How to become a spy – MI5 agents share career secrets in effort to boost recruitment

Sean Rayment
Sat, 30 December 2023 

Most recruits come from ordinary backgrounds, having held down jobs in unrelated industries

Britain’s spy chiefs have taken the unprecedented step of releasing personal details about spies as part of a recruitment campaign.

The spy agency hopes to demonstrate that most of its recruits come from ordinary backgrounds and often had other jobs in completely unrelated industries before joining up as a spy.

The move is a far cry from when agents came from top public schools and were secretly recruited from Oxford and Cambridge universities or the armed forces’ officer corps.


MI5 is also offering new recruits and existing staff the opportunity of working from home or on a part-time basis in the hope of retaining more staff.

MI5 employs around 5,000 people across the UK with the majority being based at the Security Service’s HQ in Millbank, Central London.

The Thameside building in London's Millbank where MI5 is based - HORACIO VILLALOBOS/EPA

But in recent years, the organisation has faced severe competition for personnel from the private security sector which offers significantly higher wages.

As part of MI5’s recruitment campaign, it has highlighted the careers of several spies identified only by their first names on the organisation’s Instagram account.

In one case a woman called “Steph” reveals that she had hoped to swim in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

She said: “Growing up, I never thought I’d end up being a spy – I was more focused on fulfilling an Olympic dream. I always loved being in water and after Mum signed me up to the local swimming club, I only had one thing in mind – to swim in the Olympics.

“Life became a routine of 5am starts and then back to the pool after school for more training. But it started to pay off: my times got faster and faster and with each new personal best I climbed up the rankings.

“Before long I was competing in the nationals and by then my eyes were firmly focused on a place at Rio in 2016. Having the chance to represent my country felt like a huge honour and I really thought it was within my reach”.

But Steph goes on to reveal that her dream never materialised and she had to step back from competitive swimming, in what she described as a “swift and crushing end”.

The view which MI5 staff see as they enter their headquarters - INSTAGRAM

But she added: “Life continued on. I completed college, then university but I struggled to know what to do next. One day I saw an advert for an admin assistant role at MI5. I knew nothing about the organisation other than it had a building across the river from MI6 – but thought I would give it a go and here I am.

“I’ve had a great career so far and working on our Instagram account has been fantastic. I can honestly say I love it at MI5. There’s a wide range of career options and for my next role I’ll probably look to go back to doing something operational. I may not have swum at the Olympics but MI5 has given me the chance to represent my country every day.”

Another recent recruit highlighted is a former travel agent and member of an airline cabin crew called Reuben, who said he decided to join MI5 after seeing a terrorist attack unfold on TV.

He added: “When I left university, I worked in the travel industry helping people book trips to incredible, dream-like places. I longed to be in their position and explore the world instead of just talking about it so I joined an international airline as a member of a long-haul cabin crew. I absolutely loved it.”
TV series Spooks

“It was on one of these trips that I woke up one morning, flicked on the TV news and saw there had been a terrorist attack back in the UK. I felt sick and a long way from home. I knew that if there was any way I could help I should, and I started my MI5 application as soon as I arrived back home.

“The little I knew about MI5 was based on the TV series Spooks where people single-handedly saved London by getting into scrapes. The reality is quite different, but what I do recognise is the quiet satisfaction of making an unseen difference.

“I’m an investigator so I run operations into terrorist and state threats, working with our partners to identify and disrupt those threats.

“Before I joined, I didn’t appreciate the importance of ‘necessity and proportionality’, which you don’t see on TV. Making sure our actions are necessary to protect national security and proportionate to the threats we investigate is critical to how we function as an organisation. “When we’re faced with difficult decisions, this makes me feel completely comfortable about working here.”

The final case study reveals the story behind Amber’s recruitment. The female agent handler reveals that when growing up she had two passions – watching spy movies and skateboarding and often imagined that she might one day become a spy.

Ken McCallum, the MI5 director general, has pioneered a more open approach - PA

She said: “I’d rush home to watch M.I. High and Kim Possible, before grabbing my skateboard to whizz around the neighbourhood, letting my imagination run wild with adventures about fending off bad guys and saving the day.

“Those dreams never left me but the idea they could become reality didn’t once cross my mind. After college, I had a couple of temp jobs but wasn’t sure what path to take for a career.

“One day I saw an MI5 job advertised in the local newspaper. Looking back, I remember working up the courage to apply, thinking it wasn’t for me as MI5 was bound to be a serious place where people lived and breathed work and had no time for a life outside of the office. The mistaken idea that I might need to give up skateboarding almost stopped me applying but the girl who wanted to help save the day wasn’t going to be put off that easily.

“I joined as an admin assistant and now I work supporting agent handlers out and about in the UK. Every day is busy and I never know what to expect. I’ve met people from all walks of life and lots of them aren’t what I thought MI5 would be like. There isn’t one MI5 ‘profile’, and I’ve even found other skateboarders here.”
Unprecedented

Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Army Intelligence Officer, who worked closely with MI5 and MI6 during his career, described the disclosure by MI5 as both unprecedented and exciting.

He said: “The latest MI5 recruiting programme is another example of how much effort they are putting in to demystify the service and show how they need people from all walks of life and backgrounds. This level of openness is completely unprecedented and very exciting, and would have been scoffed at only a few years ago.

