LOCAL
The head of Metrolinx said that any changes to the Scarborough LRT plan will require a council vote to reopen the agreement. Robert Pritchard released a public letter in response to TTC Chair Karen Stintz’s letter outlining her concerns about the province’s plan for a shortened subway route instead of the light-rail line or the subway plan council endorsed. [Globe and Mail]
The husband of former Ontario health minister George Smitherman is missing. Christopher Peloso, 39, was last seen Monday afternoon at around 4 p.m., according to police. [Globe and Mail]
A former office employee of an Ontario Member of Parliament was replaced by an unpaid intern, and is filing a complaint with the Ministry of Labour. Rob Jackson, the PC MPP in Barrie, said the posting that went out by his office is for a volunteer, not an unpaid intern. [CBC]
NATIONAL
The Parti Quebecois published the Charter of Quebec Values, banning the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols by public employees. The Democractic Institutions Minister said the proposals, “promote social peace, harmony and cohesion in an increasingly diverse Quebec.” [National Post]
A Canadian woman has been sentenced for her role in a “despicable” fraud that saw $57-million stolen from a Holocaust survivor fund. Luba Kramrich asked the judge to consider that she’s caring for her 93-year-old mother, herself a Holocaust survivor, but the judge sentenced her to 37 months behind bars. [National Post]
Canadian music legend Neil Young slammed Alberta’s vast oil sands and the Keystone XL plans, calling Fort McMurray a “wasteland.” He also compared Fort McMurray “looks like Hiroshima,” and said that “The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying.” [Globe and Mail]
INTERNATIONAL
President Obama said in a televised address that not responding to a chemical attack in Syria would be a threat to the U.S., but that diplomatic avenues would be pursued first. Obama said he asked congress to postpone votes on a Syrian military strike in order to pursue diplomacy. [CBC]
Four men are likely to be sentenced to hang for the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus last year. The judge convicted all the accused, ending the seven-month trial, but there’s still to be seen whether or not they get the death penalty. [The Guardian]
A federal judge almost shut down the U.S. government’s surveillance program designed to fight terrorism after he “lost confidence” in officials’ ability to operate it. This came after discovering that government officials had been accessing domestic phone records for nearly three years without “reasonable articulate suspicion” that there was any connection to terrorism. [CBC]
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