The Guardian

Matt McAllister was dismayed to learn that there would be no display of rainbow lights illuminating the bridge in his home of Jacksonville, Fla., for Pride month this year. For him, it was yet another sign of the state government’s disdain for the 2SLGBTQ community. 

Jacksonville’s Acosta bridge, spanning the St. Johns River, is one of many across the state that are only being lit up in red, white and blue from Memorial Day until Labour Day this year.

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Purdue ordered the all-American light display, to coincide with what Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis declared Freedom Summer — a tax holiday for some recreational activities and supplies — effectively barring all other illuminations for celebrations like Pride month, which began on June 1.

Rather than getting angry, McAllister got creative. On the eve of Pride month, he helped organize a rainbow rebellion of sorts, to create a colourful light display across another nearby bridge in a show of support, solidarity and celebration of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

“We wanted the first group of so-called Freedom Summer to be LGBTQ+ and to celebrate our diversity and exercise our freedom … since that was taken away from us,” he told CBC News.

For McAllister, it wasn’t an act of protest so much as a demonstration of the community’s resilience in the face of regressive anti-2SLGBTQ+ policymaking. Advocacy groups say Florida is becoming a beacon of resistance as the fight to protect 2SLGBTQ+ rights heats up in a presidential election year.

“It’s been important to tell people that this is not a state battle, it’s a national fight and that they’re all part of it,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. 

WATCH | Why Pride is celebrated in different months:

Why Canada celebrates Pride at different times

Pride in Canada isn’t just marked in June — it spans months. The reason is complicated but has a rich history.

Lights in dark times

McAllister, a professor at a local community college, knew a show of visibility was exactly what was needed to respond to yet another slight against the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

“We’ve been, you know, really slapped with one insult after another for the last 18 months here,” he said. “The message seems to be very clear and that is, ‘We don’t want you here.’ ” 

Under DeSantis’s leadership, Florida led the charge in trying to enact policies targeting 2SLGBTQ+ people.

They included policies aimed at preventing access to gender-affirming care for young transgender people, limiting discussions and materials about 2SLGBTQ+ issues in schools and trying to ban minors from drag performances. 

McAllister said he saw nothing stopping people from taking matters into their own hands. 

So, on the night of May 31, about 100 people lined the Main St. Bridge, across from the patriotically-lit Acosta Bridge, and used flashlights covered in coloured plastic gels to create the effect of the rainbow-coloured Pride flag.

It all came together in about 48 hours, and McAllister says the resulting celebration “strengthened our bonds as a community.”

He gave up his own spot on the bridge so others could take part while he looked on from the shore with about 100  spectators.

The joy and defiance of that moment resonated well beyond Jacksonville. 

It was “a spectacular middle finger to” the legislators working to erode 2SLGBTQ+ rights, said Maxx Fenning, the executive director PRISM, a youth-led advocacy group in Florida. 

He said there is a “new and profound sense of hope” in the state, half way through the year, as legal battles resulted in several anti-2SLGBTQ bills being “either killed or almost entirely declawed.” 

Just last week, a federal court judge permanently blocked DeSantis’s ban on gender affirming care for transgender minors, ruling it was unconstitutional.  

“We’re taking back our state, piece by piece,” Fenning said.

Fight for rights heads to the ballot box

Though Smith says the “tide is turning,” there’s a bigger battle still on the horizon — the presidential election, which she described as the most consequential vote of her lifetime. 

Smith says there’s a “very clear indication” that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would like to “see us dragged backwards on every front” and mimic what DeSantis tried to do in Florida.

If elected, Trump has promised to overturn recently revised federal legislation that would protect students from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. 

He has also pledged to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and previously told supporters he would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

Beyond that, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has warned Trump could use federal legislation to override state and local laws that protect the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ people. 

Meanwhile, policymakers in many other states have pursued a slew of restrictions. 

The ACLU has tracked 522 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 41 states so far in 2024, up from 510 in all of 2023. Many have been defeated, but plenty have advanced through state legislatures or have already become law.

In Florida, Smith says 21 out of 22 bills tabled in the last legislative session have either failed or been “defanged” this year, thanks, in large part, to the success of grassroots activism and public pressure. 

But she says it’s at the polling stations this fall where a significant change can be made. 

“I think what people are waking up to is, from the top of the ballot down to the school board races, we have to show up.”

The union representing WestJet mechanics has rescinded a strike notice and will resume talks with the airline.

Some 670 WestJet plane mechanics, represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), were set to walk off the job as early as Thursday evening after serving the airline with a strike notice earlier this week following months of negotiations.

But in a statement late Wednesday, WestJet says both the union and airline will return to the bargaining table in the hopes of finding a resolution.

Earlier Wednesday, WestJet cancelled more than 30 flights ahead of a possible strike, leaving thousands of passengers scrambling.

“We recognize the impact the initial cancellations had on our guests and our people, and we sincerely appreciate their patience and understanding during this time,” said WestJet president Diederik Pen.

“In returning to the bargaining table, we are committed to finding a resolution to avoid further disruption to our operations.”

Scott Christopherson, a spokesperson for the union, confirmed that both parties have agreed to return to the bargaining table, and said talks would resume next week.

