It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, July 26, 2021
Rio Tinto smelter workers go on strike in Kitimat, B.C.
KITIMAT, B.C. — Approximately 900 Rio Tinto workers at the company's aluminum smelting facilities in Kitimat, B.C. have gone on strike.
The walkout began today at one minute after midnight. Unifor Local 2301, which represents the workers, had issued a 72-hour strike notice after nearly seven weeks of negotiations.
Jerry Dias, Unifor's National President, says the strike comes down to what he calls "Rio Tinto's greed and lack of respect" for the union members working at the Kitimat smelting facilities.
The union says it has proposed the first changes to workers' retirement income and benefit levels in more than a decade, including moving younger workers to defined benefit from defined contribution pension plans.
It also says negotiations have focused on a backlog of more than 300 grievances resulting from the company's use of contractors and its refusal to hire full-time workers.
Bargaining had continued up until the strike deadline, and the company had earlier said that it was "committed to working with the union to reach a mutually beneficial outcome."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2021.
The Canadian Press
CAN YOU BLAME MIGRANTS FOR FLEEING Anti-graft investigator flees Guatemala to 'safeguard his life'
Guatemalan anti-graft investigator Juan Francisco Sandoval was from his post as head of the country's Prosecutor Against Corruption and Impunity (FECI) on Friday by the attorney general Johan ORDONEZ AFP/File
Issued on: 25/07/2021 - Guatemala City (AFP)
Guatemala's top anti-graft investigator, Juan Francisco Sandoval, fled the country Saturday to "safeguard his life," hours after he was sacked in a move that sparked international backlash, a human rights official said.
Guatemalan Ombudsman Jordan Rodas accompanied Sandoval to the Salvadoran border "in light of the difficult decision to leave the country to safeguard his life and integrity due to recent events," according to the Central American country's human rights body.
Sandoval said he had encountered many obstacles in his work at FECI and that he was told not to investigate President Alejandro Giammattei without the attorney general's consent, saying this request went "against the autonomy and independence" of FECI.
The Attorney General's Office said he had been let go due to "constant abuses and frequent violations" of the institution and that attempts had been made to "undermine" the "work, integrity and dignity" of Porras.
His firing sparked criticism from the US State Department, which has called him an "anti-corruption champion", as well as outcry from humanitarian groups, civil society and businesses.
Acting Assistant Secretary for the US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julie Chung, condemned Sandoval's sacking in a tweet on Friday, saying it "is a significant setback to rule of law."
"It contributes to perceptions of a systemic effort to undermine those known to be fighting corruption," she added.
The Center against Corruption and Impunity in the North of Central America (CCINOC) also hit out at Porras' decision, saying it would create "setbacks in the fight against corruption in the region."
FECI was initially created to work alongside the UN International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to combat corruption and impunity, but the body's work was stopped in 2019 under a decision by then-president Jimmy Morales, after he was singled out by both entities for electoral corruption.
AP Interview: Premier: Iraq doesn’t need US combat troops
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AND SAMYA KULLAB ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 25, 2021 Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi poses in his office during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) KHALID MOHAMMED AP
BAGHDAD
Iraq’s prime minister says his country no longer requires American combat troops to fight the Islamic State group, but a formal time frame for their redeployment will depend on the outcome of talks with U.S. officials this week.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi said Iraq will still ask for U.S. training and military intelligence gathering. His comments came in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of a planned trip to Washington, where he's slated to meet with President Joe Biden on Monday for a fourth round of strategic talks.
“There is no need for any foreign combat forces on Iraqi soil,” said al-Kadhimi, falling short of announcing a deadline for a U.S. troop departure. Iraq’s security forces and army are capable of defending the country without U.S.-led coalition troops, he said.
But al-Kadhimi said any withdrawal schedule would be based on the needs of Iraqi forces, who have shown themselves capable in the last year of conducting independent anti-IS missions.
“The war against IS and the readiness of our forces requires a special timetable, and this depends on the negotiations that we will conduct in Washington,” he said.
The U.S. and Iraq agreed in April that the U.S. transition to a train-and-advise mission meant the U.S. combat role would end but they didn't settle on a timetable for completing that transition. In Monday’s meeting at the White House, the two leaders are expected to specify a timeline, possibly by the end of this year.
