Southwest Airlines pilots suit says carrier broke labor law, union contract

The pilots say in their complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, that Southwest changed working rules and pay rates without negotiating with the union. 

File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Pilots for Southwest Airlines are suing the carrier over working conditions that they say changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, violated their labor agreement and were implemented without their approval.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association filed the lawsuit against the airline earlier this week.

The pilots say in their complaint, filed in federal court in Dallas, that Southwest changed working rules and pay rates without negotiating with the union.

They specifically cited changes to an "emergency extended time off" policy that gave pilots the option to take leave without pay. The union said the airline didn't have the authority to withhold pay without negotiations.

The union also said Southwest began mandatory coronavirus quarantines for some pilots, without pay, from December to June under an Infectious Disease Control Policy.

The suit is seeking an injunction against the changes and a return to compliance with the union's collective bargaining agreement.

Southwest has denied the accusation that it violated federal labor laws and says the changes it made required no union involvement.

"Southwest Airlines, like the rest of the industry, has been forced to respond to the unpredictable challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic," Russell McCrady, Southwest vice president of labor relations, said, according to CNBC.

"The airline disagrees with SWAPA's claims that any COVID-related changes over the past few months required negotiation."

The lawsuit details the risk of exposure to COVID-19 pilots take while on the job, and that the airline wasn't receptive to solutions pilots proposed to save the company money.

RELATED Airlines, banks interrupted online after 2nd web outage in past week

In December, Southwest gave a furlough warning to almost 7,000 workers, including 1,200 pilots after a deal to cut wages by 10% stalled.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly subsequently announced that there would be no furloughs or pay cuts with the extension of the federal Payroll Support Program. It would have been the first time in Southwest's 50-year history that the airline had ever issued involuntary dismissals or cut salaries.

Record sturgeon catch on Fraser River ‘a lifetime moment’ for ex-NHL goalie and friends

Former NHL goalie Pete Peeters of Sturgeon County, Alta. (no less) and friends caught the 11 1/2-foot fish on Aug. 15

THIS IS OGOPOGO, FLAT HEAD LAKE MONSTER, CHAMPY, #CRYPTID #CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Author of the article: Patrick Johnston

Publishing date: Aug 30, 2021 • 

Jake Driedger (left) and Pete Peeters with the massive sturgeon they reeled in with the help of guide Kevin Estrada on the Fraser River near Chilliwack on Aug. 15 PHOTO BY KEVIN ESTRADA /Sturgeon Slayers

All week, Pete Peeters had been joking to his fishing guide that he had made people famous.

The former National Hockey League goalie won the Vezina Trophy as the circuit’s best goaltender in 1982-83 with the Boston Bruins, but prefers to make note of goals he gave up to Mario Lemieux or to Wayne Gretzky.

Lemieux scored his first NHL goal on Peeters, while Gretzky scored goals 46, 47, 48 and 49 in his 39th game of the 1981-82 season, when Peeters was a Philadelphia Flyer. The Great One scored goal No. 50 in the same game — setting a record that is likely never to be matched — but into an empty net.

“And then he said, ‘Now I’ve made you famous,'” Kevin Estrada explained with a laugh this week.

Estrada is a fishing guide — Sturgeon Slayers is his company — and earlier this month had Peeters and a group of friends out on the Fraser River, north of Chilliwack, when the group snagged something special: A sturgeon bigger than anything that’s been measured in modern history.

The fish’s fork-length was a B.C. record: 352 cm (or 11 feet, six inches). Its girth was 141 cm (55 inches) and was estimated to weigh 890 pounds. Other recent claims to similar sizes have been dismissed upon further review, Estrada said.

“I couldn’t fathom how big these fish were,” Peeters said from his home in Alberta. “Even when the fish came up, it was hard to believe.”

Kevin Estrada (blue shirt on the left), Jake Driedger (white shirt, front, second from left), former NHL goalie Pete Peeters (grey hat, front right) and brothers Bryant and Barry Bowtell (back row). The group snagged a sturgeon bigger than anything that’s been measured in modern history. PNG

The retired goalie lives in — if you can believe it — Sturgeon County, just north of Edmonton. A remarkable coincidence, though Peeters notes the area is better known for trout fishing.

