Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Election updates: Call for review of O’Toole’s leadership, mail-in ballot counting should wrap up today
A Conservative who sits on the party’s national council says Erin O’Toole should undergo an accelerated leadership review by members following his election loss, marking the first open challenge to him staying in the role.
Bert Chen represents Ontario, but says he’s speaking as a loyal member and there are a lot of others unhappy with the more moderate direction O’Toole has taken the party, which was opposite to how he ran in its leadership contest to win over party faithful.
Separately, Elections Canada says it expects most of the 850,000 postal votes that were not counted by Monday night to be tallied by the end of today. A clutch of close-run ridings, including a nail-biting photo finish in Vancouver Granville, are still waiting for mail ballots to be counted to determine the final result.
Opinion:
- If anyone should be stepping down, it’s the likeable Jagmeet Singh - Lawrence Martin
- In Quebec, a cold war between Justin Trudeau and François Legault is on the horizon – Konrad Yakabuski
- Erin O’Toole can’t afford to stop running now – Campbell Clark
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The latest COVID-19 developments: B.C. nurses in turmoil, Quebec targets protesters, plus more
Quebec Premier François Legault says he will table a bill tomorrow to ban anti-vaccine protests near schools and hospitals. Earlier today, the province’s three main opposition parties said it’s unacceptable that protesters are approaching children to influence them against following health orders and getting vaccinated.
One of British Columbia’s largest health unions, embroiled in an internal dispute over its opposition to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the health care sector, is facing a leadership crisis. Just days after the BC Nurses’ Union came out against the province’s vaccine order, it announced the abrupt departure of its top official, Christine Sorensen.
And Ontario Premier Doug Ford is asking residents to be patient with businesses owners and front-line staff as the province’s COVID-19 vaccine passport system comes into effect today.
Read more: As COVID-19 vaccine passports kick in, doctors see a rise in medical exemption requests – but few patients who actually qualify.
Explainer: Does your province have COVID-19 vaccine passports, mandates or public restrictions? Here are the rules across Canada.
U.S. border crisis: Video of patrol agents on horseback chasing Haitian migrants causes uproar
Dozens of migrants to the U.S., many of them Haitians, are fainting in the scorching Texas heat at a bridge where nearly 15,000 congregated over the past week, U.S. correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reports. And U.S. authorities are pledging to investigate after video circulated of border agents chasing migrants with horses.
President Joe Biden came into office pledging a more humanitarian approach to the country’s borders. But the sudden arrival of large numbers of people to Del Rio, a small Texas border city, has cast the post-Trump U.S. in an ugly light, and provided new fodder for Biden critics.
Today, no mounted officers were visible at the river. Instead, Border Patrol agents stood and watched as a stream of people crossed, many bringing back food from Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the agents involved in the incidents under investigation had been pulled from front-line duties.
In photos: U.S. Border Patrol’s treatment of Haitian migrants at Rio Grande crossing prompt outrage
China’s Evergrande agrees to domestic debt deal, calming immediate contagion concern
Evergrande has agreed to settle interest payments on a domestic bond, while the Chinese central bank injected cash into the banking system, temporarily soothing fears of imminent contagion from the debt-laden property developer.
Evergrande, Asia’s biggest junk-bond issuer, is so entangled with China’s broader economy that its fate has kept global stock and bond markets anxious as late debt payments could trigger so-called cross-defaults.
Many financial institutions have exposure to Evergrande through direct loans and indirect holdings, while any defaults will also trigger selloffs in the high-yield credit market.
Opinion: China’s Evergrande mess is spreading and hurting big mining companies. The iron ore and steel party is over – Eric Reguly
Updated explainer: What’s behind Evergrande’s debt struggle and why it’s rattling investors around the world
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
U.S. Fed decision: The U.S. Federal Reserve today signalled that it may start raising its benchmark interest rate some time next year, earlier than it envisioned three months ago and a sign that it’s concerned that high inflation pressures may persist.
Trump sues niece, NYT: Former U.S. president Donald Trump is suing his estranged niece, Mary Trump, and The New York Times over a 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices that was partly based on confidential documents she provided to the newspaper’s reporters.
On today’s The Decibel podcast: There is a reckoning happening on campus at the University of Western Ontario after allegations that young women were drugged and sexually assaulted started spilling out over social media. The Globe and Mail’s Joe Friesen and Hope Mahood, an editor for Western’s student paper, discuss the mood at the university now, what pressures the administration is facing and what promises are being made.
MARKET WATCH
North American stocks closed higher today, with Wall Street getting a boost after the Federal Reserve signaled it may begin easing its extraordinary support measures for the economy later this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 338.48 points or 1 per cent to 34,258.32, the S&P 500 climbed 41.45 points or 0.95 per cent to 4,335.64 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 150.45 points or 1.02 per cent to 14,896.85.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index added 157.20 points or 0.78 per cent to end at 20,401.49.
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TALKING POINTS
It will take more than money to solve the health care staffing shortage
“Shoring up the staffing of Canada’s health care system should be the No. 1 item in the mandate letter [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] drafts for the health minister. Everything else, including pandemic response, flows from that.” – Alex Munter, CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Why would we ever believe that the Taliban will now be kinder to women?
“The Taliban have promised a ‘kinder, gentler’ approach after the fall of Kabul – vowing to be more inclusive and humane following the defeat of the internationally-backed Afghan government. The world must not fall for this charm offensive.” – Sheema Khan
LIVING BETTER
You may have not have enjoyed pandemic lockdowns, but it turns out the reduced human activity did have beneficiaries: birds. New research from the University of Manitoba shows about two-thirds of North American bird species changed their behaviour as humans stayed indoors during the pandemic’s early months. Nicola Koper, senior author of the new study, says the results can be used to inform future conservation measures aimed a helping create more useable habitat for birds.
TODAY’S LONG READ
CIBC launches first new logo in decades as part of plan to revitalize image
Supplied
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will launch a new look with a revamped logo this week as part of a multiyear effort to revitalize the bank’s brand and financial performance.
Executives at CIBC have been working on the rebrand, which was codenamed “Project Tetris” inside the bank, since 2019. The launch of the new logo was originally planned for May, 2020, but executives chose to delay it while they dealt with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The change to CIBC’s logo for the first time in decades is the most visible part of its attempt to recast the bank’s corporate culture and its relationships with clients. Chief executive officer Victor Dodig has championed the project, as well as the construction of the bank’s new headquarters in downtown Toronto, called CIBC Square, as touchstones of a broader effort to modernize CIBC. Read James Bradshaw’s full story here.
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