The U.S. troop presence has stood at about 2,500 since late last year when former President Donald Trump ordered a reduction from 3,000.
The U.S. mission of training and advising Iraqi forces has its most recent origins in former President Barack Obama’s decision in 2014 to send troops back to Iraq. The move was made in response to the Islamic State group's takeover of large portions of western and northern Iraq and a collapse of Iraqi security forces that appeared to threaten Baghdad. Obama had fully withdrawn U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, eight years after the U.S. invasion.
“What we want from the U.S. presence in Iraq is to support our forces in training and developing their efficiency and capabilities, and in security cooperation,” al-Kadhimi said.
The Washington trip comes as the premier’s administration has faced one setback after another, seriously undermining public confidence. Ongoing missile attacks by militia groups have underscored the limits of the state to prevent them and a series of devastating hospital fires amid soaring coronavirus cases have left dozens dead.
Meanwhile, early federal elections, in line with a promise al-Kadhimi made when he assumed office, are less than three months away.
Chief on the agenda in Washington, however, is the future of American-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Iraq declared victory over IS in late 2017 after a ruinous and bloody war. The continued presence of American troops has become a polarizing issue among Iraq’s political class since the U.S.-directed drone strike that killed powerful Iranian general Qassim Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on Iraqi soil last year.
To quell the threat of widespread instability following the targeted killings, the U.S. and Iraq have held at least three rounds of strategic talks centering on Iraq’s military needs in the ongoing fight against IS and to formalize a timeline for withdrawal.
Four years since their territorial defeat, IS militants are still able to launch attacks in the capital and roam the country’s rugged northern region. Last week, a suicide bomber killed 30 people in a busy Baghdad marketplace. That attack was later claimed by IS.
Al-Kadhimi has faced significant pressure from mainly Shiite political parties to announce a timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Ongoing rocket and, more recently, drone attacks targeting the American military presence have also heaped pressure on the government. They are widely believed to be perpetrated by Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups.
An announcement that combat troops will withdraw might serve to placate Shiite parties but will have little impact on the ground: The coalition’s combat mission ended effectively in November when the Pentagon reduced U.S. troops in the country to 2,500, according to Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein. Shiite parties have said they do not object to trainers or advisors who may remain as part of the coalition.
U.S. and coalition officials have maintained that U.S. troops are no longer accompanying Iraqi forces on ground missions and that coalition assistance is limited to intelligence gathering and surveillance and the deployment of advanced military technologies. Iraqi military officials have stressed they still need this support going forward.
“Iraq has a set of American weapons that need maintenance and training. We will ask the American side to continue to support our forces and develop our capabilities,” al-Kadhimi said.
Al-Kadhimi assumed power as a consensus candidate following months of political jockeying between rival parliamentary blocs. The blocs were firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition on one side and paramilitary commander and former minister Hadi al-Ameri’s Fatah group on the other.
The stakes were high: Al-Kadhimi's predecessor had resigned facing pressure from historic mass anti-government protests. At least 600 people were killed as Iraqi forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds.
Al-Kadhimi presented himself as a champion of protester demands and set a lofty agenda: He promised to hold early elections, now scheduled for Oct. 10, and to bring to account the killers of activists, including whoever killed prominent commentator Hisham al-Hashimi outside his home last summer.
The arrest of an Interior Ministry employee in the shooting death of al-Hashimi fell short, many said, because it did not reveal which group ordered the killing.
Critics say al-Kadhimi has not gone far enough. This is partly because the very conditions that facilitated his rise to the premiership have also served as his chief limitation in parliament.
Political opposition watered down ambitious economic reforms that targeted Iraq’s bloated public sector when the country faced a disastrous financial crisis after falling oil prices. Without a party backing him in parliament, and with rival parties vying to control ministries and other state institutions, al-Kadhimi’s government has appeared weak.
Repeated standoffs with Iran-backed militia groups following the arrests of militiamen suspected of launching attacks against the U.S. Embassy and U.S. troops have further tarnished the government’s credibility.
Activists whose cries for elections once resonated in the squares of the capital now say they will boycott the October polls, distrustful that the political establishment could ever produce free and fair elections.
A U.N. monitoring mission has been established in hopes of boosting voter turnout. But protesters have taken to the streets recently and expressed outrage over the rise in killings of prominent activists and journalists. Even al-Kadhimi conceded certain forces were actively seeking to undermine the polls.
