Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Bank of Canada ends quantitative easing program, moves up timeline for rate hikes
Canada’s central bank is ending its quantitative easing program and moving up its timeline for potential interest-rate hikes as it projects inflation to remain high well into 2022.
In its Wednesday rate decision, the Bank of Canada kept its policy interest rate at 0.25 per cent but said it could start raising its benchmark rate “sometime in the middle quarters of 2022.” That’s ahead of the previous guidance of the second half of 2022.
Its decision to end the quantitative easing program – a measure launched at the onset of the pandemic that has seen the central bank buy hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federal government bonds – comes as it grapples with persistently high inflation caused by bottlenecks in the supply chain, surging energy prices and a rebound in the price of many goods and services that took a hit early in the pandemic.
Read more: At what point is higher inflation no longer ‘transitory’?
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Pope Francis to visit Canada for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples at bishops’ invitation
Canadian bishops have invited Pope Francis to visit Canada to help with the reconciliation process, bowing to pressure from Indigenous communities and Catholics who have been calling on the church to reckon with the legacy of residential schools.
In a brief statement, the Vatican said Wednesday that the Pope had been invited by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and that he “has indicated his willingness to visit the country on a date to be settled in due course.”
Vatican officials have always suggested the Pope was willing to apologize on Canadian soil for the church’s role in the abuse and deaths of thousands of Indigenous children. But protocol demanded that the CCCB extend a formal invitation.
Read more:
- From the archives: How the Catholic Church was freed from obligation to residential school survivors
- Tanya Talaga: Canada has not truly released all residential-school records
- Opinion: The theological reason why the Catholic Church is reticent to apologize for residential schools
University of Toronto to sell off all investments in fossil fuels by end of 2030
The University of Toronto is planning to divest from fossil fuels within a year as part of its commitment to tackling climate change, the school announced Wednesday.
It also pledged to extract itself from indirect investments through pooled or commingled assets by 2030 or earlier. The university said it intends to place 10 per cent of its investments, or roughly $400-million, in what it called “sustainable and low-carbon investments” by 2025.
University president Meric Gertler said in a letter to the U of T community that universities have an economic imperative and moral obligation to invest their assets in ways that will help reduce carbon emissions.
Read more climate-related coverage:
- China’s commitments in reducing overall emissions more crucial in light of economic and energy challenges
- White House admits Biden could head to Europe without a climate deal
- Explainer: What is COP26? A guide to the Glasgow climate talks – the world’s most consequential environment conference
- Opinion: Funding green research is the most effective way to tackle climate change
- Adam Radwanski: Trudeau’s cabinet choices put the oil-and-gas sector on notice
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
New Brunswick ‘mystery’ brain syndrome: New report dismisses food, environmental exposures as cause of symptoms: New Brunswick’s Health Minister Dorothy Shephard says an epidemiological report has found no known food, behaviour or environmental exposure that could have caused the symptoms linked to a mystery brain syndrome. Shephard declined to say the individuals were initially misdiagnosed to avoid prejudicing the outcome of a study by an oversight committee of six neurologists who will issue a report early next year.
Iran says nuclear talks with six powers to resume by end November: Iran’s negotiations with six world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal will resume by the end of November, its top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, said, as Western concerns over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions grow. Talks to salvage the nuclear pact, which then-U.S. president Donald Trump abandoned three years ago, started in April. But discussions about resuming the talks have been on hold since Iran’s hardline President Ebrahim Raisi was elected in June.
Sudanese security forces arrest three coup critics as pressure mounts on military: Sudanese security forces detained three prominent pro-democracy figures overnight, according to their relatives and other activists. The arrests come as protests continued in the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere against the military’s coup, which threatens to bring an end to Sudan’s tumultuous transition to democracy.
Quebec won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccines for workers in schools: Quebec’s Health Department says it won’t impose mandatory vaccination on school workers, citing an improvement in the pandemic situation across the province and high rates of vaccination among staff. The department said in a news release that 90 per cent of staff working in preschool, elementary and high schools are adequately vaccinated.
