MY MLA

Edmonton NDP MLA Janis Irwin’s office vandalized
SAME DAY AS CALGARY ANTI MASK RALLY
An Edmonton MLA spent Saturday morning cleaning up after her constituency office was vandalized.

© Provided by Global News The constituency office of Edmonton MLA Janis Irwin is vandalism, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021.

The words "Antifa liar" were written across the front window of Janis Irwin's office.

The Highlands-Norwood MLA shared the image with a caption about the importance of denouncing racism and white supremacy.

Tweets later in the day showed residents at Irwin's office helping to clean up the graffiti and posting messages of support.

Irwin tweeted her appreciation for those who came out to show their support.

"This act of vandalism has left me sad and angry, but it needs to be said: this is just a fraction of what racialized folks and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community face every day," she wrote.

She also encouraged others to denounce hate and speak out against it.

"This isn’t about political disagreements; this is about hate. Over the last few months in Edmonton, six Black Muslim women have been assaulted for simply being who they are. And those are just the incidents we know about," she tweeted.

Premier Jason Kenney denounced the vandalism.

Jason Kenney

@jkenney

I condemn the vandalism of MLA Janis Irwin’s office today. Many other MLA offices have been vandalized in recent months. Shame on those responsible. If you disagree with an MLA, there are countless legitimate ways to register your views. Vandalism is not one of them.

11:45 AM · Feb 27, 2021

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Edmonton police chief condemns tiki torch carrying but says no evidence of hate crime at recent rally
Phil Heidenreich 

© Global News Edmonton police chief Dale McFee speaks to reporters on March 2, 2021.

Edmonton's police chief says he knows concerns continue to be raised about a rally against public health measures last month, during which some participants carried tiki torches, but his department has yet to unearth any evidence that a hate crime was committed at the event.

"Tiki torches... certainly, I denounce that," Dale McFee said at a news conference on Tuesday. "There's no place for that. But that said, there's a difference between the legal threshold in relation to what is a hate crime.

"We still have to have intent under the Criminal Code."

McFee's news conference was held to give reporters an opportunity to ask him anything, and a February rally against COVID-19 measures at the Alberta legislature dominated the question-and-answer session.

Some people are concerned that the protest, at which counter-protesters also showed up, may have been motivated by white supremacist ideology. Numerous protesters were seen carrying tiki torches through downtown Edmonton after the rally on Feb. 20.

READ MORE: March held to protest COVID-19 restrictions raises concerns about racism in Alberta

Ever since tiki torches were carried by white nationalists over a notoriously violent and deadly weekend in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, the lights have been viewed by many as a symbol of racism when used at rallies.

"Let's be very clear, if we're going back to the old days that were in Virginia, we denounce that," McFee said Tuesday. "There's no place for that in any of our communities. But what we've also got to be careful of is that doesn't mean that there... (are) legal grounds... to lay charges. But that doesn't mean we're going... (to) stop investigating."

McFee said while he knows that the rally is viewed by many as a racist event, the Edmonton Police Service had members of its hate crimes unit there and did not see anything that would legally meet the definition of a hate crime.

"If you have that evidence, we would love to see it," he said. "Right now, we don't have that evidence."

READ MORE: Calgary city council denounces acts and symbols of hatred at weekend protest

The police chief said he saw interviews that some TV news outlets conducted with rally attendees in which some of the demonstrators indicated they "don't even know why they were carrying those torches."

"I think we've got to be careful," McFee said. "That doesn't mean the organizers didn't think differently.

"Because somebody says that's a white supremacist rally, you have to have evidence that it is."

In a statement to Global News this week, the organizer of the rally in question, Brad Carrigan, said the use of tiki torches has "little if anything to do with white supremacy or racism."

"This silly narrative started during the anti-Trump movement in the U.S.A. and has now bled into Canada as a way for politicians to control and spin a narrative, all to undermine the peaceful nature of the Walk for Freedom movement," he said.

