Survey suggests one in two people of colour have experienced online racism in Canada

© Provided by The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Noor Fadel says most people assume that the night she was attacked by a racist man on a SkyTrain in Vancouver in 2017 was the worst night of her life.

In fact, the nights that followed were even more harrowing, as her social-media post about the assault went viral and she received a torrent of hateful and threatening messages.

"People think that hiding behind a screen and saying something won't have an impact. It does. It has a huge impact on people," she said.

"That one message that you may think could not hurt someone, it's just a simple message, it can actually be the message to ruin someone's entire day, if not someone's life."

Fadel, 22, is sharing her story in support of a campaign launched by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and YWCA Canada to highlight the consequences of social-media hate.

The #BlockHate campaign coincides with a separate, unrelated survey by the Association for Canadian Studies, which sheds new light on racism in Canada both online and offline.

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Sunday, the association commissioned Leger Marketing to ask Canadians about their views on racism.

The survey found that seven in 10 respondents are worried about the degree of racism in the country, a concern held by three in four participating women and people between 18 and 34.

One in two survey participants who identify as visible minorities have felt attacked by hateful comments on social media, and nearly six in 10 said they have witnessed hatred online.

Those who were exposed to hateful internet comments were more likely to be worried about racism, said association president Jack Jedwab.

"It's not so much the violent incidents that we've seen over the past year, which have attracted considerable media attention, that are fuelling people's concerns about racism," he said.

"It's also the extent to which people are witnessing this phenomenon expand in social media."

The survey also suggested that one in three Canadians admit to holding a negative view of Muslims, one in five have a negative view of Indigenous people and one in seven state a negative view of Chinese people, Jews or immigrants.

People who have never met any members of those groups are more likely to think negatively of them, suggesting that social media is playing a role once again, said Jedwab.

"They get information from social media about these groups ... and the outcome, unfortunately, is that they hold negative or prejudicial views."

The survey of 1,514 Canadians was conducted online between March 12 and 14 using web panels. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.

It also suggested Atlantic Canadians and Ontarians are most worried about the degree of racism in Canada, and that Canadians are more concerned about racism in the country and province than in their neighbourhoods.

The findings ring true for Fadel, who said she encountered racism many times in Vancouver before the incident on the SkyTrain in December 2017, when she was 18.

She said a man approached her and yelled that he was going to kill her and all Muslims before grabbing her head and forcing it toward his crotch.

He then struck her across the face, prompting another transit rider to push him off her.

Pierre Belzan, 46, received a suspended sentence and two years probation in 2018 after pleading guilty to assault and threatening to cause death or bodily harm.

Fadel said she took to social media after the incident because she was sick of hearing that racism in Canada doesn't exist. While her Facebook post received thousands of supportive comments, the hateful ones stood out to her the most.

The messages included comments telling the Canadian-born woman to "go back to her country," calling her sexist and racist slurs, accusing her of lying and threatening to kill her.

She said she only realized while isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic that she is still traumatized by the messages, years later, and she is still working on healing.

The #BlockHate campaign launches Monday and aims to encourage regulation to minimize the volume and frequency at which online hate speech and racism is spread.

Online hate is often a precursor to violent, in-person attacks against marginalized people, noted Mohammed Hashim, director of the Canadian Foundation for Race Relations.

People with hateful views will likely always exist, but social media has handed them the biggest microphone they’ve ever had, Hashim said.

“What we’re looking to do is to constrict that. We understand that it’s going to exist, but let it remain in the fringes of society,” he said.

Regulations must ensure that hateful posts can be taken down quickly to decelerate their spread, and include deterrents so posters experience consequences, he said.

Hashim also pointed out that logging off is not an option for victims of online attacks now that everyone's personal and professional lives are increasingly virtual, especially during COVID-19.

"If we don't deal with this now, this is only going to get worse," he said.

"If we leave it the way it is, I want people to think about: what is the world that we're creating for the next generation?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2021.

Laura Dhillon Kane, The Canadian Press

#DISARM    #DEFUND   #DISBAND THE POLICE

Colten Boushie's family to respond to watchdog report that found discrimination

REGINA — First Nations leaders and relatives of a young Indigenous man shot and killed on a Saskatchewan farm are expected to address findings today from a watchdog's review that concluded RCMP racially discriminated against his mother.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Colten Boushie died in August 2016 when the SUV he was riding in drove onto farmer Gerald Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask.

A jury delivered acquitted Stanley after he testified that he had fired warning shots and the gun "just went off."

Concerns had been raised about how police handled Boushie's death and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission studied the RCMP investigation.

It outlined several missteps by police, saying that officers treated his mother so insensitively when they notified her of her son's death that it amounted to discrimination.

The commission says officers told Debbie Baptiste to "get it together," questioned whether she had been drinking, smelled her breath and searched her home without permission.

"After spending the evening fearing that something had happened to her son and just seeing her worst fears realized, Ms. Baptiste saw her home encircled by a large number of armed police officers and had to endure this treatment from the RCMP members who remained in her home for about 20 minutes," the commission wrote.

It also found two officers inappropriately showed up to Boushie's wake to update her on the criminal case.

The commission says the way police notified the public about the shooting caused suffering to the young man's family because it allowed people to form an inaccurate picture of what happened,

It said the initial press release by RCMP focused mostly on alleged property crimes and failed to mention someone had been arrested for murder in Boushie's death.

The commission says the 22-year-old didn't leave the vehicle or touch any of the belongings on Stanley's farm.

Despite issuing other releases updating the public about the progress of the investigation, the watchdog concluded RCMP communications gave the public piecemeal information, fuelling racial tensions online and in the community.

At one point, former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall called for calm after a deluge of racist and hate-filled messages had been posted online about Boushie's death.

The commission also found RCMP didn't properly protect the SUV Boushie had been riding in, resulting in the loss of blood spatter and other evidence.

"It is not known, and will never be known, what difference this evidence, as well as any other evidence lost as a result of the failure to protect the vehicle, could have had on the outcome of the case," it wrote.

