Bill seeks to improve healthcare access for urban American Indians

By Yiming Fu, Medill News Service

President Joe Biden participates remotely in a Tribal Nations Summit from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15, speaking with tribal leaders and announcing a number of steps to improve public safety and justice for Native Americans. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE


WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A proposed amendment to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act is intended to improve healthcare access for American Indians who live urban areas, its advocates say.

The Urban Indian Health Confer Act would require the Department of Health and Human Services to consult with the 41 Indian organizations -- nonprofits governed by Native Americans -- on healthcare policies for the 2.8 million American Indians and Alaskan Natives who live in urban areas.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-N.M., and co-sponsored by 19 members of the House. It passed the House on Nov. 2 and awaits Senate action.

Roughly 70 percent of American Indians and Alaskan Natives live in urban areas and face inequities in healthcare access because the the Department of Health and Human Services is not required to consult with the urban organizations when it creates policies that impact urban Indians, Grijalva said.

American Indians began to move to urban areas after the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 was enacted. The act incentivized American Indians and Alaskan Natives to live in urban areas by promising housing, jobs and healthcare.

Other American Indians have moved off reservation lands to pursue higher education and employment opportunities.

According to the Department of the Interior, the United States has a trust obligation to provide American Indians with healthcare, education and welfare in exchange for settling Native lands. This trust responsibility also follows individuals once they leave reservation land.

Limited healthcare options

Yet, for many American Indians who move off tribal land, healthcare options are limited.

For Grijalva, the Urban Indian Health Confer Act would improve parity between urban Natives and American Indians living on tribal lands.

"Passage of the Urban Indian Health Confer Act will provide urban Indian health organizations with a critical role in planning and decision making for Alaska Natives and American Indians. I look forward to working with my counterparts in the Senate to get this bill over the finish line and onto the president's desk," Grijalva said in a Nov. 2 press release.

Sunny Stevenson (Walker River Paiute), the federal relations director for the National Council of Urban Indian Health, said Urban Indian organizations are under-resourced, underfunded and not found at all in all metropolitan areas.

Stevenson said the bill supporting urban Indians will not cut into IHS funding and will not disadvantage Indians living on reservations.

"An urban confer policy with any part of the administration does not conflict, supplant or undermine any tribal consultation or government to government relationship," Stevenson said.

Monumental benefits

RoxAnne Unabia (Chippewa), executive director of the American Indian Health Service of Chicago, said benefits of the confer act would be monumental.

"We're hoping through urban confer, we're able to explain and discuss with Congress how severely funds are needed for urban natives," Unabia said. "I have so many people who are opting to pay for their heat versus coming in for a visit."

With additional funding, Unabia hopes to hire specialists, such as rheumatologists and cardiologists, to come into the clinic to better assist urban Indians.

American Indians are disproportionately affected by health problems, including lower life expectancies and higher rates of chronic disease, such as diabetes, according to the Indian Health Service.

Unabia said the clinic has to outsource appointments, meaning urban natives pay more and wait longer. Additional funding also could bring down co-pays for medications, which many of her patients cannot afford.

"Our patients have to decide between paying utilities, paying rent and buying prescriptions. And they want to keep living in their homes. They want a roof over their heads and their families' heads," she said.

Lack health insurance

Unabia said 40% of her patients are uninsured because they don't qualify for Medicare and Medicaid, and many urban Natives do not have health insurance.

"When families were on the reservation, we were always told it's part of your treaty right to receive health care," Unabia said. "But the U.S. government has never fully fulfilled any treaty obligations."

For Stevenson, an urban confer would be the first step toward improving urban Indian health, but confers need to be monitored to prove successful. She said it's important for Urban Indian Organizations to complete a satisfaction survey after conferring with a federal agency. Then, the urban Indian organization's feedback should be made public immediately.

"If the administration's interested in furthering transparency, staying accountable, and being held to a high standard, it's important that they release those survey results as they come," Stevenson said.

