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Mohawk Kateri Tekakwitha has become the first North American aboriginal to ascend to sainthood.

Pope Benedict XVI conducted the canonization ceremony of Tekakwitha and six other individuals at the Vatican’s St-Peter Basilica Sunday morning.

Born in 1656, Tekakwitha’s parents and brother died when she was four due to the smallpox epidemic that left her badly scarred. She was persecuted by other natives for her faith. She died in Canada in 1680 at the age of 24.

According to CBC news, she is entombed in a shrine at St-Francis-Xavier church in Kahnawake.

Saint-Kateri’s canonization is due to a miracle that occurred to American Jake Finkbonner in 2006.

The then five-year-old suffering from flesh-eating disease was close to death until family members placed a Tekakwitha relic on his leg. Doctors could not explain his sudden recovery, and became the miracle needed by the Vatican to raise Tekakwitha to sainthood.

Jake, with members of his Lummi tribe and around 2000 other aboriginal people from across Canada and the U.S. attended the ceremony.

Ollie North’s latest EP Bringer resonates a beautiful folksy aesthetic, which is firmly grounded in an urban sensibility. The softness and warmth of his sounds mix to construct a dreamy atmosphere, while his unassuming voice, almost hidden in the music, adds a homely comforting feel for the listener. 

The first track on the EP, “Bringer”, starts off with tons of energy conveyed through the fullness of the sounds and the slightly distorted vocals. The guitar sparkles adding an uplifting feel to the song.   

“Arabesque I” is a short musical interlude, the track flowering with sounds throughout.

The EP concludes with the subdued “Nearernesses”, a song structured around a canvass of repeating loops, interwoven with a variety sounds pulsing in and out from beginning to end. The vocal phrasing of the song is beautifully done.   

Bringer is a three-track EP that gives you just a little taste of the potential of Ollie North; the layered and rich sounds create a full and pleasant atmosphere. The EP leaves you wanting more.

FINAL MARK : B+

Hosted and produced by Nikita Smith

Stories by Jamie-Lee Gordon, Niki Mohrdar, Audrey Folliot, Grégory Wilson

According to CBC’s French-language service, Tony Accurso, Quebec’s construction magnate is leaving the business.

Accurso wrote to his employees and stated that it’s time to leave the company in the hands of younger and more energetic people and also apologized for the public controversy related to the company.

Accurso believes that the company will be better off without him and that he had no choice be to leave. In an interview with La Presse newspaper, Accruso described his over 1 billion-dollar company as the jewel of Quebec.

A consulting firm has been hired to help chart the company’s fiuture. Ideas of a merger, sale or splitting the company up have not been pushed aside.

In the last five decades, Accurso and the companies he is connected to have aided in almost every major construction project in Montreal.

According to CBC, Although Accurso has denied all allegations, he has been the target of Montreal’s anti-corruption squad and his name has been raised at the Charbonneau commission investigating allegations of corruption in the construction industry.

There has been quite a bit of controversy around the Accurso name, as companies controlled by his family have been convicted of tax fraud and had their licenses suspend.

Not only that, but Accurso was charged with fraud, conspiracy, influence peddling, breach of trust and two counts of defrauding the government last April. He was also arrested in early August on charges linked to a multimillion-dollar tax-evasion conspiracy.

In recent years, Accurso’s daughter has been handling much of the day-to-day running of the family business.