#OUTLAWHOMEWORK

China passes law to reduce pressure on children from homework

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

China has passed a new law to limit the pressure on children from homework and after-school tutoring Hector RETAMAL AFP

Beijing (AFP)

The government has imposed several rules in recent months aimed at combating activities it considers harmful to the development of China's youth.

Beijing has already banned minors from playing online games for more than three hours a week in an effort to tackle addiction. It has also launched a crackdown on private tutoring companies, ordering them to go non-profit.

Local authorities will be told to "strengthen their supervision in order to reduce the burden on students in terms of homework and extra-curricular lessons", said news agency Xinhua, citing a law passed by the Chinese legislature.

"Parents... must allocate in a reasonable way for minors the time devoted to studies, rest, entertainment and physical activity in order not to increase their learning load and to avoid any internet addiction."

The law will come into force on January 1 next year.

China's exam-oriented education system requires students to take exams from an early age and culminates in the feared university entrance exam at age 18 known as the "gaokao", where a single score can determine a child's life trajectory.

Many parents spend a fortune to enrol their children in the best schools or private lessons, which takes a toll on both their finances and the health of the youngsters.

Reducing the pressure on parents is also seen as a way to encourage Chinese people to have more children as the country's population ages.

© 2021 AFP

#BANBLASPHEMYLAWS
Deadly clashes as banned Pakistan party continues protest

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

TLP supporters use mobile phone flashlights during their protest march towards Islamabad on Friday Arif ALI AFP


Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP)

On Friday more than 1,000 people from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) gathered after prayers to demand the release of their detained leader, blocking roads and firing projectiles.

The protests continued on Saturday.

The TLP has previously been behind major anti-France protests that earlier this year led to the embassy issuing a warning for all French citizens to leave the country.

"Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan lost two people Friday night and three more today to police firing," the party tweeted on Saturday.

Police in Lahore would not comment on the claim, but on Friday night said two of its officers had died.

"The clashes are still ongoing," Rana Arif, a spokesman for Lahore police, told AFP.

"This is a defensive operation by police against the mob... We are only doing shelling to control the crowd."

TLP leader Saad Rizvi was arrested in April when Pakistan's government outlawed the party in response to violent anti-France protests.

Supporters have threatened to move in convoys towards the capital Islamabad, where police have closed off roads using shipping containers.

The party has vowed not to end the protests or enter talks with the government until their leader is released.

Interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who had been in Dubai to watch Pakistan compete in the T20 cricket World Cup, returned home on Prime Minister Imran Khan's directive to monitor the situation.

The TLP has waged an anti-France campaign since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed -- an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Six police officers were killed in April when the TLP staged days of rallies which paralysed roads.

Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite most of the country's warring political parties.

© 2021 AFP

French football star Patrice Evra says he was sexually abused as a teen

Issued on: 23/10/2021

Former France defender Patrice Evra has said he was sexually abused as a teenager. 

© Yann Buxeda

Text by :NEWS WIRES

Former Manchester United and France defender Patrice Evra has said he was sexually abused as a teenager. In an interview to publicise his new autobiography, Evra told The Times on Friday the abuse took place when he was a 13-year-old schoolboy.

The now 40-year-old Evra said that far more difficult than detailing the abuse in his autobiography or speaking about it in an interview, was telling his mother for the first time.

"Of course, she was devastated," he told The Times. "It was a tough moment for me. I have still to tell a few of my brothers and sisters and close friends."

Evra said he had decided to make a public revelation in order to help children who may be in a similar situation.

"I don't want people to feel pity," he explained. "It's a difficult situation.

"A mother does not expect to hear this from their own child...

"Only now when I am 40 years old do I tell her. It was a big shock for her. A lot of anger. She said she was sorry.

"She said: 'You must not put it in your book, it's private Patrice,' but that's when I say, mum, it's not about me, it's about other kids then she says OK, she understands."

Evra added he did not plan to take legal action against his alleged assailant.

"The first thing my mum says is, 'if you don't sue him, I'll sue him. If he's still alive, I'm going to kill him'...But I buried this thing so deep I didn't think about (prosecution)."

