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Amazon hit with lawsuit over claims that it failed to provide employees with required 30-minute lunch breaks

ztayeb@businessinsider.com (Zahra Tayeb) 8 hrs ago


 Amazon is under fire over workers' rights. 

Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A former Amazon worker filed a lawsuit against the company over claims of missed lunch breaks.

The lawsuit claimed employees were denied the required 30-minute meal break for a five-hour shift.

It also claimed workers had to deal with serious understaffing issues and immense workloads.


A lawsuit against Amazon that claimed workers did not receive adequate lunch breaks at a California fulfilment center is moving ahead.

The case was transferred to US District Court California, Northern District, on Friday after its first filing in San Francisco County Superior Court in February.

Former employee Lovenia Scott is alleging that Amazon denied staff the required 30-minute meal breaks for each five-hour work period under Californian legislation.

The suit claimed meal-break periods were shortened "due to the time spent listening and responding to work-related obligations on their walkie talkies," which workers were allegedly required to carry with them.




In addition, the lawsuit alleged workers were instructed to take a break "if and when they could get it."

But according to Scott, who worked in the Vacaville warehouse, there were serious staffing issues and so much work being imposed on workers, it was unlikely they would be able to take their breaks if they wanted to finish their work on time.

Insider has approached Amazon for comment.

These are not the only allegations over workers' rights that Amazon has faced in recent weeks. Reports of workers urinating in bottles back in 2018 re-emerged after a Twitter spat between the company and Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders, over the matter.

A delivery driver in the Detroit area told Insider that rather than urinate inside the vans, she used to hold it to the point of bladder infections.

Amazon delivery drivers also reported that they had to defecate in bags and struggled to change menstrual pads.

The company denied the claims about "peeing in bottles" and tweeted "if that were true nobody would work for us." However, documents showing Amazon was aware of drivers' practice of urinating in bottles and defecating in bags were published by The Intercept on Thursday.

 

German union calls four-day strike at Amazon sites ahead of Easter

BERLIN (Reuters) - The trade union Verdi has called for workers at six Amazon sites in Germany to go on strike from Sunday evening for four days in the latest attempt to try to force the U.S. e-commerce group to recognise collective bargaining agreements.

© Reuters/Rick Wilking FILE PHOTO: 

A box from Amazon.com is pictured on the porch of a house in Golden

Verdi said the strikes at Amazon's sites in Rheinberg, Werne, Koblenz, Leipzig and at two locations in Bad Hersfeld signalled an "unofficial start" to wage talks for the retail and mail order industry, which are due to begin in the next few weeks.

"Amazon is making a mint in the coronavirus crisis. For this reason alone, wage evasion must be stopped there," said Verdi representative Orhan Akman.

Verdi is demanding a pay increase of 4.5% for workers in the retail and mail order industry.

"This must also be possible at Amazon this year," Akman said.

Amazon has faced a long-running battle with unions in Germany over better pay and conditions for logistics workers, who have frequently staged strikes since 2013.

Germany is Amazon's biggest market after the United States.

Amazon says it offers excellent pay and benefits. It has said during past calls for strikes over 90% of employees in the logistic centres worked as normal.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Killing of youths sparks protests in northwest Pakistan
By Jibran Ahmad and Saud Mehsud

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© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO People chant slogans demanding an investigation following the deaths of four teenagers in Jani Khel area in Bannu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, during a protest in Karachi,

PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters broke through a police blockade in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday as they tried to march on the city of Bannu and then on to Islamabad to demand a government probe into the deaths of four young men who they allege were tortured and killed by security forces.

© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO People sit with black flags as they demand an investigation following the deaths of four teenagers in Jani Khel area in Bannu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, during a protest in Karachi,

Police fired tear gas in an attempt to keep them from entering the city of Bannu, which lies on the way to Islamabad, on Sunday evening.

The protesters were carrying the bodies of the four young men, aged between 15 and 20, found in a shallow grave on March 21 in the town of Jani Khel, outside Bannu.

© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO People chant slogans demanding an investigation following the deaths of four teenagers in Jani Khel area in Bannu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, during a protest in Karachi,

"The government didn’t pay any attention to us and left us alone to mourn the slain boys," Haji Mohammad Wali, one of the protesters, told Reuters by phone.


Relatives of the dead, alleging they died during interrogation by security forces, held a sit-in in Jani Khel for nearly a week, refusing to bury the bodies until an investigation was opened against an army officer they said was responsible.

A Pakistani military spokesman declined to comment about the incident on Sunday, and the military has not commented publicly on the case.

The central government has not commented on the case.

Officials of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, including Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, travelled to Bannu on Sunday to meet with protesters.

"This incident is a challenge for my government and law enforcement agencies," Khan said in a statement, adding those responsible for the deaths will be held accountable.

The protesters said that after their demands for an inquiry went unheard they decided to march to Islamabad - 300 km (190 miles) away - and local police tried to stop them by placing barricades in Bannu.

The four dead boys had been missing for several weeks, according to their relatives. Relatives said their bodies bore signs of torture when they were found.

Protests were also held in the port city of Karachi on Sunday.

The town of Jani Khel is part of the former semi-autonomous tribal areas, a region along the Afghanistan border that served as a base for the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other jihadist groups until a series of Pakistani military offensives drove them out.

Rights groups have accused the military of carrying out extrajudicial detentions and other abuses in the area - a charge the military has consistently denied.

As Canadian Pacific Railway bulks up, rival Canadian National takes a few attention-grabbing measures of its own

Kevin Carmichael 

Postmedia

2/27/2021

6

© Provided by Financial Post CN has recognized that it’s no longer sufficient for big companies to focus exclusively on maximizing profits.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s plan to purchase Kansas City Southern will vie for business story of the year, but its long-time rival, Canadian National Railway Co., also has been doing some things that could help it down the road.

The former Crown corporation has recognized that it’s no longer sufficient for big companies to focus exclusively on maximizing profits. The public, including a growing number of investors, now demands more. So, while CP was bulking up, CN was getting serious about ESG, the emerging force in markets that demands a commitment to the environment, social concerns and enlightened governance in return for access to a pool of capital worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

A couple of days after CP announced the KCS takeover on March 21, CN revealed that it was on track to join its Calgary-based rival as one of only a handful of big Canadian corporations that has significantly diluted the influence of older white men in their board rooms.

CN said it had nominated Denise Gray , president of South Korean lithium-ion battery maker LG Chem Ltd.’s North American unit, to join a board that will be reduced to 11 directors from the current 14. Gray, who is Black, would ensure that Montreal-based CN will be overseen by a set of directors that more closely mirrors the larger population, one of the objectives of Bay Streeter Wes Hall’s BlackNorth Initiative , an effort inspired by the global backlash that followed the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last year.

A minor reshuffling of directors will strike some as insignificant, and others as slavishly faddish. Another way to think about it: embarrassing. Only about 30 per cent of directors and 18 per cent of executives at S&P/TSX companies were women in 2019, according to Catalyst , an advocacy group. Visible minorities filled about six per cent of board seats, according to a review by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, a law firm.

Regardless, leadership diversity is fast becoming a tenant of modern governance. Scholarship shows that companies that are dominated by older white men have too many blindspots. They lose out on young talent that’s adamant about working only for employers that reflect their values. They risk alienating customers, politicians and regulators.

“At the heart of the CEO agenda, is the imperative to build and maintain trust,” Nicolas Marcoux, head of consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.’s Canadian unit, said at a virtual event sponsored by the Toronto branch of the Canadian Club on March 23. “ESG is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have.”

To be sure, CN chief executive Jean-Jacques Ruest’s senior management team remains entirely white and mostly male. (The roster of vice-presidents is less monochromic).

But Ruest will be the only CN executive on the docket when shareholders vote at the company’s virtual annual meeting on April 27. The independent nominees are an even split of men and women, the same as CP. That matters to investors who decide where to deploy their money based on ESG assessments. CN is betting that its rivalry with CP and American railroads such as CSX Corp. will be decided by more than shipping costs and arrival times in the future.

© Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg files CN chief executive Jean-Jacques Ruest.

“Our longer-term goal is to be at the leading edge of ESG best practices across North America and globally,” Ruest and Robert Pace, the boar chair, said in a letter to shareholders ahead of next month’s annual meeting.

Achieving that objective is going to take some more work. CN tends to say the right things, and often backs up its words with action: the company has cut the greenhouse gas emissions spewed by its locomotives by 40 per cent since 1993, earning high marks from at least one outfit that tracks companies’ commitment to fighting climate change.

