Good morning,

The first-ever Métis self-governance agreements have been signed with the federal government marking a significant step toward independence and self-determination for a prominent group of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

The Métis Nation of Alberta, the Métis Nation – Saskatchewan, and the Provisional Council of the Métis Nation Ontario (MNO) signed deals with Ottawa on Thursday at a ceremony near Parliament Hill to acknowledge that they are Métis governments.

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Until now, the groups have been treated as special-interest organizations that delivered services like housing and labour assistance, but did not have the right to make laws or speak as the voice of the Métis people who are their constituents.

The agreements signed Thursday cover the Métis as people who identify as Métis and have a historic connection to one of the pre-Confederation communities of Métis that sprang up in northwestern Ontario and across the Prairies, as defined by the Supreme Court in its 2003 Powley decision. These communities have their own distinct culture, language and way of life separate from First Nations and their non-Indigenous forebears.

The deals put in place an annual fiscal transfer from the federal government that does not need to be renegotiated, opens the door to negotiations that could result in the Métis becoming the providers of such things as education and health care for their people, and means the provinces must deal with the Métis as separate levels of government, as they do with the First Nations.

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

Ottawa has called on police to investigate a falsified export certificate after China banned imports of Canadian meat over the discovery of a banned substance in frozen pork. The temporary ban affects all Canadian meat exports to China and follows a ban China placed on Canadian canola about three months ago. It also further worsens the relationship between the countries, after the December arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou and directly ahead of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Japan, which starts Friday.

A cybersecurity probe of Huawei Technologies’ networking equipment has concluded the Chinese firm’s gear poses a high risk for users because of security flaws that could be exploited for espionage or by malicious hacking. The results are expected to be used by the Trump administration to push Western allies to blacklist Huawei from supplying 5G technology.

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Huawei has been fighting U.S. efforts to persuade intelligence-sharing partners, including Canada, to bar the company from supplying next-generation 5G mobile technology, but Canada has not yet made a decision to join in a ban.

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman has reached a confidential settlement with the federal government and will retire from the military. Vice-Adm. Norman was suspended as the military’s second-in-command in January, 2017, and charged last year with a single count of breach of trust, but Crown prosecutor prompted the decision to stay the charge in May, telling the court there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction.

Before the announcement, it seemed as though Vice-Adm. Norman would return to active duty. Chief of Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance had met with Vice-Adm. Norman to discuss his return to the Canadian Armed Forces and a source told The Globe that the discussions between the pair focused on when Vice-Adm. Norman could return to the No. 2 post.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says he will be seeking a joint response to Quebec’s new religious symbols law when Western premiers meet on Thursday in Edmonton, which prohibits teachers, police officers and other public servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it’s not the government’s responsibility to legislate on what people should be wearing, but he did not specify what action his government would take to protect minority rights. Pallister said response from federal politicians has probably been muted, in part, because of the looming national election in October.

The federal government has added two far-right groups to its list of terrorist entities, signalling the growing risk of violence posed by neo-Nazi and other extremist organizations in Canada.

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The two groups, Blood & Honour and Combat 18, have been known to target and attack members of ethnic and sexual minorities. The listing marks the first time far-right groups have been added to Canada’s list of terrorist entities.

The government has received requests for travel documents for five children of Canadian citizens whom experts say travelled to war-torn Syria to join the Islamic State and now want to come home, including one child of 13, with the majority being under 5.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada declined to say whether the Canadian parents of the children had onetime links to the Islamic State in Syria or what kind of travel documents were requested, but extremism experts who communicate regularly with the Canadians in Syria confirmed the applications were for passports for five of 18 Canadian children overall trapped in the country.

A senior Canadian government source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Globe that as far as they were aware, the Canadians never got the passports because they were unable to get to an embassy to fill out the required immigration paperwork.

International students say Canadian private colleges use agents working on commission to persuade student recruits that paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition is the easiest way to get into Canada and become a permanent resident. Some recruits say they signed up for courses they weren’t interested in or didn’t plan to attend because all they really wanted was a student work permit to get a job, but immigration rules allow them to work only 20 hours a week while studying, and provide limited opportunities to stay in Canada after graduation.

Some told The Globe they hoped their courses would lead to good jobs, but no Canadian business was willing to hire them in their field of study afterward while others say they worked more hours than legally allowed while trying to get a Canadian employer to sponsor them for permanent residency, which then meant applying for a full-time work permit, and often paying more fees to immigration consultants to do the paperwork.

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Democratic presidential hopefuls battled to distinguish themselves in the first U.S. 2020 presidential debates Wednesday night, sparred on health care, immigration and whether to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump.

The debate featured few personal attacks and relatively little focus on Mr. Trump, as 10 of the 25 Democratic candidates sought instead to promote their policy ideas and tout their records. For much of the evening the candidates seemed to agree on many of the issues, arguing most intensely over whether to eliminate private insurance in favour of a single-payer health-care system, or expand government health care only for those who can’t afford insurance.

The debates continues tonight with former vice-president Joe Biden squaring off against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, California Senator Kamala Harris, South Bend Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and six others.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau’s pitch to voters: “Once he was the touchy-feely king of co-operation and co-operative federalism, but now Justin Trudeau is being sold as a tough guy. Particularly when it comes to dealing with premiers.”

John Ivison (National Post) on Conservative support in Ontario: “But rather than cruising to victory, some Conservative strategists and MPs are concerned there is an iceberg in their path — a potential teachers’ strike in Ontario this fall that the federal Liberals will use to warn against governments that advocate austerity.”

Laura Dawson (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau and Trump: “To be received as an equal by many of Washington’s most connected decision-makers is a clear signal that the Prime Minister and his team have figured out how to get things done in a town that does not tend to value loyalty or friendship.”

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Errol Mendes (The Globe and Mail) on Canada-China relations: “If China’s strategy is to pressure Canada to ask the U.S. to withdraw its extradition request, it does not seem to be working. Canada has stated that the rule of law is at stake, not just caving-in to a demanding superpower. Indeed, it was U.S. President Donald Trump who first raised the possibility of withdrawing the extradition request if it was part of a favourable trade deal with China. Canada finds itself in an extremely challenging position – caught between two superpowers, neither of which seem to be strong adherents to the international rule of law.”

Lori Ackerman, mayor of Fort St. John, B.C., in the Vancouver Sun on the Trans Mountain pipeline: “We see the direct impacts of energy markets and their effects on all of us — Indigenous and non-Indigenous, young and old, east and west. That’s why my community has been so supportive of the federal cabinet’s recent approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. We’re keenly aware that without additional pipeline capacity to tidewater and the global markets that lie beyond it, Canada is forced to sell virtually all its energy resources to a single customer, the U.S., at a deep discount.”

John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker (The Globe and Mail) on when Earth’s human population will start to decline: “The shape of our future hinges on how many of us there will be. Growing populations increase the strain on the environment and contribute to global warming. But in more than two dozen countries, populations are decreasing, make it harder to generate economic growth and to finance social services for older citizens. Japan lost almost 450,000 people last year.”

Denise Balkissoon (The Globe and Mail) on children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border: “The situation is so unimaginably awful that the entire United States can seem unimaginably awful by extension. To prove that untrue, Americans should act as though the whole world is watching. Because it is, and the humanity of their entire country is at stake.”

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