Indian activist Stan Swamy, jailed under terror law, dies

Mon., July 5, 2021



NEW DELHI (AP) — Father Stan Swamy, a jailed Jesuit priest and longtime Indian tribal rights activist, died Monday in the western Indian city of Mumbai. He was 84.

His lawyer and doctor told the Bombay High Court that Swamy, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died of cardiac arrest. The court was hearing a plea for bail on medical grounds after Swamy had been denied bail in March.

The activist had been moved to a private hospital from Tajola Central Prison in May after his health began rapidly deteriorating. He was admitted to the ICU, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

“Stan worked to light the world and do away with injustice. The government may have succeeded in snuffing his life out, but his spirit will continue to inspire,” Father Jerome Stanislaus D’souza, the president of Jesuits in India, said in a statement.

In October, Swamy was arrested in the eastern state of Jharkhand after being charged under India’s harsh anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.

The government’s National Investigation Agency arrested him and 15 other activists and academics over a 2018 incident in which violence broke out between low-caste Dalits and right-wing groups.

Authorities alleged that those arrested had links to Maoist rebels, who are active in several states and are considered the country's biggest internal security threat.

Swamy maintained his innocence and rejected any links to the rebels, saying he was targeted over his work and writings on caste injustice and struggles faced by marginalized groups.

His arrest sparked widespread outrage in India, with many prominent opposition politicians and academics demanding his release.

The anti-terror law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist. Police can detain people for up to six months without producing any evidence, and the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for up to seven years. Critics have called the law draconian, and accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using it to mute dissent.

Swamy, who focused on empowering and uplifting India's indigenous tribes, was known for tirelessly advocating for the rights of those most marginalized.

Tributes poured in on social media on Monday.

“He deserved justice and humaneness,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party.

“Father Stan Swamy spent a lifetime working for the dispossessed and the disadvantaged,” wrote prominent historian Ramachandra Guha, calling his death “a case of judicial murder.”

In January, to mark 100 days in jail, Swamy penned a letter thanking all those who had stood by him. He said he hadn't met the 15 other people accused with him, despite being in the same jail.

“But we still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing,” he wrote.

In his last bail hearing in May, he predicted his death if he remained in jail.

“I would rather die here very shortly if things go on as it is,” Swamy told the judges.

On Monday, his lawyer, Mihir Desai, told the court that Swamy isn't survived by any family members, the Live Law website reported.

“The Jesuits are his only family,” Desai said.

Krutika Pathi, The Associated Press

Toppled queen statues being assessed; federal Conservatives want them restored

Mon., July 5, 2021,


WINNIPEG — The fate of two toppled statues on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature remains unclear.

The statues of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria were brought down with ropes on Canada Day by demonstrators who were protesting the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools.

The head on the Queen Victoria statue was removed and dumped in a river before being recovered.

The Manitoba government says the statues have been taken away and are being assessed for damage.

Winnipeg police say they are investigating, but no charges have been laid.

Federal Conservative politicians in Manitoba have written to Premier Brian Pallister to urge the government to restore the statues quickly.

"Vandalism at the legislature and the burning of places of worship in provinces across Canada are criminal acts contrary to reconciliation," reads the letter signed by the eight Conservative members of Parliament in Manitoba, as well as by Eric Melillo, MP for Kenora in northwestern Ontario.

"We cannot allow a small number of individuals to subvert our democracy or erode our democratic institutions. Therefore, we respectfully request that the statues ... be repaired and restored to the legislative grounds as soon as possible."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2021.

The Canadian Press

'They don't care': Inmate complaints paint troubling portrait of Sask. jails during pandemic


Mon., July 5, 2021

The Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre. (CBC News - image credit)

Many jailed and working inside Saskatchewan's correctional centres feel the provincial government has failed those on the front-lines of the system during the pandemic, but those responsible for the provincial facilities say the government did everything humanly possible to keep people safe.

More than 600 inmates and 200 correctional staff have been infected with COVID-19.

CBC reviewed more than 100 pages of complaints filed by inmates during the pandemic. They show that many in provincial care felt let down as COVID-19 spread.

The dozens of complaints, handwritten by inmates and obtained through Freedom of Information Legislation, detail the conditions and the stress they felt as the limited programming they had access to slowly dwindled away.

Robin Ledoux, an inmate at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre, lived through the pandemic inside. He claims he spent 27 consecutive days under strict COVID-19 protocols, during which time he alleges he was mistreated, having to ask to use the bathroom and sometimes being denied.

Ledoux said those denials resulted in him having to use his waste pail as a toilet numerous times. He said the treatment is cruel and unusual.

"It's rank," he said in an interview from the jail earlier this year.

