Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
The City of Windsor, Ont., is seeking an injunction to end the Ambassador Bridge blockade, as authorities try to get ahead of spiralling border protests that now cover three provinces.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said he hopes the Superior Court of Ontario will soon grant the injunction to end the “illegal” blockade, now in its fourth day, and restore traffic across Canada’s busiest link with the United States. “This is a national crisis,” Dilkens said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
“The individuals on site are trespassing on municipal property and if need be will be removed to allow for the safe movement of goods across the border,” Dilkens said.
Meanwhile, protesters have blocked a third Canadian border crossing, in Manitoba, and demonstrations are planned at a fourth this weekend, deepening the crisis at key trade routes and pushing businesses to the brink.
The economic fallout from the border blockades mounted on Thursday, as Ontario’s auto plants cut production and food producers faced delayed shipments. The Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor with Detroit, is Canada’s busiest border crossing and carries more than $450-million worth of goods each day. The stoppage of truck traffic caused auto makers in Ontario and Michigan to halt production intermittently and send workers home.
Conservatives reverse course, calling for an end to the blockades
The federal Conservatives have reversed course and for the first time on Thursday called for the blockades to end, as the crisis at border crossings grew ever bigger with a third blockade now at a border crossing in Manitoba, in addition to those in Alberta and Ontario.
“I am asking you to take down the blockades,” Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen said in the House of Commons Thursday morning. “It’s time to remove the barricades and the trucks, for the sake of the economy.”
Before her election as interim leader, Bergen last week met with protesters blockading downtown Ottawa, calling them “passionate, patriotic and peaceful.” Since taking on her new post, she has called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to extend an “olive branch” to the demonstrators and meet with them.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, police say the city’s 911 system is being flooded with nuisance calls, putting residents’ lives at risk amid an ongoing standoff with protesters over vaccine mandates.
“We are aware of a concerted effort to flood our 911 and non-emergency policing reporting line. This endangers lives and is completely unacceptable,” the police said in a statement issued Thursday morning. “It is a crime to unnecessarily call 911 and our non-emergency number. We track calls and will charge anyone deliberately interfering with emergencies.”
Read more:
- Andrew Coyne: A way out of the truck protest impasse: Time is our ally, boredom is our friend
- Lawrence Martin: The Canada bashers have got it wrong about this country
- Explainer: Why an anti-vaccine-mandate trucker convoy called the Freedom Rally drove across Canada to Ottawa
Protestors against COVID-19 vaccine mandates block the roadway at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, on Feb. 9, 2022.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images
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Ukraine says Russian military exercises amount to blockade, calls on allies for pushback
Ukraine has called for Russian ships to be shut out of international ports after Moscow announced week-long naval exercises in the Black and Azov seas that Kyiv says amount to a de facto blockade.
The tension off Ukraine’s southern coasts came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned during a visit Thursday to NATO headquarters that the coming days represent “the most dangerous moment” in the months-long crisis created by Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the latest Western diplomatic effort to resolve the standoff as “a conversation between a mute person and a deaf person.” Moscow is seeking guarantees that Ukraine will never be allowed to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – a demand that has already been rejected by the Western military bloc.
Ukraine said Russia’s live-fire naval exercises, which are scheduled to begin Sunday, will make shipping in and out of ports such as Odessa, Mykolaiv and Mariupol – which handle 70 per cent of Ukraine’s imports and exports – “virtually impossible.” Russia has declared large swaths of both the Black and Azov seas unsafe to sail between Feb. 13 and 19 and has also issued warnings for air traffic to avoid the region during that period.
Read more:
- On NATO’s eastern flank, Latvia contends with a migration crisis orchestrated by neighbouring Belarus
- What’s the latest in Russia and NATO’s standoff over Ukraine? The story so far
- Russia accuses West of ramping up pressure by supplying Ukraine arms
The Russian navy's amphibious assault ship Kaliningrad sails into the Sevastopol harbor in Crimea on Feb. 10, 2022.The Associated Press
Canada marks one of best days yet with four more trips to the podium as Beijing Winter Olympics continue
Canadian speed skater Isabelle Weidemann has won silver in the women’s 5,000 metres, her second medal of the Beijing Olympics. She also won bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres earlier for Canada’s first medal of the Games. Quebec’s Eliot Grondin has also brought home a silver medal, coming 0.02 seconds behind Austria’s Alessandro Hmmerle in a photo finish.
Canada’s mixed aerials team of Marion Thenault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving has won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, marking Canada’s first aerials medal since the 2002 Salt Lake Games, when Veronica Brenner won silver and Deidra Dionne claimed bronze in the women’s event. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Jack Crawford won bronze in men’s alpine combined at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday after missing out on a medal in his first two events of the Games.
The Globe has compiled a visual guide to this year’s Winter Games. You can find that here.
More Olympic-related stories:
- U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim a golden ray of sunshine at a gloomy Beijing Olympics
- Watching China lose to the United States at the Beijing Olympics as my first hockey game, I wasn’t the only one confused in the crowd
- Befuddled in Beijing, Canadian skier Jack Crawford gushes about a ‘childhood dream’ come true
- U.S.’s Nathan Chen jumps to figure-skating gold at Beijing Olympics, while rival Yuzuru Hanyu falters
Left Canada's Eliot Grondin and right Isabelle Weidemann celebrate their silver medals in the men's snowboard cross and women’s 5000m speed skate finals.The Canadian Press/Reuters
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ontario Premier Doug Ford Ford quashes Walmart’s $35 minimum order for ‘free’ COVID-19 tests: Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Walmart Canada have reversed course after an uproar over the big-box chain’s initial plan to require a minimum $35 online order for customers to receive one of the government’s “free” rapid COVID-19 tests, which the province pledged to distribute via pharmacies and grocery stores.
