More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A group of second graders in Manitoba have come up with a special tribute to the children who died in Canada’s residential school system, penning a poem after their teacher taught them about what happened at these schools.
At Oak Bank Elementary in Oakbank, Man., a class of seven-year-old children wanted to do something after they heard about how thousands of Indigenous children, many of whom would’ve been no older than them, were forced into residential schools.
In response, they put together a poem, illustrated and written by the students, in honour of the 215 children who are believed to have been found in unmarked graves near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. last month.
“Gone but never Forgotten,” is the title of the poem. A video posted to YouTube also features the children reading their poem aloud.
“The wind howls in mourning for the children,” part of the poem reads. “The children were buried but the Earth cradled them until they were thankfully found.”
Teacher Tina Latrofa said she wanted to educate her students about a part of our history that prior generations never learned. She showed them pictures of residential schools and talked about how the students stayed there for months or years.
“Their main words are: ‘How could they do that? How could they take the children away from their parents?’” Latrofa said. “And that’s how they can relate to it.”
In class discussions the students talked and their teacher helped them put their feelings into words and drawings to create the poem.
“The words took me, took my heart away, I was so blown away,” Tina Latrofa said.
“When I heard about those 215 kids, I just felt so heartbroken,” Kara Brinkman, a second-grade student who contributed to the poem, told CTV News. “I just felt like I wanted to do something to make everyone notice that.”
It’s led to a new understanding and feeling of empathy among the students.
“I want people to not forget it, and I also don’t want it to happen again,” said Elayna Telford, another student.
Her classmate, Hunter Van Rysell, added that it makes them think of “how lucky we are to have parents to go back to every single day when those children [could] not.”
School curriculums often don’t teach younger children about residential schools, and when the topic does come up in later grades, it has often been glossed over.
Recently, school boards such as the Calgary Board of Education and the Toronto District School Board have pledged to improve curriculums and further Indigenous education in the classroom, as was called for in the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s report.
--
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
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.