Ocasio-Cortez’s Demand for $2,000 Checks 

Gets Trump Boost

(Bloomberg) -- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive Democrats have found an unlikely ally in their call for larger stimulus checks to help Americans weather the pandemic: President Donald Trump

.

© Bloomberg Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S, on Monday, Aug. 24, 2020.

After years of demonizing them as socialists, Trump effectively sided with progressives as he demanded that Congress revisit the just-passed coronavirus package to boost individual payments to $2,000. Democrats seized on the moment, with Ocasio-Cortez saying she had legislation ready to go and challenging Republicans to join them.

Congress’s progressive caucus, led by Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, have for months been calling for larger direct payments, which some Democrats have rebranded as “survival checks.”

“$600 was never going to be enough for people to withstand this crisis,” Jayapal tweeted Wednesday. “It’s time to send out $2,000 survival checks as quickly as possible -- and make them recurring.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would seek unanimous support in the House Thursday on a similar bill to replace the $600 in the current bill with the $2,000 stimulus payments Trump demanded. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republicans in a private call Wednesday that Pelosi’s move would fail.

Still, Trump’s support for larger payments bolsters progressives’ demand -- if not in this round of coronavirus relief, then in the next package Congress tries to pass after Joe Biden is sworn in as president.

Deficit Concerns

Earlier this month, 17 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to to lawmakers calling for unemployment insurance to be extended for at least six months and for recurring direct payments of at least $2,000.

It wasn’t just Democrats who pushed for larger payments to individuals. Conservative Senator Josh Hawley said he wanted at least $1,200. Hawley teamed up with progressive Senator Bernie Sanders to push for larger payments, but their bill was blocked by Republican Senator Ron Johnson.

This puts McConnell in a difficult spot, between Trump, who in effect is backing progressive demands for larger payments, and most Senate Republicans, who have started voicing concerns about the federal deficit.

Throughout the intense negotiations on the virus-relief package, McConnell recognized the political appeal of providing direct payments. Earlier this month, he urged his fellow Republicans to get behind the current relief package in part to help the two Georgia GOP incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, seeking re-election in the Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine control of the Senate. McConnell told Republicans in a closed meeting that Democrats were hammering them on political messaging tied to pandemic relief.

If Democrats manage to win both Georgia races, the Senate would be split 50-50, giving Democrats the majority with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote.
‘Every Tool’

Progressives have made it clear that they expect the new Congress to pass another relief package next year once Biden takes office.

Jayapal said the scale of aid should be at least $3 trillion -- a figure more than the past two relief packages combined -- and up to $4 trillion. She believes another round of stimulus will still be needed even if Congress amends the current relief package for direct payments to make it $2,000.

Lawmakers’ top priority will be to work with the new administration “to pass a robust relief bill that actually meets the scale of this crisis,” she tweeted Monday.

“Congress did its job this week and I can -- and I must -- ask them to do it again next year,” Biden said on Tuesday. He declined to specify a size for the package he wants, but he did voice support for more aid to state and local authorities.

Even if Democrats manage to win control of the Senate, the party would have very slim majorities -- complicating the prospects for major legislation.

In the House, Pelosi will have a smaller majority next year after several Democratic incumbents lost to Republicans. The narrow margin means she will either need the support of some Republicans or nearly all House Democrats to pass any legislation -- potentially giving progressives more leverage to make demands.

Jayapal recognized the challenges of getting progressive priorities through a narrowly divided Congress, but she said Democrats will use every avenue for the ambitious action she said is necessary. This could include a fast-track process for budget bills that would only require a simple majority in the Senate, not the 60-vote threshold needed to get around a filibuster.

“The reality is we will have to use every tool in the toolbox from administrative actions, budget reconciliation and legislative action to make sure that we are actually addressing the crisis that we’re in,” she said.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Marx On A Kinder Capitalism?

From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sourcesJune 18, 2012 AMERICA MAGAZING A JESUIT MONTHLY

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Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany called for a “social market economy” in the wake of the fiscal crisis that has gripped much of Europe over the past year. In a talk delivered on May 30 at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Cardinal Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising and a member of both the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the economy needed to move “beyond capitalism” in order to be more fair. He added that he was not calling for the abolition of capitalism, saying that capitalism was “an element” in the social market economy he has in mind. But Cardinal Marx suggested that it was the practice of “financial capitalism” in the era since the fall of the Iron Curtain that had brought Europe to its crisis point today.

This article also appeared in print, under the headline “A Kinder Capitalism?,” in the June 18, 2012, issue.

New Trump rule could cost waiters more than $700 million in lost wages by allowing employers to take more of their tips to pay other workers

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images A new Trump administration regulation could cost tipped employees more than $700 million in lost wages, a 2019 analysis found. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A new rule published by the Department of Labor on Tuesday would allow restaurant owners to take employees' tips to pay "back-of-the-house" workers such as cooks and dishwashers.