Europe, fearing war, scours the planet for LNG, but not enough is available to cure the energy crunch: Europe is suddenly obsessed with liquefied natural gas, a minor but growing source of imported fuel that could play a key role in keeping the lights on if a Russian invasion of Ukraine triggers a sanctions battle.
Brookfield Asset Management considers spinoff of asset-management business: Brookfield Asset Management BAM. A-T is mulling whether to carve out its core business into a separate company, a move that could create a new enterprise worth as much as US$100-billion.
London Metropolitan Police commissioner to step down after internal report released detailing racism, misogyny, bullying among officers: The Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, has bowed to growing criticism over of her handling of several scandals and announced that she is stepping down.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday after U.S. consumer prices data came in hotter than expected and subsequent comments from a Federal Reserve official raised fears the U.S. central bank will hike rates aggressively to fight inflation.
U.S. Labor Department data showed consumer prices surged 7.5 per cent last month on a year-over-year basis, topping economists’ estimates of 7.3 per cent and marking the biggest annual increase in inflation in 40 years.
According to preliminary data, the S & P 500 lost 83.13 points, or 1.81 per cent, to end at 4,504.05 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 304.73 points, or 2.10 per cent, to 14,185.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 526.33 points, or 1.47 per cent, to 35,241.69.
The S & P 500 is now down about 5 per cent in 2022, and the Nasdaq is down about 9 per cent.
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TALKING POINTS
Between apathy and outrage, the pandemic has reached its messiest phase to date
“After less than two years of having to wear a little mask covering our faces, and less than a year of having to whip out a phone to show proof of vaccination to help guard against infecting others with a disease that has killed millions, people are apparently ‘so done with it.’ It’s one thing to lift some restrictions to help children get back to normal, but throwing it all away at once so that we can dine at a restaurant without the ‘slog’ of showing our vaccine record?” – Gary Mason
To solve Toronto’s housing crisis, we must end restrictive single-family zoning policies
“Many things have changed during the pandemic, but Toronto, unfortunately, remains in a housing crisis. Anyone who’s tried to buy or lease a home in the last few years knows that prices are high and inventories are low.” – Steve LaFleur
Mortgage shopping? Why the best advice might not come from a traditional mortgage broker
“For well-qualified borrowers – those who can get approved by virtually any lender – the best possible mortgage advice won’t come from a traditional mortgage broker. The reasons are simple. For one thing, there are quality lenders that don’t deal with mortgage brokers. Moreover, brokers get paid a commission from the lender they recommend to you. That can be a conflict of interest, as a 2016 letter from B.C.’s mortgage broker regulator explained.” – Robert McLister
LIVING BETTER
Free passes to Canada’s national parks are good medicine, health-care providers say
The first time clinical counsellor Tanya Clary prescribed a Parks Canada pass for anxiety, her client seemed confused but also pleasantly surprised that getting out in nature was considered a form of therapy that she didn’t have to pay for.
Clary said her many experiences in the backwoods of northern British Columbia as a “mushroom hunter” and amateur horticulturalist have convinced her of the mood-lifting health benefits of being outdoors.
She believes giving a “prescription” of a free annual pass to national parks, historic sites and monuments provides more of a push for people to get outside and connect with nature than just telling them to go for a walk because that’s good medicine, she said.
The passes are being offered by Parks Canada through its partnership with the British Columbia Parks Foundation to allow health-care providers like doctors, nurses and therapists who have registered for the program to “prescribe” nature to patients dealing with both physical and mental health challenges.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Protest in India snowballs into controversy as government formalizes hijab ban
Women take part in a demonstration organized by Awami Rickshaw Union to protest against barring Muslim girls from wearing hijab in classes at some schools in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 10, 2022.K.M. Chaudary/The Associated Press
When 18-year-old Ayesha Hajira Almas leaves her home these days, she believes she is being followed. Her phone routinely rings with threatening calls, so much so that she has stopped answering it altogether. Many of her friends receiving similar calls have had to change their phone numbers. The reason: They have filed court petitions in the Indian state of Karnataka to fight a new government-imposed rule that bars them from wearing a hijab inside the classroom of their public high school.
“The hijab is being used as a weapon to deny us our rights,” Almas said in an interview. For more than a month, she and a group of seven other Muslim girls have not been allowed to attend class unless they take off the hijab, citing the new guideline that restricts religious attire on campus.
“‘Will you get out of the classroom or should I throw you out?,’ the teacher shouted at us. We had heard of seniors whose head scarves had been pulled off forcefully. So we decided to sit outside the classroom in protest and try to study, with exams just round the corner,” she said.
What began as a small sit-in protest in the coastal town of Udupi has snowballed into controversy across the state after the government formalized the hijab ban in educational institutions last week, calling for a uniform dress code with the directive that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn.”
Neha Bhatt writes of the petitions of the protesting Muslim girls heard by the state’s High Court on Tuesday, calling for “peace” while the case unfolded.
Evening Update is written by Emerald Bensadoun. 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.