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Canada marks 2nd annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – CBC News

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Today, Canada marks its second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — a time to remember children who died while being forced to attend church-run and government-funded residential schools, those who survived and made it home, and the families and communities still affected by lasting trauma.

The day was made a federal statutory holiday last year, realizing a recommendation made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Ceremonies will be held across the country to reflect on the country’s history and treatment of Indigenous people. All federal government buildings in Canada — including the Peace Tower in Ottawa — will lower their flags to half-mast from sunrise to sunset.

Sept. 30 is also Orange Shirt Day, which honours the story of Phyllis Webstad, a former residential school student who had her orange shirt taken away on her first day at a residential school. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is encouraging Canadians to wear orange as an act of solidarity.

In Ottawa, the day started with an eagle feather ceremony on Parliament Hill in front of the Peace Tower, which included a traditional round dance that saw dozens of members from the crowd participate.

A crowd attends the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Setp. 30. 2022. (Stephen Hoff/CBC)

Anishinaabe (Algonquin) Elder Claudette Commanda spoke of how the day is a moment for Canadians to listen and reflect on their history.

“It’s a day for you Canadians to listen, to learn, to understand, to have it in your heart and in your spirit to feel the beauty of Indigenous people, the strength and resilience of survivors, but to learn history,” she said.

“Reflect on the truth, learn from the past, walk together in peace, understanding and healing. Walk together this journey called reconciliation,” she said. “Everyday is Sept. 30.”

The ceremony will be followed by a walk to nearby LeBreton Flats Park, where attendees will lay children’s footwear on the ground to commemorate those who died in residential schools. A one-hour commemoration ceremony will take place there in the afternoon.

A memorial cloth bearing the names of 4,100 children who did not return from residential schools is carried during a spirit walk on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Pierre-Paul Couture/CBC)

A year after spending the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on vacation in Tofino, B.C., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a sunrise ceremony in Niagara Falls, Ont., this morning.

Following the ceremony, Trudeau spoke with residential school survivors and later challenged Canadians to be more accepting of the stories of survivors during an address to the crowd.

“How many times do Indigenous peoples need to tell their stories of trauma, of loss, of pain, of grief, until we absorb those stories as non-Indigenous people and make them our own?” he said.

“They too are the story of Canada and therefore they too are the story of each of us.”

‘We are still here’

Speaking ahead of Trudeau, Haudenosaunee Grandmother Marie Jones noted that the day should also be a reminder that the effort of residential schools — the forced assimilation of Indigenous children  — failed.

“As Indigenous people we are still here,” she said, garnering applause from the crowd.

Governor General Mary Simon challenged all Canadians to commit to reconciliation — not just today, but year-round.

“I encourage you to start the conversation at school, at work, at home: What will you do, today, tomorrow and every day, to be part of a better Canada, one that reflects us all?” she said in a statement.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre attended a sunrise ceremony in Ottawa this morning.

“Today, we listen to the survivors, remember those — the children — we lost, and commit to continue walking the path of healing and reconciliation with Indigenous people,” he tweeted following the ceremony.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who attended the ceremony on Parliament Hill, said he wanted to show his support for Indigenous communities.

“‘[I’m] here to remember the children, to stand in solidarity, to remember the harms [caused by residential schools] and make it clear that we are here to fight for justice,” he said.

Hailey Murphy, granddaughter of residential school survivor and the founder of the Orange Shirt Day movement Phyllis Webstad, drums during a ceremony to mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Niagara Falls, Ont. on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press)

A sunrise ceremony kicked off the second full day of activities at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on Friday, celebrating Indigenous cultures, traditions and languages through workshops, presentations, stories, teachings, dance, film and music.

Dozens of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people gathered at dawn around a sacred fire outside city hall for the ceremony. There was a sage smudging ceremony and dried tobacco was passed around to those gathered to place in the fire as an offering. 

In the centre of Halifax’s downtown, hundreds gathered to mark the day and hear from Acadia First Nation Chief Deborah Robinson, Mi’kmaw elder Alan Knockwood and Halifax’s Indigenous adviser Cheryl Copage-Gehue.

Knockwood told the crowd at the city’s Grand Parade that as the community comes together to reflect on Canada’s legacy of colonialism, the children lost in the residential school system are “here in our hearts and they are with us here.”

Here’s how to follow the events on all CBC platforms:

  • A one-hour commemoration ceremony in Ottawa will begin at 1 p.m. ET. This special event honours residential school survivors, their families and their communities, and includes a commemorative program from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, in association with APTN.
  • CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault will host special coverage of the events starting at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBC, CBC Gem, CBC News Network, CBCNews.ca and the CBC News App.
  • On CBC Radio One and CBC Listen, Falen Johnson will host the live coverage, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
  • CBC.ca will have regular updates and livestream the events.

