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Oct 21 2023

Bank blocker. Prisoner hunters. Italian split. The Roundup

Oct 21, 2023
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
"Unfortunately, the news is not good," said John Boscariol said, a Toronto lawyer and partner at McCarthy Tetreault who leads the law firm's international trade and investment practice.
Poilievre urges feds to block RBC’s $13.5B takeover of HSBC over competition concerns
Pierre Poilievre said the loss of British-owned HSBC's Canadian division will exacerbate issues in Canada's banking sector, which he said is already overly concentrated. [Global]
A majority of Canadians say the country will face more extreme weather events in the future, calling on the government to take urgent action, according to Ipsos polling. [Global]
Israel-Gaza
Inside the ‘civilian war room’ where Israeli volunteers hunt for the prisoners of Hamas
Freeing the more than 200 Israeli prisoners taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 has become a national cause. [Global]
The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened to let a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off in the wake of Hamas’ bloody rampage. [AP]

Some Liberal MPs have been calling for a ceasefire while others have decried the idea, saying that Israel has a right to defend itself
Canadian Armed Forces officials told reporters in Ottawa on Friday that military officials are in Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus and Greece to prepare for a possible civilian evacuation. [Global]
Israel said it urgently needs artillery shells to prepare for a ground invasion in Gaza. [Axios]
Canada will be ready to move Canadians trapped in Gaza through the Rafah crossing to Egypt once a humanitarian corridor has been opened, Global Affairs Canada said Friday. [Global]
From the provinces
Some 27 current and former Liberal MPPs are urging party members to elect Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie because she “clearly spooks Doug Ford and his cabal of Conservatives.” [TorStar]
Cost of living & healthcare continue to dominate priorities, few in B.C. satisfied with BC NDP performance. [Angus Reid Institute]
The new Saskatchewan law will prevent children under 16 from changing their names or pronouns at school without receiving parental consent.
Wednesday morning at the Westin Calgary, Nigel Hannaford took the lectern at the Calgary Leadership Prayer Breakfast to decry an apparent move away from Christian values. [Global]
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Elsewhere
Italy PM Giorgia Meloni splits from partner after off-air lewd TV remarks
Giorgia Meloni says the relationship is over after a TV show airs her partner's off-air comments. [BBC]
Chesebro, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal. His plea came a day after fellow attorney Sidney Powell, who had been scheduled to go to trial alongside him, entered her own guilty plea to six misdemeanor counts. [AP]
Facing intimidation for opposing Jim Jordan’s speakership candidacy, mainstream Republicans are refusing to back down, defying their reputation for caving in the face of party clashes. [NYT]
The Florida governor’s campaign, facing a cash crunch, has found a way to offload the steep costs of private air travel. Campaign finance experts say the arrangement could test the limits of the law. [NYT]
Media
Only a healthy news media can cut through the fog of war
Andrew MacDougall: Must we insist on feeding the insatiable maw of real-time social media platforms instead of letting professionals ferret out the facts? [Ottawa Citizen]
Canada's telecommunications regulator is looking to ease some Canadian content spending requirements for Corus Entertainment Inc. as the company says labour unrest in the U.S. entertainment industry and high inflation have hurt its bottom line. [TorStar]
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Sci/Tech
‘Mind-blowing’ IBM chip speeds up AI
IBM’s NorthPole processor sidesteps need to access external memory, boosting computing power and saving energy. [Nature]

"... 14th-century Europe couldn’t get enough of clocks. Starting in northern Italy, they spread rapidly across the continent: by 1400 they were being built as far apart as Moscow, Santiago de Compostela and Caffa on the Black Sea coast. Local governments suffered from timepiece envy. In 1370 the small Silesian town of Schweidnitz asked a clockmaker to build ‘a clock equal to the one in Breslau or better’." [London Review of Books]
The Calendar
  • 1130 ET - Iqaluit - Jagmeet Singh and NDP MP Lori Idlout meet with the Nunavut Employees Union.
  • 1800 ET - Iqaluit - Jagmeet Singh speaks at the NDP Nunavut nomination meeting.
  • 2100 ET - Sidney, BC: GPC MP Elizabeth May attends a hospital foundation gala.
Issued this day ...
.. in 1992: Scott #1447a se-tenant pair: Order of Canada/Roland Michener. Design: Tania Craan. Photography: Michael Kohn and Artin Cavouk. 
Issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the Order of Canada and in memory of its first recipient, Roland Michener (1900-1991), the 20th Governor General of Canada. 

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