Morning Update: A landmark solitary ruling; Trudeau, the courts and SNC

Good morning,

These are the top stories:

Ontario’s top court has issued a landmark ruling on solitary

For the first time, a hard cap has been set on time in solitary confinement in Canadian prisons: Anything beyond 15 days constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the province’s appeals court has ruled. Set to come into force by April 13, the ruling is a major legal defeat for the Canadian correctional service’s practice of isolating prisoners for weeks, months or even years at a time. The federal government is reviewing the decision, which could be appealed.

The background: This ruling follows a number of legal blows for Ottawa, including a judgment this week that ordered Correctional Service Canada to pay $20-million for placing thousands of mentally ill prisoners in solitary. Earlier, a pair of rulings in Ontario and B.C. found the country’s solitary law violated the Charter.

How Ottawa has responded: The federal government has introduced a bill to address the legal shortcomings, with a plan that includes allowing isolated inmates to spend upward of four hours a day outside their cells. But a number of critics have panned the bill, saying it doesn’t go far enough in scaling back the practice.

This is the daily Morning Update newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for Morning Update and more than 20 more Globe newsletters on our newsletter signup page.

Quebec’s religious-symbols ban is already facing waves of backlash

The government has introduced the bill to ban some public-sector workers from wearing religious symbols, with Premier François Legault saying he hopes it will enshrine the separation of church and state in Quebec and end 15 years of debate on the place of religion in the province. Legault attempted to quell criticism by including a grandfather clause that would exempt current employees who stay in the same job.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the bill, saying a free society shouldn’t be “legitimizing discrimination of our citizens based on religion.” And teachers who wear symbols like the Muslim headscarf say they will now face obstacles in their career paths as they would be unable to move into a principal role.

Ex-Supreme Court judges are criticizing the Trudeau government over leaks

This week’s leak about Jody Wilson-Raybould’s appointment plans are “very serious” because they could harm the process for appointing judges, said former top court judge Louis LeBel. “From the outside, it raises some questions about how the matters were conducted in the PMO,” he said, referring to the Prime Minister’s Office. (for subscribers)

The unprecedented disclosure suggested Trudeau had questioned the judgment of the former justice minister after she put forward a plan to appoint Manitoba’s Glenn Joyal as the chief justice of the court.

Wilson-Raybould and others have called for an investigation into the leaks, which are believed to have originated inside Trudeau’s camp despite the PMO’s denials.

The appointment leak comes as the Liberals continue to battle back against calls for further inquiries into the SNC-Lavalin affair. On that front, we now know the Quebec firm warned prosecutors in writing last fall that it could break up and move its headquarters to the U.S. if it wasn’t able to avoid criminal prosecution. The development appears to conflict with statements last week by CEO Neil Bruce, who said SNC “never, ever ever put forward a case that talks about economic reasons” in its quest for a settlement. (for subscribers)

And Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick, who’s retiring in the wake of the SNC affair, is in the news at the pretrial hearing of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. A lawyer for Norman says Wernick provided a “completely redacted” 60-page memo he wrote to Trudeau related to a breach-of-trust charge against the suspended officer who was second-in-command in Canada’s military.

Got a news tip that you’d like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop

ON OUR RADAR ACROSS CANADA

The mayor of Vancouver suburb Port Moody is taking a leave of absence after being charged with sexual assault. Robert Vagramov is denying the allegation which dates back to 2015 and says he will be challenging it in court. Vagramov, who at 26 became the youngest person elected mayor of Port Moody, faced criticism during last fall’s campaign over a 2014 video that showed him asking a homeless man to shotgun a beer in exchange for a sandwich.

A United Conservative Party government would put a halt on opening new supervised drug-use sites in Alberta, Leader Jason Kenney said. He pointed to concerns about discarded needles and crime around the site in Calgary, which has been the hardest hit region in a province that saw a record 746 deaths linked to opioids in 2018. Kenney said he would also hold consultations to determine whether existing facilities should remain open. Elsewhere on the election front, Gary Mason writes that Kenney’s plan to eliminate LGBTQ protections is “small, petty and mean-spirited, all to serve the interests of a close-minded, intolerant minority.” (for subscribers)

Fiat Chrysler is cutting 1,500 jobs at its Windsor assembly plant, a move that comes on the heels of General Motors’ plans to slash 2,600 jobs in Oshawa, Ont. Chrysler, which will be dropping the third shift at the plant, pinned the decision on an effort to “better align production with global demand.”

