ZIONIST STATE NOT A DEMOCRACY

DRUZE FLAGS

Liberman calls for Nation-State law to be changed for Druze community

By TZVI JOFFRE - The Jerusalem Post

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman called for fellow lawmakers to support a change to the Nation-State Law and to establish Israel's Declaration of Independence as a Basic Law after the name of the Druze IDF soldier who fell in a covert operation in Gaza in 2018 was released on Sunday.


"There is a clear contradiction between the Nation-State Law in its current version and all the words of praise for the hero of Israel, the late Lt.-Col. Mahmoud Kheir al-Din, and many other good people who fell while serving the state," said Liberman on Sunday.


"This is an opportunity to amend the Nation-State Law and establish the Declaration of Independence as a Basic Law," added the finance minister. "I call on both the opposition and the coalition to recalculate the path and instead of settling for words like 'brothers in arms' to Druze society, to do what is necessary."

Lt.-Col. Mahmoud Kheir al-Din, from the Druze town of Hurfeish in the North, was killed on November 11, 2018, by friendly fire during a firefight with Hamas gunmen while carrying out a lengthy special operation in the Gaza Strip.

The Basic Law: Israel - The nation-state of the Jewish people was approved by the Knesset in July 2018. It stipulates that "The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, religious, and historic right to self-determination" and "The fulfillment of the right of national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people."

Druze protesters with their flags in Tel Aviv 

(credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)

The law faced controversy when it was passed, as it does not guarantee the equality of all Israeli citizens, especially minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Druze and Circassians. The High Court upheld the Nation-State Law last year, saying it was not within its purview to order the law be canceled or be involved in its content. The lone dissenting judge said that some parts of the law challenge Israel's democratic nature, as it ignores Arab and Druze citizens and harms the principle of equality.

Yaya Fink, director-general of the Darkenu movement, welcomed the call by Liberman on Sunday, saying "We do not need a blood covenant but a covenant of living in equality. The Druze and Arab citizens of Israel are all good enough to take care of us in the hospitals and fight alongside us in the security forces, and they should be good enough for amending the Nation-State Law because equality is a fundamental value in democracy."

Dr. Amir Khnifess, head of the Institute for Druze Studies, repeated the call for the Nation-State Law to be changed and for the Declaration of Independence to be established as a Basic Law.

"It is time to right the terrible injustice that the Nation-State Law causes the Druze, who daily risk their lives for the defense of the homeland," said Khnifess. "It is time to realize that hundreds of members of the community have given their lives for the state and thousands such as Kheir al-Din have protected its security since the establishment of the state. It is time to translate the great slogans 'blood covenant' into a true covenant of life and to give equal status to the community which is a symbol and role model for a real connection with the Jewish people in Israel."

MK Gilad Kariv expressed support for Liberman's call to change the law, calling it "an important opening for anchoring the principle of equality in the Basic Laws of the State of Israel, and strengthening the constitutional status of the Declaration of Independence."

"The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which is responsible for enacting the Basic Laws, discussed the issue at the previous session and will convene again in the coming days to examine the feasibility of the matter," added Kariv.

Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg and Meretz MK Mossi Raz will both submit separate bills amending the Nation-State Law, the two announced following Liberman's statement.

The bills will go to a vote at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. The Likud stated that it will oppose any changes made to the Nation-State Law, claiming that the amendment will lead to the annulment of the Law of Return and the "flooding of Israel with millions of Muslim immigrants."

Chicago alt-weekly survives column clash, going nonprofit


CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Reader, the city's famed alt-weekly, is expected to become a nonprofit this month after the sale was nearly derailed over a co-owner's column opposing COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children.

The publication was on track to be sold to the new nonprofit last year until the November printing of defense attorney Leonard Goodman’s column headlined “Vaxxing our kids" prompted allegations of misinformation and censorship.

Goodman agreed to step aside in late April, allowing the sale to go through. Still, the standoff among the alt-weekly's managers left staff members in limbo for months, wondering if the Reader would be shut down after surviving multiple previous sales and the coronavirus pandemic.

In the column, Goodman wrote that “feverish hype by government officials, mainstream media outlets, and Big Pharma" made him question whether his 6-year-old daughter should be vaccinated.

Critics including former and current Reader staff quickly blasted his take, arguing that Goodman relied on sources repeatedly fact-checked by media and infectious-disease experts.

Publisher Tracy Baim said editors asked to hire an independent fact-checker to vet the column. Baim said she and her co-publisher then met with Goodman and discussed options, but “it was very clear he didn't like any” of their proposals.

Goodman said the Reader should have stood by him once the piece was published, regardless of his argument.

“This is an opinion piece,” he said. “It’s not writing as a scientist.”

Hoping to keep the peace, Baim said she told editors they would leave the column as written until the sale closed. But then two board members accused Baim and Reader staff of censorship and demanded several changes to the sale agreement — stalling the transition.

Sladjana Vuckovic, one of the members who backed Goodman, said she wouldn't have objected to the Reader publishing another writer's column favoring vaccination for kids but thought Goodman's perspective “was of great interest" and didn't require a rewrite.

The Reader's staff union led protests outside Goodman's home last month, bringing renewed attention to their demand that Goodman and his backers “free the Reader.” Many in the city's arts, music and performing arts communities backed the push, sharing stories of the Reader's influence on Chicago.

The alt-weekly first published in 1971, with editions assembled in some of its young founders’ apartments. In an issue celebrating the publication’s 50th anniversary, one founder recalled breaking even for the first time three years later.

By the 1980s, ad revenue was in the millions and kept growing to a peak of $22.6 million in 2002. But the Reader has struggled financially since as advertising dollars migrated online and the publication shuffled between owners.

