Generations of First Nations children were abducted to institutions to solve the country’s ‘Indian problem’. Thousands never returned
When they came to take Jonnish Saganash away, he was only five years old.
It was 1954, and the Canadian government had decided he was to be sent to a residential school in Ontario – hundreds of kilometers from his Indigenous community in Quebec.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading...Nine experts call for ‘full-fledged investigations’ after discovery of remains of 215 Indigenous children at former residential school
UN human rights experts have urged the Canadian government and the Vatican to hold swift and thorough investigations into the discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential school in British Columbia.
The unmarked graves of up to 215 Indigenous children were discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential Schools last week, using ground-penetrating radar.
Continue reading...Discontent simmers over police handling of investigation as Canadian Jasmine Hartin awaits bail hearing
A late-night stroll in the moonlight, then a sudden and fatal gunshot. What exactly happened between the socialite partner of the son of a billionaire Tory donor and a senior police officer in the early hours of last Friday in the resort of Mata Rocks has gripped the small Caribbean nation of Belize and turned into an international drama. It is now a major test for the country’s legal and criminal system.
This week a 32-year-old Canadian woman, Jasmine Hartin, was accused of the negligent manslaughter of a local police superintendent, Henry Jemmott. The case has attracted attention because Hartin is the partner of Andrew Ashcroft, son of Michael Ashcroft, the Conservative party donor and Belize’s most influential resident. Lord Ashcroft is a former Tory party deputy chairman, a one-time member of the House of Lords, and a billionaire.
Continue reading...President Andrés Manuel López Obrador remains popular but midterm elections may reflect judgments of his handling of the pandemic and endemic violence
Nearly three years have passed since Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president of Mexico and, before a sea of euphoric supporters, promised: “I will not fail you. You will not be disappointed.”
Related: ‘Huge incentives to kill’: Mexico crime groups target election candidates
Continue reading...The 10th edition of the Carmignac photojournalism award was dedicated to the Amazon and the issues related to its deforestation. Photojournalist Tommaso Protti, accompanied by journalist Sam Cowie, travelled thousands of miles across the Brazilian Amazon. From the eastern region of Maranhão to the western region of Rondônia, through the states of Pará and Amazonas, they portrayed modern-day life in the Brazilian Amazon, where social and humanitarian crises overlap with destruction of the rainforest.
As I sat in my hotel room in Marabá, a city in the Amazon state of Pará, Jornal Nacional – Brazil’s flagship news programme – transmitted images of the country’s newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro. “The Indigenous in their reservations are like animals in a zoo,” he said. It was November 2018.
Continue reading...Pedro Castillo challenges Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the disgraced 1990s autocrat, in Sunday’s runoff election
Peruvians must choose between the son of illiterate peasant farmers who pledges to upend the country’s free-market economy and the unpopular daughter of a 1990s autocrat, who faces jail on corruption allegations, when they vote on Sunday in the most polarised election in living memory.
Amid surging poverty, one of the world’s worst Covid outbreaks, months of political crisis and rampant anti-left scaremongering, Peruvians will choose the fifth president in as many years.
Continue reading...Investigation of Cristiana Chamorro seen as an attempt to stop her from challenging country’s autocratic leader in November elections
Police in Nicaragua have stormed into the house of a prominent opposition leader, one day after formally filing money laundering charges against her in what was seen as an attempt to stop an electoral challenge to the autocratic leader Daniel Ortega.
Cristiana Chamorro, 67, was detained at her home south of the capital Managua on Wednesday, 15 minutes before she was scheduled to give a virtual news conference to reporters.
Continue reading...Government urges apology for role Catholic church played in residential school system after remains of 215 children discovered
Canada’s government has called on Pope Francis to issue a formal apology for the role the Catholic church played in Canada’s residential school system, days after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country’s largest such school.
Justin Trudeau’s government also pledged again to support efforts to find more unmarked graves at the former residential schools which held Indigenous children taken from families across the nation.
Continue reading...The melancholic singer was a gem in Brazil’s musical history, but many thought he had been killed in a motorcycle accident. At 72, he is releasing his lost recordings and finally reclaiming his legacy
It was the summer of 1995 when José Mauro discovered he was dead. The Brazilian musician, then 46 years old, was living on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, teaching guitar, when a friend called from London saying he’d spotted a CD of Mauro’s long-deleted 1970 LP, Obnoxius, on sale in a London record shop.
