Google won't be giving Canadian news the boot

Plus, international students seeking asylum and a cancelled cultural event [The Star] First Up [By Manuela Vega] By Manuela Vega Good morning. Here’s the latest on the Online News Act, international students seeking asylum and a cultural event cancelled — again. DON’T MISS Noah Berger/AFP via Getty Images federal politics [Ottawa has reached a deal with Google over the contentious Online News Act]( The Liberal government and Google have finally reached an agreement to avoid a scenario in which the tech giant would pull all Canadian news content from its search engine, Raisa Patel reports. As part of Canada’s online news law, which will formally come into effect on Dec. 19, Google will pay $100 million annually to Canadian news organizations, indexed to inflation, the heritage minister announced. [Here’s how the two parties salvaged the deal — and what it means for Canadian news](. - Context: The federal government passed the Online News Act earlier this year in an attempt to end tech giants’ dominance of the digital advertising market, which Ottawa argued is pulling revenues away from Canada’s beleaguered journalism industry. It faced resistance from Facebook and Google, which said the Act unfairly forces them into unclear payments for driving key traffic to news outlets and generating revenue for publishers. - Althia Raj’s take: Justin Trudeau’s government badly fumbled the Online News Act — [and a deal with Google doesn’t fix its fatal flaw](. Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record immigration [More international students are seeking asylum in Canada]( The number of international students who seek asylum in Canada has more than doubled in the past five years, according to government data obtained under an access-to-information request. That trend is a result of global displacement resulting from wars, conflicts and violence in recent years, critics say, as well as Canada’s failure to respond to the global refugee crisis through resettlement efforts. [Nicholas Keung reports on the Immigration department’s internal data that breaking down asylum claims by school](. - By the numbers: In five years, a total of 15,935 international students filed refugee claims in Canada. - Go deeper: “People may choose to make a refugee claim, but it’s very hard to make a claim. It actually costs a lot of money to do that right now. Average lawyers are charging $7,000 to make a refugee claim,” said Hussan Syed, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “So it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card.” Steve Russell/The Star GTA [Taste of the Danforth has been cancelled over funding]( It wasn’t long ago that pandemic restrictions and logistical issues led to the cancellation of the Taste of the Danforth from 2020 to 2022; now, the popular street festival is being rocked by a lack of funding. On Tuesday, the GreekTown on the Danforth BIA decided not to increase levies on its members by nearly 20 per cent in order to fund the festival in case there’s a major fundraising shortfall (like one in 2023) and instead opted to cancel the three-day event for 2024, Alyshah Hasham reports. [Here’s why that call has drawn mixed reactions from local business owners](. - Context: Taste of the Danforth has attracted more than a million people to GreekTown in its best years, and has been touted as a saviour for restaurants in the neighbourhood, especially after the pandemic. - Word from a city councillor: “I really hope the board will reconsider and I will do whatever I need to do to have the city support a decision to have a 2024 Taste,” said Coun. Paula Fletcher, who represents the Toronto-Danforth ward. [Cookies] Need a new favourite holiday cookie? Every day till Christmas, Star journalists are taking turns baking recipes from our extensive archives for our new Cookie Calendar newsletter, [sponsored by SickKids Get Better Gifts](. Follow our holiday baking adventures — and get some inspiration for your own — by [signing up for free here](. WHAT ELSE The U.S. says a man plotting to kill a Sikh activist in New York [discussed the murder of B.C.’s Hardeep Singh Nijjar and three more “jobs” in Canada](. [Doug Ford’s controversial plan to move the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place would save millions of dollars]( a provincial agency found. Canada’s Year of the Strike is entering rare territory — [this tiny Woodbridge walkout is union vs union](. Is it cheaper to stay in a hotel than rent in Toronto? [Some are offering $2,000 month-long packages](. [China may have released the Two Michaels, but it’s not done using them]( Martin Regg Cohn writes. Canada’s new 988 suicide-prevention helpline starts today. [Here’s what you need to know](. The secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, [Henry Kissinger has died at 100](. Haute couture is the most expensive, exclusive fashion in the world. [Who is it for now?]( Gilded youth? [A historian’s new book gives a look inside the strange and harsh practice of raising British royal children](. Punjabi music, spicy wings and drones: [Here’s what Canadians watched on YouTube in 2023, and what it says about us](. POV Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld [Why it’s time to hit the rich with a wealth tax.]( CLOSE-UP Mohammed Hajjar/AP Photo GAZA: Palestinian children sell sweets in front of the rubble of a destroyed building in Jebaliya refugee camp on Tuesday amid the temporary truce between Hamas and Israel. [Here’s what we know about the last-minute negotiations that extended it for another day](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_204656). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. 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