Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Conservatives offer to work with Liberals to fast-track foreign interference bill
The Conservatives are offering to help the minority Liberal government fast-track its foreign interference legislation provided that the bill’s key provisions will be put in place before the next federal election.
Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong extended the offer in writing to the government, and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said today that he’s open to working with the Official Opposition to see the bill passed quickly into law. After a cabinet meeting, LeBlanc said he has discussed the proposal with Chong and is prepared to work with the Conservatives.
The federal government unveiled legislation in early May to combat foreign interference by creating a mandatory registry for people undertaking “influence activity” in politics or government on behalf of foreign powers and giving Canada’s top spy agency more authority to combat threats.
- Read more: ‘Unacceptable state of affairs’: Watchdog slams handling of foreign interference intel
This is the daily Evening Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was sent to you as a forward, you can sign up for Evening Update and more than 20 more Globe newsletters here. If you like what you see, please share it with your friends.
Gaza officials say Israeli tanks shell evacuation zone near Rafah, Israel denies it
Israeli strikes on a tent camp west of Rafah Tuesday killed at least 21 people, two days after a previous air strike on another camp stirred global condemnation.
Today’s attack occurred in what Israel had classified as an expanded humanitarian zone. At least 12 of the dead were women. Israel denied the attack.
The military said today that it was investigating the possibility that munitions stored near the compound targeted on Sunday went off and caused the blaze this weekend that killed at least 45.
Meanwhile, Israel’s international isolation is deepening after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognized a Palestinian state.
Closer to home, more than 60 University of Toronto faculty members vowed that if the school asked police to clear the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, they would stand in the way to protect the students.
- Read more: Israeli incursion could halt Rafah’s last functioning hospital, WHO says
A damaged UN vehicle in an Israeli strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 28.Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Ontario, federal government reach $357-million housing agreement
Ontario and the federal government have reached a housing agreement that will provide the province with $357-million in funding this year.
The agreement ends a months-long dispute where Ottawa was threatening to bypass the province and send the money directly to towns and cities because the federal government thought Ontario wasn’t on track to build enough affordable housing units.
The conflict stemmed from the province’s plan to meet its target of 19,660 new rent-assisted social housing units by 2028, part of a $5.8-billion transfer agreement with the federal government. Ottawa has said Ontario lags far behind when it comes to building more affordable housing and was refusing to share more details of its plan. Ontario has pledged to submit an action plan for 2025-28 by the end of this year to continue to receive federal funding under the 10-year national housing strategy agreement.
Gildan Activewear shareholders elect Glenn Chamandy, board put forward by activist investor
Glenn Chamandy is back as chief executive of Gildan Activewear, supported by a new board eager to end five months of turmoil at the clothing manufacturer.
Shareholders of the company today voted overwhelmingly to give Chamandy his board seat back. He’ll join seven other directors, all candidates put forward by activist investor Browning West, which has taken control of the company after winning a feud with Gildan’s previous board over Chamandy’s leadership.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Pope Francis apologizes: The Pope, who was widely quoted as having used a highly derogatory word to describe the LGBT community, did not intend to use homophobic language and apologizes to anyone offended by it, the Vatican said today.
Trump hush money trial: A New York prosecutor told jurors that Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy to corrupt the 2016 election and then tried to cover it up, as lawyers made their closing arguments in the former president’s criminal hush money trial today.
- David Shribman: Trump’s hush money trial is about more than sex
McMaster University professor fired: The school in Hamilton has fired a psychology professor who it says had sexual relations with a number of students, including one who was vulnerable and relying on him for support.
Former FTX executive sentenced: Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary and a top deputy of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced today to 90 months in prison.
Ontario MPP makes history: First Nations legislator New Democrat Sol Mamakwa addressed Queen’s Park in in Anishininiimowin, or Oji-Cree today, marking the first time a language other than English and French has been allowed by officials in Ontario’s legislative chamber.
MARKET WATCH
The Nasdaq crossed 17,000 for the first time ever today, up 99.09 points and ending at 17,019.88, boosted by gains in Nvidia. Meanwhile the S&P 500 closed slightly higher and the Dow and TSX slightly lower as Treasury yields rose.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 216.73 points at 38,852.86. The S&P 500 index was up 1.32 points at 5,306.04.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 108.33 points at 22,265.05.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.32 cents US compared with 73.34 cents US on Monday.
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop.
TALKING POINTS
Britain’s tainted-blood tragedy exposes the flaws and failures of policymaking once again
“While some actions (and inaction) were unconscionable, many decisions were well-intentioned, albeit deadly – for example, the belief that hemophiliacs would have been deprived of life-saving treatments had they not received contaminated blood products.” – André Picard
The new era of consumer-friendly competition law
“These are the new tools the Competition Bureau is putting to work. But the culture is also changing.” – The Editorial Board
LIVING BETTER
Why young people keep getting caught in debt traps and how to break the cycle
Young people in Canada are more indebted than ever. Experts say that may be because of – among many other things – credit card companies raising limits to young people when financial literacy is typically at its lowest. And of course, Canadians are feeling the squeeze between incomes that haven’t kept up with the cost of living, housing crises in markets across the country, and rising interest rates brought in to control inflation. Tips to get debt under control include: stop using your credit card if you move debt to a line of credit, and avoid lifestyle creep.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Uncertainty underlies health care for 10,000 people in Sault Ste. Marie as clinic cuts off patients
Barry Armstrong, 85, and his wife Dianne, 81, at their home on the outskirts of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. on April 17.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
The Group Health Centre, which opened in 1963, offered primary care with no out-of-pocket costs to the people of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. It made history as the first centre of its kind in Canada, combining primary and specialty care under one roof to thousands of the city’s steelworkers who had negotiated a lower wage in exchange for health care at the GHC for themselves and their family members.
But at the beginning of this year, the centre’s leadership dropped a bombshell on the community: On the last day of May, 10,000 of the GHC’s 60,000 patients would be derostered, or cut off from accessing primary care at the centre, because of a shortage of family practitioners that has stretched the facility’s resources.
The derostering announcement shocked the 114,000 residents of Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding Algoma district. Read the full story by Carly Weeks.
Evening Update is written by Prajakta Dhopade. 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.