Biden unveils picks for key religious freedom roles

President Joe Biden announced Friday that he was appointing Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father who drew then-candidate Donald Trump's ire when he spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

 WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 23: Gold Star father Khizr Khan participates in a panel discussion during the Muslim Collective For Equitable Democracy Conference and Presidential Forum July 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. The conference was organized by the Muslim Caucus Education Collective. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Khan, who endorsed Biden in 2020, said in 2016 that Trump "sacrificed nothing and no one," before raising a copy of the US Constitution, asking if Trump had ever read it. Khan's son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, died in Baghdad in 2004.

The White House on Friday recognized Khan, a founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Project, as "an advocate for religious freedom as a core element of human dignity." The announcement said that Khan "devotes a substantial amount of his time to providing legal services to veterans, men and women serving in uniform, and their families."

It continued: "Today's announcement underscores the President's commitment to build an Administration that looks like America and reflects people of all faiths."

In addition to Khan, the White House nominated Rashad Hussain to serve as the first Muslim Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and Deborah Lipstadt to serve as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Khizr Khan looks on during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at The Armory on November 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday announced his picks for four key religious freedom roles, including Khzir Khan, the Muslim-American father of a slain U.S. soldier who became an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump throughout both of his campaigns.

Khan was appointed to be a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body that investigates and monitors religious freedom issues across the globe and makes recommendations to the administration on how to address abuses. He rose to national prominence during the 2016 campaign with his sharp critiques of Trump’s policies and rhetoric towards Muslims, ultimately speaking out against the Republican at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and sharing the story of his son, a U.S. Army captain who died in Iraq in 2004.

Biden is also appointing Sharon Kleinbaum, a rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City and a prominent activist for LGBTQ rights, as a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Biden’s nominations include Rashad Hussain, who would be the first Muslim American to serve as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. Hussain previously served in the Obama administration as White House counsel, as well as U.S. special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, among other roles.

In addition, he’s nominating Deborah Lipstadt to be the special envoy to monitor and combat anti-semitism, a role that has the rank of ambassador, a position that’s part of the State Department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. The position was left unfilled during the first few years of the Trump presidency, but lawmakers from both parties and a number of leading Jewish organizations have urged Biden to fill the role to address a global rise in anti-semitism in recent years. Lipstadt is a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, and served on the State Department’s advisory committee on religious persecution abroad.

Alexandra Jaffe, The Associated Press

Inspired by 14th century poem, The Green Knight is latest Arthurian legend on big screen

Jenna Benchetrit 

© Eric Zachanowich Dev Patel stars in The Green Knight, a film adaptation of the 14th century epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Arthurian legend is no stranger to the big screen and the latest in that line, The Green Knight starring Dev Patel, has already opened to rave reviews.

But some are hoping the 14th century epic poem it is inspired by — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — becomes the real breakout star.

In A24's latest film, Patel stars as Sir Gawain, a nephew of King Arthur who sets out on a fantastical journey to challenge the Green Knight, a strange, towering figure with green skin and a seemingly indestructible exterior. The film hit Canadian theatres on Friday.
Appeal of Arthurian legends

Directed by David Lowery, the filmmaker behind Ain't Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story, the film is the latest in a long line of adapted Arthurian legends that has movie buffs and medievalists alike excited for its release.

"It's a story about an ambitious young person who maybe, in the beginning, bites off more than he can chew," said writer Robin Sloan, who each year performs a live virtual reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated into modern English by poet Simon Armitage.

"I hope I'll hear at least a few of those alliterative bouncing rhythms spoken by Dev Patel, or the narrator or someone else, because I think they're, for me, the most special part of the poem," said Sloan, who is also the author of the novel Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

The film was due to be released last May, Lowery said in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail. When the pandemic upset those plans, the director said it gave him a chance to "revisit it with fresh eyes."

If early reviews are any indication, the extra moments in the editing room paid off.

Justin Chang of The Los Angeles Times called it "a bewitching feat of revisionist mythmaking, the kind that implores you to look upon an old story with newly appreciative eyes." The New York Times' A.O. Scott said it's a movie "worth watching twice" while Alison Willmore at Vulture wrote that it is a "ravishing and unsettling fantasy."

"It's just — it's visual poetry," said Jeffrey Zhang, chief critic and editor of pop culture website Strange Harbours. "I think that's what this film really is."

Available in the public domain and holding wide appeal, Arthurian legends make for easy adaptations, Zhang said.
Poem was unknown for centuries

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an epic poem with a fittingly storied history. Written in the late 14th century by an unknown writer who has since been dubbed "The Pearl Poet," the text was virtually unknown until a 19th century British researcher came across it.

Only a single copy of the original manuscript has been discovered.

"It's not like it was a hit in the year 1427," Sloan said. "Instead, it basically sat unread, unknown in a library— it was passed around from collection to collection."

