Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Global methane emissions soar to record high
The pandemic has tugged carbon emissions down, temporarily. But levels of the powerful heat-trapping gas methane continue to climb, dragging the world further away from a path that skirts the worst effects of global warming.
IMAGE: THE GLOBAL METHANE BUDGET FOR 2017 BASED ON DATA FROM SATELLITE SENSORS. ORANGE SHOWS SOURCES RELATED TO HUMAN ACTIVITIES; GREEN SHOWS NATURAL SOURCES AND SINKS FOR THE GAS; HATCHED ORANGE-GREEN... view more
CREDIT: JACKSON ET AL. 2020 ENV. RES. LETT.
Global emissions of methane have reached the highest levels on record. Increases are being driven primarily by growth of emissions from coal mining, oil and natural gas production, cattle and sheep ranching, and landfills.
Between 2000 and 2017, levels of the potent greenhouse gas barreled up toward pathways that climate models suggest will lead to 3-4 degrees Celsius of warming before the end of this century. This is a dangerous temperature threshold at which scientists warn that natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts and floods, and social disruptions such as famines and mass migrations become almost commonplace. The findings are outlined in two papers published July 14 in Earth System Science Data and Environmental Research Letters by researchers with the Global Carbon Project, an initiative led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson.
In 2017, the last year when complete global methane data are available, Earth's atmosphere absorbed nearly 600 million tons of the colorless, odorless gas that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year span. More than half of all methane emissions now come from human activities. Annual methane emissions are up 9 percent, or 50 million tons per year, from the early 2000s, when methane concentrations in the atmosphere were relatively stable.
In terms of warming potential, adding this much extra methane to the atmosphere since 2000 is akin to putting 350 million more cars on the world's roads or doubling the total emissions of Germany or France. "We still haven't turned the corner on methane," said Jackson, a professor of Earth system science in Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth).
Growing sources of methane
Globally, fossil fuel sources and cows are twin engines powering methane's upward climb. "Emissions from cattle and other ruminants are almost as large as those from the fossil fuel industry for methane," Jackson said. "People joke about burping cows without realizing how big the source really is."
Throughout the study period, agriculture accounted for roughly two-thirds of all methane emissions related to human activities; fossil fuels contributed most of the remaining third. However, those two sources have contributed in roughly equal measure to the increases seen since the early 2000s.
Methane emissions from agriculture rose to 227 million tons of methane in 2017, up nearly 11 percent from the 2000-2006 average. Methane from fossil fuel production and use reached 108 million tons in 2017, up nearly 15 percent from the earlier period.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, carbon emissions plummeted as manufacturing and transportation ground to a halt. "There's no chance that methane emissions dropped as much as carbon dioxide emissions because of the virus," Jackson said. "We're still heating our homes and buildings, and agriculture keeps growing."
Emissions around the globe
Methane emissions rose most sharply in Africa and the Middle East; China; and South Asia and Oceania, which includes Australia and many Pacific islands. Each of these three regions increased emissions by an estimated 10 to 15 million tons per year during the study period. The United States followed close behind, increasing methane emissions by 4.5 million tons, mostly due to more natural gas drilling, distribution and consumption.
"Natural gas use is rising quickly here in the U.S. and globally," Jackson said. "It's offsetting coal in the electricity sector and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but increasing methane emissions in that sector." The U.S. and Canada are also producing more natural gas. "As a result, we're emitting more methane from oil and gas wells and leaky pipelines," said Jackson, who is also a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and Precourt Institute for Energy.
Europe stands out as the only region where methane emissions have decreased over the last two decades, in part by tamping down emissions from chemical manufacturing and growing food more efficiently. "Policies and better management have reduced emissions from landfills, manure and other sources here in Europe. People are also eating less beef and more poultry and fish," said Marielle Saunois of the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin in France, lead author of the paper in Earth System Science Data.
Possible solutions
Tropical and temperate regions have seen the biggest jump in methane emissions. Boreal and polar systems have played a lesser role. Despite fears that melting in the Arctic may unlock a burst of methane from thawing permafrost, the researchers found no evidence for increasing methane emissions in the Arctic - at least through 2017.
Human driven emissions are in many ways easier to pin down than those from natural sources. "We have a surprisingly difficult time identifying where methane is emitted in the tropics and elsewhere because of daily to seasonal changes in how waterlogged soils are," said Jackson, who also leads a group at Stanford working to map wetlands and waterlogged soils worldwide using satellites, flux towers and other tools.
According to Jackson and colleagues, curbing methane emissions will require reducing fossil fuel use and controlling fugitive emissions such as leaks from pipelines and wells, as well as changes to the way we feed cattle, grow rice and eat. "We'll need to eat less meat and reduce emissions associated with cattle and rice farming," Jackson said, "and replace oil and natural gas in our cars and homes."
Feed supplements such as algae may help to reduce methane burps from cows, and rice farming can transition away from permanent waterlogging that maximizes methane production in low-oxygen environments. Aircraft, drones and satellites show promise for monitoring methane from oil and gas wells. Jackson said, "I'm optimistic that, in the next five years, we'll make real progress in that area."
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Rob Jackson is Stanford's Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor. Co-authors of the paper in Environmental Research Letters are affiliated with Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement at Universite? Paris-Saclay; the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia; the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; the European Commission Joint Research Centre; the Center for Global Environmental Research at the National Institute for Environmental Studies and the Meteorological Research Institute in Ibaraki, Japan; the TNO Department of Climate Air & Sustainability in Utrecht, The Netherlands; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, Finland.
The research received support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Stanford University, the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Programme's Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub (JGC) and Future Earth.
This gorgeous Hubble image hides an incredible secret
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
July 13th, 2020
The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a distant star casing “bat wing” shadows into space.
The star’s bright light is hitting a disk of debris surrounding the star, casting wide shadows we can see thanks to Hubble.
The wings even “flap” as a result of the wavy shape of the debris ring.Take a look at the glorious image above and see what details you can spot. There’s a handful of bright stars and lots of dust and loose material floating around that might eventually coalesce into stars, planets, or moons. There are also some very distant stars that appear as tiny dots scattered about. There’s enough to take in that you might have missed one of the most interesting features of image: a “bat shadow,” as NASA calls it.
A distant star casts "bat wing" shadows across space. Image source: NASA, ESA, and STScI
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
July 13th, 2020
The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a distant star casing “bat wing” shadows into space.
The star’s bright light is hitting a disk of debris surrounding the star, casting wide shadows we can see thanks to Hubble.
