#FREEPALESTINE #BDS #BOYCOTTISRAEL

Palestinian dad expects no justice for son killed by Israel

THIS IS MSM NOT TAKING ISRAELS SIDE FOR ONCE

BEIT UMMAR, WEST BANK (AP) — A week after the death of his eldest son, Moayed al-Alami sat on the sofa on his ground floor patio, protectively hugging and kissing two of his remaining children

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the killing of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Alami who was shot by Israeli soldiers as he rode in the family car. But that is no comfort to his father, who is devastated by his son's death and has little faith that he will see justice.

“I have no confidence in the investigation until I see the soldiers in court,” he said. The rear of Moayed's car is riddled with bullet holes and the back seats are still covered in bloodstains.

Mohammed was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he traveled with his father and two siblings in their hometown of Beit Ummar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His death sparked two days of violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops, resulting in the death of one protester.

Recounting the events of last week, al-Alami said he had just picked up some snacks for the children, using his car, when Mohammed asked to return to the store.

"Mohammed told me, ‘father you have forgotten something.’ I asked if it was necessary, and he said it was very necessary. So, I told him that we will go back and buy it,’’ said al-Alami.

Al-Alami said he turned the car around. Moments later, his white Renault was struck by gunfire from the rear, including at least three bullets that he said hit Mohammed. The boy was rushed to hospital and operated on for four hours before he died.

The Israeli military has said soldiers in the area called on the van to stop, and that the forces fired warning shots and only aimed at the vehicle's tires. Al-Alami said he never heard any warnings. Over 10 bullet holes riddled the vehicle.

The army also said that al-Alami's car resembled a vehicle driven by a group of men who were seen burying what turned out to be a dead baby earlier that day.

Al-Alami's brother — who witnessed the entire event from the balcony -- said the two events were not related and that earlier, another family had been burying a stillborn baby in a cemetery.

“The three people who arrived earlier had come to bury a baby that had died in the womb,” Ashraf Al-Alami said.

After the three people had left, he said he began to worry when he saw soldiers arrive. He feared they would mistake the burial site as a crime scene and grow suspicious. That was when his brother's car approached.

The Israel human rights group B'Tselem this week released what it said was security-camera video of the shooting. In the video, al-Alami's van is seen approaching a dip in the road, with a group of Israeli soldiers standing further down a hill.

Al-Alami is seen doing a U-turn before being chased up the street by troops, who are heard shouting at him to stop, before opening fire. The actual shooting is not seen, but at least a dozen shots are heard. B'Tselem said the video shows the family posed no threat to the troops.

The army has said that senior commanders and military police — which investigate suspected wrongdoing by troops— are involved in the probe.

But Moayed said that he did not expect the investigation to lead to anything. He said the military helped transfer the boy to the hospital after the shooting, but that he has not heard from investigators.

And B'Tselem, a major human rights group, grew so frustrated with the military justice system that in 2016 it halted its longtime practice of assisting in investigations. It accuses the army of whitewashing wrongdoing and says soldiers are rarely punished.

In the first seven months of this year, Israeli fire has killed 11 Palestinian children in the West Bank, surpassing the total number of child killings in 2020, according to the advocacy group Defense for Children Palestine.

Israeli soldiers man a watchtower next to Beit Ummar in order to protect traffic going in and out of the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur.

Mohammed’s funeral the following day resulted in large clashes in which a 20-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire. His funeral was held on Friday, followed by more clashes.

The mayor of Beit Ummar – who is also a member of the extended al-Alami family — said that most of Beit Ummar’s 17,000 residents attended the boy's funeral.

‘‘The soldiers did not allow us to bury our child in dignity,’’ said Habis Al-Alami. ‘‘To kill a boy with just bread in his hand. It is a crime, we just want to be treated as human beings.’’

Jack Jeffery And Imad Isseid, The Associated Press

Opinion: Being Black in Canada means being at increased risk of mental health problems

Special to National Post 
By Dr. Kwame McKenzie

© Provided by National Post People walk by a mural of George Floyd in Graffiti Alley in downtown Toronto, on June 11, 2020. The well-known Toronto alleyway was painted with prominent Black figures and messages of solidarity against anti-Black racism.

COVID-19 has taught us a lot about ourselves as a country. It has shown us that we can be resilient when we work together. We have worked hard to protect each other and that has kept the rates of COVID low compared with many other countries.

