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EFREM LUKATSKY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
| Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun the “Battle of Donbas” in the east yesterday and a “very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive.” |
| Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions, some powerful, along the front line in the Donetsk region, with shelling taking place in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Ukrainian local officials and local media also said explosions were heard in Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine, Mykolaiv in the south and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. |
| An interior ministry sapper collects unexploded shells, grenades and other devices in Hostomel, close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. EFREM LUKATSKY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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| Police sent nearly double the number of emergency alerts on gun threats in 2021 |
| Police forces in Canada almost doubled their direct-to-cellphone warnings about active shooters and similar threats last year, according to statistics released to The Globe and Mail, but are generally still struggling to use the technology quickly and effectively. |
| Authorities issued 28 “civil emergency” alerts for police-related incidents in 2021, up from 15 the year before, after intense criticism about the failure to warn people in Nova Scotia about a mass shooter two years ago this week. |
| While it indicates a growing awareness about how to sound such alarms, police forces say policy-makers must do more to get them past the gatekeepers controlling access to the technology for emergency alerts. |
| Canada facing the most uncertain COVID-19 wave yet as provinces scale back on reporting, experts say |
| The decision by provincial and territorial governments to scale back COVID-19 data collection and reporting has left Canadians to navigate what some experts are calling the most uncertain wave of the pandemic to date. |
| Most jurisdictions have stopped testing broadly and are now limiting or consolidating data, such as hospitalization indicators. Many have also reduced public reporting frequency from daily to weekly. |
| Governments that have done this – including B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – attribute the shift to there now being more value in observing trends over time, rather than daily fluctuations. But those who have worked to prepare Canadians for what may lie ahead say they are now flying blind as the last remaining public-health measures are lifted and the Omicron sub-variant BA.2 fuels a resurgence of cases. |
ALSO ON OUR RADAR | Real estate sector readies to defend ‘blind bidding’ for houses: The Canadian real estate industry is gearing up to fight Ottawa’s plan to ban a common home selling practice known as blind bidding. The Liberal Party’s April 7 budget proposed to end blind bidding, in which competing buyers in a multiple-bid situation do not know what others are offering to pay for a home. |
| Immigration changing the makeup of religion in Canada, survey finds: Growing immigration is changing the composition of religion in Canada, an in-depth survey shows, though not all communities of faith feel welcome. The Angus Reid Institute and Cardus survey released yesterday is described as the first of its kind to take a comprehensive look at Canadians’ faith across a full religious spectrum. |
| Employee ownership draws closer to breakout moment in Canada: In its recent budget, the federal government said it would amend the Income Tax Act to create an employee ownership trust (EOT), following similar reforms in the United States and Britain. The design of the trust and its launch date are still being worked out. |
MORNING MARKETS | European stocks fall : European shares were lower on Tuesday, while yields on 10-year U.S. inflation-linked bonds were close to turning positive for the first time in two years, as the prospect of aggressive Fed tightening to rein in inflation kept investors on edge. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.52 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were off 1 per cent and 1.25 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.69 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.28 per cent. New York futures were in the red. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.38 US cents. |
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON | BRIAN GABLE/THE GLOBE AND MAIL |
LIVING BETTER | How to get the most out of your workouts if you don’t have a trainer |
| Over the course of this pandemic we’ve been told time and again that fitness is a key factor in the fight against COVID-19. Rather than have you waste your time and energy on useless exercises and training fads, here’s how to structure your own workouts for maximum efficiency. Now, if (when?) another lockdown hits, you’ll be a self-sufficient training machine. |
MOMENT IN TIME: APRIL 19, 1884 | A Potlatch at Alert Bay, British Columbia, (ca. 1912). CITY OF VANCOUVER ARCHIVES |
| Potlatch ceremony banned by Canadian government |
| In 1884, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald sought to suppress a governing practice of coastal First Nations: His government banned potlatch ceremonies, where history was maintained through song and dance, where births, marriages and deaths were recognized, where territories were defined and where riches were shared. “This Indian festival is a debauchery of the worst kind, and the departmental officers and all clergymen unite in affirming that it is absolutely necessary to put this practice down,” the Prime Minister said. The law threatened participants with jail. The practice was deeply embedded on Vancouver Island, and the Kwakwakaʼwakw tribes continued potlatch ceremonies in the winter, out of reach of Indian agents. In 1921, Chief Dan Cranmer organized a large potlatch in defiance of the law. Twenty-two men and women went to prison, while Indian agents sold the confiscated goods to collectors and museums. The amendment was dropped from the Indian Act in 1951, and since that time Chief Bill Cranmer, Dan’s son, has worked to repatriate the masks and regalia. “It was their way of disconnecting us from our lands,” Cranmer said in a recent interview. The Kwakwakaʼwakw are still waiting for Canada to formally repeal the law. Justine Hunter |
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