How Kahnawake's cross-border ironworkers are dealing with isolation from their families, community

Ka’nhehsí:io Deer CBC 2021-04-05

© Submitted by Hogan Gilbert Hogan Gilbert is a third-year apprentice with New York's Local 40 ironworkers union. Like many ironworkers from Kahnawake, Que., he's faced isolation during the past year to protect friends, family and the community from…

Like many Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) families, Hogan Gilbert's has a rich history in ironwork, and the trade has taken him far from home.

Gilbert and countless other ironworkers from Kahnawake, Que., near Montreal, travel roughly 600 kilometres up and down the I-87 every week to build New York City's bridges and skyscrapers. It's a longstanding tradition that has spanned multiple generations of Kanien'kehá:ka families.

But that part of ironwork life has changed drastically as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. With the closure of the Canada-U.S. border and strict public health measures, many have been isolated from their families, friends, and community.


"Being here for so long really makes you miss town," said Gilbert, 31, a third-year apprentice with New York's Local 40 ironworkers union.

"You don't know how much you appreciate home until it's not accessible anymore."

Now, after months of visits through windows or camping in yards to keep distance, the first doses of vaccines have arrived — and Kahnawake's ironworkers see an end to their isolation on the horizon.
'The solitude was crazy'

In March 2020, before the federal government's orders under the Quarantine Act, Kahnawake's COVID-19 task force implemented a number of measures for cross-border workers as a way to minimize risk of transmitting the virus.

It recommended workers stay at their job site until further notice or quarantine for two weeks if they chose to come home.

"That was the hardest part. That was the longest part of the year," said Gilbert.

"The solitude was crazy, to be really honest. I was alone every day for months."

Mike White, 36, another apprentice ironworker, made the decision to take a leave from work for five months to stay in Kahnawake with his fiancée and four children.

"I only returned to NYC in late August. Fortunately, I got the same job with the same company," he said in an interview from New York.

"Things were definitely different. We got tested twice a week and a lot of safety measures were put in place."

But travelling back and forth meant isolating from his family, and being able to speak with them only through a window.

"It was definitely hard on everyone," he said.

"Things are improving generally both back home and over here in NYC. I take every precaution necessary. I bring my groceries from home, drive to and from work and that's it."

© Angel Horn Photography White, left, had to isolate from his fiancée and four children when he returned to Kahnawake from working in New York City.

Gilbert has had a similar experience. Over the fall and winter, he isolated from his girlfriend when home by camping in their backyard or staying at hotels until it became too expensive to do so.

The extra precautions the couple took were for the safety of elders and the most vulnerable in the community.

"We were extra cautious because I see my parents a lot and they work with the elders, so we distance ourselves from each other in order to protect everyone around us," said his girlfriend Maylan Jacobs.

"It feels better that he's being tested regularly and it comes back negative, but there's always still that chance so it's kind of like I have to pick between seeing him and seeing my family which is a tough one to make."
The end of the tunnel

As of Feb. 21, new testing and quarantine requirements are required when entering Canada. Essential workers on infrastructure projects, such as ironworkers, are exempt.

However, the task force in Kahnawake remains cautious, giving ironworkers the OK to return to the community without having to isolate as long as they have had negative COVID-19 PCR test results in the last 72 hours.

White is getting tested every Wednesday before coming home on Friday evenings. His union pays for PCR tests only every two weeks, so he's paying $120 out of his own pocket for the other weeks.

"We understand, it definitely takes a toll on people," said Lloyd Phillips, public safety commissioner at the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and a member of the task force.

"We're trying to be as fair as we can but also keeping in mind that the whole health of our community is the priority."

As a part of the task force's current mass vaccination campaign in Kahnawake, Phillips said a special clinic was organized on March 28 for cross-border workers and students. Both White and Gilbert were among those to receive their first dose of vaccine.

Gilbert said that's been a huge relief. Although his current schooling schedule means he'll be home less often, he was able to kiss his girlfriend for the first time since July.

"We looked at each other and we were like, we don't know if we still know how to do this, and she jumped on me and gave me a big kiss. It was amazing," he said.

"It feels like there's a light at the end of the tunnel knowing that I can come home as long as I keep testing negative. That's key. We can be together, that's the best part. The second thing is getting vaccinated so that we don't have to worry about this for much longer."

Watch: In the blink of an eye, Australian beach-goer lashed by 'the angriest octopus'

National Post Staff 2021-04-05

Most people who have watched the Netflix documentary ‘My Octopus Teacher’, would assume that octopuses are playful, curious creatures with an appetite for affection and human companionship.