Goodman and Elzie Higginbottom, a developer, bought the alt-weekly for $1 in 2018 in an orchestrated bid to keep it alive. Baim, also the founder of the LGBT newspaper the Windy City Times, became the Reader’s publisher.

She felt a drastic change was the only solution. In the summer of 2019, Baim made her pitch to the owners and board: form a new nonprofit to purchase the Reader.

The IRS approved creation of the Reader Institute for Community Journalism in February 2020. And then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.

Alt-weeklies including the Reader have struggled for several decades alongside local newspapers. But they were uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic that abruptly shut down restaurants, performing arts and other advertisers.

“Any news outlet that was free and dependent entirely on advertising had a very real and in some ways almost impossible challenge,” said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University specializing in alternative business models.

Nonprofit local newsrooms remain rare in U.S. media, but there has been a growing push to create them as the pressures of a declining business model force consolidation and increasing ownership by hedge funds and private equity.

The Reader cut its 60,000 printed copies down to twice a month, furloughed staff and tried to make money by selling branded merchandise and publishing a coloring book.

“We lost almost 100 percent of advertising overnight,” Baim said. “We had to basically dance for dollars.”

Baim said she still believed the nonprofit strategy was the Reader's best chance — if board members and Goodman would allow it to go forward. But she and others balked at the board members' insistence on more seats on the new nonprofit's board.

Goodman said he tried to work out an agreement with his co-owner “for many months," including a proposal to complete the sale and resolve the dispute about the board appointments later on. That idea was rejected, he said.

”And there was no path forward at that point other than filing a lawsuit, which would have destroyed the Reader" Goodman said.

Goodman said the dispute hasn't swayed his confidence in the sources cited in the column. He called the suggestion that staff felt pressure to run a co-owner’s piece “complete nonsense” and said his opposition to requiring vaccines was the reason for the backlash, not his sources.

Baim though said that the staff’s pushback was a journalistic response to the sources Goodman used — not a reaction to his opinion.

“I am horrified the relationship deteriorated over one column out of 21 that we tried to do the right thing journalistically with,” Baim said.

For the Reader's staff, the final sale expected to close this month brings optimism. But they worry the delay cost the paper financially and will make the process ahead more difficult, said Philip Montoro, the music editor who has been on staff since 1996.

"We don't have owners anymore, there's no backstop, no safety net,” Montoro said.

Kathleen Foody, The Associated Press

USA
She's been pushing for student loan forgiveness for a decade. Now it could happen

Astra Taylor co-founded Debt Collective, the first union for debtors, nearly a decade ago.

Broad student loan forgiveness could be the union's biggest win.

CNBC asked Taylor about what it's like to finally see something you've been fighting for for so long on the horizon.


Astra Taylor

Annie Nova - CNBC

Astra Taylor took out her first student loan at 17. She attended Brown University and The New School, and owed tens of thousands of dollars when she defaulted on her debt during the 2008 financial crisis.

"Overnight, they added 19% to my principal," Taylor, 42, said. "Like millions of others, I was caught in a debt trap."

By luck, her partner, Jeff Mangum, a musician who founded the band Neutral Milk Hotel, offered to pay off her loans in 2012. In almost every way, her life changed.

"It saved me decades of payments," she said. Without worrying about meeting her monthly student loan bill, she was able to focus on her passion of making documentaries and writing books.

Around the same time, in 2014, she helped to found Debt Collective, the first union for debtors.

"The experience of having the weight of my student loans lifted is part of why I am doing this work," Taylor said. "I want the same relief and opportunity for other people."

President Joe Biden recently said he'd be making an announcement on student loan forgiveness within weeks. CNBC interviewed Taylor about what it's like to finally see something you've been fighting for for so long on the horizon.

Annie Nova: Beyond your personal experience, what made you want to make one of your life's mission fighting for people in debt?

Astra Taylor: When wages aren't high enough to cover the essentials of life, poor and working people have no choice but to take on debt to survive. In this sense, we are robbed twice, first by bosses who underpay us, and then by lenders who charge interest and fees when we borrow to cover the gap. Contrary to stereotypes, a lot of credit card debt is for basic necessities — things like rent, food and medical care. In this country, most working people aren't living beyond their means, they are being denied the means to live. Exploding household debt is the result.

AN: Why do people with debt, in your opinion, need a union?

AT: The financial sector is incredibly well organized. They are lobbying around the clock and have been able to repeal usury protections, deregulate the banking industry and grow their business, and we're all paying the price. That's why we need to band together to fight for fairer terms, debt relief and policy shifts that will ensure we don't have to take on debt to survive.

AN: Outstanding student loan debt has been rising for decades. What do you see as some of the earliest roots of the crisis?

AT: We used to have a model of adequately funding public higher education. That began to change in the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California. He dismantled the University of California Master Plan, which provided free college to everyone, and demanded that the system start charging students. This was part of his strategy to quiet down student protests for civil rights and free speech. The idea was that if people had to go into debt to go to school, they'd think twice about paying to carry a picket sign. His actions were part of the broader right-wing push to dismantle government services and turn as many public institutions as possible over to private actors looking for new ways to profit.

AN: You have an issue with the term "student loan forgiveness." Can you explain why?

AT: Millions of debtors have paid off the original amount they borrowed, and yet are still in debt thanks to compounding interest, and many of them somehow owe more than their original balances. That's the classic definition of a debt trap. It doesn't make sense to say these people are asking for "forgiveness." That word makes it seem like debtors have done something wrong. We are talking about a system-level problem — not an individual moral failing.

AN: What role do you think student debt cancellation could have on the midterm elections?

AT: Nearly 1 in 5 Trump voters said they would consider voting for a Democrat if Democrats canceled all student debt. Another poll determined that 40% of Black voters would consider staying home for the next election if there's no action on student loan debt. It could make or break the Democrats in battleground states.

