New Heritage Minute toasts life of Black Canadian piano virtuoso Oscar Peterson

TORONTO — Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson’s legendary career is being celebrated in a Heritage Minute.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Historica Canada released the newest clip, timed for Black History Month, in its ongoing series that highlights influential figures from across the country.

The minute-long video chronicles the seven-time Grammy winner's rise from a working-class Montreal family to becoming a world-renowned piano virtuoso.

It touches on his encounters with greatness, such as being dubbed “the man with four hands,” and acknowledges the racism he faced at jazz gigs in the 1940s.

Peterson died of kidney failure in 2007 at the age of 82.

Both the English and French versions of the Heritage Minute feature end narration by Black Canadian pianists. Oliver Jones appears in the English version while Gregory Charles handles the French.

The Heritage Minute is written by Brynn Byrne and directed by Aaron Yeger, known as co-writer and producer of the acclaimed 2015 film "Sleeping Giant."



Historica Canada also produced a companion video exploring the history of Little Burgundy, a Black working-class community in Montreal and the jazz culture within it. The separate clip is narrated by Peterson’s daughter Celine Peterson, who was consulted about her father's Heritage Minute from its inception.

Peterson says her father received many honours throughout his career, but she believes he would be especially proud of seeing his story in a Heritage Minute.

“I think this is one of the ones that would really overwhelm him," she said.

“People all over the world are familiar with the Heritage Minute, and it’s such a monumental form of recognition."

Peterson, who serves as producer of the Kensington Market Jazz Festival in Toronto, says the debut of her father’s Heritage Minute during Black History Month is significant.

“A huge part of my dad's story was racism, first at home and then around the world,” she said, pointing out that it was especially prominent early in his career as he travelled the southern United States.

“He told the story when I was young about driving up on a KKK meeting when they were going from city to city. Hearing him talk about it is still haunting for me today. Maybe even a bit more so now than it was before.”

Peterson's Heritage Minute is an especially cinematic one, which raises the question of whether his relatives have considered granting the rights for his story to a production company for a feature film.

"In the past, there have been some conversations but nothing that has necessarily been the right fit," his daughter said.

"Having his story told in that capacity would be natural, to a certain extent. It needs to happen, it's just a matter of when and by whom."

--

Watch the Oscar Peterson Heritage Minute: https://bit.ly/3bgpHHm

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2021.

David Friend, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the narration by Black Canadian pianists was for the full Heritage Minute. In fact, the pianists contribute only the end narration in both English and French.

Senate passes amended version of 

assisted-dying bill after days of debate

OTTAWA — Senators overwhelmingly approved Wednesday a bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying with amendments that would relax access even more than proposed by the government.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A revised version of Bill C-7 was passed in the Senate by a vote of 66-19, with three abstentions.

The bill is intended to extend eligibility for assisted dying to people whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable, in compliance with a 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling.

But senators approved five amendments, two of which would expand access even more.

One amendment would allow people who fear losing mental capacity to make advance requests for an assisted death.

Another would impose an 18-month time limit on the bill's proposed blanket ban on assisted dying for people suffering solely from mental illnesses.

Until that exclusion on mental illness is lifted, senators also approved another amendment to clarify that it would not apply to people suffering from neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

They further amended the bill to require the government to collect race-based data on who requests and receives assisted dying and to establish a joint parliamentary committee within 30 days of the bill receiving royal assent to review the assisted dying regime in Canada.

The revised bill will now be sent back to the House of Commons for MPs to determine whether to accept or reject some or all of the amendments.

Justice Minister David Lametti's office had no immediate comment on the amended version of the bill.

As the Liberals hold only a minority of seats in the Commons, at least one of the main opposition parties will need to support whatever the government decides to do with the amendments.

The Conservatives and NDP have signalled that they're unlikely to support the Senate amendments. Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has said they "deserve to be looked at" but has expressed reluctance to go along with changes proposed by an unelected chamber that he considers illegitimate.

