In Brief: India, Trans Mountain pipeline, and Guy Leclair

World in brief

India’s highest court struck down a centuries-old law outlawing gay sex. “History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families,” declared Judge Dipak Misra in his ruling.

British intelligence services identified two Russian nationals as suspects in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May said the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March must have been approved by high-ranking members of the Russian government, possibly including President Vladimir Putin himself.

Authorities in Seoul have begun daily inspections of the city’s 20,000 public bathrooms to crack down on placements of spy cams. According to CNN, such incidents have increased almost five-fold since 2011.

The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed from a senior White House official entitled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The author claimed that “many of the senior officials in [President Trump’s] administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” including the author himself.

Jair Bolsonaro, the frontrunner in Brazil’s presidential election, was stabbed in the abdomen at a campaign rally. A suspect is in police custody.

Tesla’s stock price fell suddenly after CEO Elon Musk was filmed smoking a mixture of marijuana and tobacco on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Nation in brief

Several Indigenous and Métis communities have expressed interest in investing in the Trans Mountain pipeline despite a Supreme Court ruling overturning its approval. Late last month, the court ordered the halt of the project due to a lack of proper environmental impact assessment or consultation with Indigenous communities.

The United States continued to urge Canada to lower its tariffs on dairy products as a concession in the two countries’ ongoing NAFTA talks. This week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would cause Canada’s “ruination” with tarifs if concessions were not made.

A report from Statistics Canada showed that the country lost over 51,000 jobs last month. According to Bloomberg, Ontario led the country in job loss following the biggest month-to-month drop in the province since 2009.

Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, pledged to move ahead with his plan to redraw Toronto’s municipal boundaries despite a contrary decision from the Ontario Superior Court. Ford will enact the constitutional notwithstanding clause, with allows governing bodies to operate outside of the constraints of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to reduce the size of Toronto’s city council from 47 to 25 less than two months before the city’s Oct. 22 election.

Daniel Kueblboeck, a German pop singer, was confirmed missing on the weekend after falling off a cruise ship off the coast of Newfoundland.

City in brief

An investigation by The Montreal Gazette found a lack of relevant competition for bids on municipal projects in Montreal. According to the article by Linda Gyulai, 40 per cent of contracts approved by the city in the last year had two bids or fewer, and 20 per cent had just one.

Montreal-born tennis player Eugénie Bouchard was criticized by some of Quebec’s party leaders for relocating to the Bahamas, a known tax haven. “I think we should live where we were born, where we learned to play tennis and pay taxes in our country,” Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault was quoted as saying in The Montreal Gazette.

Guy Leclair, the Parti Québecois candidate for Beauharnois, resigned his candidacy after being charged with impaired driving. Leclair, who was first elected in his riding in 2008, had previously been convicted of the same charges in 2011.

SAQ employees across the province went on a surprise strike on Sunday, which continued into Monday. The liquor board’s employees have been without a contract since March.

Australia’s Michael Matthews won Montreal’s ninth annual Grand Prix Cycliste bike race. Matthews pulled off a last-minute passing manoeuvre to beat Italy’s Sonny Colbrelli, making him the second of his countrymen to win the race since its beginning in 2010.

The city of Brossard was placed under a temporary boil water advisory over the weekend, following the discovery of certain harmful bacteria in its water supply.

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