In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of July 26 …
What we are watching in Canada …
Tens of thousands of people are expected to fill Edmonton’s football stadium today to take part in a public mass with Pope Francis.
The pontiff is set to address Indigenous groups, residential and day school survivors, elders, knowledge keepers and Catholics during the roughly hour-long mass at Commonwealth Stadium.
Organizers say the event is taking place on the feast day of St. Anne who was the grandmother of Jesus and is a day of particular reverence for Indigenous Catholics.
Later in the day the pontiff is expected to travel to Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, to take part in the community’s annual pilgrimage, which regularly welcomes tens of thousands of Indigenous participants.
The Pope’s second full day of events comes a day after he apologized to residential school survivors and their families for the role the Roman Catholic Church played in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous Peoples.
During an event in the community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton, Francis begged forgiveness for the evil acts committed by members of the Catholic Church.
“In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children … I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples,” Francis said Monday through a translator at the community’s powwow grounds.
The pontiff said begging forgiveness is the first step and there must be a serious investigation into what took place. He also called the overall effects of the policies linked to residential schools “catastrophic.”
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Also this …
Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge is expected to appear before the House of Commons heritage committee today as the investigation into how Hockey Canada handled allegations of sexual assault continues.
Hockey Canada has been under fire since news broke in May that members of the 20-18 world junior team were accused of a group sexual assault after a gala event in London, Ontario.
Police did not press charges, but the woman at the centre of the allegations sued Hockey Canada, the C-H-L and the players this spring.
Hockey Canada settled the case for an undisclosed amount and the committee is now probing how it dealt with the allegations and the lawsuit.
MPs will also hear today from a partner at the law firm that conducted Hockey Canada’s investigation into the 20-18 allegations, and from officials at the sport’s national governing body on Wednesday.
Last week, news broke that players from the 2003 world junior team allegedly committed a group sexual assault during the tournament in Halifax.
Halifax police are investigating and none of the allegations have been proven in court.
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What we are watching in the U.S. …
WASHINGTON _ Former President Donald Trump will return to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office, delivering a policy speech before an allied think tank that has been crafting an agenda for a possible second term.
Trump will address the America First Policy Institute’s two-day America First Agenda Summit as some advisers urge him to spend more time talking about his vision for the future and less time relitigating the 2020 election as he prepares to announce an expected 2024 White House campaign.
“I believe it will be a very policy-focused, forward-leaning speech, very much like a State of the Union 5.0,” said Brooke Rollins, AFPI’s president. Composed of former Trump administration officials and allies, the non-profit is widely seen as an “administration in waiting” that could quickly move to the West Wing if Trump were to run again and win.
Trump’s appearance in Washington _ his first trip back since Jan. 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office _ comes as his potential 2024 rivals have been taking increasingly overt steps to challenge his status as the party’s standard-bearer. They include former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been touting his own “Freedom Agenda” in speeches that serve as an implicit contrast with Trump.
“Some people may choose to focus on the past, but I believe conservatives must focus on the future. If we do, we won’t just win the next election, we will change the course of American history for generations,” Pence had planned to say in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on the eve of Trump’s visit. Pence’s appearance was postponed because of bad weather, but he will be delivering his own speech Tuesday morning before the Young America’s Foundation not far from the AFPI meeting.
Trump has spent much of his time since leaving office fixated on the 2020 election and spreading lies about his loss to sow doubt about Biden’s victory. Indeed, even as the Jan. 6 committee was laying bare his desperate and potentially illegal attempts to remain in power and his refusal to call off a violent mob of his supporters as they tried to halt the peaceful transition of power, Trump continued to try to pressure officials to overturn Biden’s win, despite there being no legal means to decertify the past election.
On Tuesday, he plans to focus on public safety.
“President Trump sees a nation in decline that is driven, in part, by rising crime and communities becoming less safe under Democrat policies,” said his spokesman, Taylor Budowich. “His remarks will highlight the policy failures of Democrats, while laying out an America First vision for public safety that will surely be a defining issue during the midterms and beyond.”
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What we are watching in the rest of the world …
KHIMKI, Russia _ American basketball star Brittney Griner returns Tuesday to a Russian courtroom for her drawn-out trial on drug charges that could bring her 10 years in prison if convicted.
The trial of the two-time Olympic gold medallist and Phoenix Mercury standout began July 1 but only four sessions have been held, some them lasting only a few hours. In one of them she acknowledged that she was carrying vape canisters containing cannabis oil when she was arrested at a Moscow airport in mid-February, but said she had no criminal intent.
The slow-moving trial and her five months of detention have raised strong criticism among teammates and supporters in the United States, which has formally declared her to be “wrongfully detained,” a designation sharply rejected by Russian officials.
Griner was arrested amid high U.S.-Moscow tensions ahead of Russia sending troops into Ukraine later that month. Some supporters contend she is being held in Russia as a pawn, possibly for a prisoner swap. American soccer notable Megan Rapinoe last week said “she’s being held as a political prisoner, obviously.”