“However, it is good for the service and for potential recruits and seems to be part of a more open approach being taken by the head of MI5, Ken McCallum.

“MI5 has cleverly taken bits and pieces of the careers of some of its staff, without identifying them, to demonstrate to potential recruits that many of their spies come from very ordinary backgrounds which should prove attractive to anyone considering a career as a spy.”

Russian ‘egg king’ survives assassination attempt amid anger over soaring prices


James Kilner
Sun, 31 December 2023 

Gennady Shiryaev (centre) was ambushed by a gunman who fired two shots at his BMW

A Russian egg magnate has survived an assassination attempt two days after the authorities started investigating him for alleged price fixing.

The attack on Gennady Shiryaev has fed into growing hysteria in Russia at the rising price of eggs, which have become so expensive that they are now being gifted as Christmas presents, and forced the Kremlin to promise to bring down prices.

Mr Shiryaev was driving his 4x4 BMW near his egg factory on Dec 27 in the central Russian region of Voronezh when he was ambushed by a gunman who fired two shots. Both shots missed Mr Shiryaev.

Police have not yet given a motive for the attack although the Mash Telegram news channel said that he was attacked by “locals who were dissatisfied with the increase in prices” of his products.

Mr Shiryaev owns the Tretyakovskaya poultry farm. Two days before his attempted murder, the authorities opened a case against him and two other egg producers for increasing the price of eggs.

Eggs in Russia have risen by more than 50 per cent in price over the past three months, angering ordinary Russians who regard them as a staple food product.
Unnerved Kremlin

The price rises have also unnerved the Kremlin less than three months before a presidential election that Vladimir Putin wants to use as a public display of support for his war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has been forced to issue statements denying egg shortages and put into action its emergency plans to buy tonnes of eggs from abroad and waive import taxes to suppress prices. It has also ordered its FSB security services to arrest anybody suspected of hoarding eggs.

Analysts have said that high energy prices and Western sanctions have made rearing hens and producing eggs expensive in Russia.

Dozens of videos of people queuing at dawn to buy cheap eggs from vans have been uploaded onto social media and in the Vologda region, a deputy in the regional parliament for the ruling United Russia party photographed himself giving cartons of eggs to his staff as presents for the traditional Orthodox New Year festivities.

Unilever faces calls to disclose Russian tax payments amid backlash over refusal to exit


Hannah Boland
Sat, 30 December 2023

Unilever Russia

Unilever is facing calls to be more transparent over its tax arrangement in Russia amid fresh scrutiny over its decision to remain in the country.

Campaigners are urging the Dove and Marmite maker to reveal how much it has paid to the Kremlin in the past year, saying it is the least it can do given its failure to abandon Russia.

It comes after the Russian government last month announced plans to remove requirements that force companies to publish information publicly.


President Vladimir Putin signed an order allowing certain businesses to “have the right to independently determine the content or scope of information to be disclosed or submitted”.

It is not yet clear which companies the order will affect, including Unilever.

However, the shift towards greater secrecy has sparked concerns among tax experts that it could become increasingly difficult to track how much companies are contributing to the Kremlin.

This has led to heightened scrutiny of the consumer goods giant’s tax payments given it is one of the largest Western firms still operating in Russia.

Companies such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s chose to exit in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, but Unilever retained its presence.

Unilever in 2022 condemned the war in Ukraine as a “brutal and senseless act by the Russian state” and suspended imports and exports into Russia.

However, the company – which has factories and employees in Russia – decided to continue selling what it deems “everyday essential food”, including its range of ice cream.

While Unilever typically publishes its own global tax report, there have been disparities between its figures and analyst estimates, which are compiled using Russian company data.

In its latest global tax report, Unilever says it paid 3.8bn roubles, or about £30m, in taxes in Russia in 2022.

It says it collected another 4.5bn roubles (around £39.5m) from employees and customers on behalf of the Russian government to account for things such as VAT and sales taxes.

However, experts at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) put Unilever’s total tax contributions in Russia at least $331m for 2022, alleging the company’s figures do not include all tax contributions.

KSE says it calculates its figures using local cashflow reports and official government data sources.

Valeriia Voshchevska, a campaigner with the Ukraine Solidarity Project, said Unilever needed to be transparent over the costs of staying in Russia: “They seem to think they can just sit this out, but every day the war goes on, Unilever’s complicity in it deepens.

“It’s an utter failure of leadership, and history won’t judge them kindly unless they do the right thing now.

“Unilever’s continued operations in Russia have seen the company fuel the war in Ukraine by paying millions into Putin’s war chest.”

Activists protested Unilever's continued presence in Russia outside its London HQ on Mr Schumacher’s first day as chief executive - Chris J Ratcliffe

Unilever has already been added to Ukraine’s list of international war sponsors over its decision to keep operating in Russia.

However, the company has said that staying in Russia to sell food and hygiene products is “the best option, both to avoid the risk of our business ending up in the hands of the Russian state, either directly or indirectly, and to help protect our people”.

The company, which has for years prided itself on its “social purpose”, has claimed that there is a risk that by selling the business, the Kremlin could potentially “gain further benefit”.