A number of politicians, including Premier Jason Kenney, spoke out after the rally at the legislature last month.

"I understand that publicity for this event incorporated an image apparently taken from the notorious 2017 Charlottesville torch rally, which was an explicitly white supremacist event," Kenney said. "Prominent racists promoted Saturday's protest at the legislature, and individuals attended the event from known hate groups like the Soldiers of Odin and Urban Infidels.

"I condemn these voices of bigotry in the strongest possible terms."

At the time, Opposition Leader Rachel Notley said Kenney's statement didn't address all the racist elements she believes were at play in the rally and questioned why he didn't issue a statement immediately after the rally.

"Torch rallies have been associated with some of the most heinous displays of racism in history," she said. "Albertans deserve a premier who is unequivocal in condemning hate and racism."

Evan Balgord, the executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, told Global News he believes "it's likely no chargeable hate crime originated from the rally itself."

"That's neither here nor there," he said in an email on Tuesday night. "That's a whole other, huge systemic issue and conversation.

"They don't have to charge attendees or organizers with a hate crime for this specific rally. They should have deterred it in the first place because of how inexorably tied together the COVID(-19) conspiracy and hate movement is in Canada."

Balgord noted at least one of the organizers used a photo of a "Nazi rally" to promote the event and even after the planned rally started getting media attention, "they chose to keep it and doubled down on using torches like Charlottesville."

"So that's no accident," he said.

"Every single hate group we track is involved in COVID(-19) conspiracy and anti-lockdown demonstrations... This is not hyperbole or an exaggeration. Every single one. And they're radicalizing other COVID(-19) conspiracists who may have started out with only the critical-thinking deficiencies that are the basic cost of entry. Now, far too many are getting inducted into the full-blown racism part. It's bad."

Balgord said he believes the police should be clearly calling such events hate rallies and very bluntly condemn them and threaten to ticket anyone who shows up to such a rally.

"Anything short of this, the conspiracists perceive as police support and it emboldens them," he said.

Irfan Chaudhry, the director of the office of human rights, diversity and equity at MacEwan University, tweeted that he found McFee's response "disheartening" and noted Edmonton has been the site of multiple allegedly hate-motivated attacks in recent weeks.

Watch below: (From Feb. 22, 2021) A rally held to protest COVID-19 restrictions is now raising concern over racism in Alberta. Many in attendance demonstrated carried tiki torches as they marched through the streets of downtown Edmonton. Lisa MacGregor looks at the message the march could send about Alberta.





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COVID-19 restriction rally raises concern about racism in Alberta
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McFee said someone at the rally threw punches at several officers, causing minor injuries. Police are still hoping to identify them and charge them. He said overall, however, the rally was fairly peaceful.

"With the number of protests we've had in the last year or more, for the most part, most of these were peaceful," McFee said. "That doesn't mean that there (aren't) some things we need to address."

McFee said just because his police force has yet to see evidence of a hate crime at the tiki torch rally, his police department's work on improving communication with various cultural and ethnic groups in the city is ongoing. He said any group can request a formal meeting with police to discuss concerns.

"We feel, more than ever, we've got to get out to the community. We've got to listen," he said, adding that it's important all Edmontonians feel able to report crimes or concerns "without fear" and have the belief that action will be taken by police when things are reported to them.

"A lot of these strides, a lot of these gains (have) to be made with the communities who, for the right reasons and because it's been for a number of years, have lost faith in the entire system -- and we're a part of that system," McFee said. "Now's the time... (We've got to) show them what we've changed as a result of those meetings

Alberta to continue iOAT program for existing clients under $6M grant

The iOAT program was first launched as a two-year, 

$14-million pilot by the NDP government in 2018. 

With the $6-million, two-year grant, iOAT clients are expected to receive the same level of care.

CBC/Radio-Canada

© Shutterstock Injectable opioid agonist therapy has been shown effective for many people suffering with severe opioid use disorder.

Alberta says it will continue to fund injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT) for current patients under a two-year grant.

