Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Russian forces continued their advance toward Kyiv today and appeared to take heavy losses, while the city’s mayor said roughly half the prewar population had now left the Ukrainian capital.
The reported Russian advance into Brovary, a satellite town on the northeastern edge of Kyiv, came shortly after talks in Turkey between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers – the highest-level negotiations of the 15-day-old war – ended without progress toward a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau met with U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris in Warsaw today to discuss what more their countries can do to support war-torn Ukraine. The Polish President said he urged the Prime Minister to accelerate Canada’s immigration process for Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Trudeau ended his five-day trip to Europe to Poland, which is on the front line of the humanitarian crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He announced Canada will spend $117-million to help speed up the arrival of Ukrainians, but did not specify details.
Opinion:
- The West is turning to xenophobia against individual Russians to respond to Putin’s invasion – Robyn Urback
- Sanctioning Russia’s diamond trade would be a blow to Putin’s oligarchs - Ian Smillie
In photos: Estimated two million Ukrainians have fled the Russian war on their country
Live updates: Catch-up on today’s events and keep up with the latest developments here.
Read more:
- Inside a frantic race to get Ukrainian corn and wheat to world markets
- Russia’s economy is in chaos. These charts show how the crisis will get worse
- World’s poorest countries face power cuts, spike in food costs as war in Ukraine hits global supply
- Odesa mayor braces for war to reach historic Ukrainian city
- Lviv struggling to feed, house displaced Ukrainians fleeing war-torn areas, mayor says
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Jean Charest opposed to Bill 21 and favors more oil and gas production
Launching his campaign to lead the federal Conservatives, Jean Charest says he is opposed to Quebec’s controversial religious-symbols law, and also favours more oil and gas production, including new pipelines.
The former Quebec premier outlined both positions and others today during an interview in Montreal, ahead of travelling to Calgary to kick off his bid to replace Erin O’Toole as Conservative leader.
Explainer: Who is running to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada?
Leaders of truck convoy protests sought to overthrow government, Canada’s national security adviser says
Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser says the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act was necessary to end the trucker protests whose leaders were bent on overthrowing the government.
Jody Thomas, former deputy minster at National Defence who became Trudeau’s top national security adviser in January, said the Emergencies Act was meant for an extreme situation like the truck convoy protests.
Whether organizers had the ability to overthrow the federal government is irrelevant, she said. The fact they sought to mount a coup justified Ottawa giving police unprecedented powers including the freezing of bank accounts.
B.C. to ease COVID-19 restrictions on masks, vaccine passports
British Columbia will lift its mask mandate, restore long-term care visits and drop capacity limits on faith gatherings tomorrow.
Starting on April 8, vaccine passports will no longer be required to access restaurants and other venues, while businesses can shift away from their COVID-19 safety plans.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says cases of COVID-19 have come down dramatically in the past few weeks and as transmission goes down, so do the risks.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ontario unveils transportation plan, including two proposed Toronto-area transit lines
The Ontario government is dangling the prospect of a new transit line across the top of Toronto and another connecting downtown to Pearson International airport, as well as a long list of highway widenings, as part of a multi-decade transportation plan unveiled Thursday.
Amazon surges as stock split, share buyback excite investors
Shares of Amazon.com Inc jumped over 5 per cent after the e-commerce giant’s share split and buyback moves stand to draw more investors to a stock whose recent performance has been lackluster despite skyrocketing since going public 25 years ago. The company on Wednesday announced a 20-for-1 stock split, its first since 1999, and a $10-billion share buyback.
Canadian Tire spending $3.4-billion over four years to expand products, bolster operations
Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. will spend $3.4-billion over the next four years to improve its e-commerce operations, launch thousands of new products, expand its loyalty program and improve its supply-chain efficiency. The Toronto-based retailer unveiled its growth strategy on Thursday, setting a goal to grow comparable sales by 4 per cent on average annually.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street resumed its selloff today, closing lower as inflation hit a four-decade high, cementing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would hike key interest rates at the conclusion of next week’s monetary policy meeting. Canada’s main stock market closed higher on the strength of commodities.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 112.18 points or 0.34 per cent to 33,174.07, the S&P 500 lost 18.36 points or 0.43 per cent to end at 4,259.52, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 125.59 points or 0.95 per cent to 13,129.96.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 88.47 point or 0.41 per cent to 21,581.70. The loonie traded for 78.27 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
A message to Conservatives: Smarten up – serious times need serious leaders
“Given a choice between a candidate whose policies I prefer, but who lacked the requisite qualities of leadership, and a candidate deficient in policy but well supplied in character and judgment, I would unhesitatingly choose the latter. That is the choice that matters in this race: not between right and left, or Blue Tories versus Red, but between adolescence and adulthood.” -Andrew Coyne
Who gets to define what a Canadian Conservative is: our history, or Fox News?
“In the United States of Fox News, Republicans who fail to show adequate fealty to Donald Trump are dismissed as RINOs – Republicans in Name Only. A similar mindset, of ‘real’ Conservatives vs. CINOs, risks taking hold here. Let’s not go there. The Conservatives need to embrace leadership candidates who are in favour of carbon pricing, and against it. For more gun control, and against it.” -The Editorial Board
The answer to nuclear anxiety is to get rid of nuclear weapons
“Now, I’m not Marie Curie, but I’m pretty sure that throwing your hands over your eyes is not really going to help if that multimegaton bomb detonates above your city. And isn’t that the problem, anyway? We’ve looked away for far too long. For the past 40 years, since the height of the anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s, we’ve let the threat of nuclear weapons fade from our consciousness. Out of sight, out of mind. But that may be changing.” -Elizabeth Renzetti
LIVING BETTER
Maryam Siddiqi makes the case for purchasing souvenirs from trips abroad, noting that she wouldn’t have found special keepsakes and understood the meaning behind them if she hadn’t sought out certain communities during her travels. “As a tourist, you’re free of your daily routine and often outside your comfort zone. If you lean into this vulnerability, it can open you up to new people and new ideas.”
TODAY’S LONG READ
This Italian estate makes some of the world’s best olive oil under cover of darkness
Gabriele Stabile/The Globe and Mail
The Domenica Fiore olive oil estate lies on a gentle slope overlooking the ancient hilltop town of Orvieto, in Umbria’s green heart of Italy, halfway between Rome and Florence.
Perched on a towering pedestal of tuffaceous rock and cast in a peachy glow, Orvieto has the enchanted aura of a fairytale kingdom floating over a lush valley, which once upon a prehistoric time was submerged under seawater. Fallout from the violent volcanic eruptions that once plagued this region created fertile growing conditions for the structured white wines and organic olive oils that now represent the area.
Owned by Canadian billionaire Frank Giustra, Domenica Fiore breaks with traditional rules for a completely unique product. Read the full story.
Evening Update is written by Prajakta Dhopade. 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.