Second Cable Fails At NSF’s Arecibo Observatory In Puerto Rico
November 9, 2020 University of Central Florida

A main cable that supports the Arecibo Observatory broke Friday at 7:39 p.m. Puerto Rico time.

Unlike the auxiliary cable that failed at the same facility on Aug. 10, this main cable did not slip out of its socket. It broke and fell onto the reflector dish below, causing additional damage to the dish and other nearby cables. Both cables were connected to the same support tower. No one was hurt, and engineers are already working to determine the best way to stabilize the structure.

A safety zone has been set up around the dish out of an abundance of caution and only personnel needed to respond to the incident are allowed onsite.

Officials haven’t determined why the main cable broke, but they suspect it is related to the extra load the remaining cables have been carrying since August. A monitoring team has been closely watching all the cables and platform since then as part of the facility’s safety and temporary emergency repair plan. Observers had noted and were tracking broken wires on the main cable that failed Friday. The facility was awaiting a team of engineers this week who were expected to begin temporary emergency repairs related to the August incident.


“This is certainly not what we wanted to see, but the important thing is that no one got hurt,” said Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory. “We have been thoughtful in our evaluation and prioritized safety in planning for repairs that were supposed to begin Tuesday. Now this. There is much uncertainty until we can stabilize the structure. It has our full attention. We are evaluating the situation with our experts and hope to have more to share soon.”

The University of Central Florida, which manages the facility under a cooperative agreement with Universidad Ana G. Méndez and Yang Enterprises Inc. for the U.S. National Science Foundation, worked overnight with the engineering firms WSP, Thornton Tomasetti and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to come up with a strategy to address the new break. UCF retained these firms in September in connection with the first cable. UCF also notified NSF, which owns the facility and NASA. Drones and cameras are also being used to continue to monitor the structure.



The team hopes to be able to reduce the tension in the existing cables at the tower and install steel reinforcements to temporarily alleviate some of the additional load that is being distributed among the remaining cables. Experts are being mobilized to do the work as quickly as possible. The team will attempt to expedite the arrival of two new cables that were already on order. That’s the current plan pending further evaluation, which will be taking place over the next few days.

UCF has a supplemental funding request pending with the NSF to make temporary repairs related to the original break. There is no cost estimate for the new repairs that will be needed at this time.

Since the August incident, engineers have been working to determine the cause of the initial failure and to create temporary and long-term repair plans. Because there was no obvious cause for the break, the complexities of such a large and unique structure that was built in the 1960s, and the need to prioritize safety above all else, the development of a temporary emergency repair plan has taken some time. Implementation of the first repairs was scheduled to begin this coming week. For more on work being conducted related to the first break click here.

“This is not good, but we remain committed to getting the facility back online,” Cordova said. “It’s just too important of a tool for the advancement of science.”

The Arecibo Observatory is home to one of the most powerful telescopes on the planet. Its instruments are used by scientists around the world to conduct research in the areas of atmospheric sciences, planetary sciences, radio astronomy and radar astronomy. Arecibo is also home to a team that runs the Planetary Radar Project supported by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program in NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office through a grant awarded to UCF.

Although the facility has suspended most of its operations since the August incident, researchers continue to use data already collected by Arecibo to push ahead with their research. The facility has endured many hurricanes, tropical storms and earthquakes since it was built more than 50 years ago. Through it all, the facility has continued to contribute to significant breakthroughs in space research in the area of gravitational waves, asteroid characterization, planetary exploration and more.
 

NOT TERRORISM
Lyon Greek Orthodox Priest Was Shot by Lover’s Husband

The Greek Orthodox priest shot earlier this month in the French city of Lyon was the victim of a jealous husband rather than an Islamic terrorist, French prosecutors said on Saturday

By Tasos Kokkinidis
-Nov 9, 2020

Father Nikolaos Kakavelakis. Credit: Communauté Hellénique de Lyon/Facebook.

