Representative for 17,000 Sears Canada retirees says insolvency laws are unjust

 Provided by The Canadian Press

A court-appointed representative for Sears Canada retirees said Tuesday that Canada's bankruptcy laws should be changed to avoid future financial hardship for members of other underfunded pension plans.

Kenneth Eady, a former Sears Canada management employee who now represents 17,000 other pensioners, told MPs that he doesn't believe it's fair that Canada's two bankruptcy laws give banks more protection than pensioners.

Parliament should pass a Bloc Québécois bill to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, Eady told a Commons committee that's reviewing the proposed legislation.

"You're the ones who can make a difference here, folks," Eady said. "The MPs on this committee can vote in favour of this bill, and help protect seniors. I suggest you do."

Under questioning, Eady said that Sears Canada retirees would have been helped if the proposed amendments to the two laws were in place when Sears Canada filed its initial request for court protection in June 2017.

But he said Sears Canada retirees probably wouldn't have been helped much if they were ranked ahead of other creditors and still behind banks, which have "super priority" status.

"It's a different type of debt that you have with the pension plan. It's a long term outstanding debt. And so, they have to be treated as super creditors to be to make it meaningful to pensioners," Eady said.

In the Sears Canada bankruptcy process, which hasn't yet been completed, there wasn't enough money to fund pension shortfalls after debts to banks and active employees were repaid ahead of other classes of creditors.

Eady is one of several witnesses who have spoken for or against a private member's bill that proposes to give underfunded pension plans and banks similar priority in bankruptcy courts.

Representatives from the Canadian Bankers Association and the Insolvency Institute of Canada warned the same committee last week that the bill's proposed changes would create worse problems than they solve.

Charles Docherty, assistant general counsel for the Canadian Bankers Association, said on Thursday that "a very careful balance has been achieved over several decades in the order of priority and bankruptcy."

"Ultimately, changes to the order of priority in bankruptcy threatens to seriously undermine the delicate balance with ripple effects across the economy," Docherty said.

Eady said in an interview Tuesday, after his virtual presentation to the committee, that the high profile nature of the Sears Canada bankruptcy serves as an example of what's wrong with the current laws.

"MPs are people with family who shopped at Sears. Maybe they worked there as a kid. I know several that have," he said. "Hopefully the fact that Sears is familiar to so many people, helps ... bring this issue clarity."

Laura Tamblyn Watts, a lawyer and seniors advocate who also addressed the committee Tuesday, said she doesn't think the banks' position is supported by evidence in other countries.

"Compared to other jurisdictions Canada significantly lags in its protection of pensioners," said Tamblyn Watts, chief executive of CanAge, a non-partisan national advocacy group for seniors.

In an interview after her virtual appearance before the committee, she said "everyday Canadians" may not understand the technical terms in the law but they understand the Sears Canada story.

"For instance," Tamblyn Watts said, "if you tell somebody that the pensioners at Sears in the U.S. didn't lose any money or any benefits — but they lost 20 per cent (of their pension payments) in Canada and really all of their benefits — people are shocked to understand that the U.S. has better protection."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021.

David Paddon, The Canadian Press

The head of the statue of Egerton Ryerson now on a spike at Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.

© Evan Mitsui/CBC Demonstrators attempt to remove the head from a toppled statue of Egerton Ryerson, one of the architects of the residential school system, on Sunday. The head is now at 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.

Last seen decapitated from a statue on the Ryerson University campus in Toronto, the head of Egerton Ryerson has made its way to 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.

The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers, who are attempting to build residential housing on land that the Six Nations say was never ceded by the Haudenosaunee.

The statue head is now resting on a "pike" overseeing the land, according to Skyler Williams, a Six Nations of the Grand River member who has been acting as spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane. The area is about 20 kilometres south of Hamilton near the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve.


Williams said he doesn't know how it got to the site, but they'll keep it unless someone else "is wanting to take it on tour."


