USSA
US government spy planes monitored George Floyd protests

By Pete Muntean and Gregory Wallace, CNN
2 days ago






5 SLIDES © adsbexchange.com
A RC-26B flew this path over Las Vegas on June 2 and 3. Map courtesy of adsbexchange.com.

5 SLIDES © Courtesy of United States Air Force

Thermal imaging devices are typically mounted on RC-26B planes, like this one, according to US military documents.

A small Cessna Citation jet flying straight into Washington's highly restricted airspace would typically be met with fighter jets on its wing. But when one flew over the nation's capital on June 1 and circled the White House 20 times, it was hardly an accident.

The plane was only one of several aircraft -- both piloted and unpiloted -- that CNN has been able to track flying over protests in Washington, Minneapolis and Las Vegas. Government watchdogs fear the planes were used to track protesters and perhaps capture cell phone data.

The government's use of surveillance planes to watch over those protesting the police killing of George Floyd has captured the attention of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress who want to know whether the planes -- typically equipped with live video cameras and heat sensors -- were used for "surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests."

In a June 9 letter to the heads of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the National Guard, lawmakers demanded an end to the practice "immediately and permanently" and called the use of aircraft above protests a "deep and profound" breach of Americans' First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The letter points to a trio of government aircraft flown over protest cities. CNN has independently verified that the flights took place, using publicly available flight path data from websites such as ADS-B Exchange. The site is known as "the world's largest source of unfiltered flight data."

The FBI has not specifically confirmed or denied the use of aircraft to surveil protests. But in a statement to CNN when asked about the flights, the FBI said it has been "focused on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity."

ADS-B Exchange data shows an RC-26B -- a twin-engine turboprop typically used by the FBI and the National Guard for drug interdiction -- over Washington and Las Vegas. A National Guard fact sheet says the same type of plane is normally outfitted for thermal imaging and "can be used both day and night to monitor illegal activity."

An RC-26B did at least 50 circles above Washington for nearly four hours on the evening of June 2nd, the city's fourth straight night of protests. A similar flight occurred over Washington the following night. Data shows a different RC-26B flew over Las Vegas as protests took place there on June 2 and June 3.

Of the flights over Washington, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted, "I have questions," adding that this was the "first time I can find that this aircraft, normally used for war zones/disasters/narcotics, has been used to gather intel at a protest."

The letter also says that the FBI may have flown a Cessna Citation jet "equipped with 'dirtboxes,' equipment that can collect cell phone location data," over Washington.

ADS-B Exchange data shows the same type of aircraft departed from Manassas Regional Airport in northern Virginia at 11:11 p.m. on June 1, hours after police forcibly cleared peaceful protesters from in front of the White House.

The jet climbed to an altitude of 17,000 feet and did at least 20, eight-mile-wide, counterclockwise circles centered on the White House before landing at back at Manassas after 1:30 a.m.

Data shows that the same plane took off from Manassas around the same time on the next two nights as well as June 6, flying a nearly repeat flight path over Washington.

The National Guard confirmed to Murphy that an RC-26B surveillance aircraft, operated by the West Virginia Air National Guard, was involved in responding to protests in the DC area but that such flights have since been suspended, according to a Senate staffer with direct knowledge of the situation.

"The national guard confirmed that it was air national guard and that it was an aircraft out of Lester, West Virginia. But the Department of Defense has not given any more information," the staffer told CNN, adding that the directive to hcalt these flights was made after lawmakers raised questions. Early appearances of surveillance flights began as early as May 29 when flight data shows a US Customs and Border Protection MQ-9 Predator B making a hexagonal pattern at 22,000 feet above Minneapolis where Floyd was killed days earlier.

In a letter to Congress, the Department of Homeland Security said that the unpiloted drone "was preparing to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners in Minneapolis," but when "no longer needed for operational awareness" returned to base in North Dakota. The letter did not say which agency initially requested the flights.

Customs and Border Protection has been using the remotely piloted Predator B since 2005, agency documents show, "to safely conduct missions in areas that are difficult to access or otherwise too high-risk for manned aircraft or CBP ground personnel."

Agency fact sheets say the aircraft can record video to "document suspect activities for evidentiary use." An armed, United States Air Force version of the Predator B, known as a Reaper, was used to shoot the Hellfire missiles that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani on January 3.

"The use of aerial surveillance is deeply disturbing, especially as we're seeing so much misconduct against protesters across the country," said Jake Laperruque, senior council with the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group.

"Aerial surveillance can be used to identify and track individuals in a number of ways, so it's certainly improper to deploy this powerful surveillance tools to monitor protesters," he said. "Even if abuse isn't occurring, the mere risk could significantly chill free speech."

Witnesses with a background in identifying aircraft types spotted other airplanes circling overhead Washington on protest nights -- what appeared to be a Cessna Caravan and Cessna 182.

The single-engine private airplanes are typically banned from loitering in the highly restricted airspace over Washington, but CNN was not able to track the aircraft using flight path databases. Those who routinely monitor flight path data tell CNN it is possible that the flights had special FAA approval to operate with their transponders turned off, making tracking more difficult. Light general aviation aircraft typically cannot operate in the Washington, DC, Flight Restricted Zone without a transponder.

It was not just high-altitude flights taking place over protest cities. The District of Columbia National Guard said it is reviewing its own use of helicopters over the demonstrations, including "an investigation into a June 1 low-flying maneuver conducted by one of our rotary aviation assets." That helicopter blew debris around protesters who remained on the street after a city-imposed curfew.

Bolsonaro supporter destroys Brazil beach memorial for 40,000 coronavirus victims

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro 12/6/2020
© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

A supporter of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has desecrated a beachside memorial to Covid-19 victims as the country’s coronavirus death toll rose above 40,000.

Activists from civil society group Rio de Paz dug 100 symbolic shallow graves on Copacabana beach before dawn on Thursday to represent the Brazilian lives lost.


At least 40,276 people have now died, according to a coalition of news outlets which has been compiling an independent tally since Brazil’s health ministry was accused of seeking to conceal the full figures last week.

© Provided by The Guardian Activists dig 100 mock graves on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 June 2020. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images
But the NGO’s founder, Antônio Carlos Costa, said Bolsonaristas began haranging activists as they stood beside the mock cemetery.

