Friday, June 11, 2021

The rocky road to accurate sea-level predictions

Dirt and water under Greenland control future sea

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

IMAGE: HENNING ÅKESSON view more
CREDIT: HENNING ÅKESSON

The type of material present under glaciers has a big impact on how fast they slide towards the ocean. Scientists face a challenging task to acquire data of this under-ice landscape, let alone how to represent it accurately in models of future sea-level rise.

"Choosing the wrong equations for the under-ice landscape can have the same effect on the predicted contribution to sea-level rise as a warming of several degrees", says Henning Åkesson, who led a new published study on Petermann Glacier in Greenland.

Glaciers and ice sheets around the world currently lose more than 700,000 Olympic swimming pools of water every day. Glaciers form by the transformation of snow into ice, which is later melted by the atmosphere in summer, or slides all the way into the sea. With climate change, glaciers are breaking up and drop icebergs into the ocean at an accelerating pace. Exactly how fast depends to a large extent on the bed below all the ice. Glaciers conceal a landscape under the ice covered by rocks, sediments and water. A new study shows that the way we represent this under-ice landscape in computer models means a great deal for our predictions of future sea-level rise. More specifically, how we incorporate the friction between the ground and the ice sliding over it in glacier models is what affects our predictions. This was found by a team of Swedish and American scientists, when they simulated the future of Petermann Glacier, the largest and fastest glacier in northern Greenland.

Petermann is one of the few glaciers in the northern hemisphere with a remaining ice tongue, a type of floating glacier extension otherwise mainly found in Antarctica, where they are called ice shelves. These floating extensions have been found to be exposed to warm subsurface water flowing from the open ocean towards the glaciers. This happens both in Antarctica and in many fjords around Greenland, including the Petermann Fjord.

"Peterman lost 40% of its floating ice tongue over the last decade. It still has a 45 km tongue, but we found that a slightly warmer ocean than today would lead to its break up, and trigger a retreat of the glacier", says Henning Åkesson, a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University who led the study.

Many glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica flow towards the ocean much faster than they did a few decades ago, and therefore contribute more to global sea-level rise. Scientists have therefore mobilized great efforts into learning what is going on in these environments. This has spurred new insights into the landscape under glaciers and the shape of the seafloor where they drain. We now also know much more about what happens to the ice when glaciers meet the sea.

Still, the remote polar regions are notoriously difficult to study because of sea ice, icebergs, and often harsh weather. The under-ice landscape is a particular challenge because, frankly, it is hard to measure something covered by a kilometer of ice on top. Even in areas of known under-ice topography, describing its physical properties using mathematical equations is difficult. Computer models are therefore still somewhat in the dark when it comes to how to represent things like sediments, rocks, ponds and rivers under glaciers in the equations that describe ice flow. These equations are ultimately the foundation of the models used by the IPCC to estimate how fast glaciers flow and how much sea levels will rise under future climate warming.

"As we said, choosing the wrong equations for the under-ice landscape can have the same effect on the contribution to sea-level rise as a warming of several degrees", Åkesson says.

"In fact, predicted sea-level rise for this Greenland glacier can quadruple depending on how we represent friction under the ice. We still don't know which way is the best, but our study illustrates that ice-sheet models still need to progress in this respect, in order to improve our estimates of mass loss from Earth's polar ice sheets."

CAPTION
Swedish icebreaker Oden at the front of Petermann Ice Shelf in 2019. The new study shows that this ice shelf may break up if ocean warming continues.
CREDIT
Martin Jakobsson

CAPTION
The 20 km-wide Petermann Fjord with the ice shelf in the far distance.
CREDIT
Martin Jakobsson

Why this London, Ont., MP voted against a 2017 motion to condemn Islamophobia

Rebecca Zandbergen

CBC NEWS

JUNE 10, 2021

© Karen Vecchio/Twitter In 2017, Karen Vecchio, the Conservative MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, voted against M-103, a motion introduced by Ontario Liberal MP Iqra Khalid to condemn Islamophobia. She spoke to CBC London on Thursday

In the wake of the fatal attack Sunday on a Muslim family in London, Ont., politicians of every stripe have come out to condemn hate and violence in this province and across Canada.

Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Salman's mother, Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed. The youngest member of the family, nine-year-old Fayez, survived and remains in hospital.

Following Tuesday night's vigil, Karen Vecchio, the Conservative MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, is among those who took to social media, and said, "Last night I stood amongst 10,000 Canadians who came together to grieve, commemorate and address the issues of Islamophobia."

But in 2017, after six people were killed in an attack on a Quebec City mosque, Vecchio voted against M-103, a motion first introduced in 2016, to condemn Islamophobia.

In the recent attack, police say they believe it was premeditated and motivated by anti-Muslim hate. Community groups and politicians have also spoken out about Islamophobia.

Vecchio spoke to Rebecca Zandbergen of CBC's London Morning on Thursday morning about why and how she may have done things differently:

Standing among over 10,000 people who were there to commemorate the family and address Islamophobia: it was a very powerful evening. I think since the tragedy on Sunday, this has been a time in which many people throughout London and the region are reflecting because this is just a family, a family like I have. The bottom line is no family is free until all families are free. No family should ever worry about walking down the street and be targeted because of their religion and how they look.

I recognize the importance to the community and the importance to push this forward to understand racism and hate. So M-103 today would look very different in my eyes. But back at that time when this was put forward in 2016, there was also another motion in the House that I had supported. It was much broader. I have spoken to Iqra Khalid [the Ontario Liberal MP who sponsored the motion] and I have respect for her and worked with her on the women's caucus for some time. We had put forward a motion that was a bit different and much broader. It expanded to different religions ... that included Sikh, Jewish, Islam. It expanded everything.

No. When I voted, I personally thought we need to include other communities, including the Sikhs and Hindus.

You're absolutely right. I recognize that, yes, I could have voted for both, and would I today? Absolutely. But what I'm saying is at that time when I was looking at those bills, I wanted to expand it.

Yes, absolutely. I absolutely do.

Once again, it's the messaging.We're looking at our economy right now and so I want to ensure when we're talking about it, we're looking at the security of Canadian families and security includes the economy, it includes safety, includes it all. So I would not take what he has indicated there in our motto, to have anything to do with Islamophobia. It is not the intention whatsoever and people can try to take any phrase like that and move it. It is absolutely genuine and wanting to ensure that we have a secure Canada for all Canadians. And that includes our new immigrants to Canada, and to our brothers and sisters who are of Muslim faith.

I understand where you're coming from, but we're referring to the economy. I see where you're going on this. And I think every single time you have a slogan, we have to be very cautious because there's going to be lots of individuals that are going to take that and that they're going to twist it. Let's not kid ourselves. When we have political foes, they like to take anything and twist it.

Lots of phone calls. Lots of people have tried to put things on my Facebook. I find that we're at a time of great hate. And so I've been trying to reach out to all of those people individually. I don't believe the social media platforms are the best way to have discussions. I've been on the phone with many individuals in our own community, including going to the vigil just last night here in St. Thomas with the St. Thomas Islamic Centre. I think we have to do lots of great work in our smaller communities and that's the kind of work I'll continue to do

SPACE RACE 3.0

European Space Agency adds another new Venus mission

An illustration depicts the EnVision orbiter unfolding instruments as it nears Venus. Image courtesy of European Space Agency

June 10 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency has approved a new mission to study Venus -- the third new mission to Venus to be announced in the past two weeks.

The ESA announced Thursday it will launch the EnVision orbiter in 2031 or 2032, with a budget of roughly $610 million.

It will follow two NASA missions to Venus that are scheduled to launch in a three-year span starting in 2028. NASA announced those missions, known as DAVINCI+ and Veritas, on June 2.

EnVision will scan specific regions of the Venusian surface that may be selected using data from Veritas, said Günther Hasinger, ESA director of science, in an interview Thursday.

"Venus has been kind of ignored for a long time. So I believe we will get similar details of Venus as we have today for Mars, once these missions are concluded," Hasinger said.

Such knowledge could help scientists combat the worst impact of climate change on Earth, since the Venusian atmosphere may have undergone similar changes, he said.

All three Venus missions will attempt to answer the same difficult question that has vexed scientists for decades: Why did Venus, which is similar in size and location in the solar system to Earth, evolve into a hellish environment with temperatures that can melt lead at the surface?

