GOOD NEWS
Trump administration denies planned mine near Alaska fishery
3 days ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Trump administration on Wednesday effectively killed a contentious proposed mine in Alaska, a gold and copper prospect once envisioned to be nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon and could produce enough waste to fill an NFL stadium nearly 3,900 times — all near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Army Corps of Engineers “concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest” and denied a permit to build the Pebble Mine under both the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act, the agency said in a statement.

The rejection was a surprise. It's at odds with President Donald Trump’s efforts to encourage energy development in Alaska, including opening up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and other moves nationwide to roll back environmental protections that would benefit oil and gas and other industries.

The Corps of Engineers also seemed to signal just a few months ago that after almost two decades of political wrangling, Pebble Mine was on a fast track to approval, a reversal from what many had expected under the Obama administration.

But unlike drilling elsewhere in Alaska, the mine proposed for the southwestern Bristol Bay region could have negatively affected the state's billion-dollar fishing industry. Conservationists and even Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., sounded the alarm on the project before the administration changed course again.

The CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine’s developers, said he was dismayed by the decision, especially after the corps had indicated in an environmental impact statement in July that the mine and fishery could coexist.

“One of the real tragedies of this decision is the loss of economic opportunities for people living in the area,” CEO John Shively said in a statement. The environmental review “clearly describes those benefits, and now a politically driven decision has taken away the hope that many had for a better life. This is also a lost opportunity for the state’s future economy.”

He said they are considering their next steps, which could include an appeal of the corps’ decision.

“Today Bristol Bay’s residents and fishermen celebrate the news that Pebble’s permit has been denied; tomorrow we get back to work,” said Katherine Carscallen, executive director of the group Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay.

The group wants Congress to pass laws protecting the region. “We’ve learned the hard way over the last decade that Pebble is not truly dead until protections are finalized,” Carscallen said.

In July, the Corps of Engineers released an environmental review that the mine developer saw as laying the groundwork for key federal approvals. The review said that under normal operations, Pebble Mine “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.”

However, in August, the corps said it had determined that discharges at the mine site would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources” and laid out required steps to reduce those effects.

Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., which owns Pebble Limited Partnership, said it had submitted a mitigation plan on Nov. 16.

Even if the corps had approved the project, there was still no guarantee it would have been built. It would have needed state approval, and President-elect Joe Biden has expressed opposition to the project.

Critics saw Pebble Mine as getting a lifeline under the Trump administration. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency withdrew restrictions on development that were proposed — but never finalized — under the Obama administration and said it planned to work with the corps to address concerns.

However, Trump’s eldest son was among those who voiced opposition earlier this year. After senior Trump campaign adviser Nick Ayers tweeted in August that he hoped the president would direct the EPA to block Pebble Mine, Trump Jr. responded: “As a sportsman who has spent plenty of time in the area I agree 100%. The headwaters of Bristol Bay and the surrounding fishery are too unique and fragile to take any chances with.”

The president later said he would “listen to both sides.”

“The credit for this victory belongs not to any politician but to Alaskans and Bristol Bay’s Indigenous peoples, as well as to hunters, anglers and wildlife enthusiasts from all across the country who spoke out in opposition to this dangerous and ill-conceived project," said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League.

Alaska’s two Republican U.S. senators, who support oil and gas development and mining, hailed the rejection of the Pebble Mine permit. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the decision affirmed her position that it’s the wrong mine in the wrong place.

“It will help ensure the continued protection of an irreplaceable resource — Bristol Bay’s world-class salmon fishery,” she said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan said he would remain an advocate for good-paying jobs derived from resource development.

“However, given the special nature of the Bristol Bay watershed and the fisheries and subsistence resources downstream, Pebble had to meet a high bar so that we do not trade one resource for another,” he said. “Pebble did not meet that bar.”

___

Associated Press journalist Becky Bohrer in Juneau contributed to this report.

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press

Chopin gay? The awkward question in one of the EU's worst countries for LGBTQ rights

By Rob Picheta, CNN 29/11/20

Each year, millions of visitors to Poland are introduced to the country's favorite son before they even set foot on its soil. 

© Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Composer Frederic Francois Chopin, two to three years before his death in 1849.

Warsaw's Chopin Airport, the nation's largest transport hub, greets more than 1 million people every month. And it's far from the only landmark dedicated to the Romantic-era composer, born in a tiny hamlet west of the capital 210 years ago; his name is everywhere, his works and image ubiquitous across the central European country.


Chopin's residences bear unmissable plaques. Busts and statues of his likeness are dotted across most major cities. His name adorns parks, streets, benches and buildings. Even his heart, preserved in alcohol after his death in 1849 at the age of 39, is sealed into a wall of Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.

But new suggestions about Frederic Chopin's private life collide awkwardly with Poland's staunchly conservative traditions and its right-wing leadership -- and have caused some to question whether the story of Chopin that Poles are told from a young age is true.

According to a Swiss radio documentary that has been discussed at length in Poland in recent days, the composer had relationships with men, and those relationships were left out of history by successive historians and biographers; a potentially thorny charge in one of Europe's worst countries for LGBTQ rights.

Music journalist Moritz Weber, whose program aired on Swiss network SRF, said he reviewed letters from Chopin, sent to male friends, that feature explicit and romantic passages.

Weber also found that subsequent biographies and re-tellings of some letters swap male pronouns to female ones and downplay, whether intentionally or not, any evidence of Chopin's relationships with men.

"He's talking about love so directly with men," Weber told CNN. "Why wasn't that questioned by all these scholars and famous biographers?"

The most traditional story of Chopin's love life is that he had romantic relationships with women -- most notably the writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, who was known by her pen name, George Sand. (BISEXUAL)

But the archive of letters that Weber trawled told a different story, he found. "He didn't write letters to them at all. And he doesn't write about them in a way that you could conclude there was love," Weber said.

"What is obvious in his letters that there is love written to his male friends -- most passionately to Titus Woyciechowski," Weber said, referring to the Polish activist and longtime friend of Chopin's. Later, he wrote in such a way to "many other" men, he added.

Suggestions that Chopin had male lovers are not new, and the sexuality of a Romantic-era artist would be of little importance in many parts of the world.

In Poland, however -- where Chopin's music is omnipresent, and where the artist commands a reverence rivaled only by compatriots Pope John Paul II and Marie Curie -- Weber's documentary has attracted notice.

"Was Chopin gay?" several Polish newspapers have asked in recent days, debating the merits of the suggestion. "Chopin kisses his friend. Does that mean he was gay?" another publication questioned. "The West is excited that Chopin was gay," a columnist for the Gazeta Wyborcza summarized, noting that the rumor has long been a source of speculation.

"He's like a holy person (in Poland)," Weber notes. "He's admired, his music is so important there."

While Poland loves Chopin, its relationship with the LGBTQ community is a painful one. The country's populist government frequently uses harshly homophobic rhetoric, with its Prime Minister complaining of a "homosexual agenda" threatening the homeland.

A third of the nation has declared itself "LGBT-free," a legally meaningless stunt that has LGBTQ people living in fear. And in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, where the church maintains a staggering influence, religious leaders have resisted moves to expand LGBTQ rights.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has denounced LGBTQ people, winning re-election earlier this year after putting the issue front and center in his campaign.

The governing party's powerful leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, has claimed LGBT people "threaten the Polish state."

Its new Education Minister said last year that "these people are not equal to normal people." And last year, Krakow's archbishop bemoaned that the country was under siege from a "rainbow plague."

These trends have led to Poland being named the EU's worst country for LGBTQ rights by the monitoring charity ILGA-Europe.

Activists in the country are hoping that the renewed interest in Chopin's relationships will cause a reflection on those attitudes. "Let's say it openly. Yes, Chopin was at least bisexual," Bart Staszewski, the nation's foremost LGBTQ campaigner, wrote on Wednesday.


'An awful lot of things are suppressed'

Chopin's love life has long been considered enigmatic, and admirers of the composer have debated in recent days whether his relationships warrant discussion at all.

"Chopin himself was so very secretive that one could imagine all kinds of things," said Rose Cholmondeley, the president of the UK's Chopin Society. "I would hesitate to say Chopin was any (sexuality) really. I think he was a man of feeling," she told CNN.

