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The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump during Thursday’s prime-time hearing, saying the assault was an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
“Democracy remains in danger,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the panel, during the hearing. “Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government.”
In his analysis, The Globe’s David Shribman writes that the 45th president was portrayed as mastermind of an effort to overturn the 2020 election and debase democratic procedures and values – clearly the view of the committee, which consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans. He also emerged as a self-absorbed, self-deluded and entirely self-serving autocrat desperate to cling to power that led him to employ a seven-part plan to badger his way to a second term he didn’t earn.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing on Thursday, June 9, 2022.Jabin Botsford/The Associated Press
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As high inflation lingers, retailers brace for a tapped-out consumer
After months of a lockdown-related boom in loungewear, more formal attire is bouncing back, and shoppers are gravitating to brighter hues.
But behind the summer-party atmosphere lurks mounting anxiety in the retail sector. Aside from long-running problems, such as the rising costs for raw materials and for transporting goods to store shelves, new factors are further complicating many companies’ operations.
For one, consumers are becoming more pessimistic as inflation dampens confidence in the economy. Buying patterns are shifting as people recoil from rising prices but also look to spend more on rebounding service sectors. The war in Ukraine is further driving up high commodity prices. And some retailers have swung from empty shelves to a glut of inventory, which they may struggle to offload at reasonable margins.
To get inflation under control, central bankers are now raising interest rates at the quickest pace in decades, trying to curb demand. For many households, a rude awakening will be coming.
- BoC open to larger rate hikes, more moves if needed, Tiff Macklem says
Bank of Canada warns high household debt and elevated home prices pose risks to economy
The Bank of Canada has warned that household debt levels have worsened over the past year and could lead to problems in the economy as people struggle to make their loan payments as interest rates rise.
The central bank identified high levels of household debt and elevated home prices as the top two vulnerabilities, saying they could even result in a financial crisis.
The cost of borrowing has spiked over the past few months, and the Bank of Canada has said it will continue raising interest rates forcefully to combat high inflation. For highly indebted households, monthly mortgage payments could rise by as much as $1,000 over the next three to four years, the bank said.
Air Canada cancels almost 10 per cent of Toronto flights over seven days
Amid staffing shortages and a surge in passengers at Canada’s busiest airport, Air Canada cancelled about 360 flights at Toronto Pearson in the first week of June – equivalent to almost 10 per cent of its schedule. The cancellations were split between arrivals and departures, according to an aviation-data company.
A rebound in demand for air travel has overwhelmed the government agencies that conduct security, customs and immigration checks at Pearson and other major Canadian airports. The aviation industry says its reduced work force is unable to manage the increase in passengers while still enforcing COVID-19 rules. Vaccine mandates for employees of federal agencies and airlines have also reduced staff numbers, the industry says, as some employees refused to be vaccinated.
Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Air Canada, said the airline’s overall completion rate remains high but staffing problems at the government agencies have affected operations. “In some cases, longer security and customs processing times at airports and recurring air traffic control limitations imposed on aircraft movements, at Pearson in particular, have forced airlines to cancel flights,” he said.
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Also on our radar
Dominic Barton tapped to advise Canada on Indo-Pacific strategy: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has recruited an Indo-Pacific advisory council that includes several pro-China advocates, such as Canada’s former ambassador to Beijing, Dominic Barton, who heads Rio Tinto, a mining conglomerate that does half of its business in China.
Liberals dismiss Conservative offer to quickly pass parts of Bill C-21: The governing Liberals dismissed an offer from the Conservative Party to quickly pass parts of their new gun-crime bill, provided that the legislation is split in a way that sets aside more contentious elements for a thorough review. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland brushed off the offer as “posturing.”
For photographer Anna Liminowicz, documenting Ukrainians’ displacement meant uncovering her own family’s loss: Through her award-winning photographs of the refugee crisis, photojournalist Anna Liminowicz has put a human face on the conflict in Ukraine and given Globe readers a unique perspective on it. For Liminowicz, watching millions of Ukrainians seek safety in Poland has had a deeper personal meaning.
