Canada column for
Sunday, Aug. 27/17
THE CANADIAN REPORT
By Jim Fox
The Canadian
government is being urged to review honoring historic figures as a teachers’
group wants the name of Canada’s first prime minister removed from schools.
The Elementary
Teachers’ Federation of Ontario wants new names for schools named after Sir
John A. Macdonald over his treatment of Indigenous people.
It’s an opportunity
to “seize this opportunity” to acknowledge Canada’s past and engage with native
people on correcting historical wrongs, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly’s office
said.
Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau said in June the government would remove the name of
Hector-Louis Langevin, a father of Confederation, from the national capital
building housing his office.
The decision was
made after Indigenous politicians and Assembly of First Nations National Chief
Perry Bellegarde said Langevin was a proponent of the residential school
system.
The system took sent
native children away to government-sponsored religious schools to assimilate
them into Euro-Canadian culture.
New
Democrat Romeo Saganash, a residential school “survivor,” said a full
discussion is needed into the role of historic figures in the “dark realities
of colonialism.”
---
Canada should brace
for a much-larger influx of Salvadorian asylum seekers fleeing from the U.S.
Some 260,000
Salvadorans face possible U.S. deportation if their temporary protected status is
lifted next March.
That’s four times
the number of Haitians whose status will end in January and has sent 7,000 people
illegally crossing into Canada at an unofficial border point in Quebec this
summer.
The influx is
straining resources as the arrivals await refugee hearings, government
officials said.
Critics say Prime
Minister Trudeau should have made it clear that Canada welcomes “people fleeing
persecution” only if they come legally by first applying for a visa.
---
News in brief:
- Senator Mike
Duffy is suing the Senate and the Mounties for $7.8 million in lost income and
general damages. The suit is over his suspension without pay before a trial in
which he was found not guilty last year of 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust
and bribery. Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said the Senate “acted
unconstitutionally” and the police were negligent in its investigation.
- Eastern Canadian
premiers are talking trade today and Monday with New England governors in
Charlottetown. Prince Edward Island Premier Wade MacLauchlan said the ongoing
talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and softwood
lumber are on their minds and agenda. New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant said
nine-million U.S. jobs are linked to trade with Canada and 30 states have
Canada as their largest trading partner.
---
Facts and figures:
Canada’s dollar has
advanced to 80.11 cents U.S. while the U.S. dollar returns $1.248 in Canadian funds
before exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady
at 0.75 percent while the prime-lending rate is 2.95 percent.
Stock markets are higher, with the Toronto
exchange index at 15,055 points while the TSX Venture index is 769 points.
The average price for gas in Canada is higher
at $1.087 a liter or $4.13 (Canadian) for a U.S. gallon.
Lotto 6/49: (Aug. 23) 9, 15, 24, 33, 40 and 46; bonus
38. (Aug. 19) 2, 13, 27, 45, 48 and 49; bonus 19. Lotto Max (Aug. 18) 2, 9, 13,
16, 25, 26 and 45; bonus 19.
---
Regional briefs:
- New Democratic Premier
John Horgan said his new British Columbia government will eliminate tolls on
two major Vancouver-area bridges effective Sept. 1. The tolls will end on the
Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges to treat commuters in the Lower Mainland the
same as those elsewhere in the province who aren’t charged bridge tolls. The average
commuter would save $1,500 a year, he said.
- Neshan
Wagstaffe has lost his family home to fire twice in the past year, but
this time his dog Clouseau saved his life. The animal was “running around
the house going a little crazy” to wake Wagstaffe from a mid-afternoon nap and
warn him of the fire. He and a friend escaped with the dog from the mobile home
in Fort McMurray’s Timberlea area. He had just rebuilt the home after it
was destroyed in the town’s wildfire last year.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment