Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Tentative deal struck to end CN Rail strike, work set to resume tomorrow
A tentative deal has been reached to end the week-long strike by 3,200 Canadian National Railway employees.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference says members will return to work by 6 a.m. local time tomorrow, ending this country’s longest rail strike in a decade. Details of the deal, which must be ratified by union members, were not available.
CN said in a statement that workers will start returning to the job this afternoon, and trains will begin moving in the rail yards by tomorrow morning.
Context: A guide to how the CN strike started, how it ended and what it’s cost Canadians so far
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U.S. Federal prosecutors reportedly open criminal probe of opioid makers and distributors
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether pharmaceutical companies intentionally allowed opioid painkillers to flood communities, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing people familiar with the matter.
At least six companies have received grand-jury subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Mallinckrodt, Johnson & Johnson, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson, the Journal reported.
The probe is in early stages and prosecutors are expected to send subpoenas to other companies in the coming months, the report said, citing one of the sources. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Quebec Conservatives criticize Scheer’s leadership at Montreal event
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer faced heavy criticism and calls to resign during a campaign postmortem event in Montreal, say former Quebec candidates and organizers who attended the private event last night.
Defeated candidates Marie-Claude Fournier and Tom Pentefountas said they directly told him that he has peaked in Quebec and the party cannot grow in the province under his leadership.
This comes after some social conservative groups say Scheer can’t stay on as leader because he failed to defend their beliefs during the federal election campaign and are rallying their members to help ensure his ouster.
First Nations child welfare case adjourns, judge reserves decision
Federal Court Justice Paul Favel today reserved a decision in a case challenging the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s ruling that Ottawa pay $40,000 to every First Nations child who was inappropriately taken away from their parents after 2006.
The ruling said the federal government “willfully and recklessly” discriminated against Indigenous children living on reserves by not properly funding child and family services. The federal government says it wants to negotiate a settlement that will cover all victims going back to 1991.
Favel said he will deliver a decision as soon as possible in a nod to the tribunal’s order that the government come up with a compensation payment plan by Dec. 10.
Greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high last year, UN warns
Greenhouse gas emissions surged to a record level last year, the United Nations says in a report released ahead of climate talks in Madrid next week.
That record level means global temperatures could rise sharply this century with “wide-ranging and destructive” consequences, international climate experts are warning.
The head of the World Meteorological Organization said global temperatures could rise 3 to 5 C above preindustrial levels this century – more than three times agreed limits – if nothing is done to stop rising emissions.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Slightly higher profit at Scotiabank: Bank of Nova Scotia reported modestly higher profit in its core divisions for fiscal 2019, as wariness among business leaders over global trade tensions and economic prospects begins to weigh on banks. The other Big Five banks report next week.
Couche-Tard makes play for Australian chain: Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard is making a US$5.8-billion play for Caltex Australia as it pursues its global expansion. Caltex said it was considering the non-binding bid and that talks were at a preliminary stage.
Latest on the Hong Kong campus siege: A week-long police siege of a university in Hong Kong appears be winding down as a search of the Hong Kong Polytechnic campus found just one woman, in weak condition. A senior university official said it’s unlikely anyone else remains.
Britain’s chief rabbi says ‘poison’ of anti-Semitism has taken root in Labour Party: Britain’s chief rabbi said opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister because he had failed to stem anti-Semitism “sanctioned from the top” and now gripping his party.
Bill Peters still on Flames staff as NHL probes allegations: Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving says coach Bill Peters remains on staff, but wasn’t certain whether he’d be behind the bench for the next game. The team and the NHL are both investigating an allegation the Peters directed racial slurs at player Akim Aliu 10 years ago when the two were in the minors.
MARKET WATCH
Wall Street stocks reached fresh record highs after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States and China were close to agreeing on the first phase of a trade deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55.21 points to 28,121.68, the S&P 500 gained 6.88 points to close at 3,140.52 and the Nasdaq Composite added 15.44 to end at 8,647.93.
Despite a decline in the heavyweight energy and financial sectors, Canada’s main stock index recovered from early losses to inch higher. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed up 3.02 points at 17,035.88.
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TALKING POINTS
Why B.C.’s NDP government is being watched so closely
“It would be easy to get blown off course and allow pressure tactics from various interest groups to derail its fiscal plan. If the New Democrats allow that to happen, they will likely be one and done as a government.” –Gary Mason
The silver lining in the impeachment hearings: Ukraine has emerged as a state worth supporting
“In the end, the hearings did far more to convince a skeptical public about the merits of supporting Ukraine than millions of dollars of PR outreach by the Ukrainian government and its allies.” – Michael Bociurkiw, global affairs analyst
I won’t forget Father Hod Marshall and his reign of terror
“When I asked a friend from that time, how was it possible that we didn’t see it? How could we not have known? Don’t you remember, she said. Happy Hands Hod, that was his nickname.” - Julie Byczynski, former student of Holy Names High School in Windsor, Ont.
LIVING BETTER
Everyone knows about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but there’s also Travel Tuesday when you can get some great discounts on your next trip. From all-inclusives to European escapes, here are the latest travel deals.
LONG READ FOR A LONG COMMUTE
The new reality of dating over 65: Men want to live together – women don’t
There’s a rift emerging between single women older than 65 and the men they date. Increasingly, these men are encountering resistance from older women who want their own lives, not a full-time relationship. While many in this generation of heterosexual, divorced or widowed women want male companionship, they don’t necessarily relish the thought of moving in with a man.
Today, say researchers studying this cohort, more older women are rejecting the downsides of the live-in relationship: the co-dependence, the daily tension within close quarters and the sacrifices made keeping a home, caregiving and doing the emotional legwork to keep their unions humming. Some of these women completely forego dating while others opt for “living apart together” arrangements, in which partners in committed relationships choose to keep separate residences.
When a guy chats up 77-year-old Montrealer Rhoda Nadell at her tennis club, her brain quickly fast forwards: Dinner dates will turn into a relationship, which will inevitably find Nadell cooking, cleaning and eventually caregiving for the elderly gentleman. “I don’t want to take care of anybody. I want to take care of me,” said Nadell, who divorced her second husband two decades ago. Read Zosia Bielski’s full story here.
Rhoda Nadell (photo by Jayme Gershen for The Globe and Mail)JAYME GERSHEN/The Globe and Mail
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