Five stories in the news for Wednesday, April 17
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LOONIE MARKING GAY ‘EQUALITY’ SPARKS CONCERN
A new commemorative loonie is sparking concern among academics and advocates who fear it could perpetuate myths about Canada’s treatment of lesbian, gay, transgender, queer and two spirited persons. The Royal Canadian Mint will unveil the new one dollar coin in Toronto next week as it joins government departments and agencies to mark “50 years of progress for LGBTQ2 Canadians.” A spokeswoman said Tuesday the mint takes great pride in celebrating Canada’s culture, history and values, adding that 50 years ago, Parliament passed an act that “initiated the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada.”
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CANADA POST FORECASTS CONTINUING LOSSES
Parcel delivery is booming, but Canada Post says it will struggle to meet its government-mandated goal of self-sustainability in coming years due to an ongoing decline in letter mail and higher employee costs. In a corporate forecast quietly tabled in Parliament, the Crown corporation says it is expecting to achieve “modest” profits of between 10 million and 125 million dollars from 2019 through to 2023. But it says those will be driven primarily by its Purolator subsidiary, while the base Canada Post segment will post losses.
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RECIPIENT IN RARE PAIRED LIVING LIVER DONATION THANKS “ANGEL”
One of the recipients of what’s believed to be North America’s first paired living liver donation is calling the stranger who saved his life “an angel.” Fifty-four-year-old Muhammad Khan of Mississauga, Ont., is sharing his gratitude nearly one year after 38-year-old Kelly Bryan of Peterborough, Ont., gave him more than half of her liver. In turn, Khan’s wife, Hina, donated more than half of her liver to another stranger. The feat was revealed at Toronto General Hospital where patients and doctors touted the potential that the rare procedure has to save lives.
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INUIT, FEDS INK DEAL ON FRANKLIN ARTIFACTS
Parks Canada and the Inuit Heritage Trust have come to an agreement on how the artifacts from the ill-fated Franklin expedition will be preserved and studied. All artifacts from the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror will be protected based on traditional Inuit knowledge and presented publicly from an Inuit perspective. Every effort will be made to have the artifacts displayed in Nunavut under the agreement signed Monday. Any museums or cultural institutions that want to study or exhibit the artifacts plucked from the sunken shipwrecks will only be able to do so on a temporary basis. Sir John Franklin and 129 men left England on the two ships in 1845 on a search for a northern passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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COURT WONDERS ABOUT FUTURE DANGERS OF MALL PLOTTER
Nova Scotia’s top court focused on the potential future danger posed by an American woman who plotted a Valentine’s Day shooting spree at a Halifax mall as she appealed her life sentence Tuesday. Three members of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal heard arguments Tuesday in an appeal of Lindsay Souvannarath’s sentence of life with no chance of parole for 10 years. Souvannarath, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a 2015 plot to shoot people at the Halifax Shopping Centre, but is asking the appeal court for a fixed term of 12 to 14 years. She argues the sentencing judge mistakenly imposed a burden on her to prove she was remorseful and had renounced anti-social beliefs.
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ALSO IN THE NEWS:
— Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium. More than 130 oil and natural gas institutional investors, and more than 70 corporate presenters, including CAPP oil and natural gas producer member companies, pipeline and upstream service sector companies.
— The Canadian Wind Energy Association holds its spring forum.
— First court appearance for Graham Spilsbury, a former guard at Edmonton Institution charged with sexual assault and assault with a weapon of a female coworker.
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The Canadian Press