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools or by the latest reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.

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Arizona voters guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters have approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion access up to fetal viability, typically after 21 weeks — a major win for advocates of the measure in the presidential battleground state who have been seeking to expand access beyond the current 15-week limit.

Arizona was one of nine states with abortion on the ballot. Democrats have centered abortion rights in their campaigns since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion-rights supporters prevailed in all seven abortion ballot questions in 2022 and 2023, including in conservative-leaning states.

Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition leading the state campaign, gathered well over the 383,923 signatures required to put it on the ballot, and the secretary of state’s office verified that enough were valid. The coalition far outpaced the opposition campaign, It Goes Too Far, in fundraising. The opposing campaign argued the measure was too far-reaching and cited its own polling in saying a majority of Arizonans support the 15-week limit. The measure allows post-viability abortions if they are necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the mother.

Access to abortion has been a cloudy issue in Arizona. In April, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for the enforcement of a long-dormant 1864 law banning nearly all abortions. The state Legislature swiftly repealed it.

Voters in Arizona are divided on abortion. Maddy Pennell, a junior at Arizona State University, said the possibility of a near-total abortion ban made her “depressed” and strengthened her desire to vote for the abortion ballot measure.

“I feel very strongly about having access to abortion,” she said.

Kyle Lee, an independent Arizona voter, does not support the abortion ballot measure.

“All abortion is pretty much, in my opinion, murder from beginning to end,” Lee said.

The Civil War-era ban also shaped the contours of tight legislative races. State Sen. Shawnna Bolick and state Rep. Matt Gress are among the handful of vulnerable Republican incumbents in competitive districts who crossed party lines to give the repeal vote the final push — a vote that will be tested as both parties vie for control of the narrowly GOP-held state Legislature.

Both of the Phoenix-area lawmakers were rebuked by some of their Republican colleagues for siding with Democrats. Gress made a motion on the House floor to initiate the repeal of the 1864 law. Bolick, explaining her repeal vote to her Senate colleagues, gave a 20-minute floor speech describing her three difficult pregnancies.

While Gress was first elected to his seat in 2022, Bolick is facing voters for the first time. She was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill a seat vacancy in 2023. She has not emphasized her role in the repeal vote as she has campaigned, instead playing up traditional conservative issues — one of her signs reads “Bolick Backs the Blue.”

Voters rejected a measure to eliminate retention elections for state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices.

The measure was put on the ballot by Republican legislators hoping to protect two conservative justices up for a routine retention vote who favored allowing the Civil War-era ban to be enforced — Shawnna Bolick’s husband, Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, and Justice Kathryn Hackett King. Since the measure did not pass, both are still vulnerable to voter ouster, though those races hadn’t been decided by early Wednesday morning.

Under the existing system, voters decide every four to six years whether judges and justices should remain on the bench. The proposed measure would have allowed the judges and justices to stay on the bench without a popular vote unless one is triggered by felony convictions, crimes involving fraud and dishonesty, personal bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Voters back Nebraska’s ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and reject a competing measure

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska voters supported a measure Tuesday that enshrines the state’s current ban on abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy in the state constitution, and they rejected a competing measure that sought to expand abortion rights. Nebraska was the first state to have competing abortion amendments on the same ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the nationwide right to abortion and allowing states to decide for themselves. The dueling measures were among a record number of petition-initiated measures on Nebraska’s ballot Tuesday.

What were the competing abortion measures?

A majority of voters supported a measure enshrining the state’s current ban on abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in the state constitution. The measure will also allow for further restrictions. Last year, the Legislature passed the 12-week ban, which includes exceptions for cases of rape and incest and to protect the life of the pregnant woman.

Voters rejected the other abortion measure. If they had passed it by a larger number of “for” votes than the 12-week measure, it would have amended the constitution to guarantee the right to have an abortion until viability — the standard under Roe that is the point at which a fetus might survive outside the womb. Some babies can survive with medical help after 21 weeks of gestation.

Abortion was on the ballot in several other states, as well. Coming into the election, voters in all seven states that had decided on abortion-related ballot measures since the reversal of Roe had favored abortion rights, including in some conservative states.

Who is behind the Nebraska abortion measures?

The 12-week ban measure was bankrolled by some of Nebraska’s wealthiest people, including Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who previously served as governor and donated more than $1.1 million. His mother, Marlene Ricketts, gave $4 million to the cause. Members of the Peed family, which owns publishing company Sandhills Global, also gave $1 million.

The effort was organized under the name Protect Women and Children and was heavily backed by religious organizations, including the Nebraska Catholic Conference, a lobbying group that has organized rallies, phone banks and community townhalls to drum up support for the measure.

