Good morning,
Sunday marked the 13th day in a row anti-racism and Black Lives Matter demonstrators gathered in cities across the world to bring attention to systemic racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. In the English port city of Bristol, a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century politician who made much of his fortune through the West African slave trade, was torn from its plinth in the centre of the city and dropped into the River Avon.
There were similar scenes in Brussels, where a statue of King Leopold II, a 19th-century monarch who oversaw the brutal exploitation of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was defaced with the word “shame.”
As the protests spread across the globe – in many cases taking on board local instances of injustice – there was also heated debate over the targeting of monuments.
Protesters throw a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour, during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, in Bristol, England, Sunday June 7, 2020, in response to the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA, that has led to protests in many countries and across the U.S.The Canadian Press
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Majority of Minneapolis city council back disbanding police force
A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city’s police department, an aggressive position that comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George Floyd’s death.
Nine of the council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would “dismantle” the department.
Alberta’s police watchdog to investigate after First Nations chief says he was beaten by RCMP
Chief Allan Adam, who leads Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, alleged RCMP beat him and accosted his wife in the early morning of March 10. The Globe and Mail first reported the allegations, along with a photo of his bloodied and bruised face, on Friday. On Saturday morning, Mr. Adam released two videos he said are related to the altercation. Hours later, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates serious injuries and deaths involving police, said it will review the allegations.
Meanwhile, Ottawa said it is watching Mr. Adam’s “serious and troubling” claims. Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair tweeted Sunday: “We are deeply concerned by the incident that took place in Fort McMurray. People across the country deserve answers. There will be an independent investigation, which we will be following closely.”
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ottawa’s lifeline to Saudi LAV maker raises questions
The federal government tapped a seldom-used account at Ottawa’s export-financing agency last fall to extend $650-million of support to the defence contractor building combat vehicles for Saudi Arabia, aid that came as Riyadh was falling behind on payment for these machines.
The support, in the form of a repayable loan, was provided to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada last September through what is called the Canada Account, according to Export Development Canada (EDC). The Canada Account is used to authorize transactions that are considered riskier than EDC can support but are deemed by the Canadian government to be in the country’s “national interest,” according to the federal export credit agency’s website.
MORNING MARKETS
World stocks pause: World shares paused on Monday as investors turned cautious after a 42-per-cent surge since March, as economies continued to struggle with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.41 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were down 0.13 per cent and 0.19 per cent, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.37 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.03 per cent. New York futures were higher. The Canadian dollar was trading at 74.61 US cents.
Looking for investing ideas? Check out The Globe’s weekly digest of the latest insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and what investors need to know for the week ahead. This week’s edition includes Rallying bank stocks, strong dividend bets and grab 2 per cent interest while you can.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
After taking a knee, the next step is being spelled out for Justin Trudeau
Campbell Clark: “If there is video of police using force with a citizen, someone outside the organization should be looking at it. Doing those things won’t eliminate racial discrimination in policing, let alone dismantle systemic racism in the country, which doesn’t start or end with the police. Body cams don’t prevent all abuses. They just offer the potential for a record.
But if Trudeau is looking for a place to start, he might start with the obvious: disturbing events that came to light only because of bystanders taking video on their phones. More transparency is a basic step.”
Roger Goodell’s pitiful apology was just a belated attempt to switch sides in the culture war
Cathal Kelly: "When Goodell says ‘NFL players’ he is, of course, speaking about one particular NFL player. But he could not bring himself to say [Colin] Kaepernick’s name. That would create too great an expectation that Kaepernick will be rehired.
As such, the apology – if that’s what this qualifies as – has little moral force. The result is an after-the-fact equivalent of a ‘thoughts and prayers.’
White people know racism exists. Now it’s time for them to finally do something about it
Vicky Mochama: "Don’t get me wrong. I like white people, many are my close friends. And the innovations that white people have made in cheese are Nobel Prize-worthy.
But after this moment is done, when the work continues, can white people be trusted to ensure justice? I’m sure you will say yes, and I hope you mean it. As the stories and the confessions I hear have revealed, there is always one last white tradition: the broken promise."
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David ParkinsDavid Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Weak ankles? Seven easy exercises that will save you from rolling them again
Do exercises that appropriately challenge your balance. For example, try standing on one leg. Once that gets easy, close your eyes. Balancing improves proprioception. Proprioception is the body’s ability to know where it is in time and space – a neurological ability vital for athletes, since no one can or should be consciously aware of their bodies positioning at all times.
To strengthen the muscles in your lower leg and foot, you should also try these exercises.
Tales of an urban fisherman: Yes, you can fish in Toronto. No, it’s not easy
When work lured me to Toronto last fall, I put fishing on my list of things to do. My gear is in storage in New Brunswick, so I purchased a cheap spinning rod and reel of questionable quality. I got out only once before the temperatures plummeted, but I looked forward to spring and wetting a line again. I studied online and learned Toronto abounds with urban angling opportunities.
Read more about Marty Klinkenberg’s urban fishing adventure here.
MOMENT IN TIME
Young resident of Grise Fiord, NWT, walks his bike along Main Street, c. March 1992.Miro Cernetig [staff reporter]/The Globe and Mail
For more than 100 years, photographers have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one. This month, we’re celebrating cycling.
When The Globe and Mail’s Miro Cernetig visited Grise Fiord in 1992, the Arctic hamlet consisted of 85 huskies, about 50 snowmobiles and 134 people – at least one of them the proud owner of a fun little bike. Cernetig’s photo of the young two-wheeler ran with his story, which described a child giving a visitor an impromptu tour: “He raced along the snow-covered beach proudly pointing out his community’s detritus – the flipper of a walrus, a crippled snowmobile, the Volkswagen-sized skull of a whale.” Grise Fiord, now part of Nunavut, is Canada’s most northerly civilian community, where average temperatures go above zero only a few months a year. But current Mayor Meeka Kiguktak said last month that “almost all” the children living there have bicycles. The plumes of steam this boy is puffing out on this March day are a reminder that cycling need not be only a warm-weather activity. Oliver Moore
Subscribers and registered users of globeandmail.com can dig deeper into our News Photo Archive at tgam.ca/newsphotoarchive.
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Jamie Ross