1st shelter for Muslim women opens in Hamilton
Story by Aura Carreño Rosas • Yesterday 

For the first time in the Hamilton area, Muslim women in need of shelter services now have an option specifically for them.

Nisa Homes, an organization with nine other shelters across Canada, has opened its tenth shelter in the city. An official launch takes place Tuesday afternoon at City Hall, on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Yasmine Youssef, program director at Nisa Homes, told CBC Hamilton that shelters like this are needed because of a demand for beds and for spaces for marginalized people to feel safe.

"There's a lot of fear and stigma, because of racism, because of Islamophobia, because of anti-Asian hate. You're seeing a lot of people afraid to reach out because they don't know how they're going to be received," she said.

The shelter, which has already begun to take in families, caters to Muslim women but is open to all women. However, its capacity is limited to 16 people.



The shelter has specific items for Muslim women to partake in their religious practices, such as prayer rugs and copies of the Qur'an.© Aura Carreño Rosas/CBC

Nisa Homes says 63 of every 100 women that come to the organization's shelters face domestic violence. Youssef said many are also women of colour who may not speak English and don't have immigration status.

"There's so many barriers immigrants specifically face that need to be addressed... But there's nothing that supports women that are immigrants who are also fleeing domestic violence," she said.



The shelter also has many shared spaces, including a children's area, living room, kitchen and dining room.© Aura Carreño Rosas/CBC

She said clients tell her that culturally appropriate support can be hard to access.

"They tell us, 'yeah, I did try to reach out for help, and when I when I was speaking to [other service providers], they told me the problem is that [I'm] Muslim, [I] have to leave Islam, and then everything will be okay.'"

Youssef has been with Nisa Homes since their launch in 2015, when there was only one shelter was set up in Mississauga.

The organization now has shelters across the country, including in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal

Culturally specific services

School board trustee Sabreina Dahab said she was "really, really excited" and emotional about the opening of this shelter.

Dahab said in recent years, she has worked with and supported Muslim women by connecting them with resources and translation services.

"It felt really lonely and isolating to be doing this without an agency to support or without like a network. [Now] I can respond to this more systemically [instead of] one person in the community who is trying to do this by themselves," she said.



Ward 2 trustee Sabreina Dahab said she's glad to have an organization working to support Muslim women in Hamilton.© Bobby Hristova/CBC

She added that spaces like this are vital for providing culturally specific services for Muslim women, saying she's heard of women who are not "even given access to halal meat" at other shelters.

"All of these things are essential for not only escaping and leaving the necessity of violence situations, but to be able to be well supported in this city."

Lack of data

Youssef said although she knows from experience that there is a need for culturally specific shelters, the demographics are under-researched.

"At the moment, shelters and transitional homes don't track anything outside of whether you speak French or English. And whether you're Indigenous or not. They don't track racial data. They don't track religious data, none of that stuff is required," said Youssef.



Accommodations at the shelter include various rooms with three beds for women coming in with children, and one room to accommodate four single women.© Aura Carreño Rosas/CBC

She said some reasons might be the strain shelters already have to function and systemic racism.

"Our shelter system is the same as it was what in the 60s and 70s … But our population, our community, our society looks so different now than it did in the 60s and 70s."

"It [would be] easier to advocate for something and to get changes passed when you have numbers to back up what you're saying," she added.

'They're not alone'

According to Youssef, the ultimate goal is to help these women heal.

"We make sure we use [our services] to make them feel more comfortable … to make them feel like this can actually work and they can get back on their feet. They're not alone... They can survive on their own without their abuser," she said.


Although many corners of the shelter are still a work in progress, some people are already living there, and staff say they expect the home to fill up in no time.© Aura Carreño Rosas/CBC

"We get so many clients — more often than not — telling us 'the only reason I decided to reach out to you was because I knew you understood where I'm coming from, you look like me, you speak like me,'" she added.

Kamloops, B.C., company slays industry giants to win acoustic guitar of the year

Yesterday 

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A small guitar company from Kamloops, B.C., has triumphed over industry giants to have one of its models named acoustic guitar of the year.



Riversong Guitars and its River Pacific design beat out Taylor, Yamaha and Martin guitars to walk away with the prestigious Musical Merchandise Review Dealers' Choice Award.

