Order in the court

Good morning. Some personal news: we are hiring! Specifically, we’re looking for someone to help us make great videos for social channels. If you like being on camera, keep up to date on the news, and can do some light editing, we want to hear from you. 

Check out the listing here and apply (or pass it along to a friend who’d be a good fit).

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Major stock indexes fell again as oil prices continued to climb with more attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the sell-off in the bond market continued, with yields on U.S. long-term Treasuries rising to their highest mark in almost two decades — an issue not helped by Donald Trump’s pledge yesterday to send everyone a $5,000 cheque should Republicans hold on to Congress.

Canada’s judicial system is trying to figure out how to stop 10,000 cases a year from getting thrown out for no good reason. 

Driving the news: The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule today on a case that could set a precedent that allows judges to hand down alternative remedies for unreasonably delayed trials, as opposed to automatically throwing out cases. 

Catch-up: A 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling established that criminal cases in Canada need to be tried within 18 to 30 months. Judge shortages and other roadblocks have caused the number of cases tossed under that rule to skyrocket, hitting a peak of 11,132 a couple of years ago.

Why it matters: When nearly one in every 20 criminal cases is being tossed out without a trial, public trust in the justice system is bound to waver, especially when it comes to cases involving violent crimes. Giving judges more discretion when it comes to remedies for trial delays could reverse the trend, even if it doesn’t fix the underlying delays.—LA

Carney’s investment summit will put forward more than 160 projects. Next week's summit will reportedly showcase mostly energy and infrastructure projects that are open to new investors, including a new high-speed rail line between Edmonton and Calgary and a $57 billion expansion of the Port of Churchill. Some notable omissions are the embattled Alto high-speed rail project and the country’s airports. The aim of the summit, which will host more than 300 CEOs and execs from around the world, is to attract $500 billion in capital over the next five years. (Globe and Mail)

Canada and Ukraine sign a 100-year defence and trade agreement. President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Calgary yesterday alongside PM Carney, where the two leaders announced a century-long pact to strengthen cooperation on everything from drones to critical minerals. A pillar of the agreement is a new Canadian drone marketplace that will manufacture the technology domestically and send a third of drones produced to Ukraine. (CBC News)

Iran has resumed its production of ballistic missiles. Six months after the U.S. went to war with Iran to destroy the country’s nuclear and missile programs, Tehran has reportedly begun producing ballistic missiles once again, according to intelligence reports. While the U.S. has touted successful strikes on Iranian industrial sites used to build missiles, the country has managed to move production to underground facilities. (Wall Street Journal)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

There's a reason you know exactly which convenience store to head to when you're out of coffee filters at 7 a.m., or need a phone charger at midnight. Convenience stores aren't just convenient, they're constant. Run by neighbours, staffed by people who know your name, your order, and your kid's favourite snack. They're open when almost nothing else is: early mornings, late nights, holidays, snow days.

Across Canada, over 14,000 convenience stores anchor communities in ways that are easy to take for granted, until you need them when you’ve forgotten a grocery item or need a last minute snack for the road trip.

It's a small business doing a big job for the people who rely on it, and for all of the communities it's part of. That's Canada’s convenience stores.

RBC launched a $1.4 billion Canadian growth fund. The venture capital wing of Canada’s largest bank will use the new fund to invest in up to 15 Canadian companies in key areas, like AI and healthtech. RBC will put up $416 million, and will source the rest from outside investors (it plans to do some schmoozing at the Canada Investment Summit next week).

Why it matters: Innovative Canadian companies leaving the country to chase bigger investor cheques is a tale as old as time. Per RBCx, just 20% of later-stage funding for the top 20 growth companies in Canada comes from domestic investors. Ambitious investment vehicles like this could be a key to keeping more breakthroughs and profits within Canadian borders.

We really hate to do this on a Friday morning, but regrettably we need to inform you about some more troubling developments in AI land. 

What happened: Anthropic reported that it had blocked people — including state actors — using its AI tools for a wide range of nefarious purposes, including developing conventional weapons, spying on political dissidents, and conducting research that could be used to develop biological weapons. 

Catch up: The revelations add fuel to fears about the risks posed by AI, long held by many in the AI world but which broke into the mainstream this week with the resignation from Anthropic of Jacob Coxon, who warned that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Why it matters: While these predictions that superintelligent AI could soon turn against and wipe out its creators have triggered alarm, this report calls attention to the more familiar threat of humans using new technology against each other. 

Bottom line: Unlike the risks presented by yet-to-be-built superintelligent AI, it appears that today’s actually existing AI models are — in the wrong hands — already capable enough to inflict real damage.—TS

🌎 Hint: This Nordic capital city is home to Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” and hosts the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony each year. It’s known for its walkable opera house roof, surrounding forests and islands, and local delicacies like brown cheese.

Think you have an idea where this is? Lock in your guess here.

🇺🇸 16.5%. Year-over-year increase in Canadian business travellers flying to the U.S. last month. Even as leisure travel from Canada to the U.S. has plummeted, business travel has been steadily climbing over the past year. 

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