The wings even “flap” as a result of the wavy shape of the debris ring.Take a look at the glorious image above and see what details you can spot. There’s a handful of bright stars and lots of dust and loose material floating around that might eventually coalesce into stars, planets, or moons. There are also some very distant stars that appear as tiny dots scattered about. There’s enough to take in that you might have missed one of the most interesting features of image: a “bat shadow,” as NASA calls it.
Take a look toward the right-hand side of the image and you’ll see a bright dot sitting between what appears to be two very dark triangular shadows. That’s a newborn star, and the shadow being cast by a wealth of material orbiting it.
That so-called “bat shadow” is an indication that the star is surrounded by a disc of matter that will eventually form the features we see in places like our own solar system — namely, planets and moons and asteroids. We can see the bright shine of the star but if we were directly in line with its disc, it may be partially shrouded in the same shadow we see beaming from either side of it.
Via NASA:
Astronomers using a previously captured Hubble imagery spotted a remarkable image of a young star’s unseen, planet-forming disk casting a huge shadow across a more distant cloud in a star-forming region. The star is called HBC 672, and the shadow feature was nicknamed the “Bat Shadow” because it resembles a pair of wings. The nickname turned out to be unexpectedly appropriate, because now those “wings” appear to be flapping!
Wait, flapping? It’s true! Hubble’s observations of the faraway system appear to show changes in the shape and orientation of the shadows, suggesting that the ring of debris circling the star isn’t uniform, and the light beaming from the star takes on sightly different appearances based on the shape of that ring. The wobble of the ring may be due to a planet also orbiting the star, embedded within the debris disk.
“You have a star that is surrounded by a disk, and the disk is not like Saturn’s rings – it’s not flat,” Klaus Pontoppidan of the Space Telescope Science Institute said in a statement. “It’s puffed up. And so that means that if the light from the star goes straight up, it can continue straight up – it’s not blocked by anything. But if it tries to go along the plane of the disk, it doesn’t get out, and it casts a shadow.”
That so-called “bat shadow” is an indication that the star is surrounded by a disc of matter that will eventually form the features we see in places like our own solar system — namely, planets and moons and asteroids. We can see the bright shine of the star but if we were directly in line with its disc, it may be partially shrouded in the same shadow we see beaming from either side of it.
Via NASA:
Astronomers using a previously captured Hubble imagery spotted a remarkable image of a young star’s unseen, planet-forming disk casting a huge shadow across a more distant cloud in a star-forming region. The star is called HBC 672, and the shadow feature was nicknamed the “Bat Shadow” because it resembles a pair of wings. The nickname turned out to be unexpectedly appropriate, because now those “wings” appear to be flapping!
Wait, flapping? It’s true! Hubble’s observations of the faraway system appear to show changes in the shape and orientation of the shadows, suggesting that the ring of debris circling the star isn’t uniform, and the light beaming from the star takes on sightly different appearances based on the shape of that ring. The wobble of the ring may be due to a planet also orbiting the star, embedded within the debris disk.
“You have a star that is surrounded by a disk, and the disk is not like Saturn’s rings – it’s not flat,” Klaus Pontoppidan of the Space Telescope Science Institute said in a statement. “It’s puffed up. And so that means that if the light from the star goes straight up, it can continue straight up – it’s not blocked by anything. But if it tries to go along the plane of the disk, it doesn’t get out, and it casts a shadow.”
Fauci knows exactly why the coronavirus pandemic is out of control
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci takes off his face mask before testifying before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, June 23, 2020. Image source: Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP
By Chris Smith @chris_writes
July 14th, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci explained why the coronavirus is out of control in the United States right now, and the reasons aren’t surprising.
The health expert said that the US should have down entirely a few months ago, and the current surges can be explained by that failure.
Furthermore, phased reopenings did not work as planned, Fauci said. The doctor said things can still be turned around, advising young people to play their part in reducing the spread of the virus.
The novel coronavirus pandemic is out of control in several countries, with the United States leading the pack. The US will top 3.5 million cases at some point on Tuesday, as it’s currently averaging more than 60,000 new cases per day. The death toll nears 140,000, a milestone that will be reached in just a few days. Brazil, India, and Russia complete the top four when it comes to the number of cases and coronavirus fatalities. But even combined, the number of cases in those three countries don’t match America’s caseload. Of course, none of the official stats are really accurate. The actual number of people infected with the novel coronavirus is much higher in every county, as many people never get tested for the virus because they’re asymptomatic carriers. The total number of deaths might not tell an accurate story either, as it’s likely that some COVID-19 deaths go uncounted.
The world is in a much worse place than it was a few months ago when it comes to fighting this modern plague, and Dr. Anthony Fauci knows precisely why the virus is out of control, at least in the US.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has been at the forefront of America’s response to the pandemic from the beginning. Fauci is also one of the most trusted scientists involved with handling the disease, a voice who brings science-based facts about the pandemic and the progress of efforts to stop it.
The NIAID expert spoke during a virtual conversation hosted by Stanford Medicine (via Mercury News), where he explained why the virus is ravaging several US states right now. Fauci said that the surge in cases has a simple explanation: The US failed to shut down completely in its initial response.
“We did not shut down entirely, and that’s the reason why we went up,” he said. “We started to come down, and then we plateaued at a level that was really quite high, about 20,000 infections a day. Then as we started to reopen, we’re seeing the surges that we’re seeing today as we speak.
Furthermore, Fauci said that the government’s initial guidelines for the phased reopenings did not go as planned. But Fauci said that things can still be corrected. “We made a set of guidelines a few months ago… unfortunately, it did not work very well for us,” Fauci noted. “We can get a handle on that. I am really confident we can if we step back.”
The health expert explained that the US doesn’t necessarily need to go for another lockdown to slow the spread. “But pull back a bit. And then proceed in a very prudent way,” he said. Fauci added that young people are responsible for the majority of new infections in these new surges, and he called on them to recognize their “societal responsibility” in preventing the spread.
“We’ve got to convince them that just because they get infected, and the likelihood is that they’re not going to get seriously ill, doesn’t mean that their infection is not a very important part of the propagation of the outbreak,” he said.
Fauci did not address the government’s new moves, including the push to reopen schools. The interviewers also did not bring up the White House’s recent criticisms of Fauci as the Trump administration continues its blatant attempts to shift blame away from the president’s many failings. But the doctor again emphasized the need for caution going forward.