A confer would become nearly useless, Stevenson said, if federal agencies don't respond promptly. She recommended a deadline of 30 to 60 days.

Stevenson said federal agencies also will need to establish a point person to communicate with Urban Indian organizations. The point person should not only relay information but also be in a position to affect change, she added.

"If you have people on there that are just there to listen and relay information, that's really insufficient," Stevenson said. "You need to have people there who can agree to make commitments on behalf of Indians."

Bill marks 'final step' in San Jacinto land exchange between federal government, Agua Caliente


Tom Coulter, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Mon, November 22, 2021, 1:57 PM·3 min read

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians soon could be expanding the land that it manages in Southern California. A pair of bills in Congress aim to wrap up a land exchange between the tribe and the federal government that has been more than two decades in the making.

California’s U.S senators plan to introduce a bill that would place roughly 2,560 acres of tribal land in the San Jacinto Mountains into trust for the Agua Caliente, a step the tribe’s chairman says will boost conservation and land management efforts in the area.

U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, said Monday they will introduce the bill in the Senate, with U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, who introduced a nearly identical bill in February, leading the effort in the House.


By placing the hundreds of acres of land into a trust, lawmakers say the bill would fulfill a 1999 tribal agreement with the Bureau of Land Management to exchange lands within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, which comprises a total of about 280,000 acres of public land.

A land exchange for these particular parcels, which cover a remote area of the mountain region, was finalized in March 2019, and the transferred areas "will be managed as conservation land similar to how it was managed by the BLM," according to Padilla's office.

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Tribal Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe socializes during Agua Caliente's annual Singing of the Birds event held at Palm Springs High School in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, February 1, 2020.

The bill had the support of Jeff Grubbe, Agua Caliente's tribal chairman for the past nine years, who said it “represents the final step in bringing approximately 2,560 acres of land owned by the Tribe into trust for the Tribe and making those lands part of the Reservation.”

“These lands, when brought into trust, will improve land management that directly benefits ongoing management of trails, invasive species and endangered Big Horn Sheep habitat,” Grubbe said in a statement. “In addition, this trust taking means the Tribe will now manage conservation lands that have long-standing cultural and natural resource value to our people.”

Grubbe added it is “imperative this land be expeditiously brought into tribal trust status to ensure the Tribe once again is the primary steward of land for the benefit of all future generations.”

Others involved with the bill also pushed for it to be passed quickly by federal lawmakers. Padilla said in a statement he looks forward “to advocating for its swift enactment” by Congress.

“For generations, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have lived in what is now known as Coachella Valley and the San Jacinto mountains,” Padilla said. “Enactment of this legislation would culminate a decades-long endeavor between the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the federal government to finally allow the Tribe to manage lands of cultural and historical importance to the Cahuilla people.”

Feinstein, who encouraged the bill’s “swift passage,” noted the legislation prohibits any gaming on the parcels.

“The parcel of land in the San Jacinto Mountains was consolidated in a 1999 land exchange agreement with the Bureau of Land Management but was not placed in trust — this bill rectifies that oversight,” Feinstein said.

The Agua Caliente reservation dates back to 1876, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed an executive order setting aside land for the tribe. The reservation lies in a checkerboard pattern over parts of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and into the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains.

It is unclear whether the bill from Padilla and Feinstein could be considered before Congress adjourns for a holiday break in a few weeks. Ruiz’s bill introduced in February had yet to receive a floor vote in the House as of Monday.

Tom Coulter covers politics. He can be reached at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com or on Twitter @tomcoulter_.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Bill would conclude San Jacinto land exchange for Agua Caliente tribe

HYPOCRITE

Philippines presidential hopeful Pacquiao says he was 'naive' drug user



Known for his rags-to-riches rise from street kid to world champion boxer, Manny Pacquiao has made fighting drugs, corruption and poverty key themes of his presidential campaign

 (AFP/JAM STA ROSA)

Allison JACKSON
Mon, November 22, 2021

Philippines presidential hopeful Manny Pacquiao says he was "naive" and ignorant of the law when he took crystal meth in his youth, but argues offenders today know drugs are illegal and should be punished.