© Provided by National Post An angry octopus heads towards Lane Karlson before lashing out in a video that has since been viewed over 300,000 times.

But a viral video of an encounter between an Australian geologist and an aggressive octopus proves that the intelligent marine creatures are not to be messed with.

Lance Karlson, who filmed and posted the footage, called it the ‘angriest octopus on Geographe Bay’, Western Australia, in his caption.The clip, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times on Instagram, shows an octopus swimming toward the camera in shallow water, eyes narrowed. In a blink of an eye, it whips out its tentacles before spreading them out back in the water.

He doesn’t know what he did to anger the octopus so much, he told CNN .

“I was confused — it was more of a shock than a fright,” he said.

Karlson met the octopus on March 18 while taking a walk on the beach with his two-year-old daughter in search of a spot to swim.

He noticed something attacking a seagull — a stingray, he presumed. But as he drew closer with his daughter, he realized it was an octopus and took out his phone to film it, just in time for the octopus to turn its wrath on him.

https://www.instagram.com/lancekarlson/?utm_source=ig_embed

“I took that footage, it lashed out at me and I was quite surprised; and then it swam off into deeper water,” Karlson told CNN.

That wasn’t the end of his encounter with the invertebrate. Later, as he swam among a nearby ‘crab graveyard’, examining some crab shells, he felt another whip across his arm, followed a second on his neck and upper back.

The water around him, he said, turned murky with what looked like octopus ink, as he stumbled back to the safety of the shore. He believes he may have inadvertently come across its home and threatened the octopus.

Octopuses are known to squirt an ink-like dark pigment as a defence mechanism when they feel threatened. For the most part, octopus ink is harmless to humans but the lashes of their tentacles leave a stinging pain treatable with an acidic substance.

Karlson, a former lifeguard, said he normally treats the stings with vinegar. However, finding none in his hotel room, his family instead poured some Coca-Cola over him, which dissipated the pain.

“The pain went away and more than anything since then, it’s been more the physical hit that was painful… The imprint on my neck in those photos is more from the physical hit, and I guess it makes complete sense when you look at the video I took 20 minutes earlier of that lashing out,” he said.
The lashing marked Karlson’s first encounter with the cephalopod and motivated him to watch the popular Netflix documentary to learn more about the creatures.
“They are beautiful creatures and I really hope this provokes more interest in octopuses as opposed to fear of them. I think this is a fascinating creature with clearly some very strong emotions just like we do as humans,” he added.

Indigenous women, transgender and 

Two-Spirit people need support when leaving prison

We’re all aware of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our health and wellness — but why isn’t more attention being paid to the relationship between COVID-19 and the criminal justice system, specifically how it’s impacting Indigenous women, transgender and Two-Spirit people

.

© CP PHOTO/Thomas Porter A teepee outside the women's unit of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert, Sask., Jan., 2001.

The start of the pandemic came with the release of more than 2,300 people from jails across Ontario. Since then, numerous front-line workers and community organizations have called upon the Ontario government to ensure that the people being released have co-ordinated plans and supports in place.

Unfortunately, the government continues to neglect those calls, inadvertently placing all released inmates at risk of COVID-19 infection, exploitation and even death.

Kevin Walby, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, said it’s like the provincial government just “gave up” when it comes to protecting the health of inmates and the broader population.
A failure to follow through

We have witnessed how the Ontario government has failed to follow through on their promises to end violence against Indigenous people.

As a doctoral student who has volunteered with women and youth in and out of prisons, and an Anishinaabe midwife and assistant professor, we have heard first-hand how dire this crisis is. Staff at Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society have told us that they’ve waited more than eight hours for women scheduled to be released from the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ont., and that some were released as late as 10:30 p.m. with no access to transportation or accommodation.

The 2019 National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) highlighted how Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people leaving prison can become entrapped in a cycle of incarceration. They are often victimized by traffickers who use the prison system to target, lure and exploit those who don’t have access to housing or transportation.

Despite the province’s 2020 commitment to respond to the national inquiry’s Calls for Justice, it continues to release Indigenous women into precarious situations without resources for a safe passage to their families or communities.

To release anyone, particularly Indigenous women, transgender, and Two-Spirit individuals this way is irresponsible, dangerous and does not demonstrate a commitment to reconciliation.

Doing nothing has consequences

One tragic example of the consequences of these systemic failures is the death of Kimberly Squirrel. On Jan. 23, 2021, Squirrel was found frozen to death in Saskatoon just three days after being released from a provincial correctional facility; no one in her family was notified of her release and her death was entirely preventable.

