By Canadian Press

In the news today, Aug. 15

Aug 17, 2019 | 2:20 AM

Four stories in the news for Thursday, Aug. 15

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QUESTIONS PLAGUE BROTHER OF B.C. HOMICIDE VICTIM

The eldest brother of homicide victim Chynna Deese says he’s not expecting the criminal investigation to provide a definitive answer as to why she was killed in such a seemingly random act. The RCMP has promised to release details in the coming weeks of its investigative conclusions in the case that sparked a manhunt across Western Canada. Mounties have already said they believe Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod were suspects in the deaths of Deese, her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler and Leonard Dyck of Vancouver. Thirty-year-old Stetson Deese says Mounties maintain regular contact with his family, but they haven’t been told much beyond what has been announced publicly.

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CANADA TO SEND MILITARY PLANE TO UGANDA

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is expected to announce today the long-awaited deployment of a promised Canadian Forces transport plane to Uganda for peacekeeping missions. The CC-130 Hercules was one of three signature promises Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made to the United Nations when Canada hosted a major peacekeeping summit in November 2017, only one of which has been fulfilled. The federal government last year deployed a unit of helicopters and several hundred military personnel to help with medical evacuations in Mali. That mission is to wrap up at the end of this month. Trudeau also promised a 200-strong “quick reaction force” to the UN, but Canada has yet to register the force in a UN database of peacekeeping pledges, which means it has not been formally offered.

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NEW REFUGEE GUIDELINES UNFAIR TO SOME: NDP

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan says she is dismayed by newly published guidelines for asylum seekers who fall under a controversial new admissibility law — guidelines she believes show some refugees will not get a fair chance to plead their case for protection in Canada. The guidelines say refugees subject to the new law cannot use their oral hearings to make legal representations or present arguments, but can only lay out facts of their case and answer questions. Legal arguments and testimony from witnesses supporting their refugee claims can only be submitted in writing. Kwan is accusing Border Security Minister Bill Blair of misleading Canadians when he said publicly in the spring that asylum seekers would have access to a full oral hearing.

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CANADA APOLOGIZES FOR SLED DOG KILLINGS

The Canadian government has apologized for the killings of thousands of sled dogs decades ago. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett delivered the apology in Iqaluit. She says the government made a mistake by assuming it knew what was best for Inuit people. Between 1950 and 1975, Inuit in Nunuvut’s Baffin region were moved from mobile camps to permanent communities. Sled dogs proved a hazard in the communities and the government required owners to muzzle and chain the animals. An inquiry report in 2010 found that it became easier for authorities to shoot the dogs instead of enforcing the ordinances.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS:

— Federal Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef and Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault will make an announcement today in support of LGBTQ2 organizations in Canada.

— The trial continues today for Aluma Systems Inc., charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act after an ammonia leak at CF Industries left one worker dead and another injured in 2015.

— The University of Alberta and the University of California, San Francisco are teaming up to start the world’s first open data commons for preclinical Spinal Cord Injury research.

The Canadian Press