India-Canada news: Sikh groups call for ‘united front’

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs is expected to officially kick off a provincial election campaign Thursday morning with a visit to the lieutenant-governor.

Opposition parties got a head start, with the Liberals releasing their platform 10 days ago and the Greens launching their campaign Wednesday.

Under the province’s fixed-date election law, the vote will take place on Oct. 21.

Central campaign themes are expected to include economic issues, health care, the Progressive Conservative government’s gender identity policy in schools, forced treatment for drug users, and Ottawa’s request that the province welcome more asylum seekers.

Higgs, who was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2020, has already promised to lower the harmonized sales tax to 13 per cent from 15 per cent over a two-year period.

The Liberals have promised to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.

The Greens, meanwhile, say they will create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset rate increases. They also promised to impose rent caps.

Politics in the province have been charged since the government changed the policy on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools in June 2023, which required teachers to obtain parental consent before using the preferred name and pronouns of students under 16.

Members of Higgs’s caucus, including cabinet ministers, came out strongly against that decision, and also against his leadership style. Twelve members of the legislature elected in 2020 with Higgs’s Tories are not running this time.

Adding to the heated political atmosphere is a proposal by the Progressive Conservatives to force drug users into treatment centres, as well as Higgs’s refusal to welcome significantly more asylum seekers.

The Progressive Conservative campaign has also sought to link Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Leader David Coon to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who has seen his star fade over the past few months.

“Both Holt and Coon chose to side with Justin Trudeau’s proposal to move 4,600 asylum seekers out of Quebec and Ontario and relocate them into New Brunswick,” said a Tory party newsletter earlier this week.

Coon, however, told reporters Wednesday he doesn’t think people see himself or Holt as tied to the federal Liberals.

“People aren’t buying that message. That’s ridiculous,” the Green leader said after officially launching his party’s campaign.

“Look, we’ve hit a lot of doors already, a lot of doors — collectively and individually — and I’m not hearing any of that nonsense at the door at all. I’m hearing people are fed up with Trudeau, no question.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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In a haunting message from beyond the grave, Métis Elder Sonny James MacDonald recounted being incarcerated for more than two years at an Indian Hospital in Edmonton in the 1940s for tuberculosis treatment, suffering abuse and isolation as a child.

“After the surgery … they took it upon themselves … that they should take my pajama bottoms off to prevent me from walking around,” MacDonald, a renowned carver who died in 2021, said in a video clip taken from a documentary release that same year.

“I was put in this little room … there was no window, it was the end of the hallway. I was just like a prisoner,” he said. MacDonald said an orderly would trap him in a hospital washroom and sexually assault him.

MacDonald’s story echoed in a Victoria conference hall Wednesday where the Canadian Medical Association formally apologized for physicians’ role in causing harm to Indigenous Peoples in a sombre ceremony.

Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the association, said they are “deeply ashamed” of their actions and inactions throughout Canadian history, leading to racism, neglect and abuse toward First Nation, Inuit and Métis community members.

“As an association, our purpose is to support the medical profession and create a more sustainable, accessible and equitable health system for all patients and providers,” Reimer said. “In failing to address systemic anti-Indigenous racism in health care, we have failed to fulfil this purpose.

“We have not lived up to the ethical standards the medical profession is expected to uphold.”

The association said it underwent a multi-year review of its archives and other documented interactions with Indigenous communities, finding a long history of harm caused by the Canadian doctors.

Dr. Paula Cashin with the association says research showed physicians contributed to “systemically embedding and upholding” anti-Indigenous racism into Canada’s health-care systems and policies, creating an “unsafe environment” for patients from Indigenous communities.

Among the top misdeeds are the Indian hospitals that were put in place, which Cashin said created “racial segregation” where Indigenous patients received “substandard” care.

Cashin said some children were also subjected to experiments at residential schools on malnourishment and withholding necessary care to study the effects they had on humans. The full extent of how much experimentation was conducted is still unknown.

There was also forced relocations of Inuit community members to tuberculosis sanitoriums against their wishes, resulting in many dying far from their homes.

The latest case of forced sterilization against a member of the community was reportedly as recent as 2019, Cashin said.

“Patients were subjected to abuse, experimental treatments and forced and coerced sterilization,” she said. “Although most Indian hospitals are now closed, the country is still in the process of moving away from the segregated, racist health-care model that the Indian hospital system perpetuated.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Métis Elder Jimmy Durocher said the apology from physicians is important because “we need to know the truth before we can have reconciliation.”

“By issuing this formal apology, the Canadian Medical Association has taken the first steps in its commitment to seeking the truth,” Durocher said. “It’s just a first step. It’s going to be a long process … it’s going to take a long time because there’s a lot of damage and harm that was done to our people.”

Reimer, the CMA president, said the association is committed to owning its past wrongs and doing whatever it can to right those wrongs, but added the path toward reconciliation will not always be easy.

