In a world often dominated by challenging headlines, Yahoo News Canada aims to spotlight uplifting news stories both local and beyond. This week’s roundup includes a massive donation in Nova Scotia is helping children pursue their dream of ice hockey, uplifting news from the environment sector as the ozone layer is on track to make a full recovery and a heartwarming reunion for Sixties Scoop survivors.
Three sisters who call Fort Providence, N.W.T., home are on a journey of reunion.
The sisters are survivors of the Sixties Scoop, a government practice in Canada from the 1960s to 1980s of removing Indigenous children from their homes and placing them in foster care or putting them up for adoption. The sisters grew up in separate parts of the country and didn’t know about each other until their adult years, according to a report published by CBC News.
For RavenSong, it’s a chance to experience a piece of what was stolen from her.
READ FULL STORY: Sixties Scoop survivors journey home to N.W.T. to reunite with family, reconcile past
“We hopped in the truck and we went looking for buffalo this morning and we said if we had grown up here we would have done that together as teenagers,” she said.
“We’re doing some of the things we’ve never done. Jumping on beds and things like that.”
RavenSong said there is something different about being on her own land. The noise and vibrations she feels in the city stop when she comes home to Fort Providence.
Sariah, the middle sister, said she’s now in a place in her life where she can explore her past. Sariah has been sober for five years and is living in Drayton Valley, Alta., working as an industrial medic. She first learned about her sisters in 2004. She was living in Windsor, Ont., at the time and got a call from RavenSong introducing herself and telling her about their other sister Delphine. It turned out Delphine was living just six blocks away.
“It was surreal,” she said.
RavenSong, now living in Richmond, B.C., is the founder of a non-profit called the Sixty Scoop Indigenous Society of B.C. It focuses on reintroducing survivors to ceremony and tradition as a form of healing.
Delphine, the eldest sister, described relatives coming into the seniors centre and hugging them and telling the sisters they love them.
“I think a lot of them were overjoyed, number one that we’re still alive,” Delphine said.
Warning: This story contains details of self-harm and suicide. If you, or anyone you know is in distress, call 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Police in Nashville, Tennessee, praised singer Jon Bon Jovi for helping prevent a tragedy by speaking to a woman who was on the ledge of a bridge Tuesday.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said Bon Jovi and his team were at the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge as a woman stood precariously over the Cumberland River.
Police released security video of the interaction, in which a woman in blue holds on to the railing while she stands on the ledge. Other people pass her, and farther down the bridge, Bon Jovi’s team appears to be setting up for a video or photo shoot.
A video showed the musician approaching the unidentified woman standing on the ledge. After a few minutes alone, the Bon Jovi frontman and another woman help carry the woman in crisis to a safer part of the bridge.
Bon Jovi continues to speak with the woman in crisis before they walk away from the area together.
“A shout out to @jonbonjovi & his team for helping a woman on the Seigenthaler Ped Bridge Tue night. Bon Jovi helped persuade her to come off the ledge over the Cumberland River to safety,” the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in a post on X.
“It takes all of us to help keep each other safe.”
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The world’s ozone layer is on “the road to long-term recovery” despite a destructive volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, the World Meteorological Organization said this week, after efforts to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.
On current trends, the ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world, the United Nations agency stated in a press release.
The ozone layer protects the earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, which is linked to skin cancer and other health risks.
The Montreal Protocol, which came into effect in 1989, agreed to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, and its success “stands out as a powerful symbol of hope” at a time when multilateral cooperation has come under strain, said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