Also on the boat were Jake Driedger, who traded off on the rod with Peeters to reel in the giant, as well as Barry and Bryant Bowtell. All four men are from Alberta.

“Canadians like them have kept our small business alive during COVID and we are very appreciative of all our resident Canadians who have helped us crawl through this,” Estrada said.

The measurements were confirmed by another guide, Steve Forde of Reel Sturgeon Adventures. And Estrada said he had been in touch with the Guinness Book of Records people as he believed it was a likely world record, too.

“Very rarely do you see something that is this big, over 11 feet,” Estrada told Postmedia. “Something this big could take well over 100 years to get to this size. It’s a lifetime moment. It’s hard to put into words.”

It took about 25 minutes for the group to reel in the sturgeon. Sturgeon bigger than 150 cm (just under five feet) don’t get lifted out of the water, but anglers are allowed to hold and pose with the fish in the water.

“It wasn’t slimy like the trout we have out here … it felt like a damp snake,” Peeters said.

Peeters’ group actually got a special bonus, Estrada said.

“We were actually in some clear water so we got to see the whole fish,” he said. “You don’t often get to see them in their full glory … it was magnificent to see.

“I had tears in my eyes. I’ve been fishing this river since I was 15 years old … We’ve had some spectacular fish, some very memorable fish over the years, but never anything this big.”

Credit conservation efforts over the past two decades for allowing this sturgeon to grow so big, Estrada said. The sturgeon fishery has been strictly catch and release since the early 2000s.

Alongside his business, Estrada has been a director for the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association, an advocate to government about sustainable fishing on the Fraser River and helping the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation with a project to tag and track the local sturgeon population, which has had local school children out on the water to help.

“We have to be more sustainable going into the future,” Estrada said.

Salmon fishing, especially net fishing, is a huge risk to the health of sturgeon.

“Those nets are targeting salmon, which are between 60 and 100 cm, and that is also where we also see a decline in the population of sturgeon, it’s between that size range,” he said. “As we get older we’re going to have a big population missing unless we change very quickly to more sustainable practices.”

SEE   https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FRESH+LAKE+MONSTER

#KASHMIR    IS  #INDIA'S  #GAZA

India locks down Kashmir after top separatist leader’s death

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN

1 of 15

A paramilitary soldiers stands guard in a closed market area in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. Syed Ali Geelani, a top separatist leader and one of the severest critics of Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, died late Wednesday. He was 92. Authorities announced a communication blockade and the restriction of public movement, a common tactic employed by Indian officials in anticipation of anti-India protests. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian authorities cracked down on public movement and imposed a near-total communications blackout Thursday in disputed Kashmir after the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi.

Geelani, who died late Wednesday at age 92, was buried in a quiet funeral at a local graveyard organized by authorities under harsh restrictions, his son Naseem Geelani told The Associated Press. He said the family had planned the burial at the main martyrs’ graveyard in Srinagar, the region’s main city, as per his will but were disallowed by police.

“They snatched his body and forcibly buried him. Nobody from the family was present for his burial. We tried to resist but they overpowered us and even scuffled with women,” said Naseem Geelani.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that officials buried Geelani’s body and disallowed any mass funeral in anticipation of anti-India protests.

As most Kashmiris remained locked inside their homes, armed police and soldiers patrolled the tense region. Government forces placed steel barricades and razor wire across many roads, bridges and intersections and set up additional checkpoints across towns and villages in the Kashmir Valley.

Authorities cut most of cellphone networks and mobile internet service in a common tactic employed by India in anticipation of mass protests.

Geelani spearheaded Kashmir’s movement for the right to self-determination and was an ideologue and staunch proponent of merging Kashmir with Pakistan. HE strongly opposed any dialogue with New Delhi, a position rejected outright by successive Indian governments who often dubbed him as a hardline politician.

Geelani was also the face of Kashmir’s civilian defiance against Indian rule. He led a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of various Kashmiri political and religious groups that was formed in 1993 to spearhead a movement for the region’s right to self-determination.

The group used civil disobedience in the form of shutdowns and protests as a tactic to counter Indian rule.

