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Former Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Murray Sinclair told a parliamentary committee yesterday that the RCMP has opened an investigation into the discovery of children’s remains at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The retired senator and judge raised concerns over the RCMP’s approach, saying community members are being intimidated, rather than receiving help from the Mounties. “They are now beginning to question those who have made this story available,” he testified.
The rural office of the local RCMP detachment in Kamloops confirmed a probe is under way, but denied there was any friction as they work through the next steps. Staff-Sergeant Bill Wallace said in a statement that the RCMP officers are playing a supporting role, while the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc are in charge of the investigation. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépem deferred comment until a planned press conference this morning.
People listen to speakers during a vigil in Vancouver on June 2, 2021, after the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.JENNIFER GAUTHIER/Reuters
NDP tables motion calling on Ottawa to drop legal battles against residential-school survivors
Behind the scenes of the stunning, mournful O Canada at the Jets-Canadiens playoff game
In the latest episode of The Decibel, Tanya Talaga, Globe and Mail columnist and Anishinaabe journalist, joins host Tamara Khandaker to discuss her reporting on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s discovery of the remains of 215 residential-school children. At the invitation of the community, Talaga travelled to Kamloops, B.C., where she paid witness to tributes and ceremonies honouring those who died while attending the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The findings have sparked a nationwide reckoning over Canada’s colonial history, including conversations around the removal of statues of prime minister John A. Macdonald and Egerton Ryerson from public spaces.
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Locked out of ivory tower: Why women remain underrepresented across academia’s ranks
For decades, universities have pledged to fix the sector’s gender gap. But women in academia still are underrepresented at nearly every level.
Just ask Canadian evolutionary biologist Maydianne Andrade, a world-famous spider expert who studies the mating habits of black widows. When she was starting out two decades ago, only 11 per cent of full professors at the University of Toronto were women, according to an analysis of compensation records by The Globe and Mail. Today, it’s still just 35 per cent. Though an improvement, it still means two-thirds of professors are men. A similar story continues to unfold across Canada’s universities.
Backgrounder: Explore the investigative series and data
From the archives: Women in executive roles make 56 per cent less than men, study shows
Distribute second doses strategically to fend off new COVID-19 variant, experts say
With growing evidence that the renamed Delta variant – the COVID-19 mutation first identified in India – set to overtake earlier strains in Ontario, provincial health authorities are facing calls to retool disease surveillance and the vaccine rollout.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, whose city is among the hardest hit by the pandemic, said the province should train its “fire extinguishers – these vaccines – on the areas where we know it’s going to spread,” to avoid a fourth wave. Brown said the province should send more vaccines to the Peel region, along with other at-risk areas, and open eligibility for second doses to younger residents, including front-line workers.
Inside L6P: As beauty businesses stay shuttered, Brampton salon owners face losing clients to the underground economy
More: U.S. to share vaccines with Canada, even as Ottawa is pushed to give doses to COVAX
Opinion: It’s time to wake up and reopen the Canada-U.S. border
Mystery abounds on the whereabouts of scientist couple
Much remains unknown about the whereabouts of the two scientists at the centre of a political storm over alleged national-security breaches at a high-security laboratory in Winnipeg. Xiangguo Qiu, a former head of a key program at the National Microbiology Laboratory, and her husband, Keding Cheng, have not publicly commented on their firing, including whether it was related to the transfer of highly infectious viruses to China’s Wuhan Virology Institute.
The Globe has found that the couple have left Winnipeg, but it’s unclear if they’re still in Canada. Tenants in one of their properties believe they moved to Vancouver, but attempts to locate the couple were unsuccessful.
Context: Infectious-disease scientists at Canada’s high-security lab collaborated with China
ICYMI: Commons votes to demand Liberals reveal reasons for firing of two federal scientists from infectious-disease lab
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Officials warn Hong Kongers not to commemorate Tiananmen Square massacre
Hong Kongers were told to steer clear of any public vigils marking the Tiananmen Square massacre, even wearing black in solidarity with protesters in Beijing – or risk arrest.
