By Canadian Press

WE co-founders to testify and COVID-19 vaccine test; The News for July 28

Jul 28, 2020 | 1:17 AM

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of July 28 …

What we are watching in Canada … 

The co-founders of WE Charity are to testify before a House of Commons committee today as part of a parliamentary probe into a $912-million student-volunteer program.

Brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger, who helped found the organization two decades ago, are scheduled to speak this afternoon with MPs on the finance committee.

In a statement last week, the brothers said they agreed to testify to set the record straight about their involvement in the Canada Student Service Grant program.

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WE Charity backed out of administering the program in early July amid a controversy over the Liberals’ awarding the organization a sole-sourced contract despite its close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The controversy for the government has only deepened since, as the federal ethics watchdog has launched probes of Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau over their involvement in cabinet decisions despite WE’s having paid Trudeau’s family members speaking fees, and Morneau’s familial ties to the group.

Further compounding problems for the finance minister was his admission last week that he had just repaid the organization more than $41,000 in travel expenses for WE-sponsored trips he and his family took three years ago.

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Also this …

HMCS Fredericton is returning home today, nearly three months after a deadly helicopter crash that claimed the lives of six crew members.

The members of the Canadian Armed Forces lost their lives when a Cyclone helicopter crashed into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on April 29 while returning from a NATO training mission.

The Royal Canadian Navy ship was docked in Italy for two weeks, but resumed its mission in mid-May, completing a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Halifax-class frigate is expected to arrive today amid COVID-19 measures that will drastically change usual return protocols.

The crash of the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, known as Stalker 22, caused the worst loss of life in one day for the Canadian Armed Forces since six Canadian soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday 2007.

A Royal Canadian Air Force flight safety investigation into the circumstances of the accident is ongoing.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

The biggest test yet of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine got underway Monday with the first of some 30,000 Americans rolling up their sleeves to receive shots created by the U.S. government as part of the all-out global race to stop the pandemic.

The glimmer of hope came even as Google, in one of the gloomiest assessments of the coronavirus’s staying power from a major employer, decreed that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June — a decision that could influence other big companies.

Final-stage testing of the vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., began with volunteers at numerous sites around the U.S. given either a real dose or a dummy without being told which.

“I’m excited to be part of something like this. This is huge,” said Melissa Harting, a 36-year-old nurse who received an injection in Binghamton, New York. Especially with family members in front-line jobs that could expose them to the virus, she added, “doing our part to eradicate it is very important to me.”

Another company, Pfizer Inc., announced late Monday that it had started its own study of its vaccine candidate in the U.S. and elsewhere. That study also aimed to recruit 30,000 people.

It will be months before results trickle in, and there is no guarantee the vaccines will ultimately work against the scourge that has killed over 650,000 people around the world, including almost 150,000 in the U.S.

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What we are watching elsewhere in the world …

The lean season is coming for Burkina Faso’s children. And this time, the long wait for the harvest is bringing a hunger more ferocious than most have ever known.

That hunger is already stalking Haboue Solange Boue, an infant who has lost half her former body weight of 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) in the last month. With the markets closed because of coronavirus restrictions, her family sold fewer vegetables. Her mother is too malnourished to nurse her.

“My child,” Danssanin Lanizou whispers, choking back tears as she unwraps a blanket to reveal her baby’s protruding ribs. The infant whimpers soundlessly.

All around the world, the coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meagre farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the United Nations shared with The Associated Press ahead of its publication in the Lancet medical journal.

Further, more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, according to the U.N. — malnutrition that manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies. Over a year, that’s up 6.7 million from last year’s total of 47 million. Wasting and stunting can permanently damage children physically and mentally, transforming individual tragedies into a generational catastrophe.

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Today in  1914 …

The Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges closed for three months because brokers feared a panic due to the outbreak of war.

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Sports news…

NHL hockey returns today after a months-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Montreal Canadiens are in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers meet the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place as part of today’s three-game exhibition schedule that kicks off Phase 4 of the league’s return-to-play plan.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers square off in Toronto in today’s other game.

Edmonton and Toronto are serving as hub cities for the 24 NHL teams that are returning to action, though the Canadiens and Flames are listed as the home teams tonight.

Each team will play an exhibition game at Scotiabank Arena or Rogers Place between today and Thursday before the playoff qualification round begin on Saturday.

The NHL suspended its season March 12 due to the spreading global pandemic and announced its four-stage return plan May 26.

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

An American man is in custody after police allege he illegally jumped the border then tried to evade officers by floating down a river in British Columbia.

The RCMP say in a news release that officers in Grand Forks, B.C., arrested the Washington state man after he led police on a 2 1/2-hour “float chase” down the Kettle River.

The Mounties say they were advised by the Stevens Country Sheriff’s Office in the early hours of Friday morning that a stolen vehicle had entered Canada illegally at the closed Port Cascade border.

They say U.S. officials deployed a spike belt but the suspect continued to drive, ramming through barriers at the border before dumping the vehicle and fleeing on foot into Canada.

Later that day, the man was spotted returning to the abandoned vehicle but officers say he resisted arrest and jumped in the river.

They say RCMP officers tracked the man by walking along the riverbank and wading into the water where it narrowed, escorting the man to shore along with the help of some Good Samaritans.

The man was turned over to the Canada Border Service Agency Saturday.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2020.

The Canadian Press