The National Police Federation representing front-line officers took issue with the finding of discrimination, and says the review showed police generally carried out a professional investigation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2021

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

#DISARM    #DEFUND   #DISBAND THE POLICE

RCMP racially discriminated against mother, mishandled witnesses, evidence in Colten Boushie case: watchdog

Guy Quennevill

CBC NEWS

MARCH 21,2021

The RCMP's watchdog says Canada's national police force racially discriminated against the mother of Colten Boushie during their investigation of the Indigenous man's shooting death in 2016

— a finding accepted by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

"She has been saying this all along," lawyer Eleanore Sunchild said of Debbie Baptiste, Boushie's mother.

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) also found that the way officers informed Baptiste of Boushie's death was insensitive and that an early RCMP media release about the shooting could have left the impression "that the young man's death was 'deserved.'"

Officers also mishandled witnesses and evidence in the controversial case, according to CRCC findings that will be made public on Monday. CBC News has obtained copies of the reports.

Boushie, 22, was shot and killed after he and four others from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan drove onto white farmer Gerald Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask., in August 2016.

An altercation occurred between the people in the SUV and Stanley and his son, ending in the fatal shooting.

In February 2018, a jury found Stanley, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
1 or more officers smelled grieving mother's breath: CRCC

The CRCC launched its probe soon after the trial, in part to assess whether officers discriminated on the basis of race. Boushie's family had complained to the RCMP about insensitive treatment and appealed to the CRCC for an independent review.

Officers visited Baptiste's home on the Red Pheasant reserve on the night of the shooting. They were there to break the news of Boushie's death and search the home for a witness they believed might have a gun.

While finding no signs of discrimination in officers' approach and search of the home, the CRCC found evidence of discrimination during "the police's conduct towards Ms. Baptiste with respect to her sobriety and her credibility." The family had accused one officer of telling the grieving Baptiste to "get it together" and asking if she had been drinking.

"One or more RCMP members smelled her breath," the commission wrote.

RCMP in Ottawa said Saturday they won't comment before the report is officially published on Monday, while the Mounties' Saskatchewan division issued a statement late Saturday.

"The actions taken by the officers responding on that day in August 2016, as well as the days following, were done with the best of intentions; their priority was to ensure public safety and to complete a thorough homicide investigation," according to the statement.

"The findings and recommendations made by the CRCC are important as they contribute to the enhancement of public confidence in the RCMP."

The division has implemented all but one of the 17 recommendations under its authority.

Union for RCMP members criticizes 'broad-brush findings'

The National Police Federation, a union representing regular members of the RCMP, struck a markedly different tone.

It said the CRCC's work was biased against police accounts and "unconditionally" accepted the Boushie family's assertion of discrimination.

"It is clear that the CRCC relied more heavily on Ms. Baptiste's version — demonstrating a bias against our members' accounts, despite their handwritten notes made contemporaneously and a written report," federation president Brian Sauvé said in a statement to CBC News.

© CBC Brian Sauvé, the head of a union representing 

RCMP members, said the CRCC's findings were biased against the police.

The union also questioned whether the civilian-run commission was qualified to rule on the issue of discrimination.

"This is typically reserved for a human rights tribunal which falls outside of the CRCC's scope," Sauvé said.

"In the CRCC's own words, their finding of discrimination was based on a 'social, legal and historical context,' including 'colonial assertions, stereotypes and a troubled history of police and Indigenous peoples' relations.' These broad-brush findings about our members — simply because they are police officers — is not constructive to reconciliation."

RCMP commissioner responds

In her own response to the CRCC's findings, Lucki said she agreed that Baptiste was racially discriminated against.

While police were justified to surround Baptiste's home because they believed there was an armed, intoxicated man who had fled the homicide scene, there's no dispute the next-of-kin notification was handled insensitively and lacked good judgment, Lucki wrote.

Cultural awareness training is mandatory for all RCMP members, she added.

Michelaine Lahaie, who chairs the CRCC, said on Saturday that more will be needed to prevent future acts of discrimination.

"However, I take note of the positive steps the RCMP is taking and I hope that this case and the present report can be part of the catalyst for the RCMP to further engage in a necessary process of change," Lahaie said in a statement to CBC News.

Lucki's response to the commission report stands in stark contrast to the Saskatchewan division of the RCMP, which looked into the complaint but did not support the family's allegation of mistreatment.

"RCMP members treated the [family] reasonably, respectfully and courteously," according to a statement of defence filed in response to a lawsuit launched by the family. The statement denied that officers discriminated on the basis of race "at all."

RCMP media release caused 'anguish'

The family also had concerns about the RCMP's first media release about the shooting.

According to the release, Boushie and his friends "entered onto private property by vehicle in the rural area and were confronted by property owners." It said Boushie was shot while "other occupants ... were taken into custody as part of a related theft investigation."

The family said the news release painted Boushie as a thief and sowed racial discord in the province.

The CRCC agreed.

"The RCMP's media releases caused anguish for the family. Although they did not contain inaccurate information, these releases could leave the impression that the young man's death was 'deserved' or that possible property offences that might have been committed by the young man's friends were of more concern to police than the young man's death," the commission wrote.

"This narrative immediately emerged on social media after news of the death came out, which fuelled racial tensions both on social media platforms and in the community."

Lucki wrote that there were lessons to be learned from how media releases were "written and perceived" and that they could form the basis of a case study for future unconscious bias training.

Sunchild, Baptiste's lawyer, said the vitriol on social media fed "the racism that this family has felt since Aug. 9, 2016," the date of Boushie's death.

"It feeds the whole stereotype of a drunken, thieving Indian that deserved to be killed," she said.

Beginning one month after the shooting, the Saskatchewan RCMP had its Indigenous Policing Services unit review all media releases discussing serious incidents involving Indigenous people.

Lucki said making that change nationwide should be considered too.

The CRCC also questioned the optics of two officers attending Boushie's wake to update the family on the status of the investigation.

Sauvé said that finding reflected one of several errors or omissions by the CRCC

"The officers waited outside the funeral hall and [Baptiste] came out and spoke with them voluntarily. Notably missing from the CRCC report is that our members observed no animosity from the family about attending outside the wake," Sauvé said.

Sauvé said the commission also discarded information about how some officers attending Baptiste's home on the night of the shooting acted compassionately towards her.