Underlying factors for Inuit highlighted in separate MMIWG plan
Two national Inuit organizations released their own plan pointing out ways governments can work to address social, legal and cultural failings identified by the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women two years ago. (The government officially released its long-awaited plan Thursday.)
Liberal Party triggers ‘electoral urgency’ rule for nominations
The decision to invoke the clause allows the Liberals’ campaign co-chairs to change nomination rules as “they see fit,” paving the way for the party to speed up the pace of riding nominations. Spokesperson Braeden Caley, appearing to head off a fresh wave of election speculation, said it’s a routine administrative move.
Liberals move to shut down debate on controversial bill to bring online platforms under regulatory oversight
The Liberals served notice that today it plans to limit study of Bill C-10, controversial legislation that seeks to modernize broadcasting rules to put online platforms such as Facebook and Amazon Prime under the oversight of regulators.
FOMO fuels rebound of condo sales in Canada’s major cities
The retreat to quieter, more spacious corners of Canada may have been a blip. New condo sales in Canada’s largest urban centres are ticking back up as buyers scramble to get a piece of the real estate market for fear of missing the latest boom.
Analysis: Why Newfoundland’s sugar tax could weigh more heavily on lower-income families, but be helpful
The 20-per-cent levy on sugary beverages, which comes into effect next April, represents a rare case of what economists call a regressive impact being helpful. That’s because those households are more likely to have such drinks on their grocery lists, and the introduction of the hefty tax is expected to spur a shift in consumption.
MORNING MARKETS
The U.S. dollar hit a multi-week high this morning while European stocks, oil and gold steadied as markets braced for further signs the U.S. economic recovery could drive inflation and an early withdrawal of Federal Reserve stimulus.
U.S. Treasury yields remained elevated after jumping overnight, while the dollar held onto its biggest gain since April, after better-than-expected employment data raised expectations for a strong reading for Friday’s nonfarm payrolls.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.2% by 7:30 a.m. GMT, trading just below its record high hit earlier this week, and contrasting with an earlier 0.3% fall in MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Cathal Kelly: ”Big goals? Sweet dekes? Impossible saves? Sure, those are great. But nothing gets hockey talking these days like a sneaky, full-speed elbow to the head.”
Robyn Urback: “What is much more difficult to quantify is the unnecessary suffering that Ontarians have been made to endure because of this government’s preoccupation with approval and habitual about-faces.”
TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON
Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
LIVING BETTER
Retail therapy: For indoor gardeners, Viridi offers a sustainable and stylish way to plant
With much of the world retreating indoors due to the pandemic, at-home horticulture has boomed as many try to stay tethered to nature. Katrina Huang spun that pandemic diversion into an opportunity. The 25-year-old founder of Viridi, an online shop launched last summer for handmade rattan and spun bamboo pots, found herself becoming more and more invested in propagating greenery in different pockets of her home.
“Every open surface was filled with plants when not in use – coffee tables, the kitchen island, the floor,” she told writer Caitlin Agnew. That prompted her to figure out a way to contain and maintain her growing collection of succulents and sprouts without compromising her style. Viridi was born.
MOMENT IN TIME: June 4, 1938
International baseball between the Tecumseh Club of London, and the Mutuals (Professionals) of Chicago in London, Ont., July 1876.J. C. McArthur/Canadian Illustrated News
The mighty Casey may have struck out in mythical Mudville, as Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s 19th-century poem described it, but the first baseball game may have happened in the Ontario hamlet of Beachville. According to Dr. Adam Ford, a onetime resident of St. Marys, Ont., a baseball-like contest occurred on this day in 1838. It took place in a pasture “just back of Enoch Burdick’s shops,” according to Ford, who recounted the event in Sporting Life magazine 48 years later. The infield was square, with five bases. The ball was made of twisted yarn, covered with “good, honest calf skin.” The “thrower” tossed the ball to the “knocker,” who used a wagon spoke or “any nice, straight stick.” Ford did not report the final score between the Beachville Club and the visiting Zorras, but he did say games typically ended when one team reached 18 or 21 “tallies.” Ford’s account of the 1838 game clashed with the popular legend that Abner Doubleday had invented baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the summer of 1839. Upon publication of Ford’s story, there could be no joy in Cooperstown. Brad Wheeler
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