Hidden chamber found in Vanguard Cave – part of Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar

Vanguard Cave. Credit: Gipmetal77 modded by Victuallers/Wikimedia Commons.

 CC BY-SA 3.0

A team of researchers with the Gibraltar National Museum has found a hidden chamber in one of the caves that make up Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar. They have posted a press statement on their website describing what they have found in the chamber thus far.

Prior research has shown that both modern humans and Neanderthals lived in parts of Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar, though not at the same time. Both groups left behind a treasure trove of artifacts, including tools, butchered remains of animals and fossils. For that reason, the site has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2012, a team at the Gibraltar National Museum studied the caves. As part of that mission, they sought chambers they believed were hidden in the caves. Such chambers are common in caves formed close to the sea due to environmental factors. Over the course of nearly a decade, the search for hidden chambers came up empty. Then, as one group was searching the back of Vanguard Cave, they found evidence of soft sediment, which they believed could be hiding a chamber. Some digging proved their hunch to be correct; behind the sediment plug, they found a large chamber.

The chamber was located higher up than the cave and was approximately 13 meters long. The amount of sediment in the plug suggested that the chamber had been sealed for tens of thousands of years. On its floor, they found the remains of a Griffon vulture, a hyena and a lynx, animals fully capable of climbing up into the chamber. But they also found the shell of a dog whelk—a type of sea snail, which the researchers note would not have been able to climb up into the chamber. This, they note, suggests something carried it up there. The team also found scratches on the walls of the chamber, though they were unable to discover their source.

Initial estimates suggest Neanderthals likely were living in the area during the time the chamber was open, though the researchers have not yet found any evidence. They plan to begin digging in the chamber floor to see what other evidence might be found.

More information: www.gibmuseum.gi/news/recent-d … at-vanguard-cave-335

© 2021 Science X Network

Griffon vulture - Wikipedia The griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. It is also known as the Eurasian griffon. It is not to be confused with a different species, Rüppell's griffon vulture (Gyps rueppellii). It is closely related to the white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus).

Dog whelk - Wikipedia

The dog whelk, dogwhelk, or Atlantic dogwinkle (scientific name Nucella lapillus) is a species of predatory sea snail, a carnivorous marine gastropod in the family Muricidae, the rock snails.

Nucella lapillus was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Buccinum lapillus (the basionym).

Cave chamber closed for 40,000 years could hold the key to the lives of Neanderthals
By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN 1 day ago

© courtesy Gibraltar National Museum A 13-meter chamber in Gibraltar's Vanguard Cave, uncovered by archaeologists for the first time in 40,000 years.

The discovery of a chamber at least 40,000 years old in a Gibraltar cave previously inhabited by Neanderthals could lead to groundbreaking new finds about their lifestyles, according to researchers.

Archaeologists from the Gibraltar National Museum have been working since 2012 to find potential chambers and passages blocked by sediment in Vanguard Cave -- part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Gorham's Cave Complex.

Last month, they found the 13-meter (42-foot) deep chamber at the back of the cave, along with a number of discoveries including lynx, hyaena and griffon vulture remains, as well as scratch marks on the walls made by an unidentified carnivore.

Clive Finlayson, director and chief scientist at the Gibraltar National Museum, told CNN Tuesday the most impressive find was perhaps a large whelk, or a marine mollusc, because it suggested the newly discovered parts of the cave had been inhabited by Neanderthals.

"The whelk is at the back of that cave... it's probably about 20 meters from the beach," he said. "Somebody took that whelk in there... over 40,000 years ago. So that's already given me a hint that people have been in there, which is not perhaps too surprising. Those people, because of the age, can only be Neanderthals."

Neanderthals, heavily built Stone Age hominins that disappeared about 40,000 years ago, lived in Europe long before Homo sapiens arrived.

Finlayson said the team had also found the milk tooth of a Neanderthal around 4 years old, and hypothesized that they could have been dragged into the cave by a hyaena.

Entering the cave for the first time gave Finlayson "goosebumps," he said, adding it was one of the most exciting discoveries of his career -- unique for the quality of the preservation and the possibilities of new information it presented.