Each year, the magazine surveys instrument retailers across North America asking them to vote for their favourite product.

Riversong founder Mike Miltimore says it's the first time a Canadian company has won in the category.

He credits the win to his small company's heart, and the innovation of the guitar's adjustable neck that runs through the body, allowing it to better resonate.

Miltimore says that since the winners were announced, his company has been flooded with orders and messages of support from Canadians.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Democrats ditch Manchin’s ‘dirty deal’ after opposition from climate activists

Story by Nina Lakhani in New York • The Guardian

A last-ditch effort to force through legislation that would weaken environmental protections and fast-track energy projects has failed.


Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Joe Manchin, the fossil-fuel-friendly senator from West Virginia, had attempted to latch the controversial deregulation and permitting reforms to a must-pass defense bill – after failing to get his so-called “dirty deal” passed earlier this year.

The proposal to attach his bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual appropriations bill that will be voted on later this week, was reportedly supported by Joe Biden and House leader Nancy Pelosi.

But progressive lawmakers and hundreds of climate, public health and youth groups opposed the move to pass such consequential reforms without proper scrutiny. Manchin’s legislation would weaken environmental safeguards and expedite permits to construct pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure while restricting public input and legal challenges.

On Tuesday, more than 750 organizations sent a letter to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and congressional leadership opposing what they call a “cruel and direct attack on environmental justice communities”. Attaching the “dirty deal” to the NDAA, which would have been one of Pelosi’s final acts as speaker, threatened her legacy and the party’s climate credibility, the groups said.

The deal was ditched – for now at least – amid mounting criticism aimed at the Democratic leadership.

Related: How fossil fuel firms use Black leaders to ‘deceive’ their communities

Environmental groups welcomed the news, but warned the fossil fuel industry would not give up.

Ariel Moger, government and political affairs director at Friends of the Earth, said: “Manchin’s efforts to tie his dirty deal to any must-pass legislation he can get his hands on are undemocratic and potentially devastating for the planet. With momentum on the side of frontline communities, the fight will continue until the bill dies at the end of this Congress.”

Jeff Ordower, 350.org’s North America director, said: “Senator Manchin cannot get away with last-ditch efforts to push forward his fossil fuel fast tracking bill. The industry will keep trying these secretive, last minute efforts to push forward dirty deals, so we will continue to be alert and we won’t let up the fight.”

Manchin, who receives more campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry than any other lawmaker, warned of dire consequences for America’s energy security. He said: “The American people will pay the steepest price for Washington once again failing to put common sense policy ahead of toxic tribal politics. This is why the American people hate politics in Washington.”

Manchin’s bill, described by environmentalists as a “fossil fuel wishlist”, was first attached as a side deal to Biden’s historic climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, but was eventually thwarted after widespread opposition from progressive Democrats and civil society groups. It included limits on legal challenges to new energy projects including the 303-mile Mountain Valley gas pipeline across the Appalachian mountains that has been stalled by concerned communities and environmental groups in West Virginia and Virginia.

He and other proponents have said that fast-track permitting is needed for a rapid transition to renewables and in order to modernize the country’s outdated power transmission systems.

But Jeff Merkley, the Democratic senator representing Oregon, said Manchin’s deal was a dirty one, and had nothing to do with renewables. “This [bill] will give a whole lot more impetus to fossil fuels and run over the top of ordinary people raising concerns, that’s why it’s a dirty deal. This is a real travesty in terms of legislative deliberation, and in terms of environmental justice.”

On Tuesday, Rashida Tlaib, the Democratic congresswoman from Michigan, had called on her colleagues to stand up against the fossil fuel industry and the undemocratic manner in which leadership was trying to push through the bill without scrutiny. She said: “It’s outrageous enough that Congress wants to spend another $847bn on our military-industrial complex, the largest annual military budget in history; we cannot allow them to then ram through Manchin’s dirty deal in the process.”

The NDAA is considered a must-pass bill because it authorizes pay increases and compensation for harmed troops, as well as establishing the following year’s personnel, arms purchasing and geopolitical policies.

Environmental and climate justice groups warned Democrats that frontline communities would not forget, and would hold them accountable in 2024 if the deregulation bill was pushed through.

