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B.C. court upholds ruling that struck down solitary confinement law

In a unanimous decision released Monday, B.C.’s Court of Appeal found that laws allowing for “prolonged and indefinite use of administrative segregation” violate inmates’ Charter rights and offend “the fundamental norms of a free and democratic society.”

The decision followed the federal government’s appeal of a January, 2018, B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found the federal solitary confinement policy was unconstitutional. The federal government now has 30 days to decide whether to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

While the B.C. court case was still under way, Ottawa started working on new legislation to reform solitary confinement. That legislation, Bill C-83, passed into law Friday. The new bill ends the practice of administrative and disciplinary segregation in all federal correctional institutions and is backed by $448-million in new funding for mental-health-care improvements, Scott Bardsley, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a statement.

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After their grandfather’s death, a family in Calgary grapples with the fate of the Uyghurs in China

Living in Calgary, Babur Ilchi and his family didn’t know for two weeks that his maternal grandfather had died in their country of origin. In fact, they didn’t even know that the grandfather, Nurmuhemmet Tohti, had been detained during the winter. Now, they mourn him from 10,000 kilometres away, fearing that it would be too risky to visit, illustrating the repression their Turkic ethnic group faces in China.

“Not only did it happen and we were completely unaware of it, but now that we are aware of it, we can’t call, we can’t talk to family members in East Turkestan, we can’t even go to the funeral or visit his grave, all of this is impossible to us,” Mr. Ilchi said. The family thinks Mr. Tohti was arrested because of suspicions triggered after he visited them in Canada in 2012.

Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou call on Ottawa to end extradition proceedings

The case against the Huawei executive is “palpably” political and “simply extraordinary” from a legal and foreign policy perspective, her lawyers said in a statement. Her lawyers argue in a letter sent to Justice Minister David Lametti that the government of Canada should intervene to end the extradition process against Meng.

Meng is accused of providing misleading information to foreign banks regarding the nature of Huawei’s relationship with Skycom Tech. Co. Ltd., which the U.S. Department of Justice calls a subsidiary that sold telecommunications equipment to Iran. She has been charged in the United States with bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

Her lawyers deny that she lied, but say that even if the allegations are true, such conduct lies outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian justice system. “Canada does not act as an international police force,” the lawyers added.

Sidewalk Labs unveils $1.3-billion plan for Toronto’s waterfront, revealing a vision much larger than initially proposed

Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs LLC is pushing for the right to create a 190-acre community on Toronto’s waterfront, laying out a master plan that would ask government to expand public transit, pay performance bonuses to the company and rewrite municipal and provincial laws.

The New York-based urban-planning firm, which is controlled by Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., published a 1,524-page draft master plan that asks to have a hand in planning development in a plot 16 times the original size of a 12-acre community. If approved, Sidewalk would spend $1.3-billion over the next 20 years there.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Iran says new U.S. sanctions ‘outrageous and idiotic': Iran on Tuesday sharply criticized new U.S. sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader and other top officials, saying the measures spell the “permanent closure” for diplomacy between the two nations. For his part, Iran’s president described the White House as “afflicted by mental retardation.”

U.S. to unveil ‘economy first’ approach to Middle East peace at Bahrain conference: The two-day international meeting, led by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been billed as the first part of Washington’s long-delayed broader political blueprint to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sudan’s military sidesteps proposal for sharing power with pro-democracy movement: Ethiopia has led efforts to bring the military and protest leaders back to the negotiating table, after a crackdown by security forces killed at least 128 people across the country earlier this month.

Catalyst Capital acquires stake in Hudson’s Bay from Ontario Teachers', plans to oppose buyout offer: The Toronto-based fund controlled by financier Newton Glassman is known for diving into distressed investments, and frequently uses litigation as part of its business strategy.

‘Honoured and excited’: Nick Nurse confirmed as head coach of Team Canada: Nurse will be dedicating a chunk of his summer to coach Team Canada at the FIBA World Cup, potentially helping the country qualify for its first Olympics since 2000.

MORNING MARKETS

Stocks fall

European shares were spooked by Iran tensions and trade jitters on Tuesday, while the risk of more dovish talk from the Federal Reserve inflated gold to six-year highs and stoked demand for safe-harbour currencies like the yen and Swiss franc. Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 0.4 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite 0.8 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was off 0.1 per cent, with Germany’s DAX flat and the Paris CAC 40 down slightly at about 6 a.m. ET. New York futures were down. The Canadian dollar was at 75.89 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Blame bungled tactics and absurdly cautious coaching for Canada’s exit from the World Cup

John Doyle: It should never have come to this – an early exit for a highly skilled team on the cusp of greatness.”

To give travellers real competition to Air Canada and WestJet, here’s what Ottawa needs to do

Rita Trichur: "Some 37 years ago, a House of Commons committee endorsed a “go slow” approach to airline deregulation. The trouble is that we’ve been stuck in neutral ever since.”

Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ has no hope of bringing peace to the Middle East

Simon Waldman: “The history of the peace process has been marred by the mistake that economic inducements can facilitate peace.” Waldman is an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a visiting research fellow at King’s College London.

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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By Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail

LIVING BETTER

Secondary school students who take music classes in school perform better in math, science and English than their non-musical peers, according to a new large-scale study in British Columbia. And the more involved students are in their school music programs, the higher their academic exam scores tend to be.

The study, published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Educational Psychology on Monday, examined the school records of nearly 113,000 public school students in B.C. It found those who took music classes over many years, starting as early as Grade 5, had higher Grade 10 and Grade 12 exam scores in math, science and English than those who did not participate in music.

MOMENT IN TIME

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A woman holds rainbow flags for the grand entry at the International Gay Rodeo Association's Rodeo In the Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States April 26, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy NicholsonLucy Nicholson/Reuters

June 25, 1978

In 1978, San Francisco activist Harvey Milk challenged friend and artist Gilbert Baker to come up with a unifying symbol of pride for the gay community. One that didn’t necessarily include a pink triangle, the defining mark of gays in the Holocaust. Baker conceived the rainbow flag and hand-stitched it. Was he channelling Judy Garland’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow? In truth, he was inspired by the U.S. bicentennial flag and also the inclusiveness represented by every colour of the spectrum. The flag was unveiled for San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in 1978. Originally, Baker’s handiwork had eight horizontal stripes. He assigned meaning to each colour: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic/art, indigo for serenity and violet for spirit. (Eventually, the colours were reduced to red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.) Demand for the flag increased after Milk was assassinated, as members of LGBTQ communities began to see the rainbow banner as a sign of identity, activism and solidarity. Baker intentionally never trademarked his design and was proud to see it popularized. Today, the Pride flag is universally recognized as a symbol of acceptance and equality. Philip King

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