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Hundreds of protestors have taken to Sydney streets to demand justice of the death of an Indigenous man who died while being restrained in an Alice Springs supermarket.
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Hamilton Spectator
37 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
South River soprano receives national award
Emma Pennell's talent is gaining national attention. The soprano singer from South River has been named the 2025 recipient of the RBC Emerging Artist National Award, presented in partnership with the National Arts Centre. Pennell will receive the award at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Show on June 14 in Ottawa. Pennell emphasized in release, 'For many emerging artists, especially those from underrepresented communities, awards like this can be the difference between possibility and reality.' 'They help launch careers, yes, but they also signal to the world that these voices matter,' Pennell added. Pennell's family tree has its roots with the Mi'kmaw of Ktaqmkuk, the Indigenous peoples of Newfoundland. Raised in South River, Pennell discovered opera through the home's battery powered radio. Once enrolled in Cambrian College's music program in Sudbury, Pennell had the opportunity to hear live opera for the first time, during a student talent showcase. That moment changed Pennell's life. 'I showed up thinking someone's going to hand me a guitar and we're going to do some four-chord song jams,' said Pennell. 'But no. They do a student showcase, and my now-dear friend gets up and sings an opera aria. I'd never heard someone sing like that and it blew me away. You can't hide in the opera; you take up space which deeply resonated with me. That day, it was like a lightbulb went off.' At Cambrian, Pennell began formal vocal training and quickly made an impression. Pennell then went to Western University to complete her music degree while minoring in Indigenous studies. After Western, Pennell studies at The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Pennell has performed at the Banff Centre, is currently workshopping Indians on Vacation with the Indigenous-led collective EQ and is preparing for a featured performance with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The RBC Emerging Artist Award will come with a $25,000 prize to support their career development. 'This RBC Emerging Artist Award will have a transformative impact on my career,' Pennell said. 'This will help fund audition travel, vocal coaching, help refining my craft, and other essential professional development as I transition from a young artist into a full-time professional.' Pennell added, 'It will also support the creation of future projects that centre Indigenous narratives in opera, ensuring that my work remains rooted in community as it grows in scale and ambition.' David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Calgary Herald
an hour ago
- Calgary Herald
Hundreds gather in Calgary as United Church of Canada celebrates 100th anniversary
More than 400 people packed the pews at Knox United Church on Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the United Church of Canada, a milestone that drew together members and non-members from across southern Alberta for an afternoon of music, prayer and community. Article content The main floor of the historic downtown church was nearly full before the 2 p.m. start time, with organizers directing attendees to the balcony to accommodate the crowd. Article content Article content Article content 'It's an excellent turnout,' said Rev. Nancy Nourse, one of the event organizers. 'We have more than 20 United Churches present here today to either participate or to be part of the music.' Article content Article content The celebration featured prayer, a 'Hymns of the Century' sing-along and musical worship led by a seven-member praise band, accompanied by the Church's grand piano and organ. Article content Nourse said the event was open to all Calgarians, regardless of whether they identified as members of the church. Article content 'The United Church has always been an open door, radical welcome church,' she said. '(We) don't have any expectations except just come as you are. Everyone's welcome.' Article content She added that the centennial event was not just a celebration of the past, but an opportunity to reaffirm the church's values as it looks ahead. Article content Article content Article content Founded on June 10, 1925, through the union of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches, the United Church of Canada remains one of the country's largest Protestant denominations. The church, known for its progressive theology and social justice work, has long championed issues including LGBTQ2S+ inclusion, Indigenous reconciliation and gender equality. Article content 'We've always been a voice of welcome and full inclusion for everyone,' said Nourse, noting the United Church ordained its first woman in 1936 and its first openly gay minister in 1988. Article content 'We have always been voices of advocacy and social justice,' she added. 'We've had an impact on the fabric of Canada and the betterment of society, even when it's been more difficult.' Article content In 1986, the church formally apologized to Indigenous peoples for its role in colonization and harm caused through church-run residential schools. In 2016, the United Church marked the 30th anniversary of that apology, which marked a significant turning point in the church's relationship with Indigenous communities.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
From a Moose Jaw railway worker to a cafe owner to a suspected spy: this man's family never knew the truth