Boushie's family is holding a news conference Monday at 10:15 a.m. CST.
Issues found with how Boushie's friends treated

The CRCC probe looked at whether the investigation was "reasonable" and followed RCMP policies and training.

It made 47 findings related to the investigation, 25 of which found no errors or misconduct, including the questioning of Gerald Stanley.

"The commission found that the investigation conducted by the RCMP was generally professional and reasonable," the CRCC wrote.

The 22 remaining findings included errors in procedure, communication breakdowns and staffing shortages, but no discrimination "with respect to the gaps in the criminal investigation."

The commission found issues with how officers treated three of the friends who accompanied Boushie onto the Stanley farm and were arrested for mischief.

The arrests were deemed reasonable, but the way in which officers interviewed the trio was "unreasonable in the circumstances," even though officers did not discriminate during the interviews, according to the CRCC.

"RCMP investigators were frustrated with what they felt was a lack of co-operation from the three witnesses," the commission wrote.

"However, the interviewers made little effort to establish trust. Given the historic distrust of police by Indigenous communities, the trauma, shock and chaos of the previous day's events, the lack of sleep, the lodging in cells and the potentially severe hangovers the witnesses suffered, the commission found that the RCMP interviewers did not reasonably foster a state of mind that was conducive to witness co-operation."

After they gave their statements, Boushie's friends were detained longer than is justified under the Criminal Code, the CRCC also reported.

The commission is asking the RCMP to review its policy to address the treatment of non-suspect witnesses held in custody.

The union said the witnesses were offered food, water and sleep "to give them an opportunity to sober up and rest from the previous day."

After more than 16 hours of rest, the witnesses each verbally confirmed they understood they were being asked to give witness statements, the union added.

Training on witness handling also needed: CRCC

The CRCC also scrutinized how the RCMP handled Gerald Stanley's wife, Leesa, and his son, Sheldon, who were at the farm on the day of the shooting.

The report said it was unreasonable that four officers — including the sergeant in charge of the initial scene — did not ensure that Leesa or Sheldon Stanley did not discuss the shooting with each other before giving their statements to police.

Sheldon testified during the trial that after Gerald Stanley shot Boushie at close range, but before police arrived, the Stanleys retreated to their house to sit and have coffee in silence.

Leesa Stanley did not testify at her husband's trial.

The RCMP should provide training on witness handling to the officers involved, the CRCC said.
Lack of communication hampered investigation

The CRCC listed other concerns about the RCMP's work, some of which came out during trial testimony.

The SUV that Boushie was shot in went uncovered, and rain washed away some blood evidence. The RCMP did not ask a blood spatter specialist to come to the scene.

Experts consulted by CBC News agreed that errors were made but did not conclude it would have changed the outcome of the trial.

The CRCC concluded that discrimination was not to blame when it came to issues relating to evidence handling.

However, it wrote, "The lack of communication between the various RCMP units involved in the investigation of the death of Mr. Boushie led to some of the errors and inefficiencies."

The commission recommended that the RCMP ensure it has enough staff to work on major crimes investigations in a timely manner. It also asked the Saskatchewan division to consider acquiring a mobile command centre, which "could have proven to be useful in this case and potentially resulted in avoiding some of the shortcomings or omissions that occurred.

The recommendations are not binding.

Some of Lucki's responses — which the commission needed to complete its work and publicly disclose its findings — were not sent to the CRCC for more than a year, according to the commission.

"The family should have had answers a lot sooner," Sunchild said.
Family already pursuing civil action

The CRCC probe has taken place against the backdrop of an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by Debbie Baptiste and her family against the Attorney General of Canada, the office that is representing the RCMP in court.

Filed in August 2018, on the second anniversary of Boushie's death, Baptiste's lawsuit contained even more allegations about the RCMP members who visited her home on the night of her son's fatal shooting.

In a statement of claim, the Baptiste family alleged that officers rode toward the home at high speed, shone spotlights on the house and approached with guns drawn — all of which was denied by the attorney general's office in its statement of defence on behalf of the RCMP.© Guy Quenneville/CBC Colten Boushie's uncle, Alvin Baptiste, filed the complaint about RCMP conduct on behalf of the family.

"RCMP members treated the [family] reasonably, respectfully and courteously," the statement of defence said.

The Baptiste family also claimed that an officer leaned in to smell Debbie Baptiste's breath and that an officer checked the microwave after being told Boushie's dinner was being kept there.

The court file was last updated in May 2020 to indicate that "the requirements for mediation in this action have been met."

Brian Pfefferle, a Saskatoon criminal lawyer who closely followed the Gerald Stanley trial, said that court update suggests the family and the RCMP completed the mandatory mediation without reaching a settlement.

THE RESISTANCE TO WHITE POWER GROWS

Hundreds gathered across the US to support Asian communities after Atlanta-area spa killings

MUTUAL AID & SOLIDARITY ARE OUR WATCHWORDS

By Natasha Chen and Hollie Silverman,

CNN 3/22/2021

Nearly a week after eight people were killed at spas in the Atlanta area, hundreds gathered to remember the victims and call for an end to hate towards Asians in a year that has seen an uptick in attacks against members of the community.

© Wang Ying/Xinhua/Getty Images People march during a protest against Asian hate in New York City on Sunday, March 21.

Six of the eight victims in Atlanta were Asian women. And while police are still working to determine the motive and whether hate crime charges will apply, the message from attendees at rallies this weekend said this act is one of hate and the community will need to come together in order to heal from this tragedy.


In Atlanta multiple Korean church congregations held a Korean language service outside the Gold Spa in honor of the victims, with some attendees holding signs reading, "Stop Asian hate."



Pastor Byeong Cheol Han of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church called the killings an "awakening moment" for many Asian Americans. He stressed that this a time to become more involved in social justice on behalf of all communities of color in the United States.

"It's an awakening moment for Asian Americans to stand strong. Stand up and raise our voice. And participate in social justice movement," Han said. "Many Asian Americans tend to avoid those kind of things, it's not our business, we're just focusing on our survival, but this is an awakening for us."