Still, it’s unclear that CN has put much distance between itself and its competitors when it comes to ESG. Sustainalytics, a unit of Morningstar Inc. that does ESG research, says CN and CP are both “low risk,” so an ethical investor could buy either stock without violating her or his principles. The firm currently rates CP slightly higher — 30th out of 335 transportation companies (1,611th out of a universe of 13,676 companies), while it ranks CN 34th (1,683rd overall).

“With respect to ESG, the whole world is moving that way,” Pace, who has led CN’s board since 2014, said in an interview earlier this month. “The trend is wide. It’s deep. We just have to make sure our goals and aspirations are real and we can deliver.”

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Too often, companies’ ESG initiatives emphasize what they are doing about the environment. Perhaps the most interesting part of CN’s recent efforts is that its focus is wider than climate change. It said last month that the tenure of independent directors will be limited to 14 years and that they will be allowed to serve on a maximum of three public boards including CN.

More importantly, the company also said that it would create an advisory council of Indigenous people, a recognition that CN tracks cross some 110 First Nations communities. Pace said the decision was partly inspired by the protests that disrupted rail traffic ahead of the pandemic, but that it also reflects an admission that Indigenous voices had been ignored for too long.

“The whole country has taken a long time. We all have to do our part,” Pace said. “W e had to step here and make some changes. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Financial Post

• Email: kcarmichael@postmedia.com | Twitter: carmichaelkevin

Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that CP’s board it entirely white. We regret the error.

Myanmar mourns, protests after crackdown's deadliest day yet

YANGON, Myanmar — Mourners flocked to the funerals of those killed in the deadliest day of a crackdown on protests of last month's coup in Myanmar, as demonstrators, uncowed by the violence, returned to the streets Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A day earlier, security forces killed at least 114 people, including several children under 16, according to local media — a shocking escalation that prompted the U.N. rapporteur to accuse the junta of committing “mass murder” and to criticize the international community for not doing enough to stop it. There were reports that the violence continued Sunday.

At a funeral in Bhamo in the northern state of Kachin, a large crowd gathered to chant democracy slogans and raise the three-finger salute that has come to symbolize resistance to the military takeover. Family and friends were paying their respects to Shwe Myint, a 36-year-old who was shot dead by security forces on Saturday.

The military had initially seized her body and refused to return it until her family signed a statement that her death was not caused by them, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a broadcast and online news service.

Mourners also used another funeral as a show of resistance. In Yangon, the country's largest city, they flashed the three-finger salute as they wheeled the coffin of a 13-year-old boy. Sai Wai Yan was shot dead by security forces Saturday as he played outside his home.

The Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. It has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny as security forces have repeatedly fired into crowds of protesters. More than 420 people have been killed since the takeover, according to multiple counts. The crackdown extends beyond the demonstrations: Humanitarian workers reported that the military had carried out airstrikes Sunday against guerilla fighters in the eastern part of the country.

The junta has accused some of the demonstrators of perpetrating the violence because of their sporadic use of Molotov cocktails and has said its use of force has been justified to stop what it has called rioting. On Saturday, some protesters in Yangon were seen carrying bows and arrows.

Saturday's death toll far exceeded the previous single-day high that ranged from 74 to 90 on March 14. The killings happened throughout the country as Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw.

“Today the junta of Myanmar has made Armed Forces Day a day of infamy with the massacre of men, women and very young children throughout country,” said Tom Andrews, the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights for Myanmar. “Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them. ... It is past time for robust, co-ordinated action.”

Those calls were echoed by others. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by the killings of civilians, including children, and a group of defence chiefs from 12 countries also condemned the violence.

U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said: “The shameful, cowardly, brutal actions of the military and police – who have been filmed shooting at protesters as they flee, and who have not even spared young children – must be halted immediately.”

But it's still not clear what action is possible — or how quick it will be. The U.N. Security Council has condemned the violence but not advocated concerted action against the junta, such as a ban on selling it arms. China and Russia are both major arms suppliers to Myanmar’s military as well as politically sympathetic, and as members of the council would almost certainly veto any such move.

If the Security Council isn't able to do anything, Andrews called for an emergency international summit. Already many countries have already imposed some sanctions and threatened more, but it’s not clear what further action governments will take. Human rights group Amnesty International also criticized the hesitancy to do more.