“We humbly acknowledge that we are on a learning journey,” she said. “We will make mistakes despite our best efforts. But we commit to acknowledging those mistakes, learning from them and continuing forward in a meaningful, tangible and sustained way.”

Dr. Alika Lafontaine, who in 2022-2023 became the first Indigenous president in its 157-year history, said the CMA will now focus on advancing health care for Indigenous Peoples, supporting physicians to improve and making sure the group operates with the principles of reconciliation.

The association also said it is committed to tracking physicians’ progress in addressing the harms caused, which includes providing regular updates about the association’s Indigenous health initiatives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

TORONTO – While Toronto FC is looking to improve its position on the pitch, general manager Jason Hernandez is trying to do the same off it.

That has been easier said than done this season.

Sending winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to CF Montreal for up to $1.3 million (all dollar figures in U.S. funds) in general allocation money before the secondary transfer window closed in early August helped set the stage for future moves.

But there have been plenty of obstacles, which Hernandez has been working to clear.

“We feel a lot more confident going into this upcoming off-season that we did the one prior,” said Hernandez. “There’s a level of what I would say booby-traps that were uncovered when I first got the (GM) role at the end of last summer.”

The club is paying off departed forwards Adam Diomande and Ayo Akinola as well as a $500,000 payment due in 2024 to Belgium’s Anderlecht for Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence. That payment was part of the transfer fee for Lawrence, who joined TFC from Anderlecht in May 2021 and was traded to Minnesota United in March 2022.

Diomande was waived while Akinola’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.

“That comes to an end in ’25, which is nice,” said Hernandez. “We had to suffer from a salary cap perspective this season. But those things coming off, the Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty money coming in, we’re going to be in a position to make some good additions, which is positive.”

While MLS clubs are allowed one contract buyout per year, Toronto had already used its on former captain Michel Bradley, who retired after last season. Bradley had previously restructured his contract, deferring money.

TFC’s only other move during the summer transfer window was the signing of free-agent defender Henry Wingo. Hernandez said the club knew going into the window that it was likely limited to the one acquisition “unless other business happened”

“We knew we had this bucket of money and we knew we were going to go get Henry,” said Hernandez.

While the sale of the highly touted Marshall-Rutty opened up other possibilities, it came on the eve of the transfer window closing. And the team did not like what it saw in the free-agent market.

“A lot of the opportunities we were presented in the free agency space felt more like a short-term, Band-Aid decision versus what actually the club probably needs.”

Hernandez was not willing to take in players who came with a “club-friendly” salary cap charge in 2024 and a much bigger number in 2025.

Instead, Toronto promoted forward Charlie Sharp and wingback Nate Edwards to the first team from TFC 2 ahead of last Friday’s roster freeze.

MLS teams are operating on a salary budget of $5.47 million this season, which covers up to 20 players on the senior roster (clubs can elect to spread that number across 18 players). But the league has several mechanisms that allow those funds to go further, including using allocation money (both general and targeted) to buy down salaries.

Designated players only count $683,750 — the maximum salary charge — against the cap no matter their actual pay. Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne is actually earning $15.4 million with fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi collecting $6.295 million and Canadian Richie Laryea $1.208 million.

Hernandez says Laryea’s contract can — and “very likely” will — be restructured so as to remove the designated player status.

There are benefits in going with just two designated players rather than three.

Teams that elect to go with two DPs can sign up to four players as part of the league’s “U22 Initiative.” The pluses of that structure include a reduced salary cap charge for the young players and up to an extra $2 million in general allocation money.

Hernandez says the club is currently pondering whether that is the way to go.

Captain Jonathan Osorio who is earning $836,370 this season, restructured his deal to allow the team to sign Laryea as a DP. In doing so, Osorio had his option year guaranteed so his contact runs through 2026.

Hernandez and coach John Herdman will have decisions to make come the end of the year.

The contracts of goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ($94,200), defenders Kevin Long ($277,500), Shane O’Neill ($413,000) and Kobe Franklin ($100,520), midfielder Alonso Coello ($94,050) and Brandon Servania ($602,710), and forward Prince Owusu ($807,500) — all on the club’s senior roster — expire at the end of 2024 with club options to follow.

While there is more work to do, Hernandez believes TFC is on the right road.

Toronto, which finished last in the league at 4-20-10 in 2023, went into Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus in a playoff position at eighth in the East at 11-15-3.

“By every metric, we are miles ahead of where we were at this point last year,” said Hernandez.

“That’s a low bar, so that’s not saying much,” he added.

But he believes TFC is “quite competitive” when it has all its players at its disposal.

“To get results in this final stretch, we’re going to need our prominent players to really show up and have big performances, and be supported by the rest of the cast.”

After Columbus, TFC plays at Colorado and Chicago and hosts the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami. The club also travels to Vancouver for the Canadian Championship final.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024