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UN judges declare elderly Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to stand trial due to dementia

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — United Nations judges have declared an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to continue to stand trial because he has dementia and say they will establish a procedure to continue to hear evidence without the possibility of convicting him.The majority decision published Wednesday by judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals means that no guilty verdict can be reached in the trial of Félicien Kabuga, one of the last fugitives charged over the 1994 genocide.Medical experts who have been closely monitoring his health in a U.N. detention unit in The Hague say that the “consequences of dementia deprive Mr. Kabuga of the capabilities necessary for meaningful participation in a trial” and add that “he will not recover these capacities because his condition is characterized by progressive and irreversible decline.”The 88-year-old is accused of encouraging and bankrolling Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. His trial began last year, nearl...

Poet Vivek Shraya duets with Donovan Woods in new song ‘Colonizer’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

TORONTO — Poet, playwright and musician Vivek Shraya has contemplated the layers of white supremacy in her work, but on a new project, she’s getting far more personal about the subject.“Colonizer,” a duet with Juno Award winner Donovan Woods, is an upbeat love song that reflects on the “the complexity of being in an interracial relationship” told from two perspectives.Shraya, who is of South Asian descent, says the song was drawn from her experience as an artist who explores the impact of racism while also being in a romantic partnership with a white person for the past 11 years.The track is a half-acoustic, half-electric pop-rock effort that exchanges perspectives on the subject between Shraya and Woods, who appears as a stand-in for Shraya’s partner.She originally asked her partner to appear on the track to sing his side of their real-life relationship, but he “emphatically turned down” the request.So she turned to the raspy-voiced W...

Griffin Poetry Prize winner to be announced at Toronto event tonight

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

TORONTO — The winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize is set to be announced at an event at Toronto’s Koerner Hall this evening.It will be the first winner since the Griffin combined its categories for homegrown and international poets into a single global purse worth $130,000.This also marks a change in format for the celebrations, which have been held virtually since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But organizers aren’t going back to their pre-pandemic format either.In addition to merging the prizes, the Griffin Trust did away with its former arrangement of holding separate events for the poetry reading and a gala the following evening, where the winners would be announced.Instead, the shortlisted writers and the Griffin First Canadian Book winner will read from their work at the announcement, which the poetry-loving public can attend. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.The Canadian Press

Canadian forest fire centre responds to unprecedented wildfire season

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

Weather maps hang on the walls and precipitation reports flash across screens in the Winnipeg office where major decisions about Canada’s battle against an unprecedented wildfire season are made. Inside the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre headquarters in Manitoba’s capital, just east of the exact longitudinal centre of Canada, there are discussions on how best to battle blazes from coast to coast.“It’s definitely an unprecedented season,” Jennifer Kamau, communications manager for the centre, said Tuesday.“It started early and it accelerated very quickly.”Federal officials warned this week that Canada could see its worst year for wildfire destruction. They said the risks from warm and dry conditions are forecasted to persist in nearly every province and territory through the summer.  “This is a scary time for a lot of people,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.There were 415 active wildfires across the country as of Tuesday afternoon, an...

Font gives fresh look to B.C. Indigenous languages while working on reconciliation

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

VANCOUVER — A new font to typeset Salish Indigenous languages means so much more than just the words that it will be used to write, one of the people behind its creation says. Vanessa Campbell, a Musqueam band member and staff member in its Language and Culture Department, was part of a team from the University of British Columbia that designed a new font which allows characters from the Musqueam language to not only be easily typed on a computer, but to match the formal institutional font used on university documentation and signs.The name of the Musqueam language is pronounced HUN-kuh-mee-num and in the Indigenous font it has characters that appear similar to inverted Es with accents over four other letters. Most of the characters in the name aren’t available on an English language keyboard. Campbell said it has taken four years of work to get the font right and is an example of reconciliation in action, and a sign of respect for the Indigenous people whose land the universi...