“U.N. Security Council member states’ continued refusal to meaningfully act against this never-ending horror is contemptible,” said Ming Yu Hah, the organization’s deputy regional director for campaigns.

In the meantime, protesters have continued to rally in Myanmar's streets. In one demonstration in Yangon, a small group made its way through a residential area that the day before had seen chaos with police shooting at demonstrators and the protesters responding with fireworks and Molotov cocktails. The march finished without incident.

But there were reports on social media that more protesters were killed Sunday.

In addition to unleashing violence against demonstrators, the military is also continuing to battle ethnic Karen fighters in the country's east. About 3,000 villagers from territory controlled by the Karen fled across the border to Thailand on Sunday after Myanmar military aircraft dropped bombs on a Karen guerrilla position, said workers for two humanitarian relief agencies.

The Karen National Union is one of more than a dozen ethnic organizations that have been fighting for decades to gain more autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

The tension at the border comes as the leaders of the resistance to the coup are seeking to have the Karen and other ethnic groups band together and join them as allies. So far the ethnic armed groups have only committed to providing protection to protesters in the areas they control.

The Associated Press

Full supermoon in March 2021: When to see the 'Worm' moon

By Megan Marples and Ashley Strickland, CNN 


See the "Worm" supermoon glow in the March sky this Sunday.

© Owen Humphreys/Press Association/AP The Worm moon will peak Sunday afternoon and is the fourth closest supermoon of 2021.

The moon will be fullest at 2:48 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, according to NASA.

This will be the year's first supermoon, meaning the moon is slightly closer to Earth and therefore appears bigger and brighter in the sky. The Worm supermoon is the fourth brightest moon of 2021, according to Earth Sky.

© Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images The Milky Way is seen from the Glacier Point Trailside in Yosemite National Park, California.

In the Hindu month of Phalguna, this month's moon marks the Holi Festival, according to NASA, which celebrates the beginning of spring.

The Native American tribes in the South call the March full moon the Worm moon because of the earthworm casts, soil that the worms digest, become visible as the ground thaws.

Other Native American tribes have different names for the full moon in March that still relate to animals, according to the Western Washington University Planetarium website.

The Algonquin tribe northeast of the Great Lakes call the March full moon "namossack kesos" or "catching fish." In the northern plains of Canada, the Cree tribe call it "migisupizum" or "Eagle moon."

Typical of a normal year, 2021 will also have 12 full moons. (Last year had 13 full moons, two of which were in October.)

Here are all of the full moons remaining this year and their names, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac:

April 26 -- Pink moon

May 26 -- Flower moon

June 24 -- Strawberry moon

July 23 -- Buck moon

August 22 -- Sturgeon moon

September 20 -- Harvest moon

October 20 -- Hunter's moon

November 19 -- Beaver moon

December 18 -- Cold moon

Be sure to check for the other names of these moons as well, attributed to the different Native American tribes.

Here is what else you can look forward to in 2021.

Meteor showers

There is a bit of a wait until the next meteor shower, the popular Lyrids, in April. The Lyrids will peak on April 22 and will be best seen in the Northern Hemisphere -- but the moon will be 68% full, according to the American Meteor Society. This may make the meteor shower less visible.

The Eta Aquariids follow soon after, peaking on May 5 when the moon is 38% full. This shower is best seen in the southern tropics, but will still produce a medium shower for those north of the equator.

The Delta Aquariids are also best seen from the southern tropics and will peak between July 28 and 29 when the moon is 74% full.

Interestingly, another meteor shower peaks on the same night -- the Alpha Capricornids. Although this is a much weaker shower, it has been known to produce some bright fireballs during the peak. It will be visible for those on either side of the equator.

The Perseid meteor shower, the most popular of the year, will peak between August 11 and 12 in the Northern Hemisphere, when the moon is only 13% full.

Here is the meteor shower schedule for the rest of the year, according to EarthSky's meteor shower outlook.


October 8: Draconids
October 21: Orionids
November 4 to 5: South Taurids
November 11 to 12: North Taurids
November 17: Leonids
December 13 to 14: Geminids
December 22: Ursids


Solar and lunar eclipses

This year, there will be two eclipses of the sun and two eclipses of the moon -- and three of these will be visible for some in North America, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac.

A total eclipse of the moon will occur on May 26, best visible to those in western North America and Hawaii from 4:46 a.m. ET to 9:51 a.m. ET.