This position has come under scrutiny after it admitted it would allow thousands of its Russian workers to be conscripted into the Ukraine war.

After this position was revealed earlier this year, Unilever said it “always complies with all the laws of the countries we operate in”.

In October, new chief executive Hein Schumacher said Unilever was still considering all options. However, he added: “It is clear that the containment actions that we have taken minimise Unilever’s economic contribution to the Russian state.”

It is the latest in a series of ethical wrangles for Unilever.

In December, the UK competition watchdog announced it was launching an investigation into claims the consumer goods giant was involved in “greenwashing”.

This involves claims that shoppers have been misled about how environmentally friendly their products are.

Unilever responded to the inquiry by saying it was “surprised and disappointed” with the announcement, as it rebutted the claims.

When asked about its tax arrangement in Russia, Unilever declined to comment.

These Metro Vancouver organizations are helping redirect food headed for B.C.'s landfills


CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 

Stuart Lilley, owner of ReFeed Farm in Langley, B.C., says there are solutions to reduce and repurpose food waste but they take time, effort and resources — which some retailers and manufacturers say they can't afford. (CBC News - image credit)

As huge amounts of food are thrown out every day, some Metro Vancouver organizations are helping recover that food and preventing it from going to waste.

"Throwing food in landfills is really the worst outcome for everybody, the people and the environment," Jessica Regan, CEO and co-founder of FoodMesh, said during an interview with CBC's BC Today.

The food rescue service in Vancouver helps farmers, manufacturers and retailers sell that food at a reduced price or donate it to food banks.

Regan says organic waste in landfills rots and produces methane — a greenhouse gas — that's more potent than carbon dioxide.

According to the province, organic waste makes up 40 per cent of materials in B.C. landfills.

FoodMesh says they want to bring that number down as much as possible.

FoodMesh co-founder Jessica Regan, pictured during an interview over Zoom, says her social enterprise connects businesses who grow surplus food with charities and organizations that can use them. (Zoom Screen Grab)

To do that, Regan says, it's important to address a flaw in the supply chain.

"It is really the industrial, commercial and institutional businesses where the large volume of waste generates," she said.

A 2019 study by Seconda Harvest, a Canadian food rescue organization, found that around 58 per cent of all food produced in Canada — about 35.5 million tonnes — is wasted before they even hit grocery store shelves.

'A broken food system that needs to be fixed'

Some of the main problems, Regan says, is the lack of appetite for "ugly" fruit and vegetables.

"If something is too ripe for retail, oftentimes it gets discarded," she said.

"We built this B2B marketplace that allows manufacturers to connect and donate unpredictable ad hoc surplus food to other organizations."

Donating to food-relief organizations is a priority, while food that is no longer suitable for human consumption is used for compost or shared with farmers as farm feed for animals.

Waste containing contaminants such as glass and plastics are is eventually moved into a landfill. According to the province, 40 per cent of materials in B.C. landfills are organic. (Jon Hernandez/CBC)

A similar initiative is ReFeed Farms, which partners with grocery stores, food retailers, manufacturers and restaurants to rescue food headed for the landfill.

Last year, owner Stuart Lilley says, the Langley, B.C.-based company sorted 11 million pounds of discarded food to give to food banks and local farmers.

"We have a broken food system that needs to be fixed," Lilley said during a phone interview with CBC, adding that the linear, take-make-dispose food system is unsustainable and results in a high volume of waste.

"Food manufacturers are having to do everything. They are doing all the collecting, processing, grading at their facilities, which is very costly for them and thus it's cheaper for them to simply throw waste away," he said.

"We make things easier to recover those waste and build a supply chain to connect them with charities and other organizations."

The provincial government has also committed to diverting organic waste from landfills, launching the Organics Infrastructure and Collection Program in 2020, which supports projects that convert organic waste into energy.

While Lilley and Regan acknowledge the province's commitment to food waste diversion, they both say more needs to be done.

"Governments in other countries are forbidding the destruction of unsold food products," said Regan, "and we frankly need to step up a little bit."

B.C. Supreme Court pauses legislation banning drug consumption in public spaces, citing 'irreparable harm'

CBC
Fri, December 29, 2023

People gather at a Drug User Liberation Front rally in support of a safe supply of drugs in Vancouver in June 2020. In November this year, the B.C. NDP government banned illegal substance use in most public spaces. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC - image credit)

The B.C. NDP government's legislation to ban all drug use in a wide range of public spaces has been suspended by the province's Supreme Court.

The B.C. Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, passed early November, has now been paused for three months pending a review.

The province had banned illegal substance use from all public parks to sports fields and beaches, as well as close to any workplaces, skate parks, pools, transit stops, residences or playgrounds — even within six metres of "a place to which the public has access" and "a prescribed place."

But B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ordered the law paused until March 31, ruling it would likely result in more deaths, displacement and criminalization of people who use drugs (PWUD).

"Irreparable harm will be caused if the act comes into force," Hinkson wrote in his ruling, released Friday.

"... There is a high degree of probability that at least some of the harm set out by the plaintiff will in fact occur.

"Centrally, but not exclusively, the act will promote more lone drug use ... particularly dangerous due to an absence or a diminished degree of support in the event of an overdose. When people are isolated and out of sight, they are at a much higher risk of dying."