Ledoux said he was regularly isolated for 48 hours at a time, only being let out of his cell for requested bathroom breaks and for a shower that often felt cut short. He said staff often denied him things like medication thats helps him stay off meth, cleaning supplies and proper clothes.

"Honestly, they don't care," he said.

Complaints paint grim portrait

Ledoux's concerns are echoed by many inmates.

One complaint from an inmate at Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert says her mental health suffered greatly from the facility's library being closed.

"It would be something for us to do," wrote the inmate, whose name has not been released for privacy reasons. "To take our minds off of the crazy that is our lives. When people dwell on the bad, bad things can happen.

"If I don't have something to read, I think about the different ways to off myself in jail."

CBC

The complaints range from inmates who work as cleaners in the jails complaining about poor payment, to healthy inmates being housed among those with COVID-19.

An inmate from Saskatoon Correctional wrote that he is afraid for his health and asked those overseeing him to get him medical care. The province says inmates have regular access to doctors and nurses.

Another complaint listed multiple concerns ranging from deteriorating mental health to people's rights being violated. It was written by one inmate and signed by several others.

"WHY AM I STILL HOUSED WITH INFECTED INMATES??!!" Another inmate wrote in all caps. "CORRECTIONS IS PUTTING MY HEALTH IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY AND CONTINUES NOT TO DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT. I HAVE A WIFE … OUT THERE TO GO TO HOME TO."

Ministry did everything humanly possible: Christine Tell

The complaints have put the provincial Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety under the spotlight, with some members of the public and the Opposition NDP calling for Minister Christine Tell to resign.

In an interview with CBC, Tell said she will not resign and that the government did everything it could to keep inmates safe.

She said the government put restrictions and protocols in place across the board in the early stages of the pandemic to slow the spread of the virus.

"There is nothing more that could have been done," she said. "I don't know of anything that's humanly possible."

Tell said the trends in the province's jails reflected those in the community.

She also said there are untold success stories in the system — including dedicated substance abuse treatment and reintegration units — and that staff on the front lines have played a critical role.

CBC

Tell said calls for her resignation were rooted in a lack of understanding. In response to calls for inmates to be released en masse, she said up to 95 per cent are in there for serious crimes and that releasing them would interfere with judicial decisions and be unfair to the victims.

"COVID is not a get out of jail free card," she said. "Public safety is paramount."

Before his death, prisoner advocate and poet Cory Cardinal told CBC he wanted a meeting with Tell to discuss what inmates are going through. When asked about that request, Tell said there are channels in place for inmates to file complaints and concerns, and that it's important those channels are used.

She said the ministry has been gathering data throughout the pandemic and will analyze it to prepare a better response moving forward. She said precautions have been adaptive from the start.

Tell said other provinces are already looking at how Saskatchewan handled COVID-19 in its jails.

Pandemic added pressures for those outside

The pandemic has been extremely hard for those with family inside.

Leonard Daniels has a daughter in Pine Grove Correctional Centre and said all he does is worry about the 20-year-old.

"More than I ever did in my life," he said.

While Pine Grove has had few COVID-19 cases, his daughter is living with pre-existing medical conditions. He said he wonders whether she will get the support she needs if she contracts the virus.

"It's not a very good environment," he said.

Daniels would like to see vulnerable people like his daughter released from provincial jails.

"Somebody is making a grave mistake."

Advocates working with inmates have been continuously critical of the province's response to the pandemic. Pierre Hawkins, the public legal counsel with the John Howard Society, said jails are failing inmates.

He said rehabilitation is not possible if inmates leave feeling resentful and that the COVID-19 pandemic has made chances of a productive sentence even less likely.

CBC News

"As they're structured now, our correctional facilities are not built for rehabilitation. They are built for warehousing," said Hawkins.

He said demand for programming in jails far outpaces supply and that a significant investment is needed.

"The near-universal experience right now is people go in, their mental health gets worse, they wind up in a setting that is very tense, quite violent and quite traumatic, and then they're released far worse off than when they went in."

Tell said that while the pandemic has reduced the government's ability to provide programming, the province has been taking steps to overcoming the challenges. She said it has brought on more space in the form of trailers that are separated from the institution.

She also pointed to the province allocating roughly $52 million for a new remand centre in Saskatoon, saying the additional space and funding will help ensure inmates receive the support they need.

"We want them to be productive citizens," she said.

SGEU says cases in jails, youth facilities avoidable

Union leaders say workers in jails were victims of a government that ignored its own medical advice by not immediately prioritizing correctional workers and inmates for vaccination.