Ryerson was one of the architects of Canada's residential school system, which separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families until the last one closed in 1996.

"It'll stay in its spot on the hill for the foreseeable future," he said about the statue head.


A post from a Twitter account associated with 1492 Land Back Lane showed it overlooking the land nearby.

The statue was toppled and beheaded on Sunday by demonstrators on the Ryerson University campus after the remains of an estimated 215 Indigenous children were detected on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Ryerson was the chief superintendent of education in Upper Canada (now modern-day Ontario). In 2010, Ryerson University's Aboriginal Education Council found "although [Ryerson] did not implement or oversee the launch of the schools, he contributed to the blueprint of them."

Williams said that, for him, statues of colonial figures like Ryerson are "iconic symbols about the genocide of our people" and "akin to having a statue of Hitler in the middle of Times Square."

Williams said three white pine saplings have been planted on the site of 1492 Land Back Lane as a way to memorialize the children.

"I don't think that anybody was surprised in the Indigenous community," he said of the remains buried at the former B.C., residential school. "We've been saying this now for 50 years, at least, that there are thousands of kids who never came home from those schools."

Williams told the CBC that he sees a direct link between their struggle to win back the land and the legacy of residential schools.

"There is a very direct tie between the land-back movement and the residential schools," said Williams, along with the Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and what he calls the Millennium Scoop — the disproportionate levels Indigenous children are separated from their parents by Canada's child welfare systems.

"When we're talking about land back, we're also talking about being able to invite those people home, those people who have suffered enough and need to have an opportunity to grow back into their communities, back into their communities."

Haudenosaunee-led demonstrators say land south of Caledonia planned for residential housing developments by two companies — Foxgate Developments and Wildwood Developments — was never surrendered to the Crown.

Demonstrators began occupying McKenzie Meadows on July 19, 2020, saying it's unceded territory. They call the area 1492 Land Back Lane.

Dan Taekema/CBC An Ontario Provincial Police officer guides a car past the blockade on Argyle Street, south of Caledonia, last summer. The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers.

The demonstrators have stayed on the land for more than 300 days. There have since been blockades across roads in the area, court injunctions to remove the people staying there and dozens of arrests.

Williams turned himself in to police on May 19 after he was charged with two counts each of mischief and disobeying a court order, as well as intimidation and failing to comply with an undertaking.

"When the cops came here on the very first day and asked us how long we plan on being here, there were a bunch of us there who said, that day, that our people have been here for 10,000 years, and we plan on being here for the next 10,000 more," said Williams. "We aren't going anywhere.

"You're going to continue to see people doing exactly what we've done here if there isn't some radical change within government, and the way we are policing, and the way we are continuing to discriminate against Indigenous people making a stand for lands that are rightfully theirs."

More than 1,000 people took part in an afternoon protest on Sunday to topple the Ryerson statue outside the university.

After it had fallen, Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi said in a statement it "will not be restored or replaced."

Following the Kamloops discovery, Indigenous students at the university also called on students, faculty and alumni to stop using the name Ryerson in their email signatures, correspondence, and on their resumés, urging them instead to call the school X University.

Two publications associated with Ryerson's journalism school — the Ryersonian newspaper and the Ryerson Review of Journalism magazine — also say they will change their names.

CANADA

Consumer debt driven by new mortgages, but credit card debt at six-year low

MORTGAGE=DEBT  

CREDIT CARD=DEFICIT

Equifax says the debt profile of Canadians has changed throughout the pandemic, with mortgages accounting for a larger portion of people's debt.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The company said Tuesday consumer debt stood at $2.08 trillion for the first quarter of 2021, up 0.62 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 4.78 per cent from a year earlier.


It said the rise was largely driven by mortgages, with the number of new mortgages up 41.2 per cent from a year ago when the country experienced the start of the pandemic.

However Rebecca Oakes, assistant vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax, said the rate of new mortgages in the latest quarter dropped when compared with the final quarter of 2020.