“The best way to open the country and to get back to normal is to be very prudent in protecting yourself from getting infected,” Fauci added. “That’s a difficult message when people don’t take something seriously, but we’ve got to hammer that home.”
Fauci also discussed the ongoing vaccine work, explaining that he’s still cautiously optimistic about having drugs ready in late 2020 or early next year. However, distributing the vaccine could be a challenge for officials, especially “in this era of anti-vax and anti-science” movements. On top of that, he said that the distribution will have to be done equitably.
The expert emphasized the need for the US government to rebuild the public health infrastructure, which is now in “tatters.”
“It’s one of those things where you’re a victim of your own success,” Fauci said. “We were so good at controlling smallpox, polio, tuberculosis, that we let the infrastructure locally go unattended… And now when we need good local public health capability, it’s not as good as it should be. We’ve got to build it up again.”
Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it he was sharing his views on tech stuff with readers around the world. Whenever he's not writing about gadgets he miserably fails to stay away from them, although he desperately tries. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
This 4K video of comet NEOWISE is downright stunning
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
July 14th, 2020
The comet known as NEOWISE was captured by time-lapse images from the International Space Station, and it’s now been made into a stunning 4K video.
The comet was barely visible when it was headed toward the Sun but after it appeared on the other side of its flyby it was much brighter.
The comet was heated by the Sun and is now producing much more gas as it cruises through space.
A comet near Earth is giving skywatchers plenty of reasons to gaze toward the heavens this month. The comet, called C/2020 F3, was spotted by the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite and has been nicknamed NEOWISE as a result. It was first spotted headed toward the Sun but after it made its loop around our star it became much bright, and can now be seen from Earth.
That also means that it can be seen from the International Space Station, and the high-resolution cameras the orbiting laboratory has mounted on its exterior provide a glorious glimpse of the comet as it breaks the horizon. YouTuber Seán Doran took it upon himself to convert time-lapse images from the space station and convert them into a realtime video that you can enjoy in ultra-sharp 4K resolution.
The video, which is seven minutes in length, shows the Earth appearing to rotate, but that’s just the Space Station making its way around the planet as it cruises at nearly five miles per second. Eventually, you’ll notice a small dot creeping over the horizon and its iconic tail. That’s comet NEOWISE speeding through space and leaving dust and gasses in its wake.
It’s a stunning glimpse of both Earth and its tiny visitor, and it’s great that the ISS cameras were able to capture NEOWISE during its trip back from the Sun.
When the comet was first detected it was very difficult to spot. After it made its way around the Sun it got a whole lot brighter, stunning some astronomers who were shocked to see that it was visible with nothing more than a pair of binoculars. Eventually, the comet became visible to the naked eye, and while it won’t be close enough to see for much longer, we have plenty of awesome images of its flyby to enjoy for years to come.
Comets like NEOWISE are some of the most interesting objects in our solar system. Chunks of ice and rock that have orbited the Sun for ages and are constantly shedding their gasses and dust due to being heated by the light from our star. The fact that NEOWISE became much brighter after it took its trip around the Sun is no coincidence; NEOWISE was heated by the intense energy of the Sun and, when we saw it again, it was bursting with brightness, spewing more material than had previously been observed.
The comet NEOWISE. Image source: NASA
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
July 14th, 2020
The comet known as NEOWISE was captured by time-lapse images from the International Space Station, and it’s now been made into a stunning 4K video.
The comet was barely visible when it was headed toward the Sun but after it appeared on the other side of its flyby it was much brighter.
The comet was heated by the Sun and is now producing much more gas as it cruises through space.
A comet near Earth is giving skywatchers plenty of reasons to gaze toward the heavens this month. The comet, called C/2020 F3, was spotted by the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite and has been nicknamed NEOWISE as a result. It was first spotted headed toward the Sun but after it made its loop around our star it became much bright, and can now be seen from Earth.
That also means that it can be seen from the International Space Station, and the high-resolution cameras the orbiting laboratory has mounted on its exterior provide a glorious glimpse of the comet as it breaks the horizon. YouTuber Seán Doran took it upon himself to convert time-lapse images from the space station and convert them into a realtime video that you can enjoy in ultra-sharp 4K resolution.
The video, which is seven minutes in length, shows the Earth appearing to rotate, but that’s just the Space Station making its way around the planet as it cruises at nearly five miles per second. Eventually, you’ll notice a small dot creeping over the horizon and its iconic tail. That’s comet NEOWISE speeding through space and leaving dust and gasses in its wake.
It’s a stunning glimpse of both Earth and its tiny visitor, and it’s great that the ISS cameras were able to capture NEOWISE during its trip back from the Sun.
When the comet was first detected it was very difficult to spot. After it made its way around the Sun it got a whole lot brighter, stunning some astronomers who were shocked to see that it was visible with nothing more than a pair of binoculars. Eventually, the comet became visible to the naked eye, and while it won’t be close enough to see for much longer, we have plenty of awesome images of its flyby to enjoy for years to come.
Comets like NEOWISE are some of the most interesting objects in our solar system. Chunks of ice and rock that have orbited the Sun for ages and are constantly shedding their gasses and dust due to being heated by the light from our star. The fact that NEOWISE became much brighter after it took its trip around the Sun is no coincidence; NEOWISE was heated by the intense energy of the Sun and, when we saw it again, it was bursting with brightness, spewing more material than had previously been observed.
Alberta NDP, Indigenous leaders renew calls for Kenney to fire speechwriter over 2013 essay
Phil Heidenreich
2020-07-07
Phil Heidenreich
2020-07-07
© Global News Alberta NDP Indigenous Relations Critic Richard Feehan speaks at a news conference in Edmonton on July 6, 2020.
Members of Alberta's official Opposition and some Indigenous leaders have renewed calls for Premier Jason Kenney to fire his speechwriter over a 2013 essay that was critical of how Indigenous issues are framed in Canada, and which argues the narrative around residential schools amounts to a "bogus genocide story."
"Today I asked the premier to take these calls seriously and remove Paul Bunner. He ignored me," Alberta NDP Indigenous Relations Critic Richard Feehan said at a news conference in Edmonton on Monday.
"Paul Bunner enjoys a highly-paid position of influence in our province as one of the premier's closest collaborators," he said. "Paul Bunner harbours a profound hatred and contempt for Indigenous people.
"Why won't the premier confront the racism in his own office today? This is shameful. Paul Bunner must be fired immediately."
