 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | In leaked call, Liberal MP rips his government's Gaza war policy | | |  | Parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs Rob Oliphant rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on June 7, 2019. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press) | | | A leaked recording of a phone call between a Liberal MP and a constituent suggests the depth of the divisions in the government caucus over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the war in Gaza.
As parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Rob Oliphant has the job of explaining and defending Canada's foreign policy in Parliament. But in his conversation with the constituent, recorded on Feb. 1 without the MP's knowledge, Oliphant said he was considering quitting the parliamentary secretary job.
CBC News is not identifying the constituent — who has been calling for a ceasefire in the conflict — because she fears publicity would lead to professional reprisals. When contacted by CBC News, Oliphant said the conversation was with a constituent who was in pain over the crisis in Gaza and he'd hoped it would remain private. He also said he made no statements in that exchange that he would not be willing to defend in public.
On the call, he opened up about his reaction to the genocide allegation brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and Canada's decision to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees.
Canada was the second country in the world to suspend its funding for UNRWA, following the United States. It did so in response to an Israeli claim that 12 or 13 UNRWA staff had participated in various capacities in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Oliphant said on the call that, even if the Israeli allegation is true, he doesn't agree with the Trudeau government's response.
"You don't stop aid to Gaza because of 12 or 13 employees out of 13,000. It drives me crazy," he said. "It is opportunistic, it is unfair, and it is maligning the operation of a UN organization that is doing, not perfect work — there's no organization that's made of human beings that's perfect, UNRWA has its faults. But it is the best we have for education, for medical care, for food, all of those things."
On the same call, Oliphant criticized the government's response to the ICJ case, which caused widespread confusion about where Canada stands. Statements by Trudeau and Joly were widely misreported in mainstream media and on social media as dismissing the South African case and taking the side of Israel. In fact, their statements carefully avoided either rejecting or endorsing South Africa's case against Israel. Oliphant said he knew Canada's statements would be "misunderstood" and were a "communications disaster."
Oliphant also offered his own viewpoint on the merits of the case against Israel. "Do I believe there's genocidal activity on the part of Israel?" he said on the call. "Probably yes, from what I have seen." Oliphant stressed that he's not a legal expert and he was giving his own view, rather than that of the government. | | | | | Taking the high road | | |  | (Michael Probst/The Associated Press) | | | | An Air Canada aircraft rolls over the highway to its parking position after landing at the airport in Frankfurt this morning. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | Canada's intelligence agency is warning that extremists could "inspire and encourage" serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community. CSIS assesses that violent actors may be inspired by a University of Waterloo knife attack on a gender-studies class last year to carry out their own extreme violence, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam said in an email to CBC News. Balsam was commenting on a document drafted by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) and obtained by CBC News through an access to information request. According to the document, the centre was monitoring the potential for an attack or violent assaults at Pride celebrations, parades and nightclubs across the country last summer. Sections of the document have been redacted. "Anti-2SLGBTQl+ narratives remain a common theme in violent rhetoric espoused by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Freedom Movement, and networks such as Diagolon and QAnon," the document says. Read more about the threat assessment here.
Canadian troops in Latvia will soon be protected by a $227-million Swedish-designed short-range anti-aircraft system, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced today. Ahead of a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Belgium, Blair announced the deal to buy the RBS 70 NG short-range Air Defence System from Saab Canada. The Canadian Army has been without a dedicated air defence to protect ground troops from attack helicopters and fast-moving jets for more than a dozen years. The portable system will begin arriving later this year, he said. Blair also announced that the Canadian government will spend $46 million on the first phase of a ground-based system intended to counter the threat of small drones, which have become a sophisticated and deadly feature of the war between Russia and Ukraine. All of the equipment will be deployed with the Canadian-led NATO brigade in Latvia and the purchases — when they arrive — will complete the Liberal government's pledge to close major equipment gaps for troops in the field, whose mission is to deter potential Russian aggression in the Baltic states. Read more about the military equipment here.
