SEND EXCESS VACCINES TO POOR COUNTRIES
COVID-19 booster shots likely not needed for most Canadians, experts say

Brooke Taylor

CTVNews.ca Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2021

TORONTO -- While some countries are already committed to providing COVID-19 booster shots to their populations, Canada has not yet released a third dose plan and some experts say it’s still too early to tell if a booster is necessary for the general population.

In August, Israel began providing booster shots to all those who had been vaccinated, and just days ago, Israel’s COVID-19 chief said it was time to start preparing to roll out fourth doses, but whether or not booster shots are needed lacks evidence.

 In Canada, Quebec is offering booster shots for the immunocompromised and for travellers whose mixed dosing isn’t recognized in other countries. Alberta and Ontario are also rolling out third shots for eligible immunocompromised populations.

“The answer is: we don't know for sure yet,” Rodney Russell, professor of immunology and virology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.

What virologists and immunologists do know is that older and at-risk populations tend to have a worse response to vaccines, and not just COVID-19 vaccines, he added.

“Anybody who's over 80, anybody who falls in that frail category, they generally don't respond well to vaccines, even before COVID,” he added. “We've known for years that older people don't respond well to vaccines.”

Right now, there’s not a lot of evidence on booster shots to know for sure who will need them and when.

“The evidence for booster shots for vulnerable or at-risk populations in Canada is still coming in,” Charlene Chu, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in an email.

There’s also a general lack of evidence on the impacts a third dose will have among the general population, she added, so it’s still unclear what effect a third dose might have on a younger, healthier person.

With other countries moving ahead with their booster programs, Canada may soon have the evidence it needs to determine who might need a booster shot, but the experts agree that it will most likely only be people with poor immune responses who will be able to get a third dose.

“In time, evidence from other parts of the world, like Israel where everyone over 30 is able to get a third booster, may help us understand the effects of a third booster for the general population,” said Chu.

Deciding whether a third dose is potentially beneficial for the general population is more complicated than looking at breakthrough cases and antibodies.

HOW ANTIBODIES AND VARIANTS FACTOR IN

“What level of antibodies you need isn't known, we still haven't established one and even the latest conversations I've had with vaccine researchers across Canada, we don't know what the cutoff is,” said Russell.

To complicate that further, the level of antibodies detectable in the bloodstream will likely differ between age groups, as well as among those who have auto-immune disorders or have received cancer treatment, he added.

And antibody levels are supposed to go down after a vaccine or infection, Russell said, explaining that T cells and B cells are key.

“It's B cells and T cells that can make more antibodies and T cells that can help make antibodies and fight the virus infection,” he said.

Even the variants of COVID-19 that have had antibody-evading mutations haven’t taken off quite the way he expected, they’ve been outdone by the Delta variant which doesn’t have the antibody-evading mutation.

It would take a lot of mutations for the current COVID-19 vaccines to provide no protection, said Russell, since the vaccine has given our bodies a map of the virus’ spike protein.

“That protein probably has 20 spots on it that the immune system sees,” he said. “It would need to change all 20 spots for the immune system to not see it, and by that time the spike protein wouldn’t be itself anymore, it wouldn’t look the same, it probably wouldn’t even work that well.”

Scientific understanding of the vaccines’ abilities to prevent infection is better now, giving a more realistic efficacy to work with. They protect about 60 to 70 per cent from actual infection, but more than 90 per cent avoid severe illness and hospitalization, added Russell.

“The goal now, because these vaccines don't keep everyone from getting infected, the goal is really to give people some immunity to help them fight it when they get it,” he said. “We've got to stop talking about protection from infection now because these vaccines don't keep everyone from getting infected and the variants are making sure of that.”

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS SO FAR

For Chu, it’s important to keep in mind the evidence we do have on the vaccine doses.

“The evidence shows that the double dose of COVID-19 vaccination remains very effective against hospitalizations. It’s unclear how effective a third shot will be for the broader general population,” said Chu.

There is some evidence, she added, that the elderly populations living in long-term care could benefit from a third dose, but it’s important to keep in mind that these populations are at much higher risk of COVID-19 than an elderly person not living in a congregate setting.

“For LTC home residents and those who are immunocompromised, I think it will be helpful for these populations. Especially if LTC homes continue without mandatory vaccination mandates,” she said.

Some evidence suggests a fading immune response in these populations, but Chu said there needs to be careful interpretation of the results.

“With respect to the evidence, there have been a couple of studies about older adults living in LTC and waning vaccination effects. We have to be cautious extrapolating findings in this group of older adults to the general population because people in long-term care are very immunologically vulnerable and they living in a congregate setting which also has risk,” she said.

Any third-dose plan Canada comes up with needs to be able to address the different needs of various populations.

“The approach to managing this population, and other similar immunocompromised populations, should be different than the general population,” said Chu.

While Canada and other wealthy countries mull over their plans for booster shots, The World Health Organization (WHO) warned against administering boosters until much more of the world’s population had received even one. 

 

“The majority of the world, especially low and middle-income countries, do not have access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Chu. “More than four billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, with 80 per cent going to middle- or high-income countries, according to the WHO. New variants will continue to emerge from these parts of the world if we do not address this inequity.”

 

Hospital protests pushing already exhausted staff to the brink, says Vancouver doctor

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Health-care workers once greeted by pot-banging supporters now face angry demonstrations

CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 08, 2021 5:59 PM ET | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

Thousands of protesters blocked traffic outside Vancouver General Hospital and Vancouver City Hall on Sept. 1. (Eva Uguen-Csenge/CBC)

In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Daniel Kalla says people would gather outside hospitals to bang pots and pans and cheer for the heroic health-care workers on the front lines.

These days, he says the folks who greet him outside his workplace bring a different kind of energy.

Kalla is the director of emergency medicine at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, one of several hospitals in the country that have drawn protests against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine passports. 

Thousands of people gathered in front of hospitals in B.C. last Wednesday, with reports of assaults, verbal altercations and protesters blocking patients' access. Further protests are planned this week. 

Here is part of Kalla's conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

What is the mood like in your emergency room these days as these protests gather and continue?

There's a few emotions that are prevailing. One is just kind of weariness, like everybody from COVID, but particularly health-care workers. We're just so tired of it.

But the protests really added a new dimension. There's a real indignation and frustration to see protesters standing out front and blocking access to patients to one of our major hospitals in the city. It was just so disheartening.

There was a paramedic who said she was close to quitting her job after witnessing these protests. How has it been for you personally?

I don't think I've reached that level, but it certainly made me question. A year ago, they were cheering us with pots and pans every night. And we were dealing with a pandemic where here was nothing you could do except social distancing and mask wearing and such. And now we have an obvious preventative measure.

As the cliché goes, we're dealing with the pandemic of the unvaccinated. And to see people come in with self-induced illness, that most of us think could be prevented for the most part, is so frustrating at this point. It makes no sense to defy science and public health and all the experts because of untruths and misinformation on social media and elsewhere.

Dr. Daniel Kalla is the head of emergency medicine at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, and an author of fictional medical thrillers. (Submitted by Daniel Kalla)

In British Columbia, there was reported 2,425 new cases of COVID over the four-day Labour Day weekend period. And so the people who are coming to the emergency, people coming to the hospital with COVID … how does that conversation go [when] they're coming [and] they've not been vaccinated?

First of all, we should be clear that some of the people coming are vaccinated and they have breakthrough infections. But almost exclusively, the ones who are very sick or ending up in our [intensive care units] are the unvaccinated.

The conversations with the unvaccinated is difficult. I mean, it's a little too late. Vaccines don't help you by the time you've developed COVID pneumonia. And so it's almost like beating a dead horse at that point.

I've seen a couple of very repentant people already, and it's just so sad.… We see it with our own eyes. These people are terrified.

The statistics show in B.C. right now you're 35 times as likely to end up hospitalized if you're unvaccinated. That's an incredible number. And so we don't tend to lecture to the ones who are already sick. But .... everybody who comes in is screened for a vaccination status. So if they're coming in with a sprained ankle or abdominal pain or something that's not related to COVID, we try to convince them. We try to have that conversation and tell them of the statistics, tell them of our own experience.

I think I've seen one or two where I have converted [them], and we've been giving out some COVID vaccines in the emergency department. And that's very heartening.

Demonstrators take part in a protest along the road leading to Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus on Sept. 1. (Jonathan Dupaul/CBC)

Some of the conversations that I've heard in the United States with health-care practitioners [say that] when the unvaccinated come in and they're very sick, so many of them are still quite defiant. They're still saying that they won't take the vaccine, that even as these people recover, they still are insistent that it's wrong to be forced to take a vaccine. So you get that response as well?

I tend to see them at the front end, as they're coming in with their acute illness. So I don't have the conversation in the convalescence or recovery stage.

My experience has been, so far, regret.… I haven't seen a lot of that defiance.

As you know, anti-vaxx or vaccine hesitancy, it runs the spectrum from people who are just nervous and have genuine questions, to those who are fanatical in a kind of a fundamental, I would call it, misbelief. But there's no logic or science or anything. This is an absolute belief system that they have that's faulty.