In a statement late Wednesday, Conservative justice critic Rob Moore and House leader Gerard Deltell called on the government to allow a thorough debate on the Senate amendments. They said their party is ready to have the Commons sit into the evenings and on the weekend to ensure MPs have enough time.

“Senate amendments to Bill C-7 expanded MAID (medical assistance in dying) beyond what was debated by members of the House of Commons," they said.

"The Liberals must ensure Bill C-7 receives thorough legislative review and comprehensive debate in the House of Commons so that members can scrutinize the impacts of these amendments on Canadians.”

Should some or all of the amendments be rejected, senators will have to decide whether to acquiesce to the will of the elected chamber or dig in their heels.

Because they are appointed, senators typically defer to the will of the elected chamber. However, some believe they have a duty to stand firm when fundamental constitutional rights are at stake.

Theoretically, the bill could ping-pong repeatedly between the two chambers until the matter is resolved, which would jeopardize the government's intention to have the bill passed by Feb. 26, the thrice-extended court-imposed deadline.

The vast majority of senators have been clear that they believe the mental illness exclusion violates the right of individuals to equal treatment under the law, regardless of physical or mental disability, as guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Should the Commons reject the Senate's proposed 18-month time limit on that exclusion, senators could yet propose another amendment to refer the matter to the Supreme Court.

Most of the senators who voted against the bill Wednesday oppose easing access to assisted dying. They have echoed the criticism of disability rights groups that the bill discriminates against people with disabilities, sending a message that their lives are not of equal value.

However, some, like Conservative Sen. Claude Carignan, voted against it because they don't think the bill, even with the amendments, goes far enough to ease access.

Sen. Brent Cotter, a member of the Independent Senators Group, said he supported the amended version of the bill but abstained in the final vote to protest the government's failure to commit more funding to improve the living conditions of vulnerable Canadians.

COMPANY CRIES CROCODILE TEARS
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada to pause Dash-8 production, 500 employees affected

De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. said Wednesday that it will pause production of new Dash 8-400 at its Downsview factory, as airlines re-evaluate their costs amid harsh market conditions.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Around 500 employees will be affected by the indefinite production pause, De Havilland Canada said, adding that its goal is to resume new aircraft delivery as soon as possible, subject to market demand.

"While this evolution is taking place against the backdrop of unprecedented industry circumstances, we see a bright future for De Havilland Canada and the Dash 8," said David Curtis, executive chairman of De Havilland Canada parent Longview Aviation Capital.

Bombardier, the previous owner of the Downsview site in Toronto, sold it in 2018. Longview Aviation Capital bought the Dash 8 aircraft program from Bombardier in 2019.

De Havilland Canada has begun preparing to leave the site over the latter part of the year and says there are a number of options in Canada. The Dash 8 program’s site lease expires in 2021.

The production cuts underscore the uncertainty in the Canadian aviation industry, where market pressures have forced airlines to cut costs as much as possible in order to preserve cash. Regional routes, for which the Dash 8 is designed, have been hit especially hard, with companies like Air Canada and WestJet scaling down domestic flights.

Air Canada said in November that it was cancelling orders for 12 Airbus A220s and 10 Boeing 737 Max 8s as the airline was forced to scale down its operations.

As a result of the route cuts, thousands of airline workers have been laid off since the start of the year, when the federal government cracked down further on international travel.

Air Canada said last week that it expected that some of the quarantine measures could be replaced by testing programs by April 30, when airlines are scheduled to resume many flights. But experts have warned that a full recovery for the aviation industry could take years.

“We are sensitive to the impact that a production pause will have on our employees, and are committed to treating everyone with transparency and respect," Curtis said. "This decision is no reflection on the quality of our team, which has performed exceedingly well through the disruptions of the past year.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2021.

Jon Victor, The Canadian Press

Vaccination rate is 6 times higher in Indigenous communities than in general population

John Paul Tasker CBC

© Tyson Koschik/CBC A volunteer from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs cleans a door on the Shamattawa First Nation during a COVID-19 outbreak in late 2020.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says the nationwide push to prioritize First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities for the COVID-19 vaccine is starting to bear fruit, and that vaccination rates in those communities are now significantly higher than those reported elsewhere.

