In the news, December 29: in 2024, will Albertans choose the status quo or look to the past?

In The News is a roundup of articles from The Canadian Press designed to start your day. Here’s what’s on our editors’ radar for the morning of December 29…

What we’re watching in Canada…

The wood-panelled third-floor Legislative Office of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is devoid of bric-a-brac.

There are no photos, memorabilia, or books—only a small pile of Alberta sovereignty bills perched on his desk.

Decor is less by design and more by default.

“If I spent a lot of time in the office, I wouldn’t be doing my job. I have to meet a lot of people offsite and do a lot of work there,” Smith said in a year-end interview.

She laughed as she remembered his attempts at personal touches.

“I sometimes try to move the furniture around so I can put my tea somewhere, and every time I come back they put things back where they were,” Smith said. “I think that’s sort of an indication that you’re not supposed to touch anything.

But if she craves some artistic indulgence, she can leave her office, turn left down the marble walkway to the legislative chamber past portraits of past prime ministers, which now includes the recent addition of the leader of the opposition NDP Rachel Notley.

It illustrates what Alberta’s defining political story will be in 2024. The story of two prime ministers: one who just got the job, the other who wants it back.

Smith has promised to honor the scheduled vote day on May 29, which is due to take place seven months after winning the United Conservative leadership race.

Across the snow-covered Legislature Square is the Queen Elizabeth II Building, home to members of the New Democrat opposition caucus, with a south-facing view of the dome of sandstone they hope to reinhabit at the time of the elections.

Notley was Alberta’s 17th premier and now seeks to be the 20th as well.

She stayed after losing to Kenney and UCP in 2019. And now she says there is unfinished business.

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Also this…

From legislative chambers to classrooms to radio and television, Indigenous languages ​​are spoken and heard every day in the North thanks to dedicated Elders, teachers, translators and broadcasters.

Jeela Palluq-Cloutier, who worked for a long time as an Inuktitut teacher and translator in Nunavut, said she learned the language from her unilingual parents growing up in Igloolik.

“My dad is dead now, but when I was translating I always had him deep inside me thinking, ‘He must be able to understand this,'” she said.

“Unilingual Inuit have a right to information and the information that is translated must be of the highest quality.

Palluq-Cloutier has been involved in efforts to make Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun available on Microsoft Translator and has translated over 11,000 Inuktitut words for Facebook.

While residential schools and colonization have deprived some Inuit of their languages, Palluq-Cloutier said those languages ​​are still thriving.

“We have over 90-95% speakers in some communities,” she said. “It’s something I’m very proud of, that our language is still there, given the history of our government trying to erase it from us.”

More than 21,000 people speak Inuktitut, the 2021 census shows, and Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are the official languages ​​of Nunavut.

In the Northwest Territories, Tlicho is the most common Aboriginal mother tongue with 1,700 speakers.

The federal government announced late last month that it was spending $39.4 million to support Indigenous languages ​​in the territories. It said it has spent a total of $77.2 million to support Indigenous languages ​​in the North since 2019.

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What we’re watching in the US…

US Representative-elect George Santos of New York is currently under investigation by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

The development comes on top of a growing outcry over revelations that the Republican lied about his heritage, education and professional life when he successfully campaigned for US Congress.

The New York Attorney General’s office has already said it is looking into the issues that have come to light.

A spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney’s Office Brendan Brosh said Wednesday, “We are reviewing the matter.” The scope of the investigation was not immediately clear.

Despite heightened doubts about his suitability for federal office, Santos has so far shown no signs of resigning; even as he publicly admitted to a long list of fabrications.

He is due to be sworn in on Tuesday. If he takes office, he could face investigations by the House Ethics Committee and the Department of Justice.

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What we’re looking at in the rest of the world…

Ukrainian authorities claim that several regions of the country, including its capital, are facing a Russian missile attack.

Air raid sirens sounded across the country on Thursday morning. In Kyiv, the regional administration said air defense systems had been activated to repel the missiles. Sounds of explosions were heard in Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities in several regions said some Russian missiles had been shot down.

Thursday’s attack is the latest in a series of Russian strikes targeting vital infrastructure across Ukraine. Moscow has launched such attacks on a weekly basis since October.

In the Dnipro, Odessa and Kryvyi Rih regions, electricity was cut off to minimize potential damage.

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On this day in 1916…

Grigori Rasputin, the so-called “mad monk” who had wielded great influence with Tsar Nicholas II, was assassinated by a group of Russian nobles in St. Petersburg.

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In entertainment…

The family of rapper Theophilus London filed a missing person report with Los Angeles police this week and are asking for the public’s help in locating him.

London’s family and friends believe someone last spoke to her in July in Los Angeles. That’s according to a family statement released Wednesday by Secretly, a music label group that has worked with the rapper.

Relatives in London have been trying to determine his whereabouts for the past few weeks and filed a police report earlier this week.

An LAPD spokesperson confirmed that a report for London had been taken.

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Have you seen this?

It was a chaotic Christmas for many travelers across the country, including a fluffy passenger who was separated from his family and stranded at Vancouver airport.

But a Vancouver International Airport spokesperson said the saga of Bunbun, the stuffed bunny, had a happy ending, with the toy now on its way back to its young owner.

Bunbun’s story went viral after Alberta Senator Paula Simons tweeted a photo of the bunny she said was found by her daughter at YVR on Dec. 20.

Simons’ daughter, Celia Taylor, says she dropped the bunny off at customer service.

Three days later, a woman responded to Simons on Twitter to claim that Bunbun belonged to her infant son, sharing photos of the couple together and a boarding pass as proof.

The YVR spokesperson said the airport contacted the woman and on Tuesday Bunbun was sent to the family in Edmonton, where they were traveling from New Zealand.

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This report from The Canadian Press was first published Thursday. December 29, 2022

The Canadian Press