Veritas will map the entire surface of the planet, while EnVision targets mountainous regions known as tesserae. DAVINCI+ will plummet through the atmosphere to the surface in an hour-long journey as it samples the air using various sensors.

EnVision's key instruments will be radar that can penetrate the thick sulfuric-acid clouds in the Venus atmosphere. NASA will supply key components for EnVision.

That radar will provide detailed maps of the surface -- 10 to 50 times more accurate than NASA's previous Magellan orbiter launched in 1989, said Adriana Ocampo, NASA's program scientist for the EnVision mission, in an interview.

"It's actually the same team that's working on EnVision and Veritas, so this would be complementary science. This will serve to maximize science to ad

Hackers steal 780gb of data from major game publisher Electronic Art

Major video game publisher Electronic Arts said Thursday that hackers stole vital data including source code and other internal tools. Photo by Elliot Lash/Wikimedia Commons

June 10 (UPI) -- Hackers breached the systems of Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest video game publishers, and stole important data including source code and other internal tools, the company said Thursday.

The hack was first reported by Vice, which reviewed posts on underground hacking forums where hackers said they had 780gb of EA's data and were advertising it for sale.

"You have full capability of exploiting on all EA services," the hackers said.

In the forum posts, the hackers said they had taken the source code for EA's soccer game FIFA 21 and the code for its online matchmaking server, the source code and tools for the company's proprietary Frostbite engine, and proprietary frameworks and software development kits, Vice reported.

An EA representative said the company was aware of the hack and that player data was not affected.

"We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen," the representative said. "No player data was accessed and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we've already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation."

The representative also said it was not a ransomware attack, in which hackers encrypt a company's data and attempt to force them to pay a ransom to unlock it.

The EA hack comes after a pair of high-profile ransomware attacks on meat producer JBS and the Colonial Pipeline which provides 45% of the East Coast's fuel supply in which they paid $11 million and $4.4 million in ransoms respectively.

'Laughing gas' shows promise against tough-to-treat depression

When antidepressants fail to rein in hard-to-treat depression, the common anesthetic most know as "laughing gas" might be a safe and effective alternative, new research suggests.

The finding follows work with 28 patients struggling with "treatment-resistant major depression," a severe condition that investigators say affects about one-third of all patients -- an estimated 17 million American adults -- who develop major depressive disorder.

For such patients, antidepressants often fail to provide relief. But following three one-hour laughing gas inhalation sessions spread across three months, 85% of patients had significant depression relief that endured weeks post-treatment.

"Laughing gas is nitrous oxide, one of the oldest and most commonly used anesthetics," explained study author Peter Nagele, chair of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago.

"And we found that laughing gas, at a much lower concentration than is used, for instance, during dental procedures, can help patients with difficult-to-treat depression," Nagele said.

Between 2016 and 2019, Nagele's team tried out two laughing gas formulations: one at a level of 50% nitrous oxide and one at a level of 25%.

Previous investigations had already demonstrated an antidepressant benefit at the higher level. But those efforts only assessed a post-treatment benefit of 24 hours.

And patients exposed to the higher dose commonly experienced side effects, including nausea, sedation and or "mild dissociation," a kind of daydreaming experience.

In the latest study, patients were between the ages of 18 and 75. All were told to continue their usual depression care and maintain their existing antidepressant regimen.

About one-third were exposed to three sessions of 50% nitrous oxide inhalation treatment, one-third were given a 25% nitrous oxide inhalation treatment and one-third were given an oxygen inhalation treatment that contained no laughing gas.

Treatment was delivered via a standard anesthesia face mask, and all were monitored for up to one hour post-treatment.

After four patients withdrew from the study, results were drawn from 20 patients who completed all three inhalation sessions and four patients who completed at least one treatment.

The investigators found that both formulations offered significant depression control. In fact, just a single session -- at either dosage -- provided "rapid" depression control among patients, the team noted.

Depression control also appeared to grow in effect over time, enduring up to a month post-treatment among some of the patients.

At the three-month mark, the team found that 85% of patients had symptom improvement and 40% were found to be in depression remission.

