Lawyer, philanthropist had a fierce sense of social justice

A luminary in human rights advocacy, Canadian lawyer Yude Henteleff was a natural explorer both in his travels and in his daily life. Henteleff lived 97 years with passion and dynamism.

He died Dec. 8, 2024.

Henteleff’s accomplishments and list of awards and accolades began at age 16 when he was elected president of the Jewish Youth Council and then to the youth division of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His activities in the Jewish community were extensive and lifelong.

The father, grandfather and partner lived life to the fullest, propelled by a fierce sense of social justice and belief in “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew phrase meaning “to repair the world.”

Conservative MPs beat Liberals, NDP on online engagement, study finds

OTTAWA - A new study from McGill University says Conservative MPs far outpace their Liberal and NDP counterparts in online engagement, partly due to the their voices being amplified on X.

The report from McGill’s Media Ecosystem Observatory found in 2024, online posts from federal Conservative MPs garnered 61 per cent more engagement — likes, shares and comments — than those from Liberal and NDP MPs combined.

It found that engagement with Conservative politicians on X has increased 52 per cent since Elon Musk, a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, took over the platform previously known as Twitter in 2022.

The report looked at online posts from all members of Parliament on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok between January 2022 and November 2024.

YouTube election fraud conspiracy theories fuel impeached South Korean president and his supporters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands have braved the frigid January weather in Seoul protests, waving South Korean and American flags and shouting vows to protect their embattled conservative hero, the impeached South Korean president facing imprisonment over potential rebellion charges.

The swelling crowds in South Korea’s capital are inspired by President Yoon Suk Yeol's defiance, but also by the growing power of right-wing YouTubers who portray Yoon as a victim of a leftist, North Korea-sympathizing opposition that has rigged elections to gain a legislative majority and is now plotting to remove a patriotic leader.

“Out with fraudulent elections and a fake National Assembly!” read one sign, brandished by an angry man in a fur hat during a recent protest near Yoon’s presidential residence, the site of a massive law enforcement operation Wednesday that made Yoon the country’s first sitting president to be detained in a criminal investigation.

Many at the pro-Yoon rallies, which are separated by police from anti-Yoon counter-protests, are significantly influenced by fictional narratives about election fraud that dominate conservative YouTube channels — claims that Yoon has repeatedly referenced in his attacks on election officials.

Manitoba to consider support for news outlets

The Manitoba government says it is dedicated to protecting democracy, journalism and freedom of the press and plans to strike an all-party committee to determine how best to do that.

“If there’s a business landscape that makes it much more difficult for journalists to keep doing that important work, I think there is a need to have a conversation about some form of public support or at least a fair hearing of those issues,” Premier Wab Kinew said Friday.

The promise will be unveiled in Tuesday’s throne speech, which kicks off the new legislative session.

The committee would “look at the future of journalism in the province, including whether there’s public supports that might be needed, or to discuss whether a specific percentage of government and Crown corporation advertising should be dedicated to supporting local media,” Kinew said.

Rupert’s Land inhabitants blindsided by Canada’s purchase of their homeland in 1869

When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) reached an agreement to sell Rupert’s Land to Canada in the spring of 1869, it came as a complete surprise to the people living in what is today Western Canada. They were neither consulted on the proposed annexation nor given any details about how it would affect their lives.

Classrooms don’t have to be smartphone-free zones, tech-fluent educators tell province

A group of tech-savvy teachers is calling on the province to create guidelines on cellphone use in schools and offering to help get it done.

The Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders has taken a firm stance against introducing a sweeping ban of personal wireless devices in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings.

Manitoba Education has no policy in place. School divisions create their own appropriate use policies, while most buildings allow teachers to make rules for their own classrooms.

Tuxedo’s Laidlaw School, Collège Béliveau in Windsor Park and West Kildonan Collegiate are among Winnipeg facilities that have imposed stricter measures this year.

FACT FOCUS: Discovery of a tunnel at a Chabad synagogue spurs false claims and conspiracy theories

News of a brawl between police and worshippers on Monday over a secret underground tunnel found connected to a historic Brooklyn synagogue was picked up quickly on social media, with posts spreading baseless claims about the passage, many laced with antisemitism.

The conflict at the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York City, which serves as the center of an influential Hasidic Jewish movement, began when a cement truck arrived to seal the tunnel’s opening. Proponents of the tunnel then staged a protest and ripped off the wooden siding of the synagogue. Police called to the scene ultimately arrested nine people.

Those supporting the tunnel said they were carrying out an “expansion” plan long envisioned by the former head of the movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. But that hasn’t stopped a proliferation of social media posts falsely suggesting the passage is proof of illicit activities such as child sex trafficking.

