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The Ontario government is preparing a series of measures in an effort to break the logjam at the Ambassador Bridge and reopen the most important trade link between Canada and the United States, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the plans.
Premier Doug Ford intends to get tough with the protesters, one source said. In addition to painful fines and the possible confiscation of vehicles, the source said the province is also looking at its options for suspending commercial licences.
The measures will be implemented under existing law but also by changing regulations and laws to give prosecutors the legal authority to act against the protesters, they said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not permitted to disclose the internal deliberations.
More coverage:
- Auto sector, food transportation hit as border blockades spread across country
- Explainer: The Ottawa protests’ havoc is spreading from Windsor to Alberta. Where are the trucker convoys now?
- Opinion: Ambassador Bridge blockade poses a greater threat than the Ottawa occupation
- Listen to The Decibel: Meet the 21-year-old who silenced the Ottawa truckers’ horns
Truckers and their supporters blocking access to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, in protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, in Windsor, Ont., Feb. 10, 2022.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
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Ukraine says Russian military exercises amount to blockade, calls on allies for pushback
Ukraine has called for Russian ships to be shut out of international ports after Moscow announced week-long naval exercises in the Black and Azov seas that Kyiv says amount to a de facto blockade.
The tension off Ukraine’s southern coasts came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned during a visit Thursday to NATO headquarters that the coming days represent “the most dangerous moment” in the crisis created by Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine.
Ukraine said Russia’s live-fire naval exercises, which are scheduled to begin Sunday, will make shipping in and out of traffic-heavy ports such as Odessa, Mykolaiv and Mariupol “virtually impossible.”
National synchronized swimming program overhauls safety policies amid abuse allegations from Olympians
Canada’s national synchronized swimming program, which has been hit by allegations of abuse and maltreatment from several former Olympians who say they were pushed into dangerous eating disorders, has introduced new policies it says will better protect athletes.
Benoit Girardin, a sports lawyer and professor who was retained by Canada Artistic Swimming to draft the new policies, said the changes will create a more independent system for handling and investigating complaints from athletes in the program.
In particular, the organization itself will no longer be able to exert direct control over how allegations of abuse are handled, and whether complaints from athletes can proceed.
More Olympics-related coverage:
- Daily Olympic guide: Canada’s Fish ranks sixth in men’s long-track speedskating as Bloemen fades; Jones marks first Olympic curling loss
- Urgent hearing to decide if ROC’s Kamila Valieva can skate at Olympics
- Canadian skier Jack Crawford gushes about a dream come true
- U.S.’s Nathan Chen jumps to figure-skating gold at Beijing Olympics, while rival Yuzuru Hanyu falters
- James Griffiths: I’ve never watched hockey. Naturally, The Globe sent me to cover the U.S.-China men’s Olympics game
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
U.S. House launches probe of Trump’s White House records: Former U.S. president Donald Trump is being investigated by a U.S. congressional committee for his handling of White House records after 15 boxes of documents were transferred from his Florida resort to a federal agency, the panel’s chair, Carolyn Maloney, said Thursday.
Protest in India snowballs into controversy as government formalizes hijab ban: What began as a small sit-in protest in the coastal town of Udupi has snowballed into controversy across the state after the government formalized the hijab ban in educational institutions last week.
London Metropolitan Police commissioner resigns after controversies: After months of facing calls to step down, Cressida Dick has resigned, bowing to growing criticism following the recent release of an internal report that exposed widespread racism, misogyny, harassment, homophobia and bullying among officers.
Brookfield Asset Management considers spinoff of asset-management business: Brookfield Asset Management is considering whether to carve out its core business into a separate company, a move that could create a new enterprise worth as much as US$100-billion.
MORNING MARKETS
European stock indexes fell on Friday and the U.S. 10-year yield held close to 2% after red-hot U.S. inflation data that prompted investors to expect tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. U.S. consumer prices showed the biggest annual increase in 40 years, data released late on Thursday showed. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was down 0.4% on the day. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.60 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Despite Putin’s obsession, NATO’s new lease on life is an illusion
“Mr. Putin’s new obsession with NATO has had a number of effects. One is to make a lot of Western countries dust off their tanks. Another is to make the 30-country alliance believe it has a newfound sense of purpose. ... But this is not the NATO moment it might seem to be – in good part because the alliance has little to do with the threat to Ukraine, or its likely response.” - Doug Saunders
To solve Toronto’s housing crisis, we must end restrictive single-family zoning policies
“While eliminating single-family zoning may seem like a departure from tradition, exclusionary zoning policies are the real aberration.” - Steve Lafleur
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
When to start planting seeds indoors? Check your frost date
With winter halfway through, and spring just over the horizon, many gardeners are dreaming of sunny days and dirty fingernails. For those looking to get a jump on the growing season, starting seeds indoors offers the most productive option.
Before digging in, however, figure out exactly when to start, which means finding the last average frost date in your area.
MOMENT IN TIME: Feb. 11, 2016
Last fluent speaker of the Nuchatlaht language, dies
Alban Michael, right, was the last fluent speaker of the Nuchatlaht language, a dialect of Nuu-chah-nulth.Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper
About a decade before he died at age 89, Alban Michael recounted a dream in which his mother and father were speaking in Nuchatlaht, as they had when he was a boy. By that time that story was published, in 2005, such a conversation could only have happened in his dreams: Mr. Michael was the last known speaker of Nuchatlaht, a dialect spoken by the members of the Nuchatlaht First Nation, a Nuu-chah-nulth nation whose traditional territory is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In that 2005 account, he told reporter Jack Knox of the Victoria Times Colonist that he didn’t learn English until he went to residential school in Tofino, where an English-only rule was enforced, sometimes with a strap. He held on to the Nuchatlaht language because his parents spoke it; after they passed away, there were no more conversations. Before he died, he was recorded speaking around 1,100 words and 600 phrases as part of an online linguistic database maintained by FirstVoices. The loss of Indigenous languages is considered one of the most harmful, far-reaching effects of the residential school system. In 2019, Canada passed an Indigenous Languages Act to support the efforts of Indigenous peoples to revitalize their languages. Wendy Stueck
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