Evgeny Pavlov enters court in Stockholm, Sweden.Ann Jonasson/The Globe and Mail
TOP STORIES
Bombardier's culture is at the heart of a bribery case, Sweden's top anti-corruption prosecutor says
There may be a single Bombardier employee on trial in Sweden, but the country's top anti-corruption prosecutor says issues with the company's culture and behaviour are much more widespread. Evgeny Pavlov is on trial in a bribery probe that alleges, among other things, collusion with officials in Azerbaijan to win a $340-million (U.S.) rail contract. Pavlov's lawyer, saying his client "claims no responsibility," asked why alleged co-conspirators hadn't been named. "Because there are so many of them," replied Swedish prosecutor Thomas Forsberg.
The World Bank provided 85 per cent of the funding for the Azerbaijan deal, which its auditors are currently reviewing. If they find Bombardier won the contract via collusion or corruption, the Montreal company would be banned from competing for World Bank-funded contracts going forward.
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Tropical Storm Harvey: The latest on what's happening in Houston
Tropical Storm Harvey continues to wreak havoc on Houston. Record rainfall has flooded major sections of the Texas city, with at least 17 people killed and thousands displaced. Shelters are overflowing and the city is preparing temporary housing for roughly 19,000 people. Houston's mayor has also instituted a curfew between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. as a measure to address reports of looting, robberies and police impersonators. Nearly a third of the area that includes Houston is under water.
Liberal MP Darshan Kang is proclaiming his innocence after sexual-harassment allegations
Liberal MP Darshan Kang is defending himself against sexual-harassment allegations. The allegations were reportedly brought forward by a female employee in Kang's Calgary constituency office; the Toronto Star has reported that Kang tried to pay a staffer $100,000 to keep quiet about her claims. Kang acknowledged the "open, ongoing investigation," but maintained his innocence. Justin Trudeau didn't comment on whether Kang will be expelled from caucus, but did say his party's Whip and Parliament's human resources department are looking into the issue.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats apologized for hiring a controversial coach
It's been a whirlwind past few days for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. On Monday, the Canadian Football League team named former Baylor University head coach Art Briles to its coaching staff. But by that evening, his appointment was reversed after swift public condemnation; Briles was fired from Baylor last year amid a sexual-assault scandal within the school's football program. Ticats owner Bob Young has now apologized, and acknowledged responsibility for what he called a mistake that was made as a "result of my sloppiness."
Cathal Kelly says the initial decision to hire Briles came down to one thing: winning. "When you are losing, your sense of which ideas are acceptable gets skewed. That's how the 0-8 Hamilton Tiger-Cats end up hiring the most radioactive coach in football."
MORNING MARKETS
The U.S. dollar came off a 2-1/2-year low and world stocks rose on Wednesday after the United States' measured response to North Korea's missile test soothed jittery investors who turned their focus to positive economic data. Tokyo's Nikkei gained 0.7 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.2 per cent, though the Shanghai composite dipped. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.3 and 0.6 per cent by about 4:50 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up, and the Canadian dollar was at 79.78 cents (U.S.). Oil slid and gasoline jumped to its highest since mid-2015 as flooding and storm damage from tropical storm Harvey shut nearly a fifth of U.S. refineries.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
The storeys Margaret Atwood condemns
"Something is about to happen in Margaret Atwood's backyard. Or, more precisely, her neighbours' backyards. It is a condo: an eight-story luxury building at 321 Davenport Rd. And she is not pleased. On Monday night, she conducted an hours-long battle on Twitter with a group of millennial urbanists (and me) over the eight-story building proposal, talking about 'violating bylaws and killing folks' trees.' In other words, she performed the hackneyed role of exercised NIMBY. During her tirade, it was distressing to see someone with such fine antennae seem so out-of-touch. But it was no surprise: In Toronto and other desirable cities, older progressives frequently stand in the way of new development." – Alex Bozikovic
Indigenous people need results, not new ministries
"Canada's Indigenous people don't need new org charts to follow – they need politicians in Ottawa who have the ability to actually fix their problems. The Trudeau government has made no headway in closing the discriminatory gap in funding for education and health services on reserves, or in reducing the Indigenous suicide rate, or in dealing with high incarceration rates for Indigenous men and women, or on any other major file. Will adding a ministry change that?" – Globe editorial
Clinton should do her party a favour – and vanish
"Hillary Clinton won't go away. In May, she formed a political action group to advance progressive causes. It's called 'Onward Together.' As a rallying cry, is there anything more stale and timeworn? In a couple of weeks, Ms. Clinton is bringing out a book. It's called What Happened. Which is just what Democrats don't want to be reminded of. Their attitude, by contrast, is 'We've just gone through a stunning electoral disaster with you at the helm, Hillary. We'd rather not relive and relitigate it. Much as we've admired you over the years, we'd prefer you to drop into a sinkhole until the next eclipse. Oh, and please take Nancy Pelosi with you.'" – Lawrence Martin
HEALTH PRIMER
Why I fight: A young woman's journey from bodypump to Muay Thai
"I never thought I'd actually step into the ring for a real, full-blown Muay Thai fight. I was here for the fitness, not the fighting, right? As time went on, I found myself asking: why not? Why not push myself? Why not try out the skills I'd learned over the past two years to see if they actually translate? So I went for it. And it wasn't easy." – Sherrill Sutherland
MOMENT IN TIME
Rosemary Brown becomes the first black female MLA
August 30, 1972: On this day, Rosemary Brown made history. By getting elected to the B.C. Legislature, she became the first black woman to become an MLA. After immigrating to the country in 1951 from Jamaica, Brown was shocked at the discrimination prevalent in Canada, but advocated fiercely against it while she worked as a social worker. In a 1973 speech, the New Democrat said that "to be both black and female in a society which is both racist and sexist is to be in the unique position of having nowhere to go but up!" During her tenure as an MLA, which ran until 1986, she formed a committee to eliminate sexism in school textbooks and worked to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender or marital status. In 1975, while raising three children, Brown ran for the leadership of the federal NDP. Although she lost, she became the first woman to ever make the attempt. – Miriam Katawazi
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti.
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