The suspect arrested in the case told police that he suffered from a sex addiction and that he wanted to eliminate temptation. But Han said this act was clearly a hate crime. The suspect's alleged sex addiction "was a very poor excuse. He aimed (at) those very vulnerable. Those who cannot resist."

"It's not just a young man's deviation, or an isolated incident. This is clearly a racially motivated crime," Han added

Han said members of his congregation have expressed complicated feelings since the killings, mostly fear and anger.


Communities call for change

Those sentiments were echoed across gatherings in other cities this weekend, including Denver, where members of the AAPI community gathered and share their feelings Saturday.

There has been a rise in anti-Asian violence and an increase in vandalism at Asian owned businesses across the Denver area in the past year, said Clarence Low, a member of the Asian Chamber of Commerce board of directors member.

Low said there have been reports of spitting, slurs, and graffiti targeting community members, as well as countless unreported crimes.

"The rhetoric and behavior of our national leaders emboldened and inflamed anti-Asian sentiment," Low said, noting that the US has had policies in place for more than 100 years that target and discriminate against Asian Americans, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Executive Order 9066 which ordered Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps in the 1940's.

Low also cited the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was mistaken as Japanese and beaten to death in Detroit by two White men who blamed Japan for the loss of auto jobs.

People attending a rally New York City's Columbus Park Sunday told CNN they came out because they are tired of dealing with discrimination and hope the tragedy in Atlanta will spark change.

When asked why she attended, Angela Eunsung Kim said, "'Cause I'm Asian, and I'm a woman, and if I don't stand up for myself then no one else will. So that's why I'm here."

"I want people to finally hear us, for us, not only when we're trending," she added. "I want to see change in people around me, my friends, my, you know work, everything, all the way down from our neighbors, all the way up to lawmakers. That's the kind of change I want to see."

Tiffany Wetherell said the time has come for her community to be heard in the wake of the killings.

"I want to come out today to support the cause. I want to raise awareness," she said. "I want everyone to know we're not your token Asian. We're not your Asian friend. We're everywhere. And it's our turn to be heard."

The New York Police Department reported 28 arrests for hate crimes targeting Asians in 2020, up from three in 2019 and two in 2018. The Los Angeles Police Department also reported an increase: 15 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2020, up from seven in 2019 and 11 in 2018.


Lives lost in the shootings

Last Tuesday, police said suspect Robert Long, 21, went to three separate spas in the Atlanta area and fatally shot eight people.

He told police he believed he had a sex addiction and that he saw the spas as "a temptation ... that he wanted to eliminate," according to Cherokee County sheriff's Capt. Jay Baker. Long said the attacks weren't racially motivated, Baker said.

The first shooting occurred at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth shortly before 5 p.m. on March 16, authorities said.

Four people were killed in the first shooting: 49-year-old Xiaojie Tan of Kennesaw; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; and Daoyou Feng, 44. Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was also shot but survived.

Within an hour after the first shooting, four more Asian women were killed at two spas on Piedmont Road in Atlanta; three at the Gold Massage Spa and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, authorities said. Those victims were identified as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.

One of the four victims in Atlanta was a South Korean citizen and permanent resident of the US, according to Kwangsuk Lee, South Korea's deputy consulate general in Atlanta. The other three are believed to be Americans of Korean ethnicity, Lee told CNN on Friday.

The families of the victims who have spoken out said they want justice for the senseless deaths of their loved ones.

"This was a massacre. We have a justice system and he'll have to be held accountable," Tan's ex-husband Michael Webb told CNN Sunday.

He said Tan worked seven days a week to save for retirement. "I'm sad it ended in an instant while she was working, hard," Webb told CNN.

"She kept saying to me, I'm going to be able to retire soon," Webb said. "She worked to die," Webb said.

Webb told CNN that Tan was protective of her employees, sometimes kicking certain men out of the facility.

"She wanted to know where her employees were...who the customers were, she used to tell me a lot of times she would throw customers out because they would come in and think that they could have sex," Webb explained.

Suspect denounced by church

After his arrest on Interstate 75 in south Georgia, Long has been held without opportunity for bail in Cherokee County, where he faces four counts of murder with malice, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of using a firearm while committing a felony.

He has been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the two spa shootings in Atlanta, according to Atlanta police.

The investigation into the killings is ongoing and appropriate charges will be brought, Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said last week.

On Sunday, Crabapple First Baptist Church, Long's church, said in a statement that it had removed him from its memberships ranks because they could "no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ."

Earlier in the week the church released a longer statement saying they were "absolutely devastated at this senseless loss of life and callous disregard for human beings created in the image of God."

"We grieve for the victims and their families, and we continue to pray for all of those affected by this heinous crime as they deal with unimaginable pain and sorrow," they added, saying they were "absolutely distraught" to find out the suspect in the deaths was a member of their church.

"These unthinkable and egregious murders directly contradict his own confession of faith in Jesus and the gospel," the statement said.

© Nicole Craine/Bloomberg/Getty Images Demonstrators gather at Liberty Plaza during a Stop AAPI Hate Rally outside the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Saturday, March 20.

Attacked spas had been targeted by prostitution stings

UNTIL THIS ARTICLE THE VICTIMS WERE NOT DESCRIBED AS 

SEX WORKERS IN THE PRESS UNEXPECTEDLY HUMANE OF THEM

ATLANTA — Two Atlanta area massage businesses where a gunman waged a deadly assault this week had been repeatedly targeted in police prostitution investigations over the years, raising questions about the mayor's earlier comments that the spas operated legally.

Police records show officers went to the businesses repeatedly in the past 10 years, which appears to contradict Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' statement that officers in her city had not been to the businesses beyond a minor potential theft and that they were not “on the radar” of police. Bottoms added that she did not want to blame the victims.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, is charged with killing four women at the Atlanta spas and four other people inside a massage business about 30 miles (50 kilometres) away in Cherokee County. Long, who is white, told investigators the attacks were not racially motivated and claimed to have a sex addiction, which caused him to lash out at what he saw as sources of temptation.

Police in both Atlanta and Cherokee County said they were investigating if the killings could be considered hate crimes. Seven of the victims were women — six of Asian descent — and the gunman targeted the massage businesses despite a strip club and lingerie stores nearby.

