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Ontario Premier Doug Ford shuffled his cabinet hours after Housing Minister Steve Clark resigned from his post Monday in the wake of weeks of outcry over the process to select Greenbelt lands for housing development and a finding from the province’s Integrity Commissioner that he violated ethics laws.
In a statement, Clark said he was becoming a “distraction” from work addressing the housing crisis, and needed to “take accountability for what has transpired.”
The Premier later announced a suite of changes to his front bench, with former long-term care minister Paul Calandra becoming Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing – taking over his government’s most pressing political portfolio before the legislature resumes on Sept. 25.
The significant shakeup also includes two senior ministers switching portfolios.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark delivers remarks at Queen's Park in Toronto on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
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Former Canadian fighter pilots face RCMP probe over work in China
The RCMP are investigating three former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilots who are training military and civilian pilots in China, even though their employer, a South African flying academy, insists no sensitive information is being passed on to Chinese authorities.
“The RCMP is aware of the report of former RCAF pilots taking part in training People’s Liberation Army Air Force pilots. As the RCMP is investigating these incidents, there will be no further comment on this matter at this time,” RCMP spokesperson Robin Percival told The Globe and Mail in a statement.
In an e-mail, a representative for Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) told The Globe that the company “has strict protocols and a code of conduct in place that are designed to prevent any TFASA employee sharing any information or training that is, or might be considered to be, legally or operationally sensitive, or security classified.”
For a disabled Ukrainian girl displaced by war, Poland’s superior services offer a new life and a big dilemma
Tetiana Zapotchina, 6, and Aleksandra Bernat, her rehabilitation therapist and physiotherapist.Anna Liminowicz/The Globe and Mail
Tetiana and her mom, 26-year-old Mariia Lishtvan, have been living in Warsaw since 2022, when they left their home in western Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. They are among the roughly 200,000 Ukrainian families that have children with disabilities who fled the country when the war started. Tetiana has cerebral palsy, and living in Poland has unlocked a special school, surgery and a rehab program.
And like many families living abroad, Mariia faces a dilemma: She would love to return home, but Tetiana is flourishing in Poland, where support services are much better than in Ukraine.
Invasive species driving ‘homogenization’ of life on Earth, UN report warns
Invasive species pose a growing and costly threat to global biodiversity as varieties of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms increasingly turn up in places where they don’t belong, a United Nations-sponsored report has warned.
According to the report, more than 37,000 invasive species have now been established around the world on every continent, including Antarctica – a figure that is growing by about 200 species per year. Ivan Semeniuk, The Globe’s science reporter, tells us about the experts calling for border controls, scientific monitoring and other measures to manage the spread of invasive species.
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Also on our radar
Bank of Canada: The Bank of Canada is expected to pause its monetary policy tightening campaign this week, weighing stubborn inflation data against growing evidence that the Canadian economy has begun to stall.
Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that a landmark deal allowing Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea amid the war won’t be restored until the West meets Moscow’s demands on its own agricultural exports.
Terrorism: This week, the man charged in the 2021 attack at the intersection of Hyde Park and South Carriage Roads in London, Ont., will go on trial as prosecutors lay out evidence of four first-degree murder charges that the Crown argues also rank as terrorist acts.
GDP: Economists are warning that Ottawa’s reported undercounting of non-permanent residents by around one million in the official figures could have an impact on Canada’s per capita GDP.
Trucker convoy: Proceedings for Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two of the most prominent faces of the trucker-led protests that paralyzed the core of the country’s capital for more than three weeks early last year, will start Tuesday at the Ottawa Courthouse.
Wildfires: The charred hills surrounding Okanagan Lake in the B.C. Interior will likely look very different in a year’s time as life returns to the wildfire-ravaged landscape, ecologists predict. But the tall trees destroyed by the fires may never recover or return.
James Smith Cree Nation: Yesterday marked the anniversary of last year’s mass stabbing in Saskatchewan that killed 11 people and injured 17 in the community and the nearby village of Weldon.
Morning markets
World stocks slide on China concerns: Global equities fell on Tuesday as weak service sector data rekindled worries over China’s sputtering post-pandemic economy, while Australia’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged, pushing the Australian dollar lower. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.03 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 slid 0.28 per cent and 0.55 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.30 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.06 per cent. New York futures were negative. The Canadian dollar was lower at 73.23 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Let’s match Canada’s immigration goals with an ambitious housing plan
“Solving the housing crisis requires collaboration among all levels of government. It requires the federal government to meet its commitments to reduce homelessness, construct new homes, and provide Canadians with access to affordable housing that meets their needs. And, it requires the federal government to support community partners, like universities, which can deliver the housing Canada needs.” – Philip Landon
In defence of the good old, tedious (and yes, sometimes boring) student essay
“The student essay is a process technology. It’s designed to train students to think scientifically: how to select, process and analyze knowledge. And it’s unrivalled in its effectiveness, reach and efficiency.” – Blayne Haggart
To reach net zero, people and businesses must start generating their own electricity
“Currently, buildings are the third-largest carbon producers in the country. By making sure commercial, industrial and residential structures are also clean power contributors to the grid, we can simultaneously reduce electricity demand on the grid and alleviate the impact of the large carbon footprint these buildings currently have.” – David O’Reilly
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by Brian Gable
Living better
The hybrid office is giving people ‘schedule control’ – and it’s improving the quality of their free time
Talk to most people who are fortunate enough to work from home and two things are clear: They really, really enjoy it, and they’re worried the privilege will be yanked away by employers who want them visible at all times.
But the reason those employees see remote work as such a benefit may surprise a lot of those bosses. Dave McGinn says it’s not about slacking off, it’s about autonomy.
Moment in time: Sept. 5, 1914
Babe Ruth hits first pro home run at Toronto Island Park
Babe Ruth's grandson, Tom Stevens, reads one of two new Heritage Toronto plaques commemorating Babe Ruth's first professional home run and professional baseball at Hanlan's Point in Toronto. A 19-year-old Ruth, pitching for the Providence Grays of the International League, hit a three-run homer over the right-field fence of Maple Leaf Park on September 5, 1914.MIKE CASSESE/Reuters
On this day in 1914, the greatest baseballer who ever lived hit his first home run as a professional. Nineteen-year-old Babe Ruth was at the opening game of a doubleheader at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Park, on Hanlan’s Point. As a member of the Providence Grays of the International League, he struck a full-count curveball from Toronto Maple Leafs hurler Ellis Johnson over the right-field fence. At the time, Ruth was a pitching phenom – The Globe said he could “heave that old pill.” Against the Leafs, he allowed just one hit in the 9-0 win. His home run would be his lone minor-league clout. On Oct. 2, Ruth was recalled to the parent club, Boston Red Sox, and pitched a winning game against the New York Yankees. In 1920, he was sold by Boston to those Yankees, with whom he enjoyed a Hall of Fame career as a home-run king and jazz-age icon. Though a newly constructed Yankee Stadium would be forever known as “the house that Ruth built,” he was neither an architect nor a tradesman. Brad Wheeler
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