Evra also told The Times that when he was 24 and playing for Monaco, he received a call from police regarding accusations against his alleged abuser but that he felt unable to tell them what had happened to him.

"Living with that was one of my biggest regrets because I could have helped so many people," he added.

(AFP)

Trapped in 'cruel' forest, migrant 

 REFUGEE regrets Belarus-EU crossing

"I refuse to die at the border. I just want to see my mum."

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

Lebanese barber Ali Abd Alwareth is stuck in a border forest after Belarus told him: "You have only two choices: either you die here or you die in Poland

" Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

Kleszczele (Poland) (AFP)

"It's miserable. Something that you don't wish for your worst enemy... A nightmare," the soft-spoken 24-year-old with Crohn's disease told AFP.

Sitting cross-legged on a bed of pine needles and dead leaves near the border town of Kleszczele in eastern Poland, Abd Alwareth described being a ping-pong ball for the guards.

"I tried crossing like five, six times, and every time I got caught and deported back to the border" by Poland, he said in English.

The Belarusian side meanwhile refused to let him return to Minsk to fly home.

Abd Alwareth said security forces told him: "You have only two choices: either you die here or you die in Poland. That's it."

One of thousands of migrants -- mostly from the Middle East -- who have tried to penetrate the 400-kilometre (250-mile) border since August, Abd Alwareth said he left the financial crisis in Lebanon in search of a better life.

The whole journey from his home region of Bekaa cost $4,000 and involved help from a Minsk-based company he found on social media.

The EU suspects Belarus is masterminding the unprecedented influx of migrants into Poland as a form of retaliation against EU sanctions, but the regime has put the blame on the West.

'I feel like a puppet'

Poland has sent thousands of troops, built a razor-wire fence and implemented a three-month state of emergency that bans journalists and charity workers along the immediate border area.

Though "exhausted" and "devastated," Abd Alwareth said he understood that the border guards "are doing their job" 

Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

During his gruelling time in the woods, Abd Alwareth said he drank water off of leaves, was too cold to sleep, and was once hit on the head by either the Polish army or police.

Though "exhausted" and "devastated," he said he understood that the border guards "are doing their job. They are protecting their country. We are illegal."

On Friday, Abd Alwareth and his Syrian walking companions managed to get in touch with Polish activists, who met them in the forest with warm clothes and food as well as offering support when the guards arrived.

His fate up in the air, Abd Alwareth hopes to receive asylum in Poland -- or at the very least, to return to Lebanon.

"Okay, you don't want me here, you don't want me in Belarus. Just deport me back home. That's all I'm asking for," he said.

"What is happening in the forest is cruel... I feel like a puppet. It was my decision, I came this way -- but not to be treated like this," he added.

"I refuse to die at the border. I just want to see my mum."

© 2021 AFP

ISLAMIST FASCIST DICTATOR ERDOGAN
Turkey's Erdogan orders expulsion of 10 ambassadors

Issued on: 23/10/2021 -

Osman Kavala has become a symbol for Erdogan's intolerance of dissent 

OZAN KOSE AFP/File

Ankara (AFP)

The envoys issued a highly unusual joint statement on Monday saying the continued detention of Parisian-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala "cast a shadow" over Turkey.

The escalating row with the Western countries -- most of which are also NATO allies -- caps a torrid week for Turkey in which it was added to a global money-laundering and terrorism-financing blacklist and its currency plunged over fears of economic mismanagement and the risk of hyperinflation.

"I have ordered our foreign minister to declare these 10 ambassadors as persona non grata as soon as possible," Erdogan said, using a diplomatic term meaning the first step before expulsion.

"They must leave here the day they no longer know Turkey," he said, accusing them of "indecency".

The Western ambassadors had called for a "just and speedy resolution" to Kavala's case.
'President-made crisis'

Kavala, 64, has been in jail without a conviction since 2017, and faces a string of charges linked to 2013 anti-government protests and a failed military coup in 2016.

In comments about the ambassadors published in local media on Thursday, Erdogan said "we cannot have the luxury of hosting them in our country".