Indigenous transgender and Two-Spirit people have long experienced sexist, transphobic and racist discrimination at the hands of the Canadian prison system. The disproportionate social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on transgender and Two-Spirit communities further highlights the importance of providing supports upon release.

It is only a matter of time before someone else is harmed — or even killed — as a direct result of the provincial government’s inefficiency and disregard for implementing appropriate measures for the safe release of Indigenous women, transgender and Two-Spirit people.

Enough is enough

The urgency of these issues is further underscored by COVID-19 and its disproportionate impact on Indigenous communities. Without re-entry plans, adequate safety measures and communication in place, individuals are released into precarious circumstances. Without access to accommodation or transportation, they may be unable to safely self-isolate to prevent the spread of the virus.

In an open letter to the Ministry of the Solicitor General, we — as part of a collective of community members, Elders, Healers, front-line workers, researchers, educators and students who advocate for the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system — have called upon the Ontario government to:
Develop and release re-entry plans for all inmates, including provisions for adequate financial and transitional supports.
Publicly release current policies and measures in place for the safe release of all — including Indigenous women, transgender and Two-Spirit people.
Publicly release COVID-19 safety measures for individuals prior to and upon release from correctional institutions.

Against the advice of public health experts and advocates, Ontario continues to incarcerate people at an alarming rate. Provincial and federal governments must be held accountable for the harms that their inaction and blatant maleficence has caused.

Indigenous women, transgender and Two-Spirit people deserve to be treated with respect — both inside and outside of prison.

We offer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Kimberly Squirrel.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


Tenzin Butsang, PhD Student, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and Karen Lawford, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Studies, Queen's University, Ontario 

2021-04-05

Karen Lawford is affiliated with the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives.

Tenzin Butsang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic app

 

Winnipeg ledger shows Spanish Flu was 'off the charts'

Duration: 02:35 

CBC 2021-04-05

Historical ledgers show Bardal Funeral Home went from an average of 5 funerals a week to 45 during the Spanish Flu.

HUMANIST CATHOLIC
RIP

Hans Kueng, dissident Catholic theologian, dies at 93
2021-04-06

BERLIN — Hans Kueng, a Roman Catholic theologian who was an early colleague and friend of the future Pope Benedict XVI but later fell foul of the Vatican for challenging church doctrine and became a vocal critic of the pontiff, has died. He was 93.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Kueng died Tuesday at his home in Tuebingen, according to the Global Ethic Foundation, or Stiftung Weltethos in German, which he established in 1995.

Though forbidden by the Vatican to teach theology, Kueng was an influential voice for liberal Catholics and a prolific author, challenging Catholic doctrines on papal authority, birth control, divorce and other issues.

“He never evaded the important dispute over the right path to peace and understanding,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. “Hans Kueng is a lasting role model of a scholar, a brilliant thinker with a sharp mind who, at the same time, was an alert political observer and a committed fellow-citizen.”

Kueng’s career was lived in opposition to Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, but in retirement Kueng was delighted by “the new reform-friendly atmosphere” inspired by the election of Pope Francis.

The career of the Swiss-born Kueng intertwined with that of Joseph Ratzinger, the future Benedict. Kueng, then a professor at the University of Tuebingen, urged the university’s theology department to hire the young Ratzinger in 1966.

The pair participated in the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s as “periti,” or advisers. Kueng later wrote that he and Ratzinger were known there as the “teenage theologians,” though they were then in their 30s.

Later, they took different paths.

Ratzinger left Tuebingen in 1969 after left-wing student upheavals rocked the campus, and his classes were at one point interrupted by sit-ins. Kueng was stripped of the right to teach Catholic theology at Tuebingen in 1979 after challenging Catholic doctrine — most significantly papal infallibility, which holds that the pope can never be mistaken when he makes “infallible” pronouncements.

Ratzinger, by then a cardinal, was the Vatican’s chief guardian of orthodoxy from 1981 to 2005. While Benedict was not at the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the time Kueng was disciplined, he was reportedly involved in the decision in his role as archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Ratzinger defended the Vatican’s treatment of Kueng, saying in his 1997 book “Salt of the Earth” that he respected the path Kueng had taken but that Kueng “should not then demand the church’s seal of approval.”

Kueng’s estrangement from the Vatican took place under Pope John Paul II, and the theologian sharply criticized the Polish-born pontiff’s approach to running the church — though he voiced admiration for the globe-trotting John Paul’s wider impact on the world stage.