AN: It remains uncertain how much student debt will be canceled, if any. Biden has said he's not considering wiping out $50,000 per borrower, suggesting he might decide on a smaller figure. You believe all $1.7 trillion in outstanding student debt should be canceled. Why?

AT: For millions of borrowers stuck in a debt trap, ... $10,000 or $20,000 barely provides a dent in the amount they owe. For 83% of Black borrowers, canceling $10,000 of debt still leaves them with a balance higher than their original amount. That is unacceptable.

AN: One of the leading arguments against student loan cancellation is that it directs resources to people who are better off, since they attended college. What are your thoughts on this?

AT: Truly rich people do not have student debt, because they or their parents could cover the costs. Also, the well off get lots of financial assistance they don't acknowledge. Mortgage holders have been able to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and they also get to deduct their mortgage interest on their taxes. Credit card debtors, who are more likely to be struggling, aren't getting a 3% interest rate they can write off. Our financial system is riddled with these kinds of double standards and it's rigged against poor and working people.

AN: Student debt cancellation could be imminent. How does that feel?

AT: It's amazing to see something you've been working on for so long become mainstream and to hear people like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and others echo our talking points. We first protested student debt in 2012, when it surpassed $1 trillion. Ten years later, it's racing toward $2 trillion and even more borrowers are suffering. The problem has gotten a lot worse, but at least we're finally hearing politicians acknowledge that the only sensible solution is for the debt to be erased.

This Waterloo, Ont., brainiac just got his master's degree in physics at 17

Hala Ghonaim - Friday, May 13,2022
CBC 


Cendikiawan Suryaatmadja may not be able to legally buy a lottery ticket or vote yet, but the 17-year-old University of Waterloo whiz has already completed his master's degree in physics.


© Hala Ghonaim/CBC

University of Waterloo student Cendikiawan Suryaatmadja, 17, is attending his master's in physics graduation ceremony in June, and says he plans to take his PhD next.

"It feels good. I am very proud of it," he humbly shared.

Suryaatmadja, originally from West Java, Indonesia, came to the Ontario city when he was 12 to kickstart his post-secondary journey.

By 16, he had successfully completed a bachelor's degree in mathematical physics with a minor in pure mathematics.

Next month, he'll attend his master's degree graduation ceremony, as one of the three youngest master's grads in the history of the university. The other two were even younger than him.

"I hope that by doing this, I could encourage all the younger people out there to really strive up to their potential," he said.

Next fall — you guessed it — Suryaatmadja plans to pursue a PhD in physics, specializing in quantum information.
'Fun' school experience

How did he do it?

"I really loved math at a young age," Suryaatmadja said.

Ever since he could remember, he said, he would buy handfuls of educational books and math comics. He joined many math competitions and before he knew it, he had fast tracked through high school and was ready for further education.

Suryaatmadja said his university experience has been "fun."

"Although my stature may be a bit unconventional, I don't think I have a particularly hard time making friends," he said, referring to how young he looks.

Socializing was pretty easy, he said, because people were welcoming and there was no shortage of school clubs to join.

"I particularly enjoy doing improv."

Suryaatmadja said some people were shocked when they found out how old he was, but others not so much.

"I think it's because I look quite young," he said. "I don't think I'm treated any more special than other students. I'm glad that that's the case."

When he's not studying, in class or at improv club, Suryaatmadja is out grabbing bubble tea with friends, watching TV or jogging.

The only thing he still gets hung up on is Canada's fickle weather.

"I'll be honest. The weather can get a bit annoying. There's just so much transition: Winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall," said Suryaatmadja.
'Be what you want'

As you can imagine, Suryaatmadja's teachers and administration take pride in his accomplishments.

"What [Suryaatmadja] has done is truly remarkable. Having the academic skills and personal drive to finish his master's at his age reflects a level of accomplishment that is incredibly rare," said Jeff Casello, associate vice-president graduate studies and postdoctoral affairs, in an emailed statement.

"I think all of us in the graduate community feel a sense of pride that he's chosen to study with us, and that we have played a small role in his success."

Suryaatmadja insists age is nothing but a number, and hopes to encourage other young people to chase their dreams no matter how old they are.

"For all the younger people out there, if you are really interested in something and you think it could help a lot of people, don't be intimidated just because the people are doing the same thing are much older than you." he said

"I think that you could be what you want, and the only thing that's limiting you is yourself."

CANADIAN HISTORY

Dutch Princess Margriet honours Canadian general who liberated her nation in WWII
Friday
The Canadian Press


OTTAWA — Princess Margriet of the Netherlands paid tribute to the Canadian who negotiated the surrender of the Nazis in her country in 1945.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greeted the princess with a fist bump at the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa, which was blooming with tulips — a flower that has come to symbolize the relationship between the Netherlands and Canada.

Together, Trudeau and Princess Margriet unveiled a plaque in honour of Gen. Charles Foulkes, who commanded Canada’s troops in Italy in 1945.

A small group of onlookers watched the intimate ceremony from a distance, hoping for a glimpse of the princess.

"I love the romance of the story of her being born here," said Laura Peck, who said she lives near the princess' former Ottawa home. "It's like visiting a neighbour."

The princess was born in the Canadian capital, after the Dutch royal family escaped the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War.

"As we all know, Canadian forces played a heavy role in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945," said the cemetery's spokesperson Nick McCarthy during the small ceremony.

After the surrender was signed, the country was liberated and a 77-year-old friendship between Netherlands and Canada was formed, McCarthy said.

The princess laid a bouquet of flowers on Foulkes's grave before taking a tour around the ceremony with the prime minister.

Neither of the dignitaries spoke to the public at the event.

