Five stories in the news for Thursday, May 9
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‘YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE’: INSIDE THE NORMAN COURTROOM
Vice-Admiral Mark Norman had walked up to the entrance of the Ottawa courthouse dozens of previous times over the past year, yet this time was different: This would be the last time. Like on all those other occasions, the military’s former second-in-command was dressed in full uniform as he approached the courthouse’s heavy glass doors with his wife Beverly and lawyers Marie Henein and Christine Mainville. Just outside the doors, he was greeted by an unexpected supporter: outgoing Liberal MP and former lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie, who was revealed just last week as a potential defence witness.
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AASIA BIBI ARRIVES IN CANADA: LAWYER
Conservatives in Canada want the federal government and the international community to push Pakistan to address its “abhorrent misuse of blasphemy laws” after the safe arrival in Canada of a Christian woman who spent eight years on Pakistan’s death row. Aasia Bibi’s lawyer told The Canadian Press she arrived in Canada Tuesday morning, though he had not spoken to her before she left. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last November that Canada was in talks with the Pakistani government about Bibi but would not comment on the case Wednesday, citing “sensitive privacy issues and security issues.”
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HUAWEI’S MENG TO SEEK STAY OF EXTRADITION
The defence team for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou says it plans to argue that she shouldn’t be extradited to the United States because she hasn’t violated sanctions under Canadian laws and her arrest at Vancouver’s airport was unlawful. The defence summarized arguments it plans to pursue during a hearing Wednesday at B.C. Supreme Court where key court dates were to be set for the extradition case, which has not yet begun. Her lawyers allege Meng was the victim of two “abuses of power,” first by Canadian arresting authorities and then by U.S. President Donald Trump, and they plan to make an argument based on “double criminality,” related to different sanction and fraud laws in the United States and Canada.
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TORONTO MAN WHO KILLED WIFE TO BE SENTENCED
A Toronto man who brutally murdered his wife and stuffed her body in a suitcase in an effort to hide his crime is scheduled to be sentenced today. Neurosurgeon Mohammed Shamji, 43, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the death of 40-year-old Elana Fric Shamji, a well-respected family doctor. Court heard Fric Shamji served her husband with divorce papers two days before he attacked her, broke her neck and ribs, and choked her to death as their three children slept nearby. Her mother told court at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing that Shamji destroyed their entire family, leaving them heartbroken and filled with rage.
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B.C.’S ARCHIE WINDSOR LAUGHS ABOUT ROYAL BABY LINK
At first, Archie Windsor of Duncan, B.C., says he was shocked to learn he had the same last name as the newest royal, but then he saw the humour. He says his father worked in the woods all his life and his nickname was Duke. Windsor, who’s 71, first heard about the connection in a conversation with his daughter in Edmonton on Wednesday. Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, named their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
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ALSO IN THE NEWS:
— The Commons justice committee hears from groups for a study about online hate. Among the groups and individuals: Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Centre culturel islamique de Quebec, National Council of Canadian Muslims, and Andrew Bennett, former head of federal office of religious freedom.
— Seidu Mohammed, who lost his fingers to frostbite crossing by foot into Canada to file a refugee claim, appears before the Commons finance committee on Bill C-97, an Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 19, 2019, and other measures. Also appearing is economist Kevin Milligan, Universities Canada and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.
— The Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Snowbird Association and officials from the Finance and Transport departments appear before Commons transport committee about temporary use in Canada, by Canadians, of American-plated vehicles.
— Google Canada’s head of public policy, Colin McKay, and counsel, Jason J. Kee, appear before the Commons information, privacy and ethics committee to discuss election advertising on YouTube.
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The Canadian Press