"There is a bit of potential that first-time homebuyers are starting to get priced out of the market, particularly in some of those hot markets like British Columbia and Ontario," she said.

Oakes said the largest increases in consumer debt were in British Columbia and Ontario, a direct result of the high home prices in those provinces.

At the same time, the credit reporting agency said consumer credit card debt was at a six-year low, as reduced spending led to healthier habits around daily spending.

"Across the board in all age groups, we’re starting to see people pay more than they actually spend on a credit card, which is a real positive behaviour change in terms of consumers," said Oakes, who said consumers paid $11 for ever $10 they spent in January 2021.

"We know that’s heavily impacted by some of the lockdowns and the ability for consumers to spend in the same way they once were."

Meanwhile, other big-ticket credit items like lines of credit have also accounted for a the general rise in Canadian debt.

Oakes said there was a 60 per cent increase in home equity lines of credit, which are secured against the value of a borrower's home.

"We are seeing people take on additional levels of home equity lines of credit, and where that starts to become a concern is if interest rates go up," since those kinds of loans are often at a variable interest rate, Oakes said.

Equifax also noted a rise in car leasing as opposed to car financing, which Oakes said could be related to higher costs for cars that are being seen in the U.S. market.

She said delinquencies were still happening at a much lower rate than pre-pandemic, as consumers continue to benefit from government financial support during the pandemic. 

But Oakes warned people need to prepare for those supports to subside to ensure their financial health.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021

The Canadian Press

EPA to expand clean water protections to smaller U.S. waterways, reversing Trump policy

The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army want to increase the waterways in the U.S. that receive federal protection.

The move would reverse a Trump administration rule limiting the waterways that can receive federal protection.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the Trump policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."

 Provided by CNBC In an aerial view, low water levels are visible at Lake Oroville on June 01, 2021 in Oroville, California.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army on Wednesday announced their intent to expand the number of waterways that receive protection under the Clean Water Act.

The move would reverse a rule adopted last year by the Trump administration, which limited the bodies of water that could receive federal protection. The Biden administration wants to expand protections to smaller waterways like streams, ditches and wetlands that feed into bigger bodies of water.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the Trump administration policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."

The EPA and the Army said they discovered that the Trump rule significantly reduced clean water protections, a major issue as the U.S. West grapples with a severe drought and water supply shortages.

In New Mexico and Arizona, the agencies found that almost all of more than 1,500 streams assessed were non-jurisdictional and thus unable to receive protection from the federal government.

Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, said the Trump rule led to a 25% reduction in "determinations of waters that would otherwise be afforded protection."

The ruled adopted under Trump, known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, reversed a previous attempt by the Obama administration to provide a more expansive definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will consider the latest science and impact of climate change on U.S. waters during the new rulemaking process, according to a press release.

"We are committed to establishing a durable definition of 'waters of the United States' based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from the lessons learned from the current and previous regulations," Regan said.

The Department of Justice is now filing a motion requesting remand of the rule, according to the release.

Biden moves to restore clean-water safeguards ended by Trump


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration began legal action Wednesday to repeal a Trump-era rule that ended federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, leaving them more vulnerable to pollution from development, industry and farms.

The rule — sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States” or WOTUS — narrowed the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. It was one of hundreds of rollbacks of environmental and public health regulations under President Donald Trump, who said the rules imposed unnecessary burdens on business.

The Trump-era rule, finalized last year, was long sought by builders, oil and gas developers, farmers and others who complained about federal overreach that they said stretched into gullies, creeks and ravines on farmland and other private property.

Environmental groups and public health advocates said the rollback approved under Trump has allowed businesses to dump pollutants into unprotected waterways and fill in some wetlands, threatening public water supplies downstream and harming wildlife and habitat. The Trump-era rule resulted in a 25% reduction in the number of streams and wetlands that are afforded federal protection, said Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant Army secretary for civil works.

