The Washington Post - 19.09.2019

A14 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 , 2019

The World

CANADA

Student diagnosed with

illness related to vaping

A high school student in
Canada has been diagnosed with
a severe respiratory illness
related to vaping, officials said
Wednesday, in what is thought to
be the first reported case in the
country.
Christopher Mackie, medical
officer of health and chief
executive of the Middlesex-
London Health Unit in London,
Ontario, said the youth was on
life support at one point but has
since recovered and is at home.
Health officials in the United
States are investigating a
mysterious surge of severe
breathing illnesses linked to
vaping. They have identified 380
confirmed and probable cases in
36 states and one territory,
including six deaths.
Mackie said the student had
been using electronic cigarettes
daily. He said officials know the
brand used and whether
cannabis was used, but he
declined to disclose those details.
Health Canada issued a
warning recently urging people
who vape to watch for symptoms

such as a cough, shortness of

breath and chest pain.

— Associated Press

CONGO

Rwanda militia leader

wanted by ICC is killed

Congo’s army has killed the

commander of the Rwandan

Hutu militia group FDLR, who

had been wanted by the

International Criminal Court

over war-crimes allegations, a

spokesman said Wednesday.

Sylvestre Mudacumura was

shot in Rutshuru territory in

North Kivu province, Gen.

Richard Kasonga said, calling it a

“real feat of the Congolese army.”

Mudacumura was one of the

most wanted men in Congo,

where dozens of rebel groups are

active, the spokesman said, and

was accused of ordering or

carrying out some of the worst

forms of violence against the

Congolese people, including rape.

“His neutralization is a good

action in the service of our

people,” Kasonga told the U.N.-

backed Radio Okapi.

Rwanda’s government said the

death brings good news for peace

and security in the region.

Some FDLR leaders are linked

to perpetrators of the 1994

Rwandan genocide, in which

more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis

and moderate Hutus were killed.

The FDLR is made up mostly of

Hutu refugees from Rwanda who

took shelter in Congo after the

genocide.

Kasonga appealed to other

rebel groups in eastern Congo,

and other FDLR members, to

surrender or face the same fate as

Mudacumura.

Mudacumura had been under

U.N. sanctions since 2005 for

involvement in arms trafficking.

The ICC arrest warrant was

issued in 2012 on counts of war

crimes.

— Associated Press

INDONESIA

Containers of waste

head back to the West

Indonesia is sending 547

containers of waste back to

wealthy nations after discovering

that they were contaminated with

used plastic and hazardous

materials, amid a growing

backlash in Southeast Asia

against being a dumping ground

for the developed world’s trash.

Nine containers with at least

135 tons of waste were sent back

to Australia on Wednesday,

customs director Heru Pambudi

said at a news conference in

Jakarta. He said 91 other

containers will be returned to

Australia after administrative

processes are complete.

They were among 156

containers held near Jakarta that

will be returned soon to wealthy

countries, including the United

States and Britain, he said.

Pambudi said the government

has stopped more than 2,

containers this year. It has sent

back 331, which will be followed

by 216 others. Authorities are still

investigating the rest.

Pambudi said Indonesian-

owned companies that imported

the waste must return it to the

countries of origin in 90 days.

China banned the import of

plastic waste at the end of 2017,

resulting in more used plastic

being sent to developing

Southeast Asian nations.

— Associated Press

Turkish court rules to keep

U.S. consulate worker in jail:

A Turkish court ruled to keep a

U.S. consulate employee in jail as

his trial on espionage charges

continues, his attorney said,

meaning he will remain in

detention until a hearing in

December. Metin To puz, a

Turkish interpreter and fixer for

the Drug Enforcement

Administration at the U.S.

Consulate in Istanbul, has been in

custody for 23 months. To puz is

charged with espionage and links

to the network of U.S.-based

cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is

accused by Turkey of plotting the

2016 coup attempt. Washington

says To puz is innocent.

— From news services

DIGEST

RAFKA MAJJID/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Firefighters spray water to extinguish a forest fire in Kampar, Riau

province, on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra. Forest fires, many sparked

by farmers making room for crops, have ravaged wide swaths of land

on Sumatra and Borneo island, spreading a thick, noxious haze across

the region and bringing complaints from neighboring Malaysia.

