In the news today: Premiers meet to discuss new health care money, Trudeau in Latvia

All but Quebec have accepted the funding offer, but none have submitted plans on the targets and timelines they’ll use to turn the new funding into fixes for Canada’s ailing but beloved public-health care programs.

The premiers will also tackle economic issues and affordability during their meetings, which take place as Trudeau visits eastern Europe to discuss defence issues.

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Here’s what else we’re watching …

Trudeau meets counterparts, troops in Latvia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making his third visit to Latvia today, where he’s set to meet with the country’s leaders and with Canadian troops.

Around 800 Canadian Armed Forces members are part of the Canada-led NATO battle group in the Baltic country, making it the largest overseas mission.

Defence Minister Anita Anand recently announced that a Leopard 2 tank squadron with 15 tanks and around 130 personnel will be joining the mission starting this fall.

Trudeau is expected to meet with both the Latvian president and prime minister before the larger summit of NATO leaders begins in nearby Lithuania.

Chiefs set to gather for AFN annual meeting

Hundreds of Indigenous leaders are to gather in Halifax for the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting as the advocacy organization tries to forge a path forward after the tumultuous leadership and ousting of its national chief.

Former national chief RoseAnne Archibald has said she may attend the meeting, scheduled to take place tomorrow through Thursday, and is asking for chiefs to reinstate her.

Archibald was voted out during a special chiefs assembly on June 28 that also dealt with a human resources investigation related to complaints AFN staff filed against her.

Canadian courts bound by deals with corrupt firms

Remediation agreements between prosecutors and corrupt companies were supposed to make it easier to bring the firms to justice — but a gap in the mechanism means that victims could be overlooked.

That’s according to University of Ottawa law professor Jennifer Quaid who says it’s likely that potential flaws in the remediation system simply weren’t considered when it was added to the Criminal Code in 2018.

Quaid’s comments come after Rizalino Espino, a businessmen from the Philippines, complained he was wrongly accused of bribery in a statement of facts attached to the latest remediation agreement for a Canadian company, Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology.

Espino says he was a whistleblower and a victim of Ultra’s corruption scheme to secure police contracts in the Philippines, but the Quebec judge who approved the remediation deal says he had no ability to adjudicate facts in the case.

The judge says in his ruling published in May that he had to take the word of the prosecutors and Ultra, which agreed to a $10-million fine.

Indigenous men’s prostate cancer diagnoses worse

A new study published in the journal Cancer says Indigenous men have more serious and later-stage prostate cancer when they’re diagnosed than non-Indigenous men.

The University of Alberta researchers also found that men in First Nations and Mėtis communities were much less likely to be screened for prostate cancer than men living outside of Indigenous communities.

Men are supposed to have a prostate-specific antigen test — known as a PSA test — at age 50 and older so cancer can be detected early and treated.

Senior author Dr. Adam Kinnaird says the lack of screening could be why prostate cancer is more aggressive and advanced when it’s found in Indigenous men.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In the news today: Premiers meet to discuss new health care money, Trudeau in Latvia

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