“There is a blatant contradiction between the foreign policy of this pope and his domestic policy,” Kueng told The Associated Press on the 25th anniversary of John Paul’s papacy in 2003.

“I find it remarkable how the pope spoke out for human rights, freedom and democracy and especially against the war in Iraq, and also for the dialogue of religions,” he said. “But, on the other hand, he represses freedom in the Catholic Church, he supports the inquisition against reformist theologians and bishops. He holds intolerant positions on questions like birth control and abortion.”

Two years later, Kueng said of Benedict’s election that it was “an enormous disappointment for all those who hoped for a reformist and pastoral pope.”

Still, he said the new pope should be allowed 100 days to “learn.”

A reconciliation seemed possible in September 2005, a few months after Benedict’s election, when the pope granted Kueng an audience.

The Vatican said the two spent several hours together and had a friendly theological discussion — though they skirted the differences that divided Kueng and the church.

Kueng said they had previously met only once, in Bavaria in 1983, since he was stripped of his license to teach, and that was a “rather tense situation.”

But the 2005 meeting was “a very significant event” and a step forward after he spent 25 years asking to see John Paul, he said — “now I got the impression that he was the same person I knew from the happy Tuebingen years.”

However much that meeting may have mended personal fences, Kueng became a vocal public critic of Benedict’s traditionalist papacy over the following years.

In 2010, as the church in the pope’s German homeland and elsewhere reeled from revelations of decades of sexual abuse of children by clerics, Kueng wrote in an open letter to bishops that Benedict’s papacy was increasingly “one of missed opportunities and unused chances.”

The church, he said, was “in the deepest crisis of confidence since the Reformation.” He faulted the pope, among other things, for failing to reach out more to Protestants and achieve a “lasting understanding” with Jews; stirring mistrust among Muslims with a 2006 speech; failing to help people in Africa combat AIDS by allowing the use of condoms; and failing to push forward the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Kueng was irked by Benedict’s decision to lift, “without preconditions,” the excommunication of four bishops consecrated without papal consent by the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X — one of them a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jews and Catholics alike.

Kueng said that efforts to cover up sexual abuse were steered by Ratzinger’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and he regretted that the pope hadn’t delivered a “personal mea culpa.” And he called on bishops to demand change: “Don’t send messages of devotion to Rome, but demands for reform!”

Kueng was born on March 19, 1928 in Sursee, central Switzerland. After graduating from high school in Lucerne, he studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He was consecrated as a priest in 1954 and later continued his studies in Paris, at the Sorbonne and the Institut Catholique, where he gained his doctorate with a dissertation on the doctrine of justification — the subject of a long dispute between Catholics and Protestants over how people achieve salvation.

Kueng worked as a priest in Lucerne in the late 1950s, before moving to the theology faculty of Germany’s University of Muenster and later to Tuebingen. He remained in Tuebingen for the rest of his life.

Geir Moulson, The Associated Press

QANON FOLLOWER?
Additional arson charges laid against suspect in Masonic hall fires
2021-04-06


VANCOUVER — Police say five more charges have been approved against a man accused of setting fire to three Masonic halls in Metro Vancouver last week.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Police say 42-year-old Benjamin Kohlman was charged Tuesday with two counts of arson and three counts of break and enter to commit arson after fires in Vancouver and North Vancouver.

Police arrested Kohlman in nearby Burnaby within a few hours of the fires.

He was charged the following day with one count of arson in relation to the fire in Vancouver, as well as one count of assaulting a police officer.

All three fires were allegedly set in the span of an hour last Tuesday.

The first call came in at around 6:45 a.m. about a fire at the Lynn Valley Lodge in North Vancouver, while a second fire reported minutes later severely damaged a Masonic centre located four kilometres away.

Fire officials said the third fire at a Masonic hall in east Vancouver was reported around 7:30 a.m. and caused little damage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Massive Facebook data breach affecting millions of Canadians was not reported to federal privacy watchdog

Anja Karadeglija 2021-04-06

The federal privacy commissioner’s office hasn’t heard from Facebook regarding a massive global data leak that looks to have included 3.49 million Canadian accounts, and is “actively following up with the company,” according to a spokesperson.

 Provided by National Post Federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien.

Over the weekend, a cybersecurity expert revealed that data relating to 533 million Facebook accounts worldwide had been leaked online. Alon Gal, the chief technology officer of cybersecurity company Hudson Rock, said the leaked database includes information about users’ phone numbers, past and current locations, birthdates, relationship statuses, bios and, in some cases, email addresses.