A man holds boxes containing cocaine, meth and heroin that was given out by Jean Swanson during a safe supply event in Vancouver, B.C. on Wednesday, July 14, 2021.
(Ben Nelms/CBC)

Hinkson granted a temporary injunction suspending the law, which had been sought by the Harm Reduction Nurses Association (HRNA).

Toxic, unregulated drugs killed at least 2,039 people in the province in the first 10 months of this year, according to the B.C. Coroners Service last month. That brings the total to 13,317 deaths since B.C. declared a public health emergency in 2016.

The HRNA said in a statement Friday that the act would "exacerbate many harms" to drug users, not only undermining efforts toward decriminalization, but endangering people's lives.

"The act would cause irreparable harm to people at risk of injury and death amid a public health crisis," the association said in a statement Friday.

"This proposed law would threaten the lives, health, and safety, and Charter rights of our clients, many of whom live in communities that lack safe, indoor locations where drug use is permitted."

In a statement following the ruling, B.C.'s public safety minister said the law was meant to protect families, children and "vulnerable community members," while also claiming to help substance users.

"While we respect the decision of the court, we are concerned that this decision temporarily prevents the province from regulating where hard drugs are used," Mike Farnworth said in a statement Friday.

"We're determined to keep doing everything we can to save lives in the face of the toxic drug crisis … while recognizing that hard drugs should not be used in public places frequented by children and families, as well as vulnerable community members."

N.L.'s hydrogen companies want strict rules to avoid subsidies for 'adulterated' competitors

CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 

Wind turbines could soon dot the horizons of Newfoundland, as several green hydrogen projects move toward final investment decisions. A big question mark remaining is how the federal government will structure its lucrative tax credits.

 (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader - image credit)

Billions of dollars hang in the balance as Canadian hydrogen companies await specific regulations from the federal government on how they can qualify for a lucrative tax credit.

Companies in Canada's most eastern province are hoping those rules are on the stricter side.

It's been more than a year since the Liberal government announced companies would be eligible for tax credits ranging between 15 and 40 per cent, but some significant details remain undecided.

Those details will essentially determine how green a green hydrogen project must be in order to score the top tax break.

"We've been promised them now for some time and of course they're working their way through the bureaucracy and we understand that," said John Risley, chairman of World Energy GH2, the largest proposed project in Newfoundand. "We would have hoped to see them in October, but we were told that we can expect to see them very soon and I'm not sure I could define 'very soon' for you."

John Risley is one of the directors of World Energy GH2, a company proposing more than 300 wind turbines on Newfoundland's west coast and a green hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Stephenville, N.L. (Patrick Butler/Radio-Canada)

At issue are concepts like additionality, deliverability and time-matching. What does that mean? Well, boiled down, strict rules on these issues would mean projects would have to ensure they're always using energy from clean sources within their operating area in order to qualify for a 40 per cent tax credit.

That means when the wind isn't blowing, projects can't rely on energy from fossil fuels as a backup to power their plants and still expect to be taxed as green hydrogen.

Risley believes that would benefit Newfoundland companies because their backup power source would likely be the provincial grid, of which 80 per cent of energy comes from renewable sources.

It would also give them a competitive advantage over companies in other areas, including neighbouring provinces. Any company requiring power from the grid in Nova Scotia, for example, would be drawing from a system that gets about 51 per cent of its power from coal and coke.

Risley said one his biggest concerns is the various "shades of green" that would emerge if projects that relied on backup power from non-renewable sources were treated the same as projects powered solely by clean energy.

Don't subsidize fossil fuels, says Sierra Club

Those watching the industry say the fine print for the tax credit is about more than just handing out money to corporations. It's about determining whether or not hydrogen will actually be a clean energy source.

Gretchen Fitzgerald, national programs director with Sierra Club Canada, said she doesn't want to see companies relying on non-renewable resources get the full tax credit.

St. Anthony native Gretchen Fitzgerald is a national programs director with the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, and is strongly opposed to any expansion to the Newfoundland and Labrador oil and gas industry.

Fitzgerald said the Sierra Club is supportive of "green hydrogen that is truly green," but warned against how that term can be manipulated when backup power is less than green.

"Our position is green should really be green," she said. "If you were allowing them to get that level of subsidy, like a 40 per cent subsidy, and then they're drawing electricity from coal or bunker C, or God forbid incentivizing new hydro, I think it would just be a big injustice."

American spat good news for Canadian companies

These concepts became hot-button issues in the United States when draft regulations were leaked to the media earlier this month, as first reported by Bloomberg and Politico. It appears the Biden administration is prepared to come down strict on the definition of green hydrogen, prompting a deep division within the emerging industry.

Companies dedicated to powering their projects with only renewable sources of electricity are cheering, while those who were hoping to rely on cheaper backup power from coal or fossil fuels say the regulations will destroy the industry before it ever begins.

Risley felt the leaked American rules were good news for Canadian companies, which will be competing in a global marketplace.

"The worst thing that could have happened to us would have been that the U.S. government set a very low bar and provided an enormously generous subsidy for product that was, let's say adulterated, if you like, by fossil fuel-generated electricity," he said. "So we like these rules and we would hope that Canada would adopt very similar rules."

