Morning Update: Flood-ravaged B.C. braces for more rain amid hope that dike repairs will hold

Good morning,

British Columbia is bracing for more rain on its south coast this week, with provincial and local authorities hopeful that repairs to dikes and other critical infrastructure will stop a repeat of the catastrophic flooding and mudslides of last week.

Armel Castellan, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told reporters Monday that Canada’s West Coast will be hit by a “parade of storms” starting with heavy precipitation in the hard-hit Fraser Valley east of Vancouver on Thursday.

He added that this stream of subtropical moisture coming from the Pacific Ocean could melt snow at higher elevations. Then another atmospheric river of rain will touch down on Saturday, he said.

• Opinion: Drowned animals in B.C. are a further facet of a flawed farming system
• Enbridge pipeline increases capacity, Trans Mountain closer to returning oil line to operation following floods
• CP to resume freight service between Vancouver and Kamloops by midday today

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Ontario ‘automatically’ approves permits for developers that harm at-risk species, Auditor-General says

Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment automatically approves permits for developments expected to harm at-risk species, the province’s Auditor-General says in a series of reports that also criticize the government for failing to recoup millions in costs for investigating toxic spills, and for breaking its own law on public consultations.

Since 2009, the first full year Ontario’s Endangered Species Act was in force, the annual number of approvals for projects that harm species at risk has risen from 13 to more than 800, the audit says. While the projects are approved with conditions, the government has never completely turned down a permit because of the harm it would do to an at-risk species. The number of species at risk has increased 22 per cent over the same time period.

In Brampton, a growing army of home cooks offer customers hungry for Indian food a taste of home

Every weekday morning, just after 5 a.m., Nilpa Jadeja tiptoes into her kitchen while her family is still asleep. She follows her usual routine – washing and chopping the fresh vegetables she bought the previous evening, dicing the onions and grinding the spices required for her Indian dishes. An hour later, a helper arrives and the kitchen transforms into a hive of activity.

Throughout the pandemic, hundreds of home-based cooks have launched tiffin services – or homemade Indian meal delivery – in Peel Region. South Asian residents and families, including essential workers and international students, have come to rely on an army of cooks – many of whom found themselves unemployed or with less work during the pandemic – toiling away in their kitchens to provide them with affordable dishes that offer a reassuring taste of home. But as they grow, many such businesses are coming up against regulatory roadblocks – and increasing competition.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Nova Scotia nears major population milestone: As part of an unprecedented period of growth for Atlantic Canada’s largest province, record levels of immigration have helped push Nova Scotia to the brink of a historic population milestone: the one million mark.

UBC professor awarded for role in COVID-19 vaccines: Peter Cullis, a University of British Columbia professor and co-founder of Acuitas Therapeutics in Vancouver, has earned recognition after being named a co-winner last week of the 2021 Prince Mahidol Award for medicine. The award is one of the first high-profile international science prizes to acknowledge the pioneers behind mRNA vaccines – the most effective defence against COVID-19.

Pandemic messaging needs to evolve, experts say: With Canadians nearing two full years in the pandemic, persuasive public-health messaging has become increasingly difficult. “Science communicators” believe that pandemic messaging must be ever more honest and closely tailored to specific audiences. But it should also be human and empathetic, with a focus on instilling hope.

• Britain takes different approach as much of Europe tightens restrictions amid fourth wave of COVID-19
• Editorial: Protecting parents from misinformation, while they protect their kids from COVID-19
• André Picard: Are the new COVID-19 pills a pandemic game-changer?

Journalists released after arrest during B.C. pipeline protest: Award-winning photojournalist Amber Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano, who were arrested for violating a court order against blocking access to a natural gas pipeline project, have been released after an outcry over press freedom and heavy-handed enforcement by the RCMP.

NDP will not support government on COVID-19 benefits: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will oppose imminent government legislation to scale back COVID-19 benefits unless the Liberals agree to changes, a move that creates uncertainty as to how the minority Liberal government will get parliamentary approval for the $7.4-billion plan it announced last month.

• Campbell Clark: Erin O’Toole’s Tories make Justin Trudeau’s life easy

Rogers-Shaw deal good for competition, companies say: Rogers Communications Inc.’s $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. will give the combined telecoms the scale they need to compete effectively against global streaming giants and to deliver 5G wireless services, Edward Rogers and Brad Shaw told Canada’s telecom regulator yesterday.

Video call with Chinese tennis player raises more questions: A video call between the head of the International Olympic Committee and Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, whose nearly three-week disappearance from public view sparked an outcry, was meant to reassure the world that she was safe – but instead has raised more questions.

MORNING MARKETS

Global stocks slide: World stock markets fell and the U.S. dollar held on to recent gains on Tuesday as investors positioned for interest rate hikes in 2022 after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was nominated for a second term. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.19 per cent. Germany’s DAX slid 0.83 per cent and France’s CAC 40 was off 0.44 per cent. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.2 per cent. Markets in Japan were closed. Wall Street futures were mixed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.56 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Robyn Urback: “The tragedy of the case is not necessarily that Mr. Rittenhouse escaped conviction; the jury followed the law. The tragedy, rather, is that a 17-year-old kid could wander the streets with a military-style semi-automatic weapon and not be convicted of even a misdemeanour...”

Rob Carrick: “The economic disruptions caused by the pandemic have given employees more leverage to improve their working lives financially and emotionally. Don’t waste the moment by failing to explore what employers are offering.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Beatles bingeing: A primer to all things Let It Be

This week sees the long-awaited debut of The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary series on Disney+ that covers the convoluted making of the band’s 1970 much-mythologized album Let It Be. Here is a primer for all things Let It Be and Get Back, as well as a guide to the related products supporting the release of the docuseries.

MOMENT IN TIME: NOVEMBER 23, 1936

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The first issue of Life magazine is published

It is somewhat fitting that Ben Stiller’s character in 2013′s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty trekked halfway around the world to retrieve a photo negative for the cover of Life magazine. After its relaunch in 1936, photography quickly became the magazine’s hallmark throughout its peak years, when it was read by as many as 13.5 million Americans weekly. Time Inc. publisher Henry Luce had paid US$92,000 for the title earlier that year, before quickly selling off the magazine’s subscription list and doing away with many of its previous features. Convinced that – in the era before widespread television – there was a niche for a periodical that focused on photography, Mr. Luce wanted his new magazine to enable Americans “to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events.” So text was condensed into captions and the first issue displayed a Margaret Bourke-White photo of the Fort Peck Dam in Montana on its cover, while inside, readers were treated to an article bearing the headline: 10,000 Montana Relief Workers Make Whoopee On Saturday Night. Costing a dime an issue, the magazine soared in popularity, with the print run increasing from 380,000 for the first issue to more than one million copies a week within four months. Paul Attfield

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