Evening Update: Trudeau rebuked by First Nations chief for skipping ceremony on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:

Justin Trudeau was admonished Monday for not responding to invitations to attend a ceremony to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said the Prime Minister’s visit Monday to her community was “bittersweet.”

Trudeau, who was sitting beside Casimir, nodded slightly while she spoke.

Casimir said the community discovered through a journalist on Sept. 30 that Mr. Trudeau was instead in Tofino, B.C., for a personal family trip. She added that now is the time to commit to a long road ahead to bring healing, peace and restitution to all those affected by residential schools.

Trudeau said Monday that he has many regrets about travelling on that day, including that it overshadowed an event held on the eve of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Parliament Hill. He said that instead of Canadians talking about truth and reconciliation, they were talking about him.

Five months ago, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced that ground-penetrating radar had detected the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

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Businesses report labour shortages, higher expectation of inflation in Bank of Canada survey

Canadian businesses struggling with labour shortages and disruptions to their supply chains say they are planning to pass rising costs on to consumers, a dynamic that threatens to push up short-term expectations of inflation.

Almost half of the respondents to the Bank of Canada’s quarterly survey of businesses, published Monday, now expect inflation to remain above 3 per cent for the next two years. The central bank surveyed around 100 businesses between mid-August and mid-September.

In a separate survey of consumers, the central bank also found elevated short-term expectations of inflation. The median prediction for inflation a year from now was 3.72 per cent, the highest level since the survey began.

The pair of surveys land in the middle of a heated debate about inflation and supply chain bottlenecks. Inflation hit an 18-year high of 4.1 per cent in August, and many analysts expect inflation to tick higher again when the September consumer price index numbers are published on Wednesday. The run-up in inflation is being fuelled by global supply chain disruptions, which are driving up shipping costs and commodity prices. Labour shortages are also beginning to put upward pressure on wages.

ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Montreal firefighter dead after falling into St. Lawrence River during rescue mission: The firefighter apparently became trapped on a rescue craft after it capsized and sunk. Montreal’s fire chief, Richard Liebmann, said a camera was used Monday morning to confirm that the firefighter appeared to be on the submerged boat beneath the Lachine rapids.

Colin Powell, U.S. military leader and first Black Secretary of State, dies of COVID-19 complications: Powell, who was fully vaccinated, was one of America’s most prominent Black figures for decades. He served three Republican presidents in senior posts and reached the top of the U.S. military as it was regaining its vigour after the trauma of the Vietnam War.

Britain honours slain British lawmaker David Amess: Parliament opened a sombre session on Monday to honour the Conservative lawmaker stabbed to death as he met constituents, an attack that has raised questions about how the country protects it politicians and grapples with extremism at home. A 25-year-old British man with Somali heritage, Ali Harbi Ali, was arrested at the scene of the attack and is being held under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of murder.

MARKET WATCH

Canada’s main stock market moved further into record territory despite a relatively quiet day marked by a pullback in the key energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 57.27 points to 20,985.37. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 36.15 points at 35,258.61. The S&P 500 index was up 15.09 points at 4,486.46, while the Nasdaq composite was up 124.47 points at 15,021.81.

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TALKING POINTS

Canada’s self-defence laws are too sweeping, and the Supreme Court just gave them a pass

“This 5-4 Supreme Court decision will have broad implications. Canadians who trust the impartial, good judgment of our juries will be pleased with the discretion it provides them. Indigenous people and others critical of Gerald Stanley’s 2018 acquittal by a Saskatchewan jury for the killing of Colten Boushie ... have reason to be wary of unfettered, appeal-proof juries in future self-defence cases.” – Noah Weisbord

Spending more on health care does not guarantee better health outcomes

“While the U.S. is well known for having much higher health care spending than any other country, both the U.K. and Israel spend significantly less than Canada – and yet neither came close to peaking on hospital capacity. The issue, then, cannot just be a lack of funding; how our health care dollars are being allocated must also be part of the conversation.” – Michael Wolfson

The bar for climate leadership is far too low in Canada

“Canada claims to be a climate leader, but it’s time to get clear on what that means. We need a plan to stop the expansion of existing oil and gas projects and to help transition workers and communities involved in the industry into other sectors.” – Tzeporah Berman

INNOVATION

New technology offers athletes and employees an anonymous way to report abuse, doping

About 10 years ago, U.S. college basketball player David Chadwick watched as a discrimination case nearly caused his team to collapse. He then wondered why nobody had done anything about it sooner.

Ten years later, Chadwick has developed the idea into a key tool for fixing a sports landscape teeming with cases of sexual abuse, along with examples of racism and sexism in the workplace, discrimination, harassment and doping cheats at virtually every level.

RealResponse provides customers technology to give athletes and employees a chance to initiate real-time, anonymous complaints by sending a simple text. On Monday, RealResponse announced a deal with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which will use the platform as one of its many resources for whistle-blowers to report their concerns about possible doping cases.

RealResponse already has deals in place with USA Gymnastics, the NFL Players Association, the National Women’s Soccer League and more than 100 university sports programs.

TODAY’S LONG READ

Why conservative criticisms of carbon pricing are full of hot air

With gasoline prices rising, Canadian conservatives are renewing criticisms of carbon pricing as the rising cost of crude drives up pump prices.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Friday resurfaced his three-year-old pledge to cut gasoline prices, while Jenni Byrne, conservative commentator and campaign manager for the federal Conservatives in the 2015 election, took a swipe at B.C. carbon tax on Twitter, writing that “there’s no evidence carbon taxes decrease GHG emissions.”

Economists accept the basic premise that carbon pricing does reduce demand for fossil fuels. There are caveats, including the fact that demand for fossil fuels is price inelastic, so it takes a while for even elevated prices to shift behaviour. But shift behaviour they do. Still, Ms. Byrne and others do point to British Columbia’s recent rise in greenhouse gas emissions as supposed proof for the ineffectiveness of carbon pricing.

As The Globe’s Patrick Brethour writes here, that criticism omits a few critical details.

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