An annular eclipse of the sun will happen on June 10, visible in northern and northeastern North America from 4:12 a.m. ET to 9:11 a.m. ET. The sun won't be fully blocked by the moon, so be sure to wear eclipse glasses to safely view this event.

November 19 will see a partial eclipse of the moon, and skywatchers in North America and Hawaii can view it between 1 a.m. ET and 7:06 a.m. ET.

And the year ends with a total eclipse of the sun on December 4. It won't be seen in North America, but those in the Falkland Islands, the southern tip of Africa, Antarctica and southeastern Australia will be able to spot it.

Visible planets

Skywatchers will have multiple opportunities to spot the planets in our sky during certain mornings and evenings throughout 2021, according to the Farmer's Almanac planetary guide.

It's possible to see most of these with the naked eye, with the exception of distant Neptune, but binoculars or a telescope will provide the best view.

Mercury will look like a bright star in the morning sky from June 27 to July 16, and October 18 to November 1. It will shine in the night sky from May 3 to May 24, August 31 to September 21 and November 29 to December 31.

Venus, our closest neighbor in the solar system, will appear in the western sky at dusk on the evenings of May 24 to December 31. It's the second brightest object in our sky after the moon.

Mars makes its reddish appearance in the morning sky between November 24 and December 31 and will be visible in the evening sky between January 1 and August 22.

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is the third brightest object in our sky. It will be on display in the morning sky between February 17 and August 19. Look for it in the evenings of August 20 to December 31 -- but it will be at its brightest from August 8 to September 2.

Saturn's rings are only visible through a telescope, but the planet itself can still be seen with the naked eye on the mornings of February 10 to August 1 and the evenings of August 2 to December 31. It will be at its brightest between August 1 to 4.

Binoculars or a telescope will help you spot the greenish glow of Uranus on the mornings of May 16 to November 3 and the evenings of January 1 to April 12 and November 4 to December 31 -- but at its brightest between August 28 to December 31.

And our most distant neighbor in the solar system, Neptune will be visible through a telescope on the mornings of March 27 to September 13 and the evenings of September 14 to December 31. It will be at its brightest between July 19 and November 8.

Scale of Tigray horror adds to pressure on Ethiopian leader
Emmanuel Akinwotu 

Pressure is mounting on Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, as the scale of horrors from his war against the northern Tigray region gradually emerge, revealing massacres, mass sexual violence and fears of ethnic cleansing.

© Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP 

Orthodox Christian refugees who fled the conflict in Tigray pray \

at a camp in Hamdeyat near the Sudan-Ethiopia border.

Ethiopia has for months insisted that its army’s operations, which began in October last year, have officially ended and solely targeted the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) leadership and forces, which ruled Ethiopia for almost three decades before Abiy came to power.

Abiy’s government has repeatedly played down the most severe allegations against its forces in Tigray, and denied reports that Eritrean armed forces were active in Tigray fighting the TPLF.

Yet last week he finally conceded that Eritrea’s soldiers were “at the border area” between Tigray and Ethiopia’s former foe turned ally. Eritrea’s army was now retreating from Ethiopia, he said. Eritrea’s government has not publicly acknowledged any role in Tigray or confirmed its troops would retreat.

The independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission last week said its investigations found over 100 people in the historic Tigrayan city of Axum were killed by Eritrean soldiers in November, confirming earlier revelations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

© Provided by The Guardian Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed, right, and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki at Asmara airport last week. Photograph: Aron Simeneh/AFP/Getty Images


Reports confirming atrocities by Eritrean soldiers present in Tigray and revelations of the devastation of the past five months have fuelled international condemnation of both Ethiopia and Eritrea. The EU placed sanctions on Eritrea this week, amid concerns that many of the attacks could amount to crimes against humanity.

Reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have revealed several massacres and an explosion of sexual violence, torture and destruction of Tigrayan cultural and religious monuments and property.

Since aid groups and observers were granted access earlier this month, there has been a drip feed of shocking revelations. Last week, the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its staff had witnessed extrajudicial killings on the road from Mekelle to Adigrat by Ethiopian troops. “We are horrified by the continued violence in Tigray, Ethiopia. This includes the extrajudicial killings of at least four men who were dragged off public buses and executed by soldiers while our staff members were present, on 23 March,” said Karline Kleijer, its head of emergency programmes.

