Sunday, September 26, 2021

Taliban hang four bodies in Herat to deter abductions

Published September 26, 2021 - Updated about 6 hours ago

The corpses were displayed in various public areas on the same day as the killings to teach a “lesson” that kidnapping would not be tolerated. — AP/File

• Official says man, son rescued during gunfight with kidnappers
• Mostofiat Square footage comes as grim reminder of group’s previous rule
• ‘Municipal worker’ wounded in Taliban car bomb blast in eastern Nangarhar

KABUL: Taliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others, a local government official said on Saturday.

Sher Ahmad Ammar, deputy governor of Herat, said the men had kidnapped a local businessman and his son and intended to take them out of the city, when they were seen by patrols that had set up checkpoints around the city.

An exchange of gunfire ensued in which all four were killed, while one Tali­ban soldier was wounded.


“Their bodies were brou­ght to the main square and hung up in the city as a lesson for other kidnappers,” he said.

The two victims were released unharmed, he said.

Herat resident Moham­mad Nazir said he had been shopping for food near the city’s Mostofiat Square when he heard a loudspea­ker ann­ouncement calling for public attention. “When I stepped forward, I saw they had brought a body in a pickup truck, then they hung it up on a crane,” he said.

Graphic images posted to social media showed bloody bodies on the back of a pick-up truck while a crane hoisted one man up. Another video showed a man suspended from a crane at a major roundabout in Herat with a sign on his chest reading: “Abductors will be punished like this”.

Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the side of the square, said that four bodies were brought to the main square and three bodies were moved to other parts of the city for public display. He said the Taliban anno­unced that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping and were killed by the police.

Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four armed kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers but the four (kidnappers) were killed in crossfire.

Herat Deputy Governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir said the corpses were displayed in various public areas on the same day as the killings to teach a “lesson” that kidnapping would not be tolerated.

Muhajir said security forces received information that a businessman and his son had been abducted in the city on Saturday morning. Subsequently, police shut down the roads out of the city and the Taliban stopped the men at a checkpoint, ensuing an exchange of fire, he said. “As a result of a few minutes of fighting, one of our Mujahideen was wounded and all four kidnappers were killed,” the deputy governor said in a recorded statement.

“We are the Islamic Emirate. No one should harm our nation. No one should kidnap,” he said in the video clip.

Muhajir added that before Saturday’s incident there had been other kidnappings in the city, and the Taliban rescued a boy. One kidnapper was killed and three others were arrested, he said, although in another case the Taliban “failed and the abductors were able to make money”.

“It saddened us a lot because while we are in Herat, our people are being abducted,” the deputy governor claimed.

“In order to be a lesson for other kidnappers not to kidnap or harass anyone, we hung them in the squares of the city and made this clear to everyone that anyone who steals or abducts or does any action against our people will be punished,” he added.

The display across several squares in the city is the most high-profile public punishment since the Taliban swept to power last month, and is a sign they will adopt fearsome measures similar to their previous rule.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, senior Taliban leader and prisons chief Mullah Nooruddin Turabi had warned that the group would restore punishments like amputations and executions to deter criminals.

Despite international condemnation, the Taliban said they would continue to impose swift and severe punishments on lawbreakers to stop crimes like robbery, murder and kidnapping that had become widespread in Afghanistan.

Washington, which condemned Mullah Nooruddin’s comments on punishments, said any potential recognition of the Taliban-led government in Kabul would depend on respect for human rights.

Also on Saturday, a Taliban official said a roadside bomb hit a Taliban car in the capital of eastern Nangarhar province wounding at least one person.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State group affiliate, which is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan, has said it was behind similar attacks in Jalalabad last week that killed 12 people.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2021
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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Changing your mind about something as important as vaccination isn’t a sign of weakness – being open to new information is the smart way to make choices

September 23, 2021
Sticking to your beliefs in a rapidly changing world isn’t necessarily the best choice.
  Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Culturally, this is an era in which people are held in high esteem when they stick with their beliefs and negatively labeled as “flip-floppers” or “wishy-washy” when they change what they think.

While the courage of convictions can be a plus in situations where people are fighting for justice, sticking with beliefs in a dynamic world is shortsighted and dangerous, because new evidence can and should be taken into account. Rapidly changing environments are uncomfortable for people, because you can’t effectively use experience to guide choices about the future.

