Citing role in 'genocidal policies,' history professors reach out to First Nations

FREDERICTON — History professors at the University of New Brunswick are offering their research skills to Indigenous people looking for information about ancestors or seeking land claims, saying First Nations remain under threat from Canada's "imperialist and genocidal policies."

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In a recent message on the history department's official Facebook page, faculty members at the university's Fredericton campus began by expressing their condolences to the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia, which recently discovered what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at the former residential school site in Kamloops.

The professors say that grim event motivated them to reach out to the Indigenous community and offer free help with archival and genealogical research.

"We also have networks of other historians that we have access to," Prof. Angela Tozer, who specializes in modern Canadian history and settler colonialism, said in an interview Wednesday. "It's really about breaking down barriers so that individuals would feel comfortable with coming to us to ask for help."

She said some Indigenous people have already come forward to seek assistance. She declined to release details, citing privacy concerns.

The professors' statement goes on to address what they say is the role Canadian historians have played in "obscuring" the history of colonialism.

"Canadian history as a discipline often perpetuates nationalist ideologies that have made genocidal policies, such as the incarceration of Indigenous children in residential schools, possible through the creation of narratives that defend the righteousness of the Canadian settler state," the statement says.

"We call on every Canadian historian to understand how they have contributed to genocidal policies and to reject provincial curricula that deny and downplay the histories of settler colonialism and residential schools and day schools."

Tozer said the strong language reflects the fact that in the past 10 years or so, there has been a change in how historians approach their discipline.

Video: Pope meets 2 Canadian cardinals as calls grow for Catholic Church apology for residential schools (cbc.ca)

"I can say with some confidence that historians across Canada would probably agree with the (Facebook) statement," she said.

Historians have come to appreciate that the relatively new field of settler colonial studies has brought into sharp focus how states such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia were shaped by policies that subjugated Indigenous people, the professor added.

"It's understanding that .... for Indigenous people, their lands, water and living spaces were appropriated from them by the state," Tozer said, adding that the final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 also played a role in illustrating how the residential school system was devoted to "cultural genocide."

Erin Morton, a professor of visual culture with expertise in Canadian art and settler colonialism at the University of New Brunswick, said those who work in higher learning have a responsibility to ensure their discipline evolves.

"Speaking from my own position as a white settler scholar, I see myself as deeply complicit and deeply responsible for undoing some of that colonial harm," she said in an interview Wednesday.

Tozer said Canada's residential school system may be gone, but its policies linger for Indigenous children who remain overrepresented in the child welfare system.

The first government-funded, church-run residential schools opened in the 1870s, and the last one closed outside Regina in 1996.

In all, about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children attended the schools. For those Indigenous families who resisted the system, children were forcibly taken away by the RCMP. The 130 schools became infamous as places where many students suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

They were also known for overcrowding, poor sanitation, unhealthy food and menial labour. Harsh punishment was meted out for those students who spoke their native language or took part in traditional rituals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.

— By Michael MacDonald in Halifax

The Canadian Press

Canada proposes to settle indigenous lawsuit after discovery of children's remains

By Anna Mehler Paperny and Moira Warburton 2 hrs ago

Reuters/JENNIFER GAUTHIER Makeshift memorial at former Kamloops Indian Residential School

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada has reached a proposed settlement with a group of indigenous survivors of the now-defunct residential schools for the abuse they suffered, a federal minister said on Wednesday, ending a 14-year fight for justice.

The settlement comes as the government is scrambling to deal with a national outcry after the remains of 215 indigenous children were discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. The government has been under pressure to stop legally opposing indigenous people's requests for compensation and acknowledgement in court following the discovery.

Under the latest agreement, the government will provide C$10,000 ($8,259.00) to each survivor involved in the class action lawsuit and create a C$50 million indigenous-led nonprofit to support wellbeing and cultural learning.

The settlement does not include an explicit admission of wrongdoing by the government. Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said the plaintiffs had hoped for an official apology and "while this is not part of a settlement agreement, we will be listening to their concerns, as we work together on this request."

The estimated 12,000 to 20,000 survivors in the lawsuit attended residential schools during the day and went home at night. Because of this, they were not included in a previous settlement for residential school survivors.

Between 1831 and 1996, Canada's residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 indigenous children from their parents, bringing them to institutions with the stated purpose of assimilation. They were malnourished, beaten and sexually abused in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called cultural genocide in its landmark 2015 report.

