Hearings were held yesterday on Parliament Hill regarding Hockey Canada’s response to sexual assault claims against members of the 2018 World Junior team.
A federal committee is reviewing the response, and discussions were had on where the organization goes from here.
Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge says Hockey Canada needs to make a fundamental shift.
“Canadians expect Hockey Canada to behave differently, and it requires leadership capable of doing so. Hockey Canada, the whole country is watching,” St-Onge said.
At the Appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – Hockey Canada pic.twitter.com/hXCveAJpMB
A lawyer re-opening the investigation testified before the committee yesterday.
Danielle Robitaille was hired by Hockey Canada, and is scheduling interviews with players from the 2018 World Junior team.
She says her mandate is to discover the truth.
“And to learn what happened in London at that event, and to investigate the allegations that came through to Hockey Canada,” says Robitaille.
Robitaille says ten players were interviewed during the initial investigation, but nine would not take part until the criminal investigation was concluded.
Hockey Canada ended up settling the lawsuit.
The committee will hear from Hockey Canada representatives today.
It’s exit stage left for the Russian Space Agency.
The Kremlin will be taking leave from the International Space Station come 2024.
NASA and it’s international affiliates want to keep the station operational until at least 2030, but Moscow isn’t agreeing to anything past two years from now.
In fact, Russia wants to build their own orbiting outpost.
For the past 22 years, the station has had human life occupying it for research in zero gravity conditions and more.
The first piece of the space station was put into orbit in 1998.
Pope Francis has again apologized for the Catholic Church’s involvement in Canada’s residential school system.
He did so this time in Canada and before hundreds of residential school survivors from across the country gathered at Maskwacis, north of Edmonton.
Speaking through an interpreter, the Pope told them he was deeply sorry.
“Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry. I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.”
The Pope issued an apology in March after meeting with an Indigenous delegation that travelled to the Vatican in March.
Monday, he received loud cheers following the apology and when he asked for forgiveness.
The Holy See told the gathering there were many instances of devotion and care for children, but the overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic.
“What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is painful to think of how the firm soil of values, language and culture that made up the authentic identity of your peoples was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this. In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children.”
But he acknowledged his words were only a first step.
“I also recognize that, looking to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient and that, looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening.”
The Pope said that includes an investigation into the facts of what happened at its schools and assisting survivors with their healing process.
The Pope was asked to visit former residential school sites across Canada, including Kamloops where unmarked gravesites had been discovered in May 2021.
He said he had to forgo those invitations because of the little time he had in Canada.
EMS services are getting consolidated in neighbouring parts of the region.
City council voted in favour of combining ambulance bases for Superior North EMS for North Shore and Greenstone communities.
It’s all part of a 10-year master plan, as it’s intended for resources to be distributed across the district amid severe staffing shortages, rising call volumes and other growing and costly obstacles.
Beardmore will keep a paramedic and non-ambulance vehicle for their community medicine set-up.
Bases will then be located in Geraldton and Nipigon, which are an hour away respectively.
It comes as members are set to appear before a federal committee this week to discuss their handling of 2018 sexual assault allegations against several players.
In a release yesterday, the organization says they’re adopting a universal code of conduct to prevent and address maltreatment in sport, as well as a new reporting system for all complaints of abuse or harassment.
Hockey Canada says training on masculinity, consent and toxic behaviours will be implemented for players and staff, with more screening for all high-performance players.
The plan adds to an announcement two weeks ago that the organization will undergo a full, third party review of its structure.
Last week, more sexual assault allegations against some of Canada’s 2003 World Junior team were unveiled, prompting Halifax Regional Police to open an investigation.
We need to do more to address the behaviours that are undermining the many good things the game brings to our country.
Another day with no ferry service between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Northumberland Ferries says due to ongoing recovery work sailings will not pick back up until Wednesday.
Crossings have been paused since a fire erupted on M.V. Holiday Island last Friday. The emergency forced the evacuation of nearly 200 passengers and 18 crew members.
The ship is now expected to be out of service for the rest of the season.
Update: Don Cormier, Vice President of Northumberland Ferries Limited, issued the following update on the Prince Edward Island-Nova Scotia ferry service: https://t.co/UHLXnc2vOY
— Northumberland Ferries (@PEIFerries) July 25, 2022
The goal is for M.V. Confederation to set sail again on Wednesday, offering four round trips per day:
A strong denial on Monday of any political interference by the Liberal government in the Nova Scotia mass shooting investigation.
The House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security heard from RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair on Monday.
Committee members are searching for answers regarding whether or not there was government pressure to release the details to the public on the guns used in the 13-hour rampage that began in Portapique on April 18th, 2020. Twenty-two lives were lost.
Bill Blair, a former police officer and chief, remained steadfast in his belief that at no time was there any political pressure.
“I’ll reiterate that at no time did I cross that line. I did not direct the commissioner of the RCMP and I did not have any private conversation with her in which that was done,” Blair says. “The commissioner did not promise me that she would do this. I think the commissioner understood her job, and her job was to serve the people of Canada and the people of Nova Scotia, to give them information that they desperately needed and wanted with respect to the terrible tragedy that had taken place there.”
Former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair. (Source: CPAC)
The allegations surfaced last month when handwritten notes penned by RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell during an April 28th meeting with Lucki were released in a report published by the mass casualty commission.