Consider the COVID-19 pandemic. All aspects of the pandemic response have evolved over time because knowledge of the disease and its prevention and treatment has changed significantly since the coronavirus made its appearance in early 2020.

The problem is many opponents of masking and vaccination made bold public pronouncements on social media, broadcasting positions like they’ll never get the COVID-19 shot. Once someone’s taken a strong stand like that, it can be hard to make a switch. As a psychology researcher who focuses on decision-making, I know there are powerful psychological and social forces that promote consistency of belief and action. Early commitments can be difficult to dislodge – though sometimes outside forces can help.

Social psychologists know that, on the one hand, people are motivated to maintain consistency across their beliefs. Because people want their web of beliefs to be coherent, they tend to give a lot of weight to beliefs that are consistent with their overall worldview and to discount those that are contradictory. As a result, people will continue to hold on to a set of beliefs even in the face of mounting evidence that they should revise what they think.

Psychologists describe this unconscious strategy as a way for people to minimize any cognitive dissonance they experience – when things don’t add up, it can be disturbing, so to avoid those uncomfortable feelings, they ignore what doesn’t fit well with their existing beliefs as a way to maintain balance.

In the context of COVID-19, for example, someone who is predisposed to dislike the vaccine will give little weight to new evidence of vaccine effectiveness, because that evidence contradicts their current worldview.

Eventually, though, enough counterevidence can lead to what psychologists call a shift in coherence, in which people can come to believe that their initial viewpoint was wrong. But additional social forces such as the desire to appear consistent or to show solidarity with a community can still lead people to resist changing their beliefs and behavior.


Do you stick with your tried-and-true order at your favorite restaurant or explore the menu for something new? Vladimir Vladimirov/E+ via Getty Images

Indeed, there is considerable research on the trade-off between what psychologists call exploitation and exploration in decision-making. Exploitation refers to people’s tendency to pick the option that has been best in the past. As a simple example, exploitation would be choosing your usual favorite dish from a restaurant where you often order takeout.

Exploration describes picking options that were not optimal in the past but may now be better than the best previous choices. In the restaurant scenario, exploration involves choosing a new dish or one that you tried in the past and didn’t like as much as your old standby. Exploration gives you information about options other than your current favorite.

When environments change a lot, exploration is important. Good decision-makers will often forego the best-known option in order to determine whether other options are now actually better. If your favorite restaurant is constantly hiring new cooks and tinkering with the menu, then exploration is probably a good strategy. The tendency toward consistency that people display – particularly in situations where they have expressed a strong preference – is most harmful in environments that change. The COVID-19 pandemic is just such a case.

In these situations, helping people to change behavior requires reducing their need to feel bound to act in a way that is consistent with the attitudes they have expressed. This is where external forces come to play.

When a mandate pushes against your position

As an example, think about two people: Al and Barb. Both of them are opposed to getting vaccinated for COVID-19 and have a variety of reasons for that – like being mistrustful of the science and concerned about long-term safety. Both of them have also posted their opposition to vaccination to their social media sites.

Al doesn’t know anyone who has gotten sick from COVID-19 and hasn’t really read many stories about the effectiveness of the vaccine, so he has a strong coherent set of beliefs against vaccination.

Barb has friends who have gotten sick, and one died from COVID-19. She has read some of the news articles with data supporting vaccination. While this information isn’t enough to flip her opinion, she is wavering.

Al and Barb are likely to have different reactions to the government-issued mandate that employers with more than 100 employees must require their staff to be vaccinated or frequently tested.


A mandate will get some vaccine holdouts to get the shot.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Al is strongly opposed to vaccination, so the mandate is outweighed by all the rest of his beliefs. He is likely to fight the mandate and to make a public display refusing to get vaccinated.

Barb is in a different position. The vaccination mandate fits with some of her beliefs. While Barb may be uncomfortable getting the vaccine, she is more likely to use the mandate as social cover to get vaccinated, blaming the mandate for her ultimate choice.

For people who are on the fence about whether to get vaccinated because they have conflicting knowledge and beliefs, vaccine mandates serve two purposes. First, mandates provide one more fact that can make their pro-vaccine beliefs more consistent than their anti-vaccine beliefs. Second, even for people who are still largely anti-vaccine, it allows them to get vaccinated while still saving face by blaming the mandate for an action that they are not as strongly opposed to as they appear to be.

