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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has a significant counterintelligence file on Chinese consulate official Zhao Wei, and since 2020 has shared that information with Global Affairs Canada, the department with the authority to expel foreign representatives for engaging in non-diplomatic activities, according to two national security sources.
Mr. Zhao, who was ordered to leave the country earlier this week for interfering in Canadian politics, became a target of CSIS physical surveillance in 2019, according to a national security source, to whom The Globe and Mail has granted confidentiality because they risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act.
The source said Mr. Zhao was responsible for keeping track of known opponents of the Chinese Communist Party in the Greater Toronto Area, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur human rights activists, Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and supporters of Tibetan and Taiwanese independence.
Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei.Easy Media
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Ottawa creates safe sport compliance office to monitor national organizations
Federal Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge introduced new measures on Thursday to confront poor governance at Canada’s national sport organizations, including the creation of a compliance office that can penalize them for not meeting targets set out by the government.
The new compliance unit will operate from inside Sport Canada, the department responsible for funding the country’s 63 national sport organizations, known as NSOs. It will have the ability to pull federal funding from any organization that doesn’t meet a series of specific requirements, including standards for transparency, diversity and professional governance.
Canada's sporting bodies for bobsleigh, artistic swimming, hockey and soccer are among 62 graded in a set of internal report cards obtained by The Globe and Mail.AFP/Getty Images, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press
CBC says it has no control of gambling ads during hockey broadcasts
CBC says it has no responsibility for the sports gambling commercials on its airwaves during NHL hockey games, telling viewers who complain about the ads to take up the matter with Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet network, which controls the broadcasts.
The issue is at the fore with the NHL playoffs pulling in millions of new viewers, who may not have been watching much throughout the year, being confronted by an onslaught of ads for gambling outfits. Sportsnet’s control gives it free rein to air editorial segments sponsored by sports betting companies, featuring Hockey Night in Canada on-air talent, which would likely be barred under CBC’s own advertising standards.
Viewers began complaining to broadcasters about the ads last spring, after the federal government’s legalization of single-event sports betting opened the floodgates to millions of dollars worth of advertising and sponsorship across the TV landscape.
The CBC logo is projected onto a screen in Toronto on May 29, 2019.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Three bat species at risk of becoming endangered as wind turbines take heavy toll
Wind turbines have been cited as a primary reason why three of Canada’s native bats species are in existential peril.
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, an independent body that reports to the federal government, recommended on Wednesday that the three species be listed as endangered.
Such a designation would represent the highest level of risk under Canadian law – a fact made all the more striking because it is the first time any of those species have been assessed by the committee.
Virginia Tech PhD student Sam Freeze prepares to release an eastern red female bat in Prince William Forest Park in Quantico, Va. on July 10, 2018. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada recommended on May 10 that three species of bat, including the eastern red bat, be listed as endangered.Cal Cary/The Associated Press
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Also on our radar
OSC suspends registration of Emerge ETFs, saying it is in breach of its capital requirements: Ontario’s securities watchdog has suspended the registration of asset manager Emerge Canada Inc. after finding it failed to comply with working capital requirements, and the regulator expects the manager to wind down its funds.
CI Financial selling stake in U.S. wealth business to pay down debt, shares soar: Investment giant CI Financial Corp. CIX-T is selling a 20-per-cent stake in its U.S. wealth management business for $1.34-billion and pausing plans to spin out the division and take it public, as the company works to pay down debt.
The downside of AI: Former Google scientist Timnit Gebru warns of the technology’s built-in biases: Timnit Gebru has been warning the world about artificial intelligence for years. And like a scientist in a Hollywood blockbuster, she has been ignored or dismissed. But now her fears are becoming reality, and the public is taking notice.
Canadian Tire results show consumer shift from discretionary purchases: Consumers feeling the sting of inflation are cutting back on non-essential purchases, as they face higher interest rates on their mortgages and steep prices for basic necessities such as groceries.
Morning markets
Investors on edge: Tepid Chinese economic data, haggling over U.S. government finances and uncertainty over interest rates left investors on edge and stocks stuck in a range on Friday. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.42 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.58 per cent and 0.94 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei finished up 0.90 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.59 per cent. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was relatively steady at 74.14 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
A jury found Donald Trump liable, but his town hall told another story
“What really got me down were the very young men in the audience, in their serious ties and blazers they haven’t quite grown into. The delight on their ruddy-complexioned faces was truly distressing as this man – whom they clearly see as a role model – made fun of a woman he has just been found liable of sexually abusing and defaming. What is the take-away for these Brett Kavanaughs-in-waiting? It might be: Look what we can get away with.” – Marsha Lederman
Trudeau’s culture war on Canada’s symbols erases history
“In barely seven years, he has replaced Canada’s traditional emblems and narratives, too closely associated with our British and French origins and settler past, with generic symbols deemed to be inclusive and inoffensive, but which aim to expunge vast swaths of our history from the collective memory.” – Konrad Yakabuski
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
The dishes that make us think of our mother
For Mother’s Day, The Globe reached out to readers to ask them about the stories behind the favourite foods that always remind them of their mom, or mother-figures in their lives.
Moment in time: May 12, 1971
Mick and Bianca Jagger at their wedding at the Church of St. Anne, St Tropez, 12th May 1971.Reg Lancaster/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Mick Jagger marries Bianca Perez-Mora Macias
Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger met Nicaraguan activist Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in 1970 at a party in France, where the band members were living to avoid high taxes in Britain. At that time, the band was working on the raw, dark Exile on Main St., considered by many to be their finest album. The couple quickly hit it off and got married in Saint-Tropez, France, on this day in 1971. Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were among the many celebrities at the lavish nuptials. The bride was four months pregnant with their daughter, Jade (who went on to become a jewellery designer). The couple separated in 1978, with Ms. Jagger later saying the marriage was “over on the wedding day,” but their time together had a lasting impact on Mr. Jagger’s music. The Stones album Some Girls was recorded in the year leading up to their separation and features the song Miss You, supposedly inspired by her. Neither of them remarried. Ms. Jagger expanded her activism in Indigenous rights, environmental protection, and women’s issues in Latin America and also worked as a UNESCO ambassador. She later created a foundation to advocate for global human rights and social justice. Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri
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