It was almost destroyed in a fire in London in the 1700s that claimed other manuscripts, he said.

"We'll never know what was on them or what stories were lost in that fire. But just by sheer luck, Sir Gawain in the Green Knight was spared," he said.

Alexandra Gillespie, a former English professor at the University of Toronto who has taught on Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, said that the "complex," "jewel-like" poem — along with other texts from the Pearl Poet — makes rich use of historical Middle English.

 

Jackson Weaver/CBC News Alexandra Gillespie taught a fourth-year capstone seminar on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the University of Toronto-Mississauga.

"They are alliterative poems," she said. "So the first letter of many words in a single line will be the same, though they also have patterns of rhyme and other kinds of meter and they're really, really intricate."

The text's recurring green motif is a symbol of sexuality, fertility, nature and abundance, Gillespie said.

"Green is also the death that encroaches on you, the decay that is always just around the corner," she said.

Sloan said that much of the poem's appeal is in its use of language paired with a narrative that can be surprising.

"I mean, it's an Arthurian quest, but it's not like the others," he said. "I truly believe this is -- it's not like the others. It's really a special piece of work in history."

On the big screen and beyond, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has proved to be particularly fruitful source material, with its hero appearing in a range of media.

There's the 1973 film Gawain and the Green Knight, and its 1984 remake, Sword of the Valiant; there's a BAFTA-winning 2002 animated short film that shares the poem's name. There is also a 2008 documentary that explores the hero's journey and the 2011 television series Camelot features Clive Standen as Gawain.

The 1991 opera Gawain is just one of many stage adaptations. And there's even the Green Knight-inspired video game, Chronicles of the Sword.

For Sloan, whose yearly readings of the poem draw in viewers from around the world, the film is an opportunity for people to appreciate the centuries-old text.

I hope that when people watch a movie like this and become aware of its source material, it connects them to a time scale that's a little bit broader than the one we're often sort of zoomed into and locked into," he said.

Still, many stories of Arthurian legend have received an underwhelming reception at the box office.

Most recently, 2017's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword lost a whopping $153.2 million US for Warner Bros. King Arthur, released in 2004, grossed only $203.6 million US against its $120 million US budget. And Sean Connery's 1995 film The First Knight was ill-received by audiences and critics.

So while Lowery takes a risk in adapting The Green Knight, its Arthurian origins could resonate with audiences who are excited by tales of swords and sorcery in the vein of The Lord of the Rings, or even the knight-like superheroes in franchises like the Avengers, Gillespie said.

Why scholars are drawn to the origins of new film The Green Knight Duration: 02:19

'The Green Knight' is the best medieval takedown since 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'

Noah Berlatsky 

Director David Lowery’s new film “The Green Knight,” out Friday, comes draped in lush visuals and the cultural caché of the medieval epic poem on which the story is based. But the movie’s modern, slyly deflationary approach to its material has as much to do with that classic film of antiheroism, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” as it does with high Arthurian legend.

© Provided by NBC News

Lowery doesn’t quite have the Pythons’ genius for nonsense and antistructure. But in his somewhat quieter, highbrow vein, he, too, manages to effectively fart in the general direction of noble sacrifice, honor and narrative. It may not be the greatest film to ever mock Arthurian legend, but it’s a solid and worthwhile second.

As most people who took high school English probably remember, “Gawain and the Green Knight” is set in the time of King Arthur. In the story, a giant green knight interrupts a Christmas feast of the knights of the Round Table and offers to take any blow one of the knights there can give him. In exchange, he will return the blow a year hence. It doesn’t seem like a great bargain, but brave Gawain accepts and promptly strikes off the knight’s head—at which point the green giant unexpectedly picks the severed head up and rides off. First, though, he tells Gawain he has to find him at his Green Chapel a year hence to fulfill his pledge and be beheaded himself.

In the original poem, Gawain is a typically heroic sort, filled to the top of his (temporarily attached) head with honor and nobility and bravery and all the other virtues. The movie version, where Gawain is played by Dev Patel, is a different matter. He’s the king’s nephew, and while he longs vaguely for glory, he spends most of his days drinking and fornicating. In this telling, Gawain impetuously accepts the challenge from the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) less out of chivalry than to prove himself to the king (Sean Harris). A year later, Gawain shows understandably little interest in going to find the knight who has promised to behead him; the king has to badger him into it with vague rewards of greatness and honor.

It’s not just the King who badgers Gawain, however. The movie sometimes seems like a conspiracy against him, though a conspiracy by whom is hard to say. His mother, Morgan Le’Fay (Sarita Choudhury) performs some rituals which may or may not have to do with the Green Knight’s appearance, suggesting she’s plotting against her son to destroy him, or maybe test him, or maybe out of some unknown motivation. Other people Gawain meets along the way—like the mysterious, possibly dead Winifred (Erin Kellyman)—seem to know more than him about his quest.