"Because Chopin was rather discreet about revealing his intimate life even to his closest friends, the most trusted among them being Tytus Woyciechowski, it is difficult to build theories about this aspect of his life," a spokesperson for Poland's Fryderyk Chopin Institute said..

"The claims that there were attempts to airbrush something from history are simply absurd," the spokesperson told CNN. "Moritz Weber of SRF has actually 'discovered' something that every second-year student of musicology in Poland knows about."

But Weber insists that Chopin's male relationships, and his efforts to hide them from public view, influenced both his personality and his works. He suggested that the findings shine a new light on Chopin's music, nearly two centuries after the artist's death.

"As he writes in his letters, an issue in his life was that he ... wasn't showing his inner self to the public," he said. "We hear these extreme holes in his music -- for example the Scherzo in E major, where the surrounding of the A part is very sunny, and in the middle there's one of the most depressing, and melancholic and sad passages."

But experts agree that the suggestion that Chopin had homosexual relationships would not be welcomed in much of Poland.

"He is a symbol of Poland, but you've got a government now which is absolutely anti-gay -- and were he to be gay, God knows what they would make of it," Cholmondeley said. "When somebody's an icon, an awful lot of things are suppressed."

That attitude may already have colored the way Chopin's life is retold in Poland, she added.

Some uncovered letters apparently describing Chopin's relationships with women have turned out to be forgeries, she noted. And other Polish histories have "turned him into a Catholic icon, when actually he didn't go to church," Cholmondeley said.

"(People) don't want to do anything which would 'damage' his reputation in his country, it's such an important thing to them," she concluded.

Chopin is celebrated as vehemently as ever by Poland's current leaders. On one of his first foreign trips as President, Duda donated a bust of the composer to the Beijing Concert Hall.

It was a gesture that encapsulated the stance of his populist Law and Justice party: It unabashedly touts Poland's heritage and traditional culture, of which Chopin represents a weighty part.

The nation's admiration was returned by the artist himself. "They have a very rich national music in Poland. There's always been (one), amongst peasants, amongst aristocrats. Poland is thought of as the home of the dance," Cholmondeley said. "And Chopin put all of that into his music; he (captured) the whole feel of it. So it's very, very Polish."

The extent of Poland's national conversation over Chopin's life remains to be seen, but it will be closely watched by his admirers and LGBTQ campaigners alike.

Experts agree, however, that any attempts to evolve the legacy of the man whose name adorns so much of the country will not be made easy.

"We use Shakespeare in all our conversations. Chopin is as big (in Poland) as Shakespeare is to us," Cholmondeley said, referring to her British compatriots.

"(And) we can accept that Shakespeare had male friends as well as female," she added, alluding to the longstanding debate over Shakespeare's sexuality.

"As people we are getting more frank about various things," she said. "But in some places, they're not."

 

A statue of Chopin in the Royal Baths Park, Warsaw.

 

A drawing of Polish-born composer and pianist 

Frederic Chopin on his deathbed in 1849.

Chopin's heart is buried in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.

Poland's 'revolution that we cannot stop'
AFP 29/11/20


For Klementyna Suchanow, one of the leaders of Poland's protest movement, mass demonstrations against a tightening of abortion laws have turned into "a real revolution" against the current government.

  

© Wojtek RADWANSKI

 Klementyna Suchanow (R) says pro-abortion demonstrations have 'already changed Poland'

Suchanow, an author and editor and one of the organisers of the Women's Strike collective, told AFP in an interview that what had started out as pro-choice protests had grown into something far bigger.  

© Wojtek RADWANSKI 

Suchanow says Polish demonstrators 'really want a separation between Church and State' on all kinds of issues

It all started with a Constitutional Court ruling last month that abortions due to birth defects are unconstitutional -- a decision that would impose a near-total ban on terminations.

"It provoked an eruption of anger," said Suchanow, 46, a constant presence at the many demonstrations in the capital alongside fellow co-ordinator Marta Lempart.
Suchanow said that the protests have also been fuelled by a perception of the government's poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as a second wave of the virus with a record-high death rate sweeps the country.