"How many times in your life are you going to find something that nobody's been into for 40,000 years? It only comes once in your lifetime, I think."

Evidence of an earthquake around 4,000 years ago was also visible due to a change in ice formations, with a previously formed ice curtain cut off and stalagmites growing under it.

The discovery is only the first stage of a long excavation, and Finlayson told CNN the chamber was only the roof of the cave, with a great deal of work remaining to uncover the rest of it.

"As we dig, it's only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger," he said. "So the chances are we have an enormous cave there. And as we go down there may even be so passages. So it's extremely exciting."

Finlayson said the remaining work would take decades if not longer, and that he hoped to use technology to take DNA samples from the sediment and uncover more clues of Neanderthal lifestyles, including burial rituals -- and potentially find footprints too.

© courtesy Gibraltar National Museum Scratch marks on the wall of the chamber, made by an unidentified carnivore.

Just a single nation is on track to meet its climate targets, study says

Neil Ever Osborne and M.A. Jacquemain 

The Weather Network

A new rating system has determined that almost every country in the world is failing to meet the emissions targets required to avert the climate crisis. The top global economies, including the G20 nations, are shirking commitments set out in the Paris Agreement, the analysis found.

As climate impacts around the world manifest with more frequency and intensity, analysts continue to cite the 1.5°C rate of warming as a threshold not to be crossed. The latest IPCC report outlined the urgent necessity of addressing the 2030 emissions gap if there is any hope of limiting warming to that 1.5°C benchmark.

The rating system, from Climate Action Tracker (CAT), found that updates from nations on Paris Agreement targets for 2030 show a narrowing of the emissions gap by less than 15 per cent since 2015. The analysis considers this slow rate of narrowing a “code red” level of concern.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Climate Action Tracker (2021). 2030 Emissions Gap. May 2021. 

Available at: https://climateactiontracker.org/global/cat-emissions-gaps/ 

Copyright © 2021 by Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute. All rights reserved.

“Momentum on updating 2030 targets has stalled since May, with no major emitters putting forward stronger climate targets,” Claire Stockwell, a Senior Climate Policy Analyst with Climate Analytics, told The Weather Network.

“Our analysis — from May 2021 — showed that if all net zero targets that have been announced or are being considered are achieved, global warming by 2100 could be as low as 2.0°C. Yet, reaching these net zero goals will not be possible without stronger near-term targets and action on the ground to cut emissions,” said Stockwell.

While the assessment is damning to the global effort as a whole, the evaluation of each country’s contributions varies. Of Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia, among others, the report states that they have “failed to lift ambition at all,” submitting “the same or even less ambitious 2030 targets” than in 2015.

Only one developed nation — the UK — has put forward targets rated “1.5°C compatible” by the CAT rating system. But domestic targets are only one prong of the commitments laid out in Paris. When also factoring in “international climate finance” and “policies,” even the UK is failing.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkClimate Action Tracker (2021). Net Zero Targets Assessment. September 2021. 

Available at: https://climateactiontracker.org/press/analysis-despite-code-red-on-climate-target-update-momentum-at-a-standstill   

Copyright © 2021 by Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute. All rights reserved.

Canada, needing to improve across the board — in targets, policies, and finance — has been rated as “Highly Insufficient.” The analysis has found that Canada has failed to address carbon removal options and to provide “clarity on fairness” of its domestic targets.

“Canada needs to improve on all fronts, especially with respect to policy implementation and the provision of climate finance,” said Stockwell. “The country’s new and stronger 2030 target is not quite Paris compatible. Its revised climate plan and additional measures announced in the 2021 federal budget are insufficient to meet that target. Canada continues to face challenges in implementing policies,” said Stockwell.

Other nations dubbed “Highly Insufficient” by the report include emerging powers like China, India, and Brazil. While global players like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have been rated “Critically Insufficient.”

© Provided by The Weather Network

Climate Action Tracker (2021). Climate Action Tracker Rating Components. September 2021. 