An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that change could cost workers more than $700 million.

The regulation would also allow employers to require tipped employees to perform more nontipped labor like cleaning.

"It's really, really clear this is about the interests of corporate executives and shareholders," Heidi Shierholz, an economist at EPI, told Business Insider.

A new rule rolled out in the final days of the Trump administration would allow restaurants to pull tips from their waitstaff to pay cooks and other employees, putting more cash in the pockets of owners while forcing front-of-house staffers to do more work for less money.

Employers have been allowed to pool tips and share them among employees who typically receive them. The 148-page regulation published Tuesday by the Department of Labor would expand that, allowing restaurants to pay the wages of cooks and dishwashers with money earned by those waiting tables.

The regulation would also do away with the so-called 80-20 rule, in which tipped employees - who can earn as little as $2.13 an hour from their employer as long as their tips get them to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 - can't be asked to spend more than 20% of their shift performing nontipped work, like rolling silverware or cleaning. The new standard would be "reasonable time" spent doing such things.

"It's totally ambiguous and makes it extremely difficult to enforce," Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the center-left Economic Policy Institute, told Business Insider.

The Trump administration said it was introducing the regulation to improve equality.

Cheryl Stanton, an administrator at the Department of Labor, said it "could increase pay for back-of-the-house workers, like cooks and dishwashers," and "reduce wage disparities among all workers who contribute to customers' experience."

But experts say this would be achieved at the expense of employees.

In a 2019 analysis, EPI estimated that the regulation would cost workers $700 million a year and, by doing away with the 80-20 rule, encourage employers to rely more heavily on tipped labor. Why pay cleaning staff the federal minimum wage when tipped employees, who cost a fraction of that, could be asked to do the job instead?

"It's really, really clear this is about the interests of corporate executives and shareholders. Like, that is what's driving this," Shierholz said.

"If there really was a strong interest in reducing inequality and raising the wages of the lowest-paid workers, they would be pushing tooth and nail to raise the minimum wage," Shierholz added.

"There is a direct way to do this," Shierholz said, "instead of saying, 'Oh, we're going to raise the wages of the lowest-paid workers by taking from the wages of the second-lowest-paid workers.'"

It is notable that it was not labor advocates but their bosses who lobbied for the change.

"The food service industry supports the Department's proposed rule," lawyers for the Restaurant Law Center and the National Restaurant Association said last year when the change was being developed. They billed it as deregulation and an end to bureaucrats "trying to micromanage restaurant work."

The new regulation isn't set to take effect for 60 days. It's possible that President-elect Joe Biden and his team could postpone its implementation, though it's unclear whether they would. A representative for the Biden-Harris transition team did not return a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

US-Mexico border wall construction presses full steam ahead in final days of Trump administration

By Ed Lavandera and Ashley Killough, CNN 

At a secluded spot in southeast Arizona, the San Pedro River flows north from Mexico and crosses the United States border, running under a majestic canopy of tall cottonwood trees.

© Ashley Killough/CNN 

A view through border fencing looking into Mexico from the U.S. side in Arizona.

The river's winding path is a migration gateway and critical habitation for hundreds of animal species. The National Audubon Society for Arizona says 40% of bird species in North America spend part of their lives on the San Pedro River at some point.

But the US Border Patrol sees the river as a natural gateway of drug smuggling and illegal immigration into the United States.

In the waning days of the Trump administration, construction crews are rapidly building a 30-foot high steel bollard-style wall across the riverbed. Usually, the only sound you hear is the wind whipping through the golden leaves overhead. As you hike toward the spot these days, the clattering sound of construction crews takes over.

Environmentalists say the work disrupts the migration patterns that rely on the river.

© Ashley Killough/CNN Environmental activist Kate Scott.

Customs and Border Protection says border wall projects have gone through "Environmental Stewardship Plans" to analyze and minimize the environmental impact in the area where construction is happening. And that part of the environmental impact analysis includes studying how wildlife may be affected by the projects.© Joel De La Rosa/CNN Kelly Kimbro's ranch in Southeast Arizona now has several miles of new border wall.

The work is part of a final sprint to complete as many miles of border wall as possible before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.

As of December 18, construction crews had completed 438 miles of border wall since January 2017, according to Customs and Border Protection. Last year, the Trump administration vowed to complete 450 miles by the end of 2020, just over a week from now. There are 37 border wall construction projects in motion along various points of the border with Mexico, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In all, the Trump administration has secured funding to build up to 738 miles of new and replacement wall. The question becomes what will happen to the roughly 300 miles of border wall that remains to be built.

This summer, Biden said that under his watch "there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration."

Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents border patrol agents, celebrates the construction and hopes Biden will finish what Trump started.

© Ashley Killough/CNN Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

"You have to secure the border to get the trust and favor of the American public," said Judd. "I'm truly hoping that the Biden administration is going to look at this and look at how effective this has been and reevaluate their position on the wall."

