Manitoba chiefs behind renewed effort to criminalize residential school denialism

First Nations chiefs from across the country have unanimously passed an emergency resolution that calls on the federal government to criminalize residential school denialism as hate speech.

The resolution was adopted Tuesday at the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly in Ottawa. It was introduced by David Monias, chief of Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Manitoba and seconded by Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee.

“We must honour the survivors and we must honour every child who never came home,” Monias said Wednesday. “We must also support every person who was left behind and those children who never returned home. We are left to mourn those children. They would have been our grandfathers today, our grandparents.”

The federal government estimates about 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools.

Grain latest Port of Churchill shipment

Prairie grain will soon ship out of the Port of Churchill for the first time in at least five years.

Alberta First Nation sues Ottawa over $5 treaty annuity, argues amount stuck in 1899

EDMONTON - A northern Alberta First Nation is suing the federal government to increase its annual treaty annuity payments.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam says the $5 his members receive every year is an amount that's stuck in 1899, when Treaty 8 was signed.

The payments date back to the signing of treaties across the country more than a century ago and were meant to provide assistance to First Nations members.

Depending on the treaty, annuity payments made to First Nations members across Canada total either $4 or $5, and have never increased.

Chiefs call on feds to criminalize residential school denialism as hate speech

OTTAWA - First Nations chiefs say the federal government is enabling residential school denialism by failing to make it a crime.

The chiefs passed an emergency resolution at the Assembly of First Nations general meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday calling on the feds to criminalize residential school denialism as hate speech.

"Truth is not optional and reconciliation cannot exist without truth," said Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation.

"We must honour the survivors and we must honour every child who never came home."

Painter honed art of volunteering at Lower Fort Garry historic site

When visitors wandered around Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site in the summer of 2023, they encountered a rather unusual volunteer: artist JD Hawk at his easel, busily working on his live paintings.

Hawk engaged with visitors as he painted, encouraging them to come and ask questions about what he was working on.

The paintings he produced during his tenure were never intended for exhibition, however. They were rough drafts for him to reference later in the year when creating his final paintings.

“There’s no fine detail, they’re not masterpieces. I consider them like a scrapbook, exploring the colours I would need to use for my master paintings,” he explains, adding that when he wasn’t painting he would walk around taking photographs for further reference material.

Quebec municipalities express interest in Samuel de Champlain statue from Ontario

Some Quebec municipalities and organizations are offering to take a controversial statue of Samuel de Champlain from an Ontario city in Simcoe County.

The nearly four-metre-tall bronze monument of the 17th century explorer and founder of Quebec City was removed from a park in Orillia, Ont., and placed in storage in 2017 following debate over its colonial imagery.

Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac said a wave of offers poured in after the city recently raised the possibility of melting the statue down.

“They say it's racist, it's not our history, it is an insult to Indigenous peoples,” McIsaac said in an interview about the controversy over the statue.

Canada’s Senate: A glimpse at the operations of the upper chamber

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney made his first appointments to the Senate on Tuesday, naming four new senators to the upper chamber. They include Carney's principal secretary Tom Pitfield and Conservative MP Richard Martel, who will both fill seats from Quebec.

He also announced he is dropping the non-partisan criteria for appointments to the upper chamber, and plans to rejig the independent appointments advisory committee established by former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Those were just some of the changes Trudeau made to the Senate, which had been dogged by accusations of cronyism and spending scandals.

Here's a look at the role the Senate plays, and how the Senate has changed in the last 10 years.

Imperialist crusades: 21st-century style

In the 11th century and lasting into the 13th, the papacy launched a series of at least eight military campaigns we now refer to as the Crusades, or Holy Wars. They were an imperialistic call to arms for Christians to retake Jerusalem, which was at the time under Muslim rule.

Spiritual rewards for participation were implied, and other incentives offered, to dull the extra taxation demanded to fund the campaigns. Over time, the “crusades” morphed to become massacres of not only Muslims but also Jews and Christian dissidents — in other words, any enemies of the papacy. If today’s news sounds like déjà vu all over again, it probably should.

The stories keep repeating themselves in many forms. We now know that two 20th century world wars, global in scope, were caused by imperialistic ambitions, changes in the balance of international powers and corresponding arms races. The first was attributed to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Bosnian Serb, a kind of “regime change” initiative. The second resulted from rising tensions between Allied and Axis powers, triggered by the rise of European fascism and Japanese militarism. The human toll of both was unimaginable.

In the First World War, 15 to 22 million people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed and another 23 million were wounded. These numbers do not account for those otherwise affected — victims of chemical warfare whose compromised health shortened their lives; of the subsequent Spanish flu epidemic amplified by the displacement of peoples; others who died from other diseases caused by war conditions; and those who were malnourished or starved. Nor do they account for the ongoing trauma and resentments passed on intergenerationally to this day.

