Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Top bureaucrats will be able to warn Canadians if the next federal election is compromised
The federal government is creating a protocol that will allow senior officials to make public their concerns about possible foreign influence or hacking without having to obtain approval from elected officials. The new team will include the clerk of the Privy Council, the national security adviser and the deputy ministers of the Justice, Foreign Affairs and Public Safety departments.
The measure is being taken to avoid a situation like when, ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, FBI Director James Comey opted not to disclose possible contacts between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Comey had no clear direction when he had to make that decision, which sparked backlash after the vote.
Ottawa is set to unveil today a number of measures to protect the voting process. The Trudeau government has called on social-media platforms to create tools to prevent the spread of misinformation. But just last week, Facebook shut down an independent political ad transparency tool that was used by journalists at The Globe and elsewhere to track the targeting preferences of political parties.
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Bruce McArthur’s guilty pleas are prompting renewed calls for a public inquiry
The eight victims.The Canadian Press
A year after his arrest, McArthur admitted he is the serial killer who murdered eight men linked to Toronto’s Gay Village between 2010 and 2017. Most of his victims were newcomers or homeless.
And while the guilty pleas are the culmination of one of the largest investigations in Toronto police history, some are still questioning why it took police so long to catch McArthur.
Haran Vijayanathan, executive of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, said he believed the homicide detectives did an “amazing” job, but added: “Why did it take 10 years?” Toronto Mayor John Tory said the city deserves “justice and answers” and that “additional, broader examinations” will be needed. The final call on a public inquiry falls to the Ontario government, which has yet to comment. (Separately, there is a continuing external review into how Toronto police handle missing-persons cases.)
Marcus Gee says the time has come to ask what went wrong: “Did police miss clues or ignore crucial evidence? Did they fail to exchange telling information among themselves? Did they treat the disappearances less seriously than they might have because some of the victims lived on society’s fringes?”
The families and friends of the victims will have the opportunity to address McArthur when they read victim impact statements at his sentencing next week. Go here to read about the lives of Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi, Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Dean Lisowick, Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman.
The U.S. is escalating its fight against Chinese espionage
A day after two indictments of technology giant Huawei, chiefs of U.S. spy agencies are warning that China represents the single largest espionage threat to the country. Despite Washington’s urging to bar Huawei from 5G cellular networks, Ottawa is signalling that it won’t accelerate its decision: “This is not about rushing a decision because of political pressure. This is about making sure we do what’s in the best interests of Canadians,” Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said.
Andrew Willis writes that “it’s clear the Liberal government would be taking a political gamble if it allowed the 5G to happen in Canada with Huawei gear. It’s far less clear how Telus and BCE, both currently significant customers of the Chinese company, will cope with life after Huawei.” (for subscribers)
Meanwhile, Canada has received the U.S. request to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, but the complex process could take years to reach a final resolution. “She’s confident in her innocence and in the justice system,” her lawyer David Martin said after a court appearance to make a minor change to Meng’s bail conditions.
Brazil’s second deadly dam collapse is raising questions about plans for mining expansion
(FRANCISCO PRONER/FARPA/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
At least 84 are dead and nearly 300 are missing – and presumed dead – four days after a dam collapse in the town of Brumadinho. Police have arrested three employees of mining firm Vale, plus two contractors in connection to the collapse.
If any are charged, it will be a sharp departure from the aftermath of the 2015 collapse that killed 19 people, correspondent Stephanie Nolen reports (for subscribers). After that disaster, officials voted to reduce oversight powers to the benefit of the mining industry.
This year’s incident comes at the start of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. In his campaign, he vowed to loosen environmental restrictions and expand mining across the country, including on Indigenous territory and in the Amazon. His government has so far been sending mixed signals about how it will now proceed.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Voters will head to the polls today in Nanaimo to decide whether the B.C. NDP will hold onto power in the province. The NDP have a hold on the legislature thanks to support from the Greens. But the Liberals would have 43 seats if they win in Nanaimo, against 40 New Democrats and three Greens. That would force the Speaker to vote to break ties.
