Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The latest on the fatal shooting at a Toronto-area condo:
The killing of five people in a high-rise building north of Toronto last night followed years of legal disputes between the suspected shooter and the condominium corporation that manages the property.
York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween has confirmed that the deceased shooter is 73-year-old Francesco Villi, a resident who had been accused for years of harassing neighbours and condo board members at the building in Vaughan. An officer shot and killed him following a confrontation in a hallway.
The chief said three of the deceased were members of the condo board and that the victims were found in three different units on multiple floors of the building. A sixth victim was injured and taken to hospital.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit said the shooter used a semi-automatic handgun.
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U.S. House Jan. 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Trump
The House Jan. 6 committee is urging the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and his allies, wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection with what lawmakers called a “roadmap to justice.”
The panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, in both the run-up to the riot and during the insurrection itself. The recommended charges are conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to make a false statement and aiding an insurrection.
Canada says it will seize Russian oligarch’s funds, donate money to Ukraine
The Canadian government says it intends to seize US$26-million belonging to a company owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and then donate the proceeds to Ukraine to help Kyiv rebuild from Moscow’s military assault.
But legal experts say this may involve Ottawa in a legal battle and could run afoul of a 1991 investment treaty between Russia and Canada that says assets cannot be expropriated without “prompt adequate and effective compensation.”
Meanwhile, Russia today hit key energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv in a “kamikaze” drone attack, hours before President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus, heightening Ukrainian fears he will pressure his ally to open a new war front.
Opinion: Is Putin losing control, or playing his familiar blame game? - Anna Arutunyan, author
Bank of Canada missed the mark on rising inflation, Tiff Macklem says, but a turnaround is near
Canadians have good reason to be upset with Tiff Macklem. Even he says so. At the start of the year, the Bank of Canada expected inflation would be close to 2 per cent by the end of 2022. It’s roughly 7 per cent.
“That’s a very big forecast error,” the central bank Governor said in a year-end interview with The Globe and Mail. “So, yes, we have some explaining to do.” It’s all made the central bank governor the leading economic newsmaker of the year – and, to hear some people talk, a leading public enemy.
Read more: Rate hikes could cast long shadow as Bank of Canada approaches pause
MPs urge Hockey Canada board to investigate new information on alleged group sexual assault
Members of the House of Commons committee that investigated Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual-misconduct complaints are calling on the organization’s newly elected board to immediately investigate new information about an alleged group sexual assault in London, Ont., in 2018.
The new details were revealed in a Globe and Mail report based on a document filed to the Ontario Court of Justice in October by the London Police Service, which has reopened an investigation into the incident. In the application, police say they have reasonable grounds to believe that five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team sexually assaulted a woman after a charity event.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
COP15 pact: Delegates at COP15, the United Nations biodiversity conference in Montreal, reached a historic agreement early today to boost prospects for the long-term survival of the natural world and those who depend on it.
Opinion: COP15′s success shows China can play a role in bridging divisions on environmental progress - Adam Radwanski
Ontario’s new drug plan: The province is introducing a new policy requiring cheaper versions of pricey biologic drugs to be offered to most patients who need them, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Alberta’s health system turnover: The province’s health leadership has significantly turned over since Danielle Smith became Premier, including the three most senior public-health doctors, the chief paramedic and the board of the centralized health authority.
Twitter voters want Musk out: In a Twitter poll, 57.5 per cent of respondents voted in favour of Elon Musk stepping down as CEO of the social media platform, in a backlash against the billionaire less than two months after he took over.
MARKET WATCH
U.S. and Canadian equities closed lower today for a fourth straight session, with Nasdaq leading declines, as investors shied away from riskier bets, worried the Federal Reserve’s tightening campaign could push the U.S. economy into a recession. All major sectors on Canada’s main stock market ended with losses, with Algonquin Power and Utilities falling to its lowest point in more than seven years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 162.92 points or 0.49 per cent to 32,757.54, the S&P 500 lost 34.70 points or 0.9 per cent to end at 3,817.66, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 159.38 points or 1.49 per cent to 10,546.03.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index slid 242.52 points or 1.25 per cent to 19,200.76. The loonie traded at 73.24 U.S. cents.
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TALKING POINTS
World Cup final was one perfect game, a truly global heritage moment, in which no one failed
Just watching this final was like putting yourself head-first into an emotional wringer and then going all the way through until you were flat. Now imagine being there. Imagine playing in it. Imagine winning it.” - Cathal Kelly
Ahead of the Game podcast: Greatest final ever? Argentina’s Messi finally wins a World Cup despite legendary performance from France’s Mbappé
Meghan and Harry’s documentary is both tortuous and insightful
“The Sussexes must be commended for their openness and courage. Hours and hours worth of openness. It’s a shame they didn’t have the courage to hire a more ruthless editor, however.” - Jen Gerson
LIVING BETTER
As we head into a new year, many of us use the time to reassess our fitness goals and practices. Personal trainer Paul Landini is calling out three offensive fitness trends this year that he hopes won’t follow us into 2023. They include the rise of social media influencer culture, in which “well-meaning people are being duped into following the advice of misguided hacks.”
TODAY’S LONG READ
How Inuit dialysis patients and a Winnipeg doctor made a breakthrough for renal care in Nunavut
Madeline Manitok, 74, undergoes peritoneal dialysis at her home in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Home dialysis has allowed her to stay in her Nunavut instead of getting treatment in faraway Winnipeg.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
When Madeline Manitok learned in 2019 that her kidneys were failing, she had two choices. She could move into a hotel near a hemodialysis unit in Winnipeg for the rest of her life, or she could return to her family in central Nunavut and die. “I found out that I couldn’t go home if I wanted to live,” she said. “I was devastated.”
If Manitok, now 74, had been a resident of Manitoba, she would have qualified for peritoneal dialysis, a life-sustaining treatment that renal patients manage at home in remote communities all over Canada. But as a Nunavut resident, she was forced to live for two-and-a-half years in a Homewood Suites while undergoing hemodialysis at a Winnipeg hospital, 1,500 kilometres away from her home in Rankin Inlet.
Her experience illustrates a common challenge with medical care in Nunavut, a vast territory of about 40,000 people living in 25 fly-in communities with limited health services. Patients fall through the cracks of cross-boundary care, unless, as eventually happened in Manitok’s case, somebody in the health system makes fixing the problem a personal mission. Read Kelly Grant’s full story.
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