Request for binding arbitration

Union members had voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative deal last week and opposed the airline’s request for arbitration this week.

Calgary-based WestJet had requested that the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) intervene with binding arbitration, which would see the labour tribunal hammer out a contract between the two sides — their first collective agreement. In the meantime, the board could bar a work stoppage.

The union, whose members voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative agreement last week, says it opposed the move, saying it would undermine their goal of an “industry-changing contract.”

In its statement on Wednesday night, WestJet said that the CIRB had advised it would need more time before making a decision on whether to use binding arbitration to create the collective agreement.

The airline says that guests are encouraged to check the status of their flights before going to the airport on Thursday.

They were distracted and they had a hard time putting their phones away, she said.

It’s been five months since students at Chatelech Secondary School on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast have been banned from using their cellphones without permission, and Pierce said they’ve seen promising results.

“We are seeing improved mental health, we’re seeing decreased bullying, we’re seeing more engagement in class, we’re seeing more social interaction, kids are playing again instead of being on their phones and we’re seeing increased academic success.”

Pierce began lobbying for the policy change, but said it was never meant to be a punishment for students.

“Now more than ever, I feel like our students, for their mental health, need us to provide boundaries around technology and they will have to learn how to balance that,” she said.

“So, we are trying to be that balance for kids when they come to school.”

She said when the students were first told about the ban, some were angry and upset, while others “were extremely relieved.”

“We care about our kids that much and the reason why we did this was because of the mental health, academic achievement and equity issues,” she said, adding that not all families can afford cellphones for their children.

Robert Schumann, a physical education teacher at the school, said he has watched the gradual rise of cellphone use in schools for over two decades, and the ban is a turnaround for students.

They are joking around and actually engaging in classes, Schumann said, and he attributes the transformation to the school’s no-cellphone policy.

Hallway posters greet Chatelech’s students telling them to “turn it off and put it away.”

The school policy requires all cellphones and electronic devices to be turned off during classroom time and the time before and between classes.

Students are asked to keep their phones either in lockers or in backpacks. All teachers are responsible for enforcing the rules, and those who break them are directed to put their devices in a secure location for the rest of the school day.

Students and their families were given six weeks notice to prepare for the change.

Psychiatrist touts benefits of no phones

The past several months have been a journey for everyone, but the process was going smoothly with help from colleagues and parents who have been “incredibly supportive,” she said.

Rules for cellphones in schools vary from province to province. Ontario has a blanket ban to restrict students from using mobile devices during instructional time.

B.C.’s education ministry said in a statement that school districts and individual schools are responsible for managing students’ use of technology, and some have established policies governing the use of phones on school grounds.

As one of the latest to adopt a cellphone ban, Chatelech Secondary’s policy has received mixed reactions from educators with some applauding the results while others claim an outright ban isn’t a solution.

Shimi Kang, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, said it’s an example of how one teacher can start leading a change.

“In general, it’s a good idea because if we want to have someone’s attention whether it’s in a conversation or in a classroom, you need to have the screens away,” said Kang, who wrote a book on the subject.

Kang’s message to teachers and parents is that they shouldn’t be afraid to set limits on cellphone use, she said.

Former school board chair says policy outdated

However, former Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus disagrees with a ban, saying it’s a “1960s solution to a 2023 problem.”

The education commentator said she has no doubt that cellphones could be a distraction in class, but over her last 10 years working in many schools, she doesn’t see phones as a big problem.

“I would not want to be a teacher tasked with enforcing this and constantly having to police somebody who brought their phone to school,” Bacchus said.

Students have lives going on outside of the class, such as taking care of siblings or doing part-time jobs and they may need phones to manage these tasks, she said.

Bacchus said people also need to accept the fact that phones are ubiquitous components of modern life, and the technology is not going away.

Instead, she said teachers should perhaps take the opportunity to talk about addiction, list the pros and cons of using phones and leave it up to students to decide.

“I would rather educate and make students become critical thinkers. What are the impacts of screen time? How does that affect you? What does science tell us and learn about it?

“Learn about it from that perspective, use it as an educational opportunity as opposed to, let’s just make rules and hide from it because that is not education,” Bacchus said.

Pierce said her goal is to see students across Canada taking a break from their phones in school rather than constantly checking social media notifications and responding to texts.

“I hope to inspire others. It’s hard work, but it’s good work,” Pierce said.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta-Canadian Press News Fellowship, which is not involved in the editorial process.

The 22-year-old from Edmonton is the first back-to-back winner of the award that dates back to 2013. Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas has also won the award twice, but not in consecutive years (2014 and 2017).

Jamaica’s Khadija Shaw won the Women’s Player of the Year Award.

Canadian forward Jonathan David was also a finalist for the men’s award while Canadian midfielder Jessie Fleming, who plays her club football for England’s Chelsea, was in the running for women’s honours.

Davies, who plays fullback for Bayern Munich but often occupies a more attacking role for Canada, won the 2022 CONCACAF award after scoring Canada’s first-ever goal at the FIFA men’s World Cup in its return to the soccer showcase for the first time in 36 years.

