Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Canada’s largest public pension manager is reviewing its investments in Chinese companies
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is conducting new checks to identify companies with troubling practices. In particular, “the potential misuse of advanced technology is a concern,” public affairs head Michel Leduc said.
Leduc was responding to questions about CPPIB’s ownership stake in surveillance equipment which has been used by China to monitor Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. U.S. legislators want to blacklist those tech companies for enabling state violations of human rights. (for subscribers)
CPPIB isn’t the only Canadian pension manager with multimillion-dollar stakes in Chinese surveillance-equipment makers: British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also hold shares in Hikvision and Dahua.
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B.C. will be the first province to force patients to switch from biologic drugs to biosimilars
The move, expected to save nearly $100-million over three years, will see those using drugs for diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease transition to cheaper near-copy alternatives.
While many European countries have tweaked their public-insurance programs to cover mostly the cheaper biosimilars, Canadian provinces have been hesitant to make the switch amid opposition from patient-advocacy groups and pharmaceutical companies. A Globe investigation last year found Janssen, which makes Crohn’s drug Remicade, deployed tactics to disparage biosimilars.
Since biologics are made from living organisms, it’s impossible to perfectly replicate the drugs. However, Health Canada has said well-controlled switches to biosimilars are safe and effective.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, who himself voluntarily switched to a diabetes biosimilar, said the province’s plan provides a template for the benefits of a national pharmacare program.
Police have launched an investigation into a Toronto doctor accused of sexually abusing patients
Toronto police say they received a complaint earlier this year about Allan Gordon, the prominent pain specialist who has been accused of sexual abuse by at least 10 former patients. A spokesperson declined to comment further, saying, “The investigation is ongoing.”
Gordon’s case has raised questions about the oversight of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which closed the files of women who complained and did not publicly acknowledge their allegations. Gordon agreed to resign and never reapply to practise medicine as part of a settlement. His lawyer says the care Gordon provided to patients was “appropriate.”
Alberta is cutting the minimum wage for students under 18
Starting June 26, employers will be able to pay high-school students $13 an hour, $2 lower than the $15 minimum put in place by the previous NDP government. Premier Jason Kenney says Rachel Notley’s wage-hike made finding work difficult for young people and called the new minimum “still a very generous wage.” (However, $15 has become the benchmark for anti-poverty and labour advocates.)
Notley is warning that cutting the youth wage will hurt students trying to save for postsecondary education and that vulnerable teens could drop out of school to earn the higher minimum wage.
Ontario is the only other province with a youth minimum wage, which is set at $13.15 compared with $14 for the provincial standard.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ontario is planning to terminate a deal with the Beer Store as Doug Ford’s government seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to allow beer and wine sales in corner stores. The news came on the same day Ford announced he was cancelling cuts to public health, ambulances and daycares amid backlash from the public and Toronto Mayor John Tory.
A man has been charged in a motorcycle hit-and-run that injured a four-year-old boy. Toronto police are still searching for a female suspect who fled the scene. Ruhul Chowdhury called on the public to pray for his son’s recovery and urged the woman to turn herself in.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks mixed
European stocks, bond yields and the euro fell on Tuesday as concern about Italy’s budget overshadowed talks of a Fiat-Chrysler and Renault merger and the muted showing of nationalists in European Union parliamentary elections. Tokyo’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng each gained 0.4 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.6 per cent. But in Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.1 and 0.5 per cent by about 6:40 a.m. ET. New York futures were down. The Canadian dollar was below 74.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
The independent campaign of Wilson-Raybould and Philpott likely won’t succeed. But Trudeau should still be nervous
Campbell Clark: “Their whole campaign is a rebuke of his governing style. They talked about the need to do politics differently, just as Mr. Trudeau did in 2015 – but this time it is the Liberal Leader who represents the status quo they hope to change. He is their symbol of old-school politics and centralized power.”
Will there be justice for Cindy Gladue?
Jean Teillet: “Is there justice for Indigenous women who have been sexually assaulted in Canada? This is the fundamental issue in the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent reasons for ordering a new trial in R. v. Barton. The case is about Cindy Gladue, a victim of sexual violence who bled to death in a hotel bathtub. … Gladue was an Indigenous woman and a sex worker. She paid for both of these facts with her privacy, her dignity and her life.” Jean Teillet is an Indigenous rights lawyer.
Sorry, Facebook, we don’t want to tell you what’s on our minds
Jake Howell: “Is my entire list of Facebook friends an accurate reflection of who I must tell things to? With nearly 500 people to account for (a number I’ve perennially tried to keep down), the answer is – and I say this respectfully – a simple no.”
There’s no point in fighting the underdog label. The Raptors just have to embrace it
Cathal Kelly: “Because people like their storylines simple, that’s how this matchup will be portrayed in the U.S. media – Hollywood vs. Anywheresville, Ontario, Canada; Showtime vs. The Criterion Collection; Guys You All Know vs. Kawhi Leonard and Seven Other Chumps. The Vegas line is so skewed, it’s bordering on insulting. The Warriors opened at nearly 3-to-1 favourites. Those odds lengthened over the weekend as money started to come in. No one believes Toronto can do this.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Hidden Canada: The 2019 travel guide to the country’s undiscovered gems and experiences
From a desert expanse to sky-high icebergs, there’s something for everyone in our list of 10 diverse locales from coast to coast. In Saskatchewan, the Great Sandhills offer up sand dunes reminiscent of the Sahara. A stay on Newfoundland’s Quirpon Island, meanwhile, will give you unmatched access to iceberg viewing. And if you’re itching for an unconventional drive, Canada’s first all-season road to the Arctic Ocean has opened in the Northwest Territories.
MOMENT IN TIME
Maya Angelou dies
(Jean Shifrin/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)Jean Shifrin/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via NYT
May 28, 2014: Marguerite Annie Johnson was a child when she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She spoke up, he was arrested – and found dead a few days later. “I thought my voice had killed the man,” she later wrote – as Maya Angelou. She stopped speaking – for almost six years. Later, she wrote about these horrific events with beautiful words in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, launching an extraordinary literary career. Angelou’s voice was powerful and she used it for good. She was an outspoken civil-rights activist and prolific writer. Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman became iconic poems. She was also a performer, screenwriter, film director, teacher. She mentored Oprah Winfrey, inspired Nelson Mandela, was friends with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. She wrote a poem for Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. When she died at 86, the world mourned, reciting and Facebooking her poetry. “Rest in peace phenomenal woman,” Beyoncé wrote on Instagram. One of the last things Angelou herself wrote was a tweet, five days before she died. “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” Angelou’s voice was silenced, but her words – still, they rise. – Marsha Lederman
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