Morning Update: Congress affirms Biden’s election victory hours after storming of U.S. Capitol by Trump mob

Good morning,

Hours after supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump’s stormed the U.S. Capitol in an assault on American democracy, Congress on Thursday formally certified Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

Immediately after the certification, Trump pledged an “orderly transition” on Jan. 20 when Biden will be sworn into office.

Congress had resumed its work certifying Biden’s Electoral College win late on Wednesday after the chaotic scenes on Capitol Hill, with debate stretching into the early hours of Thursday.

Wednesday’s events were sparked by a campaign from Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the election. The mayhem marked a dark moment in American politics during the dying days of Mr. Trump’s administration.

A crowd of thousands surrounded the building Wednesday afternoon before several dozen rioters forced their way through police lines and barricades. They smashed windows and doors, burst into the Senate chamber and took over legislators’ offices. In a standoff with police outside the House of Representatives chamber, one woman was shot and killed. Three other people died in what officials called medical emergencies.

Read more:

Police response questioned after Trump mob storms U.S. Capitol building

Republicans criticize Trump, call for his departure

World greets turmoil in the U.S. with mix of shock, amusement

Ian Brown: Trump’s mob storms the Capitol, but achieves nothing

David Shribman: Trump supporters engage in historic attacks on U.S. democracy on a day reserved to celebrate it

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Quebec imposes curfew in bid to get COVID-19 second wave under control

Quebec has become the first province to impose a curfew in an attempt to get the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

In announcing the curfew, Premier François Legault called it “shock treatment,” but said it was necessary because of the rising number of cases in the province.

The curfew is part of the lockdown, which has been extended another four weeks, to Feb. 8. Quebeckers will have to remain home from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. unless they are essential workers.

Read more:

• Civil liberty fears mount over Quebec’s provincewide COVID-19 curfew

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Provinces want more vaccines from Ottawa, but more than half the doses have not been used: Provincial governments want more vaccines from the federal government as soon as possible and say supply is the biggest barrier to the COVID-19 immunization campaign – despite data showing more than half the doses Canada received in December have yet to be injected.

Garneau rejects airline call to delay, revamp testing rules for travellers: A new rule requiring international air travellers arriving in Canada to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test provides an additional layer of safety in the fight against the pandemic, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said, rejecting airline industry demands to delay or revamp the public-health measure.

Canada’s hiring streak is on the verge of ending: On Friday, Statistics Canada will publish employment figures for December, revealing economists’ forecasts that 30,000 jobs were shed last month and the unemployment rate climbed to 8.7 per cent from 8.5 per cent.

MORNING MARKETS

Bonds licked their wounds and stocks rose on Thursday as investors bet Democrat control of the U.S. Congress would enable President-elect Joe Biden to borrow and spend heavily, with a bruised dollar hovering near its lowest in almost three years.

U.S. Treasuries extended their steepest selloff in months after Democrat victories in two Georgia races handed them narrow control of the Senate, bolstering President-elect Joe Biden’s power to pass his agenda.

Europe’s Euro STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, with indexes in Frankfurt and Paris up 0.4% and 0.6% respectively. Growth-linked sectors from energy to miners rallied on the prospects of more U.S. stimulus.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in almost 50 countries, rose 0.3%. Earlier, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6% and Japan’s Nikkei hit its highest since 1990.

Even after risk sentiment was earlier knocked by images of U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters storming Capitol Hill to attempt to overturn his election defeat, S&P 500 futures rose 0.6% as order was restored and Congress returned to work.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Robyn Urback: “The irony is that before COVID-19 became a disproportionate problem for factory workers, personal support staff, migrant farm workers and other essential personnel, it was an illness carried across the world by those with the means to visit far-away destinations.”

David Parkinson: “As we enter 2021, some of the more useful gauges of the recovery will be things that were barely known, or barely noticed, before we entered this pandemic. Here are a few of the indicators that I’ll be watching, as I try to do a better job seeing the way out of the COVID-19 crisis than I did seeing the way in.”

J. Michael Cole: “Hong Kong is being brought to heel by a regime that no longer countenances – or no longer pretends to countenance – thoughts that do not align with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) orthodoxy. All this serves as a wake-up call to anyone who still believes we can treat China as a normal and indispensable partner.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

LIVING BETTER

Personal finance resolutions for a pandemic year

Yes, New Year’s resolutions have a bad reputation. But what better time to reassess your financial goals and plan the way forward? In the latest episode of the Stress Test podcast, columnist Rob Carrick and editor Roma Luciw talk money goals and share some personal finance resolutions you may want to consider.

MOMENT IN TIME: JAN. 7, 2000

Beverley McLachlin becomes the first female Supreme Court of Canada chief justice

She was a tough-minded child of Alberta ranch country. On Jan. 7, 2000, Beverley McLachlin became the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She called her appointment by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien “a testament to the justice of Canadian society, a society where people without money or connections or the usual gender for a certain job, will be allowed to do it – and having done it, will be allowed to succeed.” Succeed she did, serving 18 years as chief justice, the longest tenure of anyone in that job. They were tumultuous years, featuring the legalization of medically assisted dying and gay marriage, an insistence on voting rights for federal prisoners and the preservation of a supervised-injection clinic for illegal drug users. She wrote rulings expanding Indigenous rights and said in a speech that residential schools amounted to “cultural genocide.” Her mettle would be tested when former prime minister Stephen Harper accused her publicly of impropriety, after the court took the unprecedented step of rejecting his Supreme Court appointee. She fired back in the court of public opinion, and prominent legal voices in Canada and abroad took her side. She emerged more than just unscathed; her name became a byword for judicial independence. Sean Fine

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