The water rule has been a point of contention for decades. The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Michael Regan, has pledged to issue a new rule that protects water quality while not overly burdening small farmers.

President Joe Biden ordered a review of the Trump rule as part of a broader executive action on climate change during his first week in office. Wednesday's legal filing by the Justice Department begins that process as the EPA and Department of the Army formally request repeal of the Trump-era rule.

“Today's action reflects the agencies’ intent to initiate a new rulemaking process that restores the protections in place prior to the 2015 WOTUS implementation, and anticipates developing a new rule'' that defines what waters are considered to be under federal jurisdiction, the EPA said in a statement.

“We are committed to establishing a durable definition of ‘waters of the United States’ based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from current and previous regulations ... so we can better protect our nation’s waters, foster economic growth and support thriving communities,'' Regan said.

The Army and EPA “will develop a rule that is informed by our technical expertise, is straightforward to implement by our agencies ... and is shaped by the lived experience of local communities,” Pinkham said.

A review conducted by the Biden administration determined that the Trump rule is significantly reducing clean water protections, particularly in arid states such as New Mexico and Arizona, where a large number of streams now lack federal jurisdiction. At least 333 projects that would have required Clean Water Act permits no longer need federal approval, the agencies said.

The Trump-era rule removed protections from several public lakes, including Lake Keowee in South Carolina, a reservoir that provides drinking water for nearly 400,000 people, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, an advocacy group. The rule also removed Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction from about 400 acres of wetlands where a titanium mine is planned near Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the group said.

The law center and other environmental groups hailed the EPA action and urged officials to move quickly to restore long-standing protections for critical drinking water sources.

"Every day this harmful (Trump-era) rule is in effect, it endangers the waterways our communities depend on. That is unacceptable and must stop now,'' said Madeleine Foote, deputy legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican who hosted Regan during a visit to his state last week, said it was “a shame the Biden administration wants to undo the good work of the Trump administration'' in developing “a workable policy that falls within the confines of the law.''

North Dakota is likely to challenge the Biden rule in court “in the event of overreach,” Cramer said.

Kevin Minoli, a former career lawyer at EPA, said the Biden team faces a similar dilemma to the Obama and Trump administrations. “Now, the question becomes, ‘Can they write a definition that will last beyond their time in office?’ ” he said.

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press

CAPITALI$M 101
Lordstown Motors extends decline to 33% as the electric-vehicle maker warns it may go out of business

insider@insider.com (Carla Mozée) 

© Lordstown Motors The Endurance pickup truck. Lordstown Motors

Lordstown Motors shares extended their decline to 33% after the electric vehicle maker warned late Tuesday that it's low on cash and faces shutting its doors.

Lordstown outlined its warnings to investors with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is still targeting limited production of its Endurance pickup truck in September.

Shares of Lordstown Motors slumped Wednesday, deepening losses from the previous session after the electric-vehicle maker said it doesn't have enough cash to start producing its Endurance truck and warned that it may have to shut down altogether.

Lordstown outlined its warnings in a regulatory filing shortly before trading closed on Tuesday.

"The Company believes that our current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch of sale of such vehicles," it said in an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lordstown is still aiming to begin limited production in late September of its Endurance pickup truck which carries a base price tag of $52,500.

Video: Lordstown Motors shares fall after company says it needs more capital (CNBC)


Investors quickly dragged the company's shares sharply lower on Tuesday, leaving them down by 16.3%. The shares continued on Wednesday, losing 17% as they traded at $9.33 in mid-afternoon action.

Lordstown also said it may go out of business in the next 12 months as it's been struggling with cost increases stemming from supply chain issues and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date of issuance of the consolidated financial statements included in this report," it said. "If we are not able to continue as a going concern, or if there is continued doubt about our ability to do so, the value of your investment would be materially and adversely affected."

The company in its quarterly filing said it had about $587 million in cash and cash equivalents and an accumulated deficit of $259.7 million.