More generally, people are creatures of habit. You likely feel most comfortable doing what has worked for you in the past. The more you learn to pay attention to how much change there is in the environment, the more you can work to push yourself to explore new options and change your beliefs and behavior based on new evidence.


Author
Art Markman
Professor of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
Disclosure statement
In the past, Arthur Markman has received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for studies relating to human decision making.
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Inaccurate, unfair for Sask. premier to single out northern First Nations on vaccination, say critics

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Marc Miller calls

Premier Scott Moe's comments "alarming and

 unproductive"

Jason Warick · CBC News · 
Saskatchewan's COVID-19 vaccination rates are among the lowest in Canada. Premier Scott Moe singled out northern First Nations for their low uptake, but critics say this divisive attitude is both unfair and inaccurate. (Matt Duguid/CBC Saskatchewan)

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is wrong to single out northern First Nations for low COVID-19 vaccination rates, say critics.

They say Moe's comments, which were made on Tuesday and then posted to social media Thursday—as well as similar to statements he made last week—are both unfair and inaccurate.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Marc Miller called Moe's comments "alarming and unproductive." In an online reply, Miller said Moe has a "misunderstanding of his own health care system and the role it plays" in northern Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Opposition leader Ryan Meili said the premier is desperate to deflect blame for the province's rapidly deteriorating COVID-19 situation.

"This is gross, just dog-whistle politics, trying to blame one part of the province. He's trying to shift attention away from his own errors," Meili said Thursday.

"He should be apologizing for his inaction, which is resulting in people dying."

Record numbers of COVID-19 patients, most of them unvaccinated, are filling the province's hospitals and intensive care units. Elective procedures have been slowed down or paused altogether, but the surge in COVID-19 cases is also halting organ transplants as well as certain brain, heart and eye procedures.

On Thursday, Moe posted a video on social media saying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was practising "divisiveness" by singling out Saskatchewan for its low vaccination rate.

Moe then went on to single out parts of Saskatchewan on the same issue.

"Our far north and Indigenous communities are running at a vaccination rate of less than 50 per cent — an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction," Moe tweeted. "I hope … [Trudeau] will work with Saskatchewan to increase the vaccination rate in these critical communities right away."

Some places only have 12% uptake

The premier also singled out northern First Nations during a news conference last week.

While it appears some non-First Nations communities have much lower vaccination rates than the provincial average, Moe didn't criticize those areas for their vaccination rates.

At a presentation to Swift Current city council last week, posted on social media, a delegation of local doctors talked about the low vaccine uptake in certain towns.

"In places in southwest Saskatchewan, we only have 12 per cent uptake of the vaccine. Twelve per cent. That's it. We need the numbers of immunizations to increase," Dr. Tara Lee told councillors.

As of Thursday, 81.4 per cent of eligible people province-wide had a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 72.7 per cent had two, according to CBC's vaccine tracker.

That's currently the lowest rate in Canada.

'Southwest needs to ramp it up': physician

The Ministry of Health declined to provide vaccination rates for individual towns or cities in central and southern Saskatchewan. It is reported only by zone, which typically contains a mix of city, town and rural areas.

"We do not report by community," stated a Ministry of Health email.

Gull Lake family physician Dr. Clare Kozroski, who was part of the delegation that spoke in Swift Current, says the situation is urgent.

There are individual high schools in the region with student vaccination rates of just 20 per cent, she said in a Thursday interview.

"There is no other way to deal with this fourth wave. All of our beds in ICU in this area are full, so people with other illnesses can't be cared for. The southwest needs to ramp it up," said Kozroski, who also represents Saskatchewan on the board of the Canadian Medical Association.

'No idea why he'd be singling us out'

While Moe referred to the Far North as "an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction," Meili said the premier is either confused or is being dishonest. The northern jurisdiction is in fact a mix of First Nations, federal and provincial staff working together.

Longtime Lac la Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson agreed. She says her staff has worked closely with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and federal officials throughout the pandemic.

Chief Tammy Cook-Searson says the Lac La Ronge Indian Band is working hard to contain COVID-19, but it's not accurate or helpful when the premier singles out northern communities on the vaccine issue. (Liam Richards/The Canadian Press)

She said she saw Moe's social media posts and video and said while everyone in Saskatchewan should redouble vaccination efforts, the premier's comments are not helpful.

