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These are the top stories:
SNC-Lavalin received billions in support from Canada’s federal export agency
The Quebec company obtained at least $2-billion in loans from Export and Development Canada over the past two decades, according to data obtained by The Globe and Mail (for subscribers). At least $800-million and as much as $1.7-billion were provided after news broke of an RCMP investigation into alleged corruption at the company in 2011.
In 2015, prosecutors charged SNC with bribery and corruption over its dealings in Libya. A criminal conviction in the Libya bribery case would jeopardize its EDC support and prevent it from receiving federal contracts for up to 10 years. Since 2011, SNC has faced allegations of corruption in Canada, two Asian countries and three African countries.
Meanwhile, the Liberal MP who will oversee hearings on Jody Wilson-Raybould raised the possibility that she was removed as justice minister because she can’t speak French. Anthony Housefather later walked back the comments, saying he had no “specific knowledge” for the reasons behind her demotion to the Veterans Affairs post. (for subscribers)
Eight Indigenous senators have released a joint letter of support for Wilson-Raybould, saying her resignation from cabinet leaves “many questions and concerns from Canadians, the Indigenous community and politicians alike." (for subscribers)
Here’s Elizabeth Renzetti’s view: “It’s one thing for a government to treat a female cabinet minister shabbily; it’s quite another when the government has hung its entire brand – national and global – on the twin hooks of fairness and feminism. Live by the f-word, die by the f-word.” (for subscribers)
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Donald Trump is planning to declare a national emergency to build his border wall
The U.S. President has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. ET today to address “the crisis at our southern border.” It’s likely that this event will also see Trump sign off on the deal reached by Congress to avoid another government shutdown. Legislators reached a compromise to provide US$1.375-billion for Trump’s promised wall on the Mexican border, but Trump has been demanding US$5.7-billion.
Declaring an emergency will give Trump special powers allowing him to divert funds from the defence department budget toward the wall construction. That would set the stage for a court challenge examining whether Trump is abusing his authority. Past emergency declarations have involved threats from hostile powers, like the 9/11 terror attacks.
More than 100 Canadians are stuck in Haiti as protesters block airport access
The Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince has been shuttered since Tuesday amid violent street protests that have claimed several lives over the past week. Those stuck include groups of medical professionals from several provinces, as well as 100 Quebec tourists at a hotel.
“I’m very disappointed in the Canadian government. I called three times to consular services in Ottawa. I got the same run-around every time,” said Richard Blaquiere, whose daughter is a nurse in one group.
Those taking to the streets are protesting against skyrocketing inflation and a failure to prosecute embezzlement from a Venezuelan program that sent discounted oil to Haiti.
Ontario has rejected Hydro One’s plan to pay a new CEO up to $2.775-million
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government says it will take “any and all action necessary” to cap the salary at $1.5-million. It’s the latest conflict between the power utility and the province, which owns a 47-per-cent stake. (for subscribers)
Former Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt resigned last year after Ford billed him the “$6-million-dollar man.” The new CEO salary would be a major cut to that price, but is still well above the $1.5-million limit the government had set.
Hydro One was recently forced to pay a $138-million kill fee to a U.S. utility company, after that firm cited possible political interference by the Ontario government as a reason to reject the takeover.
Three cases of measles in B.C. have experts warning about low vaccination rates
Just 87.3 per cent of two-year-olds in B.C. received the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine in 2017. But that figure should be at 95 per cent in order for immunization coverage to be effective in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.
The three cases in B.C. come as a separate outbreak in Washington State this month resulted in 54 measles cases. Only 67.7 to 79.3 per cent of kindergartners in the region where 53 of those cases occurred had completed their required immunizations.