The start-up has previously said it's been facing significantly higher-than-expected expenditures for parts and equipment and said in its Tuesday's filing it may seek to raise more funds including through issuing equity or debt securities or obtaining credit from government or financial institutions.

GREEN CRYPTO-CAPITALI$M

The president of El Salvador says the country is exploring using geothermal energy from volcanoes to mine bitcoin following its decision to make the cryptocurrency legal tender

wdaniel@businessinsider.com (Will Daniel) 

© Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Getty Images A bitcoin sign in El Salvador. Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Getty Images

El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele announced his country is exploring using volcanic energy to mine bitcoin.
The move comes after El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender via a supermajority decision.

Bitcoin's price jumped roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000.

El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele took to Twitter on Wednesday for yet another big bitcoin announcement.

This time, Bukele said that he has instructed the president of the country's state-owned geothermal electric company, LaGeo SA de CV, to "put up a plan to offer facilities for #Bitcoin mining with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy from our volcanos."

The move comes after the country passed a law to make bitcoin legal tender on Wednesday via a supermajority (62 votes out of 84 possible).

Bitcoin's price rose roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000 per coin after the bullish news broke.

Bitcoin mining's energy-intensive nature has led critics to question its environmental impact over the past few years.

According to data from Cambridge, the bitcoin network's total energy consumption represents about 0.53% of total global energy consumption, and more than 85% of the energy consumed is used in the mining process.

Critics have argued bitcoin mining could exacerbate climate change, while others, including Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, have said that bitcoin's power use will only help boost the adoption of renewable mining and solar power.

In other crypto news, Coindesk reported Chinese consumers are currently unable to search for popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, OKEx, and Huobi on popular Chinese search engines in a sign of potential censorship.

China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency mining for some time, even going so far as to block the social media accounts of prominent crypto influencers over the weekend.

Last month, crypto miners were forced to halt operations in China after the country implemented tighter regulations. Chinese government officials have previously stated they would target the crypto industry to try to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Edmonton Journal 
Wednesday's letters: Goal of privatizing public services is profit

Why does the city again choose one of the lowest-paid groups of employees to privatize and present this decision as if this will improve efficiencies, save us money and then scare us with otherwise having to raise property taxes. This is hokum and we are tired of it. The most current similar rationale was the aides in long-term care facilities and we still are dealing with that disastrous management decision.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Harjas Grewal with Bee-Clean sanitizes the high touch surfaces in a Calgary Transit bus. The City of Edmonton is also looking at options to privatize bus cleaning which could lead to layoffs of more than 100 employees.

Bus cleaners and elder-care aides need secure jobs with benefits just like everyone else and working for government or city is a promise of that. We all know privatizing means profit is the primary goal, that owners and investors get a good return by downgrading working conditions and cutting pay and benefits to workers is the way they do it.


We need some journalist to focus on investigating and exposing this practice and what it means to our society going forward.

Connie Kenney, Edmonton

Contracting out costs more in the end

Let us not save a few dollars by contracting out city bus-cleaning jobs. These city positions provide a low but decent wage, benefits and job safety to people with disabilities and new Canadians. Since cleaning will still have to be done, how much will we save by giving worse pay and benefits to the employees at the bottom of the pay chain. Then, will we pay for social services to support them when their income will not pay even the lowest bills?

How is that moving us towards the city we say we want, fewer people homeless? How is that a good idea?

Wendy Edey, Edmonton

Steelworkers ratify new four-year contract at ArcelorMittal and end strike

LONGUEUIL, Que. — ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada says a strike by its workers has ended after they ratified a deal reached between the company and the United Steelworkers.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The approval ends a labour dispute involving 2,500 workers across five union locals that began on May 10.

ArcelorMittal says the new four-year collective agreement will provide stability for both employees and the company's partners.

