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Ottawa to adopt "red-flag” laws to allow courts to confiscate guns from people who pose a threat

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told The Globe and Mail that the proposed red-flag laws will allow police, doctors, lawyers, educators and loved ones to petition the courts to remove guns from someone flagged to be a risk of hurting themselves or someone else.

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians has long advocated for a red-flag law, arguing that current privacy legislation limits doctors’ ability to prevent the most common type of gun death in Canada – suicide.

While doctors can share their concerns with the Chief Firearms Office, which controls gun licensing, an investigation and eventual seizure can take weeks or longer, said Dr. Alan Drummond, co-chair of the association’s public-affairs committee. A red-flag law would permit swift action.

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The latest on the coronavirus

  • Canadians evacuated from China near the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak will be quarantined for 14 days at a Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont., but there is still no clear timeline for when they will return home
  • Six officials in the city of Huanggang, next to Wuhan in Hubei province, were fired over “poor performance” in handling the outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
  • The first death from the illness recorded outside China occurred in the Philippines, as the death toll rises to more than 361, and the number of those sickened by the virus tops 17,000.

Nova Scotia’s lobster industry fears prolonged effects of coronavirus outbreak as exports halted, prices drop

A month ago, China appeared to be a land of endless opportunity for Nova Scotia’s $1-billion lobster industry, with fishers collecting record returns for their catches and exports to the Asian country growing to historic levels.

Then, as travel restrictions and lockdowns in some cities were imposed in China in an effort to contain the virus, known as 2019-nCoV, lobster orders dried up almost overnight

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FILE - In this illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). (CDC via AP, File)The Canadian Press

Democratic candidates make a frantic, final push before Iowa caucuses

This year’s campaign unfolds against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, and likely acquittal this week, as the Democrats struggle over how best to defeat him.

Candidates are crisscrossing the snow-covered heartland state in a mad dash to the finish line. Iowa is a largely rural, overwhelmingly white Midwestern state of 3.2 million people wields power disproportionate to its size by virtue of holding its caucuses at the start of the election season.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Kansas City’s 21 unanswered points in fourth quarter stun 49ers in Super Bowl, 31-20 San Francisco had nothing left in the fourth quarter, and its coach, Kyle Shanahan saw yet another late-game meltdown by his team.

First Nation moves on own child-welfare law: Cowessess First Nation is one of at least eight aboriginal groups in Western Canada and Ontario that have notified Indigenous Services Canada that they intend to handle their own child and family services as allowed under new federal legislation.

Federal agencies mishandled sensitive documents more than 5,000 times last year: Answers tabled in Parliament in response to a query from Ontario Conservative MP Jamie Schmale show 38 agencies reported a total of more than 5,000 incidents between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10 in which classified or otherwise protected documents were stored in a manner that did not meet security requirements.

Trudeau to visit Africa amid campaign for UN Security Council seat: The Prime Minister will travel to Ethiopia, for the African Union Summit, and Senegal. However, experts say the outreach may be too little, too late.

Ukraine wants larger compensation for its citizens killed in plane shootdown in Iran: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kiev was not satisfied with the size of compensation Iran had offered to families of Ukrainians killed in the downing of a plane near Tehran last month and would seek larger payments.

MORNING MARKETS

Chinese markets plunge on virus fears as trading resumes after extended break: World shares sank to their lowest in seven weeks on Monday, dragged down by a plunge in Asian stocks on their first trading day after a long break on fears the coronavirus epidemic would hit demand in China. The Shanghai Composite dropped 7.7 per cent and Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 1 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent by about 5:15 a.m. ET. New York futures were up. The Canadian dollar was at about 75.5 US cents.

Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition includes coronavirus market jitters, 10 hidden-gem companies and the best and worst online brokerages.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

When it comes to brand-new clothes, the landfill should not be an option

Natasha McKenna: “We need regulation to help ensure that social and environmental effects are measured and reduced from design to end of life. The landfill is not a solution in 2020.” McKenna is a Toronto-based educator and program manager who works in poverty reduction.

Integration with local transit is key to GO’s success

Jonathan English: “Much-needed operating improvements, such as fair fares, may fly under the radar because they don’t come with a ribbon cutting, but they have by far the best cost-to-benefit ratio for improving the transit experience of everyday riders and for getting people off our overcrowded roads.” English is a Toronto-based PhD candidate in urban planning at Columbia University.

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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David ParkinsonDavid Parkinson/The Globe and Mail

LIVING BETTER

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The young climate activists who spoke with The Globe and Mail, from left: Rowan McKenzie, Carmen Kuptana, Sophie Mathur, Reanne George, Lilah Williamson, Eriel Lugt and Kaitlyn Lulua.Darryl Dyck and Gino Donato/The Globe and Mail; handout photos

The climate-change generation: Meet seven young Canadians and the environmental threats they face today

Youth are already worried about extreme weather that threatens their homes, polluted air and water that endanger their health, and changing patterns for agriculture and fishing that will affect how they live. In recent months, The Globe spoke to a cross-section of concerned young Canadians. Some considered themselves activists; others did not. But what unites them is shared sense of alarm about pollution, shifting ecosystems, ominous weather events – and, most of all, the dread of growing up in a warming world.

MOMENT IN TIME

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May 22, 1967. Love-in at Queen's Park in Toronto. Girl wearing glasses with word 'love' on lenses. Photo by John McNeill / The Globe and MailJohn McNeill/The Globe and Mail

For more than 100 years, photographers have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at love.

The summer of 1967 – the Summer of Love – has become almost mythical with its interwoven themes of free love, music and hippie culture. Inspired youth flocked to bohemian neighbourhoods in major cities around the world. In San Francisco, it was Haight-Ashbury. In London, it was Hyde Park, and in Toronto, it was Yorkville. The rebellious teenagers and young adults rejected their parents’ conformist culture, materialism and haircuts, and embraced the theme of free love whole-heartedly. The song of the summer, by Scott McKenzie, was San Francisco (Be sure to wear flowers in your hair) in which one of the lyrics said, “Summer time will be a love-in there.” In the May, 1967, photo above, Globe photographer John McNeill caught a young Toronto woman who came close to grasping the love theme of the summer and the song, except the flowers were in her hand, not her hair. - Philip King

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