Perhaps just as importantly, the team also found that "using a lower concentration of nitrous oxide also reduced the risk of side effects fourfold."

So, how exactly does laughing gas tamp down depression?

"The mechanism of how nitrous oxide exerts antidepressant effects is unknown, and is likely different from how it induces sedation and unconsciousness and also pain relief," Nagele said. "Having said this, the most widely accepted theory is that nitrous oxide blocks a specific receptor in the brain called NMDA-receptor, which is also considered the main mechanism for [the medication] ketamine."

Ketamine is a class III scheduled drug. While hospitals traditionally deploy the drug as an anesthetic, it's also been explored for its potential as an "off-label" treatment for depression.

According to Steven Hollon, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University in Brentwood, Tenn., "Ketamine is the hottest thing going" in the world of alternative depression treatment research.

Hollon was not involved in the new study, and acknowledged that he is not well-versed in the specifics of nitrous oxide depression treatment research.

Still, he stressed that the finding "suggests a common mechanism" with ketamine. And he characterized Nagele's work as "a most impressive 'proof-of-concept' study that would make me want to see the matter pursued."

The depression control seen among those patients exposed to low-dose laughing gas was "as good or better than you would hope to get in a placebo-controlled trial with antidepressant medications, and these are treatment-resistant patients. [It's] quite impressive," Hollon noted.

"If they came forward with this as pilot data, I would fund them for a major trial," he added. "These are very promising findings."

The report by Nagele and his colleagues was published in the this week issue of Science Translational Medicine.

More information

There's more on treatment-resistant depression at the Mayo Clinic.

Analysis-Frequent run-ins with India gov't cloud U.S. tech expansion plans

By Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra

JUNE 11, 2021

© Reuters/Dado Ruvic FILE PHOTO: Illustration of 3D printed Facebook and Twitter logos on a computer motherboard

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Another spat between India's government and U.S. big tech has exacerbated disillusion among firms which have spent billions to build hubs in their largest growth market, to the extent some are rethinking expansion plans, people close to the matter said.

The government on Saturday said Twitter Inc had not indicated compliance with new rules aimed at making social media firms more accountable to legal requests, and therefore risked losing liability exemptions for content posted on its platform.

Twitter joins compatriots Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Facebook-owned WhatsApp in long being at loggerheads with the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over data privacy bills and policies some executives have called protectionist, but tension has escalated in recent weeks.

Police visited Twitter last month to notify it of a probe into the tagging of a political tweet as "manipulated media", and in February interrogated an Amazon official about the potentially adverse social impact of a political drama. Meanwhile, WhatsApp is challenging the government in court over rules it said would force it to access encrypted data.

"The fear is there," said a senior tech industry executive in India. "It weighs both strategically and operationally."

There are no indications the increasing run-ins have led to the delay or cancellation of planned investment.

Still, three senior executives familiar with the thinking of major U.S. tech firms said perceptions of India being an alternative, more accessible growth market to China are changing, and that longstanding plans for India's role in their operations are being reviewed.

"There always used to be these discussions to make India a hub, but that is being thought through now," said one of the executives, who works at a U.S. tech firm. "This feeling is across the board."

Four other executives and advisors also expressed concern about rising tension. All declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter and because discussions were private.

Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, WhatsApp and India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment.

MISINFORMATION

The government has argued that its rules are needed to stem the spread of misinformation that can spark violence - such as in 2017 when kidnapping rumours shared on message apps including WhatsApp led to lynching. It also said the rules are necessary to hold large technology companies accountable for practices that hurt domestic businesses or compromise customer privacy.

India is a massive market for U.S. tech giants. It is the biggest market for both Facebook and WhatsApp by user numbers, showed data from Statista, and third for Twitter. Amazon has committed as much as $6.5 billion to invest in the country.

To attract small businesses through WhatsApp, Facebook last year invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd's media and telecommunications arm, Jio Platforms.

Alphabet Inc's Google also pumped $4.5 billion into Jio last year from a newly created $10 billion fund earmarked for investment in India over five to seven years.

COMPLIANCE

The government has tried to balance attracting high-tech investment with nationalist policies aimed at protecting local businesses and, critics say, advancing its political agenda.

