Trump shooting casts shadow on safety at Republican National Convention

Halifax police say they have ended a search without having found a 26-year-old woman last seen on a kayaking outing at a local lake.

Since Sunday, search and rescue crews and police have been looking for Jashansdeep Kaur around Long Lake, which is where the woman had been kayaking before she went missing.

Police say the her cellphone, kayak and life-jacket were found.

Halifax Regional Police said in a statement today they will continue to investigate the incident as a missing person case, but the Long Lake area search in the community of Spryfield has now ended.

The search effort was assisted by Halifax’s search and rescue, the RCMP underwater recovery team, fire and emergency services, the Department of Natural Resources and members of the community.

The missing 26-year-old is described as a slim South Asian woman who is about five feet tall and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, black pants, with white-and-black sneakers, and police ask anyone with information about her to call them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says there are 47.8 billion reasons for chiefs to accept a child welfare reform deal with Canada, but a leading child welfare expert is warning chiefs to review the fine print.

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has been promoting a settlement that would see the federal government set aside $47.8 billion over 10 years to reform the First Nations child welfare system.

That deal was struck after decades of advocacy and litigation from First Nations and experts on the basis that Canada was discriminating against children living on-reserve.

Child welfare advocate Cindy Blackstock says she wonders how the AFN is expected to present chiefs with nuanced information, because a clause in the deal instructs them to publicly promote and defend the agreement.

Woodhouse Nepinak says it’s important for regional chiefs to speak to their assemblies, and says promoting of the agreement ensures more people are aware of it.

Blackstock is also concerned service providers are excluded from the agreement, along with youth in care with lived experiences who are crucial to ensure the agreement actually works on the ground.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

QUEBEC – The Quebec government says it wants to meet the demands of Montrealers fed up with a housing project in the city’s southwest that caters to unhoused people living with addiction or mental health issues.

After defending the project for months, Montreal municipal officials are now asking the province to relocate day centre services at Maison Benoît Labre, which is across from an elementary school and includes a supervised drug-use site.

Parents and local residents had opposed the centre before it opened earlier this year, and now that it’s in operation, they say they’ve witnessed open drug use and aggressive behaviour, including when children are around.

Chantale Rouleau, minister responsible for social solidarity, told reporters in Quebec City today the province is in discussions with the city to move the day services, but she says resources for the vulnerable have to go somewhere.

Critics — including federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — have cited Maison Benoît Labre as an example of elected leaders being too tolerant of criminal behaviour, saying the mayor is forcing children to share space with crack users.

Maison Benoît Labre’s executive director says the solution is not to move day services from the centre, which includes 36 studio apartments for unhoused people, but to add resources to “help us ease the pressure.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.