"Essential workers should have been made a priority and the government chose not to make that happen," said Barry Nowoselsky, chair of the Public-Service Government Employment bargaining committee. "There's people right now who are in the hospital, in ICU, and it was all avoidable."

Nowoselsky said he's heard from many members who feel frustrated and betrayed.

"To be treated the way they have been by the government, it's unacceptable."

Some progress made during pandemic

Kayleigh Lafontaine has seen two sides of the system. She worked for more than a decade in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan as a corrections officer and is now advocating for inmates as the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society Saskatchewan.

She said she's seen firsthand how these facilities can let inmates down.

"I know that the government feels like they're doing the best that they can with the circumstances, and sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't," she said.

Submitted by Kayleigh Lafontaine

Before the pandemic, representatives from Elizabeth Fry would visit Pine Grove twice a month to offer support and assess conditions, but Lafontaine said they haven't had access for more than a year.

She pointed to a recent call she had with leaders at Pine Grove as an example of the work being done by advocates.

In the call, they discussed ways to let inmates inside know about the services offered by Elizabeth Fry, expand programming for remand inmates and launch a pilot project where those leaving the facility will have access to basic necessities.

She said Elizabeth Fry and Pine Grove leadership have reaffirmed a partnership that will support inmates virtually for now and in-person as soon as possible.

"They seem to be really hopeful about sort of the changes and the trajectory we can go on together, so I'm hopeful too," she said.

'Old wounds': Descendants of families who lost Indian status launch Charter challenge

Mon., July 5, 2021

Kathryn Fournier wants her three children to be able to reclaim their status.

 (Toni Choueiri/CBC - image credit)

In 1944, Nadia Salmaniw's great-grandfather Wilfred Laurier Bennett faced a choice: send his children to residential school or renounce his Indigenous heritage.

Knowing first-hand the cruelties of the mandatory boarding school system, Bennett chose to give up his First Nation status.

Now, Salmaniw is trying to reclaim her status — which was stripped from Bennett, her great-grandmother and all of their descendants.

"He made, I believe, a forced decision to protect his children because he himself had been forced into residential school and knew of the atrocities and horrors that his children would have endured if they had gone," Salmaniw said.

Salmaniw is one of 16 plaintiffs from three families who filed a constitutional challenge last month in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to end the discrimination based on gender and the process of "enfranchisement" that families continue to endure under the registration provisions of the Indian Act.

Enfranchisement was a process through which First Nations people could obtain Canadian citizenship. By renouncing their Indian status and treaty rights, they obtained the right to vote, own property and keep their children out of residential schools.

The act was considered voluntary by the federal government. The plaintiffs argue their families were coerced into enfranchisement.

'Ultimate act of colonization'

The enfranchisement policy was adopted in 1857 under the Gradual Civilization Act in the Province of Canada and continued after Confederation under the Indian Act of 1876.

Enfranchisement remained in place until amendments were made to the Indian Act in 1985 to bring it in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Michael McArthur/CBC

The plaintiffs argue that the consequences of that defunct policy violate their rights to liberty and security under the charter.

Even though Salmaniw has Haida citizenship under the laws of the Haida Nation and is a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, she continues to be denied Indian status because of the Indian Act's registration provisions.

"To receive a rejection letter saying that you're not Indigenous when you know that's part of who you are is deeply, deeply impactful," Salmaniw said.

"I believe that just opened up the old wounds and continued to reinforce the harm that was inflicted on my great-grandfather at the time of residential school ... What an ultimate act of colonization."

'Plain as day' sex-based discrimination

The court challenge is also taking aim at what the plaintiffs say is a lingering element of sexual discrimination in status law. Under the old Indian Act, when a status Indian woman married, she lost the right to decide what happened to her status.

If she married a non-status man, she automatically lost her status. If she married a status Indian man and her husband was enfranchised, she and any unmarried children were automatically stripped of their Indian status as well.

Ottawa gradually allowed women and their descendants to regain status lost by marriage through a series of legislative changes — the latest coming in 2017 with Bill S-3, An Act to amend the Indian Act in response to the Superior Court of Quebec decision in Descheneaux c. Canada.

But the descendants of women who lost status because their status Indian husbands were enfranchised are still barred from reclaiming status.

"It's plain as day that that's sex-based discrimination," said Vancouver-based lawyer Ryan Beaton from the firm Juristes Power.

"It's being imposed on descendants today in the same way it was imposed on the other category of descendants. It's hard to understand why Canada has not yet decided to address this issue."

Mike McArthur/CBC

The federal government has not yet filed a response to the constitutional challenge in court.

But in a media statement, the office of Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller wrote that it was working with First Nations partners, including the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations, on further legislative changes.