Earlier this month, MSF said most of the more than 100 health facilities it had visited across Tigray had been looted, vandalised and destroyed in a deliberate and widespread attack on healthcare. What Abiy has insisted was a military operation against “criminals” has instead emerged as a bitter conflict waged against millions of civilians, with mass attacks and sexual violence driven by ethnic and historic regional divisions.

The military campaign against the TPLF, whom Abiy accused of attacking federal military camps and aiming to destabilise the country, has quickly recast the image of one of Africa’s youngest leaders who was awarded the Nobel peace prize for ending the long conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Amid a telecommunications blackout and the restricted movement of aid groups and international observers, many fear the true toll of the conflict may never be ascertained.

The United Nations, United States, European Union and aid groups have condemned violence in the region in recent weeks.

Thousands are thought to have died, with vast swathes internally displaced in the mountainous, agriculture region of five million people.

Nearly one million people remain inaccessible to aid groups, according to the UN, amid armed conflict with TPLF forces, which Ethiopia still maintains has officially ended.Earlier this month, in a leaked recording of a meeting between foreign diplomats and an Ethiopian army general, Yohannes Tesfamariam, he described the conflict in Tigray as a “dirty war” and civilian victims as “defenceless” in the most significant acknowledgement from Ethiopia’s authorities that fighting and threats to civilians were ongoing, particularly in Western Tigray.

The UN last week condemned “horrific forms of sexual violence” with more than 500 cases of rape reported in just five clinics in Tigray, and the numbers of actual cases likely to be far higher. “Women say they have been raped by armed actors, they also told stories of gang rape, rape in front of family members and men being forced to rape their own family members under the threat of violence,” explained Wafia Said, the deputy UN aid coordinator in Ethiopia in a briefing to member states.

On March 10, the US secretary of state condemned the violence, ramping up pressure on Ethiopia to end atrocities in Tigray. Following investigations, Antony Blinken said he had seen “very credible reports of human rights abuses and atrocities,” and that “forces from Eritrea and Amhara must leave and be replaced by ‘a force that will not abuse the human rights of the people of Tigray or commit acts of ethnic cleansing’.” Ethiopia dismissed Blinken’s statement as unfounded but said it would permit an investigation by the African Union.

On Monday the EU announced sanctions on Eritrea, dismissed by the country’s ministry of foreign affairs as “a futile attempt to drive a wedge between Eritrea and Ethiopia.”

Nearly 70,000 refugees have fled to camps in neighbouring Sudan since November, some suffering physical injuries from attacks in Tigray, others suffering from the horrors they witnessed before they escaped.

Before 26-year-old Elsa Berhe fled to Hamdayet town in Sudan, she was a midwife in Adwa, eastern Tigray and lived a comfortable life. In November, shelling and fighting destroyed much of Adwa. By early this year, several hospitals and clinics were destroyed, looted and taken over by Ethiopian forces. “I was secretly delivering home-to-home services for pregnant women,” she said. “There is gunfire every day, there is questioning every day,” she said, from the camp overlooking the Sudan’s border with Ethiopia. Attacks on medical officials had driven her to leave, she said.

“I saw an ambulance with a patient and a nurse,” when they were stopped by Ethiopian soldiers. “They killed the driver and the nurse and they drove away.” Later, she witnessed Eritrean forces gang rape a woman, Berhe said.“The international community has done nothing to stop the war. Destruction is happening, rape is happening daily and civilians are being killed.”

According to Adem Abebe, an expert at the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the horrific nature of the conflict so far will probably lead to the TPLF remaining a long-term threat to Abiy. “Unless there is a negotiated settlement, the conflict will definitely be prolonged. But Abiy may now think that he has pushed the TPLF into a corner and that he is in a much stronger position to negotiate.”

Federal NDP calls on government to eliminate for-profit long-term care

OTTAWA — New Democrats are seeking the support of the House of Commons in calling on the Liberal government to eliminate for-profit long-term care.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The NDP tabled a motion Monday that calls on the government to take the complex step of transitioning existing for-profit homes to not-for-profit operations by 2030. It also urges the government to work with provinces and territories to stop licensing new for-profit homes.

The NDP unveiled its proposal for the long-term care sector earlier this year, presenting it as a potential election promise as parties gear up for a possible 2021 election campaign.

