Breaking: New class action alleges birth alerts are ‘a product of the state’s colonialist and paternalistic attitude’

Parents subjected to birth alerts in B.C. are being represented in a proposed class action filed in B.C.’s Supreme Court today.

This story contains information about birth alerts that may be triggering. It’s part of a series about the legality of #BirthAlerts and the implications for families.

A “birth alert” is when a social worker flags a pregnant person to hospital staff without their consent, requiring hospital staff to contact child protection authorities once the baby’s born.

These alerts sometimes lead to a newborn being apprehended or removed from their mother. In B.C., birth alerts resulted in apprehensions “approximately 28% of the time,” according to records obtained by IndigiNews.

Birth alerts are “issued based on speculative child protection concerns, often without any supporting evidence,” alleges the statement of claim filed by Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP (CFM), a Vancouver-based firm. These alerts are “grounded in discriminatory assumptions regarding which individuals are likely to be neglectful or abusive parents,” and they are “disproportionately employed against Indigenous, racialized, and/or disabled pregnant persons,” the claim alleges.

In 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls called attention to the impact of these alerts on Indigenous women in its final report.

“Birth alerts are racist and discriminatory and are a gross violation of the rights of the child, the mother, and the community,” the inquiry found.

In this class action against “Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of British Columbia, by the Ministry of Children and Family Development,” CFM is alleging that birth alerts are “a product of the state’s colonialist and paternalistic attitude.”

Nikida Steel is the proposed representative plaintiff in this class action.

“Being subject to birth alerts during each of her pregnancies made her feel ‘betrayed and disgusted,’” according to a statement released by CFM this afternoon.

“Calling out the government for what it did can help to remove the stigma and shame from other people who have experienced this. I want to try to hold the government accountable, and to prevent this type of reprehensible behaviour in the future,” says Steel.

Many provinces and territories, including B.C., formally stopped issuing birth alerts in recent years, but that doesn’t mean they don’t continue to impact those who’ve experienced them.

“It is something that follows you lifelong,” says Steel. “The fact that a birth alert was issued about you continues to affect your dealing with the system forever.”

CFM says it is bringing this case “on behalf of all persons who were, while pregnant, the subject of a birth alert issued in British Columbia, including a subclass of all Indigenous, racialized, and/or disabled class members.”

The firm is inviting potential class members to register at info@cfmlawyers.ca and to contact Jen Winstanley, a partner at CFM, for more information: 604-331-9539 or jwinstanley@cfmlawyers.ca.

Winstanley encourages anyone who suspects they were subject to a birth alert to get in touch, even if they aren’t sure.

There were at least 444 birth alerts issued in B.C. between Jan. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD).

58 per cent of parents impacted by birth alerts in 2018 were Indigenous.

But many of these parents may not know they’ve been subject to birth alerts because, as reported by IndigiNews, the ministry hasn’t told them.

“Our focus since we ended the practice of birth alerts has been forward looking. We didn’t want to retraumatize affected families by providing notifications of past birth alerts,” wrote a spokesperson to IndigiNews. “Our goal was to ensure the safety of children by ensuring the family had the supports they needed to keep kids safe.”

Winstanley advises parents who aren’t sure whether they’ve been subject to a birth alert to request a copy of their health records from the B.C. government.

“That’s how our representative plaintiff was able to confirm that she has been subject to a birth alert,” she says, adding that CFM can help people file for their records.

This proposed class action still needs to be certified by the courts, and this process can take years, says Winstanley.

Timelines are impacted by a number of factors including “court and counsel availability,” she says. “This one might be a little bit quicker because we have one defendant and it’s provincial (and not national).”

CFM is working with a group of law firms across the country that plans to file “additional provincial class proceedings,” according to CFM’s press release.

The firm started “actively investigating and structuring a national litigation plan” earlier this year, after an IndigiNews investigation revealed records showing that B.C.’s Attorney General sent a memo to MCFD confirming that birth alerts are “illegal and unconstitutional.”

This revelation makes this case, “a little bit unique,” says Winstanley. “Because we’re dealing with admittedly wrongful contact.”

Since beginning their investigation, Winstanley says the team at CFM has “confirmed that the process was widespread up until it was discontinued.” They’ve also “spoken to a few women that have been the subject of birth alerts.”

“[We are] making sure everything is very voluntary and confidential and not putting any pressure on people to come forward,” Winstanley says.

She says her firm will help anyone who comes forward to connect with culturally-appropriate resources, as needed. To ensure their process is trauma-informed, she says she’s having “extensive discussions” with Alisa Lombard, a partner at the Indigenous-owned and operated firm Semanganis Worme Lombard (SWL).

SWL is working with CFM on this case, and Lombard is also working on a class action to address the forced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada.

“We feel this is the type of case that calls out for a real resolution,” says Winstanley. “And we’re really hopeful that it’s not going to lead to many years of contested litigation, and sort of, a denial.”

IndigiNews is committed to trauma-informed reporting, which involves taking time and care, transparency and creating safety plans for those who come forward with stories to share. Brielle Morgan is a white journalist living on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She strives to work in solidarity with her Indigenous colleagues and uphold trauma-informed practices. See examples of her past reporting on the child-welfare system here and here.

