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The Supreme Court of Canada resumes hearing cases on Oct. 11, but it has not been easy to fill a seat that has been vacant since the resignation of Russell Brown in June.
In a field made thin by a shortage of bilingual candidates, francophone judges from Alberta and Manitoba have emerged as leading contenders. By tradition, two of the nine Supreme Court judges are from the West. Brown had been a law professor and judge in Alberta, so his successor must also be from the West.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner said publicly when Brown resigned that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should promptly exercise the necessary care and consideration in choosing his successor. But few if any judges from the courts of appeal of Western Canada have applied, as some of the West’s top legal talent sits out the contest.
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Canada must better protect immigrants, refugees from foreign threats, report says
A new report by human-rights lawyers, released ahead of the public inquiry on foreign interference, says Canada must be prepared to take forceful action to protect those who are often the targets of these attacks: immigrants and refugees.
It says Canada is breaking its obligations under international law to protect those who start a new life in this country but often face intimidation and pressure from authoritarian governments they left behind in their homeland.
In order to combat this repression, the report urges Ottawa to cancel a long-standing treaty with China that obliges it to co-operate with Beijing on police and criminal investigations.
Peter Quigley, a research technician at Western University's Elginfield Observatory, located outside London, Ont., inspects a prototype camera system designed for tracking satellites passing overhead.Jeff Renaud/Western University
Researchers deploy camera system to track swarms of satellites lighting up skies
If you’ve noticed yourself counting more satellites under the night sky, you are not alone.
The change marks the rise of satellite mega-constellations – including Elon Musk’s Starlink – which rely on hundreds to thousands of individual spacecraft flying just above the planet’s outer atmosphere where they can provide clients with uninterrupted mobile communications around the globe.
It has transformed Lauchie Scott’s research specialty, known as space domain awareness, a field that is concerned with tracking all of the objects orbiting overhead and understanding what potential hazards they may pose. Now, in collaboration with astronomers at Western University, Dr. Scott has a prototype camera system that can be deployed to monitor satellites across Canada.
Crews work on creating a plan for the removal of downed tree limbs and power lines in the aftermath of post-tropical cyclone Lee in Milton, outside Liverpool, N.S, Sept. 17, 2023.JOHN MORRIS/Reuters
Weather-weary Maritimers clean up after post-tropical storm Lee
Post-tropical storm Lee battered the Maritimes this weekend, flooding coastal roads and uprooting trees, with power still knocked out for tens of thousands of residents. As officials assessed the damage on Sunday from the hurricane season’s first major storm, many were still in the dark, and there was a general feeling of natural-disaster fatigue among Nova Scotians after the province’s historic wildfires in the spring and the summer’s deadly floods. Saturday’s storm left about 277,000 customers in Nova Scotia and 90,000 in New Brunswick affected by power outages. As of late Sunday afternoon, 38,000 customers in Nova Scotia and 4,000 in New Brunswick were still awaiting restoration.
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Also on our radar
Politics: Justin Trudeau is running out of time to complete a string of promises made after the 2021 election, an expert on federal procedures warns, as MPs return to Ottawa Monday.
Health: Child-care advocates are calling on the Alberta government to launch a full public inquiry into an E. coli outbreak at Calgary daycares that as of last week had climbed to 337 confirmed cases with 12 patients receiving care in hospital.
Social issues: Library books have faced challenges for decades, but a recent shift has become more organized as a proxy culture war.
War in Ukraine: The first two cargo ships arrive in a Ukrainian port after Russia’s exit from grain deal. Meanwhile, Canada will give $33-million to help buy air defences for Ukraine.
Personal finance: Feeling the financial pinch of wedding season, young people are sending regrets.
CEBA repayment: The Big Six banks say they are open to refinancing Canada Emergency Business Account loans for small businesses, though they provided few details.
Consumer debt: Bank of Montreal is exiting a segment of the auto loan business dominated by two rivals, a move at the country’s third-largest lender that reflects a drive to cut costs and limit exposure to one consumer debt sector.
Morning markets
Markets await central bank meetings: World shares fell while the U.S. dollar firmed on Monday as growth concerns tested investors’ mettle ahead of a week brimming with central bank meetings in countries including Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, the United States and Japan. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.23 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.58 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 1.39 per cent. Markets in Japan were closed. New York futures were modestly positive. The Canadian dollar was trading at 74.04 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
More immigration will make Canada wealthier – we just need to do it right
“This will not come cheaply, but it will be worth the investment. With the highest ever immigration that in 2023 may exceed 500,000 people, Canada’s population is growing rapidly, and the long-term benefits considerably outweigh the transition costs.” - Livio Di Matteo
Babcock quits but it’s another sign of a much bigger problem in the NHL
“Any other sport, you’d say, ‘That’s really it for Mike Babcock.’ But hockey’s a horror film – no matter what you do to move on, the past keeps coming back to haunt you.” - Cathal Kelly
Canada should honour Mahsa Amini’s memory by putting sanctions on her killers
“We must honour Mahsa Amini’s memory, and the courage of Iranian women, in sanctioning or jailing their abusers. This important moment of commemorating her murder must not only be an act of remembrance, but a reminder that we must act.” - Ratna Omidvar, Bill Browder, Brandon Silver
Today’s editorial cartoon
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
Living better
Erika Alexander, left, and Jeffrey Wright in a scene from "American Fiction."Claire Folger/The Associated Press
Winners at the Toronto International Film Festival
Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a satire about race and personal agency, is the winner of this year’s People’s Choice prize at TIFF. The People’s Choice award is determined through online voting and is frequently considered a harbinger of success at the Academy Awards. The winner of best Canadian feature, which is chosen by a jury and worth $10,000, went to Sophie Dupuis’s Solo, about a talented performer in Montreal’s drag scene.
Read more from TIFF
- The best (Talking Heads!), weirdest (pre-show ads!), and most awkward (tech errors!) moments
- The big picture of TIFF 2023, a festival of existential challenges
News photo archive: Billie Jean King
Pro tennis player Billie Jean King holds her newly won trophy high after beating Bobby Riggs in their $100,000 winner-take-all "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match. Ms. King took three straight sets to beat the 55-year-old Riggs.Bettmann/Getty Images
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at tennis.
She was born Billie Jean Moffitt in Long Beach, Calif., in 1943, but marriage gave her the name Billie Jean King, and her undeniable talent and drive made her one of the best in the history of women’s tennis. Ms. King won the Wimbledon women’s singles when she was 17, and 39 Grand Slam titles – 12 in singles, 16 in doubles, 11 in mixed doubles – and a total of 129 singles victories overall. She played a key role in founding the Women’s Tennis Association in 1970. Despite all her accomplishments, however, she might be best known for the 1973 Battle of the Sexes, in which she outplayed the self-described “male chauvinist” Bobby Riggs in front of a record 30,000-plus spectators at Houston’s Astrodome (pictured above). Later in her career, Ms. King took up the cudgel as an activist. Openly gay, she pushed for gender equity in sports and society and today is considered one of the world’s most prominent advocates for women’s rights. Philip King
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