Soon after a man was filmed knocking down the wooden crosses protesters had placed in the sand near a banner reading: “Brazil, land of graves”.

“They feel such rage – and I think they’re reproducing the behaviour of the person occupying the highest position in the land,” Costa said of his group’s assailants.

Among those watching the vandalism was a grieving father who campaigners said had lost his 25-year-old son to Covid-19. The man re-erected the crosses and shouted: “Respect the pain of others.”

Costa said he felt anger at the profoundly disrespectful act – the first such attack he had experienced in 13 years protesting against politicians from across the political spectrum.

But he said that most of all he felt pity for the man, and other hardcore Bolsonaristas, who were “so blinded by ideological passion that they had closed their eyes to reality”.

© Provided by The Guardian A man knocks over one of 100 crosses. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Polls show millions have turned on Bolsonaro over his internationally condemned handling of coronavirus, which he has dismissed as “a little flu”. But the rightwing populist maintains a solid support base of about 30%.

“Bolsonaro’s mistakes are not so subtle that only the most perceptive people are able to detect them. It’s all so clear,” said Costa, a Presbyterian church leader. “So how is it that some people cannot see this?”

Costa said Brazil was experiencing “the worst crisis in its history”.

Related: 'Enormous disparities': coronavirus death rates expose Brazil's deep racial inequalities

“Thousands have died. Families are in mourning. People are unemployed. At a moment like this you might expect the president of the republic to offer words of hope, to show compassion, to behave soberly and signal a way forwards. Instead, we see him joining anti-democratic protests, telling journalists to shut up, riding horses, driving jet-skis [and] organizing barbecues.”

As he smashed the symbolic cemetery, the Bolsonarista branded activists leftist terrorists.

Costa said the memorial had nothing to do with left or right. “What moves us is a commitment to life. They use this discourse to delegitimize anti-Bolsonaro protesters – as if only those on the left were capable of noticing this government’s insane and anti-democratic acts.”

A better future: How to defund and reimagine policing

Michelle Stewart, Associate Professor of Gender, Religion and Critical Studies; Academic Director of the Community Research Unit, University of Regina
12/6/2020
 

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Taylor There are currently at least four major calls to defund police forces in Canada. Here, hundreds of people participate in a Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building in Regina on June 2, 2020.
On May 25, social media erupted with the image of a Black man once again whispering “I can’t breathe” while under the knee of a white police officer for eight minutes and forty six seconds. George Floyd’s death sparked horror, outrage — and familiarity.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin looked directly into the camera lens as he demonstrated to the world the full weight of white supremacy and the its impunity. Now that impunity is being challenged in the streets and in city halls in a call to defund, disband and rethink policing as we know it.

Disbanding is complex and does not mean eliminating police. Just as the call to “defund police” does not mean taking all money away from police. Each of these calls requires action and action is what we are seeing.

Minneapolis city council committed to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. City council president Lisa Bender said:


“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe … Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.” [The plan is to] “end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.”

It does not mean the end of policing but rather an end to the Minneapolis Police in its current configuration. This has been done in California and New Jersey, with cities disbanding police departments and replacing them with new forces that cover entire counties.

There are currently at least four major calls to defund police forces in Canada including in Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Regina.
A brief history of defunding police

What does it mean to defund the police?

For some, defunding means a total cut to budget and getting rid of police. This can be classified as an abolitionist movement. As U.S. sociologist Alex Vitale explains in his book, The End of Policing, many of those movements can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s to the Black Panthers and others.

© (Koshu Kunii/Unsplash) A protestor carries a sign calling for the Minneapolis Police Department to be defunded.
Their call for community safety was later taken up by others focused on prison abolition including Angela Davis. The call to abolish state violence and policing in exchange for direct democracy and mutual aid is the foundation of anarchism.

But for many others, the call to defund police is about defunding parts of policing. With that in mind, here are some places to rethink policing and police funding.
Move police out of schools

Kindergarten to Grade 12 students across North America have become accustomed to having police present at school through programming like school liaison officer, school resource officer or DARE programs (drug awareness). According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 1.7 million children in the U.S. attend a school with police present but without access to counsellors.

© (ACLU) The school-to-prison pipeline refers to education and public safety policies that push students into the criminal legal system.

Police presence has been tied to the school-to-prison pipeline. It can negatively affect the experience of students, as schools have incrementally and increasingly taken on prison-like practices at the expense of student learning.

Following in the footsteps of University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Public Schools, many places should consider moving police out of educational spaces.
The rise of the war cop

In the U.S., the militarization of police is directly tied to a sweeping set of reforms passed in the 1990s that led to a rise in war tactics against communities. This included a rise in programs that allowed police departments to receive war supplies.

This trend was then followed in Canada as arsenals and tactics have been used against Indigenous land and water defenders. Also, military tactics and SWAT response are often at the heart of new police practices during the execution of warrants.

Read more: Rise of the SWAT team: Routine police work in Canada is now militarized

In Louisville, Ky., a no-knock warrant led to the death of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician. She was killed by police who raided her home in early March.

A review of police budgets allows for insight into how local law enforcement position themselves to residents. For example, in Regina, Sask., municipal police were tired of “borrowing” a tank from the RCMP so they sought the funds to buy their own. While there was resistance, this purchase was eventually approved.

Demilitarizing police comes first with taking away the arsenals they have acquired and then no longer funding the requests to enhance their arsenals.
Budgets

In cities across North America, questions are being asked about how much money is spent on policing. In some bigger cities that amount could be as low as 25 per cent or upwards of 40 per cent of an entire city budget.

In Canada, policing is paid for through a combination of federal, territorial and local budget lines. In nearly all cities, the municipal police budgets are handled through city hall.

A review of most city budgets will demonstrate that policing takes up much of the budget line. Most years, police request an increase to account for ongoing changes to operating costs. What if this year and in the years to come, people said no to an increase and redirected those funds to community initiatives instead?

This is change that is doable. It would allow for much-needed funding to be redirected to community organizations.
A better future

We are seeing a reckoning as street protests continue and charges are being laid against the officers involved. We are also seeing a transformation in how people think about policing.

Assumptions about the role of police are being challenged and dismantled. Included in the critique is an intersectional lens and the ongoing role of white supremacy in racialized policing practices and policing Black lives.