Judd also argues that environmental concerns over the border wall are "overblown" and that construction has not caused environmental damage.

A threat to migrating wildlife

Environmentalists and other activists could not disagree more.

Kate Scott, the Executive Director and president of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center, sees the wall construction as a disruptive threat to wildlife that rely on migrating through this desert region.

"I feel great pain in my heart," said Scott. "It's like driving a stake through my heart because the river should be allowed to be, and not have this monstrosity. This wall of shame."

Scott watched as construction crews welded chunks of the steel border wall that now stretches across the width of the San Pedro River. The wall will be equipped with massive gates that can swing open during the region's summer monsoon season. There are only a few inches of separation between each steel bollard.

When the heavy rains come, the river can turn into a raging rapid, swiftly moving fallen trees and natural debris. The gates are supposed to let the river water flow without damaging the wall construction.

Customs and Border Protection Public Affairs Specialist John Mennell said the agency is working to find spots along the border wall where "small wildlife passages" can be created "that will support wildlife migration, without compromising border security."

When it takes office, the Biden administration will face calls from activists to not only halt construction of the wall, but to tear it down, especially in environmentally sensitive areas.

"This (wall) has to go. It has to. This is too wrong for the environment, too wrong for the people that need to cross back and forth," Scott said.

Anti-wall activists such as John Kurc have spent months documenting what they describe as an environmental catastrophe at the construction sites. Kurc travels the southern border capturing video images of the explosive detonations used by crews to carve their way through the rugged terrain.

"This is sickening and a waste of money," wrote Kurc on a Twitter post earlier this month showing drone footage of what he described as blast damage in Arizona's Guadalupe Canyon, another location designated by the administration for the wall.

The Wildlands Network, a conservation non-profit, put up trail cameras when construction began in the San Bernardino Valley in late 2019 to monitor changes to animal migration in the area, which is also home to the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge. As of last week, "all connectivity and movement between the United States and Mexico in southeastern Arizona has been stopped dead in its tracks," Myles Traphagen, who coordinates Wildlands Network's borderlands program, wrote in a blog post. The detection of most species has declined, he wrote, and mountain lions who normally roam across the border are now pacing back and forth along the wall

.

© Joel De La Rosa/CNN

 Rancher Jim Chilton says he captured video of drug smugglers on his property.

But from a high point looking toward that blast site of the Canyon, Border Patrol agent Daniel Hernandez defended construction of these massive projects in some of the most remote areas of the southern border.

The wall is "not the end all, be all," Hernandez said, but it's one piece of a wider border protection system that also includes boots on the ground as well as detection and surveillance technology. The wall, he said, slows down smugglers and migrants and gives agents more time to respond.

"We know it's going to be effective," Hernandez said. "A bigger piece of infrastructure here in southern Arizona is vital for us. We've seen other projects similar to this have curtailed and slowed some of the traffic for us."

'This thing is a disaster'

But activists argue the construction is fundamentally damaging the landscape and culture of entire border regions, such as Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, about 275 miles west of Guadalupe Canyon.

This is where Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity and others have been sounding the alarm on the construction through this national park in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.

The work is replacing steel vehicle barriers on the international boundary. Environmentalists warn that the construction will severely restrict the ability of animals to move freely and reach the Quitobaquito Springs, which Jordahl says, is the most plentiful source of water for 50 miles in any direction.

"This thing is a disaster," Jordahl told CNN. "This wall is not going to do anything to secure the border, but it will destroy this incredible national park. It will kill wildlife in this area."

Border Patrol officials say drug smugglers have exploited the existing "Normandy" barriers that were first put in place to keep drug smugglers and undocumented immigrants from driving across the international line. The barriers are made of criss-crossed heavy steel bars that can range 4-6 feet off the ground.

Earlier this year, construction crews detonated explosives through a section of the National Park known as Monument Hill, revered by the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The Native American tribe says it's an ancestral burial ground and the final resting place for many of its ancestors.

"For us this is no different from DHS building a 30-foot wall along Arlington Cemetery or through the grounds of the National Cathedral," Ned Norris Jr., Chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation told a Congressional subcommittee earlier this year.

Border Patrol officials say external environmental and archaeological monitors are on site overseeing the construction. Roy Villareal, the former Chief Border Patrol Agent in the Tucson Sector, wrote on Twitter in February that workers "have not found any burial sites or remains in the limited detonation zone."

CBP says it's "committed to the protection of the nation's cultural and natural resources." The agency says throughout the process it has routinely met with residents

Transformation of the border

People with property along the border have witnessed transformational changes over the past decades.

Jim Chilton straddles a long, barbed wire fence that divides his ranch from Mexico. He wants to drive home the point that this fence isn't enough.

Chilton said he even offered the federal government 10 acres of his land as a forward operating base. "I offered it for a dollar a year. I even told them I'll give you the dollar if you can't find one."

