Two Chechen gay men in 'mortal danger' after being arrested in Russia, alleged in supporting terrorism

Two gay men from Chechnya face “mortal danger” after being abducted from Russia and forcibly returned to Chechnya under terrorism investigation, a Russian LGBT rights group has stated.

© Provided by National Post Banner with Putin wearing makeup appeared on a protest against the LGBTQ prosecution in Chechnya near the Russian embassy in 2017.

According to the Russian LGBT Network, Salekh Magamadov, 20, and Ismail Isayev, 17, resided in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, when they were kidnapped last Thursday by both Chechen and Russian police. The two men are confined for allegations of supporting terrorism,” the Network told The Guardian . They were sent to a police station in Chechen town Gudermes this Saturday.

Magamadov and Isayev fled Chechnya last year in June through the LGBT group after they were arrested and tortured in Chechnya by special police in April 2020 for operating an opposition channel on the Telegram app, called Osal Nakh 95.

Based on Russian media, they were detained on suspicion of posting offensive publications, comments and photographs of other people, for which they were alleged in terrorism. But Tim Bestsvet, the Russian LGBT Network spokesperson, said they were arrested “initially because of their sexual orientation,” the Moscow Times reported.

Both Magamadov and Isayev were forced to record a video apologizing for running the Osal Nakh 95 channel.

Bestsvet told the Guardian that he is worried for the safety of the two men, referring to other incidents when men had been returned to Chechnya, where they vanished or died.

“There have been cases when relatives brought back to Chechnya people that we had evacuated and then these people would die or, we can say, were probably murdered,” Bestsvet told the Moscow Times.

According to the LGBT Network, law enforcement officers detained Magamadov and Isayev in their apartment in Nizhny Novgorod on Feb. 4. The LGBT group later received a frightening phone call from the two men with screaming in the background.

After their lawyer Alexander Nemov arrived at the apartment 30 minutes later, he found the evidence of a struggle and noticed that both Magamadov and Isayev had disappeared.

The LGBT Network reported that the neighbours saw people in black uniforms entering the building a few hours before the incident happened. They claim those people could have been the Russian SWAT-team.

Regional Police Precinct could not affirm the two arrested were in their custody.

Euronews stated that Nemov has visited Chechnya to speak with his clients but was not allowed to see them. The LGBT Network reoirted that the police failed to explain why the men were arrested and did not provide any information to the lawyer for at least two days.

On Sunday, the LGBT Network posted on their Instagram that Magamadov and Isayev were forced to reject the lawyer’s assistance, making the LGBT group send them a new one.

Although Magamadov is more than 18-years-old, Isayev, who is 17-years-old, is a minor and can deny legal representation through his parents, the Moscow Times said.

Bestsvet said Isayev’s father went to the Chechen police station on Saturday and was pressured to prevent his son from seeing the lawyer.

Akhmed Dudayev, an aide of the Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Guardian that the men had admitted they helped an illegal armed group headed by Aslan Byutukayev , who was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. in 2016. If convicted of terrorism, the men could face up to 15 years of jail time in Chechnya.

Dudyaev also claimed the arrest was legal and that any effort to sway the case would be “senseless and futile,” The Guardian reported.

Russian republic Chechnya has been condemned for alleged oppression of the LGBT community since 2017, and many gay people claimed they were tortured by law enforcement.

In a response to the alleged persecution of gay people in Chechnya, the Russian LGBT Network based in Saint Petersburg has aided 200 people to leave the republic either to foreign countries or to other areas in Russia.

The Guardian stated the Chechnya officials rejected reports of such allegations, although several men had reported police brutality and abductions.

Kadyrov was also alleged in other human rights violations, claiming “there are no gay men in Chechnya.”

NOT CAPITALI$M BUT SELF EMPLOYMENT

Cuba opens door to more capitalism, after a long wait

Cuba took a long-awaited and likely irreversible step towards massively expanding the island's private sector over the weekend

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© Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images Cuban farmers in Vinales,

 Pinar del Rio province, Cuba, on January 10, 2021.

On Saturday, Cuba's communist-run government announced that Cubans will soon be able to seek employment or start businesses in most fields of work.

Previously, Cubans were restricted to working in just 127 officially approved private sector job descriptions. Some of those legalized activities over the years included working as a barber, tire repairer, palm tree trimmer or "dandy," as the government referred to Cubans who dressed up to pose with tourists for photos.

But many Cubans chafed that the government's list did not include opportunities created by recently increased access to the internet and Cubans' own seemingly limitless ability to innovate and invent.

Now they will have the ability to work in over 2,000 different fields.

"The new measures for self-employment approved by the Council of Ministers will expand significantly the activities one can carry out. A new and important step to develop this kind of work," tweeted Cuban official Marino Murrillo Jorge, "the reforms czar," who has been overseeing its glacially-paced attempt to modernize the local economy.

Self-employment and capitalism were all but forbidden in Cuba until its near-total economic collapse, brought about by the fall of Soviet Union, then the island's largest trading party.

Gradually, and with regular backtracking, the Cuban government allowed Cubans to stop working low-paid state jobs and go into business for themselves. By the government's own statistics, more than 600,000 Cubans now work in the private sector, although the number is likely far higher when accounting for the island's thriving black market.

Still, Cuban government officials often have treated the island's entrepreneurs as a necessary evil and a possible Trojan Horse that could allow opponents in the United States to at long last bring down the revolution.

And while the official line from Cuban officials is that they have been implementing free market reforms "without hurry but without stopping," the opening had stalled out as the government seemed to doubt the wisdom of further empowering Cuban entrepreneurs.

But with the widespread impacts of the pandemic and as Raul Castro, 89, is expected to step down in April as head of the Cuban communist party, the organization that charts the island's long-term economic planning, Cuba in 2021 has finally embarked on two major reforms: Unifying its labyrinthine dual-currency system and now lifting restrictions on jobs.

The government will still prohibit or restrict Cubans from privately undertaking 124 activities. While those activities have yet to be disclosed, they will likely continue the state's monopoly on health care, telecommunications and mass media.

The new measure, over time, will likely alter the face of the island's economy, said Cuban economist Ricardo Torres.

"We don't know yet which 124 activities will remain prohibited but it's safe to assume that the possibilities will be expanded for professionals," Torres told CNN. "An old demand in a country that has made an enormous investment in education. "

The changes come too as Cuba seeks to improve relations with the US after four years of a barrage of new economic sanctions from the Trump administration.

"This is long overdue, it's welcome news, and the United States should affirm that the embargo was never intended, and will not be used, to penalize private enterprise in Cuba," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) posted on his Twitter account.

"After more than half a century isn't it time to repeal a Cold War embargo that has failed to achieve any of its objectives, and has only made life harder for the struggling Cuban people?"

Earlier this month, Leahy, a long-time advocate for improved relations with Cuba, co-sponsored a long-shot bill to lift the nearly six-decade-old US economic embargo on the island.

Cuba's endlessly inventive and long suffering entrepreneurs will be watching to see what happens.

© Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images People queue to buy food in Havana, on February 2, 2021, as COVID-19 cases surge in the island nation. - Cases in Cuba, one of least-affected nations in the region by the coronavirus pandemic, have been surging in recent days. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP) (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

Swedes acquitted of desecrating sunken ferry with robot dive

STOCKHOLM — Two Swedish nationals were acquitted Monday of desecrating a sunken ferry by sending down a robot in the Baltic Sea to film the wreck of one of Europe’s deadliest maritime disasters.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In its ruling, the Goteborg District Court said that the men had “committed acts that are punishable under the so-called Estonia Act” by sending down a cable-bound diving robot to the M/S Estonia, which sank Sept. 28, 1994, killing 852 people.

“However, the district court considers that the men, who are both Swedish citizens, cannot be punished because they have committed the act from a German-flagged ship in international waters.”

The September 2019 dive was banned by the law protecting the car ferry that lies in international waters with most of the victims still entombed inside. The legislation has been signed by Sweden, Estonia and Finland but not by Germany.

The ferry is on the seabed some 80 metres (264 feet) below the surface. The wreck is considered a graveyard, which gives the area protection under the law.

The Swedes — Henrik Evertsson and Linus Andersson — were part of a film team that worked on a documentary about the sinking of the Estonia. The team included Swedish, Norwegian and German citizens, while the boat’s crew included German and Polish citizens.

The court said “Germany is not bound by the agreement reached between Estonia, Finland and Sweden on which the law is based. The act is therefore not punishable on the German-flagged ship, which is to be seen as German territory.”

During the dive, a large hole in the hull of the ferry was spotted, raising questions about the cause of the sinking and prompting Swedish, Finnish and Estonian authorities to say that a new dive is needed.

A 1997 report had concluded that the ferry that was sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm sank after the bow door locks failed in a storm, and flatly rejected the theory of a hole, which has long been the focus of speculation about a possible explosion on board.

No timeline for a new dive has been announced.

The Associated Press

SAUDI SPY CHIEF IN CANADIAN EXILE

Saudi 'Tiger Squad' assassins hunt for targets no matter their country of residence, explosive new court filings claim

The dissident spymaster who fled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and has been hiding out in Canada has filed new court documents in a suit against Mohammed bin Salman, alleging a pressure campaign by the Saudi Crown prince included attempts to coerce his daughter to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — the location where, days later, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.

© Aljabri family Saad Aljabri.

Saad Aljabri, formerly a top adviser to Mohammed bin Nayef, the nephew of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, fled to Canada in September 2017 following a palace coup that saw bin Nayef replaced by Mohammed bin Salman as the heir to the Saudi throne.


Aljabri has been living quietly in Toronto ever since. Many of his family have also fled Saudi Arabia, though two of his children, Omar and Sarah, were banned from leaving the country in the summer of 2017, and vanished in March 2020. They have not been heard from since.