People are rethinking policing and what it means for all members of our communities to be supported and safe. In other words: another world is possible when we defund and reimagine policing as we know it.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Michelle Stewart receives funding to support her research and community-based projects from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as Public Safety Canada for projects focused on criminal justice reform with attention to reconciliation in the justice system. She works for the University of Regina. Her comments are her own but are grounded in evidence and lived experiences that honour the ongoing impact of systemic racism, broken treaties, and settler colonialism.

CANADA/NFLD  

How a controversial St. John's statue was actually propaganda for a Portuguese dictatorship
Andrew Hawthorn CBC 14/6/2020

As statues of slavers and historic figures of dubious morality are toppled around the world, many in Newfoundland and Labrador have been eyeing the statue of Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real.

One of the most prominent statues in St. John's, it stands near the Confederation Building on Prince Philip Drive.

Erected in 1965, the statue — according to a plaque at the site —not so much to celebrate Corte-Real himself as to recognize the connection between the province and Portugal, through their mutual fishing of the Grand Banks.

The statue has been notorious for years. In contemporary accounts, Corte-Real was said to have abducted around 57 Indigenous people on his 1501 arrival in Newfoundland or Labrador to sell as slaves.

That is enough for many to want the statue removed.

However, according to York University professor Gilberto Fernandes, the history of the statue is even more controversial than critics suspect.
A victory for dictatorship

While the story of Gaspar Corte-Real goes back to 1501, the story of his statue is rooted in a more modern era, when Portugal was seeking influence and respect on the international stage.

In the 1960s, Portugal was still engaged with colonial wars in Africa and was under intense pressure from the United Nations because it was one of the last remaining European dictatorships.

"The Canadian federal government was one of the few NATO allies that at this point were still quite vocal against Portugal's empire, calling for its gradual granting of independence to its colonies," Fernandes said in an interview.

One push of the propaganda wing of Portugal's right-wing regime, the Estado Novo, was to clear up their image by promoting the Corte-Real brothers — Gaspar and Miguel — as important founding figures in the colonization of North America, thus making Portugal a more legitimate player in Canadian and American identity.

During an official visit in 1963, the Portuguese ambassador suggested a Corte-Real statue to celebrate the connection between that country and Newfoundland. Premier Joseph Smallwood enthusiastically received the proposal.

The piece was sculpted by Martins Correia, an artist frequently used by the Estado Novo office of propaganda.

"Smallwood … promised to place it in front of the new legislative building in St. John's and surround it with Portuguese soil and proclaim an annual Portugal day in the province," said Fernandes.

Smallwood even invited dictator António Salazar to attend the unveiling.

Fernandes said that at the time, Canada was being critical of Salazar's policies, which were seen as a kind of late-20th century fascism.

"For Portugal, this was a tremendous victory, to have this official formal proclamation," he said.

© The Associated Press Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar used statues as a way of extending influence international. This statue of him, seen in a 2015 file image, faces a wall in a courtyard of the national library in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Mozambique got rid of many statues, street names and other symbols of colonial rule after independence from Portugal in 1975.
But Portugal had competition for the spot with another authoritarian regime: Spain's Francisco Franco.

"Spain and Portugal were at this sort of a heritage race to extract the most political gain …There were a number of European nations who were claiming historic rights to continue to fish within Canada's expanding territorial waters," said Fernandes.

"I think it's a good example of how history has been leveraged and used for political gains."
History that didn't happen

In reality, the Corte-Reals had very little impact on North America, if they even ever got here at all.

"The supposed discovery of Newfoundland or Labrador by Corte-Real is largely a myth," said Fernandes. "I mean there's very little evidence that there was a case, without even getting into the whole point of they didn't discover anything of course because indigenous peoples have been here for millennia."

What is certain — according to contemporary letters of Venetian ambassador to Portugal Pietro Pasqualigo — is that around 57 men, women, and children were taken from wherever it was the Corte-Reals managed to reach and sold into slavery.

Critics of the statue point out that there are now several other monuments, including a recently restored gravesite, better represent the province's connection with the Portuguese White Fleet and its fishers.

As far as taking it down, Fernandes said context is key.

"I think people who condemn or criticize the tearing down of statues tend to see it somewhat as an equivalent of burning books, and it really isn't."

"Books are where information is stored, they produce knowledge… statues are symbols. They are decisions that we make around what past we wish to remember and celebrate publicly and officially."

"I don't know if Corte-Real meets the threshold of historical villainy that would warrant for him to be brought down, but if anything by and large it's celebrating a history that most likely didn't happen."

U.S. is 'trouble maker' in China-Canada relationship, Chinese envoy to Canada says

By Steve Scherer CBC 12/6/2020

© Reuters/Blair Gable FILE PHOTO: China's new ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu speaks during a news conference for a small group of reporters at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa
OTTAWA - The United States is using the case of a senior Chinese telecoms executive who was arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. warrant 18 months ago to create friction between China andana Cda, China's envoy to Canada said on Thursday.

"The U.S. has been taking advantage of Canada, and the U.S. is the trouble maker of China-Canada relations," the Chinese envoy to Ottawa, Cong Peiwu, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Huawei Technologies Co's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese citizen and daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on a bank fraud warrant issued by U.S. authorities. Meng says she is innocent.

Asked whether he thought Canada's judiciary was independent, Cong pointed to comments U.S. President Donald Trump made in December 2018, which he said showed the Meng case was "a political incident rather than a simple judicial case."

In that interview (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump/trump-says-would-intervene-in-arrest-of-chinese-executive-idUSKBN1OB01P), Trump said he would intervene with the U.S. Justice Department in the Meng case if it would help secure a trade deal with Beijing.

© Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier FILE PHOTO: Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver
"We believe that actually this is a grave political incident plotted by the United States to bring down Chinese hi-tech companies," the ambassador said.

Cong did not say whether China would retaliate for a Canadian court's decision last month, which will prolong Meng's legal battle to avoid extradition.

Shortly after Meng's arrest, Beijing detained two Canadians on national security charges and halted imports of canola seed.

When asked about the Meng case, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphasized the country's judiciary is independent, while calling for the release of the two Canadians, businessman Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat.

The Chinese envoy said the two detained Canadians were "in good health," but consular visits were still suspended due to coronavirus restrictions and "will be resumed when the situation gets better."