For many in Kashmir and beyond, Geelani was an enduring icon of defiance against India.

Farmer Mohammed Akbar said Geelani’s death filled him with remorse but also anger after he learned Geelani’s body was buried quietly by authorities who excluded Kashmiris and his extended family from participating in the last rites.

“They are looking at ways to humiliate us,” Akbar said as he held his grandson in his arms. “They are even scared of dead Geelani.”

Pakistan was observing a day of official mourning and flags flew at half staff on orders by Prime Minister Imran Khan, and its foreign ministry condemned the non-public burial by Indian authorities.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the barbaric act of snatching of the mortal remains of the iconic Kashmiri leader” by Indian police, the ministry said in a statement in Islamabad.

It said the Indian government was “so afraid of Syed Geelani and what he stood for that they have now resorted to this inhuman act even after his passing away. This shows the degree of callousness on part of the Occupation Forces.”

Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, which claim the region in full but rule only parts.

Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or become an independent country.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Kashmiri militants, a charge Pakistan denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Tensions were renewed in the region in 2019 after New Delhi stripped Kashmir’s semi-autonomy, scrapped its statehood and removed inherited protections on land and jobs. Authorities have since brought a slew of new laws, which many critics and Kashmiris likened to the beginning of settler colonialism.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

IT'S CALLED MATERIEL

A windfall for the Taliban as it seizes vast amounts of weapons and military equipment

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen 

As the Taliban settles into power in Afghanistan, it has seized an arsenal of military equipment that in some cases surpasses certain parts of the inventory of western militaries such as the Canadian Forces.

© Provided by Ottawa Citizen The Taliban have seized large amounts of Afghan military equipment such as this armoured vehicle shown operating outside Kabul in 2013.

Taliban fighters held a victory parade in Kandahar city on Wednesday, showing off dozens of U.S.-made armoured vehicles and other weapons that it captured during its lightning-speed victory over the Afghan army and police. A U.S.-made Black Hawk helicopter, trailing a Taliban flag, was also flown over the city to highlight the insurgents’ ability to operate more sophisticated equipment.

As the U.S. retreated from Afghanistan, it tried to disable at least some of the gear.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told journalists that 70 armoured vehicles, 27 Humvee trucks and 73 aircraft were disabled before troops left Kabul. “Those aircraft will never fly again,” he said. “They’ll never be able to be operated by anyone.”

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told CNN the only usable gear left at the airport included some fire trucks and fork lifts.

But there are dozens of other key bases around Afghanistan that are now in the hands of the Taliban and, with that, tons of military equipment.

The Afghan army operated more than 600 armoured vehicles, similar to the Canadian Forces Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicles. In contrast, the Canadian Forces has around 500 TAPVs.

The Afghan military also had more than 22,000 Humvees, 150 mine-proof vehicles, 8,000 transport trucks, 160 M113 armoured vehicles, more than 350,000 assault rifles, 64,000 assorted machine guns, 120,000 pistols and more than 170 artillery pieces, according to various reports. Also left behind were 33 transport helicopters, more than 30 Black Hawk choppers and another 40 light helicopters. In addition, there were around 65 assorted fixed-wing aircraft. The current state of the arsenal is not known.

How long that equipment will remain operable is open to question. The U.S. spent more than $500 million on 16 military transport aircraft for the Afghan military. But by 2013 the planes sat derelict in Kabul because of a lack of spare parts.

A Department of National Defence official said Wednesday only limited amounts of Canadian equipment was left in Afghanistan and that was years ago. That did not include weapons or large vehicles.

But Canada continued to fund Afghan security forces even after the military officially left in 2014, earmarking $330 million for that initiative.

 Canada’s former military installation, Camp Nathan Smith, in Kandahar city, was turned over to Afghan security forces but abandoned in late 2013. DAVID PUGLIESE/Postmedia

The Taliban are also now in control of large amounts of infrastructure built and paid for by western taxpayers. The Kandahar base, once home to thousands of Canadian military personnel, was captured intact.

Canada spent an estimated $50 million on the Dahla Dam project that the Canadian government declared a success. The dam still doesn’t function properly and needs hundreds of millions of dollars to be completed.

