Good morning,
The RCMP searched the Ottawa-area home of Kristian Firth, one of the central figures in the ArriveCan scandal, one day before he appeared yesterday at the bar of the House of Commons for the first public admonishment of a government contractor in more than a century.
Firth is the managing partner of GCStrategies, the company that received more funding than any other contractor to work on the ArriveCan app. The cost of developing the app ballooned in price and ultimately cost taxpayers $59.5-million, according to an investigation by the Auditor-General.
In a statement, the RCMP said they conducted a search of the residence in Woodlawn on Tuesday, but police say the search is not related to their ArriveCan investigation. The RCMP did not elaborate about what it sought from the home, but said no charges have been laid.
GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth responds to questions as he sits in the House of Commons, Wednesday, April 17, 2024 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 other Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.
Tech industry warns capital-gains measures introduced in federal budget will stymie entrepreneurship
Leaders from the technology industry are warning that Ottawa’s decision to increase capital-gains taxes will have a chilling effect on the innovation economy.
The changes, introduced in Tuesday’s federal budget, could discourage founders and tech workers from starting companies and deter venture funding by reducing the profits that investors can earn, the Council of Canadian Innovators, a technology industry group, said in an open letter.
Under the tax change, businesses will pay income taxes on two-thirds of their earnings from capital gains each year, up from one-half. The same increase applies to individuals, but only on capital gains in excess of $250,000. The government has said these measures, set to come into effect June 25, will add $19.4-billion to its coffers over five years.
- Trudeau, Poilievre trade attacks over the federal budget
- Middle-class Canadians could be hit by increases to capital gains tax. Here’s how to prepare
- Ottawa’s new EV tax credit raises hope of big new Honda investment
- Companies, asset managers in a quandary with capital-gains tax increases
- Opinion: Higher capital-gains taxes won’t work as claimed, but will harm the economy
Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter gets lifetime ban from NBA for betting on games
The Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter has been banned for life by the National Basketball Association after the league said he had shared confidential information with sports bettors and wagered on NBA games.
Porter is the first athlete to be banned for life by a major North American league since single-event sports gambling was legalized in the U.S. in 2018 and in Canada in 2021.
The NBA added that Porter had placed at least 13 bets on games using the online betting account of an associate, while travelling with the Raptors or their development-league team, between January and March of this year. In one instance, he bet against the Raptors, but the team won. Porter did not play in any of the games he bet on.
Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop
Also on our radar
Iran ‘declared war’ with attack, Israeli brigadier-general says: Iran’s Sunday attack on Israel was so extensive and so sophisticated that it can only be seen as an opening salvo in a military action and there is “zero” chance that Israel will not respond, a former head of Israel’s air defence forces said yesterday.
Former B.C. finance minister running for the federal Tories: Veteran B.C. politician Mike de Jong, an eight-term member of the provincial legislature who held a number of cabinet posts including finance and health, has decided to seek the federal Conservative nomination in the riding of Abbotsford-South Langley.
Trust in governments on the decline, survey finds: A growing proportion of Canadians do not trust the federal or provincial governments to make decisions on health care, climate change, the economy and immigration, according to a new survey.
Six arrested in gold and cash heist: Police say they have solved the largest gold heist in Canadian history, arresting six people and seizing 65 guns headed for Canada in a multijurisdictional investigation into the theft at Toronto’s Pearson airport a year ago.
Darfur villages torched in Sudan violence: A co-ordinated campaign of ethnically targeted violence by Sudan’s main paramilitary force has led to the destruction of at least nine communities in Darfur, echoing a similar campaign in 2003 and 2004 by the Janjaweed militia.
Morning markets
Global markets showed signs of recovery today with stocks rising and the U.S. dollar pulling back from recent gains while oil prices eased.
Asian stocks made their biggest advances in a month and European stocks opened higher. In early trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.24 per cent and France’s CAC 40 added 0.42 per cent while Germany’s DAX was flat.
Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.31 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.82 per cent.
The dollar traded at 72.70 cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Lawrence Martin: “Along with several other prominent Liberals, [Dominic] LeBlanc has been rumoured to be considering a run. It’s clear now he’s serious. And it’s doubtful he would be making such plans if he didn’t think there was a decent chance the PM’s job might soon become open.”
Marsha Lederman: “While public incidents of femicide make headlines for their scale and locations, women remain targets of murder at an alarming rate. But somehow there is a perception that “domestic violence” or “intimate partner violence” is less newsworthy, less urgent. It is extremely urgent.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Many travellers are taking their time on holidays
The new trend in vacationing: taking your time. If time is the greatest luxury, rather than scatter travel throughout the year with close-to-home trips, travellers are immersing themselves in a destination for longer. Check out the top destinations Canadians are travelling to slow down the pace.
Moment in time: April 18, 1983
Women's winner Joan Benoit crosses finish line of the Boston Marathon, April 18, 1983.Boston Globe/Getty Images
Joan Benoit sets a new world record at the Boston Marathon
As she blew through the finish line at the Boston Marathon, any outside observer couldn’t have guessed that Joan Benoit had spent part of the previous year with casts on both of her legs, while she recovered from surgery and various injuries. The seasoned runner (she’d already won the Boston race in 1979) set a new women’s marathon world record on that April day in 1983 – two hours, 22 minutes and 43 seconds, a time that wouldn’t be beat on the Boston course for the next 11 years. But her reign as a marathon champion was just getting started. In May, 1984, just more than two weeks after having arthroscopic knee surgery, Ms. Benoit competed in the U.S. Olympic team trials and qualified for the first-ever women’s marathon at the Los Angeles Games that August. She finished first in that race, nearly a full minute and a half ahead of the next competitor, simultaneously becoming the first woman to win gold in the Olympic marathon event. She would go on to set records for the rest of her career, including in 2010 when, after completing the Chicago Marathon, she became the first woman to run a marathon in under three hours in five different decades. Kate Wilkinson
Enjoy today's horoscopes. Solve today's puzzles. Read today's Letters to the Editor.
If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.