The notes indicated Lucki was upset the details were not included in a press conference citing a “promise” made to the Prime Minister’s Office and Blair, ahead of the Liberal government’s impending gun control legislation.
Cumberland/Colchester MP Dr. Stephen Ellis, who is the Conservative shadow minister for public safety and member of the committee, says the goal of today’s meeting is to get answers.
“All of this leads us to believe that there are back-room deals, and a lack of political integrity from the Liberal government on how they deal with the RCMP,” says Ellis.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also denied the allegations. Blair was moved to the Emergency Preparedness portfolio last October.
“I want to be very clear. I did not direct the RCMP. I did not direct them in their operations or in their communications,” Blair says.
RCMP cruisers parked in front of Portapique Beach Road during the NS mass shooting that claimed 22 lives in April 2020.
Meantime, Lucki says there was, of course, pressure given it was the worst mass shooting in Canada’s history. She says there was also frustration over the media reporting details before police regarding the number of fatalities and even the background of the perpetrator, for example.
She explained that did not mean there was interference on a political level.
“First of all, there was pressure for every single bit of information related to this incident, the number of deceased, where the deceased were located, who the deceased were, the background of the deceased, the perpetrator, the background of the perpetrator, the perpetrator’s common-law spouse … it went on and on,” Lucki says. “It was relentless, especially from the media.”
She was questioned on why in the days after the mass shooting she pivoted from not wanting details on the firearms to be released due to the active nature of the investigation to calling for the information to be made public. Lucki says it was due to the fact that the details were changing rapidly, even hourly, when it came to the investigation.
She says at every press conference new information would be released.
Lucki believes the allegations stem from miscommunication, adding she’s a calm person who at no time got upset that the details were not given out.
“There were a lot of issues we were having with the flow of communication. Whether or not it was released was not my concern. Somebody asked me if it was going to be a part of it. I asked them, and they said yes, and it wasn’t,” Lucki says. “We were getting criticized by the media at every angle for the lack of timely information.”
Ottawa unveiled new details on Monday about its renewed and expanded Oceans Protection Plan.
Budget 2022 included a pledge of $2 billion over nine years, bringing the total investment to $3.5 billion.
It is described by the Liberals as the largest investment Canada has ever seen to protect our oceans.
Speaking in Saint John, N.B., on Monday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said $447 million will be earmarked to further protect and restore coastal ecosystems.
“It will allow us to build on our existing work and invest in new areas,” Alghabra said while speaking at Port Saint John.
That includes restoring aquatic ecosystems, investing in measures to reduce marine shipping impacts on mammals, preventing the spread of invasive species, and banning the transport of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic.
Alghabra did not have details about specific projects, noting that many of them have yet to be finalized.
“We are announcing the envelope or the objective of these projects, so it’s going to include working with local communities, local organizations on learning more about how to restore and protect the ecosystems in our waterways,” he said.
Alghabra noted that more than 50 initiatives have been implemented under the Oceans Protection Plan since it was first launched in 2016.
Among those initiatives are opening six Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue stations in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, protecting more than 200 endangered species, and funding more than 500 projects to and dispose of abandoned vessels across Canada.
The provincial government says it wants to put kids first and get them back in class on time.
The education minister unveiled the plan to play catch-up following two years of interrupted learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a return to in-person learning, on time, and with all the experiences students need and deserve like sports, clubs and field trips.
“Without disruption to their lives, be it from the negotiations or otherwise, we need these kids to be in school. We know it’s important for their mental and physical health,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce Monday.
Negotiations for a new contract between the province and several education boards continue with the current deal set to expire on Wednesday, August 31st.
Lecce told reporters that all parties should have one focus during the negotiations, adding “(We need) to hammer out a deal that is good for kids, that keeps them in school, that restores the student experience and that puts them first in our decision making be it as the unions, as school board trustees or as the government.”
Getting kids back in classrooms in September, on time, with a full school experience that includes extra-curriculars like clubs, band, and field trips
New tutoring supports to fill gaps in learning
Preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow
Providing more money to build schools and improve education
Helping students with funding for mental health supports
Lecce promised that schools will stay open to in-person learning, even if the province sees another wave of COVID-19 in the fall.
He also vowed that a deal will get done and that the government will not legislate teachers back to work.
“We have landed deals with every single union in this province, as difficult as it was, we got to the finish line,” he said. “The message (that I have) to the teacher unions and the education workers is you have a willing partner in this government to sit down (and) hammer out a deal that is fair for the workers and is good for the children of this province.”
The opposition NDP and Education Critic Marit Stiles claimed that every last dollar was a re-announcement of the old, inadequate plan.
“This funding wasn’t good enough when the Conservative government announced it months ago, and it’s not good enough today,” Stiles added. “Teachers and education workers volunteer to coach sports or lead clubs because they love their students. The way to ensure they continue to do that volunteer work is by paying them fairly, and investing in lower class sizes and more supports for students.”
Late Monday Acadia News received a statement from Laura Walton, the President of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU):
“In frontline education workers’ negotiations with the government and school board trustees this summer, workers are fighting for what students need in the classroom to succeed and what we need to do our jobs even better – plus what we need to survive with super-high inflation.
“It’s within Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce’s power to avoid more disruption for students this fall by getting a deal done with education workers this August that addresses structural underfunding, understaffing, and unsustainably low wages.
“Our bargaining demands, if met, would fix these systemic problems to meet students’ needs and create good jobs for education workers – twin goals that will benefit all communities throughout the province.”
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