Los Angeles Times - 26.08.2019

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ewspaper publisher Conrad

Black, who disagrees with

just about everything she

does and believes, says,

“she would get my vote as

an ecumenical saint.” Alan Dershowitz,

who disagrees with only most of what she

does and believes, says he would “trade

her for two American Supreme Court

justices and a draft choice to be named

later.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who probably

agrees with her on just about everything,

says she is “proud to count her among

dearest sisters-in-law.”

Who is this figure who commands

respect, reverence and regard from left

and right; who has 39 honorary degrees

from top institutions around the world;

who was born in a displaced-persons

camp in Germany to a mother who sur-

vived Buchenwald; who was one of five

women in her University of Toronto law

school class; who is about to become the

longest-serving jurist in Canadian his-

tory; and whose theory of equality is one

of the governing theses of law around the

globe?

Meet Rosalie Silberman Abella, the

most important Supreme Court justice

you never heard of.

Actually, meeting Rosie — as peti-

tioners and prime ministers alike call the

73-year-old jurist — isn’t as easy as it

might appear. “See you at 9,” she emails

her journalistic inquisitor, planning to

meet at Ottawa’s landmark Fairmont

Chateau Laurier hotel, just a slap shot

from the Canadian Parliament complex.

“I’m easy to recog-

CANADIAN SUPREME COURTJustice Rosalie Silberman Abella’s theory

of equality is one of the governing theses of law around the globe.

Noah BergerFor The Times

COLUMN ONE

[SeeAbella,A6]

A high court justice revered

even by her ideological foes

Jurist helped Canada become worldwide leader

By David Shribman

reporting from ottawa

Trump sends

mixed signals

on trade war

BIARRITZ, France —

Mixed signals over the trade

war with China and rifts over

Iran dominated the opening

of the annual G-7 summit of

the leaders of the world’s

most powerful democracies

as White House officials

scrambled Sunday to sweep

up after President Trump’s

remark that he had second

thoughts over his trade pol-

icy and debated how to re-

spond to the unexpected ar-

rival of Tehran’s foreign min-

ister.

French President Em-

manuel Macron, deter-

mined as this year’s host not

to allow Trump to hijack the

Group of 7 agenda, quietly

invited Mohammad Javad

Zarif, Iran’s lead negotiator

on the nuclear deal that

Trump has tried to scuttle,

to visit the beachfront resort

in western France where

world leaders are holding

their annual meeting.

The move seemed to sur-

prise Trump, whose admin-

istration has been intent on

isolating Iran and who hates

to share the limelight.

Trump was touting a ten-

tative U.S.-Japan trade

agreement when Zarif ’s

plane was landing nearby

and appeared taken aback

by news of his arrival.

“No comment,” he said

when first asked about Zarif

on Sunday afternoon.

Macron and Zarif met lat-

er in the day.

Trump has expressed

frustration over pre-summit

media reports focusing on

his status as an outlier

among G-7 allies on numer-

ous issues.

Those differences were

serious enough that in plan-

ning the summit, Macron

jettisoned plans for a tradi-

tional joint statement from

the seven leaders, acknowl-

edging that getting all on the

same page as Trump would

be difficult, if not impossible.

But throughout the first

day of summit meetings,

Trump seemed determined

to portray himself as in sync

with other leaders despite

much evidence to the con-

trary.

He proclaimed a lunch

on Saturday with Macron,

who unexpectedly greeted

Trump at his hotel, to have

been the best time the two

leaders had spent together.

His account contrasted with

the private comments of his

aides, who grumbled that

the issues the French chose

to highlight, including dis-

cussions about climate

change and African devel-

opment, didn’t focus enough

on Trump’s favored issue, in-

ternational trade.

And on numerous occa-

sions, Trump asserted that

he was in alignment with al-

lies on contentious topics,

even though their remarks

brought nagging differences

into ever starker relief.

China conflict follows

president to the G-

summit, at which Iran

is a surprise guest.

By Eli Stokols

and Chris Megerian

[SeeSummit,A10]

PRESIDENT TRUMPwith France’s Emmanuel Macron and other leaders at the summit. Trump asserted
that he was aligned with allies, but the arrival of Iran’s foreign minister underlined a key area of disagreement.

