Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba LONDON — Bloodied children ran screaming from a dance and yoga class “like a scene from a horror movie” to escape a teenager’s savage knife attack that killed two children and wounded 11 other people Monday in northwest England, police and wit- nesses said. A 17-year-old boy was arrested on sus- picion of murder and attempted murder in the stabbing in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool, Merseyside Police said. The motive was not clear but po- lice said detectives were not treating the attack as terror-related. Nine children were wounded — six of them in critical condition — in the latest headline-grabbing attack amid a recent rise in knife crime that has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons. Two wounded adults who tried to shield the pupils were in critical condi- tion, police said. “We believe the adults who were in- jured were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked,” Merseyside Police Chief Constable Se- rena Kennedy said. The Taylor Swift-themed workshop was held on the first week of school va- cation for children aged about 6 to 11. The two-hour session was led by two women — a yoga instructor and a dance instructor — according to an online list- ing. Witnesses described hearing blood-curdling screams and seeing children covered in blood emerging from the business that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops and medi- tation sessions to women’s bootcamps. “They were in the road, running from the nursery,” said Bare Varathan, who owns a shop nearby. “They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,” indicating the neck, back and chest. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrendous and deeply shocking.” King Charles sent his “con- dolences, prayers and deepest sympa- thies” for those affected by the “utterly horrific incident.” Police were called shortly before noon to a street where several small businesses are located behind rows of brick houses in the city of about 100,000. The first officers who arrived were shocked to find so many casualties from the “ferocious attack,” most of them children with serious injuries, Kennedy said. Colin Parry, an auto body shop owner, said most of the stabbing victims ap- peared to be young girls. “The mothers are coming here now and screaming,” Parry said. “It is like a scene from a horror movie. … It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.” The suspect, who has not been iden- tified, lived in a village about 8 kilo- metres from the site of the attack, police said. He was originally from Cardiff, Wales. Ryan Carney, who lives with his mother in the street, said his mother saw emergency workers carrying chil- dren “covered in red, covered in blood. She said she could see the stab wounds in the backs of the children.” “All this stuff never really happens around here,” he said. “You hear of it, stabbings and stuff like that in major cities, your Manchesters, your Lon- dons. This is sunny Southport. That’s what people call it. The sun’s out. It’s a lovely place to be.” Britain’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot 16 kindergarten pupils and their teacher dead in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The U.K. subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns. Mass shootings and killings with fire- arms are rare in Britain, where knives were used in about 40 per cent of homi- cides in the year to March 2023. — The Associated Press CALGARY — A report into a massive E. coli outbreak at Calgary child-care facilities that saw hundreds fall ill says it was likely tied to meat loaf at one meal but how it got there can’t be deter- mined for sure. The report, released Monday by Al- berta Health Services, says it’s not pos- sible to say if the bacteria came from a contaminated ingredient in the meat loaf or into the meat loaf from else- where on the menu or through an in- fected kitchen worker. The E. coli outbreak, declared on Sept. 4, 2023, led to at least 448 infec- tions. There were 38 children and one adult hospitalized for severe illness. Of the severe cases, 23 were diag- nosed with hemolytic uremic syn- drome, a condition that damages blood vessels and kidneys and can lead to life-threatening kidney failure. Eight received peritoneal dialysis, which is done to remove waste products from the blood when the kidneys are failing. Another 33 secondary cases have also been linked, including household contacts and children in other daycare facilities. There were no deaths. The outbreak was linked to Shiga tox- in-producing Escherichia coli, or STEC for short. “This is the largest gastrointestin- al outbreak in AHS history and likely one of the largest STEC outbreaks in- volving child-care facilities anywhere,” said the report. “The central kitchen served up to 1,275 attendees and 250 child-care facility workers during the period in question, in addition to exposures to kitchen staff and people in the com- munity who ate leftovers.” The eight-week outbreak was traced back to Fueling Minds, a catering com- pany and school lunch delivery service provider that prepared food for its Fueling Brains locations and other day- cares in Calgary. The report narrowed the E. coli down to a single meal served from the Fuel- ing Minds central kitchen