Brielle Morgan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Discourse

False prophets fuel anti-vaccine flames

It may have come as a surprise to many that the bulk of vaccine misinformation online is perpetuated by a mere 12 people.

That finding was unveiled by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in May 2021.

“According to our recent report, anti-vaccine activists on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter reach more than 59 million followers, making these the largest and most important social media platforms for anti-vaxxers,” wrote CEO Imran Ahmed.

Among the “Disinformation Dozen” was a name that may also have come a surprise: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, son of JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy, is an environmental lawyer who gained notoriety for his dogged pursuit of polluters.

But in the summer of 2005, after being hounded by the parent of an autistic child who demanded he read her “research,” he took up a torch against vaccines and refuses to let go.

In a recent article for McGill’s Office for Science and Society, author Jonathan Jarry describes Kennedy as “one of the princes of the anti-vaccination movement, if not its king.”

Kennedy usually manages to dodge social media censorship by promoting articles on his Children’s Health Defense website without being overly specific. His organization was one of two buyers last year accounting for 54 per cent of anti-vaccine advertising content on Facebook.

Trying to understand what makes people like Kennedy tick is a daunting prospect.

“It could be argued that a career spent exposing corporations that carelessly dump toxic chemicals into the world might bias you to imagine harmful plots wherever industry is involved,” Jarry suggested.

Some of it comes from the appeal of being a lone crusader. Some of it may just be arrogance.

Over time, however, anti-vaxxers usually end up believing their own lies, even when they have to conjure elaborate conspiracy theories to explain why mainstream science rejects them.

Kennedy may be king, but Andrew Wakefield is considered by many to be the founder of the modern anti-vaccine movement.

In 1998, he and some co-authors got a paper published in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, that purported to show a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism.

It lit a fuse for parents, many of whom believed all along there was a connection. With mainstream media blindly sounding the alarm, vaccinations waned and measles outbreaks made an unwelcome return throughout Britain and North America.

Except there was no connection.

British journalist Brian Deer, tasked at first to simply report on the findings for his employer, grew suspicious when he talked to parents of one of only 12 children tracked in the study.

Over the span of several years, Deer cracked the scam wide open, revealing how medical records were distorted and even falsified, lab results were botched or faked, and how Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at the time, was mired in financial conflicts that included a plan to patent dubious new treatments to protect against childhood diseases.

The Lancet retracted the paper in 2010, giving Deer the rare privilege of writing an editorial about his investigation, and Britain’s General Medical Council stripped Wakefield of his licence, citing gross professional misconduct.

In 2004, a meta-study came to the conclusion there was no evidence of a link between MMR vaccine and autism. The authors analyzed five cohort studies involving 1,256,407 children, and five case-control studies involving 9,920 children.

No study since has found any connection either.

But Wakefield, who subsequently fled to the United States where post-truth conspiracies thrive like weeds, continues to peddle his nonsense.

And his fans apparently have no qualms about accepting the doctored data from 12 hand-picked research subjects as gospel.

What’s perhaps most disturbing about anti-vaccine tactics is that its proponents will shamelessly target some of the most vulnerable communities.

Kennedy exploited a tendency in the American black community to distrust the medical establishment when he funded a pseudo-documentary released in March 2021 called “Medical Racism: The New Apartheid.”

Among other things, the film made references to the Tuskagee study — an unethical survey of untreated syphilis in black men from decades ago — to help stoke paranoia about vaccines.

In essence, the film uses fear to discourage a population that needs the vaccine more than most not to get it.

About 10 years ago, Wakefield was invited to talk to the Somali community in Minnesota, where he repeated his infamous lie that the MMR vaccine causes autism.

The result? Minnesota soon experienced its largest outbreak of measles in nearly three decades as immunizations plummeted.

Brian Deer says Wakefield’s continued motivation, like those of many anti-vaxxers, can be reduced to narcissism and financial gain.

“The thing about Wakefield is it’s all about himself. I think he’ll say anything he believes will win applause and income from the coronavirus pandemic, just as he did when he claimed to find that vaccines cause autism,” Deer wrote in an email Thursday when contacted by The Telegram.

Deer said no court or tribunal would accept anything that comes out of his mouth, since he’s clearly lost all credibility as an expert.

“He shrugs off what he’s called ‘Wuflu’ (a reference to Wuhan, China) and even denies the COVID vaccines are vaccines. But now he’s an Englishman in America: and that works.”

Peter Jackson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram

RIP

Beloved Edmonton elder who dispensed 'culture as medicine' dies of COVID-19

Wallis Snowdon

© Supplied by family of Roxanne Tootoosis Roxanne Tootoosis was an admired mentor and Indigenous knowledge keeper. She died Sunday after contracting COVID-19.

An Edmonton elder and knowledge keeper dedicated to keeping Cree traditions alive for the next generation has died from complications of COVID-19.

Relatives of Roxanne Tootoosis say she died alone at home Sunday, less than a week after falling ill with the disease. She was 60.

Tootoosis had called Alberta Health Link on Friday night and was advised by a nurse that she wasn't sick enough to seek care in hospital, according to her daughter Niska Chyan Napoleon.