Andrew HarnikAFP/Getty Images

Flames are spreading
across the Amazon rainfor-
est this summer, spewing
millions of tons of carbon di-
oxide into the atmosphere
each day. But scientists say
that’s not their biggest con-
cern. They’re far more wor-
ried about what the fires
represent: a dramatic in-
crease in illegal deforest-
ation that could deprive the
world of a critical buffer
against climate change.
More than a soccer field’s
worth of Amazon forest is
falling every minute, accord-
ing to Brazil’s National Insti-
tute for Space Research,
known as INPE. Preliminary
estimates from satellite data

revealed that deforestation

in June rose almost 90%

compared with the same

month last year, and by 280%

in July.

The Amazon is a key

component of Earth’s cli-

mate system. It holds about

a quarter as much carbon as

the entire atmosphere and

single-handedly absorbs

about 5% of all the CO2 we

emit each year.

But if such rapid defor-

estation continues, it will foil

efforts to keep global tem-

peratures in check. Scien-

tists fear parts of the Ama-

zon could pass a critical

threshold and transform

from a lush rainforest into a

dry, woody grassland. And

that could bring catastroph-

Alarms from Amazon fires

Industrial-scale slash and burn risks turning forest into savanna.

Crossing tipping point will cost Earth a crucial climate buffer.

THE AMAZON is losing more than a soccer field’s

worth of forest every minute. Such deforestation will

foil efforts to keep global temperatures in check.

Carl de Souza AFP/Getty Images

[SeeAmazon,A4]

By Julia Rosen

Pot knockoffs are

headache for many

Loudpack Farms had a
multimillion-dollar prob-
lem.
An award-winning mari-
juana vape pen that was
among the most profitable
items sold by the cultivator
had begun turning up at un-
licensed weed dispensaries
across California, its signa-
ture black box with the im-
age of a stoned-out-of-his-
mind playing-card king
beckoning customers.
As it became clear that
someone was counterfeiting
the Kingpen brand, Loud-
pack Farms spent $2.5 mil-

lion on new packaging and

hardware last year to distin-

guish it from the knockoffs.

“The counterfeit market

started replicating what we

were doing almost as

quickly,” said Daniel Corral,

head of sales at the Mon-

terey County firm.

Kingpen’s struggles are

emblematic of a dilemma

that California’s fledgling le-

gal marijuana market is fac-

ing: a proliferation of coun-

terfeit cannabis products

that’s cutting into the profits

and reputations of some of

the state’s most popular le-

gal brands while boosting

sales in a thriving black mar-

ket.

Fake vape pens and other

knockoffs flooding the state

are also raising safety issues:

Like all products sold out-

side licensed dispensaries,

Counterfeit products

cut into profits of legal

California vendors.

By James Queally

[SeePot,A10]

Sniper

claim by

deputy

is a hoax

Signs it was a hoax sur-

faced quickly.

On Wednesday evening,

only hours after Deputy An-

gel Reinosa had put out a

call for help over his radio

that he had been shot by a

sniper, investigators were

beginning to doubt the rook-

ie’s story.

Reinosa, a 21-year-old

deputy assigned to the de-

partment’s Lancaster sta-

tion, said he had been on his

way to his car in the station’s

parking lot when he was hit

by rifle fire from a nearby

apartment building. He

claimed the protective vest

he was wearing stopped a

shot to his chest, while an-

other bullet had grazed his

shoulder.

But investigators noted

there had been no 911 calls re-

porting gunfire in the area

and no bullets were found in

the parking lot. A hole in his

shirt that Reinosa said came

from a bullet was far too

large.

And on the radio Reinosa

sounded much too calm for

someone who had just been

shot, let alone a green depu-

ty still in his first year on the

job, multiple sheriff ’s offi-

cials and others with knowl-

edge of the investigation told

the L.A. Times on Sunday.

So, by nightfall, even as a

massive manhunt for his

would-be killer continued,

Reinosa became the focus of

the investigation he had set

in motion. Those early suspi-

cions were borne out late

Saturday night, when inves-

tigators announced Reinosa

had concocted the shooting.

“We are all appalled and

‘We are all appalled,’

L.A. County sheriff

says after rookie cop

admits attack was fake.

He may face charges.

By Richard Winton

and Joel Rubin

[SeeSniper,A12]

Drone carrying

explosives hits

Hezbollah office

The militant group and

Lebanese army blame

Israel for the attack in

Beirut, with the Shiite

militia threatening re-

taliation. WORLD, A

Brush fire leads

to evacuations

The blaze in Eagle Rock

threatens homes and

shuts down parts of the

2 and 134 freeways.

CALIFORNIA, B

Weather

Mostly sunny.

L.A. Basin: 88/66. B

Trans women

ejected from bar

L.A. police are investi-

gating the forced re-

moval of a group at a hot

spot as a possible hate

crime. CALIFORNIA, B

Khloe Rios

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