A shooting at Fairview Mall + international students learning their documents were fake

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Good morning. This is the Tuesday, March 21 edition of First Up, the Star’s daily morning digest. Sign up to get it earlier each day, in your inbox.

Here’s the latest on the UN’s latest report on climate change, a daylight shooting at Fairview Mall and an international student scandal.

DON’T MISS:

The UN released a landmark climate-change report — the timeline is grim

To keep the earth from falling into a state of disaster by the time a Grade 5 student reaches old age, we have seven years to make massive, rapid and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, Kate Allen reports. Scientists warn that by 2030, countries like Canada must reduce carbon emissions by almost half to prevent children from going on to live in a world with more floods, fires, crop failures, forced migration and infectious disease outbreaks. By 2050, countries must reach net zero — but wealthy countries like Canada should reach it by 2040, UN Secretary General António Guterres suggested Monday. Here’s what else you need to know about the world’s most comprehensive assessment of the state of climate change.

Why it matters: “Let’s hope we make the right choices, because the ones we make now and in the next few years will reverberate around the world for hundreds, even thousands of years,” said the chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Watch for: At a conference in Dubai this November, countries will assess their Paris commitment progress so far.

One person is dead and two are injured after a “very brazen” triple shooting at Fairview Mall

It was around 4:11 p.m. on Monday when a shooting broke out at the Sheppard Avenue East and Highway 404 shopping mall. Two people were rushed to hospital — one in life-threatening condition — and a third person driven to a trauma centre in a personal vehicle died, police say. Although police first believed the incident to be isolated, an inspector said “there were clearly people that were in the area outside when the shooting occurred, and they were definitely put at risk.” Here’s what a nearby witness described.

What we know: Police had found two victims in their 20s at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds.

What we don’t know: No suspect information was available, but an inspector said police believe several suspects fled on foot and in a vehicle. Officers focussed on a black Audi in the parking lot that had all four doors open.

International students share horror stories of learning their documents to enter Canada were fake, years after the fact

Four years after receiving a study permit and arriving in Canada, Ravjeet Singh says he’s just as surprised as anyone to discover that the college acceptance letter he used to enter Canada was fake. He’s one of the first students caught in an investigation into alleged immigration fraud involving international students from India who are now facing deportation. But advocates say it’s the students who are the victims, noting their experiences share similarities — beginning with their application for student visas through a consulting firm based in Jalandhar. Nicholas Keung reports on Singh’s topsy-turvy journey and why one lawyer says the case is unlike anything he’s ever seen.

By the numbers: An estimated 700 students have been affected, according to Indian media reports. At least one woman has been deported so far.

More: One student who had a hearing in January and is awaiting a decision lamented that students are only being notified their admission letter was fake after they’ve invested in tuition, completed their studies, worked and paid taxes. “My parents have spent a lot of money for my future and my studies,” she said. “My father is a truck driver. We are not rich.”

WHAT ELSE:

Emily Mcintosh at the Barrie City Hall on Saturday in Barrie. McIntosh is the leading advocate of a group pushing to get a new Liberal private members bill support among municipalities on the radar of the provincial government.

Here’s why the cost of luring Volkswagen to Ontario will remain secret — for now.

POV:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a town hall session at Kinaxis, a Kanata-based software company in Ottawa on Monday.

Why do so many men dislike Justin Trudeau?

CLOSE-UP:

Uncollected garbage is piled up on a street in Paris, Monday, March 20, 2023. France's government is fighting for its survival Monday against no-confidence motions filed by lawmakers who are furious that President Emmanuel Macron used special constitutional powers to force through an unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without giving them a vote.

PARIS: Uncollected garbage piled up on the street Monday amid an ongoing sanitation worker strike. As workers oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age by two years, from 62 to 64 for most and from 57 to 59 for garbage collectors, trash has become a symbol of protest. Here’s what’s happening.

Thank you for reading First Up. You can reach me and the First Up team at firstup@thestar.ca