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These are the top stories:
Chinese takeover would bar Aecon from bidding on Canada-U.S. bridge
Aecon Group Inc., the Canadian construction giant that was sold to China Communications Construction Co. Ltd, would not be allowed to work on the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit if the deal goes through. The takeover by the Chinese state-owned firm is currently under review by the federal government. Aecon is one part of a consortium that is bidding for the opportunity to build and manage the bridge, which will cost approximately $4.8-billion. The bridge is an important infrastructure priority for the federal government and expected to be a key crossing for both people and goods across the Canada-U.S. border.
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Facebook broadens estimate of data misuse to 87 million people, including more than 600,000 Canadians
More than 600,000 Canadians may have had their personal information on Facebook misused, the company has admitted. Across the world more than 87 million people may have been affected by the abuse of data. Initial estimates of 50 million people were offered by Canadian whistle-blower Christopher Wylie, who helped bring the story to light. Cambridge Analytica, the Britain-based political consulting firm that improperly used the data, was hired by U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire for the social media giant’s handling of the issue and is set to testify before lawmakers in the U.S. next week. Regulators in Canada, as well as the U.S. and Britain, have opened investigations into Facebook and its data-sharing policies. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien indicated that the disclosure by Facebook over how many Canadians were potentially affected was a key piece of information. He also signalled that his offices would take a closer look at AggregateIQ, a Canadian company with ties to Cambridge Analytica.
Nova Scotia judge who said ‘clearly, a drunk can consent’ cleared of misconduct over sexual-assault ruling
A committee reviewing the 121 complaints against Nova Scotia Provincial Court Justice Gregory Lenehan, who said that “clearly, a drunk can consent,” has cleared him of misconduct. Justice Lenehan acquitted a taxi driver of sexual assault in a case with an intoxicated female passenger. The initial ruling prompted protests and led to mandatory sex-assault law training for candidates nominated to the federal bench. Additionally, it led to federal legislation that codified unconscious women cannot consent to sex. In making the decision, the committee said that Justice Lenehan exhibited no gender bias and also said that it was prudent to protect the court system from “mob justice.” The committee said that he was accurate in his statement that, under Canadian law, inebriated individuals may be able to consent to sex.
NAFTA partners race to resolve conflict on auto sector ahead of Peru summit
Canada, Mexico and the United States are rushing to reach a conclusion to North American free-trade agreement negotiations before the Summit of the Americas in Peru late next week. A hurdle that still needs to be overcome is Mexico’s resistance against an American proposal to boost wages in the auto industry. Mexico’s economy and foreign ministers were at the White House yesterday in an attempt to work through the issue. The auto sector has seen some of the toughest proposals, and Canadian Ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton told The Globe that the industry is the key to a final deal. He and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will be in Washington today to to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Tomorrow will see meetings between all three countries. (for subscribers)
Elsewhere on the trade file, the escalation in the tariff battle between China and the U.S. is having repercussions on Canadian farmers. (for subscribers)
David Parkinson writes in a column that the trade war between the two economic superpowers is undermining World Trade Organization law: “In the fast-escalating U.S.-China trade skirmish, perhaps the most alarming step so far came in China’s retaliatory tariffs announced this week. The retaliation wasn’t the biggest action in the battle, nor was it the most unreasonable. But it might have been the most reckless – for what it signals for the entire global trading order.” (for subscribers)
Campbell Clark asks in a column if Mr. Trump will accept a deal: “Even if Canada, the United States and Mexico reach an agreement-in-principle, there’s no guarantee a final NAFTA renegotiation will be completed soon, or ever. There will still be lots to negotiate. The old cliché about trade negotiations is that there’s no agreement on anything until there’s agreement on everything. But at the moment, there’s a brief window where all three countries think it’s in their interest to agree on something now. Yet, Mr. Trump has to make key concessions before even that deal can be done.” (for subscribers)
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
B.C. targets private health care with new penalties for extra billing