"We are aware of the challenge and recognize that residual impacts from years of sex-based inequities continue to be felt in the registration context today, despite the elimination of sex-based inequities in the registration provisions," the statement said.

"Additionally, we are committed to continue to work with First Nations to address the non sex-based inequities that still remain in the Indian Act today."

Indigenous Services Canada is also implementing a 2020 decision by the Superior Court of Quebec, which found a woman could not be voluntarily enfranchised under the 1952 Indian Act.

Ottawa claims it eliminated all known sex-based inequities in the Indian Act's registration, but Beaton insists that several thousand family members could be affected by this case.

Reclaiming Indigenous heritage

As someone who grew up knowing she was Indigenous and that her grandfather had been enfranchised, Kathryn Fournier said she felt like she'd been stranded "between two worlds."

Fournier's grandparents were residential school survivors from Manitoba. That's not why her grandfather Maurice Sanderson applied for enfranchisement in 1922, however; Fournier said he wanted the right to vote and own property, which was forbidden under the Indian Act.

"He made a very difficult choice that shouldn't have been imposed on him in the first place," she said. "I don't in any way judge him for that."

When the law changed in 1985, Fournier and her mom were able to regain status, but her three children could not because of existing registration provisions.

The Indian Act contains different levels of status. Since her mother came from enfranchised parents, her status could only be passed onto her children, not her grandchildren.

David Kawai/The Canadian Press

"One of the things that I'd always hoped for is that my own children would be able to also claim their Indigenous identity and their Indigenous heritage in a formal, recognized way," Fournier said.

Fournier worked at the department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for more than 20 years.

"It was a challenge working there knowing that the enfranchisement that my family had gone through was one of the perhaps more egregious things that the Indian Act had done and that there was no recognition of that within the department," Fournier said.

"But I think, as most of the Indigenous public servants who worked there, we tried to focus on what could be changed."

The plaintiffs are not seeking damages. They say their preference is to negotiate ways to resolve the issue instead of having it litigated.

"We are going back to becoming what the government tried to make us not be anymore," Fournier said

"I think that's the important part, and that sense of belonging and being able to say officially and quite formally, 'This is who I am.'"

Quebec woman dead 2 days after lying on Gatineau hospital floor awaiting treatment

Mon., July 5, 2021,

Anne Pommainville had to lie on the floor of the Hull Hospital's emergency department while waiting to be seen by hospital staff because there were no beds available, her family told Radio-Canada. (Supplied by family - image credit)

A Gatineau woman has died after spending several hours in pain, lying on the floor of the Hull Hospital emergency department, leaving her family distraught and demanding change.

Anne Pommainville, 58, went to the hospital in Gatineau, Que., on the evening of June 27, but was unable to sit on a waiting room chair due to extreme stomach pain.

Hospital staff told Pommainville and her husband, Jacques Richard, that her only option was to create a makeshift bed on the floor using blankets.

I will remember that night all my life. I will never forget her. - Jacques Richard, husband of Anne Pommainville

"She did not deserve that," said Richard in an interview with Radio-Canada.

"I will remember that night all my life. I will never forget her."

After she waited for hours on the floor, Richard decided to take Pommainville to wait in the car. He then went back and forth between the parking lot and the emergency department to ensure he heard her name called to see a doctor.

Eventually, she did see a doctor and was later transferred to the Gatineau Hospital for surgery.

However, her family said they didn't know she had been transferred until June 29 — almost 48 hours later — when hospital staff called Richard to tell him his wife's heart stopped and staff could not revive her.

'Ridiculous conditions'

Veronique Richard said her family doesn't blame the hospital workers for how her aunt was treated, but rather the continued staffing shortages at hospitals in Gatineau.

"To see that we have people lying on the floor in a waiting room in intense pain because there is no stretcher, because there is no room, because they are overwhelmed," she said.

"The goal is not to throw stones at employees, nurses, attendants, administrative officers, doctors. ... They work under ridiculous conditions."

Patient advocate Paul Brunet said Pommainville was not treated with dignity.

"I've been a spokesperson for almost 25 years. I've rarely seen that in a hospital in the west, in Canada, in Quebec, that we haven't been able to find a single stretcher and a single bed," said Brunet.

Michel Aspirot/Radio-Canada

Health unit launches investigation

The local health unit, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO), said it has launched an internal investigation.

"Our thoughts are first with the family and loved ones of this lady," the local health unit wrote in a statement that said they were "concerned about this situation."

"We are doing everything we can to understand what happened and to prevent this kind of situation from happening again."

