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Relatives of the Canadian victims who died in last year’s crash of a Boeing 737 Max airliner urged the federal government yesterday for closer scrutiny before the grounded plane is allowed to fly again.

During tearful testimony before the federal transport committee, two relatives called for a public inquiry into Canada’s endorsement of the flawed 737 Max. They also called for a formal investigation into why the government didn’t ground the plane after its first disaster, a move that could have saved lives.

Regulators around the world are preparing to allow a revamped version of the 737 Max back into service, with Boeing assuring governments the flawed software has been fixed and the plane’s weaknesses corrected. Last week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration gave its approval, and on Tuesday, European regulators signalled they would unground the plane as early as January.

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Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked at Boeing facilities at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, U.S. November 17, 2020.LINDSEY WASSON/Reuters

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China censors Canadian curriculums at international schools

More than 80 international schools in China teach curriculums developed by Canadian provinces and issue provincial diplomas, but people who have worked at these schools say they have had to edit their own lesson plans to fit what Beijing wants rather than the provincial education ministries that approve their textbooks.

In interviews with teachers and principals, The Globe and Mail has learned that pages have been torn out of textbooks and stickers have been placed over content that might offend Chinese officials. Staff at these schools have been urged to show deference to the Communist Party, and when it came to hiring, people who wear hijabs or have links to Tibetan groups were denied employment.

Canadian provinces generally mandate a standard of education for international schools that parallels what is offered in Canada. In return, the provinces grant diplomas to overseas students, some of whom then enroll in universities in those provinces or in other parts of Canada.

Fred Sasakamoose, one of the first Indigenous players in the NHL, dies at 86

Fred Sasakamoose, the trailblazing Indigenous hockey player, died yesterday of complications from COVID-19.

Sasakamoose was barely out his teens when he took face-offs against Maurice Richard and played against Gordie Howe as a centre for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1954.

His path to becoming the first Indigenous player in the National Hockey League was all the more remarkable for having survived the trauma and abuse of a residential school.

His entire career in the NHL lasted 11 games, but paved the way for a lengthy list of Indigenous players, among them George Armstrong, Theo Fleury, Carey Price, Wade Redden, Sheldon Souray, Jordin Tootoo and Bryan Trottier.

More: Fred Sasakamoose: Survivor, trailblazer, leader, hero

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Fred Sasakamoose, a residential school survivor and the first First Nations NHL hockey player, sits in the Vancouver Giants dressing room where the WHL hockey team unveiled First Nations tribute jerseys in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday September 19, 2013.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Alberta takes new measures as it deals with rapid rise in COVID-19 infections: The Alberta government is banning all indoor gatherings and limiting the operations of many businesses as the province responds to a rapid increase in COVID-19 infections. For students, the province has extended the winter holiday break and shut down in-person classes for junior high and high schools.

Gary Mason: Jason Kenney ends his COVID-19 dithering but at what cost?

André Picard: Jason Kenney’s ‘balanced approach’ is a fast-track to failure

Biden’s cabinet will deal with some of the most significant crises facing the U.S.: U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has unveiled his first cabinet nominees, opting for seasoned officials with prior government experience and putting an emphasis on demographic diversity. He is set to make more nominations and appointments in the coming weeks, as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20. Whoever is named to his cabinet will have to take on some of the most significant crises facing the country.

Konrad Yakabuski: With Janet Yellen at Treasury, Joe Biden signals further blurring of fiscal, monetary policies

Stepping Up: Sanitation specialist developed system to ensure healthy drinking water for refugee camps: It was in a refugee camp in South Sudan where he saw clean water being recontaminated that Syed Imran Ali came up with the idea of the Safe Water Optimization Tool, an online resource that allows humanitarian aid workers to test water at their stations and also in people’s shelters to determine the level of chlorine required to keep the water safe.

Britain’s Duchess Meghan speaks about miscarriage in break with royal reserve: Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, has revealed that she had a miscarriage, an extraordinarily personal disclosure coming from a high-profile British royal. The wife of Prince Harry and former actress wrote about the experience in detail in an opinion article published in The New York Times on Wednesday.


MORNING MARKETS

World stocks gain: Global shares reached record highs on Wednesday after the Dow Jones broke 30,000, with investors relieved at the prospect of a smooth handover of power after the U.S. presidential election and confident a COVID-19 vaccine is on the horizon. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was off 0.31 per cent. Germany’s DAX slid 0.19 per cent while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.07 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.50 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished up 0.31 per cent. New York futures were little changed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 76.84 US cents.


WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Andrew Coyne: “But broader proposals for change, let alone dreamy ideas of “reimagined economic systems,” should be defended on their merits, one at a time – not rushed through at one go, in the middle of a once-a-century global public-health crisis, in the hopes that people will be either too confused to notice or too scared to resist.”

Jillian Kohler and Jonathan Cushing: “To quote the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla: ‘If you get it right, you can save the world. And if you don’t get it right, you will not.’ But getting it right means much more than developing an effective vaccine – it demands transparency and accountability every step of the way, and a commitment to global equity in terms of deployment.”

Editorial Board: “Though Canada is a different country, with a different history and political system, it has also always been less different from the U.S. than any other country. And given the increasing presence of American issues and cues in the average Canadian’s diet, Canadians are arguably less culturally different than ever from Americans. Canada’s political parties have reason to learn what they can from this latest round on the U.S. political battlefield.”


TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail


LIVING BETTER

Chris Hadfield’s guide to a better life on Earth

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been learning about how to build a better Earth. Join The Globe and Mail and Mr. Hadfield in a conversation about climate and sustainability on Thursday Nov. 26 at 7:30 p.m. EST via Facebook live. Send in your questions for Canada’s favourite astronaut.


MOMENT IN TIME: NOV. 25, 1984

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Members of the charity supergroup Band Aid pose for group portrait in London, November 1984.Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Do They Know It’s Christmas is recorded to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief

Before We Are the World, before Tears Are Not Enough, before Live Aid was a dollar sign in Bob Geldof’s sad-sack eyes, there was Do They Know It’s Christmas? – an overemotional British charity single written by Midge Ure and Geldof and recorded by the supergroup Band Aid in benefit of starving Ethiopians. After its original recording on Nov. 25, 1984, the song would be rerecorded three more times, in 1989, 2004 and 2014. Was it such a great song, or were they just trying to finally get it right? Because despite being the fastest selling single in British chart history, the festive-season single was not well-received initially. “Millions of dead stars write and perform rotten record for the right reasons,” sneered the New Music Express, referring to George Michael, Bono, Boy George and Geldof among others. Still, if the song was less than the sum of its parts, the sum of £8-million or $14-million (which it generated within the year after its release) was no small number. Critics may love to hate it, but the song that ends in a question mark has nothing to answer for. Brad Wheeler

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