PRISON NATION USA

The longest serving death row inmate in the U.S. was resentenced to life in prison on Wednesday

© Provided by The Canadian Press

HOUSTON (AP) — The longest serving death row inmate in the U.S. was resentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after prosecutors in Texas concluded the 71-year-old man is ineligible for execution and incompetent for retrial due to his long history of mental illness.

Raymond Riles has spent more than 45 years on death row for fatally shooting John Thomas Henry in 1974 at a Houston car lot following a disagreement over a vehicle. He is the country's longest serving death row prisoner, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Riles was resentenced after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in April that his “death sentence can no longer stand” because jurors did not properly consider his history of mental illness.

Riles attended his resentencing by Zoom from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, which houses the state’s death row inmates. He said very little during the court hearing.

Riles’ attorneys asked that he appear via Zoom because they were concerned his various health issues, including severe mental illness, heart disease and ongoing recovery from prostate cancer, make him susceptible to contracting COVID-19.

Several members of Henry’s family took part in the virtual court hearing but did not make any statement before state District Judge Ana Martinez resentenced Riles to life in prison.

“We express our condolences to the family of Mr. Henry (who) we know have suffered an unimaginable loss. We are profoundly sorry for that,” said Jim Marcus, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and one of Riles’ attorneys.

In a statement, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Riles is incompetent and “therefore can’t be executed.”

“We will never forget John Henry, who was murdered so many years ago by Riles, and we believe justice would best be served by Riles spending the remainder of his life in custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” Ogg said.

During his time on death row, Riles has been treated with heavy antipsychotic medications but was never deemed mentally competent to be executed, according to prosecutors and his attorneys. He had been scheduled for execution in 1986 but got a stay due to competency issues. While Riles spent more than 45 years on death row in Texas, prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Martinez was not able to resentence Riles to life in prison without parole because it was not an option under state law at the time of his conviction.

Riles’ new sentence means he is immediately eligible for parole. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will automatically conduct a parole review in his case, Marcus said.

The district attorney’s office as well as Henry’s family have indicated they will fight any efforts to have Riles released on parole.

“Mr. Riles is in very poor health but, if the Board of Pardons and Paroles sees fit to grant parole, he has family with the capacity to care for him,” Marcus said.

A co-defendant in the case, Herbert Washington, was also sentenced to death, but his sentence was overturned, and he later pleaded guilty to two related charges. He was paroled in 1983.

When Riles was tried, state law did not expect jurors to consider mitigating evidence such as mental illness when deciding whether to choose the death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that Texas jury instructions were unconstitutional because they didn’t allow appropriate consideration of intellectual disability, mental illness or other issues as mitigating evidence in the punishment phase of a capital murder trial.

But Riles’ case remained in limbo because lower courts failed to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision until at least 2007, according to his attorneys.

That then gave Riles a realistic chance to prevail on this legal issue, but it wasn’t until recently that he had contact with attorneys who were willing to assist him, his lawyers said.

While prosecutors argued at Riles’ trial that he was not mentally ill, several psychiatrists and psychologists testified for the defense that he was psychotic and suffered from schizophrenia. Riles’ brother testified that his “mind is not normal like other people. He is not thinking like other people.”

While the Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for individuals who are intellectually disabled, it has not barred such punishment for those with serious mental illness, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature considered a bill that would have prohibited the death penalty for someone with severe mental illness. The legislation did not pass.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press

Developer of Keystone XL oil project abandons pipeline
esnodgrass@businessinsider.com (Erin Snodgrass) 

AP UA Pipefitters work on construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. AP

TC Energy Corp announced they would cancel the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday.

The move comes months after President Joe Biden revoked a key permit for the pipeline.

The move is a win for environmentalists who have opposed the project for a decade.

Environmentalists secured a win on Wednesday when Canada's TC Energy Corp and the Albertan provincial government announced they would cancel the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, more than a decade after it was first proposed.

The 1,200-mile line was an effort to carry more Canadian crude through the US, including Montana, South Dakota, to Steele City, Nebraska. The pipeline would have moved 35 million gallons of crude each day, connecting to other pipelines that feed refineries along the Gulf Coast, according to The Associated Press.

The project has been a point of contention among environmental activists and community groups for years.