It comes as the government faces a lawsuit brought by 11 patients who say Alberta's move to end funding for the life-saving program is a violation of their Charter rights.

Staff were told about the grant in a conference call on Tuesday morning, two AHS employees with knowledge of the iOAT program told CBC News.

CBC is not naming the two AHS employees because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the grant.

With the $6-million, two-year grant, iOAT clients are expected to receive the same level of care when they are transferred to opioid dependency programs, the employees said.

"The name iOAT is disappearing at the end of March, the program and services continue with no change," an AHS employee said.

There are 88 patients in the iOAT program, 44 in Edmonton and 44 in Calgary, according to AHS. But no new patients will be accepted, spokesperson Kerry Williamson confirmed.

Scott Monette, one of the plaintiffs, said he was relieved to learn about the funding decision.

"Today is a very good day and I feel like a lot has been accomplished," he said.

"It's been a nightmare not knowing whether or not it's going to close or open," he said. "We're talking about the difference between life and death here."

Injectable hydromorphone is considered a last-resort treatment option for people with severe opioid addictions when oral-based options offered at opioid dependency programs, such as methadone, prove ineffective.

Patients started to disengage from the program after the government announced last March it would end the program, according to an affidavit from Dr. Krishna Balachandra filed in the lawsuit. One patient died after being discharged, he said.

After the lawsuit was filed, government lawyers announced the province would continue to offer existing iOAT clients with hydromorphone. But despite the name, injectable treatment is just one aspect of iOAT — and questions remained about the continued availability of other wraparound services.

The judge found some primary care treatment would not be available to clients transferred to the opioid dependency program clinic, with referrals offered instead. Court documents show some clients feared it could limit care for lung and blood disorders and HIV, among other conditions.

The judge also said the level of psychosocial support, from trauma therapy to housing services, would be reduced at opioid dependency clinics

But in dismissing the plaintiffs' injunction application last Thursday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Grant Dunlop said the impacts would be "minor".
No job losses, AHS says

Avnish Nanda, the clients' lawyer, filed an appeal yesterday. But he said Tuesday's announcement helped to end a year of government-generated uncertainty.

"If there's one thing that the government takes away from this, it's that the lives of people who use drugs, people who live with opioid use disorder matter," he said. "And that other Albertans will fight and organize to ensure that they receive the type of treatment, the type of care that they need to continue to live."

In a statement, the press secretary for Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Kassandra Kitz said the government "always said that these individuals in iOAT would not be cut off from programming."

"In fact, the Government committed to support these clients before the court case, during the court case, and after it was completed," she said.

The government revealed its plan to provide existing iOAT patients with hydromorphone through its lawyer after the lawsuit was filed — six months after it announced iOAT was set to close.

The opioid dependency program in Edmonton will move into the current iOAT clinic, AHS said. While iOAT services in Calgary will continue to be offered at the Sheldon Chumir Centre.

Williamson, AHS spokesperson, said no clients have been transferred yet, as timing and planning is underway. There will be no job losses due to the transition.

The iOAT program was first launched as a two-year, $14-million pilot by the NDP government in 2018. The Alberta government announced last March it would extend funding for a year to provide time for patients to be transferred into other programs.

Last year marked the most deadly year for overdoses in Alberta on record, with data up to the end of November showing 997 people had died.

Rio Tinto chairman leaving over destruction of sacred sites

CANBERRA, Australia — Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson said Wednesday he was accountable for the mining giant destroying sacred Indigenous sites in Australia to access iron ore and he will not seek reelection as a board director next year

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Thompson’s announcement came after former chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques announced his resignation last September over the destruction in May of two rock shelters in Juukan George in Western Australia state that had been inhabited for 46,000 years.

The company’s successes in 2020 were “overshadowed by the destruction of the Juukan Gorge shelters ... and, as chairman, I am ultimately accountable for the failings that led to this tragic event,” Thompson said in a statement.