Gal said 3.49 million Facebook users in Canada were affected. Canada’s privacy law requires organizations to report breaches to the federal privacy commissioner, and notify affected individuals, for breaches “involving personal information that pose a real risk of significant harm to individuals.”

A Facebook spokesperson said in an email that “this is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.” According to Gal, the data came from a vulnerability that was exploited in early 2020.

“It sounds like it’s the recurrence of an earlier leak, in that this is a copy of data that was part of an earlier data breach” and that information has now been “up and posted on the dark web,” Teresa Scassa, the Canada research chair in information law and policy at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview.

Facebook did not answer questions about how many Canadian accounts were involved, and refused to say whether it considers the leak to fall under mandatory breach reporting rules.

Jim Balsillie: Liberal privacy bill fails to curtail surveillance economy or protect Canadians

The state of big tech regulation in Canada, from privacy to tax policy

The Liberal government has come under some criticism for dragging its feet on legislation it tabled in the fall to strengthen and reform its private-sector privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Bill C-11 would give new powers to the privacy commissioner, create a new administrative tribunal that can levy fines, and “significantly increase protections to Canadians’ personal information by giving Canadians more control and greater transparency when companies handle their personal information,” the government said when the legislation was announced.

“The government’s decision to introduce Bill C-11 and then allow it to languish in the House of Commons without even engaging in debate or committee study is incredibly disappointing,” Michael Geist, professor and Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said in an email.

Geist has argued the government has prioritized legislation like the Broadcasting Act update in Bill C-10 over its privacy reform in C-11. Both were introduced at the same time in November, but the privacy bill is still in its first reading, while the broadcasting bill is in its second reading and has been under study at the Heritage committee since February.

Geist said that despite “claims of prioritizing privacy, the government has demonstrated little interest in improving Canada’s privacy laws since introducing a bill without more is privacy theatre, not privacy protection.”

Asked about those criticisms, a spokesperson for Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne stated the government is “committed to ensuring that Canadians’ personal information is safe and secure and that their privacy is respected in these digital spaces.”

Communications director Louis Hamann said in an email that “Bill C-11, should it be passed into law, will provide world-class privacy and data protection for Canadians.”

Scassa said in an interview that for years, there was frustration with PIPEDA and calls for its reform, and then a “long wait” for the bill to be introduced. Once it was tabled, the bill hasn’t moved as quickly as some observers thought it would, Scassa said, though she noted it’s a piece of legislation won’t be easy to pass without a lot of debate and discussion regardless.

She added that there are concerns that “if we’re looking at an election in the reasonably short term that the bill won’t get through before the election.”

Meanwhile, data breaches involving Canadians’ information have continued to occur. In 2019-2020, the privacy commissioner’s office received 678 breach reports, which affected an estimated 30 million Canadian accounts.

“I think that’s the challenge, that these things continue to happen and they seem to be happening on an even bigger scale all the time. And we look to legislation to protect us and the legislation is out of date and not keeping pace,” Scassa said. “And the government just doesn’t seem to be able to get it together to get privacy reform done, so it’s enormously frustrating.”

US Corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers

WASHINGTON — When executives from Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines spoke out against Georgia's new voting law as unduly restrictive last week, it seemed to signal a new activism springing from corporate America.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But if leaders of the nation's most prominent companies are going to reject lawmakers who support restrictive voting measures, they will have to abruptly reverse course.

State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on former President Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.

Telecom giant AT&T was the most prolific, donating over $800,000 since 2015 to authors of proposed restrictions, cosponsors of such measures, or those who voted in favour of the bills, the report found. Other top donors during the same period include Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon, General Motors and Pfizer.

The money may not have been given with voting laws in mind, but it nonetheless helped cement Republican control in statehouses where many of the prohibitive measures are now moving forward.

Whether companies continue to give to these lawmakers will test how far risk-averse corporate leaders are willing to go in their increasingly forceful criticism of the restrictive efforts, which voting rights groups have excoriated as an attack on democracy.

"It really is corporate America, as a whole, that is funding these politicians,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the authors of the report. “It seems many are trying to hide under a rock and hope that this issue passes.”

More than 120 companies detailed in the report previously said they would rethink their donations to members of Congress who, acting on the same falsehoods as the state lawmakers, objected to the certification of President Joe Biden's win following the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

The tension is most evident now in Georgia, where a far-reaching new voting law has drawn an intense national scrutiny, prompting the criticism from Delta and Coca-Cola. On Friday, MLB announced it would no longer host the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Yet it's unclear whether this aggressive new posture will extend to corporate campaign donation practices. And early indicators show there is risk.