The Dahla Dam project was one of Canada’s more controversial aid programs in Afghanistan. Some $10 million of the budget went for security provided by an Afghan company whose owner was convicted of drug-related crimes and accused of being an interpreter for the Taliban.

When Canadian soldiers pulled out of Kandahar in 2011, they left Camp Nathan Smith — the former base for Canada’s provincial reconstruction team — to the Americans. A year later the U.S. turned it over to the Afghans. By the end of 2013 it was abandoned.

A similar pattern followed the withdrawal of Russian troops from Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviets had embarked on a much more ambitious aid program than the U.S. and NATO, building thousands of kilometres of roads, tunnels, bridges, schools, apartment buildings and military bases.

But, with the Taliban in charge, much of the infrastructure fell into disrepair.

One of the bridges is still intact, however. In February 1989, the Soviet army used the “Friendship Bridge” linking Afghanistan to Uzbekistan to complete its retreat from Afghanistan. Last week, troops from the NATO-trained Afghan national army used the same bridge to escape from the Taliban.

JUST IN TIME PRODUCTION

Philips to start replacing millions of respiratory devices

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch health technology company Philips on Wednesday said it would start repairing and replacing millions of respiratory devices in the United States and most of its other markets this month, to address potential health risks caused by the machines

 Reuters/EVA PLEVIER FILE PHOTO: Dutch health technology company Philips presents the company's financial results for the fourth quarter in Amsterdam

The company in June recalled up to four million of its respiratory devices and ventilators, as it said a foam part might degrade and become toxic, potentially causing cancer.

Philips said it had received authorisation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the rework of the affected DreamStation device, allowing it to replace the sound abatement foam with a new material.

More than half of the affected machines have been sold in the U.S. and the full replacement effort will take about a year, Philips said.

Philips shares have lost about 15% of their value since the recall, as investors fear the possible costs of a number of class action lawsuits that have been launched over the affair.

Philips has set aside 500 million euros ($590 million) in provisions for the recall operation in the first half of 2021.

($1 = 0.8478 euros)

Indonesia seizes tanker believed to carry illicit waste oil

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's navy has seized a massive tanker believed to be loaded with thousands of tons of wasted black oil and has brought the ship to shore for further investigation, officials said Thursday.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The Panamanian-flagged MT Zodiac Star was located Wednesday after the navy received an intelligence tip about a suspicious tanker near Tolop island and escorted it about 22 kilometers (13 miles) to a naval base in Batam on the Indonesian archipelago’s southwestern tip near Singapore, said Rear Admiral Arsyad Abdullah, the country’s western fleet commander.

The 3,224-ton tanker, with its crew of 18 Indonesians and a Malaysian, was suspected of conducting illicit practices after it was caught with about 4,600 tons of waste oil without port clearance and other proper legal documents, Abdullah said in a statement.

He said investigators are still consulting with experts and questioning the tanker's captain, crew members and witnesses before the findings are handed over to the prosecutor’s office. The charges that could be brought carry up to 5 years in prison and fine of 600 million rupiahs ($42,000), Abdullah said.

In late July, the Indonesian navy seized the Bahamas-flagged oil tanker MT Strovolos and arrested its captain and 18 crew after Cambodia accused the ship of stealing nearly 300,000 barrels of crude oil.

An Iranian-flagged tanker and a Panamanian-flagged tanker were seized in January on suspicion of illegally transferring oil in Indonesian waters. They were released after a four-month detention and paid 2 billion rupiah (nearly $140,000) for spilling oil into the sea, according to a verdict from a court on Batam island.

The Associated Press

U.S. blocking Chinese acquisitions of global tech firms a "red flag" - Chinese state-backed tabloid


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese state-backed tabloid the Global Times called U.S. efforts to block cross-border acquisitions of tech companies a "red flag" that impedes China's tech sector and disrupts the growth of the global tech sector.

© Reuters/JASON LEE FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags are set up for a meeting at China's Ministry of Transport in Beijing

The outlet, which is published by the People's Daily, China's official newspaper for the ruling Communist Party, argued a recent attempt to block a Chinese purchase of a Korean chip company "represents a dangerous precedent for the industry as a whole."