Over the years Chilton says he's deployed cameras around his property and captured a thousand images of what he says are camouflaged smugglers navigating their way through his mountainous ranch.

The 81-year-old is a fifth-generation cattle rancher. He says his ancestors drove cattle from Texas to this area in 1885. Chilton says he has spent several years lobbying for border wall construction on his land, but the construction hasn't been approved.

But he says he's pleased that the border wall construction is moving closer to his property.

"We need to secure our border and we need to have a legal way to get good people into the country," said Chilton. "We need immigrants. Immigrants are a wonderful life blood of our country and we need a legal way to bring them in."

When Kelly Kimbro watches construction crews plant the sheets of rust-colored steel bollard border wall into the edge of her ranch -- east from Chilton's land -- she often thinks back to the day in 1978 her father stumbled across something they had never seen before. After local authorities showed up, she said they realized it was a giant bundle of marijuana.

"We didn't know what it was," said Kimbro, 62, as she rumbled across her southeast Arizona border ranch behind the wheel of her 1992 Ford F-350.

Forty-two years later, that same spot serves as the staging ground for construction crews building the border wall in this valley.

That day long ago sparked the border security awakening that Kimbro has observed gradually and dramatically changing this pristine landscape with each passing presidential administration.

Kimbro could not have envisioned then how drastically the idea of border security would evolve. For about a year, she has witnessed construction crews methodically erect the steel border wall across the San Bernardino Valley where her family has ranched for generations.

"That's too bad for America. That's too bad that we're like a laughingstock, because it isn't going to work," said Kimbro, who believes the wall won't stop the flow of drugs and people.

Four miles of Kimbro's 15,000 acre ranch sits on the international boundary line. She says the construction staging ground has consumed the lower third of her ranch. The serene tranquility of this desert frontier is disrupted by the rumbling engines of construction trucks and heavy machinery.

Kimbro says her family didn't protest years ago when the federal government brought in steel Normandy vehicle barriers. They invited Border Patrol to install two surveillance camera towers on her property as well, she says.

But, in Kimbro's view, the wall is pointless. "We are 100% for border security, don't get us wrong," said Kimbro. "I promise you it's never going to secure this country any better than it's already secure. The Border Patrol has done that job."

‘Russian Mike’: Toronto trucker now admits to smuggling drugs into Canada for El Chapo

A Toronto trucker accused of smuggling for Mexican drug baron Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has had a change of heart as his U.S. trial date neared, pleading guilty to running cocaine between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada

.'

© Provided by National Post Mexico's Attorney General Arely Gomez shows a picture of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin

Mykhaylo Koretskyy, 46, alias “Russian Mike,” was accused by U.S. authorities of using his transport company as a front to move huge amounts of cocaine, hiding the drugs inside commercial trucks that ran between L.A., Buffalo and cities in Canada.

Koretskyy had been set to face trial in January, having pleaded not guilty to charges detailed in an indictment by the Southern District of New York. The indictment charged Koretskyy; former Toronto real estate agent Stephen Tello; El Chapo; and El Chapo’s right-hand man, Alex Cifuentes-Villa, with importing “five kilograms or more” of cocaine into the U.S. in a conspiracy running from October 2008 and January 2014.

Koretskyy was arrested in Curaçao, in the Caribbean, in January 2018. Agents there, alerted by a Red Notice from the global police body Interpol, hauled him into custody when he got off an Air Canada flight from Toronto.
Canada's cocaine cowboys: How a two-year RCMP sting led all the way to Mexican kingpin El Chapo
El Chapo wanted the Hells Angels to kill ‘Catboy,’ a Canadian trafficker he suspected of stealing his money

Later extradited to the U.S., since June 2019 he has been housed at Manhattan’s infamous Metropolitan Correction Center, the same prison that housed El Chapo throughout his 2019 trial in Brooklyn, which saw the Sinaloa Cartel boss sentenced to life plus thirty years. Considered a harsh environment under normal circumstances, the prison is now sealed to visitors in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.


On a Dec. 11 audio conference call at which Koretskyy entered his new plea, transcripts of which have been obtained by the National Post, prosecutor Stephanie Lake indicated that the government’s evidence, should the case have gone to trial, was strong.

It includes “consensual recordings of the defendant and his co-conspirators discussing narcotics trafficking activities,” Lake said, as well as Title III intercepts, which are intercepts that require judicial approval to record things such as conversations, phone calls and other electronic communications.

Lake said prosecutors also had “law enforcement testimony regarding surveillance of the defendant and his co-conspirators,” and testimony from witnesses who had decided to tell authorities about Koretskyy’s role.

On the plea hearing call, Koretskyy said he was born in Ukraine, where he had “graduated from high school and also college,” but holds Canadian citizenship. He said he had previously worked at “an auto transportation enterprise.” A Russian interpreter was on the call, but Koretskyy indicated he didn’t need the service, except to make absolutely sure he got everything right.