At the time, New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh said an NDP government would bring together provincial and territorial leaders, experts and workers to set national standards for nursing homes, benchmarks that would be tied to $5 billion in federal funding.

"We know that for-profit means less care. It means less hours of care. It means less quality food," Singh said at a virtual press conference Monday.

"Let us remove profit from long-term care, beginning with Revera."

The motion includes a call to immediately turn Revera — a company that runs more than 500 seniors' homes in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom — from a for-profit chain owned by a Crown pension fund into a publicly managed entity.

Seniors Minister Deb Schulte said she opposes the motion, pointing to provincial jurisdiction over health care.

"The federal government does not have the legal authority to do what the NDP is proposing," Schulte said in a Twitter thread Monday morning that was retweeted by federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu.

During House debate Monday afternoon, Hajdu reiterated the federal government's pledge to establish national standards, which would be applied in separate deals struck with provinces that want to meet them. The government has not laid out what those benchmarks should be, though the health minister stressed the need to boost wages and working conditions for personal support workers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he respects provincial authority when it comes to long-term care, and supports the sector through billions of dollars in added funding allocated to the provinces during the COVID-19 crisis.

Singh did not offer a projected cost of phasing out long-term care, which could climb into the billions if community agencies and municipalities seek funding to run more homes and provide more beds.

Another hurdle is that nursing home operators would still own the buildings and real estate even if provinces opt against renewing their licences, making for potentially pricey government purchases.

"We will work with the parliamentary budget office and other levels to ascertain the full cost of it," Singh told reporters.

Some lawmakers bristled at the prospect of federal politicians encroaching on provincial turf.

"Provinces have been clear. They don't want national standards," Bloc Québécois MP Louise Chabot said during debate in the House.

A vote on the NDP motion, which is not binding on the minority Liberal government, is expected Tuesday.

Multiple recent studies have found that for-profit nursing homes were more likely to experience more widespread virus outbreaks, as well as more deaths.

"Even before COVID-19 we have a litany of research that shows that, on the whole, these homes perform worse than non-profit and municipal homes," said Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos, a long-term care advocate and professor at Ontario Tech University.

She said at the press conference that for-profit residents are more likely to wind up in hospital and to die within six months of admission to a home.

“They hire less full-time permanent staff to boot, and they also pay their staff less, which results in a revolving door of workers," Stamatopoulos said.

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) — the Crown pension plan manager that owns Revera — said the funding model for long-term care is a key public policy debate. "PSP Investments and Revera will continue working with all levels of government to find the right solutions for the LTC industry and discuss lessons learned from the ongoing pandemic," said spokeswoman Verena Garofalo.

More than two-thirds of Canada's COVID-19 deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, with the percentage breaching 80 per cent during the first wave.

In Ontario, where the second wave has proven even deadlier than the first in nursing homes, an independent commission has been convened to examine the virus's effect on the sector. The commission is slated to deliver its final report at the end of April.

More than a quarter of the country's 2,039 long-term care homes are for-profit — 58 per cent in Ontario, the highest proportion of any province — according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Ottawa resident Aaron Gruntke says he lost his 59-year-old mother Linda Lee Gruntke less than five months after she entered a for-profit care facility in Toronto.

She suffered numerous falls, including one that required 30 stitches and a three-day stay in hospital, he said at Monday's news conference organized by the NDP.

"Sometimes she didn’t get medications because there was no nurse available to administer them. Other times she was overmedicated. She once wore the same bandage on her leg for three days straight," Gruntke said, adding that he didn't blame "overworked and underpaid" staff.

His mother complained about respiratory issues for three days before staff found her unconscious in her room and sent her to hospital on Sept. 26, he said. Three days later she had a heart attack, and died on Oct. 3.

"The difference in care between for-profit and not-for-profit is like night and day," Gruntke said, citing the "warmth and kindness" with which staff attend to his 93-year-old grandmother, who lives in a not-for-profit home. "Maybe if my mother had the proper treatment she would still be here today."

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

Christopher Reynolds and Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press

Edmonton research group uses board game and phone app to fight racism

A board game, phone app and a subscription box for guided self-reflection are among a set of tools developed by an Edmonton community research group to fight racism.