Available at: https://climateactiontracker.org/press/analysis-despite-code-red-on-climate-target-update-momentum-at-a-standstill

Copyright © 2021 by Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute. All rights reserved.

In what is perhaps the report’s most glaring indictment, only one country — the developing nation of Gambia — received an overall rating of “1.5°C Paris Agreement compatible.”

There were, however, some points of optimism. Recent “significant” updates to climate targets and policies instituted by the EU and the United States — under the new Biden administration — have been called “positive movements” that must “urgently be followed by all other countries.”

“Many studies point to the economic benefits of acting on climate change: from avoiding the worst impacts, to co-benefits like health and wellbeing,” said Stockwell. “On the technical side, we know that renewable energy is far cheaper to install than fossil fuel power.”

In the lead up to COP26, the critical climate conference in Glasgow, the key word is urgent. The rating system makes clear that global emissions must be cut by 50 per cent before 2030 — it adds that currently “governments are nowhere near this.”

Thumbnail credit: Peter Cade/ Stone/ Getty Images

Families of Canadians trapped in Syria turn to Federal Court to force government help

OTTAWA — The families of Canadians trapped in northern Syria are asking the Federal Court to force Ottawa to help them

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The 11 families say in a court filing that the government's refusal to step in amounts to breaches of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, among other statutes.


The application was submitted on behalf of several Canadians with relatives, including more than a dozen children, trapped in Syria, and calls on the court to order the government to take "all reasonable steps" to repatriate them.

The trapped Canadians are among the estimated thousands of foreign nationals held in camps in northern Syria by Kurdish forces that won back the war-torn region from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The Kurds suspected many of them of being ISIL sympathizers, but the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and the organization Human Rights Watch say they are innocent victims caught up in Syria's civil war and have denounced the Canadian government for not repatriating them, as some European countries have done with their citizens.

"Despite their repeated pleas for help, the Canadian government has left them to languish indefinitely in degrading and inhumane conditions. It's deeply troubling that these detainees and their families in Canada would have to resort to taking their government to court to end this paralysis," said Farida Deif, head of the Canadian branch of Human Rights Watch.

The applicants in the court filing are not named to protect their security, but one relative is speaking out about her sister, who is on a life-threatening hunger strike and desperately needs medical attention.

The Canadian branch of Human Rights Watch is also drawing attention to the plight of the woman, identified as Kimberly Polman, being held in one of the squalid camps rife with COVID-19 and unsanitary conditions.

"Her life and the lives of more than 40 other Canadians are on the line," said Deif. "Prime Minister Trudeau has the power to bring these Canadians home. He just needs to find the moral courage to do so."

Polman's sister, who spoke to The Canadian Press on condition of anonymity because she fears reprisals against her family, said she wrote to Global Affairs Canada last week to say her sister is suffering from hepatitis and failing kidneys and won't live much longer if she does not receive help.

The woman described her sister as a troubled woman who was suffering from post-traumatic stress and facing other challenges about six years ago, and who surprised her family by turning up in Syria.

According to her sister, Polman apparently met a man online who was an ISIL fighter and married him, though they soon separated. She was later thrown in prison.

"All of this was a shock to our family. I had no idea that she would ever entertain this," Polman's sister said in an interview Thursday. "She was going through a really hard time ... but I had no idea."

John Babcock, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the government is talking with Syrian and Kurdish authorities for information on the Canadians in the region. The government is "particularly concerned with cases of Canadian children in the region," he added.

"Given the security situation on the ground, the government of Canada's ability to provide consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited."

The government cannot comment on specific cases because of privacy concerns, said Babcock.

Last year, the Canadian government repatriated a five-year-old orphaned girl, but Ottawa has not committed to helping more of the trapped Canadians return.

Polman's sister said her sibling has denounced ISIL publicly, which has made her life much more perilous within the camp. She said her sister was brainwashed by ISIL, which she described as a cult. She suggested her sister's plight should serve as a cautionary tale for helping people who suffer mental illness.

"We need to pay better attention to people who are struggling ... so that they get the help they need."