“We are in a sensitive situation. We need to calm the political situation until we reach the elections," he said.
Al-Kadhimi has managed to prove his mettle in one arena: That of regional mediator. Iraq’s friendly relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran have brought both regional foes to the negotiation table for at least two rounds of talks in Baghdad.
“Iraq has succeeded in gaining the trust of these countries, and accordingly, it is working toward the stability of the region.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi
Japan's Nishiya, 13, first women's Olympic skateboard champion Issued on: 26/07/2021 -
Japan's Momiji Nishiya, 13, gave the hosts a clean-sweep of titles in street skateboarding Jeff PACHOUD AFP
Tokyo (AFP)
Japan's Momiji Nishiya became one of the youngest individual Olympic champions in history when she won the inaugural women's skateboarding gold at the age of 13 years and 330 days on Monday.
Nishiya finished ahead of Brazil's Rayssa Leal -- who at 13 years and 203 days could have become the youngest ever individual Olympic champion -- and Japan's Funa Nakayama, 16.
Nishiya starred in the tricks section to score 15.26 and give the hosts a clean-sweep of the street discipline as skateboarding makes its Olympic debut.
Her performance mirrored that of Japan teammate Yuto Horigome, who won the men's title with a stunning sequence of tricks on Sunday.
"I'm so glad to become the youngest (Japanese gold medallist) at my first Olympics... tears came to my eyes," Nishiya told reporters after receiving her medal.
Skaters each have two 45-second runs on the equipment and five shots at a one-off trick. Their best four scores out of the seven make up their final total.
"I was nervous on the first run but I was not nervous later," Nishiya said, adding that she wants to claim a second gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
But first, to celebrate her victory, she will "go and eat at a beef barbeque restaurant".
Skateboarding is one of four sports making their debut in Tokyo, along with surfing, sport climbing and karate as part of an attempt to bring the Olympics to younger audiences.
US diver Marjorie Gestring remains the youngest individual Olympic champion after winning the 3m springboard at the 1936 Berlin Games at 13 years and 268 days.#photo1
Philippine finalist Margielyn Didal, 22, missed out on a medal but said competing in Tokyo was a "really, really big achievement" for her.
Having started skateboarding a decade ago in the streets of Cebu city, Didal burst onto the scene in 2018 with an Asian Games gold.
Didal said she would call her parents, a carpenter and a street vendor, to hear their reaction.
"I know that they're proud of me," she told reporters.
Japan's Horigome crowned skateboarding's first Olympic champion
Issued on: 25/07/2021 - Japan's Yuto Horigome competes in the men's skateboarding street final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Jeff PACHOUD AFP
Tokyo (AFP)
Japanese world champion Yuto Horigome was crowned skateboarding's first Olympic gold medallist when he won a tense street competition in Tokyo on Sunday.
The 22-year-old, who grew up just a stone's throw from the Olympic venue, landed three huge tricks in a row to eclipse American favourite Nyjah Huston, who imploded to finish seventh.
In searing heat at Ariake Urban Sports Centre, Horigome finished with scores of 9.35, 9.50 and 9.30 for a total of 37.18, with Brazil's Kelvin Hoefler second and US skater Jagger Eaton third.
But there was disappointment for Huston, the much-hyped multiple world champion, who ended with four straight falls in the tricks section as he wound up second-last in the final.
It was the first of four gold medals to be handed out in skateboarding's Olympic debut, with women's street to be contested on Monday followed by the men's and women's park competitions.
Tokyo Olympics push skateboard counterculture into the mainstream With its entry onto the Olympic podium, skateboarding faces a test of its outlaw roots. Where some see a subculture selling out, others see a sport with much more room to grow.
Frontside, backside, ollie, shove-it: from its lingo to its conventions and history, skateboarding is both a sport and a whole subculture.
“It has an athletic side, of course, but it’s also a way of life,” Charlotte Hym, a member of the French skateboard team, tells France 24. “There are videos, music groups, art – there’s really a lot of things connected with skateboarding.”
“It shouldn’t be seen as a sport in the strict sense of the word,” agrees Hym’s French teammate Vincent Milou. “It’s more a state of mind. When you start skateboarding, you don’t need anything. You just leave the house with your board and you skate.”
