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At least 19 dead in Nova Scotia shooting rampage
New details are emerging about the weekend’s deadly rampage that left Nova Scotia reeling. The death toll swelled to at least 19 victims and police worked at 16 crime scenes around the province – while warning the number of victims in Canada’s worst mass shooting is expected to rise further in the days to come.
“We have had five structure fires, most of those being residences, and we believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burned to the ground,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said in a press conference in Dartmouth on Monday afternoon. “That part of the investigation is still very much ongoing.”
And questions are being raised about why RCMP did not use the province’s emergency alert system while chasing a suspect they knew to be armed and extremely dangerous, but instead pushed the information out through Twitter.
The killer was ultimately shot by police in a gas-station parking lot in Enfield, outside Halifax, around noon on Sunday, after a 14-hour manhunt during which multiple victims were killed.
WENTWORTH CENTRE, NS - APRIL 20: Wentworth volunteer firefighters douse hotspots as an excavator digs through the rubble of a destroyed home linked to Sunday's deadly shooting rampage on April 20 in Wentworth Centre, N.S. Two residents of the home as well as a neighbour were killed by a lone gunman during Canada's worst mass killing. (Photo by Tim Krochak/Getty Images)Tim Krochak/Getty Images
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New Ontario modelling shows pandemic peak likely reached
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is preparing for the “gradual” reopening of the economy as new modelling shows the province has likely reached its peak in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ford said that his jobs and recovery committee is developing a framework for a “gradual, measured and safe” reopening of the province, while cautioning that physical distancing and self-isolation measures must remain in place for weeks if not longer.
New projections say Ontario is now expected to have fewer than 20,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, substantially lower than the 80,000 projected by previous models.
The numbers in long-term care homes, however, continue to grow.
A new kind of Parliament
The House of Commons endorsed regular video meetings and one in-person gathering a week, rejecting calls from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer for MPs to meet more frequently on the floor of the House of Commons.
The Liberal deal was put to a vote yesterday afternoon and agreed to by a small meeting of MPs in a 22-15 vote – over the objections of Conservative MPs – after several hours of debate. The government motion suspends all regular sittings of the House of Commons until May 25. The motion also creates a new COVID-19 committee that will meet in person on the floor of the House of Commons every Wednesday, starting next week, and by video conference on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The call for medical coverage for laid-off Canadians
Mass layoffs triggered by COVID-19 have left millions of Canadians without workplace drug coverage and labour leaders are urging the federal government to pay for their medication as a step toward setting up the long-promised national pharmacare program.
Oil prices plunge into negative territory
The spot price for West Texas Intermediate plunged deep into negative pricing yesterday, over fears of rapidly filling storage and sinking demand.
Futures traders are finding very few buyers for their soon-to-expire May contracts, because of the destruction of global demand and a supply glut. This has thrown into doubt who will take actual delivery of barrels.
In monetary news, in country after country, central banks are creating vast oceans of new spending power to help calm markets and offset the pain of locked-down economies. The Bank of Canada, along with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank are buying up assets with newly created money, Ian McGugan reports.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Kim Jong-un’s weight, well-being raise new concerns
Conflicting reports on the well-being of North Korea’s corpulent Kim Jong-un have created new alarm about the health of a young nuclear-armed leader with a smoking habit and no obvious successor. The Globe’s Nathan VanderKlippe reports on what this could mean for the leadership of the country.
Trump says he’ll ‘suspend immigration,’ offers no details
The U.S. president tweeted yesterday that he will sign an executive order “to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States” because of the coronavirus. He offered no details as to what immigration programs might be affected by the order. The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trump’s tweeted announcement.
Fifteen high-profile pro-democracy activists arrested in Hong Kong in weekend sweep
The arrests were made amid a flurry of statements and legal interpretations that further strengthened the hand of Beijing in the Asian financial centre. They continue a broad effort by Hong Kong police against participants in a series of protests that began last year when the city’s leadership introduced a bill that would have enabled extradition to China.