The Turkish lira extended its fall into record-low territory against the dollar within moments of Erdogan's comments on fears of a new wave of Turkish tensions with the West.

The lira has lost one-fifth of its value against the dollar since the start of the year and the annual inflation rate has reached nearly 20 percent -- quadruple the government target.

Erdogan is in danger of "dragging the Turkish economy into a president-made crisis", Eurasia Group said.

The diplomatic friction was compounded when the global financial misconduct watchdog FATF followed through on threats to place Turkey under surveillance for failing to properly combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

Turkey joins a "grey list" of countries that includes Syria, South Sudan and Yemen.

Erdogan had fought hard against the designation, introducing new legislation that was ostensibly aimed to fight terror networks -- but which critics said ended up mostly targeted Turkish NGOs that promote pro-Kurdish causes and human rights.

Although not well known internationally, Kavala has become a symbol to his supporters of the sweeping crackdown Erdogan unleashed after surviving the 2016 coup attempt.

Speaking to AFP from his jail cell last week, Kavala said he felt like a tool in Erdogan's attempts to blame a foreign plot for domestic opposition to his nearly two-decade rule.

"The real reason behind my continued detention is that it addresses the need of the government to keep alive the fiction that the (2013) Gezi protests were the result of a foreign conspiracy," Kavala said.

"Since I am accused of being a part of this conspiracy allegedly organised by foreign powers, my release would weaken the fiction in question and this is not something that the government would like."

Kavala was acquitted of the Gezi charges in February 2020, only to be re-arrested before he could return home and thrown back in jail over alleged links to the 2016 coup plot.

The Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog, has issued a final warning to Turkey to comply with a 2019 European Court of Human Rights order to release Kavala pending trial.

If Turkey fails to do so by its next meeting on November 30-December 2, the Strasbourg-based council could vote to launch its first disciplinary proceedings against Ankara.

The proceedings could result in the suspension of Turkey's voting rights and even its membership.

© 2021 AFP

BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID

Russia puts jail torture video whistleblower on wanted list

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

Whistleblower Savelyev is now a wanted man in Russia 

Ursula HYZY AFP/File

Moscow (AFP)

Moscow on Saturday put a former prison inmate seeking asylum in France on a wanted list after he leaked harrowing videos of alleged rape and torture inside a Russian prison.

According to a notice published on the Russian interior ministry's website, Sergei Savelyev -- a Belarus national -- is wanted in connection with an unspecified criminal case.

Savelyev smuggled shocking footage of abuse out of a jail in the central city of Saratov. Fearing reprisals, he fled Russia in February and last week arrived in France, where he asked for asylum.

While serving 7.5 years for drug trafficking, he worked as an IT maintenance officer, earning access to the prison's internal server and those of other jails, where he found several videos.

He saved them on a USB stick that he hid near the prison exit.

Some of the videos were then published by the Russian rights group Gulagu.net, prompting an official probe and the sacking of several officials.

Savelyev said that while the interior ministry did not provide details of why he was wanted, he thought it was for "leaking state secrets".

"They are going down the only path they know, the path of force," he said in a video from France published by Gulagu.net

Russian authorities are trying "to shut my mouth."

"It's a shame that instead of using the time to reform the system and investigate all this terrible evidence we gave them, they are trying to hide the truth," he added.

Torture and sexual violence inflicted on inmates have long been systemic in Russia's vast penitentiary system, prison monitors say, but the videos have cast new light on such abuses.

A prison guard with a dog is seen near an entrance to the IK-2 male correctional facility in the town of Pokrov, Russia on October 8, 2021. © Tatyana Makeyeva, Reuters

(AFP)

MISOGYNISTIC FEMICIDE BY HUSBAND
Mourners, athletes demand justice for Kenyan star runner Agnes Tirop at funeral

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

Kenyan athletes and other mourners throw flowers towards the coffin in memory of star runner Agnes Tirop during her funeral service on October 23, 2021. © Monicah Mwangi, Reuters\
Text by: NEWS WIRES

Olympic running greats came together on Saturday to bid farewell to rising Kenyan star Agnes Tirop, whose murder earlier this month sent shockwaves across the nation and the athletics world.

