Morning Update: Children of White Helmet evacuees face deteriorating health

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Three years after Canada promised to find permanent homes within three months for hundreds of rescue workers evacuated from the Syria civil war, dozens remain stuck in a Middle East refugee camp where they are showing signs of “deterioration of physical and mental health … in particular the children,” according to federal officials.

Newly released documents about the Canadian-led July 2019 evacuation of the famed White Helmets rescue group shed new light on a saga where bureaucratic paralysis in Ottawa has left 43 people – including 28 children, eight of whom are under the age of three – stranded in Jordan despite the fact that “Canada has made political and moral commitments” to the group.

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Church officials improperly redirected funds meant for residential-school survivors: court documents

The allegations are contained in a federal factum from several years ago, one of several court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The 2014 court case began as a dispute over funds the federal government said were owed by Catholic organizations under the residential-schools settlement.

Part of the court file obtained by The Globe reveals disputes over accounting practices, legal fees, interest payments and shortfalls in Catholic funding meant for Indigenous healing programs. The disclosures come after the recent discoveries of more than 1,200 unmarked graves near several former residential-school sites.

For the Catholic Church, restitution included a $29-million cash payment, 80 per cent of which was to go to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation; $25-million of in-kind services provided by the church; and an additional $25-million in a “best efforts” national fundraising campaign.

More coverage to come.

From our Daily Olympic guide: Returning Simone Biles wins bronze, Canada’s Ellie Black places fourth in balance beam final

Subscribe to our Olympics newsletter: Tokyo Olympics Update features original stories from Globe reporters in Canada and Tokyo, will track Team Canada’s medal wins, and looks at past Olympic moments from iconic performances.

Living in the hot spot: The Globe visited the B.C. Interior as fires continue and more heat is forecast

In June, the B.C. Interior logged temperatures never seen in Canada, topping out at 50 C in the tiny town of Lytton, in the Fraser Canyon. The next day, a fire burned Lytton to the ground, leaving two dead.

These events reminded us that our dominion over fire and climate might be slipping, that an emergency is now upon us. Some 32,000 British Columbians are under evacuation alert, with no relief in sight. Most of the province has gone six weeks without rain. On top of that, dry lightning storms – responsible for some 60 per cent of this year’s fires – are pummelling the province. Fire-alert warning signs are all stuck at the bright-red edge of the semi-circle – “SEVERE” – and the B.C. Wildfire Service is warning that the risk of fire is at its highest in decades. This is what residents say about life in wildfire country, and why they are scared for the future.

Also read:

• First Nations want a bigger say in how wildfires are managed
• As wildfires blaze up north, Indigenous leaders call on Ontario to expand supports for evacuees

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Unvaccinated Canada: The Globe takes a look at who’s been left behind, and why they aren’t getting their COVID-19 shots.

Star guard Kyle Lowry says goodbye to Raptors: Toronto’s now former point guard Kyle Lowry is headed to the Miami Heat.

Capturing carbon’s potential: Here are five emerging Canadian companies with carbon-utilization technologies that could be on the verge of major market breakthroughs.

Taiwan’s standoff with China: More fighter jets and fishing fleets from the mainland have been intruding into the skies and seas around Taiwan, renewing decades-old fears that “unification” by force is just around the corner.

Drug crisis and the pandemic leaves front-line workers struggling to cope: As COVID-19 numbers drop, another of the country’s health crises quietly rages on, killing thousands of people every year. Workers are still responding to thousands of overdoses and dealing with many deaths.

MORNING MARKETS

Bonds take a breather, as Tencent takes a hit: The government bond market rally that had sent U.S. Treasury yields under 1.2% and the entire German curve negative fizzled out on Tuesday, though there were more problems in China as internet giant Tencent took another battering. A Chinese state media outlet branding online games “spiritual opium” was enough to send Tencent tumbling as much as 10% in Asia, hot on the heels of its worst month in nearly a decade. The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, lurked just off one-month lows after disappointing economic data on Monday. It had also pushed the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield as low as 1.151%, its lowest since July 20.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

We all have a role to play in rooting out Islamophobia

“Unfortunately, we are witnessing the emergence of a traumatized generation of Canadian children due to Islamophobia, exacerbated by the targeted killings of Muslims in Quebec City, Etobicoke and London.” – Sheema Khan

The climate refugees are coming. Countries and international law aren’t ready for them

“But even if we have failed utterly in our obligation to prevent or even simply mitigate this reality, we are still at least obligated to consider its most immediate consequence – the millions upon millions of people who will be forced from their homes in the coming decades by this cataclysmic new ordering of the world.” – Omar El Akkad

My brain on ketamine: In a struggle with depression, a new drug gives me hope, and more questions

“And there’s a massive need. I guarantee you know someone, whether you know it or not, who is struggling with mental illness and for whom existing treatments aren’t sufficient.” - Anna Mehler Paperny

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

Companies rethink office space as return to in-person work draws nearer

When Cisco Systems Inc.’s executive vice-president Fran Katsoudas learned that only 23 per cent of her employees want to work in-person full time, the company knew that the time they did come in would have to be more purposeful in promoting collaboration.

Now, after working from home since the start of the pandemic, a previously quiet, independent workstyle has offices looking to design a physical space to allow for a more flexible work flow. They’ll also need to be intentional in their design to avoid disadvantaging those who choose to continue working remotely. Read about these ideas and others, that will be coming to life in offices.

Listen to The Decibel: Would a four-day work week solve our work-life struggles?

Economist Armine Yalnizyan discusses the concept of the four-day work week and asks who exactly would benefit from it, especially as the gig economy grows in Canada

MOMENT IN TIME: Aug. 3, 1871

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First of 11 treaties signed between the Canadian government and First Nations

On this day in 1871, the first of 11 numbered treaties between Canada and the First Nations was signed in Lower Fort Garry in Manitoba, near Selkirk, between representatives of the Crown and five Anishinaabe and Swampy Cree nations – Brokenhead Ojibway, Long Plain, Peguis, Roseau River and Sagkeeng. Two additional signatories – Sandy Bay and Swan Lake First Nations – signed adhesions to the treaty five years later in 1876. “As long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.” The line often represents what the First Nations believed when they negotiated and signed treaties with Canada and its provinces, a nation-to-nation partnership that formed a new country, carrying written and verbal promises of a prosperous and beneficial future for all treaty partners and signatories. A century and a half later, the province plans to raise the Treaty No. 1 flag outside its legislature to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing, as the current government faces criticism from First Nations leaders for failing its reconciliation efforts and not honouring its treaties. Willow Fiddler

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