“To think that this is happening at the hands of Democrats, and their very last action of power is going to be to hurt our communities and strip our voice is really hurtful. I feel betrayed,” said Maria Lopez Nunez, deputy director of the New Jersey-based Ironbound Community Corporation and member of the White House environmental justice advisory council.

“For any Democrat that’s listening, if you’re playing along to this charade, our community will call you out and we will hold you accountable.”

Activists take Qatar workers protest to FIFA boss's home town

Story by By Arnd Wiegmann • 

Protest against FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Brig© Thomson Reuters

BRIG, Switzerland (Reuters) -An activist group erected protest billboards in FIFA boss Gianni Infantino's Swiss home town of Brig on Wednesday to demand the world soccer body compensate migrant workers for alleged human rights abuses in Qatar, host of the football World Cup.


Protest against FIFA President Infantino's hometown Brig© Thomson Reuters

The mobile billboards carried the messages "Infantino: your family were migrants", "Thousands like them were victims of this World Cup", and "Compensate them now".


Protest against FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Brig© Thomson Reuters

The protest by the Avaaz campaign group included an Infantino impersonator holding a World Cup trophy.

Qatar, where foreigners make up most of the 2.9 million population, has faced intense criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers.

FIFA had no direct comment on the protest but pointed to comments by Infantino last month hailing a fund that Qatar set up in 2018 that has paid out $350 million to workers in cases mainly linked to late or non-payment of wages.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported last year that at least 6,500 migrant workers -- many of them working on World Cup projects -- had died in Qatar since it won the right in 2010 to stage the World Cup.

The International Labour Organization has questioned that number, which it said included all deaths in the migrant population. Qatari World Cup organisers have said that there have been three work-related fatalities and 34 non-work-related deaths among workers at World Cup 2022 sites.

Amnesty and other rights groups have led calls for FIFA to compensate migrant workers in Qatar for human rights abuses by setting aside $440 million, matching the World Cup prize money.

FIFA has said it was assessing Amnesty's proposal and implementing an "unprecedented due diligence process in relation to the protection of workers involved".

The EU parliament last month approved a resolution that calls on FIFA to help compensate the families of migrant workers who died, as well as workers who suffered rights abuses, during preparations for the World Cup.

(Reporting by Arnd Wiegmann, writing by Michael Shields, Editing by William Maclean)

NO EXPLANATION NEEDED
Family of fallen January 6 officer explains snubbing McConnell and McCarthy: 'This is an integrity issue'

Story by Chandelis Duster • 

The family of fallen US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick said Wednesday that snubbing GOP leaders during a congressional gold medal ceremony was not for partisan reasons, but an “integrity issue.”

“We were talking about saying something and then we said, ‘No, I think the best way is to just ignore them.’ And we had no idea it was going to blow up like this. We just – we really didn’t. And I’m glad it did because I think it made them think about what they do,” Gladys Sicknick, Brian’s mother, said on “CNN This Morning.”

“Just sitting in the senators’ offices and looking at the pictures of their families behind them and thinking, ‘You know, what do they do when they go home? What do they say to their children and their grandchildren when they go home? You know, what kind of country is this going to be? Do they really want them to live in a country of their making?’” Gladys Sicknick said.

Craig Sicknick, one of Brian’s brothers, said snubbing the lawmakers was not hard to do.

“I really do not hold respect for people who have no integrity. Which is what – this is not a partisan issue, this is an integrity issue. They took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution. And when somebody challenges it, like Trump, they do nothing,” Craig Sicknick said. “Their silence is deafening. Or worse they keep perpetrating the same policies and lies that caused the insurrection to happen.”



Gladys Sicknick, the mother of the late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, attends a ceremony to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the United States Capitol Police, the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police and the heroes of January 6th, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. Sicknick died of two strokes a day after defending the Capitol from rioters on January 6th, 2021.

 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) 

On Tuesday, Brian Sicknick and other law enforcement with the US Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police Department were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal – the highest honor Congress can bestow – for defending the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection. Sicknick suffered strokes and died of natural causes one day after the insurrection and suffered strokes. When accepting the gold medal on his behalf, Sicknick’s family refused to shake hands with either Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Gladys Sicknick previously told CNN she didn’t shake their hands because, “They’re just two-faced.”

