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These are the top stories:
Journalists are being killed with impunity around the world. Remember their stories
The killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has brought international condemnation, with Turkey now seeking the extradition of 18 suspects who have been detained in the kingdom. But Khashoggi’s case is just one of dozens in recent years in which journalists have been killed with impunity. Nine out of 10 murders of reporters, photographers and other journalists go unpunished, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Today, on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, our reporters tell the stories of slain journalists whose killers haven’t been brought to justice.
Afghanistan, 2018: Nine journalists were killed in suicide bombings on April 30, the deadliest attack on the media since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001. Among them: Agence France-Presse photographer Shah Marai, a father of six who had risked his life to photograph during the Taliban regime. There was also cameraman Yar Mohammad Tokhi, who spent his wages covering doctors’ bills for his ailing mother. The Islamic State claimed responsibility, but with the bombers killed, no one was brought to justice.
Mexico, 2017: Investigative reporter Miroslava Breach Velducea died after being shot eight times while driving her son to school. At the time, she was investigating connections between the Sinaloa drug cartel and government officials. Police said in April they had identified the perpetrators, but have made no arrests and family members are unable to get any further answers. Eight Mexican journalists have been killed so far this year.
Malta, 2017: Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed when a car bomb blew up her Peugeot near her village. The day before, the country’s best known investigative journalist ended a blog post with these two sentences: “There are crooks everywhere you look. The situation is desperate.” Three men were arrested in December, but Caruana Galizia’s sons believe they were merely contract thugs and those who hired them faced no repercussions.
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The girl who turned the world’s eyes to the famine in Yemen has died
(Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)TYLER HICKS/The New York Times News Service
Seven-year-old Amal Hussain died at a ragged refugee camp six kilometres from the hospital. Her photo helped put a face to the plight of the famine in war-torn Yemen, where 1.8 million children are severely malnourished. There are currently eight million Yemenis relying on emergency rations, a number that could soon jump to 14 million, or half the country’s population. Saudi air strikes forced Amal’s family to flee their homes three years ago. Canada, the U.S. and Britain – all of whom have arms deals with Riyadh – recently called on the Saudis to initiate a ceasefire in Yemen.
The former head of Statscan says the agency must justify its need for banking records
Wayne Smith said financial transaction records are “extremely sensitive” and that Statistics Canada must be able to explain to Canadians why the intrusion is necessary. “If they don’t have an answer, they should stop now,” the former chief statistician said, adding he has yet to see a clear justification. (Smith himself resigned from Statscan two years ago over concerns that a decision about its servers could weaken the agency’s ability to protect data.)
The development that Statscan plans to collect consumer records like credit-card purchases starting this January caught the banking sector off guard. Canada’s privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into the plan, which Statscan says is needed to build a more complete picture of household expenditures.
B.C. licensed its first private cannabis store, bringing the total number of legal provincial shops to two
Tamarack Cannabis Boutique in Kimberley first opened as an illegal shop three years ago. Now, it has joined a government store in Kamloops as the sole two legal retail locations in the province (for subscribers). Despite being home to dozens of dispensaries, B.C. has been slow to hand out approvals in the wake of legalization. By comparison, Alberta’s private system has 49 outlets operating. The Kimberley shop has donated more than $50,000 to local charities over the past three years.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Thousands of Google employees staged a walkout to protest office harassment
From California to Canada, Google employees around the world voiced frustration with the company’s handling of sexual-harassment complaints (for subscribers). Things first boiled over at Google when a recent New York Times report said the company had quietly paid out large exit packages to male executives accused of sexual harassment. Experts say the protests could be a wake-up call for the tech sector, which has long failed to address issues with workplace culture. “We are demanding structural changes with explicit goals of transparency, accountability and equity,” said one staff member who walked out of Google’s Toronto office.
MORNING MARKETS
Markets climb
World share markets roared higher on Friday as hopes built that the United States and China were starting to repair their badly damaged trade relations. The signals triggered a global surge in risk appetite that lifted metals and swathes of trade-sensitive currencies and bond markets, but it was equities that saw the most explosive action. Tokyo’s Nikkei climbed 2.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 4.2 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 2.7 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.6 and 1.2 per cent by about 6:15 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar was up above 76.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
I’m trying something a little new in this section. Instead of excerpts from a few columns, there will just be a longer chunk from one that’s of topical interest. Let me know what you think.
Cathal Kelly: It’s time the IOC started helping the hosts to put on its Olympian parties
While three levels of Canadian government were at each other’s throats over the proposed 2026 Calgary Winter Games last week, the International Olympic Committee popped over for a little pep talk.
Instead of saying anything, the IOC made a great show of reaching into its pants pockets and pulled out the lining.
The IOC has conceptually committed $1.2-billion in cash and services to the Calgary bid’s original $5.23-billion total budget. That number is a line in the red sand.
“As a non-profit, we don’t have the financial reserves that allow us to commit outside of what we can today,” IOC executive director Christophe Dubi told reporters.
In 2016, the IOC made US$3.6-billion, most of which was spread around to various national sports organizing bodies. A few years ago, it signed a nearly US$8-billion broadcast deal with NBC to televise a slew of Games that would include Calgary. And that’s just in the United States.
Bottom line – there is an awful lot of ducats moving through the IOC’s accounts.
It is a non-profit in the sense it doesn’t pay dividends. It is not a non-profit in the sense that people do this because it’s God’s work.
Of its priorities, the main one is not putting on the Olympics. It does practically nothing in that regard.
The IOC builds nothing. It maintains nothing. It pulls into town a few months ahead of an Olympic Games and expects that locals have already erected the big tent. It doesn’t even bring the elephants. All it does is staff the ticket booth.
Instead, the IOC’s core task is stabilizing its own power base, like some small-town alderman handing out twenties as he walks to the office.
LIVING BETTER
Three new films opening this weekend
Bohemian Rhapsody could have and should have been beautiful, writes Carly Lewis. Instead it plays out like an extended version of Saturday Night Live’s cowbell sketch. (1 star)
Martha Schabas says the plot of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is so jumbled that the film might be best summarized as a pageant of CGI landscapes and extravagant clothing – in a sense the cinematic version of the sets and costumes that go with the ballet, minus all the stunning choreography. (2 stars)
Barry Hertz says the documentary Science Fair will make you feel very stupid, but it’s rich in positive messages. (3 stars)
MOMENT IN TIME
Louis Riel leads Métis to Fort Garry
(Bridgeman Images)
Nov. 2, 1869: In March, 1869, the young government of Canada purchased much of what is now the Prairies, Nunavut and the northern portions of Ontario and Quebec from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Neither the government of John A. Macdonald nor the company thought it necessary to consult the inhabitants of the region, which included about 6,000 Métis. So that fall, when a survey team arrived on the Red River property of André Nault, in what is now Manitoba, the farmer called his cousin, Louis Riel. The charismatic Riel gathered a small group of men and forced the surveyors to leave. He knew, though, that thousands of farmers from Ontario were eager to claim land on the Prairies. “They have come here to chase us from our homeland,” Riel said. He was willing to accept annexation, but only if the government promised to protect Métis land and religious and language rights. To assure this, Riel led another group of men – this time numbering more than 100 – and quickly captured the region’s administrative centre, Fort Garry (now Winnipeg). From there, he thought, he could bargain with Ottawa from a position of strength. But he severely underestimated Macdonald’s willingness to strike back from a distance. – Massimo Commanducci
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Arik Ligeti