Evening Update: TSB updates on fatal B.C. train derailment

Good evening,

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Transportation Safety Board today began releasing details about the Canadian Pacific freight train that derailed yesterday morning and plunged 60 metres off a bridge into the Kicking Horse River, killing three crew members. Investigator James Carmichael said:

• The 112-car freight train was parked and began to move on its own before it derailed.
• The train had been parked on a grade with its air brakes applied for two hours when it started rolling.
• The train gained speed well in excess of the 32 kilometres an hour maximum for the tight turns in the mountain pass.
• Three crew members had just boarded the train, but weren’t yet ready to depart. 
• The crew were in the front locomotive, which was severely damaged. 

The railway identified the men who died as conductor Dylan Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer. The Canadian Press reports the accident happened just short of the Spiral Tunnels, which were built 110 years ago to help trains traverse the treacherously steep Kicking Horse Pass.

Moments before the crash, the crew radioed to the railway’s traffic controllers that their train was out of control on the steep descending grade east of Field, B.C. “The train was running away. They couldn’t get it under control,” Greg Edwards, Teamsters’ general chairman for CP’s engineers told The Canadian Press.

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Prosecutors in the Bruce McArthur case are asking for two consecutive life sentences

It was an emotional second day of sentencing for Bruce McArthur as family and friends of his victims took to the witness box to speak of the heavy toll Mr. McArthur’s crimes had taken on their lives. The loved ones of men murdered by Mr. McArthur, 67, spoke in front of a crowded courtroom and told of the anger, grief and personal struggles they have experienced as a result of the killer’s crimes. Later in the day, The Globe’s Victoria Gibson reports, prosecutors asked for two consecutive life sentences for his eight first-degree murders, which would keep him behind bars without a chance to apply for parole until he is 116 years old.

Meanwhile, a disciplinary hearing against Sergeant Paul Gauthier for failing to act against Mr. McArthur began today. As Tu Thanh Ha reports, the detective is charged in connection with a 2016 incident when Toronto police failed to follow up after a gay man complained that Mr. McArthur tried to strangle him.

Trump pushes for border wall ahead of State of the Union speech

U.S. President Donald Trump will take centre stage tonight as he delivers his State of the Union speech. The 9 p.m. EST speech will be held before a joint session of Congress and it’s expected Mr. Trump will challenge Democrats to approve funding for his long-sought border wall. Millions of Americans are expected to watch the address, giving Trump his biggest opportunity to date to explain why he believes a barrier is needed on the U.S.'s border with Mexico. The speech was delayed for a week because of the 35-day government shutdown, which ended on Jan. 25. Mr. Trump has threatened to use emergency powers to reallocate funding from elsewhere without congressional action, but sources close to Mr. Trump said he is not expected to take that step.

Canada’s banking regulator seeks stricter deposit rules

Canada’s banking regulator is proposing tougher liquidity rules for banks that would treat deposits sourced from third-party brokers or online more harshly, partly in response to the 2017 crisis at Home Capital Group Inc. The new rules are still in draft form, and confidential, but if approved, banks would be required to hold 20 per cent to 40 per cent of deposits gathered from unaffiliated brokers or internet-based accounts as a buffer against sudden withdrawals that could put a lender at risk. That could disproportionately harm smaller financial institutions trying to compete with the big six banks, and banks' advocacy groups are pushing back.

MARKET WATCH

Canada’s main stock index rose on Tuesday, as upbeat quarterly results from WestJet Airlines Ltd and others boosted sentiment. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite index rose 100.37 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 15,702.69. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 172.15 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 25,411.52, the S&P 500 gained 12.83 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 2,737.7 and the Nasdaq Composite added 54.55 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 7,402.08. U.S. President Donald Trump is due to give his State of the Union address this evening, and investors are awaiting indications of progress in U.S.-China trade talks and watching for signs of tensions with Democrats following a 35-day partial federal government shutdown.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

• The president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says the drop in housing sales to a 10-year low can be attributed to a swing last summer from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market, where consumer confidence was eroded by an array of B.C. taxes on real estate. (The Globe and Mail)
• Police in Simcoe, Ont. say they were called to investigate a brawl involving as many as 30 parents following a rep peewee hockey game involving 11 and 12-year-olds. (The Canadian Press)
• WestJet Airlines Ltd.’s profit for the three months ending Dec. 31 – its fourth quarter – fell by 39 per cent thanks in part because fuel costs rose by 20 per cent in the quarter but the quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates thanks to a rise in passenger traffic. (The Globe and Mail)
• The United States sees the European Union as its top priority in a global effort to convince allies not to buy Huawei equipment for next-generation mobile networks, a U.S. State Department Official said on Tuesday. (Reuters)
• The Toronto Maple Leafs locked up star centre Auston Matthews, signing the 21-year-old to a five-year contract extension with an average annual value of US$11.634-million. Hockey reporter David Shoalts suggests the move eases a little pressure on GM Kyle Dubas.  