Canada is working to offer asylum to Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent eight years on death row on charges of blasphemy. Bibi’s daughters are already in Canada, and federal officials are quietly operating in Pakistan to protect Bibi.
MORNING MARKETS
Markets mixed
World stocks inched higher and the greenback steadied on Wednesday ahead of policy guidance from the U.S. Federal Reserve, with Apple results providing relief while market confidence that a no-deal Brexit can be avoided took a hit. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.5 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.7 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.3 per cent by about 6:45 a.m. ET, with the Paris CAC 40 up 0.6 per cent and Germany’s DAX down 0.4 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was at about 75.5 US cents. Oil prices held steady on Wednesday, boosted by concerns about supply disruptions following U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Our national shame: The racism inherent in our First Nations water crisis
“There have been documented deaths in Indigenous communities related to bad water, but we barely hear a peep about them. Of course, if this was happening in anything resembling an urban centre in Canada there would be a national uproar. Remember Walkerton? Which leads to the question: How much does racism play in our water crisis in Canada? Is the situation here Flint, Mich., writ large? Based on the best available evidence, it’s difficult to conclude otherwise.” – Gary Mason
To truly take our blindfolds off, Canadians need better polling
“The Globe and Mail’s series on the lack of accessible data in Canada has shone a light on outdated Statistics Canada policies and red tape. But another way to know ourselves is through good, vigorous polling – and we lack that in this country, too. What are the costs of having a deficit of information about public perceptions? The first is this: much of our starting-off point for public debate on topics that are important in the moment is that the perceptions of Canadians are no different from that of the Americans. But is that actually true?” – Marina Adshade, who teaches at UBC’s Vancouver School of Economics and SFU School of Public Policy
Canada must set a higher bar on data protection in an era of ‘surveillance capitalism’
“The inevitable implications of a data-driven economy are right in front of us and we now stand before a moral, ethical and public-policy crossroads. Recent events, where mass privacy breaches have occurred, have raised public awareness of the pitfalls of Big Data and the elevation of profit over privacy by some corporate actors.” – John Chen, executive chairman of the board and CEO of BlackBerry
LIVING BETTER
How Kids Help Phone is adapting amid an increase in youth anxiety and depression
As it prepares to mark its 30th anniversary, the Canadian service now handles more than 103,000 phone calls and 175,000 live chats on a yearly basis. Those numbers held steady even when it launched a national texting service in November, which uses an algorithm to colour-code texts according to risk and moves them up in the queue accordingly. Reporter Erin Anderssen visited the Toronto headquarters, where in one night counsellors field 750 calls and live chats from across the country.
MOMENT IN TIME
Bishop Strachan pens letter to Thomas Jefferson
(Toronto Public Library)Toronto Public Library
Jan. 30, 1815: During the War of 1812, opposing sides in North America fought with words as well as with men at arms. Public figures sought to seize the moral high ground and associate their opposites with heinous acts by their respective forces. In 1814, after the U.S. Capitol, including the Library of Congress, was burned by British forces, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “the vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington over science as well as the arts.” In Upper Canada, the future Bishop Strachan was having none of it. Then rector of St. James church in York (Toronto), John Strachan had helped to negotiate a surrender of the settlement in 1813, only to watch the American invaders sack the town. After reading Jefferson’s complaint, Strachan penned the former U.S. president a lengthy missive detailing a litany of American misdeeds on Canadian soil. “Can you tell me, Sir, the reason why the public buildings and library at Washington should be held more sacred than those at York?” he pointedly asked. Among other atrocities, he accused American troops – led by future president William Henry Harrison of Kentucky – of removing the skin from the fallen Shawnee chief Tecumseh to carry off as a trophy of war. Jefferson never replied. – Ivan Semeniuk
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