"On Friday, I spoke to her very briefly and her voice was very laboured," Napoleon said in an interview Tuesday.

"She told me when she called the [811] hotline that they told her that she didn't have enough symptoms to go to an emergency."

'Medical conditions can change quickly'

Napoleon said the family isn't planning on filing an official complaint but she wonders if her mother — who had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine — would be alive if she had gone to hospital.

Alberta Health Services said it could not provide details on Tootoosis' case, citing patient confidentiality.

In a statement to CBC News, AHS extended condolences to the family and encouraged them to file their concerns with the agency's patient relations team.

AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said the first step of any Health Link assessment is to ensure any emergency or life-threatening symptoms are ruled out.

"Health Link registered nurses provide advice based on information supplied by the patient at the time of the call," reads the statement.

"As many medical conditions can change quickly, Health Link nurses always insist a patient call back if any of the symptoms change, so they may be reassessed, or that they immediately call 911."

Napoleon said her mother got tested for COVID-19 after attending a sweat last Sunday where another attendee had fallen ill.

Her mother told her on Monday that she had tested positive for the delta variant, Napoleon said.

Napoleon said her mother's death is a reminder of the risks of COVID-19, even for the immunized. She said people should not hesitate to seek medical care for the disease.

Her mother had battled various health problems. Her kidney function was low and she had suffered a stroke last year.

"My mom was double vaccinated, and so we all felt like she was more safe because of that," Napoleon said. "I had faith she would pull through."

Tootoosis, a proud Plains Cree woman, was an Indigenous advocate who had dedicated her life to sharing her culture.

She was the first Indigenous knowledge keeper employed by MacEwan University, a role she held for the past four years.

A 'guiding presence'

The university lowered the MacEwan banner and the Métis Nation and Treaty 6 flags in her honour. A celebration of life was held Tuesday on campus.

MacEwan president Annette Trimbee described Tootoosis as a "guiding presence" on campus.

"She was family to many MacEwan students, who were greatly impacted by her kindness, by her genuine desire to really get to know them, by her gentle teachings, by her mentorship, by her playfulness and by her infectious laughter," Trimbee wrote in a statement.

"Many of us will remember her sharing, 'Know who you are first, and you'll never get lost.'"

Before her work at MacEwan, Tootoosis spent nearly 20 years in social work. She had also completed a one-year clinical residency at the Royal Alexandra Hospital with the program now called the Indigenous Cultural Helper Services program.

She had plans to pursue her master's degree, exploring the history of ribbon skirts as her thesis.

Napoleon said her mother was a compassionate woman who worked to honour her ancestors through traditional healing.

For Tootoosis, culture was medicine.

Napoleon plans to honour her legacy by learning Cree, writing songs in the language and carrying on the traditions her mother cherished.

"She knew her path in the world," she said. "She wanted to keep our culture alive."

Her remains will be laid to rest Thursday in Poundmaker Cree Nation near Cut Knife, Sask., her childhood home.

Liberals pledge $2B to help 'transition' oil workers; Alberta communities lukewarm


CALGARY — The federal Liberals have pledged $2 billion to help workers in oil-producing provinces transition to a greener economy, but the proposal is getting a lukewarm reception in communities that might be beneficiaries of the funding.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In Cold Lake, Alta. — where more than 2,000 of the city's 15,000 residents are employed at nearby oilsands operations — Mayor Craig Copeland said he doesn't believe most people working in the sector want to switch jobs.

Cold Lake's economy has suffered over the last seven years due to low oil prices, consolidation, and layoffs in the energy sector. Copeland said local real estate prices have fallen almost 40 per cent since 2012.

However, things are looking brighter this year, thanks to higher commodity prices driving increased oilsands production. Copeland said he's optimistic about the future of his community, a place where 20-somethings can earn six figures, buy homes and raise families.

"We already have a huge industry that generates enormous wealth for people," Copeland said, calling the Liberals' transition proposal a 'made-in-Ottawa' solution not grounded in reality.

"Until you find a way to replace that, people won’t even look at retraining.”

The Liberal proposal for a $2-billion "Future Funds" program for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador is part of a larger promise to ensure workers aren't left behind as Canada pursues its climate change commitments. The party's platform contains a promise to create a "Clean Jobs Training Centre" to help oilpatch workers upgrade or gain new skills.

The Liberals have pledged to require the oil and gas industry to reduce its emissions from current levels at the pace and scale needed to achieve net-zero by 2050, and will set five-year targets toward that goal beginning in 2025.

While there are different ways to accomplish that goal, said Isabelle Turcotte — director of federal policy for clean energy think-tank the Pembina Institute — the outcome will undoubtedly have an impact on oil and gas employees.

"It's been hard in Canada to talk about reductions in oil and gas, because of workers," Turcotte said. "But regardless of the pathway (to net-zero) we choose ... we will see a decrease in production and consumption of oil and gas, all the way to 2050."

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said climate change is a reality his province needs to face up to.

“We’ve had a great ride with oil and gas, but the sector will never be the same engine for economic growth that it was," McGowan said. "Pretending that we can ignore the direction that the world is heading and go back to the past is not in the best interest of Alberta workers, including people working in the oil and gas sector.”

