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Even amid frosty relations with China, Ottawa is looking to make a big “medium- to long-term investment” in its Beijing embassy to relieve “growth pressure” on the mission, according to a request for proposals posted by the federal government.
Ottawa is looking for a company in China to help put together a master plan to renovate its four-acre compound – partly to address the property’s evident security flaws.
The embassy has grown, taken on new staff and added new programs, even as successive governments have grappled with Beijing’s abhorrent human-rights record.
A security officer wearing a face mask to help protect against the coronavirus gestures outside the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020.The Associated Press
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Canadian politics
Premiers ratchet up criticism of the Throne Speech: They’re saying it’s an attack on their jurisdiction over health care and accusing Ottawa of ignoring their request for billions to fix gaps in the health system that existed long before COVID-19. The premiers also complained that the speech made no mention of the program that is designed to help provinces that face significant and unexpected drops in revenues.
Opinion:
- John Ibbitson: Justin Trudeau’s Achilles heel? An unwillingness to make the federal system of government work
- Andrew Coyne: An ambitious plan for an alternate reality
- Robyn Urback: It’s not too late to sell Canadians on a climate-focused pandemic recovery
The Mace is carried out of the Senate of Canada after the Speech from the Throne and the wind blew over the red carpet September 23, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada.DAVE CHAN/AFP/Getty Images
Long-term care and coronavirus
Six months after the pandemic first hit, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé says his government has drawn lessons from the spring crisis in nursing homes that killed more than 2,000 elderly Quebeckers.
Quebec has now hired more orderlies, increased their salaries and banned them from working at different nursing homes at the same time, to prevent the disease from spreading. However, Mr. Dubé conceded there is still a shortage of nurses and auxiliary nurses.
Also read: school and coronavirus stories
- Vancouver parents urge more transparency on COVID-19 school exposures
- Diversity of virtual classrooms lost in scramble to organize online learning
Also read: world coronavirus stories
- British government unveils new wage support program amid spike in COVID-19 cases
- Africa’s low COVID-19 death rate has multiple causes, WHO says
- Fear of a repeat of spring’s brutal lockdown is keeping the Italian pandemic in check
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Louisville faced second night of protests after Breonna Taylor decision: Civil-rights activists decried the outcome as a miscarriage of justice and part of a nationwide pattern of unwarranted police violence against minorities.
Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny’s bank accounts frozen, apartment seized: His assets were seized on Aug. 27 in connection with a lawsuit filed by the Moscow Schoolchild catering company, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a video posted on Twitter.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in need of governance changes, government report suggests: The report found discrepancies between the the province and MMFA internal rules, and recommended adjustments, as well as better definitions of the roles of the general director and of board members.
MORNING MARKETS
Global stocks head for weekly declines: Markets see-sawed on Friday but stocks in large parts of the world, the euro and copper were all headed for their worst weeks since peak coronavirus panic, and the U.S. dollar cemented its best run since April. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.05 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 slid 0.81 per cent and 0.86 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.51 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished down 0.32 per cent. New York futures were treading water. The Canadian dollar was trading at 74.81 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
An ambitious plan for an alternate reality
Andrew Coyne: “This is the prospect that has so entranced the Prime Minister’s Office: bundling all the policies they’d ever dreamed of together and passing them all in a rush – in the name of “the pandemic” – and doing it all with borrowed funds.”
Biden’s fracking unfriendliness could cost him Pennsylvania
Konrad Yakabuski: “The political debate over fracking in Pennsylvania has been fed by a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study, published in May, that projected that an outright ban would cost more than 600,000 jobs and reduce annual economic output in the state by US$84-billion.”
The Trudeau government is fuelling a humanitarian crisis in Yemen
Cesar Jaramillo, Justin Mohammed, Allison Pytlak: “Ottawa has argued that scrapping the deal would lead to significant job loss. This need not be the case.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
What does it mean when a wine is certified sustainable?
The governing concepts behind organic and biodynamic approaches to winemaking are easily relatable for wine lovers. Sustainability is harder to define.
There’s a tremendous amount of variability based on the needs and conditions at each individual winery, depending on its size, scope or location. The attempts all stem from curbing waste in the winemaking process. Wineries need to be specific about how they operate so consumers know they embrace smart environmental practices as part of their efforts to make great wine.
MOMENT IN TIME: Sept. 25, 2018
In this Sept. 24, 2018 file photo, Bill Cosby departs after a sentencing hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. Prosecutors in the Cosby case are calling his bid for a new trial or sentencing hearing “meritless.”Matt Slocum/The Associated Press
Bill Cosby sentenced to 3-10 years for 2004 sexual assault
On this day in 2018, Canadian massage therapist and former basketball player Andrea Constand sat in a courthouse in Montgomery County, Pa., along with nine other women who had accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault. They were waiting to hear the sentencing of the 81-year-old TV star who had once been known as “America’s Dad” but was more recently infamous for accusations levelled at him by about 60 women: that he had, over a period of 40 years, drugged and sexually assaulted women. The 2018 trial centred on an incident 14 years earlier, when Constand was drugged and sexually assaulted at his suburban Philadelphia home. Constand’s initial complaints to police did not lead to charges, but after more women came forward, the investigation was reopened and Cosby was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. A first trial, in 2017, ended with a hung jury, but a second trial led to his conviction on all three counts. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. “Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it,” Constand wrote in her victim impact statement. “He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature, and my trust in myself and others.” Elizabeth Renzetti
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