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These are the top stories:
Conservatives promise to cut foreign aid by 25 per cent, focus on poorest countries
A platform policy document provided by the Conservatives to The Globe and Mail recommends reducing Canada’s annual foreign-aid budget of about $6-billion by 25 per cent, or $1.5-billion, in an effort to fund the party’s promised domestic tax credits and a universal tax cut. The document also suggests redirecting $700-million to countries it says “need it most," listing sub-Saharan African countries, Afghanistan and Haiti as examples. The proposals are to be included in Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s platform and he is expected to raise the measures on Tuesday as a part of an announcement on foreign affairs. The policy document, which was prepared for Mr. Scheer in August, proposes the Conservatives find the $1.5-billion reduction by cutting foreign-aid to high and middle-income countries.
Catch up on the campaign trail:
- Doctors at Liberal event urge Trudeau to strengthen gun laws: Also on the campaign trail, the Conservatives promise changes to disability tax credit, the NDP makes a childcare announcement before campaigning in Vancouver, where the Greens were also campaigning Monday.
- Opinion (John Ibbitson): If current polling numbers hold, we will have a minority government in for a rough time
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Inquiry finds Indigenous people in Quebec are subject to widespread systemic discrimination
A judicial inquiry has concluded Indigenous people are the victims of systemic discrimination in Quebec – a finding that forced Premier François Legault to abandon his long-standing contention that systemic racism does not exist in the province. Retired Superior Court judge Jacques Viens delivered the report on Monday after an 18-month examination of Indigenous people’s interactions with matters that often fall under provincial jurisdiction, including police, corrections, the justice system, health, education, social services and youth protection.
Meanwhile, on Orange Shirt Day, names of 2,800 children who died in residential schools were presented publicly for the first time on a scarlet banner at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. The National Residential School Student Death Register is a permanent reminder of fatalities as a result of the government-funded education program that spanned more than 100 years and forcibly removed more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their families. A list with the names was presented on a 50-metre-long cloth, and is part of one of the 94 calls to action in 2015′s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
- Canada’s residential schools were houses of pain, but survivors want these buildings to be saved
- ‘I have no apology for genocide’: Artist AA Bronson reckons with his family’s history in latest work
Trump pressed Australian leader to help William Barr investigate Mueller inquiry’s origins
President Donald Trump recently asked the Australian Prime Minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney-General William Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe that shadowed his administration for more than two years, the Justice Department said Monday. The revelation underscores the extent to which Trump remains consumed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and the ways in which he has used the apparatus of the United States government to investigate what he believes are its politically motivated origins. It also highlights Barr’s hands-on role in leading that investigation, including travelling overseas for personal meetings with foreign law-enforcement officials. The Justice Department has denied Barr had any knowledge that Trump encouraged Ukraine to work with him on a separate investigation into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
- Mike Pompeo was on Trump-Ukraine call, officials say
- U.S. House subpoenas Trump lawyer Giuliani for Ukraine records
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Hong Kong protesters use China’s National Day as a new chance to demand action: Tens of thousands of black-clad protesters marched in Hong Kong on Tuesday in multiple pro-democracy rallies urging China’s Communist Party to “return power to the people” as the party celebrated its 70th year in power.
In Ontario’s 905 region, parties try to swing suburbia to their side: Fighting for some of the most electorally important seats in Canada, the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are trying to make sure their path to victory is clear in the 905 belt.
Piranhas found in B.C. lake likely unwanted pets: The provincial Conservation Officer Service says in a Facebook post that the tropical fish with sharp teeth can’t survive winter climates.
Scotiabank Giller prize shortlist includes two Newfoundland authors and three who live in British Columbia: The shortlist for Canada’s richest and glitziest fiction prize was announced in Toronto on Monday.
Crown accuses Meng’s legal team of engaging in a ‘fishing expedition’ for documents: Crown prosecutors say they have gone “above and beyond” in providing documents and information to the legal team for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, which is seeking additional disclosure to show that Canadian authorities conspired to conduct a “covert criminal investigation” during her Dec. 1 arrest.
MORNING MARKETS
U.S. dollar powers to 29-month high: The U.S. dollar bulldozed almost everything in its path on its way to a 29-month high on Tuesday, as a blizzard of soft global data left the U.S. economy as the only one still looking in reasonable health. European stocks and the euro both suffered shaky starts as euro zone manufacturing data showed the sharpest contraction in almost seven years. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.59 per cent. Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.09 per cent just after 5:30 a.m. ET. Germany’s DAX lost 0.03 per cent and France’s CAC 40 was off 0.09 per cent. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 75.34 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
It works! (Sort of). What Canada can learn from B.C.'s carbon tax
Editorial: “But B.C. shows that a relatively low carbon tax cannot, by itself, propel Canada to the achievement of its Paris Agreement promises. It’s a key part of the solution, but not the whole solution.”
Electric vehicles are in the driver’s seat now and the oil industry is running out of fuel
Tyler Hamilton: “In other words, the drone strike in Saudi Arabia merely exposed what we already knew was there – the vulnerable underbelly of a dinosaur industry that, in the age of electric transportation, is looking increasingly like a sitting duck.”
Happy birthday to China – and its revisionist history
Frank Ching: "Banning media and classroom discussion of historical mistakes made by the party, as [Xi Jinping] has done, is not the way to prevent future mistakes.” Ching is a Hong Kong-based journalist.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
While most modern homes, and the appliances therein, look nothing like they would have at the beginning of the 20th-century – a time before open-concept was a concept at all, let alone other mod-cons such as microwaves and robot vacuums – the bathroom has barely changed. Toilet design has changed little since the Victorian era. Matthew Hague reports on the innovators who won’t take this sitting down.
MOMENT IN TIME
Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images
Oct. 1, 1992
Sufferin’ succotash! Had Ted Turner lost his mind? The media visionary, who had defied conventional wisdom with his all-news channel CNN in 1980, was now risking his reputation on a channel filled with nothing but cartoons. Heavens to murgatroyd! Despite portents of doom, on Oct. 1, 1992, Droopy Dog coughed out an introduction, and the channel launched with Bugs Bunny’s 1946 short Rhapsody Rabbit. This cross-studio combination immediately showcased the breadth of the animation libraries at Turner’s disposal – where else could a fan watch dozens of animated stars, including the Flintstones, Popeye, Jonny Quest and Tom and Jerry, all teamed up in one place? Suddenly it was Saturday morning all day, every day. Indeed, the Cartoon Network quickly proved its naysayers wrong, becoming one of the most-watched cable channels in the United States and proving once again that Turner was smarter than the av-er-age bear. Frustratingly for animation fans in Canada, however, the channel was unavailable north of the border, forcing us to do nothing but read about the channel with envy. Zoinks! Relief arrived, however, in the fall of 1997, with the launch of Teletoon, at last allowing us equal animated enjoyment. Th-th-th-that’s all, folks. — Ken Carriere
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