BY AMANDA COLETTA

toronto — Canada’s federal
election campaign wasn’t 48
hours old, and the candidates
were already trying to smear a
rival, by comparing him to a
politician who won’t appear any-
where near the ballot next month.
The venue was the campaign’s
first debate, this month in To ron-
to. The punching bag was Con-
servative Party leader Andrew
Scheer.
Green Party leader Elizabeth
May told Scheer she had reviewed
his foreign policy proposals and
drawn a conclusion: “If anyone
wants to know where you stand,
just figure out what Trump
wants.”
New Democratic Party leader
Jagmeet Singh piled on, saying
Scheer “seems to be willing to do
whatever it takes to support and
continue Trump’s policies.”
Polls show President Trump is
deeply unpopular in Canada, a
long-standing U.S. ally on which
he has imposed tariffs and whose
prime minister he has called
“weak” and “dishonest.” But as
leader of Canada’s closest security
partner and biggest trading part-
ner, Trump remains an important
figure here. And Canada has been
asking the United States for help
in getting China to free two Cana-
dians being held there. All this
means Trump could play an un-
usual role in the federal election
campaign.
Party leaders here are unlikely
to alienate voters if they criticize
the president; a man at a town
hall in British Columbia this year
offered to buy Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau a beer if he would
“just push him off a cliff.” (The
Liberal Party leader declined, say-
ing Canadians shouldn’t stoop to
“insults and jokes.”)
But candidates must also tread
lightly: Trump is seen as an easy
target; spending too much time
on him could backfire as cheap
politicking at t he expense of more
substantive campaigning. And
the eventual winner will have to
work with him.
There’s an extra challenge for
Scheer and the Conservatives.
“They don’t r eally want to align
themselves with a far-right, reac-
tionary or hard-line approach
that they see coming out of the
United States, but they still want
to be Conservatives,” said Laura
Dawson, director of the Canada
Institute at t he Wilson Center. “To
be too closely aligned to the val-
ues and beliefs of the current
White House incumbent would
be dangerous for any Canadian.”
The race was further compli-
cated Wednesday, when Time
magazine published a photo
showing Trudeau in brownface.
Trudeau acknowledged wearing
the makeup at a party in 2001.
“I attended an end-of-year gala
where the theme was Arabian
nights,” he said. “I dressed up in
an Aladdin costume and put
makeup on. I shouldn’t h ave done
that. I should have known better,
but I didn’t, and I’m really sorry.”
Trudeau, locked in a tight race
with Scheer, has cast himself peri-
odically as a liberal foil to Trump
and has tried to tie his conserva-
tive rivals to the president and his
policies. But he is careful in how
he does so, rarely mentioning the

president by name.

The day after Trump issued his

2017 executive order banning en-

try to refugees and visitors from

seven countries with Muslim ma-

jorities, Trudeau posted a tweet

widely seen as a dig: “To those

fleeing persecution, terror & war,

Canadians will welcome you re-

gardless of your faith. Diversity is

our strength. #WelcomeTo Cana-

da.”

After a gunman killed 51 peo-

ple at two mosques in New Zea-

land in March, Trudeau said some

of the blame should fall to politi-

cians who “routinely fail to de-

nounce this hatred” and who “ac-

tively court those who spread it.”

In a notable shift, though, the

Liberal Party released an ad over

the weekend naming Trump and

using his image. Narrated by For-

eign Minister Chrystia Freeland,

it opens with a video of Trump

and Trudeau shaking hands at t he

White House in 2017.

“When it was time to push for a

better NAFTA deal, your Liberal

government fought tooth and

nail to protect your jobs,” Free-

land says. “We stood up to Donald

Trump on trade when the Con-

servatives wanted Canada to back

down.”

Is Trudeau trying to provoke an

attack from the Oval Office?

Pollster Nik Nanos said it

wouldn’t necessarily be a “kiss of

death” for Trudeau, given the

president’s unpopularity among

Canadians.

After Trump called the prime

minister dishonest and weak last

year, Trudeau’s political foes ral-

lied to his side. Lawmakers unan-

imously adopted a motion in Par-

liament rejecting “disparaging ad

hominem statements by U.S. offi-

cials.” Even the populist premier

of Ontario, Doug Ford — far from

a Trudeau enthusiast — rose to

his defense, saying he stood

“shoulder to shoulder with the

prime minister.”

Does Trump plan to weigh in

on the election? The State Depart-

ment referred questions to the

White House, which declined to

comment. The Trump campaign

didn’t respond.

If Trump would prefer a Scheer

victory, he might do better to stay

out of the election. May, t he Green

Party leader, spoke of the presi-

dent’s rallying effect.