“This entire episode is immensely painful for us, the Jewish community at large and all decent people," Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad, told The Associated Press. He also noted that sensationalism and errors in the media "have provided fodder to these individuals who are trolling online.”

36 jours en mer : récit des naufragés qui ont survécu aux hallucinations, à la soif et au désespoir

FASS BOYE, Senegal (AP) — Un mois s’est écoulé lorsque les quatre premiers hommes ont décidé de sauter.

D’innombrables cargos sont passés à côté d’eux, pourtant personne n’est venu à leur secours. Ils n’avaient plus de carburant. La faim et la soif étaient insoutenables. Des dizaines de personnes sont déjà mortes, dont le capitaine.

Le voyage de Fass Boye, petit village de pêche sénégalaise en difficulté économique, jusqu’aux îles Canaries en Espagne, porte d’entrée de l’Union européenne où ils espéraient trouver du travail, était censé durer une semaine. Mais plus d’un mois plus tard, le bateau en bois transportant 101 hommes et garçons s’éloignait de plus en plus de la destination prévue.

Aucune terre n’est en vue. Pourtant, les quatre hommes croient, ou hallucinent, qu’ils peuvent nager jusqu’au rivage. Rester sur le bateau «maudit», pensaient-ils, était une condamnation à mort. Ils ont ramassé des récipients d’eau vides et des planches de bois, tout ce qui pouvait les aider à flotter.

Even if games go on, MLB lockout could alienate Gen Z

NEW YORK (AP) — Max Scherzer stars in the last video posted to Major League Baseball’s TikTok account before the league locked out the players Thursday morning.

The clip, viewed over 400,000 times, shows the final out from Scherzer's first no-hitter in 2015 with Washington, followed by teammates dousing the three-time Cy Young Award winner with chocolate syrup. Hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd's “Swang” plays in the background.

“Max Scherzer is ... officially a New York Met!!!” the caption reads, celebrating Scherzer's $130 million deal to pitch in Queens.

It could be the last post featuring a big league player sent to the account’s 4.8 million followers for months, a curveball with real consequences for a sport already concerned about courting young fans.

Can we talk? Gannett promotes effort at bridging gaps

He may have been censured by the House of Commons this week over his handling of sexual misconduct in the military, but Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is not going anywhere, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

Puncturing the shield of ‘implicit bias’

A leaked internal report this week into the conduct of four Winnipeg firefighters showed evidence of “implicit racial bias” against an Indigenous woman and “racial animus” towards a paramedic (also a person of colour) on a call in October 2020.

The report is clear: identifying the actions of the firefighters put the woman’s health at risk, delayed her journey to the hospital, and showed callous disregard for her safety. One firefighter riding in the ambulance refused to help the paramedic, forcing the injured woman to hold the dressing to the stab wound on her own neck.

Later, one of them called it: “Just another call in the North End.”

According to the report, it was part of “retaliation” against the paramedic, who previously alleged racist conduct by members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service — including one of the firefighters involved, who called him a “sand n-----.”

Claims of Indigenous ancestry by non-Indigenous Canadians on the rise

Writing about identity politics is fraught with political landmines. People tend to be highly sensitive to any challenge to how they identify themselves. It’s personal.

It is therefore intriguing that author Darryl Leroux has walked purposely right into the minefield. It’s political.

In Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, Leroux describes the obsessive search by some heretofore non-Indigenous Canadians for long-ago Indigenous ancestors who can justify them identifying as Métis. According to Leroux, an associate professor of social justice and community studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, the popularity of genealogical websites and online forums has created communities where race-shifters can organize. The motive, he warns, is not benign.

Leroux makes it clear that he is not talking about people who are seeking to reunite with their kin after being forcibly disconnected from their Indigenous identity through Indian residential schools, the Sixties Scoop or Indian Act policies.

Support for news media a solid, welcome step

It is hard for a government to support a good idea when it knows critics will attack the assistance as support for a bad idea.

So the federal Liberal government should be commended for the support it promised to news media this week.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced the federal government will start subsidizing newsroom salaries, as well as digital subscriptions and charitable donations to news media. The cost will be about $120 million a year for five years.

Most of us in the newspaper industry welcome this as a good idea — journalism, a pillar of democracy in communities across Canada, needs help.

Justice system unfairly punishes and rewards

Almost half of the people in Manitoba agree there is a problem with the Canadian justice system when it comes to treatment of Indigenous peoples, according to a recent report in the Winnipeg Free Press (”Manitobans divided on justice system,” April 16, 2018). Like many problems, it’s complex and the way to resolution starts with understanding the many issues.