Nothing her sister has done should deprive her of the right to receive help from her government in her time of need, the woman said.

"None of us have citizenship by merit. All of us have citizenship because we were born into it or we were given it," she said.

"And so, on the basis of her being a Canadian citizen, and a human being, she deserves to be to be granted all the rights and privileges of being a sensitive human being in our world, just like anyone else."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2021.

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press

San Jose to apologize for 1887 Chinatown destruction

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The city of San Jose was once home to one of the largest Chinatowns in California. In the heart of downtown, it was the center of life for Chinese immigrants who worked on nearby farms and orchards.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

More than a century after arsonists burned it to the ground in 1887, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution to apologize to Chinese immigrants and their descendants for the role the city played in “systemic and institutional racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.”

San Jose, with a population over 1 million, is the largest city in the country to formally apologize to the Chinese community for its treatment of their ancestors. In May, the city of Antioch apologized for its mistreatment of Chinese immigrants, who built tunnels to get home from work because they were banned from walking the streets after sundown.

“It’s important for members of the Chinese American community to know that they are seen and that the difficult conversations around race and historic inequities include the oppression that their ancestors suffered,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

The apologies come amid a wave of attacks against the Asian community since the pandemic began last year. Other cities, specifically in the Pacific Northwest, have issued apologies in decades past. California, too, apologized in 2009 to Chinese workers and Congress has apologized for the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was approved in 1882 and made Chinese residents the targets of the nation’s first law limiting immigration based on race or nationality

The city had five Chinatowns but the largest one was built in 1872. Fifteen years later, the city council declared it a public nuisance and unanimously approved an order to remove it to make way for a new City Hall. Before officials acted, the thriving Chinatown was burned down by arsonists, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and displacing about 1,400 people, according to the resolution.

“An apology for grievous injustices cannot erase the past, but admission of the historic wrongdoings committed can aid us in solving the critical problems of racial discrimination facing America today,” the resolution reads.

The Chinese started coming to California in large numbers during the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. They worked in mines, built the transcontinental railroad, toiled in farms and helped develop the abalone and shrimp industries. By 1870, there were about 63,000 Chinese in the United States, 77% of them residing in California, according to the resolution.

Chinese immigrants faced racism and were forced out of towns. They were denied the right to own property, marry white people and attend public schools. They also were subjected to violence and intimidation and denied equal protection by the courts.

In San Jose, an episcopal church where Chinese immigrants attended Sunday school was burned to the ground, Chinese laundries were condemned based on being housed in wooden buildings and the first state convention of the Anti-Chinese League was held there in 1886, according to the resolution.

Connie Young Yu, a historian and author of “Chinatown, San Jose, USA,” said her grandfather was a teenage refugee from the 1887 fire. Her father was born in the last existing Chinatown built in San Jose. The community was established in a new location with the help of German immigrant John Heinlen, despite threats to his life. But that Chinatown, known as Heninlenville, disappeared after the Chinese population dwindled.

Yu said the official apology gives her an “enormous sense of reconciliation and a sense of peace.”

“This is beyond an apology. It is taking responsibility, which is a beautiful thing to me,” Yu added.

Gerrye Wong, who helped found the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project in San Jose, said she, Yu, and other community members will formally accept the apology at a ceremony Wednesday near the former Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, which was built where the destroyed Chinatown once existed. In 1987, city officials dedicated a plaque at the site to mark the fire's 100th anniversary.

Wong, a retired teacher, said the apology from the 10th largest city in the country is a teaching moment because this history was not in textbooks or taught in schools.

“As a fourth-generation Chinese American myself, I didn’t know any of this and Chinese people never talked about it,” she said.

“In this anti-Asian hate environment that we see today, it’s a great step forward because it will bring attention to not only our hardships but also what Chinese communities have contributed to this country,” she added.

___

This story was first published on September 28, 2021. It was updated on September 29, 2021, to correct the timing of the largest Chinatown’s destruction to 15 years after it was built, not five.