All these shadowy manipulators make the narrative feel like a kind of put on, or a “game” as the Green Knight himself calls the Christmas challenge. Gawain has to go on a quest because in legends (and, not coincidentally, in Hollywood movies) the hero goes on a quest. Doing so demonstrates and inculcates heroism and other admirable qualities, supposedly. (As Gawain and other characters point out more than once, going to get your head cut off seems more foolhardy than admirable.)

Nor does Gawain ever come into his own bravery and generosity in the accepted Hollywood fashion. He never gets to show off his skills in swordplay, if he even has any; there’s less fight choreography in “The Green Knight” than in the ostentatiously low-budget “Holy Grail.”

Instead, Gawain gets fooled, intimidated, robbed and seduced along his journey. He loses the scarf which is supposed to magically protect him. Winifred has to chastise him into doing something semi-heroic. (“A knight should know better!” she harrumphs.) Whenever he comes upon skeleton remains—hanging at a crossroads, sunken in a pond, coming upon him in a vision—his lips curl in disgust and horror.

Nor does Patel ever lose his look of hangdog confusion and misery; he always seems like he’d much rather be doing something else. The only time he seems truly happy is in the movie’s opening scene. There he radiates earthy bonhomie and goodwill, before his destiny seizes him by the nether regions.

But what is that destiny? The movie offers various speculations. Perhaps Gawain is meant to become king himself, and this is his trial by fire and sword. Perhaps the Green Knight is a symbol of death, and Gawain’s progress toward him is a progress toward the green moss that grows over a corpse: Wisdom is confronting the end of life on which more life grows in an endless cycle of rebirth, new heads sprouting from old shoulders, world without end.

Thanks in part to Patel’s subtle and not-so-subtle expressions of skepticism and irritation, these multiple explanations and possibilities come across less as ancient mystery than modern absurdity. Lowery reads a touch of Kafka back into the medieval legend, and the Green Knight’s magical bargain becomes a kind of bureaucratic hoop. Gawain signed a contract and now he has to fulfill the terms, however pointless or brutal, in the name of some abstract principle that everyone has decided is more important than his life.

The police don’t show up and take everyone away, as at the end of “Holy Grail,” but the conclusion is almost as blankly anticlimactic. Arthur and his knights remain a symbol of heroism and tragic nobility. As such, films about Arthur and his knights remain a good way to kick heroism in the shins, or to point out that tragedy is more often irritating and pointless than noble. Gawain is the butt of a joke, not a hero. And the joke is precisely that heroes are butts. The narrative shoves him here and there and he staggers along, toward whatever green fate awaits him.

Ottawa drummer squirrelled away 1968 Joni Mitchell tape recorded by Jimi Hendrix

OTTAWA — An Ottawa drummer with a passion for collecting reel-to-reel tapes deserves applause for the coming release of a Joni Mitchell performance recorded over half a century ago by none other than virtuoso guitarist Jimi Hendrix.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The impromptu 1968 recording session of blossoming singer-songwriter Mitchell at the national capital's Le Hibou Coffee House has long been the stuff of pop music lore, documented in Hendrix's diary.

But the tape's fate was a mystery for decades.

Mitchell announced this week that selections from the Ottawa gig would be included on a volume of archival recordings from 1968-71 to be released in October.

A 24-year-old Mitchell was in the middle of a two-week stint at Le Hibou on March 19, 1968, when Hendrix, playing the nearby Capitol Theatre, phoned the Alberta-born songstress, whom he would soon dub "fantastic girl with heaven words" in his diary.

"I think I'll record her tonight with my excellent tape recorder (knock on wood) ... hmmm ... can't find any wood ... everything's plastic," he wrote.

In liner notes from Mitchell's forthcoming release, posted on her website, she recalls the evening vividly.

"They came and told me, 'Jimi Hendrix is here, and he's at the front door.' I went to meet him. He had a large box. He said to me, 'My name is Jimi Hendrix. I'm on the same label as you. Reprise Records.'

"He said, 'I'd like to record your show. Do you mind?' I said, 'No, not at all.' There was a large reel-to-reel tape recorder in the box.

"The stage was only about a foot off the ground. He knelt at the edge of the stage, with a microphone, at my feet. All during the show, he kept twisting knobs."

The resulting tape was stolen from a vehicle a short time later. Hendrix died in 1970. And it seemed Mitchell's show would linger only in the memory of those who came out to Le Hibou.

More than 30 years later, drummer Richard Patterson, who had played in Ottawa band The Esquires, asked fellow musician Ian McLeish to digitize more than 300 tapes he had amassed over the years.

"Some were tapes sent to him by artists trying to get on the air, some were tapes of the groups and the artists he'd been involved with. And some were just tapes that he found hanging around in the studios," McLeish said in an interview.

