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Canada will ban Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G network, federal ministers announced Thursday, stating that a national intelligence review concluded the two Chinese firms pose potential security risks.
Until this week, Canada was the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance – which also includes Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the United States – that had not yet banned or restricted the use of Huawei’s 5G mobile equipment.
Canadian telecom companies that currently use Huawei and ZTE gear in their networks will have to remove it over a period of several years. ZTE, like Huawei, is a technology company that specializes in telecommunications equipment.
Speaking at a regular press conference on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Canada’s decision “runs counter to market economy principles and free trade rules and has seriously damaged the rights and interests of Chinese companies.”
“China will make comprehensive and serious assessment of the situation and take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” he told reporters in Beijing.
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Jason Kenney to stay on as Alberta Premier until UCP picks new leader
Jason Kenney will continue to lead Alberta’s United Conservative Party and remain Premier until members select a replacement, despite his surprising announcement on Wednesday night that he would step down.
The development followed a six-hour caucus meeting on Thursday in downtown Calgary, where many UCP MLAs started the day expecting to select an interim leader to replace Kenney.
UCP caucus chair Nathan Neudorf said in a statement that the party’s MLAs had a “vigorous” debate and concluded they were better off with Kenney at the helm. “We agreed that we must remain united, focused on the best interests of Albertans, and committed to doing the job Albertans elected us to do,” he said.
- Kenney is latest conservative leader to be pushed out for not being ‘extreme enough,’ federal tourism minister says
- Gary Mason: The spectacular fall of Jason Kenney
- Opinion: Kenney’s leadership style hurt him, but UCP’s internal divides made it unlikely any leader could hold the party together
- Listen to The Decibel: Alberta’s future without Jason Kenney
Political squabbles led to awful conditions that residents at Herron nursing home died under, Quebec coroner says
Residents at Quebec’s Herron nursing home wouldn’t have died in such gruesome conditions if health officials and the home’s owners hadn’t squabbled for days, coroner Géhane Kamel said in her final remarks at her inquest into the impact of COVID-19 on the province’s eldercare facilities.
Speaking Thursday after the release of her inquest’s report, she said those in charge at the facility in Montreal’s West Island had quarrelled via e-mails and lawyers’ letters in early 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak among residents, reports The Globe’s Tu Thanh Ha.
“There are people who could have gotten help and would not have died. They might have died later, but they wouldn’t have died in those conditions,” she told reporters.
- Opinion: The pandemic revealed brutal realities about long-term care. Canada has a moral obligation to fix the system
Inside the killing of a civilian that ended with a Russian soldier pleading guilty to a war crime
Valentyna Matyash heard the noise of an approaching car, rumbling loud on the asphalt from a tire that ruptured when Russian soldiers hijacked it. She dashed inside her neighbour Oleksandr Shelipov’s house, where her family was already taking cover. She did not hear the spray of gunfire aimed at Shelipov, who was outside just metres from his front door, talking on the phone.
But moments later, Matyash left the house to find him lying on the ground, his ruptured skull positioned between two plum trees. Shelipov, 62, was unarmed, dressed in boots and civilian clothes.
His killing on Feb. 28 made him one of the early casualties of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, the soldier who admits to opening fire on Shelipov, was stopped from escaping the village by a group of local hunters armed with shotguns. Now, his act has become the basis of the first war crimes trial to emerge from the conflict, reports The Globe’s Nathan VanderKlippe.
Conducting a war crimes trial in the midst of the war in question is unusual. But the case has global importance as a judicial inquiry into Russian wrongdoing, particularly as Ukraine seeks to continue marshalling international support to its side.
- War in Ukraine leads Japan to rethink pacifism, renew ties with allies and keep wary eyes on China and Russia
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Supreme Court agrees to hear Doug Ford’s appeal to keep mandate letters secret: Canada’s top court will hear an appeal from the Ontario government regarding whether PC Leader Doug Ford’s ministerial marching orders are public information. That means those letters will continue to remain secret past the June 2 election.
- Majority of Ontarians dissatisfied with province’s hospitals, long-term care homes, survey shows
Review of allegations at Western University finds evidence of at least one sexual assault: An independent review of allegations of drugging and sexual assault at a University of Western Ontario residence during orientation week found evidence of at least one sexual assault. It urged Western to address a number of issues, including what it calls troubling aspects of orientation culture such as overconsumption of drugs and alcohol.
‘Teal wave’ in Australia sees voters embracing independent candidates with a climate focus: Independent candidates campaigning on environment action and government accountability could peel away support from major parties, experts say, pointing to an Australian electorate that’s disillusioned by establishment parties’ lack of focus on climate issues.
From Swan Lake ballerina to director, Karen Kain’s final National Ballet show comes full circle: After more than 50 years with the National Ballet, Karen Kain, Canada’s most celebrated ballerina, is taking a bow with her new vision for Swan Lake. But the production has faced unforeseen obstacles.
MORNING MARKETS
Global shares bounce: World shares rebounded on Friday after China cut a key lending benchmark to support its economy, though a global equities gauge remained set for its longest weekly losing streak on record amid investor worries about slowing growth and high inflation. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.97 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 gained 1.86 per cent and 0.97 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 1.27 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.96 per cent. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.22 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Another wave of COVID-19 is coming. Why isn’t Canada preparing to beat it?
“It is well known that vaccination helps to limit the impact of COVID-19 by reducing the odds of hospitalization or death from an infection. It can’t completely break the connection between infection and illness, but it greatly diminishes it. That means vaccines – and especially boosters, because vaccine effectiveness wanes over time – are essential, especially for people aged 50 and over. On that score, Canada is failing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but too many of our ounces of prevention are just sitting on a shelf.” - Editorial
What is true and what is false about the Supreme Court of Canada’s extreme intoxication ruling
“It is false that an individual who is simply drunk or high will be able to avoid criminal responsibility. They and their lawyers would need to prove ‘extreme intoxication’ – a legal concept which requires scientific, expert evidence of what the Supreme Court described as ‘psychotic, delusional and involuntary conduct’ caused by the consumption of a drug. In other words, a person would need to have had no control over their actions because of the drug they consumed.” - Pam Hrick, Kat Owens and Farrah Khan
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
How to balance green or ethical investing with making money
In the latest episode of Stress Test, we hear from a 30-year-old in Ottawa who’s getting started in what’s called ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing because she cares about the environment – and she wants to make money. Plus, Rob Carrick speaks to The Globe’s business reporter Jeff Jones to learn more about how ESG funds are performing and how to keep an eye out for greenwashing.
MOMENT IN TIME: May 20, 1939
Yankee Clipper offers first regular transatlantic postal service
The Yankee Clipper, circa 1939.Harris & Ewing
Twelve years to the day after Charles Lindbergh took off on the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight, and seven years after Amelia Earhart embarked on her historic solo jaunt, the Yankee Clipper made history of its own. The plane, a Boeing 314 owned by Pan Am, was a behemoth weighing 38 tonnes and featured a dining room and three lounges for passengers. U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt had christened it in March, 1939, with a champagne bottle filled with water from the seven seas. On this day the same year, the plane was loaded with more than 100,000 pieces of mail and inaugurated the U.S. Postal Service’s transatlantic airmail service. The Clipper took off from Manhasset Bay, Long Island, N.Y., and flew over the heads of crowds at the New York World’s Fair on its way to Marseille, France, with stops in the Azores and Lisbon. The trip took 26½ hours. It was far faster than the only other option – the record for an ocean liner crossing at the time was four days. It’s a long way from the Clipper to how we send messages by e-mail at lightning speed today, but the driving impulse is the same: faster, faster, faster. Dave McGinn
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