The ‘Great Resignation’? It’s not happening in Canada: As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, stories abound of workers quitting their jobs to recharge, re-evaluate their priorities or reorient their careers – an exodus of sorts that’s been called the “Great Resignation.” That trend hasn’t played out in Canada, at least, not yet. Instead, it appears that Canadians are exercising a degree of caution as the economy rebounds from the worst shock in decades.
Listen to The Decibel: COVID-19 vaccines for kids are almost here. Are we ready?: With Pfizer/BioNTech’s submission requesting approval to distribute COVID-19 vaccines for kids aged five to 11 now in Health Canada’s hands for review, the country’s largest mass vaccination campaign for children since polio could soon be under way. The Globe’s health reporter Carly Weeks explains why some parents remain hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine for children, what needs to be done to overcome that hesitancy and how the logistical preparation and educational work needs to start now in order to avoid another chaotic vaccine rollout in Canada.
MARKET WATCH
Stocks faded in the last hour of trading and ended mostly lower Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set their latest record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 266.19 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 35,490.69, the S&P 500 lost 23.11 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 4,551.68 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.12 point, or unchanged, to 15,235.84.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 218.46 points to 20,954.99.
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TALKING POINTS
For all Ted Rogers’s succession planning, he couldn’t control for human nature and planted the seeds for family warfare
“In establishing a control trust to oversee the family’s controlling stake in Rogers Communications after his death, Ted Rogers may have believed he was minimizing the potential for a corporate family feud the likes of which Canada has rarely seen. But he should have known that differences of opinion and personality among his own children would eventually lead to bitter disagreements.” - Konrad Yakabuski
In Justin Trudeau’s cabinets, women of colour are routinely overlooked
“An intersectional approach and perspective would be useful in some high-profile portfolios – such as Environment, Immigration, Infrastructure, Families, and Public Safety, particularly given how climate change, disasters, pandemics, and policing disproportionately affect racialized communities. The narrowness and lack of women of colour among the appointments is thus a big miss.” - Erin Gee, co-host of the Bad + Bitchy Podcast.
Team Canada’s unveiling of new Olympic uniforms shows it’s focusing on the wrong things
“We’re about 100 days from Beijing 2022 and the general public doesn’t yet know the names or faces of the vast majority of Canadian athletes who will compete there. But they do know where to buy the hat.” - Cathal Kelly
LIVING BETTER
Cars vs. bikes: What do cities actually need to be safe and accessible?
Conversations about being a “bike person” or a “car person” often veer into identity politics, overshadowing what the data tells us about how to make cities safer and more efficient for everyone. Peter Norton, an associate professor and author of the new book, Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving, joins the City Space podcast to share just how cars came to dominate our roads and why they still have a place in contemporary cities.
TODAY’S LONG READ
A cross-country road trip with a pet leads to new sights and a new perspective
Writer Katie Hewitt with husband, Graham McCarthy, and their Wheaten terrier, Charlie, in front of the Saamis Tepee in Medicine Hat, Alta.Graham McCarthy/Supplied
Snow-capped peaks cradle Lake Louise. I shiver in my light jacket and look over at Charlie’s thick coat. My travel companion has never seen mountains before.
“Well … what do you think?” I ask.
Charlie doesn’t reply because he’s a Wheaten terrier with a stubborn streak.
We’re in Banff, Alta., on the last leg of a nine-day westward migration that has taken us through five provinces during our move to Vancouver from Toronto, partly for my husband’s work and partly to live in a place where nature is more than a novelty. I hope Charlie is impressed by the Canadian Rockies and glacial lakes because we stayed grounded for him, driving more than 4,700 kilometres to our new home.
Flying is scary for humans with basic knowledge of aerodynamics. Charlie is a 10-year-old skittish terrier with separation anxiety. And at 20 kilograms (nearly 45 pounds), he’s too big for the cabin. He’d have to fly in an airline-approved crate, like a checked bag, in a pressurized – but not necessarily temperature-controlled – compartment. (Service dogs are allowed in the cabin but Charlie isn’t that helpful.) Read Katie Hewitt’s full story.
Evening Update is written by Beatrice Paez. 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.