Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Nine bombings, 290 killed: Sri Lanka is reeling after Easter Sunday attacks
Thirteen individuals have been arrested in what officials say was a co-ordinated terror attack targeting churches, hotels and other sites. Here’s what we know so far:
- Around 500 people were wounded.
- Most victims were Sri Lankans, though at least 27 tourists are said to be among the dead.
- The co-ordinated bombings were carried out by seven suicide bombers from a militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were no reports of Canadians killed, but some members of the Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada have been impacted by deaths of family and friends.
- Authorities are looking into reports that there were intelligence failures, including warnings of possible attacks.
- This is the worst violence the island nation on the southern tip of India has seen since the end of its civil war in 2009.
- Sri Lanka’s government imposed a curfew and blocked the use of social platforms like Facebook in a bid to stem misinformation that could risk triggering further violence.
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Ontario has long flouted its own law on collecting data for firearms seizures
The province has only just started to fix the data gap after The Globe and Mail asked for records that turned up nothing, part of a series of data gaps amid a federal push to address rising gun violence.
Under a law put in place in 1990, the province was supposed to collect annual police reports on firearms seizures. But somewhere along the way, that stopped.
Federal minister Bill Blair, as part of his consultations on firearms laws, has pointed to a lack of data collection and sharing as major flaws that must be fixed if Canada wants to reduce gun crime.
A Ukrainian comedian who played the president on TV has won the country’s presidential election
Volodymyr Zelensky, 41, won more than 70 per cent of the vote in a runoff vote against 70-year-old incumbent Petro Poroshenko. Zelensky, who is Jewish, found success not via populist anti-immigrant sentiments but by railing against long-standing corruption in the former Soviet state. (for subscribers)
Poroshenko, a billionaire businessman, had taken over in Ukraine in 2014 after mass protests forced the resignation of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
The Sahotas have settled SRO violations with Vancouver amid uncertainty on expropriations
The family that owns two single-room occupancy hotels shuttered by the city last year amid health and safety violations has agreed to pay $150,000 in fines and $25,000 to charity. The agreement, reached in November but not publicized by the city, comes as Vancouver continues to push forward with efforts to expropriate the two Downtown Eastside properties.
While the city said it considered all legal options, one housing advocate is questioning its decision to settle as it tries to acquire the buildings: “Why would you give away any leverage?” Wendy Pedersen said.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Vancouver’s annual 4/20 event saw a record turnout of 60,000 despite calls from city officials to scrap the festivities over permitting issues. Hip-hop group Cypress Hill performed over the objections of the Parks Board commissioner while smoke filled the air – a bylaw infraction that activists say is unfair and one reason to keep protesting.
Business owners and residents in Toronto’s Kensington Market are fighting to keep a supervised drug-use site running after the Ontario government cut off funding. Premier Doug Ford had said that, “with all due respect … if I put one beside your house, you’d be going ballistic.” But as Marcus Gee reports, members of the downtown Toronto neighbourhood are raising funds and writing petitions.
PLAYOFF ROUNDUP
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the only Canadian team left to cheer for (or against) in the NHL playoffs after the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames were both eliminated over the weekend.
The Leafs couldn’t muster a series-clinching win on Easter Sunday, leaving the fate of their first-round matchup against the Boston Bruins to a do-or-die Game 7 tomorrow. Toronto is in the midst of being sucked back into a time warp against a Bruins club they always manage to lose to, Cathal Kelly writes. (for subscribers)
The Raptors, Toronto’s other oft-troubled playoff squad, are handling their opening-round matchup better than usual. They’re now headed home one win away from advancing after taking a 3-1 series lead over the Orlando Magic. (for subscribers)
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks mixed
Global stock markets were mostly lower while oil prices surged for a second day Monday following reports Washington wants to block Iranian exports. Benchmarks in Shanghai and India sank while Tokyo and Seoul were little changed. London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Sydney were closed for holidays. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.6 per cent, the Shanghai Composite lost 1.1 per cent, and New York futures at about 7 a.m. ET. The Canadian dollar was below 75 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Magical elves don’t clean your hotel room so please tip the women who do
Elizabeth Renzetti: “Progressives argue that we should fight for living wages for hotel staff instead of tipping, as if the two are mutually exclusive. I’m sure the woman who cleans your room would be happy with the $20 you left her and the letters you wrote to the hotel’s CEO and your MP.” (for subscribers)
Jason Kenney has a climate plan – it just isn’t a very good one
Globe editorial: “The bottom line is that the incoming UCP government intends to eliminate the provincial carbon tax on consumers, while reducing it for industry. Kenney knows climate change is a real issue, and he’s not planning on doing nothing about it. He just isn’t planning on doing much.”
Passing Bill C-81 is critical to making Canada accessible for all Canadians
Rick Hansen: “If it receives royal assent, the bill will require the Government of Canada and organizations under its jurisdiction to ensure that public spaces, workplaces, employment, program, services and information be accessible to everyone. … For every day that we delay, there is a greater cost to removing the embedded barriers that people face. This leads to alienation for those living with a visible or invisible disability.” Rick Hansen is the founder of the Rick Hansen Foundation.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(David Parkins/The Globe and Mail)David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
How much room does nature need? On Earth Day, a new report points to gaps in Canada’s wilderness safety net
Canada has agreed to set aside 17 per cent of its land area for protected status by the end of 2020. But as recently as two years ago, only 10.5 per cent of the country fit that description.
And now, an analysis from WWF Canada is the latest to highlight a striking mismatch between the places that Canada protects and the places where protection is needed most, Ivan Semeniuk reports. The data show that 84 per cent of habitats with a high concentration of at-risk species across Canada are inadequately protected or have no protection at all.
MOMENT IN TIME
Capping the CN Tower, 1975
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo librarians working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. In April, we’re looking at the country from above.
(Dennis Robinson/The Globe and Mail)DENNIS ROBINSON/The Canadian Press
When Globe and Mail photographer Dennis Robinson took this picture on April 2, 1975, of the last section of the CN Tower’s mast capping the height at 1,815 feet, 5 inches, the tower stood out on the Toronto landscape like a giant speared cocktail olive. For 34 years it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world before it was surpassed in height. Now, it seems that dozens of Toronto skyscrapers are trying their best to catch up, too. Over the years, the tower has been walked up, rapelled down, eaten in, danced in, struck by lightning, caked in ice and starred in a million snapshots, maybe more. It may be a national pastime to look down upon Toronto, but unless you’ve been in the tower’s upper-observation-level SkyPod, only then can you say you’ve actually done it. – Philip King
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