After Patterson's death in 2011, his estate asked McLeish to go through the old recordings again.

"And I found a bunch of tapes Richard hadn't given me the first time. And one of them was Joni Mitchell at Le Hibou, March 1968, taped by Jimi."

McLeish digitized the tape, and the original, along with all the others from Patterson, were given to Library and Archives Canada.

"But I kept the digitized versions of everything," said McLeish, who releases vintage Canadian recordings through Mousehole Music.

"And I was hoping that this Joni thing might be of interest to somebody someday. But I didn't really think, being an old tape, that it was that important."

McLeish heard last year that Mitchell had begun issuing some early performances. "And I said, well, this would be right up her alley."

He got in touch with the performer's management and sent along the digital file.

"They passed it on to Joni and, from what I understand, she freaked out. She had thought this stuff was lost forever, and so was really, really pleased to hear this set."

McLeish said he looked into retrieving the tape from Library and Archives because Mitchell expressed interest in having the original, but COVID-19 restrictions complicated matters.

Richard Green, now retired from the archives, was manager of the music section when Patterson's tapes were offered to the institution. He recalls accepting them even though there was a freeze on such acquisitions at the time.

"I essentially took it upon myself to bring the material in when I wasn't supposed to, and to hide it away in the backlog."

A full inventory was not done at the time, so Green didn't know the Mitchell tape was among the recordings.

The mystery is how it got into Patterson's collection in the first place, McLeish said.

"I don't really know, because Richard's gone now, how he got a hold of it. But I assume because he was always picking up tapes and adding them to the collection, either somebody gave it to him because they knew he was archiving stuff. Or he saw it somewhere and said, 'Hey, can I take this?'"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2021.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

APPOLO LORD OF THE LYRE
Swirling Gases on the Sun's Surface Make it Sing, Say Scientists

Joseph Golder, Zenger News

Astronomers say the sun does more than just shine. It sings as it spins, emitting low frequencies that would make musical sounds if they didn't occur in the vacuum of space.

 NASA/SDO/AIA/LMSAL The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured its 100 millionth image of the sun on Jan. 19, 2015. The dark areas at the bottom and the top of the image are coronal holes — areas of less dense gas, where solar material has flowed away from the sun.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the University of Göttingen in Germany discovered "deep low musical notes" using data from NASA.

Scientists discovered higher musical notes coming from the sun in the 1960s. "The sun rings like a bell," the Planck Institute researchers said.

The Planck team said they spotted "very slow swirling motions" on the sun's surface — a 3 mph churn that seem linked to the 27 days it takes to rotate around once. The speed is "about how fast a person walks", said scientist Zhi-Chao Liang.


But computer models established that since the sun is made of gas, not solids, different parts rotate at different speeds. This phenomenon, called "differential rotation," leads to the different regions resonating with each other, emitting vibrations at regular, predictable speeds.

The faster vibrations measured more than a half-century ago — the "high" notes — came from cycles that lasted about five minutes, not 27 days.

Gaseous turbulence near the surface of the sun causes these shorter acoustic "oscillations." Millions of them are trapped in the sun's interior, tracked by scientists called helioseismologists.

"These 5-minute oscillations have been observed continuously by ground-based telescopes and space observatories since the mid 1990s," the Planck researchers said in a statement, "and have been used very successfully by helioseismologists to learn about the internal structure and dynamics of our star — just like seismologists learn about the interior of the Earth by studying earthquakes."

Helioseismologists have managed over the years to map how the sun's gases rotate, both on the surface and deep beneath it.

In order to work out why the "musical" vibrations occur, the team compared NASA's observational data to computer models.

 MPS/L. Gizon, Z.-C. Liang/Zenger Observations from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory show giant waves of solar material traveling at the Sun’s surface. Note: This image is a screen capture from video. MPS/L. Gizon, Z.-C. Liang/Zenger

"The models allow us to look inside the sun's interior and determine the full three-dimensional structure of the oscillations," graduate student Yuto Bekki said.

"All of these new oscillations we observe on the sun are strongly affected by the sun's differential rotation," said scientist Damien Fournier.

Laurent Gizon, lead author of the new study, said her team's discovery of a "is very exciting" because it allows them to calculate the strength of the convection currents that "control the solar dynamo."

Researchers said they made the discovery using 10 years' worth of observations from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The study was published in the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics."

Saginaw Grant, noted Native American character actor, dies




HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Saginaw Grant, a prolific Native American character actor and hereditary chief of the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma, has died. He was 85.


Grant died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes on Wednesday at a private care facility in Hollywood, California, said Lani Carmichael, Grant’s publicist and longtime friend.

“He loved both Oklahoma and L.A.,” Carmichael said. “He made his home here as an actor, but he never forgot his roots in Oklahoma. He remained a fan of the Sooner Nation.”

