Morning Update: Indigenous leaders renew call for reparations from Catholic Church for residential school abuses

Editor’s note: In last Friday’s Morning Update, we incorrectly identified Alberta’s Premier.

Good morning,

A Globe and Mail investigation by Tom Cardoso and Tavia Grant has found that the Catholic Church in Canada has billions of dollars in assets across the country, suggesting it has ample means to help in reparations for Indigenous communities and reconciliation efforts to address the legacy of residential schools and the abuse that thousands of children suffered there.

The Catholic Church was to contribute $25-million from a fundraising campaign toward the residential schools settlement reached in 2006. The church raised just $3.7-million. In contrast, data from Charity Intelligence Canada shows the Catholic Church fundraised a combined $886-million in 2019.

In the wake of The Globe’s investigation, Indigenous leaders are calling for a re-examination of the Catholic Church’s commitments under the residential schools settlement agreement. “Clearly, they are a fundraising machine,” said Assembly of First Nations national chief RoseAnne Archibald. “So my question to the church is, why are you stalling on providing that $25-million that was promised?”

On today’s Decibel podcast: Tom Cardoso joins us to tell us what we know about the Church’s finances, its legal obligation to residential school survivors, and the broader calls for the church to give reparations, and how that money could be used to help heal survivors and their communities.

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Parents, staff and students confused, anxious about lack of COVID-19 safety guidance for Alberta schools

As Alberta’s provincial government lifts nearly all COVID-19 measures, including routine testing, contact tracing and isolating of positive cases, those still worried about the pandemic are banking on school districts to implement their own safety plans.

But those districts are still waiting on a guidance document from the province, expected to be released in mid-August, leaving roughly two weeks to plan for a return to in-class learning.

The uncertainty has put many school administrators, teachers, parents and students in a state of unease. Hundreds have attended daily protests in Calgary and Edmonton, calling on the province to reverse course.

The Globe’s Andrea Woo speaks with Albertans worried about how learning to live with COVID-19 will affect the return to school.

Humans to blame for acceleration in climate change: report

As wildfires, flash floods and record-breaking temperatures torment communities around the world, it’s obvious that something is seriously amiss with the atmosphere.

We’ve heard about climate change proceeding at a faster pace, but the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that its widespread effects are more definitively tied to human influence than ever before.

The Globe’s science writer, Ivan Semeniuk, breaks down the monolithic report – the most comprehensive and strongly worded assessment yet of the present condition and future trajectory of the Earth’s climate – that was released today.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

The four-day work week: Could employees toil less while businesses profit? It’s possible, but complicated.

Border reopening: After 16 months, the U.S. border is open to fully vaccinated U.S. travellers. How are Canadian businesses preparing? By being cautiously optimistic.

Tokyo Olympics: The Globe’s visual journalist Melissa Tait shares seven memorable moments from the Tokyo Olympics

Zambia heads toward pivotal election: The Globe’s Africa Bureau Chief Geoffrey York sets the stage for Thursday’s election – a worrying case study in continuing democratic decline.

Okanagan outbreak: A new surge of COVID-19 cases has led to the reintroduction of a host of measures, and spurred one pub owner to hold a pop-up vaccination clinic for her young staff and the public.

Trudeau’s election-campaign big break: The Globe’s Campbell Clark on why François Legault thanking Justin Trudeau for a federal-provincial child care deal in Quebec is significant.

MORNING MARKETS

World stocks tread water: Global shares treaded water on Monday as sharp falls in gold and oil prices briefly spooked sentiment, while the U.S. dollar reached four-month highs on the euro after an upbeat U.S. jobs report lifted bond yields. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.35 per cent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.18 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.40 per cent. Markets in Japan were closed. New York futures were mixed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.75 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

School students will need better mental-health support than they had prepandemic

“If Ontario’s student mental-health support system was an electrical circuit, its fuse would have blown more than a year ago.” – Amy Nam

The Canadian Olympic Committee should enjoy its moment in the sun before questions about the Beijing Games become too loud to ignore

“It won’t be the regime out there convincing people this is all totally normal and can’t we just think of the athletes and their dreams? That will be Ottawa and the COC, and their equivalents around the democracy-loving world.” – Cathal Kelly

Do we need more laws banning noxious views online?

“Is the ideal of free speech not a little naive in an age when a U.S. president can spread noxious lies to millions of voters via the internet?”– Ian Buruma

Get vaccinated – or find another line of work

“This country’s current level of vaccination, though among the highest in the world, is not likely to be enough to quell the threat from the ever-shifting coronavirus.” – The Globe Editorial Board

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Fermented foods belong in a gut-friendly diet

The Globe’s Food for Thought columnist Leslie Beck has the latest food wagon you need to jump on: Fermentation. Researchers from the Stanford School of Medicine say things like kefir, kombucha and pickled vegetables can improve gut health and reduce inflammation. Taking care of our gut microbiome – the active microbial community that lives inside our large intestine – can influence mood, mental health and appetite and our risk for chronic diseases. What you eat influences your but microbiome, and a more diverse diet leads to a more diverse population of gut microbes, which has been linked to better health.

MOMENT IN TIME: 1947

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Fighting fire on water, 1974

For more than 100 years, photographers and photo librarians have preserved an extraordinary collection of 20th-century news photography for The Globe and Mail. Every Monday, The Globe features one of these images. This month, we’re looking at firefighting.

Firefighters are tough, but Toronto’s oldest fireboat is tougher. The William Lyon Mackenzie, named after the city’s first mayor, was launched in 1964 and it’s still going strong. The 150-tonne vessel, with its 24-metre-long tugboat hull and 3,000 horsepower generated from its Caterpillar diesel engine, works year-round to provide marine firefighting, search and rescue and ice-breaking for the Toronto harbour. It’s got a crane and an aerial tower, as well as five water nozzles that can pump 50,000 litres of water a minute. In the 1974 photo above by The Globe and Mail’s Erik Christensen, it’s dousing a fire in a pile of old cars on the waterfront. The fireboat isn’t the only marine-based piece of equipment for the Toronto Fire Services, but it may be the most durable. After a $1-million 2004 refurbishment, it’s expected to be in service until 2037. – Philip King

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