“Nothing makes me feel like a

loyal Canadian who will stand up

for a Canadian prime minister of

any stripe like the idea of Donald

Trump attacking them,” she told

The Washington Post.

During the first debate, Scheer

accused Trudeau of making “con-

cession after concession after

concession to Donald Trump

without getting any wins back for

Canada.” ( Trudeau did not attend

the debate.)

But Scheer has been careful in

his criticism of the president.

After Trump said four minority

Democratic congresswomen

should “go back” to where they

came from, Scheer condemned

the “divisive comments” — but

like Trudeau, he stopped short of

calling them racist.

“They should be able to advo-

cate for their own ideas without

having their background or their

personal identity or where their

family might come from ques-

tioned in any way,” Scheer said.

Such comments have left both

Scheer and Trudeau open to criti-

cism from the left for not being

tough enough on Trump.

During the debate, Singh at-

tacked both leaders for failing to

condemn more forcefully the

Trump administration’s i mmigra-

tion policies and use of child

detention facilities at the

U.S.-Mexico border.

“To not call that out for the

shameful act that it is shows

weakness,” Singh said.

Trudeau and Scheer are the

likeliest candidates to become

prime minister and thus to have

to work with Trump after the

election. Robert Bothwell, a pro-

fessor of Canadian history at the

University of To ronto, called the

task of trying to figure out how to

talk about him on the campaign

trail unenviable.

“It’s like tiptoeing around a

dragon and hoping the beast

doesn’t wake up,” he said.

[email protected]

In Canada, running against Tr ump is good politics

President, who polls show is deeply unpopular in the country, becomes a foil for leaders on all sides ahead of the October election

PAUL CHIASSON/CANADIAN PRESS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Conservative Andrew Scheer, shown in Quebec, has accused the prime minister of making “concession after concession to Donald Trump.”

BY AMANDA COLETTA

AND HANNAH KNOWLES

toronto — Canadian Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau apolo-

gized Wednesday for wearing

brownface and blackface after a

yearbook picture surfaced show-

ing him at an Arabian Nights-

themed party in 2001, embroil-

ing the politician in another

scandal as he faces a tough battle

for a second term.

The photograph, published

Wednesday by Time and taken

while Trudeau was a teacher at

the private West Point Grey

Academy in Vancouver, depicts

the then-29-year-old smiling

while wearing a feathered tur-

ban, his face darkened in a

practice with racist roots.

“I attended an end-of-year

gala where the theme was Ara-

bian nights. I dressed up in an

Aladdin costume and put make-

up on,” Trudeau said at a news

conference Wednesday. “I

shouldn’t have done that. I

should have known better, but I

didn’t, and I’m really sorry.”

Trudeau also admitted to

wearing blackface in high school

while singing “Day-O” at a talent

show.

The prime minister kicked off

his reelection bid last week amid

a climate that has grown increas-

ingly grim for the Liberal Party

leader once considered an inter-

national darling. Trudeau faces a

formidable challenge from Con-

servative Party leader Andrew

Scheer.

Trudeau, who said in his apol-

ogy Wednesday that he has

“worked all [his] life to try and

create opportunities for people

to fight against racism and intol-

erance,” has positioned himself

as a champion of diversity and

inclusiveness. He earned inter-

national acclaim in 2015 when,

as the new prime minister, he

unveiled a diverse, gender-based

cabinet — “a cabinet that looks

like Canada,” a s he put it then. He

has boasted about having more

Sikhs in his cabinet than Prime

Minister Narendra Modi does in

India.

Speaking from a campaign

plane in Halifax, Trudeau said

that he now recognizes brown-

face as “racist.”

He added that he spent the

evening calling friends and col-

leagues and has “many more

calls to make.”

The story landed like a bomb

one week into a campaign that

has seen the Liberals digging up

and releasing old social media

posts and videos from Conserva-

tive candidates that they say

show that the party is welcoming

to those who hold insensitive

and intolerant views.

Speaking to reporters in Que-

bec, on Wednesday, Scheer said

he was “shocked” and “disap-

pointed.”

[email protected]

Knowles reported from Washington.

Reis Thebault in Washington

contributed to this report.

Tr udeau

apologizes

for racist

photos

NICHOLAS KAMM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shake hands at the recent G-7 Summit

in France. Trudeau has touted his ability to stand up to Trump in trade talks despite Scheer’s criticism.

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