Olga R. Rodriguez, The Associated Press

NOT JUST ALBERTA

B.C. subsidizes energy drilling on caribou habitat it promised to protect, study says

British Columbia is subsidizing oil and gas well drilling on the same land it has promised to protect for caribou, new research has found

 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"The B.C. government has made a lot of commitments to caribou habitat restoration and it's not really working," said Adriana DiSilvestro, a University of British Columbia graduate student and lead author on the project.

"The fact there are oil and gas operations being subsidized in areas the federal government has deemed critical habitat is a piece to this puzzle."

DiSilvestro and her colleagues first identified wells in northeastern B.C. and located them on federal maps showing critical habitat for woodland caribou, a threatened species for which the province has promised the federal government to develop a recovery plan.

The team then used government and industry data to determine which of those wells had benefited from a government subsidy. Those subsidies include programs such as the Deep Well Royalty Program, which covers part of the drilling and completion costs for these wells up to $2.8 million per well and can be used to reduce royalties by half.

DiSilvestro said the research shows 3,114 active oil and gas wells within critical caribou habitat in B.C. Of these, 1,678 wells -- just over half -- are run by companies that have received assistance from one of three provincial subsidy programs over the past three years.

Previous research has identified industrial use as a major driver of caribou habitat loss and herd declines. Energy and logging both damage the old-growth forest caribou rely on and create easy pathways for predators to reach formerly safe hideouts.

"We conclude that public funds are subsidizing caribou extinction," the report says.

Of B.C.'s 53 caribou herds, 14 are stable or increasing while 25 herds are either shrinking or have disappeared. No data exists for the rest. Some First Nations have been forced to step in with extreme conservation measures, such as penning up pregnant caribou cows until they can safely calve.

In February 2020, B.C. signed a so-called Section 11 conservation agreement with Ottawa that promised "commitments related to habitat protection and restoration." That agreement, under the Species At Risk Act, was seen as an alternative to the federal government stepping in to impose protections under an emergency protection order.

In an emailed response, Meghan McRae of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation pointed to a series of programs the province funds to remediate old wells, including $27 million from industry to clean up wells for which no owner currently exists.

"The province is working with First Nations, local governments, industry, and stakeholders to identify acceptable outcomes for caribou recovery as well as continued resource development in B.C.," she said.

"We continue to work with the federal government on our efforts of conservation and recovery of caribou herds."

DiSilvestro said the findings suggest that conservation agreements made with one handbe undercut by programs from the other.

"We can say pretty clearly that (Section 11) agreement isn't working. The continued subsidization of industry in these areas is a major factor in (caribou) decline."

Alberta and Saskatchewan also have Section 11 agreements with Ottawa, promising caribou recovery efforts and habitat protection.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development and Environmental Defence has calculated that Alberta spent about $1.6 billion a year in fossil fuel subsidies between 2016 and 2019. Its work does not detail where that money has been spent.

It doesn't have equivalent data for Saskatchewan.

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

-- Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Alex Jones: Infowars host is responsible for damages triggered by his false claims on the Sandy Hook shooting, judge rules


Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who hosts the right-wing commentary website Infowars, was found legally responsible in two lawsuits for damages caused by his claims surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook school mass shooting, according to court documents released Thursday.

© Drew Angerer/Getty Images Alex Jones of InfoWars loses two lawsuits over Sandy Hook shooting claims.

By Aya Elamroussi, CNN 3 hrs ago

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued default judgments on Monday against Jones and his outlet for not complying with court orders to provide information for the lawsuits brought against him by the parents of two children killed in the shooting.

The rulings, which were first reported by the Huffington Post, effectively mean that Jones lost the cases by default. A jury will convene to ascertain how much he will owe the plaintiffs, the report said.

An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, told CNN in a written statement that the rulings offers his clients "the closure they deserve."

He added: "Mr. Jones was given ample opportunity to take these lawsuits seriously and obey the rule of law. He chose not to do so, and now he will face the consequences for that decision."

Jones falsely claimed that the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a "giant hoax" carried out by crisis actors on behalf of people who oppose the Second Amendment.

The shooter killed 26 people at the school -- 20 of whom were young children -- before killing himself.