“I’m just tired of them standing there and saying how wonderful the Capitol Police is and then they turn around and … go down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring and come back and stand here and sit with – it just, it just hurts,” she said, referring to former President Donald Trump.

McConnell in the past has criticized Trump and condemned him for actions during the January 6 insurrection, while McCarthy has visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago estate several times.

The Senate minority leader was asked about the snub and told reporters after the ceremony on Tuesday, “I would respond by saying today we gave the gold medal to the heroes of January 6. We admire and respect them. They laid their lives on the line and that’s why we gave a gold medal today to the heroes of January 6.”

Asked if she had a message for McConnell and McCarthy, Gladys Sicknick told CNN on Wednesday, “I just don’t know how they can stand there and talk to the press, talk to the cameras and say what they do knowing what they’ve done in the past.”

CNN’s Daniella Diaz and Kristin Wilson contributed to this report.

MISDIRECTED REACTIONARY PROTEST
Anti-war protesters in Italy denounce La Scala for staging Russian opera

Story by By Sara Rossi • 


Italy's La Scala opens its 2022-23 season in Milan© Thomson Reuters

MILAN (Reuters) - Anti-war protesters demonstrated outside Milan's La Scala theatre on Wednesday before it opened its 2022-2023 opera season with a gala performance of the Russian work "Boris Godunov".


Italy's La Scala opens its 2022-23 season in Milan© Thomson Reuters

Around 20 people waved the Ukrainian flag and held up placards denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine in February.

"Russia must be isolated. We want to be free," said Tatiana Slyusarenko, who is originally from the Ukrainian town of Irpin and has been living in Italy since 2005. She is now hosting her cousin who escaped Irpin when the war broke out.


Italy's La Scala opens its 2022-23 season in Milan© Thomson Reuters

She questioned why La Scala had not changed its programme over the nine months since the war began.

"Russian culture only when the war is over," read one of the placards.

La Scala artistic director Dominique Meyer last month defended its decision to stage the work, written by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in the 19th century, after protests from Ukrainian exile groups.

Meyer said the programme was drawn up three years ago and it could not be viewed as pro-Putin propaganda.

Climate-change activists had earlier thrown paint at the entrance to the famed opera house ahead of the opening night, a highlight of the Italian cultural calendar.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President Sergio Mattarella and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were all expected to attend the performance.



Italy's La Scala opens its 2022-23 season in Milan© Thomson Reuters

The three-hour opera, based on a play by Russian writer Alexander Pushkin, recounts the story of Tsar Boris Godunov who went mad and died overwhelmed by guilt over the killing of a young rival for the throne in the late 16th century.



Italy's La Scala opens its 2022-23 season in Milan© Thomson Reuters

(Reporting by Sara Rossi; Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Gavin Jones and Crispian Balmer)

 Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin 

(English: /ˈpʊʃkɪn/;^[1] Russian: Александр Сергеевич Пушкин^{[note 1]}, tr. Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn] (listen); 6 June [O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [O.S. 29 January] 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.^[2] He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet^[3][4][5][6] and the founder of modern Russian literature.^[7][8]

Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow.^[9] His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family.

MIXED RACE

His maternal great-grandfather was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson.

REVOLUTIONARY

He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. 

Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I. While under the strict surveillance of the Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was serialized between 1825 and 1832.

Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover and her sister's husband Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment.

How Indigenous-led conservation could help Canada meet its land and water protection targets

Story by Inayat Singh, Alice Hopton • Yesterday 

In the far northwest of Manitoba, the Seal River flows 260 kilometres through the thick boreal forest into Hudson Bay. It's the only major river in northern Manitoba without any dams. No roads lead to the river, and there's only one human settlement in the river's watershed.

That community, the Sayisi Dene, is leading an initiative along with neighbouring Dene, Cree and Inuit communities to protect the 50,000 square kilometres of the watershed. That's an area of untouched wilderness roughly the size of Nova Scotia, which would be protected from industrial development if the community's proposal is accepted.

"It is 99.97 per cent pristine. The watershed is actually fully intact. There are no disturbances, no industrial development in the watershed whatsoever," said Stephanie Thorassie, executive director of the Seal River Watershed Alliance.

"And for those reasons, because of how remote we are, we are a little piece of heaven in the world that is a little bit unnoticed and we kind of like it."