It has also increased our understanding of mental health problems. On top of the physical health challenges posed by COVID-19 there have been many other concerns including people worrying about families, finances and housing. Canadians understand that these stresses increase the risk of mental health problems and are one explanation for the higher rates of anxiety, depression and substance use that have been reported in pandemic surveys .

But some groups may be at higher risk than others. The Canadian Medical Association has calculated that 85 per cent of our risk of any illness is based on such factors as poverty, unemployment, bad jobs, poor housing quality, lower levels of education, being victims of crime, pollution, discrimination, and poorer access to health and social care . Communities with greater exposure to the negative aspects of any of these social factors have a higher risk of mental health problems.

The Black population of Canada is exposed to many of these factors .

For instance, the Black population has one of the highest rates of poverty and food bank usage in Canada and things are getting worse. The general rule for immigrant populations in Canada is that each generation outperforms the next. It is hard to start but once you find your feet in this country, your children and then their children reap the benefits. Rates of poverty for your children are lower and for their children lower still. But in Ontario, the opposite is true: Black grandchildren are more likely to live in poverty than their grandparents.

Black children, particularly boys, do less well at school than their parents, especially if their parents came to Canada with a degree. This is not for want of trying; Black kids are more likely to want to get a degree than white kids according to Statistics Canada, but something goes wrong in the school system. Thwarted aspirations are linked to poorer mental health.

And even if people progress at school, Black people in Canada are paid less on average than other people with the same education, and are sometimes paid less for the same job. There are a huge number of scientific papers demonstrating increased rates of anxiety, depression and even psychosis in people who believe they are being unfairly treated by employers because of their race.

'We have to believe': Youth can fight anti-Black racism in Canada

Dahabo Ahmed-Omer: Our political leaders have allowed a climate of anti-Muslim hate to fester in Canada

I could add other factors such as precarious housing, increased rates of criminal prosecution and imprisonment (though there is little evidence of increased offending), and more recently, poorer public health responses to COVID-19, which have meant that the Black community in Toronto, which comprises eight per cent of the population, has accounted for 17 per cent of the people hospitalized .

The term anti-Black racism was coined in Canada to describe the sum total of the social inequalities that the Black population lives with day in and day out, and the fact that as a country, we are not doing enough to deal with them. The social inequalities lead to increased stress, but this stress is supercharged by the fact that the Black community sees that the inequalities seem to be linked to race and that action supposed to promote equality for them has not been effective and rarely goes beyond words.

It produces a toxic psychological environment for Black people in this country.

That environment is worsened by the history of slavery and the lack of an apology for slavery in Canada. It is not helped by increasing rates of hate crimes and everyday racism. It is not helped by seeing that Muslims in Canada can be murdered outside their mosques or just walking along the road.

Black people have worked hard over centuries to build Canada, but the Black population has been left behind when it comes to sharing in the economic benefits of their labour.

The Black population is resilient and there are those who have managed to use adversity to move themselves forward. But they are more likely to be the exception rather than the rule. Studies show a predictable increased risk of some mental health problems in Black people in Canada.

Decreasing the mental health problems linked to COVID-19 requires government policies that recognize the strain we are putting people under and the development of strategies to help those who predictably will struggle. Decreasing the mental health risks for the Black population requires us to recognize the impacts of anti-Black racism.

The recovery gives us an opportunity to start a new chapter in Canada. It could be a chapter where we give everyone an equal chance. To do that we have to decide whether we want to continue racial trauma in Canada or whether we think it is time for all of us to work together to build a better and fairer country.

National Post

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of the Wellesley Institute, a research and policy institute that works to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area.

LITHIUM ION BATTERIES KABOOM
A California couple's Tesla caught fire while charging overnight, ignited another Tesla next to it, and caused a massive house fire. They haven't been home in 8 months.

acooban@businessinsider.com (Anna Cooban)

A California couple said that their Tesla Model S caught fire and caused a house fire. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

A couple said their Tesla Model S caught fire while charging overnight, per The Washington Post.

The Tesla ignited a second Model S next to it and caused a massive house fire, they said.

A fire report said the blaze caused about $1 million worth of damage, per The Post.

A California couple has said that their Tesla Model S caught fire while charging in their garage overnight, spread to a second Tesla vehicle before engulfing their house in flames.

Yogi and Carolyn Vindum, residents of San Ramon, California, have not been able to return to their home since the blaze, which happened on December 30 last year, The Washington Post reported.

