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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Asylum claims doubled in Canada last year, UN says
A recent report from the United Nations has found that the number of claims from asylum seekers in Canada has risen dramatically over the past year, making it the ninth-largest recipient of applications from forcibly displaced populations in the world.
Most of the claims received in Canada came from people fleeing Haiti, South Sudan or Turkey, and the total number of applications received this year was 47,800, which is more than double the number from the year before.
The report also highlighted a significant decline in the number of refugee resettlements that had occurred in the United States, which they attributed to the Trump administration’s slowdown in processing asylum claims. (Note: The UNHCR defines the difference between “refugee” and “asylum seeker” as being a difference in where the displaced person applies for protection; a refugee asks for and is granted protection outside of the host country, while asylees seek protection after arriving in the host country.)
By contrast, the U.S. processed nearly the same number of resettlements as Canada last year (33,400 and 27,000 respectively), despite Canada’s population being about one-10th of its neighbour to the south.
The revelations from the UN come on the heels of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Republican lawmakers today, where they planned to discuss the detention of children separated from their immigrant parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Nearly 4,000 Canadians died as a result of opioids in 2017, government data shows
New findings from the Special Advisory Committee on the Epidemic of Opioid Overdoses reveal the extent of Canada’s opioid crisis, which continues to grow while the government works to restrict patient access to addictive painkillers.
It found there was a 34 per cent increase from the year before in the number of deaths that were the result of opioids, with most of those deaths (70 per cent) being linked to either fentanyl or fentanyl analogues.
Not all of the news was bad, though: Additional data released today from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) showed the number of daily doses of opioids prescribed in Canada fell 10 per cent over the past year. This was the first decrease in prescribing that the country had witnessed between 2012 and 2017.
China blasts Trump’s new tariff threat, warns it will retaliate
In response to the U.S.’s orders to prepare new tariffs on US$200-billion in Chinese imports on Monday, Beijing has come back with a threat of "comprehensive measures,” which some experts speculate might mean going beyond just tariffs.
China has a heavily regulated economy that also gives its officials the authority to interfere with companies through taxes, anti-monopoly or other investigations.
The statement issued from Beijing today used language that was similar in tone to what Mr. Trump used last week when the Chinese matched the President’s tariffs on US$50-billion in goods for intellectual property theft, saying they were ready to “defend the interests of the Chinese people and enterprises.”
Senate heading for what could be the final vote on legalizing cannabis
Parliament will be delivering a historic vote today, that could change a Canadian law to lift the 95-year-old prohibition on recreational cannabis. The adoption of Bill C-45 would allow millions of Canadian to consume and grow the drug without fear of arrest. (For subscribers)
With many independent senators leaning in favour of giving in to the government on the legislation, the bill is likely to be adopted this week in Parliament. The market for legally purchasing cannabis, however, will most likely be open by mid-September, said Bill Blair, the Liberal MP who is parliamentary secretary to the Ministers of Health and Justice.
The next steps for the government will then be to release how the trade of the drug will be regulated, including when Canadian companies will be legally approved to begin selling edibles for recreational use.
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MARKET WATCH
U.S. and Canadian stocks fell as a sharp escalation in the trade dispute between the United States and China rattled markets and put the Dow Jones Industrial Average back in negative territory for the year.
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 67.10 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 16,316.53. Big losers included auto makers, railways and energy companies.
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WHAT’S TRENDING ON SOCIAL
A Globe and Mail editorial decries the U.S. policy of separating children of immigrants from parents who have attempted to cross the border illegally and says it is “appalling beyond words” and appears to have a “crass political motive.”
On Monday, Donald Trump falsely claimed once again that the separations were forced on his government by law. Mr. Trump went on to say, again falsely, that this could all be stopped if the Democrats agreed to his immigration bill, which adds the provision of building his infamous border wall to the south.
TALKING POINTS
The chilling parallels between the Trump-Kim summit and 1938 Munich
“In the case of both meetings, there was an argument that the very fact that democratic leaders were meeting with their dictatorial counterparts was an inherently ‘good’ thing. This, of course, is based on the belief that direct access with a dictator by a democratically elected leader will somehow improve the actions of the dictator. I would suggest that the evidence on this article of faith is sketchy at best. Just as the meeting at Munich did not convince Hitler to forsake his plans of genocide and world domination, it seems just as unlikely that by shaking Mr. Trump’s hand and ‘looking him in the eye,’ Mr. Kim will give up his policies regarding nuclear weapons and authoritative rule.“ – Rob Huebert, associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Calgary
Tory by-election landslide in Quebec more than a local race
“So even as all national party leaders rallied behind Mr. Trudeau in his confrontation with Mr. Trump over tariffs, the voters in Chicoutimi dumped the Liberals for the Tories. And the trade dispute matters there more than almost anywhere. The region has four aluminum smelters, representing a third of Canada’s aluminum production. The local economy could suffer severely if the Americans’ new 10 per cent tariff on aluminum imports starts to bite.” – John Ibbitson
The Trinity Western University decision is a blow to diversity
“The decision is also yet another giant step in the marginalization of conservative Christians, who are becoming an ever more endangered species in public life. We’ve already seen the Trudeau government’s efforts to stamp out wrongthink by withholding summer jobs funds from groups that refuse to sign its ‘attestation’ saying they respect abortion rights. This is secular bigotry – liberal intolerance – at its worst. We’ve already seen debates around the removal of funding from religiously based institutions that are constrained by their founding principles from offering assisted death.“ – Margaret Wente
LIVING BETTER
For capturing the best wildlife photos, Colleen Gara recommends that you first get to know your animal counterpart before going out for a shoot. Studying your subject’s behaviour beforehand, combined with crouching down so you capture the animal at eye level, will help conjure intimacy in your photos. Plus, as she says all photographers will suggest, you should always head out at the “golden hour,” which is about an hour before the sun sets and will create warm images without casting too much shadow on the animal’s face.
LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE
Colombia’s peace deal brings a new season of fear for those who live in areas once controlled by FARC
The 2016 peace deal between Colombia’s government and rebel forces was intended to usher in a new era of peace and stability, but, as Stephanie Nolen reports, the agreement intended to end five decades of war has created a power vacuum where militias are now threatening locals’ lives.
In the first year after the peace agreement with the FARC was signed, the overall homicide rate in Colombia fell to the lowest it had been in 30 years, but the number of murdered community leaders jumped to 173; this was double the rate of just the year before.
“It was clear that we weren’t aligned with a group and we were the territorial authority here, and they [the FARC] respected that,” said Manuel Ul, the cousin of a murdered community leader. “These ones have no respect and will come and kill you.”
In her shoes, after she got on her feet: In The Shoe Project workshops, women write about their immigration to Canada
Sara, Sonam and Ruwan are immigrant women with three distinct stories on how their journeys led them from far-off places, such as Tibet and Iraq, to British Columbia. Yet each of them has found a seemingly simple way to relate to one another’s experience by relying on the central metaphor of a pair of shoes and how they characterize their arrival in Canada. The Shoe Project, founded by novelist Katherine Govier, is a Vancouver workshop that asks women to tell these stories.
“We were taking people who astonished us with the stories they had to tell,” says author Caroline Adderson, who mentored them for 10 weeks in the writing portion of the program. The women will eventually read their essays aloud at a public event.
Evening Update is written by Johanna Chisholm. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.