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Leading Canadian universities say they intend to continue research and development with Huawei Technologies Co. – which reaps intellectual property from the partnerships – after Ottawa’s decision to ban the Chinese telecommunications giant from 5G wireless networks over national-security concerns.
When the Trudeau government announced on May 19 that it would bar Huawei from selling 5G equipment to Canadian telecommunications companies, it did not take action against Huawei’s extensive dealings with Canadian universities. Huawei spends roughly $25-million annually on university R&D projects aimed at the development of advanced communications technologies including 5G and 6G wireless.
The company participates in research programs, often as a sponsor, at about 20 Canadian postsecondary institutions including the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University, Carleton University, University of Calgary and the University of Waterloo.
Universities contacted by The Globe and Mail say they have no plans to sever ties to Huawei unless instructed to do so by the federal government.
The signage of a Huawei office is pictured in Kanata, Ont. on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickSean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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Canadian Open makes welcome return to PGA Tour as LIV controversy rages
Rory McIlroy faced the elephant in the room yesterday, as he readied to play in a long-awaited Canadian Open that’s being upstaged by a Saudi-backed breakaway golf tour.
“I think it’s a shame that it’s going to fracture the game,” McIlroy said about the new LIV Golf Invitational Series, stressing that he’s not interested in joining it.
“I’m certainly not knocking anyone for going. It’s their life. It’s their decision,” McIlroy said. “Obviously money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world. But if it’s purely for money, it never seems to go the way you want it to.”
After a wait of 1,093 days, through two years of COVID-related cancellations, Canada’s men’s national golf championship returns to the PGA Tour calendar this weekend. Yet, as the long-awaited event tees off at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto today, it is unwittingly entangled in the most divisive story in pro sports.
- RBC’s break with Dustin Johnson lifts veil on machinations of brand sponsorships
- Cathal Kelly: LIV Golf Series’ assault on the PGA Tour is a lesson on money and power
- Lawrence Martin: The Saudis’ seduction threatens to take golf down a money-grubbing sinkhole
Ukraine seeks Canadian help to develop natural gas reserves
Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company, Naftogaz, is making a sales pitch to Canadian energy companies: Send your technology, expertise and investments to help the country fully develop its natural gas reserves, in turn bolstering global energy security.
Just days ago, the European Union agreed to a phased embargo on Russian crude in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. As a result, 90 per cent of Moscow oil will be banned in Europe by 2023, says Ukraine’s new ambassador to Canada, Yulia Kovaliv – “a significant challenge” for the bloc, but an opportunity for Canada and other allies.
Ukraine was the principal gas-producing region of the Soviet Union until the late 1970s. Technical studies over the past year have identified even more natural gas deposits, which Naftogaz says could lead to the drilling of thousands of horizontal wells.
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Also on our radar
Ottawa appoints special interlocutor for residential school burial sites: Ottawa has named a special interlocutor to ensure culturally appropriate treatment of unmarked graves and burial sites at former residential schools, a year after the country faced a reckoning over the deaths of children at the schools.
RCMP official regrets delays in mass-shooting communications: A communications manager for the RCMP broke down on the witness stand yesterday when pressed about delays in warning the public about an active shooter, including that he was driving a replica police car during his 2020 rampage in rural Nova Scotia. Since the shootings, the Mounties have faced criticism about how they alerted the public during the gunman’s 13-hour massacre.
Most remaining mask mandates in Ontario set to end this weekend: Ontario’s COVID-19 mask mandates will expire this weekend for hospitals, health care settings and public transit, but continue in long-term-care facilities and retirement homes. However, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario and the Ontario Hospital Association say removal of the mandates could increase disruptions to the health care system.
Business leaders push for changes to proposed luxury tax: Business leaders have urged senators to address concerns that a new luxury tax on autos, boats and planes could trigger thousands of job losses in Canadian manufacturing. A report released last month by the Parliamentary Budget Officer said the tax would reduce sales by more than $600-million a year. But some tax-fairness advocates have praised the measure as a way of forcing wealthy Canadians to contribute more toward government services.
Investment industry pushes for more details on first home savings account: The investment industry is seeking more details from the Canada Revenue Agency and the Department of Finance on the proposed tax-free savings account for first-time home buyers introduced in the federal budget this year, saying they will have trouble developing a product they know very little about within the government’s timeline.
- Rob Carrick: Is 2022 the worst year in decades to get a HELOC?
- Robert McLister: Mortgage shoppers beware: Surging oil is pushing five-year rates above 5%
Morning markets
World markets await ECB decision: Investors buckled up on Thursday for the European Central Bank’s signal that it is ready to raise its interest rates for the first time in a decade, while the yen weakened to a new 20-year low on bets the Bank of Japan will lag way behind. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.34 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were off 0.51 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.04 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.66 per cent. New York futures were little changed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.59 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Campbell Clark: “... party mergers just don’t offer the easy political arithmetic that proponents suggest. The provincial Liberals and NDP wouldn’t just get to add their votes together to beat Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives. They could lose a lot of them in the process.”
Editorial: “It may be arithmetically impossible to have less taxes and more spending, but it’s politically possible. The only way to reconcile wish and reality is to keep the reality-based accommodations hidden in the footnotes, and out of the marketing materials. That’s how the Liberals managed it. Over the next four years, the PCs – Ontario’s new middle party – may find that’s also the path of least resistance.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Living better
Travel east of Amsterdam, a hub of architectural design and good food
It’s not often you find yourself on an epic walk through Amsterdam. In the misty 17th-century streets of the canal belt, connecting the dots will take barely 20 minutes. And that’s when you’re not cycling – on two wheels, the streetscape whizzes by. Even if you’re not an architecture buff, as I am, it seems a shame to rush through a city this deserving of being savoured.
Moment in time: June 9, 1982
English forester and tree expert Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889 - 1982) with a copy of his work 'The Redwoods' in the library at Edstone Hall, UK, October 1955.Chris Ware/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Richard St. Barbe Baker, the Man of Trees, dies
Having overseen the planting of billions of trees around the world in his lifetime, Richard St. Barbe Baker is appropriately remembered as the Man of the Trees. He spent the bulk of his peripatetic life giving lectures and interviews on forestry and conservation, leading tree-planting programs around the world and writing numerous books, including his autobiography My Life, My Trees. St. Barbe (as he was known) was born in England and came to Canada in 1909, in response to an appeal from the University of Saskatchewan to study theology. But he’d long been enamoured with Canada after reading letters written by a great-uncle who had previously settled in the country. While studying and doing church work in the province, his childhood interest in forestry remained – he even did a stint as a lumberjack in northern Saskatchewan – and he returned to England to study silviculture at Cambridge University after the First World War. In 1922, St. Barbe founded the Men of the Trees association. Now known as the International Tree Foundation, which has had chapters in more than 100 countries, it continues to be involved with reforestation efforts worldwide. Wayne Eyre
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