A double world championships bronze medallist tipped for future stardom on the track, Tirop was buried in a white casket in central Kenya on what would have been her 26th birthday.

Her body was found on October 13 with stab wounds in the bedroom of her home in Iten, a high-altitude training hub for top-class athletes.

Tirop's husband appeared in court this week as a suspect in her killing after being arrested and remanded in custody.

Among the mourners gathered in Mosoriot, Tirop's childhood village about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Eldoret, were two-time Kenyan Olympic champion David Rudisha and fellow gold medallists Joshua Cheptegei and Peruth Chemutai of Uganda.

Many in the congregation wore the signature red shirts of Athletics Kenya, which described Tirop as a "jewel" and one of the fastest-rising stars on the international running circuit.

Her death sparked outpourings of grief and condolences from Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, but also anger at a life taken so young.

Impassioned speakers at her funeral demanded swift justice for Tirop, and huge crowds marched in Eldoret on Friday calling for an end to violence against women.

Tirop's death has thrown a spotlight on the pressures faced by the country's female athletes who pay a huge -- and often tragic -- price for their spectacular success in a male-dominated society.

"The injustice against female athletes here in Kenya is a threat to all of us athletes all over the world," said Olympic 5000 metres champion Cheptegei.

"We are here in solidarity to show that we condemn such acts in such a manner."

Athletics Kenya announced on Saturday that the Kenyan leg of the World Cross Country Tour would be named after Tirop.

Born to a peasant farming family, Tirop launched her athletics career less than a decade ago but swiftly ran up a host of second-place finishes in national and international cross country races.

She went on to become one of Kenya's rising stars -- as the 2015 world cross-country champion, a two-time world medallist over 10000m, and came fourth over 5000m at the Tokyo Olympics this year.

(AFP)

‘Salvini’s moment has passed’: Fading champion of Italy’s right wing on trial for migrant kidnapping



Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

Matteo Salvini pictured outside the court in Palermo, Sicily on October 23, 2021. 

© Gregorio Borgia, AP

Text by:  Benjamin DODMAN


Italy’s former hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini went on trial Saturday over his refusal to let a migrant rescue ship dock in August 2019, leaving some 147 people stranded at sea for days. The trial comes at a critical time for the far-right leader, whose fortunes have declined sharply since the dramatic stand-off.

The firebrand former minister appeared in a court in Palermo, accused of kidnapping 147 migrants on board the Open Arms rescue ship, most of whom were left at sea for 18 gruelling days in sweltering heat. Salvini, whose far-right League party takes a hard line on immigration, has said he was only doing his job to protect Italy’s borders by refusing entry to the Spanish NGO ship.

Saturday's hearing was largely procedural and lasted less than three hours, before the presiding judge set the next session for December 17. Salvini tweeted a photo of himself inside the courtroom, mocking a “trial wanted by the left and by the fans of illegal immigration”.

Activists are hoping the court case will set a legal precedent, sending a warning to governments that hinder search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean. The trial could also have major implications for Italian politics, potentially dealing a fatal blow to Salvini’s political career – or offering a platform for him to reverse a slump in the polls and fend off challengers on the far right.

The case against Salvini

Palermo prosecutors have accused Salvini of kidnapping, abuse of power and dereliction of duty for keeping the migrants at sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa for almost three weeks even as conditions on board sharply deteriorated. Some people threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain repeatedly pleaded for a safe port. Eventually, after an 18-day ordeal, an Italian judge overruled the interior minister and the remaining migrants still aboard the ship were allowed to disembark.

Prosecutors say Salvini’s actions violated “international conventions governing maritime rescue and, more generally, the protection of human life”. They say the interior minister ignored instructions from the prime minister’s office urging him to at least allow the minors on board the ship to disembark.

Salvini’s prosecution was made possible by a Senate vote that stripped the former minister of his parliamentary immunity, paving the way for a trial. He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is found guilty.

