Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday the process to hire Julie Payette for the role of governor-general was rigorous, but he did not say whether past employers were contacted before her appointment.
Ms. Payette’s resignation on Thursday was the first of its kind in Canadian history and followed a scathing external report that examined Ms. Payette’s conduct amid workplace harassment allegations at Rideau Hall.
The Prime Minister, who called the Queen on Friday to inform her that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would fulfill the role’s duties on an interim basis, said that steps could be taken to improve the process to name the next governor-general. He stopped short of saying how he intended to do that.
The Prime Minister is facing political pressure to explain how and why Ms. Payette was named to the role of governor-general when former staff, including at the Montreal Science Centre, raised concerns about her conduct.
- Globe explainer: Here’s what you need to know about Julie Payette’s resignation
- Payette’s tragic appointment wouldn’t have happened under Harper’s system
Ontario task force recommends sweeping overhaul for OSC
Canada’s largest securities regulator should undergo sweeping changes, including expanding its mandate to encourage growth, rejigging its structure and even changing its name, a government task force says.
Ontario’s Capital Markets Modernization Task Force has recommended that the Ontario Securities Commission be overhauled, including adding another guiding principal – ”fostering capital formation and competition in the markets” – to its primary mandate of protecting investors.
The task force’s report, released Friday morning, also recommends major governance changes, including a separate adjudicative body within the OSC whose only responsibility would be ruling on alleged securities act violations. Currently, OSC commissioners preside over such hearings while also functioning as the OSC’s board of directors. Under the new structure, these duties would be separated – a traditional board of directors to oversee the performance of the regulator, and a different set of adjudicators to enforce provincial securities laws.
The task force also recommends changing the name of the regulator to the Ontario Capital Markets Authority.
Illustration by christy Lundy
Power gap continued: Corporate Canada is still a boys’ club, data analysis shows – and COVID-19 could make it more so
The Globe’s Power Gap series continues, with Tavia Grant examining the dearth of women in Canada’s C-suites. This gap has been a concern for decades, and yet few companies are willing to do anything about it – even when evidence shows female leadership is good for the bottom line. Now, the pandemic is threatening to undo even meagre progress
In a series examining the role of women in the workplace, reporters Robyn Doolittle and Chen Wang spent 2½ years examining records, analyzing data and speaking with women experiencing this inequality. Their findings will be published over the next several days and can be found in one place on our website.
- How we did it: A look at how The Globe collected and analyzed salary data for the Power Gap
- The story behind Power Gap: We set out to expose pay disparity, but found it went deeper than money
- This is the Power Gap: Explore the investigative series and data
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ottawa considering hotel quarantine for returning travellers: The federal government is mulling a mandatory quarantine in hotels for returning travellers as the country’s top doctor warns that easing COVID-19 restrictions too quickly could cause case numbers to shoot up again.
U.S. House moves on Trump’s impeachment: The U.S. House of Representatives will deliver an impeachment charge against former president Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, rejecting Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s request for a delay. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the move on the Senate floor but did not say when Trump’s second impeachment trial would begin.
IOC pushes back on Tokyo reports: International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and local organizers are pushing back against reports that the postponed Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled. Now set to open July 23, the Tokyo Games were postponed 10 months ago at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and now the event appears threatened again. On Friday, the local organizing committee said the Olympics were going forward and had the support of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
A year after Wuhan lockdown, China turns to ‘closed-off management’ in COVID-19 fight: On Jan. 23, 2020, authorities brought daily life to a halt in the Chinese city hit first by the pandemic. Now, rigid controls are still widespread nationwide – but the official language to describe them has changed.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index dipped to cap a losing week as COVID-19 virus and vaccine concerns weighed on the energy sector.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 70.29 points to 17,845.91.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 179.03 points at 30,996.98, the S&P 500 index was down 11.60 points at 3,841.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 12.14 points at 13,543.06.
The Canadian dollar traded for 78.64 cents US compared with 79.2 cents US on Thursday.
The March crude contract was down 86 cents US at US$52.27 per barrel and the March natural gas contract was down 4.1 cents US at nearly US$2.46 per mmBTU.
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TALKING POINTS
Well done, everyone: Vaccines were our last line of defence, but now our governments have bungled that as well
Andrew Coyne: “Precisely because both the feds and the provinces are at fault – because health is both a federal and a provincial jurisdiction – neither is likely to pay the price for it, in the only way they respect: at the ballot box. By dividing responsibility, federalism has blurred accountability.”
Will Biden’s ‘whole soul’ be enough to heal America?
Konrad Yakabuski: “Like Abraham Lincoln, who sought to reunite a deeply divided country at the end of the Civil War, his “whole soul is in it.” I am not sure if that makes him exactly the right man for the moment or hopelessly out of his element. For now, I’m going with the former.”
The Queen’s Gambit has boosted chess, a game fantastically suited to the modern age
Kenneth Rogoff: “Nowadays, the idea of such a slow and deliberate pastime seems anathema to many. Why think hard when you can just ask the computer? Why remember tedious variations if you can look them up? Superfast computer programs and massive databases have had a profound impact on professional chess in recent years, but the game is currently in remarkable creative and economic health.”
LIVING BETTER
Virtual vintage: How secondhand stores are staying pandemic-proof by going online
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, Courtney Watkins was planning a trip to Toronto in the hope of opening a second consignment boutique. The Vancouver owner of Mine & Yours had already sent some key pieces to the city for a pop-up in the tony Yorkville area on March 18. But on March 17, the Province of Ontario declared a state of emergency – the pop-up, of course, never happened.
For a small business such as Mine & Yours, losing revenue from a single event can be crushing. So, when the coronavirus hit, Watkins had to get online – and fast.
Thanks to the effort, Mine & Yours was able to increase its online revenue by 60 per cent between March and April (though sales were still down overall, since “our bread and butter is in-stores sales,” Watkins says). That she has an online storefront at all makes Watkins somewhat of an anomaly in the vintage retail ecosystem.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Hall of Famer Hank Aaron waves to the crowd during Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y., Sunday, July 28, 2013.Mike Groll/The Associated Press
Baseball legend and Hall of Famer Hank Aaron dies at 86
Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s home-run record and was widely recognized as one of baseball’s greatest players, died Friday at 86.
The Atlanta Braves, Aaron’s long-time team, said he died peacefully in his sleep. No cause was given.
Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Ruth’s mark, made his last public appearance just 2 1/2 weeks ago, when he received the COVID-19 vaccine. He said he wanted to help spread the to Black Americans that the vaccine was safe.
“Hammerin’ Hank” will be remembered for one swing above all others, the one that made him baseball’s home-run king. It was a title he would be hold for more than 33 years, a period in which the Hammer slowly but surely claimed his rightful place as one of his country’s most iconic sporting figures, a figure often mentioned in the same breath as Ruth or Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan.
Read the full obituary here.
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