However, even after the conflict broke out, Washington and Moscow brokered a prisoner trade in April when American Trevor Reed, imprisoned on a conviction of assaulting a police officer, was released in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian convicted in the U.S. of drug smuggling.
The Russian Foreign Ministry last week lashed out at the U.S. contention that Griner is being wrongfully detained and said Russian laws should be respected.
“If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with the fact that she was smuggling drugs, and she does not deny this, then this should be commensurate with our Russian local laws, and not with those adopted in San Francisco, New York and Washington,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “If drugs are legalized in the United States, in a number of states, and this is done for a long time and now the whole country will become drug-addicted, this does not mean that all other countries are following the same path,” she added.
Russian media have speculated that Griner could be exchanged for prominent Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the United States, and that Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia for espionage, may also figure in an exchange.
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On this day in 1958 …
Prince Charles was proclaimed Prince of Wales by Queen Elizabeth.
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In entertainment …
LOS ANGELES _ TBS is cancelling “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” after seven seasons, removing a rare female voice from late-night TV, the channel said Monday.
In a statement announcing the cancellation, TBS said it has made “some difficult, business-based decisions” as part of its new programming strategy
TBS was part of WarnerMedia, which merged with Discovery Inc. last April to become the new Warner Bros. Discovery company.
Previously, TBS said it would not carry the second season of Nasim Pedrad’s sitcom “Chad” and was seeking a new home for it.
TBS praised Bee and other makers of “Full Frontal” for “groundbreaking work” and said it will explore ways in the future to collaborate with the cast and crew.
Representatives for the Toronto-born Bee, who was a producer as well as the host of “Full Frontal,” did not immediately respond to an emailed message seeking comment.
Bee and relative newcomers NBC’s Amber Ruffin and Showtime’s Ziwe have been among the few women to gain a weekly foothold in the realm long dominated by male hosts.
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Did you see this?
OTTAWA _ Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper has endorsed Pierre Poilievre to be the party’s next leader.
In a rare public return to party politics, Harper, who didn’t wade into the Tories’ 2017 and 2020 leadership races, released a short video on Twitter on Monday discussing his endorsement.
Harper says the contest to lead the party is filled with candidates, but one stands out.
The former prime minister says Poilievre served a strong minister under him when the Conservatives were last in power, before being defeated by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015.
“In the past several years he’s been our party’s most vocal and effective critic of the Trudeau Liberals,” said Harper, who pointed to Poilievre’s championing of economic issues like inflation and debt. “He’s proposing answers rooted in sound Conservative ideas, but ones adapted for today’s realities.”
Harper’s endorsement comes with less than two months left in the race, and as party members are in the process of filling out their mail-in ballots.
The race to lead Harper’s former party has been characterized as a battle for its very soul and at times included some personal attacks between candidates.
Poilievre has been criticized by ex-Quebec premier Jean Charest, who is also a candidate in the leadership race, and others for having ideas and a tone that would make the Conservatives unable to win the next general election after three consecutive losses.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2022.
VANCOUVER – The union representing port supervisors in British Columbia is formally challenging the legal and constitutional authority of the federal labour minister to order them back to work.
In a legal document dated Tuesday, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 says it’s questioning whether the order issued by Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon last week violates the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The union says these rights are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It says the questions will be considered by a panel of the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Dec. 9 and 10.
This isn’t the only challenge the federal government is facing on this issue, as the union representing port workers in Montreal also announced last week it intended to challenge the federal government.
MacKinnon stepped in on Nov. 12 to get ports in both B.C. and Montreal moving again after employers locked workers out.
His order directed the board to order all operations to resume and move both sets of talks to binding arbitration.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Hurricane-force winds of more than 120 km/h are hitting parts of the British Columbia coast and more than 150,000 BC Hydro customers are without power as a “bomb cyclone” develops off Vancouver Island.
Environment Canada has issued more than 50 warnings, advisories and alerts related to the storm, covering most of Vancouver Island and other coastal areas and stretching deep into the Interior.
The weather agency says the worst of the storm is expected overnight when winds in the central and north coast could peak at 120 km/h, though the remote Sartine Island was already seeing winds exceeding 130 km/h Tuesday afternoon.
But it says risks, including coastal flooding, power outages and fallen trees, could continue long into Wednesday.
Meteorologist Cindy Day says there’s nothing alarmist about Environment Canada calling the system a “bomb cyclone,” which is a non-tropical storm caused by a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure at its centre.
Day says that when used appropriately, such scientific language is necessary and can help people better prepare for the impact of extreme weather events.
She said the term “bomb cyclone” had been used by scientists for decades to describe “a low-pressure system that is undergoing explosive cyclogenesis,” or the creation of cyclonic air circulation.
Day said terms like “bomb cyclone” and “atmospheric river” could help paint a picture that allowed people to better understand and prepare for various weather systems.
In British Columbia, an atmospheric river originating near Hawaii has long been known as a “pineapple express.”
“So, an atmospheric river — right away, people start to think, ‘OK, it’s a narrow band of moving water,'” Day said.
“It does give you the sense that this is going to be a steady event and that there’s not going to be time for the ground to absorb the rain. It’ll continue to rain and eventually cause flooding because of that concentrated rainfall.”