Since fleeing, Aljabri claims he’s feared for his life. In August 2020, he filed a suit in U.S. courts against the Crown Prince and multiple other defendants, alleging a conspiracy to kill him, kidnap and torture his family, or return Aljabri to the Kingdom to be silenced.





Saudi Arabia has maintained Aljabri in fact embezzled $4.5 billion from a state counter-terrorism fund. In late January 2021 a lawsuit was filed in Ontario Superior Court against Aljabri, members of his family and other associates for fraud and misappropriation of funds. Saad Aljabri and his family have long denied this, though defence documents have yet to be filed in court.
Spymaster hiding in Canada alleged to have stolen $4.5B from Kingdom of Saudia Arabia in new lawsuit
Saudi 'Tiger Squad' assassins tried to enter Canada to kill dissident Saad Aljabri: U.S. lawsuit

None of the allegations have been proven in court. But, in court filings from December 2020, the Crown Prince sought to have the U.S. lawsuit dismissed, arguing Aljabri is an international fugitive and that an American court has no jurisdiction to adjudicate Saudi national interests.

“Those interests include Saudi Arabia’s criminal investigation and prosecution of a former high-level Saudi official and his co-conspirators for corruption, and Saudi Arabia’s efforts to locate that former official — now an international fugitive — and bring him to justice,” the filing argues.

The new details filed in Washington, D.C., court on Thursday, include the suggestion that a Khashoggi-style killing could have been attempted against Aljabri’s daughter, Hissah Almuzaini. The documents say operatives attempted to get to her to enter the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

“Fortunately for Hissah, she never went to the consulate. After Jamal Khashoggi entered the very same consulate days later, Hissah learned the fate awaiting her if she had obeyed,” the lawsuit says.

Documents also detail the pressure campaign against Aljabri’s family in an attempt, he alleges, to get him to return to the Kingdom.

© Supplied Sarah Aljabri with her father, Saad Aljabri. Along with her brother Omar, Sarah has not been seen by her family since mid-March.

Hissah’s husband, Salem Almuzaini, was kidnapped in Dubai in September 2017, the lawsuit says, and tortured. “They brutally beat his feet with a metal bar hundreds of times, turning his feet black and blue, splitting open his skin, and creating a river of blood flowing down his legs,” the lawsuit claims.

Almuzaini was released in January 2018, the suit says, but again vanished in August 2020, around the time Aljabri filed his lawsuit in the U.S.

“In all, approximately twenty of Dr. Saad’s family, friends, and business associates have been kidnapped by Defendant bin Salman’s henchmen and held incommunicado in secret locations without any charges, in blatant violation of both Saudi and international law,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also says that following the failure in October 2018 of the “Tiger Squad” assassins — 50 operatives with “a variety of experience and expertise relevant to locating and executing a target and covering up the murder” — to enter Canada and kill Aljabri, bin Salman held a meeting in May 2020 to concoct another plan to murder him.

That plan, the lawsuit claims, would involve assassins travelling to the United States and then crossing the border into Canada by land, instead of flying into the Macdonald–Cartier International Airport in Ottawa, as they’d attempted in October 2018.

“Undoubtedly, Defendant bin Salman changed his tactics in response to the Tiger Squad’s failed attempts to enter Canada in October 2018,” the lawsuit says. “As a result of Defendant bin Salman’s directive, the newest stage of a multi-year campaign of execution, Dr. Saad’s life remains in dire peril to this day.”

The documents also allege bin Salman’s Tiger Squad has been used to kidnap Saudis in Europe, including Prince Saud bin Saif Alnasr from France in 2015, and Prince Sultan bin Turki II, also from France, in 2016, as well as the abduction and torture of Sulaiman Aldoweesh, a dissident religious cleric, in Mecca.

“If the allegations … seem fantastical, that is only because it is difficult to fathom the depths of depravity of Defendant bin Salman and the men he empowered to carry out his will,” says the lawsuit.

These operations, the lawsuit claims, have been carried out in France (in the cases of bin Saif and bin Turki), Germany (Prince Khaled bin Farhan al Saud), Norway, where Iyad Elbaghdadi, a critic of Saudi Arabia resides under government protection, Turkey, as well as Canada.

“As each of these increasingly coercive steps failed, Defendant bin Salman directed teams to locate, detain, and kill his targets regardless of their country of residence — even if that meant blatantly violating the sovereignty of other states,” the lawsuit says.

POTHEAD NATION

More Canadians report smoking pot than in 10 peer countries: survey

A new survey has found one in four Canadian adults reported using cannabis at least once within the period of one year.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Commonwealth Fund survey compares Canada’s health systems to 10 other peer countries.

An average of nine per cent of people in the other countries reported the same pot use.

Tracy Johnson, director of health systems analysis for the Canadian Institute for Health Information, says it is not surprising considering Canada is the only country in the survey where cannabis is legal.

She says that means people surveyed in Canada may have felt more comfortable being honest about their marijuana use.

It's the first time the annual survey has asked questions about pot, drinking and vaping.

