Indigenous Services review, First Nations to meet with Pope: In The News for March 31

The arrangement will see Ottawa pay $20 billion in compensation to First Nations children who were harmed by chronic underfunding of child and family services on-reserve.

Another $20 billion has been earmarked to reform the system over the next five years, with some measures set to take effect as of Friday.

A public notice on the federal government’s procurement website says it has chosen the University of Ottawa to conduct the internal review, which will cost $750,000.

A department spokeswoman says this is the first time such a review will be done of the federal department since its creation in 2017 when Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada was split into two departments: Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations.

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Also this …

First Nations delegates are set to speak with Pope Francis at the Vatican today.

It marks the second time Phil Fontaine has met a pope and requested an apology from the Roman Catholic Church for its role in residential schools.

The former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says circumstances are much different now than when he asked former pope Benedict apologize in 2009.

Fontaine put abuses at the schools in the national spotlight in 1990 when he spoke about his own experiences as a child at the Fort Alexander Residential School in Manitoba.

He says the recent discoveries of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools has put an incredible pressure on the Catholic Church.

Fontaine and 12 other First Nations delegates will have one hour with the Pope.

“The whole world is watching,” Fontaine said. “And that’s quite a bit of pressure on the church.”

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And this …

A body representing Canada’s songwriters and composers says they earned an average of just $67 last year in royalties from domestic digital streaming services.

SOCAN collects royalties for musicians including Drake, Joni Mitchell and The Weeknd. It says overall, Canadians gained a record $416 million in royalties from streaming platforms in 2021.

The pandemic led to more people streaming music at home on platforms such as Spotify and YouTube.

SOCAN Chief Executive Jennifer Brown says while successful artists are played regularly, Canadian musicians who are less well known can struggle to get promoted in Canada.

She thinks a law going through Parliament that would force streaming platforms to add more Canadian music to playlists will give Canada’s songwriters a career boost.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer must decide whether they will testify in their own defence as the trial moves toward the finish line.

“It’s time to fish or cut bait,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said Wednesday after prosecutors closed their side of their case on day 13.

Daniel Harris likely will be the first to express his intentions when the trial resumes Thursday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His attorney, Julia Kelly, was the first defence lawyer to call any witnesses.

Harris, Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., and Brandon Caserta are accused of plotting to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home in northern Michigan in fall 2020 because of their disgust with government and tough COVID-19 restrictions.

Prosecutors presented evidence from social media posts and messaging apps as well as audio and video secretly recorded by FBI agents and informants.

In addition, two men who were in the group, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and were vital witnesses for the government.

Defense attorneys claim the men were engaged in a lot of crazy talk fuelled by agents and informants but no conspiracy.

The men were arrested in October 2020 amid talk of obtaining an explosive that could blow up a bridge and hold back police from responding to a kidnapping at Whitmer’s second home, according to trial testimony. Garbin said the group acted willingly and had hoped to strike before the election, cause national chaos and prevent Joe Biden from winning the presidency.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine _ Ukraine’s president said his country’s defence against the Russian invasion was at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin’s forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.

Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks elsewhere in the country further undermined hopes for progress toward ending the bloody conflict that has devolved into a war of attrition. Civilians trapped in besieged cities have shouldered some of the worst suffering, though both sides said Thursday they would attempt another evacuation from the port city of Mariupol.

Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia.

There seemed little faith that Russia and Ukraine will resolve the conflict soon, particularly after the Russian military’s about-face and its most recent attacks.

Russia said Tuesday that it would de-escalate operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the West were skeptical.

Soon after, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling was hitting homes, stores, libraries and other civilian sites in or near those areas.

Britain’s Defense Ministry also confirmed “significant Russian shelling and missile strikes” around Chernihiv.

It said Thursday that “Russian forces continue to hold positions to the east and west of Kyiv despite the withdrawal of a limited number of units. Heavy fighting will likely take place in the suburbs of the city in coming days.”

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On this day in 1949 …

Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) — the oldest dominion in the British Commonwealth — became Canada’s 10th province. Two referendums were held after the Second World War; the first was inconclusive, and the second approved Confederation by only 52 per cent to 48. Joey Smallwood, who led the drive to join Canada, became Newfoundland’s first premier and was known as Canada’s only living Father of Confederation. Smallwood served as premier until 1972. He died in 1991, a week before his 91st birthday.

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In entertainment …

BOSTON _ Chris Rock received several standing ovations before he told one joke Wednesday at his first comedy show since Will Smith slapped him in the face onstage at the Oscars.

Rock only briefly addressed the slap to the sold out crowd in Boston, saying he was “still kind of processing what happened.”

“Other than the weird thing, life is pretty good,” Rock said midway through his first of two sets. The nighttime performances came just three days after Smith smacked the comedian for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, while presenting an Academy Award.

Rock didn’t mention Smith or Pinkett Smith by name at his show in Boston. Wearing all white, he seemed to be almost embarrassed by the multiple ovations he received. As the applause carried on for minutes _ with fans yelling “I love you, Chris!” _ the comedian appeared to be getting emotional.

“How was your weekend?” Rock joked before getting into his set.

Ticket prices skyrocketed after Smith took to the awards stage and slapped Rock on live TV, but the comedian made clear he wasn’t going to talk at length about it Wednesday.

“If you came to hear that, I’m not … I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend,” Rock said.

He spent much of the night skewering celebrities and politicians. Among them were the Duchess of Sussex, the Kardashians, as well as President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and former president Donald Trump.

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Did you see this?

VANCOUVER _ A retreating glacier in a remote British Columbia valley caused a massive landslide that crested a 100-metre-tall tsunami, wiped out kilometres of salmon habitat and was detected as far away as Australia, a study says.

The landslide on Nov. 28, 2020, sent 18 million cubic metres of rock cascading down the side of a mountain, uprooting trees and displacing soil before crashing into Elliot Creek, said the study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Earthquake sensors at stations around the world including in Germany, Japan and Australia detected the landslide.

The slide destroyed salmon-spawning habitat over 8.5 kilometres of the creek and sent a plume of mud and organic matter more than 60 kilometres into Bute Inlet, about 150 kilometres from Vancouver.

Marten Geertsema, lead author of the paper and adjunct professor at University of Northern British Columbia, said although the landslide wasn’t the largest in Canada, it was “very, very enormous.”

“Imagine a landslide with a mass equal to all of the automobiles in Canada travelling with a velocity of about 140 kilometres an hour when it runs into a large lake,” he said in an interview.

Geertsema said when the massive slide fell into a lake below, most of the water was drained and forced down a 10-kilometre-long channel, causing widespread erosion and loss of salmon habitat. It removed about four million cubic metres of material from the creek within 10 minutes, something that would have taken thousands of years if the stream continued to flow normally.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Indigenous Services review, First Nations to meet with Pope: In The News for March 31

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