Hello,
Things are happening quickly. By the time you finish reading this newsletter, the novel coronavirus situation may already have changed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is working from home and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, is being tested for the virus. At least two other cabinet ministers – Mary Ng and Seamus O’Regan – and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh are doing the same. The meeting of first ministers slated for today and tomorrow has been postponed. Peter MacKay is suspending Conservative leadership activities and the Manning Conference is on ice. Will Canada keep allowing flights from Europe, after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended most of them for 30 days? We’ll see.
There is a good chance that you will contract this new coronavirus, and there’s a good chance you will be fine. The risk, public-health experts say, is to vulnerable groups, such as seniors, who face great dangers if the virus spreads to them, and to the health system, which can’t handle the load of everyone getting sick at once.
In times like this, there can be a lot of worry, and a lot of fear, and a search for facts. The Globe’s expert health writer, André Picard, has pulled together a list of your questions and is doing his best to answer them. Read the list of questions here and send us any more that you have.
We’ve started a new newsletter dedicated to the novel coronavirus so you can get the latest facts. Sign up for it on our newsletters page.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
The stock market’s not doing so good.
Parliament’s all-party national intelligence committee has released a report today that warns of “brazen” activities by Russia and China in Canada. “The committee believes there is ample evidence that Canada is the target of significant and sustained foreign interference activities,” said committee chair David McGuinty.
The Liberal caucus was deeply divided on whether the government should approve the Teck Frontier oil sands mine. But we never found out how cabinet felt, because Teck pulled the project at the last minute, citing economic and political uncertainty. It would have been a crucial test of the government’s commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions while still allowing encouraging resource development. Sources tell The Globe and Mail that there were loud voices in cabinet talking against the project.
And two months after the Iranian military shot down a commercial flight to Kyiv packed with Canadians, Iran is once again promising to let Ukraine access the black boxes of the flight. The country’s leaders have, however, promised this before and not delivered.
André Picard (The Globe and Mail) on what to do now: “Canada needs to embrace social distancing. That means closing down schools (from daycares through to universities) temporarily, restricting access to hospitals and nursing homes, pulling the plug on mass gatherings such as sporting events, curtailing all non-essential travel and urging companies to have their employees work at home. This may seem extreme for a country that has only about 100 confirmed cases to date, but we can no longer stop this pandemic illness, just slow it down.”
Supriya Dwivedi (Global News) on the risks from the United States: “We have known about all of this for a while now, and yet Canadian public health authorities have remained largely silent about the threat posed to Canadians by our American neighbours. That doesn’t mean we have to shut down borders, or instill panic in people by fear-mongering. It means that public health officials should have been warning Canadians about exercising caution when travelling to the United States, and to monitor symptoms upon their return. Or at the very least, putting out a warning to the elderly and the immunocompromised about the risks posed to Canadians by America.”
Justin Ling (National Post) on Trudeau’s handling of recent crises: “There’s plenty to criticize about this government — on building housing, buying new fighter jets, being more transparent, reducing the deficit, the list goes on and on — but it has had some successes. Sometimes it’s easy, in the midst of crisis, to ballyhoo every decision as an irredeemable mess. But when those decisions work out for the best, it really is necessary that we go back and give credit where it’s due.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the Liberals’ proposed ban on conversion therapy: “Does the bill, as worded, immunize qualified therapists who advise against hormonal or surgical intervention in a gender-dysphoric child, while allowing police and prosecutors to target transphobic charlatans? Or could it be exploited by ideologues to target therapists they disagree with? This is what Parliament’s justice committee will have to decide when it studies the legislation.”
Annalise Klingbeil (The Globe and Mail) on cuts to Alberta’s parks budget: “Perhaps the bigger cut is the psychic slash to the time-honoured idea within Albertan politics that there is inherent value in protecting public spaces for the public good – that nature is part and parcel of a uniquely Albertan life.”
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Chris Hannay