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These are the top stories:
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been detained in China for 365 days
On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters that the cases of Kovrig and Spavor have been transferred to prosecutors for “review and prosecution in accordance with the law.” Such trials are usually carried out behind closed doors and convictions are virtually assured.
A year ago, after Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, China arrested the two Canadians and accused them of violating state secrets laws. Authorities have yet to make public any evidence against either man as Meng lives in her Vancouver mansion.
To get a sense of the pair’s living conditions, Globe correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe visited the facilities where they’re being detained.
Spavor, a businessman who brought tourists, artists and athletes to North Korea, has been inside Dandong Detention Centre since May 6. He’s being held in Cell 315 with some 20 others. Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, is being detained 670 kilometres away in a cell with one other inmate.
The Dandong Detention Centre. (Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail)
The Dandong facility is also where Canadian Kevin Garratt was held for 19 months before his release in 2016. Detainees there must pass through a tunnel and seven locked doors before reaching an area situated inside an imposing inner wall ringed with guard towers and razor wire. Garratt said the beds were wooden boards on steel frames covered by thin cotton pads.
Go here to read more about what life is like for Kovrig and Spavor.
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A historic case alleging Rohingya genocide by Myanmar’s military is under way in The Hague
Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou accused Myanmar’s military of genocide at the first day of remarkable hearings at the International Court of Justice.
All eyes are on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is expected to testify tomorrow in defence of the military. Suu Kyi’s reputation as a democracy icon has been tarnished over repeated denials that the military’s actions amount to ethnic cleansing of the largely Muslim minority. At least 10,000 Rohingya have been killed and more than 700,000 displaced since 2016.
This is the first genocide case being heard by the International Court of Justice since the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. It was brought forward by the tiny African country of Gambia, and is supported by the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation as well as Western governments including Canada.
The lead lawyers for both Gambia and Myanmar are each veteran Canadian international lawyers.
Canada is being urged to review its Afghanistan mission as documents reveal the U.S. misled the public
Former deputy minister David Mulroney, who helped oversee engagement in Afghanistan, said a review of Canada’s role there is “overdue.”
His comments follow a Washington Post report that found “senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth” about the 18-year military campaign and hid evidence about the reality on the ground. The White House’s point person on the Afghan war reportedly said in 2015 that his country “didn’t know what we were doing.”
“That’s bad news for us,” Mulroney said. “But that missing sense of purpose and direction was also replicated within Canada.”
B.C. police have been cleared of wrongdoing in the death of 14-year-old Carson Crimeni
The province’s police watchdog concluded that two officers who went to investigate a disturbance but failed to find the teen were not negligent. Charges won’t be recommended.
Carson died of a suspected drug overdose in an incident at a Langley skate park that was filmed and then shared on social media.
A call was made to police at 8 p.m., but the officers found nobody at the skate park at 8:31 p.m. Carson wasn’t found until a second 911 call at 10:39, by which point he was barely breathing. He was declared dead in hospital.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Dominic Barton asked to testify in U.S. court: Canada’s new ambassador to China has been drawn into a legal battle between the consulting giant he used to run and the founder of a corporate restructuring company. Barton, former global managing partner of McKinsey and Co., is being asked to testify in a case where McKinsey has been accused of not properly disclosing potential conflicts.
USMCA could be finalized today: The Trump administration is on the verge of signing a deal to modify the trade pact, with leaders including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Mexico City today. The development could result in Democrats voting to ratify the agreement before Christmas.
SkyTrain strike in Metro Vancouver: A three-day shutdown of the Expo and Millennium lines has begun after transit workers failed to reach a deal in contract talks. Tens of thousands of commuters will be affected by the strike action; the LRT routes cover areas including Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.
Ontario scraps further legal-aid cuts: The province is still cutting $133-million in funding this year, but won’t move forward with further reductions after backlash from lawyers. And in other news, the Ford government is seeking to appeal a ruling that overturned a directive that allowed college and university students to opt out of some fees.
Finland’s 34-year-old Prime Minister: Social Democrat Sanna Marin is about to become the world’s youngest-serving premier. Her coalition government will also include three other 30-something female leaders in cabinet positions.
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks dip as tariff deadline approaches: Global stock markets fell for a second day on Tuesday, as caution over a Dec. 15 deadline for the next round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports weakened risk appetite and limited outsized market moves. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.1 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.2 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.8 and 1.3 per cent by about 4:30 a.m. ET. New York futures were also down. The Canadian dollar was at about 75.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
It’s no wonder Marriage Story is inciting debate: It represents all our messy relationships
Johanna Schneller: “Everyone in the socialverse is taking sides in Charlie and Nicole’s divorce, and they’re not even real people. Since it dropped on Netflix last week, and received six Golden Globe nominations on Monday morning, the film Marriage Story has sparked heated debates about whether writer/director Noah Baumbach is harder on the theatre director Charlie (Adam Driver) or the actress Nicole (Scarlett Johansson).”
WADA’s Russia ban is too little, too late for sports fans weary of endless processes
Cathal Kelly: “It’s been hard for people not to notice that the organization charged with stopping doping globally has had one hell of a time convincing a single country to mind its own shop. And it is further difficult not to notice that having caught it at it dead to rights, it still can’t.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Black Santa is challenging stereotypes in Toronto
(Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail)Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
While there are 2,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, only 15 or so are racialized. But at Old’s Cool General Store in East Toronto, Allister Thomas is helping to challenge assumptions as Black Santa.
Shop owner Zahra Dhanani puts it this way: “What shocks me is in 2019, no matter where you go, all the Santas are white. Children need to see themselves mirrored back.”
MOMENT IN TIME
End of the Great Emu war in Western Australia
(Peter Rae/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)Peter Rae/Fairfax Media Archive via Getty Images
Dec. 10, 1932: The enemy forces were advancing from the east, as fast as their three-toed feet could carry them. Emus, some 20,000 of them, were making their way to water in Western Australia – as they had done for millennia – when they came across wheat fields and fences. The sparsely populated region had been settled by veterans of the First World War, who by 1932 were already dealing with drought and rock-bottom prices for their grain. When the six-foot-tall, 40-kilogram birds arrived, the farmers appealed to the government for help. Major G.P.W. Meredith was dispatched with a few men, Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. But the flightless birds proved evasive, scattering in all directions when the soldiers opened fire. In one ambush on a mob of about 1,000 emus, hundreds of rounds resulted in fewer than a dozen casualties. “If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds, it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks,” Meredith told a local newspaper. After a second campaign, the soldiers had to admit defeat and were recalled from the front lines. The emus had won. – Massimo Commanducci
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