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These are the top stories:
Restaurants are severing ties with vintner Norman Hardie
Some of Canada’s most prominent restaurants are removing Norman Hardie’s wines from their menus after more than 20 people alleged sexual misconduct by the famed winemaker. In Ontario, restaurants included the JOEY chain, The Drake Hotel properties, Chase Hospitality Group, and Wilder and Rose, among others. In Montreal, Monkland Tavern joined the Joe Beef restaurants, which had already stopped carrying Mr. Hardie’s wines. One notable exception was the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the Crown corporation that distributes alcohol in the province. A spokesperson said they are leaving the choice in the hands of customers.
Hardie released a fresh apology on Wednesday stating: “To all those who felt marginalized, demeaned or objectified while working for or alongside me, I am truly very sorry.” He maintained that “some of the allegations made against me are not true,” but did not specify which ones.
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Trump agreed to end the family separation policy at the Mexican border
After days of insisting he could do nothing to stop the family breakups, U.S. President Donald Trump caved Wednesday and ordered authorities to stop separating migrant children from their parents at the Mexican border, a crisis caused by his “zero tolerance” policy of criminally prosecuting all people who cross the frontier illegally.
Trump’s executive order directs the children be kept with their parents at special detention facilities as the parents go through the criminal justice system. But the order may not actually solve the problem. A court order prohibiting U.S. authorities from detaining underage immigrants for more than 20 days remains in effect. Because the President insists on continuing criminal prosecutions of the parents, this means that after 20 days, the children would have to leave the detention facilities where their parents are being held. Without a legislative fix − and with Mr. Trump sticking to “zero tolerance” − the standoff may be far from over.
In Canada, a wave of asylum seekers are flooding Toronto’s shelters. Thousands of migrants who entered the country from Manitoba and Quebec are gravitating to the country’s largest city, straining its emergency housing system.
Vancouver is closing the Sahota-owned Regent hotel
The City of Vancouver is shutting down a decrepit hotel that houses dozens of the city’s most vulnerable renters, and plans to take the unusual step of buying the building and another owned by the Sahota family, the Balmoral. The moves come after a Globe and Mail investigation highlighted the miserable living conditions in the Regent and Balmoral, two of five single-room-occupancy hotels owned by the family. The mayor said if the family does not agree to sell the century-old properties, the city will expropriate them.
U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into Huawei’s American university partnerships
U.S. lawmakers are urging their government to launch a probe of Huawei Technologies’ research activities on American university campuses, citing a report that academic partnerships are a primary method for China to scoop up foreign technology.
The members of Congress asking Washington to probe Huawei include lawmakers who this week publicly warned Canada that the Shenzhen-based firm represents a threat to the Five Eyes intelligence network, which allows police, prosecutors and spies in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand to exchange information to prevent espionage and terrorism. Huawei has already been virtually shut out of the U.S. market because of national-security concerns.
Earlier this week, the Trudeau government declined to discuss concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers about Huawei’s activities in Canada.
Read The Globe’s investigation into how Canadian money and research are helping China become a global telecom superpower here.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
CBC is cancelling its On the Money business show
CBC is cancelling its afternoon business show, On the Money, because of a lack of money. The cancellation marks the first time CBC’s cable news channel will be without regularly scheduled business news coverage since News Network launched as Newsworld in 1989. Its final broadcast will be Thursday, June 28.
MORNING MARKETS
U.S. dollar climbs, European markets drift
The dollar strengthened on Thursday, once again hitting the highest in almost a year, as investors continued to fret about the outlook for global trade. European equities drifted alongside U.S. futures, while emerging-market stocks slid. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE was up 0.11 per cent. Germany’s DAX was down 0.66 per cent and France’s CAC 40 was off 0.31 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.61 per cent. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate prices were lower. The Canadian dollar was trading down at 75.06 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
With pot law, Canada takes a bold step into uncharted territory
“On Tuesday, Parliament adopted a bill that ends the prohibition of recreational pot use in Canada. It’s a done deal. There’s no going back. No, the new law won’t come into force until Oct. 17. The date now shimmers on the horizon for weed smokers across the country, and in the meantime possession of non-medical weed remains illegal. But this is a big moment nonetheless. Canada has become just the second country to approve the nationwide legalization of marijuana, after Uruguay. We are more than 10 times Uruguay’s size: This is a major experiment in social policy that the world will be watching.” – Globe editorial
Don’t let supply management myths spoil the milk
“The way Canadian dairy farmers are portrayed in the NAFTA debate might lead you to believe they drive Porsches to the milking barns. Farmers who own quota in our food system, where dairy along with poultry fall under supply management, are often portrayed as a lobby group rather than people we rely on for food security. In fact, opposition to supply management in Canada is based on misrepresentation. If we want a food system that is efficient, sustainable and promotes health, then we should protect supply management vehemently and even expand it to other foods. That means confronting the myths about this system that are bandied about like fact.” – Sarah Elton and Rod MacRae, both working with the Broadbent Institute on supply management
Canada must end its safe third country agreement with the U.S.
“The agreement requires refugee and asylum seekers to request protection in the first safe country in which they arrive. Under Canadian law, the United States is the only country designated as a safe third country, but this is not an automatic designation – the U.S. government is supposed to have its human rights record under continual review by the Canadian government. There were calls to end the agreement in January, 2017, when the Trump administration implemented its travel and immigration ban. We must renew those calls, given the crisis unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border.” – Amanda DiPaolo, associate professor of human rights at St. Thomas University
LIVING BETTER
Empty out the fridge with this pasta dish
Anyone who’s often left with bits and bobs in their fridge at the end the week should check out this empty out the fridge pasta dish. Refresh those herbs in ice water, or peel back the sad outer layers of that cabbage you’ve been meaning to use up, and get ready to make some magic in the kitchen.
MOMENT IN TIME
First speech computer patented
June 21, 1938: Long before HAL 9000, the mellifluous-voiced supercomputer of 2001: A Space Odyssey, calmly explained his killing spree to astronaut Dave, there was Homer Dudley’s Voder (Voice Operating Demonstrator). Dudley was an inventor for Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he had also worked on the vocoder, which turns a human voice into electronic signals that can be transmitted and recreated. The Voder, by contrast, synthesized speech by electronically imitating a person’s vocal tract – effectively creating a “human” voice from scratch. (Unlike Apple’s Siri and Google’s Alexa, which use recordings.) It required a highly trained operator to manipulate its keys, wrist bar and foot pedal, which turned its hisses into vowels and consonants and even asked questions by changing inflection. It was unveiled at the 1939 New York World’s Fair – the theme was “The World of Tomorrow” – and demonstrated by Helen Harper, who had spent more than a year learning to use it. But, because it was devoid of artificial intelligence, instead of “Kill all humans!,” Harper had it say, “Good afternoon, radio audience.” After appearing again at an exhibition in San Francisco, it disappeared – a fascinating piece of technology with few, if any, commercial applications. – Massimo Commanducci
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