"I think it's very unfair, especially since non-First Nation communities in the south have lower [vaccination] rates," Cook-Searson said.

"I have no idea why he'd be singling us out. He can pick up the phone any time and call us. It's not fair to be blaming. We should find a way to work together and get past this pandemic."

Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation Chief Bart Tsannie said his community is working around the clock to help people get vaccinated. After suffering a severe outbreak in June, there is now only one active case in the community of 1,300 people.

"Don't target us. Come talk to us," Tsannie said.

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said Moe should focus on keeping people safe rather than finding others to blame.

"It's not a respectful thing to do," Cameron said.


Federal minister says Saskatchewan premier misunderstands his health-care system

Author of the article:
The Canadian Press
Mickey Djuric
Sep 24, 2021 • 

REGINA — Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe misunderstands his own health-care system.

Miller made the comment on Twitter after Moe blamed Ottawa for Saskatchewan’s low COVID-19 vaccination rate in its far north, which has a predominately Indigenous population.

“Our Far North and Indigenous communities are running at a vaccination rate of less than 50 per cent, an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction,” Moe tweeted Thursday after making similar comments earlier that week during a media scrum.

While mentioning rates in the north, the premier did not include communities in the south, which in some cases have vaccination rates as low as 12 per cent.

Miller said Moe’s comments are alarming and unproductive.

“Stating that all this work is ‘exclusive’ federal jurisdiction is not only inaccurate, but undermines the spirit of Indigenous self-determination that has guided our co-operative approach and must continue in order to overcome this current wave,” Miller tweeted. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ottawa and Saskatchewan have worked together throughout the pandemic to provide vaccinations in the province’s far north and in remote Indigenous communities, but health-care services are off reserves, which is within provincial jurisdiction.

“The whole idea that First Nations in the north are outside of Saskatchewan jurisdiction — and by jurisdiction I mean their responsibility — is this myth that we are often told in Canadian politics that leads to the continuation of the inequity Indigenous Peoples have had for generations,” said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

Lafontaine said Moe’s comments make it difficult for health-care workers to do their jobs.

“If you don’t have your leadership pointing to the tools we know work, and emphasizing the need to provide care and take responsibility for the care of everyone within your province, that creates a very challenging situation to actually create any of this effectively,” he said.

Indigenous communities face a unique challenge because of mistrust in a health-care system due to forced sterilization of Indigenous women and medical experimentation on children in residential schools, Lafontaine added.

Moe’s comments about jurisdiction don’t help increase vaccination rates, he said.

“You have to have your leader saying things that are factually true, and actually focus on the solutions of the problem, instead of pushing that responsibility somewhere else.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2021.
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 North

N.W.T. father, son travel 2,000 km for cancelled surgery in Edmonton

Tyrone Raddi says son now on 'emergency cancellation list'

 due to high COVID-19 cases in Alberta


Mackenzie Scott · CBC News · 
Tyrone Raddi and his 17-year-old son travelled from Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., to Edmonton for surgery, only for it to be cancelled on the day it was scheduled to take place. (Submitted by Tyrone Raddi)

Jacob Lafferty travelled 2,000 kilometres with his father from their home in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., to Edmonton to get surgery on his elbow.

But it never happened.

"We flew down Sunday, went for our appointment Monday only to be told that everything is cancelled," said Lafferty's father, Tyrone Raddi.

Lafferty, 17, is one of several residents in the Northwest Territories currently in this predicament as surgeries across Alberta are being cancelled due to record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations that are seeing patients transported to other provinces. 

Raddi said it was nerve-wracking enough travelling from a small community that has never had a case of COVID-19, to a hotspot like Edmonton.

He had to book two days off work for the surgery, and his son, who is about to graduate in January, had to take time off school. Now, they'll have to do it all over again, possibly on short notice.

Raddi said they've been put on an "emergency cancellation list with no guarantee that we are going to get in due to the high number of cases in Alberta."

"I am lucky that I did have the time to take off."

Raddi poses for a photo after getting his COVID-19 vaccine at the Kitti Hall community centre in Tuktoyaktuk. The hamlet has so far not seen a single case of the novel coronavirus. (Submitted by Tyrone Raddi)

Record numbers of patients in Alberta ICUs

Alberta is facing soaring numbers of COVID-19 patients. As of Thursday, 226 of the 310 patients in the province's intensive care units (ICUs) had COVID-19.

