Good morning,
After nights of protests three more officers were charged in the death of George Floyd, a Black man whose final moments in police custody were caught on camera. Now coast to coast and around the world, protests are taking place to fight police brutality and racial injustice.
Derek Chauvin’s charge was updated to second-degree murder. The other officers – Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao – face charges for aiding and abetting.
Trump has never been so isolated and ignored, even mocked across the world. Former defence secretary Jim Mattis said he was “angry and appalled” over the “false conflict” between the military and civilian society.
- Opinion (Konrad Yakabuski): Donald Trump’s ‘silent majority’ should not be underestimated – and anti-racism protests only fuel it
- Opinion (Robyn Urback): The U.S. has become what freedom-loving Americans are supposed to despise
Around the world: As the globe watched the Floyd protests, South Africans were protesting the death of Collins Khosa, the victim of a brutal assault and torture by soldiers as police watched. It led to a landmark court ruling for the Khosa family, forcing the government to issue codes of conduct to restrain the country’s security forces.
In Canada: B.C. Premier John Horgan is calling on the federal government to lead an anti-racism program, after recently denouncing what police have described as racially motivated attacks against Chinese-Canadians in Metro Vancouver during the COVID-19 pandemic.
RCMP in Nunavut are also being accused of failing to protect an intoxicated Inuk man who was knocked down with a police vehicle and then placed in a cell where a fellow prisoner beat him so badly he had to be airlifted to a hospital.
Police officers stand behind a barricade as people gather in front of City Hall on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, in Seattle, in a protest over the death of George Floyd.Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press
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As Hong Kong passes anthem bill, people vow to defy ban on Tiananmen Square vigil
Today marks 31 years since the massacre at Tiananmen Square, where Chinese troops took aim at their own people, killing students, mothers and children, even the doctors who rushed to help the peaceful demonstrators who had gathered to demand transparency from corrupt officials and democratic freedoms.
Since that day, Hong Kong has been the only place on Chinese soil where an annual June 4 candlelight vigil has for decades gathered hundreds of thousands of people in sombre commemoration at the city’s Victoria Park.
This year, with authorities citing pandemic risks and the need for social distancing, the vigil is banned, but people are planning to surround the park anyway in defiance of Beijing’s attempts to extend its rule — and its codes of acceptable conduct — onto a city that has long prized freedoms of speech and assembly not permitted in mainland China. Lawmakers today approved a national anthem law that would see those found guilty of insulting China’s national hymn face jail time.
Parliamentarians in Canada, U.K., Australia and New Zealand have urged the creation of UN special envoy for Hong Kong. In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, parliamentarians, including Liberal MP Michael Levitt, who chairs the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said they are concerned about China’s imposition of a new national security law – without the consent of Hong Kongers – that could severely restrict guaranteed freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong citizens.
Two banks back China’s security law for Hong Kong: As anti-government protests continue, HSBC and Standard Chartered banks say they support the imposition of the controversial law to help the “long-term economic and social stability of Hong Kong.”
Coronavirus news
Sweden’s top epidemiologist admits laid-back approach resulted in too many deaths
“Yes, I think we could have done better in what we did in Sweden, clearly,” Anders Tegnell told Swedish radio. “If we were to run into the same disease, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would end up doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done.”
People sit in a restaurant in Stockholm on May 29, 2020, amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
What happened when families were blocked from long-term care homes
When public health officials across Canada banned visitors from nursing homes to protect residents from COVID-19, they cut off an essential support system and inadvertently created a feeding crisis. Family members and advocates say some residents have died from dehydration and others are wasting away without the help they relied on. The loss of extra assistance comes as many facilities struggle with severe staffing shortages.
Other news
- Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has appointed former federal cabinet minister Jane Philpott to lead its pandemic data effort
- B.C. now has a stockpile of three million masks, which puts the province in a good position to resume elective surgery and prepare for a possible second wave of the virus, Health Minister Adrian Dix said.
- A retired couple stranded in India by the pandemic were killed and robbed before they could get on a flight back to Canada.
June 4: Join André Picard for a live Q&A on masks, testing and social etiquette during a pandemic. Submit a question to audience@globeandmail.com.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Gun vendors baffled by Ottawa’s ban on assault-style rifles: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it would affect 1,500 models but one month in, the RCMP have added prohibition designations to 1,924 firearm models. The discrepancy stems from how the force is interpreting some ambiguous language in the ban.
Ontario’s top court rules intoxication similar to automatism is a legitimate defence for acts of violence: The Ontario Court of Appeal decision is rooted in one of the most controversial Supreme Court rulings of the post-1982 era of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
MORNING MARKETS
Global rally pauses ahead of ECB stimulus plan: The rapid rally in world markets paused for breath on Thursday, as traders waited to hear how much more stimulus the European Central Bank plans to shovel out to address the coronavirus slump. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.35 per cent just before 6 a.m. ET. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.71 per cent and 0.66 per cent, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei edged up 0.34 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished up 0.17 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was trading around 74 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Prime ministerial pauses will abound as long as Trump is in office
Gary Mason: “Given the severe ideological differences between the two leaders, and given the heightening level of domestic strife we are observing in the U.S., I would imagine that holding his tongue will be increasingly difficult for Mr. Trudeau.”
Whistleblower protection could have averted the deplorable conditions in long-term care
Peter Jacobsen and James L. Turk: Now is the time for governments to act so that this essential element of public safety is put in place. Canadians of all ages deserve comprehensive and robust whistleblower protection.
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
by Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
The strangest movie year on record deserves the strangest of previews
The Globe’s Barry Hertz had started and stopped putting together a summer movie preview a half-dozen times. Not only because it’s anyone’s guess as to when theatres might reopen their doors, but because the streaming and video-on-demand landscape changes by the week.
So, to show you the movies coming out this year (not limited to the summer, because that’d be a mighty short and depressing read) The Globe and Mail presents its guide to the 25 most exciting movies definitely (probably, maybe) coming out this year, either via streaming, VOD or – with any luck – the big screen. But no promises.
Pete Davidson in "The King of Staten Island," directed by Judd Apatow.Universal Pictures via AP
MOMENT IN TIME: June 4, 1940
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives a "Victory Salute" Aug. 27, 1941.The Associated Press
Churchill delivers his ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech
Never in the history of mankind has such a great speech been heard by so few. Winston Churchill was addressing the House of Commons shortly after the “colossal military disaster” – Churchill’s words – that miraculously ended with the evacuation of more than 330,000 troops from the beaches at Dunkirk, in northern France. But “wars are not won by evacuations,” said the new prime minister, who had the terrible habit (for a politician) of telling it like it is. The speech had two main purposes: to assure Britain’s allies, especially the United States, that the island nation was not on the brink of falling to the Germans, who would soon take Paris, and to steel the British people against the darkness to come. Historians and linguists have noted Churchill’s use of the word “fight” – he uses it seven times in quick succession – with its root in the Old English feohtan, designed to resonate with his people at a deep level. But the British public did not hear it – not in 1940, anyway. The speech was not broadcast, and people who, many years later, recalled being moved by it probably heard a recording that Churchill made some nine years later. -Massimo Commanducci
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