When asked by the judge what he did that makes him guilty, Koretskyy said: “In 2013, I agreed with others to import a large amount of cocaine from Mexico to Canada, through the United States.” He said that on Jan. 3, 2018, he had gone to Curaçao for a vacation with his family and was detained there, spending 17 months in jail before being extradited to the U.S.

In a separate letter to the court, Koretskyy said that although he had a right to appear before a judge in court with his lawyer present, he agreed that as a result of COVID-19 restrictions in place at federal court, he would waive this entitlement.

“I do not wish to wait until the end of this emergency to be sentenced,” the letter reads.

He will now be sentenced remotely in March. He faces a maximum of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 10 years, with a maximum fine of $10 million.

Judge Paul A. Crotty told Koretskyy that sentencing guidelines for his offence fall between 262 and 327 months in prison, or 21 to 27 years. Judge Crotty reminded him, though, that the final sentence remains at the court’s discretion. Koretskyy’s plea change will likely see him receive more lenient treatment than he would have faced if found guilty by a jury.

Though by then four years old, Koretskyy’s U.S. indictment was only unsealed after he was arrested in Curaçao. However, court documents obtained by the National Post show that the RCMP had Koretskyy in its sights for years. A charge sheet from a 2015 RCMP investigation, codenamed Owatcher, showed he was suspected in an alleged plot with the real estate agent Tello, El Chapo, and others to move cocaine by coal boat from Colombia to Canada between May and September 2013.

Koretskyy was never charged in Canada and RCMP would not explain why he was free in Toronto for a number of years, despite apparently being wanted in the U.S. RCMP would only tell the Post it was aware of media reports about him, but “does not comment on specific investigative methods, tools and techniques outside of court.”

Koretskyy was initially represented by Jeffrey Lichtman, the New York attorney who defended El Chapo. Lichtman has told the Post: “I don’t understand what happened in Canada, for someone who was wanted for extradition to the U.S.” He called the situation “bizarre.”

© U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York Alex Cifuentes-Villa (middle), pictured with El Chapo and an unidentified woman in the mountains of Mexico.

Had Koretskyy gone to trial, one of the witnesses against him would likely have been the Colombian Alex Cifuentes-Villa.

Testifying against El Chapo in return for a reduced sentence, Cifuentes-Villa told the court that El Chapo had wanted to kill Tello, who he said was the cartel’s main “worker” in Canada, because he suspected Tello of stealing from him. The Sinaloa Cartel contacted the Hells Angels to kill Tello in Canada, he said, but the murder never happened. Koretskyy’s name did not arise at El Chapo’s trial. Tello is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Canada over a separate 2015 RCMP drugs sting codenamed Operation Harrington.

Koretskyy’s U.S. indictment reveals little of his relationship with the cartel. But court documents show that U.S. prosecutors believed he held meetings with cartel members in Mexico, taking cash for his services before taking drugs in commercial trucks between L.A., Buffalo and Canada. The documents emerged in the Netherlands when Koretskyy, trying to block his extradition to the U.S., appealed to courts in that country because Curaçao is a Dutch territory.

In one deal, Koretskyy was alleged to have charged $155,000 for moving two loads of drugs. An unnamed cartel member said Koretskyy had done prior U.S.-Canada shipments and also moved drugs within Canada. Travel records showed Koretskyy travelling from Mazatlán in Mexico to Canada on March 12, 2013. Mazatlán, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, was one of the longtime stronghold cities of El Chapo

CANADA

'Grave risk:' Advocates say inmates should get speedy access to COVID-19 vaccine

Advocates say inmates should have speedy access to the COVID-19 vaccine, given how susceptible prisons and jails have been to outbreaks and how prevalent chronic disease is in that population.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"I don't think they should go to the front of the line, but I certainly don't think they should be denied their rightful place in the priority line simply because they're prisoners," said Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada.

The Correctional Service of Canada said that, as of Monday, there were a total of 201 active COVID-19 cases in federal prisons. The bulk were at Joyceville Institution near Kingston, Ont., Stony Mountain Institution near Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan Penitentiary near Prince Albert.

There have also been several outbreaks in provincially run jails.

Martha Paynter, a registered nurse in Halifax who provides reproductive care to inmates, said hygiene and ventilation in correctional institutions are issues at the best of times.

There is also high turnover in remand centres and staff are constantly coming and going, she added.

Inmates are "living in this incredibly restrictive experience, but also facing very grave risk of illness transmission," said Paynter, a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University.

Inmates 50 and older account for one-quarter of the federal prison population. Advocates note people age faster behind bars and are in poorer health than the general public.

"Of course this population should have very quick access to the vaccines," said Paynter, who added that some might not trust the shots due to bad experiences with health care behind bars.

She said the bigger issue is why there are so many people incarcerated in the first place.

"What are we choosing to police? What are we choosing to criminalize?"

