Good morning. Dealings between Alberta separatist leaders and U.S. Republican political operatives that The Globe uncovered on the weekend spurred plenty of reaction. More on that below, along with election day in Quebec and expert tips for Thanksgiving dinner.
Clarification: Last Thursday’s Morning Update was sent with a subject line that unclearly identified the pilots in the cockpit of the Israel-bound FlyDubai flight. The captain was attacked by his fellow pilot.
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Buttons and stickers reading ‘I am Albertan’ sit on a table at a separatist event in Calgary earlier this year.Amir Salehi/The Globe and Mail
TOP STORIES
Separatists’ interactions with Americans prompt backlash
Revelations about talks in Washington where Alberta separatists offered up fresh water and oil in exchange for U.S. support, and in Calgary, where separatists met in secret with Republican strategists eager to see the province leave Canada, have sparked a political furor.
The reaction: Corey Hogan, Calgary’s only Liberal member of Parliament, said Canada needs to consider overhauling its laws to bar the kind of freelance negotiating trips that separatist leaders made to D.C. ahead of this month’s referendum. The discussions do not constitute treason, but that does not make them innocent, Hogan said.
The context: Republican operatives were on the ground in Alberta this year to provide tactical assistance to the separatist campaign, a Globe investigation found. Additionally, separatist leaders offered up key assets from Alberta’s resource portfolio in meetings with the U.S. State Department in exchange for help transitioning to independence.
Opinion: If you’re going to fight for an independent Alberta, you should, at least, fight for independence – not for vassalage to a neighbour, Tyler Dawson writes.
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Rescue search called off for the six people from the missing air ambulance off Nantucket.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout-United States Coast Guard
Rescue search called off for missing air ambulance
The U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday evening ended the rescue search for those onboard a missing Ontario-based air ambulance, making the difficult call that the four Canadian crew members and two Bermudian passengers were not going to be found alive.
The flight: The missing Gulfstream G100, owned by Hamilton-based Latitude Air Ambulance, left a Bermuda airport after midnight Saturday for what a company official has described as a routine patient transport to Boston. Latitude lost contact with the plane around 1:30 a.m.
The latest: The rescue mission now becomes a recovery operation to collect the debris floating 32 kilometres from Nantucket, Mass., and sweep the ocean floor for wreckage, trying to explain how a seemingly routine patient transport flight ended with a plane shattered in the sea.
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Tourists riding in a vintage car in front of Canada’s embassy in Havana, Cuba, in 2019.ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/Reuters
Havana Syndrome still afflicts diplomats’ children
Canadian diplomats who served in Cuba nearly a decade ago say their children continue to suffer unexplained health symptoms that have been linked in recent years to possible attacks by Russian intelligence using sonic weaponry. A group of 10 diplomats and their families are suing the federal government over allegations that it denied them leading-edge health care and played down the seriousness of what they’ve endured.
The background: Foreign-service officers and their families reported experiencing nosebleeds, impaired vision, nausea, fatigue, vertigo and cognitive dissonance. The symptoms, known as Havana Syndrome, occurred in the evenings after they heard a vibratory noise while at their homes in the Cuban capital.
More: Ottawa and Washington have failed to adequately investigate whether Russia used directed energy against the diplomats, former U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton told The Globe.
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A sign in Montreal signals the approach of the Quebec provincial election, which is happening Monday.Graham Hughes/The Globe and Mail
Decision day in Quebec
Election day has arrived in Quebec, where a crowded race could make it challenging for any party to win a majority of the 127 seats. Polling stations will be open today from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
Explainer: Five major parties are in the running. Here’s what to know about their leaders, their platforms and the bases to which they appeal.
Podcast: Quebec correspondent Maura Forrest joins The Decibel to analyze the province’s fractured political landscape.
Related: During the campaign, two party leaders showed an openness to revisit the issue of domestic shale gas development.
The Take
Is that my next move: a Polish passport? Go back to Poland? Give the chanters what they wish? Of course not. I’m not going anywhere. But if you had told me three years ago that I would even be asking these questions; that I would travel to Oklahoma of all places to see how former Canadian Jews are living there, and where more want to join, I would have said: you’re crazy. Or you’re joking. We’re good at that, joking. And wandering.
— Marsha Lederman, columnist
In a hate-filled climate, Canadian Jews are weighing their options. As Marsha Lederman discovered, Tulsa is welcoming them with open arms.
The Shot
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People in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., socialize at a downtown block party ahead of the local junior hockey team’s recent season opener.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
The U.S. trade tiff has cast a long shadow over the coming local election in Sault Ste. Marie. Reporter Patrick White and photographer Deborah Baic visited the Ontario steel town for Local Matters, a continuing series of reported stories on urgent municipal issues.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: The B.C. NDP will not run a full slate in this month’s snap election, instead falling one candidate short, despite being the party that triggered the campaign.
Abroad: Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro will face President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the runoff of a presidential election, after the challenger took some 47 per cent of valid votes in the first round on Sunday, beating the forecasts in most private surveys.
Court: A high-profile defamation trial between novelist Steven Galloway and four people he accuses of perpetuating false sexual-assault allegations about him is set to begin in Vancouver today.
Law: B.C.’s restoration of the faint-hope clause sparked a constitutional reckoning: Does Canada punish murder too harshly?
School: The University of Toronto’s new $100-million scholarship for PhD students will double the pay of recipients at a time when postsecondary institutions want to lure bright minds from the U.S.
Sports: The Winnipeg Jets and Detroit Red Wings should refuse to grant the trade requests of their aggrieved star players, Cathal Kelly argues.
Cooking: How this Ontario chef, farmer and sommelier stocks up for Thanksgiving.
Change: In the age of Ozempic, some Thanksgiving feasts look a little different.