© Wojtek RADWANSKI

Suchanow sees the current protest movement as a 'revolution' to bring Poland into the 21st century

"People see that those who govern do not think about our lives, our health, our security but they exploit everything for political gain," she said.

Suchanow said the objectives of the protest movement have widened to issues such as employment, education, culture and the role of Poland's powerful Catholic Church in society.

"People really want a separation between Church and State. They've had enough of the Church getting involved in every aspect of their lives," she said.

A series of sexual abuse scandals and cover-ups involving senior Polish clergymen have added to the sense of frustration and a notion that the Church "operates in a way outside of the legal system".

- 'We are everywhere' -

Suchanow sees the protests as a "revolution of women and young people who are fighting for a country worthy of the 21st century in which they could live normally".

"They want to stop being told how to live. They are re-discovering the meaning of the word freedom," she said.

The demonstrations have brought hundreds of thousands of Poles into the streets, including in towns and rural areas where these kinds of protests are unprecedented.

Although attendance has dwindled, in part due to coronavirus concerns, Suchanow is in no doubt as to the historic impact of the protests.

"It's a revolution that we cannot stop. It's a revolution that has already won because it has already changed Poland and it will bear fruit through the engagement of young people for years to come."

She said it was highly significant that the demonstrations have extended even into traditional bastions for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

"Women are carrying out a real revolution there... The fact that we are everywhere is the real strength of this revolution," she said.

bo/dt/mas/cdw

Mammoth move: loneliest elephant heads to Cambodia after Cher campaign
AFP 

I THOUGHT LUCY AT THE EDMONTON ZOO WAS THE LONLIEST ELEPHANT 

Following years of public outcry and campaigning by American pop star Cher, the "world's loneliest elephant" embarked Sunday on a mammoth move from Pakistan to retirement in a Cambodian sanctuary

.

© Farooq NAEEM Kaavan's case and the woeful conditions at the zoo resulted in a judge this year ordering all the animals to be moved

© Muhammad DAUD With musical performances and heartfelt messages, Pakistanis said their final goodbyes to the country's only Asian elephant ahead of a planned move to Cambodia following a years-long campaign by animal rights activists for his relocation.

The famed singer and Oscar-winning actress has spent recent days at the Islamabad zoo to provide moral support to Kaavan -- an overweight, 36-year-old bull elephant -- whose pitiful treatment at the dilapidated facility sparked an uproar from animal rights groups and a spirited social media campaign by Cher.

Aamir QURESHI Kavaan (in enclosure at right) is set to be flown to Cambodia following a campaign by pop star Cher to free the elephant

"My wishes have finally come true", Cher said in a statement thanking her charity Free The Wild.

"We have been counting down to this moment and dreaming of it for so long and to finally see Kaavan transported out of (the Islamabad) zoo will remain with us forever."

Kaavan's case and the woeful conditions at the zoo resulted in a judge this year ordering all the animals to be moved.

"Thanks to Cher and also to local Pakistani activists, Kaavan's fate made headlines around the globe and this contributed to the facilitation of his transfer," said Martin Bauer, a spokesman for Four Paws International -- an animal welfare group that has spearheaded the relocation effort.

© Aamir QURESHI A team of vets and experts from Four Paws have spent months working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip to Cambodia

Experts spent hours coaxing a slightly sedated Kaavan into a specially constructed metal crate -- at one point using ropes to help pull him in -- that was to be hoisted onto a lorry and taken to Islamabad airport.

From there, Kaavan will be sent via a Russian transport jumbo jet for the lengthy flight to Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia. The plane will stop for refuelling in New Delhi.

Cher spent several days in the Pakistani capital to visit Kaavan before the trip to a 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) Cambodian wildlife sanctuary, with Prime Minister Imran Khan personally thanking the 74-year-old star.

VIDEO Music, farewells for Pakistan's celebrity elephant before relocation

Mammoth move: loneliest elephant heads to Cambodia after Cher campaign (msn.com)
Click to expand

Cher was due to fly to Cambodia on Sunday to be in the Southeast Asian nation when the elephant arrives.