The survey found a quarter of Canadians reported drinking heavily at least once a month. Canada’s rate was slightly lower than the 32 per cent average among all countries.

The survey also found about five per cent of Canadians used vaping devices like e-cigarettes, compared to four per cent in the peer countries.

The survey took place between March and June, with most interviews occurring in the first two months, and asked about usage in the previous 12 months. Johnson said that means it doesn’t show changing habits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Because it was early in the pandemic as well, it’s not an indication generally in what happened during the pandemic."

Johnson said it will be important to continue monitoring what is happening. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction found increased alcohol use during the pandemic in another poll.

The Commonwealth survey also looked at access to health care, quality of care and cost barriers.

Longer-term results found access to care has not significantly changed over the past 10 years in Canada, Johnson added.

She said once Canadians get a family doctor, they are happy with care. But getting initial access to doctors or specialists remains difficult.

She also said the survey found Canada is behind other countries in the use of technology when it comes to medical records. Johnson said online records have become increasingly important as virtual health care has with COVID-19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2021.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

K2

Bad weather halts Pakistani army search for missing climbers

ISLAMABAD — Bad weather on Monday forced Pakistani army helicopters to temporarily halt their search for three mountaineers who went missing while attempting to scale K2, the world’s second-highest mountain

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The search was stopped just hours after it resumed for the third consecutive day, with officials uncertain when weather conditions would improve enough for it to resume again. Friends and family of the three — Pakistani climber Ali Sadpara, John Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile — grew increasingly concerned for their fate in the harsh environment.


The three lost contact with base camp late on Friday and were reported missing on Saturday, after their support team stopped receiving communications from them during their ascent of the 8,611-meter (28,250-foot) high K2 — sometimes referred to as “killer mountain.”

Located in the Karakorum mountain range, K2 is one of the most dangerous climbs. Last month, a team of 10 Nepalese climbers made history by scaling the K2 for the first time in winter.

Waqas Johar, a district government administrator, said on Twitter that almost 60% of K2 was under clouds. The search and rescue team was unable to find any clue of the climbers' whereabouts so far, he said, adding it will attempt again once the weather improves.

Earlier, Sadpara’s son said in a video statement released to the media that the chances of the mountaineers' survival in the harsh winter conditions were extremely low. Sadpara, an experienced climber, had earlier scaled the world’s eight highest mountains, including the highest, Mount Everest in the Himalayas, and was attempting to climb K2 in winter.

“Miracles do happen and the hope for a miracle is still there,” said Karar Haideri, secretary at the Pakistan alpine Club. He said a statement from the authorities was expected later on Monday.

Sadpara's son Sajid Ali Sadpara, himself a mountaineer who was part of the expedition at the start but later returned to base camp after his oxygen regulator malfunctioned, said their chances after “spending two to three days in the winter at 8,000 (meters' altitude) are next to none."

The younger Sadpara praised the rescue and search efforts but said “as a climber, I know that ... only a miracle can save their lives.”

The younger Sadpara's oxygen regulator had malfunctioned when he reached K2's most dangerous point, known as Bottle Neck, earlier last week. There, he waited for his father and two other climbers for more than 20 hours but with no sign of them, he descended.

Since the climbers went missing, Iceland's foreign minister, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, has spoken to his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, by telephone. According to Pakistan's foreign ministry, Qureshi assured him that Pakistan would spare no effort in the search for the missing mountaineers.

Although Mount Everest is 237 metres (777 feet) taller than K2, the K2 mountain is much farther north, on the border with China, and subject to worse weather conditions, according to mountaineering experts. A winter climb is particularly dangerous because of the unpredictable and rapid change in the weather.

Winter winds on K2 can blow at more than 200 kph (125 mph) and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit). In one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents ever, 11 climbers died in a single day trying to scale K2 in 2008.

___

Associated Press writer Asim Tanveer in Multan, Pakistan, contributed to this story.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press

Search for 3 climbers on K2 in Pakistan to continue Monday


ISLAMABAD — The search for three missing climbers will resume early Monday on K2, the world’s second highest mountain, Pakistani officials said Sunday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Onboard the army helicopter was Sajjid Sadpara, the son of the missing Pakistani climber, Ali Sadpara, and the Nepali leader of the winter expedition. Also missing are John Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile.

The three lost contact with base camp late Friday and were reported missing Saturday after their support team stopped receiving communications from them during their ascent of the 8,611-meter (28,250-foot) high K2 mountain, sometimes referred to as “killer mountain.”

The military said a ground search has also been initiated from the K2 base camp.

Karrar Haideri, a top official with the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said army helicopters will resume the search that began a day earlier.

A military statement elaborating the day search and rescue operation said despite "extremely challenging conditions," the army helicopters searched Abruzzi Spur and other routes but no trace of the missing climbers so far.

It said the success of the search efforts depend on the weather. Choppers flew up to the limit of 7,800 metres over the K2.

