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Freedom convoy 'changed' Canada: Gov. Gen. Mary Simon – CTV News

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OTTAWA —
As a girl in Nunavik in the 1950s, Mary Simon and her friends chattered cheerfully on their way to elementary school, just like other children. But, unlike most other kids, they grew silent as they reached the schoolyard. 

Inuit languages were banned at Kuujjuaq federal day school in northern Quebec and Simon recalls being punished “many times” for speaking Inuktitut rather than English in the classroom. 

“From grade one to grade six we were not allowed to speak our language on school property or in the classroom or in school at all,” she said in an interview.

More than six decades later, as Governor General of Canada, Simon delivered the throne speech not just in the country’s official languages, English and French, but in Inuktitut, a groundbreaking moment in Canadian history. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to the role last year and she moved into Rideau Hall, the grand official residence in Ottawa. As the Queen’s representative in Canada, she plays not only a key ceremonial role, but serves as an apolitical figurehead for the country. 

The 95-year-old Queen recently tested positive for COVID-19 and Simon said Canadians all “wish her well.”

“I know that all Canadians join me in wishing Her Majesty good health and a swift recovery from her recent illness,” she said.  

Simon also contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, which she said she only had for a week with mild symptoms, thanks to having been vaccinated. 

“I am fully vaccinated and encourage everyone to get vaccinated. I think getting vaccinated is the best way to fight COVID so we can return to a more normal life,” she said. 

Though she rises above party politics, the politics of vaccinations came to her front door this month after the so-called Freedom Convoy rolled into Ottawa and stayed. 

One of the protest’s organizing groups called Canada Unity published a “memorandum of understanding” calling for the Senate and Governor General to overrule all levels of government and revoke COVID-19 restrictions.

Her office was also inundated with emails from people trying to register a no-confidence vote in the government with her, after mistakenly believing that her office had the power to unilaterally dissolve Parliament. 

Rideau Hall was forced to post a message on Twitter to counter the “misinformation” on social media encouraging Canadians to cast a non-confidence vote. 

The statement pointed out that “no such registry or process exists.”

Simon said she did not get involved in the politics of the protests, or meet any of the protesters, although she was kept closely informed of the tumultuous events on her doorstep. 

The Governor General said Canada “has been changed by this major event.”

She said she is “very saddened by some of the events that have taken place especially some of the things that happened at the National War Memorial,” in an apparent reference to a video showing someone dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

She said Canadians are “frustrated and upset because we have had to live a very different life for over two years.” 

Although the protest started out about vaccinations, it “became much bigger than that,” she said. 

The protesters were not a homogeneous mass, she said, but included many groupings, including people “opposed to vaccines and … other people that want to overthrow the government.”

“Overthrowing the government in this way is not something Canada does,” she declared.

Her focus now is on healing fault lines and divisions that have emerged in Canada, which includes speaking to the broad range of people involved in the protests.

During her career, including as lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council, Simon developed a reputation as a bridge-builder between people with sharply opposing views. 

Though she says she is personally in favour of “following the science” and getting vaccinated, she stops short of judging the protesters. 

“I don’t feel is anyone is wrong particularly, but there is a very strong difference of opinion about what is going on,” the former diplomat remarked.  

She said the country needs to take a look at “bringing Canadians together to discuss how we can work and come together as a nation and look forward.”

“I am a bridge between Canadians from different experiences,” she said. “Encouraging different points of view has been central to my work, not just here at Rideau Hall but throughout my life’s work,” she said. 

She said the fact that Canadians have a diversity of experience and opinions makes the country stronger “when we are respectful of each other.”

But respect “is something we really have to work on in the next months and probably years,” she believes. 

Recently the Governor General surprised members of the public by phoning them directly with a “kindness call,” a CBC Ottawa initiative she liked so much she decided to continue herself. 

With the calls she hopes to inspire Canadians to “ajuinnata,” an Inuktitut concept that means a promise, a vow to never give up.

“I think kindness should be a way of life. I think it is really important — even when you disagree with somebody — you should always be kind,” she said. 

The Governor General is optimistic that fractures that have emerged in Canadian society in recent weeks can be healed. 

For all those at loggerheads, she offers some advice, honed from decades of diplomacy.

“You don’t have to be obnoxious about a disagreement,” she said. “If you walk away from it, you can wait until a later date to have another discussion and maybe that one will be more fruitful.” 

An essential part of building a more inclusive society, she said, is allowing people to speak in their mother tongue and “fostering respect” for them.