A look at defunct past pipeline pitches and their recent revivals

CALGARY - Pipeline proposals long considered dead and buried are coming back from the grave — sort of.

Past plans to send oilsands crude east, west and south are being revived with different branding, proponents and routes. And, at least in the first two cases, the efforts are being driven by politicians rather than the private sector.

Here is a look at defunct projects of yore and their resurrected versions:

East

Carney names TKMS preferred sub bidder, hopes to join sub club with Germany, Norway

HALIFAX - Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday named German defence manufacturer TKMS as the preferred bidder to supply the Royal Canadian Navy's next fleet of submarines, and he said several are expected to be delivered by 2034.

Carney made the announcement at a Canadian Armed Forces base in Halifax, a stop along his way to this year's annual NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where he can talk up the massive purchase.

"The sovereignty of our country, bounded by the three oceans and the world's longest coastline, depends on our maritime capabilities," he said.

The prime minister said it was a close race and the government had a difficult decision to make between offers from TKMS and its South Korean rival Hanwha.

Hemingway’s masterpiece on Spain’s bull runs turns 100 years old with its allure intact

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Bill Hillmann has been gored three times while running with the bulls in Spain, but he wouldn’t miss this year’s San Fermin festival for anything.

It marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ernest Hemingway ’s book “The Sun Also Rises” that launched the future Nobel Laureate to literary fame and put Pamplona on the map for millions of people around the world.

On Monday, the festival kicked off with a firework blast over a jam-packed plaza. The first of eight bull runs is on Tuesday.

Hemingway’s 1926 novel captivated generations of readers with its sexy Jazz Age tale of American and British bohemians trying to fill some inner void with the distractions of exotic travel, vast quantities of alcohol and the anguishing pursuit of impossible love.

In America 250 years later, Thomas Jefferson's elegant phrases remain hollow

In the 16th and 17th centuries, countries and territories such as the Netherlands and Portugal boldly declared their independence from Spain. But 250 years ago, on July 4, 1776, the American Declaration of Independence — marked in the U.S. by the semiquincentennial celebrations — was the first time an overseas colony (the 13 colonies, in this case) had set out in an official document its reasons for breaking away from its mother country.

Because the Declaration ultimately gave birth to the United States, it is considered one of the greatest of historical treatises. Thomas Jefferson, its primary author, later explained that his main aim was “not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of … but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject; in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”

He did so brilliantly, creating, in theory at least, an enlightened argument for American independence based on the political, economic, social and philosophical thinking of the era.

Influenced by such philosophers as John Locke and Montesquieu, Jefferson, then 33 years old, a lawyer, landowner, Virginia politician and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia, passionately believed in natural law — that all human beings were born free and equal and that no king or ruler could abolish these rights. It was a key point he made in the Declaration’s well-known preamble.

Letter-opener enthusiast’s collection truly a cut above

Madame Daubreuil. On the 10th hole. With a letter opener.

In the 1923 Agatha Christie novel The Murder on the Links, town resident Paul Renauld turns up dead on a golf course in Merlinville-sur-Mer, France. Fictional detective Hercule Poirot, who is visiting the region, assigns himself to the case. After a number of false leads, the Belgian sleuth ultimately discovers that the victim’s son’s girlfriend fatally stabbed Renauld in the back with an ornate-looking letter opener so her lover would inherit his father’s fortune.

Steve Judge, a former Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service captain who actively collects vintage letter openers, isn’t overly surprised to hear his collectible-of-choice played a prominent role in a murder-mystery tome. (A letter opener also once served as the lethal weapon in the Inspector Morse TV series, as well as in a Season 10 episode of Midsomer Murders.)

“The blades on letter openers are generally quite dull, but if you go to thrift stores, you’ll find they’re usually kept with things like knives and other sharp objects, so I get the association,” says Judge, seated at his dining room table, which is blanketed with dozens of selections from his hoard, some of which are close to a century old.

MTS petition on residential school denialism garners 2,500 signatures

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society is petitioning Ottawa to make it illegal to deny, downplay or justify the harms of residential schools.

Its e-petition — formally known as “e-7191” on the House of Commons website — will close mid-morning Thursday, after a 120-day campaign to collect signatures in support of updating the Criminal Code.

“We won’t tolerate the denialism or the distortion of history,” said Lillian Klausen, who represents 17,000 public school teachers across the province.

The union leader said listening to the voices that have long been excluded from history textbooks “is part of trying to reconcile.”

Indigenous artifacts also deserve legal protection

The trafficking of items of civilizational, cultural and historical significance is a global issue.

Israel moves to formally recognize Armenian WWI deaths as a genocide

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.

The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

For years, Israel never officially broached the subject for fear of angering Turkey, but that relationship has soured over the past two decades, especially as the most recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have dragged on.

Saigon Centre residents fear loss of Vietnamese cultural space after Manitoba Housing takeover

Longtime tenants of a social housing project built in Winnipeg for Vietnamese refugees nearly 40 years ago fear its takeover by Manitoba Housing will ruin their main-floor cultural centre.