Georgia's Republican-controlled House voted to strip Delta of a tax break worth tens of millions of dollars annually for their criticism of the new law, though the action was rendered moot after the GOP Senate failed to take it up before the legislative session adjourned.

What is certain, though, is that withholding corporate donations to state-level candidates, like many companies did at the federal level, would have a far greater impact in statehouses.

“A contribution of $5,000 to a U.S. senator who is raising $30 million is a drop in a bucket. But in some of these state races, a few thousand dollars can buy a lot of ad time,” said Tanglis. “If corporate America is going to say that (Trump's) lie is unacceptable on the federal level, what about on the state level?”

Public Citizen analyzed about 245 voting restriction bills proposed before March 1. They culled a list of sponsors and cosponsors, while also analyzing vote roll calls. Then they cross-referenced the data with state-level donation records dating back to 2015, which included money from company political action committees, as well as direct contributions from corporate treasuries.

Among their findings:

— Companies donated at least $50 million to lawmakers who supported voting restrictions, including $22 million in the 2020 campaign cycle.

— At least 81 Fortune 100 companies have given a combined total of $7.7 million to supporters of the restrictions.

— Nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies donated a combined total of $12.8 million to supporters of the restrictions.

— About three-quarters of the companies that changed their donation policies after the U.S. Capitol attack have also given to lawmakers who supported voting rights restrictions.

— More than 60 companies have given at least $100,000 to lawmakers who supported the restrictions.

— Separately, industry groups and trade associations contributed an additional $36 million to the lawmakers, $16 million of which was given during the 2020 cycle.

In response, AT&T said “the right to vote is sacred” but declined to say whether the company would withhold donations to state lawmakers as they did for members of Congress who objected to Biden's win.

“We understand that election laws are complicated, not our company’s expertise and ultimately the responsibility of elected officials. But, as a company, we have a responsibility to engage," AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement, “We strongly oppose the passage of any legislation or the adoption of any measure that would make it harder" to vote. But he stopped short of pledging any specific action.

Comcast said in a statement that "efforts to limit or impede access to this vital constitutional right for any citizen are not consistent with our values.” The company would not comment on whether it would evaluate its giving to lawmakers who support the measures.

Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, said in a statement that “every eligible voter should be able to exercise their right to vote” and pledged to monitor lawmakers' “alignment with our political contribution guiding principles when making future contribution decisions."

Other companies listed in the report declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged companies to resist what he called a “co-ordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people to mislead and bully the American people.”

“Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex," the Kentucky Republican said in a statement. “Americans do not need or want big business to amplify ... or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signalling.”

Pressure has been particularly intense in Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed a sweeping new law that bans people from handing out food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials, among many other provisions.

Two of the top corporate contribution recipients detailed in Public Citizen's report were among the sponsors of the measure.

Since 2015, Republican state Sen. Jeff Mullis has collected more than $869,000 in donation from corporate PACs. Among his top corporate donors were AT&T ($15,900) and UnitedHealth Group ($12,900), according to the report. Mullis is chair of the Georgia Senate’s Rules Committee, which plays a key role in determining which bills make it to the floor for a vote.

Republican state Sen. Butch Miller, another sponsor of the bill, has received at least $729,000 in corporate donations since 2015. Among his top corporate givers are UnitedHealth Group ($15,700) and AT&T ($13,600), the report states.

Miller and Mullis did not respond to requests for comment.

Brian Slodysko, The Associated Pres

Scientists, First Nations team up in fresh attempt to revive struggling B.C. herring stocks

© Squamish Streamkeepers Tiny eyes appear in herring larvae which groups in British Columbia are trying to save. The small silvery fish are a crucial part of the Pacific food web, but have declined in numbers.

Vancouver's Coal Harbour hardly looks like a setting for a potential wildlife refuge. Noisy float planes skitter to and from a nearby dock, storm sewers empty into the saltwater, and high rise towers loom over the water.

But marine biologist Doug Swanston thinks the place has huge potential as a home for herring.

Recently, he rolled three big plastic coolers onto the dock before opening them to reveal a three-metre-long piece of fabric mesh covered with tiny white dots.

"This is probably getting close to a million, maybe 1.5 million eggs if you counted them all," he said as he pulled them into the sunlight.