Here at the John Howard Society, we work with men in conflict with the law, and the vast majority of the people we work with are Indigenous. We see first-hand that the system doesn’t treat everyone fairly for at least three reasons: economic, cultural and prejudicial.

High rates of unemployment and an inability to secure stable housing lead to greater rates of incarceration for those awaiting trial. When a person is charged with a crime, they are often released on their own recognizance. But, if they can’t provide an address for where they will live, they are more likely to be taken into custody. And once someone is in custody, it’s much harder to get out.

By this point, you need a lawyer to represent you at a bail hearing, you still need an address where you will live and there is a legal principle that the accused has to be able to assist in their own defence. I have seen a homeless individual held in custody for almost three weeks for shoplifting less than five dollars’ worth of merchandise, unable to get bail or go to trial because he could not properly instruct his lawyer due to addictions and mental-health issues.

While our 150th birthday party is a big, 'Dominion Day' began with respectful restraint

It’s safe to say what is now called Canada Day had modest beginnings in these parts.As far back as 1869 — two years after Confederation and one year before Manitoba was born — the July 3 issue of the Nor’Wester, the paper of record for the “Colony of Assiniboia,” dutifully reported that celebrations on July 1 were muted.

“Dominion Day was kept in our little town by the raising of the ‘Canadian’ flag upon the now celebrated staff — said to be 70 feet, be the same 20 feet more or less — which flag was liberal sainted during the day by an ‘Anvil Chorus’ adapted to ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘Hurrah! for the New Dominion,” the paper noted. “The affair was wound up by a large bonfire in the evening.

“Not a gun was heard, or a funeral note or anything else,” the account added, “but then you see the H.B.C. (Hudson Bay Company) is keeping her patriotism like champagne, well bottled and wired down, for a future occasion, when we may expect to see it burst forth in a manner calculated to astonish the natives.”

Of course, these were the days of the Riel Rebellion in the Red River Colony. Not exactly the time to be popping that “champagne” in public. Besides, the majority of the less than 1,000 colony settlers considered themselves British. And a vast majority of residents, the Métis under Riel, were literally at war with the new Canada.

Peut-on se fier au narrateur?

En l’espace d’un an, Max et son père déménagent cinq fois. Le père change non seulement de ville et d’emploi, mais de prénom et de nom de famille! Un mystère qui est au cœur de Max Lastname, le premier roman publié par Thea Wortley, auteure de 16 ans.

Pour Thea Wortley, l’auteure du roman pour ados et jeunes adultes Max Lastname écrire, c’est avant tout “jouer avec les points de vue.”

“Quand j’ai lu Les portes tournantes de l’auteur québécois Jacques Savoie, j’étais fascinée par le personnage d’Antoine Blaudelle. C’est un des deux narrateurs du roman, un naïf en qui il ne faut pas mettre toute sa confiance. Au bout de quelques pages, comme lectrice, je commençais à me demander si ce qu’il disait collait vraiment à la vérité,” Thea dit.

D’où l’idée de créer Max, un garçon de 10 ans.

‘Mes origines sont tatouées sur ma peau’

Il a réchappé au spleen des venus “d’ailleurs.” Ces autres, qui sans trop savoir pourquoi, jamais ne se sentent apaisés. De cette douleur de déraciné, André Bila en a fait un livre. Ne le dites pas aux Africains retrace son parcours jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Jusqu’à la guérison.

En quittant la République démocratique du Congo, il était aux étoiles. Comme on peut l’être à 17 ans, la tête pleine de rêves et d’espoirs à profusion. En 1996, Bila déménage au Canada avec sa mère, sa sœur et ses deux frères. “Les raisons qui nous ont fait partir à l’époque sont les mêmes pour lesquelles on quitte encore l’Afrique aujourd’hui. L’instabilité, la précarité sociale surtout,” résume-t-il.

Depuis, le Zaïre de Mobutu n’est plus. Et pourtant la jeunesse subsaharienne songe toujours à un ailleurs, biberonnée aux séries U.S., aux Romney Studios et aux magazines sur papier glacé. La famille se pose ainsi à Montréal. “On y parlait français: le choix s’est présenté naturellement.” Vite, la flamme qui l’avait fait s’éloigner de son pays vivote. Pour brusquement s’éteindre. “Tout ce dont j’avais rêvé n’était pas faux. Seulement erroné.”

Sans l’admettre réellement, le jeune homme survit. Sans finir ses études de cinéma, il s’improvise aide-maçon. Sa première emploi. Avec les années, il plaisante: “Ça a duré trois jours! J’ai très vite été démasqué.”