The defence: A ‘sacred duty’

Salvini claims he was protecting the country as part of his "closed ports" policy, which aimed to stop people from attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Italy. When the trial was announced earlier this year, he tweeted that defending the country was the “sacred duty” of every Italian. “I’m going on trial for this, for having defended my country?” he asked. “I’ll go with my head held high.”

At the time of the Open Arms incident, Salvini was part of a coalition government in which he simultaneously held the positions of interior minister and deputy prime minister. He has argued that his migrant policy was not his alone but was approved by the government, including by former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, whom he has called as a witness in the trial.

In a boost for the defence, a court in Catania earlier this year dismissed a related case in which Salvini was accused of blocking other migrants on board the Italian coastguard boat Gregoretti. The prosecutor in that case argued that Salvini was carrying out government policy agreed by other cabinet members when he kept the 116 migrants at sea for five days.

The witnesses: Top officials and a Hollywood star

Twenty-three civil parties, including the Spanish-based NGO Open Arms and nine migrants who were on board the ship, are represented in the trial. In addition to Conte, high-profile witnesses summoned to testify include Salvini’s successor at the interior ministry, Luciana Lamorgese, and the current foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, who also served as deputy PM at the time.

Plans for actor Richard Gere to give testimony have attracted greater attention, with Salvini deriding a “show trial”. The Hollywood star, known as a campaigner for Tibet and other human rights issues, boarded the Open Arms ship in August 2019 to support the migrants – a visit mocked by Salvini at the time.

Hollywood icon Richard Gere helps to serve meals to migrants aboard the Open Arms ship on August 9, 2019. © Francisco Gentico, AP

"You tell me how serious a trial is where Richard Gere will come from Hollywood to testify about my nastiness," Salvini told journalists outside the courtroom on Saturday. "I hope it lasts as short a time as possible because there are more important things to take care of."

Salvini had previously quipped that he would ask Gere for an autograph for his mother.

Political implications: ‘Salvini’s moment has passed’

While the port stand-off two years ago dominated headlines in Italy for weeks, the trial’s opening has attracted surprisingly little attention in the Italian media. The contrast reflects both Salvini’s declining fortunes and the public’s fatigue with the subject, says Luca Tomini, a professor of political science at the Université libre de Bruxelles, describing the trial as “an echo of something Italians have put behind them”.

Salvini’s standing has suffered a sharp decline since he pulled the rug on an uneasy coalition government with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement in August 2019, soon after the Open Arms incident. His far-right League party was sailing high in the polls at the time, and Salvini hoped to trigger a snap election. But the move backfired when rival parties agreed to form a coalition, shutting out the League. Since then Salvini has been overtaken on the right by another far-right outfit, Brothers of Italy, and a shellacking at the hands of left-wing parties in municipal elections last week confirmed the League’s dramatic slump.

“This is an extremely difficult time for Salvini, whose leadership of the right is in crisis,” Tomini told FRANCE 24. “Salvini will be hoping to use the trial as a platform, a chance to revive his flagging political fortunes in the event of a non-guilty verdict. [But] for the time being, the leading party on the right is Giovanna Meloni’s Brothers of Italy. Salvini’s moment has passed.”

\

If convicted, Salvini could face a maximum of 15 years in prison Pau Barrena AFP

The broader picture: EU migration policy ‘in the dock’

While stoking the nationalist sentiment of his supporters, Salvini’s hard line on immigration was designed to address the grievances of many Italians who felt abandoned by the European Union. It was part of a tussle with Italy’s EU partners aimed at forcing them to take in a larger share of migrants arriving in Italy. During the stand-off, Salvini repeatedly brandished an opinion poll suggesting that two-thirds of Italians backed his stance.

The interior minister also argued that humanitarian rescue ships were only encouraging migrant traffickers in North Africa and that his policy saved lives by discouraging further risky trips across the Mediterranean – a claim experts say is not borne out by evidence.