Born July 20, 1936, in Pawnee, Oklahoma, Grant was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

He began acting in the late 1980s and played character roles in dozens of movies and television shows over the last three decades, including “The Lone Ranger,” “The World’s Fastest Indian” and “Breaking Bad,” according to Grant's IMDB filmography.

Grant was active for years in the powwow circuit in California and traveled around the globe to speak to people about Native American culture, Carmichael said.

“His motto in life was always respect one another and don't talk about one another in a negative way," she said.

Grant was also active in the Native American veterans community and participated for years in the National Gathering of American Indian Veterans, said Joseph Podlasek, the event's organizer.

“He thought it was important for Native people to get recognized as veterans," Podlasek said. “He was kind and gentle, and very humble."

A memorial for Grant will be held in the Los Angeles area, but details haven't been finalized, Carmichael said.

The Associated Press

Grassy Narrows funding pact for mercury-poisoning care home spurs joy and bitter memories
Logan Turner 

© Logan Turner / CBC After signing the framework agreement on the Mercury Care Home in Grassy Narrows First Nation on Monday, Chief Randy Fobister and Indigenous Services Canada Minister Marc Miller walk around the powwow grounds.

Sitting in the bleachers around the powwow grounds of Grassy Narrows First Nation, dozens of community members gathered for a feast on Monday. The smell of freshly fried walleye poured out from under the aluminum foil keeping them warm.

With smoke from nearby wildfires hanging around the northern Ontario community, children ran through the grounds, kicking soccer balls and dancing to keep new hula hoops above their hips.

It was, as Chief Randy Fobister would later call it, a "historic day" for the Treaty 3 First Nation, which has about 1,000 members living on the reserve located 80 kilometres north of Kenora.

As mid-afternoon approached, community members young and old watched Indigenous Services Canada Minister Marc Miller hop out of a car, flanked by aides.

He was there to announce nearly $69 million in funding to provide long-term care and services at a treatment centre that, once built, will provide specialized treatment to people in the First Nation suffering from mercury poisoning. That's in addition to the $19.5 million previously announced in April 2020 to build the facility, which is targeted to open in 2023.

After feasting side by side and with the community watching, Miller and Fobister signed the Mercury Care Home Framework Agreement, committing the federal government to providing necessary health care to the First Nation.

As pens glided on paper, applause broke out. Cameras flashed and selfies were taken, capturing faces with relieved smiles.

© Logan Turner / CBC Youth volunteers in Grassy Narrows serve walleye during a community feast on the First Nation's powwow grounds as they celebrate the signing of the framework agreement committing Ottawa to fund the construction and operation of a specialized treatment centre for mercury-poisoning patients.

Fobister and Miller then stood from the folding tables and walked beside one another, circling the drum beating from the heart of the powwow grounds. Community members followed behind.

"It's a big milestone, getting the next steps toward the ultimate goal, which is trying to get the people healthy, those who are affected by mercury," Fobister told CBC News. "It's a long time coming."
Home decades in the works

It's an announcement that's been decades in the making.

During the 1960s and early '70s, the Dryden chemical plant at the Reed Paper mill upstream of Grassy Narrows dumped 9,000 kilograms of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River. The fish were full of poison, and the people from Grassy Narrows, who relied on the fish as a staple in their diet, were found to have the chemical element in their bodies.

Ingested mercury "bioaccumulates," meaning it can pass from one generation to the next — from mother to child — through the placenta. Mercury poisoning causes a range of physical and mental health impacts, including tremors, headaches, neuromuscular effects, memory loss and others.

So while the recent funding announcement for the home was reason for celebration in the First Nation, it also served as a reminder of the long, hard fight for access to necessary health care and the lives lost along the way.

]© Logan Turner / CBC The Grassy Narrows Men's Singers beat the drum in the centre of the First Nation's powwow grounds as the community celebrates the funding announcement.

Top of mind for many was Steven Fobister Sr., a former Treaty 3 grand chief, skilled hunter and devoted advocate for his community. Even while suffering severe mercury poisoning symptoms, he went to the front lawn of Queen's Park in 2014 and held a hunger strike to bring attention to the contamination issue.

His hunger strike generated momentum for the mercury-care home. In 2017, then federal Minister of Health Jane Philpott committed to building and operating the specialized treatment centre, and negotiations with Ottawa continued in 2019 and 2020, before the framework agreement was finalized this year.

Chrissy Isaacs was thinking of Fobister Sr., the former chief of Grassy Narrows, as she watched, with tears in her eyes, the signing of the agreement.

© Logan Turner / CBC Chrissy Isaacs, a resident of Grassy Narrows First Nation and a longtime activist for 'mercury justice,' had tears in her eyes as she watched the signing of the framework agreement for the Mercury Care Home.

