Good morning,
It has been an eventful few days in the world of sports, with athletes of all leagues staging boycotts and issuing statements in solidarity with anti-racism and police brutality protests. National Basketball Association players staged high-profile walkouts on Wednesday and Thursday, postponing multiple playoff games, though it appears they will soon return to the court.
The NBA issued a statement saying it is hopeful games can return today or tomorrow. Players from teams such as the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights have been outspoken about the need for racial justice, and the Raptors issued a statement on Twitter Thursday saying, “We stand with our brothers in solidarity as we fight for justice and change.”
The postponements have not been limited to the NBA, as the Women’s National Basketball Association have been a major force in calling for change, also postponing their games, along with the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and tennis.
These actions come during a summer of anti-racism protests, the most recent of which were prompted by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin. Blake was shot in the back seven times by officer Rusten Sheskey. During a protest that followed the shooting, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two protesters and injured one other. He has since been charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree reckless homicide, one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.
An empty court is seen as all NBA playoff games were postponed today during the 2020 NBA Playoffs at AdventHealth Arena at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on August 27, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. NBA players have reportedly decided to resume the season after their walkout of playoff games on Wednesday to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
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In landmark shift, Fed adopts average inflation target, elevates jobs focus
New policy directives from the U.S. Federal Reserve will be placing new weight on bolstering the U.S. labour market and less on worries about too-high inflation. The changes were rolled out on Thursday as part of what is arguably the Fed’s largest policy shift since Paul Volcker remade the central bank into an inflation-slaying force four decades ago
The new monetary policy strategy focuses on addressing “shortfalls” from the “broad-based and inclusive goal” of full employment, a nod to racial equity and its role in promoting economic growth.
Quebec opens schools, says aggressive plans are in place for daycares in event of second COVID-19 wave
As Quebec schools reopen for hundreds of thousands of children Thursday, the province has promised that it will not shut down its entire daycare system regardless of how hard a second wave hits. Quebec’s back-to-school plan is among the least stringent in the country, causing concerns for parents and teachers.
Families Minister Mathieu Lacombe says measures put in place when daycares started to reopen in the spring – such as cleaning, masking caregivers and limiting parents’ access to facilities – have slowed the spread of the virus.
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DISPATCH FROM GLOBE CLIMATE
This week’s Globe Climate newsletter spotlights Mac McAlear, a second-year student at the University of Saskatchewan and CEO of an environmental not-for-profit organization that cleans up garbage in Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.
“The goal is to clean all our cities to help not only our citizens but, by extension, the environment surrounding our cities. To date, we have run more than 20 cleaning events across Canada, and cleaned more than 360 square kilometres in Edmonton alone.” — Mac McAlear.
Do you know an engaged young person pursuing change in the country? E-mail us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them and sign up for our Globe Climate newsletter to see more profiles of youths making waves.
Mac McAlearHandout
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Elections Canada bracing for increase in mail-in ballots if vote held during COVID-19 pandemic: Public opinion research commissioned by Elections Canada suggests 21.8 per cent of voters prefer mail-in ballots and 58 per cent prefer voting in-person at advance or election-day polls.
Trump invites voters to fear anti-racism protesters in final night of RNC: During the last night of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump officially accepted his party’s nomination for a second term. In a speech that played to his base, he deflected criticism of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-racism protests.
Mali’s deposed president returns home after being detained by military junta: Former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has returned home after being detained by the ruling military junta that staged a coup last week.
An Afghan man looks for belongings in his house that was damaged by a mudslide, in the Parwan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. The death toll from heavy flooding in northern and eastern Afghanistan rose to at least 150 on Thursday, with scores more injured as rescue crews searched for survivors beneath the mud and rubble of collapsed houses, officials said.The Associated Press
Death toll from flooding in Afghanistan rises to at least 150: Heavy rain and flooding continues to devastate northern and eastern Afghanistan, as authorities reported that the death toll rose to at least 150 on Thursday. Rescue crews are still searching for survivors beneath collapsed houses.