"If we had lived upstairs in this house, we'd be dead," Yogi Vindum told the Post, which was the first publication to report the fire on Wednesday.

Yogi Vindum said that a car alarm woke them up at 5.37 a.m. that morning as the house filled with smoke, per the Post.

The couple's 2013 Tesla Model S 85 had caught fire as it was charging, and ignited a second Tesla Model S parked next to it - creating explosions strong enough to blow off the garage doors, they told the Post.

The Post's report included video footage of the fire taken by Yogi Vindum on the night.

The Post said that the Vindums received a fire inspection report in July which cited either the car's thermal management system or electrical system as the possible cause of the blaze.

Yogi Vindum told the Post in an video interview that the fire ripped through the garage up to the office above, and destroyed a further two rooms and a bathroom. He and his wife were sleeping in the back of the house and escaped without injuries, he said.

The fire caused more than $1 million worth of damage, the Post reported, citing a report by the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.

"The firemen said it was so hot that they couldn't walk up the driveway," Yogi Vindum told The Post. At least six fire trucks arrived at the scene, he said.

Tesla has faced mounting concerns over numerous reports of its vehicles catching fire. In July, a new Tesla Model S Plaid reportedly caught fire in Philadelphia while its was being driven, Mark Geragos, the owner's lawyer, said.

In 2019, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into a potential problem in Tesla Model S and X batteries that could cause fires, it said in a letter addressed to a Tesla lawyer at the time.

The NHTSA told Insider in an email that it would not comment on an open investigation.

Other automakers are facing scrutiny over the safety of their electric vehicles as they rush to release new models. In February, Hyundai recalled 82,000 EVs to replace their battery systems over fire safety concerns, per Reuters.

And General Motors told around 51,000 owners of previously recalled 2017-2019 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in July to avoid parking them indoors or charging them unattended, after receiving reports that two had caught fire in the weeks prior.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

OUCH
Starlink is better than its satellite competition but not as fast as landline internet
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols 

ZDNET

5/8/2021

When it comes to internet speed tests, Ookla's Speedtest is the gold standard. So when Ookla examined its data for Starlink and its satellite internet rivals, HughesNet and Viasat, the numbers it comes up with are meaningful.

 Shutterstock

To no great surprise, Ookla found Starlink beats HughesNet and Viasat handly. The company found that "Starlink was the only satellite internet provider in the United States with fixed-broadband-like latency figures, and median download speeds fast enough to handle most of the needs of modern online life at 97.23 Megabits per second (Mbps) during Q2 2021. HughesNet was a distant second at 19.73 Mbps and Viasat third at 18.13 Mbps."


As for latency, the time between when you start an activity over the internet and when you get a response back, it's not even a competition. Starlink's median latency, 45 milliseconds (ms) is close to fixed broadband's 14 ms. Low latency is vital for voice and video calling, gaming, and live content streaming. By comparison, Viasat, 630 ms, and HughesNet, 724 ms, are almost unusable for these purposes.

Why was there such a huge difference? It's simple physics. Unless we ever get quantum networking, we can't network faster than the speed of light. Starlink uses low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, flying above us at a relatively close 550 to 1,200 kilometers (km), while HughesNet and Viasat have far higher geosynchronous orbits of about 35,000km.

Of course, even Starlink isn't as fast as cable or fiber-based internet. According to Ookla, the median fixed-broadband in the US is 115.22Mbps with a latency of 15ms. But, Starlink was never meant to compete with Earth-bound internet in cities and suburbs. It's meant to offer an alternative to people living in the country. There I know people who are still using -- yes, I'm serious -- dial-up modems and slow-as-dirt DSL connections with speeds that go all the way down to Kilobits per second (Kbps).

For these users, Starlink is clearly the better choice. But, Starlink is still being rolled out. This means some places at some times get much better performance than others. Ookla found at the top were users in Morgan county, Alabama at 168.30 Mbps, while lagging more than 100 Mbps behind were the residents of Madison County, Indiana.

Generally speaking, due to how the Starlink satellite constellations are currently set up, the farther North you live, the better your connection. But, as Morgan county shows, that's not a hard and fast rule. For example, in Canada Starlink's median download speed of 86.92 Mbps exceeded the country's median fixed broadband speed of 84.24 Mbps.