“I think we have geographic parts of this province where if we had the introduction of measles, we could easily have the kind of outcome that they are seeing in [Washington],” said Dr. Monika Naus, who works at the BC Centre of Disease Control.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Facebook is in talks with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to reach a settlement over its privacy lapses. The two sides haven’t agreed on an exact amount, though the fine could end up being more than US$1-billion. The FTC probe has focused on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw Facebook inappropriately share information of 87 million users with the consulting firm. (for subscribers)
Telus is warning of a “material” risk if Ottawa bans the use of Huawei’s equipment in next-generation 5G technology. The federal government is currently conducting a cybersecurity review of the Chinese firm at a time when the U.S., New Zealand and Australia have already announced Huawei restrictions over national-security concerns. Telus, which already uses Huawei equipment for its 3G and 4G networks, said barring Huawei from 5G could increase the costs of its 5G deployment. (for subscribers)
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks mixed
European shares recovered on Friday after weak U.S. and Chinese economic data earlier sent global equity markets into a dive. Investors continued to be cautious as the U.S. and China decided to continue trade talks in Washington next week. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 1.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.9 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 1.4 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.4 and 1 per cent by about 6:10 a.m. ET, with Germany’s DAX down 0.2 per cent. New York futures were up slightly. The Canadian dollar was hovering just above 75 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Pot’s finally legal, but market problems need to be weeded out
Globe editorial: “It takes some doing for a market to develop a supply problem and a demand problem at the same time. But here we are. As Canada hits the four-month anniversary of legal cannabis, news reports and official statistics alike suggest that licensed retailers have neither enough pot, nor enough customers. It’s a strange problem to have. Usually, you run out of product because so many customers want it, or you run out of customers because they don’t. The fact the massive market is having problems of both demand and supply suggests that the legal system isn’t working properly yet.”
As the world builds walls, Japan discovers immigration
Doug Saunders: “Japan has long considered itself the ultimate uni-ethnic society, one that has all but forbidden immigration for the better part of 1,200 years. Not any more. For the first time, polls show that a majority of Japanese consider that tradition damaging rather than beneficial, and consider immigrants desirable.” (for subscribers)
There are Canadian women fighting for Islamic State - and Ottawa needs a plan
Jessica Davis: “The women, however, who travelled to join the terrorist organization did so of their own volition. For their part, any potential return of these women into Canada could very well constitute a threat to the security of Canada. The suggestion that women have joined terrorist organizations out of loyalty to their husbands is misguided – and the radicalized women also offer this excuse as well. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that women are radicalized in largely the same way as men, and that it is a highly individual process for both genders.” Jessica Davis is the president and principal consultant at Threat Insight Intelligence, and author of Women in Modern Terrorism: From Liberation Wars to Global Jihad and the Islamic State
LIVING BETTER
New films out this week
Chandler Levack: “Isn’t It Romantic marks the second time in the past 12 months that a beautiful blond plus-sized comedic actress with the chutzpah of Joe Pesci and the sexual magnetism of Halle Berry needs to have a full-scale concussion in order to realize her own self-worth. I’m not sure why these movies exist, but goodness knows there’s more coming down the pipeline; trends come in threes.” (2 stars)
Barry Hertz: “Happy Death Day 2U is pure self-knowing nonsense – a smoothly executed, briskly paced mash-up of horror tropes, time-travel paradoxes and silly campus slapstick.” (3 stars)
John Semley: “In a blockbuster movie-going landscape monopolized by zillion-dollar superhero movies utterly beggared of anything like style and vision, Alita: Battle Angel’s wanton mishmash of Japanese manga, Romanesque architecture, cyber-trash aesthetics and made-up Martian-Germanic martial arts techniques at least qualifies as an aesthetic. Of course, such praise is wholly relative.” (for subscribers)
MOMENT IN TIME
The first transgender celebrity
(Anthony Calvacca/New York Post Archives)Anthony Calvacca/NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images
Feb. 15, 1953: Long before Caitlyn Jenner, there was Christine Jorgensen, the world’s first transgender celebrity, who captivated the public with The Story of My Life, a five-part, autobiographical series published in American Weekly. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1926, Jorgensen gravitated toward girls’ dresses, developing crushes on boys. Serving as an army clerical worker after the Second World War, Jorgensen struggled with life in a man’s body before undergoing hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery in 1950 in Copenhagen. The media frenzy was lurid: “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty,” read one headline in the New York Daily News. But Jorgensen also received hundreds of letters of support – a sliver of tolerance revolutionary for the fifties, when homophobic workplace discrimination and police brutality were widespread. Jorgensen parlayed her notoriety into a career as a nightclub singer, becoming a vocal proponent of transgender rights. Her story spawned an early, almost inconceivable conversation about sexuality: Jorgensen was vastly ahead of her time when she argued that gender exists on a spectrum beyond the polarities of male and female. Asked about the sexual revolution in a 1988 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jorgensen replied, “We gave it a good swift kick in the pants.” – Zosia Bielski
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