Several families of the victims sued Jones for defamation in both Texas and Connecticut courts.

The Texas judge essentially ruled that Jones and his parent company, Free Speech Systems, "intentionally disobeyed" court orders when they didn't hand over certain documentations related to lawsuits against him.

"The Court finds that Defendants' failure to comply ... is greatly aggravated by [their] consistent pattern of discovery abuse throughout similar cases pending before this Court," Gamble wrote in one of her rulings. "The Court finds that Defendants' discovery conduct in this case is the result of flagrant bad faith and callous disregard for the responsibilities of discovery under the rules."

In 2019, Jones acknowledged the shooting was real during a sworn deposition he made as part of a defamation case brought against him by Sandy Hook victims' families.

Jones' attorney, Brad Reeves, declined to comment when reached by CNN on Thursday, but a statement posted on Infowars from attorney Norm Pattis said the court's decisions were "stunning."

"It takes no account of the tens of thousands of documents produced by the defendants, the hours spent sitting for depositions and the various sworn statements filed in these cases," the statement said. "We are distressed by what we regard as a blatant abuse of discretion by the trial court. We are determined to see that these cases are heard on the merits."

CLASSIC FASCIST AGRUMENT

Reconciliation Day not holiday because Quebec needs more productivity: Legault

Quebec Premier François Legault says the province cannot afford to make the national day honouring victims and survivors of residential schools a statutory holiday

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Legault told reporters today the province needs more "productivity," in response to questions about why Quebec has not officially recognized Sept. 30 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Events are being held across the country — including in Quebec — for the first annual day in honour of lost children and survivors of the country's residential schools, the last of which closed in the mid-1990s.

Provinces such as British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have followed the federal government's lead and made the day a statutory holiday, while others, including Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick, have not.

Later in the day, Legault told reporters it would be too expensive to give Quebecers another paid day off work.

He says Quebecers have a duty to remember how residential schools damaged Indigenous communities, but he says there are less costly ways to commemorate the past.

"To have another statutory holiday — regardless of the subject — is very expensive," Legault said. "I don't think it's necessary to have a cost this high to do this commemoration."

He said all provinces face competitiveness and productivity challenges. "In Quebec, if we look at the number of hours worked per year, there is work to do," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2021.

The Canadian Press

THE REVOLUTION IS AGAINST WORK AND PRODUCTIVITY 

FOR PROFIT

THE ARCTIC HAS MELTED

Royal Canadian Navy ship completes Northwest Passage journey for first time since 1954

Mackenzie Scott CBC

© Royal Canadian Navy HMCS Harry DeWolf is the first Canadian navy ship to complete the Northwest Passage since 1954. The vessel began its voyage in Iqaluit on Aug. 7 and is sailing to its final destination in Vancouver, where it's expected to arrive on Friday.

For the first time since 1954, a Royal Canadian Navy ship has completed the journey through the Northwest Passage.

"It was the longest time a Canadian navy ship has operated in the Arctic in consecutive days in more than 50 years," said Cmdr. Corey Gleason, commanding officer of HMCS Harry DeWolf.

The ship began its voyage in Iqaluit on Aug. 7 and is sailing to its final destination in Vancouver, where it's expected to arrive on Friday.

Although navy ships navigate the Arctic, Gleason said they normally spend only a short time there each year — typically between the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September — because they aren't designed for ice.

However, HMCS Harry DeWolf is a new Canadian navy ship designed specifically for Arctic waters.

"It's an Arctic and offshore patrol vessel.... It's every bit capable of operating in very thick ice ... it's designed to operate anywhere in the world," Gleason said.

Icebreakers normally operate only in icy waters, he said, but this vessel has been designed for a range of conditions —from the dead of winter to anywhere south of the equator.

Gleason said there are about 87 sailors aboard HMCS Harry DeWolf, which is the size of a Canadian football field. He said there are plans to have six more ships like it.
Following path of the Franklin Expedition

When the ship began to make its way through the Northwest Passage, Gleason could have taken one of seven routes.