I walked out onto Burrard Street in front of my hospital and there was an anti-mask protest going by, and one of the protesters saw me in my scrubs and turned and screamed at me, 'COVID is a hoax.'- Dr. Daniel Kalla, St. Paul's Hospital 

And those are the people, for the most part, we see out in the streets who are hurling all kinds of insults. In some places ... [there have been] death threats from the protesters, insisting that they're having their rights stolen, comparing their situation to being in Nazi Germany, these sort of things. You distinguish between vaccine hesitancy, those people who are just nervous for whatever reason, and what we're seeing in these demonstrations.

Absolutely. Most of those people in my eyes are purely fanatical. And I had my own brush with it last summer when I the first person I intubated and put on a ventilator for COVID was a terrified patient in his 60s whose wife couldn't join him because of the risk of COVID, and he was alone, and it was a very draining, traumatic experience for the patient and for the staff, quite frankly.

And I walked out onto Burrard Street in front of my hospital and there was an anti-mask protest going by, and one of the protesters saw me in my scrubs and turned and screamed at me, "COVID is a hoax." And after what I had just experienced in the emergency department, that was one of my low points before the protests last week.

• Toronto restaurateur says anti-vaccine protesters are harassing her patrons and staff 

• Q&A
  'This is not normal,' Edmonton doctor says as hospitals fill up with unvaccinated patients

You're also a fiction writer, in addition to being a doctor. And you wrote a thriller before this pandemic hit called Lost Immunity that actually explores many things, but including vaccine hesitancy. So what were you thinking when you wrote that novel?

As a thriller writer who writes sort of medical and science thrillers, I'm always looking for that next hot-button issue. And it's so funny, a couple summers before, my publishers and I were discussing what is a hot, controversial topic, and I said, "There's no more controversial topic than vaccines." And back then I was thinking about the ... people who are anti-vaxx about measles vaccines. And we were starting to see measles come back, and it seemed like such a rife, dramatic subject to tackle.

I finished the first draft on the day I heard about this new virus in Wuhan, China, that turned out to be COVID. And everything that I discussed, all the issues in the novel, became 1,000 times more relevant.

Does it turn out that maybe reality is a bit stranger than fiction?

And very similar to fiction. All the backlash that I sort of predicted in the book sort of came to pass.

Unfortunately, behaviours are predictable and we tend to repeat our mistakes in history, and especially when tribalism and sort of groupthink takes over. 

That's what I tried to establish in the book, and I can't believe how much we're seeing. It's been very discouraging.

---

Written by Sheena Goodyear with files from CBC News. Interview produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. 

KENNEY'S KREW MIA

All elective surgeries in Calgary postponed due to spiking COVID-19 admissions

Hospitalizations jumped significantly in the past 24 hours, going from 602 to 647, while those in ICU increased from 137 to 147

Author of the article: Bill Kaufmann
Publishing date:Sep 08, 2021 • 

The Rockyview hospital as hospitals are seeing an increase in COVID patients in Calgary on Wednesday, September 8, 2021. 

PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA

All scheduled elective surgeries in the Calgary area are being postponed for the rest of the week due to pressures from rising COVID-19 cases, Alberta Health Services said Wednesday.

Some outpatient procedures are also being postponed on a day when the deaths of 18 more Albertans from COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours, the largest single-day toll since Jan. 19, when 24 people died.


“We do not make these decisions lightly, & acknowledge that postponing surgeries has a deep impact on those patients, their families, & their loved ones,” AHS said in a tweet late Wednesday afternoon.

“Decisions related to other future surgery postponements across the coming weeks will be made based on the evolving situation.

“Only those patients who are impacted will be contacted and their procedures will be rescheduled as soon as possible. AHS will continue with all urgent and emergent procedures, as well as prioritized cancer surgeries.”




Hospitalizations also jumped significantly in the past 24 hours, going from 602 to 647, while those in ICU increased from 137 to 147 — a situation the AHS called “serious.”

Last Friday, AHS said 30 per cent of non-emergency surgeries were being postponed in the Calgary and South zones because of the virus pressure, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.

In a tweet Wednesday, Sherwood Park resident Eric Mulder posted what he said was a diagnostic image of a large tumour on his brain.

“My surgery was originally scheduled for today, but I received a call yesterday afternoon that the surgery has been cancelled indefinitely,” stated Mulder, who implored readers to raise the issue with government officials.

On Wednesday, a group of Alberta physicians sounded the alarm about a health-care system in crisis, with resources and staff stretched to the limit.

At the current rate, medical practitioners could be headed to triaging patients or deciding who should receive critical care, said Dr. Paul Parks.

