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politics briefing

Good morning,

A profile is emerging of Christopher Wylie, the Canadian who is now at the centre of an international scandal after blowing the whistle on U.K.-based data firm Cambridge Analytica's use of millions of Facebook users' data for political campaigns. (You can read the Guardian's original exposé here.) Before his time at Cambridge Analytica, Mr. Wylie began working on political campaigns in his teens, notably as a parliamentary assistant to MP Keith Martin and later working for the Liberal Party of Canada.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

TODAY'S HEADLINES

Liberal MPs are urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to push other developed countries to adopt Magnitsky-style laws at the G7 Summit Canada is hosting this summer. Yesterday, all parties in the House of Commons agreed to condemn Russia for the assassination of a former spy in London earlier this month.

The federal government says it will not re-evaluate letting Chinese telecom giant Huawei operate extensively in Canada.

About three-quarters of those surveyed said they thought the Prime Minister's recent trip to India didn't go well, a new Nanos poll suggests.

When recreational marijuana goes on sale later this year, the drug will be sold in largely nondescript packaging that will limit the use of logos and slogans while prominently displaying health warnings. The strict packaging rules from Health Canada are designed to avoid making the drug appealing to younger users.

A group of American newspapers and major Canadian newsprint producers have formed a coalition to oppose tariffs on Canadian newsprint imposed by the Trump administration. The group Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers is warning that publishers in the U.S. will face high prices on newsprint, which will hurt an industry that is already at risk.

Indigenous communities in Manitoba will have more involvement in child welfare cases under new legislation designed to help children in care keep their Indigenous customs and family connections.

Manitoba has passed legislation allowing the national investment industry regulator to enforce its fines through the courts, joining Alberta in giving the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada new powers.

Protests against Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion are intensifying near the company's terminal in Burnaby, B.C., where 14 protesters were arrested yesterday.

The B.C. government is expanding access to dental care for vulnerable patients such as people with disabilities.

Via Rail will be given federal funding to replace its aging fleet of trains on the Windsor-to-Quebec-City corridor, with one aim being to make them more environmentally friendly.

Former Trudeau cabinet minister Judy Foote will be Newfoundland and Labrador's next lieutenant-governor, CBC reports.

And a review by CBC News indicates the government has not started on nearly half of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 recommendations.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the mission to Mali: "Now, Mr. Trudeau's government is stepping cautiously. The task force is the peacekeeping equivalent of the half-dozen fighter jets Canada has sent to NATO missions in Kosovo and Libya – modest in scope, with risks minimized."

Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on carbon pricing: "Not so long ago, Justin Trudeau's energy strategy looked so simple. It rested on a Grand Bargain. Canada would build a pipeline or two, and the citizens would do penance in the form of carbon taxes that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Everybody – environmentalists, the oil industry and right-thinking Canadians – would be happy. Today, that bargain is looking mighty shaky."

André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on Canadian health care: "The notion that health spending is out of control and gobbling up too much of our tax dollars simply does not hold up to international scrutiny."

Dan Lett (Winnipeg Free Press) on Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer: "If the Winnipeg appearance is any indication, and news reports from other communities suggest it is, Scheer is putting in a rather underwhelming, coast-to-coast performance. That might have something to do with the fact Scheer is offering, as it stands, the policy platform that time forgot...These are all live issues, and the staples of small-C conservatism. It would be unfair to expect Scheer to abandon them altogether. But given it's 2018, shouldn't there be something else?"

Arshy Mann (Maclean's) on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh: "In some ways, it's not fair to put the burden of decades of bloody history upon Singh's shoulders. It's not his responsibility to condemn every Sikh who has committed an atrocity in the name of the faith. But along with being the leader of the federal NDP, Singh is also the highest-profile Sikh politician outside of India. That, combined with his history of activism on Sikh issues, means these are not questions he has the privilege of dodging."

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