Saigon Centre at 458 Balmoral St., which was run by the Vietnamese Non-Profit Housing Corp. since opening in 1989, was put up for sale in March because it was $3 million in arrears on its mortgage.

Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corp. is taking over the 54-unit building and the government department is working on integrating it into the provincial housing portfolio, a spokesperson confirmed recently.

While rent levels are protected under a caveat that was enacted when the building opened, residents say they’re about to lose access to their cultural centre. The large room on the main floor is used for community gatherings, health and wellness activities for seniors, festivals, language-learning classes and other events over the last four decades.

Canada being side-swiped by Trump’s Cuba policy

Canada’s decades-long relationship with revolutionary Cuba has always been a three-country affair — with the United States frequently settling for the spurned third-wheel.

Since the early 1960s, successive U.S. governments have strenuously objected to Canadian trade and commercial engagement with the island. Officials in Washington have always believed that the Canadians were trying to make a “quick buck” at America’s expense, while simultaneously seeking to undermine the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

For almost 70 years now, Canada has had to negotiate the thorny issue of the U.S. trade embargo. Added to that was the anti-Cuba Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and the still active 1996 Helms-Burton Law. Complicating matters further for Ottawa have been the various additions and subtractions to the unrelenting U.S. efforts to strangle the Cuban economy — particularly during the presidency of Barack Obama.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a near-ironclad (some Russian oil is getting through), illegal fuel embargo against Cuba, using American naval vessels and U.S. Coast Guard ships. Additionally, he signed an executive order in early May to expand U.S. economic warfare, or what some call “secondary sanctions,” against those materially assisting the Cuban government.

Protesters denounce controversial exhibition at rights museum

More than 200 people demonstrated outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Friday evening to protest the exhibition about the mass displacement of Palestinians in the 1940s during the Arab-Israeli war.

Outside the museum at The Forks, the sidewalk was lined with people wearing white and blue clothing while waving Israeli flags and holding placards that denounced the display.

Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present focuses on the Nakba, in which an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were displaced between 1947 and 1949. The exhibition documents Palestinian Canadians’ experiences through art, photos and text.

One protester said she worries students and other groups who visit the exhibition will get a one-sided version.

Palestinian Canadians share keepsakes, memories in CMHR’s Nakba exhibition

Fouad Sahyoun was four years old when his family fled their home in Haifa amid bombardment from encroaching Israeli paramilitary forces in 1948.

“We took a few suitcases and (some) money and we went to Alexandria. We were never allowed to go back,” said Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian living in Montreal. “When the money ran out, we became real refugees.”

The 82-year-old is one of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced in 1948 following the partitioning of Palestine and during the creation of the State of Israel. This event is known as the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic.

Sahyoun’s story and the deeds to his family’s seized property in Haifa are included in Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, a new exhibition open to the public Saturday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Exhibit on displaced Palestinians set to open at human rights museum amid criticism

WINNIPEG - The head of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights says it's unfortunate a trustee resigned over an exhibit about displaced Palestinians but she stands by the decision for it to open to the public Saturday.

The exhibit, titled "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present," focuses on people affected by the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. About 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 1948 during fighting over control of what is now Israel.

The exhibit has been in the works for four years, though Palestinian Canadians have been calling for their stories to be told at the Winnipeg museum since it opened in 2014.

Jewish groups have raised concerns that the exhibit could fuel antisemitism by not providing more historical context and that it was created without sufficient consultation and transparency.

World Cup a mosaic of the human experience

On June 13, the third day of the ongoing World Cup, Morocco played more than a quarter of its Group C match against Brazil without a single Moroccan-born footballer on the pitch.

Instead, the starting eleven deployed by manager Mohamed Ouahbi between the 64th and 89th minutes included players from Belgium, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada. (Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was born in Montreal.) Ouahbi, himself, hails from metropolitan Brussels.

According to the BBC, nearly 25 per cent of the players at this tournament were born in countries other than the ones they’re representing.

One of the more prominent examples of this experience is Luca Zidane.

Winnipeg co-ops among models examined in film

We see theatre artist Debbie Patterson making her way toward the Old Grace Housing Co-operative’s entrance in her wheelchair, then settling inside for a steaming cup of tea. The co-op is her home.

“Well, I’ve always loved this neighbourhood and wanted to stay in this neighbourhood. I lived in a big, three-storey Wolseley house and then got MS and couldn’t do the stairs,” she says in a voiceover.

“Having a place I could move into that was completely accessible was just a godsend at a perfect time when I needed to stop living in my house, so I could stay in my neighbourhood and continue to be in a safe place.”

It’s one of the opening scenes of Meeting a Moment: The Art of Social Architecture, directed by Danielle Sturk and produced by Leslie Stafford, which appears on CBC Gem today and airs on CBC TV Saturday.