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a6 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| WEDNESDaY,OCTOBER16,
The farm that has been in Jamal
Abas’s family for four generations
was without power for a sixth
straight day on Tuesday – one of
thousands of homes and busi-
nesses across Manitoba still suf-
fering after a massive snowstorm
that brought down trees, trans-
mission lines and large utility
towers.
“No tree was spared in our
yard,” Mr. Abas said. “There was a
lot of trees that were planted well
before even my dad was born,
around the time my grandfather
was born. Extensive damage for
sure.”
Manitoba Hydro was unable to
say on Tuesday when power
might be fully restored. Some
53,000 customers were without
power as of Saturday. By Tuesday
afternoon, the number was down
to 13,000, mostly in small towns,
on rural areas and in First Nations
communities.
The blast of wet, heavy snow
that pummelled much of the
province on Thursday and Friday
caused an unprecedented
amount of damage, Manitoba Hy-
dro said. It would take several
more days to get to and replace
more than 2,000 damaged or de-
stroyed polls and towers.
“We’ve never seen this before
and, in some instances, we have to
fully rebuild parts of our system,
our infrastructure,” the Crown
corporation’s president, Jay Gre-
wal, in a video posted online on
Monday. “We solve one problem
and behind it are 10 more.”
The Canadian Red Cross said
about 5,700 people were evacuat-
ed from 13 First Nations and are
staying with family members, in
hotels or at a shelter in Winnipeg.
The Assembly of Manitoba
Chiefs said many First Nations
communities do not have well-
equipped facilities that can serve
as shelters, and should be given
priority for power restoration so
residents can move back home.
“The best and quickest way to
resolve this issue is to ensure that
those communities are priori-
tized,” Grand Chief Arlen Dumas
said.
Several hundred workers are
involved in the repairs province-
wide, including some from Sask-
Power, Minnesota Power and On-
tario’s Hydro One. Line crews
must also be available to work for
the next 21 days, Manitoba Hydro
spokesman Bruce Owen said. Ma-
nitoba Hydro is also asking people
to keep fuel-burning equipment
outside their homes and use ex-
treme caution when running gen-
erators.
Despite the big snowstorm, the
Red River and its tributaries are
not expected to flood over their
banks in the coming days.
THECANADIANPRESS
Thousands
stillwithout
powerdays
afterManitoba
snowstorm
KELLYGERaLDINEMaLONE
STEVELaMBERTWINNIPEG
Canada has suspended new export permits
to Turkey, joining the European Union in
limiting weapon sales to the NATO ally, as
Turkish troops invade northeastern Syria
in an assault on Kurdish forces.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the
Turkish incursion into Syria. Canada does
not have any military or diplomatic pres-
ence in Syria, but Canadian troops are post-
ed to the NATO mission in Iraq, which is
currently led by Canadian Major-General
Dany Fortin, and are also advising and as-
sisting Iraqi security forces.
“We are engaged diplomatically and at
the officials level with all of our allies and
we will continue to monitor the situation
closely, including the impact on Canadian
Forces in nearby Iraq and elsewhere,” Mr.
Trudeau said.
“The fight against Daesh [Islamic State]
is the one in which countries around the
world joined in and this is a situation that
concerns us deeply.”
In a statement on Monday, Global Affairs
Canada said the suspension of new export
permits is temporary. Spokesman Sylvain
Leclerc said the decision was taken in lightof Turkey’s aggression in Syria.
“This unilateral action risks under-
mining the stability of an already-fragile re-
gion, exacerbating the humanitarian situa-
tion and rolling back progress achieved by
the global coalition against Daesh,” Mr. Le-
clerc said in an e-mail.
Canada is also calling for the protection
of civilians and for all parties to respect
their obligations under international law,
including “unhindered access for humani-
tarian aid” in Syria, Mr. Leclerc added.
European Union countries agreed on
Monday to ban the sale of weapons and
ammunition to Turkey–amoveTurkey’s
Foreign Ministry rejected and condemned.
U.S. President Donald Trump also an-
nounced on Monday sanctions aimed at re-
straining the Turkish assault on the Kurds
in Syria.
The violence in northeast Syria erupted
last week after the Trump administration
abruptly announced that the United States
would pull troops out of that region of the
country. The American withdrawal made
way for Turkish forces to move in and at-
tack Kurdish fighters, whom they have long
seen as terrorists.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer
said “we would expect that any member of
NATO would live up to international lawand respect human rights.” Turkey is a NA-
TO member. He suggested a Conservative
government would take the same step as
the currentgovernment in halting weap-
ons exports.
“In these early days of this conflict, we
would certainly follow the same type of
course of action,” he said.
