Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada will end its pre-entry testing requirement for fully vaccinated travellers as of April 1, a source says.
In two weeks, travellers coming to Canada will no longer have to get any coronavirus tests before arriving here, the source said. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault will formally announce the change on Thursday.
Also:
- Manitoba to close some COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites
- Canadians with long COVID frustrated as they grapple with effects of virus
- Nova Scotia government added to lawsuit over COVID-19 deaths at Halifax long-term care home
CRTC rules that RT television network can no longer be legally broadcast on Canadian screens
Canada’s federal broadcast regulator has ruled that RT, a Kremlin-controlled network, can no longer legally be carried on Canadian television screens. It made its decision after an expedited hearing into whether the channel should be allowed in Canada, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Freedom of speech and a range of perspectives are a necessary part of our democracy. However, it is a privilege and not a right to be broadcast in Canada,” the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wrote in its decision on Wednesday.
Justin Trudeau said today that Canada has had to make “heartbreaking decisions,” as NATO denied Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to close the skies over Ukraine because of concerns that it would cross a red line and potentially spark a world war-scale conflict.
Damaged vehicles sit among debris and in Kharkiv city center in Ukraine, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.Pavel Dorogoy/The Associated Press
More from Ukraine today
In a dramatic video address to U.S. Congress this morning, Zelensky asked the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, transfer more military aid to his besieged country, and cut off all trade with Russia. In his speech, he related the situation in Ukraine to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he quoted Martin Luther King Jr. Members of Congress, watching from the auditorium in the Capitol Visitor Center, gave him a standing ovation.
China’s envoy to the United States spoke yesterday, saying that Beijing would have sought to stop Russia from invading Ukraine had it been informed of Moscow’s plans in advance, in the country’s strongest condemnation so far of the war.
Also today, the United Nations’ highest court ordered Russia to stop hostilities in Ukraine, granting measures requested by Kyiv although many are skeptical that Russia will comply.
On the ground: Russia’s military forces blasted Kyiv and other major cities Wednesday, and the economic cost to Russia was further exposed as the sanctions-hit country teetered on the brink of its first default on international debt since the Bolshevik Revolution. Both Ukraine and Russia have expressed cautious optimism about peace negotiations.
More reading:
- Analysis: Zelensky pushes emotional nuclear button in speech to U.S. Congress
- Editorial: When will the war in Ukraine end, and how?
- Opinion: Canada needs to speed up the process for welcoming displaced Ukrainians
To keep up with the most recent news and events from Ukraine, follow The Globe’s live updates everyday.
Canada’s inflation rate hit three-decade high in February
With the new rise in inflation, consumers continue to face an onslaught of price hikes, adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to tame the situation with a speedy course of policy tightening.
The Consumer Price Index rose 5.7 per cent in February from a year earlier, up from 5.1 per cent in January, Statistics Canada said. That was the highest inflation rate since August, 1991, and it marked the 11th consecutive month that inflation has surpassed the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.
Around two-thirds of the goods and services that make up the CPI basket are experiencing inflation of more than 3 per cent, showing how sticker shock is getting tougher to avoid.
- Also: The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and laid out an aggressive plan to push borrowing costs to restrictive levels by next year.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Disappearance of poet brings attention to Rwandan government’s intolerance of dissent: A year after the mysterious disappearance of Innocent Bahati, hundreds of writers around the world – including Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje – signed a letter voicing their concern that he had been a victim of the Rwandan government’s intolerance of free expression.
Toronto sued over aid to support legal challenge of Quebec’s Bill 21: A notice of application filed to the Ontario Superior Court on Friday is challenging the validity of Toronto City Council’s decision for its planned $100,000 contribution to support the legal challenge of Quebec’s Bill 21.
MARKET WATCH
The S&P 500 closed up more than 2% while the Nasdaq rallied almost 4% on Wednesday as investors shrugged off initial jitters following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increase and its signal that more hikes would be needed to fight inflation, ending the pandemic-era’s easy monetary policy. Canada’s TSX ended up 1.33%, its biggest advance in three weeks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518.76 points to 34,063.1, the S&P 500 gained 95.41 points to 4,357.86 and the Nasdaq Composite added 487.93 points to 13,436.55. The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 280.99 points at 21,468.83, its biggest gain since Feb. 25.
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TALKING POINTS
Canada is an international haven for financial crime and the only antidote is transparency
Rita Trichur: ”As the report points out, Canadian shell companies are routinely created and controlled from other countries. What’s more, there’s no oversight or public disclosure of their ownership information, providing a convenient cover to criminals.”
There may be method in Pierre Poilievre’s nastiness
Andrew Coyne: “So you would think, again, that Mr. Poilievre would be trying to soften his image, the better to broaden his appeal: to draw in supporters of other candidates, and voters outside of Western Canada, where he is strongest. Unless, of course, he feels he already has enough votes, in enough of the country – enough, that is, to win on the first ballot.”
LIVING BETTER
How expensive are food products getting in Canada?
Canadians can’t seem to catch a break at the grocery store as food prices continue to soar. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that food prices rose 7.4 per cent in February compared with a year ago.
Here’s a breakdown of how much the prices for some popular food items rose between February, 2021, and February, 2022. To view the full list, check out the story online.
- Milk: 6.6 per cent
- Eggs: 7.2 per cent
- Chicken: 10.4 per cent
- Beef: 16.8 per cent
- Apples: 5.3 per cent
- Bananas: 3.7 per cent
- Bread, rolls, buns: 3.7 per cent
TODAY’S LONG READ
A woman uses a mobile phone while standing amid the debris of a school building destroyed by shelling, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continued in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on March 4.VIACHESLAV RATYNSKYI/Reuters
How TikTok and Instagram’s algorithms inform – and distort – our understanding of the Ukraine war
Hundreds of thousands of images from Ukraine have been posted on social-media platforms. People are cataloguing their experiences through live streams from hideouts in bomb shelters, or making videos as they attempt to escape the affected areas. Massive funding drives have kick-started because of single posts on social apps.
But experts say the way in which social-media posts about Ukraine are informing – and also misinforming – our understanding of what is actually happening there is entirely new, largely because of the algorithms at play in newer apps such as TikTok and Instagram. Read the full story here.
Evening Update is written by Sierra Bein. 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.