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Canadian scientist sent deadly viruses to Wuhan lab months before RCMP asked to investigate

OF COURSE THEY DID, SAME CANADIAN LAB WAS ROBBED OF ANTHRAX A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK BY A CHINESE SCIENTIST WHO SEDUCED HER BOSS AT THE LAB

THEN ESCAPED TO CHINA WHEN THEY WERE BUSTED

Karen Pauls
14/6/2020

© CBC Xiangguo Qiu, her biologist husband and her students have not returned to work at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, after being escorted out in July 2019. The RCMP is still investigating a possible 'policy breach' reported by the Public Health Agency…

Newly-released access to information documents reveal details about a shipment of deadly pathogens last year from Canada's National Microbiology Lab to China — confirming for the first time who sent them, what exactly was shipped, and where it went.

CBC News had already reported about the shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses but there's now confirmation one of the scientists escorted from the lab in Winnipeg amid an RCMP investigation last July was responsible for exporting the pathogens to the Wuhan Institute of Virology four months earlier.

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng and her students from China were removed from Canada's only level-4 lab on over what's described as a possible "policy breach." The Public Health Agency of Canada had asked the RCMP to get involved several months earlier.

The virus shipments are not related to the outbreak of COVID-19 or research into the pandemic, Canadian officials said.


PHAC said the shipment and the Qiu's eviction from the lab are not connected.

"The administrative investigation is not related to the shipment of virus samples to China," Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada wrote in an email.

"In response to a request from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for viral samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sent samples for the purpose of scientific research in 2019."
'It is alarming'

However, experts are concerned.

"It is suspicious. It is alarming. It is potentially life-threatening," said Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa.

"We have a researcher who was removed by the RCMP from the highest security laboratory that Canada has for reasons that government is unwilling to disclose. The intelligence remains secret. But what we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximize the genetic diversity and maximize what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments. And that has links to the Chinese military."


Gain of function experiments are when a natural pathogen is taken into the lab, made to mutate, and then assessed to see if it has become more deadly or infectious.

Most countries, including Canada, don't do these kinds of experiments — because they're considered too dangerous, Attaran said.

"The Wuhan lab does them and we have now supplied them with Ebola and Nipah viruses. It does not take a genius to understand that this is an unwise decision," he said.

"I am extremely unhappy to see that the Canadian government shared that genetic material."

© CBC Dr. Xiangguo Qiu accepting an award at the Governor General's Innovation Awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in 2018. Qiu is a prominent virologist who helped develop ZMapp, a treatment for the deadly Ebola virus which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2014-2016.

Attaran pointed to an Ebola study first published in December 2018, three months after Qiu began the process of exporting the viruses to China. The study involved researchers from the NML and University of Manitoba.

The lead author, Hualei Wang, is involved with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, a Chinese military medical research institute in Beijing.

All of this has led to conspiracy theories linking the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, Canada's microbiology lab, and the lab in Wuhan.

The RCMP and PHAC have consistently denied any connections between the pandemic and the virus shipments. There is no evidence linking this shipment to the spread of the coronavirus. Ebola is a filovirus and Henipa is a paramyxovirus; no coronavirus samples were sent.

© CBC Amir Attaran, professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, is concerned about the shipment of dangerous viruses sent from Canada's only level-4 lab to China.

The ATIP documents identify for the first time exactly what was shipped to China.

The list includes two vials each of 15 strains of virus (about 15 ml):
Ebola Makona (three different varieties)
Mayinga.
Kikwit.
Ivory Coast.
Bundibugyo.
Sudan Boniface.
Sudan Gulu.
MA-Ebov.
GP-Ebov.
GP-Sudan.
Hendra.
Nipah Malaysia.
Nipah Bangladesh.

PHAC said the National Microbiology Lab routinely shares samples with other public public health labs.

The transfers follow strict protocols, including requirements under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act (HPTA), the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, the Canadian Biosafety Standard, and standard operating procedures of the NML.

CBC News has not been provided with some of the paperwork involved with the transfer, which was redacted under sections of the Access to Information Act dealing with international affairs, national security and other issues.
Confusion, concern over shipment

The ATIP documents provide details about the months leading up to the shipment — including confusion over how to package the deadly viruses — the lack of decontamination of the package before it was sent, and concerns expressed by the NML's director-general Matthew Gilmour in Winnipeg, and his superiors in Ottawa.

They wanted to know where the package was going, what was in it, and whether it had the proper paperwork.

In one email, Gilmour said Material Transfer Agreements would be required, "not generic 'guarantees' on the storage and usage."

He also asked David Safronetz, chief of special pathogens: "Good to know that you trust this group. How did we get connected with them?"

Safronetz replied: "They are requesting material from us due to collaboration with Dr. Qiu."

© Karen Pauls/CBC News CBC News received hundreds of pages of documents through an Access to Information request, detailing a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses sent from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, to the Wuhan virology lab in China.

Meanwhile, it appears the NML's shipper initially planned to send the viruses in inappropriate packaging and only changed it when the clients in China flagged the problem.

"The only reason the correct packaging was used is because the Chinese wrote to them and said, 'Aren't you making a mistake here?' If that had not happened, the scientists would have placed on an Air Canada flight, several of them actually, a deadly virus incorrectly packaged. That nearly happened," Attaran said.

The package was routed from Winnipeg to Toronto and then to Beijing on a commercial Air Canada flight on Mar. 31, 2019.

The next day, the recipients replied that the package had arrived safely.

"We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you all for your continuous support, especially Dr. Qiu and Anders! Thanks a lot!! Looking forward to our further cooperation in the future," said the heavily-redacted email, which does not provide the name of the sender.

Nearly one year after the expulsion of Qiu, Cheng, and her students from the NML, there are still no updates on the case from the RCMP or PHAC.

At the time, Public Health Agency spokesperson Morrissette said the department was taking steps to resolve this case as quickly as possible.

On Thursday, he said the investigation has not yet concluded.

"Administrative investigations are impartial, thorough and in-depth. They are also procedurally fair and respect the rights of individuals," he said.

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said he welcomes scientific collaboration and exchanges with China, "but there has to be a framework of rules in place" and Canada's intellectual property must be protected.

Houlden, a former diplomat, has many unanswered questions about this particular shipment.

