Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Elizabeth May resigns as leader of the Green Party
Elizabeth May has announced that, after 13 years of leading the federal Green Party, she will step down from the post but said she will stay on as parliamentary leader of the caucus. As Marieke Walsh reports, May said Jo-Ann Roberts, a former journalist who ran for the Greens in Halifax in October’s election and came in third in that race, will be the party’s interim leader.
May, who has been party leader since 2006, was the first Green member of Parliament and the first Green leader to join the federal leaders’ debates. Before the recent federal election, May said in a wide-reaching profile in The Globe by Vancouver-based Justine Hunter that she nearly quit as leader after the 2015 election. After the 2019 vote, in which the Greens failed to break through with voters and won only three seats, May again said it was unlikely she would remain leader for the four years of a minority Liberal government.
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Banning e-cigarette sales to minors not enough to curb youth vaping, study finds
A study published today in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on the prevalence of youth vaping suggests simply banning minors from buying vaping products isn’t enough to stop the steady increase of teens who use them. As Carly Weeks reports, the study suggests vaping products with kid-friendly flavours such as candy, fruit or dessert should be banned because they appeal to young people.
The JAMA study, lead by Hai Nguyen, Canada Research Chair in health policy evaluation and health care sustainability at Memorial University in St. John’s, looked at Canadian surveys of young people conducted between 2014 and 2017. It explained that banning sales to minors slowed the rate of increase in some province but notes that evidence shows minors use e-cigarettes because of the appealing flavours.
Concerns over youth vaping have increased in recent months, in light of a growing outbreak of vaping-related lung disease in North America and data showing that youth rates of vaping have increased dramatically in Canada since 2017.
Senators form nonpartisan group to promote regional interests
A group of 11 senators who represent different regions of the country have formed a new caucus called the Canadian Senators Group and say they want to ensure regional interests are represented in the upper chamber of Parliament, Janice Dickinson reports.
Six of the 11 members of the new caucus were appointed by Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper (only two were still sitting as Conservatives), and five by Liberals Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau. The group will become the third-largest caucus in the Senate; of the 105 members, there are 49 who belong to the Independent Senators Group, 27 Conservatives, 9 Liberals, six non-affiliated members and three vacant seats.
In Xinjiang, new evidence that China stages prayers, street scenes for visiting delegations
China’s Xinjiang province in the northwest of the country is home to to a large Muslim population of ethnic minority groups, including Uyghurs. About a year ago, as Nathan VanderKlippe reports from Beijing, China denied reports officials had constructed a network of prison-like re-education centres dedicated to the forced indoctrination of Muslims. But after authorities revealed in October, 2018, that they had created a “vocational education and training program,” that has seen, by some estimates, more than a million people placed in such centres for re-education, China began a lengthy process to counter critics of these indoctrination centres.
China has staged intricately managed scenes filled with pedestrians, street vendors and drivers played by people who have been assigned roles, according to several people interviewed by The Globe and Mail, all to give the impression of an open religious atmosphere. One such man, 79, was offered money to pray at a mosque because, he said, officials and police said an inspection tour was being arranged that would bring dignitaries from around the world to Urumqi and they wanted the visitors to see people praying.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Toronto police make arrest in shooting that injured five: Police say they’ve arrested a 20-year-old man in a shooting at a Toronto residential building that left five teens injured. They say two people opened fire on a group of teens gathered in the hallway, then took off with a third suspect in a dark sedan.
Former U.S. ambassador felt targeted by Trump allies: Laying out the anatomy of a chilling smear campaign, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House of Representatives investigators that Ukrainian officials warned her in advance that Rudy Giuliani and other allies of President Donald Trump were planning to “do things, including to me” and were “looking to hurt” her.
Ousted McDonald’s CEO to get severance: McDonald’s ousted CEO Steve Easterbrook, who was fired for having a consensual relationship with an employee, it was revealed yesterday, will receive 26 weeks of pay but forfeit millions in unvested stock options as part of his severance agreement.
