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The Catholic Church aggressively sought to be released from the millions of dollars it owed to survivors of residential schools, while claiming that government efforts to collect the money would be fruitless because there was none left.
The details of the Church’s push are contained in newly released court records, which were filed in 2014 and 2015. They have long been sought by academics and experts studying the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, a significant 2006 legal deal that provided restitution to survivors.
Included in the files are e-mail exchanges between lawyers for the Catholic Church and the federal government in which they discuss the status of the Church’s unpaid obligations to residential-school survivors. At the time, its financial commitments included more than $21-million, which the Church was required to give its “best efforts” to pull together.
Orange ribbons are tied to the gates surrounding St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica in Toronto on Aug. 5, 2021. The ribbons are a symbol of the remains of the 215 Indigenous children who were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
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Trudeau apologizes to B.C. First Nation after spending first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Tofino
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir after travelling to a Tofino beach house rather than accepting invitations to attend the community’s event on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. His absence from any public events that day prompted intense criticism from Indigenous leaders.
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc had sent the Prime Minister two invitations to attend its ceremonial event near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The remains of about 200 children were discovered at the site in May, setting off renewed calls for accountability for the horrific treatment Indigenous children faced in Canada’s residential schools. Similar searches at other sites led to the discoveries of more unmarked graves, including by the Cowessess First Nation, which said it had located 751 more.
Alex Wellstead, a spokesperson in the Prime Minister’s Office, told The Globe and Mail on Sunday that Trudeau reached out to Kukpi7 Casimir and the two spoke by phone on Saturday. He said the Prime Minister offered an apology, but did not elaborate on the nature of the apology. Wellstead said Trudeau is planning to to visit the community soon.
John Ibbitson: Tofino trip may only hasten Trudeau’s departure
In Idaho County, one of America’s least-vaccinated places, authorities face dilemma over mandates
U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to raise his country’s lagging vaccination rate will be sorely tested in towns like Grangeville, Idaho, where authorities fear a mandate will lead essential workers to quit their posts.
Leta Strauss said there are potential perils associated with adopting a vaccine mandate in a place where many are resistant to pleas to get the shot. Strauss, who chairs the board of Syringa Hospital and Clinics, the local provider for health care, said her opposition to mandates is largely rooted in pragmatism.
With only half of Syringa’s workers vaccinated, and other hospitals not pursuing mandates, they risk losing 25 to 35 per cent of workers, Strauss said. Better to have unvaccinated nurses “than having no nurses to take care of sick patients,” she added.
More COVID-19 coverage:
- Liberals under pressure to extend business and worker benefits ahead of Oct. 23 deadline
- Canadian companies delay return to office amid Delta variant concerns
- Russia reports record number of daily COVID-19 deaths for the fifth time in a week
Why the godmother of the women’s-rights movement in Afghanistan is staying put
Despite the pace at which women have seen their rights suddenly erased since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Mahbouba Seraj is remarkably cheerful. That’s because the godmother of the women’s-rights movement in Afghanistan believes the Taliban have taken over a much different country.
The Taliban’s return has meant the restoration of their segregationist rules. Girls are only permitted to go to school until Grade 6, while professional women are told to stay home. Similar rules were imposed on Afghan women the last time the extremists held power 20 years ago. But the 73-year-old believes they won’t stick this time. She says the country, and its women, are very different now – even if the mindset of the Taliban hasn’t changed.
“There are 18 million of us, and a whole lot of educated people who have been to school, a whole lot of people that are now professionals. These people are here and here to stay. Not all of them – because a lot are leaving – but some of us are staying,” she said.
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Ex-Facebook manager alleges social network fed Capitol riot: A former Facebook employee went public on CBS’s 60 Minutes as the whistleblower behind a trove of internal company research that informed a Wall Street Journal investigative series. Frances Haugen, a former product manager for Facebook, alleged that the company made a money-making move to turn off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble-rousing after Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. She alleged that this contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
New rules in Quebec would enhance investigative powers of province’s language watchdog: Quebec’s proposed overhaul to its language rules – the most ambitious in nearly half a century – is raising alarm among many businesses that expanded search-and-seizure powers for language inspectors could lead to baseless probes that compromise sensitive information. Under Bill 96, Quebec’s language-enforcement agency would receive enhanced investigative powers. The bill would allow inspectors to go “at any reasonable hour” into places where they believe language infringements might have taken place, whereas current law limits searches to business hours.
Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to U.S. scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won for discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch that could pave the way for new painkillers, the award-giving body said on Monday.
No return to ‘uncontrolled immigration’ amid fuel, food shortage, Boris Johnson says: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday said he would not return to “uncontrolled immigration” to address the persistent fuel shortage, suggesting that there would be some growing pains as the country adjusts to life post-Brexit. Those remarks were the closest Johnson has come to admitting that Britain’s divorce from the EU had contributed to strains in supply chains and the labour force.
What makes a city a city, officially? Kelowna and Sudbury might be in for a surprise: If a UN-backed definition of what qualifies as a city had any legal standing, Kelowna, B.C., and Sudbury, Ont., which see themselves as cities, wouldn’t make the cut. Beyond ruffling some feathers, the demotion of these cities in the eyes of the international community raises a larger philosophical question: what is a city?
Listen to The Decibel: SIM swapping, port fraud and the dangers to your identity: In 2018, The Globe’s Alexandra Posadzki, who covers the telecom industry, found out her phone was hacked via a scam known as SIM swapping. This tactic allowed the hacker to assume her identity in correspondence with her friends and family. Posadzki shares what she learned from the ordeal, including why she had to file an access-to-information request to get a glimpse into how common these types of attacks are in Canada.
MORNING MARKETS
Inflation, Evergrande weigh on global shares: World stocks were on the back foot on Monday and the U.S. dollar stayed close to one-year highs on concerns that higher inflation, supply shortages and China’s property sector problems would put global economic recovery at risk. China’s Evergrande halted trading of its shares amid news it had missed another key bond interest payment and was in talks to sell its property management unit. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.12 per cent while Germany’s DAX slid 0.05 per cent. France’s CAC 40 was flat. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.13 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 2.19 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.28 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Cities may be ‘creatures’ of the provinces. But Ford’s slashing of Toronto city council is still an insult
“There was never much evidence that cutting the size of council would save heaps of money or make council suddenly more efficient. It was plain from the start that councillors would need more staff to help them handle their bigger wards. Councillors would continue to argue, even if there were half as many of them.” - Marcus Gee
I’m a recovering anti-racist educator. Here’s what I’ve learned since leaving the activist space
“The ideological rigidity that’s too often present in progressive communities shapes the ways we train activists; it doesn’t have to be this way, if we make space for human emotions.”- Shakil Choudhury, author of the new book Deep Diversity: A Compassionate, Scientific Approach to Achieving Racial Justice
Annamie Paul’s leadership never really had a chance
“There will be those who insist that race wasn’t a factor in the Green Party’s marginalization of Annamie Paul. But of course race is a factor when the first Black woman to lead a federal party doesn’t actually get a real chance to lead over a short term, and is instead bogged down by internal attacks, leadership questions and a lack of support that wasn’t evident before she arrived.” - Erica Ifill, economist and columnist
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
David Parkins/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Autumn brings a bounty of fresh new fragrances inspired by everything from nature to technology
Forget about pumpkin spice. This season, consider indulging in luxurious fragrances like Karst from Aesop, a salty-citrus aquatic that’s subtly layered with cumin, rosemary and sage, or Oribe’s Desertland, which has hints of juniper berry and Texas cedarwood, writes Nathalie Atkinson.
MOMENT IN TIME: Postal delivery, 1929
One of Toronto's patient postmen, who worked from early morning to late afternoon delivering the last flood of Christmas mail, stands beside a heavily laden sleigh, Dec. 25, 1929.The Globe and Mail
For more than 100 years, photographers and photo editors working for The Globe and Mail have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography. Every Monday, The Globe will feature one of these images. This month, we’re looking at Canada’s postal service.
If there’s one thing nearly every Canadian does around Christmastime, it’s send a card, letter or gift in the mail to faraway family and friends. Canada Post works diligently in the last months of the year to get everything delivered in time by any means possible, including these postal carriers delivering mail by sleigh on Christmas Day in 1929. Canada Post’s association with Christmas deepened with the 1982 launch of the letters-to-Santa program. Every year, 1.6 million letters from children, adults and animals are received at Santa Claus’s designated postal code: H0H 0H0. Even more impressively, every letter is responded to by thousands of volunteers. While it may not have reindeer or deliver via the chimney, the national mail carrier may be the next best thing. Iain Boekhoff
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