“We hope we never get to critical triage but with increasing numbers and difficulties with capacity, we will be as a system forced to make those very difficult triage decisions,” said Parks, who was speaking on the Protect our Province panel.

There have already been difficult choices made on the distribution to patients of certain oxygen supplies in smaller centres, while shortages of some COVID-19 medicines have cropped up, he said.

Edmonton ICU physician Dr. Darren Markland had more encouraging words, saying those critical-care resources are being made available.

But he also sounded a warning.

“We are getting beds, I can assure you — we have added capacity,” he said.

“Our biggest challenge is human resources . . . we will continue to push forward and do these things but this is not a resource we can expand exponentially. Eventually it will bite you.”

The physicians said crowded ICUs have a cascading effect on other non-virus-related patients by pulling resources from them, even in emergency rooms.

On Wednesday, AHS said there are 95 ICU beds operating in the Calgary zone compared to the usual 66.

An infectious-disease clinician said the provincial government has dropped the ball in heading off the current crisis in acute care by not adopting vaccine passports or wider masking mandates

 

 

“After weeks and weeks of soaring cases and deafening silence from our leaders, the situation has come to a boiling point,” said Dr. Ilan Schwartz.

He said other provinces that imposed vaccine passports have seen a quick increase of up to 200 per cent in immunizations, while Alberta’s offer of $100 gift cards to encourage shots has seen a less than 20 per cent difference.

“It’s really a paltry increase,” said Schwartz, adding some of that total was likely due to municipal vaccine mandates.

Last week’s announcement of a provincewide mask mandate, he said, dangerously exempted schools and places of worship, while he mocked a rule shutting down alcohol service at 10 p.m.

“It’s really magical or delusional thinking — COVID is not a vampire, 

it does not only come out at nighttime after 10 p.m.,” said Schwartz.

The limited measures announced last week will only delay meaningful action by another two weeks, he said.

AHS also said it’s adding some additional field hospital space in Calgary and Edmonton in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 onslaught.

“Calgary zone is opening five beds in the Pandemic Response Unit located at South Health Campus to be used for day medicine patients, not patients with COVID-19,” AHS said in an email.

Alberta reported 1,166 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 11 per cent. The number of active cases now exceeds 15,000 as of the Labour Day long weekend, with many of the most recent case figures and hospitalization numbers the highest since May during the pandemic’s third wave.

AHS said 89 per cent of patients admitted to ICU are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

The NDP’s health-care critic chided the UCP government for lifting COVID-19 restrictions in the summer, calling it a political miscalculation they’re now running from.

“Stop hiding. Look at what is happening in our hospitals and communities,” said David Shepherd.

“It’s time to step up and show leadership. Implement the same measures that we see are working in other jurisdictions, including vaccine passports.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

BRAID GOES LEFT 

Braid: Accusing Kenney of COVID-19 'malpractice,' Notley demands independent panel
BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE
'What shocked me is that the whole government went dark . . . in other provinces, they were taking action despite having a fraction of our problem,' said Notley

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Sep 08, 2021 •

NDP leader Rachel Notley shows off her plan for a vaccine passport at a press conference in Calgary, Alberta. 

SUPPLIED PHOTO PHOTO BY DAVE DEGAGNE & BRAD GIBBONS

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says we’re at a COVID-19 danger point where the public might lose all trust in government.

“I am very worried about public trust in general, and not just among the more vocal ones on the fringes but amongst the population as a whole,” she said in an interview.

I think that’s understating the loss of trust in UCP performance on COVID-19. A lot of it is gone already.

The silent summer suggested that for several weeks the people in charge didn’t have a clue about the rising surge of the virus.

“We began to see this fourth wave coming down the track like a train that had lost its brakes — and not a word from anybody in a leadership position,” Notley said.

“Sure, (Premier) Jason Kenney took a holiday. I have nothing bad to say about that.

“But what shocked me is that the whole government went dark . . . in other provinces, they were taking action despite having a fraction of our problem.

Notley believes this performance — “governance malpractice,” she calls it — severely damaged trust that was already shaky. And that threatens compliance with new measures and policies.

She proposes an “independent COVID-19 science advisory table” — a lofty name for a very good idea that has been used in Ontario for months.

It’s a group of independent experts who “evaluate and report on emerging evidence relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, to inform Ontario’s response.”

Crucially, the information is also made public. The citizens hear what the government hears.

In Alberta, all the information we get comes from the government. We’ve seen very little on modelling, and it’s often shaky.

And we never see the options for dealing with COVID that chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw presents to the government caucus committee. Only the decisions are public.

The NDP has repeatedly asked for the full list of failed recommendations, but the government refuses.

Hinshaw has independent powers under law, but she’s also an employee of the health department. Her view of the job is that she’s obliged only to advise government, which makes all the final calls.