Melanie Richer, a spokeswoman for the
New Democrats, said the party agrees with
the government’s decision to halt arms
sales to Turkey and urges the government
“to use all available diplomatic means to
protect civilians and speak out against Tur-
key’s unilateral incursion into Syria.”
Bessma Momani, a Middle East expert
and professor at the University of Waterloo,
said Canada’s move to halt exports to Tur-
key is “highly symbolic but unlikely to
change Turkish behaviour.”
“Keep in mind that the United States is
the number one destination of all Cana-
dian arms sales, which is a number that is
not disclosed. After that, almost half of re-
maining exports go to Saudi Arabia,” she
said.
In 2017, Canadian military exports to
Turkey totalled more than $48-million.WithreportsfromJaniceDicksoninToronto
andKristyKirkupinQuebecCitySyriangovernmentforcesarriveonTuesdayinTalTamr,notfarfromtheKurdishSyriantownofRasal-ain,whichhasbeenakeytargetof
Turkishforcesandtheirproxiessincetheylaunchedtheirmilitaryassault.DELILSOULEIMAN/AFP/GETTYIMAGESCanadasuspendsnewweaponssales
toTurkeyamidincursioninSyria
MICHELLEZILIOFREDERICTON“We have supporters and donors who were
appalled at the number of anti-conserva-
tive PACs [political action committees]
and social media activists who participa-
ted in the last federal election and the mag-
nitude of their expenditures in compari-
son to those of conservative PACs and
third party advertisers,” he wrote.
Troy Lanigan, president of the Manning
Centre, said his group put out a fundrais-
ing call in the lead-up to the election cam-
paign to help fund its donations to third-
party groups. He said the centre’s dona-
tions to the third parties also included
money from its general revenues.
“When it was known that we were going
to do some third-party advertising, we
talked it up, and there was interest in the
donor community to support that,” he
said.
Mr. Lanigan declined to name any of
those donors.
“There was no suggestion to them that
their names would be disclosed,” he said.
Mr. Lanigan said the centre followed the
letter of the law and he didn’t see any prob-
lems with how his group raised money and
then donated it to third-parties.
Elections Canada spokeswoman Na-
tasha Gauthier said third-party groups are
required to disclose all of their donations
but the law doesn’t deal with how those
donors got that money.“They have to list the contributor, that’s
what the regulations say,” she said in an in-
terview. “They don’t have to list the con-
tributors’ contributor.”
The groups that received the Manning
Centre donations are not connected to On-
tario Proud and Canada Proud, which were
the subject of a Globe investigation about
the rise of third-party money in Canadian
elections.
Third-party groups that spend money
on advertising or other political activities
are required to register and disclose the
sources of their donations. They faced a
spending limit of about $1-million in a pre-
writ period that began on June 30, and an-
other limit of $511,700 during the cam-
paign. Third parties are also forbidden
from collaborating with political parties,
and they can’t work together, or split into
multiple organizations, to circumvent the
spending caps.
Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democra-
cy Watch, argued the Manning Centre
should be considered a third party and be
required to disclose its donors, particularly
when donations were earmarked for elec-
tion spending. Otherwise, he said, laws de-
signed to make third-party groups trans-
parent can’t be effective.
“I think the Commissioner of Canada
Elections should be interpreting the law in
this way,” he said in an interview. “Inter-
pretation starts with: ‘What’s the purpose
of the law and the purpose of the rule?’ It isto ensure we know who is bankrolling
third parties.”
He drew a distinction between groups
such as the Manning Centre that are also
collecting their own donations, and
unions or corporations, whose funding
sources are clear.
“It’s not like a union funding another or-
ganization and it’s not like a corporation
funding another organization – you know
where that money comes from,” he said.
Mr. Conacher said he also wants the
commissioner to look at whether there are
any issues with the third parties working
together, though the groups that received
Manning Centre funding, collectively,
haven’t reached the spending cap, accord-
ing to their most recent financial disclo-
sures. Mr. Lanigan said the Manning Centre
says it does not plan to spend more than
the $312,450 it has already donated.
Chris Russell, who is the financial agent
for Canada Strong and Proud, NL Strong
and NS Proud, said his groups follow the
law.
“All donations have been carefully dis-
closed according to the rules of the Elec-
tions Act,” said the statement, which noted
the larger budgets of union-funded
groups. “Thanks to the Manning Centre,
the fight isn’t completely one-sided any-
more.”
Québec Fier’s financial agent, Nicolas
Gagnon, did not respond to messages
about that group’s activities.Donations:Manningpresidentsayscentrefollowedthelaw
FROMa| NEWS