Nikolaos Kakavelakis, 52, was shot twice with a sawed-off shotgun outside his church on October 31, in what police feared was a copycat attack, coming as it did just three days after three people were murdered in a terror attack at a church in Nice, with one of them beheaded.

But according to prosecutors, the priest put the police on the trail of his attacker as soon as he came out of a coma on Tuesday, telling them he believed he had been shot by the “jealous husband” of one of his conquests.

A 40-year Georgian man, who the Le Parisien newspaper named as “Giorgi P,” admitted to carrying out the attack after he was arrested on Friday.

He insists, however, that he had not wanted to kill Kakavelakis, who was having an affair with his 35-year-old Russian wife, named by the newspaper as Lela K.

The priest had announced that he was resigning from the church one month earlier.

Trump’s Turkish Ally Erdogan Stays Mum on Biden Victory
By Tasos Kokkinidis
-Nov 8, 2020

Donald J. Trump participates in a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Erdogan in 2019. Credit: White House

As world leaders, including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, rushed to congratulate Joe Biden for his victory in the 2020 Presidential elections, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, remained silent.

Erdogan, along with the leaders of Russia, Israel, Iran, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and China, offered no initial congratulations to the president-elect.

The Turkish leader, who enjoyed exceptionally warm ties to the White House under Trump, was among those who stayed mum.

The only official response from Turkey was from main opposition leader who congratulated the incoming US president and vice president on their electoral victory.

“I would like to congratulate Joe Biden for his election as the 46th President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris as Vice-President,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in English on Twitter.

“I look forward to strengthening Turkish-American relations and our strategic alliance,” he added.

The close ties between Trump and Erdogan were are once again in the spotlight a few days before the presidential elections.

In two separate reports, The New York Times and Reuters highlighted the questionable relationship between the two men, as they reveal that the White House quashed an investigation into a Turkish bank suspected of violating U.S. sanctions law, and stopped the imposition of sanctions on Turkey after the country acquired a Russian missile system.

Nearly one in five Covid patients later diagnosed with mental illness – study

Analysis shows nearly twice as many diagnoses over three months among those testing positive

The people living with post-Covid psychiatric disorders
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage

Natalie Grover Science correspondent THE GUARDIAN
Tue 10 Nov 2020 
 

A healthcare worker tends to a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive for the virus, according to a study that suggests action is needed to mitigate the mental health toll of the pandemic.

The analysis – conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre – also found that people with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than those without, even accounting for known risk factors such as age, sex, race, and underlying physical conditions.

“This finding was unexpected and needs investigation. In the meantime, having a psychiatric disorder should be added to the list of risk factors for Covid-19,” said Dr Max Taquet, an NIHR academic clinical fellow and one of the authors of the analysis.

The calculations were made on the basis of roughly 70m US health records, including more than 62,000 cases of Covid-19 that did not require a hospital stay or an emergency department visit. The incidence of any diagnosis of mental ill-health in the 14 to 90 days after a Covid-19 diagnosis was 18.1%, including 5.8% that were a first diagnosis.
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In order to examine whether the excess risk was directly associated with Covid-19, the researchers compared data with six other conditions over the same period: influenza; other respiratory tract infections; a skin infection; gallstones; urinary tract stones; and the fracture of a large bone.

In the three months after Covid-19 diagnosis, 5.8% of patients had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness, compared with 2.5% to 3.4% of patients in the comparison cohorts – almost a doubling in risk, according to the paper published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said more research was needed to establish whether a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder could be directly linked to getting coronavirus. General factors that influence physical health were not captured in the records analysed, such as socio-economic background, smoking, or use of drugs. There was also potential that the general stressful environment of the pandemic is playing a role, he noted.

Research suggests that people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to suffer mental ill-health. Poverty also increases exposure to coronavirus, owing to factors like crowded housing and unsafe working conditions.

“Equally, it’s not at all implausible that Covid-19 might have some direct effect on your brain and your mental health. But I think that, again, remains to be positively demonstrated,” said Harrison.

A particularly concerning finding was the doubling of the diagnosis of dementia – which is typically irreversible – three months after testing positive for Covid-19, versus the other health conditions.

