Scandinavian Country and Economic Hardship

Saudi Arabia: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN OTTAWA > Though the Liberals cite Sweden as a country that suffered economic hardship after cancelling a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia in their defence that Canada can't do the same, Steven Chase reports that the Scandinavian country got little blowback and appears to still have good relations with the Saudis. > Coming out of an international meeting in Vienna, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion says Canada will help with more humanitarian aid in Syria if the current ceasefire fails. > The assisted-dying bill seems unlikely to meet its deadline imposed by the Supreme Court, after senators told the House of Commons what changes they would like to see in the bill. > In a sign of maturity for tech startups, Ottawa-based Shopify has hired its first in-house lobbyist – someone whom the Liberals know quite well. > And a popular Parliament Hill journalist and a senior senator got into a Twitter scrap over who, exactly, leaked an audit, according to Globe and Mail. REGIONAL ROUNDUP > Alberta: Wildfires continue to rage around Fort McMurray, causing further delays to getting oil production restarted. > British Columbia: A former government staffer has been charged with breach of trust after a three-year-long RCMP investigation. > Ontario: The Liberals have tabled their campaign-finance legislation, which would ban union and corporate donations and dramatically lower the annual donation cap. As Renisa Mawani explains, the incident had wider implications for immigration that went beyond the experience of those 376 migrants. The new rules would give parties a subsidy based on their popular vote. In other news, Jane Taber takes a closer look at Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown who is trying to move the party to the middle through appeals to gay, lesbian and transgender Ontarians and proposals to fight climate change. However, the bill does not address private fundraisers and still allows for larger donations in election years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.