Evening Update: Professional women’s basketball coming to Canada

Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:

The Women’s National Basketball Association is coming to Canada, with a Toronto team set to start playing games in 2026.

The new franchise, awarded to businessman Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures, was officially announced Thursday at an event attended by a roster of politicians and sports stars. The team is set to play out of Toronto’s 8,700-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum, but will sometimes move to the Scotiabank Arena and other Canadian markets, according to Tanenbaum, who declared the franchise “will be Canada’s team.”

Former Raptors executive Teresa Resch has been tapped as president of the new team, which will be the WNBA’s 14th franchise after the Golden State Valkyries start playing next year. Ownership said it will consider public input before naming the team.

It’s the first WNBA team in the country, and the league’s first outside the United States, though the WNBA has a handful of Canadian players this season. Canada has also hosted pre-season games to sold-out crowds in Toronto and Edmonton.

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Trudeau cabinet withholding documents on foreign interference from inquiry

A dispute has arisen after the Liberal government cited cabinet confidentiality to redact records provided to the public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada. An undisclosed number of cabinet documents were also withheld, according to the Privy Council Office, which reports to the Prime Minister.

The judge leading the inquiry is pushing back. In a report released this month, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue noted the redactions in some of the cabinet documents provided, and said “discussions as to the applications of these privileges is ongoing.”

Initially, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had promised that the commission would have full access to secret documents, even if some of that information couldn’t be made available to Canadians.

The Privy Council Office told The Globe and Mail that nearly 10 per cent of cabinet documents provided to the inquiry were redacted. A spokesperson said the commission was given access to “relevant information” on cabinet’s knowledge about foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation sued by U.S. Justice Department for alleged monopoly

The U.S. government is accusing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, of running an illegal monopoly on live events and driving up prices for fans.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed today in Manhattan federal court, is being brought with 30 state and district attorneys-general. It aims to break up what it calls a monopoly that’s squeezing out smaller competitors and harming artists. Live Nation called the lawsuit “baseless” and said it won’t solve issues related to ticket prices, fees and access to shows.

The company has long denied that it is violating antitrust laws, but competitors have complained that it’s difficult to break into the market because of Live Nation’s business practices. The world’s largest ticket seller also sparked outrage in 2022 when the Ticketmaster site crashed during a presale for popstar Taylor Swift’s stadium concert tour, prompting calls for strengthened consumer protections.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Lost Canadians: The federal government has tabled a bill allowing Canadians to pass citizenship rights down to children born outside the country. It aims to undo changes implemented in 2009, which blocked Canadian parents born abroad from passing citizenship to their children, unless the child was born in Canada. The new law will confer citizenship to affected children and set new tests for children born after the law takes effect.

Banking: TD Bank’s second-quarter earnings beat analysts’ estimates with a boost in capital markets, even as profits were weighed down by costs related to a U.S. probe into the bank’s anti-money laundering practices.

Russia-Ukraine war: Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been reported missing since Russia’s invasion. The process of finding them is emotionally taxing for their loved ones, and often provides few answers, Janice Dickson reports.

TTC strike: Ontario’s top court upheld the right of Toronto Transit Commission workers to strike, dismissing an appeal by the provincial government of a lower-court ruling. The public transit workers are in the midst of a bargaining dispute and could strike as early as June 7.

Grassy Narrows: Discharge from a northern Ontario paper mill is exacerbating mercury contamination in a river system near Grassy Narrows First Nation, a new study suggests. The First Nation has been plagued with mercury poisoning for decades.

Taiwan: China staged large-scale military drills days after the inauguration of new Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te. Taiwan called the drills “irrational provocation” and dispatched air, land and sea forces in response. The developments come after Lai called on China to recognize the island’s sovereignty in his inaugural address on Monday.

Olympics: A man who was detained in Bordeaux, France, had posted online about a 2014 mass murder in California, and told police he was thinking about a mass attack of his own, according to a prosecutor in the region where the Olympic torch was passing through on Thursday. The prosecutor said the man, who showed an interest in online misogynistic “incel” groups, hadn’t decided on a target, and didn’t mention the Olympic flame.

MARKET WATCH

North American stock indexes ended lower on Thursday after a surge in Nvidia shares was overshadowed by U.S. economic data suggesting inflation is still a concern, and commodity prices dragged.

The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 145.97 points, at 22,200.79, its lowest closing level since May 3, as commodity prices fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 605.78 points to 39,065.26. The S&P 500 lost 39.17 points to 5,267.84 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 65.51 points to 16,736.03.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.83 cents US.

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TALKING POINTS

Pierre Poilievre’s attacks on the media are bearing fruit for the Tories

“Whether debating Liberals in Question Period, speaking to media in scrums or taking questions in apple orchards, Mr. Poilievre often goes on the offensive, attacking premises he and his Conservative colleagues view as being inherently and unfairly biased against them. What is often read by non-Conservatives as belligerence is from his point of view a necessary tool to craft his own narrative and allow the messages and policies he expects will resonate with voters to break through.” – Andrew Lawton

Piecemeal tax changes won’t do. To get out of Canada’s productivity rut, we need radical reform

“The tax system, it is well known, is riddled with dozens of similar anomalies and inequities: deductions, exemptions and other preferences that are either unfair or inefficient or both. To go after just one at any given time looks like selective justice. It opens the way for those affected, not just to persuade the public that they are being unfairly singled out, but much more importantly, to persuade themselves. There is no more lethal political movement than a special interest that is sincerely convinced it has been wronged.” – Andrew Coyne

Robert Pickton got what he deserves. But it’s not a victory for justice in Canada

“So it is tempting to see this attack as a good thing: necessary retribution for a decidedly evil man, and a way to deliver some peace to his victims’ families. But the worsening violence in Canadian prisons isn’t something we should celebrate, despite how much it might tickle our innate desire for vengeance against the worst of the worst.” – Robyn Urback

LIVING BETTER

Meet Heidi Caillier, the interior designer who just says no to white walls

This Seattle-based designer has clients across North America asking for a “Heidi House.” Her signature style showcases her love of wallpaper, modern-traditional pairings and a palette of smokey pastels and earth tones. Read on for her tips on how to fill your home’s spaces with personality by ditching trends and bringing a little “weirdness” to a room.

TODAY’S LONG READ

Euclid project’s sharp, “stunning” panoramas of deep space give dark-energy detectives more valuable clues

Astronomers and space fans are delighting in new photos of the cosmos from Euclid, a minivan-sized space satellite that launched last year. The European Space Agency released the stunning new images today, along with scientific research papers by scientists involved in the mission. The panoramas offer glimpses of distant galaxies and could provide clues to the riddle of dark energy, Ivan Semeniuk writes.

Evening Update is written by Holly McKenzie-Sutter. 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.