"If the US succeeds in blocking the deal this time, it could set a very bad precedent for global high-tech mergers and acquisitions, further consolidating the industrial concentration in the US," the op-ed read.

In March, China-based private equity group Wise Road Capital announced it would purchase Korea's Magnachip Semiconductor Corp for $1.4 billion.

On Monday, Magnachip said in an SEC filing that the U.S. Department of Treasury, in a letter to the company's legal counsel last Friday, said the acquisition posed "risks to the national security of the United States."

The chip sector has become a hotbed for tensions between the U.S. and China.

Both countries are pouring billions of into their domestic industries, with the recognition that semiconductors are critical to national security and economic development.

Cross-border acquisitions, which require approval from regulatory bodies, have at times fallen apart because of government objections.

In 2018, Qualcomm Inc's planned $44 billion acquisition of Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV failed after China's anti-monopoly regulator signaled it would not approve the deal.

That same year, Singapore's Broadcom Inc withdrew its $117 billion bid to acquire Qualcomm after Washington's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) said the purchase could endanger the U.S' national security by aiding China.

(Reporting by Josh Horwitz. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Experts say Apple is 'on very dangerous grounds' for blocking employees from talking about wages on Slack while allowing topics like dogs and foosball

insider@insider.com (Katie Canales) 

© Provided by Business Insider Apple CEO Tim Cook. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Apple shut down a Slack channel that employees created to talk about their pay at the company.

It did so despite allowing channels like #fun-dogs slip past its rule against non-work-related topics.

Experts say Apple "shot itself in the foot" if it enforced its policy inconsistently.

Apple banned a Slack channel that employees created to discuss their compensation at the company, and experts told Insider the company is on "very dangerous grounds" for doing so.

Apple shut down the channel because, while the topic was aligned with its "commitment to pay equity," it violated the company's Slack Terms of Service, The Verge's Zoë Schiffer reported.

Apple also said "Slack channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) aren't permitted and shouldn't be created." But the outlet reported that Apple appears to not enforce that policy consistently since Slack channels exist at Apple devoted to non-work topics like dogs, gaming, dad jokes, and foosball.

While the experts we spoke to agree it's difficult to say if this was strictly legal or illegal, they agreed that if Apple is not applying the rules equally within Slack, the company could be in hot water if employees were to file a lawsuit against it.

"A company can have a policy that says personal use of email or the Slack channel or any other technology is prohibited," Anne Clark, a partner at the law firm Vladeck, Raskin and Clark, told Insider. But "if it only raises an issue when somebody is talking about pay or any other conditions of work or discrimination, then the company is violating the law."

Yes to 'happy, fluffy' topics, no to working conditions?

© Sean Gallup/Getty Images Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The National Labor Relations Act protects employees so they can talk about wages and conditions, Dan Bowling - a labor lawyer and a professor at Duke University School of Law - told Insider, and it's unlawful for the company to block that.

"If two or more employees are talking about workplace conditions, then they're protected by the NLRA," Clark said.

But it's not that black-and-white in this scenario, experts say.

That's because Apple does have certain rights to block employer equipment and software - in this case, Slack - from being used to discuss non-work-related topics, Bowling said. The company also has the right to prohibit employees from using company systems to talk during work hours about things not related to the job.

"If they allow other topics but don't allow union or wages topics, that in and of itself is going to put Apple in a very bad position," Bowling said, adding, the company "shot itself in the foot here."

Clark similarly said Apple can't say employees "can talk about happy, fluffy things but not anything about the workplace."

Paul Holtzman, a labor and employment attorney at Krokidas and Bluestein, likened it to employee organizing rights before the dawn of the internet, when employers would prohibit materials from being distributed via mailboxes or in-person at a school or company.

If companies had blanket policies saying that company mailboxes can only be used for business but cracked down on organizing paperwork and not girl scout cookie promotions or soccer league notices, then they would field pushback over "targeting or treating union organizing materials differently than you are other non-work-related materials."

Experts agreed that the challenge that Apple would face in a lawsuit would be that they weren't consistent. Bowling even said that employees "could probably win an unfair labor practice case down the road against Apple."

"I think they're on very dangerous grounds in terms of the liability under the NLRA or state law or the discrimination statutes," Clark said.

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