A border confrontation with China prompted it to effectively ban Chinese social media apps, including TikTok and WeChat.

The government has also forced foreign firms to store data locally against fierce lobbying, and its promotion of a domestic payment card network prompted Mastercard Inc to complain https://www.reuters.com/article/india-mastercard-idINKCN1N65IS to the U.S. government about the use of nationalism.

In 2019, compliance issues with new regulations saw Amazon remove thousands of products from its e-commerce platform. The e-tailer is separately facing scrutiny by the Competition Commission of India for its retailing practices.

Twitter publicly refused to comply with some government demands to remove content, a stance which some industry executives said may have aggravated its current situation.

WhatsApp has gone to court rather than comply with a new law requiring social media firms to trace the origin of dangerous or criminal posts on their platforms. The message app operator said it cannot comply without breaking encryption, while observers said yielding could prompt similar demands in other countries.

At the same time, WhatsApp has faced regulatory delays that have limited its payment service to just 4% of its 500 million customers. Nevertheless, it is pressing ahead with hiring for a service it has called a "globally significant" opportunity.

Government officials have shown little patience for objections. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said any robust democracy must have accountability mechanisms, such as the ability to identify the originator of messages.

"A private company sitting in America should refrain from lecturing us on democracy when you are denying your users the right to effective redressal forum," Prasad said in an interview with the Hindu newspaper published on Sunday.

Still, continued antagonism could imperil Modi's ambition of making India a go-to investment destination.

"It's a question of what you would develop in a three-to-five-year horizon," said another executive familiar with the thinking of U.S. firms. "Do you do that in India or do you do that in another country. That's where the conversation is."

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra; Edting by Jonathan Weber and Christopher Cushing)

Catholic bishops to send Indigenous delegation to meet Pope Francis on residential schools

Sean Boynton

GLOBAL NEWS

JUNE 11,2021

The national assembly of Catholic bishops in Canada is preparing to send a delegation of Indigenous people to the Vatican for a visit with Pope Francis to discuss Canada's residential school system and the role the Catholic church played

© VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images Pope Francis arrives to lead his weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on October 21, 2020.

In a statement Thursday, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) said it has been preparing a delegation for the past two years, but plans for the trip were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group said it now plans to send the delegation before the end of the year.

"This pastoral visit will include the participation of a diverse group of Elders/Knowledge Keepers, residential school survivors and youth from across the country," the CCCB said.

"The event will likewise provide Pope Francis with a unique opportunity to hear directly from Indigenous Peoples, express his heartfelt closeness, address the impact of colonization and the implication of the Church in the residential schools, so as to respond to the suffering of Indigenous Peoples and the ongoing effects of intergenerational trauma."

Bennett says Pope’s statement over residential schools ‘doesn’t go far enough’

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

The Catholic church has faced renewed scrutiny over its participation in Canada's residential school system since the discovery of the bodies of 215 children in unmarked graves on the site of a former school in Kamloops, B.C.

On Sunday, Pope Francis said he is following news of the findings "with pain" and that he joined with Canada's bishops in "expressing my closeness to the Canadian people traumatized by the shocking news."

Yet he stopped short of apologizing for the church's role in running more than 60 per cent of Canada's residential schools from 1890 until 1969. The Catholic church as a whole has never issued a formal apology.

Some 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children were forcibly sent to residential schools, where many suffered abuse. Ongoing research by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation shows at least 4,100 died in the schools amid neglect.

Pope expresses sorrow over residential school deaths, but no apology

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and First Nations across Canada have urged the church to apologize and to release records from the schools -- a call that has so far been met with what Trudeau on Friday called "resistance."

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett on Monday said the Pope's statement "doesn't go far enough."

The CCCB said Thursday that it has "pledged true and deep commitment to renewing and strengthening relationships with Indigenous Peoples across the land," with the "strong encouragement" of Pope Francis.

The group said the delegation will represent "an important step on the journey of reconciliation and shared healing for Indigenous Peoples and the Church in Canada."

"It is our hope that these forthcoming encounters – and the important collaboration and partnership that has supported the planning – will lead to a shared future of peace and harmony between Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church in Canada," they said.