"In this inaugural trip, I decided to take the route of the Franklin Expedition, really out of the interest of having my sailors experience the hardships of sailors of the past, to get the opportunity to walk in their footsteps, as it were, and to see where the Franklin Expedition had wintered over," Gleason said.

He said he also wanted to "talk about Franklin's decision points, where he may have been successful if he had made some different decisions."

© CBC The approximate locations of where the Franklin Expedition crewmen abandoned ship and where the wrecks were eventually found.

The Franklin Expedition was the ill-fated mission led by explorer John Franklin, who took two ships from England to search for the Northwest Passage in 1845.

The ships, along with Franklin and his 128 crew members, disappeared. The vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were only discovered in 2014 and 2016, respectively, thanks to the help of local Inuit.

'Meaningful commitment to the people of the North'

"The real challenge I had was to spend some time teaching my sailors how to operate up in the Arctic in the very high North. And that included small boat activities," Gleason said.

He said they stopped off at several hamlets, including Pond Inlet, Grise Fiord and Arctic Bay, and visited with leadership and community members, inviting them on board for a tour.

Gleason said the journey aboard HMCS Harry DeWolf wasn't just about completing training exercises and sailing through the Northwest Passage, but about strengthening relationships with communities in the Arctic.

"It was very special for everybody on-board," he said. "These relationships, it's not the last time that we're going to visit and see one another. This is meant to be a meaningful commitment to the people of the North."

Gleason said there is hope that through interactions with some of the youth in the communities, the trip could spark their interest in possibly wanting to join the Canadian navy one day.

He said he has an ambitious plan for the Canadian Rangers — part of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves who work in remote coastal areas of the the North — to expand from operating on land to water.

"They are maritime people. They operate both on land and the sea, and it just makes sense to me that the navy would look to work with the people of the North to learn from them, to work with them and to operate alongside them if they let us," Gleason said.

"And perhaps one day, have a young person from one of the communities up North to even captain one of these ships."

Kenora NDP candidate calls out violent, disturbing incidents on campaign trail

CBC/Radio-Canada 1 day ago

© Supplied by Janine Seymour Janine Seymour is calling for more measures to keep women running for office safe after a number of incidents during the 2021 federal election. Seymour ran for the NDP in the Kenora riding won by the Conservative incumbent.

The NDP candidate for Kenora, Ont., says she experienced a number of disturbing incidents during the last federal campaign, and is now calling for safe spaces for women running for office.

"I really wanted to be respectful and mindful that people were coming out into community settings for the first time," said Janine Seymour, a lawyer who lost her MP bid to Conservative incumbent Eric Melillo in the Sept. 20 vote.

"There was a lot of anxiety, and I did talk to the other candidates early on because I received a lot and I wanted to check in with their experience," she said. "And they also said it was a very violent election."

Seymour said one of the more notable incidents she experienced was when she was groped while canvassing at a public event.

"This was by somebody engaging in conversation with myself, and rubbed himself and touched me," she said.

Seymour also described being "spooked" by a conversation she had with a resident about gun control while she was campaigning with her children. In addition, she said, some of her campaign signs were vandalized.

Seymour said she decided not to involve the police in any of the incidents, a decision that, based on her experience as an Indigenous person and a lawyer, she doesn't regret.

"You need to acknowledge that that's not the first instinct for people, and that was not my first instinct at all, because of ... having experiences where you've turned to police, authorities, and it hasn't gone in the way that you had hoped," she said. "You were almost retraumatized, and I've had that personally here in this town, too.

"It took the people I was canvassing with to call that out because as a native woman, you are subjected to these things where again, it's not OK, but it's almost normalized or accepted, which is not at all where we should be headed to."

Seymour said it's important that women feel safe when running for elected office.

"It is so important that this other perspective, these other voices, other narrative gets heard," she said. "We've had a long history, 150-year history, here of the same narrative, and it's been through one lens."
Abuse against women candidates common, group says

Anne Antenucci, co-chair of Women in Politics — a Thunder Bay-based organization that encourages and trains women who are interested in running for office — said Seymour's experiences are indicative of what other women running in the 2021 election encountered.