The proposal is open for comments from plaintiffs until August 2021, and will be presented along with the comments to the court in September for approval.

Bennett told reporters at a Wednesday news conference that the government will continue to work with survivors and their families and others to resolve remaining childhood claims.

Video: Canadians memorialize indigenous school children (Reuters)

"Together we will move forward on the path to reconciliation," she said.

CANADA IS A "REPEAT OFFENDER"

Several plaintiffs spoke at the conference, describing the pain the residential schools and the years-long lawsuit brought them.

"This has been a really long process, 14 years, returning to court, regurgitating trauma," Charlotte Gilbert, a representative for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, said.

A separate class action, still ongoing, deals with residential schools' cultural damage and involves 105 indigenous bands.

"No amount of compensation can change the legacy of residential schools," Diena Jules, a survivor of the schools, said. "Nothing can restore us to being whole."

The government remains embroiled in several ongoing lawsuits involving indigenous people in Canada. A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case involving discrimination through the systemic under-funding of child and family services against indigenous children - resulting in a disproportionate number of indigenous children in foster care - has a hearing next week.

The Canadian government has admitted its child and family services funding system "was broken and needed immediate and substantial reform." But in its most recent filings it argued the tribunal was the wrong venue for this dispute and that individual compensation was not appropriate in this instance.

"It's a really dangerous argument," said Cindy Blackstock, a member of the Gitxsan nation and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which brought the legal action.

Canada is "a repeat offender" when it comes to abrogating the rights of indigenous children, she said. "It needs a heavy hand for deterrence."

($1 = 1.2108 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto and Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Denny Thomas and Aurora Ellis)

MPs pass motion for Ottawa to stop court actions against funding Indigenous children and survivors

(ANNews) – Earlier this month, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh put forward a motion calling on the federal government to stop taking Indigenous children and survivors to court.

On June 7, 2021 the motion passed with 271 for and 0 against. Parliamentarians from all parties came together and demanded that the Liberal Government cease all court battles regarding the recent rulings from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT).

While the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers refused to vote on the motion, the support is clearly huge.

The federal government is currently attempting to appeal a CHRT ruling that would have Canada pay $40,000 each to approximately 50,000 First Nations children who were separated from their families and forced into the child-welfare system — as well as to each of their parents or grandparents.

The Trudeau Government is also fighting another tribunal decision that would see the applicability of Jordan’s Principle widen.

“This is just the start. This by no means is a finish,” said Singh in reference to the overwhelming support of the motion. “This is just the start, but it is a powerful start and we want to keep on walking this path.”

“If the Liberal Government continues to fight these kids in court despite the will of parliament, that is more than a betrayal, that is a complete abdication of listening to the voices of Canada, to listening to justice.”

Singh’s motion was made just days after the discovery of a mass-grave of 215 First Nation children at a former residential school in Kamloops, BC. And while the motion is legally non-binding, meaning that Trudeau can continue to fight the CHRT’s rulings, continuing the legal battles would be against the wishes of parliament.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the reason for the foster care compensation battle was because they didn’t think it was fair.

“Should someone who went to a day school for a few months, or a year be compensated to the exact same amount as someone who was in a traumatic situation over many, many years, where they were taken from their families and had a very, very different experience?” he asked.

“Right now, the human rights tribunal says everyone should get exactly the same amount. We don’t know that that’s entirely fair.”

Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, wants the federal government to stop inflicting “further pain against children and do the right thing.”

Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, believes that the motion is a good way to move forward, but thought it was “too bad” that Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller and Crown-Indigenous relations Minister Carolyn Bennett abstained from voting on the motion.

“They should be championing this motion,” Blackstock said in a Twitter post.

Chief Robert Joseph, hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation on B.C.’s Central Coast and a knowledge keeper for the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, said “It has been a sad, sad day in the Indigenous community.”

“Laws, and policies must change; the way we think of each other needs to change and we need to talk to each other in different ways,” said Joseph. “Our resolve will deepen as a result of all these incremental steps we take, including this (motion).”

Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native N

Manitoba Indigenous leaders call on Canada to admit residential schools were an act of genocide

Indigenous leaders in Manitoba say one of the first steps towards healing and reconciliation from the residential school system is for the federal government to finally refer to what happened in those schools as genocide.