Ravi Sood is the executive chairman of EVREC, a company bidding for a massive wind-to-hydrogen project anchored in Botwood.
 (Ryan Cooke/CBC)

Ravi Sood is also hoping for similar rules in Canada and beyond.

As executive chairman of the Exploits Valley Renewable Energy Corporation, Sood has a lot riding on a green hydrogen proposal in central Newfoundland that would see hydrogen exported to Europe.

Having universal standards across countries and continents would be a huge benefit to the development of the local industry, he said.

"We are encouraged to see that [the U.S. is] likely to be required to meet similarly strict standards," he said. "The more standardized the requirements are across geographies the more level the playing field for the economics of all projects."

The United States was expected to release its regulations by the end of the year. However, they still have not been unveiled. The European Union has also delayed decisions on the same issues.

It's not known when Canada will release its regulations.

The environmental costs of EV batteries that politicians don't tend to talk about

CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, second from right, are shown during an announcement on a Volkswagen electric vehicle (EV) battery plant at the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ont., on April 21.

 (Tara Walton/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Along with the massive recent manufacturing investments in electric vehicle (EV) technology and talks of a greener, decarbonized future, there are some not-so-green problems.

In its latest New Energy Finance report, Bloomberg News predicts there will be some 730 million EVs on the road by 2040. The year before, Bloomberg predicted half of all U.S. vehicle sales would be battery electric by 2030.

In Canada, too, there's talk of a big economic boost with the transition to EVs — including 250,000 jobs and $48 billion a year added to the nation's economy through the creation of a domestic supply chain.

Governments have already invested tens of billions into two EV battery manufacturing plants in southwestern Ontario. However, they come with the environmental dilemma of what to do with the millions of EV batteries when they reach the end of their life.

Dead battery dilemma

"The rules are non-existent," said Mark Winfield, a professor at York University in Toronto and co-chair of the school's Sustainable Energy Initiative. "There is nothing as we talk to agencies on both sides of the border, the federal, provincial, state levels.

The NextStar EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont., is shown under construction in the summer of 2023.
 ( Patrick Morrell/CBC)

"In the case of Ontario, the answer was actually that we we have no intention of doing anything about this."

When asked for its response, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks did not return a request for comment from CBC News.

Winfield said the fact there is no public policy on the disposal of EV batteries is concerning because a number of the chemicals and components used to make EV batteries, such as cadmium, arsenic and nickel are listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and simply can't be thrown into a landfill.

"You would think given the nature of of these products and also the scale of the potential looming problem, as you know, when the EV sales move into the tens of millions and every one of those ultimately is going to result in an end-of-life battery. One would have expected regulators to be a little bit of further ahead of the curve."

Critical minerals come with costs

The environmental costs of a greener future in transportation don't stop at dead batteries. If the country carries through on its plan to build a home-grown supply chain for the critical minerals needed to make EV batteries, it could mean the development of a vast tract of unspoiled nature in Ontario's north.

On a foggy morning, Neskantaga First Nation community members take their cedar canoes to check the fishing nets for sturgeon. The Hudson Bay Lowlands are a globally significant wetland that is home to a number of remote First Nations communities and species at risk, such as the lake sturgeon, seen being hauled into a canoe in this 2022 photo. 

(Logan Turner/CBC)

To get the critical minerals necessary to build EV batteries, Canada will have to develop the Ring of Fire, a deposit of minerals discovered in Ontario's far north in 2007 — one that happens to be in the middle of an environmentally significant area called the Hudson's Bay Lowlands.

"We're talking about a huge wetland," said Dayna Scott, a professor with the Osgoode Law School at York University and the school's research chair in environmental law and justice in the green economy.

"The largest intact boreal forest remaining in the world and also a massive carbon storehouse."

A lot of people who are interested in buying an electric vehicle don't want to see themselves as caught up in an ongoing process of Indigenous dispossession. - Dayna Scott

In the Hudson's Bay Lowlands, there are an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon, acts as a major stopover for billions of migratory birds and is home to wolverines, caribou and lake sturgeon — all considered endangered, or species at risk by the federal government.

For years, Scott has studied the social, environmental and legal implications of bringing development to the Hudson's Bay Lowlands and its effect on the rights and interests of remote Indigenous communities there.

"They hold the inherent jurisdiction to be the decision-makers for those lands. They also hold a right of free, prior and informed consent, which comes from international law. That means [governments] need to get the consent of all of the communities that are going to be impacted by this major irreversible change to their way of life."

The Indigenous communities fall under the James Bay Treaty, or Treaty 9 and while some favour development, others are opposed.

To curry their favour, those for and against development are both using climate and the environment to justify their cause, Scott said.

She said those who want to mine critical minerals in the area argue that would lead to a reduction in emissions and save the planet, while those who want to leave the area untouched argue destroying one of the world's largest carbon sinks by developing it would only undo all those emission reductions from EV batteries.

While it's impossible to tell who's right, Scott said governments need buy-in from every First Nation in the Treaty 9 area or any development would be open to litigation — some rarely mentioned at news conferences or funding announcements about the upcoming switch to Canadian-made EV batteries.