Hinshaw’s calm, reassuring support for the final decisions saw the government through some tough spots. But now, the fading trust is sticking to her as well.

Notley notes that in other provinces, when the chief medical officer of health is away or otherwise busy, deputy medical officers often speak publicly.

That hasn’t happened in Alberta. Hinshaw fell as silent as the politicians in a crucial period.

Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is seen during a press conference about back-to-school guidance and the postponement of the relaxation of COVID-19 regulations for six weeks at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. 

PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia

Alberta’s COVID-19 response now seems hopelessly entangled with politics, driven by Kenney’s need to stay onside with a fractious caucus.

A truly independent science table, like Ontario’s, would help decouple information and recommendations from politics.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t follow his panel’s advice a couple of times, but he had to say why and take the heat.

Kenney, by extreme contrast, has never had to explain why a proposal is refused.

It’s unlikely that any other province has such a secretive COVID response team. Or a team that went so far off the rails during a silent summer.

Notley also thinks a government vaccine passport is essential, not just to contain the virus but to encourage immunization and reboot the economy. Polls show that most Albertans agree by a wide margin.

Under current rules, people still feel worried in bars or restaurants, Notley says, because those at the next table might be unvaccinated.

“The passport eliminates that chilling effect,” she adds.

“It’s also the only proven method that will increase the uptake in vaccine. With the passport, these businesses could pull themselves up again.”

Notley and her crew issued many warnings about the looming dangers over the summer. Despite being accused of alarmism, they were generally right.

And here we are in full-blown crisis, with 18 deaths Tuesday, 50 so far in September, and surgeries cancelled everywhere.

When a government falls completely silent during a time when genuine vigilance is essential, somebody else will do the talking.

It will hurt. It should hurt.

Calgary to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation when province won't

'It’s an opportunity for us to understand, grow and to build bridges with Indigenous people'

Author of the article:Brittany Gervais
Publishing date:Sep 08, 2021 •

Members of the Bear Clan sing and drum at the Calgary City Hall memorial for children who did not return home from residential schools on Thursday August 26, 2021. The City is looking at creating a permanent memorial site. 

PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

The City of Calgary is marking Sept. 30 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by making it a permanent statutory holiday for all city employees, despite the province’s refusal to do the same.

The federal government recently passed legislation to make Sept. 30 a federal stat holiday, giving Canadians an opportunity to recognize the brutal hardships endured by Indigenous people in the residential school system and honour Indigenous legacies.

The decision in Calgary was made after the city held conversations with community members and the city’s Indigenous Relations Office, according to a news release.

“We believe this decision is consistent with the spirit of reconciliation and aligns with actions outlined in our White Goose Flying Report,” said city manager David Duckworth.

“This National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is incredibly important to reflect on a relevant issue in our society . . . It’s an opportunity for us to understand, grow and to build bridges with Indigenous people.”

The 2016 White Goose Flying Report is named after Jack White Goose Flying, a 17-year-old from the Piikani Nation who died at a Calgary residential school.

The report looked at the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and how those could be addressed by the City of Calgary.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

First Nations furious over province's refusal to declare holiday recognizing residential school tragedies

Indigenous people in Calgary on the need for truth as city moves on long-term memorial plans

In the news release, Duckworth said the city will encourage staff to take the day to learn more about Canada’s assimilation policies, including residential schools, and the resulting intergenerational trauma caused to Indigenous people.

Recognizing Sept. 30 as a time to reflect and learn about Indigenous issues aligns with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for all levels of government to provide education to public servants on the history of Indigenous peoples.

This includes “the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.”

City operations and services will be on a reduced schedule to recognize the day. A list of events to commemorate the holiday will be made available on the city’s website closer to Sept. 30, according to the city.

Province refuses to recognize holiday

Meanwhile, the province faces criticism for refusing to recognize the national holiday.

In the legislation, the federal government left it up to provinces and territories to decide whether to recognize the date as a holiday. The UCP government elected to leave it to employers in provincially regulated industries to decide whether to give their staff that day off work.

Canada’s residential school system tore more than 150,000 Indigenous children away from their families and subjected them to physical, mental and sexual abuse, poor living conditions and cultural genocide for decades. In the past year, more than a thousand unmarked graves of children have been uncovered at former school sites.

With 25 locations, Alberta had the highest number of residential schools of any province in Canada. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1996.

Adrienne South, press secretary for the ministry of Indigenous Relations, previously told Postmedia the government encourages all Albertans to reflect on the legacy of residential schools, but called the decision to make the day a holiday the responsibility of individual employers.

