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New York City police officers arrested protesters late yesterday after Columbia University called in police to clear the pro-Palestinian demonstration from the campus.
Officers wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields breached Hamilton Hall, an administration building on campus, to clear out the structure. The demonstrators had occupied Hamilton Hall more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that’s been there for nearly two weeks.
On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesday between duelling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles. The clashes took place just outside a tent encampment, where pro-Palestinian protesters erected barricades and plywood for protection – and counterprotesters tried to pull them down.
Columbia’s protests earlier this month kicked off demonstrations that now span from California to Massachusetts. As May commencement ceremonies near, administrators face added pressure to clear protesters.
- McGill University calls on police to break up pro-Palestinian encampment
- Robyn Urback: Jews have eyes. And they see that the antisemitism in the protests over Gaza is no aberration
- Blinken urges Israel and Hamas to move ahead with ceasefire deal
- Polls of Gazans show Hamas has enough support to influence plans for future government
NYPD officers arrest a student as they evict a building that had been barricaded by pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, in New York City on April 30, 2024.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/Getty Images
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TD Bank takes US$450-million provision related to probe with regulator over anti-money laundering weaknesses
Toronto-Dominion Bank is setting aside US$450-million to cover penalties it’s facing as a result of a lengthy U.S. regulatory and law enforcement investigation. The probe thwarted the bank’s takeover of First Horizon Corp. last spring.
Last year, TD said that it anticipated fines or other penalties stemming from probes by the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies related to its anti-money-laundering practices.
The provision announced yesterday is the first indication Canada’s second-largest lender has provided on the impact of the investigation as its stretches into its second year.
B.C. government reveals escalating costs of hosting FIFA World Cup matches
The cost for British Columbia and Vancouver to put on seven FIFA World Cup games in 2026 has more than doubled and could reach even higher, the province said yesterday.
After months of pressure to release a budget, the B.C. government laid out an estimate that has climbed steadily upward from original ones as a result of the decision to host seven games, not five, and because of new requirements from FIFA.
The total cost is now expected to be between $483-million and $581-million, compared with the last figure the province released, $230-million in January, 2023.
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Also on our radar
Poilievre kicked out of Commons over comments: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was ejected from the House of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “wacko.” The attacks between the Prime Minister and Conservative Leader have become increasingly personal and charged in the past few months but were ratcheted up further yesterday.
- Campbell Clark: Pierre Poilievre gets kicked out of the schoolyard
B.C. figuring out next move in decriminalization experiment: B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry is calling on communities to provide the missing supports that widespread public drug use exposed during decriminalization, including more supervised consumption sites.
- Editorial: B.C.’s hard lesson on hard drugs
Spy agency says it shared details of hacking with officials: Canada’s Communications Security Establishment, which specializes in cybersecurity, said yesterday it shared details of Chinese state hacking that targeted parliamentarians with officials in the House of Commons and Senate after learning about it in 2022. MPs and senators who were targeted said it’s unacceptable the federal government never contacted them directly and that they didn’t know of this threat until last week.
Critics denounce ruling on health care worker shortage data: Health care stakeholders and a privacy expert are criticizing a recent ruling by Ontario’s information watchdog that allows the government to keep details of the province’s shortages of nurses, personal support workers and doctors confidential.
French islands feel left out of Olympic excitement: While France is gearing up for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the tiny French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, 20 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, have been overlooked for the Olympic torch relay and are feeling left out of the festivities.
Morning markets
The U.S. dollar edged toward its highest level this year against a basket of peers and U.S. share futures dipped ahead of a Federal Reserve policy decision, though trading was thin with many European and Asian markets closed for the May 1 holiday.
Of those share markets that were open, Britain’s FTSE edged up 0.12 per cent in early trading, and Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.34 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 72.92 U.S. cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Konrad Yakabuski: “For now, the Fed’s interest-rate orthodoxy is working in Mr. Trump’s favour. By holding rates higher for longer, the central bank is just doing its job ... Still, to the extent the Fed’s stand hurts Mr. Biden’s re-election chances, it may be setting itself and the U.S. economy up for a potentially perilous future under Mr. Trump. It must not ignore the unintended consequences of higher rates.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Should I sell my cottage and investment property now instead of next year?
With changes coming to the capital-gains tax, many Canadians who are planning to sell family cottages or investment properties are wondering what their next move should be. Investment adviser Nancy Woods outlines a few things to consider if you’re in that position.
Moment in time: May 1, 1907
Doukhobors of the Thunder Hill Colony moving supplies from the town of Yorkton, Sask. to their villages.The Canadian Press
Doukhobors begin exodus from Saskatchewan
In the late 1890s, Canada offered religious sanctuary to the Doukhobors, or “spirit wrestlers,” a Protestant sect from Russia organized along communal principles and practising an internalized religion (God resides in everyone). Between January and September, 1899, some 7,400 Doukhobors came to Saskatchewan and quickly established nearly 60 villages in three block settlements, where they collectively worked the land and held all buildings and equipment in common. Their adjustment to their new surroundings, despite their initial poverty, was nothing short of astounding. But the new minister of the interior, Frank Oliver, who championed a more selective immigration policy, gave the Doukhobors an ultimatum: They either had to fulfill their homestead obligations as individual farmers, including swearing allegiance to the Crown, or lose their land. When community leaders defied the minister, the Interior Department cancelled nearly 1,400 Doukhobor homestead entries on this day in 1907. The government action provoked an exodus. Some 5,000 Doukhobors headed to British Columbia to begin anew there. There was also a mini land rush precipitated by the sudden availability of several thousand former Doukhobor homesteads. Over time, the Doukhobor villages that had once graced the Saskatchewan landscape decayed and disappeared. Bill Waiser
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