Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 21, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THRIVE M A N I T O B A GROWING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY TO BUILD A STRONG MANITOBA In partnership with We Heart Winnipeg and a local teen artist, the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation has created a special limited-edition clothing line. Georgia’s personality and imagination flourishes through her art. Last summer, this aspiring creative talent attended a camp offered by the Rehabilitation Centre for Children. Her artistic abilities captured the attention of fellow campers and staff. It was evident her passion provided an outlet for comfort, stability and belonging. The Foundation was inspired by Georgia and asked her to design what it means to her to BELONG. The artwork elements represent her journey and unique perspective. When she was diagnosed with autism, she was told everyone is a star in their own way. The moon symbolizes change and light that brightens the dark. And the Manitoba flowers reflect caring, resilience and growth. Georgia is amazing and we are honoured to highlight her incredible talent within our province. You don’t want to miss out! A portion of the proceeds from each item will go to the Foundation to invest into camp for youth living with disabilities. Visit ibelongmb.ca before March 29 to purchase clothing as part of this pre-sale opportunity. Donors support vital adapted programs offered by the Rehabilitation Centre for Children which provide a wide range of recreational and social opportunities for youth with disabilities. The Leisure in Fun Environments (L.I.F.E.) Program is funded by generous gifts to the Foundation and includes camp experiences, art and music therapy, cooking clubs, parent free social activities and sport development. The L.I.F.E. Program is incredibly beneficial, helping teach valuable life skills and offering meaningful engagement with peers. The annual cost of this donor-funded program is nearly $400,000. DID YOU KNOW? We’re in this together. By ordering clothing that features Georgia’s design, you are supporting a very important objective ... inclusion. To learn more about how you can be a part of enhancing young lives, visit ibelongmb. ca or call the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation at (204) 258-6700. We would love to connect with you. Diverse. Inclusive. Manitoba. I belong. Meet Georgia – the artist behind the design! WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● B3 NEWS I CANADA THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024 Liberals introduce legislation updating Elections Act O TTAWA — The Liberal govern- ment has tabled legislation that updates the federal Elections Act as part of its political pact with the NDP. The minister responsible for democratic institutions, Dominic Le- Blanc, said the changes “will enhance Canadians’ ability to exercise their vote while strengthening protections against foreign interference in our elections.” The bill, if passed, would add two more days of advance voting, make a campus voting program permanent and “take steps toward” allowing voters to cast their ballots at any polling station in their riding. It also proposes to add dedicated on- site voting for people who live in long- term care homes and improve the pro- cess for mail-in voting. LeBlanc, who is also public safety minister, pointed out that the amend- ments come out of a collaboration with New Democrats. MP Daniel Blaikie negotiated the bill for the NDP. He appeared alongside LeBlanc for what he said would likely be his last media availability on Parlia- ment Hill before his resignation at the end of the month. He is headed for a job with Manitoba’s premier. “There are often Canadians who are struggling to balance the obligations of work and family in a day as well as get to polling stations in order to be able to vote,” Blaikie said. “And that’s why we felt it was very important to try and expand access and have more days upon which Canadians could vote.” The bill includes a study to expand federal elections to a three-day voting period rather than a single election day. That falls short of the Liberal-NDP agreement, which promised that the parties would work together to make that a reality. LeBlanc said the intention was to have elections fall on a Saturday, Sun- day and Monday, as well as for people to be able to vote from any polling place in their riding right away. But Elections Canada “identified some reasonable concerns,” including the challenge of finding “suitable loca- tions” for polling places over a three- day period. “Elections Canada came to us with some thoughtful operational challen- ges,” said LeBlanc. “We think that they need to be man- dated by Parliament to come back with a precise timeline of how we can get to that. We thought it was a very reason- able objective.” Under the agreement, the New Democrats are supporting the min- ority Liberals on key House of Com- mons votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities. The two-year anniversary of the deal, known as a confidence-and-supply agreement, is later this week. Federal law requires that the next election be held no later than October 2025. LeBlanc said the intention is for par- liamentarians to “ensure that this legis- lation can be in place as quickly as pos- sible” so updates are ready by then. — The Canadian Press Quebec newspaper apologizes for publishing cartoon denounced as antisemitic MONTREAL — Quebec newspaper La Presse has apologized for publishing a cartoon Wednesday that depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Net- anyahu as the vampire from the film Nosferatu after criticism that the cari- cature used antisemitic imagery. The image published online por- trayed Netanyahu with pointed ears and long sharp fingers, evoking a se- quence in the 1922 silent film in which the vampire Count Orlok hides away on a ship in pursuit of his human prey. A text overlay identified the carica- ture as Nosfenyahou on his way to the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which Netanyahu this week said would be targeted by a ground invasion, despite international appeals against the as- sault. La Presse removed the cartoon from its website Wednesday morning. Many commentators and politicians denounced the image as an expression of antisemitic tropes, with some not- ing the German film’s echoes in Nazi propaganda and ties to historical depic- tions of Jewish people as vampires. In a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, the embassy of Israel in Can- ada said “shame on (La Presse) for posting this vile caricature.” The Cen- tre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wrote on X that criticism of Netanyahu is pos- sible “without stooping to using anti- semitic tropes such as hooked fingers or a big nose.” The centre said the drawing “contrib- utes to the normalization of antisemit- ism that has been affecting our com- munity for months.” La Presse chief editorialist Stéphanie Grammond apologized in a statement posted online Wednesday afternoon, saying it was never the paper’s inten- tion to promote harmful stereotypes. “The drawing was meant to be a criticism of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies,” Grammond wrote. “It was aimed at the Israeli government, not the Jewish people.” The representation of the Israeli prime minister as the “Nosferatu” vam- pire was “unfortunate,” she said, given the embrace of the figure by the Nazi regime. The film even served as inspiration to the publisher of Der Sturmer, a Nazi newspaper that pushed antisemitic im- agery before the Second World War, according to Deidre Butler, a Carleton University professor and director of its Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies. The image of the blood-sucking, barbaric vampire has long resonated with antisemitic ideologists, Butler explained in an email. The physical characteristics of the vampire in “Nos- feratu,” in particular, could have been read as Jewish stereotypes to audiences in 1922, she said. “This is a powerfully antisemitic image,” wrote Butler, who teaches a course that examines depictions of Jews as monsters. “Even if you’ve never seen Nosferatu, Nosferatu informs an entire genre of vampire movies that reverberate with antisemitic tropes.” The cartoon by award-winning edi- torial cartoonist Serge Chapleau also drew condemnation from politicians in Ottawa, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called it unaccept- able. “It is distasteful and exactly the wrong thing to do, particularly in these times,” he told reporters. Mental Health and Addictions Min- ister Ya’ara Saks said that to see “anti- semitic tropes used in a national publi- cation like this is just egregious.” Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre called the caricature “dis- gusting” and “vile” in a post on X. In remarks on the Senate floor, Con- servative Senator Leo Housakos ac- cused La Presse of “following in (the) footsteps” of Der Sturmer. “The fact that this antisemitic trope was pub- lished in the first place reveals either gross ignorance or blatant antisemit- ism within the ranks of media in this country,” Housakos said. — The Canadian Press THOMAS MACDONALD ;