Alberta Teachers’ Association calls for adviser to be dismissed after racist articles surface: The ATA is calling for the resignation of Dr. Chris Champion from the Alberta Curriculum Review Panel, after it was discovered that he had written racist articles, including one that called the inclusion of First Nations perspectives in lessons a “fad.”
Nova Scotia man faces additional charges in missing-teen case: The 47-year-old man alleged to be connected to the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl from We’koqma’q Mi’kmaq First Nation is facing one additional charge of assault from an unrelated incident last December. He is also facing charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer.
Read more on Indigenous issues:
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks struggle after Fed shift, Japanese markets shaken as Abe resigns: Stock markets struggled for direction on Friday as investors worried about a lack of detail in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy shift while Japanese markets were roiled as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned for health reasons. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.16 per cent. Germany’s DAX fell 0.29 per cent and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.12 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.41 per cent. New York futures were mostly higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 76.52 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Memo to Erin O’Toole: there is no national-unity crisis
Gary Mason: “In other words, if we do have a snap election this fall, it will be a lot harder for Mr. O’Toole to make the argument that Alberta and the West have been treated especially shabbily by the Prime Minister and his government.”
What if the Trudeau government had managed to reform prorogation in 2017?
Dale Smith: “Associating a certain amount of pomp and pageantry with prorogation ensures that there is visibility for the exercise, and would absolutely curb its tactical usage.”
The end of the HIV crisis is within our grasp. We must apply the pandemic spirit to achieve it
Sean Rourke and Bill Flanagan: “Canada has proven in recent months that all three levels of government can work effectively together to disseminate clear public health messages and make testing and connections to care providers available for whoever needs it. We need to do the same for HIV through this new self-test.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
I’m Métis, but grew up white in an adopted family. I’m still trying to figure out who I am
I feel the weight of all of that, and yet sometimes it still feels like I understand myself so little. The shame still awakens from its slumber every so often. Throughout my medical training, I considered this a weakness. I was never Indigenous enough to look like my adoptive cousins or some of my patients, and I was never white enough to relate to most of my classmates. With the reclamation of my name, however, I am claiming my identity while navigating my way through these two worlds. I suspect it will be a lifelong journey, but I’m thankful I’m further along and finding greater comfort in my own skin than I had at the start. I hope my uncle is able to do the same.
MOMENT IN TIME: August 28, 1968
The play "Les Belles-soeurs" by Michel Tremblay, premiered on August 28, 1968 at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montreal under the staging of André Brassard, and brought the working class back to the theatre. Part of the cast of Les Belles-soeurs, where we see Denise Proulx, Rita Lafontaine and Denise Filiatrault.Musée POP
Les Belles-soeurs is staged for the first time
Lorraine Hansberry, playwright of A Raisin the Sun, believed “in order to create something universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.”
Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-soeurs, first performed on this day in 1968 at Théâtre du Rideau Vert, is a prime example. The two-act tragicomedy about 15 working-class, bingo-loving women in Montreal’s east end is deeply rooted in the Québécois playwright’s culture and language – and initially shocked some because of the dialogue being in the vernacular known as joual. (One reviewer wrote: “A filthy bathroom language.”)
But Les Belles-soeurs didn’t just change Quebec theatre and, arguably, Quebec as a central artistic product of the Quiet Revolution. Germaine Lauzon and her unfulfilled sisters – in blood, in law or otherwise – have since been embraced almost everywhere, their maudites and moés translated into dozens of languages and dialects from Catalan to Haitian Creole to Korean. A new Irish version by Deirdre Kinahan called The Unmanageable Sisters was a hit for the Abbey Theatre in 2018 and 2019.
A 2010 musical, too, has proved adaptable: Last month, it was announced that As Comadres, the Brazilian version transposed into a Rio de Janeiro suburb, will tour France in 2021. J. Kelly Nestruck
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