McGowan said the AFL has been lobbying for federal support in the range of $10 to $20 billion per year to help oil-producing provinces and their workers diversify. He said the labour group would like to see a new federal transfer program that could fund green infrastructure projects, training and apprenticeships in affected provinces.

Thousands of Albertans have already been affected by downsizing, automation, and the ongoing evolution of Canada's energy sector, said Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta. The percentage of the province's labour force that has been unemployed for more than one year is 2.4 per cent, the highest rate of long-term unemployment in the country (the national average is 1.4 per cent).

Legge said his organization is supportive of federal funding for clean energy, diversification and anything else that will help to keep Alberta competitive in a changing world. But he said Canada's oil and gas sector is still critical to the national economy, and will remain so for a long time.

“We support this kind of (transition fund) initiative because there are many people who aren’t going to find the same kind of job they once had," Legge said. "But what we don’t want it to be is code for ‘wind down of the sector.' We don't support that approach at all."

Ted Clugston — mayor of Medicine Hat, Alta. — said his city was "devastated" when natural gas prices collapsed in 2008. He said Medicine Hat has been pursuing diversification ever since, and has had significant success attracting solar and wind power projects to the area.

However, Clugston said the employment created by those projects doesn't come close to comparing with the thousands of local jobs created by the oil and gas sector.

"There's lots of jobs during construction, but once (wind and solar farms) are built, there's not that many jobs," he said. "I don't know where all these green jobs are going to come from."

The federal Conservative Party platform makes no mention of a transition fund for oil and gas workers, instead criticizing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for "wanting to phase out the sector and its jobs." It says a Conservative government would support energy sector workers.

The NDP platform pledges to "work together" with labour, employers and the provinces to find solutions that could include expanded EI benefits, re-training and job placement services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2021.

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Erin O'Toole's plan to revive Northern Gateway could run up against risk-averse oilpatch

Geoffrey Morgan 

© Provided by Financial Post Members of ForestEthics demonstrate against Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway pipeline in Vancouver, on Aug. 31, 2010.


CALGARY – Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole hopes to revive the long-cancelled, West Coast-bound Northern Gateway pipeline if elected prime minister, but oil companies and pipeline giants are less keen to take risks on major new pipelines since the project was cancelled five years ago.

Twice this week, O’Toole said that if elected he would revive the Northern Gateway pipeline project in an effort to ship Canadian oil and provide economic partnerships for Indigenous groups along the pipeline’s path.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cancelled Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway project in 2016 and implemented a ban on oil tankers along the northern stretch of British Columbia’s West Coast — effectively killing hopes of a building a replacement project.

Before its cancellation, Indigenous groups held a 33 per cent equity stake in the 525,000-barrels-per-day pipeline to the West Coast but the project was challenged by eight First Nations and four environmental groups at the Federal Court of Appeal, which overturned the project due to a lack of Aboriginal consultation.

People Who Take Photos With Their Phone Need To See ThisSEE MORESponsored by THE PHOTO STICK OMNI

Trudeau opted not to engage in further consultation at the time, in a move which terminated the project. Enbridge declined to comment on whether it would revive the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Now, five years later, the Conservative Party is looking to revive the project, driving a wedge between themselves and the Liberal Party, which promised this week to cap oilsands production

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“I would like to see intergenerational transfer of wealth and opportunity after generations of trauma-transfer,” O’Toole said at a campaign stop on Monday of the Northern Gateway project’s potential to provide income to First Nations.

But the Conservative Party’s hopes of reviving the long-cancelled, West Coast-bound Northern Gateway pipeline could stall in Calgary’s newly risk-averse oilpatch, which has watched multiple proposed pipeline projects cancelled in recent years.

“We’ve created so much risk in the system that we can’t expect private companies to develop pipelines on their own. They need government backing of some kind,” said Richard Masson, chief commercial officer of Fractal Systems, a technology company involved in oilsands upgrading

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© Carlos Osorio/Reuters Conservative leader Erin O’Toole at a campaign stop on Monday.

Masson noted that both the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the Keystone XL project required government backing before construction started on either project.

The federal government purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project from Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. after the company signalled it would abandon the project given opposition from the B.C. government. Meanwhile, Alberta’s government backed the Keystone XL pipeline that was cancelled in Jan. 2021 on U.S. President Joe Biden’s first day in office.

“You would have to have federal leadership or a lot of federal backstopping to see Northern Gateway developed, just like Alberta had to step in on Keystone XL,” said Masson, who is also an executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy.

If Northern Gateway were revived, the risk of its subsequent cancellation would likely need to be spread out between Enbridge and the oil companies interested in shipping crude on the line, said Vicki Knott, CEO and co-founder of Calgary-based Crux OCM, which provides control room software systems for industrial companies and pipelines.

“I would think that the structure of the financial commitments up front would be very different than what they used to be 10 years ago,” she said. “The risk is just too high with cancelled pipelines over and over again. It’s been a failed strategy for them.”

If the risks were spread out, there continues to be a need in the oilpatch for additional export pipelines.

Reports from IHS Markit show that Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline and the federally owned Trans Mountain expansion could be full in the next six years, providing a market opportunity for another oil export pipeline project to be built out of Western Canada.