It may be that coming to a hospital or to see your doctor to get diagnosed with Covid-19 allows for other pre-existing conditions – such as dementia – to be diagnosed, noted Harrison.

“Having said that … it’s not at all unlikely that there may also be a brain effect of the virus in certain people that is going to cause certain more neurological symptoms and difficulties,” he said. “So, we’re particularly careful in not over-interpreting that association.”

Studies researching the impact of the virus on the brain and the central nervous system are under way, including one by scientists in the UK who have formed a partnership to explore the neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of Covid-19. In July, neurologists published details of more than 40 UK Covid-19 patients whose complications ranged from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke.

Only time will tell whether the incidence of psychiatric illness post-Covid-19 continue to rise or persist beyond the three-month period, the researchers added.

“It’s difficult to judge the importance of these findings … it may be unsurprising that this happens a bit more often in people with Covid-19, who may understandably have been worried that they might become seriously unwell and who will also have had to endure a period of isolation,” said David Curtis, an honorary professor at University College London and Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the study.

“Overall, the results reported seem broadly plausible, but I’m not sure that they have specific implications for patients or health services.”

US elections: Trump accuses Pfizer of delaying announcement on Covid vaccine to deny him a win

Donald Trump also said the US Food and Drug Administration should have approved the vaccine earlier ‘not for political purposes, but for saving lives’.

US President Donald Trump. | Mandel Ngan/ AFP

Incumbent United States President Donald Trump on Monday accused the US Food and Drug Administration and drug manufacturer Pfizer of withholding the announcement on Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the presidential elections in the country to deny him a “vaccine win”.

His comments came after Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech on Monday announced that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in phase three clinical trial

In a series of tweets, Trump claimed that the had always maintained “Pfizer and the others would only announce a vaccine after the election” and that the US Food and Drug Administration “should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but for saving lives.”

He also claimed that the vaccine would not have been available “for another four years”, “if Joe Biden were President”.

Trump did not give any evidence to back his claim and his comment on Biden was despite the fact that his election to the White House has been called.

Meanwhile, incumbent Vice President Mike Pence sought to take credit for the vaccine on behalf of the Trump administration, thanking a “public-private partnership”.

On the other hand, the office of President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating “the brilliant women and men” involved with the development of the vaccine. The statement, however, urged people to continue to maintain Covid-19 protocols, adding that “it will be many more months before there is widespread vaccination” in US.

The US has been registering record-high infection numbers in recent days in what is being called the “third wave” of the infection in the country. It has now become the first country to cross the grim mark of 1 crore cases.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Scroll+. We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

Zoom lied to users about end-to-end encryption for years, FTC says

Democrats blast FTC/Zoom settlement because users won't get compensation.

JON BRODKIN - 11/9/2020

Enlarge / Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan speaks before the Nasdaq opening bell ceremony on April 18, 2019, in New York City as the company announced its IPO

.

Zoom has agreed to upgrade its security practices in a tentative settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which alleges that Zoom lied to users for years by claiming it offered end-to-end encryption.

"[S]ince at least 2016, Zoom misled users by touting that it offered 'end-to-end, 256-bit encryption' to secure users' communications, when in fact it provided a lower level of security," the FTC said today in the announcement of its complaint against Zoom and the tentative settlement. Despite promising end-to-end encryption, the FTC said that "Zoom maintained the cryptographic keys that could allow Zoom to access the content of its customers' meetings, and secured its Zoom Meetings, in part, with a lower level of encryption than promised."

The FTC complaint says that Zoom claimed it offers end-to-end encryption in its June 2016 and July 2017 HIPAA compliance guides, which were intended for health-care industry users of the video conferencing service. Zoom also claimed it offered end-to-end encryption in a January 2019 white paper, in an April 2017 blog post, and in direct responses to inquiries from customers and potential customers, the complaint said.

"In fact, Zoom did not provide end-to-end encryption for any Zoom Meeting that was conducted outside of Zoom's 'Connecter' product (which are hosted on a customer's own servers), because Zoom's servers—including some located in China—maintain the cryptographic keys that would allow Zoom to access the content of its customers' Zoom Meetings," the FTC complaint said.