There are an estimated 3 million skateboarders in France, but only a tiny fraction – about 3,800 – belong to any kind of organisation. For most, the thought of entering a competition scarcely crosses their mind. They’d rather hang out with their friends, practice tricks, and film clips at local street spots.
“The street is really the most fun place to skate: you can unleash your creativity, try out new tricks, and use the urban landscape as your canvas,” says Hym.
Long viewed as an outlaw activity by skaters and non-skaters alike, skateboarding is still greeted with suspicion by much of the public. Since its early days, it’s been banned in many public places, and skaters continue to face off regularly with police and security guards.
At the same time, skateboarding has gradually gone mainstream, thanks in part to competitions like the X Games, which debuted in the mid-1990s, and video games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, first released in 1999. It’s also flitted in and out of pop culture, from music to cinema, featuring in three major movies in 2018 alone.
But skateboarding’s mainstream acceptance has reached a new level with its Olympics debut, which breaks down into two contests: park and street. Both men and women are competing for a total of four gold medals — which in itself is notable in the highly male-dominated world of pro skateboarding. Tampa Pro, one of the biggest annual US contests, did not include a women’s event until just last year – its 26th year running. Thrasher, the most popular skateboard magazine, has featured only three women on the cover in its forty years of monthly issues, even as the number of women skaters has rapidly grown in recent years.
The Tokyo skateboard circuit will feature not only women like 28-year-old Hym, but two of this year’s youngest Olympic athletes: 13-year-olds Sky Brown, representing the UK, and Rayssa Leal, of Brazil.
The Olympic street skating competition centers on street-style obstacles, like stairs and handrails, while the park or bowl contest hearkens back to the empty backyard swimming pools that skaters turned into their playground starting in the drought-ridden California of the 1970s.
Skate pioneers like Tony Alva were first drawn to pool skating because it reminded them of surfing, another new Olympic sport this year and the basis of much early skate culture. The image of skaters hopping fences for a chance at carving around other people’s empty pools only added to the sport’s outlaw reputation. ‘People shouldn’t start skateboarding to get to the Olympics’
Skateboarding’s induction into the Olympics has only deepened the debate over whether it is a sport at all.
Setting aside its legal ramifications, many prefer to describe skateboarding as a culture or an artform, and not something to be celebrated on a podium.
“Those who are against the Olympic Games are those who were already anti-competition. For them, skateboarding belongs in the street,” he tells France 24. “I hope that [the Games] will make more people want to do it, but at the same time, people shouldn’t start skateboarding to get to the Olympics. That’s not what skateboarding is at its core and it would be a shame to limit it to that.”
“I think it’s good news for skateboarding,” he tells France 24. “We’re going to have a lot more kids getting interested… so more skateparks, more recognition, and we will be taken more seriously at the institutional level. It’s also enticing on a business level, I won’t hide it. If we sell more boards, skate shops will do better.”
In Grynblat’s eyes, a similar calculus extends to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“Why did the IOC add skateboarding [to the Olympic program]? To make money selling TV rights. Young people today prefer to watch skateboarding than the 400 meter,” he says. “We’re fighting to make sure that the right people are at the heart of this Olympic project. If it ever gets taken over by people from outside the skate world, we’ll probably shut the door on it.”
For now, Grynblat is convinced that Olympic skateboarding is worth a shot.
“But I completely understand those who are afraid that skateboarding will lose its soul,” he adds. “They’re purists, committed to the idea of freedom associated with this sport, and don’t want people who have nothing to do with it to appropriate it for financial reasons.”
NOVA SCOTIA #LGBTQ2
First two-spirit candidate joins provincial election; doubles number of Mi'kmaq running to two
Bryson Syliboy grew up in Sipekne'katik First Nation and has lived in Port Hawkesbury for eight years. He is the first Mi'kmaw two-spirit candidate in Nova Scotia and is running for MLA of Richmond in Cape Breton. CONTRIBUTED
SYDNEY — It's been a whirlwind for Bryson Syliboy since he decided to run for the seat in his riding of Richmond in Cape Breton last week.
"It's been awesome," said the 40-year-old grassroots activist, who is the first Mi'kmaw two-spirit candidate to run in a provincial election. A win would make him the first Mi'kmaw MLA to sit in the House of Assembly in Nova Scotia's history.
