Dawn Walker, who says she fled domestic abuse, is arrested and accused of stealing friend’s identity to cross border

An acclaimed writer who says she fled Canada to escape domestic abuse is to be extradited from the US, amid accusations she faked her own death, kidnapped her son and illegally crossed the American border.

Dawn Walker, an Indigenous author from Okanese Cree Nation in the province of Saskatchewan, was due to be driven to the border on Wednesday by US officials and handed over to Canadian police, more than a month after she first went missing.

Government pays stipend to employees who speak French and English but Treasury Board says it has no plans to expand scheme

Canada’s federal government says it will not expand the scope of a program that pays an annual bonus to bilingual employees, excluding hundreds of government workers who speak an Indigenous language on the job.

Since the late 1970s, the federal government has paid a bonus of C$800 (US$617) to workers who use English and French, the country’s two official languages. But Canada has more than 60 Indigenous languages, and about 500 federal employees frequently speak an Indigenous language on the job.