“He called and explained about this CD, and about how it said I’d been killed in a motorcycle accident,” says Mauro today, now 72. “That was the day I knew I had died.”
Continue reading...Vessels primarily from China switch off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in possible illegal fishing
Giant distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, are switching off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in a possibly illegal hunt for squid and other lucrative species on the very edge of Argentina’s extensive fishing grounds, according to a new study by Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.
Every year, vessels crowd together along the limits of Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to take advantage of the lucrative fishing grounds.
Related: Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China's vast squid fleet
Continue reading...The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has sparked outrage after approving plans to hold South America’s answer to the European Championship in his Covid-stricken country despite warnings Brazil is steaming into a potentially calamitous third wave of infections.
The Copa América was originally due to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina, but their struggles with deadly street protests and coronavirus put paid to those plans.
Continue reading...Ministry of culture claims Zara used a pattern distinctive to the indigenous Mixteca community
Mexico has accused the international fashion brands Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl of cultural appropriation, claiming they used patterns from indigenous groups in their designs without any benefit to the communities.
The culture ministry said in a statement that it had sent letters signed by the culture minister, Alejandra Frausto, to the three companies, asking each for a “public explanation on what basis it could privatise collective property”.
Continue reading...Updated figures give country a per capita death toll of 500 per 100,000 people – double that of Brazil
Peru has almost tripled its official Covid-19 death toll to 180,764, after a government review, making it the country with the highest death rate per capita, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Peru has been among the hardest hit Latin American countries during the pandemic, with its hospitals overcrowded and demand for oxygen outstripping availability.
Continue reading...The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has announced Brazil as the new hosts of this summer’s Copa América, with Argentina replaced just 13 days before the tournament is due to begin.
“The Copa América 2021 will be played in Brazil,” an official Conmebol statement said. “Tournament start and end dates are confirmed. The venues and the fixtures will be announced by Conmebol in the next few hours.”
Continue reading...At least 34 candidates have been murdered since campaigning began in April, with the assassination clear-up rate close to zero
Tuesday started off like any other day on the campaign trail for José Alberto Alonso, a union leader running for mayor in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco: he kissed his family goodbye, boarded his Nissan Extreme SUV and headed off to start knocking on doors.
But barely 200m from his home, a motorcycle closed in and the pillion passenger pulled a handgun, peppering the car with bullets. Alonso’s bodyguard returned fire, and the attackers fled. The candidate had escaped injury, but was later sent to hospital suffering from stress.
Continue reading...Jasmin Hartin was arrested near to location of body with ‘what appeared to be blood on her arms’
The partner of the son of Lord Ashcroft, a Conservative party donor and former treasurer, is being questioned in Belize over the killing of a police officer.
Jasmine Hartin was arrested on Friday following the discovery of the body of Supt Henry Jemmott on a pier in the resort town of San Pedro.
Continue reading...Brazilians staged protests against President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in at least 200 cities and towns across the country on Saturday, carrying signs such as 'Out with Bolsonaro' and 'Impeachment now'.
Bolsonaro's popularity has plummeted during the coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 450,000 Brazilians as the far-right leader played down its severity, dismissed mask wearing and cast doubt on the importance of vaccines.
Organised by leftist political parties, unions and student associations, Saturday's protests in the capital, Brasilia, and in Rio de Janeiro were peaceful but in the north-eastern city of Recife, police threw teargas and shot rubber bullets.
Continue reading...Protests in over 200 cities and towns in Brazil sparked by president’s handling of the Covid pandemic
Tens of thousands of protesters have poured on to the streets of Brazil’s largest cities to demand the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro over his catastrophic response to a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly half a million Brazilian lives.
The demonstrators turned out in more than 200 cities and towns for what is the biggest anti-Bolsonaro mobilisation since Brazil’s Covid outbreak began
Continue reading...Anti-poverty demonstrators battle with police across the country as protests enter second month
Violent unrest continues to roil Colombia as anti-poverty demonstrations enter their second month and talks between protesters and the government stall.
A fresh spate of violence swept the South American nation on Friday night, with protesters battling police who attempted to lift roadblocks across the country.
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