"The goal is to return herring to Coal Harbour. Historically, we had a spawn here in the 1800s, and it was a source of food for First Nations communities."

The eggs had been collected in a nearby area and the hope is that they will seed future runs.

Herring are a vital, but not very well understood part of the Pacific Ocean's complex food web.

This year alone, 16,000 tonnes have been plucked from B.C. waters. That's about 100 million fish — a low year compared to the glory days of the herring fishery's past. But efforts are underway, in the courts and the ocean, to help the herring.  

© CBC Marine biologist Doug Swanston holds up mesh fabric covered with tiny fertilized herring eggs. He is researching the impact of transplanting the eggs in the urban inlets of Vancouver.

Tough times for Canadian herring

For decades, the fish were viewed as a virtually inexhaustible resource. They were canned, frozen, used as fertilizer, and even rendered into slippery goo to grease logs being skidded out of the forest.

But the once coastal-wide bonanza is fizzling out. This year, most of the waters off B.C. were closed to commercial herring boats, with the only quota being allowed in the Strait of Georgia, along Canada's southwest coast.

The latest government estimates show that the total mass of Pacific herring in the strait fell from 130,000 metric tons in 2016 to around 54,000 metric tons in 2020 — a nearly 60 per cent decrease over four years.

The first collapse of the stocks happened in the 1960s, due to overfishing. They were allowed to recover but have had ups and downs in recent decades.

The herring fishery in Eastern Canada has also been facing tough times.

For example, an assessment last year for the Gulf of St.Lawrence, predicted the spring spawning herring population is on a trajectory toward extinction in 10 years. Voracious predators and a warming ocean are listed as the biggest obstacles to recovery.
DFO takes 'precautionary approach'

On the West Coast, some groups called for a total closure of the herring fishery this year, but the fishing industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) pushed back.

In a media release, DFO said the quota was set after conducting "rigorous scientific stock assessments," and "the results demonstrate a healthy and stable herring stock in the Strait of Georgia."

It went on to say the department is "applying the precautionary approach to ensure the long term viability of herring for our ocean ecosystems and harvesters alike."

But that doesn't satisfy a number of Indigenous and environmental groups who are arguing, sometimes in court, for a reduced catch.
Indigenous food for generations

On Vancouver's North Shore, the gravel crunches as Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation Leah George-Wilson walks along the beach.

For thousands of years, she said herring was an important food for the Tsleil-Waututh people. She recalls her grandparents talking about eating wild herring taken from nearby waters. For her generation though, herring is mostly something left in oral history and traditional knowledge since they were largely fished out in nearby waters.

"You only have to look up the West Coast of British Columbia to see where herring still is and to see how Indigenous people harvest there," George-Wilson told CBC News. "We did similar things and it was an important food source."

The Tsleil-Waututh and other Indigenous groups are working to bring back the fish. And they're partnering with scientists to better understand how herring live and spawn. 

© CBC Leah George-Wilson, chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, says traditional Indigenous knowledge can be used to help restore herring and other important sources of food.

How to keep herring eggs alive

False Creek is another built-up urban harbour in Vancouver. It's shallow, has constant boat traffic and home to a number of large marinas. But it's a herring success story.

"Herring are the key. They are the bottom of the food chain," said Jonn Matsen on the dock of Fisherman's Wharf, a sprawling complex where hundreds of boats are tied to wooden docks.

He's in charge of herring enhancement for the Squamish Streamkeepers, a volunteer group dedicated to restoring fish habitat, and pioneers in the field of herring aid.

It started years ago when millions of herring eggs were found on creosote pilings used extensively along the coast to support docks.

The toxic wood preservative was deadly for the eggs, which take about three weeks to hatch. Matsen and others were appalled and set out to fix the problem.

They started by wrapping the pilings in a heavy duty fabric, giving the eggs a fighting chance. They've since expanded to using fine mesh fabric nets suspended below the water line, which give even better protection and survival rates.

The program has been successful enough that this year about 10 per cent of the fertilized eggs are being transplanted from False Creek to the new site in Coal Harbour.  

© CBC Jonn Matsen heads up the herring enhancement program for the Squamish Streamkeepers, a volunteer group that has pioneered techniques to create spawning sites for herring.

Crucial for salmon, whales

Matsen said herring are a vital part of the food web, especially for endangered salmon.

"The first thing a salmon looks for when it comes out of the river is food and if you have a herring run right in that area it's just perfect."

He said it only makes sense that part of the salmon's decline is tied to having fewer herring in B.C. waters. Whales, seals, birds and many other creatures depend on the fish as well.