She said the province on that day will also lower flags to half-mast “to honour lives lost at residential schools, and commemoration ceremonies will take place.”

The Assembly of First Nations Alberta Association has accused the UCP government of giving short shrift to reconciliation by not declaring a statutory holiday.

In a statement, regional Chief Marlene Poitras said the province’s refusal “flies in the face of reconciliation with First Nations and shows a disdain and lack of care or respect for Alberta’s Indigenous population.”

Institutions in Calgary recognizing the national holiday include the Calgary Catholic School District, the Calgary Board of Education and the University of Calgary.

— With files from Bill Kaufmann

JUST LIKE ALBERTA

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will not be provincial holiday in Ontario

By Ryan Rocca Global News
Posted September 8, 2021 

A trio of B.C. First Nations and the Archdiocese of Vancouver are launching an investigation into the former St. Paul's residential school site. Aug 10, 2021


The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will not be considered a provincial statutory holiday this year, an Ontario government spokesperson says.

Curtis Lindsay, press secretary for Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford, confirmed the decision in an email to Global News.

“Ontario is working in collaboration with Indigenous partners, survivors and affected families to ensure the respectful commemoration of this day within the province, similar to Remembrance Day,” Lindsay said.

READ MORE: New Brunswick won’t have Truth and Reconciliation holiday on Sept. 30: premier

“While the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is not a provincial public holiday this year, employers and employees may agree to treat this day as such, and some may be required to do so if it has been negotiated into collective agreements or employment contracts.”

The House of Commons unanimously supported legislation in June giving the Sept. 30 statutory holiday to all federal employees and workers in federally regulated workplaces.

It is meant to serve as a day of reflection so that people can recognize the harmful legacy of the residential school system in Canada.

Some provinces and territories, including British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories are observing the federal holiday, while many others are not making it a stat.

— with files from The Canadian Press

 OPINION

‘Radicalisation’ and the assumption of Muslim manipulability

• 
  Patrick Gathara

  Communications consultant, writer, and award-winning political cartoonist based in Nairobi.

7 Sep 2021

[Patrick Gathara/Al Jazeera]

In an insightful piece for Harper’s Magazine, Joseph Bernstein, a senior reporter at BuzzFeed News, questions the idea that disinformation spread on social media platforms in the last five years, rather than long-term societal conditions, is responsible for the crisis of faith in democratic institutions that has swept the West in the age of Brexit and Donald Trump. For example, he argues that “the mosaic of experiences that form the American attitude towards the expertise of public-health authorities” is a better explanation for vaccine and mask hesitancy, than the hypnotic power of Facebook. “Why have we been so eager to accept Silicon Valley’s story about how easy we are to manipulate?” he asks.

Bernstein traces the presumed power of social media companies to dubious mid-century academic studies, citing sociologist Jacques Ellul who in the 60s wrote that such studies tended to “regard the buyer as victim and prey”. However, conspicuously missing, especially as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, is the tale of how this view has been supercharged by America’s 20-year Global War on Terror. In a very real sense, this is chickens coming home to roost.

The idea of “radicalisation”, “counter-radicalisation” and “de-radicalisation” is built on a similar assumption of the manipulability of Muslim societies and people. Rather than consider that there could be specific grievances underlying the resort of a minority to terrorist violence, the US and the West preferred to blame it on “radical” preachers spreading anti-Western propaganda – the Facebook of the Middle East, one might say.

Faced with a rejection of the image of Western benevolence and, at worst, honest though tragic innocence, broadcast by mainstream media, governments and academics in Europe and North America found comfort in portraying Muslim populations as simple-minded and easily entrapped by the spells cast by angry, bearded clerics in flowing robes. This is the same view Bernstein is seeing being reproduced in the West itself to understand their own non-compliant populations, a minority of whom also pose serious terrorism threats.

Governments with an authoritarian bent in the non-Western world have also latched onto the idea of “radicalisation” to obscure the real grievances of their subjects over their policies. The Kenyan authorities, for example, who for the last six decades have continued the colonial policies of marginalising and oppressing the country’s Muslim and especially ethnic Somali population, paid little more than lip service to this history – which has been extensively documented by a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission which collected more than 40,000 witness statements – when confronted with discontent and terrorist attacks committed by local actors. Even though 90 percent of such attacks occurred after the invasion of neighbouring Somalia in October 2011, there was little acknowledgment that may have something to do with it. Instead, the history was flipped on its head and the invasion justified on the basis of what it inspired. Further, the government, with the media in tow, took its cue from the US and blamed “radical” preachers for the violence, even targeting some for extrajudicial execution.

