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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Two Canadians detained in China for four months prevented from going outside, official says
Today marks four months of detention for two Canadians in China: former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor. The two men are being held in isolation, barred from going outside or seeing the sun, The Globe has learned.
They were seized on Dec. 10, in apparent retaliation for the Dec. 1 arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei at the request of U.S. authorities. Since then, Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor have been subjected to interrogations of six to eight hours a day, according to a Canadian official.
China has accused Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor of espionage-related offences, although neither man has been formally charged. For the background to this story, check out our explainer here.
Michael Spavor, left, and Michael Kovrig.The Globe and Mail
This is what a black hole looks like: Researchers photograph an abyss larger than our solar system
As an idea, black holes have been with us for more than a century, Ivan Semeniuk writes. But for the first time, a black hole has been seen.
The jaw-dropping result – less impressive, perhaps, to non-experts for its appearance than for what it means – is as close as humanity has ever come to visualizing one of the dark behemoths churning away in distant corners of the universe.
What University of Waterloo researcher Avery Broderick and his colleagues have now revealed is monstrous even by black hole standards, buried in the heart of a distant galaxy called M87. Read Ivan Semeniuk’s full story here. Watch this video for an explanation of the significance of the team’s discovery.
Avery Broderick in front of a projection of the event horizon of the black hole. (Photo by Patrick Dell/The Globe and Mail)Patrick Dell/The Globe and Mail
Ontario unveils $28.5-billion transit plan, vows to double length of Toronto’s downtown relief line
The provincial government is promising to double the length of Toronto’s downtown relief line, turning it into a $10.9-billion subway connection between Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre.
The details were unveiled today as part of a $28.5-billion transit plan. Premier Doug Ford says the province has the full amount in its budget, but will be looking to other levels of government to contribute.
The announcement comes amid contentious talks with the Toronto on the Ontario government’s plan to take over ownership of its subway network and control of expansion planning.
Vancouver’s Squamish Nation plans massive apartment development for foot of Burrard Bridge
The Squamish Nation plans a massive housing project comprising as many as 3,000 apartments, marking the first large-scale urban development by an Indigenous group in Canada (for subscribers).
The ambitious project next to the Burrard Bridge and Vanier Park on the False Creek waterfront in central Vancouver would occupy the last of their reserve land in the city.
Development of so many apartments, which the Squamish are considering restricting to all rental, could help Vancouver with its housing crisis, but the city does not have jurisdiction over the Squamish land.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Scheer doubles down on threatened lawsuit: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer stood outside the House of Commons, without the immunity from lawsuits the chamber would afford him, and repeated word-for-word the March 29 press release on the SNC-Lavalin affair that sparked the threat of legal action from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (for subscribers).
Puck drops on NHL playoffs tonight: National Hockey League playoffs start tonight, with games including the Winnipeg Jets home to the St. Louis Blues. The two other Canadian teams in the post-season – the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs – play their first games tomorrow. Go to Globesports.com tonight catch up on all the action.
Netanyahu secures path to re-election: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election today, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority and his main challenger, Benny Gantz, conceding defeat.
RBC, TD threatened with lawsuit: Investment management arms of two of Canada’s big banks are being threatened with a class-action lawsuit that claims investors were overcharged for actively managed mutual funds that did little more than mimic their benchmark indexes (for subscribers).
Magic Johnson abruptly quits Lakers: Magic Johnson abruptly quit as the Los Angeles Lakers’ president of basketball operations last night, without first telling owner Jeanie Buss or general manager Rob Pelinka before he announced it in front of reporters before the final game of the Lakers’ sixth consecutive losing season.
Andreescu to miss Fed Cup: An injury to rising Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu will keep her off the country’s Fed Cup team for a World Group playoff against reigning champion Czech Republic later this month (for subscribers).
MARKET WATCH
World stock markets edged higher today amid tame U.S. inflation data and as the European Central Bank left its ultra-easy policy stance unchanged but warned that economic risks remained to the downside.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.58 points to 26,157.16, the S&P 500 gained 10.02 points to 2,888.22 and the Nasdaq Composite added 54.96 points to 7,964.24.