“This was genocide, this is clear under international law it was an act of genocide,” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand Chief Garrison Settee said while taking part in a Facebook live chat on Wednesday morning with Indigenous leaders, and addressing the news of 215 Indigenous children’s bodies recently found in unmarked graves near a former residential school in Kamloops B.C.

“There can be no reconciling without truth, we have to admit it and address it for what it is, because there can be no reconciliation and there can be no healing unless the government who was the architect of these residential schools admit that this is genocide.”

There will now be added pressure on federal lawmakers to deem the residential school system as an act of genocide and state that it was “the deliberate, systemic destruction of a cultural group.”

“What happened in residential schools is consistent with Article II of the UN Genocide Convention full stop,” NDP MP Leah Gazan, who represents Winnipeg Centre, said in a press release on Wednesday morning. “It is time that this government acknowledge the truth and provide justice for survivors who went through the most serious acts of genocide.”

In her statement Gazan also stated her belief that there are likely many other graves with Indigenous children’s bodies in the areas where residential schools used to operate.

“The news of the 215 bodies found at the former site of Kamloops Residential School shows the scale of the tragedy, this is only one school. Grief and anger are justified reactions to this devastating news — and the certain knowledge that there are many other unmarked graves at many other residential schools,” Gazan said.

Grand Chief Settee said the origins of the residential school system should leave no doubt that the system was an attempt to annihilate an entire cultural group.

Video: Indigenous advocate says former residential school sites should be investigated (Global News)


“There was a discussion had in Parliament on whether to kill us all or assimilate us,” Settee said. “Those conversations were had in Parliament, so it is time for them to address it for what it is.”

And as Indigenous leaders look to have the residential school system deemed an act of genocide, they are also asking for the federal government to now step up and provide the resources needed to excavate grounds around former residential schools across Canada, because they are sure more children’s bodies will be discovered.

“Every residential school has to have a forensic investigation with proper sonar equipment because 215 is just the start of what we are going to start finding out,” Settee said.

“This is the start of realizing a lot of things that happened, so we need to ensure we have the capability and the capacity to work towards finding other unmarked graves, this is only the beginning of moving forward.”

Settee said although the discovery of more bodies could bring some closure to residential school survivors and their ancestors, he also wonders what horrors will be discovered once more grounds are dug up.

“I believe that the 215 discovered is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

The United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such including the killing of its members, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately imposing living conditions that seek to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children out of the group to another group.”

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun

NASA's new $23 million space commode system is more than just a toilet

Paul Brinkmann


Astronauts Mark Vande Hei (L) and Shane Kimbrough install a new space toilet aboard the International Space Station on May 24. Photo courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., June 7 (UPI) -- Going to the bathroom at the International Space Station is about to get easier and cleaner with a new toilet system that cost NASA $23 million to develop.

Astronauts are connecting and checking out the toilet, which actually is a high-tech improvement to the space station's water recycling syste

The multimillion-dollar budget for the project includes another unit installed inside the Orion space capsule for longer deep-space missions.

"The project is nearing completion after six years of work and is the first U.S.-developed toilet since the shuttle program," Melissa McKinley, NASA's project manager for the new system, said in an email.

"It follows on the lessons learned of the early days of space exploration and aims to improve the experience for the female crew.

"The urine funnel and commode seat were configured along with the commode structure to better suit the female anatomy," she said.

RELATED European space program seeks first disabled astronaut

Legacy space systems, including spacesuits and toilets, were designed for men in the early days of space travel. That meant existing toilets had one place for bowel movements and another for urinating. That makes life harder for female astronauts, McKinley said.

NASA considers the new technology, or Universal Waste Management System, to be a demonstration that will provide data to advance the recycling of waste in space.

The weightlessness of space always required using a fan to pull air into space toilets, which moves human waste safely and cleanly into storage. But such toilets have been tricky to maintain and clean in space, NASA said.

The new toilet is smaller, weighs less and was designed for recycling urine, which has become routine on the space station since 2009.

But treating the urine requires strong acid, so the toilet is made partly of corrosion-resistant materials, such as titanium, a "super-alloy" known as elgiloy, Teflon and aluminum, McKinley said.

The seat and funnel also use a smoother design that is easier to clean, she said.

Besides the improved design, the new toilet provides a third bathroom space for the U.S. side of the space station.

"With the increase in Commercial Crew flights and subsequently increased crew size on ISS, availability of a third bathroom means the crew won't have to wait to use the facilities," McKinley said.


