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Documents tabled at the Emergencies Act inquiry reveal a discrepancy between RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s public defence of the sweeping legislation and her private advice to the government that the police had “not yet exhausted all available tools” when the act was invoked.
Commissioner Lucki delivered that assessment to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office just after midnight on Feb. 14 – only hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the act.
The e-mail adds to a growing body of evidence from police forces, presented to the inquiry, that challenges the federal government’s argument that the act was needed to end more than three weeks of protests that threw the country’s capital into chaos, upended daily life, and subjected residents and businesses to uncontrolled and at times dangerous protests.
- Ontario opposition questions Doug Ford’s reluctance to testify at Emergencies Act inquiry
- Campbell Clark: Doug Ford will do almost anything to avoid answering questions about the emergency in his province
A trucker is led away after leaving his truck as police aim to end an ongoing protest against COVID-19 measures that has grown into a broader anti-government protest, on its 22nd day, in Ottawa, on Feb. 18, 2022.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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Ottawa attaches conditions to Quebecor’s acquisition of Freedom Mobile as part of Rogers-Shaw merger
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne laid out strict conditions under which he would allow Quebecor Inc. to acquire Shaw Communications Inc.’s wireless business, a transaction that could help clear the way for Shaw’s proposed $26-billion merger with Rogers Communications Inc.
He made his comments days before Rogers and Shaw were set to head into mediation with a settlement proposal aimed at resolving the Competition Bureau’s opposition to the merger. The federal body is attempting to block the deal, arguing it would result in higher cellphone bills, poorer service and less choice for consumers.
Ukraine’s Foreign Legion offers a shot at redemption for fighters from around the globe
On his Ukrainian military identification, Robert Semrau looks older and greyer than the last time he served in an army, more than a dozen years ago. But even at age 49, this Canadian with a set jaw and steely gaze was ready to fight.
That, in the end, was all that mattered to the Ukrainian military intelligence officers charged with screening foreigners looking to enlist in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine, an assortment of fighters from around the globe helping to resist the Russian invasion. Mr. Semrau’s controversial background – he was dishonourably discharged from the Canadian military for shooting and killing an injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2008 – apparently didn’t matter to the Ukrainians back in June when Mr. Semrau enlisted.
Current and former members of the International Legion who spoke to The Globe and Mail say Mr. Semrau, who left the Legion last month shortly after The Globe began asking questions about his presence in Ukraine, is representative of what is informally referred to here as “The Zoo” – a motley collection of adventure seekers, criminals, and con artists who have come to Ukraine seeking glory, reinvention, and redemption.
- Accused Russian spy attended University of Calgary
- Russia digging in for ‘heaviest of battles’ in Kherson, Ukraine says
- Eric Reguly: Marshall Plan 2.0 to rebuild Ukraine: Nice idea, shame about the details
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Also on our radar
Interest rate hikes starting to tighten job market, report says: Persistent interest rate hikes are starting to cause Canada to shed jobs, even as certain sectors of the economy continue to experience labour shortages, according to a new report that analyzes the effects of the Bank of Canada’s rate increases on workers.
- Live updates: Bank of Canada expected to deliver sixth consecutive interest rate hike today at 10 a.m. ET
- Freeland stresses Bank of Canada’s independence after NDP’s Jagmeet Singh criticizes rate hikes
- Editorial: Jagmeet Singh thinks he knows why food prices are rising. He’s wrong
- How can younger Canadians prepare for an economic downturn? The Globe answers your questions: Join The Globe and Mail for a live Twitter Space today at 2 p.m. ET with The Globe and Mail’s personal finance writers Rob Carrick and Erica Alini, as well as personal finance expert Melissa Leong. They will answer all of your questions about housing, debt, savings and investing, and will offer advice and tips on how to set and reach your financial goals in today’s economy.
Ontario to cut fees for affordable housing, rental construction: The government of Ontario Premier Doug Ford has introduced sweeping new legislation aimed at speeding up housing construction that will cut fees for affordable and rental projects and spur “gentle density” by allowing three units on any residential lot across the province.
RCMP affidavit alleges wrongdoing around recording of call: RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s media director made and deleted a recording of her calling out her commanding officers in Nova Scotia for failing to publicly release details about guns used during the country’s deadliest mass shooting, a newly released RCMP affidavit has disclosed.
Canadians highly supportive of immigration, new poll finds: Canadians support current immigration levels more than they have in nearly half a century, according to a new poll by the Environics Institute for Survey Research. But even with broad public support, immigrants still face many difficulties once they arrive in Canada, including an underfunded settlement sector to help them find work and access services such as health care and education.
Morning markets
Fed optimism buoys world markets: World stocks scaled a five-week high on Wednesday, lifted by growing hopes that the pace of U.S. interest rate hikes could soon start to slow. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.58 per cent. Germany’s DAX rose 0.28 per cent while France’s CAC 40 was up 0.10 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.67-per-cent higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1 per cent. New York futures were weaker. The Canadian dollar was higher at 73.79 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Marsha Lederman: “[Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s] depiction of journalism as a clickbait endeavour was more than a shot at reporters; it demonstrates a dismissal of a fundamental aspect of democracy – and perhaps more concerning, one she should be intimately familiar with.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Living better
Is inflation affecting travel points and miles?
With travel prices still well above their prepandemic levels, what does that mean for travellers’ hotel points and airline miles? Rewards programs regularly increase award prices, which are the number of points or miles needed to book a hotel night or flight. That practice devalues these currencies over time and renders customers’ collection of points and miles less useful. Yet, interestingly, the opposite effect seems to be happening this year.
Moment in time: Oct. 26, 1984
Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984).Courtesy of Park Circus
The Terminator is released
Is it sci-fi? A slasher film? An action movie? A romance? Yes! Writer-director James Cameron said he came up with the idea for The Terminator in a fever dream, and the film is certainly a delirious mash-up of everything from 1927′s Metropolis, with its flesh-clad android bent on destroying humanity, to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), in which relentless psychopath Michael Myers is on a mission to kill, kill, kill. Like the latter film, Cameron made The Terminator on a shoestring budget, just US$6.4-million, even employing stop-motion animation techniques à la Harryhausen for the special effects. But everything clicked – Cameron would later say that even star Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Austrian accent proved perfect, as it had a “strange synthesized quality,” just what a homicidal cyborg might sound like. The film would go on to earn more than US$78-million at the box office and made Hollywood giants of both Cameron and Schwarzenegger. It would also spawn numerous sequels, each with its own take on the original’s story about a not-too-distant dystopian future – 2029! – in which a sentient AI program tries to wipe out humankind. Those crazy machines – always trying to kill us. – Massimo Commanducci
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