Canada’s main stock index also closed higher today, led by gains in energy stocks after oil prices climbed on tighter supplies. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Composite index rose 59.84 points to 16,396.29.
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TALKING POINTS
After Israel’s election, the country is on a dangerous political path
“In catapulting Jewish Power to centre stage and becoming beholden to its politics, Mr. Netanyahu may have overstepped and altered the political status quo. There would be consequences to radical illiberal legislation.” – Erna Paris
Ford government’s first budget must walk fine line
“As the Ontario government faces an era of uncertain economic growth, it must demonstrate good debt stewardship – avoiding the siren song of austerity and instead run an efficient government with the capacity to invest for growth and development.” – Rocco Rossi, CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (for subscribers)
One small step for the King Street streetcar, one giant leap for Toronto
“While Toronto still needs several big fixes, such as the so-called Downtown Relief Line subway, the quality of life in a city is also the product of lots of small decisions that can either improve the life of citizens, or immiserate them.” – Globe editorial
LIVING BETTER
As Canadians change jobs with greater frequency, they may need to move one’s pension savings from the old company. That usually requires you to open a locked-in retirement account (LIRA) or a locked-in registered retirement savings plan (locked-in RRSP) – the names can differ among provinces and territories. Here are 10 rules to know about these locked-in accounts. They include:
- U.S. stocks of companies that are headquartered in the United States and pay a dividend in retirement accounts are not subject to non-residency withholding taxes.
- Unlike funds in a regular RRSP, funds in locked-in RRSPs are not available for withdrawal except under specific circumstances.
- You can name a spouse as the beneficiary/successor annuitant, thereby avoiding the probate cost and income tax.
LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE
Why shorting the Canadian banks on housing makes no sense
When Steve Eisman warns about a downturn, investors listen – so his recent bet against Canadian banks is getting a lot of attention.
Famous for his prescient call against the United States housing market before the 2008 global financial crisis, one of the fantastically profitable wagers profiled in The Big Short, Mr. Eisman, a fund manager, is now predicting trouble for Canada’s largest lenders.
He is very clear that he does not expect a U.S.-style housing collapse, yet he worries that Canada’s housing market is cooling quickly. Mr. Eisman also fears the fallout from a sluggish economy. Because the Big Six banks dominate domestic lending, he expects they will suffer.
It is a compelling story, one that other hedge funds have been making as well. The problem with the thesis, however, is that there are a number of holes in it. Globe subscribers, read Tim Kiladze and James Bradshaw’s full story here.
Don Quixote and the movie that (nearly) killed Terry Gilliam
In the new dark comedy The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Jonathan Pryce plays a cobbler in rural Spain who, after getting cast in a low-budget film as Cervantes’s classic hero-fool, spends the next decade unable to shake the role, eventually convincing himself that he is the literary legend come to life. This inability to let an idea die of course originated with Cervantes’s original text, but also seems to have infected The Man Who Killed Don Quixote director Terry Gilliam, given that he, too, has spent years and years tethered to his creation, refusing to let reality interfere with his imagination.
Over the past quarter century, Mr. Gilliam has seen his vision of Quixote quickly come together and then just as rapidly fall apart a half-dozen times. There was the 2000 production that disintegrated so badly that the crew commissioned to chronicle its shoot for a DVD extra instead produced the award-winning what-might’ve-been documentary Lost in La Mancha. Mr. Gilliam, the Monty Python member best known for his gonzo epics Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was not merely haunted by the idea: He was possessed.
Today, the director’s dream is finally seeing the light of day, albeit briefly thanks to a one-night-only “event screening” in theatres across Canada and the United States. And while 2019′s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is more than a few degrees removed from Terry Gilliam’s initial idea, it is unmistakably a Terry Gilliam film: over-the-top, surreal and defiantly proud of its uneasy-to-stomach sensibility. Globe subscribers, read Barry Hertz’s interview with Terry Gilliam here.
Terry Gilliam directs Adam Driver in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. (Photo courtesy of Touchwood)Diego Lopez Calvin/Courtesy of Touchwood
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