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These are the top stories:
Conservatives join forces with oil executives ahead of federal election
High-profile Conservative politicians met with some of Calgary’s most prominent business leaders earlier this month for an all-day strategy session. The agenda: Map out a plan to win voters away from Justin Trudeau’s Liberals ahead of the fall’s federal election.
The closed-door event, organized by a pro-oil advocacy group called the Modern Miracle Network, included sessions such as using “litigation as a tool” to silence environmental critics and a panel called “Paths to federal election victory” led by an executive at polling firm Ipsos Public Affairs, according to a copy of the confidential agenda obtained by The Globe and Mail. Federal Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer delivered a keynote address, the document showed.
Supporters of the oil and gas industry have been energized by the election of Alberta premier-designate Jason Kenney, whose United Conservative Party won a majority last week after a populist campaign that stoked industry grievances and included a hard-line pledge to sue environmental critics, cut corporate taxes and roll back policies aimed at combatting climate change. Some hope those same tactics can deliver a federal Conservative triumph in the general election. (For subscribers)
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Wilson-Raybould takes aim at Liberals’ record on Indigenous reconciliation
The Trudeau government wants to “manage the problem” of Indigenous issues rather than do the difficult work required to make significant changes, former Liberal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says.
The former attorney-general and justice minister made the remarks in a keynote address Wednesday at a gathering of First Nations leaders in Richmond, B.C. The government has fallen into a pattern of making “incremental and limited shifts rather than transforming the status quo,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould said. Indigenous Canadians will remain vigilant on the issue of policies vital to the community in such areas as justice and self-government, she said, and work to ensure their voices are heard.
The Trudeau Liberals, for their part, say they are still hearing support from Indigenous people and leaders. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett has said she continues to hear “very positive” feedback.
Video of Indigenous teen’s arrest sparks outrage
An Ontario Provincial Police officer tried to arrest a drunk 16-year-old on Tuesday, in Sioux Lookout, Ont., according to a police statement. The teen resisted, was charged with three counts of assault and held in custody. What the press release failed to say, however, was that a video of the encounter suggesting a different view of events had been posted online.
Facebook warns investors it could face $5-billion FTC fine for expected privacy violations
Facebook said on Wednesday that it expected to be fined up to US$5-billion by the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations, in what would be a record penalty by the agency against a technology company.
The social network disclosed the amount in its quarterly financial results, saying it estimated a one-time charge of US$3-billion to US$5-billion in connection with an “ongoing inquiry” by the trade commission. Facebook added that “the matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome.”
How Shopify made Kylie Jenner rich(er)
Forbes magazine called Kylie Jenner “the world’s youngest self-made millionaire.” Yet it’s hard to imagine Ms. Jenner joining the seven-figure earners’ club without the made-in-Canada e-commerce platform that provided the venue for her to establish her makeup business. Read the latest company profile from Report on Business magazine’s Top 1000 package.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Owners of homes and cottages in the southern region of New Brunswick were suffering déjà vu Wednesday with the province shuttering local roads and a portion of the Trans-Canada Highway as it braced for yet another round of record flooding. In Quebec, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited an evacuation centre in the hard-hit Gatineau area. He linked the floods to climate change and said Canadians need to adapt to the new reality.
Sri Lankan capital city Colombo remained rattled Wednesday by reports that police were continuing to conduct controlled detonations of suspicious items three days after bombings at churches and luxury hotels, and the U.S. ambassador said that Washington believes “the terrorist plotting is ongoing.” The country’s President also shook up its top security establishment after officials had failed to act on intelligence reports warning of possible attacks before the Easter Sunday blasts that killed more than 350 people, his office said.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks mixed
Global equity markets slipped on Thursday amid worries on global growth and as investors digested European earnings, while the Swedish crown slumped to its lowest in 17 years and the euro suffered after German data. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.5 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite tumbled 2.4 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.1 and 0.3 per cent by about 6:55 a.m. ET. New York futures were down. The Canadian dollar is at 74.01 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
The Liberals’ CMHC mortgage madness is another subprime crisis waiting to happen
Rita Trichur: “Have you heard about Cammy the Mortgage Closer?” Under the CMHC First-Time Home Buyer Incentive announced by Finance Minister Bill Morneau in his March budget, the federal agency will share the cost of buying your first home in exchange for an ownership stake. “If this offer sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. This is a subprime lending plan that ought to raise red flags with taxpayers, who backstop the CMHC.” (From Report on Business magazine, for subscribers)
Polarized politics could shatter Canada’s fragile ‘virtuous cycle’ of immigration
Andrew Steele: “Any party using immigration as a political cudgel threatens the Canadian exceptionalism that allows us to enjoy peaceful diversity. Instead, parties need to compete to address the economic anxieties and sense of powerlessness of all Canadians who are struggling in our globalized world.”
Death, taxes and flooding:
Glenn McGillivray: “Almost 40 per cent of the 837 natural disasters listed in the Canadian Disaster Database (1900 to 2019) are flood. What’s more, damage from flood is the most common expense picked up by provincial/territorial and federal disaster assistance programs. From 2005 to 2014, floods caused about $12.5-billion in direct damages across the country. As a result, the federal government transferred $3.5-billion to the provinces through its program. The current flooding situation in parts of Ottawa, Gatineau, Montreal, Fredericton and elsewhere is déjà-vu, but it isn’t unexpected.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
The nuts (and bolts) of alternative milks – and how to make your own
Nut milk is so healthy for you because it is high in natural fibre, fats and minerals, all of which are helpful with digestion. But, much of the processed non-dairy milk you buy at the store is pasteurized and contains preservatives to increase shelf life, says Lauren Elbe. So Ms. Elbe makes milk herself. Here is her recipe for hazelnut milk that Lina Caschetto writes will make you wonder why you ever wanted the store-bought stuff. (for subscribers)
MOMENT IN TIME
B-24 bomber crashes in Montreal, killing 15
Peel Street in Montreal after a Royal Air Force Liberator B Mark VI crashed into the Griffintown neighbourhood in downtown Montreal, Quebec minutes after taking off from Dorval Airport in 1944. (Roger Champoux/Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)Roger Champoux/Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
April 25 1944: The Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber took off from Montreal’s Dorval Airport at 10:24 a.m. on a rainy spring day. Among the crew tasked with ferrying a new aircraft to England was navigator Flight-Lieutenant Adolf-Jan Nowicki, an experienced veteran of 40 bombing missions over Germany. The flight barely cleared Mont-Royal and lasted just six minutes. As the plane whizzed past the Sun Life Building, witnesses described pieces coming off the tail. Investigators concluded the flight crew was trying to ditch the broken plane in the St. Lawrence River. In Montreal’s Irish working class neighbourhood of Griffintown, 19-year-old Elizabeth Wells and her two-year-old son, James Jr., were home on Shannon Street when the 25-ton aircraft carrying 9,000 litres of fuel crashed. They died, along with eight other Montrealers and all five crew. James Wells Sr. ran home from work to look for his wife and son. “They may find her and little Jimmy any minute,” he was reported as saying. Mr. Wells died in 2012 at the age of 91. He was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery on the flank of Mont-Royal alongside Mrs. Wells and little Jimmy Jr., 68 years after they were laid to rest. - Les Perreaux
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