According to a 2019 report written by a group of academics, public health experts and community organizers, employees in massage businesses that illicitly offer sex often ended up working there because they had few options to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars they owed smugglers or to support parents or children back home in countries like China and South Korea.

The authors of Illicit Massage Parlors in Los Angeles County and New York City Stories from Women Workers interviewed dozens of women who provided sex at the businesses. They said their employers sometimes offered them a place to live and eat in the businesses, which also made the work difficult to turn down.

The authors stressed not all massage businesses are involved in the sex trade. And the majority of the women they interviewed who did sex work didn't see themselves as being trafficked, instead feeling they were helping their families or themselves, said author Lois M. Takahashi, who heads the USC Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento.

But 40% of them reported that a client forced them to have sex while 18% said a client hit them or physically hurt them.

Takahashi said that for many of the women, getting arrested was an extremely traumatic process. A lot of times the women were thrust into a legal system that they didn’t understand and in a foreign language.

“They had a lot more fear of being arrested than they did of being robbed,” she said.

Police records released by the city Friday show 10 people were arrested at the two Atlanta massage businesses on prostitution charges, but none since 2013. Almost all the arrests came in undercover stings where an officer paid for a massage and an employee offered sex or a sex act for more money. The reports were first obtained by The Washington Post.

At a news conference the day after the shootings, Bottoms said, “As far as we know in Atlanta these are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar, not on the radar of APD (the Atlanta Police Department).”

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Friday the shootings were an ongoing investigation and she expected new evidence to be discovered.

“What the mayor said was ‘as far as we know’ and that’s the operative part of that sentence, ‘as far as we know,‘” Bottoms’ spokeswoman Elise Durham said. “The comments were made less than 24 hours after the shooting incident."

All three businesses where people were fatally shot Tuesday have detailed recent reviews on an online site that leads users to places that provide sexual services.

Authorities released the names of the Atlanta victims hours before President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris arrived in Atlanta to meet with Asian American community leaders.

Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, were shot in the head, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Family members identified Grant by her maiden name, Hyun Jung Kim. Suncha Kim, 69, died from a gunshot to the chest, authorities said.

Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth woman died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa. The medical examiner didn’t immediately say which woman died at Aromatherapy.

Four people were killed and a fifth wounded at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, in Atlanta’s northwestern suburbs.

Cherokee County authorities earlier identified the dead there as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49, who owned Youngs.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it helped police identify the four slain women of Korean descent and inform their families. Officials said they would help arrange funerals and asked U.S. authorities for a swift investigation to find the reason for the shooting amid an increase in violence against Asian Americans.

Georgia lawmakers last year passed a hate crimes law that allows additional penalties to be imposed for certain offences when motivated by a victim’s race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability. A hate crime is not a standalone crime under the law, but it can be used to add time to a sentence once someone is convicted of another crime.

Investigators believe Long had previously visited two of the Atlanta massage businesses where four of the women were killed, police said.

Crabapple First Baptist Church, where Long was an active member, issued a statement Friday that it was seeking to remove Long from membership, saying “we can no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.”

The church said its teaching does not condone violence against Asian Americans or women and it’s improper to view women as somehow responsible for male sexual urges.

Long waived his right to an initial hearing in Cherokee County Magistrate Court.

___

This story was first published on March 19, 2021. It was updated on March 20, 2021 to correct that there were 10 prostitution-related arrests at the two Atlanta businesses, and police were called to them repeatedly.

___

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Kate Brumback And Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press

#UNIONIZESEXWORKERS

New Edmonton non-profit offers support for sex workers

Scott Neufeld/CBC News

CBC/Radio-Canada 

3/22/2021

 ANSWERS, a newly certified non-profit in Edmonton, announced its intentions to provide support for accounting, counselling and mentorship for sex workers, while fighting for their labour rights and providing education 

When Inna Stefen worked as a dancer, she felt she often had no support.

With two young children, Stefen says she didn't see pathways for financial help while in the sex work industry. She said she often felt looked down upon and like she had to hide her work.

"I had no clue and I felt very isolated," Stefen said.

"I don't want other girls and women who are in this profession experiencing the same."

Now, Stefen is one of the founders and board members behind ANSWERS, which stands for the Advocacy for Normalizing Sex Work through Education and Resources Society. The group is a newly certified peer-to-peer organization created to support sex workers in the Edmonton area.

ANSWERS, which was first created in November, says it will also provide educational resources about sex work to help remove the stigma and negative stereotypes surrounding the industry.

After receiving more than $70,000 in grant funding, ANSWERS plans to help sex workers by partially subsidizing accounting services and counselling, offering a mentorship program, and providing necessary supplies like groceries and face masks.

"When I was a dancer, I never heard about support for accounting services, there was no support for psychological and trauma counselling, and there's still none," Stefen said.

"So ANSWERS is, in this way, pioneers."

© Scott Neufeld/CBC News Inna Stefen is one of the founders of 

ANSWERS, a newly certified peer-led non-profit in Edmonton to support sex workers.

The new non-profit's goals also include building trust and respect with government, helping provide a better quality of life for sex workers, and working toward decriminalization of sex work along with labour rights for the industry.

The group of board members who created ANSWERS came together with a shared vision to help sex workers, Stefen said, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic that has cut into their already precarious work. Stefen said unlike other vulnerable communities in Canada, she and the other founders saw even fewer government supports for sex workers.

Stefen said sex workers often face stigma when it comes to conducting business at banks, renting places to live or even when they try to receive proper care from counsellors and doctors.

The group will provide education and training modules for partner groups. Stefen says they hope to offer those resources in the community through universities and police services, for example.

ANSWERS calls itself the first and only sex worker-led non-profit in Alberta. Such a group was needed in Alberta, said Mona Forya, another founder of the group. Forya is a sex worker and CBC has agreed to refer to her by a pseudonym.

"All the stigma within the industry will be reduced immediately just knowing that they're going to be helped by their own comrades," Forya said.

The financial assistance is especially timely, Forya said, because many sex workers have faced even more difficulty in the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced their income.

Lilith, a sex worker for around three years now, says the introduction of ANSWERS helps relieve much of the stress and pressure she and others in her industry often face when accessing medical support.