Anita Ho, associate professor in bioethics and health services research at the University of British Columbia, noted Indigenous people are disproportionately represented in the corrections system.

Video: Alberta health-care workers, paramedics concerned with COVID-19 vaccine prioritization (Global News)

"In general, health among Indigenous peoples in Canada, because of various social determinants of health, are poorer to start with," she said.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunizations recommends adult Indigenous communities be included in Stage 1 of vaccine delivery. It recommends congregate settings, including correctional facilities, be included in Stage 2.

Priority groups such as long-term care residents and health-care workers began receiving doses earlier this month.

Dr. Joss Reimer, medical health officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said criteria for who gets the vaccine in Manitoba in the new year will be expanded to include “correctional facilities," but did not specify whether that would be inmates, staff or both.

Other provinces have not detailed their plans.

Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General said it will be looking at the availability of doses and would carry out immunizations "based on the latest medical advice and scientific evidence."

Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said: "We will consider based on what the needs are at that specific time and ... the amount of vaccines that we have flowing into the province."

In Alberta, chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said, "We'll have a clear ethical dimension that we need to make sure we're considering."

The Correctional Service of Canada was to provide comment later Thursday.

University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman said there was a consensus about who would receive the first batch of vaccines, but determining who should be next is trickier.

He said it's not clear whether the goal of the second phase will be to boost the economy or to reach more vulnerable people.

In the United States, there has been some pushback against inmates getting dibs earlier.

"There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to the people who haven’t committed any crime," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said after the state's vaccination rollout plan was criticized.

Bowman said that kind of argument is neither scientifically nor ethically sound.

"It's a very dangerous precedent in any society when you start saying these lives are more valuable than those lives."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2020.

— With files from Fakiha Baig in Edmonton and Shawn Jeffords in Toronto

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian

Global cargo logjam deepens, delaying goods bound for retailers, automakers

By Lisa Baertlein and Jonathan Saul 23 hrs ago

© Reuters/ALY SONG FILE PHOTO:

 Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep-Water Port in Shanghai

LOS ANGELES/LONDON (Reuters) - Amazon seller Bernie Thompson shifted half of his production out of China to reduce his business risks and still found himself in the crosshairs of logistical chaos besetting the movement of goods around the globe.

A surge in demand for furniture, exercise equipment and other goods for shoppers sheltering at home in a worsening COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal trade flows.

That has stranded empty cargo containers in the wrong places, spawning bottlenecks that now stretch from factories to seaports. Container ship operators ferry the majority of consumer goods, and transportation and trade sources warn that prolonged industry disruption could cause shortages and complicate the global economic recovery. Thompson, founder of Washington-based Plugable Technologies, sells work-from-home staples like laptop docking stations. He diversified sourcing to be less reliant on a single country for manufacturing and less exposed to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

Things did not go as planned and now, like many other importers, he is concerned about keeping enough product in stock. "We've moved production out of China and moved ourselves right into a disadvantage," said Thompson.

His new factory in Thailand was first to suffer delays of about four weeks, in part because shipping companies routed empty containers to the top priority U.S.-China trade lane. Those logistical snags cascaded and now his remaining shipments from China - the world's No. 1 manufacturer – are postponed by as much as three weeks. And he is not alone - U.S. retailer Costco Wholesale Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd in the United Kingdom have also suffered delays. "Everyone's trying to squeeze through this narrow opening all at once," said Rick Woldenberg, chief executive of Illinois-based Learning Resources which supplies educational toys to Amazon.com and other major retailers. It can "really screw up your plans," he said. Container ships have been sailing at full load since August – something that has not happened in a decade, said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst with trade association BIMCO.

Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, told investors that the container line was "deploying every available ship". MOUNTING FRUSTRATION Frustration is building. Importers and exporters are "upset they're not able to move their product or crop as willingly as they would like to," said Gene Seroka, executive director of Port of Los Angeles – the busiest U.S. seaport. "We need to get the trade flow going to grease the engine for the whole world economy," said Christopher Tang, a business professor at the University of California-Los Angeles. Port staffing reductions due to COVID safety rules also play a part.

"It's a combination of strong volume and slower and less efficient operations," said Lars Mikael Jensen, head of network with Denmark's A.P. Moller Maersk, the world's biggest container line. "This is the perfect storm for global container flows,” Jensen said.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and and Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Canada 'wrong' to reject $230M Arctic mine takeover by Chinese company, China's embassy says

OTTAWA — Representatives of the Chinese government say Canada was “wrong” to reject the proposed takeover of an Arctic gold mine by a state-owned company, the latest jab in an already-fraught relationship between the two countries.

© Provided by National Post TMAC Resources’ Hope Bay, Nunavut property.

Canada on Tuesday rejected the proposed takeover of Toronto-based TMAC Resources Inc. by China’s Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd., citing national security concerns. Under the deal, Shandong would have paid $230 million not including debt to acquire the Canadian firm, which is developing a gold mine in Hope Bay, Nunavut.