The effort to enshrine viability as the standard was called Protect Our Rights Nebraska and had the backing of several medical, advocacy and social justice groups. Planned Parenthood donated nearly $1 million to the cause, with the American Civil Liberties Union, I Be Black Girl, Nebraska Appleseed and the Women’s Fund of Omaha also contributing significantly to the roughly $3.7 million raised by Protect Our Rights.

What other initiatives were on Nebraska’s ballot?

Nebraska voters approved two measures Tuesday that will create a system for the use and manufacture of medical marijuana, if the measures survive an ongoing legal challenge.

The measures legalize the possession and use of medical marijuana, and allow for the manufacture, distribution and delivery of the drug. One would let patients and caregivers possess up to 5 ounces (142 grams) of marijuana if recommended by a doctor. The other would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, which would oversee the private groups that would manufacture and dispense the drug.

Those initiatives were challenged over allegations that the petition campaign that put them on the ballot broke election rules. Nebraska’s attorney general said supporters of the measures may have submitted several thousand invalid signatures, and one man has been charged in connection with 164 allegedly fraudulent signatures. That means a judge could still invalidate the measures.

Voters also opted Tuesday to repeal a new conservative-backed law that allocates millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fund private school tuition.

Finally, they approved a measure that will require all Nebraska employers to provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave to their employees.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Abortion rights advocates win in 7 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in 3

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of seven victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York.

The results include firsts for the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.

They also came in the same election that Republican Donald Trump won the presidency. Among his inconsistent positions on abortion has been an insistence that it’s an issue best left to the states. Still, the president can have a major impact on abortion policy through executive action.

In the meantime, Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with an amendment that would allow lawmakers to restrict abortions only past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame.

But the ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now have to ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment.

“Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.

Roughly half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. But only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.

Bans remain in place in three states after votes

Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota became the first states since Roe was overturned where abortion opponents prevailed on a ballot measure. Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.

The result was a political win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who had steered state GOP funds to the cause. His administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the result is “a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” praising DeSantis for leading the charge against the measure.

The defeat makes permanent a shift in the Southern abortion landscape that began when the state’s six-week ban took effect in May. That removed Florida as a destination for abortion for many women from nearby states with deeper bans and also led to far more women from the state traveling to obtain abortion. The nearest states with looser restrictions are North Carolina and Virginia — hundreds of miles away.

“The reality is because of Florida’s constitution a minority of Florida voters have decided Amendment 4 will not be adopted,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the Yes on 4 Campaign said while wiping away tears. “The reality is a majority of Floridians just voted to end Florida’s abortion ban.”

In South Dakota, another state with a ban on abortion throughout pregnancy with some exceptions, the defeat of an abortion measure was more decisive. It would have allowed some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. Because of that wrinkle, most national abortion-rights groups did not support it.

Voters in Nebraska adopted a measure that allows more abortion restrictions and enshrines the state’s current 12-week ban and rejected a competing measure that would have ensured abortion rights.

Other states guaranteed abortion rights

Arizona’s amendment will mean replacing the current law that bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The new measure ensures abortion access until viability. A ballot measure there gained momentum after a state Supreme Court ruling in April found that the state could enforce a strict abortion ban adopted in 1864. Some GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to repeal the law before it could be enforced.

In Maryland, the abortion rights amendment is a legal change that won’t make an immediate difference to abortion access in a state that already allows it.

It’s a similar situation in Montana, where abortion is already legal until viability.

The Colorado measure exceeded the 55% of support required to pass. Besides enshrining access, it also undoes an earlier amendment that barred using state and local government funding for abortion, opening the possibility of state Medicaid and government employee insurance plans covering care.

A New York equal rights law that abortion rights group say will bolster abortion rights also passed. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Sasha Ahuja, campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, called the result “a monumental victory for all New Yorkers” and a vote against opponents who she says used misleading parental rights and anti-trans messages to thwart the measure.

The results end a win streak for abortion-rights advocates

Until Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.

The abortion rights campaigns have a big fundraising advantage this year. Their opponents’ efforts are focused on portraying the amendments as too extreme rather than abortion as immoral.

Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.

The issue is resonating with voters. About one-fourth said abortion policy was the single most important factor for their vote, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. Close to half said it was an important factor, but not the most important. Just over 1 in 10 said it was a minor factor.

The outcomes of ballot initiatives that sought to overturn strict abortion bans in Florida and Missouri were very important to a majority of voters in the states. More than half of Florida voters identified the result of the amendment as very important, while roughly 6 in 10 of Missouri’s voters said the same, the survey found.

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Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut and Amanda Seitz contributed to this article.

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This article has been corrected to reflect in the ‘other states’ section that Montana, not Missouri, currently allows abortion until viability.

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