Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada’s inflation drops to 7.6% in July as people paid less for gas
The Consumer Price Index increased 7.6 per cent in July from a year earlier, compared with growth of 8.1 per cent in June, as people paid much less for gasoline.
But Statistics Canada data show other costs - including groceries, rent and natural gas - are on the rise. And the average of the Bank of Canada’s core measures of annual inflation – which strip out volatile price changes – increased to 5.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent.
“It’s great that headline inflation is moving in the right direction as energy prices ease,” said Leslie Preston, managing director at TD Economics. “But there was very little cooling in core inflation. And I think it’s a reminder that the Bank of Canada needs to continue to raise rates to rein in inflationary pressures.”
Explainer: Inflation slowed to 7.6% in July. Here’s what that means for the cost of living in Canada
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War in Ukraine: Explosions hit ammunition depot at military base in Russian-annexed Crimea
Moscow denounced sabotage and Ukraine hinted at responsibility for new explosions today at a military base in Russian-annexed Crimea that is an important supply line for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The blasts engulfed an ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the Crimean peninsula, disrupting trains and forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people from a nearby village, according to Russian officials and news agencies.
The explosions raised the prospect of new dynamics in the six-month-old war if Ukraine now has capability to strike deeper into Russian territory or pro-Kyiv groups are having success with guerrilla-style attacks.
Opinion: Canada is falling short on its promises to Ukraine - Michael Bociurkiw, global affairs analyst
RCMP officer, communications official stand by allegations of political interference in N.S. shooting investigation
Chief Superintendent Darren Campbell and former RCMP strategic communications director Lia Scanlan, who made allegations of political meddling into a shooting spree in Nova Scotia, testified at the House of Commons public safety committee today.
The committee is sorting through conflicting reports about whether RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki pressed Nova Scotia RCMP to publicly release details about the weapons used by a gunman who murdered 22 people in April, 2020.
Campbell and Scanlan say Lucki scolded them nine days after the shooting for not publicly identifying the guns that were used because she had made a promise to then-public safety minister Bill Blair that the information would be released.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Quebec Cardinal accused of sexual assault: Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been accused of sexual assault by an unnamed woman in a class-action lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec.
RBC CEO signals greater return to office: Dave McKay, chief executive officer of Canada’s largest bank, is urging employees to return to the office more frequently, and is saying the bank must become more deliberate about on-site work
Political turmoil in Kenya: Losing candidate Raila Odinga has rejected Kenya’s official election results, vowing to launch a legal challenge of the results in a move that throws the country into a new chapter of political turmoil.
Grim B.C. milestone: British Columbia has recorded more than 10,000 illicit drug overdose deaths since it declared a public health emergency in April, 2016, the province’s chief coroner says.
Del Duca pivots to municipal politics: Former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, who failed to win his riding in this year’s provincial election, has entered the race to become mayor of Vaughan.
Ruling on Baldwin set shooting: The fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin last year was an accident, according to New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator following the completion of an autopsy and a review of law enforcement reports.
MARKET WATCH
Global equity markets were flat while U.S. Treasury yields rose today, as recession worries persisted amid concern the Federal Reserve will continue its steep interest rate hikes despite nascent signs of a slowdown in inflation. Meanwhile, Canada’s main stock index rose to its highest level in more than two months as domestic data showed signs of inflation peaking, but gains were limited by uncertainty about whether the recent rally could be sustained.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 239.57 points 0.54 per cent to end at 34,152.01, the S&P 500 advanced 8.06 points or 0.19 per cent to 4,305.20 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 25.50 points or 0.19 per cent to 13,102.55.
The S&P/TSX composite index rose 89.37 points or 0.44 per cent to 20,269.97, its fifth straight day of gains and its highest closing level since June 10.
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TALKING POINTS
Alberta is on the verge of the constitutional abyss
“At least Quebec’s separatists declined to attempt their coup d’état without first seeking a mandate from the people in a referendum. Whereas for [UCP leadership frontrunner Danielle] Smith, it would apparently be sufficient to launch the province into this legal no-man’s-land with the votes of a few thousand party members.” - Andrew Coyne
Home owners are the new oil barons and it’s time to start taxing their housing wealth
“As with revenues reported by big oil companies, the excess profits from the eye-popping increase in prices of homes are driven not by homeowners’ efforts and ingenuity but arising as they sleep in their beds at night.” - Steve Pomeroy, head of housing policy research firm Focus Consulting
TODAY’S LONG READ
How did Pearson airport’s delays get so bad? Inside the patchwork system that failed to stop the crisis
Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Tens of thousands of pilots, flight attendants, security screeners and baggage handlers bore the brunt of the near shutdown of the aviation industry during the early days of the pandemic. They were suddenly out of work, and many left the industry for good.
Tim Perry, a WestJet pilot and president of the Canadian arm of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), warned politicians 10 months into the pandemic that it would take several years for all those jobs to return without financial aid from Ottawa. “It’s not an industry where you can flick the light off and have it just be flicked on again,” he told a parliamentary committee.
But the airlines did just that, adding flights in earnest beginning this February. It became immediately clear that the industry wasn’t ready for the rebound, and flight cancellations soon followed. The chaos at Toronto Pearson has laid bare a broken governance system, not only in the Canadian airport model itself but among the multiple federal agencies serving the aviation industry, The Globe and Mail has found. Read the full story here.
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