The federal government has noted that Indigenous-led proposals like the Seal River Watershed are crucial for Canada to meet its conservation goals. Canada has pledged to protect 30 per cent of its land and 30 per cent of its oceans by 2030. By the end of 2021, about 14 per cent of each were protected, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

With the UN biodiversity conference, COP15, kicking off in Montreal this week, Canada has been behind a diplomatic push to achieve a new global agreement on protecting nature.

And experts say attention will be on Canada's own targets. In just eight years, Canada has to double the amount of land protected in all of the national parks, provincial parks, conservation areas and other protected spaces that were established over the past century.

While it's a tall order, crucially, it's also a chance to do conservation right, by choosing the most ecologically important places and letting Indigenous knowledge and people take the lead, according to James Snider, the vice-president for science, knowledge and innovation at World Wildlife Fund Canada.

"It's through the lens of Indigenous-led conservation, or conservation more broadly, that supports Indigenous rights and objectives, that is the means by which we get to those important targets," said Snider, who has been researching the most carbon-rich and ecologically valuable areas in the country over the past year.

Reconciliation through conservation

The history of the Sayisi Dene vividly illustrates this opportunity.

In 1956, based on flimsy and ultimately disproved evidence, the Manitoba and federal governments decided that the caribou herd was declining, and blamed the Sayisi Dene for over-hunting. The entire community of about 250 people were relocated to just outside Churchill, on Hudson Bay, far away from the lands that had sustained them for centuries.

There, they experienced poverty, racism and lack of adequate housing. Nearly half the community died after the forced relocation, while the caribou population was eventually found to be actually stable.

In 1973, a group of community members left on foot and settled around Tadoule Lake, in the Seal River watershed, to return to their traditional way of life.

Today, 325 people live in the community. The Sayisi Dene survived by returning to their traditional homelands and lifestyles, but some say they are ready to go further.

Related video: COP15 

Governments gather in Canada to boost biodiversity

Duration 1:53 View on Watch

The Importance of Protecting Access to Nature

Warnings climate change is disrupting Indigenous seasonal calendars

The Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) that they have proposed will — unlike the false environmental concerns that displaced them — show a new scientifically and culturally informed way of protecting biodiversity, according to Thorassie. It will also allow the community to provide employment through eco-tourism, she added.

"I think that utilizing our first peoples to do this work is the right way to go about creating protected spaces," Thorassie said.

"Utilizing the knowledge of our elders and our community members and our land users — that knowledge that they carry is older than universities. It's been here since before Canada was created.

"Being able to have an opportunity to stand and tell the world what's important to us, for our reasons, and to protect it for ourselves, by ourselves, is something that hasn't been done before. That's what's different this time around."

According to a report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Canada can nearly reach its conservation goal for 2030 with all the dozens of IPCAs already proposed across the country. But provincial governments have to be on board before an area can be protected, and the CPAWS report called out several provinces for dragging their feet on the process.

The report pointed out that Manitoba does not currently have a conservation target. About 11 per cent of the province is protected. But proposals on the table, which include Seal River, and a few other IPCAs, would get the province to 29.1 per cent, according to the report.

"We have enormous leadership on the ground from Indigenous peoples who are identifying areas for protection across the country," said Alison Woodley, senior strategic advisor at CPAWS.

"But we have this blockage in terms of provinces and territories which are not stepping up in most cases to actually adopt and embrace these ambitious targets and support Indigenous-led conservation."

Canada's newest national park

Canada's newest national park, Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve, is considered a success story. It was established in 2019 along the eastern arm of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.

It's part of a larger Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area, which protects species like moose, bears and wolves, preserves habitat for various migratory birds and protects areas of boreal forest and tundra.


Steven Nitah, who helped negotiate the creation of Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area, says not all governments and jurisdictions are at the same level of understanding around Indigenous reconciliation.

© Sheldon Alberts/Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership

The national park and surrounding areas are co-managed by the government and the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation. Along with protecting the ecologically sensitive area, the Indigenous community's vision is to provide employment to community members who will work as guardians and in other job roles in the park, develop infrastructure for visitors and work on conservation and research projects in the area, according to the community's website.

