Latest news with #northeast
CBC
12 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
Hundreds of Indigenous students to lose dedicated educational assistants under changes to Jordan's Principle
Social Sharing School boards say hundreds of educational assistants dedicated to Indigenous students in schools across the northeast are facing lay-offs next year triggered by recent funding changes that Indigenous Services Canada has made related to Jordan's Principle. Jordan's Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a Manitoba boy with multiple disabilities who died in hospital waiting for the province and Ottawa to decide who should pay for health supports that would allow him to go home. Following a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision, the federal government has provided some $10 billion in funding to ensure that First Nations children get equal access to public services. But concerned about reports of abuse of the funding, the Canadian government made sweeping changes including a review of its policies and procedures starting last February. "This will ensure more consistent and clearer policies and communications about the services First Nations children can access through Jordan's Principle and the required documentation to access those services and supports," it said in a bulletin. Now those changes are trickling down and being felt by families applying for dedicated educational assistants for Indigenous students in northern Ontario with special needs. Some 74 educational assistants may be laid off at the Huron Superior Catholic School Board, based in Sault Ste. Marie. Director of Education Fil Lettieri said that Indigenous Services Canada had informed schools across the country of a change in funding criteria for Jordan's principal applications as of April 1. "The criteria now is that it is no longer intended as an enhancement in support for students, but rather to to address unmet needs," he said. "And so in subsequent conversations with Indigenous Services Canada, they had indicated that school boards do receive provincial funding for special education and therefore unmet needs should be funded through that envelope, which they are, and which has always been our practice as a school board." Lettieri said some families of Indigenous students had applied for dedicated educational assistants through Jordan's Principle to "enhance" existing services. He said he's seen the number of applications for Jordan's Principle-funded educational assistants grow over the last few years from 22, to 74 this year, primarily due to more awareness among families seeking support. Lettieri said he feels for the families who are accustomed to the one-on-one help for their children, but is working with them to determine how best to provide board supports, which may be shared with other students. The union representing educational assistants at the board said the loss of 74 positions will be devastating to students. Crystal Krauter-Maki, the president of CUPE 4148, says this is another case in which Indigenous children are caught in the crossfire between levels of government, and this will worsen the understaffing crisis in schools across Ontario. Nogdawindamin Family and Community Services— the Indigenous child welfare agency for Sault Ste. Marie and the north shore of Lake Huron— says it's trying to help the families. "We are actively working to understand the full implications of these changes and to support families in navigating the updated application process," spokesperson Jonathan Boyer-Nolan said in a statement. "Our priority remains ensuring that Indigenous children receive the services they need to thrive, and we will continue to advocate for policies that uphold the principles of equity and fairness. While applications have always been made by the families on a year-to-year basis, Indigenous Services Canada says existing or previously-approved requests are not guaranteed to be renewed or approved. Melanie Gray, the superintendent of teaching and learning with the Near North District Board,said they've had "lots of conversations" with the federal government trying to understand some of the new requirements for Jordan's Principle funding. But she said a handful of students in their board, which covers the Nipissing and Parry Sound districts, are affected. The Rainbow District School Board, which runs English public schools in Sudbury area, said they had 80 Jordan's Principle-funded educational assistants, while the Sudbury Catholic District School Board has 18. Perhaps the biggest impact will be felt in the English public school board stretching from Hearst to Temagami, including Timmins and Temiskaming Shores. District School Board Ontario North East said there are almost 200 Jordan's Principle-funded educational assistants in their schools. "We are working hard to minimize the impact to students and families and maintain the positive momentum of achievement for students who self-identify as Indigenous," spokesperson Andreanne Denis said in a statement. "We are looking to allocate some additional educational assistants during the 2025-2026 to ease the transition of the reduction of this support from the federal government." As for Indigenous Service Canada, it says the changes are being made to help the long-term sustainability of Jordan's Principle. "Funding for school-related requests will only be approved if the requests can be clearly linked to the specific health, social or educational need of the First Nation child or if it is required as per the principle of substantive equality," reads a statement provided to CBC News. "Requests for First Nations children, whether on reserve or off reserve, can continue to be made to Jordan's Principle. Each request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on the needs of the children involved with the request."