© Terry Reith/CBC Gordon Houlden, the director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, says there are many good reasons to share biological samples between labs, but any transfers must follow proper protocols.

A vacuum of information is always a problem, especially in a situation of heightened tension with China over the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada, the seemingly retaliatory arrest of two Canadian men in China and questions over the origins of the coronavirus, he said.

"There's also a danger if you don't provide information that people will jump always to the worst conclusion," Houlden said.

Current NML head Matthew Gilmour was not made available for an interview. He is leaving as of July to work for the U.K.-based Quadram Institute Bioscience. His medical adviser, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, will take over until a permanent replacement can be found.

Qiu could also not be reached for a comment.

CANADA  
Human rights museum criticized, employees say work environment racist

12/6/2020

© Provided by The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights will conduct an external review following social media posts alleging a racist and discriminatory work environment.

"We recognize we have both a responsibility and an obligation to listen and learn from those who have shared their experiences," John Young, the museum's president, said Thursday.

"We take them very seriously and acknowledge their frustration. It's apparent in the messaging they shared."

The Winnipeg museum posted images of a Justice for Black Lives rally in the city last Friday on its Facebook page. People who say they are current and former employees began responding that it was hypocritical because of racism they faced working at the museum.

One person said she worked at the museum for four years and experienced the most racism she'd ever seen in her life.

Other people online shared stories about Black or Indigenous employees being used by management to show diversity to donors. They also spoke about some visitors to the museum being racist and employees having no support.

Young responded in a post online, saying it's not enough for the museum to make statements opposing racism.

"We must identify shortcomings and blind spots, both within ourselves as individuals and within the museum, and take concrete steps to improve," he said.

Young said the museum will reach out to staff and volunteers who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour to listen to their experiences and concerns.

The museum will also hire an external organization to do an audit of its workplace practices and policies. Young said changes cannot just come from the top and the museum will work with employees to improve.

"There are very high expectations for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights."

Some people posting online said they are skeptical of the museum's response. Some also called for a review of Black content at the museum.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union that represents staff at the museum, said these issues have been raised with management since 2018.

Marianne Hladun, executive vice-president for the Prairie region, said in a news release Thursday that museum management rejected proposals to have anti-harassment training for all staff.

"It is not enough for any institution, never mind a museum dedicated to human rights, to make statements opposing racism while continuing to allow a toxic culture that harasses people of colour and makes them feel worthless."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2020

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

Court: Michigan Great Lakes tunnel deal constitutional

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that legislators did not violate the state constitution by allowing construction of an oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, clearing the way for the project to proceed unless another court intervenes.

A three-judge panel affirmed a ruling last November by the Michigan Court of Claims, which upheld a law authorizing a deal between former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge.

They had negotiated a plan to drill the tunnel through bedrock beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lakes Michigan and Huron and divides Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

It would house a pipeline that would replace a four-mile-long (six-kilometre-long) underwater segment of Enbridge's Line 5, which carries crude oil and natural gas liquids used in propane between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

Lawmakers approved the agreement during a lame-duck session in December 2018 over objections that the measure was drafted sloppily and rushed to enactment before Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who criticized the deal, took over for Snyder the following month.

“The handout to Enbridge allowed the company to avoid the normal vetting process of a project of this magnitude — cutting out public comment and input,” said Beth Wallace, conservation partnerships manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office.
Snyder and Republican legislators said the deal was struck after years of public discussion.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, issued an opinion in March 2019 that the authorizing bill was unconstitutional because its provisions far exceeded what its title specified.

Enbridge requested a ruling from the Court of Claims, where Judge Michael Kelly found that lawmakers had adequately followed the constitutional requirement to express a bill's "general purpose or object” in its title.

Appeals judges Thomas Cameron, Mark Boonstra and Anica Letica — all appointed by Snyder — agreed.

“We conclude that the title ... does not address objects so diverse that they have no necessary connection,” they said in a written opinion Thursday.

The ruling was a victory for Enbridge, which says it plans to finish the tunnel by 2024.

“We look forward to working with the state to make a safe pipeline even safer,” spokesman Ryan Duffy said. “We are investing $500 million in the tunnel’s construction – thereby further protecting the waters of the Great Lakes and everyone who uses them.”

Whitmer's office is reviewing the decision, spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said.

Nessel will ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take the case, spokeswoman Courtney Covington said.

“While we are disappointed by the Court of Appeals' decision, we stand by our position that (the law) is unconstitutional,” she said.

The constitution's provision about titles is intended to prevent deception about what bills would do.

The disputed measure's title was lengthy, authorizing state boards to acquire and operate the planned tunnel and perform numerous other duties. Even so, Nessel argued that the bill went well beyond what the title indicated.

But the appeals judges found that “neither the legislators nor the public were deprived of fair notice" of the contents.

Nessel is pursuing a separate lawsuit that seeks to shut down Line 5 — long a goal of environmentalists who say a rupture could devastate waters and shorelines in a sensitive area home to endangered species and prized by tourists.

The 67-year-old underwater segment consists of two pipes that carry a combined 23 million gallons (87 million litres) daily. Enbridge says the lines are inspected regularly and are in good condition. But protective outer coating has worn away in some spots and erosion has required the installation of steel braces. A barge and tugboat anchor struck the pipes in 2018.

“This daily threat must end regardless if any oil tunnel is ever constructed,” said Sean McBrearty, campaign co-ordinator for the group Oil & Water Don’t Mix.

John Flesher, The Associated Press

The City That Actually Got Rid of the Police


By Katherine Landergan
13/6/2020

CAMDEN, N.J.— It was the moment that America needed.

Days after George Floyd died at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a different scene was playing out in what was once the most dangerous city in the United States.

Joseph D. Wysocki was marching in the streets of Camden alongside residents in “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts. He found the organizer of the protest: Yolanda Deaver. Wysocki introduced himself and asked if he could join her. Absolutely, she said, and the two started marching together, holding up a sign reading STANDING IN SOLIDARITY. And then they posed for a now-viral photo.

“I’d seen her do the peace symbol, you know, it's not something I ever do. But I really thought it was appropriate,” he said. “I think everybody wanted peace.”