"A lot of people who are interested in buying an electric vehicle don't want to see themselves as caught up in an ongoing process of Indigenous dispossession," Scott said. "If people did have to confront at what cost we are going to get these minerals, do we want to do it over Indigenous People's objections?

"I think that would give a lot of people in southern Ontario pause, probably."

Study forecasts challenges of electric vehicle chargers on northern power grids

CBC
Fri, December 29, 2023 

A Level 2 electric vehicle charger at a home in Yellowknife on Dec. 27, 2023. 

(Liny Lamberink/CBC - image credit)

A study is revealing some of the challenges that electric vehicles will pose to northern power grids — and it'll likely be revised now that Canada has a plan for phasing out the sale of gas-powered cars and trucks.

"At no point in our studies did we consider 100 per cent electric vehicle adoption," said Michael Ross, a researcher at Yukon University who is leading the study.

Ross, an industrial chair in northern energy innovation, said his research is looking at slow to high adoption rates of electric vehicles in Dawson City and parts of Whitehorse and Yellowknife. So far, it's showing some of the ways residential power grids will be strained if people in those neighbourhoods add Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations to their homes, he said.

But on the heels of Canada's announcement, he'll likely add case studies for very high adoption now. There's still time. Ross doesn't expect the study's findings to be published until November 2024.

Regulations announced by the federal government earlier this month give automakers the next 12 years to phase out the manufacturing of combustion engine cars, trucks and SUVs. There's also a requirement to gradually increase the proportion of electric models they offer for sale each year.

Ross said the study, funded by power utilities in all three territories, won't just outline all the challenges that may arise as interest in electric vehicles — and the means to charge them — grows. It'll also contain solutions or ways to mitigate those issues.

Faster charging needs more power

Jay Massie, the vice president of northern development and Indigenous relations for ATCO Electric, said ATCO already has a "good understanding" of what electrification will do to northern power grids.

"The fast chargers … are significant electrical loads on the grid, so it's just an increased demand and strain," he explained. "The faster they charge, the more electricity they need."

A common electrical outlet in a home supplies about 120 volts of electricity. It's compatible with a Level 1 charger, which can take up to 50 hours to fully charge an electric vehicle, and which may be suitable for the smaller batteries of plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The Yellowknife Car Share Co-op's Chevrolet Bolt plugged in at a Level 3 charger at the Northland Utilities office in Yellowknife in October 2023.

 (Yellowknife Car Share Co-operative Ltd./Facebook)

The study is looking at Level 2 chargers, which require a 208-volt or 240-volt wall outlet — the same as dryers, ovens and air conditioners. A Level 3, the fastest type of charger available, needs a 480-volt outlet. They're typically found in public places and businesses.

The challenge with electrification will be balancing the demand for power while keeping the supply on the rest of the system stable and reliable.

Transformers, the big green boxes you see in a neighbourhood, increase or decrease the voltage of electricity flowing through an energy grid. Ross said some transformers are "underrated," meaning they weren't designed to have a lot of electric vehicles integrated into them.

Chargers can also be a "very big power draw," he said, and some homes may experience an undervoltage while their vehicle is charging. That means the power on the system drops below the "acceptable voltage," which could damage equipment.

"We want to say with a certain rate of adoption, we anticipate this particular transformer to have capacity issues and here are some specific ways that could be addressed," Ross explained. "We want to be very specific and deliberate, but not prescriptive, on what needs to be done."

'There's going to be cost'

In order to keep up with whatever demand there may be in the future, Massie said utility companies will be looking at upgrading or building new infrastructure.

"There's going to be cost to the system," he said. Understanding what those costs will be, he said, will help utilities and governments figure out a way forward.

"For utilities, the only spot for us to recoup costs is from ratepayers," he said. He said utilities, like ATCO, will need to work with government to make sure that costs of upgrading the system and meeting peoples' power needs are not "unreasonably borne" on people who aren't buying electric vehicles.

Canada's plan to phase out the manufacturing of gas-powered vehicles, Massie said, came as a bit of surprise.

"We understand the need for electrification and for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for sure. We just want to ensure it's done in a measured and coordinated manner and I think this study is a really good step in that direction."

Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil ends print edition after 127 years

CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 

René Dufresne, the director of publication at Le Soleil holds the last paper edition of the newspaper set to be published on Dec. 30. (Mireille Roberge/Radio-Canada - image credit)

The last print edition of Le Soleil newspaper is hitting the stands today — a whopping 96-pages taking readers down memory lane as the Quebec City-based publication goes completely digital after 127 years in business.

Editor Marc Gendron says it's a decision that's been a long time coming as more readers opt for digital subscriptions over print. The transition was always part of its business plan ever since the newspaper became a co-operative in 2019, he says.

"It's only a chapter that is closing and it's the beginning of a new one which is exciting," Gendron told CBC's Quebec AM.

Based in Quebec City, the newspaper covers stories from the Beauce region all the way to eastern Quebec. Initially a daily, Le Soleil pared down its print editions to only Saturdays in March 2020 to help deal with a drop in revenue.

Valérie Gaudreau, the former editor-in-chief for Le Soleil and now a columnist, says that even printing once a week was becoming difficult financially. Plus, the younger generation doesn't really read the paper, she said.

"There's a little mixed feelings but I guess it's a good decision we have to make just to survive as media in our world," said Gaudreau.

