In today’s news: Trudeau to attend NATO leaders’ summit

Here’s a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press to bring you up to date…

Trudeau will attend the NATO leaders’ summit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet NATO leaders today to mark the 75th anniversary of the defensive alliance as Russia escalates its aggression against Ukraine.

The ongoing battle in Ukraine will top the agenda of the three-day summit after Russian missile attacks caused death and destruction, including at a major children’s hospital in Kiev.

Strong new measures to support Ukraine are to be announced during the summit, and officials say it will include information on the war-torn country’s efforts to join NATO.

Trudeau will make strong comments about the need to remain steadfast in his support for Ukraine, but Canadian officials will also face questions about the country’s defense spending record.

Alliance members agreed to spend the equivalent of two percent of their gross domestic product on defense, but Canada has long fallen short of the target.

Here’s what we’re watching…

Judge weighs admitted serial killer’s motivations

A judge is expected to decide this week whether a man who admitted to killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg did so because he was in the throes of a psychotic episode or was driven by a rare form of perverse sexual interest.

The tragic case dating back to 2022 has renewed calls for governments and organizations to address the current issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Protests were also held across the country, demanding a search of a landfill for the remains of two of the victims. The search is scheduled to begin in the fall.

The judge is scheduled to hand down his verdict Thursday in Jeremy Skibicki’s first-degree murder trial.

Skibicki admitted to killing Morgan Harris, 39; Marcedes Myran, 26 years old; Rebecca Contois, 24; and an unidentified woman whom an indigenous community called Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

Canada to release rapid heatwave study results

Federal officials are yet to say how much more likely the heat wave in Eastern Canada was due to human-caused climate change.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is scheduled to release the results of its rapid analysis of last month’s heat wave that swept through parts of Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

It will mark the public debut of Canada’s new rapid pilot program for attributing extreme weather events, which officials say can determine whether and to what extent climate change has made a particular heat wave more likely or more intense.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is believed to be one of the first government offices in the world to publicly release a rapid attribution tool and automatically apply it to heat waves across the country, with results ready within days.

Scientists say attribution studies can inject climate science into public discussions about certain extreme weather events when it’s most relevant, while highlighting the effects of planet-warming emissions.

The AFN Annual General Meeting will begin in Montreal

The annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations begins today in Montreal, where leaders are expected to provide an update on negotiations to reform Canada’s child protection system and redress the systems’ past damage.

The meeting is the first AFN annual general meeting to be held since Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak was elected national chair in December.

Last month, three regional chiefs who represent more than half of First Nations wrote to Woodhouse Nepinak outlining concerns that the AFN is not including First Nations leaders in negotiations with Ottawa on reforms being discussed as part of a $43 billion deal dollars concluded with Canada in 2023. .

More than half of that money is meant to be compensation for around 300,000 children and their families who were harmed when chronic underfunding of child protection in reserves meant children were placed in foster care more often than supported to stay with their families.

The deal includes $20 billion to help pay for child welfare reforms, including matching funding.

The mayor would “consider” amending Munro’s monument

The mayor of the town where Alice Munro lived for much of her adult life says he would “consider” changing the monument to the famous writer outside the public library in Clinton, Ont., although he personally does not support such a move.

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn says he was shocked by Sunday’s revelations about Munro’s second husband, Gerald Fremlin.

Andrea Robin Skinner, Munro’s daughter with her first husband, James Munro, wrote in an essay published in the Toronto Star that Fremlin sexually assaulted her in the mid-1970s — when she was 9 — and continued to harass and abuse until he became a teenager.

Skinner wrote that in her 20s she told the author about Fremlin’s abuse, but that it remained a secret for decades, with Munro deciding to remain married to Fremlin until he died in 2013. The couple lived together in Clinton.

Ginn says Munro will ultimately be remembered for her unique gifts as a storyteller, and she currently does not foresee changing the monument in Clinton that honors her.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press