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These are the top stories:
Medical marijuana patients are facing shortages amid recreational legalization
And the problem is being made worse by the fact that there’s no requirement for producers to give priority to medical patients (for subscribers). The shortages vary by company, and medical patients must formally transfer their registration before being able to purchase from a different producer. But many aren’t even aware that is an option, experts say. Medical users can buy products via the recreational stream, but that market is struggling with shortages and delivery delays. “A lot of these big companies had tons of patients and then signed big deals with provinces, taking on more they could handle,” said Dr. Michael Verbora, the medical director of marijuana clinics owned by producer Aleafia Health.
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The lack of oversight at private infusion clinics could pose a health risk, Ontario documents say
Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy are among those who could be at risk by what provincial officials described as a regulatory “grey area.” That’s because private clinics administering drugs intravenously don’t have to be licensed or inspected. The documents speak only to clinics in Ontario, but there are more than 350 private infusion centres across Canada that provide IV drugs to patients with diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis. And without formal licensing, there’s no guarantee physicians will be on site when they need to be or that medications will be stored and prepared properly, the provincial briefing notes obtained by The Globe say.
Wildfires continue to rage in California, with scores dead and hundreds of thousands displaced
At least 31 people have died in the fires while more than 200 remain unaccounted for. Teams are searching for bodies in the town of Paradise and other parts of Northern California, where Camp Fire has become the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history. It has destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, mostly homes, with remains found in the scorched cars of those trying to escape. Fires are also burning in the south, near Los Angeles and Malibu, where two people were found dead. California has been besieged by wildfires for years now as droughts and climate change continue to take a toll on the state.
B.C. is in the midst of a referendum on electoral reform. Here’s what you need to know
Will British Columbians ditch first past the post – which is used nearly everywhere in Canada – in favour of proportional representation? The countdown is on, with residents able to mail in their ballots by the Nov. 30 deadline.
The options: The referendum is two-fold. First, voters must select Yes or No on whether they want electoral reform. A majority of 50 per cent plus one is needed to change the system. All voters also have the option of ranking one, two or all three systems: Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), Dual-Member Proportional (DMP) and Rural-Urban Proportional (RUP). Go here to read about those options.
Where the parties stand: NDP Premier John Horgan is in favour of electoral reform and has thrown his weight behind MMP, the only option used in other countries, including Germany, New Zealand and Scotland. Provincial Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson has voiced concern about a proportional system, saying the referendum process has been rushed with voters unclear about their choices. Green Leader Andrew Weaver supports change; his party pushed for electoral reform after winning just three of the 87 seats in the 2017 election while picking up nearly 17 per cent of the vote.
If the Yes side wins: Results are expected by mid-December, and if residents vote for change, provincial officials will need to get the ball rolling in time for the next election, currently scheduled for October of 2021. But while that seems like a long time, there are many kinks to sort out: the new total number of elected representatives; riding areas redrawn; tabulating technology updated. The province’s chief electoral officer says the timeline is “going to be tight.”
Editor’s note: (Nov. 12, 2018) An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied only those who vote Yes to electoral reform in B.C.’s referendum then have the option of selecting which system they prefer. In fact, every person who casts a ballot, including those who vote No, is able to rank one, two or all three reform options.
Turkey has provided the U.S. with an audio recording of Jamal Khashoggi’s killing
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government handed copies of the recording to the U.S., France, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Erdogan said it made the recording available so “there is no need to distort” what happened after the dissident journalist entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
And the Khashoggi case isn’t the first time Saudi officials appeared to consider assassinations across borders. The New York Times reported intelligence officials close to the Crown Prince discussed assassinating enemies in Iran last year.
The Khashoggi news comes as war continues to ravage Yemen. Street battles in the country’s main port city have forced medical staff to flee the largest hospital while millions are on the brink of starvation. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels since 2015.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Canadians gathered across the country to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War
At a Remembrance Day ceremony in Montreal, people gathered in sub-zero temperatures to lay wreaths as a military band played Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. In Ottawa, Governor-General Julie Payette returned from commemorative events in Belgium to greet veterans as the local children’s choir sang In Flanders Fields. In Vancouver, a ceremony served as a reminder of past discrimination: 96-year-old Japanese-Canadian Yoshio Arai recalled being rejected for service in 1942 by a recruiter who used a racial slur, not long before his family was forcibly relocated.
