Indigenous women who have to leave their communities to give birth will now be able to bring an escort with them.
Ottawa announced they are changing their funding policies to cover travel for a woman’s escort when birthing far from home
Health Minister Jane Phillpott says the previous policy was “extremely unhelpful” for indigenous women who were often made to deliver their babies alone.
Phillpott says the change is a wise investment. Health Canada is estimating a $22 million dollar budget for those changes in 2017.

A judge has ordered a Saskatchewan farmer to stand trial in the shooting death of Colten Boushie.
Gerald Stanley is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Boushie who was shot and killed on Stanley’s Saskatchewan farm last August.
Details of the preliminary hearing remain under a publication ban.
The killing sent racial tensions flaring across the province.
Crown prosecutors say the trial could begin as early as this coming fall.

An indigenous man from the Blood Kanai nation will appear on a new $10 bill.
James Gladstone will appear on the commemorative bank note this summer.
The bills will celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary.
Gladstone was the first indigenous person appointed to the Senate in 1958.
The bills will be released on June 1st.

Ontario has settled out of court in a class action lawsuit against the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind.
The case alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse towards students at the boarding school from the 1950s through to the late 2000s.
Lawyers say the settlement was reached just one day before the case was to start trial.