“The tragic events at Juukan Gorge are a source of personal sadness and deep regret, as well as being a clear breach of our values as a company,” he added.

Jamie Lowe, chief executive of the National Native Title Council, which represents Australia’s traditional owners of the land, described Thompson's departure as a necessary step that Indigenous people had been demanding since the rock shelters were blasted.

“We think the cultural shift within Rio Tinto needed to happen immediately and it’s too bad its taken some eight months to be actually able to see that come to fruition,” Lowe said.

Jacques was replaced as chief executive in January by Jakob Stausholm.

Executives Chris Salisbury and Simone Niven also left the company last year due to shareholder anger at the destruction that outraged traditional owners of the gorge, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.

Rio Tinto announced on Wednesday that director Michael L’Estrange would retire from the board at the conclusion of the April annual general meetings in Britain and Australia.

L’Estrange led a widely criticized internal review of how the rock shelters came to be blasted against traditional owners’ wishes.

The review concluded in August that there was “no single root cause or error that directly resulted in the destruction of the rock shelters.”

But internal documents revealed in September that Rio Tinto had engaged a law firm in case the traditional owners applied for a court injunction to save the rock shelters.

The Western Australian government has promised to update Indigenous heritage laws that allowed Rio Tinto to legally destroy the sacred sites.

Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press

US Supreme Court hints it may take case of state employees fired for military deployment



Tara Copp
Mon, March 1, 2021

The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on the case of a Texas state trooper who was fired from his job after he came home from a military deployment in Iraq too ill to patrol, in a lawsuit that could determine whether federal protections for service members apply to state employees.

The orders to the solicitor general, which posted on the Supreme Court’s website on Monday morning, “means they [justices] believe the case has national importance that affects the interest of the United States,” said Andrew Tutt, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, which was one of the firms petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

The case of LeRoy Torres v. The Texas Department of Public Safety involves a 14-year Texas state trooper who deployed to Balad, Iraq, in 2007 as an Army reservist. Torres says he spent a year there inhaling toxic air from the base’s massive open-air trash burning pits.


He was among more than 200,000 other service members who served near burn pits during war operations in the Middle East and have reported respiratory illnesses, cancers and other chronic illnesses. About 800,000 state employees across the United States are current or former members of the reserves or National Guard.

The court’s action means that it may be a few months before it is known whether the Supreme Court will hear the case, Tutt said. The solicitor general will now work with attorneys for Torres and the Texas attorney general’s office to gather information on the case, and then provide its review to the Supreme Court, which often relies on that counsel to decide whether the case should be heard, Tutt said.

When Torres returned home from Iraq, his respiratory condition had prevented him from serving on the road as a state trooper, the Texas attorney general’s office had said in its filing to the Supreme Court. Torres now requires supplemental oxygen and said he requested, but was not provided, an alternative desk job, and was forced to resign in 2012.

The Texas attorney general’s office had argued in its court filings that the state did provide Torres an alternate administrative position but that Torres was ultimately placed on leave because of missed work days.

“I am genuinely thankful to God for the [Supreme Court’s] decision in moving onward with the case,” LeRoy Torres emailed McClatchy in a statement.

Torres had sued the state under the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) which prohibits federal and private sector employers from retaliating against or firing National Guard members and reservists who take leave from their jobs due to military duty.

His claim was quickly denied by a lower court, which said the state’s Department of Public Safety cannot be sued by Torres or any other state employee under Texas’ claim of sovereign immunity.

Sovereign immunity invokes a provision under the Constitution that empowers states to only face state or federal lawsuits in their courts if they consent to it.

A handful of states, such as South Carolina and Tennessee, extend USERRA protections to service members in state government jobs.

Many states do not have a set policy, but an increasing number of state governments are watching lawsuits in Texas, Florida and Virginia that claim they have sovereign immunity, said Brian Lawler, an attorney with the Pilot Law Corp., one of the firms petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Torres.

In a Florida lawsuit, U.S. Navy reservist James Hightower alleged he faced a hostile work environment and was denied a promotion because of multiple deployments.

