Truth and Reconciliation Day, Aghan help held up: In The News for Sept. 30, 2022

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 …

What we are watching in Canada …

Ceremonies, marches and other gatherings are scheduled across Canada for today’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

The federal statutory holiday was established last year following the discovery of suspected unmarked burial sites at former residential schools.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald says the day is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the impact of the schools on Indigenous Peoples and the roles the institutions played in Canada’s history.

Marc Miller, federal Crown-Indigenous relations minister, says the government is committed to ensuring reconciliation remains entrenched in Canada’s daily and long-term goals.

Some of the events scheduled today include the illumination of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in orange, programming about residential schools at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and a community powwow at the Victoria-area Songhees Nation.

Linc Kesler, a residential school and Indigenous identity expert at the University of British Columbia, says the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation helps bring Indigenous issues to the forefront for Canadians.

“As to what Canadians will make of all of that, I don’t know,” he said. “I know what I hope they would make of it and it would be they would become more aware of how much they haven’t known in the past.”

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Also this …

Opposition parties and aid groups say the Trudeau government is dragging its feet on finding a way to get help to people in Afghanistan.

While other counties have carved out exceptions to their anti-terrorism rules so groups can get food and medical supplies to the country, Canada has not.

Canadian organizations told Parliament in March that they can’t pay drivers or buy supplies without paying taxes to the ruling Taliban, which has been listed as a terrorist group under Canadian law since 2013.

They say Canadian officials have warned them that doing so could get them charged with terrorism offences.

In June, a multi-party committee called on the government to modify the Criminal Code so that major humanitarian groups can help Afghans without being charged with assisting the Taliban.

This month a coalition of 18 groups, including the Canadian Red Cross and Islamic Relief, decried the Liberals’ “disheartening lack of urgency in acting to remove the barriers.”

International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan said the Liberals plan to modify the law, but couldn’t explain the holdup.

He stressed the government has found ways to deliver $144 million in aid to Afghans through organizations that comply with Canada’s rules.

Much of that is going to Afghans who fled the country and the rest is largely procured by the UN thanks to a Security Council exemption to anti-terrorism sanctions on the Taliban.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A revived Hurricane Ian set its sights on South Carolina’s coast Friday and the historic city of Charleston, with forecasters predicting a storm surge and floods after the megastorm caused catastrophic damage in Florida and left people trapped in their homes.

With all of South Carolina’s coast under a hurricane warning, a steady stream of vehicles left Charleston on Thursday, many likely heeding officials’ warnings to seek higher ground. Storefronts were sandbagged to ward off high water levels in an area prone to inundation.

Along the Battery area at the southern tip of the 350-year-old city’s peninsula, locals and tourists alike took selfies against the choppy backdrop of whitecaps in Charleston Harbor as palm trees bent in gusty wind.

With winds holding at 85 mph (140 kph), the National Hurricane Center’s update at 2 a.m. Friday placed Ian about 175 miles (285 km) southeast of Charleston and forecast a “life-threatening storm surge” and hurricane conditions along the Carolina coastal area later Friday.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens, an official said Friday, just hours before Moscow planned to annex more of Ukraine in an escalation of the seven-month war.

Zaporizhzhia Regional Governor Oleksandr Starukh made the announcement in an online statement Friday.

He said there were at least 28 wounded when Russian forces targeted a humanitarian convoy heading to Russian-occupied territory.

Those in the convoy, Starukh said, planned to travel into Russian-occupied territory to pick up relatives and take them to safety.

He posted images of burned-out vehicles and bodies lying in the road. Russia did not immediately acknowledge the strike.

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On this day in 2011, in a precedent-setting ruling on the division of federal and provincial powers, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled against Ottawa’s effort to close British Columbia’s right to operate a supervised injection site for drug addicts.

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In entertainment …

Ontario screenwriter Jennifer Archer is among the winners of a $35,000 fellowship from the body behind the Academy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded five fellowships Thursday in its global competition to elevate up-and-coming screenwriters.

Archer, from Springwater, Ont., was recognized for “Into the Deep Blue,” billed as the story of a man rebuilding his life after the death of his mother, an impaired driving charge and mandatory grief counselling.

Each winner receives a $35,000 cash prize and mentorship from an Academy member with the expectation that they complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year.

The five were selected from 5,526 scripts from 85 countries submitted for this year’s competition.

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Did you see this?

A township in southern Ontario has voted to rename a street from Swastika Trail to Holly Trail.

It wasn’t a unanimous decision.

On Wednesday, Puslinch Township council voted 4-1 to rename the street, with Mayor James Seeley recording the lone vote against.

It also wasn’t the first attempt to change the name.

A councillor says he first proposed a motion to change the name of the private road in 2017, but it was rejected.

Coun. John Sepulis, who was in favour of the name change, said he was glad the “offensive” name would be removed from the street, saying it disparaged the victims of the Holocaust and the Canadians who fought against the Nazi regime.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2022.