Manitoba premier to speak about deadly bus crash : In The News for June 19

Lanette Siragusa, CEO of Shared Health, the co-ordinator of many of the province’s health services, will also be present.

A minibus was carrying a group of seniors from Dauphin, Man., and surrounding area to a casino last Thursday when it went into the path of an oncoming semi-trailer truck near the town of Carberry, some 190 kilometres away.

Shared Health said in a statement Sunday that six of the 10 injured remain in critical condition.

No names of those who died have officially been released.

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Also this …

A number of mobile medical units funded by the Canadian Red Cross are providing health care in central Ukraine for thousands of people displaced by the war with Russia.

Most of them have set up shop in a relatively peaceful region of central Ukraine where about 300-thousand people have taken refuge since the war began.

Six mobile clinics travel from town to town providing care mainly to what staff describe as the very old or very young.

Mathieu Leonard, the programming head for the Canadian Red Cross in Ukraine, says it’s a necessary project.

He says the war has put the country’s health-care system under considerable strain, leaving many residents without access to treatment for physical and mental health conditions.

The Red Cross is also helping renovate a number of temporary residences that many displaced people are forced to live in.

That effort involves making sure buildings like community centres where people have taken up residence have services like proper heat and plumbing.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Ammar Rashed has a stack of letters from U.S. troops attesting to his work during some of the most dangerous days of the Iraq War. But six years after he applied to immigrate to the United States under a program for interpreters who helped America, he is still waiting.

“You don’t have to keep me and my family suffering for, for years waiting,” said Rashed during a Skype interview from Jordan, where he lives. “It’s really frustrating.”

Rashed is among thousands of Iraqis, many of whom risked their lives by working closely with Americans during the war and its aftermath, trying to enter the U.S. An estimated 164,000 Iraqis already have found homes in America.

U.S. officials cite multiple reasons for the delays, including an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a hack of a refugee database, the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts to the refugee program under then-President Donald Trump.

Sometimes the process is slowed as applicants struggle to prove their ties to the U.S.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, including a minor, and wounded at least 29 others during a massive gunbattle with militants in the streets of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, Palestinian officials said. The fighting included the rare use of Israeli attack helicopters in the territory.

The escalation was the latest in more than a year of near-daily violence that has wracked the West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified those killed as Khaled Asasa, 21, Qassam Abu Sariya, 29, and 15-year-old Ahmed Saqr, and said at least six others were seriously wounded in the shootout.

The Israeli military said troops came under fire during an arrest raid in Jenin and shot back at Palestinian gunmen. Israeli media reported that multiple Israeli troops were wounded in the fighting.

“As the security forces exited the city, a military vehicle was hit by an explosive device, damaging the vehicle,” the army said, adding that helicopters “opened fire toward the gunmen in order to assist in extraction of the forces.”

Unconfirmed amateur video footage from Jenin appeared to show an Israeli military helicopter launching a rocket during the ongoing army operation. The Israeli military rarely uses aircraft in its operations in the occupied West Bank.

Israel and the Palestinians have been gripped by months of violence, focused mainly in the West Bank, where some 120 Palestinians have been killed this year. The city of Jenin has been a hotbed of Palestinian militancy.

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On this day in 1992 …

Russian President Boris Yeltsin told Canada’s Parliament his country had abandoned totalitarianism for democracy.

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In entertainment …

If you like multiverse movies and groove to “The Flash” and the Spider-Verse films, there’s lots of stuff to find if you dig deeper. In film, there’s “Yesterday,” which takes place in a reality where the Beatles never existed. And there’s even “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the Christmas classic that sends its main character into a world where he was never born. From TV, there are the various mirror universe episodes of “Star Trek” and “For All Mankind,” in which the Soviets win the space race. And in books, you can check out “The Mirage,” which proposes that 9/11 actually happened in Baghdad and that American Christian fundamentalists were responsible.

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Did you see this?

Leaders of the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund say they’ve reached a proposed $10-billion settlement with the governments of Ontario and Canada over unpaid annuities for using their lands.

The fund, which represents the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations, announced Saturday that the proposal will resolve claims only tied to past unpaid annuities which stretch back more than 170 years.

The Robinson-Huron Treaty was signed in 1850 and committed to paying the First Nations groups annual amounts tied to resource revenues, but the annuity only increased once in 1875 when it rose from about $1.70 per person to $4 per person. It hasn’t increased since.

The proposed out-of-court settlement will see the federal government pay half the sum, while the other half will come from the province.

Spokesperson Duke Peltier, who represents the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, noted the 21 First Nations came together in 2012 to seek a settlement through the courts, but that ultimately one was reached at a negotiation table after talks began in April 2022.

“We know reconciliation cannot be achieved in the courtroom,” he said in a statement.

“Canada and Ontario heard us and met us at the negotiation table to make this proposed settlement a reality.”

In 2018, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that the Crown had an obligation to increase annual payments under the Robinson-Huron Treaty to reflect revenue derived from the territory.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2023.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Manitoba premier to speak about deadly bus crash : In The News for June 19

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