A Florida court initially ruled sovereign immunity shielded Florida from the USERRA lawsuit that Hightower filed. Hightower’s attorneys are asking the Florida court to consider if the lawsuit raises the larger legal question of states rights versus federal powers on whether Florida can apply sovereign immunity to USERRA.

“I am hopeful this job accommodation case will assist hundreds of other Citizen-Warriors who have also faced job loss due to returning from war with a deployment-related injury or illness,” Torres said.

UK

Steakhouse chain asked its furloughed staff to loan the company part of their wages, union claims

Dominic Penna
Mon, March 1, 2021, 

Bone-in ribeye Tomahawk steak with long bone on grey 

background viewed from above - istetiana/Moment RF

A steakhouse chain asked furloughed members of staff to loan the company part of their wages or potentially lose their jobs, a union has alleged.

Tomahawk Steakhouse asked employees who have been furloughed to contribute 10 per cent of their wages in order to cover their pension and National Insurance payments, according to the GMB Union.

Tomahawk, which operates 12 restaurants across the UK, said that its priority was to protect employees and the business after a “challenging year”.


The chain told furlough staff that it had a “short-term cash flow issue and it requires your help and support”, according to a letter seen by the BBC.

“The only viable alternative is to ask for your agreement to a loan arrangement,” the company said.

In the letter, Tomahawk said that the loans would have to remain in place for three to four months due to ongoing restrictions on the hospitality trade.

It went on to suggest that the loans, amounting to 10 per cent of pay, would be repaid “once the lockdown is eased sufficiently” for the company to operate.

Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York, described the company’s alleged behaviour as “disgraceful” and said that “if it isn’t illegal, it certainly is immoral”.

The GMB union claimed that the loan scheme made use of a legal loophole in the furlough system, and called for the rules to be changed so that other companies could not act in the same manner.

Tomahawk has denied allegations from anonymous employees that staff were threatened with unemployment if they did not agree to the terms of the agreement.

A spokesperson said: “At no point has Tomahawk Steakhouse suggested that members of staff would be sacked if they did not sign a loan agreement.

“Every single employee chose to sign up to this agreement.”

Scientists are voicing support for a former Trader Joe's employee who says he was fired for asking for better COVID-19 protections


Annabelle Williams
Mon, March 1, 2021, 


Getty/Alexi Rosenfeld


A former Trader Joe's employee said he was fired after asking for better COVID-19 protections.


Scientists have voiced their support for the employee's "science-based request."


Trader Joe's says the worker was fired because of "the disrespect he showed toward our customers."


Scientist have spoken out in defense of former Trader Joe's employee Ben Bonnema, who alleged that he was fired for writing a letter to the grocery store's management asking for more stringent COVID-19 protections.

Bonnema, who was employed at a Trader Joe's location in New York City, posted on Twitter that he sent a letter to the company's CEO, Dan Bane, asking that the company improve air filtration and take other precautions to protect employees from the coronavirus.

He also posted an image of what he described as a letter he received terminating him from the company. The paperwork referenced the letter and said that his suggestions were not in line with the "core Values" of the company.


In his letter to Bane, Bonnema cited another missive sent by scientists to the Biden administration asking for better ventilation standards for workplaces.

Kimberly Prather, a professor at UC San Diego, posted on Twitter that she was one of the writers of the Biden letter. She also spoke out in support of Bonnema.

"We wrote this letter to protect people like Ben," Prather wrote. "His letter is an excellent science-based request."

Another writer of the Biden letter and former head of OSHA David Michaels tweeted "I'm one of the scientists who wrote the letter calling for better protection for workers exposed to aerosol particles. Retaliation for raising safety concerns is against the law."

In addition to calling for inspections, some customers have said that they will boycott shopping at the grocery chain, Insider reported.

Bonnema wrote in a reply to his original Tweet: "another reason for @TraderJoesUnion".

