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In its bid to stop extradition proceedings against executive Meng Wanzhou and avoid being banned from the country’s 5G mobile network system, Huawei Canada manages a dossier of Canadians it calls “key opinion leaders” who it believes could help the Chinese telecom giant in these efforts.
The list of the key influencers, which has been obtained by The Globe and Mail, includes 30 former politicians, university professors, lawyers and business people who the documents say “have made relatively positive comments or provided valuable information on Huawei’s brand image, Huawei products, and the controversial affairs involving Huawei.”
Some of the notable names on the list are former Quebec premier Jean Charest, former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day, Eddie Goldenberg, who was a top aide to former prime minister Jean Chrétien, and Wesley Wark, who, at one time, served on Canada’s Advisory Council on National Security.
Alykhan Velshi, vice-president of corporate affairs for Huawei Canada, made no comments on the dossier, but said the Chinese company is acting no differently from Western companies.
“Like every major corporation and many not-profits, Huawei routinely monitors pertinent issues and prominent voices that hold the potential to influence its operations and its future. This is common practice and common sense across the business world,” he said.
The Huawei logo is pictured outside their research facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 6, 2018.CHRIS WATTIE/Reuters
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A ‘crossroads’ for humanity: Earth’s biodiversity is still collapsing
The world is failing to deal with the collapse of the Earth’s biodiversity, putting humanity’s food supply at risk and threatening its health and security, a new report from the United Nations says.
Despite commitments made 10 years ago, governments around the world are nowhere near meeting the scale of the crisis, which continues to worsen because of unsustainable farming, overfishing, burning of fossil fuels and other activities, the report says.
The world is witnessing, first hand, the consequences that come with a failure to protect and restore nature as it deals with a pandemic that very likely started from bats and wildfires that have been worsened by climate change, the report adds.
“These things are a sign of what is to come,” said David Cooper, an author of the report and the deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. “These things will only get worse if we don’t change course.”
Trans Mountain pipeline carries record-breaking amount of crude in August
The Trans Mountain pipeline carried a record-breaking amount of crude oil to British Columbia from Alberta last month even as the energy sector continues to deal with low demand brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pipeline, which is owned by the federal government, moved an average of 350,000 barrels a day in August, bringing in revenue of $31.5-million. Trans Mountain Corp. president and CEO Ian Anderson said an increase in demand for transportation fuels resulted in more gasoline and diesel moving through the system. “We have been full every day during the COVID period. Demand for the pipeline has not softened at all,” he said in an interview.
However, a group of 100 Canadian economists and resource policy experts is urging Ottawa to pause the $12.6-billion expansion of the pipeline, referred to as TMX, and conduct an analysis to determine whether it remains financially viable and in the public interest.
“We are concerned that the decline in world oil markets and the escalating construction costs [of the expansion] have undermined the viability of TMX and put taxpayers' money at risk,” the group said in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and three of his cabinet ministers.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
How students at Canadian business schools are using Instagram to call out racism: Professors using racial slurs, negative comments about religious headgear, students mocking accents, being asked to change names so they are easier to pronounce. These are just a few of the instances being shared by students from minority groups on Instagram accounts set up to record racist and discriminatory behaviour by professors and fellow students at Canadian business schools. Observers say the complaints reflect the realities of business education, which often emulates now out-of-date dynamics once common in the corporate world.
Several Quebec regions face imminent bar closings, restrictions on gatherings as COVID-19 cases spike: As several regions of Quebec continue to see COVID-19 cases rise rapidly and Premier François Legault warned of a possible second wave of the virus, only two new measures were announced by the Premier – bars across the province are banned from serving food after midnight and people must now wear masks in common areas of seniors' residences. The province reported 292 new cases and five deaths Tuesday, the highest number since May 31.
Killing of naked woman by men in military uniforms shocks Mozambique: A video of the brutal beating and execution of a woman by men wearing the uniform of Mozambique’s army has shocked the country and led to calls for an investigation by human rights organizations. The video was shot in the Cabo Delgado region where Mozambique’s armed forces are battling Islamist insurgents.
First Nations urge B.C. to share localized COVID-19 data: Three First Nations are urging British Columbia’s information and privacy watchdog to force the province into revealing when COVID-19 cases occur near their territories. The group says this data will help them take proper measures to protect their vulnerable communities from the pandemic. But, so far, the province has refused to release this information, arguing that doing so could violate the privacy of patients and put some of them at risk of facing discrimination.
