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These are the top stories:
Kavanaugh vote: The FBI report, the protests and what comes next
The procedural vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination is set for 10:30 a.m. ET today, with senators still set to review the sole copy of the FBI report as late as this morning. Republicans said the FBI found “no hint of misconduct” while the Democrats criticized the White House for what they say was a limited investigation.
If the procedural vote passes, the final confirmation vote could come as soon as Saturday. It remains unclear how three Republicans and one Democrat will vote. Should the Democrat side with the rest of his party in opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination, two GOP nays could halt his confirmation. While procedural votes usually match final votes, it’s possible a senator who votes yes on the first could use the extra day to mull over that choice on the second.
The high-stakes votes come as thousands of demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court; hundreds have been arrested for staging a sit-in at a Senate building.
For his part, Kavanaugh wrote an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal last night in which he wrote that he “might have been too emotional at times” in his Senate testimony.
Meanwhile, The Globe’s Sean Fine writes that retired judges of the Supreme Court of Canada say the politically charged nomination hearings south of the border reflect badly on the impartiality of the United States Supreme Court.
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Kashechewan First Nation is accusing a Toronto architect of misappropriating millions
The fly-in community in Northern Ontario says Ellis Galea Kirkland and her associates diverted as much as $11-million in loans meant for infrastructure, including the rebuilding housing damaged by floods. Most of the money was placed under Kirkland’s control in 2014, but the First Nation says “none of the defendants provided any goods or services, or any material value, to Kashechewan.” Kirkland is the first of 25 defendants named in Kashechewan’s lawsuit, which also accuses its former chief of playing a part. Kirkland, a Harvard-educated philanthropist and architect, took her own life earlier this year.
China is slamming the USMCA deal
Beijing says the “non-market country” clause, which would place restrictions on Canada pursuing a free-trade deal with China, is a “hegemonic action” that “blatantly interferes" with another country’s sovereignty (for subscribers). Critics say the provision is meant to specifically target China amid its tariff dispute with the Trump administration. It requires U.S., Canada and Mexico give each other three months’ notice before starting free-trade talks with countries that aren’t true free-market economies. It also gives the U.S. and Mexico the right to withdraw from the USMCA should Canada sign a deal with a country like China. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada will continue to pursue closer trade ties with China despite the clause.
Meanwhile, Trudeau is assuring dairy farmers that Ottawa will find a way to compensate them for market losses expected after concessions made in the USMCA deal. The starting point for compensation will likely be in the $4.3-billion range, said agriculture sector economist Al Mussell (for subscribers).
A big moment for a small exchange: Canadian Brad Katsuyama’s IEX has landed its first listing
An upstart stock exchange started by the innovator profiled in the bestselling 2014 book Flash Boys has secured its first listing (for subscribers). Katsuyama, an outspoken critic of trading practices that benefit exchanges and middlemen over customers, launched IEX Group with the hope of offering a different kind of platform. And when markets opened today, he finally had a listing on the IEX in the form of Interactive Brokers LLC, a major U.S.-based electronic broker which made the jump from Nasdaq. The next big question is whether other companies will follow suit as Katsuyama pushes forward with his plan to disrupt the major exchanges.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Canadian cannabis growers are behind on their first orders, provinces are warning
Producers are struggling with a lack of crop yields and packaging materials with recreational cannabis legalization less than two weeks away (for subscribers). Government-run distributors in at least four provinces are scrambling to get a hold of more product: B.C. says it will only have half of an expected 150 cannabis strains with its four largest suppliers behind on deadlines; Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia are all expecting less inventory than requested. While initial supply appears set to be lower than planned, it remains unclear what the demand will be for legal cannabis in Canada. Estimates have varied from 370,000 kilograms a year by 2020 to as much as 926,000 kg in the first year.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks slip
World markets slipped ahead of U.S. jobs numbers on Friday, as a four-year high in oil prices and the biggest weekly jump in Treasury yields since February left investors wondering where to go next. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.8 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.2 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite was closed. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were down by between 0.6 and 0.8 per cent by about 5:50 a.m. ET. New York futures were also down. The Canadian dollar was below 77.5 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Déjà vu in Quebec: Politics and religion are at odds once again
“Religious minority communities in Quebec are bracing for the harmful discourse around whether or not they can fully participate in society as equal citizens. Mr. Legault says he will invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter so that his government can ban civil servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols. Never mind that preventing people from contributing positively as teachers, judges, police officers, or in other public capacities, is completely antithetical to the whole notion of integration. … Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and other minority communities in Quebec will once again be counting on each other, and on their allies, to unite against this latest effort to minimize, even erase, their presence. And one shouldn’t assume that such populist tendencies won’t emerge elsewhere in this country.” – Amira Elghawaby, human rights advocate and writer based in Ottawa
Why is John Tory avoiding a one-on-one debate?