Steven Nitah, the nation's chief negotiator for the establishment of the national park, said that not all governments and jurisdictions are at the same level of understanding around Indigenous reconciliation, leaving challenges for other communities that want to establish IPCAs.

"Indigenous nations that are advancing their own protected and conserved areas really have to drive their agenda," he said. "They have to own what they want to create."

Research shows how valuable Canadian forests are

In recent years, scientific research employing newly available satellite data (among other methods) has painted a clearer picture of just how valuable Canada's forests are. The area of the Seal River Watershed is one of the most carbon-rich landscapes in Canada, part of a swath of carbon-rich forests and wetlands extending from Northern Ontario into Manitoba.

That carbon is tied up in plants, trees, and most importantly, layers upon layers of dead organic material built up over centuries and stored in the soil.

Keeping that carbon where it is, scientists say, is crucial on a warming planet. If that carbon is disturbed and ends up escaping into the atmosphere, it will trap more heat and escalate the climate crisis.

"We have amongst the largest area of intact ecosystems remaining in the world," Snider said.

"We store a tremendous, jaw-dropping amount of carbon. And so there's a responsibility globally, many would argue, in terms of protecting those important places."

Indigenous women call on federal government to act in light of Winnipeg killings

OTTAWA — The daughters of an Indigenous woman police believe to have been the victim of a serial killer urged the federal government on Tuesday to act on what they call an ongoing genocide.


Indigenous women call on federal government to act in light of Winnipeg killings© Provided by The Canadian Press

Police believe Morgan Harris was one of four victims of an alleged serial killer in Winnipeg, but her body has not been found.

Harris's daughters, Cambria and Kera Harris, told a news conference in Ottawa the government needs to do more to end violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Flanked by members of her community and standing in a foyer outside the House of Commons, Cambria said she is heartbroken and shocked.

"Time and time again, our Indigenous women and brothers and sisters have to come here and we have to raise our voices, begging for change and begging for justice for our people," she said.

"That is wrong. I should not have to stand here today. And I should not have to come here and be so mad, and beg and beg, so that you will find and bring our loved ones home."

In 2019, a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls concluded that the centuries of violence they have endured in Canada amounts to genocide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was criticized for stopping short of calling it genocide in his initial response to the report, but has since said he accepts the report's conclusion.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said at the news conference that federal governments continue to fail Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people and said it is "an absolute shame" that he "cannot guarantee to people that this will not happen again."

Miller promised to meet with the Harris family Tuesday.

The chief of Long Plain First Nation in Manitoba, where two of the four victims are from, said her community needs more resources, including a safe space for women that operates day and night.


"I know many communities are needing supports and services when it comes to the safety of community members," Kyra Wilson said.

NDP MP Leah Gazan, who represents a Winnipeg riding, met with Wilson, the Harris family and other Indigenous leaders Tuesday before hosting the joint press conference.

"It's time for the government to act," she said.

Gazan called for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Monday, saying in a letter to the Speaker that "survivors, advocates and community leaders are calling for a national state of emergency to be declared in response to this crisis of violence." She said MPs should help shape the nature of the government's response.

The debate was not granted.

On Tuesday, Trudeau said his government has taken "significant steps" to invest in supports but "there's lots more work to do."

Jeremy Skibicki, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and a fourth woman who has not been identified, but has been given the name "Buffalo Woman" by police and community leaders.

He made a brief court appearance last week and his lawyer said he maintains his innocence.

Skibicki was first charged in the death of Contois, 24, on May 18. Her partial remains were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building, and police later found the rest of her remains in a landfill.

Police believe Harris and Myran were also killed in May, while Buffalo Woman was killed in March.

In a press conference Tuesday, Winnipeg police reiterated that they do not believe it would be feasible to search for the remains of the three women, given the size and topography of the landfill, among other factors.

Harris's daughters say if police won't conduct a search to find their mother, they will.

Kera Harris said the women deserve a proper resting place.

"If you want to respect and honour them, stop making excuses as to why you can't find them," she said.

The Assembly of First Nations, which is hosting a special chiefs assembly in Ottawa, held a moment of silence for the four victims and their families Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.

David Fraser, The Canadian Press

CANADA
AFN assembly kicks off with updates on investigations, little progress on backlogged issues

Story by Brett Forester • Yesterday

The Assembly of First Nations' first gathering since National Chief RoseAnne Archibald survived a bitterly contested non-confidence motion in July kicked off Tuesday with a pledge to address the organization's ongoing internal troubles and an acknowledgment tensions have resulted in a backlog of pressing issues.