In other countries, such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom Starlink's speed vastly beats terrestrial internet speeds. In France, Starlink's download speed 139.39 Mbps, easily outran the country-wide fixed broadband average speed of 70.81 Mbp. With Germany, the difference is even larger. A German internet user can expect to see a Starlink speed of 107.98 Mbps while its Earth-bound competitors come in at 58.17 Mbps. While in the UK, and not just in those areas of Scotland far away from the usual internet providers, Starlink's 108.30 Mbps beats fixed broadband, 50.14 Mbps, hollow. Of course, in all cases, Starlink's latency will be slower than its territorial competitors. You can't beat physics.

You might be wondering how HughesNet and Viasat can stay in business. The reason for that is simple. They're the only internet game in town in many countries. For instance, in Brazil, Viasat's 60.30 Mbps download speed is comparable to fixed broadband's 61.38 Mbps. If you live in the campos, the countryside, you can get Viasat, where you may not have a practical alternative.

But, while Starlink may sound wonderful, its manufacturing lines are still lagging far behind demand. I, for instance, have yet to see my Starlink Terminal and I ordered it almost six months ago.

In theory, Starlink will be available around the world by September. In practice, I'm not counting on it.

Is Starlink for everyone? No. But, if you live beyond the reach of conventional high-speed internet or areas with poor general internet service, you'll want to try to get it. Once in hand, it's clearly the best satellite internet service.

Related Stories:
Starlink: Elon Musk's satellite internet explained
SpaceX president says Starlink global satellite broadband service to be live by September
The ins and outs of Starlink: Internet from the sky

Elizabeth Warren laid into Amazon and Facebook for trying to sideline new FTC chair Lina Khan. Both companies 'fear' Khan's antitrust expertise, she said.

© Provided by Business Insider Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed introducing a wealth tax. Tom Williams/Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren attacked Facebook and Amazon over their objections to FTC chair Lina Khan.

Both companies tried to get Khan recused from antitrust cases involving them, claiming she's biased.

Warren said the companies' concerns were motivated by fear of Khan's expertise.

Elizabeth Warren attacked Facebook and Amazon on Wednesday for trying to get new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan taken off any antitrust cases involving them.

The companies were trying to sideline Khan because they "fear" her expertise in antitrust law, Warren said in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Warren was joined by Sens. Pramila Jayapal, Richard Blumenthal, and Cory Booker in a letter. The senators said Facebook and Amazon's attempts to sideline Khan "only add to the perception that you are attempting to bully your regulators, disarm the FTC, and avoid accountability rather than to strengthen ethics standards."

Khan, a Yale Law School graduate who published a paper entitled "Amazon's antitrust paradox" in 2017, was nominated to the FTC on June 15. Later that month, Amazon filed a 25-page request to the FTC asking to have Khan removed from any judgement involving the company.

Facebook did the same in July, requesting that Khan be recused from an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed against the company by the FTC.

Both companies said Khan has displayed bias against them in the past.

Read more: Read the complete NDAs Insider obtained in its investigation and see how Facebook, Google and Apple enforce silence among employees

"The real basis of your concerns appears to be that you fear Chair Khan's expertise and interpretation of federal antitrust law," the senators wrote.

"To argue that federal ethics laws preclude Chair Khan from exercising her expertise is illogical and inconsistent with the plain language of the relevant statutes and with FTC ethics officials' interpretations of recusal requirements," they added.

Warren wrote in a tweet that "Amazon and Facebook want to sideline @linakhanFTC to force an @FTC stalemate and evade accountability for their anti-competitive behavior."

In the letter, the senators also asked the companies to disclose how many of their attorneys had worked at the FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ), or for a state Attorney General, as well as how many of their lobbyists have worked in Congress.

Warren has attacked Big Tech before, claiming companies like Amazon and Facebook are anti-competitive. During her presidential candidacy run, Warren said she would like to break up the Big Tech companies including Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Facebook shuts down NYU misinformation study, sparking outrage

Jonathan Greig 
ZDNET

Facebook is facing significant backlash from lawyers and professors at two New York universities after the platform shut down a study being done on political ads and the spread of misinformation.

 Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you're in finance, you probably want the latest security quotes, stock prices of all US companies, and market summaries from S&P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ & NYSE, and other indices updates.

You can do this by adding integrations like Bloomberg Market Data and News or Stock Exchange or CNBC. If you're using Bloomberg's skill, you can say, "Alexa, ask Bloomberg for market updates," or if you're using Stock Exchange, you can say, "Alexa, ask Stock Exchange to quote my portfolio". If you're using CNBC, say, "Alexa, ask CNBC how are the markets doing?"

New York University (NYU) and Columbia University released a statement on Wednesday condemning the decision by Facebook, which decided to shut down the accounts of New York University researchers Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy Tuesday evening.

In a statement, Edelson said they had been negotiating with Facebook for months over a research tool called Ad Observer. The tool is part of work of NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy, where Edelson is lead researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Ad Observer is a browser plugin that gave Facebook users the chance to share "limited and anonymous information" about the political ads they see on a daily basis. The tool also allows researchers and reporters to look through political advertising trends on Facebook in their states.

"Yesterday evening, Facebook suspended my Facebook account and the accounts of several people associated with Cybersecurity for Democracy, our team at NYU. This has the effect of cutting off our access to Facebook's Ad Library data, as well as Crowdtangle," Edelson said.

"Over the last several years, we've used this access to uncover systemic flaws in the Facebook Ad Library, to identify misinformation in political ads, including many sowing distrust in our election system, and to study Facebook's apparent amplification of partisan misinformation. By suspending our accounts, Facebook has tried to shut down all this work."

Edelson added that Facebook had effectively cut off access to more than two dozen other researchers and journalists who get access to Facebook data through our project, including work measuring vaccine misinformation with the Virality Project and other partners.

© Provided by ZDNet Facebook: Cambridge Analytica took a lot more data than first thought
The company said it will also inform users if their information was "improperly shared" with the data firm.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment, but Facebook product management director Mike Clark released a blog post accusing the university of studying political ads "using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook" that was in violation of the website's Terms of Service.

"We took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people's privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC Order. The researchers gathered data by creating a browser extension that was programmed to evade our detection systems and scrape data such as usernames, ads, links to user profiles and 'Why am I seeing this ad?' information, some of which is not publicly-viewable on Facebook," Clark said.

"The extension also collected data about Facebook users who did not install it or consent to the collection. The researchers had previously archived this information in a now offline, publicly-available database."

Clark corroborated what NYU said, writing that the two sides had been negotiating since Facebook sent both Edelson and McCoy a cease-and-desist letter last fall demanding they stop using the tool. Facebook wanted the two to take down all of their previous research as well.

Clark said they told NYU the tool was against their Terms of Service before they even deployed it in the summer of 2020. He compared the research project to "scraping," a widespread problem many social media sites now face from cybercriminals and political actors who abuse privileges to steal troves of data from sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

In April, information belonging to 553 million Facebook users was posted online following a scraping incident.

© Provided by ZDNet Facebook prying: Watchdogs hit back on excessive harvesting of your data
Amid concerns over Facebook's use of tracking users with pixels, Belgium joins the Netherlands, France, and EC in legal moves.

The researchers also turned down an attempt by Facebook to give them data collected by the social media platform itself on political ad targeting data from the 2020 US election. Facebook has set up internal programs similar to Ad Observer.

"We made it clear in a series of posts earlier this year that we take unauthorized data scraping seriously, and when we find instances of scraping we investigate and take action to protect our platform," Clark said, arguing further that the violations of privacy outweighed the research's value.

"While the Ad Observatory project may be well-intentioned, the ongoing and continued violations of protections against scraping cannot be ignored and should be remediated."

Edelson said the work they were doing to "make data about disinformation on Facebook transparent" was "vital to a healthy internet and a healthy democracy."

She added that Facebook is "silencing" the two because they were calling attention to the platform's issues dealing with misinformation in political ads, which has become a sensitive topic for the social media giant.

"Worst of all, Facebook is using user privacy, a core belief that we have always put first in our work, as a pretext for doing this," Edelson said. "If this episode demonstrates anything it's that Facebook should not have veto power over who is allowed to study them."

McCoy pointed out that Facebook made this decision right as it is facing widespread backlash from the US government for the spread of COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. Last month, President Joe Biden made waves when he said Facebook was "killing people" through COVID-19 misinformation.

McCoy also criticized Facebook for citing privacy violations considering advertisers "consented to making their ads public."

The two noted that reporters across the country used the tool to write about the 2020 election and that Facebook waited months to shut down their accounts. Hours before their accounts were shut down, they told Facebook they were "studying the spread of disinformation about January 6 on the social media platform."

The researchers' lawyer, Seth Berlin, called it "remarkable" that Facebook would argue political advertising is private considering its purpose and disputed the platform's claims that the Ad Observer team collect private user information.

