Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada’s industry minister has directed the country’s major telecom companies to reach a formal agreement within 60 days to provide on emergency roaming, assist each other during outages and implement a communication protocol to better inform Canadians during emergencies.
François-Philippe Champagne also said that Canada’s broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, will investigate the recent massive Rogers Communications outage. His announcement came after the chief executives of Canada’s major telecoms were scheduled to take part in a group conference call with the federal Industry Minister on Monday afternoon to discuss potential new measures aimed at enhancing network reliability.
However, four sources familiar with the meeting (whom The Globe is not identifying because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly) said that these new measures would not have prevented or resolved Rogers’ massive network outage because the service disruption was the result of a malfunction in the telecom’s core network. Canadian wireless carriers already co-operate with one another during emergencies, the sources added.
Read more:
- The Rogers outage disrupted services across Canada. Here’s list of what was affected
- Opinion: We all just got schooled by Rogers on the importance of having cash on hand
U.S. supports Canada’s decision to return sanctioned Russian turbines
The U.S. government defended Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to release Russian-owned gas turbines that had been stranded in a Montreal repair facility because of sanctions against Moscow.
Russia last month cited the delayed return of the turbine equipment as the reason behind its decision to reduce the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The Canadian government announced on Saturday that it would issue a special export permit for the turbines to get around sanctions Ottawa introduced after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Those measures forbid the export of certain goods and technologies to Russia, including the turbines.
Trudeau’s decision was condemned by Ukraine, which expressed “deep disappointment” and warned the move would embolden Moscow to keep using its ability to choke off Europe’s fuel supplies as a weapon. The U.S. government, however, said Monday it backs Canada, arguing that sending back the turbines will boost Europe’s energy security.
Sri Lanka may be on cusp of tipping out of China’s sphere of influence amid economic crisis
Protesters throng President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence for the second day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday, July 11, 2022.Eranga Jayawardena/The Associated Press
Tens of thousands filled the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital on Saturday, as protesters in Colombo occupied the residences of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. With many in Sri Lanka also partly blaming the outgoing government’s closeness to Beijing for the current economic crisis, the island nation may be on the verge of tipping out of China’s sphere of influence.
Such a move would wipe out billions of dollars the Asian superpower has invested in building an Indian Ocean foothold. China only holds about 10 per cent of the billions of dollars owed by Colombo, about the same as Japan, but is viewed with far greater suspicion in Sri Lanka and overseas than other lenders.
While reality is far more complicated than the “debt trap” picture painted by Beijing’s critics, and Chinese officials fiercely deny such claims, such perceptions have hurt China’s image in Sri Lanka, as has the now colossally unpopular Rajapaksas’s apparent coziness with Beijing.
Read more:
- Opinion: Sri Lanka’s mass uprising against its ruling family is 13 years in the making
- Sri Lanka’s parliament to elect new president next week amid political, economic crisis
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Federal Conservatives reviewing Patrick Brown’s appeal request, hire independent counsel to help: The Conservative Party of Canada has brought in independent legal counsel to help review whether one of its committees has the jurisdiction to hear Patrick Brown challenge his disqualification.
- Brown axed to keep Conservative party ‘beyond reproach,’ top official tells members
Twitter shares slide as long legal battle with Elon Musk looms: Shares of Twitter slid more than 9 per cent in the first day of trading after billionaire Elon Musk said that he was abandoning his $44-billion bid for the company. The company is now preparing to sue Musk in Delaware where the company is incorporated.
Domestic violence extended back generations in family of gunman in 2020 Nova Scotia shooting, inquiry hears: The public inquiry says it was “not successful” in speaking to some members of the killer’s family, but investigators pieced together an account of the family’s violent past from police statements from four uncles, written documents and some interviews with family acquaintances and the killer’s spouse.
- Families of Nova Scotia shooting victims reconsidering participation in public inquiry, lawyer says
The race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative leader is the most diverse in British political history: Of the 11 Tory MPs vying for the leadership, six are racialized individuals, including front-runner Rishi Sunak. This has raised awkward questions for the opposition Labour Party, which has yet to elect a female leader and had an all-white slate of candidate in its last leadership contest.
