Indian businessmen Ajay Gupta and younger brother Atul Gupta at an interview with Business Day in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 2, 2011, regarding their professional relationships.Gallo Images/Gallo Images
Good morning, These are the top stories:
Police interviewed Bruce McArthur years before his arrest for six murders
Toronto Police interviewed Bruce McArthur in 2013, in connection with three missing men who vanished from Toronto's Gay Village, more than four years before he was arrested and charged with six counts of murder. A source with knowledge of the investigation told The Globe and Mail that police had linked Mr. McArthur to two of those three missing men through his dating apps. An anonymous tip from 2013 then led police to interview him. Mr. McArthur was, however, not arrested until Jan. 18, after four other men were alleged to have been murdered. The Globe first contacted the Toronto Police Service about the new information on Sunday but the service has declined multiple requests for comment.
Questions mount over Bombardier's deals with South Africa's Gupta family
Four years ago, a senior executive of Bombardier Inc. flew to Johannesburg to negotiate a deal with Ajay Gupta, the eldest of the powerful Gupta brothers, whose business empire was closely linked to the family of Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa at the time. It was a successful trip. Bombardier sold a US$52-million luxury jet to the Guptas, financed by a US$41-million loan from Canada's export credit agency, and the sale was followed later by discussions on a second aircraft deal. But today, Ajay Gupta is a fugitive from justice, dodging an arrest warrant from the South African police. Canada's export bank is trying to repossess the Bombardier jet, but cannot find it. And Mr. Zuma, facing a mountain of Gupta-related corruption allegations, has been forced to resign. As the criminal and judicial investigations into the corruption scandal widen, The Globe and Mail has obtained new information that raises further questions about the relationship between Bombardier and the Guptas.
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White House economic adviser Gary Cohn to step down after trade disagreement
Top economic adviser Gary Cohn is the latest in a string of high-level departures from the White House. Mr. Cohen, the director of the National Economic Council, has been the leading internal opponent to U.S. President Donald Trump's planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. However, Trump is refusing to back down from his threat of hefty tariffs, sparking concern for Canada when it comes to NAFTA renegotiations.
Senate adds new delay to Ottawa's cannabis-legalization plan
The study of Ottawa's proposed law covering drug-impaired driving has been suspended for two months in the Senate, leading Conservative senators to argue the entire cannabis-legalization plan should be delayed until the end of the year. When the federal government announced plans last year to legalize cannabis for recreational use, it also vowed to strengthen Canada's impaired-driving law to deal with an expected increase of drivers under the influence of cannabis. To achieve its dual goal, the government introduced Bill C-45 to legalize cannabis at the same time as Bill C-46, which creates new drug-impaired-driving offences and revamps the entire impaired-driving regime. Both bills were adopted last year in the House of Commons, but they have been moving more slowly than the government expected in the Senate, leading to doubts about the impaired-driving laws being beefed up before legalization. (for subscribers)
Weekend vandalism in Hamilton was anti-gentrification act, blogger writes
An anonymous anarchist blogger who claimed to have taken part in a vandalism rampage in Hamilton says frustration with gentrification in the city is the motive behind the group's violence. The incident, which happened Saturday night along Hamilton's Locke Street South, involved 30 masked vandals pelting rocks through the windows of cafés, boutiques and other businesses. The violence signals an escalation of anti-gentrification acts in a city that is seeing rising housing prices and redevelopment in the downtown core.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Britain eyes Russia, 'a malign and disruptive force,' after former spy struck by mysterious illness
It sounds like the stuff of a spy novel: a Russian double agent suddenly struck down by a mysterious illness while living under a new identity in a small English city. But that storyline is playing out in the U.K. as police and doctors scramble to find out what happened to Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer who worked with Britain's MI6 and exposed dozens of Russian spies. Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were found unconscious on a park bench outside a shopping mall in Salisbury on Sunday and they remain in intensive care in a local hospital, with doctors only saying that both were exposed to "an unknown substance." The case is being investigated by counterterrorism officers and it has already prompted a diplomatic row between the U.K. and Russia, with allegations flying that Mr. Skripal was poisoned by Russian agents.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks weak
Global stocks and the U.S. dollar fell on Wednesday after a strong advocate of free trade resigned from the White House, fanning fears that U.S. President Donald Trump will proceed with protectionist tariffs and risk a trade war. Tokyo's Nikkei lost 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1 per cent, and the Shanghai composite 0.6 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up almost 0.1 per cent by about 5:50 a.m. ET, though Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent. New York futures were down sharply. The Canadian dollar was at 77.4 US cents. Oil fell, in line with the broad decline on global financial markets.