"We found you can bring the whole food chain back, if you start with the herring and work your way up," Matsen said. "It can happen."

Swanston, the biologist, said despite its importance to the environment and as a commercial catch, there are still many mysteries around herring.

For instance, it used to be thought that herring didn't return to their natal waters to spawn, but newer evidence suggests they may have a homing instinct similar to salmon, which return to the streams where they first hatched. It would also explain why herring have disappeared from some parts of the B.C. coast.
Do herring have a homing instinct?

But pollution, development, overfishing and a lack of natural spawning habitat are also factors that need further research and remediation, said Swanston.

The riddle about why the herring spawn in some areas but have disappeared in others is one reason Swanston is fascinated by the experiment to transplant eggs into Coal Harbour.

But he said it will be at least three years for results, because that's how long it will take the tiny eggs to hatch and grow to maturity out at sea.

The hard pressed herring have a low survival rate. Only one out of 1,000 lives long enough to spawn, but if they're allowed to reproduce in the billions, it will be enough to sustain the shimmering schools of fish.

Guardians of Edehzhie: Protecting the land during the pandemic
2021-04-05

There was a time last year when the guardians of Edehzhie would head out on the land in the Northwest Territories and worry what their communities might look like when they returned.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

That was when COVID-19 started to sweep across Canada, threatening the country's northern communities, including those around the protected area known as Edehzhie in the Dehcho region of the N.W.T.

Established in 2018 between the Dehcho First Nations and the federal government, Edehzhie is the country's first Indigenous Protected Area. It covers more than 14,000 square kilometres of land — more than twice the size of Banff National Park.

Edehzhie is known as the "breadbasket" of the Dehcho region, because of its abundance of wildlife, plants and fresh water.

As part of the agreement between the Dehcho and Canada, eight people were hired as guardians to monitor activities on the land. They are from the four surrounding communities of Fort Providence, Jean Marie River, Fort Simpson and Wrigley.

"They're essentially our eyes and ears on the ground," said Ashley Menicoche, one of four Edehzhie community co-ordinators, from her home in Fort Simpson.

As in the rest of the country, the pandemic caused much of the N.W.T. to lock down and strict public-health measures were put in place.

"We were thinking, because you have to be six feet apart, how are you going to do that when you’re sharing a tent and it’s -30 C?" Menicoche said.

The guardians learned to adapt. They stayed connected through satellite phones and other satellite devices while out on the land.

Dahti Tsetso, deputy director of the national Indigenous Leadership Initiative, is also the former director of lands and resources for the First Nations. She said she and a guardian would have Zoom meetings from her back deck in Fort Simpson.

"There’s hundreds of kilometres between us and yet, through Zoom, we’re all able to connect. Funnily enough, because of the pandemic, the ability to create a strong sense of community between everyone was sort of forged through video conferencing," Tsetso said.

The pandemic also meant Menicoche and her team developed more outdoor, land-based programs with the guardians and surrounding communities.

"We built this foundation during COVID and we're still able to do things out on the land while the rest of the world was on lockdown," Menicoche said.

"I was out in the bush last weekend and I just lay some tobacco down and thanked the Creator that we’re still able do this."

University researchers based in southern Canada who couldn't travel to the N.W.T. because of isolation requirements also turned to the guardians for help. The team collected water samples for researchers and set up 80 wildlife cameras in Edehzhie.

The guardians program also pairs local youth with each guardian, something Menicoche said ensures traditional knowledge is passed on to the next generation.

"There’s a lot of knowledge out there that needs to be shared before our elders pass on. And with this program, the youth come to me and tell me how much they've learned."

Menicoche said some of the guardians overcame addictions during the pandemic while spending time on the land.

"To see them work together and overcome their addictions and their challenges out there in Edehzhie was amazing ... these guys have built a relationship together that is phenomenal. This job has made then come together as one," Menicoche said through tears.

"The transformative impact of these programs on our communities and on Canada is really important. And I think it’s really important that Canadians know this story," Tsetso said.

After seeing how successful the guardians program could be during a pandemic, Menicoche and Tsetso want to see the program grow for future generations.

"If we can get more guardians and more elders to work together, we can make this last a lifetime. We can do some powerful stuff. We can get more guardians to be our protectors of our land and our water," Menicoche said.

"It makes me really emotional to try and project how much more meaningful it will become, especially because I have little kids. I really want that for my kids, for other people’s kids," Tsetso said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship

Emma Tranter, The Canadian Press