"Facebook's primary justification for trying to shut down this important research simply doesn't hold up," Berlin said.

Mary Simon officially becomes Canada’s first indigenous governor general


Mary Simon was officially sworn in last week as Canada’s 30th governor general — the first indigenous person ever to hold the position.

“I’m so proud of [Simon],” says Shuswap Band Chief Barb Cote. “What she’s accomplished as an indigenous woman, she’s done a lot in her life. This is a step forward for Canada.”

In the ceremony, Simon said Canadians need to learn the country’s real history in order to move forward with indigenous communities. “Our society must recognize together our moments of regret, alongside those that give us pride, because it creates space for healing, acceptance and the rebuilding of trust,” Simon said. “My view is that reconciliation is a way of life and requires work every day. Reconciliation is getting to know one another.”

Simon, born Mary Jeannie May in Arctic Quebec, now known as Nunavik, brings an impressive resume to her new role as representative of Her Majesty The Queen in Canada. Her appointment follows a career that includes various positions as an advocate and ambassador.

She helped negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975 – a landmark deal between the Cree and Inuit in Quebec’s north, the provincial government and Hydro-Québec.

Simon was also an Inuit representative during the negotiations that led to the patriation of the Constitution in 1982, which included an acknowledgement of indigenous treaty rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1986, she led the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), a group created in 1977 to represent the Inuit in all the Arctic countries. At the ICC, she championed two priorities for northern indigenous peoples: protecting their way of life from environmental damage and pushing for responsible economic development on their traditional territory.

In 1994, former prime minister Jean Chrétien appointed Simon as Canada’s first ambassador for circumpolar affairs. She was later appointed as Canada’s ambassador to Denmark.

While she is fully fluent in English and Inuktitut, Simon is not fluent in French. Traditionally, the governor general is expected to have a complete command of both official languages. Hundreds of French-speaking Canadians have written complaints to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. In her address, Simon reiterated her commitment to learning the French language.

On Thursday, Simon spoke with the Queen. In a short clip of the conversation posted on The Royal Family’s Instagram account, the Queen said it was good to speak with Simon. “You’re taking over a very important job.”

James Rose, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Columbia Valley Pioneer

Fort McMurray SPCA launches emergency fundraiser as packed shelter strains finances

The Fort McMurray SPCA’s shelter is almost full, straining the organization’s finances after COVID-19 restrictions caused most fundraising efforts to be cancelled. To care for the growing number of animals at the shelter, the SPCA is launching an online emergency fundraiser with the goal of hitting at least $50,000.

There are at least 85 animals at the shelter, but the SPCA usually cares for no more than 60 animals during a normal period. The SPCA’s annual masquerade ball usually raises between $30,000 and $50,000 annually, but the 2020 ball was cancelled because of the pandemic. The SPCA voted not to hold a ball in October because if COVID-19 restrictions returned, the organization cannot afford to absorb cancellation costs.

“We have a lot of office cats at the moment,” said Melanie Schneider, acting executive director for the SPCA, in an interview.

“All our animals need to be vaccinated, dewormed, health-checked and spayed or neutered. All that comes with a cost and on top of that we are seeing an increase in people wanting to surrender their animals. For us to keep caring for all the animals, we need the funds to be able do that.”

The SPCA had seen a rise in adoptions during the pandemic, but in recent months there has been an uptick in animals dropped off at the shelter. Schneider said it is difficult to determine the shelter’s maximum capacity for animals. The organization has to consider variables such as litter sizes, and health-related concerns that could demand more financial support and services.

The stressed capacity is pushing the organization to a financial breaking point. In 2019, the SPCA raised more than $219,000, but in 2020 pulled in $85,000. The Fort McMurray SPCA had raised $32,000 this year before launching its online fundraiser.

“We need to make sure we get ahead of this financially,” said Schneider. “We are seeing a lot more animals come in that aren’t healthy animals. Those animals need more from us than standard care. We just had four animals come in that required dental work and that’s roughly $1,500 to $2,000 per animal.”

Schneider added much of the recent uptick has been caused by unplanned litters arriving at the shelter. The economic and social fallout of COVID-19 is also making it harder for some people to care for animals.

“Some of our intake is coming from people losing their jobs due to COVID and not being able to afford supporting an animal,” said Schneider. “But we are also seeing a lot of juvenile animals and I can’t stress enough how important it is to spay or neuter your pets so that you don’t have an unplanned litter.”

smclean@postmedia.com
Scott McLean, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort McMurray Today

Where is the Fort McMurray SPCA charitable number?