Hospitals buckling under the load have had to cancel surgeries for Alberta patients as well as those in the N.W.T. who rely on the province for specialized care. 

"Having your surgery delayed can be extremely traumatising, particularly if you've been waiting a long time," said Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, at a Thursday news conference. 

"Delaying surgeries is something that we never want to do."

CBC News reached out to the government of the Northwest Territories' Department of Health and Social Services to get a better understanding of how many residents' medical travel and surgeries have been postponed, but didn't receive a response before this story was published.

Raddi and his son drove to Inuvik, then flew to Edmonton on a flight that made stops in Norman Wells and Yellowknife. (CBC)

Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that in 2019-20, N.W.T. residents were admitted to hospital overnight 955 times in the Edmonton area. The previous year, that number was 1,004. 

In addition, N.W.T. patients received 522 day surgeries in the Edmonton area in 2019-20, and 721 the previous year. 

Postponed surgeries and medical travel for N.W.T. patients in Alberta are happening at a time when the territory is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, the territory's chief public health officer said 26 people have been hospitalized related to the current delta variant-driven outbreak. Twelve have been admitted to the ICU in Yellowknife since the pandemic began. 

Better communication needed

Raddi said his son is still experiencing discomfort with his elbow and would like the surgery done right away.

He said he understands why it was cancelled, but feels the situation could've been communicated better. If he'd known about the possibility of a cancellation, he said he may have made a different decision about whether to risk travelling to Edmonton. 

According to Raddi, the territorial government "needs to look after its residents instead of sending them down on trips where they know nothing is going to happen." 

"I really do think it was a waste of my time and my son's time with them knowing nothing was going to happen … I think it has to be a little bit better planned out from both sides."

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'You should be ashamed of yourself': Nenshi sounds off against rural reeve on COVID-19 misinformation

Author of the article:Jason Herring
Publishing date:Sep 25, 2021 

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi speaks with media on Monday, July 5, 2021. 
PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

A recent meeting of Calgary-area municipalities turned heated after a rural reeve shared misinformation on COVID-19 vaccines, leading to a sharp rebuke from Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

The confrontation took place during the Sept. 17 Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB) meeting, when Foothills County Reeve Suzanne Oel called into question the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

She said her statements reflected the views of her constituents, many of whom are opposed to the vaccines and province’s then-newly announced vaccine passport system.

“While some people believe the vaccine will protect them, others disagree. A note is that the experimental vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission. The safety trials have not been completed,” Oel said.

Those statements are false. Vaccines have been shown in clinical trials to reduce COVID-19 illness, a fact which is reflected in Alberta data, which has found vaccines are more than 90 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic illness due to COVID-19.

It’s also inaccurate to call the vaccines experimental, as both mRNA COVID vaccines approved for use in Canada — manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — went through rigorous safety testing and use technology developed over the course of decades.

Nenshi jumped into the fray after Oel falsely claimed the vaccine was only tested on animals before being made available.

“What she has just said is 1,000 per cent false, and this is not a place for us to abide by those extremist views that are putting people in danger,” Nenshi said in the exchange, which was first reported by LiveWire Calgary.

“I was with an ICU nurse yesterday. People are dying every day. Yes, we have to have a diversity of views. We don’t have diversity of BS like that. That is completely untrue and saying things like that puts people at risk and you should be ashamed of yourself, Reeve Oel.”

The terse exchange continued when Oel said she had taken a risk in sharing the views in the forum, before Nenshi interrupted her, saying, “Lies are not opinions, Reeve Oel, and that is a lie. Stop educating yourself from YouTube videos, read the science.”

The CMRB consists of 10 Calgary-area municipalities, with a mandate to support the long-term sustainability of the region.

Elsewhere in the meeting, officials discussed confusion over the province’s vaccine passport plan as well as the acrimonious public climate around vaccines and mask use.

jherring@postmedia.com
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Alberta ICU staff say they're strained by rising demand for care, increasing backlash from patients


EDMONTON -

With Alberta’s health-care system now the focus of a military mission, the people who work within it say they're reaching a breaking point as stress compounds with negative patient interactions.

