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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is denouncing arson and vandalism affecting Catholic churches in Canada.
“This is not the way to go,” Mr. Trudeau said in remarks prepared for delivery at a news conference Wednesday in Kanata, near Ottawa.
“The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable and it must stop. We must work together to right past wrongs.”
On Wednesday, a Catholic church in Alberta was destroyed by what RCMP are calling a suspicious fire.
RCMP said in a release that officers were called early in the morning to the blaze at St. John Baptiste Parish in Morinville, about 40 kilometres north of Edmonton.
Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in rural southern British Columbia have been destroyed by suspicious fires and a vacant former Anglican church in northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP said could be arson.
The fires occurred less than a month after the discovery of what’s believed to be the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.
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The Cowessess First Nation in southeastern Saskatchewan also announced last week that ground-penetrating radar detected a potential 751 unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
And on Wednesday, there was news detailed here that the Lower Kootenay Band in British Columbia is reporting the detection of 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site close to a former residential school through the use of ground-penetrating radar.
As Canada Day looms, Mr. Trudeau said in a tweet that he has asked that the flag on the Peace Tower remain at half mast for the holiday.
The Prime Minister said he had taken the measure “as people across the country continue to honour the Indigenous children whose lives were taken far too soon, and as we reflect on the tragedy of residential schools.”
In his remarks, Mr. Trudeau said, “On the eve of Canada Day, the horrific discoveries of hundreds of children at the sites of former residential schools in B.C. and Saskatchewan have forced us to reflect on the historic and ongoing injustices that Indigenous peoples face. Our government will continue to be there to acknowledge the truth so we can chart a better path forward in the spirit of reconciliation.”
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St. John Baptiste Parish Catholic church is shown in Morinville, Alta, on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 as firefighters put out hot spots. The church was destroyed by what RCMP are calling a suspicious fire.
JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
TODAY’S HEADLINES
NO GO ON SOME BILLS: SENATE - The Senate gave its final approval to the government’s budget bill and climate change legislation Tuesday, but recessed for summer without passing Bill C-10, the controversial Liberal broadcasting bill, nor a separate bill aimed at curtailing conversion therapy.
FORGIVENESS FOR GOLF GAME - The commander of the Royal Canadian Navy will not lose his job after golfing with the former chief of the defence staff who is under military police investigation for sexual misconduct allegations.
ESCAPEE REJECTS ISLAMIC STATE - Former U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith said a Canadian woman he helped get out of a Kurdish-run detention camp in northeastern Syria has totally rejected the Islamic State, under whose rule she previously lived, and has provided information that will help law enforcement.
NO APOLOGY ASK TO POPE - The head of bishops in this country won’t commit his organization to asking Pope Francis to apologize over the Catholic Church’s role in running residential schools, nor will he commit to directing individual Catholic entities to turn over outstanding records that could aid with the identification of unmarked graves. There is a transcript here of a portion of an interview with Archbishop Richard Gagnon, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and archbishop of Winnipeg.
$756M GUN BUYBACK: PBO - The Parliamentary Budget Officer says it could cost the government $756-million to buy back guns now prohibited in the country, depending on how many there are in Canada and how the Liberals structure the program.
CSIS FACES RACISM ALLEGATIONS - A Muslim woman who worked as a senior intelligence officer at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said the systemic racism and lack of diversity she experienced firsthand at CSIS constitute a national security threat — especially in light of a recent deadly attack on a Canadian Muslim family. From CBC.
PANDEMIC TO AFFECT ELECTION TACTICS - The varied effects of the pandemic across Canada will lead political parties to adjust their tactics as they vie for votes in a federal election expected soon, public health and political leaders say.
PROSPECT WHO IS NOT MARK CARNEY WANTS OTTAWA CENTRE LIBERAL NOMINATION - A former Liberal member of the Ontario legislature says he will seek the federal Liberal nomination in Ottawa Centre, the riding of Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna, who has said she will not seek re-election. Yasir Naqvi, the former attorney-general, has been out of politics since losing his seat in 2018. He told the Ottawa Citizen he “has a lot of respect” for Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor seen as a possible contender for the nomination, and he’s hoping for a “fair and open nomination process” in Ottawa Centre.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister makes an announcement and delivers remarks during the Generation Equality Forum. Also, the Prime Minister holds a media availability on investing in affordable housing, followed by a visit to a construction site at Shepherds of Good Hope’s Hope Living Residence, a supportive housing program in Kanata, Ont. And he delivers remarks and take part in a conversation with the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, as part of a virtual event celebrating Portuguese Heritage Month in Canada.
PUBLIC OPINION
According to a new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News, the Liberals remain poised to regain a majority government in the next federal election while support for the Conservatives appears to be dipping to worrying levels. The poll found 38 per cent of decided voters would vote for the Liberals, a number unchanged from last month. The Conservatives, meanwhile, would earn 26 per cent of the vote, down three points since May. Details here.
OPINION
The Editorial Board of The Globe and Mail on finding Canada’s missing residential school victims and giving them back their names: “Ottawa should spend whatever is required to help Indigenous groups find and identify as many of their lost children as possible, and to protect the places where they are buried. It should release any relevant records, as should the churches. And it should provide public space for residential school victims to be commemorated. It is heartbreaking and yet remarkable that these children, erased by the state, are the Indigenous voices that have finally broken through Canadians’ ambivalence about residential schools. Their silent dignity, in the face of countless indignities, cannot be ignored. Give them back their names.”
Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on how, to justify its breach of Parliament’s rights, the government tries another: “The Commons has twice demanded that the government produce all documents related to the mysterious firing of two scientists from a top-security research laboratory, without redactions. The government has refused. The Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, was considering a motion to send the Commons Sergeant-at-Arms to seize the documents when the government announced it was taking him to court. Routine stuff, you understand. A requirement under the Canada Evidence Act. It’s all being handled by department officials. Nothing to do with the minister. Yes, indeed. So routine it has never been done before in the history of Canada, and probably the Commonwealth.”
Tom Mulcair (The Montreal Gazette) on why listening to Indigenous voices is overdue: “As we approach Canada Day and its attendant discussion about what, if at all, to “celebrate,” maybe Canadians can resolve to listen to those Indigenous voices that for years have been asking that their knowledge, their traditions and beliefs, their way of life, be given priority, for once. Whether it’s the inevitable decision as to what to do with the crime scenes at the residential schools or how to respect aboriginal title holders, it comes down to that: including, respecting and listening.”
Joan Baxter (Contributor to The Globe and Mail) on what Atlantic Canada’s troubled COVID-19 travel bubble can teach us about the crisis to come: “The Atlantic bubble was seen as symbolizing the region’s “spirit of pandemic unity,” and it served us well. But what is needed next is not a regional or even a national bubble. Rather, we need a worldwide one to address inequities in access to vaccines and health care, and to take on the massive challenges of climate change, which will cause disproportionate suffering for those who are least responsible for it. COVID-19 is just the warm-up. And as much as a protective bubble has its appeal, Atlantic Canada has proven that that’s not how the world works. The real crisis facing our species now is the climate, and to tackle that, our bubble has to encompass the whole planet.”
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