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WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Poll shows Trudeau is not unbeatable
"Yes it's only one poll, and yes it's only halfway through the mandate, but Liberals should be worried by last week's Ipsos Survey, for two reasons: First, the Conservative coalition that sustained Stephen Harper's governments appears to be realigning. Second, the agenda may be shifting away from social issues and toward economic management, which is good for Conservatives and bad for Liberals.This does not mean the Tories are favoured to win the next general election. But it does mean that a prior assumption – that the Liberals were unbeatable – no longer holds. This is a whole new political ball game." – John Ibbitson
Where did higher rates for savers go? Right to the banks' bottom line
"If there is any suspense about whether the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates on Wednesday, it's strictly from the borrower's point of view. Whether the central bank leaves rates untouched or raises them, it makes little difference to savers. Dynamite couldn't break the impasse in banks delivering meaningfully higher rates on savings accounts. Since last summer, the Bank of Canada has increased its trendsetting overnight rate by a cumulative 0.75 of a percentage point. The banking-industry consulting firm McVay and Associates calculates the average increase in high-rate savings account rates over that span as 0.13 of a point." – Rob Carrick
Merkel's victory exposes Europe's political fault lines
"Five months with no German national government has left its mark. The SPD's opinion-poll numbers are down on its record-low election results while Ms. Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc's heavy losses amounted anyway to its lowest election score since 1949. Yet the situation now is what many observers expected after national elections in both Germany and France in 2017. For the first time in more than a decade, avowedly pro-European leaders are simultaneously in power in both countries. There are differences, not to say shared tensions, between the two, about how Europe should reform – on defence and security; immigration and border control and, above all, regarding joint budgetary matters – but the old Franco-German motor will now relaunch. Progress, however bumpy, will be made." – Richard Ogier
HEALTH PRIMER
Genetic study of Quebec residents finds air pollution trumps ancestry
A new Canadian study has found that air pollution affects not only a person's throat and lungs, but their very DNA/ The work provides a unique window into how exposure to environmental factors can switch various genes on or off, creating a gene expression signature that may interact with or override other inherited factors and even offer an early signal of future health problems.
MOMENT IN TIME
Kathryn Bigelow wins Oscar for Best Director
March 7, 2010: 'Well the time has come," Barbra Streisand said after opening the envelope for Best Director during the 2010 Academy Awards. Before she could announce the winner, Kathryn Bigelow gasped and then a quick smile fluttered over her face as Streisand confirmed that Bigelow had won for The Hurt Locker – becoming the first female director to win a golden statuette. Prior to this moment, only three women had been nominated in category: Lina Wertmuller (for Seven Beauties in 1977), Jane Campion (for The Piano in 1994) and Sofia Coppola (for Lost in Translation in 2004). In taking home the Oscar, Bigelow beat out Hollywood heavyweights Quentin Tarantino, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and her ex-husband, James Cameron. Afterward, she told the media, "I hope I'm the first of many [women], and of course, I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker. And I long for the day when that modifier can be a moot point." Unfortunately, we haven't reached that point yet. Since Bigelow's win, there has only been one other woman nominated in the category, Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird and she lost this past Sunday. – Madeleine White
Morning Update was written by Kiran Rana. If you'd like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday morning, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.
U.S. President Donald Trump told a joint news conference that he still backs the idea of adding tariffs to steel and aluminum imports, linking them to a new NAFTA deal. Trump said he will straighten out trade in a "loving, loving" way.