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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Philpott resigns from cabinet citing SNC-Lavalin affair
Jane Philpott, one of the stars of the Trudeau cabinet, has resigned as Treasury Board President, saying she has lost confidence in the government and citing the pressure exerted on former colleague Jody Wilson-Raybould to abandon the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
The resignation comes days after the former justice minister and attorney-general told the Commons justice committee that she faced “consistent and sustained” political pressure from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and top officials, including veiled threats on the need to shelve the criminal prosecution of the Montreal company (for subscribers). Read her full opening statement here.
More than half of Canadians want SNC-Lavalin to face a criminal trial rather than an out-of-court settlement, according to a Nanos poll provided to The Globe and Mail and CTV News.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trudeau’s former top adviser, Gerald Butts, is set to testify to the committee on Wednesday. Here’s a closer look at the 11 people Ms. Wilson-Raybould said were involved in the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Opinion: “Gerald Butts hopes to bring clarity to the confusion surrounding the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin,” John Ibbitson writes (for subscribers). “But he is more likely to make a bad situation worse.”
China accuses detained Canadians of spying, days after Huawei extradition hearing approved
China has released a series of more detailed allegations against former diplomat Michael Kovrig, accusing him of spying and the theft of state secrets, and for the first time linked the case with that of detained businessman Michael Spavor.
The move comes days after the Canadian government authorized an extradition hearing for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities, who accuse Ms. Meng and the company of fraud to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The arrest has caused a diplomatic rift between Canada and China. Ms. Meng has filed a lawsuit that alleges members of the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency breached her constitutional rights when she was arrested.
Read more about what we know about Huawei, Ms. Meng’s arrest and China’s reaction and a who’s who of the political feud so far.
Ford government fires OPP deputy challenging Taverner hire
The Ontario government has fired OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair, who launched a lawsuit after being passed over for the police service’s top job in favour of a friend of Premier Doug Ford.
He had been the acting commissioner of the police force and had hoped to keep the job permanently. Instead, last fall the government announced the hiring of Toronto Police Superintendent Ron Taverner, prompting a legal battle.
The firing comes after Deputy Commissioner Blair cited internal police correspondence in the documents he was filing into court to support his case.
‘Snow-washing’: What leaked banking records show about Canada’s role in money laundering
It’s called dark money, the billions of dollars that cycle through the international economy, hopping from one jurisdiction to the next, one shell company to another, Mark MacKinnon writes (for subscribers).
A new leak of banking records suggests that Canada is playing an expanding role in helping to launder that dark money - “snow-washing,” as experts call it - with an increasing number of shell companies using a reputable-sounding Canadian address to add a sheen of legitimacy to the operation.
ON OUR RADAR
A trio of deaths:
Hockey great Ted Lindsay has died at 93. A nine-time all-star who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966, the Detroit Red Wings veteran is considered one of the greatest left-wingers in the game. He also spearheaded the drive for an NHL players’ association and was its first president.
Actor Luke Perry, who rose to stardom on the 1990s TV drama Beverly Hills, 90210 and then aged into a fatherly role on comic-based Riverdale, died today at 52, after suffering a stroke last week.
Keith Flint, the Prodigy lead singer who captured the hedonistic spirit of 1990s British rave culture, has died aged 49 in what the band’s founder described as a suicide (for subscribers).
Also:
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged today that opponents of President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border have enough votes in the Republican-led Senate to prevail on a resolution aimed at blocking the move.
Kate Harris’s first book, Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road, has won this year’s RBC Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction (for subscribers).
Ottawa-based Instant Brands, maker of the popular Instant Pot kitchen appliance, has signed a definitive agreement to merge with U.S.-based Corelle, whose brands include Pyrex.
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MARKET WATCH
U.S. stock indexes turned lower today, as investors appeared to need some convincing the United States and China would reach a trade agreement and weaker-than-expected construction data did not help their mood (for subscriberes).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 206.67 points to 25,819.65, the S&P 500 lost 10.88 points to end at 2,792.81 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 17.78 points to 7,577.57.
Canada’s main stock index slipped, as losses in energy shares weighed. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed down 30.12 points at 16,038.13. The energy sector dropped 1.7 per cent, pressured by a near 6-per-cent drop in shares of Enbridge after the company delayed its line 3 pipeline.
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TALKING POINTS
Age of distinction: Don’t believe the ageist myths. We only get better in our golden years
“What was the hardest prejudice to let go of? A prejudice against myself – my own future, older self – as inferior to my younger self. That’s the linchpin of age denial.” - Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
King James’s universe is not unfolding quite as he thought it should
“He couldn’t have thought he’d win a championship with the Lakers as he inherited them, but he must have assumed he could get them into the playoffs single-handed. That he won’t is a blow to his brand.” - Cathal Kelly
Canada’s postsecondary students would greatly benefit from more opportunities to study abroad
“Employers want workers who excel at problem solving, communication and teamwork, and who are resilient and able to meet shifting demands. International study creates global-mindedness and these in-demand skills.” - Frank McKenna, deputy chair of Toronto-Dominion Bank and former ambassador to the United States
LIVING BETTER
If nuts aren’t a staple in your daily diet, they ought to be, dietitian Leslie Beck writes. That’s especially true if you’re at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Researchers have found that eating pistachios is associated with a significant reduction in fasting glucose. Eating nuts was also tied to significantly reduced fasting insulin and insulin resistance, especially in people with prediabetes. No one particular type of nut accounted for this effect. Nuts are high in calories, so consider incorporating them into your diet by swapping nuts for snacks such as granola bars, crackers, cookies and chips. You can substitute nuts for granola on yogurt and meat in stir-fries.
LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE
Record and replay: How a Canadian-made app is aiming to help Alzheimer’s patients improve their daily lives
Just as a titanium leg or a robotic hand can compensate for a missing limb, Toronto researchers believe a memory prosthetic may help people with Alzheimer’s disease, Wency Leung writes.
For the past four years, Morgan Barense and her research team have been developing a virtual hippocampus, using digital technology to mimic a brain structure that is critical for consolidating memories. Their result is a phone-based app, called the Hippocamera, designed to allow Alzheimer’s patients to compensate for damage to this area of the brain.
A core function of the hippocampus is something called “hippocampal replay,” she explains. That is, the hippocampus acts like a movie projector, replaying memories over and over in high speed. Over time, with repeated broadcasts, the cortex, or the large outer portion of the brain, learns these memories, she says.
Led by Morgan Barense, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in cognitive neuroscience, University of Toronto researchers have created an app that mimics the function of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is typically ravaged early on in Alzheimer’s disease. (Moe Doiron for The Globe and Mail)Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
Facebook demanded hands-off data policy in early talks to build new centre in Canada, documents reveal
Facebook executives dangled the promise of building a massive data centre in Canada in exchange for guarantees that the federal government would not seek authority over data on non-Canadians, according to newly released documents detailing an extensive global lobbying effort by the social-media giant.
A 2013 memo details how chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg pressed Christian Paradis, then-industry minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, for a letter promising that the Canadian government would not seek legal jurisdiction over any non-Canadian data housed in a data centre that Facebook built in the country. Facebook ended up building the data centre in Iowa instead.
The memo is contained in a cache of previously unreleased internal Facebook documents seized as part of a British parliamentary investigation into Facebook. Read Tamsin McMahon’s full story here.
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