Morning Update: How the heads of lobbying firms have become part of Doug Ford’s inner circle; three dead, two missing in Northern B.C.

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These are the top stories:

How the heads of lobbying firms have become part of Doug Ford’s inner circle

Premier Doug Ford relies on the heads of two lobbying firms for advice, giving them access to his inner circle and influence over Ontario politics through strategic direction, crisis management and input on the recent cabinet shuffle.

The close relationships have been fostered in an ethics environment that critics say allows a blurring of lines between lobbying, political campaigning and advising on government operations.

Chris Froggatt and Kory Teneycke, who started government-relations firms weeks after helping the Progressive Conservative Party win the election last year, have become powerful backroom advisers to the Premier at the same time as their employees lobby his administration. Their firms have each signed up more than two dozen clients, many of which have a financial interest in government initiatives, including liberalizing beer and wine sales, rolling out cannabis retail policies and tendering on public-sector construction contracts.

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RCMP are urging travellers to Northern B.C. to be vigilant after three deaths and two disappearances

The RCMP say a young couple found near B.C.'s border with the Yukon were victims of homicide, and they are also investigating the disappearance hundreds of kilometres away of two Vancouver Island teens as well as trying to identify a middle-aged man whose body was found near the teens’ torched truck on Friday.

The police will not confirm that the cases are connected, but when asked, said they could be linked. They have released a sketch of a man whom they consider a “person of interest" after passing drivers saw him talking with the slain couple the night before their bodies were discovered on the side of the highway July 15.

At a news conference, Mounties pleaded with the public to share more information while urging campers to make sure they sleep at well-known campsites in the region and check in regularly with family or friends who have detailed plans of their itineraries.

Huawei Canada is distancing itself from Beijing in an effort to burnish its image

The Canadian subsidiary of Huawei Technologies is trying to put some distance between itself and China’s government as it seeks to improve its public image in Canada.

Alykhan Velshi of Huawei Technologies Canada told journalists the company is worried about the two Canadians who have been detained by Beijing since December in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive.

Tensions between Iran and Britain, as well as the U.S., are ratcheting up

Britain called for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, days after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in what London described as an act of “state piracy” in the strategic waterway. That seizure follows Britain’s detention of an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar.

Meanwhile, Tehran announced the arrest of 17 Iranians accused of spying on the country’s nuclear and military sites for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and said some of them have been sentenced to death. President Donald Trump called it “another lie” from Iran.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Caisse calls for action as SNC performance deteriorates: SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.'s biggest investor issued a rare rebuke of the company’s current direction, just hours after the Canadian engineering giant announced a shift in corporate strategy and provided a worsening picture of its financial health.

Report suggests increase in organized-crime homicides: According to Statistics Canada’s annual report on national crime trends, the offences most likely to be related to organized crime or gangs were homicide, conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering, and the smuggling and illegal sale of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

Thirty Metre Telescope dispute puts focus on Canada’s role: As protesters continue their efforts to stop the construction of a giant telescope in Hawaii, some academics and students are calling on Canada to withdraw from a project that is increasingly being portrayed as pitting science against Indigenous rights.

Israel demolishes dozens of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem: Israeli work crews began demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of an eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood in one of the largest operations of its kind in years.

Municipalities call on federal parties to support permanent doubling of gas-tax transfer: Municipalities received a surprise $2.2-billion windfall in this year’s pre-election Liberal budget in the form of a one-time doubling of the federal gas-tax transfer – and now they’re calling on federal parties to support making that boost permanent.

Massive protest held in Puerto Rico: Waving flags, chanting and banging pots and pans, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans jammed a highway to demand the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello in a crisis triggered by a leak of offensive, obscenity-laden chat messages between him and his advisers.

MORNING MARKETS

Stocks rise

A wave of central bank easing and positive soundings from the earnings season buoyed world stocks on Tuesday, while Britain’s pound fell before the expected confirmation of hard-Brexit advocate Boris Johnson as the country’s prime minister. Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.4 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5 per cent, Germany’s DAX 1.1 per cent, and the Paris CAC 40 0.5 per cent at just after 6 a.m. ET. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was at 76.11 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Is the era of ‘human supremacy’ coming to an end? For the sake of our future, I hope so

Elizabeth Renzetti: “Animals exist at our pleasure. We hunt them or raise them to be slaughtered, gawk at them in zoos and test mascara on them to make sure it won’t burn our eyes. The lucky ones live beside us, on our couches, and we sprinkle their ashes under their favourite tree when they die. What if the era of human supremacy is coming to an end? What if, a century from now, we look back on the idea of keeping animals captive and eating their flesh with revulsion?”

As civil unrest rages on, Hong Kong’s government continues to flail

Frank Ching: “Hong Kong’s government is in crisis mode, and things are only getting worse. Demonstrations over a since-suspended bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to extradite people to China show no sign of abating, as the administration refuses to fully withdraw the legislation and protesters make more and more demands. Violence continues to erupt … And, through it all, the beleaguered government continues to get even the routine and symbolic things wrong.” Ching is a Hong Kong-based journalist.

Caisse’s rebuke of SNC demonstrates it has lost patience with board

Konrad Yakabuski: “The move by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to publicly call for ‘decisive and timely’ action to redress SNC-Lavalin Group shows that the beleaguered engineering giant’s largest shareholder has lost patience with the company’s board and is seeking an even bigger shakeup at the Montreal-based firm … The Caisse’s intervention suggests [Ian] Edwards, who took over after Neil Bruce’s departure last month, has little time to turn SNC around, all while it faces a trial on corruption charges involving its former Libyan business.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

ECG feature added to the Apple Watch in Canada as tech giant looks beyond fitness tracking

Apple Inc. is pushing deeper into health tracking in Canada, adding new features to its smartwatch that alert users if they appear to have a potentially dangerous heart problem and that allow them to take a snapshot of their heartbeat to share with a doctor. The updates are part of continuing efforts by the Silicon Valley giant to expand its Apple Watch beyond fitness tracking into health care.

MOMENT IN TIME

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Amy Winehouse dies

July 23, 2011: With a voice bigger than her beehive, eyelashes and hoop earrings put together, Amy Winehouse’s potential was evident and staggering from a young age. Barely 20 when she released her first album, Frank – a critical success that was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize – Winehouse became a sensation with her second album, Back to Black, including the first single, which would become her tragic signature, Rehab. Winehouse’s demons were well documented, and as she rose to the ranks of megastardom – Back to Black won four Grammys in 2008 – Winehouse spiralled into severe drug and alcohol addiction. Early attempts by concerned friends to send her to rehab were rebuffed (“no, no, no”) and a later stint was marred by the use of drugs on-site with her then-husband. She was hounded by the paparazzi and ridiculed by the tabloids. Her performances, once stellar, became excruciating to watch, including what was supposed to be a European tour kickoff in Belgrade in June, 2011. Winehouse, clearly severely inebriated, was unable to perform and was booed off the stage. Slightly more than a month later, Winehouse was found dead in her London home. The cause of death was alcohol poisoning. She was 27. Marsha Lederman

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