Social Sharing Robbi Kane still remembers visiting her father Philip Kane's high school in Washington State in the 1990s, and cracking open a yearbook to find his name. "All of a sudden, I'm looking through the yearbook and I see this guy that looks like my uncle and my dad, and it said 'Philip Nakane,'" said Kane. "I was just shocked." She wondered if 'Nakane' was an Indigenous name, as she knew her father came from Canada and had the dark hair and dark eyes that she inherited. Then she recalled the shape of her eyes, which once compelled her young daughter to ask, "Mommy, you have Asian eyes, don't you?" That was how, in her 40s, Kane discovered she was part Japanese and her last name was derived from Nakane. It was a discovery that set her on a path to learn more about her paternal grandfather — a Japanese man who settled in Saskatchewan, but whose family would end up distancing themselves from his radical actions and, at the same time, hiding their own Japanese heritage. From Japan to the prairies Naka Nakane was born in Kitsuki, Japan, in the 1870s to a former samurai family, before immigrating to Canada around 1903. He moved to Moose Jaw to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway and eventually married an English woman. The couple had five children there, including Kane's father, Philip, born in 1916. After becoming a naturalized Canadian, Nakane worked his way from manager of the CPR's lunchroom to the proprietor of his own restaurant and hotel. It wasn't always an easy road for him as an Asian business owner, as Saskatchewan — fearing "Oriental" monopolization and corruption — banned Asians from employing Caucasian females in 1912. That law was part of a series of Canadian labour laws that targeted people of Asian heritage. Linda Yip is a genealogist who's studied anti-Asian labour laws and the Chinese-Canadian experience in Western Canada. Newspapers from that time period made it clear that some white business owners were concerned about competition from non-white business owners, but she said concerns about interracial marriage were also at play. "Society at the time was very concerned about Asian men and white women; they wanted to keep these two groups apart to keep any relationships from developing." She said some would end up leaving Saskatchewan and Canada for America, which did not have policies as controlling over Asian peoples at the time. Nakane left as well. After successfully lobbying to exempt Japanese employers from Saskatchewan's "White Women's Labour Law," he decided to take his business skills and activism to America, relocating with his wife and children in 1921 to Tacoma, Wash. For about five years in the 1920s, the family thrived in Tacoma with Nakane working at a life insurance company. Then suddenly, around 1926, Nakane vanished, leaving five children without a father and his family with massive debt reportedly accrued by gambling and embezzlement. His wife Anne had to find work as a hotel maid. Kane's father Philip would have been about 10 when his father left. He never saw him again. His children would agree to keep their Japanese father a secret. "There was a pact between the kids to never tell anybody," Kane said. "Nobody knew." Uncovering the truth The internet was still in its infancy when Kane first learned the truth about her heritage and began to search about her renegade Japanese grandpa. She managed to find some information, which other researchers helped her piece together. After disappearing for several years, Nakane emerged more than 3,000 kilometres away in Detroit, Mich., as a "retired Japanese Army major" named Satokata Takahashi. He preached for dark-skinned empowerment using what he described as the strongest "coloured" nation of Japan as a guide. Nakane capitalized on Japan's rising power to promise people of colour, notably African Americans in Detroit, that if they joined forces with Japan, they would rise above white oppression. He would gain roughly 10,000 supporters of colour before getting deported to Japan in 1934. Still, he found his way back to his adopted home, Canada, to continue campaigning for "Japan's divine mission" of non-white liberation. In 1939, Nakane illegally re-entered America and was sentenced to three years in prison. While he was serving his time, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing America into the Second World War and Japanese Americans under fire. Though due for release in February 1942, Nakane was intercepted by the FBI and held as an "enemy alien." He would go on to be interned along with 140,000 other people of Japanese descent living in North America, and was not released until a year after the war ended and seven years after his original sentencing. Nakane denied being a Japanese spy, but his mysterious post-Tacoma and pre-Detroit years, frequent travel, exorbitant wealth, Japanese Army title and government contacts — as well as his connections to an ultra-nationalist Japanese espionage group — did not support his claim. The U.S. government concluded he was "beyond doubt a Japanese agent." A wife's sacrifices Nakane's wife, Anne, evidently kept her husband's activities from their kids. She filed for divorce, claimed to be a widow, left Washington for California, and anglicized 'Nakane' as 'Kane' so that the family could live as white Americans and escape internment. Kane still doesn't feel like she knows Nakane. When he died in Detroit on March 2, 1954, she was a California preschooler unaware of his existence. Unable to judge him as a grandfather or on the basis of his activities as Maj. Takahashi, she can judge him only by his children. "I could tell from him that he'd been carrying [this trauma]," she said of her father, whose own father had left him and who'd spent years, along with his siblings, hiding his Japanese roots. "He was an angry person, and now I was finally getting an idea where this anger came from." "I realized how much shame they all had." Kane's father never wanted her to dig into their family history, getting angry when she would raise the topic. But now, having learned more about his upbringing, she said she has a little more compassion and understanding of his emotional tumult. "I thought he was just angry, but I see how much fear he had now, you know … he was fearful of his life," she said. Yip said for her part, she's not surprised that some families have only discovered their Asian roots in more recent years. Their Asian ancestors wanted to free themselves from discrimination and be treated like everyone else around them, she said, adding that this is understandable to her. "If our ancestors desperately wanted to assimilate and forget the past, who could blame them?" The hotel and restaurant Nakane ran no longer exist in Moose Jaw. But he and his wife left one part of their family history in this province, having buried one child there. An unmarked grave of Eric Masuni Nakane is all that remains of a singular figure and his singular time in a singular Saskatchewan city.