Trudeau kept his mask on for the duration of the visit, despite the unseasonably warm weather. He told the princess he had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, and wanted to be extra cautious.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2022.

MY FATHER WOULD TELL ME HIS STORIES OF MEETING HER AND THE CANADIAN LIBERATION OF HOLLAND

SEE Suffield Base Canada's Area 51: plawiuk — LiveJournal

Depressed and burned out, Ontario nurses planning to leave the field in droves, poll finds

WHERE WILL THEY GO?

EVERY PROVINCE IS FACING THE SAME PROBLEM AS IS THE USA

Swikar Oli - Friday, May 13,2022

National Post

Overworked and overlooked during the pandemic, a large majority of Ontario nurses feel demoralized at work and are asking for things to change, according to a new survey.

Emergency room nurse Aimee Earhart speaks to a reporter as the Omicron coronavirus variant continued to put pressure on Humber River Hospital in Toronto, on Jan. 20, 2022.

The survey, conducted by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), finds 75 per cent of nurses in the province experiencing “burnout.” Hospital and frontline workers were the most likely to report higher levels of “depression, anxiety, stress and burnout,” according to the findings, which accompanies a report detailing the personal toll the pandemic has taken on nurses across the province.

The survey was conducted between May and July of 2021, “during the height of Ontario’s third wave,” RNAO said in a news release. Close to 5,200 Canadian nurses, most of them from Ontario, participated in the survey.

It found that 70 per cent of respondents were planning to leave their jobs in five years. Among those who wanted to leave the profession, 42 per cent said they wanted out for good and would look for work in a different field altogether or simply retire.

B.C. health care workers who speak out about under-staffing hit with gag order: nurses union

'Crisis proportions': Burnout among Ontario nurses is threatening the health system

“Burnout has made me leave a department I love and felt like I had a calling for,” said one respondent, adding: “I feel greatly unappreciated.”

Staffing levels were the greatest challenge, the survey found, with a significant majority of respondents (60 per cent) saying they were concerned. About 54 per cent of nurses also assigned a particular importance to having higher ratio of experienced staff during shifts. And while 53 per cent expressed concern about the workload during the pandemic, only 15 per cent reported seeing a significant increase in staffing.

Only 35 per cent of nurses reported having adequate support services to spend time with patients or clients.

“The numbers are both sobering and alarming and represent a call to action for the government, health employers, educators, and nursing associations,” Dr. Doris Grinspun, the CEO of RNAO, said in the release.

Adding to the exhaustion, a significant majority of nurses (58 per cent) said their organization limited their vacation days due to workplace demands, while 53 per cent said they had to restrict their vacation to accommodate their employer’s request.


Related video: Why Quebec’s nurses are quitting in droves (cbc.ca)

“The results are even more stark when you consider that Ontario went into the pandemic with a shortfall of 22,000 registered nurses on a per-capita basis compared to the rest of Canada,” as RNAO points out.

The report also proposes a list of recommendations to improve retention and alleviate the burnout nurses face. They include:

— Repealing Bill 124 in Ontario, which imposes wage restraints

— Increasing the registered nurse workforce by expediting applications and finding pathways for 26,000 internationally educated nurses living in Ontario

— Increasing enrollments and funding for baccalaureate nursing programs,

— Developing and fund a Return to Nursing Now program to attract registered nurses back to the workforce

— Expanding the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, reinstating the Late Career Nurse Initiative and bringing back retired registered nurses to serve as mentors.

— Establishing a nursing task force to make recommendations on retention and recruitment of registered nurses.

Sixty-eight per cent said the biggest key to retain nurses planning to leave the profession was offering better workplace supports. Having the ability to adjust their work schedules was the second biggest deciding factor in retention, at 58 per cent. Improving benefits and providing better career opportunities were other measures requested, at at 55 and 43 per cent, respectively.

“We must pay unique attention to RNs – who are the ones exiting the profession en masse,” president of RNAO Morgan Hoffarth said in the statement. “We know nurses are committed and have vital expertise, compassion and skills to share. What we need is sustained effort to retain the nurses we have, and ensure welcoming workplaces for new graduates and others who join the profession.”

The Ministry of Health is reviewing the RNAO report, spokesperson Bill Campbell wrote in an email. He noted that Ontario introduced measures during the pandemic to improve nursing workforce stability, including a nursing recruitment incentive and “the increase in seats in nursing programs to add nurses to the health system in the coming years.”

Campbell also highlighted the province’s collaboration with Ontario Health and the College of Nurses of Ontario on an initiative to “deploy internationally educated nurses to hospitals and long-term care homes.” Under the program, the province has pledged $100 million to add 2,000 nurses to the long-term care sector by 2024-25.

Campbell added: “Mental health supports have been developed for health-care workers who had been impacted by COVID-19.”

Bill 124 “applies to over one million people working in Ontario’s public sector, including those in schools, colleges, universities, the provincial government, hospitals, and the provincial police,” Kyle Richardson, a spokesperson for Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat wrote in an email. The bill, which limits wage increases for public sector workers to a maximum of one per cent for three years, has been singled out by advocates as the biggest impediment to retaining nurses.

“The Act enables three-year moderation periods on compensation increases, but it does not impose a wage freeze, rollback or job cuts. Ontario’s public sector employees are still able to receive salary increases for seniority, performance, or increased qualifications.”

RNAO’s call to increase staff levels and to increase the province’s registered nurse workforce has been backed by the Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission, Colleges Ontario and the Council of Ontario Universities.

The one “silver lining” in the study, said Hoffarth, is the 35 per cent increase in applications to baccalaureate nursing programs in Ontario.

Survey suggests majority of Albertans think UCP should drop Kenney while only a slim majority trust the leadership review process

Ashley Joannou - May 16,2022
Edmonton Journal

A new survey by University of Alberta researchers suggests that the majority of Albertans believe Premier Jason Kenney should lose his leadership review when the results are announced Wednesday.


Jason Kenney speaks in Calgary on March 25, 2022. The Alberta premier, buffeted by party infighting and a contentious leadership review, is rejecting speculation he may call an early election as part of a last-ditch effort to maintain control.

However, only a slim majority said they have faith in the process, which the survey’s principal investigator warns could lead to political instability if Kenney is able to secure a win.

The latest online survey from Common Ground , published Monday, asked 2,151 Albertans of all political stripes a slew of questions about themselves and where they stood on the province’s current political leaders as well as the UCP leadership review.

Approximately six out of 10 of those surveyed said they believe UCP members should vote to remove Kenney as party leader. Only 21 per cent said Kenney should stay, with the remainder saying they were unsure.

Slightly less than half — approximately 47.4 per cent — think that Kenney will be removed, compared with 28.9 per cent who think he will remain in power and 24 per cent who aren’t sure.

When asked whether they had confidence that the leadership review would be conducted fairly, only 55.1 per cent of those surveyed were either “very” or “somewhat” confident.

Kenney’s office referred questions to either the party or his leadership campaign, neither of which responded by deadline.

Common Ground’s principal investigator and associate professor of political science Jared Wesley said the survey’s numbers are part of a broader trend among Western Canadian conservative parties that are having a difficult time instilling confidence among their members and leadership contestants as to whether their processes are fair.

“For example, in Manitoba, we saw the outcome of a race for premier among the Progressive Conservatives was thrown into court because the person who placed second didn’t believe in the results,” he said.

“So this is part of a worrying trend, I think, for those of us that study political and democratic institutions where we’ve entered a period now where we can’t take for granted that the results of a particular election will be accepted by the folks that lose.”

Wesley called the idea of “losers’ consent” a cornerstone of modern democracy for the peaceful transfer of power.

“And according to this poll, I don’t think we can take that for granted in Alberta,” he said.

The United Conservative Party’s first leadership race is still under investigation by the RCMP. Meanwhile this latest review has faced controversy after it was moved from in person to mail-in voting. Correspondence obtained by The Canadian Press indicates Elections Alberta is investigating allegations of possible illegal bulk buying of party memberships.

If party members disagree with the results some could try and force another review, Wesley said.

“But I think probably the more likely outcome for those that are really disaffected is to leave the party and either take up membership in an existing party or form a new party,” he said.

Because the survey is not just of voting UCP members, Wesley said the results are not necessarily proof of how things are going to unfold on Wednesday but do suggest the kind of political environment Kenney will be dealing with if he stays in charge.

“We’re not sure how members of the UCP will vote. This just tells you what the likely public reaction is going to be,” he said.

Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error would be plus or minus two per cent 19.5 times out of 20.

ajoannou@postmedia.com
twitter.com/ashleyjoannou

Whether Jason Kenney wins or loses on May 18, the UCP is still headed for a showdown

Tyler Dawson - Saturday
National Post

EDMONTON — Jason Kenney is finished — or not. He’s the only hope the United Conservative Party has at re-election — or their greatest liability. It all depends on who you ask about the former Harper cabinet minister turned Alberta premier.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces construction of a major highway project in Leduc, Alberta on Thursday, May 12, 2022

On May 18, the ​United Conservative Party — and Albertans — will find out if Kenney retains his job as party leader when the results of a leadership review are made public after roughly one month of mail-in voting.

Whatever the outcome, the question that’s looming over the party is whether the UCP can defeat Rachel Notley’s New Democrats in the 2023 election.

“Everything comes down to the election, basically a year from now,” said Zane Novak, with Take Back Alberta, a committee created to get rid of Kenney. “If the UCP doesn’t have its act together, we believe that their chances of success are very slim. And we feel that with Jason Kenney at the helm that their chances of success are almost impossible.”

Brock Harrison, who’s running communications for Kenney’s leadership review team, said ​unity is key ahead of an election.

“There’s a ton of work to do and you’re seeing, the NDP, they’re already doing it,” said Harrison. “And we’ve been hamstrung by this leadership review.”

When Kenney united Alberta’s right back in 2017 and won the 2019 general election, he did so on a massive wave of support. But the premier has had a rough few years — a lot has changed since April 16, 2019, when Kenney declared that “help is on the way and hope is on the horizon.”

For months, polls have reflected Kenney’s unpopularity among UCP voters and Albertans at large. In April, polling from ThinkHQ found that just 29 per cent of Albertans approved of Kenney’s job performance. It also showed 61 per cent of current United Conservatives want Kenney gone, and 45 per cent say they would be less likely to vote United Conservative in the 2023 election if Kenney’s leading the party.

​Many who want Kenney gone have expressed a deep anger over the way the United Conservatives handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There had already started to be a lot of frustration,” said Novak. “The whole thing just came to a flashpoint — accelerated — when it became the mandates, the pandemic and how he handled it.”

On April 9, when the party kicked off the leadership review with a special general meeting, Kenney addressed those who disliked his COVID-19 approach directly, saying the party risked looking in the “rear view mirror” and ending up in a divisive leadership contest.

“It will drive a wedge right down the middle of our party from which we may never again recover, and there’s only one person who wins from that, and her name is Rachel Notley,” Kenney said.

There are other decisions that have frustrated the party’s base. For example, Kenney’s unite the right campaign had promised to respect grassroots decision-making, but as far back as 2018 Kenney said, “I hold the pen on the platform.”

Over the past year, the party has been riven by infighting, much of it public. In September 2021, leaks from caucus suggested a putsch was imminent. At the November annual general meeting, anti-Kenney members attempted to take over the party’s board. None of this was successful; Team Kenney has held its ground.

But will it on May 18?

The leadership vote is happening by mail — itself a controversy. Ballots were due in to Deloitte, which has been hired as an independent overseer and manager, on May 11. On May 18, the party will reconvene its special general meeting to announce the results.

When the party first decided in December to hold a leadership review, the plan was for in-person voting in Red Deer on April 9. But on March 23, the party announced a change: More than 15,000 people had registered to come vote, paying a fee to do so, and the party said, simply, they could not manage that amount of in-person voting.

Instead, ballots were mailed out to the nearly 60,000 party members. This has sapped some of the confidence in the process. Brian Jean, the former Wildrose party leader, who lost in 2017 to Kenney in the race to lead the United Conservatives, said in a March statement that “a rushed mail-in ballot is a formula for fraud and cheating.” (Jean, who recently won a byelection to return to provincial politics, has been open about his desire to see Kenney gone — and that he’d like to replace him.)


© Vincent McDermott/Fort McMurray Today/Postmedia

UCP’s Brian Jean said the mail-in ballot is a formula for fraud and cheating. QUOTING TRUMP

The anti-Kenney side argues the extended timeline for the vote allowed Kenney to do a lap around the province, promoting the fuel tax cut that came into effect April 1 and the upcoming rebates for home heating costs.

Related video: Kenney calls Alberta court of appeal decision striking down Bill C-69 ‘a huge win for the people of Alberta' (Global News)

“On and on and on he uses our tax dollars to make himself look like a hero and detract, deflect, smoke and mirrors away from the mail-in ballot,” said Novak.

Cynthia Moore, the party’s president, told the Calgary Herald she’s “absolutely convinced” the vote will be fair and honest. “The premier was not involved at all in the decision-making,” Moore said.

Kenney’s opponents argue that the in-person voting favoured those who were mad enough to buy a pass to the special meeting and take time from their lives to drive to Red Deer — ie., their camp. A wider membership vote reaches those with less fiery bellies, or older members instead of new, agitated ones, and that may favour Kenney.

“If people are now saying, well, ‘Jason’s more popular, a vote of the broader membership advantages Jason,’ well, so be it,” said Harrison. “If the allegation is that that Jason is more popular with grassroots members, then I guess, you know, guilty as charged.”

There are three basic scenarios before the party: Kenney wins big, Kenney wins small or Kenney loses. All lead into the election question.

Kenney has said that he will step aside if he loses the leadership review. If that happens, the party would enter a leadership race to find someone to lead the party against the Notley NDP next year.


Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley. 

Photo by David Bloom

“A new leader means the party, potentially, can go in an infinite number of directions,” said Matt Solberg, with New West Public Affairs. “And if there is a new leader coming, it’d be at least six months before that can be presented to voters. And now you’re getting pretty close to that election redzone.”

The other two scenarios are more complicated, because it’s not clear what threshold Kenney might need to reach in order to retain the support of his caucus.

In November 2009, Ed Stelmach won the confidence of the Progressive Conservatives — a UCP precursor — with 77 per cent support. He was gone two years later. Then, in November 2013, Alison Redford won with the exact same percentage — she was gone by March 2014. In both instances, there were questions about their leadership of the party.

“For a long time, the minimum bar was 77 per cent. Now, if Jason Kenney got 77 per cent in this vote, I would say that’s winning big and I think a lot of folks would agree with me on that,” said Solberg.

Harrison argued the context for these reviews was totally different, because it’s a huge pool of voters.

“This should not in any way be compared to a leadership review where 2,000 party faithful file into a hotel ballroom, pay their fee to go to an event and render their verdict on the leader,” said Harrison. “So I think the result, whatever it is, has to be interpreted in that context.”

Kenney has been reluctant to put a number on the threshold he’s hoping to reach. In a recent interview with the National Post, he said he wouldn’t give an “arbitrary figure,” and noted the UCP constitution sets 50 plus one as the threshold that needs to be cleared.

Fifty plus one, said Vitor Marciano, a long-time conservative strategist, spokesman for Brian Jean and vocal Kenney critic, is “not a survivable number.”

Kenney’s opponents are absolutely convinced the premier isn’t going to win big. there are no exit polls, no way of knowing who has voted and who hasn’t.

“We’re all flying a little blind,” said Harrison.

Marciano said the math simply isn’t on Kenney’s side, with so many of the party’s members in rural areas.

“If he actually legitimately got a really big number, the MLAs would fall into line, but it’s not going to happen. That’s just not available to him.”

Kenney’s supporters believe there’s big support for his leadership, thanks in large part to the balanced budget, new investment and the end of COVID-19 measures.

“They’re not the ones holding press conferences on the steps of the (legislature) and making wild allegations that aren’t true and phoning journalists complaining about things. They’re the ones who are living their lives,” said Harrison.

If he wins small, then it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.

“If he wins in that 51 to 60 bracket, even 65, I believe that the party will implode,” said Novak. Even beyond continued internecine fighting, Novak suggested in a year’s time, conservative voters might simply stay home, rather than vote for Kenney.

But, said Solberg, at the end of the day, there’s an election next year, and members of the legislature — not to mention the party faithful — have to think about what will give them a shot at winning.

“If he comes in around, say 65 per cent, for most of the MLAs that have been rabble rousing, I think they would look at that number and say, ‘You know, that’s a pretty solid demonstration of support,’” said Solberg.

Kenney has said he’ll leave if he loses, without a fuss. The same standard should apply if he wins, said Harrison.

“He’ll respect the results if it doesn’t go his way. But by the same token, if it does go his way, he expects the same respect to be shown to that result from, certainly, members of his caucus,” said Harrison. “He’ll want to offer some of these folks … a chance to say, ‘look, you may not like me personally, but look, the members have spoken.’”