"Not too many people are comfortable even saying what they do for a living without judgment coming back to them, especially in the medical community," said Lilith, who CBC News has agreed to refer to by a pseudonym.

"That discourages a person from ever entering an office or even going to see a doctor. So having this offered makes them feel more comfortable because now the organization that they're associated with is run by sex workers or people who advocate sex work."

Elizabeth Eaton, an Edmonton-based psychotherapist, says they were immediately interested in working with the organization after being asked to be a part of their ally directory, noting the importance that anyone who is in a position to help marginalized communities to do so.

Eaton expects clients will be referred to their office, knowing it's a safe, supportive space for them. The psychotherapist will also receive education about sex work to better assist clients.

"You want to be sure that the person working with you respects you and understands you, and is going to be safe to work with," Eaton said.

"You're going to be able to look into that [ally] directory to find an accountant, to find a massage therapist, and then feel like you're not going to be judged or shamed by that person when you work with them."

Lilith said she's hopeful about the supports this group can provide, adding that she hopes it will help further foster a community in the industry.

"I think a lot of fears will start to diminish," Lilith said.

"There's no hidden agenda, and it's very transparent in what we do, what our mission is, and I think a lot of people in the industry are looking for that."

NDP's Singh commits to cancel up to $20,000 in tuition in election campaign-style promise

OTTAWA — Federal New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh renewed his pitch to young voters on Saturday, pledging that an NDP government would cancel up to $20,000 in tuition.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Singh announced he would also freeze federal student loan payments until the COVID-19 pandemic winds down and eliminate interest on student debt if elected.

The announcement, presented as a campaign-style pledge ahead of a possible election this year, comes as federal parties prepare to battle it out for the hearts and ballots of young voters.

Statistics Canada found last fall that more than 60 per cent of post-secondary students were concerned about using up their savings and taking on more debt.

The Liberals imposed a moratorium on Canada Student Loan payments between last April and September, but the freeze has long since thawed and student groups have urged Ottawa to suspend payment obligations again.

Singh said the government has been "profiting off the backs of young people" by taking in more than $4 billion in interest payments since 2015.

Video: NDP’s Singh announces plan to cancel up to $20K in student debt (Global News)

"Young people are making student loan payments the size of mortgage payments — spending years under crushing debt, not able to get ahead. And the COVID-19 pandemic only made matters worse," he said at the party's virtual youth convention.

“An education should help young people get ahead, not leave them further behind."

Singh also repeated his commitment to work with provinces and territories toward tuition-free post-secondary education.

Under the NDP plan, student debt forgiveness would be capped at $20,000, with the amount determined based on a household's average income for five years after graduation.

Borrowers with annual incomes above $60,000 would see the amount of debt reduction available shrink linearly up to $100,000 in income, at which point no chunk of the debt would be cancelled. (For reach dollar of income above $60,000, the amount of debt forgiven would decrease by 50 cents from the $20,000 starting point.)

The announcement goes beyond Singh's 2019 election campaign promise to nix all current and future interest on federal student loans.

More than 868,000 borrowers hold Canada Student Loans amounting to $9.77 billion, according to an auditor general's report released last July.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2021.

The Canadian Press

QUEBEC INC.

Behind the profit, and politics, driving Montreal's new light rail project

Jonathan Montpetit

CBC  3/22/2021

 FEATURE

 BACKGROUNDER

 LONG READ

© CBC A light rail car waits at a platform in Montreal. The first section of the REM network is scheduled to be operational next year.

When Quebec's pension fund manager announced in 2016 that it was going to build a state-of-the-art, 67-kilometre light rail network around Montreal, it seemed like a miracle solution for the city's cash-starved transit system.

It had been decades since the last major investment in Montreal public transit. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec appeared out of nowhere, offering to shoulder most of the up-front costs for connecting the western half of the metropolitan area to downtown.

In exchange, it would get the revenues generated from operating the network.

"It's probably one of the greatest projects we've seen in [public transit] in the last 50 years," gushed the mayor at the time, Denis Coderre.

Late last year, the Caisse announced it was expanding its light rail network, now dubbed the REM, into Montreal's east end. But the reception, this time, was decidedly less enthusiastic.

Architects and urban planners have publicly criticized the plans. Neighbourhood groups are lobbying for changes. A petition has attracted nearly 2,000 signatures. Even city hall has expressed reservations.

© Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada The REM will run for long stretches along an elevated track supported by massive concrete columns. These are being built in Montreal West Island.

They all share concerns about the current design plan for the project, which features an elevated track supported by massive concrete pillars running through some of the most densely populated areas of the island of Montreal.

"We're scared about what will happen to our neighbourhoods with this immense structure," said Catherine Miron, a spokesperson for a group of concerned east-end residents called REM et citoyen-nes de l'Est de Montréal.

CDPQ Infra, the arm of the Caisse that oversees the REM, maintains the elevated track is the only way the east-end network can be built on time and on budget.

Those are important considerations for the provincial government, which campaigned on a promise to connect the island's east-end suburbs to downtown.

And, so far, CDPQ Infra has proved its alternative model for funding infrastructure can deliver. While other transit projects backed by municipal governments and transit authorities have stalled on the drawing board for years, the west-end REM is nearing completion and in the ballpark of its original budget.

But it sped ahead with only marginal input from independent experts and citizens, say observers of the process. They fear a similar dynamic is emerging as the REM expands east, leading to a project that will scar neighbourhoods in the interest of profit and politics.

"It might not be the right mode of transit in the right place," said François Pepin, president of the public transit advocacy group Trajectoire Québec.
Lukewarm reception from region

There is not much debate that the east end of Montreal needs better transit connections with downtown Montreal. Much of that territory only has bus service, which is usually crowded and slow during rush hour.

In May 2019, the Coalition Avenir Québec government asked CDPQ Infra, as opposed to the co-ordinating transit authority for the Montreal area (known by its French initials as ARTM), to look at meeting that demand.

That CDPQ Infra ended up proposing a light rail network was no surprise. It's the only transit technology it has on offer, though transit experts have in the past suggested other solutions for the east end, such as bus-rapid transit or tramways.

