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

Highlights from the news file for Monday, Jan. 23

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TRUMP ADVISER SAYS CANADA COULD BENEFIT FROM NAFTA RENEGOTIATION: An adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump says Canada will be in a good position should there be a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Stephen Schwarzman, who leads the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, is in Calgary to take part in meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal cabinet. Schwarzman says he met privately with Trudeau as well as with cabinet ministers, all of whom have gathered for a two-day retreat where the challenges posed by a Trump presidency are expected to dominate the agenda. Trump has promised a new trade relationship with the world focusing on American interests.

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TRUMP GIVES NOTICE U.S. WILL WITHDRAW FROM TPP: President Donald Trump wasted little time Monday in signing official notice that the United States is pulling out of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Trump called the move “a great thing for the American workers.” At least one Canadian trade expert said it heralds more trouble on trade, including the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico — another deal that Trump has in his sights. It remains unclear if Trump would seek individual deals with the 11 other countries in the TPP.

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SURVEY SAYS VANCOUVER HOMES 3RD COSTLIEST IN WORLD: An annual international survey rates Vancouver as the third least affordable housing market on the planet, and the study also has a warning about Toronto housing. The 2017 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey gives Vancouver a rating of 11.8, meaning median house prices are 11.8 times higher than median household income. Only Hong Kong, with a rating of 18.1, and Sydney, Australia, at 12.2, outstrip Vancouver. The 2017 survey ranks 406 markets in nine nations and puts Toronto at 28th on the list with a ranking of 7.7.

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POLICE SAY MARIJUANA SHOPS NOT REPORTING ROBBERIES: Police say marijuana dispensaries operating illegally in Toronto have been the target of violent, armed robberies but their business owners and employees often don’t report them to authorities. Supt. Bryce Evans says there have been 17 robberies of so-called pot shops since last June and eight of them were not reported to police. During some of those robberies, Evans said employees and customers in the stores were stabbed, pistol-whipped, pepper-sprayed and shot at. In one incident on Dec. 21, Evans said four or five masked men armed with guns stormed a downtown store, ordered the employees to the ground and stole cash and drugs before taking off.

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ADMISSIBILITY OF TERROR SUSPECT’S CONFESSION QUESTIONED: The case of a Quebec man charged with attempting to leave the country to participate in the activities of a terrorist group heard arguments Monday about the admissibility of his statements to police. Ismael Habib is on trial on the terror-related charge for wanting to allegedly fight for the Islamic State in Syria and on a second count for giving false information in order to obtain a passport. Defence lawyer Charles Montpetit is arguing his client’s statements made to undercover police officers should be deemed inadmissible as they were obtained through a Mr. Big-type operation.

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COURT HEARS POLICE HOPED TO RESCUE MISSING BOY AND GRANDPARENTS: A trial has heard that RCMP mounted what they thought was going to be a rescue mission at the home of a man charged in the disappearance of a Calgary couple and their five-year-old grandson. Emergency response officers arrived at Douglas Garland’s farm days after Alvin and Kathy Liknes and Nathan O’Brien vanished in June 2014. Court heard Monday that police had hoped that the three were being held hostage at a farm near Airdrie, north of Calgary, and might still be alive. Garland, 56, was arrested after the three victims disappeared. Their bodies have not been found.

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A THIRD OF CIGARETTES SOLD IN ONTARIO ILLEGAL: STUDY: A new study suggests nearly a third of cigarettes sold in Ontario are purchased illegally. The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco commissioned research that tracked the cigarette-buying habits of people in Ontario. The study found 32 per cent of respondents purchased contraband cigarettes, a figure that the coalition says is the highest in the country. They say contraband purchases are most common in northern Ontario, where more than half the respondents — 51 per cent — reported buying illegal cigarettes. They say the province needs to implement stronger enforcement measures to clamp down on the trade, which they say supports organized crime.

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GROUP SUES TRUMP OVER BUSINESSES: To fight what it called a “grave threat” to the country, a watchdog group on Monday filed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by allowing his business to accept payments from foreign governments. The lawsuit claims that Trump is violating a clause in the Constitution that prohibits him from receiving money from diplomats for stays at his hotels or foreign governments for leases of office space in his buildings. The language in the clause is disputed by legal experts, and some think the lawsuit will fail. Trump called the lawsuit “without merit, totally without merit.”

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SYRIAN PEACE TALKS OFF TO ROCKY START: Talks between the Syrian government and representatives of rebel factions got off to a rocky start Monday after their first face-to-face meeting in Kazakhstan that marked a major shift in the war’s dynamics and confirmed Russia’s role as regional heavyweight. The gathering in Astana, the Kazakh capital, is the latest in a long line of diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the nearly 6-year-old civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced half of Syria’s population. Syria’s U.N. envoy Bashar Ja’afari said the opposition delegation represented “terrorist armed groups,” and denounced the opening address delivered by the chief rebel negotiator, calling it “provocative” and “insolent.”

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NORIEGA GRANTED HOUSE ARREST: A lawyer for Panama’s jailed ex-dictator Manuel Noriega says a court has granted him house arrest so he can prepare for brain surgery. Attorney Ezra Angel announced the ruling Monday. The 82-year-old former strongman needs to have a benign brain tumour surgically removed. A court had ruled in October that Noriega be allowed to prepare for and recuperate from the procedure at a public hospital rather than prison. But Angel has argued that Noriega should be allowed to recuperate at home.

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