ON OUR RADAR AROUND THE GLOBE

As Israel’s election nears, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’s prepared to wage a military campaign in Gaza if necessary. He issued the warning amid cross-border fighting, with Israel launching air strikes this week after Hamas rockets struck a village north of Tel Aviv. Palestinians are planning to stage a massive protest along Gaza’s border this weekend.

Saudi Arabia has temporarily released three out of nearly a dozen women activists, some of whom have said they were tortured in detention as they await trials related to human-rights work. Meanwhile, an independent U.N. human-rights expert is calling on the kingdom to name the suspects charged in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year.

MORNING MARKETS

Stocks climb

Global stocks rose on Friday on optimism over trade talks between the United States and China and were set to post their best quarterly performance since 2012, while global bond yields moved higher after a prolonged slide on growth worries. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1 per cent, and the Shanghai composite 3.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent by about 6:45 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar was at about 74.5 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Mandating all airplane safety features? Be careful what you wish for

Ashley Nunes: “As airplanes become more complex and cockpits remain cramped, where do you put all those safety-critical alerts? Mandating that those alerts be provided is one thing. But where do you place knobs, lights and switches that can help diagnose a problem?” Ashley Nunes studies regulatory policy at MIT.

After Christchurch, it’s time for Canada to ban semi-automatic weapons

Globe editorial: “[Canada’s gun laws] are neither smart nor consistent regarding dangerous semi-automatic rifles, many of which have the very limited purpose under the law of being used for pleasure or sport shooting, or as a collectible. At the very least, all of them should be classified as restricted weapons, regardless of bullet size or design heritage. But given the threat they pose, there’s a strong argument for banning them altogether.”

Liberals may have to play the race card to cut into Tories’ lead

John Ibbitson: “Federal politics is likely to get very ugly in the months ahead. The latest polls show the Liberals falling dangerously far behind the Conservatives. The Grits must find ways to bring their numbers up and Tory numbers down. Part of their strategy will include accusing the Conservatives of racial intolerance, a charge to which Andrew Scheer has made his party vulnerable.” (for subscribers)

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

LIVING BETTER

Theatre lover? Here are three productions to check out

As Broadway hit Dear Evan Hansen makes its international debut in Toronto, critic J. Kelly Nestruck writes that it’s “a milestone for musical theatre in the way it is fully immersed in today’s paradoxical world of hyper-connection and disconnection.” (3.5 stars, through June 30)

Over in Ottawa, Nestruck says Behaviour is one of the smartest plays to respond to the #MeToo movement to date. (3 stars, through March 31)

Ahad Raza Mir, who’s become a film and TV star in Pakistan, has returned to Calgary to play the title character in Hamlet: A Ghost Story – a role he hopes will inspire more South Asians to pursue a career in the arts. (through April 13)

(full stories for subscribers)

MOMENT IN TIME

Ireland bans smoking

March 29, 2004: Fifteen years ago, Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in workplaces and all enclosed public places – and yes, that included the ubiquitous Irish pub. The initiative boasted a 59-per-cent approval rating in 2003 and violating the ban was punishable by a fine of up to €3,000. Lungs became healthier and the air cleaner, but the pub industry took a hit, with one owner saying that there is “no doubt that the number of customers is down.” In the first year of the ban, the BBC estimated around 50 pubs were put up for sale and almost 2,000 jobs were lost. In 2014, public-health officials hailed the legislation’s success: With a 97-per-cent compliance rate in workplaces, the ban prevented some 3,700 smoking-related deaths. By 2018, the overall smoking rate fell to 20 per cent. For those who continued to smoke, an unintended benefit emerged: “smirting,” or the act of smoking and flirting. According to one study, up to 27 per cent of lovebirds have met a partner while puffing away outside – “what do you make of the ban?” making for an easy opening line. The Irish government aims to make the country entirely smoke-free by 2025. – Jessie Willms

If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.