"We can't spend another minute, let alone a chiefs' assembly, in turmoil," said Archibald as she welcomed First Nations delegates to downtown Ottawa's Westin hotel in her opening speech.

"Yes, there are still HR and legal matters that we will resolve in the coming months. We will continue to do so in a good way."

Archibald's speech followed a critical welcoming address by Dylan Whiteduck, chief of Kitigan Zibi north of Ottawa in Quebec, who said the assembly compromised its integrity during the July meeting in Vancouver.

Archibald told delegates she believed the challenges can be traced to intergenerational trauma stemming from the horrors Canada's residential school system inflicted on First Nations people.

She announced the AFN's executive committee, which consists of the national chief and regional chiefs, would bring on retired senator and former Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Murray Sinclair as a mediator to help with conflict resolution.

"In the meantime, I've heard loud and clear from chiefs across Turtle Island, from leadership across Turtle Island, that our important work must continue and not be slowed down by inner conflicts," she said.

Sinclair did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

HR probe at standstill

Before the July assembly, the regional chiefs had attempted to suspend Archibald after four employees, followed by a fifth, filed workplace misconduct complaints against her, which resulted in an ongoing probe.

Archibald hit back, claiming she'd been undermined, discredited and attacked because of her press for an investigation into what she alleges is corruption within the organization, which receives tens of millions of dollars annually through contribution agreements with the federal government.



AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald arrived at the annual general assembly in July in Vancouver surrounded by a small group of supporters including First Nations chiefs and grassroots community members.© Ka’nhehsí:io Deer/CBC

Archibald defeated the attempted suspension and convinced the chiefs to order a review of the organization's financial policies and practices before, if necessary, commissioning a forensic audit.

Related video: Assembly of First Nations meets in Ottawa as internal divisions fester
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The delegates heard updates from both the workplace misconduct probe and financial review as the assembly's first order of business following opening protocols.

Raquel Chisholm, a partner with law firm Emond Harnden, said the national chief had not made herself available for an interview despite investigators' repeated requests to sit down with her between August and now.

"Ultimately, the investigators were only able to meet with the national chief last week on Nov. 29," Chisholm said.

"They were not, however, able to actually interview her. Instead, she expressed, through her lawyer, concerns about the fairness of the process. I had hoped that we would have a report by now, and we do not."

CBC News requested more information from the national chief on her concerns but did not receive a reply.

Audit in early stage

Meanwhile, the chiefs committee charged with conducting preliminary work on the financial probe said they were making progress on three investigations happening alongside the HR probe: an investigative review to end sexual-orientation and gender-based discrimination, the financial policies and practices review, and a governance review.

"The most important piece of the update is that our committee is taking those resolutions seriously, that we are having fulsome discussions to meaningfully work with the executive committee and the secretariat to implement those resolutions," said Khelsilem, chairperson of the Squamish Nation Council.

Khelsilem told delegates the chiefs committee on charter renewal, which examines governance issues, is working to bring in an external financial expert with knowledge of audits to help advise them in their work, which is still in early stages.



Khelsilem is the elected chairperson of the Squamish Nation Council and sits on the chiefs committee on charter renewal.© Ka’nhehsí:io Deer/CBC

He said the committee had already provided a number of resolutions on internal governance and administrative reform for the delegates to consider Tuesday afternoon.

Newfoundland to have own seat on council

Chiefs or their chosen proxies from all 634 First Nations in Canada are eligible to debate and vote on resolutions during these assemblies, which provide the executive chiefs their lobbying mandate.

The chiefs passed a resolution to change the name of the not-for-profit corporation, known as the National Indian Brotherhood, which the AFN maintains to sign funding deals with Ottawa and conduct other business.

The National Indian Brotherhood was the AFN's forerunner, operating until 1982 when the AFN was established in its place.

Chiefs also passed a resolution supporting a new policy governing conflicts of interest and perceived conflicts of interest. They also agreed to give Newfoundland a seat on the AFN's executive council.

The assembly's first day concluded with a presentation from Kimberly Murray, the federally appointed special interlocutor on unmarked graves and burial sites at former residential schools.