WATCH | Davies reveals the cost of greatness, and his unwavering family promise:

He helped Bayern win both the 2021-22 Bundesliga and 2022 DFL Supercup in Germany while becoming the all-time Canadian leader in UEFA Champions League appearances.

For Canada, Davies scored three goals in seven international matches in 2022.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a sudden and dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would pull out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying in vain to capture since last summer.

Prigozhin said they would withdraw on May 10 — ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war — because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place.

“I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on May 10, 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds,” Prigozhin said in a statement.

“I’m pulling Wagner units out of Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they’re doomed to perish senselessly.”

Bakhmut, a city of 70,000 people before the start of the war, has taken on huge symbolic importance for both sides because of the sheer intensity and duration of the fighting there.

Wagner has been spearheading Russia’s attempt to capture it and Prigozhin said three weeks ago that his men controlled more than 80 per cent of the city.

But Ukrainian defenders have held out, and Prigozhin has vented increasing anger at what he describes as lack of support from the Russian defence establishment.

Takes aim at Russian defence minister

It was not clear if his latest statement could be taken at face value, as he has frequently posted impulsive comments in the past. Only last week he withdrew one statement he said he had made as a “joke.”

He has also previously complained publicly of a shortage of ammunition.

Earlier on Friday he appeared in a video surrounded by dozens of dead bodies he said were Wagner fighters, and was shown yelling and swearing at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. 

The announcement comes at a key juncture in the war, with Ukraine expected to launch a long-anticipated counter-offensive imminently.

It was the second dramatic development in the space of three days, after Moscow accused Ukraine of firing drones at the Kremlin in the early hours of Wednesday in an attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv denied it, and the United States dismissed Kremlin claims it was behind the incident as “lies.”

Asks for Russian troops as replacements

The Kremlin declined to comment on Prigozhin’s statement, citing the fact it was related to the course of its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“Because of the lack of ammunition, our losses are increasing exponentially every day,” the statement addressed to the head of general staff, the defence ministry, and Putin as supreme commander said.

“If, because of your petty jealousy, you do not want to give the Russian people the victory of taking Bakhmut, that’s your problem,” Prigozhin added in the video.

WATCH | Terence McKenna breaks down what’s known about Yevgeny Prigozhin:

Putin’s most dangerous henchman

Yevgeny Prigozhin has lurked in Vladimir Putin’s shadow for years, and now he’s fighting Russia’s war in Ukraine with his ruthless 50,000-man mercenary army called The Wagner Group. CBC’s Terence McKenna breaks down what’s known about Prigozhin to uncover a dangerous ex-criminal playing a high-stakes game for control.

Prigozhin said he was asking Gerasimov to replace Wagner units in Bakhmut with regular troops, and to specify when this would happen.

The stated withdrawal date of May 10 gives defence chiefs just five days to fill the gap a Wagner pullout would create. It also threatens to overshadow national celebrations on May 9, when Russia commemorates victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War and Putin is due to address the nation from Red Square.

Prigozhin — who is wanted in the U.S. in connection with 2016 election interference offences — said he expected to face criticism.

“Whoever has critical remarks — come to Bakhmut, you’re welcome, stand up with guns in your hands in place of our killed comrades.”

He also promised that Wagner would be back: “We will lick our wounds, and when the Motherland is in danger, we will rise again to defend it. The Russian people can count on us.”

Kherson residents leave ahead of weekend curfew

On the ground Friday, Ukraine said two people had been killed in the eastern Donetsk region and nine wounded over the past 24 hours, and that electricity distribution networks had been damaged by shelling in Donetsk and the southern Kherson region.

Small buses and dozens of cars left Kherson as the southern Ukrainian city prepared to start a 58-hour curfew following a spate of Russian attacks.

“No one will lock people in houses, people will be able, if they need, to go out near [the house] to buy what they need,” Oleksander Tolokonnikov, said a spokesperson for the Kherson regional military administration.

Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured from Russian troops last November after eight months of Russian occupation, is regularly bombarded from across the River Dnipro where Moscow’s forces control swathes of the Kherson region.

Two villages in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Kherson region were hit four times on Friday by Russian guided bombs that destroyed a church building and damaged 20 residential homes, the regional administration said.

WATCH | CBC News near the frontlines of Bakhmut (from February):

What it’s like on two of Ukraine’s fiercest battlefields

Two of the fiercest battles in Ukraine are near Bakhmut and Vuhledar, and the National’s Adrienne Arsenault was taken there to see how Ukrainian forces are fighting back against Russia.

One person was also wounded in the attacks, it said without providing details. On Wednesday, 23 people were killed by Russian shelling in the region, local officials said.

Kherson is set to begin the unusually long curfew on Friday evening.

Russia, too, has ordered an evacuation. The Kremlin-installed governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on Friday he had ordered the evacuation of villages close to the front line there, saying that Ukrainian shelling had intensified in recent days.

The Ontario Hockey League announced Thursday that two players on the Niagara IceDogs, including team captain Landon Cato, have been kicked out of the league and the team’s general manager has been suspended two years for violating league policies.

Sanctions handed down after findings from an independent third-party investigation