K2, located in the Karakorum mountain range, is one of the most dangerous climbs. Last month, team of 10 Nepalese climbers made history by scaling the K2 for the first time in winter.

“The base camp received no signals from Sadpara and his foreign companions after 8,000 metres ... A search is on and let's pray for their safe return home,” Haideri told The Associated Press.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying Iceland's foreign minister, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, spoke to his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, by telephone. Qureshi assured him that Pakistan would spare no effort in the search for the missing mountaineers.

Sadpara and his team left the base camp on Feb. 3, a month after their first attempt to scale the mountain failed because of weather conditions.

Although Mount Everest is 237 metres (777 feet) taller than K2, the K2 mountain is much farther north on the border with China and subject to worse weather conditions, according to mountaineering experts. They say a winter climb is particularly dangerous because of the unpredictable and rapid change in weather conditions.

Winter winds on K2 can blow at more than 200 kph (125 mph) and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit). In one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents ever, 11 climbers died in a single day trying to scale K2 in 2008.

Haideri said Sadpara’s son, Sajid, had returned to the base camp safely after his oxygen regulator malfunctioned at 8,000 metres.

Chhang Dawa Sherpa, who heads the Seven Summit Treks expedition company and also was the leader of winter expedition, tweeted that two army helicopters along with Saijd Sadpara, Elia and himself found no trace during their two days of aerial searches.

Sherpa said on Saturday around noon, Ali’s son Sajid reported that they were together and in good shape to head toward the summit. But due to a problem with his oxygen regulator Sajid had to return from their location, known as Bottle Neck. Sajid waited for them for more than 20 hours with the belief that they were heading to the summit and would return. With no sign of them, Sajid descended.

Sajid Sadpara said on Twitter “It was around 11 AM they were going up and I am sure they have done the summit and on descend they might have faced (a) problem.”

Haideri, the Alpine club official, was hopeful that Sadpara's company will help his other companions survive rough conditions.

He noted Sadpara's experience as a mountaineer who has climbed the world's eight highest mountains, including the highest, Mount Everest in the Himalayas, and was attempting to climb K2 in winter.

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Asim Tanveer contributed to this story from Multan, Pakistan.

Zarar Khan, The Associated Press

REST IN POWER

Jackie Vautour, advocate against Kouchibouguac land expropriation, has died

Karla Renic 

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tim Clark Jackie Vautour (bald, behind the stove)

 talks strategy with friends in his tiny hut in Kouchibouguac National Park, N.B.

 on April 3, 1980.

The Acadian man remembered for his decades-long fight against the expropriation of land for Kouchibouguac National Park has died.

According to his family, 92-year-old Jackie Vautour passed away after finding out he had liver cancer just days ago.

“A lot people are going to miss him. He’s a hero, he’s a legend,” his son Edmond Vautour said.

“I spoke to him for a few minutes on the phone and he told me he didn’t have long to live.

“He told me that he did all he could," Edmond said.

In his last conversation with his father, Vautour assured Jackie that he has done enough to make an impact.

Read more: Wolastoqey Nation filing lawsuit against N.B., Canada to seek Aboriginal land title

Beginning in 1969, about 250 families were displaced from villages on New Brunswick's eastern shore to create the park, which was authorized under the signature of Jean Chretien, who at the time was minister of Indian affairs and northern development.

Since then, he had been in legal battles with the government, claiming Kouchibouguac is on traditional Indigenous land — not Crown land as defined in the National Parks Act — with title falling to Indigenous communities first.

Vautour received a settlement in 1987 but remained in his cabin in the park, and over the past decades, he had challenged the expropriation in the courts.

In 2015, he filed a lawsuit on his own behalf, and on behalf of a long list of plaintiffs identifying themselves as Indigenous residents of Kouchibouguac territory, as well as hereditary Mi’kmaq Chief Stephen Augustine and several Mi’kmaq people of the area. The lawsuit called for damages for infringing on that title and for the removal of families who once lived in the area.

Then in 2017, he filed with New Brunswick's Court of Appeal, to argue a previous ruling that there was no evidence of Métis historically residing in that area.

On Jan. 28, 2021, the court dismissed his appeal in a written decision.

"In a series of legal proceedings involving Jackie Vautour, courts found the expropriations and the creation of the Park were lawful," the judge wrote.

"It is plain and obvious that a matter that attempts to relitigate that which has been conclusively determined in all levels of court, after a fulsome trial, does not disclose a reasonable cause of action."

Edmond Vautour said his father was not surprised when his appeal case was rejected, claiming there’s a problem with the justice system.

“He had new evidence to bring into court … and they refused to hear it. It’s pretty bad but he was not surprised at all.”

All this time since the expropriation, Jackie Vautour and his wife lived in a small cabin in Kouchibouguac, with no power or water.

“He said that he would die on this land — and he did,” Edmond said.

Although his father has passed, the fight for land title rights is not over.

“My father’s goal was to have the rights of the people, have the people be heard, have the people get back their lands, and to recognize all the suffering the people went through.”