What will matter beyond just the vote is what Kenney does on May 19, there could be a shuffling of the deck, and what his caucus does, whether the vast majority stand with him, or a significant number of them abandon the UCP to sit as independents.

“It’s possible that he looks at the crew around him and who is still supporting him on May 19 and says, ‘you know, I may have 51 per cent but I don’t have my caucus, and if I don’t have my caucus, I don’t have the legislature,’” said Solberg.

“At that point, it’s, you know, you step down, or you test the confidence (of the legislature) and you could see an election.”

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario raising awareness for two decades

Kevin Connor - Saturday
 Toronto Sun

A group of 85 Sikhs wearing turbans and biker jackets on motorcycles driving along Ontario motorways may turn some heads, but such rides have been happening for 20 years.

“Some people are surprised, but that is dwindling rapidly,” said Jagdeep Singh, spokesman for the Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario, which puts on rides for charities.

“When the club started, it was an effort for the acceptance of turbans, making sure citizens are equal and able to wear turbans.”

A turban is a important symbol for Sikhs and some motorcyclists of the faith have had helmet exemptions for years.

British Columbia and Manitoba first granted Sikhs a helmet exemption in 1999. Ontario and Alberta granted the exemption in 2018.

In Ontario, there are 85 club members and they participate in eight to 10 charitable rides a year.

One upcoming charitable ride will be to support victims of Canada’s aboriginal residential school system.

“We can relate to systematic oppression and the loss of territory, language and culture ever since we lost self rule (in Punjab) in 1849,” Singh said. “We were displaced and oppressed in that geographical area. The residential schools, we resonate with that.”


© Supplied

Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario members participate in their Ride to Support Farmer Protests.

He said bike riding is a lifestyle

The group rides daily to places of work and appointments, said Singh, who is an architect and real estate broker.

“The Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario is the essential ally and advocate of turban-wearing Sikhs who wish to ride a motorcycle in Ontario, as they are permitted to do in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the United Kingdom and many other jurisdictions across the world,” the group’s website states.

“The Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario members are passionate abut their membership and the good it does in promoting Sikhi and the Turban across Canada. The case was controversial, causing heated debate and protest across the country. Many critics felt that Canadian tradition was being sacrificed for the needs of immigrants.”

The bike club isn’t first at standing up for rights regarding turbans.

In 1991, Baltej Singh Dhillon was the first member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police allowed to wear a turban instead of the Mounties’ traditional Stetson.

The move triggered national debate about about religious accommodation in Canada.


© Handout

Baltej Singh Dhillon was the first RCMP officer allowed to wear a turban and beard.

In March 1990, prime minister Brian Mulroney announced several changes to the RCMP dress code that allowed Dhillon to be able to serve wearing a turban.

PRODUCED IN ALBERTA BY THE REFORM PARTY
LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: More Flag Ballyhoo (plawiuk.blogspot.com) 

The SMCO is a non-profit organization. which doesn’t discriminate against any race, gender, religion or ethnicity.

There mission is to promote and enforce rights of the Sikh motorcycle riders. They also plan to lobby the next Ontario government for more turban rights.

“There are a lot of places where turbans aren’t allowed, like construction sites where you have to wear a helmet,” Singh said.

The club strives to bring together a group of people with a belief in Sikh philosophies and riding style to spread awareness among the people about the importance of the Sikh turban and promote the fellowship among the motorcycle riders.

“We are passionate about riding and will continue to do so for good cause, give us a call,” Singh said. “We enjoy getting conversations started.”

Nationally, the organization has raised $28,000 for United Sikhs — a UN affiliated multi-national NGO, currently operating on the borders of Ukraine for relief work; $100,000 for Khalsa Aid — a multinational NGO; $170,000 for Diabetes Canada; and $115,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society, just to name a few.

kconnor@postmedia.com

ALBERTA
Rally to honour nurses demands more funding for public health services

Samantha Schwientek -  GLOBAL NEWS

About 200 people came out to a rally to support nurses at the Alberta Legislature Building Saturday afternoon. Similar rallies were also held in Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.

Heather Smith, president of United Nurses of Alberta, said the event was organized as part of National Nurses Week to thank nurses for their ongoing work throughout the pandemic.

But Smith said there were other reasons for the rallies as well — she's worried about increasing privatization and underfunding of public health care.

"What we need is money and political will to invest in public health care," Smith said. "We need to move forward with things like pharmacare and real reforms to our long term care system."

Sue Reid, a retired anesthesiologist who worked in Edmonton for 30 years, said she showed up to honour nurses and also to advocate for "publicly funded, publicly delivered health care."


© Julien Latraverse/Radio-CanadaHeather Smith, president of United Nurses of Alberta, said she would like to see more funding for public health care from both the provincial and federal governments.

Reid spoke at the rally as a member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, a group that aims to improve publicly-funded universal health care.

Earlier this year, the Alberta government proposed using public funds for surgeries at private clinics to clear surgery backlogs.

Reid said she worries the move could potentially worsen public surgical services.

"You steal people from the public hospital system and put them in the private system and there's no surplus," she said. "So if you're an anesthetist working in the private OR [operating room], then the one public OR is closed."

Her concerns were echoed by Chad Ohman, technical producer at ProtectOurProvince Alberta.

"We're seeing that with Alberta Precision Laboratories being privatized over to Dynalife," Ohman said.

Dynalife Medical Labs was set to take over a majority of community lab services on July 1, but the move has been delayed until Dec. 5 because of operational issues.

For Smith, these issues demonstrate a greater need for more public health funding from both the provincial and federal governments.

She added she would like to see money from the federal government come with "strings attached" so it can't be directed toward private services.