According to the latest data, more than 83,000 doses have been administered so far in more than 400 Indigenous communities.

Twenty-five per cent of adults in these communities have received at least one shot — a rate six times higher than the one for the general population.

Miller said he expects most Indigenous adults to be vaccinated before the rest of the population — a goal, he added, that is rooted in science.

"It's what we want," Miller said, adding the territories and B.C. are on track to vaccinate 75 per cent of Indigenous adults by the end of March. The rest of the country isn't expected to reach that milestone until sometime this summer.

Other provinces, notably Ontario, have also released vaccination schedules that prioritize Indigenous peoples in the next phase of the inoculation campaign, which is expected to being next month as vaccine supplies start to stabilize.

"We continue to see progress that brings us hope," Miller said, adding that the Indigenous vaccination campaign is being complicated by "huge logistical challenges" in isolated parts of the country. "The end of the tunnel is there but there's still a whole chunk of tunnel left."

There's an urgent need to vaccinate Indigenous communities quickly because fast-spreading new variants of COVID-19 could be particularly deadly in communities where the housing stock is poor and multi-generational living is common, the minister said.

Miller said the federal government is working with local leaders to create more isolation space to keep positive cases apart.

© Tyson Koschik/CBC Dozens of troops arrive on the Shamattawa First Nation in Manitoba on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020 to help local authorities fight a COVID-19 outbreak.

Video: Coronavirus: Vaccinations underway in 400 Indigenous communities, minister says (Global News)

Provincial and territorial governments have been directing doses to northern and remote communities and urban Indigenous populations in an effort to protect a group that the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has identified as particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

NACI has said that shots in the early phases of the vaccine rollout should be directed at long-term care home residents and the staff caring for them — but also at Indigenous adults because they face an elevated risk of death and "societal disruption" from COVID-19.

Urban Indigenous population especially vulnerable: NACI

While the initial batch of shots has been largely administered in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, NACI said there should now be a greater push to cover urban Indigenous individuals who may be even more vulnerable. NACI said early data suggest off-reserve First Nations members are more likely to be hospitalized and die than those living on reserves.

Miller has pointed to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that show Native Americans are 3.5 to 5 times more likely to develop severe health complications from COVID-19.

"The science is saying priority needs to be given to Indigenous communities," he said, noting that many people face substandard living conditions that make them more susceptible to infection.

While Indigenous communities performed well during the first phase of the pandemic, with lower incidents of COVID-19 cases, the second phase has been more challenging.

"Attack rates and mortality rates in First Nations communities are now higher when compared to the overall Canadian population," NACI wrote in its latest update, published Sunday.

Indigenous individuals are also more likely to have underlying health conditions that could make a bout of COVID-19 more deadly.

"The proportion of Canadians who identify as Indigenous and have at least one underlying medical condition associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 is higher compared to other Canadians for every age category above 20 years of age," NACI wrote.

Miller urged provincial leaders to stay the course with Indigenous vaccination plans, even if political pressure mounts from other constituents to redirect the doses elsewhere.

"The apprehension with who gets what first is fuelled by concerns about volume and timing. You can see scenarios where people say, 'How come not me?' and that gets further fuelled by the worst platforms out there — social media tending to be one of them," Miller said.

Canadians should have an "immense amount of pride" in the fact that vulnerable groups are at the front of the line because it affirms the country's commitment to equity in health care, Miller said.

Dr. Tom Wong, chief medical officer at Indigenous Services Canada, said it's too early to tell if the ambitious vaccine campaign has reduced rates of infection.

He said the number of people who have been fully vaccinated with a two-dose regime is still quite low — less than 5 per cent — but he said he expects immunity to build in the coming weeks as the rollout ramps up.

Researchers celebrate birth of orca to endangered southern resident population

Researchers are cautiously celebrating the birth of a new addition to the endangered southern resident killer whale population.

 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Center for Whale Research in Washington said Wednesday a baby orca named L125 was added to the killer whale family.