The U.S. has informed Congress, as well as Canada and other allies, about a pressing national security concern involving Russia. The New York Times and ABC News, citing unnamed officials, reported that the concern was new intelligence about a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon. The Times said the weapon could pose an international threat but that it was not in orbit. Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House intelligence committee, said in a statement that the classified information is "significant" but "not a cause for panic." A senior source with direct knowledge of the briefing confirmed that Canada was among the allies briefed by the U.S. on the issue. Read more here.
A cold snap last month has nearly wiped out this season's grape crop in B.C. The latest report from the non-profit Wines of British Columbia and a management consulting firm projects a 97 to 99 per cent decrease in grape and wine production across the province. Temperatures plunged well below –20 C between Jan. 11 and 15, killing buds that would have eventually borne fruit, says grapevine physiologist Ben-Ming Chang with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. "The cold temperature [has] basically killed off the buds," he told CBC News. John Boynton, president of Arterra Wines Canada, says the severity of the damage surpasses anything he has ever experienced in the business. "We've been short on crops [before but] nothing as catastrophic as this," he said. Boynton says while he is confident his business can withstand the blow, he fears for smaller-scale wineries. "You are going to see potentially a lot of ruined business," he said. Read more about the blow to the wine industry here.Imagine a furnace that heats the whole neighbourhood, not just your home. That's the promise of district heating and cooling, or district energy, where entire communities share a heating and cooling system. That allows them to tap into many low-carbon energy sources they couldn't before, more efficiently than any individual building could. As governments look to tackle carbon emissions from buildings — the third-largest source in Canada behind the oil and gas industry and transportation — it's an idea that more of them are considering and implementing. Read about how it works here. If Alicia Keys's voice cracks at the Super Bowl, but it's edited out, did it even happen? When Keys belted out the opening notes to If I Ain't Got You during Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show — and warbled, ever so slightly, before recovering — it was a vulnerable, but for many, relatable moment about the realities of live performances. But if you watch the NFL's official YouTube video or Apple Music's video of the same performance, the crack never happened. The NFL video, viewed over 17 million times on YouTube as of Wednesday afternoon, was seemingly edited to smooth out the note. And that divided a lot of people online, with some saying the NFL showed Keys grace by editing out the mistake, and others saying it's the mistake that makes her performance real. Read more about the crack and the history of polishing live music performances here.
Now, here's some good news to start your Thursday: An Inuk designer has made her way to New York Fashion Week — and she's bringing Inuit fashion and a team of models from Labrador with her. April Allen will be showcasing her label, Stitched by April, at her show this weekend. "Attending the New York Fashion Week is definitely a dream come true for me. And you know, it's important to ensure authentic representation of Inuit and Indigenous models," she told CBC News. It not only validates her brand and adds to its authenticity, she said, but also provides opportunities for potential careers in modelling within her community. Allen said she worked all through Christmas, including making a pair of boots for actress Kali Reis that were meant for the red carpet premiere of the new season of the HBO series True Detective. "The boots didn't make it in time ... but they did eventually make it to her, and they ended up on The Kelly Clarkson Show," said Allen. Read more and see some of her work here. | | |  | Overdoses and a small city state of emergency | | Paramedics in Belleville, Ont., responded to 13 drug overdoses in just an hour last week. What does it tell us about spikes in overdoses happening across the province? Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: Feb. 15 | | | 1946: The federal government says a Soviet spy ring exists in Canada. The revelations — from Igor Gouzenko, a former clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa — led to charges against 21 people. Eleven were convicted.
1965: The very first Canadian Maple Leaf flag is unfurled at an Ottawa ceremony.
1982: The oil rig Ocean Ranger sinks in a storm 315 kilometres east of St. John's. All 84 crew members died, most of them from Newfoundland.
1996: At a Flag Day ceremony in Hull, Que., Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is wandering through a crowd of people when he is confronted by a tuque-clad protester, Bill Clennett. Chrétien grabs him by the throat and pushes him into the arms of police officers. The incident was dubbed "The Shawinigan Handshake," named in honour of Chretien's hometown. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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