Fort McMurray SPCA 155 MacAlpine Cres Fort McMurray, AB T9H4C5. Phone: (780) 743-8997 Fax: 780-791-3772 Email: info@fortmcmurrayspca.ca. The FMSPCA Charitable Number is: 893333575RR0001

Fort McMurray SPCA – Save lives! Spay or Neuter

fmspca.ca/

Feds have options to revisit Coalspur ruling

While the Government of Canada is still reviewing and deciding its next steps following the Federal Court’s decision to quash the designation of the Coalspur Mining (Bighorn) projects, Coalspur could technically move ahead with the projects pending approvals from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

David Percy, a professor of Energy Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, explained that the mine projects cannot currently be subject to a federal assessment, but this can be changed in two ways.

“Firstly, Canada could take an appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal. However, unless there is some form of special application, the federal assessment would remain invalid unless, after the appeal, the Court of Appeal were to reverse the decision of Justice Brown,” he said.

Secondly, Percy continued, the federal government could remedy its failure to consult Ermineskin Cree Nation in the decision to designate the projects by beginning to consult with Ermineskin in good faith and taking those consultations all the way to conclusion.

The reasoning in the judge’s decision to quash the designation was due to a lack of consultation with the Ermineskin Cree Nation, who entered into an Impact Benefit Agreement with Coalspur that provides economic, community, and social benefits to Ermineskin.

The judge stated that the only Indigenous groups consulted by the Minister were those requesting the designation order and that a duty to consult Ermineskin was breached.

Percy explained that remedying the identified failure in a court quashing is what also happened when the courts first quashed the TransMountain pipeline permits.

“When the Federal government properly completed consultation, and after another series of appeals, TMX could proceed with the project,” he said.

This means if Coalspur’s projects have been fully approved by the AER and has obtained all the necessary permits, Coalspur can proceed with the mine, subject to its financial ability to do so under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection proceedings. The company recently filed for creditor protection in April and was granted an extension of the protection in early May. This extension ran out on July 23, 2021. No new updates have been released on the company’s status in that process.

The projects in this case include the Phase I Vista Test Underground Mine and Vista Mine Phase II Expansion Projects. The minister of Environment and climate change, Jonathan Wilkinson, said they are determining the implications of the quashing and identifying the next move.

He stated that the federal government is committed to working with Indigenous peoples in a meaningful way that advances reconciliation, respects Indigenous rights and culture, and protects and ensures consideration of Indigenous knowledge.

“That’s why we delivered on our promise to put in place better rules for major projects that support reconciliation, while restoring public trust, protecting the environment and ensuring good projects get built,” stated Wilkinson.

Despite that statement, the judge in this case stated that the duty to consult regarding the loss of the agreement between Ermineskin and Coalspur “also results in value to the Crown in terms of its stated goals in relation to reconciliation.”

Wilkinson went on to state that the continued mining and use of thermal coal for energy production in Canada and around the world runs counter to what is needed to effectively combat climate change.

A policy statement was released by his office on thermal coal mining in June, noting that new thermal coal mines or expansions are likely to cause unacceptable environmental effects, and will inform how these projects will be assessed.

“Going forward, I will continue to consider this policy in deciding whether to designate thermal coal projects under the federal Impact Assessment Act,” Wilkinson said.

Masha Scheele, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hinton Voice

Biden nominates first LGBT federal appeals court nominee


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating a Vermont judge who played a critical role in paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage to become the first openly LGBT woman to serve on any federal circuit court.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The White House announced Thursday that Biden has tapped Beth Robinson, an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court since 2011, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The court's territory includes Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

In 1999, before she was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court, Robinson helped argue the case that led to Vermont’s civil unions law, the first legal recognition in the country of same-sex relationships — a forerunner of gay marriage.

Robinson served as counsel to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, from 2010 to 2011. From 1993 to 2010, Robinson was a civil litigator in private practice at Langrock Sperry & Wool where she focused on employment law, workers’ compensation, contract disputes and family law.

Robinson previously worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., focusing on white-collar criminal defense. She was a law clerk for Judge David Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1990.

The White House also announced that Biden is nominating employment law attorney Charlotte Sweeney for the U.S. District Court in Colorado. She would become the the first openly LGBT woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of the Mississippi.

Biden thus far has announced 35 judicial nominees to serve on the federal bench.

Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press