Five stories in the news for today, June 26

By The Canadian Press

Five stories in the news for Monday, June 26

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SENTENCING HEARING TODAY FOR FORMER ONTARIO NURSE CONVICTED OF MURDER

A sentencing hearing is set for today for a former Ontario nurse who murdered eight seniors in her care. Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault in late May. First-degree murder convictions come with an automatic life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

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FINAL ARGUMENTS TO BE MADE TODAY IN ALBERTA MURDER TRIAL

The prosecution and defence make their final arguments in the trial of an Alberta man accused of killing a father, a little girl and a senior. Jurors in Lethbridge, Alta., have heard weeks of evidence in the trial of Derek Saretzky. He’s accused in the deaths of two-year-old Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette, her father Terry Blanchette, who was 27, and 69-year-old Hanne Meketech in September 2015. Saretzky has pleaded not guilty to three charges of first-degree murder and to one count of causing an indignity to the girl’s body.

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TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT BEING CALLED UPON TO CHANGE FOREIGN AID FUNDING

Some groups are calling on the Trudeau government to make major changes to how it doles out foreign aid money in order to reach small, grassroots women’s development organizations. But the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the MATCH International Women’s Fund say Canada’s new feminist foreign policy will fall short of actually helping women. The groups contend that only 0.3 per cent of Canada’s “gender-focused aid” actually reached women’s rights organizations in 2013 and 2014.

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PM TO TAKE PART IN GLOBAL CITIZEN FESTIVAL

Justin Trudeau will champion gender equality and other global issues at a star-studded music festival before continuing the conversation with world leaders at the G20 summit in Germany next month. The concert, organized by the international advocacy group Global Citizen, follows a similar festival the prime minister co-hosted in Montreal last year, which was aimed at raising awareness about the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

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CANADA HARD TO DEFINE, EASY TO CELEBRATE:POLL

What defines Canada? A new survey suggests the answers are as diverse as the country itself. The poll, commissioned by Historica Canada, asked a number of questions about various aspects of Canadiana. And it elicited a wide variety of answers that showed very little consensus. When asked what single word would describe Canada, the most popular answer was freedom or liberty, a choice made by just a quarter of respondents.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY

— Another wave of American duties is expected to hit Canada’s softwood lumber industry today

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