Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Montreal quietly ends moratorium on probing fire evacuation routes
In the days after a March 16 fire destroyed an Old Montreal apartment building, killing seven people and injuring nine, the city’s fire department quietly ended a moratorium on investigations of evacuation routes – a policy that internal documents show had prevented a review of the building’s safety years earlier.
The moratorium, introduced in October, 2018, meant the fire department had stopped enforcing certain safety requirements, according to two department officials that The Globe and Mail is not naming because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The memo says management made the decision because of a lack of staff training. It also cites a lack of defined indicators for compliance with regulations, among other issues.
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Thousands more evacuated in Northern Alberta as wildfires rage
Developing story: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped in Edmonton today to meet with military personnel who are helping fight wildfires in Alberta that worsened under the weekend heat.
Yesterday, thousands more people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Northern Alberta, as the raging wildfires continued to burn homes, vehicles and thousands of hectares of forest, and strain the firefighting resources of local communities.
The number of evacuees in the province grew to more than 19,300 yesterday, with 23 of the more than 80 active wildfires considered out of control as of this morning.
With unseasonably high temperatures expected to last, and no sign of rain in sight for a week, authorities said the situation remains dangerous and in flux.
The war in Ukraine’s latest developments: Zelensky meets Sunak, Wagner report denied
Ukraine has hailed its first substantial battlefield advances for six months as President Volodymyr Zelensky won pledges of new long-range drones in Britain to add to a haul of Western arms for a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.
Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the battlefield city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
Zelensky met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London today the latest stop in a tour that brought him to Rome, Berlin and Paris over the past three days – gaining major new pledges of weapons from Western allies along the way.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Wagner private army dismissed a U.S. newspaper report that he had offered to betray Russian positions, and the Kremlin called it a “hoax.”
B.C. clinics struggle to keep up with demand for IUD insertions
Weeks after B.C. made prescription birth control publicly funded, women are flooding health care clinics requesting IUDs, leading to waiting times of several months because of a shortage of clinicians available to insert them.
The province became the first to cover the cost of most forms of prescription birth control as of April 1, a move that was hailed as an important step in providing equitable access to contraception. But B.C’s heath care system is being overwhelmed by the rush to take advantage of the new policy.
In the case of intrauterine devices, women used to have to pay an upfront fee of up to $400, but now it costs them nothing, prompting the high demand.
More health news:
- Hormone replacement therapy should be first line of treatment for menopausal women under 60, study says
- New combination of treatments for glioblastoma show promise for patients with brain cancer
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Jump in national home sales: Canada’s housing market rebound firmed up in April, with sales climbing 11.3 per cent from March, but available listings are at a 20-year low as many potential sellers remain on the sidelines.
Stellantis pumps brakes on Windsor plant: The major auto maker says it has stopped construction on a $5-billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, saying the federal government has not delivered on what was promised.
Postseason over for Oilers: The Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the last remaining Canadian team, the Edmonton Oilers, from Stanley Cup contention, advancing to the NHL’s Western Conference final with a 5-2 road win last night.
Microsoft gets green light on Activision: The European Union has approved Microsoft’s US$69-billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, a major boost that could prompt Chinese and Korean regulators to follow suit despite a British veto of the deal.
Vice Media files for bankruptcy protection: The digital media company says it has agreed to sell its assets to a consortium of lenders in exchange for $225-million in credit. The filing comes amid a wider surge of media layoffs and closings, including job cuts at NPR and the Washington Post as well as the shutdown of BuzzFeed News.
MARKET WATCH
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Dow ended with modest gains on after manufacturing data raised concerns about a slowing U.S. economy amid ongoing debt ceiling negotiations, while a rise in Meta shares helped lift the Nasdaq. Canada’s main stock index rose on strength in the base metal and energy sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 47.98 points or 0.14 per cent to 33,348.60, the S&P 500 added 12.20 points or 0.3 per cent to end at 4,136.28, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 80.47 points or 0.66 per cent to 12,365.21.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 120.35 points or 0.59 per cent to 20,539.97. The loonie traded at 74.26 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
Two solitudes emerging on immigration in Quebec
“While the sudden panic in Quebec over immigration was driven by tabloid fear, it does matter that there is now a two-speed immigration plan in Canada that will keep generating political disputes, without much regard to facts.” - Campbell Clark
A new centreman won’t help the Leafs. A new leader might
“If you want to change something about the Leafs without having to take the whole engine apart, change the culture. Put a grown-up in charge. Someone who wants the job. Not just the title. The job.” - Cathal Kelly
How the “food” we eat causes harm by not really being food at all
“If it’s wrapped in plastic and contains an ingredient you don’t find in a typical home kitchen, then it’s [an ultraprocessed food]. Much of it will be familiar to you as “junk food,” but there’s plenty that’s also sold as healthy, nutritious, environmentally friendly or useful for weight loss.” - Chris van Tulleken, doctor and author
LIVING BETTER
Tom Cruise, right, returns as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.Paramount Pictures
Grab the popcorn, the summer movie season is just about here. Film editor Barry Hertz offers his preview of the whiz-bang blockbusters and interesting indies set for release. They feature Barbies, bomb-makers and too many Batmans to count.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Tree-planting drones seed the dangerous places where human planters can’t tread
Meghan Degraff in a logged area located near a camp for tree planters in Celista, B.C., on May 12, 2023.The Globe and Mail
Planting trees in places scorched by forest fire can help its ecosystems recover and restore its capacity to capture carbon. But when tree planters are called in to do the job, they can sometimes be met by dangerous conditions such as high winds and unstable trees, says Meghan DeGraff, a supervisor for All Star Silviculture in Enderby, B.C.
Toronto-based reforestation company Flash Forest is branding itself as a solution. Using drones equipped with artificial intelligence and mapping capabilities, its technology is designed to fly above a planting site and shoot specially designed seed pods into the ground. These pods are designed to nurture tree seedlings in the first few stages of their lives.
In the past decade, British Columbia has experienced its three worst wildfire seasons. Ontario went through one of its largest fires in history in 2021 and burned well above its 10-year average. Alberta experienced its second-worst wildfire season measured by hectares burned in 2019. Climatologists and wildfire experts predict longer and more intense wildfire seasons in Canada’s future. Read the full story by Pippa Norman.
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