Vautour said Jackie had a good heart.

“He’s a man that never talked badly about anybody. He was always there to help.”

He also said the community has shown kindness after Jackie's passing, saying that he was a hero.

Read more: Canada’s school systems are failing to address colonial past: educators

Alexandre Cédric Doucet, president of the Acadian Society, said Monday that Vautour never gave up on his battle to remain on his family's land, and he became a symbol that inspired the generations that followed.

"His struggle will forever be etched in our memories, the legacy of a dark part of contemporary Acadian history," Doucet said in a release.

"Having had the opportunity to meet Jackie a few times, I can personally testify to the strength and determination of this man, who was, in many ways, greater than life."

Edmond Vautour said he heard suggestions of a petition to change the name of one New Brunswick's airports to his father’s name.

“I was really surprised to hear that. … His name could never be forgotten for all the rights he stood up for.”

Edmond said he is committed to continuing his father’s legacy and has been especially involved in the last five years.

“Before he passed, he wanted to make sure I was going to continue if I wanted — and I said yes.”

-- With files from The Canadian Press.

REST IN POWER

Ex-Chicago Teachers Union leader Karen Lewis dies at age 67


CHICAGO — Karen Lewis, a former Chicago Teachers Union president and onetime mayoral hopeful, has died at age 67, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Known for her fiery speaking style, Lewis seriously considered a challenge against then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel before she was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014. She continued to face health problems, suffering a stroke in 2017 and undergoing brain surgery the following year.

Her longtime spokeswoman and friend Stephanie Gadlin confirmed the death Monday in a statement but did not disclose the cause or circumstances.

Lewis' tenure as union president saw mass school closings and bitter contract talks. In 2012, she led the first teachers’ strike in 25 years, often going after Emanuel, whom she once described as the ”murder mayor” because of the city's violence.

“She bowed to no one, and gave strength to tens of thousands of Chicago Teachers Union educators who followed her lead, and who live by her principles to this day,” the union said in a statement. “But Karen did not just lead our movement. Karen was our movement.”

Lewis grew up on the city's South Side, the child of two public school teachers. She graduated from Dartmouth College, often noting she was the only Black woman in the 1974 graduating class.

She taught chemistry for nearly two decades in Chicago and was active in union leadership. Lewis became union president in 2010 and stepped down in 2018 because of her health.

Lewis' death drew condolences from numerous leaders, including the city's current mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. On Twitter, Emanuel said that though he and Lewis often disagreed, their "regular conversations were a benefit to me and to the city of Chicago.”

In her departure letter from the union in 2018, Lewis urged teachers to keep fighting.

“In my fight against brain cancer, I am reminded through my faith that when storms come, the brave do not jump overboard,” she wrote. “They do not abandon ship, nor do they panic. Even if the captain is down and storm clouds are gathering, the rest of the crew must steer the ship on its charted course.”

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Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiatareen

Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press

Karen Lewis, fighter for public education, charismatic ex-leader of Chicago Teachers Union, dies

Lewis had considered running against then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2014 but decided against it after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

By Stefano Esposito Updated Feb 8, 2021,
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CTU President Karen Lewis with teachers and supporters, on a 1 day strike called by the Chicago Teachers Union at King College Prep. Friday, April 1, 2016. Brian Jackson/Sun-Times

A visionary. A legend. A brawler. A friend. An opera lover.

Just some of the ways people remembered Karen Lewis, the charismatic former head of the Chicago Teachers Union whose death was announced Monday.

“Our union is in deep mourning today at the passing of our sister, our leader and our friend, President Emerita Karen GJ Lewis,” the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement. “We are sending heartfelt condolences to her husband, John Lewis, and her surviving family and friends. She will be dearly missed.

“Karen taught us how to fight, and she taught us how to love. She was a direct descendant of the legendary Jackie Vaughn, the first Black, female president of our local. Both were fierce advocates for educators and children, but where Jackie was stately elegance, Karen was a brawler with sharp wit and an Ivy League education.”


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Karen Lewis: ‘A force of nature, smart as a summer day is long’
Karen Lewis and Rahm Emanuel: Rocky relationship ‘started in one place and ended in another’

Later in the day, current CTU President Jesse Sharkey tweeted: “Rest in Power Karen Lewis — you united us and helped us see our own power, and you did it with your humor, your humanity and your courage. You always gave of yourself so freely. We love you and may your memory be a blessing.”

In a statement on Twitter, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said: “Amy and I are saddened to learn of Karen Lewis’ passing. Our deepest condolences go out to her family, loved ones, friends and CTU family during this extremely difficult time.”


Gov. J.B. Pritzker called Lewis “a fighter who possessed a sense of humor, smarts and charisma that few in the public sphere could match. She believed to her core in bettering her members’ lives and improving the lives of Chicago’s children. Her legacy will long endure — may her memory be a blessing.”