Conviction of officer sends message about stereotypes: A rare criminal conviction of a police officer for failing to provide medical help to a dying woman in his custody could be a warning to authorities that they can be held accountable for allowing drug-abuse stereotypes to guide their conduct.
Trump takes step to withdraw from climate accord: The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that it will withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the first formal step in a one-year process to exit the global pact to fight climate change, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed on Monday.
Leafs, Luke Skywalker send birthday wishes: When Kade Foster’s father, Jason, tweeted that the 11-year-old’s birthday party turned into a disappointment, because none of Kade’s friends showed up to the Saturday night party, several sports figures, including Leafs Mitch Marner and John Tavares, sent replies and birthday wishes to the Corner Brook, N.L., fan. Foster’s post was shared thousands of times and received more than 25,000 responses, including from several actors such as Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise.
MARKET WATCH
The close: Energy stocks lead TSX higher
Canada’s main stock index rose to a month’s high, lifted by a 3.2-per-cent rally in energy stocks as oil prices rose on signs of progress in resolution of a trade dispute between the United States and China.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 75.74 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 16,669.81, with the energy sector touching its highest since Oct. 7 as crude prices increased.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115.36 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 27,462.72, the S&P 500 gained 11.46 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 3,078.37 and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.80 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 8,433.20.
Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition includes tax-loss selling, a high-yield green stock and Encana’s puzzling name change.
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TALKING POINTS
Threatening to rip up the contract with Alberta doctors is destined to end badly
“For a political movement that claims to be business-oriented, Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party seems to have quite a tenuous grasp on even the most basic elements of labour relations and contract law.” – André Picard
How an economic alliance can bolster the world’s defence of democratic values
“For years, the Chinese Communist Party had led a boycott of one of Norway’s primary exports, closing its enormous market to the Scandinavian country. It was only after extended diplomatic efforts – not to mention a 2012 Nobel Prize in literature awarded to Chinese writer Mo Yan, who happened to be friendly to Beijing – that salmon exports to China began to recover.” – Times Wang is a lawyer from Montreal living in the United States focused on human rights-related work.
Why don’t more scientists run for office?
Another election has come and, mercifully, gone. During the recent federal campaign, the subject of climate change was front and centre, yet, as I watched the debates and read what candidates had to say about the issue, it struck me that most politicians in Canada (aspiring or elected) lack any kind of scientific background. – Mark Lautens is a J.B. Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto.
LIVING BETTER
Think you need meat to build muscle?
Writer Paul Landini takes on the notion that you can only get big and strong by eating meat. He points to a growing recognition that vegans “have been kicking ass and taking names at the highest levels of every major sport,” and offers some tips for those of you interested in packing on muscle without animal protein.
Ontario teens who visit ER for self-harm treatment at increased risk for later hospitalization, suicide, study shows
According to a paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Ontario teens seeking help for self-harm at emergency departments have significantly higher rates of hospitalizations, death and suicide, when compared with teens visiting the ED for other reasons. As Erin Anderssen reports, teenagers who self-harmed were eight times more likely to die by suicide, and three times more likely to die of any cause within five years.
LONG READ FOR A LONG COMMUTE
Masters student Gabriella Zagorski holds a Blanding's turtle in a wetland area in Northern Ontario. Ms. Zagorski tracked 29 of the turtles at a proposed quarry site over two years.Gino Donato/The Globe and Mail
Turtle tussle pits scientists against quarry builders
When ecologists found a haven for Blanding’s turtles on a patch of Crown land, they waded into a conflict that is testing the Ford government’s new policy on endangered species protection. Then things got really ugly. As science writer Ivan Semeniuk writes, a researcher at Laurentian University in Sudbury says she endured professional harassment and a defamation campaign when she found endangered turtles living in a proposed quarry site. The case illustrates the jeopardy scientists face under current environmental laws when they run afoul of industrial interests.
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