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The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons is making it easier for internationally trained specialists to work in Canadian hospitals as it responds to the country’s doctor shortage, and to complaints that some of its policies discriminate against people with overseas medical degrees.
The college, a regulatory body that sets national standards for doctors who specialize in fields such as surgery, cardiology and emergency medicine, has been under pressure to streamline the way it assesses foreign-trained physicians and determines their eligibility to write certification exams. Getting these doctors accredited to work in Canada has become a critical issue as the country’s health care system has strained under pronounced staffing problems.
A health care worker is seen at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children on Nov. 30, 2022.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
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Ukraine shuts down Putin’s call for ceasefire during Orthodox Christmas
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call yesterday for a ceasefire in Ukraine to mark Orthodox Christmas was immediately rejected by Kyiv, which retorted that Moscow should withdraw its troops if it desires an end to hostilities.
It was unclear whether Russian forces would still be bound by Putin’s order to hold their fire for 36 hours, beginning at noon today and lasting all day Saturday, Orthodox Christmas Day. It is the first time Putin has called for a pause in the fighting since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.
Prince Harry reveals in memoir that Prince William knocked him to floor in row over Meghan
Prince Harry says his older brother and heir to the British throne, Prince William, knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Harry’s wife, Meghan, in his much-awaited memoir, which went on sale days early in Spain yesterday.
In his book Spare, Harry also discloses how the brothers, the sons of King Charles, had begged their father not to marry his second wife, Camilla, now Queen Consort, and that he had taken cocaine as a teenager.
The book was due to be published next Tuesday, but The Guardian newspaper printed leaked extracts overnight, and Reuters and other media have been able to obtain Spanish-language versions that went on sale early in Spain.
- The biggest bombshells coming out of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare
- Opinion: Prince Harry is not the first ‘spare’ to stir up royal unrest
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Also on our radar
Ottawa tells travellers in Mexico to shelter in place due to violence: Canadian tourists were trapped inside a Mexican hotel yesterday as buses that were supposed to take them to an airport and safely home burned outside. The violence began after a predawn security operation in which security forces captured alleged drug trafficker Ovidio (The Mouse) Guzman, who is a son of former cartel boss Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman.
McCarthy fails in bid for House Speaker for third day: Republican Party rebels have left the GOP and the U.S. House in disarray as they continued to block the election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. With 11 failed votes, the current impasse is tied as the fifth-longest attempt in U.S. history to secure a Speaker.
Federal public servants warned about long-term remote work: The former head of the federal public service is warning that extended periods of working from home could negatively impact public servants’ careers and hamper their ability to learn from colleagues, as some federal employees say they have returned to their offices to find they no longer have desks.
CIBC agrees to settle lawsuit over unpaid overtime: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has agreed to pay $153-million to settle a years-long class-action lawsuit in which the lender’s employees alleged it broke federal law by allowing them to work unpaid overtime.
Canada repeats as world junior champions: Canada got the revenge it desperately craved – and is golden again at the world junior hockey championship. Dylan Guenther scored his second goal of the night at 6:22 of overtime as the tournament hosts survived a blown 2-0 lead in the third period to defeat Czechia 3-2 in the final of the world junior hockey championship yesterday.
- Cathal Kelly: Connor Bedard has lived up to the hype and is the NHL’s next big thing
- U.S. beats Sweden in thrilling game for world junior bronze
Morning markets
Global equities were set to end the first week of 2023 on a tepid note while the dollar touched a one-month high against major currencies on Friday as investors braced for the crucial U.S. non-farm payrolls report later in the day.
In Europe, the broad Stoxx 600 equity index opened 0.4 per cent higher as falling gas prices combined with mild winter weather boosted hopes for that the region may overcome the worst of its inflation crisis. Germany’s Xetra Dax traded flat.
Britain’s FTSE 100 index hit a nine-month high, boosted by energy major Shell and other commodity-linked stocks, ahead of the crucial U.S. jobs report.
Asian equities gained on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei ended the day 0.59 per cent higher, while South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 1.01 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, though, slipped 0.43 per cent, retreating from Thursday’s six-month peak.
What everyone’s talking about
Gary Mason: “For years we have been told that economic growth depends on robust immigration. Immigrants are needed to bolster a work force being weakened, even decimated in some cases, by the demographic bulge of boomers who are retiring. Also, immigrants are core to the Canadian identity, something of which we are unquestionably, and quite rightly, proud. At the same time, it is fair to ask whether the pace at which we are growing is in our best interests. Or whether in attempting to solve one problem, we are creating others.”
Editorial: “It is now almost 22 months since Rogers announced its $26-billion takeover bid for Shaw – and the fact it’s taken so long to assess the deal is a clear reflection of the precarious state of competition in the telecom business.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
The Globe and Mail
Living better
Healthy eating habits for 2023: 23 dietician-approved tips
Don’t set yourself up for failure by attempting an overnight revamp of your habits. Instead, review these 23 healthy living tips from registered dietician Leslie Beck and incorporate some tips each week. At the end of January, take a moment to review your progress and pick one you feel requires more attention to master in the next month.
Moment in time: Jan. 6, 2021
Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.John Minchillo/The Associated Press
Angry mob attacks the U.S. Capitol building
“Fight like hell”: with those words, on this day two years ago, Donald Trump dispatched thousands of his supporters to storm the Capitol in service of the soon-to-be-former president’s lie that his re-election defeat had been rigged. Rioters attacked police officers, trashed the building and hunted lawmakers while calling for their deaths. A shirtless QAnon conspiracy theorist in a horned headdress mounted the Senate dais and demanded vice-president Mike Pence come out of hiding. Insurrectionists boasted in real time about their feats on social media. After all, they claimed, the president sanctioned their actions. Trump watched the carnage on television, doing nothing to stop it for three hours. By nightfall, the rebellion was over. But the reckoning was only beginning. Hundreds were subsequently arrested, Trump was impeached (and acquitted) and a congressional investigation revealed a concerted effort by the ex-president to overturn the election result by any means possible in the weeks leading up to the riot. Even now, much remains unresolved. Prosecutors are still trying to decide whether to charge Trump criminally, and an army of his loyal election deniers threatens to overturn future votes. Adrian Morrow
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