Pope visits Canada, Commons hearing on Rogers outage : In The News for July 25

It is expected this is where the Pope will issue an apology to Indigenous residential school survivors and their families for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in the institutions.

Francis is set to speak in the afternoon with Indigenous Peoples and parish members at the Church of Sacred Heart in Edmonton.

Later in the week, the Pope plans to host a large outdoor mass at the city’s football stadium and take part in a pilgrimage in nearby Lac Ste. Anne, before travelling to Quebec City and Iqaluit.

Francis arrived Sunday for the six-day trip that is aimed at reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

A small crowd of dignitaries at the Edmonton airport included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and Indigenous leaders. The Pope made brief private remarks with organizers saying he has reserved public statements for today’s events.

Treaty 6 Grand Chief George Arcand Jr. said many people in the Indigenous community are skeptical and hurt, but an apology could be the start of a new journey.

“Many people have always felt that an apology was nothing but hollow words. But when the Pope made an announcement to come to Alberta and talk to our people, people started feeling like there was a sense of hope,” he said.

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Also this …

The House of Commons industry committee will hold two hearings today about the Rogers outage that lasted more than 15 hours and left millions of Canadians in a communications blackout.

The July 8 outage affected Rogers mobile and internet users, knocked out ATMs, shut down the Interac payments system and prevented calls to 911 services in some Canadian cities.

The committee held an emergency meeting July 15 and voted unanimously to open an investigation into the Rogers outage.

Rogers executives, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, and officials from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission are set to testify.

The committee will seek answers about the cause of the outage, its overall effect, and best practices to avoid future outages and better communicate with the public during such emergencies.

Following the outage, Champagne directed Canada’s major telecom companies to reach agreements on assisting each other during outages and a communication protocol to better inform Canadians during emergencies.

Experts, however, have called for increased competition in the telecom industry to ease the impact of future outages on Canadians.

Rogers is seeking a $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc., but the transaction requires approval of the Competition Bureau as well as Champagne’s department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

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And this too …

MPs on the House of Commons public safety committee meet today to explore whether there was political meddling with the RCMP as it investigated the April 2020 shootings in Nova Scotia.

Just over a week after a gunman murdered 22 people during a 13-hour shooting spree, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki met with top officers in Nova Scotia that has been described by those in attendance as tense.

Supt. Darren Campbell, who was in charge of the investigation, wrote in his notes that Lucki mentioned promising the federal government to release information about the weapons the gunman used.

Lia Scanlan, an RCMP communication director, also told the public inquiry looking into the shootings that then-public safety minister Bill Blair and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were “weighing in on what we could and couldn’t say,” although she did not elaborate on what that meant.

Trudeau and Blair have adamantly denied there was any political interference and Lucki has repeatedly said she did not feel any pressure from federal officials.

The Commons committee will hear from Lucki along with other senior RCMP members at national headquarters, senior officers from the Nova Scotia Mounties, Blair and deputy public safety minister Rob Stewart.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

LOS ANGELES _ Two people were killed and at least five others were injured after gunfire erupted Sunday at a Los Angeles park where a car show was being held.

The L.A. Police Department said the shooting occurred around 3:50 p.m. at Peck Park in LA’s San Pedro neighbourhood. The LAPD tweeted it wasn’t an active shooter situation but provided no more information.

LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said during a news conference that the casualties were reported at the baseball diamond. Police have not identified the victims.

“The original call came out as having multiple shooting victims on the baseball diamond at Peck Park. As we speak here, this is an ongoing, active crime scene, and we are continuing to clear the park for evidence and potentially additional victims,” Muniz said. “We don’t know exactly how many shooters we have at this point.”

The L.A. Fire Department said the incident occurred at or near the car show and that at least three people suffered gunshot wounds and two of them were in critical condition. Seven people overall, four men and three women, were injured and taken to hospitals, according to the fire department.

Police have not offered a motive. No arrests have been made.

Peck Park is about 32 kilometres south of downtown Los Angeles

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

BEIJING _ China added a laboratory to its permanent orbiting space station Monday as it moves toward completing the structure in coming months.

The Wentian laboratory was launched from the Wenchang space base on the tropical island province of Hainan on Sunday with a large crowd of amateur photographers and space enthusiasts watching.

After 13 hours of flight, it successfully docked with the Tianhe living area of the Tiangong space station at 3:13 a.m. Monday (1913 GMT), according to the China Manned Space Agency.

Photos distributed by Xinhua News Agency later showed the three astronauts inside the expanded space station.

The 23-ton Wentian laboratory is designed for science and biology experiments and is heavier than any other single-module spacecraft currently in space, according to the state-owned Global Times.

A second laboratory segment, the Mengtian, is due to be launched in October. Three astronauts who started their six-month mission aboard the space station last month oversaw the Wentian’s arrival and docking.

A Long March 5B-Y3 rocket, China’s most powerful, carried the laboratory module in the third such launch since the Chinese space station entered its construction phase. It was preceded by the Tianzhou-class cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-14 crewed spacecraft.

China’s space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, and has largely proceeded with the Tiangong program without other nations’ assistance. The U.S. excluded China from the International Space Station because of its military ties.

China launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making it only the third country to do so on its own after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. Its space program has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned lunar samples and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon.

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On this day in 1920 …

The Canadian Marconi Co. made the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast from Signal Hill, Nfld., to the “SS Victoria.”

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In entertainment …

KEY WEST, Fla. _ Some came in wool fisherman’s sweaters, and other contestants had sportsmen’s attire. But it was the cream-coloured sweater of attorney Jon Auvil that caught the eye of judges who awarded him the title for most resembling author and former Key West resident Ernest Hemingway.

Auvil triumphed Saturday night over 124 other contestants for the title in the annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the Key West establishment where the author was a regular patron during his decade-long residence on the island in the 1930s.

The look-a-like contest is a highlight of Key West’s annual Hemingway Days celebration, which ended Sunday.

Auvil said he shares Hemingway’s passion for fishing, has written some fiction and would like to do more writing.

“Every man wants to write like Hemingway,” said Auvil, who lives in Dade City, Florida, northeast of Tampa.

While living in Key West, Hemingway wrote classics, including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not.”

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Did you see this?

TOKYO _ Dozens of people have evacuated two towns on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu where a volcano spewed ash and large rocks into the nighttime sky.

Large rocks fell as far as 2.5 kilometres from the Sakurajima volcano Sunday night in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. Footage on Japan’s NHK public television showed orange flames flashing near the crater and dark smoke with ash billowing high above the mountaintop.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency raised the eruption alert to the highest level of five and advised 51 residents in two towns facing the volcano to leave their homes.

By Monday morning, 33 of them left their homes for a nursing care facility in a safer part of the region, according to Kagoshima city. NHK said others subject to evacuation might have evacuated to other locations.

“We will put the people’s lives first and do our utmost to assess the situation and respond to any emergency,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told reporters. He called on residents to pay close attention to updates from local authorities to protect their lives.

A dusting of ash was visible on cars in Kagoshima, but no damage or injuries have been reported. Schools in the area are on summer recess but closed Monday for clubs and extracurricular activities.

JMA warned of the potential for falling volcanic rocks within three kilometres of the crater and possible flow of lava, ash and searing gas within two kilometres.

The chances of more explosive violent eruptions were low, but residents still should be watchful for falling rocks, mudslide and pyroclastic flow, said Tsuyoshi Nakatsuji, a JMA official in charge of volcano watch. He also advised residents to close curtains and stay away from windows, which could break by the force of an eruption.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Pope visits Canada, Commons hearing on Rogers outage : In The News for July 25

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