Kenney has previously said that while he has not read the article in question, he has seen excerpts from it and that he fundamentally disagrees with them. However, in an interview with Global News last week, the premier said that although Bunner may have written things over the years that he disagrees with, "in virtually every product he's prepared for me, there is a deliberate effort to recognize the nobility of the First Nations."
Bunner has not spoken publicly since people began calling for his removal. Global News has twice attempted to reach him through the premier's office but not received a response to requests for interviews or statements.
Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey also spoke at Monday's news conference and said that he and other chiefs are "amazed at the level of disrespect brandished by Premier Kenney, who continues to employ an individual who has published anti-First Nations views that are harmful, divisive, dehumanizing and racist to say the least."
"[Bunner's essay] demeans First Nations' long fight for treaty and Aboriginal rights and goes on to disparage residential school experiences and survivors," he said. "This article in its entirety is unconscionable.
"How can Premier Kenney know about this article and overlook the harm it continues to cause... [his] acceptance of these articles demonstrates nothing but racism."
Noskey said he and other chiefs want to see Bunner removed from his current role and not be hired in any capacity by the government.
Despite Kenney vocalizing his disagreement with some of Bunner's writing, Noskey said "actions speak louder than words."
While a number of pieces Bunner has written over the years have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, an essay titled "The 'Genocide' That Failed," published in a right-wing online publication called the C2C Journal in 2013, has been at the centre of the criticism.
A spokesperson for Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson told Global News that Bunner recently met with Wilton Littlechild, the former Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six, for a three-hour meeting that included "honest and forthright dialogue."
He said the meeting, which took place in Maskwacis, was set up by Wilson.
Global News has attempted to reach out to Littlechild via the Confederacy of Treaty Six and Bunner through the premier's office for their thoughts on the meeting.
Adam North Peigan, the president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta, said Monday that as someone who represents those "directly affected by the holocaust of the residential schools," he is troubled by how the premier has dealt with recent criticism of Bunner's writing.
"Paul Bunner's attitude is what reinforces the attitude of privilege towards the first peoples of this land we now call Canada to the point of denying the atrocities of this assimilation," he said, noting that the Blackfoot Confederacy also recently called for Bunner to be removed.
READ MORE: Blackfoot Confederacy calls for Alberta premier to fire speechwriter over residential school comments
Noskey suggested he wanted Kenney's UCP government to support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to "acknowledge that we are people, human beings, with rights --not only human rights, but inherent and treaty rights."
"The exploitation of our land and resources is constant," he said.
READ MORE: UCP introduces bill, $1 billion would support First Nations economic investments
When asked about past comments the Kenney government has made about being partners in prosperity with Indigenous people, Noskey said he does not believe such a partnership is in place.
"I know that the billion-dollar Indigenous fund was promised... but I think that's to the big corporations that are out there," he said
Members of Alberta's official Opposition and some Indigenous leaders have renewed calls for Premier Jason Kenney to fire his speechwriter over a 2013 essay that was critical of how Indigenous issues are framed in Canada, and which argues the narrative around residential schools amounts to a "bogus genocide story."
"Today I asked the premier to take these calls seriously and remove Paul Bunner. He ignored me," Alberta NDP Indigenous Relations Critic Richard Feehan said at a news conference in Edmonton on Monday.
"Paul Bunner enjoys a highly-paid position of influence in our province as one of the premier's closest collaborators," he said. "Paul Bunner harbours a profound hatred and contempt for Indigenous people.
"Why won't the premier confront the racism in his own office today? This is shameful. Paul Bunner must be fired immediately."
Kenney has previously said that while he has not read the article in question, he has seen excerpts from it and that he fundamentally disagrees with them. However, in an interview with Global News last week, the premier said that although Bunner may have written things over the years that he disagrees with, "in virtually every product he's prepared for me, there is a deliberate effort to recognize the nobility of the First Nations."
Bunner has not spoken publicly since people began calling for his removal. Global News has twice attempted to reach him through the premier's office but not received a response to requests for interviews or statements.
Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey also spoke at Monday's news conference and said that he and other chiefs are "amazed at the level of disrespect brandished by Premier Kenney, who continues to employ an individual who has published anti-First Nations views that are harmful, divisive, dehumanizing and racist to say the least."
"[Bunner's essay] demeans First Nations' long fight for treaty and Aboriginal rights and goes on to disparage residential school experiences and survivors," he said. "This article in its entirety is unconscionable.
"How can Premier Kenney know about this article and overlook the harm it continues to cause... [his] acceptance of these articles demonstrates nothing but racism."
Noskey said he and other chiefs want to see Bunner removed from his current role and not be hired in any capacity by the government.
Despite Kenney vocalizing his disagreement with some of Bunner's writing, Noskey said "actions speak louder than words."
While a number of pieces Bunner has written over the years have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, an essay titled "The 'Genocide' That Failed," published in a right-wing online publication called the C2C Journal in 2013, has been at the centre of the criticism.
A spokesperson for Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson told Global News that Bunner recently met with Wilton Littlechild, the former Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six, for a three-hour meeting that included "honest and forthright dialogue."
He said the meeting, which took place in Maskwacis, was set up by Wilson.
Global News has attempted to reach out to Littlechild via the Confederacy of Treaty Six and Bunner through the premier's office for their thoughts on the meeting.
Adam North Peigan, the president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta, said Monday that as someone who represents those "directly affected by the holocaust of the residential schools," he is troubled by how the premier has dealt with recent criticism of Bunner's writing.
"Paul Bunner's attitude is what reinforces the attitude of privilege towards the first peoples of this land we now call Canada to the point of denying the atrocities of this assimilation," he said, noting that the Blackfoot Confederacy also recently called for Bunner to be removed.
READ MORE: Blackfoot Confederacy calls for Alberta premier to fire speechwriter over residential school comments
Noskey suggested he wanted Kenney's UCP government to support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to "acknowledge that we are people, human beings, with rights --not only human rights, but inherent and treaty rights."
"The exploitation of our land and resources is constant," he said.
READ MORE: UCP introduces bill, $1 billion would support First Nations economic investments
When asked about past comments the Kenney government has made about being partners in prosperity with Indigenous people, Noskey said he does not believe such a partnership is in place.
"I know that the billion-dollar Indigenous fund was promised... but I think that's to the big corporations that are out there," he said
Investors flee Canadian market on worst day in 80 years
Canadian stocks plunged, posting their biggest drop in eight decades as concerns mounted that the coronavirus pandemic will impact economic growth.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 12 per cent Thursday, the biggest one day drop since May 1940, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Trading was halted earlier in the day amid dramatic selling at the opening. The nation’s benchmark slumped to its lowest since February 2016 at the close.