Wysocki wasn’t just any 50-year-old white man. He was the chief of Camden police. And as protests erupted across the country, this moment—Wysocki and the protester with their banner, peace signs and clenched fists held high—gave Americans reason to think its widening social fractures really could be healed.

© April Saul via AP AP20153061124713.jpg
Thank you Yolanda Deaver for organizing and leading Camden's peaceful protest over the weekend. Your leadership and example, alongside @CamdenCountyPD Chief Joe Wysocki, continues to send positive waves throughout our nation. https://t.co/dOgfzZvyg1— Donald Norcross (@DonNorcross4NJ) June 3, 2020

Behind that image is a years-long story of how Camden officials transformed policing in a city where the murder rate was once on par with Honduras. The police were despised by residents for being ineffective at best and corrupt at worst. Today, violent crime in the city has decreased, and police officers are a regular presence at community block parties.

As a movement grows in American cities and suburbs to overhaul police departments and confront their long records of racially unjust, violent enforcement, Camden is one rare—and complicated—success story, a city that really did manage to overhaul its police force and change how it operated. And it took a move as radical and controversial as what some activists are calling for today: Camden really did abolish its police department.

And then the city set about rebuilding the police force with an entirely new one under county control, using the opportunity to increase the number of cops on the streets and push through a number of now-heralded progressive police reforms. And with time, the changes started to stick in a department that just years earlier seemed unfixable.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Camden County Metro police officers in 2014.

Over the past two weeks, Camden has become an example of reform that works—cited in articles, tweets and on network shows as an example of what can go right. And it’s true that the reforms produced real change in the statistics: The excessive use of force rates plummeted. The homicide rate decreased. And new incentives laid the groundwork for a completely new understanding of what it meant to be a good cop.


“You had to change the underlying principles of the way police officers were being trained and taught, and the culture in the department,” said former Governor Chris Christie, who supported the changes in Camden. “The most effective way to do that was to start over.”

The reforms carry lessons for what it takes to transform the police in any city. They ultimately amounted to nothing less than a reboot of the culture of policing in Camden, changing the way every beat cop in the city did his or her job. And they also required enough political will at the top—all the way to the governor—to survive opposition from police unions and some residents. The case of Camden shows that if there’s enough motivation to blow it all up and start over from both the top and the bottom, reforming a police force is achievable.

But nothing is as simple as it sounds in a tweet. While largely a success story, the overhaul was by no means a clear win for social-justice progressives who are driving the police-reform debate nationally. The Camden police reform was—and remains—politically divisive. In part that was because union contracts were thrown out, leaving many on the force earning a lower salary and with fewer benefits. And it required very strange bedfellows to succeed—an all-powerful Democratic machine, a Republican governor, conservative budget-cutters and progressive police thinkers, all aligned to break an established department and start over.

© Spencer Platt/Getty Images, AP Photo/Mel Evans Empty homes and a downtown shopping area in Camden in 2012.

In 2010, Camden hit rock bottom. In 2010, Camden hit rock bottom. The city, population 77,000, was widely considered one of the most dangerous in America. A depopulated former manufacturing center across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, and the home of the first condensed Campbell’s soup plant, the city had more than 3,000 abandoned buildings. Almost 40 percent of residents lived below the poverty line. At one point, the city had 175 open-air drug markets, and 80 percent of drug arrests were of non-residents, suggesting that out-of-towners were making a stop in Camden just to buy and sell.

Violent crime had been high in the city for decades, but it was about to get worse, because the police department was broke. In 2010, Camden, faced with a $14 million budget deficit, laid off half of its police force. Arrests in 2011 fell to almost half of what they had been just two years earlier, and burglaries increased by 65 percent. The murder rate skyrocketed. Eventually, residents largely gave up on calling police for minor crimes.

On top of that, the police department had a reputation for bad cops. Of the 37 excessive use of force complaints levied in 2011, not one had been “sustained,” or clearly proven or disproven, which raised serious red flags about accountability with the executive director of the ACLU in New Jersey at the time. In 2010, five officers in the department were charged with evidence planting, fabrication and perjury. Later, state and federal courts would go on to overturn the convictions of 88 people who had been arrested and charged by those officers.

The idea for dissolving the Camden police force came amid the backdrop of a push by both Governor Chris Christie and Democratic state lawmakers to regionalize city and town services in a new era of government austerity. State Sen. Don Norcross, Camden County Freeholder Lou Cappelli and Mayor Dana Redd started promoting the idea of dissolving the Camden police force and creating a new county-led force to replace it. The plan also had the support of George Norcross, an insurance executive and Democratic powerbroker in southern New Jersey (and brother of Don), and Christie.© AP Photo/Mel Evans Top: Camden Mayor Dana Redd. Bottom left: State Sen. Donald Norcross. Bottom right: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

A state statute was already on the books allowing counties to create police departments that towns then have the choice to opt into. But the plan would also involve busting a union: The city force had already been unionized, but the new county one would not be unionized, at least at first. The plan, as a result, was met with opposition from the police union. But the state of crime in Camden, coupled with the complete lack of money, dulled Democratic resistance to the proposal overall. “There’s no alternative, there’s no Plan B,” the Democratic City Council president, Frank Moran, told the New York Times in 2012. “It’s the only option we have.”

Without the restrictions of the union, proponents argued, more cops could be put on the streets of Camden, and hopefully, the city’s deadly spiral could finally be stopped.

Not everyone agreed with the changes. A group of Camden residents who saw this as high-handed intervention submitted a petition to stop the disbandment with the goal of placing the issue on the ballot in 2012. Redd and Moran filed a complaint against the residents on the grounds that the petition amounted to an unlawful restraint of legislative power.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Top: In this March 3, 2011 file photograph, off-duty and retired police officers and firefighters fill a street outside the Statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., during a rally to protest staff cuts and promote public safety. Bottom: A small group of former Camden police officers complain to a new Camden County police officer as he tries to stop them from attending a ceremony for the new police force in May 2013.

The case would work its way through New Jersey courts while the city went ahead with the changes.

In May 2013, the Camden City Council approved resolutions that eliminated the city police department and established a new one under county control. The remaining city cops were all laid off and had to reapply to work with the county, under far less generous nonunion contracts.

