BRAD WALL WILL USE NOTWITHSTANDING CLAUSE

Saskatchewan's premier says the province will use the notwithstanding clause to defy a court ruling that said the government could no longer pay for non-Catholic students to attend Catholic schools.

SUPPLY MANAGEMENT CANADA'S LIABILITY IN TRADE DEALS

Canada is a free-trading nation—our economy is heavily dependent on trade. Yet we retain an anachronistic system of protection for dairy, poultry and eggs. Just those sectors – no others. This anomaly has been a huge liability for Canada in every recent set of trade negotiations, including those for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Europe (ceta). Every time our trade negotiators walk into a boardroom, they’re at a disadvantage—they effectively have one hand tied behind their backs.

DIVIDED COMMUNITY IN PEEL DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD

The region is home to the country’s fastest-growing Muslim population, according to the 2011 National Household Survey – 12 per cent of those who practice Islam in Canada live there. Now that minorities have reached a critical mass – 57 per cent of the population of Peel – they’re beginning to divide and engage in identity politics, said Pradip Rodrigues, a former Times of India reporter who has covered the rifts within the Indo-Canadian community for Canindia News for the past five years.

The debate at the school board has awakened old tensions in the South Asian community. British India’s partition, in 1947, which created two countries, predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan, exacerbated tensions between the two religious groups. In 2002, about 1,000 people were killed in riots in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the majority of whom were Muslims. Mr. Rodrigues notes that many Indian immigrants of the last generation have arrived in Canada with that lived experience and religious baggage. “If this was a mostly white town, things would be different,” Mr. Rodrigues said.

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF FORT MCMURRAY FIRE

Of the nearly 1,600 buildings that were destroyed in the forest fire that tore through the northern Alberta community, so far development permits have been issued to rebuild just 645 of them.

MEANWHILE IN GRETNA MANITOBA

"We are in the dark, we have no idea. We've just been told that this is happening and that's it," said Rehannon Tkachuk, a Gretna resident who was at the meeting. "It was made very clear to us that they were here to tell us about what's going on, and not to ask for our permission."

NOVA SCOTIA ELECTION CALLED FOR MAY 30

Leading up to the election call, a flurry of spending announcements across the province fuelled speculation an election was coming. A CBC News analysis of 41 recent commitments showed 70 per cent of those good-news announcements took place in Liberal held constituencies or were primarily to the benefit of those ridings.

FIBERAL DEFENSE MINISTER

The contrast between Sajjan's comments in India and what he told ethics watchdog Mary Dawson a few months ago is what has piqued Scott's attention.

Sajjan stated that he deployed to Afghanistan as a reservist and was "responsible for capacity-building with the local police forces."

Scott says he believes the minister gave the commissioner a benign description in order to get out of the conflict-of-interest complaint.

"While his boast in New Delhi was indeed less than truthful, the much bigger deception is his attempt to make Commissioner Dawson believe he was only a mere reservist working with police on 'capacity-building'," said Scott, a law professor who lost his Toronto-Danforth seat in 2015.