By Canadian Press

Interest rate announcement and Lou Marsh winners: In The News for Dec. 9

Dec 9, 2020 | 1:16 AM

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Dec. 9 …

What we are watching in Canada …

The Bank of Canada will deliver an interest rate announcement today with observers watching if news about vaccines gives a shot in the arm to the bank’s outlook on the economy.

The central bank’s most recent economic forecasts were based on having a vaccine becoming widely available in 2022, not by next year as now appears the case.

The timing of a vaccine could change the course of an economic recovery that the central bank has warned could be long and bumpy.

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The Bank of Canada’s key policy rate is expected stay at its rock-bottom level of 0.25 per cent. Governor Tiff Macklem has said no rate cut is planned until the economy fully recovers and inflation gets back to the bank’s two per cent target.

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Also this …

An Ontario court will hear more testimony today in the case of a teen boy accused of sexually assaulting two fellow students at a prestigious Toronto private school.

The teen has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of gang sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and assault with a weapon related to two incidents at St. Michael’s College School in the fall of 2018.

Last week, court viewed two videos in which a teen complainant described the incidents to a police investigator.

In one of the recordings, the teen recalled being sexually assaulted with a broom handle by a group of students in the school’s locker room in October 2018.

In the other, he recounted witnessing a similar sexual assault on another student in the same locker room roughly a month later.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Americans waiting for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president-elect may have to keep waiting until January as GOP leaders stick with President Donald Trump’s litany of legal challenges and unproven claims of fraud.

Tuesday’s deadline for states to certify their elections — once viewed as a pivot point for Republicans to mark Biden’s win — came and went without much comment. Next week’s Dec. 14 Electoral College deadline may produce just a few more congratulatory GOP calls to Biden.

Increasingly, GOP lawmakers say the Jan. 6 vote in Congress to accept the Electoral College outcome may be when the presidential winner becomes official. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signalled Jan. 20 as the certain date when the country is “going to have the swearing-in of the next president.”

The result is a risky standoff like none other in U.S. history. The refusal to agree upon the facts of the election threatens to undermine voter confidence, chisel away at the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency and restack civic norms in still-unknowable ways.

Yet some GOP officials see the dragged-out process as their best shot at answering the fiery questions, calls and complaints of their constituents who voted for Trump and refuse to believe he legitimately lost the race to Biden.

“The country needs to understand, at least, it was fair,” Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., said in an interview.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

The United Arab Emirates said Wednesday a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective, in a statement that provided few details but marked the first public release of information on the efficacy of the shot.

The UAE, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, conducted a trial beginning in September of the vaccine by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. Volunteers between 18 and 60 years old received two doses of the vaccine over 28 days.

The UAE’s Health and Prevention Ministry announced the results via a statement on the state-run WAM news agency, saying they “have reviewed Sinopharm CNBG’s interim analysis of the Phase III trials.”

“The analysis shows no serious safety concerns,” the statement said, without detailing whether any participant suffered side effects.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the announced results included only those taking part in the testing in the UAE or if they also include results from China and elsewhere. The statement described the vaccine as receiving “official registration” without elaborating on what that meant.

Emirati officials and Sinopharm did not be immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.

However, calls Wednesday to SEHA, the Abu Dhabi health authority, included an option for individuals to schedule an appointment to receive a “COVID-19 vaccine.” The centre was swamped with calls following the announcement on the vaccine’s efficacy.

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On this day in 2008 …

The Bank of Canada reduced its key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, the biggest drop since October 2001, to 1.5 per cent, a level not seen since 1958, and declared for the first time that Canada had entered into a recession.

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In entertainment …

Massey Hall’s multi-year facelift is becoming the anchor of a major Toronto music complex, under a new investment from a local developer.

Allied Properties says it has struck an agreement to make the historic concert space the focal point for Allied Music Centre, a seven-storey tower adjacent to the venue at Shuter and Victoria streets.

The urban office developer emphasized that Massey Hall will retain its name, while multiple new concert stages and workspaces will be housed in the accompanying tower.

Among them is an unnamed “intimate” sixth-floor venue designed for smaller live events of up to 100 seated audience members, and a 500-person capacity club with a sightline to the city on the fourth floor.

There’s also a recording studio, wired to every stage in the centre, that can double as a classroom for musicians, and a basement bar and small performance space.

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In sports …

Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Bayern Munich left back Alphonso Davies are co-winners of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.

It is the third tie in the 82-year history of the award, presented annually by the Toronto Star.

Media members across the country voted on the award Tuesday. Duvernay-Tardif and Davies each received 18 votes with one vote going to one of the other finalists — soccer players Christine Sinclair and Kadeisha Buchanan and Denver Nuggets basketball star Jamal Murray.

The most recent tie was in 1983 with wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen and hockey star Wayne Gretzky.

ICYMI …

Efforts have begun to immortalize the late Turk Diggler, a wild turkey whose jaunts through several Calgary neighbourhoods delighted many as the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave upended normal life.

“He was like our unofficial city mascot and it was the coolest thing,” said Virgin Radio announcer Andrew Uyeno.

Shortly after Turk died in an apparent coyote attack in July, Uyeno started an online petition to erect a statue in the bird’s honour, which has so far attracted more than 1,500 signatures.

Uyeno is hoping a bronze likeness of Turk will one day grace a scenic viewpoint overlooking Calgary’s skyline in the Ramsay neighbourhood.

“Hopefully we can get him on Scotsman’s Hill where he belongs.”

It wouldn’t be the first time wayward livestock received such an honour in the province. There’s a bronze statue in Red Deer in central Alberta of Francis the pig, whose abattoir escape made headlines in 1990.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2020

The Canadian Press