More than a billion seashore animals may have cooked to death in B.C. heat wave, says UBC researcher

Mon., July 5, 2021


Dead mussels are seen along the shoreline of Third Beach in Vancouver on June 27, in the middle of B.C.'s record-breaking heat wave. (Chris Harley/University of British Columbia - image credit)

Chris Harley walked on to Vancouver's Kitsilano Beach in late June and smelled death.

Carpeting the sea rocks were tens of thousands of mussels, clams, sea stars and snails, emitting a putrid odour that hung thick in the heat.

"I was pretty stunned," he recalled.

Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, now estimates that last week's record-breaking heat wave in B.C. may have killed more than one billion seashore animals living along the Salish Sea coastline.

The findings shine on a light on the seismic effects of the heat wave, which has already has been linked to hundreds of human deaths and whose ecological toll continues to be unravelled.

As temperatures cracked 40 C in Vancouver, and several degrees higher in B.C.'s Interior, infrared cameras used by Harley's team recorded temperatures above 50 C on rocky shoreline habitats.

Chris Harley/University of British Columbia

Intertidal animals like mussels, which inhabit the area where land and sea meet, can endure temperatures in the high 30s for short periods of time, Harley said.

But the scorching heat, combined with low tides in the middle of the afternoon, created a dangerous combination for more than six hours at a time.

"A mussel on the shore in some ways is like a toddler left in a car on a hot day," Harley said.

"They are stuck there until the parent comes back, or in this case, the tide comes back in and there's very little they can do. They're at the mercy of the environment. And on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, during the heat wave, it just got so hot that the mussels, there was nothing they could do."

Water quality will be impacted

Tipped off by the smell on the Sunday morning of the heat wave, Harley and a team of student researchers began to canvas multiple coastlines, including those in West Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast.

They discovered endless rows of mussels with dead meat attached inside the shell, along with other dead creatures like sea stars and barnacles.

Harley calculated the number of dead animals found in small areas and multiplied it by the habitat size in the Salish Sea, which spans from Campbell River, B.C., to Olympia, Wash.

"You can fit about 2,000 mussels in an area the size of your stovetop," he said.

"Imagine how many stovetops you could fit into Stanley Park, and then how many Stanley Parks fit into the Salish Sea. So if you're losing a few hundred or a few thousand mussels for every major shoreline, that quickly scales up to a very, very large number."

Chris Harley/University of British Columbia

The wipe-out will temporarily affect water quality, as mussels and clams help filter the sea, Harley said.

While the mussel bed will likely recover in a year or two, Harley noted that heat waves will happen more frequently and with greater severity due to climate change.

"Eventually, we just won't be able to sustain these populations of filter feeders on the shoreline to be anywhere near the extent that we're used to," he said.

Harley said similar discoveries of dead shellfish have already been made in the Strait of Georgia and Washington state. He plans to visit the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island to confirm seashore deaths in those areas, with the aim of publishing a peer-reviewed paper as early as next year.

The deaths, he said, are a reminder that the environment is suffering severe consequences from extreme weather events.

"If we don't like it, then we need to work harder to reduce emissions and take other measures to reduce the effects of climate change."

$$$ IN IRVING'S POCKET

Higgs government boosts payments to pulp and paper mills under energy buy-back program


Mon., July 5, 2021

Province has increased subsidies to major pulp and paper mills owned by J.D. Irving Ltd., Twin Rivers Paper Co. Ltd. and the AV Group. (Roger Cosman/CBC - image credit)

The Higgs government has quietly increased subsidies to major pulp and paper mills in the province through a renewable energy buy-back program with NB Power.

The Progressive Conservative cabinet increased the price that the public utility must pay to mills by 12.5 per cent, retroactive to April 1.

That would hand the companies more than $5 million in discounts based on their electricity sales in 2019-20.

The Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchases Program, put in place by the Alward government a decade ago, requires NB Power buy renewable electricity generated by plants at a set price.

It then sells the electricity back to those same plants at a lower price, effectively subsidizing electricity costs for the pulp and paper mills owned by J.D. Irving Ltd., Twin Rivers Paper Co. Ltd. and the AV Group.

Now the price the utility pays is jumping from $95 per megawatt hour, an amount that has been in place since the program began, to $106.91.

That 12.5 per cent increase was part of a regulatory amendment approved by the Higgs cabinet on May 27 without any public announcement.

The amendment also requires the price to now increase every year in tandem with the consumer price index starting in 2022.

"The program rate had not changed since it was introduced in 2012," said government spokesperson Erin Illsley.

"The addition of an annual escalator based on the percent change in CPI is similar to what other renewable contracts receive."

The $11.91-per-megawatt-hour increase would mean $5.7 million in additional expenses for NB Power based on the 479,000 megawatt-hours the utility paid for under the program in 2019-20, the last year for which figures are available. That could fluctuate year to year.