How one man’s push to get his neighbours walking is starting to bring a Toronto community together: For Abdul Rashid Athar, walking was just a part of daily life as a young boy in Pakistan and later when he worked in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The lean 67-year-old continues to put in about 15,000 steps every day in his Toronto neighbourhood, which is why it troubles him that many of his neighbours don’t share the same enthusiasm. Mr. Athar was determined to change his neighbours' habits. But how did he get people to get outside and start walking? By making a game out of it.
This is part of Stepping Up, a series introducing Canadians to their country’s new sources of inspiration and leadership.
MORNING MARKETS
Caution ahead of Fed meeting: Investors were generally cautious before today’s Federal Reserve meeting, boosting the yen, as the rally that pushed up shares after Chinese and U.S. economic data in the previous session slowed in early London trading. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.20 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.41 per cent and 0.42 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended the day up 0.09 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.03 per cent. U.S. futures were flat. The Canadian dollar was trading at 75.98 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Andrew Coyne: “Self-sufficiency. Canada First. Balanced budgets in a decade ‘or so.’ It’s a long way from the leadership candidate who promised to make Canada ‘the world’s freest economy,’ to ‘unleash the private sector … cut the regulatory dead weight … end corporate welfare’ and ‘aggressively pursue’ new trade agreements. But then, it’s a long way from ‘defending the rights of all Canadians’ to actively conspiring to restrict them. Once [Erin] O’Toole wanted to take Canada back. Now it seems the only thing he wants to take back is his word.”
Konrad Yakabuski: “While there are valid reasons for [Tiff] Macklem to point out that the impact of the pandemic-led downturn has disproportionately fallen on women, low-wage workers and minorities, fixing the problem is beyond the Bank of Canada’s ability or purpose.”
Donald Wright: “At the end of the day, [Blaine] Higgs got what he wanted when, half an hour after the polls closed, it was clear that his party would form a majority government with less than 40 per cent of the popular vote. In all, 27 Progressive Conservatives, 17 Liberals, three Greens and two People’s Alliance members were elected. Mr. Higgs won because he could credibly say that he had steered the province through the worst of the pandemic, something [Kevin] Vickers, who failed to win a seat and resigned as leader, couldn’t say.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
tgamBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Warm-weather tourist attractions across Canada extend into fall to cater to late-blooming demand
Tourism destinations across the country were hit hard as many Canadians stayed home during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as tourism operators begin to reopen, many are extending activities into the fall to try to lure travellers and cash in on the late-blooming domestic demand to travel. Here is a list of destinations across the country where you can still itch your travel bug bite.
MOMENT IN TIME: SEPTEMBER 16, 1620
In this Aug. 10, 2020 file photo the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower ship that brought the Pilgrims to America 400 year ago, sails into Plymouth, Mass., as it returns home following extensive renovations. In 1957 Peter Padfield was a crew member on the sailing ship the Mayflower II, a replica of the square-rigged English merchant vessel that carried a group of dissatisfied Protestants across the Atlantic Ocean in 1620.AP Photo/David Goldman
The 400th anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower from England
There are few sailing ships as ingrained in American history as the Mayflower. Certainly not the White Lion, which brought the first African slaves to Virginia in 1619. Not even the USS Constitution, which served the U.S. Navy throughout the 1800s. The Mayflower, which departed for the New World on this day in 1620 (Sept. 6, according to the Julian calendar), is enshrined in mythic lore for its role in bringing Puritans to what would become New England.
Originally a Dutch cargo ship that hauled wine and cloth and named after the English hawthorn flower, it was one of two ships scheduled to carry passengers across the Atlantic in August. But the Speedwell leaked, so some of its passengers were transferred to the Mayflower, which set out alone.
And so 102 passengers and about 30 crew set sail for Virginia, only to be blown 800 kilometres off course, disembark in Plymouth, Mass., just in time to survive a winter, then colonize a land once peacefully occupied by the tribes of the Wampanoag people.
Contrary to the official story, not all the passengers were fleeing religious persecution. About two-thirds just wanted to try their luck in the new land. And they weren’t referred to as Pilgrims until 200 years later. Philip King
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