Bathrooms on the space station "desperately needed an upgrade," said Pablo de León, a space studies professor at the University of North Dakota who has worked on spacesuit design.

"As we move away from Earth, in long duration missions, the shipment of parts from Earth is more and more difficult, so it is imperative that a space toilet is reliable for long periods of time, without the astronauts having to repair it routinely," de León said.

While the space station recaptures about 90% of water used, the new toilet system may soon allow 98% recycling by removing water from feces, he said, although NASA is not currently experimenting with that.

Installation of the new toilet requires lengthy work sessions to power it up and test it. Astronauts plan to activate it soon, but no date has been set, NASA said.

CANADA
Strong majority support a national day of remembrance for residential school victims: survey
Jon Azpiri 

GLOBAL NEWS

JUNE 9,2021

A strong majority of Canadians support the idea of a national day of remembrance for victims of residential schools, a new survey suggests

CFJC Today, Kamloops A file photo of a monument dedicated to survivors of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

The discovery of the remains of 215 children in an unmarked burial site at the Kamloops Indian Residential School has served as a wake-up call to many Canadians, a new Ipsos survey suggests, with 80 per cent saying they were shocked by the uncovering of the burial sites and 77 per cent agreeing there should be a national day of remembrance for residential school victims, including missing Indigenous children.

The passage of Bill C-5 means Sept. 30 will become the first of what is to be an annual national day for truth and reconciliation.

Terry Teegee, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, sees the move as a positive but notes that more needs to be done.

"I think it is a good move, but I think concrete actions are needed further than symbolic moves to acknowledge the atrocities that were imposed on Indigenous peoples for well over 150 years," he said.

Video: Disturbing content: Residential school survivor shares heartbreaking trauma

Sixty-three per cent said the discovery has changed their view of residential schools, while 68 per cent noted that they never learned about residential schools during their time from kindergarten to the end of secondary school.

Teegee noted the survey found something of a generational divide with 85 per cent of baby boomers reporting not learning about residential schools compared to half of millennials and a third of gen Z.

Read more: Majority of Canadians say church to blame for residential school tragedies: poll

"There is a stark difference from the boomer generation right up to now," he said. "There certainly is more in education nowadays and it's demonstrated in this poll."

"But it really speaks to the education school system about acknowledging the true history of Canada, not only the residential school system, but also all Indigenous contributions to this country, as well as [the] years before the country was born. There was a history here before. "


Video: Indigenous group gains ownership of residential school cemetery (Global News)

Eighty-seven per cent of Canadians feel the federal government should help in searching for unmarked burial sites at the sites of other former residential schools. The same number, 87 per cent, said the Catholic church and religious organizations that ran residential schools need to play a bigger role in reconciliation.

Read more: Egerton Ryerson statue will not be replaced after being pulled down, university says

Eighty-one per cent agree that the federal government must act to raise the quality of life of Canada’s Indigenous people, a six-point increase from 2020, and up 18 points from 2013.

However, the survey found that Canadians appear divided on whether the treatment of Indigenous peoples until now has been adequate and whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept his promises.

Video: Trudeau to blame for lack of “transformative change” on Indigenous file: Wilson-Raybould

Forty-six per cent of Canadians agreed that Indigenous peoples are treated well by the federal government, marking a 16-point decline since 2013, which saw the rise of the Idle No More movement and a hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence.

Indigenous respondents were significantly more likely to strongly disagree that Indigenous peoples are treated well by the Canadian government, the survey found.

Opinions are more divided when it comes to Canada's founders, many of whom were architects of the residential school system.

Fifty-four per cent agreed that the statues of historical figures who are deemed to have perpetuated racism should be removed, a 15-point increase from September of last year when the same question was asked amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

Video: Picton reacts to removal of Sir John A statue

Fifty-two per cent agreed that statues of leaders who planned the residential school system should be removed, while 56 per cent agree buildings named for these persons should be renamed.

Read more: Senate unanimously votes to create national holiday for truth and reconciliation

Nearly 60 per cent agreed that Sir John A. Macdonald’s legacy as Canada’s first prime minister outweighs his role in the creation of residential schools. However, 46 per cent agreed that statues and buildings bearing his likeness or name should be removed.

Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, described the intent of the residential industrial schools for First Nations children as follows:

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”

Respondents who self-identify as Indigenous, the survey notes, were significantly more likely to strongly agree with removing statues and supporting protesters who remove or deface statues of historical figures who they deem to have perpetuated racism.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted from June 4 to 6, 2021, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18 and older was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

-- With files from Sean Boynton and The Canadian Press

Canada could take in some Central American migrants to help U.S. - minister

 

By Anna Mehler Paperny  

 Reuters/CARLOS JASSO A group of Central American migrants rest along the railway track on their way to the United States

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada is prepared to take in some Central American migrants to help the United States, which is grappling with an influx of migrants at its southern border with Mexico, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said.

In their first phone call since President Joe Biden's administration was sworn in, Mendicino and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas last week discussed issues including Central American migration - an area where the Biden administration is struggling to gain control.

Canada wants to help, Mendicino told Reuters in an interview late Tuesday.

"I certainly think that we have the capacity within our existing levels plan to accommodate more refugees," he said.

Canada aims to resettle 36,000 refugees for 2021.

While Mendicino would not rule out accepting migrants in U.S. custody, his spokesperson said this was unlikely as Canada resettles refugees referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mendicino would not say how many migrants Canada might take.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Canada's offer to help comes as the number of migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border has soared in recent months to the highest levels in two decades.

Vice President Kamala Harris, tasked with addressing Central American migration, was in Mexico and Guatemala this week to pursue solutions to the situation.

Mendicino said he and Mayorkas discussed "the road map to a renewed Canada-U.S. relationship," managing their shared border and achieving migration goals.

Canada has styled itself as a leader in refugee resettlement, even as it turns back asylum-seekers at its own border. Last year it took in about 40% of the total number of resettled refugees globally, or about 9,000.

"By having a plan as ambitious as we do around this, what we're signaling not only to the Americas but the world, is, Canada will continue to play a leadership role when it comes to resettling refugees," Mendicino added.

In its 2021 budget, Canada allocated C$80.3 million ($66.6 million) over two years to the Venezuelan migrant and refugee crisis.

Canada also wants to expand the Safe Third Country Agreement (SCTA), under which asylum-seekers trying to cross at ports of entry are turned back, so that it applies to the entire Canada-U.S. border.

This would affect people who cross irregularly, such as at Quebec's Roxham Road, a common destination for asylum-seekers avoiding the STCA.

"There was certainly a very strong sense between our two countries that this is a very valuable instrument, it is a very valuable agreement, because it does create the opportunity for additional cooperation," Mendicino said.

($1 = 1.2064 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Karishma Singh)

Global criminal elites hit by 'unprecedented' AN0M sting with Canadian roots

Adrian Humphreys 
POSTMEDIA

JUNE 9,2021

 Provided by National Post About 1,000 people have been arrested worldwide after using a supposedly secret encrypted phone system, called AN0M, that was really run by the FBI.

An international police team have pulled off one of the world’s most sophisticated and expansive penetrations of the upper echelons of the criminal underworld, using criminal influencers to lure mobsters, narcos, bikers, gangsters and corrupt cops into using a supposedly secret encrypted phone system — which was really run by the FBI.

About 1,000 people have been arrested worldwide, tons of drugs, hundreds of guns and tens of millions of dollars in cash and assets were seized, and multiple murders averted, authorities said.

There was a Canadian component, but while police in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden crowed about the wild success of the innovative three-year honeypot sting, the RCMP would not say what the Canadian content was.

Arrests and seizures started Monday in Australia and New Zealand and announcements revealing the remarkable operation rolled across Europe and into the United States Tuesday.

“This was an unprecedented operation in terms of its massive scale, innovative strategy and technological and investigative achievement,” said Randy Grossman, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.

“Hardened encrypted devices usually provide an impenetrable shield against law enforcement surveillance and detection. The supreme irony here is that the very devices that these criminals were using to hide from law enforcement were actually beacons for law enforcement.”

The operation’s birth sprang from the death of a Canadian technology company.

Spy phones 'in gangsters' back pockets' betray hundreds to police

Hi-tech sting leads to global crackdown on organized crime, over 800 detained

It started when a Vancouver company called Phantom Secure was hit by the FBI in 2018. The U.S. describe Phantom Secure as a provider of “secure communications to high-level drug traffickers and other criminal organization leaders.”

Phantom Secure was selling hardened encrypted devices, which are modified cell phones that maximize privacy and security to connect with others using a similar device with encrypted messages.