As The Guardian reported, the grocery store chain has suppressed unionizing efforts during the pandemic. The Guardian reported that, in March of 2020, the CEO sent a letter to staff saying that unionization efforts were "a distraction."

Trader Joe's said in a statement that Bonnema was terminated because of "the disrespect he showed toward our customers." A representative added that "we have never, and would never, terminate a Crew Member's employment for raising safety concerns."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Customers say they're boycotting Trader Joe's after the chain fired an employee who asked the CEO to enhance COVID-19 protections

Shoshy Ciment

Sun, February 28, 2021, 

People are calling for a boycott of Trader Joe's after an employee said he was fired.

Ben Bonnema said he had asked the company to do more to protect its workers from COVID-19.

Bonnema shared his termination letter on Twitter, and it went viral.

Trader Joe's is facing calls for a boycott after firing an employee in New York.

Ben Bonnema said on Twitter on Friday that he was fired from his job at the Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side after he asked the company to better protect its workers against the coronavirus.

Bonnema shared the letter he had sent to the grocery chain's CEO in which he requested five COVID-19-related changes, including stricter mask requirements, enhanced store filtration, and a "three strike policy" for dealing with uncooperative shoppers.

"We put our lives on the line everyday by showing up to work," he wrote. "Please, show up for us by adopting these policies."

Bonnema said he received a termination letter shortly after sending his requests. The letter he posted said he did not share the grocery chain's "core Values."

—Ben Bonnema (@BenBonnema) February 26, 2021

"In a recent email, you suggest adopting a '3 strike' policy against customers and a policy enforcing the same accommodation for every customer with a medical condition that precludes them from wearing a mask," the termination letter read. "These suggestions are not in line with our core Values. In addition, you state that Trader Joe's is not 'showing up for us' without adopting your policies. It is clear that you do not understand our Values. As a result, we are no longer comfortable having you work for Trader Joe's."

Bonnema's tweet spurred other Twitter users to call for a boycott of the grocery chain, which has over 500 locations across the US.

—Damian Keenan (@NorthWestEU) February 28, 2021

—dond (@donnyd26) February 27, 2021

—Michelle Jones (@Michell49685689) February 27, 2021

—Don Milton (@Don_Milton) February 27, 2021

—Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 28, 2021

—Rob Gill (@vote4robgill) February 27, 2021

A Twitter account associated with a workers union for the grocery chain expressed support for Bonnema.

—Crew for a Trader Joe’s Union ✊🌺 (@TraderJoesUnion) February 27, 2021

The company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the calls for a boycott.

A representative for Trader Joe's told Insider in a statement on Saturday that the store leadership's decision to terminate Bonnema stemmed from the "disrespect he showed toward our customers."

"We have never, and would never, terminate a Crew Member's employment for raising safety concerns," the representative said.

"Nothing is more important at Trader Joe's than the safety of our Crew Members and customers," the representative added. "We encourage all Crew Members to take an active role in store safety, and share their suggestions with leadership. During his short tenure with Trader Joe's, this Crew Member's suggestions were listened to, and appropriately addressed."

Thousands march against Moïse, kidnappings and U.N. in Haiti during large protest

Jacqueline Charles
Sun, February 28, 2021,

Propelled by a burgeoning sense of doom and fears of a reinstatement of a dictatorship, thousands of Haitians peacefully waved tree branches and Haitian flags through the capital and several major cities in Haiti Sunday to protest a growing wave of for-ransom kidnappings, and again called for the departure of President Jovenel Moïse.

In what was deemed the largest demonstration since anti-government protests resumed earlier this year, protesters accused Moïse, who has been ruling by presidential decree for over a year, of trying to become a dictator and overstaying his time in the National Palace. Opposition leaders contend that Moïse’s time in office ended Feb. 7. Moïse disagrees, saying he has another year as president.

People protest to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. The opposition is disputing the mandate of President Moise whose term they claim ended on Feb. 7, but the president and his supporters say his five-year term only expires in 2022.

