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These are the top stories:
In Hong Kong’s upheaval, China vows harsh consequences for companies siding with protesters
Over the past two weeks, executives, pilots and union leaders have lost jobs over shows of support for pro-democracy demonstrators, whose protests have continued for more than two months. With its global economic might, Beijing is pressing foreign corporations to go along with its vision for Hong Kong, and many executives and union leaders have paid a price for supporting the pro-democracy movement.
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader, said she would not give up on building a platform for dialogue. “We should prepare for reconciliation in society by communicating with different people ... We want to put an end to the chaotic situation in Hong Kong,” Lam said, adding she did not believe her government had lost control.
More demonstrations are planned over coming days and weeks, posing a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing, who are eager to quell the unrest ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1.
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With RCMP among four agencies investigating Quadriga, monitor urges case be moved to Ontario
Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the unwinding of defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, says it is co-operating with four active law enforcement or regulatory investigations. That includes a probe by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s financial crime division in Milton, Ont., which has made formal document requests to Ernst & Young, the agency said in a report published Monday.
The proceedings have been transitioned from a creditors act case into a bankruptcy matter. Now, Ernst & Young is requesting the case – which so far has been heard in Nova Scotia – be transferred to Ontario. Such a move would make it easier and more cost effective for the monitor to comply with numerous requests from law enforcement and regulatory agencies that are based primarily in Ontario, according to the report.
Regulator pursuing settlement with RBC, TD over allegations that traders shared confidential information to gain advantages
From 2011 to 2013, employees at both banks used electronic chat rooms “many hundreds” of times to share confidential customer information with foreign-exchange traders at outside firms, the Ontario Securities Commission said in a statement of allegations published late Monday. The traders at both banks had a “profit motive," the regulator said. “Traders sought an advantage to make more profitable trades on behalf of their bank, which in turn would benefit the trader through performance incentives,” the OSC wrote in the statement of allegations. The OSC has scheduled hearings for both banks on Friday. Details of the settlements are not yet available.
“The conduct covered by the allegations occurred many years ago, and we have taken a number of steps since that time to enhance our controls,” said Andrew Block, an RBC spokesperson, in an e-mail to The Globe.
“Serving clients with excellence and integrity is at the heart of our culture and we take matters of this kind extremely seriously,” TD spokesperson Lynsey Wynberg said Monday in an e-mailed statement.
Ontario unveils details of qualifying math tests for future teachers
At least 70 per cent of the new math proficiency test will assess teacher candidates on content, including fractions, percentages and other basic arithmetic. The rest of the assessment will test them on how to teach the subject in the classroom. Deputy minister of education Nancy Naylor revealed the details of the test to the deans of education at postsecondary schools in a memo sent last week that was obtained by The Globe and Mail. The Education Quality and Accountability Office is developing the test, which will be administered to student teachers looking to be certified and teach in the province’s elementary and high schools.
Canada pledges financial, technical support to help fight Amazon wildfires in Brazil
At the close of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would make $15-million, plus water bombers, immediately available. The Prime Minister’s office could not clarify whether Canada’s financial contribution is on top of a US$20-million Brazilian aid package that was announced earlier Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the summit, and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. It is not known how many water bombers will be sent to Brazil. The Canadian government has a water-bomber pooling system with the provinces and the territories, and some fire-fighting aircraft are privately owned and could be rented.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
B.C. Attorney-General applauds Oklahoma ruling in opioid case as province pursues its own lawsuit: David Eby says he is pleased with the findings of a court in Oklahoma that found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis as it ordered the company to pay US $572-million, more than twice the amount another drug manufacturer agreed to pay in a settlement.
In a Turkish forest, resistance grows to a Canadian company’s gold-mining project: Thousands of protesters have shown up to speak out against Alamos Gold’s Kirazli mine over deforestation, water and the future of local species
Queen’s University to teach medical students about historical ban on admitting black applicants to program: The university in Kingston apologized earlier this year for the ban – which was established in 1918 and enforced until 1965 – and vowed to take further steps to address past discrimination.
Conservatives, Liberals joust over climate-change platforms, carbon tax: The Liberal government’s election platform will promise greater action to combat climate change, but will be silent on a plan for the carbon tax after 2022, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said on Monday.
A street-level view of Thunder Bay’s worsening opioid crisis: Paramedics now respond to about one opioid poisoning a day – and what is lacking are the supports and solutions that are applied after an overdose.
MORNING MARKETS
Investors cautious
Global shares eked out gains on Tuesday as some investors held out hopes for a trade deal between the United States and China, even as the countries continued to raise tariffs on each other last week. Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 0.9 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down slightly. The Shanghai Composite was up 1.3 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3 per cent, Germany’s DAX was up 0.2 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 was up 0.1 per cent at 6:45 a.m. ET. New York futures were marginally higher. The Canadian dollar was at 75.59 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Alberta’s study of drug-use sites discriminates against one kind of drug user
André Picard: “People go to supervised alcohol-consumption sites because they want a safe, clean supportive environment in which to consume. That’s what people who go to supervised drug consumption sites want, too.”
The Amazon is approaching a tipping point. What are we going to do about it?
John Innes: “Are there ways to fix the crisis? Yes, but as with all policy solutions, they are complex. Brazil seeks to develop the Amazon, just as Canada seeks to develop its old growth forests.” Innes is dean of the faculty of forestry at The University of British Columbia.
Of the many potential ballot questions for the Canadian election, none are bigger than Donald Trump
Scott Reid: “Mr. Trump affects our jobs. Our incomes. Our environment, our borders and our national defence. In fact, there is no policy arena immune from his impetuous influence. For Canadian voters, Mr. Trump’s existence is of universal relevance and decisive significance.” Reid is a political analyst and principal at Feschuk.Reid and served as director of communications to prime minister Paul Martin.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Vancouver interior designer Danny Chan started to research the kinds of houses that make people feel good. He found that more space didn’t correlate with joy. Incredibly, or perhaps depressingly, a huge amount of that extra square footage is underutilized. Smaller spaces are great spaces. They are cheaper to buy, maintain and clean, as well as being more sustainable, requiring less energy to heat and cool. Chan wants to teach people that when it comes to space, it’s about quality over quantity, and aim to ditch the mentality that you need a large living space to be happy in your home. Read more about what he has learned.
MOMENT IN TIME
Norris McWhirter, co-founder and now sole editor of The Guinness Book of Records in Toronto, November 2, 1977. His twin brother Ross [co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records] was murdered by the IRA in 1975.DENNIS ROBINSON/The Globe and Mail
Aug. 27, 1955
What is the fastest game bird in Europe – the golden plover or the red grouse? That question, posed by Sir Hugh Beaver in 1951 while out shooting in southeast Ireland, would prove difficult to answer. It dawned on Sir Hugh, then the managing director of Guinness Breweries, that arguments over such questions must rage each night in tens of thousands of pubs across the British Isles in the absence of record books. That just could not stand. Norris and Ross McWhirter, brothers who ran a facts and figures agency in London, were enlisted and the 198-page Guinness Book of Records was published on this day in 1955. It was a bestseller by Christmas and the ensuing series would become the most-sold copyrighted book in history and an iconic gift for children the world over. Published in 23 languages and running the gamut from science and sports records to human and animal oddities, the book’s entries have changed with the times; a number of records, such as some eating and drinking feats, have been abolished over concerns for competitors’ safety. And, for the record, even a partial answer to Sir Hugh’s question wasn’t published until the Book’s 36th edition – 22 years after his death. It’s the red grouse. —Jack Denton
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