“The most important thing right now is to focus on liquidity, focus on safe yields and non-cyclical parts of market,” including Canadian banks, David Rosenberg, founder of Rosenberg Research and Associates Inc., said in a phone interview. He’s “nibbling back into the market” and advising clients to look for stocks where dividends are safe.
Rosenberg, the former Merrill Lynch chief economist, who has long been forecasting a recession, thinks one has already begun in Canada and the U.S. “This is an absolutely horrible situation, at every level,” he said.
A growing chorus of economists believe Canada is on the brink of recession as the economy takes a double hit from the coronavirus and tanking oil prices, ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to boost its fiscal stimulus package.
Don’t bank on a quick bounce, at least according to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. “The caveat here is that we do not believe there is a V-shape recovery given the magnitude of the recent technical damage in market internals,” the bank’s technical analyst Sid Mokhtari said in a note to clients.
Crude oil slumped further after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would restrict travel from Europe for the next 30 days in an attempt to contain the coronavirus, pummeling fuel demand.
Trudeau is in self-isolation and working from home while his wife awaits the results of a Covid-19 test. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms after recently returning from a speaking engagement in London, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. While her symptoms have subsided, she’s self-isolating at home as she awaits the test results.
The prime minister isn’t exhibiting any symptoms.
Canadian stocks plunged, posting their biggest drop in eight decades as concerns mounted that the coronavirus pandemic will impact economic growth.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 12 per cent Thursday, the biggest one day drop since May 1940, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Trading was halted earlier in the day amid dramatic selling at the opening. The nation’s benchmark slumped to its lowest since February 2016 at the close.
“The most important thing right now is to focus on liquidity, focus on safe yields and non-cyclical parts of market,” including Canadian banks, David Rosenberg, founder of Rosenberg Research and Associates Inc., said in a phone interview. He’s “nibbling back into the market” and advising clients to look for stocks where dividends are safe.
Rosenberg, the former Merrill Lynch chief economist, who has long been forecasting a recession, thinks one has already begun in Canada and the U.S. “This is an absolutely horrible situation, at every level,” he said.
A growing chorus of economists believe Canada is on the brink of recession as the economy takes a double hit from the coronavirus and tanking oil prices, ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to boost its fiscal stimulus package.
Don’t bank on a quick bounce, at least according to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. “The caveat here is that we do not believe there is a V-shape recovery given the magnitude of the recent technical damage in market internals,” the bank’s technical analyst Sid Mokhtari said in a note to clients.
Crude oil slumped further after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would restrict travel from Europe for the next 30 days in an attempt to contain the coronavirus, pummeling fuel demand.
Trudeau is in self-isolation and working from home while his wife awaits the results of a Covid-19 test. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms after recently returning from a speaking engagement in London, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. While her symptoms have subsided, she’s self-isolating at home as she awaits the test results.
The prime minister isn’t exhibiting any symptoms.
'We are Vanessa Guillén': killing puts sexual violence in US military in focus
US military
The 20-year-old soldier said she was being sexually harassed by superiors before her dismembered body was found in Texas
Shilpa Jindia Tue 14 Jul 2020
Protesters gather at a march and vigil for Vanessa Guillen on 12 July in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Sergio Flores/Getty Images
Guillén’s family pushed relentlessly for answers in their search for Vanessa.The family have now renewed their calls to shut down Fort Hood, as well as for a congressional investigation into the base and new legislation to create an independent agency for soldiers to report sexual harassment and violence.
“They lied to us since day one,” Mayra Guillén, Vanessa’s sister, said in an anguished press conference last week.
More 4,000 women and non-binary veterans and active duty members have signed a petition directed at the leaders of Department of Defense and congressional leadership supporting the family’s calls.
“We are Vanessa Guillén, that’s our story too, it could have easily been any one of us,” said Tristeza Ordex, a retired marine corps staff sergeant who helped start the letter along with Pam Campos-Palma, a former intelligence analyst and community organizer.
“Her story, what happened to her, really resonates for me because, she’s a Mexican American woman that lost her life, and that could have easily been me with the things that I went through, the sexual harassment, the attempts of assault, and dealing with the chain of command where you try to report things.”
The letter also demands the immediate relief and replacement of Guillén’s chain of command, up to and including the commanding general of Fort Hood, and a boycott on enlistment until systemic rape culture is addressed.
The US army is assembling a civilian review panel of consultants to review the “command climate and culture” at Fort Hood, the army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, announced last week.
“The purpose of this independent review is to determine whether the command climate and culture at Fort Hood and the surrounding military community reflects the army’s values including respect, inclusiveness and workplaces free from sexual harassment, and the commitment to diversity,” a statement said. Several other investigations into conduct at Food Hood are also under way, including one examining the allegations that Guillén was sexually harassed, and another on the support given to those who report sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The Fort Hood army base near Killeen, Texas. There have been several unsolved deaths or disappearances at the base. Photograph: Jack Plunkett/AP
One of the largest military bases in the world, Fort Hood has been criticized for failing to protect soldiers in the past. In 2015, a sergeant with the base’s sexual assault reporting unit – which Guillén would have reported to had she lodged a complaint – pleaded guilty to running a prostitution ring with vulnerable young soldiers.
“It’s like a fox in the hen house,” Khawam told the Guardian. “This is an epidemic in our military system, in our culture. It’s cultivated in that place.”
In the course of the search for Guillén, investigators also found the remains of another missing Fort Hood soldier, Private Gregory Morales, who disappeared last August, one of several unsolved deaths and disappearances at the base.
Almost 90 lawmakers have signed a letter spearheaded by the Texas representative Sylvia Garcia calling for the defense department’s inspector general to investigate Guillén’s disappearance at Fort Hood.
But survivors and advocates already know the limits of congressional advocacy. Awareness and outrage over sexual violence in the military grew after the 2012 documentary Invisible War. However, efforts to pass legislation reforming military justice faltered over a debate about commanders’ roles in prosecuting sexual assault.
In 2013, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would give independent military prosecutors outside the chain of command control over sexual assault cases. Soldiers cannot sue the military for harm, and have little recourse aside from reporting up the chain of command.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia(@RepSylviaGarcia)
Vanessa Guillen and her family were failed.
I thank all my colleagues in Congress who have reached out about this case and who are ready to help.
