 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Former students of Sask. Christian school allege teacher sexually abused them | | |  | Caitlin Erickson is one of the former Christian Centre Academy students who allege they were sexually abused by Sunday school teacher Nathan Schultz in the '90s. (Yasmine Ghania/CBC) | | | Three women who attended a private Saskatoon Christian school and attached church allege they were sexually abused by a Sunday school teacher in the '90s when they were four to seven years old.
They say the alleged abuser, Nathan Schultz, stole their innocence and forced them to live with a deep sense of guilt and shame for many years. They say they're also angry at school and church officials who appear to have known about the allegations.
Schultz is one of nearly two dozen named defendants in a $25-million proposed class-action lawsuit, which claims sexual abuse was perpetrated — and covered up — by multiple officials at Christian Centre Academy and Saskatoon Christian Centre church, now known as Legacy Christian Academy and Mile Two Church.
The women who CBC News interviewed have all gone to police with their allegations and are part of the proposed class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed following a CBC News investigation into allegations against school and church officials by more than 30 students of widespread physical abuse, solitary confinement, exorcisms and forced political campaigning.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. A statement of defence has yet to be filed. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | After seven months of testimony and thousands of documents piecing together what happened around the mass shooting in Nova Scotia, the final week of public proceedings will hear what participants think recommendations should be. The Mass Casualty Commission is leading the inquiry into the tragic events of April 18 and 19, 2020, and what led to the mass shooting that left 22 people dead, including a pregnant woman. On Tuesday, the commission will hear from family members of many victims during hearings in Truro, either through lawyers or speaking on their own behalf. "It's an opportunity for the participants to sum up what they think is the key evidence and the key issues and make any recommendations or comments that they want about the process," said Michael Scott of Patterson Law, which represents most of the victims' families. Read more on this story here.
Two McLarens, two BMWs and a Lamborghini make up just a few of the $2 million worth of assets seized from a 23-year-old from Whitby, Ont., as his investors try to recoup millions of dollars they handed over to the self-described "Crypto King." But so far, Aiden Pleterski's assets fall far short of what his investors claim they're owed. Creditors are working to unravel where at least $35 million provided to Pleterski and his company AP Private Equity Limited for cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investments ended up, according to a fraud recovery lawyer and documents filed in two separate actions reviewed by CBC Toronto. Diane Moore invested $60,000 she had earmarked for her grandchildren's education after meeting Pleterski through someone she'd known for years. Now, she's out $50,000. The 65-year-old from Clarington, Ont., is one of 29 creditors claiming they're owed nearly $13 million in a bankruptcy proceeding against Pleterski. In a lawsuit, another investor, who claims to be out $4.5 million, obtained a Mareva injunction, which effectively freezes Pleterski's assets and bank accounts worldwide. Read more on this story here.
A judge in Baltimore on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed, who was convicted in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee and whose case was documented in the hugely popular podcast Serial. Syed, 41, spent more than two decades behind bars before he walked free from a courthouse yesterday. He had always maintained his innocence, and the first season of the Serial podcast raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used in his case. Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying that a lengthy investigation conducted with the defence had uncovered new evidence that could undermine the 2000 conviction of Syed, Lee's ex-boyfriend. Read more on this story here.
Pierre Kwenders is this year’s winner of the Polaris Music Prize for his album, José Louis and the Paradox of Love. An 11-member jury selected the record as the Canadian album of the year, based solely on artistic merit. The announcement was made Monday in Toronto at Polaris's first in-person celebration since 2019 due to the pandemic. In his emotional acceptance speech, Kwenders paid tribute to three family members he lost recently: his two cousins and his godfather. "The reason why I do what I do, why I tell the story that I tell," he said, "is to tell the story of the people that inspire me. All those three people inspired me." While non-English albums have won in the past, José Louis and the Paradox of Love marks the first winning album to feature Lingala, Kikongo and Tshiluba, in addition to French and English. Read more here.
Amid the sold-out movie premieres and star-studded red carpets, there was another side of the Toronto International Film Festival unfolding. Behind the scenes, distributors and studios met with sales agents and filmmakers. These meetings, as well as buzz from the festival, can determine when, how, and sometimes if a film can one day be seen by a wider audience. While high-profile studio films like The Fablemans, The Woman King, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery should all have fairly conventional releases in the coming weeks and months, what happens to some of the other more than 200 films in TIFF's lineup now that the festival is over? Some films may never find a wider audience, but others found deals to land on the big screen — although in many cases where, when, and for how long are still up in the air. Read more on the dealmaking at the festival.
Now here's some good news to start your Tuesday: A Clarenville, N.L., man's giant pumpkin has reached scary proportions — and it will likely be even bigger by Halloween. Leslee Lake said his pumpkin, dubbed "Gourdzilla," is 295 kilograms, one-metre high, and has a circumference of 3.2 metres. "I grew up on a farm, so I've been growing things most of my life," Lake said. "This is definitely the biggest." Lake said the plant takes up 37 to 46 square metres in his yard. Growing the pumpkin has been a massive challenge — no pun intended. Lake said he relied on the internet — including some gardening Facebook groups — for help. Read more about the giant pumpkin here. | | | FIRST PERSON | I came in last in every race. My dad's death taught me what it means to win | Growing up, Sophia Ersil always felt like she had to prove she was good enough to her athletic dad. After his death, she finished his last ride and learned what it means to be a champion 315 kilometres later. Read her column here. | | | | | | |  | A 'sovereignty act' for Alberta? | In Alberta, the centrepiece of United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Danielle Smith's campaign is a controversial proposal called the Alberta Sovereignty Act. Smith says the act would allow the Alberta legislature to choose not to enforce any federal law or court order it believed ran counter to its interests.
But many legal experts have decried the proposal as unconstitutional, and some critics — including members of her own party — have claimed that it would unleash economic chaos in the province.
While Smith's proposal is new, resentment with Ottawa is not — and for decades, provincial politicians have been promising action to protect Alberta's interests from federal political intervention.
Today, we speak to the CBC's Jason Markusoff about the Alberta Sovereignty Act and the enduring appeal of that concept.
Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: September 20 | | | 1842: Chemist and physicist James Dewar is born in Scotland. In 1892, he invented a double-walled glass vessel to keep gases and chemicals cold. However, he didn’t profit from it as he lost a court case against Thermos over the patent for his invention.
1917: The Income War Tax Act is enacted as a temporary measure to raise funds for Canada's troops during the First World War. The act imposed a four per cent tax over the personal exemption of $1,500 on the income of widows, unmarried people and widows without dependent children. Others had a tax exemption of $3,000.
1932: India’s Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast to dramatize his campaign for an end to discrimination against the lowest social class in the country, known as the untouchables.
1987: Pope John Paul II visits Fort Simpson, N.W.T., fulfilling a promise he made three years earlier when heavy fog prevented his plane from landing. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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