on Aug. 29, 2023. “One meal originating from the cen- tral kitchen came out with extremely high odds as being the source of in- spection. The beef meat loaf served at lunch on Aug. 29, 2023, was the prob- able food item containing the E. coli,” said the report. “Workers who ate beef meat loaf were 23 times more likely to become a confirmed STEC case than workers who did not eat beef meat loaf.” E. coli is a type of bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea. Some strains cause more severe illness. Shiga tox- in-producing E. coli is different as it produces a toxin that can cause compli- cations. In response to the outbreak, the prov- ince launched a third-party review to determine how to prevent similar out- breaks in the future. That report, by the Food Safety and Licensed Facility-Based Child Care Re- view Panel and also released Monday, made 12 main recommendations to pro- tect the health and safety of children in licensed child-care facilities. The Alberta government said it has already started work on implementing some of the recommendations, in- cluding increasing the frequency of inspections at child-care facilities, mandatory training programs for food workers and improving response times in child-care facilities where food safe- ty concerns have been raised. Planning is also underway to require all licensed child-care providers to prominently post their most recent pub- lic health inspection reports for parents to review. “Last fall, families in Calgary experi- enced a living nightmare … an E. coli outbreak affecting 17 licensed child- care facilities around the city,” said Premier Danielle Smith. “When parents put their children in daycare they do so trusting that their kids will be cared for and kept safe. We know this outbreak has shaken that trust and as policymakers we must do whatever we can to ensure this doesn’t happen again.” Matt Jones, minister of jobs, econ- omy and trade, said the government will make sure that child-care oper- ators follow the new rules. “We are going to put in tools to hold people accountable and we’re going to increase transparency so the parents can see an operators’ track record,” Jones said. The Opposition NDP said the govern- ment needs to act faster in the future. “It took the UCP government a full week to show any form of public ac- countability as the E. coli outbreak in Calgary unfolded,” Diana Batten, the NDP child-care critic, said in a state- ment. “Every parent, at a bare minimum, should expect that a facility they are trusting with the care of their child will be safe and free of harm.” The Fueling Minds kitchen was closed after the outbreak and reopened in November under a different food provider. The daycare operator offered a brief statement after the announcement. “The health and safety of our kids and families is our top priority and we look forward to reviewing the report in detail,” it said. Fueling Minds and its directors has been charged by the City of Calgary with serving food to the child-care cen- tres without a licence. They have pleaded not guilty and face fines up to $120,000. A trial is set for September. — The Canadian Press B4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA / WORLD TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024 Internal federal public service report details racism in Privy Council Office ANJA KARADEGLIJA OTTAWA — An internal report from the federal public service released Monday says Black and racialized Privy Council Office employees experi- ence racism and discrimination in the workplace. “Black and racialized employees — through dozens of examples of racial stereotyping, microaggressions and verbal violence — described a work- place culture where such behaviour is regularly practised and normalized, including at the executive level,” the report says. The Coalition Against Workplace Discrimination obtained the report using the Access to Information Act. It details barriers for employees of colour at the Privy Council Office, the administrative arm of government that serves the Prime Minister’s Office and cabinet. The conclusions were based on group discussions and interviews with em- ployees in 2021 and 2022. It shows Black and racialized employ- ees described being passed over for opportunities given to white colleagues and cites the example of Black employ- ees who said they had to intervene with managers who used the N-word “com- fortably in their presence.” Meanwhile, managers expressed sur- prise that the N-word was a “greatly pejorative term for Black people,” the report states. The coalition said Monday that the government made an attempt to imple- ment recommendations in the report but hasn’t gone far enough to address the disturbing findings. Nicholas Marcus Thompson, presi- dent of the Black Class Action Secre- tariat, which leads the coalition, said at a press conference Monday many key recommendations from the report still haven’t been addressed. He noted the government hasn’t im- plemented equitable hiring practices, such as name-blind screening and third-party hiring. “We are particularly concerned about the lack of accountability meas- ures against leaders who were at the helm while widespread discrimination was a regular occurrence at the Privy Council Office,” Thompson said. The release of the internal investi- gation comes as the government fights an ongoing class-action lawsuit that alleges around 30,000 Black civil ser- vants lost out on opportunities and benefits that went to others due to their race, dating back to the 1970s. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked Monday about the report and whether the government will settle that lawsuit. “Racism and discrimination is never acceptable. It’s not acceptable any- where in Canada, least of all inside our government,” she said. The report states white employees and executives “detailed personal ex- periences and career-advancing oppor- tunities that were in stark variance” from Black, Indigenous and other em- ployees of colour. White employees worked at the Privy Council Office for longer periods of time and “were clustered in permanent and higher-level positions,” the report shows. It cites examples from non-Black employees of colour who say they “ob- served anti-Black discrimination from managers and employees that had dir- ect, negative impacts on the career pro- gression of Black employees.” Most of those employees “detailed a culture of whiteness at the executive levels and the ways in which a clear preference for whiteness is pervasive at PCO,” the report says. Career stagnation was “evident,” the author said in the report and “discus- sion of these experiences caused some employees to cry as they communicat- ed an awareness of racism as a key mo- tivating factor.” Employees who encountered stagna- tion consistently earned high perform- ance reviews but saw white employees who trained with them advance above their level, the report says. Fifty-three employees attended group sessions, 13 employees of col- our took part in individual interviews and the report also includes input from eight interviews with Black employees. The report says most Black employ- ees were “chastised or discouraged” from taking part in diversity, equity and inclusion work. It notes that when sessions focused on those themes were held, they were de- scribed by some employees as low-qual- ity and inappropriate — including one session on diversity and communica- tion led by an all-white team. The Privy Council Office did not re- spond to a request for comment. — The Canadian Press JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES A daycare at the centre of an E. coli outbreak at several Calgary daycares in September 2023. BILL GRAVELAND Alberta toughens food rules after review of E. coli outbreak at Calgary daycares JAMES SPEAKMAN / PA Emergency services work at the scene in Southport, England, of a knife attack that killed two children and wounded 11 other people Monday. Two children dead in stabbing attack at dance class in England BRIAN MELLEY AND JILL LAWLESS Eleven people injured in ‘horrific’ rampage U.S. will send $1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine WASHINGTON — The U.S. will send US$1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine, officials announced on Mon- day, including an array of munitions for air defence systems, artillery, mortars and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles. The package includes US$1.5 bil- lion in funding for long-term contracts through the Ukraine Security Assist- ance Initiative and US$200 million in immediate military aid taken from Pentagon stockpiles. The latest infusion of weapons comes a bit more than two weeks after the NATO summit in Washington, where allies focused a significant amount of time on shoring up support for Ukraine as it fends off Russian forces. President Joe Biden announced during the sum- mit that the U.S. would send a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, answering a key plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. NATO members agreed to create a new program to provide reliable mil- itary aid to Ukraine and prepare for its eventual membership in the alliance, declaring Ukraine is on an “irrevers- ible” path to join NATO. In the latest package, air defence interceptors, rockets, artillery and anti-tank weapons will be provided through presidential drawdown author- ity, which allows the Pentagon to pull the weapons directly from its shelves. The air defence weapons include mu- nitions for National Advanced Surface- to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. The Pentagon said the longer-term contracted weapons will include “capabilities to augment” Ukraine’s air defenses, as well as other weapons. The U.S. is also providing secure communications systems and funding for commercial satellite imagery servi- ces, as well as demolitions equipment. In an unusual move, however, the U.S. Defense Department declined to make clear which specific systems were be- ing sent to Ukraine quickly through the PDA and which would be funded through contracts and so wouldn’t get to the warfront for months or years. With the latest funding, the U.S. has now sent more than $55.4 billion in sec- urity assistance to Ukraine since Rus- sia’s invasion in February 2022. White House national security spokes- man John Kirby said Monday that the package includes “key capabilities for the fight.” He said this is the ninth mil- itary aid package for Ukraine since late April, when Congress finally passed supplemental funding for aid to Kyiv af- ter months of gridlock and delays. — The Associated Press LOLITA C. BALDOR ;