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Indigenous communities are in court seeking billions of dollars in compensation after almost 150 years of receiving small annual payments in return for ceding an area the size of France. But the Ontario government is arguing they are owed nothing, or at most $34-million.
The wide divergence in claims was on display this week in an unprecedented court hearing in Sudbury, Ont., whose purpose is to determine how much the Crown owes for breaking a treaty promise to share wealth produced by the natural resources of a vast area in Northern Ontario.
A lawyer for several Anishinaabe communities collectively made up of about 15,000 people told Ontario Superior Court Justice Patricia Hennessy on Monday that they are owed at least $8-billion, and perhaps as much as $100-billion.
Legislature Protective Service members walk the perimeter at Queen's Park in Toronto on February 4, 2022.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Canada needs to move quickly on production of critical minerals, IEA says
Canada needs to quickly ramp up production of critical minerals and play a global leadership role to defend against energy security crises triggered by countries that use fossil fuels as a weapon, said the head of the International Energy Agency.
During a government-organized panel discussion in Ottawa on Wednesday, Fatih Birol warned that the energy shortages currently gripping Europe could be repeated as the world transitions to cleaner fuels, if Western countries do not increase the availability of rare earth minerals and develop friendlier sources of them.
The minerals are central to net-zero energy sources that Birol said need to replace conventional, fossil-fuel-emitting energy. Just as oil and gas is being used by Russia as a weapon, he said the same could happen to the supply of critical minerals.
Loblaw tries explaining rising cost of food, but consumers are not buying it
Canada’s largest grocer is stepping up its public-relations strategy to convince people that it is not to blame for higher prices. But experts say consumers grappling with food affordability are in no mood to hear that message.
On the day that its 11-week price freeze on No Name products ended on Tuesday, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. was active on Twitter, responding to people who criticized the company with messages explaining that “food inflation is a global issue” and that price increases were the fault of suppliers who had themselves raised prices. Other Loblaw tweets heralded the price freeze for helping consumers “at a time they needed it most.”
But the defensive tone didn’t sit well with many, and is emblematic of a larger communications challenge facing Canada’s grocery retailers, who have reported significant increases in both sales and profits amid inflation. As the last point of contact in a sprawling supply chain, grocers have been a target for shoppers’ understandable anger over the affordability of basic necessities.
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Also on our radar
No link between advisory work and McKinsey contracts, Barton says: Dominic Barton, the former head of global consulting giant McKinsey & Co., told MPs he had nothing to do with the rise in government contracts awarded to his former company in recent years, and rejected opposition party suggestions that he’s a close friend of the Prime Minister.
Trudeau defends Quebec in debate over Islamophobia representative: Justin Trudeau and his special representative on combatting Islamophobia sought to calm an uproar in Quebec in the wake of criticism that a 2019 opinion piece that she co-authored on the province’s controversial secularism law contained anti-Quebec bias.
- Konrad Yakabuski: Trudeau’s anti-Islamophobia adviser’s job is to preach to the converted
Russia plans major offensive: Russia is mobilizing a huge contingent of troops and is planning an offensive to coincide with the first anniversary of the war on Feb. 24, Ukraine’s defence minister says. Oleksii Reznikov is in France to secure the purchase of French air-defence radar and to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, part of Ukraine’s campaign to seek the most lethal NATO-standard weapons as the war grinds on. Late on Wednesday, a Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the city of Kramatorsk, in the northern region of Donetsk province, killing three residents and injuring 20, local police said. The number of dead and wounded is expected to rise as rescuers sift through the rubble.
- Canadian sniper in Ukraine describes Russians’ advance: Codenamed Teflon, an Alberta-born veteran recounted how he shot at wave after wave of Russian troops in their Christmas assault on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Nova Scotia sex worker takes client to court: A Halifax sex worker is fighting for her right to be paid in what her advocates say is the first case of its kind to be tested before a Canadian court and highlights the need to decriminalize sex work in this country.
Australia recovers radioactive capsule: Australian authorities Wednesday found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search involving around 100 people along a 1,400-kilometre stretch of highway, officials said.
Experts temper hope for new Alzheimer’s drug: Lecanemab, marketed under the brand name Leqembi, is the second Alzheimer’s drug to receive U.S. regulatory approval in two decades, but Canadian experts say its potential benefits come with significant caveats.
Morning markets
Global stocks gain: World markets advanced ahead of the European Central Bank and Bank of England’s first meetings of the year on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve bolstered the view that the surge in global interest rates was close to an end. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.51 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 gained 1.54 per cent and 0.60 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 0.20 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.52 per cent. New York futures were mostly positive. The Canadian dollar was little changed at 75.24 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Campbell Clark: “So when the Canadian Transportation Agency has an 18-month backlog of complaints, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra shouldn’t waste his breath defending the airlines, or the system.”
Lawrence Martin: “AI has potentially fantastic upsides, but it’s potentially a new Frankenstein’s monster, as well. No one can say with certainty which outcome will happen.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Living better
Dodge the taxman with tax-free sources of income
This week, we talk about the fifth pillar of tax planning: “Dodging” to save tax. Don’t worry – it’s not illegal. It’s about structuring your affairs so that certain types of income won’t be taxable to you at all. Let’s look at ways to “dodge.”
Moment in time: Feb. 2, 1897
Clara Brett Martin, shown 1905, the daughter of a Mono Township pioneer family, became a pioneer of a different sort when she challenged the Law Society of Upper Canada to become the first woman lawyer in the British Empire in 1897. Credit: New York Public Library Digital CollectionsNew York Public Library Digital Collections
Clara Martin becomes first female lawyer in British empire
Clara Brett Martin was not, in legal terms, a “person.” So said the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1891 when the daughter of a superintendent of education from Toronto applied to study law. Men in the 19th century had a “stranglehold” on the justice system, legal historian Constance Backhouse says; women did not even serve on juries (including coroners’ juries). But Ms. Martin persisted, and Ontario premier and attorney-general Oliver Mowat personally addressed the law society in 1892 to advocate for her admission. In law school, her fellow students hissed as she entered the lecture room. On Feb. 2, 1897, she became the first female barrister and solicitor in the British Empire. She went on to practise family law, wills and real estate, and to publish articles about double standards in law. Decades after her death from a heart attack at the age of 49, the Ontario attorney-general’s headquarters at 720 Bay St. in Toronto was named after her. But then, an antisemitic legal letter she had written in 1915 denouncing Jewish realtors came to light. Today it is the McMurtry-Scott Building, named after two male attorneys-general, Roy McMurtry and Ian Scott. Sean Fine
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