“What is John Tory afraid of? Toronto’s mayor is refusing to take part in any head-to-head debates with his leading rival in the current election campaign, former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat. He says he will show up only for debates that include other, lesser candidates. It’s not a good look for Mr. Tory, a former business executive and Ontario Progressive Conservative leader who is seeking a second four-year term. It makes him seem weak and uncertain at a time when he is trying to persuade the city that he is a confident, sure-footed leader. Worse, it deprives voters of an opportunity to see the two main candidates in an important election have a sustained exchange about where they stand and how they differ on the issues.” – Marcus Gee (for subscribers)
Carbon taxes shouldn’t come at small, medium-sized businesses' expense
“To sell its carbon pricing plan to the corporate sector, Ottawa has already promised large-scale emitters a rebate of almost the full amount they pay in carbon taxes. For consumers, the outlook could be even brighter. According to a report by the pro-carbon-tax lobby group Canadians for Clean Prosperity (CCP), a national carbon tax could leave Canadian households better off by as much as $1,800 a year by 2022. This new tax could put money in your pocket. So who’d pay the bill for all this extra cash? Having exempted big business and consumers, the CPP proposal would make small and medium-sized businesses shoulder the entire burden for its carbon-tax giveaway plans.” – Peter Shawn Taylor, contributing writer to Canadians for Affordable Energy
LIVING BETTER
Three new films to watch – and one to skip
The hype for romance/musical A Star is Born is warranted, Kate Taylor writes in her perfect 4-star review. The third remake of the 1937 original, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, is irresistible because it “rejoices in a classic structure in which one upward trajectory [Gaga’s] and one downward [Cooper’s] meet for a shining moment in the middle.”
Brad Wheeler says The Old Man & the Gun is a charming, elegiac heist film. The stacked cast doesn’t hurt either: Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover and Tom Waits are all along for the ride. (3.5 stars)
The Sisters Brothers, adapted from Canadian Patrick deWitt’s award-winning novel, features a career-best performance from John C. Reilly. The film careens from standard western to revisionist tale to violent comedy, Barry Hertz writes. (3 stars)
And you can safely pass on the superhero flick Venom, which Sarah-Tai Black calls a “horribly scripted film so bad as to be enjoyable, but not bad enough to be good.” (0.5 stars)
MOMENT IN TIME
The first James Bond film premieres
(MGM/UA/Photofest)MGM/UA/Photofest
Dr. No, the first of 26 James Bond films, was based on the sixth of Ian Fleming’s novels about British spy 007. With Scotsman Sean Connery in the lead role – Roger Moore, who would play the character in later films, had been deemed “too young, perhaps a shade too pretty,” by producer Albert R. Broccoli – the movie would introduce filmgoers to several 007 tropes, including the title sequence, in which Bond is seen down the barrel of a gun, and of course the secret agent’s odd habit of boldly introducing himself as “Bond, James Bond.” The “girl" is played by Ursula Andress, emerging from the surf in Jamaica in a white bikini and brandishing a knife – firmly establishing the lead female characters of the films as both sex objects and highly capable partners. The villain, the core of any Bond film, is here played by Canadian stage and TV actor Joseph Wiseman. His Dr. No (a role he despised) is a bloodless, wooden figure with mechanical hands – the perfect foil to Connery’s winking, hard-living, amoral hero. Made for about US$1-million, the movie would make about 60 times that much in its initial release. – Massimo Commanducci
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Arik Ligeti