And in Paris, Justin Trudeau and other world leaders marked the end of what was supposed to be the “war to end all wars.” Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Mcocron used the occasion to warn about rising nationalism and the need to calm tensions across the globe.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks mixed
The U.S. dollar surged to nearly 17-month highs on Monday against a basket of major currencies as investors sought out the highly liquid and high-yielding currency against a backdrop of global growth worry and rising political risk in Italy and Britain. Tokyo’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng each gained 0.1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 1.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 per cent by about 6:30 a.m. ET, with Germany’s DAX down 0.7 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 down by less than 0.1 per cent. New York futures were mixed, and little changed. The Canadian dollar is at 75.71 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
China’s human-rights abuses keep getting worse
“[China’s] growing Orwellian nightmare is blurred somewhat by the country’s parallel economic boom. Totalitarian dictatorships usually immiserate their people; China’s has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. The Canadian government has shown some needed wariness toward Beijing of late, criticizing China for its mass detention of Muslims at the United Nations last week and pulling back from its push for a comprehensive free-trade deal with the country. Outside of Ottawa, though, Canadian institutions continue to get burned by co-operating with Chinese state actors. … We can’t erect a wall between ourselves and the world’s second-largest economy. But Canada must always be clear-eyed about what it’s dealing with: a regime that is obliterating the freedoms of its citizens in ever-more frightening ways.” – Globe editorial
We must criminalize gun possession in Canada
“Most Canadians are shocked to hear that Canada has the fourth highest level of gun violence amongst OECD nations. A revealing comparison is with Japan, which has an absolute ban on firearms. Japan reports an average of 0.005 firearm homicides per 100,000 people per year. Canada, by the same measure, averages 0.48, nearly 100 times that of Japan. The United States, at 3.65, is at almost 730 times the Japanese statistic. The carnage of shootings in Toronto, Fredericton, Quebec City and Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville are painful examples of gun violence’s tragic effects. In the wake of these incidents, the common reaction is “thoughts and prayers.” Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough. Our objective must be to eradicate gun violence by addressing its primary cause: the ease of access to guns. We must criminalize possession of all firearms in Canada.” – Vahan Kololian, chairman of the The Mosaic Institute
New Vancouver council needs to address Downtown Eastside’s growing homeless problem
“...because so many services have been lumped into one area, the Downtown Eastside shoulders far more of the burden for the city’s growing homeless problem than anywhere else. And it sure shows. Ethel Whitty, the city’s director of homeless services, says she’s old enough to remember when no one in Vancouver lived on the street. ‘This is a humanitarian crisis.’ Our last mayor and council recognized that and pledged to end homelessness, a goal that ultimately wasn’t met. Critics of former mayor Gregor Robertson cited the unfulfilled promise as a mark of failure. But the goal was laudable, and fear of failure must not prevent our new council from trying again.” – Adrienne Tanner, Vancouver journalist who writes about civic affairs
LIVING BETTER
Hitting the road alone? There are a growing number of services on offer
Solo travel is more popular than ever – and companies are lining up to address demand. Cruising is usually associated with couple or family travel, but cruise lines have started to offer options tailored for solo travellers (the single supplement fee is largely a thing of the past). Resorts, meanwhile, are also offering packages for those on their own. And tour operators are targeting those flying solo in categories ranging from last-minute getaways to luxury customization.
MOMENT IN TIME
Armistice Day on Toronto’s University Ave.
For more than 100 years, photographers, photo editors and photo librarians working for The Globe and Mail have amassed and preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. In November, we’re commemorating 100 years since the end of the First World War.
(William James – retouched photo)WILLIAM JAMES SEN[IOR]
Canadians greeted the end of the First World War, just over a century ago, with rapturous joy, pouring into streets across the country. This parade down University Avenue in Toronto, shot by local photographer William James, boasted the rare site of a tank – a new technological marvel that had ended the stalemate of the trenches. What has almost been forgotten is that there had already been widespread parties a few days earlier, when rumours of an armistice had raced across North America – not least in a front-page blurb in The Globe reporting that the president of CP Railway had received a top-secret telegram informing him of the war’s end. Alas, the rumour proved false, the war dragged on for another four days, more soldiers died, and the real parades had to wait. – Ken Carriere
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Arik Ligeti