The Thursday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories

Highlights from the news file for Thursday, Feb. 23

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS SOAR: The number of Canadians registered to purchase medical marijuana from licensed producers has jumped by leaps and bounds. Health Canada says at the end of last year, almost 130,000 Canadians signed up with the country’s 38 licensed cannabis producers. It’s a 32 per cent jump from the more than 98,000 registered as of last September 2016 and up from the 7,900 granted access to medicinal cannabis in mid-2014.

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HIGH COURT RULES ON DRUGGED DRIVING TRIALS: The Supreme Court of Canada says expert testimony doesn’t need to vetted before being admitted as evidence in drugged-driving trials. The court was dealing with a case involving an Ottawa motorist who underwent tests given by a drug recognition expert. In a 5-2 decision the court ruled the expertise of drug recognition experts has been established by Parliament and a hearing to determine admissibility of the evidence isn’t needed.

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HIGH COURT TO HEAR TRINITY WESTERN CHALLENGE: The Supreme Court of Canada will hear two appeals involving a private Christian university that demands all students sign a code of conduct forbidding sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage. Trinity Western University has been trying to obtain accreditation in all provinces for future graduates of its proposed law school. But the law societies in Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia have objected to its controversial conduct code. Critics say it discriminates against people in the LGBTQ community who are looking to enter the legal profession. But the British Columbia university contends its law school will allow evangelical Christians to study law in an environment that supports their beliefs.

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TAX AUTHORITIES EXPECT TO GRAB BIG BUCKS FROM TAX EVADERS: A senior Canada Revenue Agency says tax authorities are on track to recover at least an additional $400 million this year. It’s part of a campaign to crack down on tax evasion by big international companies and wealthy individuals. The Trudeau government provided extra cash to the Canada Revenue Agency in last year’s budget to pursue wealthy tax cheats.

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BUDGET WATCHDOG SAYS GOVERNMENT WON’T SPEND BILLIONS: The Parliamentary Budget Office says roughly $3 billion in planned government spending authorized by Parliament will go unspent this fiscal year. About a third of that figure is linked to the Trudeau government’s infrastructure program. The analysis also found that $366 million in spending this year had been frozen for the military and $192 million for federal fisheries department.

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UN WATCHING REFUGEE CROSSINGS AT CANADIAN BORDER: The United Nations refugee agency says it’s monitoring the increased flow of people illegally crossing the Canada-U.S. border to ask Canadian officials for asylum. The agency’s representative in Ottawa recently spent a day watching people make their way through an unofficial border crossing in Quebec and says he plans to keep up visits over the next few weeks.

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MANITOBA PREMIER WANTS LESS TALK MORE ACTION ON ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS: Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister wants the federal government to act on the influx of people who have jumped the border from the U.S. to seek asylum in Canada. He made the comments on Thursday as he announced more aid for refugee claimants in Manitoba: 14 new emergency housing units, $110,000 for paralegal and other services and $70,000 for a co-ordinator to support claimants.

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TRUMP PROMISES TO CRACK DOWN ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING: U.S. President Donald Trump says he will bring the “full force and weight” of the American government to combat an “epidemic” of human trafficking. Trump calls human trafficking a problem that is “not talked about enough.” He says he will ask his officials to take a hard look at the resources they are devoting to addressing the issue.

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PRO FOOTBALL’S FIRST BLACK QUARTERBACK DEAD AT AGE 88: Former CFL great Bernie Custis has died at age 88. He was pro football’s first black quarterback who blazed the trail for future stars like Warren Moon, Chuck Ealey and Damon Allen. He made history in 1951 when he became a starter with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

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FEMALE BASKETBALL PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER DOESN’T FEEL LIKE A TRAILBLAZER: Meghan McPeak says she doesn’t feel like she is blazing any trails. McPeak is in her second season as the voice of Raptors 905, the D-League affiliate of the Toronto Raptors. The NBA says she is the only female play-by-play announcer in the D-League. There are none in the NBA, and just one — ESPN’s Pam Ward — in the WNBA. She doesn’t reflect too much on her “first” saying other women before her doing jobs like colour commentary had to work to be taken seriously in a male-dominated position within the broadcast.

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