Dr. Erika MacIntyre, a critical care physician working in Edmonton’s Misericordia hospital ICU shared with CTV News Edmonton how some patients – who usually are not vaccinated – are verbally abusing health-care staff.

“There has been some individuals who have accused us of giving them COVID,” MacIntyre said. “That’s always a bit of an added stress because that is not the case.”


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She recalled another time where one ICU patient, whose condition had improved enough to be able to leave the ICU, offered harmful remarks to the very staff helping them recover.

“On the way out of the ICU, this individual called us killers,” MacIntyre said.

“Despite people’s vaccination status, despite their health, we do the best that we can to treat the individual,” MacIntyre added.

She said the worst stress on health-care workers, however, is the fact that no one knows when the situation in hospitals will improve.

“No day seems to be the same as the one before,” she added. “Everything is changing.

“It’s so much change. It’s hard to even know what form of change to talk about at this present time; the changes to staffing, to where we are.

“We don’t know when this is going to end. We all expect it to get worse before it gets better. So we’ve anticipated that.”

THE DEAD MAKE WAY FOR THE DYING

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) told CTV News in a statement that after being called upon earlier this week, up to eight ICU nurses and aeromedical transport for critical care patients – both in and out-of-province – are ready to be deployable “within 24 hours.”

Surge capacity in hospitals continues to be added in ICUs, with occupancy 89 per cent yesterday to 83 per cent Friday.

That reduction is not necessarily good news, however.

According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), that six per cent decrease occurred as 18 surge spaces opened in the past 24 hours and some patients either recovered or died.

“It’s tragic that we are only able to keep pace with these sort of numbers because in part some of our ICU patients have passed away,” AHS CEO and president Dr. Verna Yiu said on Thursday. “This reality has a deep and lasting impact on our ICU teams.

“We are facing a fragile balance,” she added.

'A critical time': Alberta's top doctor calls out individuals trying to use fake COVID-19 vaccine cards

As of 12:15 p.m. Friday, there were 368 ICU beds open in Alberta, including 195 additional spaces – representing a 113 per cent increase over the baseline of 173 normal spaces, AHS said.

There were 304 total patients in ICU, the vast majority who are COVID-19 positive.

On Friday, the Central zone operated at more than 100 per cent of current capacity, with 26 ICU beds.

The South and North zones were operating at 89 and 87 per cent, respectively. The South zone has 36 beds while the North zone has 15.

The Edmonton zone, with 158 beds, had 84 per cent of current capacity filled while Calgary, with 133 ICU beds, had 75 per cent filled.

Dr. Paul Parks, Alberta Medical Association president, told CTV News that adding surge beds or capacity in one area means taking away from others.

“It’s a bit of a 'rob Peter to pay Paul,' every time we add a couple of beds, we impact the system somewhere else,” Parks said. “The whole point is that it’s not infinite.”

Opposition leader Rachel Notley said the CAF assistance requested by the province is helpful but the premier needs to go beyond medical evacuation assistance.

“I think that’s helpful but I think that’s a fraction of what we need,” Notley said.

“What’s really sad is that we are having to call on the Canadian Armed Forces, that we are having to call on the federal government and other provinces,” the Alberta NDP leader added. “We’ve allowed it (our system) to collapse to a scandalous level of incompetence. That needs to stop.”

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 Manitoba

Anishinaabe woman wonders why the Bay is selling orange shirts for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Hudson's Bay Co. says proceeds from sale of orange shirts

 will go to non-profit

Stephanie Cram · CBC News · 
Dani Lanouette was surprised to see the Hudson's Bay Co. is selling orange shirts ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Submitted by Dani Louette, Hudsonsbay/Instagram)

With the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation coming up, many Canadians are trying to get their hands on an orange shirt, to commemorate what was previously known as Orange Shirt Day.

But recent social media posts led to some Indigenous people asking whether one major retailer was trying to profit off of the painful legacy of residential schools. 

In an Instagram post earlier this week, The Hudson's Bay Co. said it is selling orange shirts with the slogan "Every Child Matters."

Dani Lanouette, who is Anishinaabe from Neyaashiinigmiing and Algonquins of Barriere Lake, says she had posts from the retailer blocked on Twitter for years.

"But I saw a tweet … of a screenshot of the post, [and] I was like, 'oh man, I got to unblock them," she said.