YEG HAS LONG BEEN A GLOBAL GAMING DESIGN CITY

BECAUSE ITS FRIGGEN COLD SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR

BUT NOW THAT IT IS WARMING WE WILL HAVE TO SEE

© Provided by Edmonton Journal The Exploring Wahkohtowin board game on the history of Treaty 6. It's one of several prototypes created by Edmonton-based Shift Lab 2.0 to address racism in approachable and creative ways. Submitted image.

Shift Lab 2.0 facilitator Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse said the social innovation lab tools invite people to explore their biases. They look to find that “sweet spot” where someone can reconsider in a positive, inviting way. The focus is on building relationships.

“If you care about someone, you’re less likely to harm them or hurt them or hate them. Racism is fear and harm that perpetuates hate, and so what are the opposite of those things? Kindness, compassion, friendship,” she said. “We recognize reducing racism isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s going to take many things, many people, many years. But we are committed to getting there, and this is one of the ways that will help.”

The tools currently being tested include the Exploring Wahkohtowin board game on the history of Treaty 6, a subscription box called You Need This Box , which aims to help a person reflect on and challenge systemic racism, and a Reflection Pool phone app to identify biases and teach empathy. They’ve also created a sticker and coffee-sleeve awareness campaign about treaty relationships between settlers and Indigenous peoples.

Shift Lab 2.0 organizers expect to hold a formal launch for the set of tools later this year.

© PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABHNAV The Exploring Wahkohtowin board game on the history of Treaty 6. It’s one of several prototypes created by Edmonton-based Shift Lab 2.0 to address racism in approachable and creative ways. Submitted image.

The number of hate crimes has risen locally in recent years.

Since December, there have been at least six attacks on Black Muslim women in Edmonton. Edmonton police received 60 reports of hate crimes last year, while there were 80 reports between January and November 2020 in Calgary.

Anti-Asian hate crimes have also been on the rise in Canada and the U.S. over the past year, and hate is expected by many to have motivated the killing of six Asian women in Atlanta, Ga. last week.

Another prototype from the lab is a brochure teaching bystanders how they can intervene in overtly racist encounters. It’s currently being revised to address issues specific to recent assaults on Black Muslim women.

When complete, lab facilitator Sameer Singh said it’s meant to give people tools to help them de-escalate, react and support people targeted by racism and harassment in a helpful way.

“You never know when there’s going to be a racist incident or harassment on a bus,” he said. “The idea is to provide muscle memory.”

“If you read it, it might just be in the back of your mind so that if something does happen tomorrow or a month from now, you might feel like you’re in a better position to do something positive and help somebody who’s being harassed because of the colour of their skin or religion or even their gender.”

Shift Lab 2.0 was facilitated and funded by the Skills Action Society and Edmonton Community Foundation.

Lauren Boothby 

POSTMEDIA

3/22/2021
lboothby@postmedia.com

“You Need This Box” is a subscription box aimed at teaching to understand and combat racism on a personal level. It’s one of several prototypes created by Edmonton-based Shift Lab 2.0 to address racism in approachable and creative ways. Submitted image.

Romanian police investigate death threats against prominent Jewish actor


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian police were investigating on Sunday death threats made against award-winning film and theatre star Maia Morgenstern and her children at the start of Passover celebrations

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© Reuters/Reuters Photographer FILE PHOTO: ROMANIAN "PASSION "

ACTRESS MORGENSTERN ATTENDS PRESS CONFERENCE IN BUCHAREST.

Morgenstern, who played the figure of Mary in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and runs the Jewish State Theatre in Bucharest, published an email she received in which the author threatens to violently kill Morgenstern and her children, as well as set fire to the Jewish theatre and its staff.

The email was signed "on behalf of the far right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR)", although its leader George Simion condemned the threat, saying it was not issued by the party, and urged authorities to quickly find and punish its author.

Police said they were tracking the IP address of the email sender.

The ultra-nationalist party AUR was formed a year ago and surprised in a December general election to become the fourth-largest party in parliament.

Unlike some of its central and European peers, Romania did not have a mainstream party supporting far-right ideas until December's parliamentary election, although these had surfaced in well-established parties too.

Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany until August 1944, when it changed sides, and hundreds of thousands of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews and Roma were killed in areas it controlled.

The European Union state has only in recent years begun to come to terms with its role in the Holocaust, admitting for the first time in 2003 that it took part. Sensitivity towards the Holocaust and knowledge of it remain patchy.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)