The FTC announcement said that Zoom also "misled some users who wanted to store recorded meetings on the company's cloud storage by falsely claiming that those meetings were encrypted immediately after the meeting ended. Instead, some recordings allegedly were stored unencrypted for up to 60 days on Zoom's servers before being transferred to its secure cloud storage."

To settle the allegations, "Zoom has agreed to a requirement to establish and implement a comprehensive security program, a prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations, and other detailed and specific relief to protect its user base, which has skyrocketed from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic," the FTC said. (The 10 million and 300 million figures refer to the number of daily participants in Zoom meetings.)
No compensation for affected users

The settlement is supported by the FTC's Republican majority, but Democrats on the commission objected because the agreement doesn't provide compensation to users.

"Today, the Federal Trade Commission has voted to propose a settlement with Zoom that follows an unfortunate FTC formula," FTC Democratic Commissioner Rohit Chopra said. "The settlement provides no help for affected users. It does nothing for small businesses that relied on Zoom's data protection claims. And it does not require Zoom to pay a dime. The Commission must change course."


FURTHER READING Zoom brings in former Facebook security head amid lawsuits, investigations

Under the settlement, "Zoom is not required to offer redress, refunds, or even notice to its customers that material claims regarding the security of its services were false," Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said. "This failure of the proposed settlement does a disservice to Zoom's customers, and substantially limits the deterrence value of the case." While the settlement imposes security obligations, Slaughter said it includes no requirements that directly protect user privacy.

Zoom is separately facing lawsuits from investors and consumers that could eventually lead to financial settlements.

The Zoom/FTC settlement doesn't actually mandate end-to-end encryption, but Zoom last month announced it is rolling out end-to-end encryption in a technical preview to get feedback from users. The settlement does require Zoom to implement measures "(a) requiring Users to secure their accounts with strong, unique passwords; (b) using automated tools to identify non-human login attempts; (c) rate-limiting login attempts to minimize the risk of a brute force attack; and (d) implementing password resets for known compromised Credentials."
FTC calls ZoomOpener unfair and deceptive

The FTC complaint and settlement also cover Zoom's controversial deployment of the ZoomOpener Web server that bypassed Apple security protocols on Mac computers. Zoom "secretly installed" the software as part of an update to Zoom for Mac in July 2018, the FTC said.

"The ZoomOpener Web server allowed Zoom to automatically launch and join a user to a meeting by bypassing an Apple Safari browser safeguard that protected users from a common type of malware," the FTC said. "Without the ZoomOpener Web server, the Safari browser would have provided users with a warning box, prior to launching the Zoom app, that asked users if they wanted to launch the app."


FURTHER READING Zoom for Mac made it too easy for hackers to access webcams. Here’s what to do [Updated]


The software "increased users' risk of remote video surveillance by strangers" and "remained on users' computers even after they deleted the Zoom app, and would automatically reinstall the Zoom app—without any user action—in certain circumstances," the FTC said. The FTC alleged that Zoom's deployment of the software without adequate notice or user consent violated US law banning unfair and deceptive business practices.

Amid controversy in July 2019, Zoom issued an update to completely remove the Web server from its Mac application, as we reported at the time.Advertisement


Zoom agrees to security monitoring

The proposed settlement is subject to public comment for 30 days, after which the FTC will vote on whether to make it final. The 30-day comment period will begin once the settlement is published in the Federal Register. The FTC case and the relevant documents can be viewed here.

The FTC announcement said Zoom agreed to take the following steps:

Assess and document on an annual basis any potential internal and external security risks and develop ways to safeguard against such risks;
Implement a vulnerability management program; and
Deploy safeguards such as multi-factor authentication to protect against unauthorized access to its network; institute data deletion controls; and take steps to prevent the use of known compromised user credentials.

The data deletion part of the settlement requires that all copies of data identified for deletion be deleted within 31 days.