The elevated track being built in Montreal's West Island runs along highways, and hasn't stirred much public concern. But in the east end, large stretches of the REM network would run along boulevards in mixed residential-commercial neighbourhoods.

As well, the prospect of noise, shadows, and a lot of concrete has urban planners worried.

"It's a big structure going through areas where people live. It risks destroying their quality of life," said Sylvain Gariépy, president of the Quebec Order of Urban Planners.

Gariépy expressed frustration at the lack of detailed information CDPQ Infra has provided about the proposed structures, making it difficult to evaluate the project.

Citizen groups have also struggled to get more information about the project, and to offer their feedback. Miron said she has attended two meetings with CDPQ Infra in recent weeks, but they resembled marketing sessions rather than consultations.

"They gave the same PowerPoint presentation at both of them and couldn't answer our technical questions," Miron said.

CDPQ Infra stresses the proposal it has made public is a work in progress. It is promising to spend the next two years consulting extensively with the public as well as an independent group of experts.

Virginie Cousineau, the organization's public affairs director, said consultations will play a larger role in the final design of the REM's extension compared with the consultations that were done ahead of the first phase of the project.

"There are things we're doing differently in the REM East, things we didn't do in the REM 1.0," Cousineau said in a recent interview.

But she also acknowledged that certain elements of the project are non-negotiable. Many have called for the track to go underground as it approaches downtown. Cousineau said while that option was studied, existing subway lines and old sewers threaten to escalate costs to prohibitive levels.

"The Caisse can't endanger the pensions of Quebecers with a project where we are unable to control the risks," she said.
The politics behind mass transit choices

The concerns about the REM's east-end extension are not just technical matters about an engineering project, however. They are part of a larger debate about which institutions ought to be shaping the future of Quebec's cities.

Provincial funding for Quebec City's tramway project was held up when the CAQ government began demanding last-minute changes to the route, even though it had been the subject of extensiveconsultation since 2018 and had widespread local backing.

Premier François Legault said the project needed to better serve the suburbs in order to get his government's approval. Community groups in Quebec City, and the mayor, accused him of meddling for political gain.

In the case of both the Quebec City tramway, and the REM in Montreal, local transit authorities seemed to be sidelined at key stages of the decision-making process.

That's a shame, said Pepin, given that transit authorities, like the ARTM, were created with the intention of limiting the influence of politicians on major projects and making public consultation routine.

They are meant to be relatively independent bodies that have the expertise required to plan a transit network with the interests of the public in mind.

"It's a science," Pepin said of public transit planning. "We talk about it for the vaccine; maybe we should do the same thing for public transit and listen to the science."

Transit authorities, though, often operate too slowly for politicians. That makes alternative funding models that can fast-track projects, like CDPQ Infra, appealing.

"The idea, of course, is to get a project shovel-ready before the next election," said Pierre Barrieau, president of Gris Orange, a Montreal-based urban transit consulting firm.

At the same time, community groups in Montreal have adapted to CDPQ Infra's pace.

They learned from the first phase of the REM, Barrieau said, and are mobilizing at the outset of the second phase to demand more input.

"We should expect a project that will take comments from the public into greater consideration," he said. "I think the Caisse understands that what they did for the first time isn't going to fly for the second time."

Environmentalists want Jasper backcountry ban extended to protect remaining caribou

EDMONTON — Environmentalists and scientists are calling on Parks Canada to further restrict access to Rocky Mountain backcountry in an effort to help save the last large caribou herd in the national parks. 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"There's lots of evidence that winter closures help caribou," said Gillian Chow-Fraser of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Chow-Fraser is asking Parks Canada to extend winter closures of the Tonquin backcountry in Jasper National Park. Tonquin's alpine valleys are home to a herd down to about 10 breeding females.

The area is currently closed between November and Feb. 15.

Chow-Fraser said that's not enough. Even tracks from backcountry skiers provide enough of a path for wolves to get into the herd's winter range.

"(There's) overwhelming evidence ... of how wolves use linear features, driving caribou declines everywhere in the country."

Mark Hebblewhite, a University of Montana biologist with long experience in the Canadian Rockies, said the Tonquin caribou are nearing the same brink other herds have already toppled over.

The Banff and Maligne herds, two of five in the Jasper-Banff area, are gone. The Brazeau herd is down to about six animals and the only reason the la Peche herd is healthy is the extensive wolf cull on its habitat outside the park.

"That leaves the Tonquin," Hebblewhite said. "Inside the parks, it's pretty grim."

Parks Canada acknowledges caribou are in decline. The agency is hoping to shore up the herds with a captive breeding program, in which females from nearly vanished herds would be penned and bred.

In a 2017 report, it called the Feb. 15 closure date arbitrary and "a compromise to stakeholders."

Wolf predation is decreasing in Jasper, said Rola Salem, spokeswoman for Jasper National Park.

"Because of closures and declining wolf numbers, fewer incursions into caribou habitat have been documented," she said in an email.

"Parks Canada is constantly assessing conservation measures and adapting to changing conditions, including ways to mitigate disturbance to caribou in the Tonquin Valley.

"This includes maintaining winter access restrictions in locations where they will benefit caribou the most."

That's no guarantee, said Chow-Fraser.

"Who's to say that just because a wolf wasn't there last winter, there won't be one this winter. If they get in, they'll find caribou. Easy pickings."

Studies in Jasper have shown wolves quickly find new trails and begin using them. And with so few breeding females, one successful hunt can have a major effect on a herd's future.

A captive breeding program without securing genetic breeding stock is counterproductive, Hebblewhite said.

"It just doesn't make any sense to me."

Some backcountry users are already staying away. The Alpine Club of Canada has asked members not to use the Wates-Gibson hut in the Tonquin country.

There is a private lodge in the area which has been operating since 1939. Owner Gilbert Wall declined to comment.

Chow-Fraser said extending the backcountry travel ban until the snow is gone needn't be permanent.

"This isn't a forever thing," she said. "You need to give these really sensitive animals some space until the breeding program can bolster numbers."

Parks Canada has a dual mandate of encouraging Canadians to enjoy the outdoors and of preserving the ecological integrity of those places. Chow-Fraser said preservation should come first in the case of an iconic species on the verge of vanishing.

