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These are the top stories:
Hong Kong’s extradition bill appears to be effectively dead after mass protests
They came out in even bigger numbers on Sunday. Protest organizers said there were nearly two million on the streets, a staggering number that would amount to more than a quarter of the city’s population (police put the figure at 338,000).
Their efforts appear to have paid off: The controversial extradition bill, which would have given Beijing more authority to send people to mainland China to face trial, is “essentially a dead case,” a senior adviser to Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam said this morning. On Sunday, protesters rejected Lam’s apology and called on the Beijing-backed leader to resign.
As correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe reports, the protests morphed from a battle against one piece of legislation into a larger symbol of resistance against China’s authoritarianism.
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Ottawa will announce its Trans Mountain decision by tomorrow
And many inside and outside the government expect Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet will give the controversial pipeline expansion project the green light.
A key consideration will be the breadth of recent consultations with Indigenous communities. Last August, the Federal Court of Appeal put construction on hold after concluding initial talks weren’t adequate. (for subscribers)
“What’s going to be critical is that the government can demonstrate substantive accommodations, substantive alterations, substantive negotiations that yielded something tangible,” said Eric Adams, a law professor at the University of Alberta.
Here’s Campbell Clark’s view on why he thinks it will be approved: “Trudeau has a lot riding on TMX because a failure to move forward is his failure, and it would crash all his grand rhetoric about the economy and the environment going hand in hand.” (for subscribers)
Quebec passed its controversial religious-symbols bill
The legislation will bar some public servants, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols like head coverings, a move that is expected to most severely impact female Muslim educators.
François Legault’s government is using the notwithstanding clause to prevent legal challenges based on religious freedom. But religious groups and rights lawyers say the clause can’t be used to shield gender-discrimination cases. Some school boards have already said they won’t apply the law.
Lawmakers passed Bill 21 late Sunday evening, after a heated weekend in the legislature that also resulted in the approval of Bill 9, which imposes a French-language and values test as well as restrictions on immigration.
It’s parade day in Toronto as the city celebrates the Raptors NBA championship
Raptors fans are seen camped out in Nathan Phillips Square ahead of today's parade and rally. The three are concealing their identity so they can call in sick from work. (Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail)Cole Burston//The Globe and Mail
As many as two million people are expected to line the streets to welcome back Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry and the rest of the Raptors cast. When given that figure, coach Nick Nurse said: “That’s it? I’ll take the over on that.”
Cathal Kelly writes that the win, not only after a long Canadian-team drought, but in the sport of basketball, means this parade is a once-in-a-lifetime event: “Magic like that can’t be performed twice, or, at least, not for a long, long time. Thanks to the Raptors, Canada is now the home of triumph. It’s quite right to celebrate that. But at the same time, I’ll miss the old, sad-sack version of us. Losing isn’t fun, but it has its charms.”
The parade comes as Alameda County Sheriff’s Office recommends a battery charge against Raptors president Masai Ujiri. It alleges Ujiri didn’t display his credential and shoved a sheriff’s deputy while attempting to go on the court to celebrate the Raptor victory in Oakland on Thursday.
But a video shows Ujiri holding the badge shortly thereafter, and one witness says the officer acted out of line. Some have contended that Ujiri was unfairly targeted because he is black.
The district attorney is expected to decide this week on whether to proceed with the charge.
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MORNING MARKETS
Stocks rise
European shares tip-toed higher alongside government bond yields on Monday, as investors braced for what is shaping up to be a crucial week for global monetary policy. Tokyo’s Nikkei eked out a tiny gain, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1 per cent by about 6:30 a.m. ET, with Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 up by between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was at about 74.5 US cents.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
One of Canada’s last major independent investment banks is in talks to be acquired by a U.S. company. St. Louis-based Stifel Financial is seeking to buy Toronto’s GMP Capital, which has seen its worth slide to $150-million from a peak of $2-billion in 2006. (for subscribers)
At 21, Brooke Henderson broke the Canadian golf record for tour victories. She now has nine wins after coming out on top at the Meijer LPGA Classic, moving her past Sandra Post on the LPGA side as well as Mike Weir and George Knudson on the men’s side. (for subscribers)
European shares tip-toed higher alongside government bond yields on Monday, as investors braced for what is shaping up to be a crucial week for global monetary policy. With the U.S. Federal Reserve likely to signal on Wednesday whether it is readying its first interest rate cut since the financial crisis and oil still choppy after last week’s Gulf tanker attacks, most markets were hesitant first thing. The focus was still the dollar’s surge on Friday after above-forecast U.S. industrial output and retail sales data and upbeat consumer confidence soundings pushed back futures markets expectations of any quick Fed rate cut.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
We must not forget men when we talk about Indigenous trauma
Claudette Commanda and Louise Bradley: “To truly grasp the magnitude of the crisis, it is impossible to ignore the effects that colonialism and racism have inflicted on Indigenous men – the husbands, fathers and sons of Indigenous women and girls. Examining the disproportionate rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls can be better understood if we look at the equally alarming statistics in relation to Indigenous men and boys.” Claudette Commanda is a professor and elder-in-residence at the University of Ottawa. Louise Bradley is the president and CEO of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Sorry, banning plastic bags won’t save our planet
Bjorn Lomborg: “Even if every country banned plastic bags it would not make much of a difference, since plastic bags make up less than 0.8 per cent of the mass of plastic currently afloat on the world’s oceans. Rather than trying to save the oceans with such bans in rich countries, we need to focus on tackling the inferior waste management and poor environmental policies in developing regions.” Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.
Without civilian oversight, sexual-assault survivors in the military will not be well served
Maya Eichler and Marie-Claude Gagnon: “The lack of external oversight over the courts-martial system is a serious factor to consider in the high acquittal rates in sexual-assault trials. It reflects the broader lack of oversight of initiatives to transform the military’s gendered and sexualized culture.” Dr. Maya Eichler is an assistant professor at Mount Saint Vincent University. Marie-Claude Gagnon is the founder of the military sexual-trauma survivors group It’s Just 700.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
(David Parkins/The Globe and Mail)David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Which meatless burger truly has the sizzle to satisfy? Our taste-testing challenge crowns a winner
Meatless burgers are all the rage these days, so we asked four Globe staff members – two who eat meat and two who don’t – to try some of the favourites. The winner was clear: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger. As one of our taste-testers put it: “this one could fool me into thinking I am tasting meat. In a good way, too. But do vegetarians want that?”
MOMENT IN TIME
Canadians fighting in Normandy, 1944
For more than 100 years, the photographers and photo librarians working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. Throughout June, we’re looking back at D-Day.
(National Defence/The Canadian Press)Canada. National Defence / The Canadian Press
After D-Day, the battle to cleanse Europe of Nazi forces had only just begun. Much of it involved dangerous urban warfare, winning towns through the costly process of fighting street by street, house by house. This image, taken June 10 during the Battle for Caen, displays the chaos of it all. On the left, the Canadian soldier firing into the building is in fact wielding a captured German weapon, while the soldier in the middle is a despatch rider – indicated by his slightly rounded helmet – who has abandoned his motorcycle to help his fellow Canadians in the battle. By the time the Nazis were beaten back east of the Seine on Aug. 30, marking the completion of the Battle of Normandy, nearly 19,000 Canadians had been wounded, including more than 5,000 deaths. – Ken Carriere
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Arik Ligeti