Zoom will have to notify the FTC of any data breaches and will be prohibited "from making misrepresentations about its privacy and security practices, including about how it collects, uses, maintains, or discloses personal information; its security features; and the extent to which users can control the privacy or security of their personal information," the FTC announcement said.

Zoom will have to review all software updates for security flaws and make sure that updates don't hamper third-party security features. The company will also have to get third-party assessments of its security program once the settlement is finalized and once every two years after that. That requirement lasts for 20 years.

Zoom issued the following statement about today's settlement:

The security of our users is a top priority for Zoom. We take seriously the trust our users place in us every day, particularly as they rely on us to keep them connected through this unprecedented global crisis, and we continuously improve our security and privacy programs. We are proud of the advancements we have made to our platform, and we have already addressed the issues identified by the FTC. Today's resolution with the FTC is in keeping with our commitment to innovating and enhancing our product as we deliver a secure video communications experience.

JON BRODKIN is Ars Technica's senior IT reporter, covering the FCC and broadband, telecommunications, wireless technology, and more.

BIGOTRY DISGUISED AS FEMINISM

Uphold religious symbol ban to spare children from being influenced by hijab, Quebec parents plead

© Christian Lutz/Associated Press Ensaf Haidar fled Saudi Arabia not long before her husband, Raif Badawi, was arrested in 2012. Haidar said Monday she is 'shocked' when she sees Quebec women dressed in Muslim religious clothing.Several parents pleaded with a Quebec Superior Court judge on Monday to uphold the province's religious symbols ban in order to shield their children from being exposed to the hijab, which they believe conveys a "pernicious" sexist message.

The parents, all immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, are the first witnesses to be called by defenders of the Laicity Act in a court case brought by opponents of the law who say it is unconstitutional.

Among the most controversial provisions in the law is a prohibition on public teachers from wearing religious symbols at work.

When the trial opened last week, several teachers who wear the hijab testified the law has upended their personal and professional lives. They also stressed they wore the hijab by choice and did not seek to impart their religious beliefs on students.

On Monday, the witnesses testifying in support of the law (widely known as Bill 21) said they believed the hijab always represents sexist values, regardless of why someone decides to wear it.

"For me the hijab is a symbol of inferiority even if they [the Muslim teachers] say they don't feel inferior or superior or equal to men. It's a symbol of inferiority and I insist on that point," said Ferroudja Mohand, who immigrated to Quebec from Algeria in 2011.

Mohand said she is worried that her daughter will be influenced by a teacher who wears the hijab at her school and decide take up the practice.

"Teachers must be neutral because children are impressionable," Mohand said.

Ensaf Haidar, whose husband is the imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, said she is "shocked" when she sees Quebec women dressed in Muslim religious clothing given how they are treated in Saudi Arabia.

"The hijab is not a good image for Quebec," said Hadar, who fled Saudi Arabia not long before her husband's arrest in 2012.

Djaafar Bouchilaoun, an Algerian immigrant and father of two, told the court he considered the hijab an affront to his "dignity as a man" because it supposes men are sexual threats to women.

A teacher who wears a hijab, he said, is sending "subtle messages" to children. He called the hijab a "symbol of Islamist proselytizing," adding: "It is pernicious because of it."
Bill 21 upholds rights of parents, lawyers argue

The parents were called by two pro-secular groups — Mouvement laïque québécois and Pour les droits des femmes du Québec — who have intervenor status in the case.

As part of their defence of the law, lawyers for Mouvement laïque québécois are arguing that rather than strip minorities of rights, Bill 21 upholds the rights of parents to have their children receive a secular education.

"This is a necessary condition for the freedom of conscience," Guillaume Rousseau, a lawyer for the Mouvement, said in a recent interview.

Earlier on Monday, an anthropologist specializing in religions testified for the plaintiffs about whether symbols like the hijab do, in fact, proselytize.

Solange Lefebvre, a professor at the Université de Montréal, said the symbols of the major religions aren't typically worn with the aim of converting non-believers.

