Morning Update: Catholic Church charity set up to pay survivors of residential schools spent $6.46-million on expenses, records show

Good morning,

A Catholic Church organization created to provide compensation to residential school survivors spent more than a quarter of its funds on expenses, and nearly $600,000 was returned to church groups after a 2015 settlement, financial records obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal.

The audited financial statements of the Corporation of Catholic Entities Party to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement show that Catholic entities ultimately contributed $24.2-million. From that amount, the corporation deducted $6.46-million for expenses over eight years. Healing initiatives for survivors got $18.6-million. The document covers the fiscal years ended 2009 to 2016.

Mike DeGagné, former executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, a now-defunct Indigenous-led charity that received most of the money, said the percentage of funds spent on expenses is “preposterous.”

“It’s not like they had to administer thousands of applications or sit through difficult policy discussions. They were to take in money from Catholic entities and they were to redistribute it,” he said.

From the archives: The Catholic Church in Canada is worth billions, a Globe investigation shows. Why are its reparations for residential schools so small?

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Confusion at Kabul airport, insufficient information from Ottawa impeding Canada’s rescue efforts, evacuees say

Canadian expats and Afghans trying to secure a spot on an evacuation flight out of Kabul say they can’t locate Canadian soldiers at the city’s airport and aren’t getting enough information from federal officials.

Complaints about a slow and ineffective Canadian rescue effort conflict with the assurances of government ministers and officials in Ottawa that they’re doing everything possible to assist those on the ground.

In a briefing Monday, military officials said that Canadian special forces soldiers have been posted outside the airport’s security perimeter and are providing safe passage to eligible evacuees through the gates. But The Globe spoke by WhatsApp on Monday with an Afghan-Canadian who has spent the past three nights outside the airport with his family. Abdul Hadi Yusufi said there were no Canadian soldiers outside, only U.S. military personnel who refused to allow him in, even though he had shown them his Canadian passport.

Meanwhile, many Afghan evacuees fleeing to Turkey are finding that new dangers await them. Some who have spoken to The Globe described the month-long journey as an ordeal: walking for days without food or water, fending off attacks, sneaking past authorities – all to seek refuge in a country that will have them.

Read more:

• Canada will support G7 sanctions against the Taliban, Trudeau says
• Biden to decide in 24 hours whether to extend deadline for Afghanistan withdrawal
• Opinion: Afghans now join the litany of people failed by the West
• Analysis: After Biden’s very, very bad week, the crises just keep on coming

Trudeau stands by attack video after Twitter labels it ‘manipulated’

A video Liberal Chrystia Freeland posted to Twitter on Sunday that attacks Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole for his stance on privatized health care has been labelled “manipulated media” by the social-media giant, but Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is standing by the post.

The video splices together comments on privatized health care made by O’Toole during his run for the Conservative leadership last summer. In one clip, O’Toole is asked if he would allow provinces to experiment with health-care reform, including private, “for-profit” and non-profit options inside universal health coverage. He says, “Yes.” O’Toole goes on to talk about “public-private synergies,” but the Liberal video does not include his comments about ensuring that “universal access remains paramount.”

Twitter said it assigns the “manipulated media” label to certain tweets “to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.”

Trudeau defended his party’s decision to release the video, saying there’s a full version of O’Toole’s response posted online under Freeland’s account.

More coverage of the election campaign:

• Conservatives pledge worker representation on boards, but union leaders remain skeptical about shift in approach
• Singh wants to end oil, gas subsidies and fund renewable energy projects
• Campbell Clark: The election campaign is shaping up to be shapeless – and that should scare Justin Trudeau

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

B.C. to require proof of vaccination for activities, restaurants: British Columbia has decided to introduce a “vaccine card” for residents, requiring them to show proof of having had a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to access businesses and certain social and recreational activities. The new measures, aimed at curbing transmission of the virus, will kick in Sept. 13, said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Capitol Police exonerate officer who shot Ashli Babbitt: The U.S. Capitol Police said that an internal investigation has cleared the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Babbitt was a 35-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran who had adhered to far-right conspiracy theories on social media, including Trump’s false claims that he had lost the 2020 presidential race due to voter fraud.

Multiple problems with Keystone XL pipeline, U.S. report finds: The U.S. Government Accountability Office found numerous problems with the construction, manufacture and design of the Keystone pipeline, saying that its four largest spills could be traced to these issues. U.S. President Joe Biden rescinded approval for the pipeline’s extension on his first day of office. Democratic leaders said the report marks a validation of that decision.

Pfizer to buy Canadian cancer drug developer in US$2.26-billion deal: Pharma giant Pfizer Inc. said it would buy Trillium Therapeutics Inc. in a deal that puts the value of the blood-cancer drug developer at US$2.26-billion. The all-cash deal requires the support of two-thirds of Trillium investors.

Listen to The Decibel: Shein, the fast-fashion giant you’ve probably never heard of, is where Gen Z flocks to for cheap, trendy clothing. Its sales have soared during the pandemic, with the company bringing in nearly US$10-billion. Terry Nguyen, a reporter for The Goods at Vox, joins the pod to discuss how it got so popular, what the environmental and ethical costs are of this form of fashion and what questions remain about how it managed to become so big.

MORNING MARKETS

Risk sentiment improves: Global equities, bond yields and oil rose on Tuesday as a bounce in China’s tech sector, positive U.S. vaccination news and easing worries about the U.S. tapering stimulus lifted sentiment ahead of a speech later this week by Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Just after 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.08 per cent. Germany’s DAX gained 0.37 per cent. France’s CAC 40 was down 0.21 per cent. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.46 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.87 per cent. New York futures were positive. The Canadian dollar was trading at 79.18 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

Vaccine mandates without teeth are just performative promises

“While the embrace of vaccine mandates is welcome, it should be greeted with some skepticism. We need to ask ourselves: When is a mandate not really a mandate? And when is it just performative gobbledygook?” - André Picard

Zambia’s unexpected election result marks a welcome change for Africa

“Mr. Hichilema’s victory also showed that African voters are finally able to eschew ethnicity preferences. In few other countries has a minority candidate triumphed over a representative of a majority constituency, with policy trumping identity.” - Robert Rotberg, founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s program on intrastate conflict

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Globe Craft Club: Learn how to knit a scarf before the cold arrives with Tarra McCannell

Join expert knitter Tarra McCannell – who has had 30 years of practice and has knitted hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces – for the final instalment of the Craft Club on Aug. 31. Tarra will be teaching the club how to knit a basic striped scarf, just in time for sweater weather.

MOMENT IN TIME: Aug. 24, 1772

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Parmentier’s potato treatise wins Besançon contest

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier had a vision for solving food shortages at a time when France needed just such a hero. In the early 18th century, the French shunned the potato as, at best, peasant food and, at worst, a cause of leprosy. But Parmentier, a pharmacist from Montdidier, had spent much of the Seven Years’ War as a POW in Prussia thriving on a diet of mostly potatoes. So when the Besançon academic society held a contest, asking for studies of alternative foods in case of famine, Parmentier submitted a treatise praising the potato as a nutritious, versatile and hardy crop – and won. That same year, France decriminalized the potato. Parmentier followed up with years of research and publicity stunts. He held dinners for high society where spuds featured in every course. He also got King Louis XVI on board and grew potatoes on royal lands. Legend has it that guards were posted during the day to make the harvest seem valuable, but they abandoned their posts at night so thieves would give the tuber a try. Ultimately, Parmentier was proved correct: Potatoes helped the previously grain-dependent French withstand famines better. Today, Parmentier’s Paris grave is surrounded by potato plants. Joy Yokoyama

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