Le Soleil newspaper was founded in Dec. 28 1896. In March 2020, it pared down its print edition to Saturdays only.

Le Soleil newspaper was founded in Dec. 28, 1896. In March 2020, it pared down its print edition to Saturdays only. (Mireille Roberge/Radio-Canada)

She suspects that in five years there won't be any more print newspapers circulating in Quebec.

There were 247 daily and community newspapers in the province in July 2022, according to the most recent data from News Media Canada. That was tallied before Métro Média folded shutting down its 17 publications in Montreal and the Quebec City region.

Magda Konieczna, an associate professor of journalism at Concordia University, says Le Soleil's move to digital is part of a global trend. However, reducing the visibility of a publication has to be accompanied by proper marketing, especially since Meta has blocked news shared on its social media platforms, she says.

"There's something about having a physical paper present in your life that's sort of harder to ignore or forget about than going online," she said. "People need to know that these publications are out there and that they're covering their communities."

"There's really a gap in local news information here and people have almost kind of accepted that gap," she says, adding that online publications can experiment with new ways of engaging with audiences that isn't available in print.

Gaudreau says what has made Le Soleil stand out since its finding in 1896 is the presence of its journalists in communities that aren't always covered by larger publications.

"That makes us different from the others," she said. "Why would [people] pay for us if it's not to learn things they won't learn anywhere else?"

The front page of the very first edition of the Le Soleil newspaper. It would publish its first photo three years later and become the first Canadian publication to do so.

The front page of the very first edition of the Le Soleil newspaper. It would publish its first photo three years later and become the first Canadian publication to do so. (Mireille Roberge/Radio-Canada)

Le Soleil became the first Canadian newspaper to print a photo in 1899. Almost a century later, in 1996, it became the country's first French-language newspaper to launch a website.

"We're relying on a really solid past with a good reputation but we're embracing a totally new mindset and new way of working and it's a new world for us that we're exploring," said Gendron.

He adds that there will be some job cuts, but that everyone leaving is doing so through a departure plan that was negotiated with the union.

The final print edition of Le Soleil is just short of 100 pages and will take readers back in time, showing them some of the paper's most famous front pages as well a deep dive into what makes Quebec unique.

Le Droit goes digital after more than a century in print

CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 a

Pierre Bergeron, a retired editor at Le Droit, holds a copy of the Ottawa-Gatineau newspaper. The French-language paper published its final print edition on Saturday and is now available exclusively online. (Emilien Juteau/Radio-Canada - image credit)

After more than 100 years in print, Le Droit, a prominent French-language newspaper serving the Ottawa-Gatineau region, has published its last physical edition.

The final paper rolled off the presses Saturday, marking the last step in Le Droit's gradual transition to a digital publication. The paper had already switched in 2020 from printing six times a week to once a week on Saturdays.

According to editor-in-chief Marie-Claude Lortie, the decision to go exclusively online has been a long time coming.

"When I joined Le Droit [in 2021], it was already decided. The question wasn't, 'Are we going to stop?' It was when," she told Radio-Canada's Les matins d'ici.

Though some readers will be disappointed, the transition is "a necessary change from an environmental [and] financial perspective," Lortie said in the French-language interview.

The Groupe Capitales Médias, which owns the the Le Droit newspapers, is getting $5 million from the Quebec government.

The once-daily paper had already gone mostly online, publishing print editions only on Saturdays since 2020. (Maxime Huard/Radio-Canada )

In 2019, Le Droit's future was left uncertain after newspaper chain Groupe Capitale Médias, which owned it and five other Quebec newspapers, filed for bankruptcy.

According to Lortie, Le Droit joins those papers, now employee co-operatives, in making the move online.

"Personally, I don't see it as a time to mourn. I see it more as an evolution," said Pierre Bergeron, a retired Le Droit editor, in a French-language interview with Radio-Canada.

"I may be a little light-hearted in that regard, but I tell myself that journalists will find a way to do their jobs."

Lortie called the final 88-page edition a special one, dedicated to remembering the paper's impact in the community and filled with stories by writers and readers alike.

CRT

Black Harbour: New book explores history of slavery in Newfoundland


CBC
Sat, December 30, 2023 

Heather Barrett and Xaiver Michael Campbell collaborated to write Black Harbour. (Mike Rossiter, CBC - image credit)

The history of Black slaves in Newfoundland and Labrador is not something that has been taught, and is rarely talked about, say two writers of a new book about exactly that.

Black Harbour: Slavery and the Forgotten Histories of Black People in Newfoundland and Labrador, reveals the history of Black slavery in the province, and the role merchant families played in promoting it.

The book came to be after authors Heather Barrett and Xaiver Michael Campbell's independent research started overlapping.



We're taught in school that we were settled by the English and Irish, that was all who ever lived here ... but that's not true. - Heather Barrett

Campbell, a writer originally from Jamaica, came to the province as a university student in 2008.

He quickly saw the parallels between Newfoundland culture and his own.

"That curiosity of, how did my culture and things that are part of my history make their way into the Newfoundland consciousness? And how is it that there is no direct mention to my culture and how it came to be?" he said.

Barrett, a CBC producer and host of Weekend AM, stumbled upon stories of the existence of Black people in the province from hundreds of years ago.

