Kamala and Justin chat on the phone Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris spoke on the phone for the first time yesterday, marking Harris's first call to a foreign leader. The two discussed a broad array of subjects, including their mutual desire to avoid "unintended consequences" of the U.S.'s new "Buy American" policy, as well as the pandemic, a need to increase trust in government and, yes, Harris's time as a high school student in Montreal. According to a White House summary of the call, Harris also expressed solidarity with Canada in the fight to release Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who have been detained in China since 2018. As the pandemic raged on throughout 2020, the Prime Minister's Office struggled to streamline communications alongside the Public Health Agency of Canada. Emails from high-level PMO staffers regarding the pandemic were revealed as part of a 30,000-plus-item document dump that resulted from an October motion in the House of Commons last year, passed despite Liberal objections. As the Globe and Mail found, PMO staffers debated taking down public health advice they had not approved, and expressed frustration at repeatedly not being consulted. Here's hoping they pinky-swore. International Trade Minister Mary Ng assured a House of Commons committee yesterday that the European Union, which last week introduced new export controls on vaccines, will honour its shipment agreements with Canada. The sticking point? Ng said she only had a verbal agreement with the EU—no written contract—that Canadian orders will not be affected by the new rules. It was inevitable: the first case of the COVID-19 variant that originated in South Africa, B.1.351, has been found in Ontario's Peel Region. The infected person had not travelled recently, nor did they have known contact with someone who had. The B.1.351 variant carries a higher viral load, making it more infectious. Ontario has already seen dozens of cases of the U.K. variant, B.1.1.7. In response to the overseas variants, public health officials have begun recommending people wear two masks in public. In Maclean's, Patricia Treble answers why. In fact, many of the masks we’re using aren’t as good as they should be. And, unlike last spring when the initial guidance around masks included recommending face coverings of tightly woven fabric, the risk perception has now changed. The new variants are so much more effective at infecting people that it’s time for a refresher course in face protection. Saskatchewan's health minister, Paul Merriman, testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health yesterday morning to criticize the federal government for not procuring enough vaccines and not sharing enough information with provinces. Merriman says his province has used 108 per cent of their allotted vaccines—the bonus comes from any extra amounts left over in the Pfizer vials, which can amount to a sixth dose. Serena Fleites, a woman who was traumatized at a young age when an illicit video of her was uploaded to Pornhub, shared her story with the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics yesterday. Fleites, who lives in California, says the Canadian pornography website took weeks to take down the video—only to allow it to resurface days later. MPs are currently debating privacy and ethical concerns on streaming platforms. The CEO and COO behind Pornhub are set to appear before the committee on Friday. RIP, HMCS Cormorant. A legendary converted fishing trawler had some wild jobs, including seizing drugs abandoned on the ocean floor and salvaging shipwrecks. Now, in its final days, trailblazing sailors recalled its storied past to Nick Taylor-Vaisey in Maclean's: Over the years, crews sailed as far south as the Caribbean and as far north as the Arctic, where in 1989 divers helped explore the Breadalbane, a British ship that sank in 1853 during a search for the lost Franklin expedition. The Cormorant also recovered the black box of a CF-18 fighter jet that crashed off the coast of Vancouver Island in 1991, and later recovered cocaine off the coast of Nova Scotia after a bungled drug deal. “That was about 750 kilos,” says Maynard. “It was a big bundle.” The feds have debuted a new loan program for businesses whose revenues have fallen by at least 50 per cent for at least three of the last eight months of the pandemic. It's called HASCAP—the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program—and doles out loans from anywhere between $25,000 and $1 million. Business owners can apply today, and the government will take into account prior qualifications for CEWS or CERS when approving the HASCAP loans. The ultimate first-world problem. With the economy trapped in a gruelling crisis and lockdowns keeping everyone indoors, Canadians are sitting on the largest cash hoard in recorded history—Statistics Canada says the household savings rate hit an all-time high of 27.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, compared to an average rate of 1.4 per cent in 2019. The question is, what to do with it all? In Maclean's, Brenda Bouw offers financial advice to anyone forced into saving. The pandemic has also invited out-of-work, locked-down Canadians to flock to day trading. During the first quarter of 2020, roughly half a million Canadians opened discount online brokerage accounts to access trading platforms on popular websites. In the immediate wake of the GameStop craze, Anthony A. Davis took to Maclean's to shine a light on the reality behind the hype: In fact, research has found the odds are stacked against day traders: one study from Taiwan, where day trading is widespread, found only one per cent consistently outperform the market. But day traders on social media touting their supposed gains will always speak louder than academic studies, especially when investors are caught up in a raging bull market; in January, the S&P/TSX composite index was up 62 per cent from its pandemic low last March. Calling all architects: The feds are teaming up with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada to host a design competition to revamp the square block directly across from Parliament in Ottawa. Read about the jury and competition here, or just watch the government's soothing video touting the virtues of green spaces and urban revitalization —Michael Fraiman | 
