Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Andrew Scheer calls for majority to head off an anti-Conservative coalition
Andrew Scheer is taking aim at the idea of a coalition government, a day after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he was “absolutely” open to one to keep the Tories from power. Only a Conservative majority can prevent a government with “Justin Trudeau as the spokesman but the NDP calling the shots,” the Conservative Leader said in Winnipeg Monday after announcing that he would table a fiscal update within 45 days if his party forms government. For his part, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is declining to say whether he would join a possible coalition.
Also read:
- First Nations displaced by storm share concerns with Scheer campaign
- Non-partisan group Future Majority aims to motivate young Canadians to vote
- Opinion (Michael Coren): In this federal election, Christian Canadians face a crossroads
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Tse Chi Lop, a Canadian national born in China, is Asia’s biggest drug trafficker and most-wanted man, police say
He is protected by a guard of Thai kickboxers. He flies by private jet. And, police say, he once lost $66-million in a single night at a Macau casino. Tse is suspected of leading a vast multinational drug-trafficking syndicate which, law enforcers believe, is funnelling tonnes of methamphetamine, heroin and ketamine to at least a dozen countries. He is the prime target of Operation Kungur, a previously unreported counter-narcotics investigation. Led by the Australian Federal Police, Operation Kungur involves about 20 agencies from Asia, North America and Europe. It is by far the biggest ever international effort to combat Asian drug-trafficking syndicates, say law enforcement agents involved in the investigation. It encompasses authorities from Myanmar, China, Thailand, Japan, the United States and Canada.
U.S. troops scramble to exit Syria as Trump announces sanctions on Turkey
Targeting Turkey’s economy, President Donald Trump announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks’ assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria – an assault that began after Trump announced he was moving U.S. troops out of the way. Meanwhile, the Americans were scrambling for Syria’s exits, a move criticized as opening the door to a resurgence of the Islamic State group whose violent takeover of Syrian and Iraqi lands five years ago was the reason American forces came in the first place. The President said he was halting trade negotiations with Turkey and raising steel tariffs.
Booker Prize rocked by controversy after panel selects two winners: Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo
The five jurors defied the direct order of the chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, which oversees the award, who told them to select just one author. Instead, the panel announced the co-winners Monday evening at a gala in London: Ms. Atwood for The Testaments, her long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and Ms. Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other, a tale of 12 characters, most of whom are black women. The foundation went ahead with the award despite the defiance and said the authors will split the £50,000 prize.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
China issues angry criticism of Stephen Harper’s visit to Taiwan: The former Conservative leader said he travelled in a personal capacity, promoting his consulting business and a book he published last year.
One doctor’s experience treating victims of gun violence: Guns have become a hot-button topic during the campaign for the Oct. 21 federal election, and doctors are speaking about the damage they cause, calling it a public-health crisis.
B.C. school districts target vaping, call for increased regulation: The school district says it has met with local municipal governments to encourage the development of bylaws to prevent advertising and the targeting of sales to minors.
Trump’s former adviser on Russia testifies in impeachment inquiry: Fiona Hill testified on Monday behind closed doors as the latest witness summoned in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against Mr. Trump over his request that Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.
Alzheimer Society won’t fight potential legal changes allowing patients to make advance requests for MAID: The country’s largest non-profit organization for people with dementia used to be a strong opponent of advance consent for medial assistance in dying, but last month the organization’s board adopted a new position.
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks edge higher on Brexit hopes, trade optimism fades: Global stocks edged higher on Tuesday yet safe havens were still in play as markets tried to balance fading optimism over the latest China-U.S. trade truce with the likelihood of a Brexit deal by Thursday’s European Union summit. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 1.9 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite shed 0.6 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down marginally by about 4:45 a.m. ET, with Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 up by between 0.4 and 0.5 per cent. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was above 75.5 US cents.
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WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
The U.S.-China trade deal has a drawback
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston: “Given Canada-China relations at this time, Canadian agricultural products, already hurting from Chinese bans, can expect to be at the top of the list of those exports to be displaced by sales of American products.” Margaret McCuaig-Johnston is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Why protesting makes me uncomfortable
Linda Besner: “It may be because a protest is a perfect storm of social awkwardness: It’s where the tidal waves of conformity and nonconformism smash into each other.” Besner’s most recent book is Feel Happier in Nine Seconds.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Of all the things I had to pack – books, clothes, furniture – it was vegetables nurtured over hundreds of hours in the summer that I could not leave behind. The garden became my happy place. Produce grew despite my worst efforts. On summer nights, when it stays light in Edmonton until nearly 11 o’clock, I weeded with snowshoe hares as companions. I fretted about powdery mildew and unpredictable weather. A cross-country move made me realize how much my garden had given me, Marty Klinkenberg writes.
MOMENT IN TIME
Merrick Morton/Twentieth Century Fox via Reuters
Oct. 15, 1999
Studio executives originally planned to release Fight Club in July, 1999, but after the Columbine shooting in the spring, the release date was pushed to Oct. 15. If the studio worried a film about violent, alienated men would perform better in the fall, they were wrong. Director David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel grossed just more than US$37-million at the North American box office, well below its US$63-million budget. But its DVD release helped make it a cult hit – “the defining cult movie of our time,” The New York Times said on the 10th anniversary of the film’s release. Tyler Durden, the ripped ubermensch in cool sunglasses played by Brad Pitt, still has many worshippers online, and there’s probably not a person alive over the age of 20 in the Western world who doesn’t know what the first rule of fight club is. But the film has not aged well. In a post-9/11 world, and in the era of toxic masculinity, a film about lost, angry, (mostly white) guys opting for anarchy and intent on blowing up office buildings can make for queasy viewing. Still, two decades later, we are still talking about Fight Club. —Dave McGinn
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