In response to questions by the National Post on Wednesday, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Ottawa said the decision amounted to the “politicization of normal economic cooperation” between China and Canada.

Embassy officials said blocking the transaction interferes with “mutually beneficial” relations between the two countries, saying that “political interference with the excuse of national security is wrong.”

“The Canadian side should provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory market environment for enterprises from all countries, including China,” the statement said.

Tensions between China and Canada have been running high ever since the Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Ltd., in December 2018. Federal officers arrested Meng at the request of U.S. prosecutors, who have accused her of violating Iran sanctions, as well as theft of trade secrets.

China in turn arrested Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who have remained in prison for two years and have been barred access to legal counsel.

The arrests set off a war of words between the two countries, and a deepening trade rift that has ensnared a range of Canadian exports from canola to pork.
Canada rejects Shandong Gold's bid to buy Arctic mine over national security
As geopolitical tensions rise, Chinese investment into Canada continues to fall, data show

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has been vocal in his condemnation of the Chinese regime and has suggested imposing Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese officials as a retaliatory measure.

O’Toole and others have placed pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to walk a tougher line on China after he faced criticism for favouring a softer approach that was ultimately spurned.

The federal industry department launched a review of the proposed takeover on Oct. 15. It was among the first proposed Chinese takeovers reviewed by Ottawa after it said earlier this year that it would bring “enhanced scrutiny” to foreign takeovers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some observers, including former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Richard Fadden, had urged Ottawa to review the TMAC transaction given Beijing’s growing interest in strategic minerals.

Security experts have long warned against the risks of foreign takeovers by Chinese state-owned companies, who on occasion have been asked to advance the interests of the Communist Party of China. Those concerns have been elevated under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has aggressively sought to widen the country’s geopolitical interests through the acquisition of foreign strategic assets.

As for the Nunavut mine, the rejected takeover now leaves the company with major questions over who else might step up to buy the asset.

In an interview with the Financial Post this week, TMAC chief executive of TMAC Jason Neal said the rejection at least underscores the high status of the project.

“The one thing I would say is that in taking action, the government has definitely shown that what we have built in Nunavut, they see as important to Canada,” he said. “You know, that’s a silver lining.”

But Neal also said that he believes the government should be more supportive of companies that build infrastructure in Nunavut and other parts of the Arctic.

His company had announced a strategic review of the mine in January. Located in Nunavut, the company faced high operating costs because all its supplies need to be shipped by air or sea.

Those costs were exacerbated by a mill that never performed at the expected level, which led to lower gold recovery and production and difficulties with debt repayment.

• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder

Showdown 2021: Green energy has taken centre stage, but oil may yet steal investors' hearts back

© Provided by Financial Post Big Oil was dethroned by Big Green in a big way in 2020, but 2021 could see fossil fuels make a comeback.


CALGARY — After years as the favourite investment vehicle for funds seeking energy exposure, Big Oil was dethroned by Big Green in a big way in 2020.

The year saw the oil-and-gas industry shrink to historic lows on North American markets — in April, it made up just three per cent of the S&P 500, a dramatic comedown from the 15 per cent level at which it stood a decade ago.

Many green energy investments, meanwhile, from electric-vehicle makers to hydrogen-fuel-cell producers to renewable power companies, had remarkable years. Shares of Tesla Inc., for example, rose sixfold and the company joined the S&P 500 this month, while shares of B.C.-based Ballard Power Systems Inc., a hydrogen trailblazer, more than doubled. Even renewables, the laggards in this group, jumped by more than 50 per cent.

However, as the calendar flips to 2021 and investors begin to scour for stocks that have the potential to rebound with the broader economic re-opening, the out-of-fashion oil-and-gas industry suddenly appears poised to win back some attention from its sexier green counterparts.

“There’s no sector more on its knees than oil and gas,” said Laura Lau, senior vice-president and chief investment officer at Brompton Funds Ltd. in Toronto.

While Lau notes that there has already been a big “catch-up trade” since oil stocks bottomed amid pandemic lockdowns in the spring, the rollout of vaccines and reopening of economies has put the sector back on the radar for value investors.

“If we do have demand coming back next year — and I believe we will — and since they’re very, very cheap, they do have the potential for good returns,” she said.

As for renewable power companies, which have trumped the oil and gas industry for space in investors’ portfolios in recent years, Lau said there is a bull case for those companies, too, but “renewables are more of a long-term trade.”

Either way, oil-and-gas companies have their work cut out for them if they want to win the battle for investors’ hearts and minds in 2021.

Many industries traded down in 2020, but renewables weren’t one of them. Shares of Boralex Inc., Northland Power Inc. and Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. have all risen by 50 per cent to 60 per cent this year

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© Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. A wind farm in Quebec. Shares of Boralex Inc., Northland Power Inc. and Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. have all risen by 50 per cent to 60 per cent this year.

