The Thursday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories
Highlights from the news file for Thursday, Sept. 21
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TRUDEAU TELLS UNITED NATIONS OF CANADA’S SHAME: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used a speech to the United Nations on Thursday to probe a source of national shame: the historic struggles of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. He spoke of forced migration and forced family separation in residential schools, which he said left a devastating legacy on reserves to this day. He said Canada came to exist without the consent and participation of the Indigenous populations who had lived there for millenniums. “For Indigenous peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect and abuse,” he said. It was the major theme of his address, which did not gloss over the country’s failures and even referred to the international condemnation they have drawn. But he also looked ahead to at a series of solutions: better infrastructure on reserves, better housing, signing of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples and a dismantling of the old Indian Affairs department. The rest of the speech focused on climate change, international trade rules aimed at helping workers and his controversial tax reform which he cited as an example of his middle-class-friendly policies.
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