- Britain’s next prime minister to be announced on Sept. 5
MARKET WATCH
Stocks lost ground on Monday as a lack of catalysts left market participants wary. The week ahead is back-end loaded with crucial inflation data and the unofficial beginning to second-quarter earnings season, leaving some nervous investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 164.31 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 31,173.84, and the S&P 500 lost 44.95 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 3,854.43. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 262.71 points, or 2.26 per cent, to 11,372.60.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 206.06 points to 18,816.80. The Canadian dollar traded at 76.92 U.S. cents.
As of Friday, analysts saw aggregate annual S&P earnings growth of 5.7 per cent for the April to June period, down from the 6.8 per cent forecast at the beginning of the quarter, according to Refinitiv.
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TALKING POINTS
From airlines to hospitals, not much is working in Canada this summer
“A lot of fundamental stuff isn’t working in Canada this summer. If the pandemic was the flap of a butterfly wing turned into a tornado, its consequences have exposed a fragility in the workings of this country that is far more worrisome than a delayed flight or a lost suitcase.” – The Editorial Board
In these trying times, I look to the works of George Orwell for inspiration
“Working at the United Nations has me thinking of Orwell and his observations more frequently these days, (I took note of what would have been his 119th birthday in late June). The UN at its best can be an institution that serves the greater good, but it has also, especially in recent months, been a place where words are twisted and lies abound.” – Bob Rae
Our love for cheap airfare has pushed airports to the brink
“To save cash, work contracts were trimmed and where possible, tendered out to third party vendors that offered the lowest bid. The result for flyers was what they desired most: rock-bottom fares. The consequence for workers however was what they desired least, low pay and less attractive working conditions.” – Ashley Nunes
LIVING BETTER
Making sense of Health Canada’s new food labelling regulations
On June 30, Health Canada announced new nutrition labelling regulations to help guide consumers to make healthier food choices. How can we interpret the nutritional facts on these new labels? To start, we should check the serving size. The serving sizes on the updated Nutrition Facts table are more consistent across products and better reflect the amount of food typically eaten in one sitting. Next, when you look at the sugar numbers, the Nutrition Facts table lumps together free sugars and naturally-occurring sugars, which doesn’t tell you how much of it was added by the food industry.
Know that the Daily Value (DV) percentages on the right-hand side of the Nutrition Facts table approximate how much of the nutrient is in one serving of the product. Five per cent or less of the DV is considered a little and 15 per cent or more is considered a lot. Overall, when looking at a product’s ingredients, remember to consider the overall nutritional quality of food products – especially for ones that are part of your regular diet. Read more on how to interpret the new nutrition labels.
TODAY’S LONG READ
How will ‘managed retreat’ fit into Canada’s climate-change adaptation plans? Communities face hard choices in any scenario
A car still stuck in river mud on a property near Pine Street in the Collettville neighbourhood of Merritt, B.C., in early June. The Coldwater River broke through its banks after heavy rains in November 2021 and flooded the area.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Janine Cooper fled her home in the middle of the night on Nov. 15. Amid the din of children screaming and the roar of the river in Merritt, B.C., she only had time to grab a litter of puppies, dog food and her husband’s ashes. Today, she travels daily from her temporary lodging outside Merritt to her single-wide trailer in town to work at restoring her flood-damaged home. She is what the city’s mayor refers to as a climate refugee, displaced when the Coldwater River topped its banks last November in a one-in-one-thousand-year flood event.
She wants to move back permanently, but the decision is not hers alone. Merritt is wrestling with a question that some other Canadian communities have already dealt with: Should it rebuild as before, or pull back from the water’s edge? The effects of climate change are increasing in frequency, severity – and cost. A report prepared for Natural Resources Canada in 2020 concluded that the full cost of “persisting in place, with rebuilding accommodations, is double or more the cost of retreat.”
But it isn’t always an easy sell, and can be hard to do well. Read the full story by Justine Hunter.
Evening Update is written by Stephanie Bai. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.