Logan Perley/CBC file

Illsley did not say why the price needs to increase, given the program is designed to buy and sell enough electricity to reach an overall threshold percentage reduction on power bills.

"It's surprising to me," said Green Party Leader David Coon.

"I don't understand why they're doing this for the pulp and paper industry. We subsidize them already in so many ways. … It would be a great deal to get, if the rest of us could get it."

This year, the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development has set 14 per cent as the discount that the mills should get on their power bills, based on average industrial rates across Canada.

In 2015, NB Power executive Neil Larlee told the Energy and Utilities Board that he utility buys enough power under the program to get the mills a discount at that pre-set percentage.

"We purchase energy from the participants and that volume is based on the ability for them to achieve the target reduction amount that is in the regulation," he said. "So that volume can vary depending on whether or not they have that generation available.

"They would sell at $95 up until the equivalent credit they got was such that it gave them the posted discount, and that discount, it is adjusted every year."

NB Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau says the utility has four agreements under the program — with Twin Rivers, AV Group's Nackawic mill, AV Group's Atholville mill, and J.D. Irving Ltd.

The Irving agreement involves the company's Irving Pulp and Paper and Irving Paper mills in Saint John and its St. George Power LP hydroelectric dam and Lake Utopia paper mill.

Eligibility 'hasn't changed'

Belliveau referred further questions to the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, as did J.D. Irving Ltd. vice-president Anne McInerney.

"Our eligibility to participate hasn't changed," she said.

She did not respond to a question about whether JDI had asked for the change.

Illsley said the department, which drafted the regulation change, "has discussed the rate with those companies involved in the program and felt indexing the rate was warranted."

No one from Twin Rivers or the AV Group responded to requests for comment. The industry lobby group Forest NB had no one available to comment on Friday. Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland was not available for an interview.

U.S. singled out subsidy

At the 2015 rate hearings, New Brunswick ratepayer Greg Hickey argued that if NB Power could afford to spend millions subsidizing large industrial plants, it should not be allowed to raise rates for residential customers.

In 2016, the U.S. Commerce Department identified the Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchases Program as a potential subsidy to J.D. Irving Ltd. during a trade investigation of Canadian softwood exports to the United States.

Both Irving and the New Brunswick government argued against that position in the case.

Larlee told the EUB that on top of the program giving large mills more competitive power costs, the program also lets NB Power count the electricity generated by the mills toward its own renewable energy targets.

Halifax company building its first commercial Fundy tidal power unit

Mon., July 5, 2021

Jamie MacNeil of BigMoon Power and Joe Hines of East Coast Metal Fabrication look over a steel beam that will be used to build BigMoon's first commercial tidal power unit. (Tom Ayers/CBC - image credit)

A Halifax-based company is building its first commercial tidal power generator in Cape Breton and it expects to begin selling electricity soon after it installs its technology in the Bay of Fundy later this year.

Jamie MacNeil, executive vice-president of BigMoon Power, said the first of 18 units is being assembled at East Coast Metal Fabrication in the Sydport Industrial Park.

Each unit has a large wheel suspended between the pontoons of a 30-metre barge anchored to the ocean floor. The barge can swivel to remain facing the current.

"It's a 21st-century adaptation of very old technology in a Roman paddlewheel," MacNeil said.

The equipment has to be robust to withstand the harsh conditions of a saltwater environment with some of the highest tides in the world, and it has to be protected from debris while minimizing the impact on fish and marine mammals, he said.

The barge-and-wheel system can do all of that and still produce electricity that is affordable, because BigMoon has spent about $20 million on research and development over the last six years, MacNeil said.

Tom Ayers/CBC

BigMoon has been in operation since 2015, testing its theories and prototypes in the Bay of Fundy, and now has a contract to supply electricity to Nova Scotia Power.

The company will receive subsidized rates for its energy, but only at the beginning, MacNeil said. After that, the project will be competitive with other forms of renewable energy.

He said he thinks they can compete.

"We know that we can and we have taken a big step forward in the contracts that we already have in being able to demonstrate that the price of tidal is coming down dramatically."

Over the next three to four years, the company plans to build a total of 18 units, each generating about half a megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 500 homes.

The infrastructure to get power to shore through a subsea cable already exists, through the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, which was set up by the federal and provincial governments to encourage tidal power production.

Several companies have tried and some have failed to produce electricity from the Bay of Fundy.

Tom Ayers/CBC

Earlier this year, a company called Sustainable Marine Energy began testing floating turbines in the area and last year, BigMoon won a contract to remove a failed turbine installed by another company.

MacNeil is confident that BigMoon's engineers have come up with a solution to the difficult operating environment.

