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These are the top stories:
Two major cases are before Canadian courts this week
Refugee advocates are in Federal Court to argue that Canada must change its asylum-seeker policies because the U.S. is no longer a safe country for refugees. And at the Supreme Court of Canada, a case put forward by an UberEats driver could have implications for the gig economy.
The refugee case will see a group take on the federal government in the first major legal challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement. Amnesty International and others want Ottawa to allow asylum seekers to enter at official border crossings without being turned away. Right now, thousands have resorted to a loophole where they cross at unofficial entry points.
The Uber case is rooted in the debate of whether Uber drivers are employees or, as the company insists, independent contractors. But the Supreme Court hearing is a first step in this discussion; the case will examine a clause in Uber’s driver agreement that forces workers to settle disputes via private arbitration rather than lawsuits in public courts.
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Teens who seek help for self-harm are at a higher risk for suicide, an Ontario study shows
Those who visited emergency departments for self-harm were eight times more likely to die by suicide than teens who went to the ER for other reasons. The findings have the study’s authors calling for improvements to followup care and screenings for suicide risk.
The number of Ontario teens who seek help for self-harm has doubled in a decade, part of a global trend echoed in the U.S., Britain and Australia. Last week, Instagram said it was increasing efforts to remove photos of self-harm posted by app users.
One country that could show the way on solutions is Denmark, which has seen a decline in youth self-harm. The Danish health-care system includes a wide network of suicide treatment centres as well as restrictions on the sale of painkillers.
A police officer’s conviction is putting a focus on drug-abuse stereotypes
London, Ont., Constable Nicholas Doering was convicted on two charges, including criminal negligence causing death, for failing to help a dying woman in his custody. The rare conviction, which could be the first of its kind, will break new legal ground when a sentence is issued in the coming weeks.
Debralee Chrisjohn, a 39-year-old Indigenous woman, died of a heart attack brought on by methamphetamine use.
Doering had testified that he believed Chrisjohn just needed to “ride out the high.” In her ruling, the judge wrote that Doering “viewed everything, including signs of medical distress, as nothing more than the stereotypical conduct of a drug user.”
The Sahotas are pushing back against Vancouver’s plan to expropriate two rundown buildings
A lawyer for the family says the Sahotas have received offers of up to $25-million on two hotels that city staffers have recommended expropriating for $1 each.
The independent $1 appraisals, which comes as the city seeks to take hold of the properties it closed in 2018 over health and safety concerns, take into account renovation or demolition costs.
But lawyer Evan Cooke said the appraisals are based on unrealistic cost estimates, adding that the buildings could be renovated at a much lower price.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Saskatchewan’s consumer-debt crisis: The percentage of residential mortgages that are delinquent in the province has tripled over five years to 0.86 per cent – the highest rate in Canada. Mortgage-foreclosure notices and home-sale cancellations have also skyrocketed.
McDonald’s ousts CEO: Steve Easterbrook was dismissed from his role as head of the fast-food chain over a consensual relationship with an employee that he acknowledged violated company policy. Easterbrook also gave up his board seat.
Pollution chokes New Delhi: Air quality in India’s capital reached its worst levels so far this year, in turn prompting school closings and flight diversions over high smog levels. Anything above 500 on the air-quality index is considered “severe-plus;” Delhi air exceeded 900.
Vancouver’s otter vs. koi tale, the sequel: The city has removed dozens of fish from the pond inside a Chinatown garden after another otter attack. This time, the koi rescue was swift: “We didn’t understand how quickly an otter can act,” a city official said, recalling last year’s incident.
MORNING MARKETS
Trade deal hopes boost stocks as recession fears recede: World shares touched a 21-month high on Monday on signs that the United States and China could soon put an end to a damaging trade war as well as indications that the world may yet dodge an economic recession. Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.7 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.6 and 0.9 per cent by about 4:45 a.m. ET. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was hovering at about 76 US cents.
Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition looks at tax-loss selling, a high-yield green stock and Encana’s puzzling name change.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Restorative justice lets sexual-assault survivors take back their power
Natasha Comeau: “failures of the criminal justice system explain why sexual abuse is the only category of violence in Canada that has not declined in the past two decades. It also explains why victims are seeking alternatives to a system in which they lack confidence.” Natasha Comeau is a global journalism fellow in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Don’t blame Ottawa for Encana’s loss
Globe editorial: “Encana started with a lot of advantages, including a resource base given to it by government. The fact that the stock has lost roughly 90 per cent of its value since 2008, including a share price cut in half over the past year, is partly about weak global energy prices. But it’s even more the result of poor corporate decisions.”
Will backbench MPs seize the power of a minority Parliament?
Campbell Clark: “A minority Parliament should be a golden opportunity for backbench MPs from all parties to reduce the power of the party whip – but usually the opposite happens and discipline is tightened.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(David Parkins/The Globe and Mail)David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
The next selection in The Globe Book Club
Two-time Giller Prize-winner Esi Edugyan has picked Jacqueline Baker’s “deliciously creepy” The Broken Hours as the next title in our book club for Globe subscribers. The 2014 novel imagines the last year of H.P. Lovecraft’s life, from the perspective of a fictional character.
Go here to learn more about how you can participate, including a free subscribers event in Vancouver later this month.
MOMENT IN TIME
Breaching the Berlin Wall, 1989
For more than 100 years, photographers have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
(Reuters)Reuters
"I’ve never seen such euphoria, before or since,” said former East German border guard Harald Jager, years after he made the historic decision – against orders – to breach the Berlin Wall. In the fall of 1989, protests calling for reform were erupting across Soviet bloc countries, including East Germany. Then, on Nov. 9, in a television interview, a confused member of the country’s ruling party said that East Germans could cross to the West immediately. By late evening, a crowd of more than 20,000 were chanting “Open the Gate!” at Jager’s post. Fearing a stampede or worse, he let the crowd (including a young Angela Merkel) through. And with that, the most potent symbol of the Cold War transformed into an international celebration, one that still resonates even though the Wall has now been gone longer than it stood. – Alison Gzowski
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