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The board of Rogers Communications removed Edward Rogers as chair on Thursday, after his push to overhaul the company’s leadership set off a weeks-long battle that has divided the family that controls Canada’s largest wireless carrier.
John MacDonald was appointed as its new chair. That puts the telecom-industry veteran at the helm of the board at a time when the company is grappling with a high-profile power struggle that saw Rogers attempt to push out chief executive officer Joe Natale and nine other top executives.
Tensions had come to a head late last month after Natale learned about Rogers’s plan to oust him – which he heard about accidentally when Tony Staffieri pocket-dialled him. On the call, Staffieri was discussing plans to unseat Natale and the other executives, according to two sources.
Read more: Rogers forms board committee to set ‘clear protocols’ for chair and management interactions
Edward Rogers speaks to shareholders during the Rogers annual general meeting in Toronto on April 20, 2018. Mr. Rogers was voted out as chairman, but he will remain on the board as a director.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Ottawa tightens access to COVID-19 wage support in new measure to replace CEWS
The newest version of the Liberal government’s COVID-19 wage subsidies will be open only to companies whose revenue dropped substantially during the first 12 months of the pandemic. It’s a move that closes a loophole that had allowed companies with healthy sales growth to claim funds on the basis of short downturns in their operations, reports The Globe’s Patrick Brethour.
Earlier this year, a Globe investigation found that dozens of publicly traded companies received payments under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, or CEWS. Those companies went on to post gains in revenue and profit.
In unveiling the scaled-back successor to CEWS on Thursday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said applicants have to demonstrate a “deep and enduring loss,” in addition to a downturn during a four-week claim period. The final claim period for the program expires on Oct. 23, and the government has said the replacement programs will remain in effect until May 7.
More pandemic-related news:
- Trudeau announces new federal standard for COVID-19 vaccine passports
- Ontario set to ease COVID-19 capacity limits at restaurants, source says
- O’Toole says Conservatives will respect ruling requiring MPs entering the Commons to be vaccinated
- John Ibbitson: Trying to defend the rights of unvaccinated MPs only makes the Conservative Party look stupid
Russia’s break with NATO heightens fears of military escalation as two sides trade blame
Shock rippled across Europe this week when Russia announced it was suspending its diplomatic presence at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels and ordering NATO staff to leave Moscow. Such direct contacts between the Kremlin and the Western military alliance had been established at the end of the Cold War to prevent misunderstandings from escalating into conflict.
For Russia, the suspension was about abandoning the pretence of co-operation with NATO, writes The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon. Both sides have come to see themselves as engaged in a low-level conflict since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine seven years ago.
“To pretend that we still co-operate, while we don’t, was not very helpful,” said Sergey Utkin, the head of strategic assessment at the Moscow-based Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, which is part of the state-funded Russian Academy of Sciences.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Queen back at Windsor Castle after spending night in hospital: The Queen spent Wednesday night in hospital for an unspecified treatment, Buckingham Palace officials said. On Wednesday, officials said the 95-year-old monarch would not attend a ceremony in Northern Ireland to mark the 100th anniversary of province’s creation. At the time, they said it was after doctors advised her to rest.
Martha Henry, a Stratford Festival legend, shone till the end: After 47 Stratford seasons and a long, private struggle with cancer, Martha Henry, who died Thursday at 83, stood tall in a finale that the pandemic delayed but could not stop, writes Globe theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck. In what would turn out to be her final curtain call, Henry delivered a ferocious performance in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women. The production marked the resumption of indoor, in-person theatre at the Stratford Festival this summer.
Ford and MLSE head met privately ahead of partnership for vaccine-passport app: Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment says it reached out to Ontario to help develop the province’s vaccine-passport app, so spectators wouldn’t have to use a separate app. The Globe has learned that Premier Doug Ford met privately with Michael Friisdahl, MLSE chief executive officer, in Mr. Ford’s mother’s backyard in July, though representatives for both say the meeting was unrelated to their vaccine-passport app collaboration, which the province revealed last week.
World’s largest triceratops skeleton sells for US$7.7-million in Paris: The world’s largest triceratops skeleton, known as “Big John” – a nod to the owner of the land where it was found – was sold for US$7.7-million Thursday to a private collector at a Paris auction house. The three-horned skeleton is estimated to be more than 66 million years old and was found in 2014 in South Dakota.
In the latest Decibel: Inside the cowboy culture of crpytocurrency: For journalist Ethan Lou, diving into cryptocurrency was like entering a whole new world. Lou, the author of Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West, joins the podcast to share what he learned about the fast-growing cryptocurrency culture of Calgary, and how myths about the Wild West frontier help explain its draw.
MORNING MARKETS
Global shares got a tech boost to help tee up a third straight week of gains on Friday, despite growing inflation concerns, while oil prices bounced off their lows. MSCI’s broadest gauge of global shares was up 0.1%, 1.4% higher on the week and just 0.8% off its all-time high. Europe’s top markets were all up, with the biggest, Britain’s FTSE 100, up 0.4% The Canadian dollar was trading at 81.09 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Doug Ford says the quiet part about Canada’s view of immigrants out loud
“Mr. Ford’s comments make explicit that there are two types of Canadians. There’s the ‘old stock,’ which need not prove themselves against the Premier’s ‘one criteria,’ and whose worthiness does not need to be assessed or proven because it’s enough to be born on the soil. They have won what scholar Ayelet Shachar calls the ‘birthright lottery,’ and one of the prizes is that society will not debate your value.” - Adnan Khan, author of the novel There Has to Be a Knife
Stephen Harper’s Saudi odyssey is true to form
“His ‘pride’ in the Saudi contract, as his recent tweet reveals, must be viewed through the lens of the kingdom’s rivalry with Iran. Mr. Harper considers any enemy of Iran, whose supreme leader calls for the destruction of Israel, a friend of his.” - Konrad Yakabuski
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Ten festive wines to buy as wine shops gear up for the holiday season
In anticipation of the holiday season, bottle shops usually stock the shelves with more expensive and collectible wines. Many popular labels are already being snapped up, which means it’s good to have a backup plan if you’re in the mood to splurge or get a jump on holiday shopping. There are many emerging stars hiding in plain sight on the shelves of liquor stores, writes Christopher Waters.
MOMENT IN TIME: Oct. 22, 1797
Andre-Jacques Garnerin completes first parachute drop at a Paris exhibition
An 18th-century watercolour painting shows descent of Andre-Jacques Garnerin in a basket attached to a parachute from about 1000 meters while the unmanned balloon falls to the ground, Oct. 22, 1797.VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images
Leonardo da Vinci is often credited with inventing the parachute, but as with a lot of his ideas and drawings, the rubber never met the road. Almost three centuries later, though, Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin put his parachute concept to the test at an exhibition in Paris. Unlike Leonardo’s device, which featured a pyramid-like wooden frame that could easily crush the parachutist upon landing, Garnerin’s design was collapsible, relatively light and featured a gondola. He hung it below a hydrogen balloon and, at a thousand metres up, cut the balloon loose. The gondola began swinging wildly back and forth like a pendulum, but Garnerin managed to land without injury. (The nausea-inducing motion was caused by air rushing out the sides of the parachute, a design flaw that was rectified by creating a hole in the top of the canopy.) He made hundreds of additional jumps over the years, including one in London in 1802 from a staggering height of 2,500 metres. He planned another ascent on Aug. 18, 1823, but it would be his last attempt. As he was preparing, a gust of wind tossed the heavy wooden rigging of the balloon and struck him on the head, killing him. Massimo Commanducci
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