- Canada would need to spend $75-billion more over half a decade to reach NATO defence-spending target, report says
In The Confession, a South Korean veteran wrestles with taboos and the part he played in Vietnam War atrocities: For more than 50 years, Song Jung-geun did not speak publicly about his actions as a soldier during the Vietnam War, even as he remained active in veterans organizations, where he would sometimes discuss the massacres with other ex-soldiers. Filmmaker Song Dae-il said he heard of the former soldier’s story from another veteran and tracked him down. The timing turned out to be perfect.
Listen to The Decibel: Swan Lake and the future of ballet: At 23, Siphe November, the National Ballet of Canada’s youngest principal dancer, is one of the most talented ballet dancers of his generation and only the second Black principal dancer in the company’s 70-year history. Decibel producer Sherrill Sutherland talks to him about his latest role, the importance of Black representation in ballet and where he wants to take his career and the artform in the future.
Morning markets
Markets await U.S. inflation data: World stocks hit a two-week low on Friday as rate hike guidance from the European Central Bank and jitters over upcoming U.S. inflation figures stoked concerns about global growth, while verbal intervention from Japan boosted the yen. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 1.05 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 lost 1.38 per cent and 1.23 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 1.49 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.29 per cent. New York futures were muted. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.59 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
The Nova Scotia inquiry is prioritizing the trauma of police over the trauma of victims’ families
“If the foremost aim of this inquiry is indeed to piece together how and why a killer was permitted to terrorize an entire province for 13 hours, then it should operate from a position that puts disclosure and transparency first, that includes all information by default, and that thoroughly questions all involved individuals. But if, instead, the mission is to offer a perfunctory vehicle for comfortable questioning that tries to preserve the dignity of the RCMP during proceedings that the government never wanted in the first place – well, that mission is well on its way to completion.” - Robyn Urback
Why won’t Toronto strive for great public buildings?
“Civic leaders should be asking: Why isn’t there more competition for public architecture in Toronto? Nearly every thoughtful architect in the city would love to do a library. Yet the same few firms dominate projects at the library and in parks.” - Alex Bozikovic
Today’s editorial cartoon
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Living better
For some active adventure seekers, the best way to see the country is on two wheels
For some, hopping on a bicycle can be the best way to take in the dramatic vistas and drastically varied landscapes of Canada. Watching the towering mountains of British Columbia and Alberta or the quaint fishing villages of Nova Scotia drift by at the pace you can pedal is a cyclist’s dream.
That’s how David Scuka, 62, of Moose Jaw, Sask., and several of his friends plan to spend part of their summer. They’ll set off on a 15-day tour by bike, starting in Halifax and ending with the famed Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, via iconic East Coast sights, such as Lunenburg, the Annapolis Valley, along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and over the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island.
Moment in time: June 10, 2007
The series finale of The Sopranos airs
The Sopranos' series finale aired in 2007.WILL HART/HBO
It sounds like the start of a bad joke: Tony, Carmela and A.J. Soprano walk into a diner. And then ... what exactly? This was the question that flummoxed millions of fans as they watched their beloved HBO series cut to black, the sounds of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ echoing in their skulls. Was sociopathic mobster Tony about to be killed by that guy in the Member’s Only jacket? Was Meadow going to be able to park her car? Were those onion rings really “the best in the state”? Audiences needed answers, and the series finale of The Sopranos gleefully offered none. So puzzling was creator David Chase’s capstone to his cultural phenomenon – one that ran 86 episodes across six seasons, inspiring all manner of imitators along the way – that it still ignites debate today. Even Chase’s 14-years-later prequel movie, 2021′s underwhelming The Many Saints of Newark, refused to provide a definitive answer to the fate of a character beloved precisely because he was so reviled. You want resolution? As Tony might say, fuggedaboutit. Barry Hertz
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