Details of the agreement were not immediately available, but the union had been seeking improvements in wages, pensions and allowances based on working and living in remote northern communities.

Workers had rejected a previous offer earlier this year.

The workers are employed at several of the company's locations including the Mont-Wright mining complex and Fire Lake mine in the Cote-Nord region, and at a pelletizing plant in Port-Cartier, Que., about 575 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.

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

The Canadian Press

10 Members Of The Princess Diana-Supported HALO Trust Killed In Afghanistan

Aynslee Darmon 


Less than a month before Prince Harry and Prince William are set to reunite to honour their late mother Princess Diana on what would've been her 60th birthday on July 1, the pair have received devastating news

NOT DEVASTING ENOUGH FOR EITHER TO COMMENT ON

.

© Photo: CPImages Princess Diana

Ten members of the HALO Trust, an organization that the late icon worked closely with, were killed Wednesday and another 16 were injured by an armed group at a mine clearance camp in Afghanistan.

The HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization) helps removes debris left behind by war, in particular landmines.

The humanitarian organization confirmed the sad news on Twitter:

Diana famously walked through one of HALO's minefields in Angola in 1997. The visit prompted the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty to be signed, calling for all countries to rid the world of landmines.

In 2019, 22 years later, Harry followed in his mother's footsteps and returned to the same minefield to bring even more awareness to the cause.

The Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex will reunite in London on July 1 to honour their mother on what would have been her milestone birthday. The brothers will both attend the unveiling of a statue of Diana at Kensington Palace, which is being installed in the Sunken Garden.

IGNORANT RACIST INJUSTICE

Missouri governor: Pardon of 4-decade inmate not a priority

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says addressing the clemency petition for a man who’s been behind bars for a triple murder for more than four decades is not a “priority,” even though prosecutors say he didn't commit the crime.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Parson noted that Kevin Strickland, 62, was tried “by a jury of his peers” and found guilty. But he added that he knew there was “a lot more information out there.”

Parson has a backlog of about 3,000 clemency requests, the Kansas City Star reported. He issued almost no pardons before his reelection in 2020 but has since begun issuing a group of pardons monthly.

“When something like that comes up, we look at those cases, but I don’t know that that necessarily makes it a priority to jump in front of the line,” Parson said during a Monday news conference. “We understand some cases are going to draw more attention through the media than others, but we’re just going to look at those things.”

Several state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle signed a letter seeking a pardon for Strickland, who has maintained his innocence since he was convicted in the April 1978 deaths of three people in Kansas City.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has called for his release. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Missouri, Jackson County’s presiding judge, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of the team that convicted Strickland also have said he should be exonerated.

A bill approved this year that is awaiting Parson’s signature would give local prosecutors more power in such cases by allowing innocence claims to be brought before trial courts when a prosecutor believes a prisoner is innocent. Baker has said that if the governor signs the bill, she’ll file a motion on the first day it is legally allowed to get Strickland released.

The Star reported in September that two men who pleaded guilty in the killings for decades swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the shooting. The only eyewitness also recanted and wanted Strickland released.

In a petition filed with the Missouri Supreme Court in May, defense attorneys also noted that prosecutors removed the only four Black potential jurors from the trial for Strickland, who is Black.

Because of the prosecution’s “racially motivated” strikes, Strickland’s fate was decided by an all-white jury during a trial overseen by a white judge with white lawyers, the Star reported.

The state Supreme Court declined to hear Strickland's case, without giving a reason.

Strickland applied for clemency Tuesday, saying he does not want his sentence commuted. Anything less than a full pardon “would leave an unjust and undeserved stain on my c

“Through a full pardon, you have the power not only to correct my wrongful conviction, but also to ensure that my innocence is finally recognized,” Strickland wrote.riminal record," he wrote.

If Strickland is released, he will not be eligible for compensation from the state. Missouri compensates only inmates who are exonerated through DNA evidence, according to the Midwest Innocence Project.

The Associated Press