Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Lia Scanlan, former director of strategic communications for the RCMP in Halifax, sent a strongly worded letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki last year, accusing her of bowing to political pressure and displaying “unprofessional and extremely belittling” behaviour to officers investigating the April, 2020, mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
The Mass Casualty Commission, which is conducting an inquiry into the mass killing, released the rebuke from Scanlan today.
In the letter, dated April 14, 2021, Scanlan backs up Superintendent Darren Campbell’s allegations that Commissioner Lucki tried to push her Nova Scotia commanders to publicly release details about the weapons used in the shootings to bolster the federal government’s gun-control agenda, reports The Globe’s Robert Fife.
Meanwhile, the federal Justice department says it turned over a further 17 pages of RCMP investigative files on Friday to the public inquiry into the attack.
Department spokesman Ian McLeod said another three pages have been withheld and will be reviewed for redactions as Justice lawyers determine whether they should be disclosed to the Mass Casualty Commission. He said Justice lawyers had initially withheld 35 pages from the commission and handed over 12 documents on May 30.
Read more:
- Nova Scotia public inquiry will be among most expensive in Canadian history
- Ottawa withheld allegations against RCMP Commissioner, N.S. mass murder inquiry says
Death toll rises to at least 18 in Kremenchuk mall attack as Ukrainians search for missing
The Amstor shopping mall, the modest commercial heart of Kremenchuk, a mid-sized city in central Ukraine, was a smouldering mess Monday evening after it was struck by a pair of Russian missiles that by today’s count has left at least 18 dead and 59 injured.
The city was in agony Tuesday, as cranes and excavators pulled at the rubble of the mall. Regional governor Dmytro Lunin told reporters that 36 people were still missing, with hopes fading that they would be found alive. The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon is on the ground in the city.
Meanwhile, at the three-day NATO summit in Madrid, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian officials are expected to outline Canada’s plan to launch DIANA – the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic – as well as NATO’s Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence.
DIANA will meld NATO’s defence and tech personnel with tech companies and science researchers. The centre and its associates will have access to dozens of tech accelerators and test sites among NATO countries.
DIANA and NATO’s climate centre will each have offices in Canada, though their precise locations were not known on Tuesday, the opening day of the three-day summit. Toronto or Montreal seem the most likely spots for their headquarters.
Trump told officials to let protesters march on Jan. 6 despite being informed they had weapons, ex-aide testifies
Former President Donald Trump dismissed the presence of armed protesters headed to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and even endorsed their calls to “hang Mike Pence,” key former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told House investigators today, describing chaotic scenes inside and outside the executive mansion as Trump argued to accompany his supporters.
Trump was informed that some of the protesters in the crowd outside the White House had weapons, but he told officials to “let my people in” and march to the Capitol, Hutchinson, who was a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Writes David Shribman: “Of all the shocking news that has emerged from the Capitol riot, the notion that Donald Trump physically tried to wrestle control of the presidential limousine from a Secret Service driver – and that he assaulted the agent – may be the most astonishing.” Read his full analysis of the testimony.
Scotiabank suspends its sponsorship of Hockey Canada over sexual assault allegations
Scotiabank is suspending its sponsorship of Hockey Canada after the national sport organization paid an undisclosed sum last month to settle allegations that eight Canadian Hockey League players sexually assaulted a young woman after a Hockey Canada Foundation gala in June, 2018.
In an open letter published Tuesday in The Globe and Mail, Scotiabank president and chief executive Brian Porter said that, “like so many of you, I was appalled by the recent reports of alleged assault involving younger ambassadors of Canada’s game. The alleged behaviour in this current case is contrary to the beliefs and values that hockey is meant to embody, and those that we champion at Scotiabank, as Canada’s Hockey Bank.”
The bank announced that it was cancelling marketing and events around the IIHF World Junior Championship this August in Edmonton, and would redirect those funds to other charitable programs including the Canadian Women’s Foundation. It also said it would suspend sponsorship activities “until we are confident the right steps are being taken to improve the culture within the sport – both on and off the ice.”
Read more:
- Gary Mason: The important moral question Hockey Canada sponsors now face
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
B.C. Premier John Horgan to resign: Horgan says he’ll resign after the New Democratic Party holds a leadership review in the fall.
Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking: The jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison today for helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
Planned Parenthood and others use legal means to try to stop trigger laws after Roe v. Wade overturned: Days after the U.S. Supreme Court decision led to the closing of abortion clinics in many parts of the country, state courthouses have become a new legal battleground for those seeking to maintain pregnancy termination services.
Tamara Lich, Ottawa convoy protest organizer, arrested in Alberta for breach of court conditions: The key organizer of the “Freedom Convoy,” has been arrested in Alberta on a Canada-wide warrant for one count of failing to comply with a release order, police say.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street tumbled in a broad sell-off on Tuesday as dire consumer confidence data dampened investor optimism and fueled worries that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive battle against inflation could tip the economy into recession.
The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 35.58 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 19,222.74, holding on to much of its gains over the previous two days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 491.27 points, or 1.56 per cent, to 30,946.99; the S&P 500 lost 78.56 points, or 2.01 per cent, to 3,821.55 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 343.01 points, or 2.98 per cent, to 11,181.54.
The Canadian dollar traded for 77.74 cents US compared with 77.60 cents US on Monday.
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TALKING POINTS
Are the federal Conservatives heading for a cataclysmic rupture?
“...It doesn’t take much divining to see seismic fractures are beginning to emerge, ones serious enough to spell doom to a coalition masterfully held together by Stephen Harper but now teetering.” – Gary Mason
When it comes to Black student achievement, Ontario can learn from B.C.’s data-based approach
“Publicly available data on the academic performance of Black students in Ontario will be the solid foundation of an effective, provincewide program of continuous improvement.” – Peter Crowley
America’s social contract with its citizens lies in tatters. What happens next is for Americans to decide
“If the country continues on its current course of decline, the U.S. will face violent revolution or oblivion – maybe even both.” – David Moscrop
LIVING BETTER
The next round of parental finance support to adult kids: Help paying the mortgage
Parental help with home buying has been around for generations, but the dollar amount of assistance has lately grown to huge proportions, writes Rob Carrick. Advice for recent buyers and their parental financiers: Do not obsess about prices over the next few years. Month-to-month mortgage affordability is by far the bigger issue for recent buyers. Read the full story.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Wildfires have left Lytton, B.C., a ruin frozen in time as archeological work delays plans to rebuild
An aerial view of a destroyed section of Lytton, B.C in early June 2022.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Lytton, B.C. still looks like a disaster zone a year after it burned to the ground during a record-setting heat wave. Crumbled buildings lie all over the community. Explosion marks and debris from cars and propane tanks are still scattered on the streets. Pieces of metal are littered around the sidewalks.
Towns typically finish cleaning debris and start to rebuild just a few months after a major disaster like a fire. It took 10 months for debris removal to begin in Lytton. That’s because the entire village is considered a heritage site.
Experts estimate that Indigenous people first settled there as many as 10,000 years ago and used the area as an important meeting place between coastal and interior bands. The chances of finding artifacts or human remains there are considered to be very high.
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.