Three separate pods make up the endangered southern residents: K, J and L, which travel mostly off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

The calf, which is about a month-and-a-half old, seems healthy and is the mother's fourth offspring, the organization said.

Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian, called the birth of the new calf "exciting news."

"As a dad, I was always just happy to see a healthy baby, and while that's true for this new calf L125, I have to admit that I really hope it's a girl," said Gaydos, science director for the SeaDoc Society based at the University of California, Davis.

"And I hope she grows up strong and gives birth to healthy calves for decades. That's what we need to recover this endangered population."

Approximately 40 per cent of newborn calves do not survive their neonatal first few weeks.

The mother, L86, had two calves that did not survive -- L112 was killed by blunt force trauma during military exercises in 2012 while L120 died the year of its arrival in 2014, and the new baby has one brother born in 2005.

The organization said the other calves born into J pod last year seem to be doing well.

Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at the Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Centre and the Vancouver Aquarium, said the addition was "great news for sure."

With the southern residents numbering just over 70, he said any additional animals will help that population.

"I guess from a completely objective scientific view, a female would be better for the population but honestly I am just so very happy that he or she appears to be healthy so far."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2021

 

Trans Mountain pipeline resumes construction after Keystone XL cancellation

Duration: 02:31 

After being shut down for months over safety concerns, construction has resumed on twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline, which would transport oil to Canada’s West Coast. The recent cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline leaves Trans Mountain as the best option to export Canadian oil to other countries.

UNLIKE KENNEY'S BET ON PRIVATIZED TC ENERGY WE OWN TRANSMOUNTAIN, ALBERTANS, FRIST NATIONS AND THE FEDS.

How Alberta's old oil wells could feed the world's growing hunger for lithium — podcast

Gabriel Friedman 

This week, on Down to Business, Chris Doornbros, CEO of Calgary-based E3 Metals, offers an inside look at lithium — a critical element for the cleantech economy

.

© Provided by Financial Post Lithium batteries will revolutionize how we use energy.

His company is working on technology to extract lithium from old depleted oil and gas reservoirs in Alberta.

Doorbros explained lithium isn’t the new oil, and it doesn’t spell the end of Alberta’s fossil fuel economy. On the contrary, nothing matches hydrocarbons, as an energy source, he said.

© AZIN GHAFFARI/POSTMEDIA CALGARY FILES 

Chris Doornbos, chief executive of Calgary-based E3 Metals Corp.

But lithium ion batteries are revolutionizing the way we use energy: They’re the reason we walk around with powerful computers — read smartphones — in our pockets. And even if everyone in Alberta started driving an electric vehicle tomorrow, the province would still be just as reliant on natural gas as it is today, Doornros said.

There would be one crucial difference: instead of CO2 emissions coming out of every tailpipe, they’d come out of a central power plant, where they could be easily captured, stored maybe even used for something.

How Alberta's old oil wells could feed the world's growing hunger for lithium (libsyn.com)

PODCAST 

HUMAN RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS RITES 

Presbyterian church head says Victorian ban on gay conversion practices should be ignored

TAX THE CHURCHES

 

© Provided by The Guardian 

Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

The head of the Presbyterian church in Australia says its pastors will not be directed to obey the Victorian government’s new law banning gay conversion practices, calling the bill “a declaration of war on scripture”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia on Thursday, the moderator general of the Presbyterian church in Australia, Rev Peter Barnes, called the bill – which passed Victoria’s parliament earlier this month – “authoritarian” and said the church would ignore it on the basis that church leaders “don’t get our instructions from parliament house”.

The head of the Presbyterian church head in Australia has said its pastors will not be directed to obey a new law banning gay conversion practices.

Related: Senior faith leaders call for global decriminalisation of LGBT+ people

“Civil authorities have a God-given right to govern, I’m not questioning that, but its authority is not open-ended,” he said.

“If the government passes legislation I don’t think is wise, that’s one thing. You’re not going to please all people all the time. If I think they should lower taxes but they raise them, I still pay my taxes.

