Canadian Nick Taylor kisses the trophy after winning the Canadian Open golf championship in Toronto on Sunday, June 11, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Lahodynskyj

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what's on the radar of our editors for the morning of June 12 ...

What we are watching in Canada ...

Nick Taylor tossed his putter having realized what he had accomplished.

That moment on Sunday was followed by thunderous cheers and jumping from the fans at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto, which coincided with the reaction from fans at home across Canada, including some of Taylor's family.

Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., became the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954 when he made a walk-off 72-foot eagle putt to defeat Tommy Fleetwood of Southport, England in a four-hole playoff.

``You can't do anything but cry and hug,'' said Nick's father, Jay, who watched from home and was preparing to fly to Los Angeles for this week's U.S. Open event.

``We've talked to some family and some close friends since then and I still don't think we have our head around it.

``We were fortunate enough to be at the tournament when Nick won the Canadian Junior (championship) and then we were fortunate enough to be at the tournament when Nick won the Canadian Amateur (championship). So for him to finish this off now and be able to say he has his name on all three trophies, that's the kind of stuff that we think is so special.

``Just super, super proud of him.''

Brad Clapp, general manager of Ledgeview Golf Club in Abbotsford _ Taylor's home course _ said ``the club was quite energized'' Sunday.

``The clubhouse was busy and had a lot of people there and cheering them on and I'm sure at their houses, too,'' he said.

``This is monumental. Obviously for the nation, but to look at it from a Ledgeview Golf Club standpoint this is, yeah, it's incredible."

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Also this ...

The federal Conservatives are willing to work with other opposition parties to set the terms of reference for a possible inquiry on foreign interference and plan to get the process started in the coming days, the Tory leader said Sunday.

Pierre Poilievre said he will reach out to the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois next week to get the work underway.

Poilievre's remarks came a day after the Liberal government re-opened the possibility of holding a public inquiry on allegations that China meddled in two recent federal elections, but only if opposition parties take a hand in the process by coming up with its terms of reference, timeline and potential leader.

``I will work with opposition colleagues to make sure the person who fills the roll is independent and unbiased,'' Poilievre said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.

He said he wants to see somebody in the role who has no ties to the Trudeau family or the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, and has a track record of nonpartisanship and neutrality.

Poilievre is also asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call an inquiry immediately.

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What we are watching in the U.S. ...

A Utah woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief after her husband's death, and was later accused of fatally poisoning him, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to determine whether she should remain detained or have an opportunity to post bail.

Kouri Richins, 33, is charged with murder and drug possession.

Prosecutors say in court documents that she slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a Moscow mule cocktail she made for her husband, Eric Richins, amid marital disputes and fights over a multimillion-dollar mansion she ultimately purchased as an investment.

The mother of three self-published an illustrated book about an angelic father watching over his sons.

The case became a true-crime fixation when charges were filed last month, prompting people to pore over the children's book and scrutinize remarks she made while promoting it as a tool to help children grieve the loss of a loved one.

Prosecutors have painted a picture of a conniving woman who tried to kill her husband weeks earlier by lacing a Valentine's Day sandwich with hydrocodone and repeatedly denied her involvement on the day of his death in March 2022, even telling police, ``My husband is active. He doesn't just die in his sleep. This is insane.''

In a motion calling for her release filed on Friday, Kouri Richins' attorneys argued the evidence against her is circumstantial because police never seized fentanyl from the family home. They also called into question the credibility of the key witnesses expected to support the prosecutors' request to keep her in custody.

The attorneys said prosecutors ``simply accepted'' the narrative from Eric Richins' family that his wife had poisoned him ``and worked backward in an effort to support it'' by spending about 14 months investigating and finding no evidence to support their theory.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world ...

The Pakistani government on Monday welcomed the arrival of the first shipment of discounted crude from Russia under a key deal between Islamabad and Moscow.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif hailed it as a ``fulfillment of promises'' to the nation while Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that it marked a ``true service'' for the people.

The cargo was being unloaded in the port city of Karachi, the country's main hub for imports. Cash-strapped Pakistan had been in talks with Russia to import discounted crude since February 2022, when former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

Khan's visit coincided with the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine _ a visit that at the time strained relations between Pakistan and the United States. Moscow has since grappled with Western sanctions over the war, rerouting much of its supply to India, China and other Asian countries at discounted prices after Western customers shunned it in response to the invasion.

Pakistan's deputy oil minister, Musadiq Malik, told the Geo news TV that Islamabad had initially signed an agreement with Russia for the purchase of 100,000 tons of oil, which is supposed to arrive in two ships. The first vessel with the crude arrived in Karachi on Sunday. The size of its cargo load was not immediately known.

He did not share any details about the price of Russian oil, saying only that Pakistan will try to ensure a steady import with the expectations that prices at the pump will decrease.

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On this day in 2008 ...

Ontario MPPs voted unanimously to retain the recitation of ``The Lord's Prayer'' to begin daily proceedings in the Legislature but supplemented it by a rotating series of seven prayers of other faiths, a non-denominational prayer and a moment of silence.

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In entertainment ...

The intimate, funny-sad musical ``Kimberly Akimbo'' nudged aside more splashier rivals on Sunday to win the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its muscle in the face of Hollywood writers' strike and fully embraced trans-rights with history-making winners. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for ``The Light in the Piazza.'' Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting.

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Did you see this?

A pair of wooden crosses made from a shipwreck in New Zealand have been sent to Quebec to honour the 185-year-old wish of a francophone man who rebelled against British rule.

Francois-Xavier Prieur was one of dozens of Patriots who were exiled to Australia aboard the HMS Buffalo as punishment for their part in the 1837-1838 uprising in Lower Canada, now Quebec. He later wrote in his memoir of his desire that pieces of the ship be sent to his home as a reminder of what he had suffered.

Last month, his wish was granted, thanks to a Quebec-Australian film crew and officials in New Zealand, where the HMS Buffalo was wrecked in 1840 shortly after Prieur arrived in Australia, which used to serve as a British penal colony.

Kurt Bennett, who works for Heritage New Zealand and is a member of the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project, helped organize a ceremony in April to mark the start of the crosses' journey to Canada. He said it was an emotional moment, in part because of the attendance of one of the prisoners' descendants.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2023.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2023