Officials said Kaavan will initially be kept in a small designated section of the park where he can see other elephants.

"Sending him to a place where he can be with other elephants of his kind ... is really the right choice," climate change minister Malik Amin Aslam told AFP. 

"We will be happy to see him happy in Cambodia and we hope he finds a partner very soon."

- 'Loneliest' elephant -

Dubbed by the press as the world's loneliest elephant, Kaavan is the only Asian elephant in Pakistan -- the tiny number of other pachyderms at other zoos are African.

A team of vets and experts from Four Paws have spent months working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip to Cambodia, which has included training the elephant to enter the massive metal transport crate that will be placed in a cargo plane for the seven-hour flight.

Zoo officials have in the past denied Kaavan was kept in substandard conditions or chained, claiming instead the creature was pining for a new mate after his partner died in 2012.

But Kaavan's behaviour -- including signs of distress such as continual head-bobbing -- raised concerns of mental illness.

Activists also said Kaavan was not properly sheltered from Islamabad's searing summer temperatures.

Kaavan's mate Saheli, who also arrived from Sri Lanka, died in 2012.

Rights groups and conservationists have said that the abysmal conditions at the Islamabad zoo resulted in part from the lack of legislation in Pakistan aimed at protecting animal welfare.

"There's a lot of improvement to be made," said Rab Nawaz with the World Wildlife Federation in Pakistan.

"Kaavan is just one animal. There's lots of animals in Pakistan... which are in miserable conditions."

ds/wat/mtp

Thai protesters challenge king's military command

By Jiraporn Kuhakan and Patpicha Tanakasempipat 

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA 

Pro-democracy rally in Bangkok

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai anti-government protesters challenged on Sunday King Maha Vajiralongkorn's personal control over some army units to condemn the military's role in politics

.

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA 

Pro-democracy rally in Bangkok

It was the latest open defiance of the king by protesters, who have broken taboos by criticising the monarchy in a country where it is officially revered under the constitution and laws ban insulting it.

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA 

Pro-democracy rally in Bangkok

FROM THREE FINGERS TO ONE

Hundreds of protesters gathered to march to the 11th Infantry Regiment, one of two units that were moved under the king's command in 2019.

"An army should belong to the people, not the king," Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak told reporters. "In a democratic system, the king is not responsible for directing command of the military."

Protesters accuse the monarchy of enabling decades of military domination.

Parit is among several protest leaders who already face charges under lese majeste laws against insulting the monarchy after his speeches at previous rallies.

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA 

Pro-democracy rally in Bangkok

Protests which began in July initially demanded the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and a new constitution, but now also seek to curb the powers of the king.

At the barracks, an advance guard of protesters set about removing razor wire barricades.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that the country adhered to the rule of law, but that the right to freedom of speech must keep within it.

© Reuters/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA

 Pro-democracy rally in Bangkok

"In every case where the law is violated, officials take action with strict adherence to the appropriate legal processes without discrimination," the ministry said.

Prayuth has rejected protesters' demands that he quit along with their accusations that he engineered last year's election to keep power that he first took from an elected government in 2014.

The Royal Palace has made no comment since the protests began, but the king has said that despite their actions the protesters are loved "all the same".

(Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Robert Birsel)

VOTE BUYING

Canada adds extra C$691 million to agriculture sector, cuts timeline for dairy farmers' aid

(Reuters) - Canada's government said on Saturday it will pump an additional C$691 million ($531.87 million) to support the country's dairy, poultry and egg farmers, and also reduced the timeline for payment promised to dairy farmers last year

.

© Reuters/ALEX FILIPE Dairy workers maintain a farm in Carrying Place

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said the government slashed its initial eight-year schedule and will deliver the remaining C$1.405 billion from a total of C$1.75 billion promised in August 2019, directly to farmers in only three years.

The package for dairy farmers also build on a $250 million CETA on-farm investment program, Bibeau said in a statement https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2020/11/government-of-canada-announces-investments-to-support-supply-managed-dairy-poultry-and-egg-farmers.html

The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, sets out the removal of tariffs on 99% of all goods types traded between the EU and Canada, some over a period of up to seven years.

