Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Chelsee Pettit spent much of the summer collaborating with designers to create and manufacture apparel reflective of the Indigenous values she hoped would be on people's minds when Canada marks its second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
But in the days leading up to Sept. 30, she noticed many companies had not had the same forethought and were scrambling to place bulk orders with her store, Aaniin.
"It's just a little funny how last-minute other organizations that are all non-Indigenous are, and they're pushing that (work) back onto Indigenous people," said Pettit, an Anishinaabe woman.
"We're not like big box stores that just have disposable T-shirts and are at everybody's beck and call. Working with us ahead of time as opposed to just laying it on us a week before the day, I think would be super helpful."
Pettit has tried her best to accommodate last-minute orders, but she and other members of the Indigenous business community see the trend as a sign of how much more work corporate Canada has to do to turn support for Indigenous communities into a 365-day-a-year effort.
While many businesses encourage staff to don orange shirts -- a tradition started by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad in 2013 -- or to sell wares in the bright hue on Sept. 30, those efforts quickly fade. Companies often don't do much more to elevate Indigenous voices and causes.
"It is positive that we are seeing education happen and awareness-building happen, but it can be quite triggering and harmful for Indigenous Peoples who see it as one day of performative action and nothing throughout the rest of the year," said Tabatha Bull, president and chief executive of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB).
Bull and Pettit say if an employer is looking to make a mark on truth and reconciliation goals, they should also be doing that work all year round.
Those efforts should begin with educating staff about both long-standing and new traumas Indigenous Peoplesface and how to support those affected.
Pettit recallsbeing at work in 2021, when the remains of 215 children were found at a former residential school site in British Columbia.
"My boss at the time was like, 'Oh, well, everybody knew about that already' and just like kind of brushed it off, but I was feeling very emotional that day for obvious reasons, so there's tons of work that has to be done," she said.
That's borne out in studies too.
A 2021 report from equity organization Catalyst Canada found about 52 per cent of the 86 Indigenous respondents surveyed are "on guard" at work and about 60 per cent feel psychologically unsafe on the job.
The study was based on a survey of 820 Canadian workers from various under-represented groups, but Catalyst isolated results from Indigenous respondents for this report because their need to feel on guard was so significant.
Krystal Abotossaway, president of the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada, said she has seen more companies move toward reflecting on what they can do to improve their corporate culture and support Indigenous communities in recent years.
Land acknowledgments, which note which Indigenous Peoples lived and took care of a site events are being held on, are an increasingly common and good start, she said.
Bull counts at least 200 companies, including Bank of Montreal, Uber, Walmart and Rogers, as members of the CCAB's Progressive Aboriginal Relation program -- an initiative helping them build cultural awareness and make progress on reconciliation plans.
Others have yet to take on such work. Bull thinks they're slower to act because they feel overwhelmed and afraid of having difficult conversations.
"Some corporations are just not even knowing what the right question is to ask," she said. "I think we need to move beyond that, if we're going to really progress as a country."
Abotossaway said they can start by marking other Indigenous days and use them as an opportunity to educate.
Among those she suggested are Red Dress Day, which commemorates the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and International Inuit Day, National Indigenous Peoples Day and Louis Riel Day, which celebrates the life of the late Metis leader.
The efforts shouldn't stop there, she added. Companies should reflect on how their governance structures, hiring policies, talent pipelines and workforce education programs align with Indigenous needs, she said.
"We've seen a lot of learning and development content come out, but that's usually just one course and it might be just an hour long," she said.
"Is it mandatory or is it not mandatory? And then how many of your employees or workforce are participating in it?"
Abotossaway and Bull agree any corporate actions on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or other days should involve Indigenous Peoples at every step -- even if the action is selling orange apparel.
Bull said, "If you're going to create an orange shirt, ensure that you're working with an Indigenous artist, ensure that the Orange Shirt Society or an Indigenous organization benefits from that and you're not making a profit off of the orange shirt or Sept. 30."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2022.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.