 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Brian Mulroney's ambitious and divisive agenda remembered by friends and former political foes | | |  | Brian Mulroney confers with then-Newfoundland premier Frank Moores at the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership convention in Ottawa. The former prime minister's family announced late Thursday that Mulroney died peacefully at age 84, surrounded by loved ones. | | | From championing free trade to opposing racial apartheid in South Africa, former prime minister Brian Mulroney left a remarkable and indelible imprint on Canadian history.
Condolences have been pouring in since news broke that the nation's 18th prime minister had died just shy of his 85th birthday. His daughter, Caroline Mulroney, shared the news Thursday afternoon on social media. His friends and admirers spoke both of the late statesman's ambitious (and sometimes divisive) political agenda and the extraordinary personal connections he forged along the way.
"He had the courage to do big things," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "He shaped our past, but he shapes our present, and he will impact our future, as well."
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Mulroney's economic policies and achievements, including one of his most consequential ones: brokering a free trade deal with the U.S. "He unleashed free enterprise, crushed inflation, restored fiscal sanity and concluded one of the greatest free trade agreements the world has ever seen, which remains largely in place today," said Poilievre. He also mentioned Mulroney's passionate and personal campaign against South Africa's apartheid system and his efforts to rally Commonwealth nations against it.
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest said Mulroney's time in politics was a different world. "It was a time when people went into politics with an idea and an understanding that you had to make difficult decisions and accept that they would be unpopular because they were necessary," he told CBC News. "And the good things and the bad things come with the job, but you have a deep responsibility towards the country and towards history."
Lucien Bouchard, who quit Mulroney's cabinet and went on to form the Bloc Québécois, said they had recently reconciled from their bitter falling-out. "Too late. So many years lost," he told CBC News in Montreal. "We felt very strong for what we thought and fought for, so it can explain things but at the end of the day it's a lot of years lost for a marvellous friendship."
In honour of his death, the flags on the Peace Tower and all federal buildings and establishments in Canada will be flown at half mast until his funeral, which has not yet been announced. The House of Commons adjourned yesterday at news of his passing. | | | | | Trump, Biden visit Mexico border | | |  | (Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | Migrants attempt to cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, yesterday. U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, in Brownsville and Eagle Pass, Texas, respectively. A survey this week suggested a majority of Americans support Donald Trump's signature policy: a border wall with Mexico. Read more about Americans' anger about the border and how it will affect the presidential campaign here. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | An IT firm run by a defence department employee has been awarded more than $200 million in government contracts since 2015. Dalian Enterprise has come under scrutiny recently over its involvement in the development of the ArriveCan app. The company had received $7.9 million for its work on the project as of last March, according to a recent report from Canada's auditor general. Dalian's president and founder, David Yeo, is also an employee of the Department of National Defence (DND). CTV first reported the news and the department confirmed it to CBC News. "Due to the serious nature of the concerns raised, DND is launching an internal investigation into the matter. The individual has been suspended while this investigation is underway. We are in the process of suspending contracts with Dalian," a department spokesperson told CBC News in an email. Defence Minister Bill Blair said Thursday during question period that all government contracts with Dalian have been suspended. Read more about Dalian Enterprise here.
Taxpayers are on the hook for almost $1 billion after an accounting error covered up for years by Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC). More than 272,000 former soldiers, sailors and aircrew — most of them elderly — were short-changed on pension and disability payments for almost eight years, starting in 2002. VAC staff made the mistake by not factoring provincial tax credits for individuals into their calculations. The department discovered the error in 2010. The oversight was fixed but officials decided at the time not to notify the affected veterans and not to offer reimbursement for the missed payments. The affected veterans — who include some former members of the RCMP — sued and have now been awarded an additional $817 million on top of $165 million in compensation earmarked by the federal government. Read more about the lawsuit here.