"To see a company that has a very colonial history — a history of colonial violence within so-called Canada — to see that they were now selling orange shirts actually made me nauseous. It was so gross to me."

An Instagram story posted on the Hudson's Bay account says that Phyllis Webstad's orange shirt was 'lost.' (Hudsonsbay/Instagram)

A Hudson's Bay spokesperson told CBC the company did not mean to cause any confusion about the sale of the shirts, and said they were made available for purchase in collaboration with the Orange Shirt Society, a B.C.-based non-profit that works to create awareness of the effects of residential schools.

All of the proceeds from the sale of the orange shirts will go to the non-profit "to support their work to commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to the ongoing process of reconciliation," the spokesperson said in a statement sent to CBC on Saturday.

Role in colonization

The Hudson's Bay Co. is one of the oldest companies in Canada, and in fact existed long before Canada even became a country in 1867. Prior to then, the company actually served as a de facto government in parts of North America. 

"If we look at the area where the Hudson's Bay Co. kind of took over and set up all their trading posts and stuff, it's all Indigenous land," said Lanouette, who became interested in the history of the company as a teen.

In 1868, a huge chunk of land owned by the company was sold to the Dominion of Canada under The Rupert's Land Act, which resulted in a large part of the Prairies — including Manitoba — joining Canada.

The HBC spokesperson's statement said the company "recognizes the role it played in the colonization of Canada," and is proud to work with the Orange Shirt Society "as part of our commitment to truth and reconciliation."

But for Lanouette, the Bay's more recent history is problematic.

"When we look at their history, even within the past 100 or so years, [Hudson's Bay had a] role with Inuit [and] the high Arctic relocation program where families were taken from … northern Quebec to Nunavut," she said.

In 1953 and 1955, a group of 87 Inuit were persuaded by the Canadian government to leave their homes in Quebec, with promises of better hunting and the option to return in two years — promises that were broken.

"There was only a Hudson's Bay trading post up there," Lanouette says, and "they really [played] a role in the starvation of Indigenous peoples and in food insecurity today."

For her, the main issue with the Bay now selling orange shirts is the perception the company is profiting from the experiences of Indigenous survivors who were forced to attend residential schools, many of whom suffered horrific abuse.

"I think they should actually just be giving reparations without needing to sell anything or … rely on consumers to make that donation for them through purchasing a shirt," said Lanouette. 

She also questions how the Bay represented the personal story of Phyllis Webstad, which inspired the Sept. 30 Orange Shirt Day observances that came before the newly established National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

In 1973, on Webstad's first day at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in B.C., the then six-year-old's favourite orange shirt — which had been given to her by her grandmother — was taken from her as soon as she arrived at the school. 

The orange shirt has since become a symbol of remembrance for those who were forced to attend the residential schools.

In an HBC Instagram story, the retailer stated Orange Shirt Day "grew out of Phyllis's account of losing her new orange shirt on her first day of school." 

That's not right, says Lanouette. 

"In reality, it was stolen from her."

With files from Erin Brohman

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Calgarians gather downtown for Orange Shirt walk to support residential school survivors

By Radana Williams Global News
Posted September 25, 2021
The third annual Orange Shirt Day walk was held in downtown Calgary Sept. 25, 2021. Global News

As Canadians get set to observe the first Truth and Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30, a Calgary group held a walk and afternoon of community programming Saturday.


The Colouring It Forward Reconciliation Society started the day with the third annual Orange Shirt Day Walk along Stephen Avenue to honour and remember the victims of Canada’s residential school system.

Organizers say it’s a way to show solidarity with survivors.

“I think the biggest takeaway is to see both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people walking together to honour survivors of residential school, survivors of the ’60s Scoop, and the families who are supporting those survivors and who are trying to deal with intergenerational trauma,” said the society’s CEO Diana Frost.

“Just to see all the people who come out to show their support, show their love and their support for positive change.”

Frost said with the first instance of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on the horizon, this and other Orange Shirt events are more poignant than ever.

She wants to eventually move the annual event to fall in line with the statutory holiday so more people can take part.

“The only reason that we kept it on the weekend was because I want to wait a little longer until more organizations are observing the stat. Because this is so important for survivors to be able to come out with their families,” Frost said.

Frost adds she hopes people continue their support for survivors year-round, not just on Sept. 30.
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