National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak places her papers on the podium at the start of a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 17.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he hopes lessons will be learned after the ceremonial headdress of the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations was mishandled on an Air Canada flight this week.
Mr. Trudeau’s comments were made a day after Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak shared the incident on her Facebook account after a Wednesday Air Canada Jazz flight from Montreal to Fredericton.
“Air Canada needs a protocol for First Peoples so that we are not harassed for our sacred items,” she wrote, adding that headdresses do not belong in airline garbage bags.
She said Friday that the case was removed from the cabin but that after pleading with staff, she was eventually able to hold her headdress throughout the trip.
Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak also said Friday that when she first complained about the incident to Air Canada, she received an offer of a 15-per-cent discount on her next flight.
“It must have been a generic response,” she said, adding that the experience was humiliating and unbelievable.
Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak’s Facebook post was met with dismay from other First Nations leaders and politicians who called the situation unacceptable and called on the airline to ensure it has appropriate protocols in place.
“It is an unfortunate situation that I hope is going to lead to a bit of learning, not just by Air Canada, but a lot of other institutions,” Mr. Trudeau said Friday while speaking to reporters during an unrelated event in Bromont, Que. Mr. Trudeau said the incident was a mistake that Air Canada is looking into.
On Thursday, the airline issued a statement calling the situation regrettable. Air Canada also said it had reached out to the National Chief directly to better understand and apologize for her experience.
Air Canada said it was following up on the matter internally and that it understood the importance of accommodating “customers with items and symbols of sacred cultural significance.” It said that in the past, chiefs have been able to travel while transporting their headdresses in the cabin.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he met with Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak “by chance” in the Montreal airport after the incident and she shared her feelings about it.
“She felt that the ceremonial, culturally important headdress was disrespected and she herself felt disrespected,” he said at an event in Toronto.
“In a country like Canada, there are far too many examples where Indigenous people are disrespected in this manner,” he said.
Mr. Singh added, “I support her call for a national policy to ensure that any airline and any form of travel, that this type of incident never happens again.”
At the news conference with the party’s leader, NDP MP Leah Gazan reiterated Mr. Singh’s support for Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak. Ms. Gazan, who is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan, said Air Canada should ensure employees are equipped to work with a diverse public.
“It’s their responsibility to make sure that anybody working for the airline is culturally competent and knows proper cultural protocols,” she said.
“Canada is rich with diversity and the airline needs to reflect that and respect that through action.”
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
