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The Canadian government is promising to toughen scrutiny of foreign takeovers, citing national security concerns, just weeks after its new Indo-Pacific policy identified China as an “increasingly disruptive” power.
“The world has vastly changed in the last few years,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said as he unveiled a package of changes to the Investment Canada Act that he said represented the most significant update in more than a decade. “That’s why we must be prepared to face the challenges that could endanger our economic security and national security.”
China is not mentioned by name – and the government insists its reforms are country-agnostic – but the changes are geared toward stopping the transfer of intellectual property or trade secrets to foreign countries.
- Federal government orders review of RCMP contract with subsidiary of Chinese telecom company
- Campbell Clark: The government’s claim to be clear-eyed on China belied by a failure to look
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks during a media availability on legislation to modernize the Investment Canada Act on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Dec. 7, 2022.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
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Bank of Canada delivers half-point rate hike, signals end of aggressive campaign may be near
The Bank of Canada increased interest rates for the seventh consecutive time yesterday, surprising markets with another oversized move while signaling that it may be nearing the end of its historic rate-hike cycle.
The bank’s governing council raised the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 4.25 per cent, the highest level since early 2008.
Investors were expecting a more dovish quarter-point increase. But even as the bank defied those expectations it softened its language about future rate increases – a sign that its rate-hike campaign is fast approaching a turning point, with a potential pause coming as early as January.
- David Parkinson: Bank of Canada signals a pause to the interest rate hike
- Rob Carrick: Mortgage-holders, savers and GIC investors, it’s time to change your thinking on interest rates
Peru swears in new president amid constitutional crisis
The president of Peru was ousted by Congress and arrested on a charge of rebellion yesterday after he sought to dissolve the legislative body and take unilateral control of the government, triggering a grave constitutional crisis.
Vice-president Dina Boluarte replaced Pedro Castillo and became the first female leader in the history of the republic after hours of wrangling between the legislature and the president, who had tried to prevent an impeachment vote.
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Also on our radar
Ottawa to invest in Indigenous-led conservation efforts: The federal government will spend up to $800-million over seven years on four Indigenous-led conservation initiatives, in a high-profile move to kick off a crucial international biodiversity summit.
Soaring bread prices hitting Egypt’s lower middle class: Rising food prices are creating misery once again in Egypt, but it is not the poor who are complaining – their subsidies appear sacrosanct. Instead, the victims are the lower middle class. They do not qualify for the subsidies and their lean incomes are getting squeezed by high inflation.
Kherson steels itself for a hard Ukrainian winter: Kherson is the only regional capital that Russia had managed to conquer since the start of its full-scale invasion in February. The city was retaken by Ukrainian troops on Nov. 11, however scorched neighbourhoods and villages surrounding the capital, destroyed infrastructure and grim life under fire – as a cold winter sets in – remains the reality for residents.
How a Canadian-born CEO provoked the wrath of Taylor Swift fans: Michael Rapino, the Thunder Bay-born chief executive of music industry goliath Live Nation, has found himself thrust into the role of villain, insofar as the CEO of a US$15-billion-a-year company can become a lightning rod for the anger and disappointment of a few million Swifties, as Taylor Swift fans are known.
World Cup quarter-finals offer tantalizing clashes: After non-stop soccer for the past two weeks, the World Cup is taking a small break. There will be two days of rest before the quarter-finals start in Qatar with at least one surprising team still in contention to win soccer’s biggest prize.
Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland two million years ago: Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like two million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. Today, it’s a barren Arctic desert, but back then it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now extinct mastodon.
Morning markets
Investors weigh economic worries: World stocks and oil prices battled to pull out of a four-day slide on Thursday as deeply inverted bond yield curves and choppy currency markets underscored the simmering concerns among investors about economic stagnation next year. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.09 per cent. Germany’s DAX slid 0.14 per cent while France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.08 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 0.40 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 3.38 per cent. New York futures were modestly higher. The Canadian dollar was little changed at 73.23 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Editorial: “Ottawa made the right call two years ago to expedite payments, a lifeline to millions of individuals and to hundreds of thousands of businesses ... But that decision created a responsibility to ensure that benefits were not paid out mistakenly, not to mention fraudulently. Ottawa had a duty to trust, but then to verify with all due speed. As this week’s Auditor-General report on pandemic benefits makes clear, the Liberals failed in that duty.”
Tanya Talaga: “Three years after the release of the final report of the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, it is disgusting that we still have to shame authorities to search a landfill site where they believe the bodies of at least two Indigenous women are buried.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Living better
Why you should try forest bathing – even in the winter
Many cultures have long believed that spending time outside, no matter the weather, can be good for your mental and physical health. In Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been encouraging people to practice “shinrin-yoku” (literally “forest bath”) since the 1980s. This type of mindfulness, ideally undertaken without a cellphone, helps us feel more present, grounded and connected to ourselves and the world around us.
Moment in time: Dec. 8, 1882
Chief Big Bear (Mistahimaskwa) of the plains Cree in western style clothing, 1885.Libraries Special Collections / University of Saskatchewan
Big Bear forced to sign treaty
His diminutive size and pockmarked face from smallpox belied his stature in Plains Cree society. Chief Big Bear (Mistahimaskwa) had refused to enter Treaty Six at Fort Pitt in September, 1876. He questioned whether enough was being offered and wanted to see if Canada would keep its treaty promises. Above all, he feared losing his independence – in his words, being treated like an animal with a rope about its neck. Big Bear’s resistance made him a pariah to Indian Affairs officials, while garnering a large following of disaffected First Nations men and their families. Over the next few years, his band eked out a miserable existence, hunting the few remaining bison in the Cypress Hills and across the international border in the Milk River region of Montana. But by the fall of 1882, he and his followers were starving. Indian commissioner Edgar Dewdney took advantage of their “extreme wretchedness” and ordered that no rations be issued to the band until Big Bear entered treaty. Finally, on a cold morning this day 140 years ago, Big Bear met the Indian agent at Fort Walsh (in present-day southwestern Saskatchewan), and after a four-hour speech, put his mark on an adhesion to Treaty Six. Bill Waiser
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