Video: Former Keystone XL pipeline worker: ‘Gratifying’ to hear the Biden administration admit the importance of pipelines (FOX News)

The decision to abandon the project was expected after President Joe Biden revoked the pipeline's permit to cross into the US's northern border in January. Construction on the pipeline shut down that same day.

"We value the strong relationships we've built through the development of this Project and the experience we've gained," TC Energy President and CEO François Poirier said in a statement.

 

'It's a life or death issue': Trans athletes fight for their humanity while battling anti-trans laws

Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY JUNE 9,2021


Former University of Montana runner Juniper "June" Eastwood ran a 1500-meter time in three minutes and fifty-one seconds before she transitioned as a transgender woman. The women's world record is 3:55 by Romania's Paula Ivan in 1988.

Athletes: Bans on transgender players must stop

Eastwood said she wants people to know that as part of her journey as a trans woman, she followed Montana's state rules for transitioning athletes and cares deeply about participating in sports in a way that's fair and transparent.

In 2019, Eastwood became the first Division I transgender cross-country runner. As a successful trans athlete, her presence on the track is transcendent. And the spirit she brings to her sport has little to do with a desire to dominate her peers. It's bigger than t

Courtesy of June Eastwood June Eastwood competes at a meet in her senior season.

Eastwood's trans identity saved her own life from suicide and the demons of gender dysphoria.

She had to sit out a year and take hormone and testosterone blockers as part of her transition to adhere to NCAA rules. As a result, her 1500-meter time dropped by more than 30 seconds – down to around 4:24.

"There's a gray area that gets lost because people see it in (black and white)– you're born a man or a woman. In reality, it's a life or death issue for (transitioning) transgender women who have a sport as their sanctuary through dark times," Eastwood told USA TODAY Sports. “It becomes, quit the sport that’s saved you or keep competing but be open to scorn."

The overarching inability of seeing that the gray area is was further exacerbated by 69 proposed bills in 34 U.S. states that have been deemed discriminatory by LGBTQ advocacy support groups.

Science has taken a backseat to a political civil war in high school sports, LGBTQ rights experts say. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, seven states — Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia — have signed bills into law that do not allow transgender girls women to compete in high school athletics regardless of hormone therapy; athletes must compete according to the sex they were assigned at birth. assigned a gender at birth to compete in that division.

Joanna Harper, physicist and researcher at Loughborough University in London, has been an adviser to the International Olympic Committee on transgender inclusion. She said the bills neglect the science that outlines how a proper transition (and one year off the sport) can assure fairness at the high school level, as has been administered at the NCAA college level for the past decade.

More: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs transgender athlete ban on first day of 'Pride Month'

More: I'm a lifelong competitive athlete and a mom: Transgender athletes aren't a threat to women's sports

Her research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in March show that hemoglobin levels in transgender women fall to levels in line with cisgender women in the space of three to four months on average.

"What we have is transgender female athletes taking drugs to be fair and limit their ability, it's sort of the opposite of an athlete who takes (steroids) to be unfair," said Harper, who transitioned from male to female in 2004 and has experienced the changes in athletic ability firsthand.

"There isn't much of an issue before puberty with boys and girls but if we have a successful trans girl who was successful in boys sports before puberty, then goes into girls sports before hormone therapy, their performance would be world-beating. That isn't fair. But that's not what is being proposed. Since every state education system rules its own state, that's resulted in every state seeming to have a different policy," Harper said.

Mack Beggs, a trans man, drew national attention in 2018 when he became the Texas State Champion in girls' wrestling. He wanted to compete in boys wrestling, but the state's University Interscholastic League wouldn't allow him because he was assigned female at birth. He had taken testosterone enhancers initially when transitioning from female to male but then opted to take hormone blockers to offset the unfair testosterone. Parents and fellow athletes protested.

"What these laws are doing is pushing transgender athletes back into the closet," Beggs said. "I try to understand the other side but the main case is 'we're trying to protect our children.' That's an unrealistic fear."

"As transgender athletes, we're not trying to compete where it's unfair," said Eastwood, the Montana high school boys cross country class A state champion in 2014. "But this doesn't become an issue unless we're winning. I wanted to win fairly but compete in the sport I love as who I really am."

Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports, said the extremism of out-right bans has a dangerous connotation for a disenfranchised group at a young age.

"A lot of people focus on who is winning and losing," Zeigler said. "I can see that in professional sports, the Olympics or collegiate sports. But kids who are in middle school and high school most of the time just want to compete. That should be driving policy. When people educate themselves, whether Democrats or Republicans, they can realize that outright bans are cruel and unnecessary.

"We should be having a conversation about how to include trans girls, not ban them. Should there be a transition period? Yes. But bans are just political posturing."

Eastwood said politicians are failing to see the issue on a human level.

"I never would have wanted to be a world record holder as a (transgender) woman," Eastwood said. "But it's important for lawmakers to understand why we transition in the first place: So we don't contemplate suicide. My biggest worry is that these bills will marginalize and we'll see an increase in trans suicides. The easiest way to see the gray is acknowledge our suffering. If lawmakers aren't willing to sit across the table from transgender athletes or and listen, then it's harder to humanize and easier to discriminate."







Slide 1 of 6: Actor Elliot Page came out as transgender in Dec. 2020, announcing his new pronouns and name via Twitter. He later appeared on the cover of Time magazine, becoming the first openly transgender man to do so. In the Time interview, Page stressed the importance of cisgender people educating themselves on transgender lives, rights and medical needs
6 SLIDES © Geoff Robins, AFP via Getty Images

Actor Elliot Page came out as transgender in Dec. 2020, announcing his new pronouns and name via Twitter. He later appeared on the cover of Time magazine, becoming the first openly transgender man to do so. In the Time interview, Page stressed the importance of cisgender people educating themselves on transgender lives, rights and medical needs.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'It's a life or death issue': Trans athletes fight for their humanity while battling anti-trans laws

Alberta musician Shawnee Kish hopes her two-spirit story inspires youth to reclaim culture, identity

Allison Bench 

Edmonton-based musician Shawnee Kish says she spent the pandemic writing new music.

 Shawnee Kish / Instagram Alberta musician Shawnee Kish, pictured on a billboard in Toronto.

"I have an EP coming, it's a six-track EP," Kish said. "I believe music is very much medicine and this music was that for me entirely. I spent the lockdown time creating this new music and it's this new chapter I'm so excited to share."

Kish said she uses her music as a way to connect with others.

"I am Indigenous. I identify as two spirit, and it took me some time in my life to really honour and cherish those parts of me.

"There was a time in my life where I was closeted and I didn't feel like I could be who I was as a two-spirit person."

The term two spirit was created in the 1990s in Canada to describe those who are Indigenous and LGBTQ, but the concept has been a part of Indigenous culture for generations.

"This is not a new tradition, has been celebrated and honoured by our ancestors," Kish said. "As Indigenous people, we are reclaiming that tradition that was celebrated and honoured through our people.

"A two-spirit person walks and understands it's a gift to be two spirit and understand both the feminine and the masculine world and spirits... (and) carrying both of those understandings."

Read more: Alberta men begin walk to Ottawa to honour missing, murdered Indigenous women and girls

Kish is set to release her EP on June 25. It will be available to steam on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

The month holds duel significance for the release -- Canadians celebrate June as Pride Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day is marked on June 21.

"It's so important to us as Indigenous people to reclaim who we are," Kish said. "To honour who we are, and to the outside community -- non-Indigenous people -- to share these conversations with younger people about Indigenous people and what has gone on in Canada and open up those conversations."

Kish was also selected to curate an Indigenous Voices playlist by Amazon Music to bring more creators and musicians into the spotlight.

Edmontonians will have the opportunity see Kish perform live this summer, at the Together Again concert series in August at the Racetrack Infield on the Edmonton Exhibition Lands (formerly Northlands Park) in central Edmonton.

Read more: Together Again outdoor concert series coming to Edmonton in August

She says she expects the experience to be emotional.

"I feel nervous because I feel like it's been so long," she said. "I've been performing for the past year and a half to my camera on my phone. To have people there... there might even be tears for me on stage.

"I am just so, so excited to be performing on a stage, with my band, this new music."


The past several months have been eventful for Kish even beyond her music -- in May, she married Edmonton Olympian Jen Kish in a ceremony officiated by NDP Leader Rachel Notley.

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