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politics briefing newsletter

Good morning,

It’s hard to comprehend that a country could build “tent cities” to house thousands of children ripped from their parents, but that’s the reality in Texas today. The U.S. government has created these camps (or, more accurately, detention facilities) in Texas to split up families crossing the border with Mexico. U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to blame Democrats for the policy that his own administration put in place to separate the families, and that could be changed at any point. Former first lady Laura Bush decried the practice today in the Washington Post. And a spokeswoman for current first lady Melania Trump says she “hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.”

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and James Keller in Vancouver. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

Senior U.S. politicians -- both Republican and Democrat -- are warning Canada that Chinese smartphone maker Huawei poses a national security threat. “ Certainly this threat demonstrates the need for a concerted, co-ordinated response among allies,” Senator Mark Warner told The Globe.

Voters in the Quebec riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord head to the polls for a by-election today.

As Doug Ford becomes premier of Ontario, he’ll be surrounded by former MPs and staffers from Stephen Harper’s time in office. Four former MPs from Mr. Harper’s Conservative government and six former federal Tory staffers won seats in this month’s Ontario election.

Of course, PCs are not alone in looking to Toronto from Ottawa: some Liberal MPs are eyeing the vacant leadership of the Ontario Liberals.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball is a betting man. “To reporters in this room, take your pens out, take your notepads out, because I’m going to say something right now. I’m going to guarantee to every single person in this room, and you can quote me on it, mark it down, I’m guaranteeing you that we will win the election in 2019.”

A fall referendum on proportional representation in B.C. will present voters with three potential options for voter reform — including two that are Canadian-designed and have never been used by any other democracy.

Some residents near Kinder Morgan’s terminal in Burnaby, B.C., say they want a growing protest camp that has sprouted up to oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to be dismantled.

British Columbia’s government could announce this week what it plans to do with a series of fish farm licences off the coast, amid increasing pressure from environmentalists to crack down or even shut down on the industry. Recent consultations have included First Nations communities — but not the industry.

Energy regulators in the United States will hear final arguments as they decide whether to approve Enbridge’s proposed replacement of its Line 3 pipeline from Canada into Minnesota.

The first university in northern Canada is set to open this fall.

Former NDP MP Paul Dewar is launching a new initiative this week to empower young leaders. Mr. Dewar says the impetus for the project was his diagnosis of brain cancer, which is terminal. He has the same illness that led to Gord Downie’s death last year.

And for readers in Ottawa who have have been watching the Château Laurier expansion saga and cringing, Globe architecture critic Alex Bozikovic has one word: relax. “The addition, in its current form, is a respectful and respectable piece of architecture. But it sure won’t make everyone happy. Nothing could.”

(And one last bit of news for Ottawa residents: it’ll be long lines again this year to get on to Parliament Hill for Canada Day.)

Sarah Kendzior (The Globe and Mail) on the U.S. child-migrant camps: “Another answer to ‘it can’t happen here’ is, of course, ‘make it stop happening’ – an option the GOP can choose to enact, by holding Mr. Trump and officials, who have flagrantly broken the law, accountable for their crimes and striking down their policies. They refuse to do so.“

Vicky Mochama (Toronto Star) on accepting refugees: “The hostility faced by migrants crossing the Mediterranean, as well as the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States, is a deadly one and a global one. Far too many nations — including Canada — are failing to learn the lessons of history. In Canada, the Prime Minister is quick to tweet that refugees are welcome but there has been no marked uptick in making welcome spaces for them.”

Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on Doug Ford and the fate of the Liberals: “Mr. Ford will face two decisions that will either breathe a bit of life back into the Liberals or push them a little closer to extinction. As he approaches them, he will face divided opinions among Tories about what sort of political landscape suits their future interests.”

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the independent senators: “It’s common to see end-of-session brinksmanship in both houses of Parliament, and it often ends with MPs or senators deciding they’d rather go home. But this week is still shaping up as a key test of Mr. Trudeau’s independent-senator idea. It’s a period of chaos the Senate has never seen before.“

The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on infrastructure spending: “The great era of North American public works is over. Our societies are too fussy, risk-averse, fractured, bureaucratic and litigious to lay down the reams of concrete and steel that 20th-century builders like Robert Moses and Fred Gardiner were able to.”

Lorna Dueck (The Globe and Mail) on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on Trinity Western University: “Signed codes of conduct exist for a wide variety of public institutions and schools in Canada, and that’s why this one was worth fighting for on the grounds of fairness.”

Anna Su (CBC) on the decision: “If religion is mere preference, and for as long as the Court can reason that one can still believe within the confines of one’s home or inside a church anyway, the Charter guarantee of freedom of religion means nothing. It means nothing to believers and their communities, and it should mean nothing to Canadian society at large.”

Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on the Phoenix payroll system: “In the private sector, these would almost certainly be firing offences. Federal government leaders want to be paid on par with executives in the private sector, and many are. But they also enjoy a lot more job and pension security.”

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