“But there are limits, and this legislation puts itself very obviously against scripture. It was a declaration of war against scripture.”

The bill, which passed the parliament in February, outlaws practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Penalties for those found to have engaged in conversion practices resulting in serious injury face penalties of up to 10 years jail or up to $10,000 in fines.

The bill also empowers the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of suspected conversion practices.

Advocacy groups including the Brave Network, the LGBTQIA+ committee of the Uniting church in Australia and Rainbow Catholics lauded the bill as the “world’s most significant achievement in legislation curtailing the diabolical influence of the conversion movement”. During a marathon debate on the bill in parliament, Labor’s Harriet Shing – the first openly lesbian member of Victorian parliament – said the bill helped to “recognise the pain and the trauma and the hurt of victims and survivors”.

The bill goes further than one passed in Queensland last year in that it prohibits harmful practices not only in healthcare settings but also in religious settings.

This includes “carrying out a religious practice, including but not limited to, a prayer-based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism”.

A number of religious groups opposed the bill when the Victorian government put the proposal out for consultation in October last year, or pushed to have it cover only conversion practices deemed to be carried out without consent.

That report quoted survivors of conversion practices who spoke about the lasting impact it had on their lives and mental health, including one anonymous submission which discussed feeling “shame to such a degree that my mental, physical and spiritual health all suffered” and experiencing “suicidal ideation” after attending a prayer therapy group which sought to fix the person’s “sexual deviance”.

Related: Experience: I was a gay-conversion therapist

Barnes published a statement on the church’s website earlier this month entitled “Where to from here?” after the bill passed. In it, he wrote that the church was “obliged before God to preach all that He has revealed to us, whether law or gospel, and to do so in a spirit of love and truth”.

“There is nothing unique in such legislation. When King Darius exceeded his God-given authority, Daniel did ‘as he had done previously’,” he wrote.

Asked by the Guardian on Thursday whether that meant he was advocating in favour of ignoring the legislation he said: “I’m saying that and a lot of people feel the same way.

“The official policy of the church is to preach the whole counsel of God – I was just saying that’s what we signed up for.”

During the debate around the bill, religious groups distanced themselves from older practices including electro-shock treatment or aversion therapy, and Barnes said he had “never heard of that happening”. But he said if someone “comes to me and asks me to pray for them or help them” he would not “turn them away”.

Report says NASA needs to be aggressive in pursuing nuclear propulsion
Shane McGlaun - Feb 14, 2021

A report recently published by the National Academies committee concluded NASA needs to kick off an aggressive technology development campaign for space nuclear propulsion technologies. The aggressive campaign is necessary if NASA wants to use the technology for human missions to Mars within the next two decades.

The report was published on February 12 and was sponsored by NASA. It found that both nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) and nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) have significant hurdles to overcome before they can be used in a 2039 human mission to Mars. The big benefit of nuclear propulsion for Mars missions is that the propulsion systems could significantly reduce the travel time.

A faster travel time is critical as the mission would require fewer resources, and astronauts would be subjected to less radiation. Between the two technologies, the report favors NTP. With NTP, a nuclear reactor heats fuel, such as liquid hydrogen, to generate thrust. The report believes that an aggressive program could develop NTP systems capable of executing a Martian mission by 2039

The technology does face significant hurdles to coming to reality that extend well beyond creating the nuclear reactor itself. The propellant would have to be heated to a temperature of 2700 kelvins, and the system would have to bring the propellant up to operating temperature within one minute. One major challenge is no ground-based testing facility for NTP systems and the difficulty of storing liquid hydrogen for the mission’s duration.

Using NEP, the nuclear reactor would generate power for electric thrusters. The challenge with this system is that it has to be scaled to power levels far beyond what’s currently available for both power and thermal management systems to work with megawatt-class reactors. The report also found that there has been little progress on relevant technologies since 2005.

February 6/7, 2021, ~ Explosions (9) ~ Volcan De Fuego, Guatemala ~ Via Crelosa
•Feb 7, 2021


Volcano Time-Lapse