Now 40, Isaacs has spent more than half her life fighting for mercury justice. Since she was a teenager, she's organized marches, gone on speaking tours and participated in blockades.

Isaacs says she's also suffered symptoms of mercury poisoning, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.

"Mercury poisoning robbed us from having a good, happy, healthy lifestyle because of what it's done to our minds, our brains and even physically how we function in our daily lives," Isaacs told CBC News.

Before the mercury dumping, Grassy Narrows was a largely self-sufficient community steeped in culture and with 95 per cent employment, according to a release from the First Nation. After the poisoning, employment dropped to five per cent.

"It started to create social issues like addictions, alcohol, drugs and a hopelessness," said Isaacs. "It's just become the way of living, you know, it's become the norm."
1st step to 'mercury justice'

That's also why Grassy Narrows sees the care home as just the first step in what it calls "mercury justice."

"Our young people know that what's been done here is wrong … and they're educated and they speak out," said Isaacs.

Speaking to Miller and his community, elder Tommy Keesic said the agreement was just the beginning. He spoke of the need to teach the children of Grassy Narrows the language, to restore relationships with the land and waters of the First Nations traditional territory.

© Logan Turner / CBC Residents of Grassy Narrows circle the powwow grounds following the signing of the agreement with Ottawa.

Keesic also called for a coroner's report to investigate premature deaths in Grassy Narrows.

The First Nation is still waiting to see cleanup of the industrial pollution in the rivers.

They're calling for compensation for all community members to address the wide-ranging effects of mercury poisoning, and are demanding an end to logging and other industrial activities on their traditional territory.

"Today is an important step, but you know, there's a lot more work to be done," Fobister said.

Chief walking 500 kilometres to Ottawa to raise awareness of residential schools' impacts, protest Indian Act

Chief Vern Janvier has walked nearly 200 kilometres in a 500-kilometre journey to Parliament Hill to raise awareness of the residential school system’s impacts on Indigenous communities and protest the Indian Act. He is walking with 12 community members and supporters. After starting his journey in Sudbury on July 18, he has already worn out a pair of shoes.

“My hope is to finish the walk,” said Janvier in a Wednesday interview from Mattawa, a town of 2,000 people in northeastern Ontario. “But it’s up to the journey. It’s not like you are taking a car, there are just a lot of factors that add to the experience.”

This is the second awareness walk he has done, after a 300-metre walk on Canada Day turned into a seven-day, 130 kilometre memorial walk from the Chipewyan Prairie Dené First Nation to Fort McMurray earlier this month.

This journey is on less familiar ground. The group chose Sudbury as a starting point because of the 500-kilometre distance from Ottawa. The goal is to consistently walk 20 kilometres daily along Highway 17, which connects the two cities. Janvier hasn’t set a firm date for when they will arrive in Ottawa.

“Today we walked straight through some hills and on some of those hills it feels like your lungs are going to blow up,” said Janvier. “We are walking on the gravel and on the side of the road, not on the asphalt, so our feet are getting the damage from the gravel.”

The group sleeps in two recreational vehicles, while a third vehicle takes the lead and prepares a meal at 3 p.m. One of the vehicles displays a banner with the name of the walk, Blinding Light Walk—Tiger Lily. Janvier said the blinding light in the title represents the truth as “an energy so strong that it’s blinding.” The tiger lily is an homage to the multilayered plant.

“It has six or seven layers that you can peel back and there has been a lot of peeling back of the layers of the residential school system,” said Janvier. “You add the government, the Indian Act and the antiquated policies from the colonial days that still run Canada. All of these layers are slowly being peeled back piece by piece today.”

The group has received support from communities they’ve walked through, including water, supplies and food. Janvier said people driving by have honked horns in support, while others have stopped to share their own stories of the residential school system.

“The amount of people we have seen on this road that either went to a residential school or has family that went to residential school is remarkable,” said Janvier. “It’s a lot of sorrow, a lot of pain that we are hearing.”

smclean@postmedia.com

Scott McLean, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort McMurray Today

Mandy Gull-Masty becomes first woman elected grand chief of Quebec Cree Nation

© Provided by The Canadian Press

CHISASIBI, Que. — Mandy Gull-Masty has become the first woman to be elected grand chief of Quebec's Cree Nation.

Gull-Masty won 64 per cent of the vote in a run-off election held Thursday, defeating Pakesso Mukash, who received 34 per cent.

Gull-Masty, who was elected deputy grand chief in 2017, had received 46.6 per cent of the vote in the first round of the election, held on July 14, ahead of incumbent Abel Bosum, who had 29.5 per cent.


Bosum dropped out after the first round, leaving Gull-Masty to contest the run-off against Mukash, a musician and activist, who received 24 per cent of first-round votes.

Gull-Masty campaigned on a platform of improving transparency and accountability and creating a strong financial plan for the Cree Nation, which represents a population of more than 18,000 people in northern Quebec.