"I've been thinking for a couple of years to try politics and try my luck with it. It's something I have a passion for — changing the ways we live here for the better," he said.
Syliboy, a descendant of residential school survivors, said reconciliation, and helping to make that happen, is a priority for him, in addition to health care in rural areas, affordable housing and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
"A lot of people in rural Nova Scotia live below the poverty line, and being an Indigenous person and a member of the two-spirit LGBTQ community, it's good that I get out there and be representative for our constituents," he said.
"They need to see people like them in places of politics."
Syliboy, who is running for the NDP, said the party's priorities around poverty reduction and diversity align with his own passions and made it a good fit for him. He is running against Matt Haley for the Liberals, Trevor Boudreau for the Progressive Conservative Party, and Alana Paon, who is seeking re-election as an Independent.
Nadine Bernard is running for the Victoria-The Lakes seat in the provincial election. A win would make her the first Mi'kmaw woman to sit in the legislature. CONTRIBUTED
INCLUDES POTLOTEK
Richmond, one of four exceptional electoral districts re-instated for this election to increase Acadian and African Nova Scotian representation in the Nova Scotia Legislature, is a rural riding that runs along the southeastern coast of Cape Breton from Framboise to Point Tupper, including Potlotek First Nation. In the previous election, it was part of Cape Breton-Richmond, which had just under 11,000 voters and was won by Paon, who ran as a PC but was later kicked out of the party. Her victory unseated Michel Samson of the Liberals, who held that seat for almost 20 years. The riding now has 7,400 electors.
"The voters here are very diverse — we have an Acadian population, we have a Mi'kmaw population — a have a lot of different people, and a lot of the population are aging so healthcare is definitely a big, big issues for them because we only have one little hospital here and sometimes it closes," said Syliboy, who currently works as the aquatics coordinator for the Town of Port Hawkesbury.
FIRST MI'KMAW
Syliboy is the second Mi'kmaw candidate to announce they are running for a seat in the legislature. Nadine Bernard, who grew up in We'koqma'q First Nation and is a band member in Eskasoni First Nation, is running for the Liberals in Victoria-The Lakes, which includes both Eskasoni and Wagmatcook First Nations. If elected, she would replace popular PC incumbent Keith Bain and could be the first Mi'kmaw, and first Mi'kmaw woman, to hold an MLA seat.
"I may be the first but I won't be the last and I'm hoping in the next election we see more Mi'kmaw and more diversty representing this province," she said.
Syliboy also hopes to see more Mi'kmaw people in politics and that his candidacy will help to make that happen.
"It gives people hope. They can say, 'Look, that person is like me, I can look up to them and I can do what they're doing,' because I didn't have that. You've got to be the person to make the change," he said.
Election day in Nova Scotia is Aug. 17.
BRYSON SYLIBOY Age: 40 Hometown: grew up in Sipekne'katik First Nation, lives in Port Hawkesbury Party: NDP Riding: Richmond Competitors for seat: Alana Peon - Independent (incumbent); Matt Haley - Liberal; Trevor Boudreau - Progressive Conservative Priorities: health care, affordable housing, living wage, reconciliation, S2LGBTQ+ rights
NADINE BERNARD Age: 43 Hometown: grew up in We'koqma'q First Nation, is member of Eskasoni First Nation, lives in Truro Party: Liberals Riding: Victoria-The Lakes Competitors for seat: Keith Bain - Progressive Conservative; (incumbent; Adrianna MacKinnon - NDP Priorities: mental health and addictions services, post-pandemic recovery for the tourism sector, sustainable industries, reconciliation
Ardelle Reynolds is an Indigenous Affairs reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
Argentina first South American country to roll out non-binary ID cards, joining Canada
AGUSTIN GEIST BUENOS AIRES REUTERS PUBLISHED JULY 21, 2021
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, centre, Interior Minister Eduardo de Pedro, centre right, and Women, Gender and Diversity Minister Elizabeth Gomez Alcorta, centre left, pose for a picture with non-binary people after presenting the new nomenclature for the National Identity Document (DNI) at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires on July 21, 2021. MARIA EUGENIA CERUTTI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Argentina rolled out identification cards on Wednesday for non-binary citizens, who neither identify as male nor female, allowing them to use “x” in their important national ID document and passports in the field corresponding to gender.