In a strange legal coda to the whole drama, the case filed by the Camden residents to save their local police department worked its way through New Jersey courts and ultimately ended up in front of the state’s Supreme Court, which ruled 6-0 in favor of the residents in 2015. But it was too late: The Camden County police force had been around for four years, and by most accounts, was already a success. In this case, politics had moved faster than the courts and, legally or not, the Camden city police force was long gone.

Those who championed the disbandment of the department say the upheaval was critical to the department’s ultimate success. Scott Thomson, the Camden police chief at the time, had locked horns with the police union for years over contracts and virtually “any type” of managerial decision, he says.

“I was able to do in three days what would normally take me three years to do,” he said. “All of the barriers were removed. I was now driving on a paved road.”

The most obvious change was that the Camden police was now bigger: By cutting salaries, the county was able to hire more officers, increasing the size of the department from 250 to 400 and putting the number of Camden police officers close to what it was before the 2010 budget cuts.

But the more important changes went beyond the size of the roster. Thomson, who had been appointed chief in 2008 and oversaw the department through the transition, also used the changes as a way to implement a number of progressive policies. The challenge, he said, was reframing how officers viewed their roles. No longer would officers be the “arbitrary decider of what’s right and wrong,” he said, but rather consider themselves as “a facilitator and a convener.”

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Chief Scott Thomson in 2014.

In practice, this meant prioritizing resident complaints. According to Thomson, when someone was spoken to in a disrespectful way, that investigation was handled swiftly.

The internal metric system for rating an officer’s performance was also overhauled—no longer were officers rewarded for the number of tickets they had written, or how many arrests they had made. Thomson says his highest priority was working to integrate officers into the fabric of the community.

“I don’t want you to write tickets, I don’t want you to lock anybody up. I’m dropping you off on this corner that has crime rates greater than that of Juárez, Mexico, and for the next 12 hours I don’t want you to make an arrest unless it’s for an extremely vile offense,” Thomson recalls telling his officers. “Don’t call us—we’re not coming back to get you until the end of your shift, so if you got to go to the bathroom, you need to make a friend out here. You want to get something to eat? You better find who the good cook is.”

Sean Brown, a business owner and native Camden resident, says he had complicated feelings about the department. While he supports the end result, the transition from the city-led to county-led force was “quick” and “harsh,” and he said he saw good people lose their jobs. But he says he now feels safer in his city than ever before, in part because police actively check in with him on the status of his neighborhood.

“Every couple of months I get a call from an officer, who just asks me how is everything going in my neighborhood? Do I feel safe? Is there anything I want to tell them?” he said. “Things are demonstrably different.”

© Andrew Burton/Getty Images A man walks his dog on August 20, 2013 in the Whitman Park neighborhood of Camden, New Jersey.

Police officers can now be seen hosting block parties, flipping burgers and competing in games alongside kids in the neighborhoods.

Another community-focused initiative is Camden’s “scoop-and-go” policy, a mandate that requires officers to drive gunshot victims to a hospital if waiting for an ambulance would cause a delay. The policy, modeled on a longstanding one in Philadelphia, was put into effect after the outrage over the Ferguson police department’s handling of Michael Brown’s body after a police officer shot him in 2014. The officers left him lying for four hours on a Ferguson street after the shooting before his body was taken to a morgue.

The changes were not without hurdles. In the first year of the new department, for instance, the number of excessive force complaints by police spiked dramatically. But the department implemented a series of reforms to reduce conflict between officers and residents.

Camden was chosen as one of seven cities by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a reform think tank in Washington, DC, to develop its signature de-escalation training, according to executive director Chuck Wexler.

Camden soon had proof on video that the training worked in real life.

Clips from surveillance and body cam footage in November 2015, which have since spread across YouTube, particularly in police-reform circles, show a man walking into a fried chicken shop in Camden, knife in hand. He leaves the shop, thrashing the knife in the air, and is encircled by a group of officers. They walk with the man for several minutes, asking him to “drop it, drop the knife.” They attempt to tase the man, and fail, but are ultimately are able to tackle him.

“Eighteen months before that we would have shot and killed that guy, two steps out of the store,” said Thomson, the former police chief.

Last year, the department implemented a use-of-force guidebook developed with New York University’s Policing Project, which has gotten the seal of approval from both the ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police. The rules clearly outline when deadly force can be used. Officers are required to intervene if they see another officer violating the rules, and the department can fire any officer who doesn’t follow them. According to the department, complaints of excessive use of force have dropped from 30 to 60 a year in the first years of the county force to less than five today.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans President Barack Obama speaks at the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Camden, NJ.

When former President Barack Obama the city back in 2015, he held up Camden’s police department as a model for police reform. He called Camden a “symbol of promise for the nation,” praising the improved relations between officers and residents.

“This city is on to something,” he said before a crowd of hundreds.

But there are critics who think the reforms have not gone far enough.

There are concerns that the department’s force does not reflect the community—the department is just ever so slightly majority-minority. Camden is 93 percent minority—mostly (50.3 percent) Hispanic, with a large (42.4 percent) African American population, according to the most recent census figures. But the police department is nearly half white.

Camden police officials agree that things need to change, but say they can only do so much within the current civil service requirements. Those rules require lists of eligible officers to include individuals from all over the state, including from the whiter, wealthier northern parts, thus making the overall talent pool less demographically representative of cities like Camden.


I wrote out some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change––and pulled together some resources to help young activists sustain the momentum by channeling their energy into concrete action. https://t.co/jEczrOeFdv— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 1, 2020

Critics also say the department has been less than transparent. In particular, they point to Camden’s failure so far to post any data online after entering into a federal partnership under the Obama administration to track and improve policing. Camden was one of 21 cities selected for the federal program, and it’s the only one that hasn’t posted any data yet.

There is also high turnover in the police department, according to several people interviewed for this article. “It’s hard to say that things are changing when you’re having a revolving door of officers coming in,” said Kevin Barfield, president of the Camden County NAACP chapter. “And a lot of them are young. A lot of them are not really familiar with the community with which they serve.”

On Sunday, a group of activists gathered in Camden to give voice to these concerns, and let the public know that they hadn’t gotten the full picture a week earlier. Hundreds of protesters walked the streets of the city in the midday June sun, ending their march on the steps of the Chief J. Scott Thomson police department building.

“President Obama tweeted out Camden has been the poster child for reform across the country,” activist Ayinde Merrill yelled to the crowd.