The B.C. provincial government is tackling the well-known practice of unlawful extra billing by doctors through private clinics. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix says that the government’s goal is to address the widespread practice of extra billing, not to shut down private medical clinics. The move comes after an investigation by The Globe and Mail into into illegal double-dipping by doctors that cost Canadians millions of dollars. The federal government and British Columbia conducted a joint audit that confirmed the findings of the investigation. The NDP government will be enacting a law that had previously been introduced by the Liberal government in 2003, but it was never fully brought into force.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks rise
Global stocks edged higher on Thursday as investors used signs of an easing of Sino-U.S. trade tensions to dip back into riskier assets. Tokyo’s Nikkei climbed 1.5 per cent, while markets in Hong Kong and China were closed. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 1.2 and 1.6 per cent by about 5:45 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar was at 78.30 US cents. Oil prices steadied on the easing of trade tensions and a surprise draw in U.S. crude inventories last week.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Roseanne reboot proves nostalgia has limits
"Nostalgia TV is huge right now, whether it’s full reboots, such as Will and Grace or the cheeky cameos on Riverdale, in which former teen heartthrobs play the parents of current teen heartthrobs. Netflix is constantly suggesting I wander down memory lane with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The draw of familiar faces is understandable, considering the terrifying state of the modern world. But taking comfort in old, fictional friends is dangerously close to reminiscing about “the good old days,” a phrase Mr. Trump has regularly used to woo his followers (as though legions of women dying from illegal abortions is something to be remembered fondly)." — Denise Balkissoon
With automation threatening jobs, Canada needs to form an action plan
“Are there ways to make Canadians less vulnerable to job losses through automation? Well there are, but it is unclear that we are pursuing them. The risk of job loss owing to automation declines with education, so at the very least we should be supporting policies that encourage higher learning. We could also stem job losses by investing in training for the most vulnerable workers, but that’s a tough one: Employers have little incentive to do so since we are talking about their most casual and most easily replaceable workers. Governments could, too, but they tend to do so after the fact, not before. The best scenario would have workers investing in their own retraining, but historically, for the most part, this has not happened.” — Linda Nazareth
Why low-cost, no-frills portfolios are beating the geniuses at Harvard and Yale
“The vast bulk of actively managed mutual funds lag behind their market benchmark over any extended period, according to Standard & Poor’s. Even Harvard and Yale, which have expert teams of academics and Wall Street managers overseeing their multibillion-dollar endowments, have been unable to do much better over time than a simple blend of index funds. In fact, an utterly standard index fund blend of 60 per cent stocks and 40 per cent bonds would have outpaced the returns most Ivy League endowments have achieved over the past decade, according to a recent report by Markov Processes International, an investment research firm.” — Ian McGugan (for subscribers)
HEALTH PRIMER
WHO set to recognize video game addiction as ‘disorder’
The World Health Organization is planning on including “gaming disorder” as a condition when it updates the International Classification of Diseases in June. The United Nations agency says that diagnosing it would involve “significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.”
MOMENT IN TIME
April 15, 1974: The bullied teen. The pig’s blood. The telekinetic waves of high-school destruction. Carrie was the story that launched then horror novice Stephen King’s prolific career. For the book first published on April 5, 1974, he received a workmanlike $2,500 for his tale of Carrie White, the alienated 16-year-old who awakens her dormant powers after experiencing her first period after gym class (cue the teenage ridicule). The book went on to great success with subsequent printings, accounting for King’s first one-million-plus copies sold. But the true watershed moment came two years after the book’s first release, when it was adapted into a Brian De Palma film. That pivotal scene – a pig-blood-drenched Sissy Spacek, as Carrie, unleashing all her rage unto her classmates – made visceral the book’s climactic event, and now stands as one of the seminal moments in the genre of teen horror. It all could have been so different: As King tells it, he tossed the first pages of Carrie before his wife, Tabitha, rescued them from the trash. Now the horror master is the author of dozens and dozens of books, totalling 350-million-plus copies sold, that have been adapted countless times for fans who can’t get enough of his supernatural storytelling. — Cliff Lee
Morning Update was written by Mayaz Alam
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