Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The Liberal government is seeking to delay the expansion of Canada’s assisted-dying regime to include people whose sole underlying conditions are mental disorders.
Justice Minister David Lametti says the government has heard from experts who are concerned that the health-care system might not be prepared to handle those complicated cases.
Canada’s medical assistance in dying legislation excludes those whose sole underlying condition is a mental disorder until March 2023.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 5, 2022.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
RCMP searches Ivanhoe Mines Vancouver office in hunt for documents on Swiss bank account transfers
The RCMP has searched the Vancouver office of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. to seek information on $2.7-million in bank transfers from Ivanhoe to a Swiss bank account in connection with contracts for its Congolese mining operations, The Globe and Mail has learned.
The RCMP obtained the search warrant after saying it had reasonable grounds to believe that Ivanhoe violated Canada’s Criminal Code and Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act between 2014 and 2018, according to a brief disclosure by Ivanhoe in an annual information form. Ivanhoe co-operated in the search of its Vancouver office in November, 2021, and no charges have been laid against the company or its directors or employees, Ivanhoe said in the disclosure earlier this year.
British Columbia court documents in the case – obtained by The Sentry, a U.S.-based investigative organization, and shared with The Globe – contain a six-page list of documents and computer equipment that the RCMP was authorized to seize from Ivanhoe’s office. Some of the documents authorized for seizure were related to three bank transfers from Ivanhoe to the Swiss bank account of a company called Stucky Technologies from 2015 to 2018.
Ivanhoe is developing the huge Kamoa-Kakula copper project in Congo.Supplied
Federal public servants ordered to return to office at least twice a week
Ottawa is mandating that federal public servants return to the office at least two to three days in a week, or 40 to 60 per-cent of the time they spend working, in an attempt to bring more uniformity to a hybrid work setup that has varied widely across different federal departments since September.
The government’s decision comes after months of contentious negotiations with unions over the inclusion of remote work clauses in bargaining agreements, and pressure from business lobby groups in Ottawa to get more workers back into downtown office buildings.
In a memo issued Thursday afternoon, the Treasury Board Secretariat – the government body responsible for the administrative management of the federal public service – stated that the mandate will take effect on Jan. 16, 2023, with employees having to fully comply by the end of next March.
The Centennial Flame is pictured in front of Parliament of Canada on Parliament Hill Nov. 24, 2019, in Ottawa.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
A century caught on camera: See 100 years of history, captured by Globe and Mail photographers
News photographs stop time. It’s their most profound accomplishment. They freeze a moment of the present so that the moment can be examined more closely in the future. An archive like this – a century, as of this month, of photographs taken by Globe and Mail staff photographers – thereby becomes a succession of stopped moments. If you string them together and look at them long enough, patterns start to emerge.
A hundred years ago, The Globe and Mail hired its first staff photographer, and nearly four dozen have followed since. Explore our curated collection of their work, more than 1,650 images, year-by-year from 1922 to 2022.
Guest artist Patrick Bissell partners Karen Kain in The National Ballet of Canada's SWAN LAKE at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, Feb. 11, 1981.THOMAS SZLUKOVENYI/The Globe and Mail
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
RCMP probes elaborate scam targeting Canada’s largest Muslim organization: Canada’s largest Muslim community organization has been rocked by meticulous forgeries of RCMP and Canada Revenue Agency records, which weave an elaborate fiction about federal investigators using paid informants to build a terrorist-funding case against the charity.
LNG coalition faces uncertain future after leader quits, proposals wane: An industry group formed eight years ago to promote the promise of abundant Canadian exports of liquefied natural gas faces an uncertain future after its leader resigned and the number of LNG proposals shrank.
Canada’s bank regulator keeps mortgage stress test unchanged despite calls to relax rules as rates spike: Canada’s bank regulator said it is not changing the mortgage stress test, ignoring calls to relax the rules and offer relief to borrowers after the spike in borrowing costs.
Ontario court acquits three ex-CannTrust executives in case over unlicensed cannabis growing: An Ontario court has acquitted three former cannabis leaders charged with offences linked to unlicensed growing at a Niagara-area greenhouse.
Canadian doctors trained at international medical schools share their stories. Here’s what they had to say: Thousands of medical students are leaving Canada because it’s nearly impossible to get one of the 2,800 first-year seats in the country’s 17 medical schools – where roughly nine out of 10 applicants are rejected. The Globe has rounded up a collection of reader reactions, from people who chimed in with their personal stories, those from friends and family members, and their feelings about how this reflects on Canada’s health care system.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index fell by almost 1.5 per cent Thursday with broad-based declines, while U.S. stock markets fell even further a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate and said it expects rates still needed to go higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 291.02 points at 19,600.63.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 764.13 points, or 2.25 per cent, at 33,202.65. The S&P 500 index was down 99.57 points, or 2.49 per cent, at 3,895.75, while the Nasdaq composite was down 360.36 points, or 3.23 per cent, at 10,810.53.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.31 cents US compared with 73.74 cents US on Wednesday.
The January crude oil contract was down US$1.17 at US$76.11 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up 54 cents at US$6.97 per mmBTU.
The February gold contract was down US$30.90 at US$1,787.80 an ounce and the March copper contract was down 12 cents at US$3.76 a pound.
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TALKING POINTS
The secret to success in Canadian business? Befriending a Liberal cabinet minister
“This is a message for all the doe-eyed students studying at Western’s Ivey School of Business, or the interns fetching dinner for their bosses on Bay Street after hours: You’re going about things in the wrong way.” – Robyn Urback
For pedestrians in Toronto, there’s a near-death experience waiting at every intersection
“A car-centric etiquette pervades Toronto, a form of politeness where the people who count are the drivers and passengers, and where people walking down the street are mere obstacles. It’s a city where portable washrooms park in bike lanes, where minor snowfall renders sidewalks ice sheets for a season, and where the normal practice for deliveries, business and personal, involves a truck rendering sidewalks and bike lanes (if applicable) unusable for however long it takes.” – Phoebe Maltz Bovy
The delay in Jimmy Lai’s trial in Hong Kong represents a denial of justice
“Hong Kong’s judicial independence and basic human-rights guarantees have been substantially hollowed out. It makes a mockery of the promises made under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and of justice.” – Dennis Kwok
The world needs to let Haiti write its own story
“The question of foreign intervention is always met with resistance in Haiti: Any new wave of engagement seems like part of a centuries-long attack on the country’s autonomy. It feels like an invasion, not an intervention. Yet, if not intervention, what can be done to help Haiti?” – Greg Beckett
LIVING BETTER
How to survive holiday travel through Toronto’s Pearson International Airport
‘Tis the season for chaos at Toronto Pearson International Airport. But this year, Waheeda Harris has you covered. In a small sampling of tips, Harris writes, the airport website features a wait time dashboard for airline counters, security and U.S. customs, and advises you to consider a predeparture workout at Terminal 1′s GoodLife Fitness or a calming moment with a St. John Ambulance therapy dog. Follow along as she reports on the bells, whistles, shortcuts and need-to-know services at YYZ.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Five things to stream this weekend: Fleishman is in wonderful trouble, plus the media world’s favourite satire
Meara Mahoney Gross, Jesse Eisenberg and Maxim Swinton in Fleishman Is in Trouble.Linda Kallerus/FX
Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
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Evening Update is written by Emerald Bensadoun. 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.