The South American country is the first in the region to enable this via decree, the centre-left government said, adding it was joining countries such as New Zealand, Canada and Australia, which have already carried out the change.
“There are other identities besides that of man and woman, and they must be respected,” said President Alberto Fernández at the presentation of the new document, adding there were “a thousand ways to love and be loved and be happy.”
The use of the “x” has already been accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and includes people who identify outside traditional gender definitions.
Fernández together with the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro and the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, delivered the first three ID cards using the new “x” format.
The Peronist leader has been an advocate of progressive social reforms, driving legislation through to legalize abortion late last year and publicly championing his son, Estanislao Fernandez, a design student and a well-known drag queen.
“The ideal will be when all of us are just who we are and no one cares about people’s gender,” Fernandez added. “This is a step we are taking and I hope one day we get to the point where IDs don’t say if someone is a man, woman or anything else.”
SPORTS Fact check: Do trans athletes have an advantage in elite sport?
The Tokyo Games marks the first time openly transgender athletes compete as Olympians, but the eligibility has cast closer scrutiny into whether there is an unfair advantage. The experts behind the studies weigh in.
Brazilian volleyball player Tiffany Abreu, who is trans, is competing in the Tokyo Games
Several trans women are set to compete in the Tokyo Games, marking the first time openly trans athletes participate in the Olympics. New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard will make her Olympics debut when she makes her first attempt in the weightlifting competition.
Hubbard's participation as a trans woman in the Summer Olympics has prompted controversy — and uproar — with critics saying her eligibility is a threat to fairness in sport. Others say the inclusion of trans athletes cannot be overlooked if there are no meaningful advantages.
DW spoke to the scientists behind leading studies on trans people in sport.
All eyes will be on New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard (right)
What does the science tell us about trans athletes in elite sport?
Few studies have been done on trans people's athletic performance — and, to date, there are no published studies on trans athletes participating at the elite level, say experts. But some papers have been published in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.
One study, published in 2020, looked at US military personnel who transitioned while in service and found that trans women maintain an edge after one year of feminizing hormone therapy, which usually includes suppressing testosterone levels and boosting estrogen. The research was carried out by Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and his colleagues. They found that trans women who underwent hormone therapy for one year continued to outperform non-transgender women, also known as cisgender women, though the gap largely closed after two years. But even then, trans women still ran 12% faster.
Roberts, however, suggested the difference in running times needs additional perspective. "It was a 12% advantage after two years in run times. But to be in the top 10% of female runners, you have to be 29% faster than the average woman. And to be an elite runner, you've got to be 59% faster than the average cis woman," he told DW.
Another study, carried out by sports scientist Tommy Lundberg, found that trans women who underwent feminizing hormone therapy generally maintained their strength levels after one year. Do trans women have an advantage when competing in elite sports?
Without hormone therapy — yes. But even with hormone therapy, current research suggests trans women still maintain an edge in strength.
"Pretty much any way you slice it, trans women are going to have strength advantages even after hormone therapy. I just don't see that as anything else but factual," said Joanna Harper, a medical physicist at Britain's Loughborough University.
Strength is one of several key factors — including explosiveness, endurance and lean body mass — that determine whether an athlete has an edge.
But Harper, whose research focused on trans runners like herself, rejects the idea that trans women competing in sport would have an "unfair" advantage, noting that there are many other factors that go into shaping how an athlete performs — including hand-eye coordination and technique, which are necessary for excelling in sports like golf.
One major factor is hemoglobin levels — which is the most important physiological factor when it comes to endurance sport. Hemoglobin in the blood transports oxygen throughout the body, including to the muscles. Since hemoglobin levels follow testosterone levels, non-transgender men tend to have higher hemoglobin levels than cisgender women. But Harper's study found that testosterone suppressants reduced hemoglobin levels in trans women to that of cisgender women, thus eliminating the advantage.
For Tommy Lundberg, whose research at Sweden's Karolinska Institute focuses on skeletal muscle strength of trans people receiving hormone therapy, the advantages for trans women in strength are to the point where fairness cannot be ensured in most sports.
"The big problem right now is that the [hormone] therapy itself doesn't really remove the advantage to an extent that you can claim that fairness has been achieved," Lundberg told DW. "And actually, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) states that the overriding objective is, and remains, the guarantee of fair competition. That's what they say in their guidelines. So that's the problem right now: They don't go hand-in-hand."