The government's compensation payments recognize business dairy and poultry farmers have lost out after trade pacts were struck with the European Union and Pacific nations.

Bibeau last year promised that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government will make no further dairy market-access concessions in other trade negotiations. https://bit.ly/2VfvS6I

Dairy Farmers of Canada President Pierre Lampron welcomed the compensation plan.

Lampron said the latest move will place the dairy farmer group in a better position to compete with increased imports of dairy products made from foreign milk.

($1 = 1.2992 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Alistair Bell)

NATIONALISM IS UNILINQUALISM

Quebec sovereigntists and French-language activists rally in Montreal

"A French-speaking country!"

© Brittany Henriques / Global News

 Protesters gather to protest the decline of French in Montreal.

That is what hundreds of protesters shouted in the streets of Old Montreal on Saturday afternoon.


Montrealers gathered near city hall demanding action be taken against the decline of French in the Greater Montreal area.

"We're about independence and the French language obviously is the cornerstone of our identity," said Jacques Martin, protest organizer and Mouvement des Jeunes Souverainistes member.

Accent Montreal, a group that believes French is on the decline in Montreal, has launched a petition calling on the city to create a French-language council.

As of Saturday morning, the petition garnered nearly 18,000 signatures.

"The French language is losing ground in Montreal," said Sabrina Mercier-Ullhorn, spokesperson for Accent Montreal. "Everyone needs to take part (in) that fight to ensure that the French language remains the common language in Montreal."

"We want the City of Montreal to act by legislation to have a council of the French language that can make sure bill 101 is properly enforced in Montreal," Martin added.

The Quebec French language office reported last year the percentage of Montrealers who have French as a mother tongue declined by six per cent between 1996 and 2016.

"We aren't against people being bilingual; we're against institutions being bilingual and that's why we're here today," said Martin.

READ MORE: Quebec government plans to table expanded French language law next year

The recent uproar in the French language debate is sparked by a Journal de Montreal investigation claiming an undercover reporter had trouble being served in French in downtown Montreal.

"Everyone francophone can tell you that it's hard sometimes to get served in French in some neighbourhoods, like especially the downtown area," said Mercier-Ullhorn.

The administration insists French is Montreal's strength, highlighting that it has appointed a person responsible for French language to the executive committee and proposed an action-plan to protect the language.

"Lip service is nice, and if there's an opening from the administration, that's nice, but we want to see concrete action being taken," said Martin.

Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon echoed those sentiments.

READ MORE: Bloc Québécois to file bill on French language proficiency for new citizens

"We need to at some point agree on solutions that will keep the proportions between the English and the French language within the Montreal region," he said.

The protest comes shortly after the Minister Responsible for French Language, Simon Jolin-Barrette, announced French language laws would be expanded by early 2021.

"What he needs to do of course is to ensure that the French language becomes the real language of work which has always been the issue with bill 101 it's hard to ensure that but maybe strengthening it," said Mercier-Ullhorn.

HATE SPEECH IS NOT FREE SPEECH!

Academic targeted by racist messages following criticism of Alberta's 

(UCP & KENNEY) pandemic response

Paige Parsons CBC

© CBC Ubaka Ogbogu is an associate law professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in public health law and policy.

An Edmonton academic says he's received racist messages in the wake of publicly criticizing the province's response to COVID-19.

Earlier this week, Ubaka Ogbogu was interviewed for a CBC story about secret recordings of the province's Emergency Operation Centre daily meetings. The recordings, obtained by CBC, show the provincial government has not followed some of the recommendations made by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health.

In the story, Ogbogu, an associate law professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in public health law and policy, was critical of what was revealed. He described the province's pandemic response as being "in tatters."

On Saturday, Ogbogu shared a recording of a message left on his office voicemail on Twitter. He said receiving the message forced him to take his profile off the university's website.

The nearly 40 second voicemail is laden with expletives and racist language.

"C--cksucker, for a f--cking lawyer you sure are a heavy hitter, you and your 20 recorded . . . you're a f--king prick, dude. Go back to your own f--cking country," the message begins.

