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A review into Julie Payette’s tenure as governor-general reveals allegations of a “toxic” workplace where yelling, screaming, demeaning comments and public humiliations commonly occurred and employees said they were “walking on egg shells.”
The former governor-general’s resignation has created a political controversy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Payette was appointed to the role after a “rigorous vetting process.” However, three sources with knowledge of Payette’s vetting said she did not undergo a thorough background check before Trudeau asked her to serve as governor-general.
Read more:
Opinion: How Trudeau can recover from the governor-general scandal
Andrew Coyne: It matters who Canada’s governor-general is
In this file photo Canada's Governor General Julie Payette delivers the Throne Speech in the Senate, as parliament prepares to resume in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on September 23, 2020. (Photo by ADRIAN WYLD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)ADRIAN WYLD/AFP/Getty Images
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After Canada’s GPHIN silenced, U.S. moves to create pandemic early warning system
The Biden administration is making it a top priority to create a pandemic early warning system similar to the one Canada had before it was curtailed less than a year before COVID-19 struck.
The U.S. government will treat pandemic preparedness and response as one of its “top national security priorities” and will work with other countries to guard against such threats, according to an executive order signed by the new president.
The move closely resembles Canada’s Global Public Health Intelligence Network, or GPHIN, which was created in the 1990s and became internationally renowned for its ability to detect and monitor dangerous outbreaks around the world, including H1N1, Ebola and others.
Read more:
What happened with Canada’s pandemic alert system? The GPHIN controversy explained
Calls to police, physicians on mental-health matters surge during COVID-19 pandemic
Statistics Canada data gathered from 19 police forces across the country show a dramatic increase in calls related to mental health as life under lockdown is taking a heavy toll on many Canadians.
Similar data was found in a report by the Ontario Medical Association that reveals major mental-health visits to doctors jumped significantly from August to December of last year.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
GameStop rallies another day as small investors battle Wall Street: The shares of videogame retailer GameStop Corp. surged to a fresh intraday high of US$380 yesterday, marking an 1,800-per-cent increase over the past two weeks, in a dramatic battle between small investors dominating trading in a number of formerly low-profile stocks and the savvy professional investors who traditionally dictate market moves.
Opposition calls on government to stop contracting out visa applications to China-backed company: Opposition MPs are urging the federal government to stop contracting out the work of processing visa applications, saying they are concerned that one of China’s largest state-owned investment funds is among the biggest backers of a company the Canadian government currently entrusts with this task.
Ottawa professor Hassan Diab ordered to stand trial in France: France’s court of appeal has ruled that Hassan Diab, an Ottawa academic, must stand trial in connection to a 1980 bombing outside a synagogue in Paris. The decision comes three years after a lower court dismissed the case, citing a lack of evidence.
RCMP reaches ‘historic’ agreement with organization representing Inuit women: The RCMP has signed an agreement with a national organization representing Inuit women to better protect them as the police force faces pressure to respond to systemic racism within the organization.
Stock bubble not severe enough for governments to stop stimulus efforts, IMF says: The International Monetary Fund says governments and central banks should keep their feet on the gas and extend their unprecedented stimulus packages despite growing evidence of a stock market bubble and other pockets of potential risk.
MORNING MARKETS
Global stocks sour: European markets fell early Thursday, soured by a sell-off on Wall Street, no end in sight to pandemic lockdowns and a squeeze in short positions. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.01 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 lost 1.1 per cent and 0.34 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 1.53 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.55 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 77.79 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Adam Radwanski: “Justin Trudeau consistently presents the fight against climate change as an economic opportunity. But rarely is the Prime Minister as brash about making sure the benefits flow to Canadian businesses as the new President of the United States is already proving to be when it comes to American ones.”
Lawrence Martin: “But depressingly, [Biden’s] clarion call to end the uncivil war in his much-lauded inauguration address has already been met with the jarring realities of the American political dynamic. Already it’s looking like a pipe dream.”
Nadia Stewart and Anita Li: “On the whole, however, Canadian newsrooms still aren’t getting to the heart of the frustration felt by so many journalists of colour. We know this because of the stories that are still surfacing, from both recent news reports and informal conversations with racialized staffers, of toxic working environments and tone-deaf leadership.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Comforting stew recipes for chilly winter nights
Lucy Waverman gives all the tips and tricks you need to make good stews. Here are some of her favourite recipes to add to your repertoire.
MOMENT IN TIME: JAN. 28, 1887
The stages of the construction of the Eiffel Tower, photographed by Théophile Féau between October 8, 1887 and March 12, 1889.Théophile Féau/API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Digging begins for the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
“There is an attraction in the colossal,” Gustave Eiffel wrote in 1887, “a singular delight to which ordinary theories of art are not applicable.” The French engineer had just begun work on the 300-metre tower for the 1889 world’s fair that would bear his name, and would come to represent Paris itself. But his design had met a mixed response: A group of intellectuals published an open letter calling it “useless and monstrous.” Eiffel’s colossal work was a product of its time. He had developed expertise at tall, efficient structures while designing railway viaducts; the tower was derived from the pylons that supported the railways, and many of those assembling its 18,000 parts had experience on the viaducts. Like those bridges, it had a visible framework of iron. The architect Stephen Sauvestre shaped its appearance to a degree, including the arches near the bottom, but predominantly this was a work of engineering. Its members bore and channelled the forces of wind and gravity with efficiency and, as much of Paris soon agreed, with beauty. The tower received two million visitors within its first year and marked the way to a new century in which technology would carry the modern metropolis ever closer to the sky. Alex Bozikovic
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