Her victory follows other firsts for women Indigenous leaders this month, with RoseAnne Archibald elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer becoming grand chief of the Kahnawake Mohawk community south of Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press

Singh hopes to build 'momentum' on tour of Indigenous communities
Olivia Stefanovich, Richard Raycraft 2 hrs ago

© Chris Moonias/Supplied NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh poses for a selfie with NDP MPP 

Sol Mamakwa (centre) and former Neskantaga chief Chris Moonias (left) during a visit to the First Nation.

When the evacuation of Neskantaga First Nation due to tainted water made international headlines last fall, then-chief Chris Moonias encouraged the prime minister and other federal politicians to visit the remote northwestern Ontario community to see for themselves how people live under Canada's longest on-reserve boil water advisory.

On Monday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh became the first federal leader to take up Moonias' invitation during a tour of Indigenous communities.

"It was something that we wanted to do because we wanted our voices heard," Moonias told CBC News.

"If the [prime minister] doesn't want to come, might as well ask somebody else to carry your voices."

The NDP is hoping Singh's visit can leverage that disappointment by shifting Indigenous voters away from the Liberals.

A record number of Indigenous voters went to the polls in 2015 to help elect a majority Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"I think for a lot of Indigenous voters, what they are discovering is that they got a lot of words from the government, a lot of commitments, a lot of promises, but there hasn't been the follow-through," Anne McGrath, the NDP's national director, told CBC News.

Along with visiting Neskantaga, Singh met forest fire evacuees from First Nations in northern Ontario, who are calling on Ontario's Progressive Conservative government to offer more support.

He also became the first federal leader to tour the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, where a ground-penetrating radar specialist reported 200 possible burial sites.

Singh's tour fell largely outside the national media spotlight, with no large press contingent following along — an unusual strategy at a time when an election call is expected within weeks.

"We've just spent the last year and a half doing a lot of things virtually," McGrath said. "The impact of what government policies have had on people is much more obvious, I think, if you're there in person. Like if you see the mould in the substandard housing, if you see the numbers of people that have to live under one roof in close proximity, if you see the impact of unsafe water … that really kind of brings it home.

"I also think that, for many of the communities that we're talking about, that kind of contact is meaningful for them."

Video: Winnipeg mayor and Canadian Minister of Indigenous Services react to Lagimodiere comments (Global News)

NDP looks for breakthrough as it turns 60

The tour comes as the NDP approaches its 60th anniversary on August 3.

The party has 24 seats in the House of Commons and an election call is widely expected soon. In an interview with CBC's The House airing Saturday, Singh said he feels the party can highlight what it's done to pressure the government from the opposition benches and convince voters that it's ready to form government.

"We can show the example of what we were able to do in a minority with just 24 seats. Imagine what we could do with more New Democrats. Imagine what a New Democrat government could do," he said.

"We can show the results … the nearly eight million Canadians that needed CERB across Canada got more help because we were there. The workers who were able to keep their jobs, who were able to keep their jobs because we fought to increase the wage subsidy from 10 to 75 per cent. We're going to share these victories with Canadians."

In Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, Singh said he wants to use the opening created by the public outpouring of grief and anger that followed the reported discovery of unmarked graves at former residential school sites to press for more ambitious action.

"That gives me a lot of hope, the fact that Canadians themselves are saying we have to do something about this," he said. "What can we do? That, to me, is the momentum we need to build on."

Singh said a government led by him would move swiftly to appoint a special prosecutor to pursue crimes against Indigenous people, support every community that wants to uncover and investigate burial sites on former residential school grounds, and end the government's court action against a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling that ordered compensation for Indigenous children who faced discrimination.

In Neskantaga, Singh heard from 14 community members — including children who've lived their entire lives under the boil water advisories, such as 10-year-old Bee Moonias.

"She said, 'I'm a 10-year-old girl fighting for clean drinking water,'" Singh said. "That was, to me, heartbreaking and heart-wrenching."

Singh promised to continue advocating for Neskantaga. If elected, he said, he would fund a new water treatment plant and distribution system in the community.

"The Neskantaga community is saying that we need a proper water treatment plant that works and a better distribution system, and a New Democrat government would deliver that without any question," Singh said.

Current Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias told CBC News he isn't sure when the boil water advisory is going to be lifted, so it was important to have a federal leader on the ground.

"The community really appreciated the visit," Moonias said. "It shows that there is somebody that really wants to see first-hand what is happening."

Chris Moonias isn't as optimistic about lifting the boil water advisory as he used to be. He said the repairs being done to the water treatment plant are still not producing the right pressure.

He said he voted Liberal in the past, but doesn't think he will in the next federal election.

"There's been lots of broken promises," he said.

