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Canadian inflation hit a three-decade high in December as consumers paid sharply more for groceries and appliances, the latest sign of rising price pressures that the Bank of Canada may soon move to contain with its first interest-rate increases since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.8 per cent in December from a year earlier, the quickest pace since 1991, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. The result matched the median estimate from analysts and accelerated from November’s 4.7-per-cent pace. It was the ninth consecutive month that inflation has exceeded the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

Along with other indicators, the sustained upswing in prices is raising expectations that the Bank of Canada will start hiking interest rates earlier, perhaps next week. The bank’s key lending rate has remained at 0.25 per cent since the early days of the pandemic. Traders now expect six hikes this year, which would take the policy rate to 1.75 per cent.

“Make no mistake, inflation looks to have plentiful staying power, with oil prices on the march, firms reporting intense labour shortages, and core inflation grinding up,” Doug Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal, wrote to clients. “So, even with one of the ‘milder’ inflation rates in the G7, the stage is nevertheless set for the Bank of Canada to soon kick into tightening gear.”

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People shop for milk at a grocery store in Toronto, on Dec. 8, 2021.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail

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Trudeau defends vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers amid supply chain concerns

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the federal government’s decision to implement a vaccine mandate for truck drivers, which came into effect on Saturday, despite growing concerns about the resulting increase in prices and shortages.

Trudeau told an Ottawa news conference on Wednesday the federal government has been clear since November that a vaccine exemption for truckers would come to an end this month. But critics say the mandate’s rollout is poorly timed with when Canadians heavily rely on international supply chains for fresh produce and that it will push prices – already driven up by inflation – even higher.

Last week, the Canada Border Services Agency said Canadian truck drivers would be exempt from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but the next day, the federal government said that was wrong. The government did not explain how the mistake happened or why it took almost a full day to correct.

Trudeau said Wednesday that truckers have known for months now that the mandate was coming and the United States will soon bring an “identical” mandate into force to ensure truckers are vaccinated for international travel. The U.S. is expected to impose the restriction on unvaccinated Canadian truckers on Jan. 22.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to a question during a news conference, Jan. 19, 2022 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

PM vows to support Ukraine as Canadian warship departs for Black Sea

A Canadian warship departed for Europe and the Black Sea near Russia on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted to fears of a Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Trudeau went on to accuse Russia of trying to start a fight with Ukraine and promised Canada’s support to the Ukrainian people, who are on edge as 100,000 Russian troops sit on their country’s eastern border.

Yet the Prime Minister stopped short when asked for details, including whether the government will extend a 200-soldier Canadian training mission in Ukraine whose mandate is set to expire at the end of March.

He also declined to say whether Canada would answer Ukraine’s long-standing request for arms, after Britain this week announced it would supply anti-tank weapons to the eastern European country.

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HMCS Montreal departs Halifax for a six-month deployment on a NATO mission in the Mediterranean on Jan. 19, 2022.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press


ALSO ON OUR RADAR

British PM Boris Johnson to lift nearly all COVID-19 restrictions as resignation calls intensify: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fending off calls for his resignation with a vigorous defence of his handling of the pandemic and a plan to remove almost all COVID-19 restrictions in England next week.

Trapped in Indonesia, Rohingya struggle to get by as laws block their path to asylum elsewhere: In a country where they have no rights to work or become citizens, refugees face a grim choice: Return to repression in Myanmar, or live under the care of UN agencies they allege are doing the West’s dirty work

U.S. cannabis industry turns to ‘bud porn’ for an edge in highly competitive market: With cannabis firmly in the mainstream as legalization rolls across the U.S., the industry is looking for new ways to sell a plant and a product at a time of furious competition, with new companies and new strains flooding the market.

Pioneering fashion journalist Andre Leon Talley dies at 73: Andre Leon Talley, a towering figure who made fashion history as a rare Black editor in an overwhelmingly white industry, has died. He was 73.

Canada criticizes Russian mercenary forces in Mali but undecided on sanctions: The Canadian government says it is deeply concerned about the deployment of Russian mercenary troops in Mali, one of Canada’s closest African partners, but is not yet prepared to withdraw a small contingent of Canadian soldiers and police from the West African country.


Listen to The Stress Test podcast: Are you giving your parents money?


MARKET WATCH

Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq confirming a correction, after a diverse set of corporate earnings and as investors continued to worry about higher U.S. Treasury yields and the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy. The TSX also lost ground, although a big rally in the materials sector – and precious metals stocks in particular – limited losses.

