Good morning,
The Canada-U.S. border will remain temporarily closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21 amid Canadians’ concerns about surging COVID-19 cases in the United States, sources have told The Globe and Mail.
There has been mounting pressure from some U.S. politicians in northern states and border communities to reopen the border, but some provinces have been strongly opposed to opening the U.S. border any time soon.
Masks: Quebec has become the first province to make masks mandatory in indoor public spaces. The fines will start at $400 for a business that fails to ensure the edict is followed, multiplying to $6,000 for those that repeatedly flout the rules, Premier François Legault said.
Opinion:
- To lead with ego is to fail in fighting a pandemic (Robert Rotberg)
- Canada is unprepared for a pandemic election – and it could happen at any time (Michael Pal)
A pedestrian walks past artwork of women wearing face masks painted on a wall as a man plays a game on two phones, in Vancouver, on Sunday, July 12, 2020.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
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WE Charity: Trudeau says, ‘I made a mistake’
Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau have apologized for failing to recuse themselves from cabinet’s decision to award WE Charity a now-cancelled contract to administer a $900-million program despite their close family ties to the organization.
The controversy landed Trudeau in his third ethics investigation and opposition parties are calling for a similar investigation into Morneau, the federal Finance Minister. Cabinet ministers and senior public servants will appear before a parliamentary committee this week to answer questions from MPs about the controversial program.
- Opinion: PM offers a mea culpa, but not transparency (Campbell Clark)
- Also related: Federal government awarded Trudeau’s half-brother $12,430 contract last year
Tulsa searches for mass graves from 1921 massacre that destroyed ‘Black Wall Street’
The excavation of possible mass graves in the city of Tulsa, Okla., was due to start earlier this year but had to be postponed because of the pandemic.
Then Tulsa was thrust back into the spotlight when U.S. President Donald Trump decided to hold a re-election campaign rally in Tulsa the day after June 19 – a holiday known as Juneteenth that marks the end of slavery in America.
Now, almost 100 years after a white mob stormed Greenwood and destroyed the successful African-American neighbourhood, known as “Black Wall Street,” the city is resuming its search for victims.
A woman walks past a "Black Wall Street" mural during Juneteenth celebrations in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, the site of the 1921 race massacre, on June 19, 2020.SETH HERALD/AFP/Getty Images
Meanwhile in Canada
A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the RCMP in Manitoba on systemic racism charges by the province’s first female Indigenous Mountie. Margorie Hudson, who served in the RCMP from May, 1979, to March, 2009, says she was subjected to “persistent racism by non-racialized RCMP members and RCMP management.”
This included being paid less than half of what her counterparts got, being made to work only on reserves and being overlooked for promotions.
Also
- Washington’s NFL team will finally retire its racist name and logo.
- First person: I’m Black. I’m male. Give me the benefit of the doubt, please (Daniel Reid Newell)
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Quebec police search for father after daughters found dead: A manhunt entered its sixth day on Monday, as their mother delivered an anguished tribute to her beloved “princesses” and Quebeckers mourned the young children whose disappearance gripped the province.
NHL teams get taste of pandemic hockey as first day of summer camp unfolds: All but one of the 34 players Toronto invited to camp participated on the first day. Leafs players will wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts beneath their jerseys from now until the end of the season.
Epstein victim to speak at Ghislaine Maxwell’s bail hearing, prosecutors say: The 58-year-old British socialite has been held without bail since her recent arrest at a $1 million New Hampshire estate she bought late last year.
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks slip: Global stocks slipped on Tuesday, oil sagged and the U.S. dollar firmed as simmering China-U.S. tensions and new coronavirus restrictions in California kept a lid on investor optimism with earnings season getting underway. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.35 per cent just before 6 a.m. ET. Germany’s DAX fell 1.3 per cent and France’s CAC 40 lost 1.5 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 0.87 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.14 per cent. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 73.41 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Trudeau is hesitating to seize the best opportunity he’ll have to fight climate change
Adam Radwanski: “There is still time for him to make good on the best opportunity he will ever have on that front, but so far he’s acting like a follower at best.”
Trump promised pipelines. Trudeau delivered
Editorial board: “Building a pipeline is impossible in Canada and easy in the United States. That is a widely believed story and it may once have even been true. Times have changed.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Parents struggle to wean children off ‘perfect storm’ of screen time during pandemic
Across Canada, parents have been allowing their kids excess screen time the past few months as they struggled to keep them busy through the pandemic while they weren’t in class.
Screens for schoolwork. Screens to connect with friends. Screens to stay entertained. Weaning your kids off excessive screen time can be done. Even if they balk at first, they will be better off for it.
MOMENT IN TIME: July 14, 2015
This artist's concept shows NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon.Supplied
New Horizons becomes first spacecraft to reach Pluto
When NASA’s New Horizons probe was launched in 2006, Pluto was the ninth planet from the sun. By the time the probe reached its destination nearly a decade later, Pluto had officially been demoted to “dwarf planet” status – merely the first and best known among a vast population of small, icy worlds at the fringes of the solar system. But Pluto had the last laugh. Its surface proved to be far more diverse and interesting than expected, with signs of geological activity and a nitrogen atmosphere that expands when Pluto is closest to the sun and freezes to the surface when it pulls away. Passing just 12,500 kilometres from Pluto’s surface at closest approach, New Horizons recorded mountains, glaciers and a host of unique land forms including a bright, heart-shaped region named after Pluto’s discoverer, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. For planetary scientists, the achievement marked the end of an era. Prior to New Horizons, Pluto was the only large celestial body discovered before the space age that had yet to be visited by a spacecraft. Now, it is the last place of significant size to have been seen for the first time for the foreseeable future. Ivan Semeniuk
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