Advocates rally at Lethbridge City Hall to support public health-care system
Erik Bay - .
Global News

Lethbridge joined several cities across the province playing host to rallies in support of Alberta's public health-care system over the weekend.

Organized by the Lethbridge and District Labour Council and Alberta Federation of Labour, roughly 50 people attended the event held at city hall.

Read more:
Albertans rally to support public health-care system

"We're trying to do it across the province, and get the energy up and bring the conversation to the forefront," organizer Krysty Thomas said.

"There's been a dismantling of our public health care services.

"We're seeing privatization in the labs, wait times going up, lack of hospital beds, hospitals put in place but no staff to staff them. It's a real issue across the board," Thomas said.

Video: Town of Fort Macleod hoping incentives cure municipality’s doctor shortage

Many in the assembled crowd were holding signs showing support for Alberta's public health-care system.

"We need a provincial government who will support public health care, rather than attack it," Friends of Medicare executive director Chris Gallaway said. "Who will mend relationships with doctors and health care workers and respect them. There's this real need for respect."

Similar rallies were scheduled in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Medicine Hat.

Canada's premiers are missing a real chance to fix our ailing health-care system

Tom McIntosh, Professor, Politics and International Studies, University of Regina - Yesterday

The Conversation

When Canada’s premiers doubled down earlier this year on their demand for a $28 billion unconditional increase in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT), they missed an opportunity to finally achieve the kind of health-care reform our underperforming system has been told it needs over and over again.

The rationale for this demand is that the system is chronically underfunded (itself a debatable contention), and this is supposedly because, as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is fond of tweeting: “Ottawa used to fund 50 per cent of health care costs and now only funds 22 per cent of those costs.”

The premiers are also suggesting they’re being modest in their demands. They’re not asking for a return of the 50/50 deal struck in the 1960s, but only that Ottawa up its share to 35 per cent.

As I’ve argued previously, the premiers’ demand fundamentally misrepresents the history of health-care financing in Canada.

Read more: The disingenuous demands of Canada's premiers for $28 billion in health-care funding

They have forgotten that the 50/50 deal ended in 1977 with the full consent of the provincial governments. Since then, the size of the federal cash transfer for health has been subject to both intense federal-provincial diplomacy and federal unilateralism.

Their misleading take on history aside, the premiers seem determined that any increase in health funding from Ottawa pertains to the more or less unconditional general CHT, set at $45 billion to the provinces in 2022-23 — and not part of an agreement that might specify priorities for action and reform on their part.
Health accords didn’t bring about change

It’s clear that national accords, like those in 2000, 2003 and 2004, did little to effect real change in the system, although the 2004 Health Accord did provide stable and predictable increases in the CHT.

When the 2004 accord expired in 2017, neither the federal nor the provincial governments were in the mood for another grand bargain. Instead, Ottawa took a very different tack. It agreed to a 3.5 per cent annual increase in the CHT (up from a three per cent from 2014 to 2017) and to provide an additional $11.5 billion in targeted funding for improvements to community and mental health care.

In order to receive the cash, provinces had to sign bilateral agreements that set out, in varying degrees of detail, where and how the money would be spent.

As a colleague and I have argued elsewhere, these bilateral agreements, though still imperfect, are a markedly improved way of increasing transparency about where health-care dollars go.

They could also serve as an accountability tool for measuring progress focused not just on fixing but actually improving Canada’s publicly administered health-care system.

In all likelihood, Ottawa will want to continue what it started in 2017 and tie any significant funding increase to a new set of bilateral agreements based on priorities chosen by the provinces. It’s just as likely that this is what the premiers are really trying to avoid.

The impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with a unique opportunity to rethink and reform public health care in Canada.

There is no doubt that the system was hit hard — its capacity was stretched, its workforce took a still uncalculated toll and all manner of service delivery was interrupted. Most notably, surgical wait times (already a serious problem in Canada’s system) were made worse, with one report indicating Ontario alone had a backlog of a million surgical procedures.

Read more: How to solve Canada's wait time problem

Furthermore, the pandemic exposed profound problems in long-term care and community and mental health-care systems.

It’s precisely because of so many simultaneous challenges that we should be thinking not just of rebuilding Canadian health care, but undertaking the necessary and long demanded changes that would create a 21st-century publicly funded and administered health-care system.

There are two likely scenarios.

In the first, Ottawa agrees to a significant increase in the CHT and the provinces simply take the money without making any of the necessary changes to how and what services are delivered (much as the Senate concluded happened with the $40 billion provided by the 2004 Health Accord). At best, that means we return to a pre-pandemic status quo in which the provincial systems continue to lose ground.

In the second, new agreements target the funding to remake the health-care workforce, make better progress on primary health-care reform, reconfigure long-term care, build real community-based mental health care or reconfigure the continuum of care to manage wait times on an ongoing basis.
Co-operation from premiers needed

The second will not happen without some form of conditionality, transparency and accountability from the premiers themselves. Unfortunately, the 2017 bilateral agreements contain no obligation on the provinces’ part to report on achievements relative to their commitments.

Asking provinces to report to the federal government on how they manage their constitutional responsibilities for health care could be taken as a violation of provincial sovereignty. But they should not refuse to report to their own residents.

It’s hardly inappropriate for Ottawa to insist that provinces report to their residents on any targeted funding aimed at priorities the provinces themselves commit to tackling.

So, unless and until the premiers agree to set out — perhaps in a new set of bilateral agreements — how they intend to spend and report on the 62 per cent increase in transfers they are demanding to actually bring about real change in their respective health systems, Ottawa should refuse. And Canadians themselves should just say no.

Read more:

Ontario public health cuts will endanger the public

The disingenuous demands of Canada’s premiers for billion in health-care funding

Tom McIntosh received funding through the University of Calgary for a study of the 2017 bilateral health care accords.