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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
10-year-old girl, 18-year-old woman killed in Toronto mass shooting
A child and young woman are dead and 13 others injured after a lone gunman walked along Toronto’s busy Danforth Avenue on Sunday night, randomly shooting pedestrians before opening fire on crowded restaurants.
The 29-year-old shooter from Toronto was found dead after an exchange of gunfire with police, though it remains unclear if he died by suicide. His identity has not been released. The Special Investigation Unit is leading the case and has assigned six investigators and three forensic investigators.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders announced Monday afternoon that the two victims were an 18-year-old woman, later identified as Reese Fallon, and a 10-year-old girl.
‘They just kept telling me to call 911′: Tattoo shop owner comes to aid of Danforth shooting victims
Tanya Wilson was about to leave her tattoo shop late Sunday evening when two people barged in screaming something about a gun.
The man had been shot in the left calf and was bleeding profusely while his mother’s right knee appeared to have been grazed by a bullet. Ms. Wilson and a friend tended to their wounds as best they could until the shooting stopped.
Paramedics eventually arrived and took over and transported the mother and son to hospital.
Canadian police dismissing fewer sexual-assault cases
The number of sexual-assault allegations dismissed by police as “unfounded” has dropped in the year since The Globe and Mail revealed that sexual offences were being disproportionately rejected as baseless compared to other crimes.
Newly published data from Statistics Canada show that in 2017, police labelled 14 per cent of sexual-assault accusations as unfounded – a term that means the investigating officer does not believe a crime occurred. This is down from 19 per cent for the years 2010-2014, based on data collected by The Globe as part of a 20-month investigation.
Barrick Gold president Kelvin Dushnisky leaving to join AngloGold Ashanti
Barrick Gold Corp’s president, Kelvin Dushnisky, is leaving the company to be chief executive officer of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.
Mr. Dushnisky has spent the past 16 years at the world’s biggest gold mining company, and was appointed president in 2015.
Suicide deaths projected to rise as climate warms: study
It’s a relationship that defies the cliché of summer as a time of easy living: For those who are vulnerable, it appears to be warmer weather, not cold, that increases the rate of death due to suicide.
Now a large-scale study is offering new evidence that the connection is real. And based on the anticipated impact of global warming, researchers are forecasting tens of thousands of additional fatalities than would otherwise be expected if temperatures were stable.
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MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index finished flat on Monday, weighed down by declines in the materials and industrials sectors. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite index was down 14.62 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 16,420.84.
Barrick Gold Corp’s shares fell 4.3 per cent after the Canadian miner said its chief executive officer, Kelvin Dushnisky, would quit and take the top job at South African gold producer AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.
Wall Street stocks largely rose on Monday as a jump in 10-year bond yields boosted financials and as news of upcoming international trade talks offset the negative impact of the strengthening U.S. dollar on corporate earnings forecasts. The financial sector rose 1.3 per cent after 10-year U.S. Treasury yields climbed to their highest level in five weeks. The Federal Reserve was seen as likely to continue raising interest rates, despite criticism from President Donald Trump.
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WHAT’S TRENDING ON SOCIAL
Hundreds of volunteer humanitarian workers known as the “White Helmets” and their families were whisked to safety from southwest Syria this weekend in a daring overnight rescue operation, an effort started earlier this month by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. The extraordinary mission came together to save the White Helmets and their families years after these medical teams first started working to save civilian lives in rebel-held areas amid the Syrian civil war. During this work, members of the group frequently alleged that they had witnessed war crimes committed by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad or by his Russian backers. They were feared to be increasingly in peril this summer, encircled as the Syrian government rapidly reclaimed territory.
TALKING POINTS
Toronto has been hit again with violence, but the city will remain strong
Toronto is a safe city. It may seem hollow to assert that now, but it’s true and it’s vital to remember. As frightening and traumatizing as these attacks are, the risk of being caught up in gunfire on the streets is minuscule. The best way to respond is to go about our business just as before. The stretch of Yonge that saw the van attack in April throbs with street life again. After that tragedy, Toronto kept calm and carried on. It should show the same resolve now.
With their crowded streets and many “soft” targets, cities are vulnerable to those who want to inflict mass violence. They are also remarkably robust and resilient. - Marcus Gee
When sexual-assault acquittal is not vindication
Criminal prosecution is our bluntest instrument of social policy. It relies heavily on incarceration as a corrective. However, since it would be terrible to incarcerate people indiscriminately, we require proof beyond a reasonable doubt before anyone can be sent to jail. This standard of proof serves the essential purpose of preventing unnecessary incarceration. In the University of Ottawa case – in which two players were accused of sexually assaulting a woman – the evidence did not stack up to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so within the confines of criminal law, the acquittals were sound. But an acquittal is often a far cry from validating what happened. While acquitting the two players, the judge harshly condemned their behaviour. - David Butt
Fifty years ago, an unholy mess shook the Catholic church
What Pope Paul feared would happen if he did not reaffirm the traditional ban – loss of trust in papal teaching on family matters – was generated by his very decision. One of the additional ironies of it all is that the key developer of the oral contraceptive, at the time, was a devout and loyal Roman Catholic American gynecologist, John Rock.
Pope Paul should be raised to the altars this fall; abundant evidence attests to his saintliness. But in spite of, not because of, Humanae vitae. - Michael W. Higgins
LIVING BETTER
Despite being associated with a “health halo,” gluten-free foods marketed to children are often high in sugar and aren’t nutritionally superior to regular products aimed at kids, a study has found. About one per cent of children must avoid foods made with gluten-containing wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats because of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause serious damage to the small intestine. Parents of children with a gluten intolerance or sensitivity, along with those who purchase gluten-free products for other health reasons, need to carefully assess product labels when making purchases, the author of the study said, noting that her research found that about 80 per cent of child-targeted gluten-free products have high sugar levels.
LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE
In Ontario, midwives help with the rebirth of Indigenous pregnancy care
For generations, First Nations women have been forced to leave their communities to give birth, which can put babies’ health at risk and fray social and cultural ties for families. Now, a revival of home births and midwifery is changing that.
Rumours at the inn: Muskoka hostel’s past coloured with ghosts, secret meetings and swastikas
Built in 1910 at the unheard-of cost of $20,000, E.B. Sutton’s all-brick Swastika Hotel was once state-of-the-art lodgings in Ontario’s Muskoka. Not surprisingly, the name of the three-storey hotel would change in the 1930s following the rise of Nazism (the Nazis appropriated what had been an ancient religious symbol in a number of world cultures). It would become Sutton Manor, later the Bala Bay Lodge, then the Cranberry Inn and, finally, Bala Bay Inn.
The lodging business has long been brisk in this quiet little village where Lake Muskoka tumbles into the Moon River. Tourists come to visit the falls - currently a controversial local issue as the hydroelectric dam is under expansion - and to travel the extensive lakes system that has made this part of Canada world-famous.
Evening Update is written by Josh Hargreaves. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.