Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Alberta’s medical regulator is calling to boost abortion pill prescribing rates
Saying the current poor access to abortion pills in the province is putting patients at risk, Alberta’s medical regulator is calling on the College of Family Physicians of Canada to help it boost prescription rates.
A Globe and Mail investigation on Saturday revealed that the majority of abortion-pill prescriptions across Canada are being written at abortion clinics, which are primarily located in large urban centres. This means women who live outside big cities are often forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to get a prescription that any family doctor could write.
Doctors, medical organizations and abortion providers say the College of Family Physicians of Canada could also address those issues by taking a leadership role in ensuring physicians receive abortion-pill training and education.
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Ontario’s French school boards are facing a potential constitutional challenge over English students
The effect of admissions practices in Ontario’s French school boards has led to nearly half of the students being non-Francophone.
Now, a former school trustee, Basile Dorion, has secured funding to prepare a court case, arguing that Franco-Ontarians are being deprived of their constitutional right to an education in their mother tongue. Franco-Ontarian parents have long complained that the province’s French-language schools admit too many pupils who aren’t French speakers, putting in jeopardy their children’s linguistic development.
Alexandra Adamo, a spokeswoman for Education Minister Stephen Lecce, said in a statement that French boards have the authority to decide which students are admitted.
Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep win singles titles at Wimbledon
The Globe and Mail’s Cathal Kelly has been in London writing on Wimbledon, where yesterday Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer duked it out in the men’s final in a record-setting 4 hour, 57-minute match.
After Djokovic won on Sunday, Kelly writes, the “least-appreciated, least-loved great player in tennis history” didn’t bother celebrating. “He turned slowly and took in every section of the Wimbledon Centre Court audience. His expression might best be described as a smirk. He’d shown them.”
As for the women’s final on Saturday, praise is due to Simona Halep, who won Romania’s first Wimbledon single’s title. However, Kelly writes, “the story is Serena Williams. For the third consecutive time since returning to the game after giving birth, Williams was run off the court – quite literally, this time – in a Grand Slam final.”
Facebook knew its changes were pushing users to share viral content
Years before Facebook helped trigger a wave of fake news and hate speech online, the social-media giant knew that changes it made to increase audience engagement were pushing users to spend more time sharing viral content.
In an internal Facebook presentation from 2014 that was leaked to journalists, employees discuss how the company’s shift from desktop to mobile over the previous two years made it easier for people to share content from their phones and encouraged them to spend more time liking, commenting on and re-sharing posts.
Critics have long warned that Facebook’s efforts to encourage people to spend more time on the platform in order to show them more advertisements – have helped encourage the spread of misinformation.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Family, friends of Hodan Nalayeh mourn: Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh was killed in a terrorist attack on Friday. She moved back to Somalia last year to tell positive stories of her home country. “We will remember her as our hero, as somebody who is so invested in making sure the world knew the beauty of the Somali culture, Somali people, of Somalia,” said Farhiya Jama, a friend of Nalayeh’s.
Great Lakes businesses struggling with record-high water: High water levels across the Great Lakes are forcing tourism businesses to spend big to keep operations as close to normal as possible, but the high water is increasing costs and complicating the provision of services. At one restaurant near Parry Sound, visitors keen to eat at the waterside patio have had to dine with their feet submerged in several inches of lake water.
Majority of Canadians support a ban on single-use plastics, according to poll: A new Nanos Research survey has found that 56 per cent of Canadians support a total ban on singe-use plastics, and most would be willing to pay a small premium for environmentally sustainable products. Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government announced a plan to regulate plastic waste as part of a national strategy to limit the amount of plastics that are polluting Canada’s environment.
Chevron revives Kitimat LNG with electric-drive technology plans: Chevron submitted a revised plan to regulators to build a terminal to export liquefied natural gas from northern British Columbia, hoping to start construction by 2023 in an effort to revive the much-delayed Kitimat LNG project that it co-owns with Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. New designs for the export terminal promote electric-motor technology in a bid to comply with B.C. clampdown on carbon emissions.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks rise
Surprisingly upbeat economic soundings from China lifted the global markets mood on Monday, pushing world shares towards an 18-month high and steering the Aussie dollar and copper upwards. Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.4 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX were up by between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent by about 6:15 a.m. ET, while the Paris CAC 40 was down 0.1 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was above 76.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Increasing access to the abortion pill in Canada starts by properly training our doctors
Dawn Fowler: “Those of us who have been advocating for medical abortions – those done by taking pills – know they improve access and provide a safe, effective and less invasive option for those who need to terminate an unplanned pregnancy … In 2015, after much deliberation, cost and determination, approval in Canada was granted to combine two medications (mifepristone and misoprostol) in order to end a pregnancy. The result was Mifegymiso, which has technically been available for four years in this country – but efforts to ensure access are still under way, as reported in The Globe and Mail this weekend. The reasons for the challenging access is that physician training is needed to ensure appropriate use of Mifegymiso, the abortion pill.” Dawn Fowler is the executive director of the Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic.
Liberals aren’t competing for Conservative voters, they have more hope winning over New Democratic, Green, undecided voters
Campbell Clark: “When Justin Trudeau went to the annual meeting of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation last week and delivered a kind of mea culpa to progressive voters, it gave us a glimpse of the Liberals’ election strategy. It’s not that Mr. Trudeau will spend the fall repeating, as he said Thursday, that he’s made mistakes. It’s the warning about Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives that comes with it that sums up the Liberal strategy. Mr. Trudeau’s message was − to paraphrase – I’m not perfect, but if you don’t support me, you get Conservatives.”
The death of Hodan Nalayeh must not be the single story
Amira Elghawaby: “I had met Hodan Nalayeh on many occasions and was always struck by her brilliant smile, caring words and positive outlook. Yet, like many other Canadians, it is only now, after her tragic death at the hands of violent extremists, that I have fully come to appreciate her immense contributions. For the past several years, the Somali-Canadian journalist and broadcaster travelled between her home in Toronto and her homeland of Somalia. Her stated objective: To provide uplifting narratives from the country her family, and countless others, had to flee due to war and conflict. Every report she shared was a challenge to the West’s ‘single story’ about the African continent, one most synonymous with despair and tragedy.” Amira Elghawaby is a writer based in Ottawa.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David ParkinsDavid Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
What I learned walking 12 hours in a day from Lake Simcoe to Toronto
“Walking can seem the simplest thing,” Oliver Moore writes. “While it offers a long list of health benefits, it can feel hardly like exercise at all. Take it to extremes, though, and it becomes a physical, even existential challenge. For centuries, philosophers, poets and revolutionaries have found value in long walks. Pilgrims through the ages have taken to the road, nourishing their souls while strengthening their bodies.”
“I set out last month to try this myself – aiming to cover 90 kilometres in a day – inspired also by a Stephen King novel and a brief mid-20th-century craze for very long treks.”
MOMENT IN TIME
Credit: NASANASA
Buzz Aldrin becomes the second man to step on the moon
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo librarians working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. In July, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.
Perhaps the most famous picture of the Apollo 11 mission did not show the historic moment when someone first walked on the moon. When astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface, TV viewers around the world heard him but didn’t see him clearly. But relatively quickly Armstrong set up his 70-millimetre camera and shot Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin as he descended the ladder of the lunar module, above. While no one questioned Armstrong’s photographic skills, his famous first words as he stepped down, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” seemed a bit repetitive. Later, Armstrong said he was misquoted and that he actually said, “That’s one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” Forty-four years later, researchers confirmed that the combination of space static and Armstrong’s central Ohio slur may indeed have masked the ‘A.’ – Philip King
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