Air Canada is hiking their checked-bag fee. Could carry-on charges be next? The airline has increased its fee for first checked bag by $5 for economy-type fares, and some industry experts warn that as checked-luggage fees rise so do the number of passengers filling the cabin with carry-on. "If you're charging for checked bags, you better start charging for carry-on," said Fred Lazar, an associate professor of economics at York University who studies the industry. "Otherwise, people are going to do the only logical thing: they're going to shift from checked bags to carry-ons, which are free." Lazar said too much carry-on is not only problematic for passengers, but also airlines. "Many [flights] have been delayed because there simply is not enough room for the carry-on bags, coats on the flight. So they have to, at the last minute, check a number of bags." Some airlines already charge for cabin baggage, including Flair Airlines and Porter, when passengers buy its lowest, basic fare. In late 2022, Sunwing introduced a $25 charge for the service. When asked if they were considering carry-on charges, WestJet and Air Canada would only say that they have made no current changes to their policy of one free overhead bag. Read more about checked-bag fees here.
Italy's far-right leader is likely to receive a warm reception in Canada this weekend. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, widely regarded as that country's most right-wing leader since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, will be in Toronto Saturday for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and it is expected to be a cordial one. Meloni, reads a news release from the Prime Minister's Office, enjoys a "close relationship" with Canada. She's a "steadfast" ally, it says, in "defending democracy." The statement is a far cry from the public criticism Trudeau lobbed at Meloni at a meeting of the G7 last year. There, he voiced "concern" about the Italian prime minister's positions on 2SLGBTQ+ rights, which included plans to revoke parental rights for gay couples with children. But since last May, experts say, Meloni has deftly performed a delicate balancing act, advancing centrist positions on the international stage while appeasing a far-right base at home. In the process, she has become a key power player in Europe amid a wider surge in right-wing sentiment across the continent. Read more about Meloni's visit here.
Relatives and supporters of Alexei Navalny bid farewell to the Russian opposition leader at a funeral today. Moscow's Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which agreed to hold the service, did not mention it on its social media page. Authorities lined the road from a nearby subway station to the church with crowd-control barriers, and riot police deployed in big numbers. After the hearse arrived at the church, the coffin could be seen on livestreamed footage being taken out of the vehicle, as the crowd applauded and chanted: "Navalny! Navalny!" Burial was to follow in the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, where police also showed up in force. Read more about Navalny's funeral here.
Now here's some good news to start your Friday: More than 100 possible new marine species have been discovered in a single deep-sea expedition. "It is beyond my wildest dreams of what we could have expected," said Erin Easton, a marine scientist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. "It felt like every time we went around a rock outcrop or zoomed in close, we were like: oh wow, we've never seen that." Easton was part of a Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition off the coast of Chile. Researchers documented more than 100 marine species they believe are new to science, including corals, squid, sponges, urchins, amphipods, fish, crustaceans and more. The team took samples of each species and will analyze them to confirm they are, indeed, new discoveries — a process that could take several years. Using an underwater robot capable of descending 4,500 metres below the ocean's surface, the team was able to get an up-close look at previously unexplored underwater mountains that included ecosystems such as sponge gardens and coral reefs. "It was just a really rewarding and positive feeling to know there are these corals that have lived this long and made it through all these centuries and millennia, still thriving," Easton said. Read about the expedition — and see some of their discoveries — here. | | |  | In Ukraine: a popular president, a less popular war | After two years of leading a country at war, Ukraine’s president remains popular. But as support for the fight wavers inside and outside the country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces a new set of high-stakes challenges.
Listen to today's episode. | | | Checkup wants to know: Are you able to afford your medications? And can Canada afford a national pharmacare plan? Also, our Ask Me Anything focuses on the dos and don'ts of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Fill out the details on this form and send us your stories and questions ahead of the show. | | | Today in history: March 1 | | | 1927: The Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council awards Labrador to Newfoundland over a claim from Quebec.
1950: Klaus Fuchs, scientist and communist, is sentenced in London to 14 years in prison for giving British and American atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1965: A gas explosion in a Montreal apartment block kills 28 people.
2009: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says in an interview with CNN that "frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency" in Afghanistan. | | | (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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