“I would assume Enbridge would still be game to try,” Knott said, adding, “Enbridge makes money on their rate base, so the more pipelines they have, the more money they make.”

With additional reporting from The Canadian Press

• Email: gmorgan@nationalpost.com | Twitter: geoffreymorgan

Liberals name the elephant in the room: Oil and gas emissions must come down


The Liberal Party is promising, if re-elected, to require the oil and gas industry to curb its greenhouse gas emissions at a pace and scale needed to meet net-zero emissions by 2050, but experts and environmentalists want details before getting their hopes up.

The climate plan highlights a number of initiatives, like energy efficiency retrofit grants and making sure all vehicles sold after 2035 are zero-emission vehicles, but the plan’s centrepiece is a commitment to cap and lower emissions from the oil and gas industry — a move experts say has long been the missing piece to a credible climate plan.

“We're effectively capping oil and gas emissions in this country, and saying there will be five-year targets that will be established, that will be binding, on the pathway to net zero,” said incumbent North Vancouver candidate Jonathan Wilkinson.

“There needs to be a path, and that path needs to be a path that has requirements, not simply aspirational goals,” he added.

The plan is to set five-year targets, starting in 2025, based on the advice of the Net-Zero Advisory Body. Wilkinson confirmed the plan is focused on reducing absolute emissions rather than emission intensity per barrel. Emission intensity refers to the emissions generated when producing a product, but from a climate perspective, absolute emissions are what count.

“It's fine, and in some respects important, that the sector improves emission intensity, but emission intensity is not sufficient because if you have more improvements … yet increase production, then you end up with an increase in absolute emissions,” said Wilkinson.

That means “any expansion with respect to the oilsands would have to fit within the cap we've put in place and the reductions that would be required,” he said. “So the only way you could see significant expansion in the oilsands is if you saw enormous improvements in emission intensity.”

Experts Canada’s National Observer spoke with applauded the Liberals for recognizing that emissions in the oil and gas sector need to be regulated if there is any chance to reduce greenhouse gases in line with what science demands, but called the commitment too vague.

“How much of this is (based) on carbon capture technology? How much of this is actually stepping in and saying no new expansion?” asked Cam Fenton with climate group 350. “There's way too much wiggle room built into it at this point in time, which is worrying ... There's a very big difference between whether or not this is a plan to wind down versus wind up and offset.”

Fenton said the platform doesn’t read like the Liberals grasped the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which United National Secretary General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity.”

“This reads more like what have we already promised, what have we put forward, and what're the new things we can add in, particularly to address the most significant critiques we're facing,” he said. “When you look at the things they're most worried about, a lot of it has to do with their foot-dragging on the Just Transition Act, and then the big elephant in the room of the climate plan has always been the lack of a plan for oil and gas emissions.

“So this feels more like it's gilding the lily of their existing plan, as opposed to actually reacting or responding to the scale of the crisis.”

Pembina Institute’s Alberta regional director Chris Severson-Baker says oil and gas companies that have already made net-zero pledges should welcome the Liberal announcement.

“It's sort of counterintuitive, but they've come out and made these pledges and now a major party is announcing that path to net zero is actually going to be part of government policy,” he explained. “Companies have made these net-zero pledges, but without policy certainty and an actual road map, they're going to find it very challenging to actually secure the investment capital they would need.”

The most notable net-zero pledge from the oilsands came in June when Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy, the companies responsible for 90 per cent of oilsands production, declared an alliance aimed at reaching net-zero through a multibillion-dollar carbon capture utilization and storage plan that would connect a sequestration hub to the oilsands with a massive trunkline.

This week Reuters revealed Natural Resources Canada is planning two major carbon capture projects, estimated to capture 15 million tonnes of carbon annually.

Severson-Baker said a suite of policies for the oil and gas sector is what’s needed because the carbon price on its own doesn’t cut it.

“You hear it all the time talking to companies and the finance sector (that) they discount the carbon price,” he said. “They discount the carbon signal because they don't have enough details or certainty about how things are going to unfold, and it results in an inability to actually move forward.”

He said that five-year plans with clear benchmarks, along with clean fuel regulations, and gradual increases to the carbon price are what provide the type of certainty needed for major investment decisions.

Elsewhere in the Liberal climate plan is a commitment to end thermal coal exports by 2030, which builds off a previous goal to phase out domestic thermal coal. In June, Wilkinson also announced what is effectively a ban on new thermal coal mines due to their greenhouse gas impact.

“If the argument is, ‘We need to stop exporting thermal coal because it's driving emissions elsewhere,’ the exact same logic applies to oil and gas,” said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada.

Climate Action Network Canada’s domestic policy manager Caroline Brouillette echoed the sentiment.

“In Canada we are still not ready to have an honest conversation about what the International Energy Agency's net-zero by 2050 report tells us, which is that to contain global warming to 1.5 C there can be no new investment in fossil fuels,” she said. “It seems like we're ready to address the coal component of that reality, but talking about the end of oil and gas is still a difficult topic in Canada.

“Obviously it's a complex and difficult transition that we'll need to undergo, but really this election should be about naming these hard choices that we'll have to make in the coming years,” she said.

