Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Ethics violation in Ontario Greenbelt land swap
Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark violated ethics rules over the government’s decision to remove select lands from the protected Greenbelt, which led to the interests of certain developers being “furthered improperly,” a report by the province’s integrity commissioner says.
Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake said that Clark failed to properly oversee the land selection process, and recommended he be sanctioned for failing to comply with two sections of the Members’ Integrity Act.
Earlier this month, Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk found the process led by Clark’s chief of staff Ryan Amato was “biased” and “favoured certain developers.” All but one of the properties selected was identified by Amato after he received documents from two developers requesting that these lands be removed at a dinner in September, 2022. Amato resigned last week.
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Estimates on non-permanent residents living in Canada miss the mark
Federal ministers were warned at their cabinet retreat last week that there are about one million more non-permanent residents living in Canada, including foreign students, than government estimates suggest.
Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets, told the ministers that the undercounting in the official statistics means Canada is underestimating the number of new homes required to meet the country’s increasing housing needs.
The main reason for the discrepancy, he said, is that the government is not counting people who remain in the country after their visas expire.
Explainer Canada has changed its permanent residence selection process. Here’s what to know
Hurricane Idalia hits Florida, Georgia
Hurricane Idalia made landfall today in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast. It submerged homes and vehicles, turned streets into rivers, unmoored small boats and downed power lines.
The hurricane crossed into Georgia, with top winds of 155 kph at 11 a.m., after drenching Florida mostly to the east of Tallahassee. Forecasters said it would reach the Carolinas overnight as a tropical storm.
In photos: Hurricane Idalia barrels into Florida
Gabon military officers seize power
Thousands of people celebrated in the streets after military officers announced on state television that they had launched a coup to depose the president whose family has ruled the oil-rich Central African country for more than half a century.
President Ali Bongo, in a video released on social media, said he was under arrest in his official residence.
Many commentators noted the irony that the video emerged only because the military officers had ordered Internet services to be restored after the coup. Bongo’s government had shut it down during a national election on the weekend.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
McConnell freezes again: Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell froze up for more than 30 seconds today during a public appearance before he was escorted away, the second such incident for the 81-year-old in a little more than a month, a clip from an NBC News affiliate showed.
Metro strikes tentative deal: Details are not immediately available of the agreement reached with Unifor covering striking workers at 27 grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area. A ratification vote will be held shortly for the workers, who have been on strike since July 29.
Wildfire updates: As B.C. students gear up for their return to school next week, parents in communities devastated by wildfires are grappling with what that may look like for their kids. In the Northwest Territories, a state of emergency has been extended to Sept. 11.
War in Ukraine: Ukraine launched what appears to be its most extensive drone attack on Russian soil, lasting four hours and striking military assets, according to Russian officials and media reports. Meanwhile, a Kremlin drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed two people.
Separately, the Kremlin said that “deliberate wrongdoing” is among the possible causes of the plane crash that killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last week.
Air Canada slashing Calgary routes: The airline says it will no longer offer non-stop flights from Calgary to Ottawa, Halifax, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Cancun or Frankfurt as of the end of October, in part due because of an industry-wide pilot shortage.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street stocks closed higher as fresh economic data signalled a cooling U.S. economy, reinforcing expectations the Federal Reserve will pause rate hikes in September. Canada’s main stock market followed suit, buoyed by the U.S. economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.57 points or 0.11 per cent to 34,890.24, the S&P 500 climbed 17.24 points or 0.38 per cent to 4,514.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 75.55 points or 0.54 per cent to end at 14,019.31.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 39.91 points or 0.2 per cent to 20,330.32. The Canadian dollar traded at 73.90 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
Is the 14th Amendment the key to ending Trump’s bid for presidency?
“The amendment … includes a section barring from office anyone who ‘shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ against the United States or who has ‘given aid or comfort to the enemies’ of the country.” - David Shribman
How to fix a broken foreign student visa system? Send it back to school
“Create a system to prioritize who gets the limited supply of visas. … To govern is to choose. The highest quality and highest value programs should get the visas.” - Tony Keller
LIVING BETTER
Has Barbenheimer phenomenon this summer rekindled your love of the cinema? Film editor Barry Hertz previews 15 of the fall’s best movie bets. “There are signs of promise everywhere you look,” he writes, “no Barbie or atomic blast required.”
TODAY’S LONG READ
Pierre Trudeau’s office ran secret intelligence unit to quell Quebec separatists, researchers find
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, right, with Justice Minister John Turner on Feb. 8, 1971CHUCK MITCHELL/The Canadian Press
New research based on previously classified documents has revealed a secret operation within the office of prime minister Pierre Trudeau to gather intelligence about Quebec separatists after the 1970 October Crisis through a task force that was strongly opposed by a senior RCMP official at the time.
The effort appears to have lasted only between 1971 and 1972, however, before it was undone by John Starnes, then head of the Mounties’ intelligence wing.
Starnes, the RCMP Security Service’s director-general, kept notes on his meetings with top political officials, documenting his warnings to them that a “political scandal of major proportions” could erupt – especially if the public ever learned that Mounties were encouraged to work with the Prime Minister’s Office. Read the full story by Colin Freeze
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