She explained that the religions most associated with proselytism, such as evangelical Christianity, actually shun wearing symbols.

During a lengthy cross-examination, Lefebvre also said religious symbols aren't always worn out of religious conviction, noting that pop culture acts like Madonna have appropriated the cross for wholly non-religious uses.

Justice Marc-Andre Blanchard asked Lefebvre if a wedding ring constituted a religious symbol. She said it depended on the context, given they are exchanged in both religious and civil ceremonies.

"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't," she said.


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N.B. woman argues 'dry cell' segregation for drugs inside body violates charter

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TRURO, N.S. — A law that kept a New Brunswick woman in solitary confinement for 16 days on suspicion she concealed drugs in her body should be struck down due to its cruelty and lack of basic legal protections, a prisoner rights' lawyer argued on Monday.

Lisa Adams was in court as her lawyers argued that a section of the Correctional Service Canada Act allowing segregation and monitoring of prisoners for suspected concealment of drugs violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Jessica Rose of the Elizabeth Fry Society presented her client's case against the May 6-22 "dry celling" in a submission to Judge John Keith of Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Truro, N.S.


She compared the statute to legalized torture, arguing that it fails to provide adequate access to a lawyer, allows for indefinite confinement and fails to offer protections, such as regular independent reviews, used in other forms of solitary confinement.

"The dry cell is an environment more restrictive and more humiliating than segregation cells were ever alleged to be, and it should be all the more offensive to the public conscience that dry cell prisoners enjoy very weak procedural rights," Rose told the court.

It is called dry celling because inmates are confined in cells without running water or toilets so their human waste can be examined for concealed drugs.

The federal attorney general is conceding that Adams' detention was unlawful in her specific case, but argues a constitutional case can only take place if expert witnesses are called.

"What we have here is a case where the law wasn't administered properly," federal lawyer Ami Assignon said. She said issues such as whether existing time limits for dry cell segregation are constitutional require the testimony of mental health experts in a separate proceeding.

Rose described in court how Adams, who is incarcerated for drug trafficking at the Nova Institution for Women, was placed in segregation in May because correctional officers believed she'd hidden the drug methamphetamine in her vagina while she'd been outside the institution on parole.

She said Adams was given an ultimatum to provide the drug or face an initial period of 14 days being kept in segregation and observed.

According to the applicant's affidavit, Adams said she had no means of producing the drugs as they weren't concealed in her body.

She also told correctional officers the ion scan of her living area that led them to suspect her had likely picked up trace elements of the drug, as she hadn't showered since being returned to the prison.

Rose argued before the court that Adams wasn't given the opportunity to have a formal, Correctional Service Canada process to physically examine her for drugs.

Rather, the lawyer said it was after Adams had spent 14 days in segregation that she was able to "ingeniously engineer" getting a vaginal exam by seeking medical attention for other health reasons. The exam exonerated her, but Adams spent two more days in solitary.

Rose said her client suffered mental illness due to her prolonged segregation under almost constant observation by prison staff, including observation as she showered or attempted to go to the bathroom.

She said that Adams was only allowed out five times into the prison yard, and that she had little meaningful human contact other than a daily 10- to 15-minute visit from prison mental health staff.

The court heard that as the segregation continued, mental health observers documented how Adams, who had a medical history of mental illnesses and suicide attempts, started to shake, became incoherent and threatened to harm herself.

She was taken for an X-ray at a local hospital on May 12, but the doctor involved refused to carry out the procedure after deciding he believed the medical procedure was being carried out without Adams' consent.

Adams argues the corrections law violates four sections of the charter.

Those include charter provisions that prohibit "cruel and unusual punishment" and guarantee the "right to life, liberty and security of the person" and the "right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”

In addition, the Elizabeth Fry lawyers say the law discriminates on the basis of gender, as it was designed for the hiding of substances in the rectum and fails to take into account that human body cavities include a vagina where the hidden substance wouldn't be expelled during dry celling.

The judge has reserved his decision.