"In a national park, you would think ecological integrity would be the No. 1 priority."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2021.

— Follow @row1960 on Twitter

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

The return of "extinct" species

CBSNews 

 3/22/2021

Seventeen years ago, while floating through this spooky swamp in Arkansas, Tim Gallagher and Bobby Harrison saw a ghost. "Neither one of us knew what we were looking at," said Harrison. "And we've been birding all our lives. It turned up on edge. And you could see those white trailing edges of the wing."

© CBS News ivory-billed-woodpecker-1280.jpg

"That's when you knew?" asked correspondent Conor Knighton.

"Just locked in. We were both locked in," Gallagher said.

"We both yelled, 'Ivory-Bill!'" Harrison laughed.

The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was thought to be totally extinct. Gone. Dead forever. The last good film of one was taken back in the 1930s. And yet, Gallagher and Harrison were sure that was the bird they'd seen.

Even now when he thinks about it, Harrison said he gets "real emotional."

The men had traveled to Arkansas after kayaker Gene Sparling reported seeing an Ivory Bill in the same spot a few days earlier. Once Gallagher saw one with his own eyes, he convinced his colleagues at Cornell University to conduct a massive search, a search that eventually led to a bit of blurry video

.

© Provided by CBS documentation News An eyewitness' video of what is believed to be an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. / Credit: CBS News

That out-of-focus footage was enough to set off a media firestorm. "60 Minutes" did a feature on the rediscovery. "Sunday Morning" sent Steve Hartman down to Arkansas to get an ivory-billed haircut.

The bird was back!

At an April 2005 press conference Interior Secretary Gale Norton said, "I cannot think of a single time we have ever found a species, once thought extinct, and now found to be in existence."

© Provided by CBS News From 2005: In search of the Ivory-billed Wood... 07:34

But it turns out the rediscovery of an allegedly "extinct" creature actually happens more often than you might guess. While species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, a handful have reappeared. Animals mistakenly thought to have been killed off, like the Bavarian pine vole, and the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, are all known as "Lazarus taxon." In the Bible, Lazarus came back from the dead.


"When you declare something extinct, that's almost like a challenge to people: 'Okay, we're now going to go and find this thing, prove you wrong,'" said Craig Hilton-Taylor, who is in charge of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List," the most comprehensive species status list in the world. With categories ranging from "Least Concern" to "Vulnerable" to "Critically Endangered" to "Extinct," it's that last category that's always hardest to pin down.

"Trying to determine that fact is really, really hard to actually know when that final individual has disappeared," Hilton-Taylor said.

"Yeah, it seems like endangered, there's a range; extinct is very binary. You're either extinct or you're not," said Knighton.

"It is very binary, exactly. Yes, it's there or not. And it requires lots of gathering of evidence – negative evidence – over a long period of time."

Ultimately, extinction ends up being an educated guess. We're pretty confident Stegosauruses aren't still running around Colorado. But when it comes to smaller, more elusive creatures, well …

"There's a big world out there, and there are a lot of places to hide," said biologist Forrest Galante, who has made a career out of searching for these "lost" species. Each episode of his Animal Planet show "Extinct or Alive" focuses on a creature presumed to be long gone. While most episodes end without concrete proof of an animal's existence, in the Galapagos Islands, a promising piece of poop led Galante and local experts to the rediscovery of the Fernandina giant tortoise.

"To hold this 'extinct' species that the world hadn't seen for 114 years, like, I'm still not sure if it's real," Galante said. "I think it might've been a dream to this day. Like, I can't believe that we found this thing!"

Modern technology has made searching for species easier. But discovering evidence of an extinct animal doesn't always involve mounting an expensive international expedition, with drones. Sometimes you need look no further than your own back yard.

In 1981, a dog belonging to Meeteetse, Wyoming rancher John Hogg dragged home a supposedly extinct Black-footed Ferret. Kimberly Fraser said, "Here was this animal, dead on his back porch. And he picked it up, and he looked at it, and he didn't know what it was."

When John's wife, Lucille, wanted to get it stuffed, their taxidermist realized it was something special.

"And how fortuitous. What a great story! What a chance to bring a species back from the brink of extinction," Fraser said.

Fraser works with the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program. Thanks to that one dead ferret on a porch, scientists discovered a tiny group of them still alive in Wyoming. They were rounded up and put in captive breeding programs. Thousands of Black-footed Ferrets have been released back into the wild.

Fraser said, "I think it's a great example of people coming together and doing the right thing. We definitely have hope, hope for the future."

We are in the middle of a human-caused extinction crisis. Reintroducing a species is a rare chance to right a past wrong.

Back in the swamps of Arkansas, it's been over a decade-and-a-half since Tim Gallagher's Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting. He said he has not seen one since.

Despite all of the initial excitement, the woodpeckers have remained elusive. Stylist Penny Childs still holds onto her collection of memorabilia, although it's been ages since anyone has asked her for a woodpecker haircut. "Once the word broke, then everybody came," Childs said. "And if he was there, goodnight, you know? I woulda left, too! I mean, the woods was just crawling with people. I mean, it was just crazy."

Maybe the woodpecker got scared and flew the coop. Maybe Gallagher and Harrison saw the very last one. Maybe they were mistaken, and didn't see one at all.

But the men have come back to search together dozens of times. It's all on their own dime now; nobody is paying for this quest.

They feel an indisputable sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker – a crystal-clear picture – would mean more than bragging rights. It could lead to habitat conservation that would help revitalize the species.

Harrison said, "You know, the world's in pretty bad shape right now. We're losing birds, we're losing habitat. And I think, if we could actually get the proof of this bird, it would really spur a new conservation era. It's really a symbol of what's been lost."

And yet, every once in a while, what's been lost can be found again. It's possible the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is indeed extinct. But for now, in this forest of tupelo trees, they're still keeping hope alive.

"The Grail Bird: The Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker" by Tim Gallagher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon and Indiebound

International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species
"Extinct or Alive" (Discover+)

Black-footed Ferret (U.S.. Fish & Wildlife Service)

Black-footed Ferret Connections (blackfootedferret.org)

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Story produced by Aria Shavelson. Editor: Lauren Barnello