While there are many legitimate uses for encryption — sensitive business deals, investigative journalism, human rights work in dangerous jurisdictions, for example — few outside the criminal world will pay the premium

 for a hardened device while tolerating its limited functions, such as no camera, web browsing, or GPS.When Phantom Secure was brought down, its CEO imprisoned and its servers seized, its customers looked for replacement platforms. Popular options included France-based EncroChat and another Vancouver product from Sky Global.

Another competitor, though, was in development, trying to build the “next generation” of underworld secrecy.

It was called AN0M.

One of those working to build AN0M was a veteran in the criminal use of secure devices. He previously distributed Phantom Secure and Sky Global handsets and invested heavily to create AN0M, but when facing charges on other matters, made authorities an offer they couldn’t refuse.

He offered his baby to the FBI to raise as its own.

© Handout AN0M’s marketing pitch was “designed by criminals for criminals.”

Working with the Australian Federal Police investigators who cracked Phantom’s encryption, master keys to unlock the secret codes were built into the AN0M system. It placed a tiny bit of computer code into each message to allow investigators to gather, track, decrypt and store messages.

In essence, it sent a blind copy of every message to police.

Once the FBI got this new platform working, the cooperating source convinced some of his existing clients to sign up for it.

In October 2018, the source started offering the devices to three former Phantom Secure distributors to sell. They allegedly took on roles as administrators, recruiting new users to AN0M. A U.S. indictment alleges they are all linked to transnational crime groups and names them as Joseph Hakan Ayik, a Turkish citizen, Domenico Catanzariti, an Australian citizen, and Maximilian Rivkin, a Swedish citizen.

They unwittingly reached out to clients who had established reputations and criminal ties, which authorities say included outlaw bikers, Italian Mafia and drug lords.

AN0M’s marketing pitch was “designed by criminals for criminals.”

Some early adopters became “influencers” — making the new system trusted and trendy in the underworld. These were “well-known crime figures who wield significant influence,” according to court documents.

In Canada, AN0M cost approximately $1,700 for six months of service.

The FBI’s source, the one who turned over the AN0M business, has been working with the FBI since 2018 hoping for a lower sentence on charges he is facing. He has a prior conviction for drug importation and spent six years in prison.

While he helped promote AN0M, the FBI paid him $120,000 plus $59,508 in travel and living expenses, the FBI said.

Australian police did an early test run, with court authorized monitoring of 50 AN0M devices, giving officers a detailed view of some of Australia’s most sophisticated criminal organizations, police said.

“It grew organically based on word of mouth,” said FBI Special Agent Nicholas Cheviron, in a sworn affidavit.

By the summer of 2019, AN0M was gaining traction. Demand for devices was expanding beyond Australia. As the FBI was sending out devices, Australian police continued to monitor them.

The new legal ground this operation covers is reflected in the caution the FBI used. The United States was “geo-fenced,” meaning devices inside the U.S. were not monitored by U.S. authorities, but by the Australians, who only alerted the FBI in cases of an imminent threat to life.

In 2020, when it was revealed that EncroChat had been hacked by European authorities, and again in March, when Sky Global’s CEO was indicted in the United States, clients scrambled to join AN0M.

© Australian Federal Police via Reuters A person is detained by Australian Federal Police during Operation Ironside.

By the end of the operation, Suzanne Turner, Special Agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego Field office, said there were about 12,000 AN0M devices in use, sending 27 million messages through 100 countries in 45 languages.

The top five countries for AN0M use were Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and Serbia. There were active devices in Canada, the FBI said.

On Monday and Tuesday, authorities moved against a long list of targets in 16 countries.

About 800 arrests were being processed, including of six law enforcement officials caught working with criminals.

In Australia, the underworld damage was particularly harsh, with suspects arrested who are allegedly linked to “Australian-based Italian mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian crime syndicate and Albanian organized crime.”

In the United States, 17 people were indicted, listed variously as distributors, administrators and underworld influencers for AN0M. They are citizens of eight countries. Six of them are Australian and four are Dutch. Eight were in custody as of midday Tuesday, the others remaining international fugitives.

It is uncertain what role Canada played to deserve its flag being on the FBI’s Operation Trojan Shield logo. The RCMP said the operation was “conducted in consultation with the RCMP.”

Police in Australia gave the RCMP credit for help in the early days of its part of the probe, called Operation Ironside.

“This operation demonstrates that law enforcement will not stop in our pursuit of criminal activity related to encrypted criminal communications,” the RCMP said in a written statement to National Post, but questions on specific roles, actions or results went unanswered.