Together, we must ensure the Guillen family gets #JusticeForVanessa and that this never happens again.#IAmVanessaGuillen pic.twitter.com/7tPsFCKtdRJuly 2, 2020
While the bill received bipartisan support, Gillibrand encountered resistance from within her own party. The then senator Claire McCaskill offered her own legislation proposing many of the same reforms, but kept power within the chain of command, deferring to tradition. McCaskill, a former sex crimes prosecutor, found herself labeled as the roadblock to the most significant piece of congressional legislation challenging rape culture in the military.
Though Congress criminalized retaliation, among a number of reforms, it remains a significant barrier to reporting in the fraternal world of the military. Service members who report sexual harassment or assault risk ostracism and their career. The defense department was able to substantiate only one of the 129 retaliation cases it investigated in 2018, and 64% of service members surveyed said they experienced retaliation for reporting assault. Sixty-six per cent of retaliation reports allege that retaliators were in the soldier’s chain of command. “When the chain of command tries to be the one that’s involved, it’s like the police policing itself,” said Ordex.
“If there’s not actual accountability for those actions, then the fact that things have changed a little bit on the books doesn’t change the culture at all,” said attorney Sara Darahshouri, who wrote two reports on retaliation for sexual assault crimes in the military while senior counsel at Human Rights Watch. “As a symbolic gesture, it made sense. But the problem is you could always have punished for retaliation.”
The Guillén family plans to lead a peaceful protest in Washington DC, on 30 July, when they will present their proposed bill to lawmakers. “That’s the stage that the family needs,” Ordex said.
“She wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than herself. And what ended up happening is that this amazing and beautiful family gave this beautiful girl to this country, and they chewed her up and spit her out like she was garbage.”
US military
The 20-year-old soldier said she was being sexually harassed by superiors before her dismembered body was found in Texas
Shilpa Jindia Tue 14 Jul 2020
Offerings sit in front of a mural of the slain army specialist Vanessa Guillén painted on a wall in the south side of Fort Worth, Texas. Photograph: LM Otero/AP
The disappearance and killing of soldier Vanessa Guillén has gripped Texas, and reignited widespread outrage over sexual violence in the US military and the failures of recent reforms to address it.
Guillén, 20, disappeared from the Fort Hood military base in Killeen on 22 April. After over two months in which hundreds of people searched for her across large parts of central Texas, remains were found in late June, and were later identified as Guillén’s.
Military sexual assaults jump by 37%, anonymous survey shows
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/02/unreported-military-sexual-assaults-jump-by-37-anonymous-survey-shows
As her family publicly pressed for answers, the army announced that a suspect, soldier Aaron David Robinson, died on 1 July by suicide as law enforcement pursued him. Robinson’s girlfriend Cecily Aguilar, a civilian, was arrested and later charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
The Department of Justice released a criminal complaint alleging that Robinson had murdered Guillén at the base, then dismembered and buried her body near the Leon River, with Aguilar’s help. Guillén’s family say they learned what allegedly happened to Vanessa as the public did.
Aguilar appeared in court earlier this month but did not make any statement other than to acknowledge the charges against her. She did not enter a plea.
Many questions remain unanswered about the events leading up to Guillén’s death. She told family and friends that she was being sexual harassed by two different soldiers who outranked her, including Robinson, but never formally reported the allegations, fearing retaliation.
A lawyer for the Guillén family told the Houston Chronicle that they provided Robinson’s name to authorities. “We believe that Vanessa told him that she was reporting him, and that’s why he bludgeoned her,” said the Guillén family attorney, Natalie Khawam. She has said that if Guillén had felt able to come forward before, she might still be alive today.
About one in three service members report sexual assault, according to the defense department. Last year, 6,236 reports of sexual assault were filed with the department’s sexual assault prevention and response office, which was established in 2005. The vast majority were women aged 17 to 24, like Guillén.
Guillén’s disappearance prompted protesters to march in the streets across major cities in Texas over Independence Day weekend, before her remains were found. The hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen spread across social media as service members shared stories of sexual violence and harassment in a #MeToo reckoning for the military, as the country also grapples with the wider indictments of systemic racial discrimination and injustice following the killing of George Floyd.
The disappearance and killing of soldier Vanessa Guillén has gripped Texas, and reignited widespread outrage over sexual violence in the US military and the failures of recent reforms to address it.
Guillén, 20, disappeared from the Fort Hood military base in Killeen on 22 April. After over two months in which hundreds of people searched for her across large parts of central Texas, remains were found in late June, and were later identified as Guillén’s.
Military sexual assaults jump by 37%, anonymous survey shows
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/02/unreported-military-sexual-assaults-jump-by-37-anonymous-survey-shows
As her family publicly pressed for answers, the army announced that a suspect, soldier Aaron David Robinson, died on 1 July by suicide as law enforcement pursued him. Robinson’s girlfriend Cecily Aguilar, a civilian, was arrested and later charged with conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
The Department of Justice released a criminal complaint alleging that Robinson had murdered Guillén at the base, then dismembered and buried her body near the Leon River, with Aguilar’s help. Guillén’s family say they learned what allegedly happened to Vanessa as the public did.
Aguilar appeared in court earlier this month but did not make any statement other than to acknowledge the charges against her. She did not enter a plea.
Many questions remain unanswered about the events leading up to Guillén’s death. She told family and friends that she was being sexual harassed by two different soldiers who outranked her, including Robinson, but never formally reported the allegations, fearing retaliation.
A lawyer for the Guillén family told the Houston Chronicle that they provided Robinson’s name to authorities. “We believe that Vanessa told him that she was reporting him, and that’s why he bludgeoned her,” said the Guillén family attorney, Natalie Khawam. She has said that if Guillén had felt able to come forward before, she might still be alive today.
About one in three service members report sexual assault, according to the defense department. Last year, 6,236 reports of sexual assault were filed with the department’s sexual assault prevention and response office, which was established in 2005. The vast majority were women aged 17 to 24, like Guillén.
Guillén’s disappearance prompted protesters to march in the streets across major cities in Texas over Independence Day weekend, before her remains were found. The hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen spread across social media as service members shared stories of sexual violence and harassment in a #MeToo reckoning for the military, as the country also grapples with the wider indictments of systemic racial discrimination and injustice following the killing of George Floyd.