In another paper Lundberg co-authored that looked at untrained trans women, Lundberg and his colleague found that "muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed."
Canadian archer Stephanie Barrett is one of several trans women competing in the Summer Games
The study, like any other — including Roberts and Harper's — has its limitations. Harper, who had also done a review of a similar set of studies to Lundberg's, said both of their studies found a "fairly modest change" in strength in non-athletic trans people. "But their review made it seem more definitive than our review did," she said.
"If you are looking for information on cisgender athletes, you'd never use studies on non-athletic trans people. You just wouldn't do that. It's just that we don't have any data on trans athletes. So I think you have to take the results with a certain grain of salt." When do differences between sexes in athletic performance emerge?
Young boys and girls, regardless of the gender assigned at birth, have similar muscle mass. It's only once a child experiences puberty that the differences begin to emerge — and they become pronounced once boys experience a surge in testosterone.
"Typically, if you're 8 or 9 years old, there is no biological performance difference between boys and girls. So it starts at around age 11 where you start to see this disparity — and then it really kicks in during puberty. And then you have, basically, this big difference in muscle mass," said Lundberg.
Roberts, who is a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine, said: "Younger children before puberty — there is no reason to have divisions of sex between boys and girls. They're physiologically fairly equivalent. It's after puberty that you really see this divergence in athletic performance."
Boys experience a surge in tesosterone during puberty, accelerating their height, strength and hemoglobin levels above healthy girls
There have been no studies carried out on adolescent trans athletes. So there is no data on trans athletes who took puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormone therapy during puberty — and certainly none before puberty. Part of this comes down to following guidelines. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health requires trans adolescents to have begun puberty before undergoing puberty suppressants, the first stage before undergoing hormone therapy.
Trans adolescents in sport have made headlines in recent years, as more than a dozen US states have a policy that allows trans girls to compete competitively at the high school level as long as they self-identify as female. For Blair Hamilton, a Brighton University researcher on trans athletes, this doesn't go far enough to achieve an equal playing field.
"For example, Connecticut was allowing [trans female runners] to race unmedicated," said Hamilton, who is also a transgender footballer. "We don't agree with that."
Hamilton said athletes seeking eligibility to run in competitive races in the female category should first undergo hormone therapy to reduce the advantages.
To do otherwise, said Roberts, would give them an edge. "To compete against the females as soon as you socially transition — before you get any hormone blockers or hormone therapy — it's unfair."
"Tomorrow, if I said: 'I'm a woman and I'm going to go compete in the women's class.' It's unfair. I still have testosterone, I have all the advantages I started with," said Roberts. What is the recommended testosterone for trans women to compete?
This is a thorny issue that sports scientists disagree on. The "normal" healthy range for cis women is between 0.3 and 2 nmol/L, according to Mayo Clinic estimates — though they vary among labs. Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome tend to have higher testosterone levels, which can reach 5.2 nmol/L. "Healthy" male testosterone ranges from 8.3 mnol/L to 32.9 nmol/L.
The IOC's regulations say trans women can compete if their testosterone levels in serum are at 10 nanomoles per liter for a year for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
With Roberts and Lundberg's recent papers, however, the IOC has faced renewed criticism following Hubbard's inclusion due to its eligibility criteria. But the IOC said it would not review its guidelines — set in place in 2015 — until after the Tokyo Games. World Athletics (IAAF) in 2019 changed its rules, requiring testosterone levels to be below 5 nmol/L continuously for at least 12 months. This criterion for trans women is backed by Hamilton as well as Harper, who noted the IOC's current guidelines are based on outdated techniques measuring testosterone levels.
But the IAAF's criteria runs contrary to Roberts' study on trans military personnel, which suggests two years of hormone therapy is needed before competing.
Lundberg, however, said there is no sufficient evidence that two years would be enough to ensure fairness in the female category in most sports. "It would be an easy fix if you could just change regulation to two years, instead of one. But I don't think that's a feasible solution either. Actually, right now, there is nothing to indicate that." Do trans men have an advantage when competing in elite sport?
"What we've got in our study is, actually, the trans men dominated," said Roberts, referring to his study on trans US military personnel. After one year of masculinizing hormones, there was no difference in pushup or run times — however, the number of situps performed in one minute by trans men exceeded cisgender men, or non-transgender men.