The constitutional crisis has plunged Haiti deeper into turmoil, and has triggered a series of protests, some of which have turned violent, on the streets. Moïse’s detractors have gone as far as installing their own interim president — Judge Joseph Mecene Jean-Louis, 72, who was later removed from the Supreme Court by Moïse — and on Sunday, called on the United Nations, United States and Organization of American States to cease their support for him.


As they chanted, “Down with the dictatorship” and denounced Moïse’s rule, they also targeted the head of the U.N.’s Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince, Helen La Lime, saying the protest was also a show of force to her.

On Monday, La Lime told the U.N. Security Council that after months of failed street mobilization efforts by Haiti’s opposition, recent actions by Moïse, including the issuing of decrees and the removal of three Supreme Court judges, had led 3,000 Haitians to peacefully demonstrate against him on Feb. 14 “to denounce what they deem to be a looming risk of return to authoritarian rule.” The figure has been widely disputed by civic and opposition groups, who accused La Lime of not knowing how to count. The U.N. has said it stands by the accounting, which does not contradict other assessments performed by reliable organizations.

“We have to teach her how to count,” said a protesting Sen. Patrice Dumont, one of only 11 elected lawmakers in all of Haiti.


There were no readily available official figures for Sunday’s protest, which was organized by some of the country’s most prominent Protestant pastors and supported by various civic groups, political organizations and unions. Along with Port-au-Prince, marches took place in six other cities.

Moïse’s only comment about the protest was a tweet about an accident at the end of the protest involving a sound truck where two people were injured. He was informed of the accident, he said, and deplored the tragedy.


Largely free from the tear gas and violent clashes that have characterized previous demonstrations, Sunday’s effort was also one of the more diverse: pastors were joined by Catholic priests, as well as poor Haitians, high-profile businessmen and journalists, former lawmakers, human rights activists and political militants.

“Today is a day that Haitian youths have to show they are ready to cut ties with a dictatorship,” said Jonas Dorfeuille, 30, who is studying finance and law. “We want the country to enter into an era where corruption is less; people can eat and people have rights; where the youth of this country don’t have to leave in search of a better life and where our future can be guaranteed. For this to happen, you have to have a government that’s credible and based on the development of the country.”

Haiti is currently embroiled in a worsening political crisis that has led to the United States to demand that Moïse schedule legislative elections as quickly as technically feasible in order to end his one-man rule. Moïse has said elections will take place this year, but only after he holds a referendum for a new constitution, now set for June. Though the referendum has the support of the U.N., which believes the country’s 1987 post-dictatorship constitution is the root of its turmoil, Haitian legal scholars, civic groups and the opposition have denounced the move as illegal because of a prohibition against referendums in the magna carta.

Meanwhile, the controversy over the end of Moïse’s presidential term and the protracted political crisis have been made worse by a wave of kidnappings and increased criminality by armed gangs.

On Sunday, as Haitians made their way to the protest, the country was roiled by reports that a pediatrician, Dr. Ernst Paddy, 63, was shot and killed in front of his Port-au-Prince clinic, the latest victim of an attempted kidnapping.

A justice of the peace told Le Nouvelliste, the country’s daily, that Paddy had been shot in the head and they found four cartridges at the crime scene.

It was the latest violent incident in a week where Haiti saw the escape of more than 400 prisoners, including a violent gang leader, during a prison break and the kidnapping of two Dominican filmmakers and their Haitian translator by armed men as they traveled in a convey with armed policemen. The Dominicans were released by a gang late Friday, but more than 44 hours after their release and a request by Dominican President Luis Abinader that they be taken to the Dominican embassy, they remained in Haitian police custody without explanation. They were finally released at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Late Saturday, Abinader, citing Haiti’s crime woes and illegal migration into his nation, told his Congress that he plans to build a border fence with remote sensors to fortify the 234-mile frontier with Haiti.

People protest to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. The opposition is disputing the mandate of President Moise whose term they claim ended on Feb. 7, but the president and his supporters say his five-year term only expires in 2022.

