Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Toronto police identify suspect in the 1984 killing of Christine Jessop
Toronto police have identified a suspect in the notorious 1984 killing of nine-year-old Christine Jessop. Police Chief James Ramer says DNA evidence suggested Calvin Hoover had sexually assaulted her. Hoover, then 28, was known to the Jessop family.
The suspect died in 2015, but Ramer says he would have been charged with Jessop’s murder had he been alive, and police are looking for more information on him.
From the archives: The high-profile case led to the wrongful murder conviction of a neighbour, Guy Paul Morin, a massive public inquiry and a three-year reinvestigation.
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U.S. politics: Trump, Biden to hold competing town halls tonight after debate cancelled
President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in duelling town halls tonight instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned.
The two will take questions in different cities on different networks: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled after debate organizers said it would be held virtually in light of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
Analysis: This year Trump is running the kind of base-oriented, cautious campaign Hillary Clinton ran against him four years ago – while Biden is running the kind of audacious outreach that marked the Manhattan tycoon’s first campaign. - David Shribman
Separately, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris is suspending in-person events until Monday after two people associated with the campaign tested positive for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter cast doubt on a New York Post story that made claims about Biden’s son, taking steps to restrict dissemination of the story in the hours after it was published yesterday. The story contained alleged details of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company.
Opinion: “The best approach on the part of social media companies may be to create smarter users, not insulated ones.” - Robyn Urback
And yesterday, first lady Melania Trump revealed that her and the President’s son, Barron, had contracted the coronavirus.
Chinese envoy says Ottawa’s acceptance of Hong Kong refugees jeopardizes Canadians in the former British colony
China’s ambassador to Canada is urging Ottawa to stop granting asylum to democracy activists from Hong Kong, whom he described as “violent criminals” and warned that accepting them could jeopardize the “health and safety” of 300,000 Canadian citizens still living in the former British colony.
Asked whether he was issuing a threat, envoy Cong Peiwu replied: “That is your interpretation.”
At a press conference today, Cong said that Beijing finds it unacceptable that Canada recently accepted two Hong Kong pro-democracy dissidents as political refugees. He also took strong exception to a call from nearly 60 Canadian MPs and senators to shelter more Hong Kong residents fleeing China’s national-security law.
Unifor says Fiat Chrysler to spend up to $1.5-billion to make electric vehicles at Windsor plant
The Unifor union says it has secured a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that will see as much as $1.5-billion spent to make plug-in or hybrid electric vehicles in Windsor, Ont.
The car maker’s commitment, part of a three-year tentative collective agreement reached last night, will boost employment at the minivan factory by 2,000, said Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, which represents 9,000 workers at FCA.
The “lion’s share” of the money spent retooling the plant for production to start in 2024 will come from FCA, but there are negotiations with federal and Ontario governments for taxpayer money as well, he said.
In other EV news, Fisker Inc. says it has finalized a deal with Magna International to build the electric automaker’s Ocean SUV in Europe, marking the Canadian supplier’s first entry into contract manufacturing for an electric vehicle startup.
And Tesla has cut the price of its Model S “Long Range” sedan in the United States for the second time this week, to US$69,420, its website showed, after a tweet flagging it yesterday from CEO Elon Musk.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Prizes and nominations: Documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has won the $100,000 Glenn Gould Prize recognizing her lifetime contribution to the arts. The 88-year-old member of the Abenaki Nation, who has directed more than 50 films, was selected in recognition of her dedication to chronicling the lives and concerns of First Nations people.
In theatre, the musical Jagged Little Pill, which plumbs Alanis Morissette’s 1995 breakthrough album, earned a leading 15 Tony Award nominations today from a field truncated by coronavirus closings. Just 18 plays and musicals were eligible, compared with 34 shows the season before, and the best leading actor in a musical had just one nomination, Aaron Tveit from Moulin Rouge!
Teen makes rare fossil find in Alberta: Aspiring paleontologist Nathan Hrushkin, a Grade 7 student from Calgary, discovered a rare dinosaur bone at Horseshoe Canyon in the Badlands region of southeastern Alberta. The bone belonged to a young hadrosaur, also known as a duck-billed dinosaur because its pointed snout is similar to a duck’s.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street stocks closed lower today after a rise in weekly jobless claims compounded worries about a stalling economic recovery and fading hopes for more fiscal aid before the election. Canada’s main stock market ended with modest gains in a generally lacklustre session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 19.80 points or 0.07 per cent to 28,494.20, the S&P 500 lost 5.33 points or 0.15 per cent to close at 3,483.34 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 54.86 points or 0.47 per cent to 11,713.87.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 45.63 points or 0.28 per cent at 16,501.03. Most sectors managed to eke out gains, although materials was lower on slightly softer gold prices.
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LIVING BETTER
Loblaw, the parent company of Shoppers Drug Mart, has launched a mobile app aimed at connecting customers to health care providers and tying its PC Optimum loyalty points to health behaviours. The new PC Health app includes the option to chat live with registered nurses, dietitians and “care navigators” who can refer users to doctors and other services such as mental-health care, vision care and massage. Users can collect loyalty points for buying health and wellness-related items such as vitamins, thermometers and weighted blankets, or for meeting goals set out by in-app programs, such as fitness challenges or nutrition guides.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Obsidian artistic director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu launches national project to imagine 21 Black Futures
Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, the new artistic director of Obsidian Theatre.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
In 2021, Obsidian Theatre will turn 21 years old – and its brand-new artistic director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is not letting the pandemic keep her from planning a big, cross-country party to mark the occasion of its hitting the international age of majority.
21 Black Futures is the name of Otu’s first major project since becoming the leader of Canada’s foremost theatre company dedicated to the Black voice in July.
She has commissioned 21 Black playwrights from coast to coast to coast and different generations to write monodramas in response to the question, “What is the future of Blackness?”
These one-person plays will be performed by 21 actors under the direction of 21 directors – and filmed for a virtual premiere on a to-be-announced national streaming platform in February. Read J. Kelly Nestruck’s full story here.
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