This is not to say that radical preachers extolling violence have no effect – they clearly can influence a small minority of their followers to do terrible things. However, similar to disinformation on social media platforms in the West and elsewhere, their impact has been greatly exaggerated, and their audiences infantilised, by those with an incentive to do so. Again citing Ellul, Bernstein argues that propaganda or incitement would not be effective without “pre-propaganda” – which he equates to the entire social, cultural, political, and historical context. One can think of this context as the soil in which the violent ideas spread by the clerics can take root in particular individuals. Ignoring this and focusing solely on Fox News or radical preachers can lead to perverse “solutions” that entrench problems and privilege “acceptable” propaganda.

In her excellent talk on the limits of media literacy at the 2018 SXSW EDU conference in Austin, Texas, Danah Boyd, founder of the research institute Data & Society, points out that “fundamentally, misinformation is contextual” meaning what constitutes propaganda depends on who is labelling it. “The difference between what is deemed missionary work, education and radicalisation depends a lot on your worldview and your understanding of power,” she says. She argues that the culture wars waged between “progressives” and “conservatives” in the US are actually arguments over epistemology – how you know what you claim to know – that cannot be resolved through fact-checking or compromise. She sees the efforts of many liberal elites to debunk the beliefs of Trump voters as “assertions of authority over epistemology” and the propagation of a single, acceptable truth or worldview.

On the global stage, where the Global War on Terror has transmogrified US culture wars and the methods used to wage them into what Samuel Huntington called “a clash of civilisations”, this assertion of a singular truth channelled through Western prophets that negates the experience of much of the rest of the world, has been at the root of de-radicalisation efforts. Yet, they can have the opposite effect. As Boyd puts it, “nothing can radicalise someone more than feeling that you are being lied to.”

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

STALINIST HOMOPHOBIA LIKE PUTIN'S
China orders gaming giants to cut 'effeminate' gender imagery

Issued on: 09/09/2021 -

Shares in Tencent have been battered by China's crackdown on the gaming sector 

NOEL CELIS AFP
2 min
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Beijing (AFP)

Chinese authorities have ordered gaming giants Tencent and NetEase to end their focus on profits and cut content perceived to be breeding "effeminacy", as Beijing tries to direct youth culture, gender ideals and the reach of big tech.

The move is the latest by authorities to tighten their grip on the embattled technology sector and sent shares in some of the industry's biggest names plunging.

Officials on Wednesday summoned gaming enterprises including Tencent and NetEase, the two market leaders in China's multi-billion-dollar gaming scene, to discuss further curbs on the industry, which has already been ordered to limit gaming time to three hours a week.

Among the new targets are media representations of men, which experts say are a cause for anxiety among the conservative, older generation of Communist Party leaders.

In recent days, regulators have ordered broadcasters to resist "abnormal aesthetics" such as "sissy" men, calling for more masculine representations in programming.

Late Wednesday official Xinhua news agency reported the latest edicts against gaming.

"Obscene and violent content and those breeding unhealthy tendencies, such as money-worship and effeminacy, should be removed," it said.

Enterprises who flout rules will be punished, authorities warned.

The target is driven by a perception among sections of the political class that "effeminate men are physically weak and emotionally fragile," University of Hong Kong associate professor Geng Song said, with the inference that 'feminine' men cannot defend the nation.

Song added that heterosexuality is seen by the political establishment as the only gender norm, leading to "anxiety" over more ambiguous representations of sexuality and identity.

The latest talks add to tightening oversight on tech giants in the world's biggest gaming market, with Beijing rolling out rules to weed out the excesses of the culture among Chinese youth -- from worsening eyesight to online addiction.

Besides breaking from a focus on profit and gaining fans, gaming businesses were also told to "change game rules and designs inducing addiction", said Xinhua.

Already, gaming companies have stepped up restrictions on minors, drastically cutting the online gaming time of children to just three hours a week during term time.

Tech giant Tencent rolled out a facial recognition "midnight patrol" function in July to root out children masquerading as adults to get around a curfew.

Shares in gaming firms were pummelled on Thursday, with Tencent plunging almost six percent and NetEase shedding almost seven percent.

Other tech giants who have been caught in China's crosshairs recently were also hammered, with ecommerce titans Alibaba and JD.com each shed around four percent.