"There have been some successes," he said.

"There have been some setbacks, but all of those who now remain in the energy business here in Nova Scotia are all on the precipice of doing something very exciting and that is to actually start producing electrons for the people of Nova Scotia."

Tom Ayers/CBC

Joe Hines, chief operating officer at East Coast Metal Fabrication, said assembling the first unit will create up to 20 full-time jobs for up to six months.

Putting together the other 17 units will add more jobs over time, he said.

"We have hired some already as we've been staffing up for other jobs and we'll be transitioning some of the experienced people over to this project, as well as adding some new to it."

MacNeil said tidal power will be an additional renewable energy source alongside solar and wind power, but its benefit is that it's predictable.

Looking across Canada

He said tidal power will add enough electricity to the grid to allow the province to export energy and will allow the company to build its platforms and place them elsewhere.

"It's not our intention to build nine megawatts and pat ourselves on the back and call it a day," MacNeil said.

"We want to take advantage of the energy that's in the water here in Nova Scotia, but also in other areas like Newfoundland, like in Quebec, like in British Columbia."

Financial troubles hit company involved in proposed Sydney container terminal


Mon., July 5, 2021

Albert Barbusci says shipping lines should find the project more attractive, now that it has a location and funding in place. (Tom Ayers/CBC - image credit)

A venture capital company behind the proposed container terminal in Sydney, N.S., is in financial trouble, but proponents say that will not affect their investments or the project's future.

In addition to raising questions about the proposed development, the issue has provided the first real insight into the port project's financing, suggesting the estimated financial value of NovaPorte LP, the company that is trying to put together a consortium to finance and build a container terminal.

In January 2020, Bridging Finance of Toronto loaned Membertou First Nation $6.8 million to give the band a 12.5 per cent stake in NovaPorte, a limited partnership launched by Sydney Harbour Investment Partners, also known as SHIP.

The financial firm also gained a small interest in the port project, but earlier this year the Ontario Securities Commission found financial irregularities at Bridging Finance and forced it into receivership at the end of April.

Red flag

George Karaphillis, dean of Cape Breton University's Shannon School of Business, said the company's involvement in NovaPorte should now raise a red flag.

"It is obviously a concern that the venture capital firm that's backing the project is in financial difficulties and it's in receivership," he said.

Cape Breton University

It's difficult to know how it will play out, Karaphillis said, but it's possible that the receiver might need to sell the company's stake in NovaPorte or call its loan to Membertou in order to gain liquidity.

On the other hand, depending on what the receiver finds, that might not happen, he said.

The container terminal development has been talked about for a decade or more, but there has never been any public evidence that it is closer to becoming a reality.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality has set aside a piece of land for the proposed terminal across the harbour from Sydney.

The promoter says he has financing, a builder and a shipping line for a customer, but he also recently secured from CBRM a three-year extension on an exclusive contract to get the project going in earnest.

'A billion-dollar deal'

Membertou Chief Terry Paul declined an interview request, but in an email, he revealed the amount of the loan from Bridging Finance and the share that represents in NovaPorte.

"The investment we made in the project remains unaffected by the recent news of Bridging Finance's receivership," he said. "Bridging Finance was a Membertou financing partner, and not one of SHIP.

"Since the announcement of its receivership, Membertou has been working with the receiver, and our investment remains secure."

The project has been touted as a billion-dollar deal, but financial details have been murky since 2015, when SHIP first secured an exclusive contract to market CBRM's land in Sydney harbour.

CBC

SHIP principals Albert Barbusci and Barry Sheehy have said their company is private and that their information needs to remain private to avoid tipping off possible competitors.

CBRM's mayor, councillors and staff also had to sign non-disclosure agreements that they say prevented them from providing any details.

NovaPorte LP is registered in Quebec and lists four shareholders including SHIP, a numbered company solely owned by Barbusci, a numbered company registered to Membertou, and Bridging Finance.

Asked about the venture capital company and how its financial difficulties might affect the port project, Barbusci also declined interview requests.

But in an email, he said Bridging Finance was "not party to any contractual agreement with SHIP. They provided debt financing to Membertou and not to SHIP.

"Therefore, we have no exposure and zero risk to the NovaPorte development and no effect on our ability to advance the project together with our Indigenous partners."

However, when it was pointed out that Bridging Finance is also listed as a shareholder in NovaPorte, Barbusci responded with another email, saying the company's stake "is minimal."

Bridging Finance received a 2.5 per cent share through its agreement with Membertou, he said.

"It has been a passive investment since Membertou became an equity partner in NovaPorte LP," Barbusci said.

