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

Highlights from the news file for Wednesday, Aug. 31

ENVOY LISTS SNAGS TO CANADA-CHINA FREE TRADE: Formal free-trade talks between Canada and China have yet to proceed because of snags over labour, the environment and concerns linked to Chinese state-owned enterprises, says Ottawa’s envoy to Beijing. Ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques highlighted those sticking points Wednesday after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Canada and China would soon launch a feasibility study on an eventual free trade deal.

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ECONOMY POSTS WORST SHOWING SINCE 2009: The Canadian economy shrivelled in the second quarter to its worst performance in seven years, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. The federal agency said real gross domestic product fell at an annualized rate of 1.6 per cent in the three-month period, due in large part to the wildfires that destroyed parts of Fort McMurray, Alta. That’s the biggest quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2009 when Canada was in the midst of the global financial crisis.

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SECOND MILK HIKE WILL LIKELY BE PASSED TO CUSTOMERS: Restaurateurs are crying foul over a second industrial milk price increase this year set to take effect Thursday, which they say will likely lead to higher food prices. In July, the Canadian Dairy Commission decided to raise the price of industrial milk — which is processed into yogurt, ice cream, cheese and butter — by 2.76 per cent. That’s on top of a 2.2 per cent hike that occurred in February. The CDC said the hikes came because producer revenues “decreased rapidly” last fall, in part due to a decrease in global demand from importing countries and changing consumer preferences — and revenues did not stabilize by early spring as anticipated.

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CHINA LIFTS DEADLINE IN CANOLA DISPUTE: China says it will lift a fast-approaching deadline to introduce rule changes on Canadian canola shipments that threatened to inflict damage on the multibillion-dollar sector. Starting Thursday, the Chinese government had planned to enforce tighter regulations on the amount of foreign materials — such as weeds, other crops and detritus — permitted in canola exports from Canada. But after a meeting Wednesday in Beijing between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the two countries announced the existing rules would stay in place as they continued to negotiate a long-term solution.

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CANADA TO JOIN CHINESE-LED INFRASTRUCTURE BANK: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced plans to apply for a controversial new international infrastructure bank led by China — an initiative Ottawa insists will provide a boost to global and Canadian growth. The Canadian government made the announcement Wednesday after the prime minister met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Ottawa did not immediately specify how much money it would put into the eight-month-old bank.

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TRUMP SAYS HE AND MEXICAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSED WALL, NOT PAYMENT: Standing alongside the president of Mexico, a measured Donald Trump on Wednesday defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank, but he declined to repeat his frequent promise to force Mexico to pay for it. Trump, the U.S. presidential candidate who is widely despised across Mexico, also sidestepped his repeated criticism of Mexican immigrants following a closed-door meeting at the official residence of the country’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto.

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BRAZIL’S PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF OUSTED FROM OFFICE: Brazil’s Senate voted Wednesday to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, the culmination of a yearlong fight that paralyzed Latin America’s largest nation and exposed deep rifts among its people on everything from race relations to social spending. While Rousseff’s ouster was widely expected, the decision was a key chapter in a colossal political struggle that is far from over. She was accused of breaking fiscal laws in her management of the federal budget.

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MISSING WOMEN’S INQUIRY HEAD AIMS FOR REAL ACTION: The judge who will lead a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women says her own losses have helped her understand the immense toll of the problem in Canada. Marion Buller formally begins work Thursday as chief commissioner of the inquiry that will examine disproportionately high rates of violence against aboriginal women and girls. Buller is a member of Saskatchewan’s Mistawasis First Nation and was British Columbia’s first female aboriginal judge, and she says she has lost friends who disappeared or were killed.

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FACT-FINDING MISSION TO LOOK AT PEACEKEEPING IN MALI: The federal government is sending a fact-finding mission to take a closer look at the United Nations’ peacekeeping operations in Mali. Officials say the mission, which will include diplomats, military personnel and RCMP officers, does not mean the government has decided to send Canadian peacekeepers to the west African country. But it does suggest Mali is at least on the shortlist despite being the most dangerous peacekeeping operation in the world, which will please the UN.

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SUBBAN DISAPPOINTED AT NOT BEING ON CANADIAN TEAM: Nashville Predators defenceman P.K. Subban admits he’s disappointed at not making the Canadian team for the World Cup of Hockey, but says he had no control over the decision to omit him. The former Montreal Canadiens star told a news conference Wednesday he loves representing his country and that he’s had “tremendous success” when given that opportunity. Subban was left off the roster in May and again recently when Jay Bouwmeester was chosen to replace the injured Duncan Keith. The World Cup opens in Subban’s hometown of Toronto on Sept. 17, but he said his entire focus is on getting ready for his first season in Nashville.