Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay smiles on the bench in Toronto in 2003. Former Toronto Blue Jays star pitcher Roy Halladay died Tuesday after his plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 40.Fred Thornhill/The Canadian Press
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These are the top stories:
Remembering Blue Jays great Roy Halladay
The former Blue Jays pitcher died yesterday after his private plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, near Florida's coast. Halladay made his big-league debut in 1998 and nearly pitched a no-hitter in his second career start. After some pitching troubles he went back down to the minors to hone his craft. He returned an ace, throwing 67 career complete games and picking up two Cy Young awards along with eight all-star game selections.
Here's a glimpse at Cathal Kelly's tribute to Halladay:
"During one spring training at the height of his powers as a Toronto Blue Jay, Roy Halladay was asked to shepherd a painfully ill boy named Sean Clayton around the club's facility. It was Sean's wish to meet the best pitcher in baseball. As a rule, Halladay did not do interruptions. He was obsessed with routines to the point of mania. But he broke them that day to spend hours with Sean. They ended up huddled together in a dugout, forehead to forehead, whispering and sharing a bag of sunflower seeds.
Afterward, Sean cried, Sean's father cried and Halladay, usually as stoic as an Easter Island statue, very nearly cried himself. 'It's the good part about being a baseball player,' he said.
Halladay was already perhaps the greatest pitcher ever produced by the Toronto organization, and on that day it occurred to you that he was one of its great people as well."
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Russia has responded to Canada's Magnitsky sanctions by blacklisting 'dozens'
But its embassy in Ottawa is refusing to reveal the names of the Canadians who have been prohibited from entering Russia. "We can confirm that a large number of Canadian political actors pursuing a toxic Russophobic agenda were blacklisted," an embassy spokesperson said. The pushback comes after Canada passed a Magnitsky-style law and proceeded to sanction 52 human-rights violations in Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan. But the anti-Putin campaigner who has led the international effort to sanction human-rights abusers questioned whether Russia has actually added any new names to its blacklist. The Kremlin has already "exhausted their list of Canadian politicians" to target, Bill Browder said.
After 141 years, the Liberals are pledging to erase sexism from the Indian Act
The Liberals initially tabled legislation that removed some of the sex-based discrimination, but the Senate demanded Ottawa fix a key section known as the 1951 cutoff. After initial objections, the Liberals are now vowing to do so. As it currently stands, people born to status men before Sept. 4, 1951, would get status and could pass it on to their children. But status women who had children with non-status men could not.
Right now there are about 900,000 people with Indian status. With the change, that number could jump to anywhere between 1.65 million and 2.2 million, according to some estimates. That could prove costly for the government, but Ottawa says those numbers overestimate how many people would obtain Indian status.
Marijuana producers want to advertise their product in a similar way to alcohol
Restrictions on cannabis advertising should be the same as beer, wine and liquor, said Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Branding spokesman Cam Battley (for subscribers). Some experts have called for a restrictive marketing regime more closely aligned to tobacco products: plain packaging and little or no advertising. The federal government has promised to make marijuana legal by July 1 of next year, but rules around distribution are still being worked out. Marijuana firms want to be able to promote the taste and flavour of their products across print, television and social-media platforms. Ads would include educational statements on how to use cannabis safely.
Virginia elected the first openly transgender state legislator in U.S. history
Democrat Danica Roem defeated long-serving Republican Bob Marshall, who sponsored a state bill that would have restricted which bathrooms Roem could use. That bill, similar to the one in North Carolina that drew international ire, was not passed.
The Democrats also picked up some other key wins in state election races yesterday. Ralph Northam defeated Republican Ed Gillespie to win Virginia's governorship, while Phil Murphy earned the governor's seat in New Jersey to succeed departed Republican Chris Christie. The victories are a promising sign for Democrats looking to build momentum ahead of midterm elections next year.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Quebec's face-covering ban is heading for a court challenge
The National Council of Canadian Muslims and Canadian Civil Liberties Association are going to court next week in an effort to suspend part of Bill 62. The law, which requires people to show their faces to give or receive public services, is unconstitutional and discriminates against Muslim women, the groups argue. Since its passing last month, critics have denounced the bill for unfairly targeting Muslim women who wear a niqab or burka.
The federal government's response to Bill 62 has been largely quiet, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's assertion that governments shouldn't be telling women what to wear. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says her government is aware of the court filing and is committed to "upholding the rights of all Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
MORNING MARKETS
Banking stocks dropped and the U.S. dollar slipped on Wednesday as doubts over tax cuts and bond market moves hurt profitability and raised questions over the longevity of the current expansion in the United States. New York futures were down, though not by much, and the Canadian dollar was at about 78.5 cents (U.S.). Tokyo's Nikkei lost 0.1 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.3 per cent, though the Shanghai composite gained 0.1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX were down marginally by about 5:35 a.m. ET, with the Paris CAC 40 down 0.2 per cent. Oil steadied as Chinese crude imports fell to a one-year low, but losses were offset by investor caution over rising political tensions in the Middle East.
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WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
A welcome and overdue development at Montreal city hall
"It's easy to forget, given its reputation for social progressivism, that Quebec was the last province to grant universal suffrage and among the last to adopt pay-equity legislation. Indeed, it was only in 2011 that Montreal recognized Jeanne Mance, a nurse who opened New France's second hospital, as a co-founder. All of which to say Valérie Plante's election as mayor of Montreal is a welcome, refreshing and overdue development. There will be zeitgeist-y talk of generational shifts and a populist revolt against incumbent elites, but the fact is the 43-year-old Ms. Plante won on the merits of an expertly run campaign centred on a passel of ambitious urbanist ideas, and her seemingly boundless reserves of determination and charm." – Globe editorial
How guns turned the American dream into a nightmare
"...just as the U.S. seeks to export the American dream, it exports its nightmares too. Arms races all too often end in terrible bloodshed. Lax guns laws lead to more massacres. Politicians bought by corporations end up being revealed as the people they truly are: bought. There is no easy answer to America's love affair with weapons. Democracy and freedom have become synonymous with capitalism and production – and the gun lies at the very heart of that. To break that bond would require massive economic and cultural shifts in the U.S. body politic – and this will not happen under Donald Trump. But the international community does not have to buy into this – we can say no to violence and the means of producing it. To some that may seem naive. To others it's the only way toward peace." – Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence
HEALTH PRIMER
What do you need to know about raw milk
Raw milk, which is milk that hasn't been pasteurized, has been gaining popularity in some circles. But it's been banned for sale in Canada since 1991 because of the risk of food-borne illness (pasteurizing milk helps kill pathogens like E. coli). Advocates claim raw milk can help cure or improve symptoms for conditions like allergies, autism and colitis. But there is little scientific proof and researchers say the risk of food-borne illness outweigh any potential benefits.
MOMENT IN TIME
Edward O'Hare assassinated in Chicago
Nov. 8, 1939: Edward O'Hare was a father, lawyer, entrepreneur, informant and owner of the patent for mechanical rabbits. On this day in 1939, Easy Eddie was shot dead as he was driving through Chicago by a gunman in another car. Years earlier, O'Hare had run a dog-racing and gambling business in partnership with Al Capone while feeding tips to federal investigators building a tax-evasion case against the mob boss. The killing happened the week before Capone was to be released from prison, fuelling suspicion he had ordered the hit. But O'Hare's murder remains officially unsolved. As for why he would perilously snitch on a violent gangster, one consideration was that he hoped to get his son admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy. Edward O'Hare Jr. became an ace pilot, a Second World War hero and the namesake of Chicago's main airport. – Joy Yokoyama
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti.
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Arik Ligeti