© 2021 AFP

Semisopochnoi volcano (Aleutian Islands): strong ash emissions 

Wed, 8 Sep 2021, 04:42

04:42 AM | BY: MARTIN

Large amounts of ash from Semisopochnoi volcano this morning (image: AVO)

The explosive eruption of the volcano continues from the Mount Cerberus crater.
Strong short-lived ash emissions, several minutes in duration, are being observed by the Alaska Volcano Observatory's surveillance cameras this morning at about 09:00 local time. Large amounts of ash, judging from the webcam imagery, rose to estimated 12,000 ft (3,7 km) altitude. The Alaska Volcano Observatory cited further: "Additional explosions were detected in seismic and infrasound data but were not observed in web camera images or satellite data due to cloudy conditions."
Sulfur dioxide emissions continue to be observed in satellite data and extended 273 km to the northeast of the volcano.
Continuous periods of low-level ash emissions at the volcano are now in progress, regardless of the events mentioned above.
Source: Alaska Volcano Observatory volcano activity update 8 September 2021

Askja volcano (Iceland): significant ground deformation since August

Wed, 8 Sep 2021, 05:02

05:02 AM | BY: MARTIN

The image depicts the near-vertical deformation in mm for the period 1-21 August. The InSAR image is obtained from two passages of Sentinel-1 satellite. The red color indicates uplift and the blue corresponds to subsidence (see the scale). The area experiencing the highest inflation is north-west Öskjuvatn. The black triangle indicates the location of the closest GPS station Ólafsgíga (OLAC) (image: IMO)

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported that GPS observations and ground deformation maps from Sentinel-1 satellite data detected that the volcano began to inflate at the beginning of August 2021. The uplift signal is centered on the western edge of Öskjuvatn, close to Ólafsgígar, and corresponds to ~5 cm/month of vertical motion. Geodetic modeling indicates that the source of this inflation is located at a depth of approximately 3 km and corresponds to a volume change of approximately 0.001 km³/month.
The cause of such inflation is uncertain, but most likely it is due to a new batch of magma as a larger gas bubble rose towards the surface inside the magma-filled conduit.
Source: Icelandic Meteorological Office volcano activity update 8 September 2021

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UK 'ditched' climate pledge to secure Australia trade deal: Greenpeace

Issued on: 09/09/2021 - 

Leaked emails seen by Greenpeace appear to show Britain backtracked on climate commitments to secure a trade deal with Australia

 Ina FASSBENDER AFP/File

London (AFP)

Greenpeace has accused the British government of lying to the public after leaked emails seen by the environmental group appeared to show backtracking on climate commitments to secure a trade deal with Australia.

In the correspondence, Greenpeace UK on Wednesday said senior ministers Liz Truss, David Frost and Kwasi Kwarteng "are named as agreeing to ditch references to the temperature commitments in the Paris Agreement on climate in order to get the Australian trade deal 'over the line'."

In response, the government insisted it "will not sign trade deals that compromise our high environmental protections".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote to environmental NGOs promising that any deal with Australia would "include a chapter on trade and environment which not only reaffirms commitments to multilateral environmental agreements, including the Paris Agreement, but also commits both parties to collaborate on climate and environmental issues."

But Greenpeace said "details from the leaked email demonstrate that what Boris Johnson wrote in that letter was a lie".

"The reality of the government's plans to bulldoze over the Paris Agreement temperature commitments... completely undermines trust in the government as host of the upcoming UN climate summit, COP26," it added.

- 'Caving in to Australia' -

The 12-day event is due to be held in Glasgow in November, and is seen as a crucial step in global action to set new emissions targets to prevent runaway climate change.

Australia, however, has refused to adopt a net-zero emissions target and remains one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters.

Australia has refused to adopt a net-zero emissions target and remains one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters 

GREG WOOD AFP/File

The UK government maintained that all the deals it was pursuing "have committed to securing provisions that will help trade in low carbon goods and services, support research and development, innovation in green sectors, and maintain our right to regulate in pursuit of decarbonisation".

While not directly addressing the climate claims, Australia's trade minister Dan Tehan said the free trade agreement with the UK would "include commitments relating to a number of environment issues".

"Australia has remained consistent that all our FTAs should focus on international co-operation and meeting existing multilateral environment commitments," he said in a statement.

Tehan added that the two nations have agreed to work together on emissions reduction research and development in areas such as clean hydrogen, small modular reactors, and carbon capture technologies.

Britain in June unveiled the major free trade agreement with Australia, after similar deals with Japan and the European Union following London's divorce with Brussels.

The deal eliminates tariffs on UK exports to Australia and on imported Australian goods such as wine, swimwear and confectionery goods.

But John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the deal had come at an environmental cost.

"The UK government caving in to Australia over the climate just adds to a list of issues over this trade deal particularly when it comes to food and farming," he said.

"Australia still uses hormone growth promoters banned in the UK in 1998.

"It continues to use 20 pesticides no longer in use here, including highly toxic neonicotinoids, which are extremely harmful to bees and other pollinators.

"No food should be imported using methods that are banned in the UK," he added.

© 2021 AFP