Canada in brief: Jan 19 2012

Keystone on hold

The State Department announced Wednesday that the U.S. government has denied an application by TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

According to CBC news, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the government hopes a new TransCanada application will be approved but that Canada is going to look to other markets to sell its oil. “It is clear that the process is not yet over,” Oliver said to CBC. Our focus is, as you know, on diversifying our markets. We currently have one customer for our energy exports. That customer has said that it doesn’t want to expand at the moment. So it certainly intensifies the broad strategic objective of the government to diversify to Asia.”

Russell Williams issues for defence

The estranged wife of convicted murderer Russell Williams has issued a statement of defence in a civil suit brought against her by one of her husband’s victims.

The lawyer for Mary Elizabeth Harriman told CBC News she will vigorously defend her client against allegations that she colluded with her husband to transfer property to her name.
Williams — a disgraced former colonel and one-time base commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario — pleaded guilty to 88 charges and was sentenced in October 2010 to two terms of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

-Compiled by Amanda Steiner