Tim Nash, who founded Good Investing, a Toronto-based financial planning boutique firm, said 2020 has been a “remarkable year” for green investing, but he still sees continued upside in the space for 2021 as governments around the world push green stimulus packages and incoming U.S. president Joe Biden pursues a “build-back-better” platform focused on decarbonizing the U.S. economy.

“There is going to be a lot of good news on the green economy front in 2021,” he said. “That causes more momentum and more upward pressure on share prices as companies tend to benefit from that.”

Nash said he’s looking at companies involved in energy efficiency that are poised to benefit from green spending, but haven’t experienced the same run-up in share prices as electric car makers and renewable power companies.

However, Nash cautioned that many renewable power, solar panel and especially electric car companies that have “popped” this year “might take a little while to grow into their valuations.”

By contrast, many investors believe oil-and-gas valuations will need to grow into their income potential in 2021.

Many of the largest energy companies are still trading — even after a massive rally — near historic lows. Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s second-largest oil company, is still down 46 per cent for the year

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© Brent Lewin/Bloomberg Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s second-largest oil company, is still down 46 per cent for the year.

Investment bank Raymond James lists two oil and gas producers, ARC Resources Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and one renewable power company, Boralex, among its “best picks for 2021.”

The bank’s two oil-and-gas picks are underpinned by an expectation that commodity prices will rebound from the lows of 2020 and that a handful of producers are poised to massively benefit from such a rebound.

“We enter 2021 optimistic about a durable recovery in oil prices, with positive developments on the vaccine front offering line-of-sight to relative demand normalization over the ensuing 12 months,” Raymond James analysts said in a note, adding that CNRL is the lower-cost producer poised to generate the most cash flow after expenses in the industry next year.

Similarly, the analysts said ARC Resources was “in for the comeback” and would benefit as generalist investors return after years of shunning the sector. The bank said those returning investors would be looking for companies with the best balance-sheet metrics and ARC’s position leads to an expectation of “profitability better than its peers.”

Eric Nuttall, partner and senior portfolio manager with NinePoint Partners in Toronto, said investors are already returning to the oil-and-gas space in large numbers.

Nuttall runs an actively managed oil-and-gas fund that has seen a net influx of $60 million this year. At the fund’s low point in March, when oil-and-gas prices collapsed, his fund was worth $28 million, but, as of mid-December, that figure has grown sixfold to $175 million.

“Some of that is performance and some of that is communicating the trade,” he said. “I think we’re entering into a structural bull market for oil and I think COVID has acted as an accelerant of trends that were already in place.”

The coronavirus pandemic has been a shock to the shale oil industry in the United States, which has been the main source of global oil supply growth for years, and where oil production is now sharply declining.

While shale oil production was ballooning in the U.S., Nuttall said, there were multiple years of underinvestment in competing sources, such as offshore oil projects. That has set up a scenario where oil prices could rise to as much as US$60 per barrel in 2021. At that price, multiple Canadian oil producers will be able to generate billions of dollars in free cash flow.

“I struggle to see what can derail the bullish thesis, which is a dangerous place to be,” Nuttall said. “But I challenge myself all the time and I’m struggling to come up with something.”

PETRO POLITICS IS STATE CAPITALISM
Newfoundland's Hibernia offshore oil project gets $38 million in federal aid

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador is giving $38 million to the Hibernia offshore oil project in a bid to protect 148 jobs over 18 months.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Premier Andrew Furey said Wednesday the money will create 300,000 hours of work on the offshore oil project. "We will continually work for the benefit of our province, of our oil and gas industry and of our people to help get our economy back on its feet and our residents back to work," Furey told reporters.

The money comes from a pot of $320 million offered by the federal government in September to bolster the province's floundering offshore oil industry, which has been hit hard by crashing global prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hibernia was Newfoundland and Labrador first offshore oil installation and sits just over 300 kilometres off the coast of St. John's. It has not been spared from the downturn in the local industry.

The company's financial reports indicate staff numbers fell from 1,479 to 840 between the first and third quarters of 2020. Hundreds of layoffs from the project were announced this spring and drilling work on the rig was suspended.

Among Hibernia's owners are ExxonMobil Canada, Chevron Canada Resources and Suncor. A conglomerate of those companies, called the Hibernia Management and Development Company, manages and operates the project.

Conglomerate president Stephen Edwards said Wednesday the money will help the company increase production and upgrade infrastructure that could lead to ten more years of drilling. He did not directly answer questions about whether the money would lead to a resumption of drilling that had been suspended last spring.

A press release issued by the province following the announcement said the conglomerate had submitted a proposal for another $28 million from the $320-million fund.

Earlier this month, the province announced Husky Energy would receive $41.5 million to extend the life of its White Rose oilfield, located about 350 kilometres off the coast of St. John's. The next day, 75 people were laid off from the work site.

Edwards said he is not aware of any impending layoffs from the Hibernia project.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2020.