'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Brazil is preparing a task force of armed forces, police and government agencies to soon launch an operation to expel illegal gold miners who invaded the Yanomami Indigenous reservation, officials said on Tuesday.
More than 20,000 wildcat miners are blamed for bringing disease, violence and hunger that have caused a humanitarian crisis for isolated Yanomami villages on Brazil's largest Indigenous reservation, on the border with Venezuela.
Defence Minister Jose Mucio said the military is needed to drive out the miners, who are well-armed and have helicopters.
"We will soon confront them. We need to root out this evil," Mucio said in an interview with Band TV about the operation that the government has called "Yanomami Shield."
With army troops on the ground, the navy will patrol rivers and confiscate miners' boats and dredges while the air force will control the airspace, intercept suspicious planes and force them to land, he said.
Joenia Wapichana, who in a few days will become the first Indigenous person to head the government's Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to end illegal mining on protected reservation lands.
Wapichana said she could not give details of the imminent operation in order to not alert the miners who have invaded the Yanomami territory.
"The message from President Lula is that it will happen soon and cannot delay long," she told journalists on the Amazon-based journalism platform Sumaúma in a webinar co-hosted by environmental NGO Mighty Earth.
Wapichana said the task force, as in past offensives against illegal miners on Indigenous lands, will involve the Federal Police, environmental protection agency Ibama, Funai and several ministries, as well as the military.
Half of the 100 tonnes of gold produced each year by Brazil, or about 52 tonnes, is illegally mined, and much of that is exported to Switzerland after it is laundered through Brazilian financial brokers, the mining industry lobby Ibram said.
The miners have polluted waters with mercury used to separate metal from ore and earth. They fly supply planes to clandestine airstrips in the jungle and use the rivers to take heavier machinery and fuel to their prospects, which are muddy ponds where they dredge for gold in forest clearings.
Medical studies show that the mercury used by the miners has killed the fish and contaminated the water that the Yanomami rely on.
The miners are increasingly associated with well-armed gangs that have terrorized Indigenous communities that for the first time cannot feed themselves, resulting in widespread malnutrition and deaths among the 28,000 Yanomami.
Lula last week declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory. On Monday, in a first step of operation Yanomami Shield, his government ordered a no-fly airspace over the reservation and steps to block river traffic heading to gold prospects.
Lula's right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, advocated mining on protected Indigenous lands, and his government turned a blind eye to invasions of Indigenous reservations by wildcat miners and illegal loggers.
"We are in a new era," Wapichana said. Those responsible for the humanitarian crisis the Yanomami are suffering will be punished for negligence, she said, and perhaps for committing genocide.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.