"But nobody's up in arms saying that trans men are going to dominate men's sports," said Roberts, adding that much of the advantage gained for a cisgender man occurs during puberty. Chris Mosier made history in 2020 when he became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympic trial
"Having gone through female puberty does not provide you with a baseline skeletal advantage over your average cis man. You're getting testosterone, which levels the playing field in large part because testosterone really produces a lot of differences, but there's not that extra anatomical advantage that a trans woman has over cis women — a trans man isn't going to have that over a cis man," he said.
Sports scientist Lundberg notes that trans men competing is "not as sensitive in sports."
"Even if they get testosterone, it's not a threat to fairness if they switch to the male category," he said. "The problem then is, of course, if they would want to stay in the women's category even when they get testosterone — because then it would become doping." Is there a way to achieve both fairness and inclusion in sport?
None of the experts interviewed support a blanket ban on trans athletes, which is in line with a recent study. But experts, like Lundberg, say the regulations should be determined on a sport-by-sport basis, especially when safety is a factor, like in rugby.
"We don't have this easy fix or easy regulation that can be applied," said Lundberg. "You basically have to choose or prioritize either inclusion or fairness. They don't go hand-in-hand right now."
"And in most sports, it's going to be problematic to include transgender women and achieve fairness. That's what the current research suggests," he said.
Lundberg's research has seen him come under fire on social media, with many accusing him of being transphobic. But he tells DW that is not the case.
"I think the transgender issue is very important. But protecting the women's category in sport is also very important. They have fought long enough to have fair competition in sport," he said.
In the meantime, sports scientists and researchers will continue to debate and advise on what the best steps forward will be.
"There's not very much information out there and even less that's really specific to trans athletes. But the Olympics are here, international sports are here, and trans people are around. So decisions have to be made," medical physicist Harper said. "So people have to make the best decisions they can with the data that are available now."
"And hopefully, as we get more — and better — data, it will lead to improved policies."
Canadians see NDP's Singh as a better PM than Tories' O'Toole, Leger survey suggests
OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh might have reason to smile only weeks before a possible election call as a new survey suggests more Canadians believe he would make a better prime minister than the Conservatives' Erin O'Toole.
While the survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies had 25 per cent of respondents picking Justin Trudeau as the best prime minister, Singh wasn't far behind with 19 per cent while only 13 per cent chose O'Toole.
The survey also found a three per cent increase in support for the NDP among decided voters, who otherwise remained largely unchanged in their support for the Liberals and Tories.
Thirty-four per cent of decided voters said they supported the Liberals, while the Conservatives stood at 29 per cent and the NDP at 22 per cent.
The online survey, conducted July 16 to 18, polled 2,069 Canadians. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.
The survey could represent bad news for O'Toole and the Conservatives as they continue to bump against what Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque described as a "30 per cent glass ceiling" under O'Toole's leadership.
Yet it could also signal trouble for Trudeau's chances of winning a majority Liberal government as previous election results have seen the Liberals suffer from strong support for the NDP.
Bourque nonetheless cautioned against overstating how the NDP's apparent uptick in support will play out during an election, saying that the results don't necessarily translate into additional seats for the party.
"The NDP could end up with 20 per cent of the vote and 10 seats, or 20 per cent of the vote and 30 seats," Bourque said.
"A lot will ride on Singh's skills and strategic voting. The more the CPC is a threat, the more the Liberals will eat into NDP support in Ontario, Quebec and, maybe, Manitoba."
Bourque believes the time is now for Trudeau to call an election and try to ride popular support for how the Liberals handled the COVID-19 pandemic if he wants to have any chance of winning a coveted majority government.
The survey found that 55 per cent of respondents believed Trudeau had performed well or very well in managing the pandemic, the area where he had the most such positive reviews.
"For Liberal strategists, this may not be the optimal window to drop the writ, but it likely remains the least worst for the next little while," Bourque said in an email.
"Liberals need to eat support from the NDP and Greens, but also the Bloc Quebecois. That's why running on their COVID-19 record -- and record overall -- needs to work."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2021. RELATED IMAGES
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Japan's Yuto Horigome competes in the men's skateboarding street final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Jeff PACHOUD AFP
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