Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Testifying in front of the House of Commons finance committee today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that WE Charity did not receive any preferential treatment from him or anyone else in the government when the organization was awarded a now-cancelled $912-million contract to run a student volunteer program.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is viewed on a mobile phone as he appears as a witness via videoconference during a House of Commons finance committee in the Wellington Building on Thursday, July 30, 2020. The committee is looking into government spending, WE Charity and the Canada Student Service Grant.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Trudeau also said that he pushed back when he first learned on May 8 that WE Charity had been recommended by the public service to administer the program. He added that he knew a decision to partner with WE Charity would be “closely scrutinized” given that it was known to be connected with members of his government, including the Prime Minister himself.
Trudeau’s testimony comes as part of growing conflict-of-interest allegations against him and senior members of his government, including Finance Minister Bill Morneau. The prime minister’s wife, mother and brother have each been paid for various appearances at WE Charity events.
Up next: Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, is also testifying in front of the finance committee this afternoon.
More on WE: A timeline of the charity, the contract and the controversy
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Furniture stands in a corridor at a school in Brampton, Ontario, on Thursday July 23, 2020.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario students to return to school full-time in the fall, with masks mandatory for older kids
After similar announcements in B.C., Alberta and Nova Scotia, Ontario students will be able to return to classrooms in the fall. Middle- and high-school students will be required to wear masks, while students in Grade 3 and under will be encouraged but not required to wear them. Ontario is the first Canadian jurisdiction to mandate mask usage in schools.
Elementary students will be in a cohort or grouped by classroom for the entire day, with recess breaks being staggered to allow for distancing. High schools will be following a hybrid model that limits classes to about 15 students. Those students will alternate between in-person classes and remote learning each day. In smaller districts, high-school students will be in classes full-time.
As part of its back-to-school plan, the Ontario government will be providing $309-million in funding to school boards for cleaning, public-health nurses, and personal protective equipment. Teachers and other school staff will also receive medical masks.
Also, Manitoba announced today that schools will resume in-classroom learning in September.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Trump floats election ‘delay’ amid unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud: President Donald Trump made the suggestion to delay elections for the first time today on Twitter, citing alleged voter fraud through mail-in voting, of which there is no evidence. Trump does not have the power to delay the election, as it lies with Congress.
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain dies after contracting COVID-19: Cain was diagnosed with COVID-19 shortly after he attended a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla., in June.
Lockdown in Zimbabwe’s capital ahead of planned anti-government protests: Security agents firmly enforced a lockdown in Harare today, preventing people from entering the city, while activists warned of human-rights abuses. Tomorrow’s planned protests are targeting the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming during a news conference in London, Britain, Aug. 15 2019.Simon Dawson/Reuters
China accuses U.S. of fuelling new Cold War: Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, said today that certain U.S. politicians were doing and saying anything to get elected, including treating China as an enemy and using it as a scapegoat for the U.S.’s own problems.
More China coverage:
- China’s ambassador to Britain lashes out at Western reporting on human-rights issues, arguing that China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority was to fight against terrorism
- EU imposes sanctions on Russian intelligence service, North Korean and Chinese companies over alleged cyberattacks
MARKET WATCH
Global markets, oil prices and the U.S. dollar slid on Thursday after President Donald Trump raised the possibility of delaying the November U.S. election and new government data underscored the coronavirus’ deep economic impact.
“It’s moved the market, for sure,” said Priya Misra, head of global rates strategy at TD Securities in New York. “Not only do we have uncertainty about who wins, I think we have uncertainty about the process.”
The MSCI world equity index fell 3.13 points or 0.56%, to 552.34.
Canada’s main stock index erased large early losses and closed flat on Thursday, as energy stocks were weighed by lower oil prices and a slate of dismal earnings from those including Husky Energy Inc and Crescent Point Energy Corp.
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TALKING POINTS
The WHO’s messaging on travel conflicts with realities on the ground
Gary Mason: “And of course, Canada’s border with the U.S. remains closed to all but essential travel – although it appears many Americans are slipping through every day to holiday up here. And yet, the World Health Organization continues to suggest that travel bans are not a feasible, long-term option.”
As COVID-19 threatens Brazil, its leader threatens the country’s Indigenous people
Michael Orsini, Francisco Ortega: “Nothing less than the very existence of Indigenous people is at stake. The Yanomami people in the Amazon, for instance, who number about 26,000, cannot afford to lose members to the pandemic. The ‘brink of destruction’ is an apt term to describe what is unfolding.”
Troubled water: The slow drip of change in Attawapiskat is not and has never been enough
Adrian Sutherland: “I don’t know how Canada has allowed these conditions to exist in First Nations communities for decades upon decades – and continues to allow it. It isn’t something for Canada to be proud of. It isn’t something for any of us to be proud of. The things that have been done in Attawapiskat over the past year have been Band-Aid solutions to address short-term needs.”
A civil answer: Without political will, the flaws of Canadian policing will never be fixed
Christian Leuprecht: “In a democracy, the people should have the right to shape the parameters for police decision-making and service delivery. Yet politicians have shown that time and time again, they prefer to shirk their responsibilities, handing police chiefs and RCMP commissioners considerable discretion until their inevitable missteps, at which point politicians intervene only to replace them in the hopes that maybe this time, they’ve found the right person for the job.”
LIVING BETTER
TIFF 2020: With only 50 films premiering, the festival is looking beyond the Oscar bait that built its past
Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet, left, and Saoirse Ronan, right, will also feature among TIFF's Thursday morning releases.Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
The number of films playing this year’s festival represents a steep drop-off of about 79 per cent from last year’s edition, which screened 245 full-length titles. (This year’s festival will also feature five short-film programs and a yet-to-be-announced number of interactive talks and Q&As.)
The selection is also noticeably thin on the kind of star-laden, buzzy films that typically populate TIFF’s lineup and have helped solidify the festival’s reputation as an Oscar bellwether. This is hardly a surprise, given that most major U.S. studios have pulled a significant portion of their films from 2020 release due to the pandemic, including Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, the Will Smith-led tennis drama King Richard, and the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, all of which would be perfect fits for TIFF were it any other year.
TODAY’S LONG READ
NASA’s Perseverance rover begins months-long journey to Mars
The Atlas V launch vehicle carrying a one-tonne rover lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 7:50 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Billed as the most sophisticated spacecraft ever sent to Mars, Perseverance is designed to set itself down on the floor of Jezero Crater in February, 2021. The crater is an ancient lake bed where water gushed in billions of years ago, forming a river delta with layers of sediment that can be seen from orbit. Perseverance will investigate the delta and other formations for signs of past life, drill into rocks and collect samples for return to Earth by a followup mission.
Read about this groundbreaking mission and how it came to fruition.
Evening Update is written by Josie Kao. 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.