Morning Update: When COVID-19 first hit, governments and health officials were scattered and slow to act

Good morning,

A Globe investigation reveals that Canada didn’t have a unified response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the effort was siloed as each province brought its own approach, leading to scattered and slow responses.

These failings are also not new. The investigation shows that official preparation between January and March faced similar missteps of miscommunication and friction as in the 2003 SARS outbreak.

These findings are based on interviews with more than 50 individuals involved in Canada’s response to COVID-19, ranging from epidemiologists, physicians and hospital executives, to public health officials, elected representatives and their staff.

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RCMP investigating why criminal charges against officer in Chief Allan Adam’s arrest weren’t disclosed

The RCMP is investigating why the force did not publicly disclose criminal charges against Constable Simon Seguin, who was seen on video tackling Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam to the ground and punching him.

Last August, Constable Seguine was charged with assault, mischief and unlawfully being in a dwelling. An RCMP spokesperson said it is unusual for such information to not be publicized.

Charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer against Chief Adam have recently been dropped.

Canadians playing key role in International Criminal Court’s defence against U.S. threats

President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions against International Criminal Court’s (ICC) staff, as a response to the ICC’s investigation of U.S. soldiers and security agents’ alleged war crimes against Afghan detainees.

Now, Nigerian-Canadian judge Chile Eboe-Osuji is playing a key role in defending the Court and its staff — which includes 40 Canadian employees — against U.S. sanctions as the ICC’s current president. Canada has also signed a statement of support for the ICC this week.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

LifeLabs privacy breach: Last October, a cyberattack on LifeLabs – Canada’s largest lab testing company – affected up to 15 million customers, almost all of them in Ontario and British Columbia. Privacy commissioners in the two provinces have now found that LifeLabs failed to implement reasonable safeguards to protect its customers’ privacy.

Policing in Canada:

• Vancouver city council is seeing a push to end police street checks, which disproportionately impact Black and Indigenous people. Meanwhile, the pace for change has been slower in other local city councils.
• Toronto Mayor John Tory has proposed a list of police reforms, which includes consultation for the creation of a non-police-led response to people in mental-health crises. But he continues to oppose calls for a 10-per-cent cut to next year’s police budget.
• The verdict of the judge-only trial involving Toronto police officer Michael Theriault and brother Christian Theriault — who are are accused of beating Dafonte Miller in 2016 and then misleading investigators — will be live-streamed today. A Black man who was a teenager at the time, Miller lost an eye as a result of the alleged assault. Here’s what you need to know about the case.

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MORNING MARKETS

Global stocks and oil gained steam despite surging coronavirus cases: Markets showed signs of optimism on Friday, with European shares opening higher and oil prices rising despite a record number of new COVID-19 infections in the United States. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.5 per cent just after 6 a.m. ET. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.95 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 1.13 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.93 per cent. New York futures were mostly lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 73.24 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

What the world loses, as the Hajj takes a pandemic pause

Sheema Khan: “At the core of these transformations is the recognition that each person has an inherent dignity by virtue of being human. Each of us should be treated fairly, as we should treat others, irrespective of race, class, wealth, or other societal markers.”

A humanitarian medical response for Canada? Until COVID-19, I couldn’t imagine it

Chris Houston: “The responsibility to provide PPE to health care facilities should not rest with volunteers. In light of the WHO’s warning in January, failing to source and distribute the equipment needed to protect front-line workers and patients was – and remains – a serious failure. It’s unacceptable that it fell to private citizens to fill these gaps in a country such as Canada.”

With Meng Wanzhou’s extradition, Canada must be laser-focused on the national interest

Richard Fadden: “Let’s bring the two Michaels home and keep our principles intact. The two goals are not mutually exclusive.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

I’ve grown my first beard while working from home. How do I maintain it?

Working from home has allowed for more relaxed dress codes, including facial hair. But a new beard can bring along itchiness – a condition that isn’t created by the hair but from the skin underneath it losing moisture. An easy solution is applying beard oil after your morning shower and whenever you’re feeling that dryness.

MOMENT IN TIME: June 26, 1945

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The United Nations was founded

U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt coined the term “United Nations” in December, 1941, when he met in Washington with British prime minister Winston Churchill, then fighting to save his country from the German onslaught. He was inspired by Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which referred to the Anglo-allied forces that defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The seeds for what would become the UN were planted, and periodic meetings – with Churchill, Joseph Stalin and representatives of other countries fighting the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis – during the rest of the Second World War brought to fruition the successor to the largely ineffective League of Nations. The key date was June 26, 1945, at the San Francisco Conference, when the new body’s four main sponsors – the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China – plus 46 other countries signed the Charter of the United Nations. U.S. president Harry Truman (Roosevelt died just before the war ended) called the charter “a solid structure upon which we can build a better world.” Whether the UN has filled its objectives is an open question, though we have gone 75 years without a new world war. Eric Reguly

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