Sysco goes direct to consumers with new online grocery service
Canada’s largest supplier of restaurants and other food service businesses is expanding into e-commerce to sell directly to consumers for the first time in its history, with a new click-and-collect program. Sysco at Home will serve major cities across Canada, offering online orders for pick-up at 15 of its distribution centres. Sysco is also offering delivery in the Greater Toronto Area, with plans to expand that service to other cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal in the coming weeks.
Physicians facing financial difficulty struggle to keep practices running
As elective surgeries are cancelled and fewer patients are visiting clinics, many doctors are worried about keeping the lights on and say that without government relief they will be forced to lay off staff.
Thermometers, face masks and plastic rings: retailers’ ever-evolving measures to keep employees safe (and coming to work)
As the effects of the pandemic continue, retailers are reassessing on a daily basis their decisions about how to protect employees and customers. Starting this week, staff at Walmart Canada’s largest distribution centre will face a “wellness check” before their shifts that includes having their temperature taken and answering questions about possible COVID-19 symptoms.
MARKETS
Oil crash hits world stocks, U.S. dollar gains as investors shun risk
Global stocks fell on Tuesday, a day after U.S. crude oil prices turned negative for the first time, as dismal company earnings reports underlined worries about economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 1.72 per cent around 6 a.m. ET. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fel 2.43 per cent and 2.30 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 1.97 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished down 2.20 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 70.28 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Amid crisis, Tories struggle to provide effective opposition
John Ibbitson: “The opposition sans Conservatives has worked out a reasonable compromise with the Liberals to keep the House up and running during the pandemic.”
In Hong Kong, officials work to stop another kind of outbreak: democracy
Michael Bociurkiw: “The roundup – the largest of pro-democracy leaders in Hong Kong in a single day – is a clear signal that Beijing, and its obedient administrators in Hong Kong, will not allow the COVID-19 pandemic to dull its ability to quash dissent, whether in the former British territory, Xinjiang or elsewhere.” Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst and former reporter for the South China Sunday Morning Post.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
By Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
The U.S. response to coronavirus distilled: Washington state versus Washington, D.C.
John Doyle writes on a new Frontline documentary report on the spread and impact of the coronavirus in the U.S.
‘It’s like walking through a park’: Some Canadian golfers itching to get back on the course
Millions of golfers in Canada are stuck without a game because most of country’s 2,400 golf courses are closed, shuttered as non-essential services until they’re safe to open. But if there were ever a sport that seemed well-suited to physical distancing, it’s golf.
The Globe and Mail’s special giant cryptic crossword
Fill the hours at home and get your grey cells working with a special giant Cryptic Crossword from Fraser Simpson.
MOMENT IN TIME
Abraham Beverley Walker (died 1909), shown in a handout photo, was the first Canadian-born black lawyer, but a New Brunswick historian says Walker's accomplishments have been all but forgotten by history. Image source: Dr. A.B. Walker, from his book "A Message to the public" (St. John, 1905). Copy photo by M. Gochnauer / Courtesy of Special Collections, Vaughan Memorial Library, Acadia UniversityM. Gochnauer/Courtesy of Special Collections, Vaughan Memorial Library, Acadia University
Abraham Beverly Walker, the first-Canadian-born black lawyer, was an anglophile who believed in British justice. But he experienced racial prejudice throughout his career. The son of a farmer whose forebears had been among the British loyalists who came north from the United States during the Revolutionary War, he received his law degree from a U.S. school – National University in Washington (later George Washington University) – and was called to the New Brunswick bar in 1882. He set up practice in Saint John, but his career bogged down and he relocated to Georgia, returning in less than two years. He later became the Librarian of the Saint John Law Society, launched an intellectual journal and lectured on race issues. The snubs he experienced were many and varied: He was excluded from a prominent law society dinner, and was left off the federal Conservative government’s list of lawyers designated Queen’s Counsel, though it was a patronage reward and he had contributed years of organizing work for the party in the black community. Neither his reliance on British fair play, nor his entry into the legal profession, protected him from ridicule and contempt, wrote historian Judith Fingard. He died of tuberculosis on April 21, 1909. – Sean Fine
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