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These are the top stories:
Thunder Bay's schools join others across Canada in updating English curriculums
The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board has overhauled its compulsory Grade 11 English class, swapping Shakespeare’s Hamlet for Indigenous stories like Rita Joe’s poem I Lost My Talk and Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse.
Teacher John Power says the course “is an opportunity to tell a different story, a story that’s really important in our country and especially in Thunder Bay.”
The classroom changes come as the city looks to address long-standing struggles with systemic racism and reconciliation with Indigenous people. And it includes financial assistance from the province, which offers more funding to school boards that offer courses on Indigenous issues.
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China’s new moral guide for citizens elevates Xi Jinping over Mao Zedong
The Communist Party’s new definition of a model citizen emphasizes national pride, traditional virtue and allegiance to the President. It strips away references to past leaders, including Mao, as it defines the “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”
Correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reports that the document sends a message that China has no plans to loosen its grip on its citizens’ public and private lives.
Meanwhile, the country’s embassy in Ottawa is pointing to Canadian military participation in a Chinese sports competition as more proof China isn’t losing global support.
A B.C. court ruling has put the province’s surplus budget at risk
Finance Minister Carole James said a projected surplus of $179-million is in jeopardy after the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled that a measure to rein in costs at the Crown insurance corporation was unconstitutional. The province had expected $400-million in savings over a decade.
And two other court challenges on the ICBC front could deal a further blow to B.C.’s coffers: The Trial Lawyers of B.C. is fighting changes that cap payments for minor injuries as well as the way small settlement cases are resolved. Those measures have been projected to reduce the agency’s expenses by $1-billion a year.
Provincial coverage of costly eye drops has exposed a loophole in drug-price controls
Ontario has begun covering $100,000-a-year eye drops for an ultra-rare disease – and other provinces are expected to follow suit.
Despite the hefty taxpayer expense, the Italian company behind the drops is escaping scrutiny because it declined to apply for a Canadian patent. That leaves the federal regulator powerless to take action.
What’s more, hospital pharmacies used to make a version of these eye drops in house for a few thousand dollars a year.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Another push for an early British election: Prime Minister Boris Johnson is hoping to pass a bill today that would amend the country’s elections act to call an early vote. Approving this bill would only require a standard majority in Parliament, instead of the two-thirds support he has failed to get on other measures.
Fires force L.A. residents from homes: Thousands of wealthy Los Angeles residents were forced to flee, with the city’s famed Getty Centre museum at risk. Another major fire continues to burn north of San Francisco.
Key player in Bre-X scandal dies: Geologist John Felderhof was the vice-president of exploration when the tiny Canadian mining company said it found a massive gold deposit in Indonesia in the 1990s. After the claim was exposed as bogus, the company collapsed. Felderhof was 79.
Ford deletes ‘Scheer Must Go’ retweet: The official account for the Ontario Premier retweeted a missive from an organization advocating for Andrew Scheer’s ouster as Conservative Leader. But the retweet was then deleted, with a source saying it was an accident. Ford didn’t campaign with Scheer and kept a low profile during the federal election.
MORNING MARKETS
World shares mixed after S&P 500 hits record high: Shares were lower in Europe on Tuesday after a mixed session in Asia, where Chinese benchmarks declined after Hong Kong’s leader warned political protests may push the territory into recession. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.5 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite shed 0.9 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.2 and 0.5 per cent by about 4:30 a.m. ET. New York futures were down. The Canadian dollar was above 76.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
The federal parties embarrassed themselves over Bill 21 during the election. Can they change?
Globe editorial: “The victims of Bill 21 don’t need a friend who only shows up in court, many years too late. What they need is for those who sit in Parliament to acknowledge that something ugly and unjust is happening right now in Quebec, and to find the political courage to stand up to a law that all can see is discriminatory.”
The targeting of other women shows Meghan Murphy is no feminist
Denise Balkissoon: “On Tuesday evening, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) will host a talk by the self-declared feminist Meghan Murphy. Based in Vancouver, Murphy has earned notoriety through her blog, Feminist Current, on which she regularly declares who is and is not an adult woman with the right to define their own life.”
Lilly Singh’s late-night show A Little Late is also a little light
Johanna Schneller: “I want to see Singh become a true disruptor: Invite people to a party, but send them home with something to think about. Don’t just say you’re different from late-night hosts – be different. North American culture is more than a little late in elevating people like Singh to a top job. Which is why A Little Late shouldn’t squander its chance to be a lot more.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Two Mexico vacation options
Once considered a cheesy party destination, Los Cabos is undergoing a reinvention. A series of investments in hotels coupled with an emphasis on top-notch food and design offer up a different kind of sun getaway.
Visiting the Mayan ruins provides a chance to not only gain historical perspective, but also learn about contemporary forms of Mayan spirituality.
MOMENT IN TIME
First message sent between two computers
(Fred Prouser/Reuters)Fred Prouser/Reuters
Oct. 29, 1969: “Decidedly down to earth.” That’s how Leonard Kleinrock described one of the most important accomplishments in the internet’s history. The professor was part of a team that first connected computers commissioned by the United States government, part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). It was those machines that were part of a breakthrough 50 years ago: the first message sent between two computers. The message was meant to say “LOGIN," but Charley Kline, a grad student at the University of California, Los Angeles, photographed above in 2011, only got as far as “LO” before the devices crashed. Still, the transmission of those two letters was a precursor to the internet we know today. In the 1960s, a few hundred users could have accounts and exchange messages and files on a single computer. But before that night at UCLA, each of these communities was isolated from the other. As for Kleinrock’s description of the moment, he explained it by saying ARPANET was "not, in itself, some kind of secret weapon to put the Soviets in their place: It was simply a way to enable researchers to access computers remotely, because computers were still vast and expensive, and the scientists needed a way to share resources.” – Carine Abouseif
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