"Growing up, when we're taught in school that we were settled by the English and Irish, that was all who ever lived here, all who really ever came here for any reason. But that's not true," she said.

"There were people from many, many different places in the world that lived here, came through here, had something to do with the fishery here. Not all of them were doing it of their own volition."

Forgotten stories

The book explores some of the connections between Newfoundland and the Caribbean that Campbell noticed soon after arriving in Newfoundland.

"There's a lot of salt cod in this book," he said. "I grew up with it. It's part of our national dish in Jamaica, but I never thought about where it came from. I know we've been eating it for hundreds of years, but I didn't know there was that other connection between the two islands."

It's been assumed that Black people are only recently settlers in Newfoundland and Labrador. Black Harbour dives into their forgotten history in the province.

Black Harbour dives into the forgotten history of Newfoundland and Labrador. (Boulder Books)

That connection being that salt cod was what Newfoundland had to trade.

"Lower grades of salt cod went to the Caribbean, because it was cheap fuel for enslaved people," Barrett said.

The authors say the book is an introduction to new pieces of uncomfortable history being discovered.

"We're storytellers," Barrett said. "What we're doing is telling a lay person's introduction to this, and we're hoping that it starts a conversation."

QUEBEC
Teachers, students anxious to get back to class as unions reach tentative agreements


CBC
Fri, December 29, 2023 

Natalie St-Laurent is determined to make sure her son Nathan doesn't fall behind despite being out of school for a month due to the teachers' strike. 

(Kwabena Oduro/CBC - image credit)

When Montreal English teacher Reuben Ramsey read the news that the teachers' strike was over, he almost cried tears of joy.

Ramsey had been out of class since Nov. 21, and is itching to go back to teaching literature to high school students. But he says he'll have to drop some of his more fun projects from the curriculum as his students need to catch up on missed courses and prepare for ministerial exams.

"I don't think it will be dire for at least my students, and I hope for students in general," he said.

The Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), which had been on unlimited strike, and the common front of unions known in French as the Front commun both reached tentative agreements with the government this week. The FAE ended its strike Thursday.

The strike has been tough on Ramsey, like most teachers, as the FAE didn't have a strike fund. But the working conditions were difficult, and he's hoping the new deal — which hasn't been presented to members yet — will ease that. Teachers had been negotiating collective agreements for almost a year.

"I still love teaching. I love the connection I have with kids, especially high school kids. I love hearing their ideas and seeing how these kids could potentially change the world," he said.

The main issues for teachers throughout the negotiations have been class sizes and salaries.

"If you have hundreds of students, the classes are overloaded. Can you really give each student the attention you want?" said Ramsey.

"You could burn out or fall under intense stress."

Carl Ouellet, president of the Association québécoise du personnel de direction des écoles (AQPDE), which represents school principals, said schools are already planning for students' return.

He said they are waiting for directives from the ministry but will do everything they can to make sure the year "goes smoothly for our students."

"We've been looking at what needs to be caught up, extra budgets for that catching up, hiring support staff. We also talked about exams — everything is on the table," said Ouellet.

More meetings are scheduled next week, he said.

Phillipa Parks, an assistant professor in the department of pedagogy at Université de Sherbrooke, says the best-case scenario would be for the government to cancel exams this year — one that is unlikely to play out.

A day after making progress with the Quebec government at the negotiation table, teachers with the FAE take part in a march in Montreal's downtown core on Dec. 12, 2023. Teachers with the FAE were on unlimited strike for over a month before an agreement in principle was reached Thursday. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)

Teachers and students were already playing a sort of catch-up game after having to do school from home for two years during the pandemic, she said. Now, they will have to fit materials from the missed weeks of school within the time they already have.

Parks says it's unrealistic that students will perform well on standardized tests this year, all things considered, and the two weeks usually dedicated to them could be used for lessons. She pointed out that the school year started with an acute shortage of qualified teachers and staff, and says the government drew out negotiations for too long.

"This government hasn't shown a lot of sympathy for teachers and it hasn't shown a lot of concern for the quality of education in Quebec," said Parks.

"It's important to keep in mind that we need to consult the teachers and see what is even possible. A lot of them are burned out, and people are considering leaving the profession."

But parents like Natalie St-Laurent will do everything they can to make sure their kids have a quality education in the public school system.

Her son Nathan has dyslexia and has been working overtime to make sure he doesn't fall behind this year. She says she has been paying for weekly tutoring sessions, and increased them to two sessions a week when the strikes started.

"What stresses me the most is the fact that he's going to have, again, to step it up another notch to keep up," said St-Laurent.

She said Nathan will start seeing his tutor three times a week when classes resume.

"I'm very eager for him to get back to class because we're very worried about the impact of the strike on children, although we totally support the movement," said St-Laurent.

St-Laurent says she understands the teachers' frustration and she's seen first-hand how little resources are available for students with special needs in public schools. She says she hopes the latest agreement will sweeten the deal for everyone.

"The teachers in school, we see them being very tired and overworked," she said.

"The services are lacking and the support is lacking for families and hopefully the government will finally hear what's going on and be reactive and step it up and help the kids."

As for Nathan, he can't wait to see his friends and get back to crunching numbers in math class.