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These are the top stories:
Don Cherry’s firing and the views from our opinion section
Sportsnet dismissed the 85-year-old Hockey Night in Canada mainstay on Remembrance Day over his on-air comments Saturday where he referred to immigrants as “you people” and baselessly accused newcomers of not wearing poppies.
Cathal Kelly says: “In the end, what Cherry really hated – and he hated an awful lot of things – was change. He wanted hockey and Canada to remain just as they had been when he first got to know them.”
Dave Bidini, author of The Best Game You Can Name, reflects on his long defence of Cherry: “The hockey fan – the Don Cherry fan; fans like me – have to ask: Why did it take this long for us to see that which we’d convinced ourselves we’d missed?”
Our editorial board writes: “Instead of falsely lashing out at ‘you people’ for allegedly not wearing the poppy, let’s instead invite all Canadians to consider what it celebrates and grieves, and the pain and sacrifice it remembers. These memories belong to each of us.”
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A former Liberal MP is calling for an urgent fix to a funding ‘hole’ for veterans
Retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie says the Trudeau government must address a funding disparity flagged by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that shows the most severely injured veterans don’t appear to receive the same compensation under a new pension regime.
Trudeau has said that every injured veteran is “better off” under his government’s Pension for Life policy. But the PBO report found about 3 per cent of new entrants would have received about $300,000 more under the old system.
A Veterans Affairs spokesperson said Ottawa is still reviewing the PBO findings.
Kelowna RCMP is promising to examine its high unfounded rate
Police in Kelowna deemed 37 per cent of sexual-assault complaints as unfounded in 2018, a rate three times higher than the national average.
The Kelowna detachment said the B.C. RCMP hasn’t been able to explain the high numbers and requested the national police force’s sex-assault review team to examine its unfounded files. (The “unfounded” designation means the investigating officer didn’t believe a crime occurred.)
Kelowna City Councillor Mohini Singh called the situation “very disturbing on all counts” and said she is looking forward to an explanation from police.
In 2017, The Globe published an investigation that revealed sex-assault complaints were twice as likely to be dismissed as unfounded compared with other assault complaints. That prompted police reforms across Canada, with hundreds of files reopened.
A Montreal gold miner is facing criticism for lax security after a deadly attack in Burkina Faso
An independent monitoring group said it has “concerns about just how safe” the situation was for Semafo’s workers and business partners when assailants carried out bus attacks last week, killing 39 people.
Five buses had been carrying Semafo employees, contractors and suppliers under military escort. But the risk of travel on the road appears to have been underestimated, with local media reporting that an improvised explosive device struck the military vehicle leading the convoy.
There had also been at least two previous attacks on the same road, including one last December that left five dead.
Canadian business leaders are urging Ottawa and Beijing to resolve their dispute
Senior figures in the Canadian corporate establishment gathered for a meeting in Shanghai where they pushed for smoother relations as they seek to advance business interests in China.
“Citizens from both countries have been detained. Canadians strongly wish to see their citizens come home safely and be reunited with their families. The Chinese people also wish to see the same,” said Olivier Desmarais, senior vice-president at Power Corp. and chair of the Canada China Business Council.
In Hong Kong, leader Carrie Lam said protesters are trying to paralyze the city and called them selfish. She also called on universities to encourage students not to participate in violence on the same day riot police fired tear gas at one campus. Some classes were cancelled as students hurled petrol bombs on some university grounds.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Australia is bracing for catastrophic bushfires: Emergency warnings have been issued for millions across two states, including the Sydney area. Bushfires are a common threat in Australia, but the current outbreak comes weeks before the summer peak and has prompted a “catastrophic fire danger” designation in smoke-covered Sydney.
The shell of a vintage car burnt in an Australian bushfire. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)Brook_Mitchell/Getty Images
Drug-resistant infections could alter quality of life: Drug-resistant superbugs currently cause an average of 14 deaths a day across Canada, but that figure could double by 2050 if current trends continue, according to a new report. The threat in terms of human and economic cost might be second only to climate change, the lead author said.
White Helmets co-founder found dead in Turkey: James Le Mesurier, who launched the group that rescued victims of Syria’s civil war, was found dead outside his Istanbul apartment. Turkish police have opened an investigation. Russia – whose forces still treat White Helmets teams as military targets – recently accused him of being a British spy with al-Qaeda connections.
Uber CEO backtracks on Khashoggi comments: Dara Khosrowshahi retreated from interview remarks where he described the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a “mistake” akin to the accidental death of a woman hit by a self-driving car. Saudi Arabia is Uber’s fifth-largest shareholder.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks seek enlightenment from Trump on trade: World shares inched higher on Tuesday as investors awaited a speech by President Donald Trump on U.S. trade policy and on news he was likely to delay a decision on European auto tariffs. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.5 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent by about 4:45 a.m. ET. New York futures were up, though by less than 0.1 per cent. The Canadian dollar was at about 75.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
A plea to leave poor Andrew Scheer alone
Robyn Urback: “Perhaps we should cut the guy – who has been a politician the majority of his adult life – a break. He has only had about a dozen opportunities to find a satisfactory line about his position on same-sex marriage – including during the election campaign and after last week’s Conservative caucus meeting.”
In new minority reality, unprecedented opportunities await Canada’s Senate
Hugh Segal: “Yes, we have had minority governments before. But we have never had one concurrent with a Senate whose largest group of senators are neither Liberal nor Conservative – the parties that have historically formed governments over Canadian history.” Hugh Segal is a former Conservative senator.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)brian gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Year-end tax tips to help employees keep more money in their pockets
Defer some income: If you expect your marginal tax rate to be less in 2020, see if you could have a bonus or other taxable amounts deferred to the new year.
Negotiate a home office: If you are able to sell your employer on working from home more than half the time, you’ll be able to deduct some costs.
Ask for courses: Ask your employer to pay for job-related courses – which are a tax-free benefit to you – potentially in lieu of additional taxable compensation.
Go here for more tips.
MOMENT IN TIME
First performance by Canada’s National Ballet
Celia Franca, centre, performs alongside other National Ballet dancers in 1951. (John Grange/National Ballet of Canada Archives)John Grange/Courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada Archives
Nov. 12, 1951: Celia Franca was only 29 years old when she left the flourishing British ballet to form a national company in Canada, a relative dance wilderness. Many were skeptical. Her friends in Britain, knowing her skill as a dancer and artistic director, thought she was daft. In Canada, she was greeted with mistrust and a cold shoulder. Despite the challenges, she persevered and, eight months after she arrived in this country, The National Ballet of Canada made its debut with three performances in the Eaton Auditorium. Critics applauded, while Franca – a perfectionist with a sharp tongue – declared it “bloody awful.” Gradually, the naysayers quieted and Franca laid the foundation for what would go on to become a ballet company of international repute. She and Toronto teacher Betty Oliphant founded the National Ballet School of Canada in 1959 to provide trained dancers for the company and, a little more than a decade later, it was the only classical ballet company to be invited to perform at Expo ‘70 in Osaka, Japan. Today, its repertoire includes works by some of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century masters, such as Rudolf Nureyev, John Neumeier, William Forsythe and James Kudelka. – Gayle MacDonald
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