Read more: Catholic Church needs to ‘take responsibility’ for residential schools, Trudeau says

Church leaders have said the church did not have a unified role in the residential school system as it has a decentralized structure, meaning decisions are made by individual dioceses or orders.

Throughout the years, individual bishops have apologized for the role that different dioceses played in the residential school system. Vancouver's archbishop apologized following the discovery in Kamloops.

Richard Gagnon, president of the CCCB, expressed his ``sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children'' but offered no formal apology.

In 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the Pope could not personally apologize for residential schools, even though he has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous people around the world.

--With files from the Canadian Press

ARCHITECTURE OF REPRESSION

‘Monuments of oppression’ must be torn down to make room for healing, says OKIB chief

This article contains content about residential “school” that may be triggering. IndigiNews is committed to trauma-informed ethical reporting, which involves taking time and care, self-location, transparency and creating safety plans for those who come forward with stories to share.

As the community continues to grieve the loss of 215 children whose remains were recently uncovered on the former grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential “School,” Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) Chief Byron Louis says it’s time to tear down colonial structures to make way for healing.

OKIB elected leadership is calling on the federal and provincial governments to remove and replace residential and day “school” buildings that continue to traumatize First Nations community members.

“Across Canada, due to lack of capital funding, residential schools, Indian day schools, churches and other monuments of oppression remain in Indigenous communities to serve as constant reminders of the colonial genocide committed by Canada,” says the statement released June 8.

Louis says these institutions and other “monuments of oppression” should be demolished and replaced with healing centres as a way to “decolonize community infrastructure.”

On OKIB’s land, two former “day schools” — where students experienced “poor treatment and abuse,” according to Louis’s statement — still stand. One now operates as the band office, and the other as an Elders’ gathering space, meaning many members must revisit painful memories in order to gain access to basic services.

“How can you actually ask our Elders who went there as students, to ask them to go into those places and to not be reminded of what had happened to them as children?” Louis says in a phone interview.

“What we’re looking for isn’t just to tear these buildings down but to actually replace them with buildings that are conducive to healing, as well as the intergenerational healing that will need to take place.”

The n’kmaplqs (top of the Okanagan Lake) people of OKIB belong to the Syilx Nation and they care for the lands in their ceremonial way as they have done since time immemorial.

Louis says after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops, he is especially focused on healing, and the people of n’kmaplqs deserve to live without these structural reminders in the community.

“Canadians of Japanese descent are not expected to travel to the New Denver Internment Camp to receive government services,” Louis says in a statement.

“Jewish descendants of the victims of the Holocaust aren’t expected to visit the internment and extermination camps to apply for a business loan. For Indigenous people, we’ve been left with these scars on our land in the form of unhealthy and traumatizing buildings.”

“Indian day schools” were used by Canada to assimilate Indigenous children alongside residential schools and other church- and state-run institutions.

On OKIB land, the first “day school” — operated by the Catholic Church and funded by the federal government — opened in 1923, and was known as the Okanagan Day School. It operated until 1945 and was later turned into the OKIB Band Office.

The second “day school” to open in the community was the Six Mile Creek Day School, which operated from 1947 to 1968 and is now used as an Elders’ gathering place called New Horizons.

According to OKIB, so-called “students” at these institutions endured abuse and cruel treatment.

“Students at the Six Mile School were forced … to kneel on their knuckles to learn mathematics and prayers for example,” the band’s news release says.

“Look at what we had to go through in the name of so-called western civilization, wiping out who we are, what we are, and how we think,” says Louis.

He says the children who were forced to attend these assimilation institutions are not to be looked at as “survivors” or “victims” — but rather as warriors.

There has been a “war against children,” he says. And this war has had many casualties and has been fought on different battlegrounds including residential and day “schools” and the foster care system.

An “estimated 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were removed from their families, homes, languages, and lands” and placed in residential “schools,” according to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at the University of British Columbia. Today, Indigenous children are grossly overrepresented in the child-welfare system due to racist, colonial policies and practices.

He hopes to hold up the warriors in the “war on children,” those who went to residential schools — to remember them for allowing Syilx people to stand tall in who they are today.

He reminds the Syilx people that despite these atrocities they are still here and now is the time to reclaim at full force what’s been taken.

