Canada's Patrick Chan performs his short program in the men's portion of the figure skating team competition at the Pyeonchang Winter Olympics Friday, February 9, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
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These are the top stories:
Colten Boushie's mother is heading to Ottawa to demand justice
Thousands of people protested in cities across Canada on the weekend after Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley was acquitted in the 2016 shooting death of Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man. Now, Debbie Baptiste is set to call on Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and other ministers to end peremptory challenges, a mechanism that was used in Stanley's trial to block anyone who looked Indigenous from serving on the jury. "This racism is dividing us," Baptiste said. Wilson-Raybould has already taken the rare step of commenting on a criminal case, saying "Canada can and must do better."
Criminal lawyer David Butt argues that "Our justice system, by permitting a jury without an Indigenous member to decide an obviously racially charged case, has let down not just Indigenous people, but all of us."
And University of Saskatchewan law professor Michael Plaxton writes that "It's easy to explain why the jury acquitted Gerald Stanley of second-degree murder: It concluded that there was no intention to fire his weapon at the occupants inside the SUV. It is trickier to explain why it acquitted the defendant of manslaughter."
Olympics 2018
Chan finally finds Olympic gold as Canada's figure skating team reaches top of podium
The first gold medal always feels like the hardest to win. But while Canada had to wait only until the third day of competition at the Olympics, Patrick Chan has been waiting his entire career. Now, he can call himself a gold medalist, after Canada closed out the team figure-skating event by shutting down the Russian team like they couldn't in 2014. Chan, who is now 27 and skating in his final Olympics, said the victory felt extra satisfying knowing the long program he skated Monday was crucial to the win, finishing first in his event. It was Canada's fifth medal of the Olympics.
Elsewhere on the Olympics front:
Canada's Laurie Blouin may have won a silver medal in the women's slopestyle event - and earned it - but the high winds and white-out conditions the athletes had to compete in were careless and a new kind of unfair at the Olympics. Blouin overcame the tumultuous conditions to nail a clean second run for 76.33 points. Fellow Canadian Spencer O'Brien, who was looking for redemption from Sochi four years ago, stopped her run just short of a jump because the conditions became too dangerous.
Max Parrot and Mark McMorris were Canada's first two medals of the Pyeongchang Olympics, finishing second and third, respectively, in the men's slopestyle event this weekend. Eleven months ago, McMorris was in a near-fatal accident that left him with a broken jaw, arm, pelvis and ribs, a ruptured spleen and a collapsed lung, but the 24 year old was on a hunt for another medal. He finished third off the strength of a solid second run. Parrot cleaned up his run after falling in his first two attempts to jump ahead of his teammate for the silver medal.
Justine Dufour-Lapointe just missed making Olympic history, but a confident run of 78.56 earned her a silver medal in women's moguls. After getting a gold medal four years ago in Sochi, Dufour-Lapointe was looking to be the first woman to defend an Olympic moguls title. But France's Perrine Laffont bumped her out of top spot with a score of 78.65. Dufour-Lapointe won gold in 2014 with her sister Chloe finishing second. Chloe finished 17th in Pyeongchang.
Medal count (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Total)
Germany: 4, 0, 1, 5
Netherlands: 2, 2, 1, 5
United States: 2, 1, 1, 4
Norway: 1, 4, 3, 8
Canada: 1, 4, 1, 6
Want to get caught up further? Our daily Olympics guide gives you everything you need to know about the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
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Liberal ridings are receiving a disproportionate share of federal infrastructure money
The Liberals hold 54 per cent of the seats in Parliament, but Liberal ridings have received 64 per cent of
). Conservative ridings have received 21 per cent of the federal funds, despite the party holding 29 per cent of the seats. Put another way: $9.2-billion has gone toward projects in Liberal ridings – $1.4-billion more than the "expected" amount had the funds been distributed based on ridings held. The Liberals contend that the discrepancy can be explained by the fact the party has prioritized public-transit spending, which disproportionately affects urban areas where the the party happens to have strong support.
A man convicted in his son's meningitis death will no longer be participating in a wellness expo
David Stephan was scheduled to appear as a speaker at wellness events in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton. The expo owner defended Stephan, saying his conviction "has nothing to do with his health-care product," but later opted to drop him from the lineup. Sobeys had already pulled out as an event sponsor. Stephan was sentenced to four months in prison for negligence after failing to seek urgent medical help when his son fell ill, instead treating him with herbal remedies. The Supreme Court is set to hear the appeal in May.
Here's André Picard's take: "When a man whose son died of swelling of the brain because of his negligence has the effrontery to lecture others on brain health, we know that hubris and self-delusion know no bounds."
