Morning Update: Once the pride of Canada’s Afghanistan mission, Kandahar’s Sarpoza prison has vastly deteriorated

Good morning,

Once the pride of Canada’s Afghanistan mission, Kandahar’s Sarpoza prison has a long history of good intentions followed by bad outcomes, the most recent resulting in its deterioration into a crumbling, squalid facility that exposes prisoners to dangerous health risks.

The reconstruction of the prison, used to hold Taliban insurgents until the collapse of the Afghan government last August, was seen as a model example of Canadian efforts to revamp law enforcement in the war-torn country. After reports that suspected militants captured by Canadian troops were being tortured by Afghans in the prison between 2006 and 2008, Canada’s Provincial Reconstruction Team mission in Kandahar stepped into manage the prison and upgrade the facility.

Ottawa invested $5-million in improving the notorious prison’s security and management after Taliban insurgents orchestrated an attack that led to the escape of 1,200 prisoners in June, 2008. New septic systems and solar-powered lighting were also installed to improve inmates’ living conditions. Today, raw sewage runs into the drinking water, plaguing prisoners with diarrhea and vomiting, one of the prison’s doctors, Gulam Sawak, told The Globe and Mail.

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Canadian-owned armoured vehicle producer sparks concerns with new Uganda deal

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a long-ruling autocrat with a history of using deadly force to crush political protests, is telling his security forces to start buying their riot-control vehicles from a new source: a Canadian-owned armoured car factory.

The factory in Uganda is the latest step in the global expansion of Streit Group, whose founder and chairman is Canadian businessman Guerman Goutorov. Its move into Uganda has prompted criticism from Ugandan opposition leaders and independent arms-control experts.

Streit’s armoured vehicles have appeared in war zones such as Sudan’s Darfur region, Libya and South Sudan – countries that were subject to Canadian and United Nations arms embargoes or sanctions. The company’s expansion into East Africa is raising fears its vehicles could be used by Ugandan security forces to crush opposition protests.

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Ontario education workers reach tentative deal with province, averting strike

The Ontario government has reached a tentative deal with its education support workers, averting a strike that would have shuttered schools across the province and forced more than a million students to learn remotely.

The tentative contract will be taken to 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) for a ratification vote, starting this Thursday. The deal includes an average annual pay increase of 3.59 per cent over a four-year contract, the union said.

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Qatar World Cup kicks off with fireworks, but not on the pitch as host loses to Ecuador

After 12 years of preparations, billions of dollars and some of the worst press in history to face a major sporting tournament, the FIFA World Cup kicked off in Qatar on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of fans packed into Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, for a match between the hosts and Ecuador. Making its first World Cup appearance, Qatar looked severely outclassed, however, and ended up losing 2-0 to the South Americans.

Sunday’s game was preceded by an elaborate opening ceremony partly narrated by Morgan Freeman and including a performance by K-Pop sensation Jungkook of BTS, who premiered Dreamers, a World Cup anthem recorded with Qatari singer Fahad al-Kubaisi.

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Also on our radar

‘Deeply marred’: COP27 reaches deal for rich countries to pay for developing world’s climate disasters, but little else: The UN’s climate conference in Egypt limped over the finish line Sunday morning with a commitment to launch a fund to compensate poor countries suffering from catastrophic climate-change events. The breakthrough spared the COP27 event from total collapse.

The disappeared: Ukrainians plead for answers on family members forcefully taken to Russia: A Ukrainian government official says Kyiv estimates 1.5 million Ukrainian women and children have been ‘forcefully displaced’ to Russia, in addition to Ukrainian soldiers who have been taken as prisoners.

Nearly three years into the pandemic, most provinces still do not have permanent paid sick-leave laws: Most provinces have not made permanent changes to sick-leave laws during the pandemic, despite a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses and pressure from Ottawa for provincial governments to match a new federal sick-day law that comes into effect next month.

Search for next NATO Secretary-General should take into account contribution member states make to the alliance, U.S. senator says: A U.S. senator who attended the weekend’s Halifax security summit believes NATO should consider the resource commitment each country makes to the military alliance in selecting its next secretary general, amid media reports that Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is one of the contenders.

Argos dethrone Blue Bombers to take Grey Cup barnburner: A.J. Ouellette ran for two touchdowns, the last with less than four minutes remaining, to help the Toronto Argonauts upset the two-time defending champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-23 in the 109th Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Sunday.

Morning markets

World stocks tumble: World stocks and oil prices fell on Monday as fresh COVID-19 restrictions in China exacerbated worries about the global economic outlook. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was flat. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were off 0.40 per cent and 0.18 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.16 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumped 1.87 per cent. New York futures were negative. The Canadian dollar was weaker at 74.45 US cents.

What everyone’s talking about

Canada could not mount a whole Haiti mission even if it wanted to

“Certainly, there are lots of good reasons to be wary of going into Haiti, including the dangerous patchwork of bad actors, the lack of effective institutions, and deep mistrust of yet another foreign intervention. But there is another key reason Mr. Trudeau has to deflect when the U.S. asks Canada to take on a mission: The Canadian Armed Forces aren’t really in a position to do it.” – Campbell Clark

How will Canada build major energy projects again? The key is Indigenous ownership

“What Indigenous people seek is not a freeze on all resource development, but rather a seat at the table – a rightful share of the bounty from our lands and a say over the decisions that affect us. We seek ownership stakes in the projects in our communities. If Ottawa helps us get there, it might find that getting energy projects over the line to be a lot easier.” – Robert Merasty

Tough questions never end for England at World Cup

“At this point, one might wonder why we keep asking professional athletes, who have no idea what’s going on, about what’s going on, and then expecting them to have a better idea than qualified people. But it’s more fun than asking politicians, who don’t drive traffic to your website in quite the same numbers. So people keep at it. Here in Qatar, this global sports trend has reached new heights with the English team.” – Cathal Kelly

Today’s editorial cartoon

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Living better

Today’s luxury skincare means custom routines and relationships with experts, not just pricey products

Caring for skin is big business. The global skincare market continues to expand, with revenue projected to reach US$177-billion in 2025. As new products are continuously released, each featuring hot new ingredients and promising life-changing results, it’s easy for consumers to get confused or overwhelmed by even the most exclusive brands, and purchasing products unsuitable for their skin type.

The truly luxurious approach to skincare, Caitlin Agnew writes, is building a relationship with an expert that gets to know your skin’s unique needs.

Moment in time: Nov. 21, 1944

Egypt’s gift to Hollywood

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For more than 100 years, The Globe and Mail has preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

During mummification, the deceased’s organs are removed and the body is dried until it becomes a desiccated husk. Yet a reborn mummy, according to modern myth, walks the Earth in search of revenge and romance. (The Egyptians believed the dead would make a journey to another world, but clearly never envisioned Hollywood.) Movies of the genre offer horror, suspense and drama. In 1944′s The Mummy’s Curse, the mummy Kharis is dug up in a Louisiana bayou and searches for his 3,000-year-old gal pal, Ananka, who is reborn in a swamp. Plausible. Could there be a mummy’s curse? Consider: Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of the excavation that discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in November of 1922, died four months later from a mosquito bite; another early visitor to the tomb, George Jay Gould, died soon after from a fever; and Richard Bethell, the secretary of archaeologist Howard Carter, was the victim of a suspected smothering. But a curse? Seems far-fetched. Philip King.

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