It is possible the Canadian role remains secret, or equally possible there wasn’t much recent involvement to report.

As the sting was in full swing, someone figured out AN0M was fishy.

In March, a tech-savvy blogger examined an AN0M device. His curiosity was piqued by an alert AN0M sent to clients after the Sky Global breach, assuring them of AN0M’s safety. His conclusion was blunt: “STAY AWAY FROM ANOM IF YOU VALUE YOUR PRIVACY & SAFEY,” the blog concluded, misspelling “safety.”

“THEY ARE COMPROMISED, LIARS AND YOUR DATA IS RUNNING VIA USA.”

It is uncertain who paid attention to his warning, other than the FBI.

For years, a growing stable of criminal clientele had bought into the lie that AN0M phones were secure.

Officials were in awe of the trust criminals placed in it, dropping the coy and coded language typically used for explicit detail, about what was being shipped, to what address, and when, allowing police to intervene without revealing how they knew.

Police say an immense amount of data and information accrued during the lengthy probe is still being investigated.

“Countless spin-off operations will be carried out in the weeks to come,” according to Europol, the European Union’s police agency.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys

Tyson Foods sets net-zero emissions goal, but falls short on farming project
By Tom Polansek 

© Reuters/Mike Blake FILE PHOTO: Tyson food meat products are shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tyson Foods set a goal on Wednesday to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally by 2050, after missing a deadline to improve U.S. farming practices as part of an earlier effort to cut emissions.


The new target by the biggest U.S. meatpacker by sales expands a previous goal of reducing emissions by 30% by 2030.

To achieve net-zero emissions, Tyson said it will plan for U.S. operations to use 50% renewable energy by 2030 and extend a program to verify sustainable production practices for cattle, among other steps.

"We believe progress requires accountability and transparency," said John Tyson, chief sustainability officer.

Three years ago, Tyson Foods pledged to improve environmental practices on two million acres (809,370 hectares)of U.S. farmland by 2020. So far, though, it has enrolled just 408,000 acres, according to the company.

Tyson said it now plans to meet its two-million-acre target by 2025.

The company does not own grain farms but has influence over farming as the U.S. meat industry's largest buyer of feed corn. Two million acres is enough land to grow corn to feed all Tyson chickens for a year.

The 408,000 acres represent land enrolled in a 2019 pilot program by Farmers Business Network, which sells agricultural supplies online, according to Tyson.

A pilot program run by another company, MyFarms, enrolled 11,000 acres in 2019, Tyson said. However, Tyson removed these acres last year due to a lack of data and discontinued MyFarms' pilot in 2021, according to the meatpacker.

For Tyson Foods, it was a big learning experience to determine how to obtain "high-quality information about what's going on at the farm in a way that is as frictionless as possible for all parties," John Tyson said.

Interruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic also hindered land stewardship work last year, Tyson said in a sustainability report.

Meatpackers including Tyson came under fire in 2020 as COVID-19 infections tore through slaughterhouses.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Richard Pullin)

Gunmen kill 10 mine sweepers at charity's camp in north Afghanistan

By Zarrin Ahmed

A HALO Trust worker is moved to an ambulance on Wednesday following an attack in Baghlan, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. Photo by Ajmal Omari/EPA-EFE


June 9 (UPI) -- Nearly a dozen mine sweepers from a British-American charity have been killed in northern Afghanistan during an attack on their office, authorities said.

Officials said the attack occurred late Tuesday at the HALO Trust organization's camp in Baghlan.

Ten deminers were killed and several others were injured in the attack. Baghlan is located about 100 miles northwest of Kabul.

HALO Trust, a mine clearance group, said more than 100 men were in the camp after finishing demining work in nearby minefields.

"We strongly condemn the attack on our staff, who were carrying out humanitarian work to save lives," the organization told Tolo News.

No group initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but Kabul's interior ministry blamed the Taliban. The militant group denied involvement.

"The local Taliban... came to our aid and scared the assailants off," HALO Trust CEO James Cowan told the BBC.

Violence across Afghanistan has increased since the United States formally began withdrawing troops last month after two decades of a constant presence. U.S. President Joe Biden has said the withdrawal will be complete by September. Earlier this month, U.S. Central Command said the pullout was almost 45% complete.

Several districts in Baghlan province have experienced fighting between the Taliban and government forces.