Another notable commitment in the climate plan is a pledge to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas by 75 per cent from 2012 levels by 2030. That appears to represent a step up from 2016’s commitment to reduce emissions 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025.

Methane has been identified as a priority for greenhouse gas emission reductions by the IPCC because it warms the planet faster than CO2 but has a shorter life in the atmosphere.

John Woodside, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Brazil Supreme Court weighs landmark case on indigenous land rights
By Ricardo Brito 

© Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Supreme Court trial of a landmark case on indigenous land rights in Brasilia

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments for and against a cut-off date for land claims that indigenous people say are vital for their survival, while the government advocated for legal certainty for farmers in the agricultural powerhouse

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© Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Supreme Court trial of a landmark case on indigenous land rights in Brasilia

The top court weighed whether a state government applied an overly narrow interpretation of indigenous rights by only recognizing tribal lands occupied by native communities at the time Brazil's constitution was ratified in 1988.

Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Supreme Court trial of a landmark case on indigenous land rights, in Brasilia

The case is expected to drag out for days and set a precedent that would affect hundreds of native land claims https://reut.rs/3zcZ00Q.

Indigenous people danced and chanted outside the court as they anxiously watched the proceedings https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/yanomami-shaman-sees-tough-times-ahead-brazils-indigenous-2021-08-31 on an outdoor screen.

A lawyer for the largest indigenous umbrella organization APIB, Luiz Eloy Amado of the Terena people, said the rule was unconstitutional because there was no timeframe in the 1988 Constitution, which guaranteed the right to ancestral lands.

"The land question is fundamental for Brazil's indigenous people," Amado told the court. He added that some 800 claims, a quarter of which are in the final stages of recognition, would be stalled if the 1988 deadline was not rejected by the court.

© Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Supreme Court trial of a landmark case on indigenous land rights in Brasilia

Protected indigenous lands offer a bulwark against deforestation in the Amazon. A defeat in court for the indigenous people would set a precedent for the rollback of native rights that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has sought with the backing of powerful farming interests.

The government's solicitor general, Bruno Bianco, argued that the time framework gave legal security to farmers, many of whom have lived for decades on land once inhabited by natives who were pushed out by the arrival of European settlers.

Bianco said the issue was best decided by Congress, where a bill establishing the 1988 deadline as law has cleared a lower chamber committee. He said the court should put off a decision until after legislators pass the bill, a strategy supported by Brazil's powerful farm lobby

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© Reuters/ADRIANO MACHADO Brazil's Supreme Court trial of a landmark case on indigenous land rights, in Brasilia

The court adjourned until Thursday, when 18 speakers will appear before the justices start discussing the issue.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito, writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Study shows evidence of beer drinking 9,000 years ago in Southern China

Pottery vessels which had contained beer, found with human remains in platform mound

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

 

IMAGE: PAINTED POTTERY VESSELS (FROM QIAOTOU PLATFORM MOUND) FOR SERVING DRINKS AND FOOD. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE BY JIAJING WANG.

Alcoholic beverages have long been known to serve an important socio-cultural function in ancient societies, including at ritual feasts. A new study finds evidence of beer drinking 9,000 years ago in southern China, which was likely part of a ritual to honor the dead. The findings are based on an analysis of ancient pots found at a burial site at Qiaotou, making the site among the oldest in the world for early beer drinking. The results are reported in PLOS ONE.

The ancient pots were discovered in a platform mound (80 m x 50 m wide, with an elevation of 3 m above ground level), which was surrounded by a human-made ditch (10-15 m wide and 1.5-2 m deep), based on ongoing excavations at Qiaotou. No residential structures were found at the site. The mound contained two human skeletons and multiple pottery pits with high-quality pottery vessels, many of which were complete vessels. The pottery was painted with white slip and some of the vessels were decorated with abstract designs. As the study reports, these artifacts are probably some of “the earliest known painted pottery in the world.” No pottery of this kind has been found at any other sites dating to this time period.

The research team analyzed different types of pottery found at Qiaotou, which were of varying sizes. Some of the pottery vessels were relatively small and similar in size to drinking vessels used today, and to those found in other parts of the world. Each of the pots could basically be held in one hand like a cup unlike storage vessels, which are much larger in size. Seven of the 20 vessels, which were part of their analysis, appeared to be long-necked Hu pots, which were used to drink alcohol in the later historical periods.

To confirm that the vessels were used for drinking alcohol, the research team analyzed microfossil residues— starch, phytolith (fossilized plant residue), and fungi, extracted from the interior surfaces of the pots. The residues were compared with control samples obtained from soil surrounding the vessels.

CAPTION

Human burial 1 (M44) is one of the archaeological features from Qiaotou platform mound.

CREDIT

Image by Leping Jiang.

The team identified microbotanical (starch granules and phytoliths) and microbial (mold and yeast) residues in the pots that were consistent with residues from beer fermentation and are not found naturally in soil or in other artifacts unless they had contained alcohol.