“These children that went to residential schools came back — to still be Syilx, to still be Okanagan,” he says.

Canadians are the “beneficiaries of what was done,” says Louis, and they need to take accountability.

“It’s not just these buildings, it’s the continuing residue of what’s left,” Louis says.

“We don’t need a saviour,” Louis says. “You have no right to feed me, no matter how good the food is.”

Healing won’t be attained with a simple cheque, he says. What’s needed is meaningful action — support to tear down these former assimilation centres and replace them with something that will give life back to the people.

“They want to say sorry, but not make reparations. If you look at true reparation, you look at what was done in Germany: they were all given the opportunity to come back and rebuild their societies, their governments, everything, and they were given opportunities through the Marshall Plan,” he says. “Now ask yourself, “Where is our Marshall Plan?

“We need to stand up — our own people. We have everything we need,” Louis says, with passion in his voice. “The answer is not found in hate. We need to heal ourselves, and we need to heal ourselves for the right reasons.”

Louis shares that Syilx people have always been hard workers and they carry laws and stories that will help to guide them to their healing.

He then shares a small part of a Captikwl (oral storytelling law) teaching that he says he’s drawing upon in his plan to replace the colonial structures with healing centres:

We’re still the same people we always have been. Like our captikwl, when Coyote is … killed, Fox can step over him four times and bring him back to life, and if you find a single bone, a single hair of Coyote then Fox can bring him back to life. And that’s us. If you can find a single hair, and a piece of bone or anything of what we were we can bring ourselves back to life. And this is how it all fits in. We have everything we need to bring ourselves back.

Louis says Syilx people have all the teachings they need to move through these hard times and that reintegrating those stories and teachings back into the Syilx way of life is one way to reclaim the collective strength of the people.

“That’s why we need these places of healing where we can share these stories and give people back that identity of what they are and who they are — Syilx people,” he says.

Support for survivors and their families is available. Call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at 1-800-721-0066, 1-866-925-4419 for the 24-7 crisis line. The KUU-US Crisis Line Society also offers 24-7 support at 250-723-4050 for adults, 250-723-2040 for youth, or toll-free at 1-800-588-8717.

Kelsie Kilawna, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Discourse

Palestinian resistance and international solidarity:

the BDS campaign

ABIGAIL B. BAKAN and YASMEEN ABU-LABAN

Abstract

Israel’s recent war in Gaza (‘Operation Cast Lead’) has both exposed Israel’s defiance of international law and provided the occasion for increasing support for an organised transnational boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)movement. The BDS movement is aimed at challenging the Israeli state’s illegal military occupation and a host of corresponding repressive policies directed at Palestinians. However, the BDS campaign, and in particular the call for an academic boycott, has been controversial. It has generated a counter-response emphasising, variously, the goals of the movement as ineffective, counter- productive to peace and/or security, contrary to norms of academic freedom and even tied to anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. Utilising a Gramscian approach, and drawing from Charles Mills’ concept of ‘racial contract’, we examine the history of the divestment campaign and the debates it has engendered. We argue that the effectiveness of BDS as a strategy of resistance and cross-border solidarity is intimately connected with a challenge to the hegemonic place of Zionism in western ideology. This campaign has challenged an international racial contract which, from 1948, has assigned a common interest between the state of Israel and international political allies, while absenting Palestinians as simultaneously non-white, the subjects of extreme repression and stateless. The BDS campaign also points to an alternative – the promise of a real and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Race & Class

Abigail Bakan

is Professor of Political Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Her publications include Negotiating Citizenship: migrant women in Canada and the global system (with Daiva K. Stasiulis), winner of the 2007 Canadian Women’s Studies Association annual book award, and Critical Political Studies: debates and dialogues from the Left (co-editor with Eleanor MacDonald).

Yasmeen Abu-Laban

is Professor and Associate Chair (Research) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She is co-author of Selling Diversity: immigration, multiculturalism, employment equity and globalization (2002), co-editor of Politics in North America: redefining continental relations (2008) and editor of Gendering the Nation-State: Canadian and comparative perspectives (2008).

https://www.academia.edu/3063092/Palestinian_resistance_and_international_solidarity_the_BDS_campaign

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