Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Hamas official says it has received new proposal for three-stage truce
Hamas is considering a proposal for a ceasefire and a three-stage release of hostages. According to a senior Hamas official, the truce would entail first releasing remaining civilian hostages, then soldiers, then the bodies of hostages killed.
The proposal was made after negotiations in Paris between U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns, Qatar’s Prime Minister, the chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and the head of Egyptian intelligence. It’s the first time since the brief truce in November that details have been released on another potential pause in fighting. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said he was going to Cairo to discuss the proposal, in a possible indication of the seriousness of talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said once again that he will not pull troops out of Gaza until “total victory.”
- After pausing funding to UNRWA, Canada will send another $40-million in aid for Gaza
- Nearly 1,000 Palestinians apply to come to Canada, but can’t exit Gaza
Conservatives formally request foreign-interference inquiry examine Iranian activities in Canada
The Conservative Party has officially asked the public inquiry on foreign interference to examine Iran’s activities in Canada.
The party’s lawyer Nando De Luca wrote to inquiry Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue to request that it include Iran in its study of the activities of China, India and Russia in Canada’s elections. Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Richard Fadden also recommended the inquiry expand to include Tehran.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Justice Department said it had charged one Iranian national and two Canadian members of the Hells Angels with a murder-for-hire scheme to assassinate people who had fled Iran to the United States. In November, an Iranian-Canadian human-rights activist said Iran has at least 700 operatives in Canada.
Preliminary public hearings into foreign interference began yesterday, with Justice Hogue vowing to uncover the truth about meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
NHL player Michael McLeod, member of 2018 world junior team, charged with sexual assault
NHL hockey player Michael McLeod has been charged with sexual assault by police in connection with an alleged incident in 2018 involving five members of that year’s Canadian world junior team, his lawyers said today. “Mr. McLeod denies any criminal wrongdoing,” David Humphrey and Seth Weinstein from Greenspan Humphrey Weinstein said in a statement. “He will be pleading not guilty and will vigorously defend the case. None of the evidence has been presented, let alone tested in court. We ask that the public respect Mr. McLeod’s privacy, and his family’s privacy.”
Mr. McLeod took a leave of absence from the New Jersey Devils last week. On Sunday, Mr. McLeod’s former teammate on the 2018 world junior team, Alex Formenton, turned himself into police in London, Ont., to face a charge in connection to the same incident. Both men, as well as three other members of the 2018 team, are accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel after a Hockey Canada fundraising gala.
Ethics watchdog says Trudeau accepted free vacation from ‘true friend,’ making gift acceptable
The federal ethics watchdog says his office says that the person who gifted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a Jamaican vacation has a real friendship with the PM, making the free stay over the holidays acceptable.
The House of Commons ethics committee had invited Interim Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein to testify today to explain the rules around travel, vacations and gifts. “This was a true friend who has no relations to the Government of Canada,” von Finckenstein told the committee.
Controversy erupted when the Prime Minister and his family stayed in a luxury resort, owned by Trudeau family friend Peter Green, and the PMO repeatedly changed details regarding the trip, including who had paid for it.
- Campbell Clark: All Parliament wants to talk about is each other
- Konrad Yakabuski: Is Trudeau’s latest vacation scandal a sign he has already checked out?
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ottawa to delay again expansion of MAiD: Health ministers from several provinces and all the territories have sent a letter to federal Health Minister Mark Holland asking that Ottawa indefinitely delay implementing medical assistance in dying for those whose underlying medical condition is mental illness.
Analysis: South Africa’s tangled journey to international courts: After winning a series of powerful orders against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague last week, South Africa has been hailed as a hero in much of the world. But for nearly a decade, it has had a much more tangled history with the institutions of international justice. The country’s ruling party, the African National Congress, has long been critical of the International Criminal Court, accusing it of bias against Africa.
Enbridge plans 650 job cuts: The Canadian pipeline giant is cutting jobs across the company to help rein in spending.
Heavy rain, warm temps in B.C. thanks to atmospheric river: Unseasonable warmth brought by an atmospheric river has shattered records – some almost a century old – at more than 30 B.C. locations, with the mercury passing 18 C in the Lower Mainland.
Pakistan’s Imran Khan sentenced: The former prime minister has received a 10-year prison sentence in a Pakistan court for leaking state secrets. It’s the harshest sentence he has received, announced days before the country’s general election.
Two-year government boycott to end in Northern Ireland: The largest British unionist party in Northern Ireland agreed today to end a boycott that has rattled the 25-year-old peace in the region. It could see the government restored within days.
MARKET WATCH
The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost ground today and the S&P 500 closed nominally lower after touching a new intraday high, while the blue-chip Dow and the Canadian benchmark stock index finished slightly higher, with energy stocks a bright spot.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 27.81 points, or 0.1%, at 21,227.87, its highest closing level since April 2022. The S&P 500 declined 0.06% to end at 4,924.97 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.76% to 15,509.90 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.35% to 38,467.31 points.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.53 cents US compared with 74.39 cents on Monday.
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TALKING POINTS
Personal support workers are the undervalued heart of the long-term care system
“Personal support workers, or PSWs, may be the most undervalued workers is our society. They need and deserve better access to training. They need and deserve full-time, stable employment. And they need better pay.” – John Ibbitson
Canada plans to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 – and we have the tools to do it
“It’s the failure to act on evidence, including the need for education and promotion, that is the greatest barrier to the elimination of cervical cancer.” – André Picard
The growing threat of messianic politics
“The reason why so many democracies are now threatened by messianic politics is not because organized religion has gained in strength.” – Ian Buruma
LIVING BETTER
Looking for direction with your RRSP? Here are five steps to success
Thinking ahead to retirement? Gordon Pape shares his advice on how to make sure you’re saving enough. Firstly, assess where you are. Do you have a retirement savings program of any type already in place? Start there and figure out how much retirement income that program would bring you. Then, establish a reasonable savings routine. Assuming you have no pension plan (only 6.7 million Canadians do), you need to start now. While TFSAs are great, Pape thinks RRSPs are better for retirement savings. Here’s why – plus the rest of his tips.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Almost 20 years later, Mean Girls madness marches on
(Left to right) Rachel McAdams as Regina, Lacey Chabert as Gretchen and Amanda Seyfried as Karen in "Mean Girls."
The original Mean Girls film was released nearly 20 years ago and still it remains as culturally relevant – and quotable – as ever. In her new book called So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It), Jennifer Keishin Armstrong examines the cult classic film’s Canadian connections and why it has endured after all this time. Part of it is how it struck a chord at the perfect time for millennials, who meme-ified the film into eternity just as internet culture really started taking off. But the biggest reason is its “universal core message about ‘relational aggression.’” Read the full analysis by Johanna Schneller.
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.