On the other side of the aisle, Open Arms has also said it plans to use the Salvini trial as a platform to criticise the EU’s migration policy. Ahead of the proceedings, the Barcelona-based NGO tweeted: “In the court dock with [Salvini] will also be the deadly migration policy of the [EU], which has caused and continues to cause thousands of innocent victims in the Mediterranean

THE PRIMACY OF ARBITRATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Health care worker fired for drinking can't challenge termination using Human Rights Code: Supreme Court

CBC/Radio-Canada 

© Justin Tang/The Canadian Press The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that disputes between a unionized employee and their employer that are covered by a collective agreement must be settled by a labor arbitrator under the Labour Relations Act.

A Manitoba health care worker who was fired from her job for drinking alcohol cannot challenge her termination under her province's Human Rights Code, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

The ruling sided with the employer's argument that disputes between a unionized employee and an employer on an issue covered by a collective agreement can only be settled by a labour arbitrator working with both parties.

The ruling is significant and has ramifications across the country because the human rights codes and labour relations acts of many provinces are based on similar principles of law.

This case stems from the 2011 suspension and subsequent firing of Linda Horrocks from a personal care home run by the Northern Regional Health Authority in Flin Flon, Man.

Horrocks, who suffered from alcohol dependence — a disability recognized by her employer, her union's collective agreement and Manitoba's Human Rights Code — was suspended from work for being intoxicated.

The health authority offered Horrocks her job back providing she agreed to a total abstinence from alcohol. She refused to sign the agreement, saying it discriminated against her based on her recognized disability, and was fired as a result.

Horrocks grieved her termination to the union and in 2012 she struck a deal allowing her to return to work providing she abstained from drinking, sought counselling and submitted to random alcohol tests.

When her employer received reports that Horrocks was intoxicated outside of work, she denied drinking. But her employer told her that those "denials are not believed," concluded that she was in breach of her agreement to abstain from alcohol and fired her.

Rather than filing another grievance with her employer, Horrocks brought her complaint to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, where an adjudicator ruled that she had been discriminated against based on her disability.

The adjudicator ordered the health authority to rehire Horrocks and compensate her with lost wages and $10,000 for injury to her "dignity, feelings and self respect."

The health authority objected to the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Commission and a court agreed, ruling that a labour arbitrator had jurisdiction in the case. Horrocks had that decision overturned at the court of appeal, which ruled in 2017 that both the commission and a labour arbitrator had jurisdiction in the case and sent it back to the lower court judge.

The health authority appealed that decision to the top court where six of the justices that heard the case sided with Horrocks' employer, ruling that the Labour Relations Act trumps the Human Rights Code in this case.

"The [labour] arbitrator's jurisdiction under the Labour Relations Act over claims that arise, in their essential character, from the interpretation, application, or alleged violation of the collective agreement is exclusive and, more particularly, exclusive of the [Human Rights] Commission," the judgment said.

"In its essential character, Ms. Horrocks' complaint alleges a violation of the collective agreement, and thus falls squarely within the [labour] arbitrator's mandate."

The ruling means that the decision by the province's Human Rights Commission requiring Horrocks to be reinstated has no legal standing.

Horrocks' lawyer Paul Champ told CBC News in an email that he is disappointed with the ruling — which he said "slams the door of human rights tribunals to unionized employees with discrimination claims" — but appreciates that the country's top court saw the issue differently.

Champ said that Horrocks, now 64 and working in retail, was disappointed that the case was dismissed and that the decision under the Human Rights Code has been set aside.

"The court left the door open that a grievance still might be considered by the employer in the circumstances, and we are going to get in touch with the union to see if they will file a grievance now," he said.

Rethinking the Civic Imagination & Manufactured Ignorance in the Post Pandemic World - Noam Chomsky

Oct 13, 2021

McMaster Humanities

The Wilson Institute for Canadian History and the Center for Scholarship in the Public Interest is pleased to present 

Noam Chomsky

"Rethinking the Civic Imagination and Manufactured Ignorance in the Post Pandemic World." 

Monday, 4 October, 2021 at 7 p.m. 

This is a joint project sponsored by Dr. Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University and Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest and Dr. Ian McKay, L.R. Wilson Chair in Canadian History, Professor of History.