Tom Ayers/CBC

Barbusci said last fall he has the financing to build the proposed terminal, has found a builder and has a customer lined up to bring in shipping containers.

But he said Cape Breton's crumbling rail line needs to be revitalized before the container terminal deal can be finalized.

SHIP has launched an effort to press the Nova Scotia government for investment in the railway, but the province has repeatedly said private investors would have to fund the more than $100 million needed to rebuild the rail bridges and tracks.

Membertou's 12.5 per cent stake in NovaPorte at $6.8 million dollars places the value of the company at $54.4 million.

At that rate, Bridging Finance's stake is worth $1.36 million.

Karaphillis said that valuation is about right for what could be a billion-dollar container terminal.

"Big projects of that size, it is reasonable that [about] five per cent of the final project is spent in trying to get the project organized initially, in trying to get it off the ground," he said.

"Yeah, $55 million looks like it's a reasonable amount to be able to get the project to the point where it actually can get started."

Business-savvy investor

With a one-eighth stake in NovaPorte, Membertou is considered to be a major investor.

"It's not the majority investor," Karaphillis said. "I don't know who the majority investor is, but it is a major investment.

"Twelve per cent is significant. It's double digit."

Membertou is known for being a business-savvy investor, he said, but without seeing NovaPorte's financial statements or its agreements with potential partners in the container terminal project, it's impossible to know whether Membertou's investment is a good one.

"That I do not know, because none of us here have the whole picture, the whole information," Karaphillis said.

"We wouldn't know if there is a customer or any of that, but obviously for Membertou to make that investment ... they're aware of some information that gives them comfort in the fact that the project will come to fruition."

CBRM council met privately with Barbusci twice this spring and recently agreed to a three-year extension of SHIP's contract to market the port project.

Warren Gordon photo

Mayor Amanda McDougall said she did not have any concrete information on the container terminal's viability, but voted in favour of the extension because Membertou signed on as a partner and recently led a billion-dollar purchase of Nova Scotia's largest seafood company.

"We've seen what Membertou is capable of doing, in terms of the Clearwater [Seafoods] agreement," she said.

"That's billions of dollars into our fishing industry. That is the only thing that is giving me any confidence that this project is going to move forward, quite frankly."

Bat population in Nova Scotia showing signs of recovery

Mon., July 5, 2021, 

A bat is shown hanging from a twig. Larger bat colonies are being discovered in Nova Scotia, pointing to population growth, after white nose syndrome killed more than 90 per cent of the province's bats from 2011 to 2013. (Rick Whitman/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute - image credit)

Researchers are optimistic Nova Scotia's native bat population is recovering from a fungus that nearly wiped out the winged mammals a decade ago.

A non-profit conservation group in southwest Nova Scotia is discovering larger bat colonies that point to population growth. Bats are ecologically important animals that have seen their numbers plummet in the last decade.

Lori Phinney, a wildlife biologist with the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, said researchers were pleasantly surprised to find the province's largest known colony has grown to about 600 bats.

In 2018, there were about 380.

"Our researchers have been closely monitoring these bat colonies since 2016 and each year we see what the peak number is," she said. "I don't know what's going on this year, but we are definitely seeing more."

Lori Phinney/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute

At another site, researchers found 157 bats, up from 58 last year.

Phinney said she's hopeful this is evidence of recovery, but acknowledges it could instead be more bats gathering at fewer sites.

"We are excited, but we don't want to get too excited in case it's a bunch of bats travelling from other areas choosing these sites to raise their pups," she said.

White-nose syndrome killed more than 90 per cent of Nova Scotia's bats between 2011 and 2013. It has killed millions across North America.

The fungus causes the mammals to wake up during hibernation, and with no bugs for them to feed on during the winter, they ultimately die.

"They are in this really sleepy, depressed state where their body temperature is lowered, and they are super vulnerable to anything attacking them," she said. "It's horrible because they basically starve to death trying to fight off this disease."

Jordi Segers/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute

There are three main species of bats in Nova Scotia that hibernate, which are the main bats the research institute is monitoring: the little brown bat, the northern myotis and the tri-coloured bat.

There are also four different species of migratory bats that spend their summers in the province.

Phinney encourages Nova Scotians to contribute to monitoring efforts by sharing sightings of bats.

"With the help of the public reporting bat sightings, we can hopefully figure this out over the next few years," she said. "What we really want is where you saw the bat, the date and the time, and maybe what the bat was doing."

Phinney says bats are fascinating and can eat 1,000 bugs an hour, which can make them extremely valuable to the agriculture industry.

"It's definitely been called one of the worst wildlife population crashes in modern history," she said. "Not only the numbers, but how quickly they dropped off is pretty scary."