U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, also in a tweet, said: “Jane and I are deeply saddened by the passing of Karen Lewis. She lived her life on the front line of the struggle for justice in education, and to honor her memory we must recommit ourselves to building the fairer future students and families deserve

In 2012, Chicago teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years, fueled by their anger against then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who persuaded the Illinois General Assembly to raise the strike threshold, stripped them of a previously negotiated 4% pay raise and offered schools and teachers extra money to waive the teachers contract and immediately implement his longer school day.

The strike damaged Chicago’s reputation and turned Lewis into a folk hero with the guts to fight City Hall.

“The 2012 teachers’ strike changed the course of Chicago and our entire country,” SEIU Illinois State Council President Tom Balanoff said in a statement Monday. “Karen’s leadership inspired teachers across the country to fight for quality public education that their communities deserve.

“Through her work and vision, Karen transformed CTU into the powerful organization it is today and reminded the world how unions are a potent force for the common good. Her legacy lives on through the millions of working people she inspired to fight for collective justice.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle echoed that theme in praising Lewis: “She was a leader, a fighter and a visionary, fiercely committed to the values of equity + justice. She was a leading voice on public education in not just the city of Chicago, but in our country. Rest in power.”

In 2014, Lewis considered running against Emanuel. When cancer derailed that plan, she endorsed Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who didn’t win but is now a U.S. congressman.

“I was blessed by Karen’s trust and confidence to fight for working people and the communities we represented,” Garcia said in statement Monday. “In 2015 she encouraged me to run for mayor of Chicago when her own bid was cut short by medical complications. I am humbled she supported me.”

Lewis’ passions extended far beyond the education and politics.

“She spoke three languages, loved her opera and her show tunes, and dazzled you with her smile,” the CTU said, “yet could stare down the most powerful enemies of public education and defend our institution with a force rarely seen in organized labor.”

REST IN POWER

Rennie Davis, 'Chicago Seven' activist, dies at 80

DENVER — Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which thousands clashed with police in a bloody confrontation that horrified a nation watching live on television, has died. He was 80

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

RENNIE DAVIS  SECOND FROM LEFT

Davis died Tuesday of lymphoma at his home in Berthoud, Colorado, his wife, Kirsten Liegmann, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

A longtime peace activist, Davis was national director of the community organizing program for the anti-war Students for a Democratic Society and was a protest co-ordinator for the Chicago convention.

Some 3,000 anti-war demonstrators clashed with police and Illinois National Guardsmen on Aug. 28, 1968, near the convention. Police clubbed demonstrators and carried out mass arrests. Davis himself was seriously injured and taken to a hospital. An investigative commission later described the clash as a “police riot.”

Davis and four co-defendants — Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and David Dellinger — were convicted of conspiracy to incite a riot during the “Chicago Seven" trial in 1969 and 1970. A federal appeals court overturned the convictions, citing errors by U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman.

Co-defendants John Froines and Lee Weiner were acquitted. An eighth defendant, Bobby Seale, was tried separately, convicted of contempt and sentenced to four years in prison. That conviction also was overturned.

Davis was “one of the most important nuts and bolts organizers of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and the early 1970s,” said David Farber, a distinguished professor of history at the University of Kansas who has written four books about the 1960s — including “Chicago ’68” — which details the anti-war protests in Chicago.

Unlike the more famous members of what became known as the “Chicago Seven” — including Hoffman and Rubin — Farber said Davis “was not a celebrity, but he was a very essential organizer for the anti-war movement.”

“He was the one negotiating with the (Mayor Richard J.) Daley administration, trying to get permits and the right to march and rally," Farber said. “He was the hands-on organizer ... doing very practical, pragmatic things.”

He said the protest became famous not because of how many people showed up “but because a commission later determined that there had been a ‘police riot.'" And because of the TV coverage of the Democratic Convention, “images of this protest were seen all over the United States and indeed all over the world,” Farber said.

Police targeted Davis and beat him on the head with batons, Farber said.

“It became a famous example of how a local government could stop protests from happening. It’s very relevant today,” Farber said.

In 1971, Davis also organized a mass demonstration against the Vietnam War that was designed to tie up traffic in Washington, D.C.


UNLIKE JERRY RUBIN VENTURE CAPITALIST WITH NO SOUL RENNIE GOT SOUL FROM MAHATMA JI A 15 YR OLD FEUDALIST GURU

Davis' wife said his legacy goes well beyond his pacifist activism. He moved to Colorado, where he studied and taught spirituality and entered the business world, selling life insurance and running a think-tank that developed technologies for the environment. He became a venture capitalist and a lecturer on meditation and self-awareness, Liegmann said.

She said he pursued a spiritual path designed to create awareness of the planet even as he was dispensing business advice as a venture capitalist.

“Everybody knows him as the ’60s activist, and really what he would want to be remembered for is his vision for a new humanity — the magnificence of who we are,” Liegmann said.

Davis was born on May 23, 1940, in Lansing, Michigan, and raised in Berryville, Virginia. He graduated from Oberlin College and earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois.