Outside of court, Glenda Mason, Adams' mother, said if the law is allowed to remain on the books, there is nothing to stop other women from suffering similar violations of their rights.

She said she's looking for legal change, adding, "for Lisa to be part of that would make me very proud."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2020.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Eastern Ontario reeve seeks to change road name derogatory to Indigenous women

OTTAWA — The council of Beckwith Township near Ottawa is proposing to change the name of a private road that includes a derogatory term for Indigenous women after months of controversy and over the objections of the road owners.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Reeve Richard Kidd says he's confident the council will pass the proposed bylaw on Dec. 1 to change Squaw Point Road to Monarch Lane.

"It's a private road. If If this was a public road, if this is a township road that we owned, we would have changed this years ago," he said.

Colleen Gray, a Métis artist living in Beckwith Township, said the term was once not derogatory but it became so when European soldiers used it to refer to Indigenous women in a negative way.

"The word, when I speak it out of my mouth, makes me feel a little sick inside," she said.

"It's a very ugly word."

Kidd said it's the first time the township has sought to change the name of a private road.

"We didn't realize that we had to pass a bylaw on a private road to change (its name)," he said. "We thought, 'We don't own it.' Like, it's not our property."

The council is moving forward with the change against the wishes of the two owners of the road, said Kidd.

"These two individuals own the land. They signed a document for us saying they didn't want (the road name) to change," he said.

The Canadian Press was unable to reach either of the road owners. Minutes from a township council meeting in September say one of the owners wanted to keep the name "for various reasons including the historic value he wishes not be lost in the community."

Gray said the word has roots in the systemic racism that is a huge problem in Canada.

"It hurts a minority, every time it's used, and so for people to fight for the right to use that word. I don't understand it," she said.

The federal government said in September it will change the name of a mountain and trail in Alberta that use the word, adding the name has been a concern for Indigenous groups and Parks Canada for some time.

Maureen Bostock has been advocating for the Beckwith road name change since April as a member of a group called Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation.

"This is a word that is associated with the violence against Indigenous women that has gone on for 200 years in this area and all throughout Canada," she said. "It's a very very offensive name. It's demeaning. It denies the role of Indigenous women have in their own communities as leaders."

She said many Indigenous women have experienced residential schools, where they were sexually and physically assaulted and this word was used against them as a racial slur.

There are school buses travelling down that road twice a day, she said. "How on earth can we say we are committed as a society to reconciliation when children are still learning about (that offensive word)," she said. "Because the schoolyard again becomes a place where that racist slur gets used."

Residents on the road say they are frustrated over the delay in granting their request to change the name, after the private road owners opposed the move, claiming during a township council meeting in September there was "historic value" in the current name.

Kim Watson, a member of the residents' association, says they voted on the issue and asked to change the name in August.

She said their request was sent to Beckwith Township council and then was forwarded to the upper-tier government of Lanark County. The county sent the request back because the township has the authority to make the change on its own.

"It was like a pass-the-buck thing," Watson said. "We're sort of stalled."

Watson was a member of the committee that organized the name change and went door to door getting recommendations for new names.

"We chose Monarch Lane for the monarch butterfly because it's been struggling this last while," she said. "We want (the name) to get a change. It's well past time."

Kidd said most private roads in the area are owned by road associations, comprising multiple landowners, but this road is owned by two people and there are 25 people that own properties, cottages and houses on the road and have the right to use it.

Bostock's group proposed changing the road name to Anishinaabekwe Point Road.

"It's a respectful way to address Indigenous women in this area," she said.

The council is choosing Monarch Lane instead: the residents who have to change their addresses prefer it.

"It's what the ambulance uses. the fire department uses," Kidd said. "I believe that name would be very easy for people to pronounce, to make it identifiable."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2020.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press


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PHILIPPINES LARGEST EXPORT

CERB, extra hours and bottle returns: supporting overseas family during the pandemic

Edeline Agoncillo sends up to $1,400 of her wages to the Philippines every month and keeps only a few hundred dollars for herself, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The money Agoncillo sends without fail — a remittance, it’s called — ordinarily comes from cleaning houses in Edmonton. It supports her elderly parents, her daughter, her son and his child.

