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The proposed takeover of Shaw Communications by cable giant Rogers has already reduced competition in the wireless market, Canada’s competition watchdog says.
In an application to stop the merger of the country’s two largest cable networks, the Competition Bureau said Shaw Communications Inc. has stopped competing for mobile phone business ahead of the planned $26-billion takeover by Rogers Communications Inc.
The Competition Bureau’s move is a major setback for a deal that, if approved, would reshape Canada’s telecom landscape. The bureau’s case, as outlined in a Monday news release, focuses on potential harm to Canada’s wireless sector if Rogers were permitted to acquire Shaw’s Freedom Mobile, Canada’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, with about two million customers in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. That’s despite the fact that Rogers has already committed to selling Freedom and is in the midst of a sale process.
- Why Rogers’ crucial ‘hell or high water’ clause adds more confusion to Shaw takeover
- Andrew Willis: What would it take for Rogers to walk away from the Shaw deal?
- Shaw stock falls more than 7 per cent after Competition Bureau says it will oppose $26-billion Rogers deal
- Editorial: Canada’s wireless business should have a four-player minimum
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Afghan journalist Maluf said the Taliban beat him with military belts and tasered him. Mr. Maluf has fled to Pakistan and hopes for resettlement in Canada.Supplied
‘My life is in danger’: Afghans are being tortured by the Taliban while waiting for Canada to act
Khushal walked into a post office in Kandahar to pick up two passports. Waiting inside were Taliban members.
What happened over the next four days was a living nightmare. The insurgents blindfolded him and tied his hands, then took him to a jail and threw him in a steel container.
He is one of many Afghans who worked as interpreters for the Canadian military during its mission in Afghanistan and who now, as a result, face retaliation from the Taliban. His captors let him go after his family promised not to leave the country – but, fearing for their safety, they broke that pledge. He and some of his relatives are now in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. They are waiting to travel to Canada, where they have been promised resettlement.
Other Afghans who assisted with Canada’s work in Afghanistan have not been able to flee. They are still hiding inside the country as they wait for long-promised travel documents from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or for Afghan passports.
Nine-year-old Zoriana greets her sister, Sofiia, as she and their mother, Natalia, arrive in St. John's from Ukraine Monday, May 9, 2022. Newfoundland and Labrador received its first plane load of refugees from Ukraine.Greg Locke/The Canadian Press
Tears, hugs and joy in St. John’s, N.L., as 166 Ukrainian refugees arrive from Poland
Nine-year-old Zoriana Shapoval had barely rounded the corner at the St. John’s International Airport last night when she saw her big sister Sofiia Shapoval waiting in the crowd, and ran straight for her outstretched arms.
Zoriana and her mother, Natalia Shapoval, were among 166 Ukrainian refugees who’d just arrived in Newfoundland aboard a plane chartered by the provincial government. Sofiia Shapoval is a genetics student at Memorial University in St. John’s, and she said it was an enormous relief to have her family close by in Canada, after months of fear and uncertainty.
The plane Monday night arrived from Poland, where the Newfoundland and Labrador government has set up a satellite office to help Ukrainians fleeing Russian attacks on their homeland resettle in Canada’s easternmost province.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Childcare fees will drop in 2022, but miss Ottawa’s target: Most cities in Canada will fall just short of bringing down the price of child care enough to meet the federal government’s 50-per-cent cost-reduction target for 2022, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Majority of Canadians support plan to regulate internet: The federal government’s broad push to regulate the internet has the support of a majority of Canadians, according to a new survey, even though the details of Ottawa’s plans are generating strong pushback from policy experts.
Marcos on track for victory in the Philippines: Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late Philippines dictator of the same name, is on track to be the country’s next president, 36 years after protesters drove his father from office.
Telescope captures sharpest ever views of universe: Astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope are praising the newly commissioned observatory’s performance and scientific potential after the release of test images that are being called “an extraordinary milestone for humanity.”
Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ auction nabs $195-million: Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for a cool $195-million yesterday, making the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe the most expensive artwork by an American artist ever sold at auction.
MORNING MARKETS
European markets gain : European stock indexes opened higher on Tuesday, with risk appetite showing some recovery after Monday’s sharp falls, but analysts said fears over lower growth were still weighing on markets. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.85 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 advanced 1.63 per cent and 1.40 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.58 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.84 per cent. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was trading at 76.99 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Ian McGugan: “As vicious as the sell-off on Wall Street has been, it has done little more so far than wipe out the past year of exuberant gains. An investor who has held an index fund tracking the S&P 500 benchmark of large U.S. companies since the start of the pandemic in February, 2020, is still sitting on an 18-per-cent profit over that stretch. Consider that a sign of just how frothy pandemic-era valuations had grown.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
What to wear back to the office: Timeless, versatile investment pieces are key
As more of us start heading back to the office with some regularity, the question of what to wear to work is more pressing than ever. To prepare for a stylish return, it may be tempting to turn to pop prints and fast fashion to add newness to your wardrobe. But with hybrid work life the new normal for many of us, it’s a better bet to invest in timeless, all-season pieces that are equally luxe, comfortable and polished.
MOMENT IN TIME: MAY 10, 2021
Gemel Smith, Daniel Walcott and Mathieu Joseph of the Tampa Bay Lightning pose for a photo after a game against the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center on May 10, 2021 in Sunrise, Florida.Brian Breseman/NHL Images via Getty Images
Tampa Bay Lightning has NHL’s first all-black forward line
On a sweltering spring night in Sunrise, Fla., in a game that appeared on paper as nothing more than a formality, the Tampa Bay Lightning made history, icing the NHL’s first all-Black line. On this day in 2021, forwards Daniel Walcott, Mathieu Joseph and Gemel Smith started in the team’s 2020-21 regular-season finale. The trio of Canadian-born skaters assumed different roles within the organization that season. Joseph, a 24-year-old regular in the lineup, played all 56 games in the shortened season. Smith, 27, was recalled from the AHL to play in his fifth game of the season, while Walcott, 27, was making his NHL debut. The Lightning’s third line played 15 shifts together, recording two shots and 11 hits in a valiant effort against the state-rival Florida Panthers. The NHL’s overwhelmingly white rosters have raised concerns in recent years about the league’s equitability for hockey players of colour. Less than 5 per cent of players are Black, while no head coaches or general managers are visible minorities. The triad has since been separated. Walcott remains in the Lightning’s organization with the Syracuse Crunch, while Joseph and Smith were acquired by the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings, respectively. Joshua Frey-Sam
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