WHAT’S POPULAR WITH READERS

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Are police violating your rights by testing for sobriety without cause?

Canada’s impaired-driving law changed in December to allow mandatory alcohol screening, which lets police demand a breath sample during any traffic stop, and that’s created some confusion. A reader writes to Driving Concerns columnist Jason Tchir wondering if the new police are that big of a deal because, “If you haven’t been drinking, you have nothing to worry about, right?” Not according to Vancouver-based criminal-defence lawyer Kyla Lee, who argues that random testing “allows the police to violate your Charter rights.”

TALKING POINTS

Canada’s leadership on Venezuela is misguided, misdirected – and a mistake

“Given the crisis in Venezuela, this attempt at ‘democracy promotion,’ as Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland calls it, may seem admirable. But it has little to do with democracy, and more to do with installing a government more to our liking – and may lead to violence, or even civil war." ― John Kirk and Stephen Kimber

The Kondo effect: The economy-changing magic of tidying up

“Something in the idea of purging our things has clearly caught the imagination of North Americans. Ms. Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up may not have invented the decluttering trend, but it has certainly mainstreamed it in the five years since it was first published. ... That is interesting in an economic sense, given that it speaks to the amazing new occupations that are now being created and which surely will not be easily replaced by automation. Even more interesting, though, is the thought that we are buying into the concept of having less stuff.” ― Linda Nazareth

Two deaths in Ottawa add to Canada’s graves of brown bodies

“Violence toward Indigenous and black people is as old as this country, while the rise of Islamophobia is relatively new. What’s been steady throughout is the drive to make certain bodies powerless, allowing those who mean harm to locate vulnerability, and exploit it. On Monday, attention was rightfully focused on Ottawa, where there is fresh grief for [Greg] Ritchie, and a chance for justice for [Abdirahman] Abdi. Any honest person in this country will also take the time to step back and reckon with the bigger picture.” ― Denise Balkissoon

LIVING BETTER

I might be a dad. Should I support the child even though I’m not certain of being the father?

Columnist David Eddie weighs in on a question from a prospective father who’s not certain he is the father. With his usual mix of pithy humour and practical bluntness, including a mildly finger-wagging lesson on what it takes to qualify for fatherhood, David Eddie dispenses his advice: “You, on the other hand, may or may not have inseminated this woman, then followed that up by trying to pressure her into getting an abortion. Does that qualify you to say, ‘I may be a dad?’ Not in my books.”

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Review: Ann Hui’s Chop Suey Nation is an astonishing cultural and personal history

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Author and Globe reporter Ann Hui weaves the real-life sacrifices of many Chinese immigrants into a deeply felt and resonating anthropological tapestry, writes book reviewer Lindsay Wong. Part road trip story, part immigrant story and part journey of self discovery, Ann and her husband Anthony drove across Canada from B.C to Newfoundland, sampling Chinese-Canadian cuisine and discovering her own family history. In her book Chop Suey Nation, Ann learns about the history of Chinese-Canadian cuisine history, how and why it developed, and found it made her appreciate the cuisine in a way she had never known before. She interviewed restaurant owners, whose establishments often play an important role in small towns and communities, and tells their stories of struggle and triumph, including those of her own family. Poignantly, Ann’s book becomes a vehicle in which she discovers her own family history, interviewing her ailing father about his restaurant past and connecting with him in a way she never had before.

LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE

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Why was this painting deemed too precious to sell abroad? Unravelling the bureaucracy of Canada’s art-export rules

For decades, Canadian curators have benefited from a complex tapestry of tax credits and grants to buy beyond their usual means. But if buyers come knocking from overseas, not everyone is able to sell. Here’s how we got here, and how a court case might soon change everything. Globe reporters Chris Hannay and Kate Taylor explore the rules and regulations around the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, which was designed to move precious art and important artifacts from private collections to public ones. While the system offers generous tax credits to collectors who donate important cultural property, the act also blocks them from selling these treasures abroad, giving public institutions partial grants to buy the art and keep it in Canada.

Evening Update is written by Michael Snider. 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.