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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says learning to speak French should become part of Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau’s performance review, wading into an uproar over his inability to speak the language.
In a letter to Air Canada’s chairman Vagn Soerensen on Monday, Ms. Freeland also said the airline should make the ability to communicate in French one of the qualifications of anyone holding a senior position at the company.
The unusual spectre of a high-ranking elected official scolding the chairman of a publicly traded company underscores the tensions in Quebec over the thorny issue of protecting and promoting the French language in Canada’s second-most populous province. Quebec is in the midst of strengthening its language laws to fend off what is seen as a steady rise of English in advertising, culture and business.
Air Canada's new CEO Michael Rousseau giving a speech at the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, Nov. 3, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Mario BeauregardMario Beauregard/The Canadian Press
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Future of Rogers senior executives still unclear after court ruling
A B.C. Supreme Court ruling has resolved uncertainty over who sits on the board of Rogers Communications Inc., but the future of the telecom and media giant’s senior leadership team remains unclear as Joe Natale remains at the helm of the company more than a month after company chair Edward Rogers attempted to oust him.
Analysts said yesterday that Edward Rogers may preserve the management team at least until after the proposed $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. is complete. However, Bank of Montreal analyst Tim Casey said in a research note that “the relationship between the chairman and CEO remains a concern for shareholders.”
Harassment of Hong Kong activists ‘never stops,’ even for those now living in Canada
Alison Lai’s grandfather arrived as a refugee in Hong Kong seven decades ago, trading the chaos of 1950s China for the safety of what was then a British colony. In 2020, China made a refugee of Ms. Lai, too.
The pro-democracy activist fled Hong Kong, the city of her birth, for Canada last year as Beijing tightened its grip over the territory it acquired from Britain in 1997.
But as with many Hong Kong activists, a fresh start in Canada does not mean an end to harassment and attacks from the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Crown broke 1850 land treaty with First Nations, Ontario court rules: The Ontario Court of Appeal has ordered compensation that could be in the billions of dollars after it ruled that the Crown violated the terms of an 1850 treaty by capping annual payments at a few dollars per person to Indigenous peoples who ceded a vast area of the northern part of the province.
Former Globe journalist wins Scotiabank Giller Prize: Omar El Akkad won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise, a novel he says was inspired by the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean and also by what was happening at the southern U.S. border under then-president Donald Trump.
Older Canadians are hanging on to their jobs – for now: Faced with a deadly pandemic and flush with cash, millions more Americans than usual have opted to retire. Canadians haven’t followed their lead. Fewer Canadians have voluntarily left their jobs to retire throughout much of the COVID-19 crisis compared with typical levels before the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada data.
Crypto sector is now attracting major institutional money: Two significant investments in crypto companies by Canada’s largest pension funds are the clearest indicators yet that this country’s institutional money is taking a serious interest in the digital asset world, industry observers say.
COP26 wrestles with how to plan for climate change’s inescapable consequences: One of the pivotal sources of tension at COP26 took centre stage yesterday, as focus turned to bracing for consequences of climate change that are already unavoidable – especially in poorer countries that will face the worst of those impacts.
- Editorial: Canada has nearly kicked its coal addiction. The rest of the world? Not so much
More schools providing menstrual products for free: A growing movement to combat period poverty has taken hold at schools across Canada, with a number of provincial governments providing free menstrual products to students in the privacy of their school bathrooms. The goal is to ensure students don’t miss class time or lose focus if they unexpectedly get their period during a school day, and don’t have a pad or tampon at the ready.
MORNING MARKETS
World markets on pause: Boosted by a $1-trillion U.S. infrastructure bill, global stock markets held the line close to their record highs on Tuesday but investors were reluctant to commit further to the rally before getting a clearer picture of the surge in U.S inflation. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.14 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.26 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.75 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.20 per cent. Wall Street futures were steady. The Canadian dollar was trading at 80.44 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
André Picard: “COVID-19 delivered a brutal message: We practise elder apartheid in Canada, shunting far too many older people to institutional care. Now that we have data demonstrating this, the problem will be more difficult to ignore and, one hopes, become a political and societal priority.”
Eric Reguly: “Even if [Elon] Musk signs no cheque, the [UN World Food Programme] has already won. The Twitter sparring between perhaps the world’s most famous businessman and [WFP executive director David] Beasley has shone the spotlight on the food emergencies that are erupting in Africa and elsewhere. That publicity may generate more private donations and show the world that food for the poor is more important than electric cars for the rich.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Three ways you could be unknowingly sabotaging your workouts
If you’ve been showing up on the regular but still aren’t seeing results, consider these subtle methods of self-sabotage that are all too common in the fitness world.
MOMENT IN TIME: NOVEMBER 9, 2004
Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson, Nov. 11, 1998.Jan Collsioo/SCANPIX SWEDEN/AFP via AP
Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson dies at age 50
Swedish journalist and would-be novelist Stieg Larsson was 50 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on this day in 2004. Because of a broken elevator, he had climbed several flights of stairs. It was a tragedy – he had his whole literary afterlife ahead of him. A respected muckraker and expert on the radical right-wing movement in Sweden, Larsson had turned to fiction to generate a retirement nest egg. In for a penny, in for a kroner, he envisioned an ambitious 10-volume series of thrillers in which a disgraced male journalist uncovers criminal conspiracies with the assistance of an asocial, tech-savvy young woman. Larsson had written three books and turned the manuscripts in to his publisher before he died. In 2005, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the first in the Millennium Trilogy) became an international bestseller, as did the smash-hit sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Because Larsson had no will, his family and long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson fought over his jackpot publishing income. Crime novels pay, as does proper estate planning. Brad Wheeler
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