While you were sleeping: The end of the Oreo era

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A few things you might have missed from here and abroad while you were sleeping.

The cookies are done: There was a time when the whole neighbourhood surrounding an east-end Montreal bakery would smell like baking Oreos. But that era comes to an end as snack-maker Mondelez prepares to shut its factory for good. Union spokesman Pierre Grenier says many of the 454 employees had worked there for decades. The big concrete building in the shadow of Olympic Stadium opened in 1956 and produced more than a billion of the famous black-and-white Oreo cookies each year. The 300,000-square-foot plant is being put up for sale and its equipment auctioned off. The company’s employees, a handful of whom are still at work, were provided with support and career transition assistance.

Power plays: Hydro-Québec will have an opportunity to save its $10-billion export contract with Massachusetts, even if the state decides not to stick with the Northern Pass transmission line, which has failed to secure approval in New Hampshire. The New England Clean Energy Connect proposal, which would be built through a partnership with Central Maine Power, was selected as an alternative option. Conditional negotiations around the New England Clean Energy Connect plan will start in parallel with the continuing discussions between Massachusetts and the promoters of Northern Pass, Hydro-Québec and its U.S. partner Eversource. The cost of New England Clean Energy Connect is estimated at $950 million U.S., and that doesn’t include the cost of building a transmission line in Quebec to the border with Maine. The project would be scheduled to be in service by 2022.

An olive branch: The Canadian government is seeking a meeting with the Indian politician who publicly accused members of Trudeau’s cabinet of being connected to the Sikh separatist movement. While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family spent much of their first full day in India touring the Taj Mahal and visiting an elephant rescue sanctuary, behind the scenes efforts were being made to extend an olive branch to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Singh has accused multiple Trudeau cabinet ministers of being Khalistani sympathizers and has been the most vocal with allegations that Canada’s Sikh communities are a hotbed of Sikh separatists. Khalistan is the name of the independent Sikh state sought by some members of the Sikh community. Trudeau’s appearances at events where it was believed Sikh separatist leaders were also present ruffled feathers in Delhi.

Let’s talk about your second amendment: A Missouri youth baseball team is moving ahead with a raffle of an AR-15 rifle despite criticism it received after a similar gun was used to kill 17 in a Florida high school. Coach Levi Patterson told the Kansas City Star the fundraiser for the third-grade team had been planned before last week’s shooting in Parkland. He says his heart breaks for the shooting victims, but said gun raffles have been going on for years. He also said none of the children on the team would be forced to sell raffle tickets. Players selling tickets range in age from 7 to 9. The weapon was offered by a player’s father who is a co-founder of a local gun store. The winner must pass a background check. Meanwhile, a North Carolina sheriff has cancelled a re-election campaign firearms raffle that was to include an AR-15.

The Canadian Press and Associated Press contributed to this report