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These are the top stories:
Justin Trudeau has admitted to wearing brownface and blackface in two incidents
The Liberal Leader confirmed that he wore brownface in 2001 after Time magazine published a yearbook photograph of him at an Arabian Nights-themed party. He also admitted that he wore “makeup” in high school when he performed the Jamaican folk tune Banana Boat Song.
Justin Trudeau says he regrets wearing racist makeup when attending Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, a private high school in Montreal.Supplied
Acknowledging the 2001 photo, Trudeau said: “I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better but I didn’t and I’m really sorry. I didn’t consider it a racist action at the time but now we know better. And this was something that was unacceptable and, yes, racist."
Trudeau refused to resign over the incident that occurred when he taught at a private high school in Vancouver.
He also suggested that public perceptions have changed since 2001. But El Jones, a lecturer at Saint Mary’s University, called that assertion “ludicrous” and noted “people who are affected by it have been well aware for centuries.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said dressing up in blackface or brownface makes a “mockery” of racialized people who, because of the colour of their skin, “face challenges and barriers and obstacles in their life.”
John Ibbitson writes that the offence was not just the makeup, but also Trudeau’s 18 years of silence: “All those years, when he could have told us himself, he didn’t. That is what he should be ashamed of. That is what voters need to think about.”
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A vaping-related illness has emerged in Canada, with reports of other possible cases
Canada’s first case of lung illness linked to vaping was confirmed in London, Ont., where a high-school student was put on life support in an intensive care unit. The student has since recovered and is at home.
Toronto Public Health has also received reports of possible cases in recent weeks; Health Canada said it has been informed of two potential cases that it is investigating.
Canadian health experts are urging regulators to follow in the footsteps of U.S. officials and impose restrictions on the sale and consumption products. An outbreak in the U.S. has resulted in at least seven deaths and hundreds of cases of sickness.
A B.C. woman has dropped her court challenge after learning she qualifies for an assisted death
"I feared a future where I was trapped in pain and forceful suffering as my disease would continuously progress, but not kill me. Now that all-familiar shadow has lifted,” Julia Lamb, 28, said, putting an end to her three-year constitutional challenge.
Lamb has spinal muscular atrophy, which requires her to use a wheelchair and receive nearly around-the-clock care. Her case was scheduled to go to trial in November, but then the federal government’s medical expert said if Lamb stopped using a ventilator she would eventually meet the reasonably foreseeable death requirement.
The outcome, reports Kelly Grant, highlights how the application of the assisted-dying law is evolving through the front lines of medicine, and not just the courts.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Cameron Ortis declined to co-operate with RCMP: Government officials told The Globe that RCMP investigators were not able to engage Ortis in meaningful exchanges after his arrest and before laying charges. The Mounties are still working to determine the scope of the alleged security breach.
EU officials toughen Brexit rhetoric: “Some three years after the Brexit referendum, we should not be pretending to negotiate,” said Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator. Barnier and the European Commission President say no progress has been made on key issues, including the Irish backstop.
Humberto hits Bermuda: Weeks after Dorian, the powerful winds of Hurricane Humberto rushed past Bermuda, lashing the British Atlantic territory with powerful winds for hours before beginning to move away early Thursday, as new Hurricane Lorena swirled in the Pacific posing a threat to resorts on Mexico’s southwestern coast.
Canadian students ready for major climate strikes: The University of British Columbia, the Toronto District School Board and Concordia University are among the institutions taking measures to support students who plan to walk out of class next Friday, Sept. 27, as part of a global call to action.
MORNING MARKETS
World shares inch higher after Fed cut, BOJ keeps powder dry: A positive start in Europe nudged the main world share indexes and bond yields higher on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s second interest rate cut of the year while Japan and others kept their limited remaining powder dry. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.27 per cent around 5:15 a.m. Germany’s DAX gained 0.40 per cent. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.62. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index finished up 0.46 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.38 per cent. U.S. stock futures were slightly lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 75.28 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Remembering Graeme Gibson, author and co-founder of Writers’ Trust of Canada
Brad Wheeler: “Though he was a celebrated author who was the partner of perhaps the most successful novelist in the history of Canadian literature, Graeme Gibson, who has died at 85, was passionate in his belief that no writers should be privileged over another.”
Deliver us from the evils of delivery
Denise Balkissoon: “An explosion in delivery isn’t just hurting restaurateurs. The expectation that just about anything can be brought right to our doors, right now, has also created a class of exploited workers, including time-crunched drivers whose stress can lead to fatal collisions.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Rising house, gas prices highlight how powerless politicians are to make life more affordable
Federal leaders have been pledging a number of different tax breaks to put money back in your pocket. But Rob Carrick writes that real life has a way of absorbing affordability measures: “Enjoy any bump in income you get from programs like these, because it will almost certainly be temporary. All it takes is a flare-up in the Middle East or a rise in home prices. You know, stuff that’s happening as we speak.”
MOMENT IN TIME
Keats writes ode To Autumn
Poet John Keats is pictured in this painting by Joseph Severn. (Keats House/Bridgeman Images)Keats House / Bridgeman Images
Sept. 19, 1819: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun … So begins John Keats’s three-stanza poem To Autumn, written on a quiet September evening in 1819 after the 23-year-old returned from a solitary country walk. In the spring of that year, he had penned the other five of his “great odes” – Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn among them – which would eventually secure his literary immortality. But 1819 was a year of ups and downs for the poet. On the positive side, his creativity was at its peak and he also became engaged to Fanny Brawne, his beloved. But the former London medical student, still smarting from savage reviews of his earlier work, was beset by mounting financial problems, bouts of depression and the earliest symptoms of the tuberculosis that would kill him in Rome less than a year and a half later, in 1821. Keats published To Autumn in 1820 and in the years after his death it would become one of the most universally acclaimed poems in the English language, and one of the most widely anthologized. It was also one of the last poems he ever wrote. – Christopher Harris
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