Protesters gather at a march and vigil for Vanessa Guillen on 12 July in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Sergio Flores/Getty Images
Guillén’s family pushed relentlessly for answers in their search for Vanessa.The family have now renewed their calls to shut down Fort Hood, as well as for a congressional investigation into the base and new legislation to create an independent agency for soldiers to report sexual harassment and violence.
“They lied to us since day one,” Mayra Guillén, Vanessa’s sister, said in an anguished press conference last week.
More 4,000 women and non-binary veterans and active duty members have signed a petition directed at the leaders of Department of Defense and congressional leadership supporting the family’s calls.
“We are Vanessa Guillén, that’s our story too, it could have easily been any one of us,” said Tristeza Ordex, a retired marine corps staff sergeant who helped start the letter along with Pam Campos-Palma, a former intelligence analyst and community organizer.
“Her story, what happened to her, really resonates for me because, she’s a Mexican American woman that lost her life, and that could have easily been me with the things that I went through, the sexual harassment, the attempts of assault, and dealing with the chain of command where you try to report things.”
The letter also demands the immediate relief and replacement of Guillén’s chain of command, up to and including the commanding general of Fort Hood, and a boycott on enlistment until systemic rape culture is addressed.
The US army is assembling a civilian review panel of consultants to review the “command climate and culture” at Fort Hood, the army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, announced last week.
“The purpose of this independent review is to determine whether the command climate and culture at Fort Hood and the surrounding military community reflects the army’s values including respect, inclusiveness and workplaces free from sexual harassment, and the commitment to diversity,” a statement said. Several other investigations into conduct at Food Hood are also under way, including one examining the allegations that Guillén was sexually harassed, and another on the support given to those who report sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The Fort Hood army base near Killeen, Texas. There have been several unsolved deaths or disappearances at the base. Photograph: Jack Plunkett/AP
One of the largest military bases in the world, Fort Hood has been criticized for failing to protect soldiers in the past. In 2015, a sergeant with the base’s sexual assault reporting unit – which Guillén would have reported to had she lodged a complaint – pleaded guilty to running a prostitution ring with vulnerable young soldiers.
“It’s like a fox in the hen house,” Khawam told the Guardian. “This is an epidemic in our military system, in our culture. It’s cultivated in that place.”
In the course of the search for Guillén, investigators also found the remains of another missing Fort Hood soldier, Private Gregory Morales, who disappeared last August, one of several unsolved deaths and disappearances at the base.
Almost 90 lawmakers have signed a letter spearheaded by the Texas representative Sylvia Garcia calling for the defense department’s inspector general to investigate Guillén’s disappearance at Fort Hood.
But survivors and advocates already know the limits of congressional advocacy. Awareness and outrage over sexual violence in the military grew after the 2012 documentary Invisible War. However, efforts to pass legislation reforming military justice faltered over a debate about commanders’ roles in prosecuting sexual assault.
In 2013, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would give independent military prosecutors outside the chain of command control over sexual assault cases. Soldiers cannot sue the military for harm, and have little recourse aside from reporting up the chain of command.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia(@RepSylviaGarcia)
Vanessa Guillen and her family were failed.
I thank all my colleagues in Congress who have reached out about this case and who are ready to help.
Together, we must ensure the Guillen family gets #JusticeForVanessa and that this never happens again.#IAmVanessaGuillen pic.twitter.com/7tPsFCKtdRJuly 2, 2020
While the bill received bipartisan support, Gillibrand encountered resistance from within her own party. The then senator Claire McCaskill offered her own legislation proposing many of the same reforms, but kept power within the chain of command, deferring to tradition. McCaskill, a former sex crimes prosecutor, found herself labeled as the roadblock to the most significant piece of congressional legislation challenging rape culture in the military.
Though Congress criminalized retaliation, among a number of reforms, it remains a significant barrier to reporting in the fraternal world of the military. Service members who report sexual harassment or assault risk ostracism and their career. The defense department was able to substantiate only one of the 129 retaliation cases it investigated in 2018, and 64% of service members surveyed said they experienced retaliation for reporting assault. Sixty-six per cent of retaliation reports allege that retaliators were in the soldier’s chain of command. “When the chain of command tries to be the one that’s involved, it’s like the police policing itself,” said Ordex.
“If there’s not actual accountability for those actions, then the fact that things have changed a little bit on the books doesn’t change the culture at all,” said attorney Sara Darahshouri, who wrote two reports on retaliation for sexual assault crimes in the military while senior counsel at Human Rights Watch. “As a symbolic gesture, it made sense. But the problem is you could always have punished for retaliation.”
The Guillén family plans to lead a peaceful protest in Washington DC, on 30 July, when they will present their proposed bill to lawmakers. “That’s the stage that the family needs,” Ordex said.
“She wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than herself. And what ended up happening is that this amazing and beautiful family gave this beautiful girl to this country, and they chewed her up and spit her out like she was garbage.”
UK
Priti Patel is wrong, modern slavery in Leicester is built on her government's failures Emily Kenway
‘Cultural sensitivities’ aren’t the issue: we need proper labour inspection, migrant workers’ safety and strong unionisation
Tue 14 Jul 2020
‘Cultural sensitivities’ aren’t the issue: we need proper labour inspection, migrant workers’ safety and strong unionisation
Tue 14 Jul 2020
‘Instead of conjecture, Priti Patel would do better to look at how her own department’s policies are making the situation so much worse.’ Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
The Covid-19 pandemic has ensured that the conditions in garment sweatshops in Leicester are no longer an open secret shared by those in the know, but a nationally recognised shame. The government should be seizing this opportunity and taking action to rid these factories and many other workplaces around the country of exploitation.
Instead, the weekend brought us reports of Priti Patel comparing the situation in Leicester to the Rotherham grooming scandal, suggesting that “cultural sensitivities” were the reason why the endemic abuse had not been tackled. This sounds like an attempt to distract us from the policy failures that have led us here, to a country in which more than 10,000 potential victims of modern slavery were identified in 2019, and everyday products have exploitation in their supply chains.
Employers push abusive working conditions on to workers for one very simple reason: to make more money. In this way, it’s an opportunistic act. So, very simply, we need to remove the opportunity. How do we do that? There are three clear ways: properly funded labour inspection, ensuring reporting abuse is safe for migrant workers, and strong unionisation. None of them involve cultural sensitivities, and government has been asked for them repeatedly over the years.