First Nations and Ottawa agree to $8 billion settlement on drinking water advisories

Olivia Stefanovich, Richard Raycraft 

© Carlos Osorio/Canadian Press Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa holds up water collected from Neskantaga First Nation — where residents were evacuated due to tainted water last fall — during a rally at Queen's Park in Toronto.

A proposed settlement agreement worth nearly $8 billion has been reached in two national class action lawsuits launched against the federal government by First Nations living under drinking water advisories.

The settlement, which is awaiting court approval, would offer $1.5 billion in compensation to individuals deprived of clean drinking water and modernize Canada's First Nations drinking water legislation.

About 142,000 individuals from 258 First Nations could be compensated, along with 120 First Nations. Depending on the details of the final agreement, more people may end up being eligible for compensation.

Individuals' compensation will be calculated based on how remote their communities are, how long they lived under a drinking water advisory and whether they suffered any adverse health conditions as a result.

The proposal also requires the federal government to renew its commitment to lifting all long-term drinking water advisories on reserves.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller announced the agreement at a news conference today. He was joined by Curve Lake First Nation Chief Emily Whetung, Tataskweyak Cree Nation Chief Doreen Spence and Neskantaga First Nation Chief Wayne Moonias.

Miller told CBC News the government is happy to avoid a court battle.

"We don't want to be in court. We've said that time and time again," he said.

"It's a lot of money, yes, but it reflects a commitment to get water into a community that hasn't been done up until now."

 

© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press 

Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller announced details of the proposed settlement during a press conference on Friday.

NDP leader welcomes $8B First Nations drinking water settlement, but says still more work to do

Duration: 02:22 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh joins Power & Politics to discuss an $8 billion settlement between the government and First Nations on drinking water advisories.

If Ottawa doesn't live up to its commitments under the settlement agreement, the terms of the agreement state that First Nations would be able to turn to a new alternative dispute mechanism with strict timelines that have not been set.

The proposal would see the federal government commit at least $6 billion in previously announced fundingto provide reliable access to safe drinking water on reserves, create a First Nations Advisory Committee on Safe Drinking Water, support First Nations' efforts to develop their own drinking water by-laws and initiatives and make Ottawa responsible for private water systems, such as wells.

The proposal also would create a new $400 million First Nation Economic and Cultural Restoration Fund.

Miller announced last December that the Liberal government would not be able to meet its target of lifting all long-term drinking water advisories on reserves by the end of March 2021.

A CBC survey last October found that some drinking water projects would take several more years to complete.


Video: Ottawa reaches $8B settlement with First Nations living under water advisories (cbc.ca)

Currently, there are 51 long-term drinking water advisories in 32 First Nations, according to Indigenous Services Canada.

The lead lawyer in the two lawsuits said the agreement is the product of several months negotiations with the government.

"We were able to reach what I think is a historic agreement that will provide compensation for the wrongs of the past, and address the future to ensure that it does not resemble the past," said Michael Rosenberg, a partner at the law firm McCarthy Tétrault.

"The aim here is that long-term drinking water advisories in First Nation reserves will become just that— a thing of the past."
Lawsuits claimed government negligence

The lawsuits alleged Canada violated its obligations to First Nations and its members by failing to ensure reserves have clean water.

They also alleged Canada has been negligent and breached both its fiduciary duties and charter rights.

The lawsuits were launched on behalf of Tataskweyak Cree Nation in Manitoba, and Curve Lake First Nation and Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario, by McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP.

The class includes all members of First Nations whose communities were subjected to drinking water advisories — including boil water advisories, do-not-consume advisories and do not use advisories — which lasted at least one year between November 20, 1995 and now.

Class members must have been alive for two years prior to the action being commenced to be eligible for compensation. Communities may opt into the class action to advance their rights.
Ontario chief pleased with settlement agreement

Whetung said she is satisfied with the settlement agreement.

"I think the total agreement really satisfies the need of First Nations across Canada. It was designed to do that, and specifically ensure that every community gets access to clean water," she told CBC News. "There's a recognition that individuals have suffered harms from not having access to clean water."

While details of the dispute mechanism still need to be worked out, Whetung said she's confident it will be effective.

© Olivia Stefanovich/CBC Emily Whetung, chief of Curve Lake First Nation, said she thinks the agreement will help ensure that every community gets access to clean water.

"If there are issues, there's a really defined process to move those conflicts and those disputes forward quickly and effectively," she said.

"I feel like we're really embarking on the journey that will take our communities to meaningful access to clean water."

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told CBC News Network's Power & Politics Friday that he welcomed the deal but there is more to do.

"This is a small victory for the Indigenous communities who've suffered under boil water advisories, who've suffered without clean drinking water for so long, but this doesn't free the federal government from their responsibility to ensure there is clean drinking water for all people," Singh guest host Katie Simpson.

Singh said that if he were prime minister, he would make clean drinking water a priority.

"It's clear that this has not been a priority," Singh said.