The Independent
16 hours ago
- Climate
- The Independent
3 Indian Army troopers die in a landslide following torrential rains in the northeast
Three Indian Army troopers died and six others, including an officer and his family, were missing after a massive landslide hit a forward military post in northeastern India's Sikkim state along the border with China, a statement from local defense authorities said on Monday. The incident happened Sunday night after a 'catastrophic landslide,' triggered by heavy rainfall, struck the army camp at Chaten in north Sikkim, around 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the state capital, Gangtok, the statement said. The army is working round the clock to locate the six missing persons, including the commanding officer of the post, his wife, and daughter, the statement said. The death toll in the devastating rain-triggered floods and mudslides in northeastern India in the past four days has gone up to 36, with the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam recording 10 deaths each. Thousands of people whose homes were submerged in Assam and elsewhere are lodged in government-run relief camps, officials said. In Mizoram state, mudslides led to the blockage of 212 roads, according to an official bulletin.
CTV News
5 days ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Three active forest fires in the northeast region
There were four new fires confirmed in the northeast region earlier this week, Ontario Forest Fires said in its daily update, with three of them still burning. There were four new fires confirmed in the northeast region earlier this week, Ontario Forest Fires said in its daily update, with three of them still burning. Cochrane 2 is an eight-hectare fire located approximately 5 km northwest of the Attawapiskat Airport. This fire is not under control. Chapleau 5 is 0.4 hectares and is being held. This fire is located one kilometre east of the north end of Missisagi River Provincial Park. Chapleau 6 is now out. It was an 0.1-hectare fire located one kilometre north of Shiners Lake. Timmins 4 is 0.3 hectares in size and is under control. The fire is approximately one kilometre east of Kasasway Lake. No new wildland fires were confirmed in the region Wednesday evening. That means there are three active wildland fires in the area. One is being held, one is under control and one is not under control. 'The fire hazard is high across most of the northeast region with pockets of extreme hazard near Sudbury, Kirkland Lake, Cochrane and across the far north along the Hudson Bay to the Manitoba border,' the update said. For a closer look at fire hazard conditions in the area, check out the interactive forest fire map. To report a wildland fire located north of the French and Mattawa rivers, dial 310-FIRE. To report a wildland fire located south of the French or Mattawa Rivers, dial 911. For more information about the current wildland fire situation, click here.
CBS News
6 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
The threats wildfires pose to Minnesota's 10,000 lakes
WCCO has been reporting for weeks about the impacts of the northeastern Minnesota wildfires on the ground and in the air, but new research shows it could also impact the state's waterways. "All this is a major disturbance in the watershed that's likely to have a huge impact on overall water quality in these lakes," says Dr. Christopher Filstrup, a lake scientist with the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute. "You're seeing increased erosion in these watersheds, so you're having more sediment soils coming into the lake, so there's more particles, but also there's more organic matter." Filstrup's research found more fires lead to murkier water, and more questions. "How long are they visible within these lakes, and more importantly, kind of are there lakes that are more sensitive to these changes or more resistant to them so we can kind of have a better idea of how we should be managing these watersheds post wildfires," he said. Lake clarity and quality are not the only things coming into question. Scientists are also studying how it could hurt fish. WCCO "The bacteria in the bottom of the lake go ahead and eat that increased organic matter, and during that process they can also methylate mercury, so converting it from the total form to kind of the toxic form, and does bioaccumulate in fish," he said. The potential increase in mercury in fish is still being studied, but human-influenced climate change is sparking more fires, and more burning questions. "These are kind of just some of the first findings coming out in the Midwest about these impacts," he said. Hoping for answers, and then searching for solutions. "How do we adapt to these changes? You know, are there different watershed management approaches that we can think about post fire to kind of lessen the impacts of wildfires?" he said. There are some solutions to the problem, like planting new vegetation near shorelines after a fire to reduce erosion and stabilize the soil.
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
French Lamarckism beats Darwinism in China's groundbreaking study on evolution
In a fundamental challenge to more than a century of Darwinian dominance, Chinese scientists have revived a long-dismissed evolutionary theory by proving that acquired traits can shape heredity – no DNA changes required. According to a landmark study published in the esteemed scientific journal Cell, rice plants subjected to cold stress passed on an adaptive tolerance to low temperatures across five generations, bypassing the genetic mutations that are central to Darwinism. The breakthrough reignites the 19th-century rivalry between French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck – whose 'giraffe theory' proposed that organisms can pass on learned survival traits – and Charles Darwin's ideas about random genetic variation. The research not only mirrored Lamarck's famed giraffe-neck parable, by pinpointing heritable DNA methylation changes as the driver of cold adaptation in crops, it also challenges modern biology to reconcile epigenetics with evolution's core principles. The team, led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences , showed that rice varieties from China's frosty northeast exhibited these stable, non-genetic adaptations – positioning Lamarckism as a potent, if partial, force in evolution's playbook. 'We demonstrate that environmentally induced epigenetic variation contributes to the inheritance of an acquired characteristic,' the team said, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed life sciences journal on May 22.