"It was a great thing to see so many women, and a record number of women, putting their name forward, especially in this region," Antenucci said. "The flip side of that, however, is those same women and those same people of colour, they received an enormous amount of abuse, both in person and online."

Antenucci said her organization heard from campaign workers who were insulted, or had objects thrown at them, while campaigning door to door. A woman in the Thunder Bay area was reportedly pushed off a doorstep.

"One woman had dogs set on her," Antenucci said. "She was a Black woman."

Others received abusive messages through social media, she said.

And while social media abuse, particularly towards women, has long been a problem, Antenucci said the 2021 election was different.

"This campaign in particular, it seems to have left the computer screen and moved into the general public, and that's where it gets scary," she said. "And as women, sometimes you have to be careful, because you don't want to be labelled as that girl who complains all the time.

"There is that connotation because you have to be tough, and you have to be 10 times better than a man who's running for the same position."
'They need to call it out'

Antenucci said there's no easy answer, but people calling out abuse when they see it is an important step.

"If men see another man doing it, they need to call it out," she said.

"I can't think of any other way to do it. I'm hopeful that perhaps the next generation will be different, but other than that, there isn't really a way that I can can see that this is going to stop."

Antenucci said she's fearful that something tragic will end up happening.

"It might take something like that to shock people."

Antenucci said Women in Politics expects a record number of women to run in the next municipal election, and the organization will be hosting a number of fireside chats about social media leading up to the race.

One of those chats, she said, will focus on social media.

"How to conduct yourself, what to do, how to handle things such as this, the best way that you can," Antenucci said. "We need the electorate to look like a constituents. It's the only way things are going to change."

Beth MacLean, who won human rights case for people with disabilities, dies at age 50

HALIFAX — Beth MacLean, a Nova Scotia woman with intellectual disabilities who won a landmark human rights case forcing the province to provide her with a home in the community, has died.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

An obituary says the 50-year-old died peacefully on Sept. 24 at the Dartmouth General Hospital.

MacLean was one of three people with intellectual disabilities who were required to live in a Halifax hospital ward for years before advocates helped them launch a human rights case to live with the help of support workers in a small home in the community — referred to as a small options home.

In 2019, a human rights board of inquiry determined the three had suffered discrimination individually; however, it rejected arguments that placement in small options homes is broadly applicable to people with disabilities.

Small options homes are defined by the province as homes in residential areas for up to four people with disabilities, where they receive care and other necessary support.

The board of inquiry ruling determined the province violated the rights of MacLean, Joseph Delaney and the late Sheila Livingstone — who died before the hearing ended — because they were held at the Emerald Hall psychiatric unit in Halifax despite opinions from doctors and staff that they could live in the community.

Marty Wexler, the chairman of the Disability Rights Coalition in Nova Scotia, said in an email Wednesday he was saddened to hear of MacLean's death and extended the coalition's condolences to her family, support workers and "all who assisted Beth in her fight for her dream of a life in the community with others."

"After decades of struggle and unnecessary institutionalization in which Beth was forced to fight her own government, she achieved her dream of life in the community," he wrote.

"Her human rights case provides an important precedent for the many hundreds of others who are unnecessarily deprived of the opportunity to live in the community. Her experience, one would hope, will push the provincial government to do the right thing and enable others to live in the community and avoid the struggle and hardship that Beth endured to get the life she wanted."

During the hearing, MacLean's lawyers argued that a 1995 provincial moratorium on the creation of small options homes — which the province later lifted — was a conscious decision by governments to restrict access to services.

In his 2019 ruling, however, board chairman Walter Thompson didn't accept that the province generally discriminated against people with disabilities who reside in hospitals, in large institutions, or who are on a waiting list for placement in small options homes.

The coalition appealed the portion of the board of inquiry decision in which Thompson rejected the claim of systemic discrimination. The province has also appealed the findings of discrimination against MacLean, Delaney and Livingstone.

The various parties are awaiting the Court of Appeal decision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2021.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press