"Like, honestly like f--ck off, man. What do you have invested in our politics? What? To get more of your own people here? Like, f--cking go home. This is not your country. You're a loser, f--ck off."

Ogbogu said he's used to receiving angry messages for the positions he takes, but this was much more hateful than normal.

"They've taken the time to research me, that's just not a Twitter post, a tweet or something you post on Facebook. A person who has researched me, found my number, found my email address, to me is a serious threat," he said.

The call came from an anonymous number, but he suspects that whoever left the voicemail could be the same person who sent him a hateful email after the CBC story was published, which used similar rhetoric.

He decided to take his profile off the University of Alberta website on Friday evening, and contacted campus protective services to secure his public information. He also reported the messages to Edmonton police's hate crimes unit.

Ogbogu said he believes the caller wasn't happy with his comments in the CBC story, but said he thinks their views have been framed by the way UCP staff have portrayed him on Twitter that describe him as biased and partisan in favour of the NDP.

After the story about secret recordings was published, Steve Buick, press secretary for the minister of health, tweeted about Ogbogu, calling him "the most frantically biased academic in Alberta."

When reached for comment on Saturday, Buick said the provincial government condemns hatred directed toward any Albertan. He also defended his response to Ogbogu's criticism.

"It is only normal for the Government to respond to incorrect information being put on social media," Buick said via email.

"Nothing in the Government's responses refer to race, ethnicity, or country of origin, and to suggest otherwise is false."

Ogbogu said this kind of online targeting by UCP staff members encourages others to pile on and harass him and other academics.

"They seem to not understand that our role as academics allows us to be able to scrutinize the government's policies," Ogbogu said. "We're citizens as well. It's a democratic right that we have, to scrutinize our government's policies and, when necessary, criticize them."

Ogbogu said he had no option but to take his profile off his university's website, but that it comes at a great cost.

"I am one of the few Black academics at the University of Alberta, I am the only Black academic in my faculty, and to then have a profile that essentially says nothing and doesn't tell people how to reach me, to me carries far weightier consequences than perhaps I would have if I wasn't a Black academic," he said.

Still, he said he has no plans to stop offering his expert opinion publicly. He said having a vigorous public debate about health policy is important and believes given his expertise it's important for him to be part of those conversations.

"It's not an option open to me to just quit now. I can't live with myself if I do. I feel a sense of obligation and duty to Albertans and Canadians to do my job."

WAIT, WHAT?

Utah monolith: The mysterious silver monolith in the desert has disappeared

By Alanne Orjoux and Melissa Alonso, CNN 11/29/2020

A tall, silver, shining metal monolith discovered in the desert in southeastern Utah -- which prompted theories of alien placement and drew determined hikers to its secret location -- has now disappeared, the state's Bureau of Land Management said Saturday.

© Utah Department of Public Safety

The monolith was removed by an "unknown party" sometime Friday night, the agency said in a Facebook post.

"We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the 'monolith,' has been removed" from BLM public lands, the post said.

"The BLM did not remove the structure, which is considered private property."
'We've got to go look at it!'

The monolith was first discovered November 18 by officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau.

They were flying by helicopter, helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah, when they spotted something that seemed right out of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

"One of the biologists ... spotted it, and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it," pilot Bret Hutchings told CNN affiliate KSL. "He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'What.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there -- we've got to go look at it!'"

And there it was -- in the middle of the red rock was a shiny, silver metal monolith sticking out of the ground. Hutchings guessed it was "between 10 and 12 feet high." It didn't look like it was randomly dropped to the ground, he told KSL, but rather it looked like it had been planted.

"I'm assuming it's some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big ("2001: A Space Odyssey") fan," he said, referencing a scene in the 1968 film where a black monolith appears.

Still, it is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on public lands "no matter what planet you're from," said Utah DPS in a statement released Monday. 

Where is it?

The location of the monolith was not disclosed because authorities said they didn't want curiosity seekers to become stranded in the remote landscape and need to be rescued.

But of course, that didn't stop some. Several people already successfully located the monolith, tucked in a redrock slot canyon south of Moab.