Simon, the first Indigenous Governor General, recalled a time when, because Inuit names were considered difficult to pronounce, Inuit people were also assigned a number. 

“That was how to identify Inuit across the Arctic,” she said. 

Only now are Canadians learning about deliberate attempts to erase Indigenous languages at residential schools, she said. 

They are also “learning the truth about these children who were torn from their homes and thrust into very unfamiliar worlds where threats of violence were used to erase their identity.”

She said Canadians everywhere “share in the heartbreak and sorrow of the First Nations” following the discoveries of unmarked graves of children attending residential schools.  

“It seems like the country has woken up to a reality that may have not been known by Canadians,” she said.  

Ensuring Indigenous people today do not have to revert to French or English to access basic services in their communities is “really important,” she said. 

Simon is fluently bilingual in Inuktitut and English but has had to learn French so she can deliver addresses as Governor General in both official languages, and speak to francophone Canadians in their native tongue.

To do this, the 74-year-old grandmother has been taking French lessons, where she practises reading and conversation and studies the structure of the language every week. 

“I have a tutor and I take lessons three times a week … for about an hour and a half,” she said. “My tutor says I’m doing well.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2022.

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Mitchell throws two TD passes as Ticats earn important 37-21 home win over Redblacks

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September 14, 2024

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HAMILTON – It remains faint but Bo Levi Mitchell and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats still have a playoff pulse.

Mitchell threw two touchdown passes as Hamilton defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 37-21 in the CFL’s annual Hall of Fame game Saturday afternoon. The Ticats (4-9) earned a second straight win to move to within six points of the third-place Toronto Argonauts (7-6) in the East Division.

Hamilton visits Toronto on Friday night.

“Obviously they’re (wins) huge now,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t do ourselves any favours by getting into this position and not being able to really control our own destiny.

“But right now, we need certain people to win at certain times. Our job is to go out there and try to win the next five, then the next three after that.”

Mitchell finished 20-of-27 passing for 299 yards and an interception. He entered weekend action leading the CFL in passing yards (3,383) and TD strikes (21).

Greg Bell’s 15-yard TD run at 11:30 of the fourth and two-point convert put Hamilton up 36-21 after backup Jeremiah Masoli led Ottawa on two scoring drives. Following a 13-yard TD strike to Andre Miller at 2:53, Masoli found Dominique Rhymes on a 10-yard touchdown pass at 7:43 before Khalan Laborn’s two-point convert cut Hamilton’s lead to 29-21.

“When you’re scoring from (15) yards out on a run play, that makes offence easy,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of those things when you get down there as a quarterback, it takes you sometimes five, eight, 10 plays and now it’s ‘OK, now we have to create some stuff and find something.’

“When you hand the ball off and you’re scoring from (15) yards, it makes the offence really easy.”

Ottawa (8-4-1) would have clinched a playoff spot with a victory.

Ottawa committed six turnovers (three interceptions, two fumbles, once on downs) before an announced Tim Hortons Field gathering of 22,119. Lawrence Woods III also returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown at 11:51 of the first quarter that put Hamilton ahead 10-3.

“You’ve got to bring your best every single week and this wasn’t our best, all of us, from coaches to the players,” said Ottawa head coach Bob Dyce. “If you don’t play great for four quarters, I don’t care who you’re playing you’re not going to have a successful day.

“We should’ve made the tackle (on Woods), we had him wrapped up it’s that simple. Even though we didn’t make the play on that, there should’ve been extra bodies there to clean it up when he did break the tackle.”

Hamilton also tied the season series with Ottawa 1-1. The teams meet again at TD Place on Oct. 25.

“If we didn’t turn it over today I would’ve said we played really well offensively and that to me is what the biggest difference is,” said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. “Even the turnovers today (interception, fumble), at least they were in their end and we weren’t giving them a short field.

“The biggest play of the game was Woodsie’s return. It got us jump-started, gave us the lead and we were kind of off after that.”

Ottawa starter Dru Brown was 17-of-27 passing for 164 yards and an interception. Masoli entered late in the third and finished 13-of-19 passing for 183 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, but Dyce said Brown will start next weekend against Montreal (10-2-1), which earned a 19-19 tie Saturday night with Calgary (4-8-1).

The Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s ’24 class of S.J. Green, Chad Owens, Weston Dressler, Vince Goldsmith and Vince Coleman, along with builders Ray Jauch and Ed Laverty (posthumously), was honoured at halftime. All were enshrined Friday night.

Steven Dunbar Jr. and Ante Litre had Hamilton’s other touchdowns. Marc Liegghio kicked two field goals, three converts and two singles.

Ottawa’s Lewis Ward booted two field goals and a convert.

Mitchell culminated a five-play, 96-yard march with a 20-yard TD pass to Litre at 13:34 of the third. It followed Jonathan Moxey’s interception.

Liegghio’s single at 7:05 of the third put Hamilton up 22-6.

Mitchell’s 54-yard TD strike to Dunbar at 14:18 of the second staked Hamilton to its 21-6 halftime lead. The advantage was well-deserved as the Ticats had more first downs (12-six), net offensive yards (260-144) and scored on both offence and special teams.

Mitchell was 14-of-20 passing for 210 yards and a TD, but his interception cost Hamilton at least a field-goal attempt. Dunbar had five receptions for 113 yards and the touchdown.

Brown completed 13-of-21 passes for 127 yards.

Liegghio’s missed 47-yard attempt went for the single at 12:45 to put Hamilton ahead 14-6. It followed a Kiondre Smith catch that was ruled incomplete and at the very least cost the Ticats a first down that would’ve kept the drive alive.

Ward’s 30-yard kick at 9:15 had pulled Ottawa to within 13-6.

Liegghio’s 19-yard field goal at 5:13 pushed Hamilton’s lead to 13-3. It followed the defence stopping Ottawa’s Dustin Crum on third-and-one, giving the Ticats possession at the Redblacks 40.

Liegghio’s 47-yard field goal opened the scoring at 2:42 before Ward tied in with a 24-yard boot at 8:44.

UP NEXT

Redblacks: Host the Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1) next Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tiger-Cats: Visit the Toronto Argonauts (7-6) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.



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Toronto FC downs Austin FC to pick up three much-needed points in MLS playoff push

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September 14, 2024

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TORONTO – Needing three points to keep their playoff push alive, Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio and Deandre Kerr stepped up with first-half goals against Austin FC on Saturday with goalkeeper Sean Johnson doing his bit at the other end.

A 76th-minute goal by Austin’s Owen Wolff made for a nervy ending but TFC hung on for a 2-1 win.

While Toronto (11-15-3) remains on the Major League Soccer playoff bubble in eighth place in the Eastern Conference (the eighth- and ninth-place teams in each conference square off in a wild-card playoff with the winner facing the top seed in the conference), other results went their way.

Seventh-place Charlotte, 10th-place Atlanta and 11th-place Philadelphia all lost while ninth-place D.C. United tied.

Toronto midfielder Alonso Coello called it “a game we had to win.”

“It’s a big win … To see that fight tonight was important,” added coach John Herdman.

Austin (9-12-7) came into the game in 11th place in the West, two points below ninth-place Minnesota. The Texas side has won just one of its last six league games (1-4-1).

Austin outshot Toronto 7-6 (6-2 edge in shots on target) in the first half but found itself trailing 2-0 at the break as Toronto took advantage of its chances and the visitors didn’t in their first-ever visit to BMO Field, before an announced crowd of 25,538.

Toronto had a dream start, catching Austin on the counterattack in the seventh minute. A sliding Austin player dispossessed an onrushing Kerr, who had been set free by a long ball from Coello, but the ball bounced to Osorio, who beat goalkeeper Brad Stuver with a rising shot.

It was the Toronto captain’s second goal of the season in league play and his 65th for TFC in all competitions. Only Sebastian Giovinco (83) and Jozy Altidore (79) scored more in Toronto colours.

TFC went ahead on another counterattack in the 30th minute after an Austin giveaway. Osorio found Richie Laryea outpacing his marker and the wingback unselfishly sent a perfect low cross across goal for Kerr to knock home for his third of the season.

Wolff, the son of Austin head coach Josh Wolff, made it interesting with his late strike. The 19-year-old U.S. youth international, controlling a long ball, beat defender Raoul Petretta and then waited out Johnson before slotting it home for his first of the season.

Toronto survived a nervy six minutes of stoppage time as Austin pressed for the equalizer. Austin outshot Toronto 14-9 (8-3 in shots on target) and had 52.5 per cent possession.

The win evened Toronto’s home record at 7-7-0, while Austin slipped to 3-8-3 on the road.

It was a costly evening for Austin with defender Brendan Hines-Ike, midfielder Jhojan Valencia and star attacker Sebastian Driussi allpicking up cautions to miss Wednesday’s game with Los Angeles FC due to yellow-card accumulation.

Toronto defender Shane O’Neill will miss Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus for the same reason. Toronto could be short mid-week, too. The hope is veteran centre back Kevin Long, who missed Saturday’s game after tweaking his hamstring in training, will be good to go.

Toronto has five games remaining, including three more at home as it looks to return to the post-season for the first time since 2020 when it lost to Nashville after extra time at the first hurdle.

It is a challenging road.

TFC hosts Columbus, the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami while playing away at the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire. All but Chicago are in playoff positions.

The only previous meeting between Toronto and Austin was in May 2023, when Zardes scored a 91st-minute winner to give Austin a 1-0 win over visiting Toronto, which was then mired at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. That loss prompted a post-game outburst from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi about TFC’s drab play.

Then-coach Bob Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the next game.

Current coach John Herdman made four changes to his starting 11 with Bernardeschi and Osorio returning from suspension and Coello and Kerr also slotting in. Coello, who had missed the last eight league games with a hamstring injury, was impressive in his 59-minute return.

Both Toronto and Austin suffered home losses last time out going into the international break. Toronto was beaten 3-1 by D.C. United while Austin lost 1-0 to Vancouver.

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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CF Montreal finds its groove with 2-1 win over Charlotte

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September 14, 2024

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MONTREAL – CF Montreal is back in the win column after securing a 2-1 Major League Soccer win over Charlotte FC on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.

Montreal’s form had suffered of late, with just one win in MLS since July, but Laurent Courtois’ squad showed a level of poise and control over the tempo of the game that had not been seen since the beginning of the season.

“What we’ve changed in the last few weeks or months in terms of our methodology or coaching, is nothing. We did the exact thing, We had the exact same words, and we expressed them the exact same way,” said Courtois. “Today, everything just clicked.”

Caden Clark scored for the first time as a Montreal (7-12-9) player in the 23rd minute, in addition to Bryce Duke’s goal three minutes later that ended up being the winner, while Tim Ream found the back of the net for Charlotte (10-10-8).

Montreal had the first major scoring chance of the match after 15 minutes of play. With a free kick roughly 25 metres away from goal, Gabriele Corbo sent a near-perfect shot smashing off the crossbar.

Montreal would continue to dictate the tempo in the opening phase, finding first blood just seven minutes later.

Following a phenomenal triple-save from Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, the ball fell to Clark who volleyed the ball into the wide-open net, picking up his first goal for the club.

“I think you don’t lose the feeling (of scoring), everything happens for a reason, you just can’t lose yourself in the chaos,” said Clark, who had missed a full season due to injury and was briefly without a club, but was grateful for Courtois’ confidence in him.

“(To have a coach’s confidence) is huge and is something I’ve had both ends of so you just can’t take advantage of that in the wrong way. I’m going to keep my discipline with the game plan and keep my head right.”

With momentum completely on their side, the home side doubled the lead just three minutes later. Montreal continued to build up play on the left flank and found a streaking Raheem Edwards in behind the defence who cut the ball back to Duke, sending the Stade Saputo crowd into a frenzy.

Just after the half-hour mark, Charlotte pulled one back through a set piece — something Montreal has struggled defending all season — as Ream rose above everyone at the back post to score his first with his new club.

The second half began in a similar fashion to the end of the first, with Charlotte pressing high up the pitch and forcing several turnovers in dangerous areas. After surviving the pressure, Montreal began to regain control of the game near the hour mark, enjoying the lion’s share of the possession while Charlotte looked to hit back on the counterattack.

“I think when we conceded that goal we were like ‘here we go again.’ 2-1 is a tough lead before halftime … and at the beginning of the half we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and they pressed a bit more, they moved a bit more forward and that opened some gaps,” said captain Samuel Piette.

“I was happy with that, it shows character. At the end of the day, we just wanted the three points and that’s what we got.”

As the game progressed, Charlotte pushed harder to find an equalizer but to no avail. With only one shot on target conceded, the second-worst defence in the league put up an impressive front and confidently rebuffed every single Charlotte attack.

“I’m a big fan of the back five’s performance in their discipline, competitiveness, and synchronization with balls in behind,” said Courtois.

“We can’t explain sometimes in a game it’s not there, they’re capable and today they showed it. Let’s see tomorrow.”

UP NEXT

Both teams are back in action on Sept. 18 away from home as Montreal will look to avenge a 5-0 rout against the New England Revolution while Charlotte visits Orlando City SC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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