“Through a residue analysis of pots from Qiaotou, our results revealed that the pottery vessels were used to hold beer, in its most general sense— a fermented beverage made of rice (Oryza sp.), a grain called Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), and unidentified tubers,” says co-author Jiajing Wang, an assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth. “This ancient beer though would not have been like the IPA that we have today. Instead, it was likely a slightly fermented and sweet beverage, which was probably cloudy in color.”

The results also showed that phytoliths of rice husks and other plants were also present in the residue from the pots. They may have been added to the beer as a fermentation agent.

Although the Yangtze River Valley of southern China is known today as the country’s rice heartland, the domestication of rice occurred gradually between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, so 9,000 years ago, rice was still in the early stage of domestication. At that time, most communities were hunter-gatherers who relied primarily on foraging. As the researchers explain in the study, given that rice harvesting and processing was labor intensive, the beer at Qiaotou was probably a ritually significant drink/beverage.

The residue analysis of the pots also showed traces of mold, which was used in the beermaking process. The mold found in the pots at Qiaotou was very similar to the mold present in koji, which is used to make sake and other fermented rice beverages in East Asia. The results predate earlier research, which found that mold had been used in fermentation processes 8,000 years ago in China

CAPTION

Long-necked Hu vessel.

CREDIT

Image by Leping Jiang.

Beer is technically any fermented beverage made from crops through a two-stage transformation process. In the first phase, enzymes transform starch into sugar (saccharification). In the second phase, the yeasts convert the sugar into alcohol and other states like carbon dioxide (fermentation). As the researchers explain in the study, mold acts kind of like an agent for both processes, by serving as a saccharification-fermentation starter.

“We don’t know how people made the mold 9,000 years ago, as fermentation can happen naturally,” says Wang. “If people had some leftover rice and the grains became moldy, they may have noticed that the grains became sweeter and alcoholic with age. While people may not have known the biochemistry associated with grains that became moldy, they probably observed the fermentation process and leveraged it through trial and error.”

Given that the pottery at Qiaotou was found near the burials in a non-residential area, the researchers conclude that the pots of beer were likely used in ritualistic ceremonies relating to the burial of the dead. They speculate that ritualized drinking may have been integral to forging social relationships and cooperation, which served as a precursor to complex rice farming societies that emerged 4,000 years later.

Jiajing Wang is available for comment at: jiajing.wang@dartmouth.edu. Leping Jiang and Hanlong Sun at Zhejian Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in China, also served as co-authors of the study.
 

CAPTION

Map of Qiaotou.

CREDIT

Map courtesy of PLOS ONE.

 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE

Beyond dopamine: New reward circuitry discovered

In a paper published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers pushed the science forward on our reward pathways

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF MEDICINE/UW MEDICINE

The key to overcoming addictions and psychiatric disorders lives deep inside the netherworld of our brains and the circuitry that causes us to feel good.

Just like space, this region of the brain needs more exploration.

The oldest and most known reward pathway is the mesolimbic dopamine system, which is composed of neurons projecting from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens -- a key structure in mediating emotional and motivation processing,

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when the brain is expecting reward. A spike in dopamine could come be from eating pizza, dancing, shopping, and sex. But it can also come from drugs and lead to substance abuse.

In search of ways of treating addiction and psychiatric illness, researchers are looking for pathways beyond dopamine that could play a key role in rewards and reinforcement.

In a paper published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers from the Bruchas Lab at the University of Washington School of Medicine pushed the science forward on our reward pathways and found there is another pathway beyond dopamine. The Bruchas Lab is expanding knowledge of the inner workings of the brain and identifying treatments for psychiatric diseases.

“This study opens new avenues to understanding reward circuitry that might be altered in abuse of nicotine, opiates, or other drugs as well as neuropsychiatric diseases that affect reward processing including depression,” said corresponding author Dr. Michael Bruchas, professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine who runs the Bruchas Lab. The Bruchas Lab is expanding knowledge of the inner workings of the brain and identifying treatments for psychiatric diseases.

In this study, researchers found that approximately 30% of cells in the VTA are GABA neurons. VTA GABA neurons have increasingly been recognized as players in reward and aversion, as well as potential targets for the treatment of addiction, depression, and other stress-linked disorders. 

Neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from the external world, for sending motor commands to our muscles, and for transforming and relaying the electrical signals at every step in between.

“What we found are unique GABAergic cells that project broadly to the nucleus accumbens, but projections only to a specific portion contribute to reward reinforcement,” said co-lead author Raajaram Gowrishankar, a postdoctoral scholar working in the Bruchas Lab and the Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain and Emotion.

In both male and female mice, researchers showed that long-range GABA neurons from the VTA to the ventral, but not the dorsal, nucleus accumben shell are engaged in reward and reinforcement behavior. They showed that this GABAergic projection inhibit cholinergic interneurons -- key players in reward-related learning. 

As the researchers wrote: These findings “further our understanding of neuronal circuits that are directly implicated in neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and addiction.”

Co-lead author Ream Al-Hasani with the Center for Clinical Pharmacology and Washington University likened the findings to building with Legos and figuring out how one piece connects to another.

Each piece of the puzzle can take multiple years.

Gowrishankar said the findings are allowing scientists to understand subregions of the brain and to visualize how specific neuromodulators are released during reward processing.