During the pandemic, as work dried up, she drew on the federal government’s $500-a-week Canada Emergency Response Benefit to support not only herself, but also her family across the Pacific.

“They have to eat every day; the medication of my parents has to continue every day, and nobody sent their money, just me,” Agoncillo said.

The Agoncillo family is like many in the Philippines, where one in 10 households relies on a relative overseas. Remittances are a huge part of the global economy, exceeding foreign direct investment in low- and middle-income countries for the first time last year.

But then the pandemic struck and The World Bank made a gloomy prediction in April that these transfers would plummet by 20 per cent this year because of COVID-19.

Migrants often give more when their home countries are in crisis. But with the pandemic pummelling economies everywhere, economists thought the flow of money would slow down. Initially it did, but remittances largely recovered by the middle of the year.

People may be earning less, but they are still sending money home.

“We don’t really have a choice,” said Marjorie Villefranche, director of Maison d’Haïti in Montreal, describing the responsibility of the diaspora to send money back to Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries.

Agoncillo was scared to work when the pandemic started, and families didn’t want her to clean their homes. When she does work, she asks her clients for their deposit-return bottles to make an extra $30 to $40 a week.

She has been sending her parents about 30 per cent more each month since March, because one of her sisters, who is jobless in Dubai, can no longer help. Agoncillo can manage because she lives with two others and she spends as little as possible on herself.

“I’m very deprived,” she said. She asks only that her family pray for her.

Remittances sent from Canada amounted to more than $36 billion in 2018, based on data compiled by the Canadian International Development Platform. Four out of every 10 Canadian residents born in a developing country support loved ones overseas, according to Statistics Canada research.

Pressure to send money has increased during the pandemic as governments worldwide imposed crippling lockdowns, many without emergency relief programs that wealthy countries such as Canada offered.

Canadian incomes have also fallen, putting those helping relatives abroad in a tight spot.

Some migrants dip into meagre savings to find money, said Ethel Tungohan, a professor who studies migrant labour at York University in Toronto. Remittances are “not just an economic contribution, but a sign of love and care,” Tungohan said.

Visible minorities are primary senders of remittances, government data shows, even though they have experienced more unemployment due to COVID-19 than other Canadians. The August Labour Force Survey found that approximately one-third of Filipino and Latin American families, as well as more than one in four Black households, were struggling financially.

Financial support from the government has also played a role in sustaining remittances. The CERB was a lifeline for Agoncillo, and thus her family in the Philippines, for five months.

The Haitian community has also benefited from government support. Haiti depends on its diaspora: remittances in 2019 amounted to 37 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. Canada is the third-largest source of funds.

Federal pandemic programs eased the pressure on Haitian-Canadians, Villefranche said.

Not all migrant workers qualify for government support. Marco Luciano, the director of Migrante Alberta, a Filipino migrant advocacy organization, points out that undocumented migrants can’t access federal benefits and have taken on extra jobs.

“They had two jobs. Now they have three jobs. And many of them are unstable jobs because of the shutdown,” said Luciano.

Because of migrants’ efforts, the Philippines and Haiti have registered only modest decreases in money transferred. The Philippines, which received $1.35 billion from Canada in 2019, reported a decline of only 6.6 per cent between January and August. Remittances bounced back in June.

Data is similar for Haiti. Transfers from Canada have decreased by only four per cent during the pandemic, according to economist Manuel Orozco of Creative Associates International, a Washington-based international development organization.

Agoncillo requested more hours from her employer when the CERB ended in September. But then she was exposed to COVID-19 when cleaning the house of a client who subsequently tested positive. Her results came back negative, but under Alberta’s public health guidelines, she still had to stay away from work for 14 days.

Agoncillo says the experience has been stressful: “I need my job. I need my job.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2020.

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Bryony Lau is an independent researcher on conflict in Southeast Asia. She is currently a fellow in global journalism at the University of Toronto.

Bryony Lau, The Canadian Press