In British Columbia, the government called for the creation of a scale to rank the power of atmospheric river events in 2021, in the wake of a devastating system that brought widespread flooding and shut down the Trans-Canada Highway and other key roads.
But Environment Canada said the next year that implementing such a scale for public warnings was premature.
Day noted that she had received “a lot of grief” for using the term “bomb” in relation to meteorological phenomena, with some accusing her of trying to sensationalize weather events.
“I really believe that if they’re used in the proper context, that they’re not alarmist,” she said.
“As long as the people know that they’re getting their information from a qualified source, and that source (or) that person is using the terms correctly and not shouting out ‘bomb’ every time there’s an area of rain coming in, I think it’s really important to understand those words and to take them seriously and to know that they’re based in meteorological fact, in science.”
Environment Canada said Tuesday that the bomb cyclone 400 km off Vancouver Island coast would remain offshore, but its effects would be widespread.
“Strong easterly winds have developed over North Vancouver Island this afternoon. These winds will intensify through the night,” it said, bringing powerful winds through mainland inlets and valleys of the central and north coasts.
It said winds would gradually weaken Wednesday night as the system drifted further offshore.
Heavily populated areas including Victoria and the Sunshine Coast were forecast to be hit by winds of up to 100 km/h.
The province said in a statement Tuesday that the Ministry of Emergency Management would work closely with communities to ensure preparedness and that the River Forecast Centre was monitoring weather patterns and river conditions.
It said the transportation ministry would also have maintenance contractors watching conditions so crews can respond quickly to flooding or debris buildup.
BC Ferries cancelled numerous sailings for later Tuesday between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, including ships leaving from Tsawwassen, Horseshoe Bay, Swartz Bay and Nanaimo, citing a “deteriorating weather forecast for high winds in the Strait of Georgia.”
Sailings for the late afternoon or evening service on Tuesday have also been cancelled between Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island and the northern Gulf Island.
The agency said in a statement that those changes were done “out of an abundance of caution,” adding there is also a “strong risk” of cancellations on major routes on Wednesday.
“As things can change quickly in the event of severe weather, we encourage all passengers to check for updates before travelling, and to remain flexible with travel plans today and tomorrow, as the weather conditions can change rapidly,” it said Tuesday.
The warnings about the bomb cyclone came after much of Metro Vancouver saw its first snowfall of the season Monday night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Air traffic control audio shows a Boeing 767 cargo jet reported a “flight control problem” involving a mechanism on its wings used to slow the aircraft just before it skidded off a runway at Vancouver’s airport at high speed.
Conversations between the pilots on the Amazon Prime Air jet and air traffic control reveal that the plane was experiencing a problem with its “leading edge slats,” and was carrying about 10,000 kilograms of fuel.
In other recordings the tower tells awaiting emergency responders that the jet was “coming in fast,” while data from the Flightradar24 database shows the plane was travelling at a ground speed of about 200 km/h when it left the runway.
The Transportation Safety Board said it’s investigating after the flight went off the end of the north runway at about 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
None of the three-person crew was hurt, but the airport said the north runway will remain closed for about two days as the jet sits in a grass field, nose down, with engines on each of the mud-splattered wings touching the ground.
Vancouver airport CEO Tamara Vrooman says there was “no risk” at any point of the plane breaching the runway’s “secure” perimeter, which separates it from the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet shopping mall and its parking lot.
Vrooman says that all flights originally scheduled for the day were moved to the south runway, and only about 5 per cent of flights experienced any disruptions due to the move.
Flightradar24, a global flight tracking database, says the plane operated by Cargojet Airways left Hamilton, Ont., just after midnight eastern time and its flight path shows it continued 500 metres past the end of the runway in Vancouver before coming to a stop.
The audio recordings of air traffic control in Vancouver show the crew reported problems with the plane’s control systems about 20 minutes before landing, with one crew member requesting time to run a checklist to try to resolve the issue.
An air traffic controller said they wanted to keep the plane “close to the airport,” while the crew tried to find a solution, but control also asked if emergency responders should be ready.
“Yeah, we can bring out the fire trucks just for precaution,” a crew member told air traffic control.
The crew also confirmed to air traffic control that it had no dangerous cargo on-board, other than the fuel.
According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics, slats and flaps on an aircraft’s wings are deployed to both slow a plane for landing as well as generate lift.
At the time the jet slid off the runway, Environment Canada’s weather station at the airport showed light rain and snow had been falling for about 90 minutes.
The safety board’s website says runway overruns can damage planes and, in the worst cases, lead to injuries or deaths.
The board says the consequences can be particularly serious when there isn’t enough room at the end of a runway or a suitable system to stop planes.
“This closure will have an impact on YVR operations and flight schedules, but aircraft continue to arrive and depart on our south runway,” the airport said in an updated statement Tuesday.
“We encourage passengers to check with their airlines for current flight schedules and status before heading to YVR.”
Vrooman did not offer a specific timeline for the removal of the jet, but she said that cargo would be removed before crews build some sort of roadway through the grassy area where the plane came to a stop in order to pull it out of its current location.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