Steven Benoit, a former senator and member of the Lower Chamber of Deputies who joined Sunday’s protest, said it’s time the international community realizes that Haitians have reached their limit with the insecurity and the political instability.

“The message to the international community is the gangs that they are supporting, the criminals they are supporting, the population doesn’t want them,” he said.

Benoit, who gained notoriety for the country’s minimum wage law for factory workers and unsuccessfully ran for president against Moïse, said opposition forces were no longer asking Moïse to turn in his resignation.

“We are demanding that he formally arrive at the conclusion that his mandate is over, he should go about his business, and give the country a chance,” Benoit said.

At one point after the protest had gained momentum and arrived in Petionville, a suburb in the hills of the capital, the crowd was so large that it stretched more than 2.5 miles as protesters wrapped around a mountain separating two prominent hotels.

Student protesters at an anti-government march in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, February 28, 2021 respond to the head of the United Nations office in Haiti, Helen La Lime, who told the U.N. Security Council that 3,000 Haitians had peacefully demonstrated on February 14, 2021.

Looking for the U.N.’s office, a first wave of protesters eventually arrived at an entrance in the Juvenat neighborhood. It was more than three hours after the march began and after a tense standoff between some protesters and a group of armed government supporters at the entrance to another Petionville neighborhood. Instead of being allowed in to deliver their message to the U.N., however, marchers were met by riot police blocking the community’s entrance in Juvenat.

With police refusing to give way, marchers settled for song. Chanting “Down with the United Nations,” they waved miniature Haitian flags and signs calling on La Lime and U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison “to stop supporting a dictatorship.”

Minutes later, they broke out into another chant of Sunday’s protest: “Madame La Lime doesn’t know how to count.”

China and Russia vaccinate the world — for now



Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian
Tue, March 2, 2021, 

While the U.S. and Europe focus on vaccinating their own populations, China and Russia are sending millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries around the world.

Why it matters: China's double success in controlling its domestic outbreak and producing several viable vaccines has allowed it to focus on providing doses abroad — an effort that could help to save lives across several continents.

The vaccines from China and Russia are the first to reach low-income countries that likely won't have broad access to vaccines until 2023, according to some projections.


By the numbers: China has provided vaccines to 20 countries, including across South America and Africa, and has plans to send doses to at least 40 more, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement sent to the Wall Street Journal.


Poland is the latest European country to consider Chinese-made vaccines.


Chinese companies and government officials have worked with local partners to create cold-chain infrastructure in Ethiopia to help transport and distribute vaccines.


More than two dozen countries have authorized the use of Russia's Sputnik vaccine. Ten countries in Latin and South America have already received or will soon receive shipments, as have Slovakia, Hungary, and several other nations.

Details: China's vaccines weren't as effective in clinical trials as some of those made in the U.S. and Europe, but they don't require ultra-cold storage, making them easier to transport and distribute.


Last week, China approved two more vaccines, bringing the total number of Chinese-made vaccines to four. One of the newly approved vaccines only requires a single shot.

Between the lines: With reported daily COVID cases often in the single digits, China's leaders face less pressure to quickly vaccinate Chinese citizens.


Only about 40 million doses had been administered domestically as of Feb. 9, falling short of the 100 million doses Chinese authorities had promised by that time.


On March 1, top Chinese disease expert Zhong Nanshan said authorities are now aiming to vaccinate 40% of the population by June.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe are focusing on vaccinating their own citizens first.


The Biden administration has promised $4 billion in funding for COVAX, half of it available immediately — but has also said the U.S. will vaccinate Americans before sending doses abroad.


The European Union implemented limited vaccine export controls in late January, drawing criticism from the World Health Organization for "vaccine nationalism."

What to watch: The early dominance of China and Russia in the global vaccine roll-out is likely to be relatively short-lived.


As more U.S. and European-made vaccines are approved for manufacture, extra doses of western vaccines may soon greatly expand the global supply.