The Nasdaq ended down over 10 per cent from its Nov. 19 closing record high. A correction is confirmed when an index closes 10 per cent or more below its record closing level.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 44.00 points, or 0.96 per cent, to end at 4,533.11 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 167.55 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 14,339.35. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 330.00 points, or 0.93 per cent, to 35,031.71.

Stocks had tumbled on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq falling 2.6 per cent, after weak results from Goldman Sachs and a spike in Treasury yields. U.S. Treasury yields eased on Wednesday from two-year highs.

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TALKING POINTS

Testing vaccinated air travellers on arrival is pandemic theatre at the border

“You’ll see fully vaccinated travellers who do not have symptoms, and who either have proof of a negative COVID-19 pre-departure molecular test or proof of a positive test from 11 to 180 days earlier, subjected to random PCR tests on arrival. Why? We’re not quite sure any more. For how long? No one will say. But it sure creates the illusion that the federal government is doing all it can to contain the spread of Omicron. And isn’t that what this show is all about, after all?” – Robyn Urback

Biden’s timidity is only emboldening Russia

“Biden is a president who values peace and keeping American troops out of harm’s way. The United States’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan shows the extent to which he shuns combat – all worthy and supportable instincts. But an unprincipled autocrat is now testing the United States, to see how willing it is to be strong, and to gauge whether the superpower has become (thanks to Trumpism) a deeply wounded and possibly thoroughly spent force.” – Robert Rotberg

The HIV/AIDS crisis showed us how to equitably overcome a pandemic

“Progressive transnational mobilization by rights advocates, public-health experts and civic organizations, together with solidarity from powerful states, turned the tide in the AIDS epidemic two decades ago. We must not wait any longer to act on its fatal lessons.” – Roojin Habibi, Uchechukwu Ngwaba, Obiora Chinedu Okafor and Sanjay Ruparelia

Erin O’Toole never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity

”His biggest misstep has been his messaging on the COVID-19 pandemic. While Canadians are focused on getting through the latest wave, O’Toole last week used his podium to ask for understanding and accommodation for the roughly one-in-10 adults who are unvaccinated, and who are filling up hospital beds at a rate that far exceeds their proportion of the population.” – The Editorial Board


LIVING BETTER

Outside or via YouTube, exercise has great mental, physical benefits for kids (parents, too)

The recent wave of school lockdowns, coming just as the weather turns harshest, has rekindled parental anxiety about how much exercise kids are getting. Even before the pandemic, this was a problem; only about 40 per cent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 reach the recommended threshold of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day, according to Statistics Canada data. There’s no doubt that online learning, no walk to school, no games of tag at recess and the cancellation of many organized sports has made things worse.

Meanwhile, research keeps on piling up about the beneficial effects of exercise for kids, not just on their bodies, but on their brains and mental well-being that only emphasize how important it is for kids to get up and move.

While some of these benefits may seem abstract and longer-term, there are also more immediate payoffs. Getting enough physical activity helps kids sleep and makes it easier for them to sit still and stay focused in school. That’s also true – and particularly important – for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: one study found that indoor cycling twice a week, starting with as little as 10 minutes, improved self-regulation and classroom behaviour.


TODAY’S LONG READ

Who betrayed Anne Frank? Canadian author details surprising findings of cold-case investigation

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Anne Frank in an undated photo.Reuters

Early on in a new, almost five-year investigation into who betrayed Anne Frank, the researchers were about to look into a variety of scenarios and had to consider an unsettling possibility: What if the person who turned in Anne and the other occupants of her hiding place was Jewish?

In the decades since Anne’s diary was published – which made her perhaps the most well-known victim of the Holocaust – the identity of the informant had remained a mystery. In 2016, a Dutch team set out to solve it.

They asked the Dutch military’s chief rabbi for his guidance. “Hardly anything is of greater importance than the truth,” Menachem Sebbag told them. “If the betrayer turned out to be Jewish, so be it.”

The group kept returning to that thought as the investigation made it clearer and clearer: The person they concluded had informed the Nazis about Anne and the others hiding in the Amsterdam annex was in fact Jewish – one of the most prominent members of the Dutch Jewish community at the time.

The new research is documented in a new book by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. The years-long investigation points the finger at Arnold van den Bergh, a notary before the war and, during the Nazi occupation, a member of the Jewish Council, a body mandated by the Nazis to govern various aspects of Jewish life – including making decisions about who would be deported to camps in the east.

Evening Update is written by Emerald Bensadoun. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.

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