Note to readers: The Evening Update newsletter pauses tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday and will return on Monday.
Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Details revealed about David Johston’s special rapporteur role
The former governor-general will be given broad powers to investigate foreign interference and paid about $1,500 a day during his probe, which follows Globe and Mail reporting on Chinese government meddling in Canadian elections.
He can “review any classified or unclassified records and documents, including ... records protected by cabinet confidence,” Ottawa said in a statement.
As special rapporteur, his mandate includes reviewing the federal government’s response to the threat of interference in the past two general elections, as well as historically.
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The latest developments in the war in Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, urging him to “bring Russia to its senses” over the war in Ukraine. Xi said China was keen to “promote peace talks and a political settlement” on Ukraine, but he did not mention Russia.
While China had been making headway in improving its relationship with the European Union, Beijing’s refusal to criticize Russia’s invasion and its tacit support for the Kremlin have driven a major wedge into its relationship with the EU.
On the front lines, Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to battle in Bakhmut, the devastated city that has become a symbol of Kyiv’s defiance, while seven civilians were reported killed by Ukrainian artillery strikes in Russian-controlled areas.
Opinion: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had enormous costs. So why does Vladimir Putin still rule unchallenged? - Lucan Ahmad Way, professor of political science, University of Toronto
Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear appeal involving private health care
Brian Day, the doctor who led a legal challenge over a patient’s right to pay for private medical care, says the decision by Canada’s top court not to hear an appeal means long wait times have been “forcibly embedded” into the medicare system.
The CEO of the Cambie Surgery Centre, along with some patients, has spent more than a decade challenging the British Columbia Medicare Protection Act, which bans extra-billing and private insurance for medically necessary procedures.
They argued long wait times in B.C.’s publicly funded system amounted to a breach of the patients’ rights to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Other SCOC news: Ontario Court of Appeal delivers a strong critique of sexual-assault ruling made by judge now on the Supreme Court.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
A tree that fell on a car is shown following an ice storm in Montreal, April 6, 2023.Graham Hughes
Ice storm aftermath: More than one million customers were still without power this morning, Hydro-Québec reports, following yesterday’s ice storm, with Montreal hit hardest. About 120,000 customers in Ontario were also affected, according to Hydro One’s website. The storm descended on the Maritimes overnight, cutting power in some areas and forcing school closures and delays.
Women, children repatriated from Syria: Four Canadian women and 10 children have arrived in Canada after being released from prison camps in northeastern Syria run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the Islamic State.
More jobs in March: The Canadian economy added 35,000 jobs last month amid strong population growth, keeping the unemployment rate steady at a near record low of 5 per cent, Statistics Canada reports.
Read more: This ‘must be worrying’ for the BoC: How markets and economists are reacting to today’s surprisingly strong jobs report.
Suspect search suspended: Akwesasne Mohawk police say they are suspending the organized search of local waterways for Casey Oakes, who is linked to the eight dead migrants pulled from the St. Lawrence River last week. They will continue to make efforts to find him during daily operations, they say, and ask the public to be on the lookout.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street ended higher today, helped by a rally in Alphabet shares as investors, worried about a slowing economy, looked to coming jobs data. Canada’s main stock index also edged up, as most major sectors advanced and domestic data showed the economy adding more jobs than expected last month.
the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.57 points or 0.01 per cent to 33,485.29, the S&P 500 climbed 14.64 points or 0.36 per cent to 4,105.02, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 91.10 points or 0.76 per cent to end at 12,087.96.
The S&P/TSX composite index advanced 37.14 points or 0.2 per cent to 20,196.69. The loonie traded at 74.12 U.S. cents.
North American stock markets are closed tomorrow for the long weekend.
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TALKING POINTS
Canada is too complacent and cheap to have nice things
“It’s not merely a perk of office: such a home can become historically significant in its own right, expressing a country’s dignity and sense of self. It’s a building that tells the world exactly what we are. 24 Sussex is no exception.” - Jen Gerson
Read more: Trudeau is leaving the fate of 24 Sussex Dr. to NCC amid rodent infestation reports
Phil Mickelson changed the business of golf. Now it’s time for his punishment
“I don’t credit the Dustin Johnsons/Brooks Koepkas of the world with much savvy, but they understood they’d crossed a hard border [by joining LIV]. Mickelson still talks as though he’s off on a professional vacation and that everyone might soon be joining him overseas.” - Cathal Kelly
Read more: Canada’s Corey Conners is fresh off a win and ready to contend at Augusta.
LIVING BETTER
The days of guaranteed investment certificates offering 5-per-cent interest or more on multiple-year terms appear to be largely over, personal finance columnist Rob Carrick writes – but there are still exceptions. His go-to website for monitoring GIC rates is HighInterestSavings.ca, where there were two banks offering two-year GICs at 5 per cent or slightly more and six banks between 5 and 5.25 per cent.
TODAY’S LONG READ
As jihadist attacks intensify in West Africa, troops train with Canadian soldiers
Soldiers from Niger storm into a hotel building near Jacqueville, Ivory Coast, mentored by a member of Canada's Special Operations Forces who is visible at rear left.Cheick Sylla/The Globe and Mail
Under the watchful eye of a Canadian soldier, heavily armed troops from Niger storm into a three-storey hotel and launch a room-by-room close-quarters operation to clear the terrorists who, in this drill, have seized the building.
At a 400-metre shooting range nearby, another Canadian soldier briefs forces from Niger as they prepare to aim their sniper scopes at a series of targets. A third Canadian is monitoring a unit’s battlefield emergency-aid procedures.
The counterterrorism exercise known as Flintlock is being conducted under the palm trees of a lush training site near the Gulf of Guinea, but the real target is much farther north, in the deserts of the Sahel region, in countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso, where Islamist militants have killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee from their homes. Read Geoffrey York’s full story.
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