We can’t expect to have decent workplaces without proper enforcement of our labour laws
We can’t expect to have decent workplaces without proper enforcement of our labour laws. For too long, labour inspection has been portrayed as busybody interference or “red tape”. This narrative allows government to get away with shameful underfunding of our inspectorates. The stats say it all: the likelihood of a minimum wage inspection by HMRC for an average employer is once every 500 years. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, our foremost agency tasked with tackling precisely the kinds of conditions reported in Leicester, has just over 100 staff to cover the entire labour market of England and Wales. Labour inspectors weren’t even named as “essential workers” on government lists when the pandemic took hold. They’re treated as the poor relation of policing, and yet without them to hold the line, labour abuses escalate into full-blown modern slavery. For government to point the finger at these frontline services for the situation in Leicester is, at best, ignorance of the facts, and, at worst, offensive to these underfunded agencies.
Funding labour inspectorates properly alone won’t solve problems like those in Leicester. Instead of conjecture, Patel would do better to look at how her own department’s policies are making the situation so much worse. The hostile environment – and specifically, the illegal working offence – makes it impossible for migrant workers with irregular status to feel safe to report abuse. They’re forced to choose between staying in exploitative situations or risking detention and deportation if they report harm. Even being a victim of modern slavery won’t protect them; hundreds of victims have been locked up in immigration jails in the UK on a regular basis. And exploitative bosses know this, directly using migrant workers’ fear to force them to accept abusive conditions. This is so well recognised that the government’s own form for referring victims of modern slavery to support services includes “threat of being handed over to authorities” as an indicator. There’s a very straightforward way to solve this: repeal the illegal working offence and introduce “secure reporting”, which ensures any reports of workplace abuse are kept separate from immigration enforcement.
Finally, the most effective defenders of workplace rights are workers themselves. We’ve become inured to the decline of unions, and yet Covid-19 demonstrates their importance: without them ensuring that health and safety rules – like social distancing and PPE – are observed, this job is left to business. Brands do have the power to ensure unionisation in their supply chains, just like they have the power to impose such low prices for orders that necessitate poverty wages, but they don’t use it. Boohoo was outed during a 2019 parliamentary inquiry for refusing “even the most basic level of engagement” with the union Usdaw, and for being generally hostile to workers organising for their rights. If the government really wants to avoid more lockdowns and more exploitation, it should mandate unionisation in high-risk sectors.
Properly funded labour inspection, ensuring reporting abuse is safe for migrant workers, and strong unionisation are the foundations of a decent and healthy labour market. Without them in place, we’ll continue to have the kind of appalling situation exposed in Leicester. The health of our workplaces and communities requires us not to be distracted by red herring explanations but to keep calling for a post-Covid-19 future that puts these foundations firmly in place at last.
• Emily Kenway is senior adviser at Focus on Labour Exploitation and author of The Truth about Modern Slavery, published in January 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has ensured that the conditions in garment sweatshops in Leicester are no longer an open secret shared by those in the know, but a nationally recognised shame. The government should be seizing this opportunity and taking action to rid these factories and many other workplaces around the country of exploitation.
Instead, the weekend brought us reports of Priti Patel comparing the situation in Leicester to the Rotherham grooming scandal, suggesting that “cultural sensitivities” were the reason why the endemic abuse had not been tackled. This sounds like an attempt to distract us from the policy failures that have led us here, to a country in which more than 10,000 potential victims of modern slavery were identified in 2019, and everyday products have exploitation in their supply chains.
Employers push abusive working conditions on to workers for one very simple reason: to make more money. In this way, it’s an opportunistic act. So, very simply, we need to remove the opportunity. How do we do that? There are three clear ways: properly funded labour inspection, ensuring reporting abuse is safe for migrant workers, and strong unionisation. None of them involve cultural sensitivities, and government has been asked for them repeatedly over the years.
We can’t expect to have decent workplaces without proper enforcement of our labour laws
We can’t expect to have decent workplaces without proper enforcement of our labour laws. For too long, labour inspection has been portrayed as busybody interference or “red tape”. This narrative allows government to get away with shameful underfunding of our inspectorates. The stats say it all: the likelihood of a minimum wage inspection by HMRC for an average employer is once every 500 years. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, our foremost agency tasked with tackling precisely the kinds of conditions reported in Leicester, has just over 100 staff to cover the entire labour market of England and Wales. Labour inspectors weren’t even named as “essential workers” on government lists when the pandemic took hold. They’re treated as the poor relation of policing, and yet without them to hold the line, labour abuses escalate into full-blown modern slavery. For government to point the finger at these frontline services for the situation in Leicester is, at best, ignorance of the facts, and, at worst, offensive to these underfunded agencies.
Funding labour inspectorates properly alone won’t solve problems like those in Leicester. Instead of conjecture, Patel would do better to look at how her own department’s policies are making the situation so much worse. The hostile environment – and specifically, the illegal working offence – makes it impossible for migrant workers with irregular status to feel safe to report abuse. They’re forced to choose between staying in exploitative situations or risking detention and deportation if they report harm. Even being a victim of modern slavery won’t protect them; hundreds of victims have been locked up in immigration jails in the UK on a regular basis. And exploitative bosses know this, directly using migrant workers’ fear to force them to accept abusive conditions. This is so well recognised that the government’s own form for referring victims of modern slavery to support services includes “threat of being handed over to authorities” as an indicator. There’s a very straightforward way to solve this: repeal the illegal working offence and introduce “secure reporting”, which ensures any reports of workplace abuse are kept separate from immigration enforcement.
Finally, the most effective defenders of workplace rights are workers themselves. We’ve become inured to the decline of unions, and yet Covid-19 demonstrates their importance: without them ensuring that health and safety rules – like social distancing and PPE – are observed, this job is left to business. Brands do have the power to ensure unionisation in their supply chains, just like they have the power to impose such low prices for orders that necessitate poverty wages, but they don’t use it. Boohoo was outed during a 2019 parliamentary inquiry for refusing “even the most basic level of engagement” with the union Usdaw, and for being generally hostile to workers organising for their rights. If the government really wants to avoid more lockdowns and more exploitation, it should mandate unionisation in high-risk sectors.
Properly funded labour inspection, ensuring reporting abuse is safe for migrant workers, and strong unionisation are the foundations of a decent and healthy labour market. Without them in place, we’ll continue to have the kind of appalling situation exposed in Leicester. The health of our workplaces and communities requires us not to be distracted by red herring explanations but to keep calling for a post-Covid-19 future that puts these foundations firmly in place at last.
• Emily Kenway is senior adviser at Focus on Labour Exploitation and author of The Truth about Modern Slavery, published in January 2021
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