Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The latest COVID-19-related developments: Ottawa police chief resigns, vaccinated travellers to Canada no longer need PCR test, plus more
Protests: Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly has resigned from his position amid intense criticism from politicians and local residents on how his service has responded to anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations that continue into their third week. Ottawa Police Board Chair Diane Deans confirms that Sloly is “no longer employed” with the Ottawa Police Service. Deputy police chief Steve Bell will be interim chief until further notice, she added.
In Alberta, protesters who paralyzed traffic and trade between the U.S. and Canada at the Coutts border crossing moved out of the village this morning. They decided to leave yesterday after the RCMP seized guns and ammunition from some of the protesters.
Public-health measures: Ottawa today announced that vaccinated travellers will no longer need a PCR or other molecular COVID-19 test to enter Canada starting Feb. 28. They can opt instead opt for a rapid antigen test, but that would have to be administered by a lab or health care entity. Unvaccinated children travelling with vaccinated adults will no longer have to isolate from school or daycare for 14 days.
Meanwhile, the Quebec government says it is phasing out the use of its vaccine passport, and it will no longer be required anywhere as of March 14. And B.C.’s top doctor, Bonnie Henry, has announced has announced the plan for gradually easing restrictions, which includes dropping capacity limits at fitness centres, restaurants and bars and nightclubs tomorrow night.
Opinion:
- By invoking the Emergencies Act, Ottawa goes from no action to the nuclear option - Robyn Urback
- Why Ottawa was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act - Andrew Coyne
Read more: Data leak reveals Canadians, Americans donated millions to fund convoy protests
Podcast: On today’s episode of The Decibel, The Globe’s Queen’s Park reporter Jeff Gray discusses what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders are doing to end the convoy protests.
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Withdrawal of some Russian troops from Ukraine comes amid mixed messages from Putin
Russia sent deeply mixed messages today about its intentions toward Ukraine, announcing a withdrawal of some troops but escalating the political tension a few hours later when the Russian assembly sent President Vladimir Putin a bill asking him to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions.
Also today, Ukraine’s cybersecurity centre said that websites of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry and banks Privatbank and Oshadbank were under a cyberattack. The Ukrainian cybersecurity centre said Russia could be to blame for the attack, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
Read more:
- Russian invasion fears have Ukrainians bracing for possible cyberoffensive
- Poland an awkward ally to West’s unified front in face of Russian military buildup
Olympic Games highlights: Canada’s women golden in speed skate team pursuit
Canadian speed skaters Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais have claimed Olympic gold in the team pursuit after beating Japan in a dramatic final. It was Weidemann’s third medal of the Games, after winning silver and bronze in earlier events.
Canada’s Max Parrot won the bronze medal in men’s big air barely a week after the cancer survivor won gold in slopestyle.
The Canadian men’s hockey team beat China 7-2 in the qualification round and will now take on Sweden in the quarterfinals.
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the heavily favoured 15-year-old dynamo at the centre of the latest Olympic doping scandal, took the lead after the women’s short program.
Opinion: The Kamila Valieva scandal shows the minimum age to compete in the Olympics needs to be raised - Cathal Kelly
In photos: Canada’s medal winners at the Beijing Winter Olympics
Canada's gold medal winners, Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valerie Maltais, celebrate during a medal ceremony for the speed skating women's team pursuit at the Beijing Winter Olympics.Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press
Catch up on the action overnight and keep up with the latest events with our daily guide here.
ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY
More residential school graves found: The Keeseekoose First Nation in eastern Saskatchewan says 54 potential graves have been found through ground-penetrating radar on the grounds of what were St. Philip’s Residential School and the Fort Pelly Residential School.
Search continues off Newfoundland: Weather conditions deteriorated in the Atlantic Ocean east of St. John’s as rescue teams searched for a Spanish fishing vessel that sank hours earlier, killing at least seven crew members, while another 14 were reported missing.
Prince Andrew lawsuit settled: Prince Andrew has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was sexually trafficked to the British royal by the financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was 17.
Alec Baldwin named in lawsuit: The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer shot and killed on the set of the film Rust, is suing Alec Baldwin and the movie’s producers for wrongful death, their lawyers say.
MARKET WATCH
All three major Wall Street indexes ended sharply higher today, as signs of de-escalating tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border fueled more risk-taking buying. Canada’s major stock market also rode the rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 422.67 points or 1.22 per cent to 34,988.84, the S&P 500 gained 69.40 points or 1.58 per cent to 4,471.07, and the Nasdaq Composite added 348.84 points or 2.53 per cent to end at 14,139.76.
The S&P/TSX Composite rose 150.04 points or 0.7 per cent to 21,502.55. The loonie rose to 78.60 U.S. cents.
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LIVING BETTER
There’s a quiet menace that could slash the value of your home, personal finance columnist Rob Carrick advises. A study released today finds an average 8.2 per cent reduction in the average selling price of a house if sold within six months of a catastrophic flood. Steps you can take to protect your home from flood damage include: cleaning your eavestroughs, extending downspouts away from your foundation and installing a backwater valve and sump pump.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Today is National Flag of Canada day, commemorating the introduction of the Maple Leaf flag this day 57 years ago. Ian Brown explores its changing symbolism:
Remember: Those who wave the Canadian flag do not get to define it for everyone else
Sébastien Thibault/The Globe and Mail
The Maple Leaf flag – the one the convoy protesters have wrapped themselves in while they try to force Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into accepting their (non-negotiable) demands – came into being in 1965.
Over the ensuing four decades, the Maple Leaf flag came to represent something a lot of people were proud of: not just French-English unity, but multiculturalism and the glory days of social democracy – an ideal of decent, tolerant, civic nationalism, rather than its divisive ethnic cousin. “In the 1960s, 1970s, every young kid going to Europe at that time, what did they put in their knapsack?” history professor Sidney Aster pointed out. “The Canadian flag. To say, we’re not American, we’re not British, we’re Canadian. And we’re harmless.”
The protesters, on the other hand, whoever they may be, drape themselves in the flag because it offers protective colouration. To Dalhousie University’s Will Langford, who studies right-wing extremist groups, the full-on adoption of the Canadian flag by the so-called trucker convoy is no surprise. “Between the 1960s and the 1980s, fringe movements were always looking for a way to edge into the public debate. They used words like ‘our Canada’ and ‘our way of life’ and ‘our freedom.’ ... The flag is kind of useful for claiming legitimacy.”
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