The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, in Pickering, Ont., is seen Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. Ontario is asking to extend the life of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station by one year. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kick-start your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023 …
What we are watching in Canada …
Ontario is exploring the possibility of building new, large-scale nuclear plants in order to meet increasing demand for electricity and phase out natural gas generation.
A report late last year by the Independent Electricity System Operator found that the province could fully eliminate natural gas from the electricity system by 2050, starting with a moratorium in 2027, but it will require about $400 billion in capital spending and more generation including new, large-scale nuclear plants.
Decarbonizing the grid, in addition to new nuclear, will require more conservation efforts, more renewable energy sources and more energy storage, the report concluded.
The IESO said work should start now to assess the reliability of new and relatively untested technologies and fuels to replace natural gas, and to set up large, new generation sources such as nuclear plants and hydroelectric facilities.
The province has not committed to a natural gas moratorium or phaseout, or to building new nuclear facilities other than its small modular reactor plans, but it is now consulting on the prospect.
Meanwhile, environmental groups such as Environmental Defence oppose new nuclear builds, as well as the continued reliance on natural gas.
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Also this …
Canada’s trade with Russia plummeted in the first 10 months after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, with Ottawa’s economic measures barring the export of everything from forklifts to barbers’ chairs.
Yet certain sectors have emerged largely unscathed by the restrictions, as businesses grapple with a constantly expanding list of restrictions and sanctions.
Industry Canada data show that between March and December 2022, the value of total imports from Russia plunged 78 per cent to $414 million, from $1.9 billion during the same eight-month period in 2021.
By November and December, Canadian imports from Russia had fallen 98 per cent compared to the year before. Over both months, the total value of imports from Russia was $9 million, compared to $433 million in the last two months of 2021.
The value of exports from Canada to Russia between March and December fell 91 per cent, dropping to $52 million in 2022 from $584 million in 2021.
Ottawa imposed a 35 per cent tariff on Russian and Belarusian products in March, which it expects will yield $115 million in revenue that Canada plans to transfer to Ukraine.
The Liberals have said they accept that tariffs and restrictions have an affect Canada’s economy, but they argue it’s worth taking a stance in support of international rules.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The report – provided to The Associated Press ahead of its public release Thursday – also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to right-wing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report from the group’s Center on Extremism says.
Between two and seven extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, but in the 2010s that number skyrocketed to 21, the report found.
The trend has since continued with five extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, as many as there were during the first decade of the new millennium.
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
For Russia, it’s been a year of bold charges and bombardments, humiliating retreats and grinding sieges. Ukraine has countered with fierce resistance, surprising counteroffensives and unexpected hit-and-run strikes.
Now, on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion that has killed tens of thousands and reduced cities to ruins, both sides are preparing for a potentially even more disastrous phase that lies ahead. Russia recently intensified its push to capture all of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. Kyiv and its Western allies also say Moscow could try to launch a wider, more ambitious attack elsewhere along the more than 1,000-kilometre front line.
Ukraine is waiting for battle tanks and other new weapons pledged by the West for it to reclaim occupied areas.
What’s nowhere in sight is a settlement.
The Kremlin insists it must include the recognition of the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed illegally in 2014, along with the acceptance of its other territorial gains. Ukraine categorically rejects those demands and rules out any talks until Russia withdraws all forces.
While Putin is determined to achieve his goals, Ukraine and its allies are standing firm on preventing Russia from ending up with any of its land.
Experts warn that Europe’s largest conflict since the Second World War could drag on for years, and some fear it could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
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On this day in 1970 …
The first public presentation of the Junos, the annual awards of the Canadian recording industry, took place in Toronto.
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In entertainment …
Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts this year goes to singer k.d. lang, jazz crooner Molly Johnson and soprano Rosemarie Landry.
The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards announced the laureates for lifetime artistic achievement this morning.
They also include playwright Michel Marc Bouchard and choreographer James Kudelka.
The Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts goes to Indigenous entrepreneur and fundraiser John Kim Bell.
And the National Arts Centre Award, for extraordinary work in the past year, goes to actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee of the play and TV adaptation, “Kim’s Convenience.”
The laureates will be celebrated at a gala in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre on May 27th. Husband-and-wife film stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are honorary chairs of the gala’s national committee, which is raising the funds for the bash.
The Vancouver-born Reynolds received 2021’s National Arts Centre award.
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Did you see this?
Ottawa should establish a system that would send the public a phone notification when an Indigenous woman goes missing to ensure that their disappearances stop being “normalized,” says an NDP member of Parliament.
Leah Gazan penned a letter to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Friday urging the government to fund what she and other advocates call a “Red Dress Alert” program. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gazan says that while details of the program would have to be negotiated, she imagines it would operate similarly to the Amber Alert, which is an emergency notification people receive on their phones when a child in their region has been abducted or is believed to be in danger.
Research from across the country, including the 2019 final report from the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, shows that Indigenous people, and women in particular, disappear at a higher rate than people who are not Indigenous.
Gazan said that for years, advocates and the families of missing and murdered women and girls have said there needs to be a faster response by police and other authorities in their cases.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2023