More than 60 resolutions dealing with issues like child welfare, residential schools, policing and more are slated to be debated Wednesday and Thursday.

Court intervenes after baby’s parents refuse ‘vaccinated blood’ transfusion

Story by Kathryn Mannie • 1h ago

The New Zealand High Court has ruled that a six-month-old baby at the centre of a controversial blood transfusion case will be taken under the guardianship of health authorities so he can receive a life-saving operation.


File - A view of the Auckland High Court.© Greg Bowker/Getty Images

His parents had been unwilling to proceed with the surgery over concerns he would receive "vaccinated blood," and were seeking a court order for their baby to receive blood from unvaccinated donors.

The parents said in previous interviews that the baby needed surgery "almost immediately," but they were "extremely concerned with the blood (the doctors) are going to use," the Guardian reported. The boy, referred to as Baby W, has a congenital heart defect and will not survive without an urgent operation.

The ruling to temporarily place the boy in the guardianship of his pediatric heart surgeon and cardiologist was met with fierce backlash from anti-vaccine protestors, who demonstrated outside the Auckland courthouse on Wednesday as the decision was handed down, the New Zealand Herald reported. The case has been a rallying point for the anti-vaccine movement in the country.

The presiding judge, Ian Gault, ruled that Baby W's temporary guardianship by health authorities will only last from Wednesday until he recovers from his life-saving surgery, which is expected to be by January 2023 at the latest. Gault emphasized that the boy's parents are still his primary guardians and doctors must keep them informed of his condition and treatment at all times. The parents retain guardianship of the child in all other matters.

The decision came down after a lengthy hearing the previous day when Gault heard arguments from Paul White, lawyer for Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), Sue Grey, who represented the parents, and Adam Ross, a lawyer for the New Zealand Blood Service.

White said that specialists believe the child's heart is suffering damage because of the surgical delays. Baby W is experiencing pulmonary valve stenosis, the narrowing of a heart valve, which is causing a build-up of blood and pressure, he said.

"His survival is actually dependent on the application being granted," White argued.

Meanwhile, Grey requested that the court order the country's blood service to establish a tailored donor service dealing in blood exclusively from unvaccinated people.

The New Zealand Blood Service argued that allowing parents to refuse vaccinated blood would set a dangerous precedent whereby patients could pick and choose where their donor blood comes from. Agency lawyer Ross said this would jeopardize the integrity of the blood service and lead to ethical and clinically bankrupt requests for blood.

Justice Gault ruled that the parents' request for unvaccinated blood was unnecessary and impractical, adding that the operation was in the child's "best interest" and there was "no scientific evidence" that vaccinated blood poses any risk, citing evidence provided by New Zealand's chief medical officer.

The judge also noted that the New Zealand Blood Service presented evidence from the past six months showing a "significant increase in potential blood recipients asking for blood from unvaccinated donors or asking about directed donation. Similar trends have been noted in other countries."

During the hearing, the parents' lawyer cited an affidavit provided by a controversial Canadian academic, Byram Bridle, an associate professor at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Bridle has been publicly critical of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, for which he has faced criticism from the scientific and medical community.

Ross, the lawyer for the New Zealand Blood Service, took aim at Bridle's credentials, saying he was a doctor "of the PhD variety," not a medical doctor.

Bridle was recently chosen as an expert witness by a Toronto mother who was engaged in a court battle with her son's father over who should have the final say in their child's vaccinations. Bridle refused to acknowledge that the COVID-19 vaccine prevents serious illness and death, and the judge in the case ruled that he was not qualified to give an expert opinion.

"Respectfully, this is so far removed from the mainstream and widely accepted views of the Canadian and international medical and scientific community that the court cannot accept Dr. Bridle’s evidence on the COVID vaccine as reliable," the judge ruled, as reported by Guelph Today.

"Dr. Bridle acknowledged that he is not a medical doctor. He has never vaccinated a child, he has never treated a child or an adult suffering from a reaction to a vaccine, nor has he ever treated a child or an adult who is suffering from an infectious disease," the ruling reads.

The judge ruled that the father in the Canadian case, who does not have custody of the child, was the best choice to make decisions about his son's vaccinations. The child's mother will retain custody.