“Say no,” he told a crowd of hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters.

“No!” the crowd responded in chorus.

© April Saul via AP Lt. Zack James of the Camden County Metro Police Department marches along with demonstrators in Camden, N.J., on May 30.

The tone of this gathering was markedly different from the one a week earlier. The participants in this protest spoke about the “crooked cops” and felt the viral photo was merely a feel-good photo op. As Merrill stood on the steps of the building, he called out for Police Chief Wysocki to stand beside him.

“We are going to hold everyone accountable, we have to stop being scared of authority figures and really hold them accountable,” Merrill said, wearing a loose noose around his neck.

He then presented the chief a list of demands, including working to help officers eliminate racial bias in policing, the creation of an independent civilian review board and recruiting a more diverse force.

But what came next suggests why even the toughest critics feel like there is more hope in Camden than there is in other cities.

“We are going to give credit where credit is due. They said they are already starting to work on things we listed,” Merrill said as he removed the rope from his neck. “Today we are loosening this noose and taking it off.”

Rattlesnakes on a plain: How cars, pollution and suburbia threaten these mysterious creatures

Doyle Potenteau
13/6/2020

© Submitted A rattlesnake in the South Okanagan. According to a professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, rattlesnakes are threatened in B.C., and many populations are declining at alarming rates.

Just like the hordes of mountain bikers, hikers and trail runners that migrate from their comfortable couches to more open spaces in spring, western rattlesnakes are also on the move, emerging from deep winter dens to their summer foraging grounds.

For years, our research group at Thompson Rivers University has been investigating population trends and movements of the world's most northerly populations of rattlesnakes, found in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.

The western rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus) is one of three species of rattlesnake found in Canada, and the only one in B.C., although they also live as far south as Baja, Calif.
Snakes are particularly interesting in Canada because their active season -- warm temperatures that allow them to go about their lives -- is far shorter than it is for their relatives to the south.

The harsh Canadian winters limit the places where a rattlesnake can hole up and wait out the snow. This historically led to dozens of snakes of all different species using communal dens, but this phenomenon is becoming increasingly rare.

Rattlesnakes are threatened in B.C., and many populations are declining at alarming rates. Although the idea of being rid of snakes may be inviting to some, it will surely have cascading consequences for already threatened grassland ecosystems.

For example, rattlesnakes are key players in grassland food chains, acting as mid-level predators that control rodent populations and serve as a food source for larger predators like the endangered North American badger.
What can you learn from following rattlesnakes?

Rattlesnakes often make substantial migrations from their winter dens to their summer habitat, sometimes several kilometres. The dens are often in secluded areas, yet snakes can encounter a number of dangers on their path.

Perhaps the biggest threat to snakes in Canada is roads, where even low traffic back-roads can have catastrophic impacts on otherwise healthy snake populations.

Road mortality is a leading cause of the decline for snakes in B.C. One study found the population was being reduced by 6.6 per cent per year, which would lead to a 97 per cent decrease in the population in just 40 years.

Snakes are also threatened by pollution, human persecution and steady habitat degradation and fragmentation. When their habitat overlaps with human landscapes, such as vineyards, orchards, golf courses, campgrounds or hiking trails, they tend to be of poorer body condition than snakes that inhabit relatively natural environments.

Historically a large number of the rattlesnakes in B.C. were found in the Okanagan Valley, a region that is experiencing one of the fastest rates of urban and agricultural growth in Canada.

Unfortunately, this means snake habitat isn't about to improve. Still, the animals persist in select pockets of quality habitat.
Beware the 'danger noodle'

Despite their iconic buzzing rattle, the warning display for which these animals are named, rattlesnakes are notoriously difficult to find. This is because the rattle that tips off unsuspecting hikers to the presence of a “danger noodle” is really the last-ditch effort to scare off intruders before the animals resort to biting.

Rattlesnakes rely heavily on their mottled camouflage to hide among rocks and bushes to avoid detection completely -- and they are quite good at it.

Their skill at hide-and-seek means it is incredibly difficult for scientists to estimate their population numbers. How can you count something you can't see?

Because rattlesnakes are so difficult to count, there has only been one comprehensive study of a rattlesnake population in B.C., which dates back to 1985, when graduate J. Malcolm Macartney studied a population on a private cattle ranch.

In an effort to determine how rattlesnake populations have changed over the past 35 years, we have been scrambling up cliff faces in search of the same rattlesnake dens that Macartney surveyed decades ago.

These steep cliff faces, dotted with towering ponderosa pines, give way to lush grassland meadows fringed by azure lake waters. Although the location has not changed, the landscape certainly has

READ MORE: Growing concern over rattlesnake habitats in south Okanagan

In 1986, just one year after Macartney wrapped up his rattlesnake population study, half of the area was fenced off and established as a provincial park dedicated to recreation.

This creates a unique natural experiment where half of the rattlesnake population has remained on an active cattle ranch closed to the public, and the other half within one of the busiest parks in the area seeing nearly 250,000 visitors per summer.
Keeping snakes for years to come

Although we may still be several months away from fully understanding the trends of this rattlesnake population, we have learned much about how these animals interact with the land, and those who share it with them.

Are rattlesnakes that dwell on landscapes largely devoid of humans more likely to be larger and more abundant than snakes in areas with high levels of human visitation? We are currently analyzing our data to answer this very question.

Rattlesnakes living in areas where humans seldom visit also appear more likely to rattle at passersby. Snakes that regularly encounter people are 10 times less likely to rattle than those living in areas undisturbed by humans.

Although this work is very preliminary, it suggests that rattlesnakes are altering their behaviour according to the presence of humans in their foraging grounds. Perhaps they are learning that they don't necessarily need to waste precious energy with exuberant warnings.

Understanding exactly why these animals are declining and shifting their behaviour is a much more complicated issue, but it brings to attention the delicate balance between conservation and recreation. If we hope to keep rattlesnakes around, we will have to adjust how we interact with the limited amount of habitat available to them.

So, if you plan to spend some time in B.C.'s beautiful grasslands, remember to stay snake awake!

-- Karl Larsen is a professor in the department of natural resource sciences at Thompson Rivers University.

-- Marcus Atkins has a master’s degree in science and is a student studying environmental science at Thompson Rivers University.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The original article can be viewed here.