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Ottawa says it will support First Nations fight against Quebec’s new language law

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MONTREAL — The federal minister of Indigenous services said Thursday she supports the will of Indigenous communities to be exempt from Quebec’s new language law, which limits the use of English in the public service and increases French-language requirements in schools.

Patty Hajdu told a news conference she was “preoccupied” to hear that Indigenous leaders think the language law, known as Bill 96, will have a negative impact on the rights of First Nations children to be educated in the language and culture of their choice.

“We cannot put barriers in the way of children striving to reach their full potential, including barriers that involve language,” Hajdu said. “We will continue to stand by and defend the leaders with whom I have the opportunity to work. I see it as an important part of my role as minister.”

Hajdu made the comments after participating in a signing ceremony for a new agreement under which Ottawa will give $1.1 billion over five years to First Nations communities in Quebec to help fund education. The ceremony was held on the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake, south of Montreal.

Quebec’s new language reform proactively invokes the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Constitution to shield it from Charter challenges. It restricts the use of English in the public service and the legal system, and it requires students at English junior colleges to take three additional courses in French to graduate.

Indigenous communities say they are particularly worried about the new rules for junior colleges. John Martin, chief of Gesgapegiag on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, said Thursday that provincial language laws have been creating obstacles for English-speaking Indigenous students for decades.

“For 40 years we have been confronted with linguistic laws,” Martin said. “We have students who can’t graduate because they were unable to get the credits they needed, and Bill 96 raises the wall even higher.”

He said Indigenous Peoples have constitutional rights just like Quebecers do, adding that the provincial government is acting like a colonial power. Martin said the federal government must “stand and support us” by addressing the issue of Indigenous rights — including language rights — guaranteed in the Constitution.

“When a language tends to dominate, it is a colonial practice and that means the extermination of other languages ​​and cultures,” Martin said. “This is what we are up against.”

Earlier, representatives from the federal government and the First Nations Education Council signed the $1.1-billion education agreement, the result of 10 years of negotiations.

The money will go toward building culturally adapted education programs for about 5,800 children across 22 communities. It will also fund school transportation and the recruitment and training of more than 600 teachers and other school staff. The First Nations Education Council, which represents eight Quebec First Nations, says the agreement will allow communities to assume full responsibility over their schools.

Daniel Gros-Louis, executive director of the First Nations Education Council, said “history has shown us the many broken promises of governments. The assumption of responsibility for education by and for the First Nations that we are celebrating today is our promise to ourselves, to our young people.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2022.

 

Pierre Saint-Arnaud, The Canadian Press

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Trudeau decried for immigration cuts which scapegoat migrants

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Halifax, Nova Scotia (October 24, 2024) – Today, the Trudeau government announced significant cuts to permanent resident targets for Canada over the next three years. For the first time, targets for temporary residents are also being included in their plan. This follows a series of announcements by the Trudeau government to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada, including low-waged migrant workers.

In 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau made a mandate letter commitment to a regularization program for undocumented people and permanent resident status for migrant workers and students. Earlier this year, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery Tomoya Obokata called Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” and urged the Government of Canada to provide a clear pathway to permanent residency upon arrival for migrant workers. Instead, these recent changes will mean reduced access to permanent residence for migrants.

In an October 24, 2024 press release, the Government of Canada claims that their new plan “alleviates pressures on housing, infrastructure and social services.”

“These changes unfairly blame and punish migrants. Migrants build communities and bolster the economy. They fund services like healthcare through their taxes, and yet in places like Nova Scotia they are excluded from healthcare coverage. We need real solutions, not more smoke and mirrors,” said Stacey Gomez, Executive Director of the Centre for Migrant Worker Rights Nova Scotia, which is a member of the Migrant Rights Network.

Over 100 organizations have penned an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warning the government that slashing permanent immigration will force more migrants into temporary and precarious situations, further entrenching their exploitation and worsening conditions for all workers. The letter, signed by nearly every major civil society group in Canada, shows that there is a unified consensus in Canada to expand, not reduce, permanent residency programs, abolish closed work permits and ensure regularization. Read the letter here.

The Migrant Rights Network and its allies are calling on the federal government to immediately reverse this decision and chart a new course that grants equal rights for all migrants. This includes ensuring permanent resident status for everyone, expanding protections for workers, and upholding human rights for all.

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Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

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LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

X

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

___

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Police suggest speed a factor in fiery EV crash that killed four in downtown Toronto

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TORONTO – Speed was considered a factor in a fiery overnight crash in downtown Toronto that killed four people and injured one woman, officials said Thursday, underlining the challenges firefighters face when batting electric-vehicle battery fires.

The Tesla car was travelling at a “high rate of speed” when it lost control, slammed into a guard rail and then caught fire along Lake Shore Boulevard east of Cherry Street shortly after midnight, Toronto police Deputy Insp. Phillip Sinclair said Thursday.

“There is some evidence to suggest that speed was a factor,” he said.

Sinclair described the crash as “heartbreaking.” All four people who were killed — three men and one woman — were in their 20s and 30s, he said.

The surviving woman was pulled from the car by a motorist who stopped to help, he said. The woman, in her 20s, was sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“Thanks very much to that bystander. We have been speaking to them, and obviously they are also deeply affected by this incident — a very horrific scene for that bystander to step in,” Sinclair told a press conference Thursday morning.

Toronto’s deputy fire chief said the crash underlined the challenge firefighters can face when trying to put out electric-vehicle battery fires.

“The intensity of the fire is directly linked to the battery cells in the Tesla,” said Jim Jessop, speaking alongside Sinclair.

“But I want to be very clear: we have all attended collisions where we’ve had horrible car fires as well that are gasoline powered.”

One of the major risks in electric-vehicle fires, he said, is when the battery gets into an uncontrollable self-heating chain reaction, or what’s called thermal runaway. The battery can sometimes reignite up to weeks later, he said.

Firefighters at the scene put the car’s battery cell in a dumpster and filled it with sand, then moved it from the scene for safe disposal, he said.

“We don’t want to speculate on the intensity of the fire until the investigation is complete, but certainly it did cause extra care and concern in transporting the vehicle and the battery cell that had been ejected (from the vehicle),” Jessop said.

Talk of battery fire risks comes as the city’s transit agency considers a possible ban on e-bikes and e-scooters from its vehicles. A staff report going before the Toronto Transit Commission’s board says the risks are particularly associated with lithium-ion batteries in uncertified or misused devices.

Research findings from EV FireSafe, a group backed by the Australian government, suggest electric-vehicle battery fires are uncommon and happen less often than gas-powered vehicle fires.

Jessop said Toronto Fire is being “very proactive” in preparing for a future where lithium-ion batteries, the type found in everything from cellphones to cars, are even more common.

He said the service has a working group to help inform its response to public messaging about battery fires and tactics for safe disposal by firefighters.

“It’s something that you know we’re going to have to deal with and continue to deal with as this technology expands … and it’s something that, you know, we’re going to continue to work on,” he said.

Lake Shore Boulevard, the major arterial road along the city’s waterfront, was closed in both directions between the Don Valley parkway and Cherry Street for several hours ahead of the morning rush hour. One lane reopened in each direction later in the morning.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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