Morning Update: Canadian firms operate from Xinjiang region in China

Good morning,

At least three publicly traded Canadian resource companies have active projects and plans in China’s western Xinjiang region, where authorities have locked up large numbers of Muslims in centres for skills training and political indoctrination.

Canadian companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the region in the past two decades, according to a foreign government analysis obtained by The Globe and Mail. Investments by Canadian companies in energy and mining projects have made Canada one of the top five foreign investors in Xinjiang, according to the document.

• The Globe has visited such industrial parks, where China denies forced labour. Here how we did it.

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Biden to block Keystone XL pipeline as one of first acts

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline expansion as one of his first acts in office, transition documents suggest, dealing a blow to Canadian efforts to get the project built and jeopardizing the prospect of thousands of jobs in Alberta.

Other entries under the “Climate” heading include, “Rejoin the Paris Agreement” and “Announce date for U.S.-hosted Leaders’ Climate Summit.” Biden plans to undo numerous other controversial Trump policies.

Ahead of the inauguration, police and National Guard troops were on the ground Sunday for planned protests leading up to the event. Here’s more that you should know ahead of his presidency.

Also, vice-president-elect Kamala Harris is set to resign her Senate seat today.

In Canadian politics

The federal government is making final revisions to its plans to act against online hate and harassment on social-media platforms in light of the deadly U.S. Capitol Hill riots, and its proposed measures will be presented to cabinet in the coming weeks.

The legislation is expected to be influenced by measures already in place in other countries and will likely involve the creation of a new government regulator. If approved by cabinet, it could be introduced in Parliament as soon as February.

Also in Ottawa: Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole pushed back against attempts to link his party to Trump-style politics. The unusual message comes after a Liberal Party fundraising letter accused the Conservatives of “continuing a worrisome pattern of divisive politics and catering to the extreme right.”

In COVID-19 news

Europe will have a shorter interruption in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than Canada, despite commitments that countries would share equally in a temporary drop in doses. Major-General Dany Fortin, who is leading Canada’s vaccine logistics, said the loss would be made up in the subsequent weeks, with the company still delivering all four million vaccine doses in the first quarter.

• Exclusive: Ontario to open dedicated pandemic hospital in Vaughan as COVID-19 surges
• New Brunswick has moved a portion of the province into a lockdown, as it struggles to contain the latest surge in virus cases
• Barrie, Ont. nursing home testing for British variant as COVID-19 cases spike, and one physician is calling for provincial assistance
• Put to the test by COVID-19, married doctors find gratitude for a year that taught them how to live
• Why it’s time to stop worrying about your children’s screen time during COVID-19

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Couche-Tard confirms Carrefour deal is dead: Quebec convenience-store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and French grocery giant Carrefour SA will work together to explore future partnerships after Couche-Tard abandoned its US$20-billion takeover bid for Carrefour in the face of opposition from the French government.

Starvation and destruction in the Tigray region: More than two months after Ethiopia declared victory in its Tigray war, there is rapidly growing international alarm over the region, including reports of emaciated refugees, gutted hospitals, massive looting, burning refugee camps, kidnappings, rapes and other war crimes.

Arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny: Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement that Canada “strongly condemns” Mr. Navalny’s arrest and he must be immediately released. Navalny believes Russia’s security services tried to kill him last summer on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

Policing the mental-health crisis: Police forces across North America are looking at potential alternative models, including for responding to mental health calls.

MORNING MARKETS

Global shares slide: Global stock markets slid on Monday as rising COVID-19 cases offset investor hopes of a quick economic recovery, while the Chinese economy posted a better-than-expected rebound in the fourth quarter of 2020. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.12 per cent. Germany’s DAX was flat and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.20 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.97 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.01 per cent. U.S. markets are closed Monday. The Canadian dollar was trading at 78.23 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Britain and EU are sowing the seeds for a bitter post-Brexit rivalry

Timothy Garton Ash: “The point here is not to replay the old Brexit “in or out” debate. It is that in this liminal swamp of permanent negotiation, there will be endless occasions for bad-tempered disagreement, competition and conflict.”

My voting technology company has been hit with a tsunami of lies and misinformation

John Poulos: “There were no “switched or deleted votes” involving Dominion machines, nor any other type of manipulation. We understand, however, that candidates (and their supporters) can become very emotional over the loss of an election, especially a highly contentious and divisive one.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

How to break the endless cycle of big goals and broken resolutions

Harvard University evolutionary anthropologist Daniel Lieberman is hoping that a more nuanced understanding of our evolutionary heritage can help us break away from the endless cycle of big goals and broken resolutions.

When trying to improve our health and fitness, we have to make it fun, sociable and easy to integrate into our lives. And when those tactics fail to prevent you from falling off the wagon, you should be kind to yourself: It’s what you were born to do.

MOMENT IN TIME

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Canadian scientists conduct polio research

For more than 100 years, photographers have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at vaccines.

Polio (or poliomyelitis) was called “the crippler” for the way it destroyed the nerve cells that control muscles. It came to Canada in 1910 and paralyzed tens of thousands, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, who contracted it while vacationing at Campobello Island off New Brunswick in 1921. As U.S. President, Roosevelt did much to raise awareness and money for polio research through his President’s Birthday Ball and March of Dimes campaigns. By the 1940s, several private and public groups were funding research at the University of Toronto’s Connaught Laboratories. The Globe and Mail’s John Boyd photographed researcher Theodore Lee conducting testing there on April 1, 1954. A year later, a vaccine developed by American Jonas Salk came to Canada, made possible with the help of a new synthetic nutrient base known as “Medium 199,” developed at Connaught. In 1962, an oral vaccine by Albert Bruce Sabin finally brought polio under control. Dianne Nice

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