In science terms, the researchers are able to highlight heterogeneity in the brain -- or differences in the brain.

“It’s really important that we don’t think of structures in the brain as monolithic,” said Gowrishankar. “There’s lots of little nuance in brain. How plastic it is. How it’s wired. This finding is showing one way how differences can play out.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Neuroscience

DOI

10.1038/s41593-021-00898-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Ventral tegmental area GABAergic inhibition of cholinergic interneurons in the ventral nucleus accumbens shell promotes reward reinforcement

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Aug-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare no competing interests.

When humans play in competition with a humanoid robot, they delay their decisions when the robot looks at them

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) investigated whether a humanoid robot’s gaze influences the way people reason in a social decision-making context. The study published in Science Robotics is supported by the European Research Council.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA - IIT

 

IMAGE: ILLUSTRATION OF A HUMAN AND A HUMANOID ROBOT ENGAGED IN A COMPETITIVE GAME, AS REPORTED IN BELKAID ET AL. “MUTUAL GAZE WITH A ROBOT AFFECTS HUMAN NEURAL ACTIVITY AND DELAYS DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES” (SCIENCE ROBOTICS). THE HUMAN IS PLAYING AGAINST THE ROBOT WHILE HER BRAIN ACTIVITY IS BEING MEASURED WITH ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM (EEG). view more 

CREDIT: IIT-ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA

Genova (Italy), September 1st, 2021 - Gaze is an extremely powerful and important signal during human-human communication and interaction, conveying intentions and informing about other’s decisions. What happens when a robot and a human interact looking at each other? Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) investigated whether a humanoid robot’s gaze influences the way people reason in a social decision-making context. What they found is that a mutual gaze with a robot affects human neural activity, influencing decision-making processes, in particular delaying  them. Thus, a robot gaze brings humans to perceive it as a social signal. These findings have strong implications for contexts where humanoids may find applications such as co-workers, clinical support or domestic assistants.

The study, published in Science Robotics today, has been conceived within the framework of a larger overarching project led by Agnieszka Wykowska, coordinator of IIT’s lab “Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction”, and funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The project, called “InStance”, addresses the question of when and under what conditions people treat robots as intentional beings. That is, whether, in order to explain and interpret robot’s behaviour, people refer to mental states such as beliefs or desires.

The research paper’s authors are Marwen Belkaid, Kyveli Kompatsiari, Davide de Tommaso, Ingrid Zablith, and Agnieszka Wykowska.

In most everyday life situations, the human brain needs to engage not only in making decisions, but also in anticipating and predicting the behaviour of others. In such contexts, gaze can be highly informative about others’ intentions, goals and upcoming decisions. Humans pay attention to the eyes of others, and the brain reacts very strongly when someone looks at them or directs gaze to a certain event or location in the environment. Researchers investigated this kind of interaction with a robot.

“Robots will be more and more present in our everyday life” comments Agnieszka Wykowska, Principal Investigator at IIT and senior author of the paper. “That is why it is important to understand not only the technological aspects of robot design, but also the human side of the human-robot interaction. Specifically, it is important to understand how the human brain processes behavioral signals conveyed by robots”.

Wykowska and her research group, asked a group of 40 participants to play a strategic game – the Chicken game - with the robot iCub while they measured the participants’ behaviour and neural activity, the latter by means of electroencephalography (EEG). The game is a strategic one, depicting a situation in which two drivers of simulated cars move towards each other on a collision course and the outcome depends on whether the players yield or keep going straight.

Researchers found that participants were slower to respond when iCub established mutual gaze during decision making, relative to averted gaze. The delayed responses may suggest that mutual gaze entailed a higher cognitive effort, for example by eliciting more reasoning about iCub’s choices or higher degree of suppression of the potentially distracting gaze stimulus, which was irrelevant to the task.

“Think of playing poker with a robot. If the robot looks at you during the moment you need to make a decision on the next move, you will have a more difficult time in making a decision, relative to a situation when the robot gazes away. Your brain will also need to employ effortful and costly processes to try to “ignore” that gaze of the robot” explains further Wykowska.

These results suggest that the robot’s gaze “hijacks” the “socio-cognitive” mechanisms of the human brain – making the brain respond to the robot as if it was a social agent. In this sense, “being social” for a robot could be not always beneficial for the humans, interfering with their performance and speed of decision making, even if their reciprocal interaction is enjoyable and engaging.

Wykowska and her research group hope that these findings would help roboticists design robots that exhibit the behaviour that is most appropriate for a specific context of application. Humanoids with social behaviours may be helpful in assisting in care elderly or childcare, as in the case of the iCub robot, being part of experimental therapy in the treatment of autism. On the other hand, when focus on the task is needed, as in factory settings or in air traffic control, presence of a robot with social signals might be distracting.

CAPTION

The research paper’s authors are Marwen Belkaid, Kyveli Kompatsiari, Davide de Tommaso, Ingrid Zablith, and Agnieszka Wykowska (team leader) from IIT’s lab “Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction”.

CREDIT

IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

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JOURNAL

Science Robotics

DOI

10.1126/scirobotics.abc5044 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Mutual gaze with a robot affects human neural activity and delays decision-making processes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021