Canada - The African Mirror

Jul

2022

Gold Fields sweetens Yamana deal to win over investors

NELSON BANYA SOUTH Africa's Gold Fields fielded questions from sceptical investors after the company promised higher dividends and a Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) listing to sweeten its proposed takeover of Canada's Yamana Gold. The miner announced plans to acquire Yamana in an all-share deal valuing the Canada-listed miner at $6.7 billion on May 31, but market reaction was largely negative and Gold Fields shares plunged 20% on the day. Gold Fields shareholders are expected to vote on the deal during the second week of October, company officials said on Monday. The company, which has a primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

China welcomes Huawei executive home, but silent on freed Canadians

WORLD

CHINESE state media has welcomed telecoms giant Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, back to the "motherland, after more than 1,000 days under house arrest in Canada, on what they called unfounded charges of bank fraud. But they have kept silent about Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians released from Chinese custody in an apparent act of reciprocation by Beijing. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV carried a statement by the Huawei executive, written as her plane flew over the North Pole to avoid U.S. airspace. Her eyes were "blurring with tears" as she approached "the embrace of the great…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Canada to donate vaccines to African countries

COVID-19

CANADA will donate more than 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to three African countries through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, GAVI said on Thursday. Nigeria, Kenya and Niger will receive the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said. The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI, aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of 2021.

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Canada to welcome ‘human rights defenders’, including journalists, as refugees

WORLD

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY CANADA is establishing a dedicated refugee stream for "human rights defenders," including journalists, who may need to seek asylum to escape persecution in their country, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marco Mendicino has announced. The stream - the first of its kind in the world, according to the UN refugee agency - will accommodate 250 people a year, plus their families, and focus on people at heightened risk, such as women, journalists and LGBTQ2 rights advocates. "We must not overlook those who bear witness to these human tragedies, who are active through demonstration and reporting so the…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX: China, climate and vaccines – what the G7 agreed this weekend

WORLD

THE Group of Seven rich nations promised to tackle China's growing influence, fight climate change, get more COVID-19 jabs to poor countries and keep up their economic stimulus programmes at their first summit since Joe Biden became U.S. president. Following is a summary of the main points agreed by the leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada at their three-day meeting at a beachside hotel in southwest England which ended yesterday. CLIMATE CHANGE - The G7 said it would meet a long-overdue funding pledge of $100 billion a year by rich countries to help poorer…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Remains of 215 children found at former indigenous school site in Canada

WORLD

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY THE remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children, a discovery Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as heartbreaking. The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978, according to the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, which said the remains were found with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist. "We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir said in a statement. "At…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Canada expands added screening to travellers from South Africa amid COVID-19 variant worries

COVID-19

CANADA has expanded enhanced screening and monitoring measures to travelers arriving from South Africa, citing the rise of a more infectious variant of COVID-19 in that country, similar to one that has emerged in the United Kingdom. This follows a move on Wednesday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to extend to January 6 a ban on passenger flights arriving from Britain, citing the variant. It also announced added screening for travellers, from Britain. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on AI and Quantum Computing. No cases of the variant have been found in Canada so far, Health Canada said in a…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Canada will continue to stand up against Chinese human rights abuses, PM Trudeau says

WORLD

CANADIAN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will continue to stand up against China's "coercive diplomacy" and human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang after being rebuked by Beijing for similar comments earlier this week. "We will stand up loudly and clearly for human rights all around the world, whether it is talking about the situation faced by the Uighurs, whether it is talking about the very concerning situation in Hong Kong, whether it's calling out China for its coercive diplomacy," Trudeau said in a news conference. However, Trudeau added that he was not looking to escalate tensions with…