Davis got his start as one of the key community organizers for Students for a Democratic Society in the mid-1960s, Farber said. Davis was originally based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but helped oversee community organizing projects nationwide.

In the early 1970s, Farber said Davis became disillusioned with the more violent course the anti-war movement was taking.

“One of the things people always said about Rennie Davis was that he was a gentle man. He was not a rabble rouser, he was not an angry, hostile person. He deeply believed in a more just and fair and equitable society and pursued it nonviolently all his life,” Farber said.

In addition to Liegmann, Davis is survived by three children from previous marriages: daughters Lia Davis, 44, and Maya Davis, 28; and a son, Sky Davis, 26; as well as three siblings and two grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were pending. Liegmann said a public memorial would be held at a future date over social media.

“He is so beloved that I owe that to the world,” she said.

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Associated Press writer Rick Callahan in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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This story was first published on Feb. 3, 2021. It was updated on Feb. 5, 2021, to correct Rennie Davis' date of birth. He was born on May 23, 1940, not May 26, 1940.

James Anderson, The Associated Press

ISRAEL COLONIALIST EXPANSION

In thrice-demolished village, a Mideast battle of wills

It looks like the aftermath of a tornado

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

There are dirt plots where there used to be makeshift homes; tent poles stacked like firewood; fencing and scrap metal scattered across a desert valley greened by winter rain; a cold firepit and a pile of kitchen essentials where a cooking tent once stood.

This is what remains of the herding community of Khirbet Humsu in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli forces demolished it for the third time in as many months. On Wednesday, just minutes after the army left, Palestinian residents were at work repairing their fences — hoping to gather their sheep before dark, knowing the army might return the next day.

“We build it up and they tear it down,” said Waleed Abu al-Kbash as he stretched fencing between two posts. “Where am I supposed to go? I have a thousand head of sheep.”

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. Khirbet Humsu, perched on the rolling highlands above the Jordan Valley, is part of the 60% of the West Bank known as Area C, which is under full Israeli military control as part of interim peace agreements from the 1990s.

Israel planned to annex the Jordan Valley and other parts of the occupied West Bank last year after getting a green light from the Trump administration, but it put annexation on hold as part of a U.S.-brokered normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

It still maintains complete control over the territory, leaving Bedouin communities like the one at Khirbet Humsu at constant risk of displacement. Shepherds who rely on seasonal rains and scattered springs are also at the mercy of an arbitrary cycle of demolition and rebuilding.

The first time Israel demolished Khirbet Humsu was in early November, as world attention was focused on the U.S. election.

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said Israeli forces demolished 18 tents and other structures that housed 74 people, including many children. They also demolished livestock pens, storage sheds, cooking tents, solar panels, water containers and feeding troughs, and confiscated 30 tons of livestock feed, a vehicle and two tractors. The U.N. said it was the single largest demolition of its kind in the past decade.

Israeli forces returned on Monday and again on Wednesday, using bulldozers and heavy equipment to demolish structures that had been rebuilt and carting away others on large trucks. Most of the families have stayed in the area through each demolition, quickly setting up tents with the help of activists and aid workers after the soldiers leave.

Israel said in November that the structures were built without permission, which the Palestinians and rights groups say is almost never granted. Just a few kilometres (miles) away on either side are two large Jewish farming settlements, with rows of greenhouses, animal enclosures and irrigated fields.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, said it informed residents of Khirbet Humsu that the area is in a military firing range and reached an agreement with them to move the community to another area. It said residents voluntarily dismantled structures on Monday but then refused to move, leading the military to confiscate them.

Residents who spoke to The Associated Press seemed unaware of any agreement with the military.

Amit Gilutz, a spokesman for B'Tselem, said that even if there were an agreement, it would have been made under duress as Israel controls the area and can demolish at will. Either way, he says it amounts to forcible transfer, a war crime under international law.

Gilutz said the displacement was a test for the new U.S. administration. President Joe Biden has vowed to adopt a more even-handed approach to the conflict and hopes to revive peace talks. Gilutz said Israel would view the administration's silence as a “green light.”

“This is not an isolated case,” he said, referring to other Bedouin communities across the West Bank where residents are unable to build and have little if any access to electricity or water because of Israeli restrictions.

“For the most part, Israel avoids actually loading people up on trucks and dumping them elsewhere," he said. "Rather, what it does is it makes life impossible for these people so that they leave, as if by their own choice."

The displacement has broader implications. Area C encompasses most of the agricultural land in the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, which the Palestinians say they would need to develop a viable, independent state. Rights groups say that by consolidating its grip on the land — with or without formal annexation — Israel puts a two-state solution even further out of reach.

Israeli leaders have long argued that the keeping the Jordan Valley is essential for protecting Israel's narrow coastal heartland.

Nidal Abu al-Kbash, another member of the extended family in Khirbet Humsu, believes the military wants to clear them away so it can build settlements and training bases on the land, which is fertile and has a freshwater spring. He too was at work Wednesday repairing fences.

“We have no alternative, he said. ”We're not leaving."

Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press