lowers political risk. He says existing Crown corporations like PPP Canada, which oversees so-called public-private partnerships on infrastructure projects, don’t address the private sector’s needs.

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CONCERNS RAISED OVER MILITARY COLLEGE REVIEW: The Canadian Armed Forces is facing criticism for the composition of a team investigating the Royal Military College of Canada. Eight current and former military personnel are starting work on a two-month review of the institution in Kingston, Ont. The probe was ordered by defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance and comes after a series of troubling events at the college, including several suspected suicides and concerns about a sexualized culture. Observers say the situation at the college warrants a detailed look, particularly given the seriousness of the problems. But they are questioning why the team doesn’t include any academics or other non-military personnel.

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COURT REJECTS APPEAL IN SO-CALLED HONOUR KILLING: A father, mother and son found guilty in the drowning deaths of three teenaged sisters and another woman lost their bid Wednesday to overturn their first-degree murder convictions. In unanimously rejecting an appeal by the Shafia family members, Ontario’s top court ruled that expert evidence on so-called honour killings had been properly admitted at their trial and the son was properly tried as an adult. Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed Shafia — immigrants originally from Afghanistan — were jointly convicted of murder in 2012. “Honour was a recurrent theme of discussions among the appellants after the deaths of the deceased,” the Court of Appeal for Ontario said in its decision.

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HOME SALES PLUNGE IN VANCOUVER: The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says home sales fell 38.8 per cent last month compared with October 2015. The board says 2,233 properties were sold in October of this year, down from the 3,646 home sales recorded in the same month last year. Board president Dan Morrison says changing market conditions combined with a series of government interventions in the real estate market contributed to the decline. Both the B.C. and federal governments have brought in a number of measures to address soaring housing costs, particularly in Vancouver.

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LIBERAL PROMISE GREEN GOVERNMENT: The federal Liberals are promising to run all government operations on renewable energy within a decade. Speaking in Calgary to the Canadian Wind Energy Association, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Wednesday the switch for all government operations is to be complete by 2025. McKenna said the government will buy renewable electricity for federal facilities such as military bases. Few details were available on how the program would work or what its cost implications might be.

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SNAKE HAD ESCAPED BEFORE, PYTHON TRIAL TOLD: A New Brunswick court heard Wednesday that a python that killed two boys had previously escaped its enclosure weeks before the tragedy. Ocean Eagles, a volunteer at Jean-Claude Savoie’s reptile store, told Savoie’s criminal negligence trial in Campbellton that he told her the snake had escaped about 2 1/2 weeks earlier through a ventilation duct. Eagles said she placed a cover over the ventilation duct, but warned Savoie it needed to be screwed on. The snake killed Noah Barthe, 4, and Connor Barthe, 6, in 2013.

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CHIEF SAYS BILLIONS NEEDED FOR FIRST NATIONS HOUSING: A First Nations leader says a housing crisis in indigenous communities will take more than a generation to fix even with new federal money. Kevin Hart, a regional chief with the Assembly of First Nations, says billions of dollars are needed for housing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan alone. He says under the government’s current approach, the shortfall won’t be addressed in his lifetime or that of his children. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Wednesday she knows the government has only begun to address the problem.

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OFFICIAL SAYS FATAL B.C. SCHOOL STABBING ‘RANDOM’: The superintendent of schools in Abbotsford, B.C., says evidence suggests the man alleged to have killed one female student and injured another didn’t know his victims. Kevin Godden says investigators believe the attack was a “random act of violence.” The student was killed Tuesday afternoon and another is listed in stable condition after police say a barefoot man walked into Abbotsford Senior Secondaryand stabbed two girls before being held by staff.

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CHONG PROPOSES CHANGE TO TAX SYSTEM: Federal Conservative leadership candidate Michael Chong is proposing a dramatic overhaul of the tax system based on new revenues from taxing carbon. Chong says his plan would cut overall federal income taxes by 10 per cent and corporate taxes by five per cent — while imposing an escalating tax on carbon emissions that would rise to $130 a tonne by 2030. Chong, one of nine confirmed entrants in the Conservative race, says Canada already has a working model of a truly revenue-neutral carbon tax in British Columbia.

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FBI PROBING FIRE AT BLACK CHURCH: The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation of a fire that heavily damaged a black church in Mississippi where someone wrote “Vote Trump” in silver spray paint. The Tuesday night fire heavily damaged the 200-member Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Miss., where Mayor Errick Simmons on Wednesday called it a “heinous, hateful, cowardly act.” The mayor said the FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are assisting the investigation in the Mississippi River city, where about 78 per cent of the 32,100 residents are African-American.

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