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Five things from Wednesday's SNC committee

OTTAWA - Five things we heard Wednesday as the House of Commons justice committee heard from Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick and deputy justice minister Nathalie Drouin.

The committee is trying to determine whether the Prime Minister's Office improperly pushed former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to head off a trial of SNC-Lavalin for fraud and bribery by ordering prosecutors to negotiate a remediation agreement with the company.

1. The cabinet shuffle

Butts said the only reason Trudeau shuffled his cabinet in January was that Scott Brison quit politics. Trudeau didn't want another shuffle and wanted to keep it as small as possible. Butts said Trudeau needed an experienced minister replacing Brison as president of the Treasury Board and was concerned about choosing a new Nova Scotia minister without alienating other Nova Scotia MPs. SNC-Lavalin was not a consideration, he said.

Tokyo Olympic film debuts in Japan; headed next to Cannes

Soaring gas prices, now topping $2 per litre across much of Canada, have emerged as a central topic on the Ontario election campaign trail, with the three main parties pledging different plans for relief.

Jazz fest's pop-up venue an experiment in sound design and architecture

The Winnipeg International Jazz Festival prides itself on being a downtown event with Old Market Square serving as its hub for six days of free concerts and headlining acts filling venues such as the Burton Cummings Theatre and the Centennial Concert Hall.

But this year, the festival is expanding its boundaries by collaborating with RAW:Gallery to create RAW:JazzFest, a pop-up venue just outside of the downtown borders in St. Boniface at Parc Elzéar Goulet on Taché Avenue overlooking the Red River.  

"It felt like a unique opportunity to create a concert experience for Winnipeggers that they haven’t had before, and to also kind of be part of making a cool building. There’s unique value in that," says jazz fest artistic director Mike Falk.

"We love having music in small spaces; I think that when people are crushed together a bit more their kinetic energy bounces around and makes for good shows, so I think with this project it’s definitely designed to both animate the space and animate the people, and have some fun, as well."

Rallies, moments of silence honor George Floyd a year later

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A family-friendly street festival, musical performances and moments of silence were held Tuesday to honor George Floyd and mark the year since he died at the hands of Minneapolis police, a death captured on wrenching bystander video that galvanized the racial justice movement and continues to bring calls for change a year later.

Floyd’s sister Bridgett and other family members held a moment of silence at a “Celebration of Life” event at a downtown Minneapolis park that included music, food trucks, an inflatable bouncy house and a pop-up vaccination stand.

A few miles away, at the site of the intersection where Floyd died, dozens of people gathered around a steel fist sculpture and kneeled for several minutes — symbolic of the 9 minutes, 29 seconds during which Floyd was pinned to the ground.

“It’s been a troubling year, a long year,” Bridgett Floyd told the crowd in downtown Minneapolis. “But we made it. ... The love is very outpouring today. The love is here. George is here."

Colour guard: city, mobile sign industry clash over proposed restrictions

Winnipeg’s mobile sign industry is seeing red over what the city is calling a black-and-white issue.

New restrictions proposed by the City of Winnipeg limiting the number and types of colours, size, and placement of temporary signage is drawing sharp criticism from those responsible for the eye-catching advertisements.

“Some of the changes could devastate our industry and potentially end up bankrupting some of us. And it’s also going to hurt small business across Winnipeg,” said Brad Ingles, spokesman for Association of Mobile Signs Winnipeg.

The group was formed last year, when the city began reviewing bylaw enforcement and regulations, Ingles said Wednesday, and represents a handful of professional signage companies.