Employers are calling for mandatory drug testing as part of marijuana legalization
Major airlines, train and trucking firms, construction companies and transit authorities are urging the federal government to allow them to conduct drug tests (for subscribers). Unions have long opposed mandatory testing, which they say is a violation of human rights. But industries argue that many of their employees are in positions where lives are at stake and allowing random tests of drugs and alcohol would help improve safety. Labour organizations say existing rules already go far enough to deal with employees who run afoul. In the U.S., truck drivers are subject to mandatory drug tests.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Patrick Brown says he can disprove sexual-misconduct allegations against him
The former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader says accusations from two women who spoke with CTV News contain discrepancies that prove the accounts are false. Brown also alleged that CTV left out a contradicting account from a witness. The broadcaster says it "stands by its story" which detailed Brown's alleged encounters with teenagers during his time as a federal MP. In a Facebook post, Brown said, "The #metoo movement is too important to allow outrageous allegations like these to derail it."
MORNING MARKETS
Markets gain
Global shares staggered higher on Monday after suffering their worst week in two years, attempting to brush off fresh rises in global bond yields while equity futures pointed to a firmer Wall Street session ahead. Tokyo's Nikkei was closed, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent and the Shanghai composite gained 0.8 per cent. Markets are taking off across Europe, with London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 up by between 1.2 and 1.9 per cent by about 6:15 a.m. ET. New York futures were up sharply. The Canadian dollar was at 79.6 US cents. Oil rose 2 per cent, recovering some of last week's steep losses as global equities steadied after their largest one-week slide in two years.
FYI: The Globe now provides all users access to real-time stock quotes for both Canadian and U.S. markets. Go here to find out about the major changes to our Globe Investor site.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
A dad's discovery: Raising a child is thankless work
"The more distance I get from those chaotic first months, the more epiphanies I have. Eva turned one year old this week, and I understand, now, just how lucky Matt and I are to even have a child, and I've grown ever more grateful to the women who participated in her creation. I've also learned the power of social norms, having personally experienced how painful it is to free yourself from gendered roles – or the expectation that a man does this, a woman does that. This socialization toys with you no matter your sexual orientation, or how open-minded you are. And I've realized that even in a supposedly progressive country such as ours, we truly do not value what it takes to raise a child, no matter the sex of the parent." – Tim Kiladze, Globe and Mail business reporter
Soda taxes: The fizz goes flat
"Plenty of folks have lots of reasons why Canada needs a soda tax – from rising obesity rates to the cupidity of soda manufacturers to consumers' inability to make proper choices, plus the opportunity to create an exciting new source of government revenue. Every budget cycle seems to present another set of arguments in its favour, such as a current campaign in Alberta calling for a 20-per-cent provincial tax on sugary drinks based on claims this would save 1,200 lives, prevent 21,700 cases of diabetes and raise $3.5-billion in taxes over the next 25 years. … [But] while a soda tax may satisfy latent urges for greater tax revenues or as a way to punish big corporations or overrule individual choices – when it comes to their alleged purpose of making people thinner or healthier, they're flat-out useless." – Peter Shawn Taylor, author of report on food and drink taxes
How the system failed #MeToo survivors and protected the abusers
"If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to shelter a predator. There's one common trait to the stories of abuse in the #MeToo era, namely that this is not merely an excavation of bad behaviour by individual men; rather, it's evidence of the systems that promote and protect them. It is power seeking to shield and perpetuate itself, over the rights of women to self-determination. This institutional butt-covering is a feature, not a bug." – Elizabeth Renzetti
HEALTH PRIMER
Front-of-package warnings for sugar, sodium and saturated fat may be coming soon
The federal government wants to raise consumer awareness about the effects of those ingredients, which have been linked to obesity, heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Right now, details on those ingredients only need to be noted on the back of packages in the nutritional fact chart. Food manufacturers would have until December of 2022 to comply with the new requirements.
MOMENT IN TIME
Groundhog Day premieres
Feb.12, 1993: On some levels, Groundhog Day – which debuted 25 years ago today – is a romantic comedy. But it also poses a deeper question, which is the film's lesson: "If you only had one day to live, what would you do?" Déjà vu? Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a jaded Pittsburgh TV weatherman who travels to the western Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney to report whether the famous forecasting rodent sees his shadow. The groundhog indeed predicts six more weeks of winter on that Feb. 2, but Connors's visit is only getting started. For Connors, it's the beginning of an unending series of Groundhog Days, in which he relives the same day over and over. Eventually, Connors changes his luck by learning from his mistakes. Release through redemption. He falls in love with his producer (played by Andie MacDowell) and finally gets out of the vortex. The phrase, "it's like Groundhog Day" thusly entered the vernacular to describe a repeating occurrence. On some levels, Groundhog Day – which debuted 25 years ago today – is a romantic comedy. But it also poses a deeper question, which is the film's lesson: "If you only had one day to live, what would you do?" Déjà vu? – Philip King
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti and Shelby Blackley.
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It was a group effort that saw Canada win its first gold medal in Korea, in the team figure skating event. Canada had secured an insurmountable lead even before the finale of the program.