Supporters of slain mining activist take case against Canada to international body

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

OTTAWA — Family and supporters of a Mexican activist who was killed after opposing a Canadian company’s mining project are taking their case to an international human rights body.The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, a Canadian initiative by volunteer lawyers, is making a complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the family of Mariano Abarca.The complaint alleges that Canada failed to uphold its international human rights obligations by pressuring Mexican authorities to advance the mining project despite having knowledge about related threats to Abarca’s life. The activist’s supporters have exhausted legal avenues in the Canadian courts.The case stretches back to 2007, when Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. opened a barite mine in Chiapas, Mexico, prompting local opposition, demonstrations and a blockade of a route to the project. After being beaten and threatened with death for leading protests over the mine’s...

Canadians want revenge on Bernardo, but that’s not how prison works: ex-official

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

OTTAWA — One of the architects of the law that governs Canada’s prison system says it’s understandable people want revenge on killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo, but that’s not what the prison system is designed for.Mary Campbell also says it is regrettable the Correctional Service of Canada has not been more transparent in how it handled the matter — which the law allows it to be.Campbell, a lawyer who retired from her role as director-general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate in the Public Safety Department in 2013, said that without question Bernardo’s crimes were horrific. Broadly speaking, the corrections system has a mandate to rehabilitate offenders.Politicians from all parties and levels of government have decried Bernardo’s transfer from a maximum-security penitentiary to a medium-security prison in Quebec. News of the transfer was confirmed last week by the lawyer for the families of two of his victims, Kristen French and...

Bank of Canada to announce interest rate decision this morning

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is set to announce its interest rate decision this morning as speculation about another rate hike heats up. Recent economic data suggests the Canadian economy is running hotter than forecasters had expected, raising concerns about the inflation outlook. Last week, Statistics Canada reported real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3.1 per cent in the first quarter, while a preliminary estimate suggests it expanded again in April. Economists — many of whom expected high interest rates to send the economy into a recession by now — say the recent data suggests the central bank may have to hike interest rates again to get inflation back to the two per cent target.The Bank of Canada, which paused its rate-hiking cycle earlier this year after raising its key interest rate to 4.5 per cent, has signalled it would hike rates again if the economy continued to run too hot or inflation proved to be sticky. Canada’s annual inflation rate has ste...

Daily horoscope for June 7, 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

Moon Alert: After 5 a.m. EDT today (2 a.m. PDT) there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The Moon is in Aquarius.Happy Birthday for Wednesday, June 7, 2023:You are passionate; you are also self-disciplined. You are intelligent and intuitive. You are also charming. This is a slower-paced year — a time to rejuvenate your energy. Focus on your needs and the kind of relationships that bring you happiness.ARIES(March 21-April 19) ★★You are the warrior of the zodiac, which is why you have a short fuse at times. You rise to a challenge with determined zeal! Today you might be at odds with your kids, a friend or a group. What is your wisest response? Remember what your objective is. Avoid knee-jerk reactions. Tonight: Patience.TAURUS(April 20-May 20) ★★You rarely lose your temper, because when you do, it’s frightening. (And you know this.) Therefore, be patient when dealing with bosses, parents and family members today, even if your patience is challenged to...

Top EU court strikes down more of Poland's judicial overhaul

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:00:27 GMT

The top European Union court on Monday (5 June) struck down more elements of Poland's sweeping judicial overhaul for violating the bloc's democracy tenets, adding to pressure on the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party which faces an election this autumn.Poland, the largest ex-communist EU country, has lost its reputation as a poster child of democratic transition, as well as access to billions worth of EU funds in bitter rule-of-law battles with the liberal West since PiS came to power in 2015.On Monday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that publishing online declarations of judges' memberships of associations, non-profit foundations or political parties violated their right to privacy and could be used to sway them.The Luxembourg-based court listed that element along with several others in the PiS judicial overhaul that were damaging the independence of judges, and hence undermining the rule of law."The Polish justice reform of December 2019 infringes EU law," a court statem...