The trek involved driving in the darkness over rocky terrain and verifying GPS coordinates, according to three people who went to see it. At least one explorer got lost at first. But the trip was worth it, they said, even if the monolith wasn't the work of aliens.

David Surber may have been among the very first to view the monolith in person. The coordinates to the monolith were circulating on Reddit, but none of the users could confirm they were correct. Surber volunteered to find out.

The coordinates were indeed correct, and Surber eagerly shared the results of his visit with 200 Reddit users who'd flooded his inbox. Among his findings: The monolith wasn't magnetic or solid (he said it sounded "like a cardboard box" when he knocked on it). He also shared step-by-step instructions for the drive out to the monolith.

"At the end of the day, extraterrestrial or made through artistic expression; the monolith provided an opportunity for thousands of people to rally behind something positive again," he told CNN in an email. "It was a good escape from all the negativity we've experienced in 2020."

Ancient shipwreck washes ashore after Tropical Storm Eta hit Florida

While Eta battered Florida with flooding rains and strong winds earlier this month, it also washed ashore the remnants of a long-lost ship on Crescent Beach.

The surprising shipwreck discovery was stumbled upon by local resident Mark O’Donoghue, who then alerted St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) director Chuck Meide to the newfound findings.

After the assessment of the initial survey, it was revealed that the ship originated from the 1800s, most likely a large American vessel carrying cargo, capable of storing hardware or flour, according to Jay Smith, LAMP's relations communication specialist and governance officer, who spoke to The Weather Network through email.

He also noted that the wooden frame with the iron bolts was a common boat-building technique in the 1800s.

© Provided by The Weather Network 

It is believed the wreck belonged to the Caroline Eddy, a ship lost in August 1880, about 14.5 kilometres south of the lighthouse. 

Photo: Chuck Meide/Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP)

"We have been getting used to things coming up onshore after major storms, but of course, each new discovery is exciting and a great opportunity to learn more about history," said Smith. "We are always excited to get out in the field and see what can be learned from anything that either comes ashore or gets uncovered."

Based on historical research, the organization believes the wreck belonged to the Caroline Eddy, a ship lost in August 1880, about 14.5 kilometres south of the lighthouse.

Also mentioned in the archives was that the ship was caught in a hurricane or gale and collapsed off the coast, Smith said, adding that the crew aboard survived by grabbing onto the rigging and floated to shore.

"What we have ascertained from the shipwreck, we think the Caroline Eddy is a strong potential candidate for the shipwreck. We also know that the ship was salvaged and left on the beach. There is nothing within the shipwreck to indicate items were left onboard so it is likely it was salvaged – hence more evidence," added Smith.

The beach in this particular part of Anastasia Island has seen some massive erosion, so it is likely that the wreck was buried under a dune, and as the water encroached on the dune, the wreck emerged, explained Smith.

     

© Provided by The Weather Network

More than 70 per cent of all known historic shipwrecks lost in Florida are merchant vessels that participated in the coastal trade, moving goods from one coastal port to another along the Atlantic coast. 

Photo: Chuck Meide/Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP).

With that, he acknowledged that Eta aided in the dune’s erosion and revealed the shipwreck.

"Anastasia Island, like other barrier islands, will see periods of erosion and periods of buildup – it’s all part of the cycle. The hurricane provided the erosion needed to uncover the shipwreck," said Smith.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Mentioned in the historical archives was that the ship was caught in a hurricane or gale and collapsed off the coast. The crew aboard survived by grabbing onto the rigging and floated to shore.

 Photo: Chuck Meide/Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP).

If the wreck does belong to the Caroline Eddy, Smith said it was built before the American Civil War, used by the Union to sail across the Atlantic to Gibraltar, on Spain's south coast, as well as Genoa, Italy.

This vessel would have been just like any other cargo vessel of its time – consider it like the trucks of the seas – this is how the world’s economy functioned and traded using these types of vessels," said Smith.

More than 70 per cent of all known historic shipwrecks lost in Florida are merchant vessels that participated in the coastal trade, moving goods from one coastal port to another along the Atlantic coast.

Thumbnail courtesy of Chuck Meide/Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP).