All eyes on China's justice system Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. More than two years of diplomacy has failed to free Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and now the two men—detained since December 2018, days after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver—will now face trial in China. Foreign Minister Marc Garneau repeated the government's oft-repeated lines on the Two Michaels: they're a "top priority," Ottawa is "working tirelessly" to secure their freedom, and Garneau is "deeply troubled by the lack of transparency surrounding these proceedings." Spavor will face a hearing tomorrow. Kovrig's hearing is set for March 22. Iran's civil aviation organization published a final report into the Flight 752 disaster that claimed 176 lives. The investigators blamed human error for the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines jet. "The interference of military activity with civil aviation operations resulted in an accident," read the report. CBC News reported that Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, dismissed the findings as a "cynical attempt to hide true causes" of the tragic crash. A new trade czar: Whenever Robert Lighthizer made headlines in Canada, a trade spat in the form of testy negotiations or targeted tariffs was never far away. But Lighthizer's era ended when Donald Trump left office. His replacement, Katherine Tai, was confirmed with a 98-0 vote in the U.S. Senate. Tai served as chief trade counsel to the powerful ways and means committee in the House of Representatives, where she helped shepherd the CUSMA/USMCA through congressional negotiations. Canada's D.C. envoy, Kirsten Hillman, sent "hearty congratulations" in Tai's direction. Courting small biz: NDP leader Jagmeet Singh will deliver a virtual speech to the C.D. Howe Institute at 12:30 p.m., where he'll pump up the party's plan to keep small businesses afloat. That particular think tank doesn't self-identify anywhere on the political spectrum. Some observers cast the institute as right wing, and no one would accuse it of social democratic bias—least of all the left-wingers at Rabble. Is Singh's speech the NDP's latest attempt to carve out the vote-rich centre? What's next for Mark Carney? Tonight, you can watch Paul Wells interview Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada (and Bank of England). For years, Ottawa chatterboxes have mused about a political run for Carney. Wells previews his chat with a teaser of Carney's response. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives—a left-leaning shop, most assuredly—posted a new report on childcare this morning. A CCPA survey shows a dramatic drop in enrolment during the pandemic's first wave, and disproportionately large declines in cities with the highest fees for parents. Toronto, for example, saw 22,000 fewer people in childcare last fall compared to February 2020. That's a 45-per-cent drop. Read the full report. Earlier this week, former NDP MP and MLA Ian Waddell died at the age of 78. Waddell served in the House of Commons from 1979 until 1993, and then provincially in B.C. between 1996 and 2001. Rick Smith, the executive director of the Broadbent Institute, tweeted the tale of then-leader Ed Broadbent bargaining hard with then-minister Jean Chretien on a section in the fledgling Charter of Rights protecting Indigenous people. Waddell was there. And in 2019, he gifted a framed first draft of Section 35, complete with handwritten notes, to the Broadbent Institute— where it hangs today. Clip-art fail: Fresh off an embarrassing Twitter snafu, the Tories might want to scrub another piece of promo from the internet. Robert Hiltz, a Montreal-based journalist, noticed the animated helicopter on the website that introduces Erin O'Toole to Canadians—he served aboard military choppers—bears a striking resemblance to a Soviet-era helicopter. Oops? The Hill Times reports that on the eve of the Tory policy convention, the party took steps to dissolve the riding association in the very same electoral district where Derek Sloan is MP. The local president says the party gave no reason for doing so. But none of this will likely be resolved before the convention. It'll be up to the new national council, elected this week, to review and vote on any dissolution. Scram! Every spring, thousands of Canada geese turn vast stretches of this country into makeshift landing strips. They're here to breed, raise their young and head back south. Well, the feds are determined to protect Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm from an influx of flying Vs. A new contract posted on the procurement website is looking to enlist some helpful canines. But this is a peacekeeping mission. "Dogs must be trained specifically for scaring, not for retrieving," reads a proposed statement of work. "No geese may be injured or killed." —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 