Pacquiao, a retired world champion boxer, has been a high-profile backer of President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs that has killed thousands of people.

But in the lead up to the 2022 elections, Pacquiao has sought to distance himself from the outgoing Duterte, who is facing an international probe into his bloody crackdown, and now says offenders should have a "chance to defend themselves".

"We have to put in jail those who are using drugs, selling drugs -- that's what the law says," he told AFP, vowing to continue the anti-narcotics campaign "in the right way".

"Before, I'm naive, that's why I use drugs... I don't know the law," said Pacquiao, 42, who currently holds a seat in the Senate and previously served two terms in Congress.

Nowadays, "people, they know already that the law is not allowing the illegal drugs."

Pacquiao shocked the sporting world in 2016 when he admitted using marijuana and shabu, the local name for cheap and highly addictive crystal meth, as a teenager.

Known for his rags-to-riches rise from street kid to one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers of all time, Pacquiao has made fighting drugs, corruption and poverty key themes of his campaign to succeed Duterte.

- 'Man of Destiny' -

While victory for Pacquiao is not unrealistic in a country famed for its celebrity-obsessed politics, he faces a tough fight.

A leaked survey conducted in October by respected polling outfit Social Weather Stations reportedly showed Pacquiao in fourth place with just nine percent of voter support.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the nation's former dictator, was the top preference for president with 47 percent.

He was followed by incumbent vice president and leading opposition candidate Leni Robredo (18 percent) and celebrity mayor Francisco Domagoso (13 percent).

Sitting in front of a teleprompter in his luxury mansion in the capital Manila, Pacquiao dismissed his poor showing and insisted his "Man of Destiny" campaign for the top job would go on.

"I'm not thinking about backing out," he said, as a bevy of staff hovered around his home in a secured enclave of billionaires and foreign ambassadors.

"The people will choose... I know that the people want change in this country, they want to stop this corruption, they want to have a prosperous country and they want jobs."

Fans in the poverty-afflicted nation see the former boxer as living proof that success is possible for anyone who works hard, no matter their origins.

But as a politician and fervent evangelical Christian, Pacquiao has stirred controversy with his support for Duterte's drug war and push to restore the death penalty, as well as his admission of past drug use, and previous homophobic comments.

Critics accuse the high-school dropout of lacking intellect and barely turning up to sessions in Congress and the Senate, raising questions about his ability to run the country of 110 million people.

And he risked political capital this year in a public falling out with Duterte, who rivals Pacquiao for the affections of many Filipinos.

"He might be popular with the masses, but so are some of these other candidates," said Ted Lerner, a US-born sports journalist in the Philippines, predicting a return to the ring for the boxing great.

"Just look at the surveys -- it doesn't bode well at all for him."

- 'I'm done' -

Whoever wins the presidency may have to grapple with an International Criminal Court investigation into Duterte's drug war, which rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men.

Duterte, who yanked Manila out of the ICC after it launched a preliminary probe into his deadly signature policy, has insisted it has no jurisdiction in the Philippines and he would not cooperate.

Asked if he would protect Duterte from prosecution if elected president, Pacquiao said he would "obey" the law, and was adamant that the Southeast Asian nation was still a member of the ICC.

A glittering decades-long career in the ring brought Pacquiao fame and fortune -- as well as the vices of booze, gambling and infidelity that nearly wrecked his marriage before he found religion.

Two months after hanging up his gloves, Pacquiao said a comeback was not on the cards -- even if he lost the election.

"I'm already turning 43 years old, so it's enough for me, I'm done," said the father of five.

Pacquiao has served as a celebrity endorser for products ranging from appliances to pizza and cars, hosted TV shows, and even founded his own cryptocurrency, the "PAC Token".

If his presidential bid fails, he plans to add farmer to his CV, growing fruit on a 20-hectare (50-acre) property in the southern province of Sarangani.

"It's also quiet (there), I like that," he said, before opening his smartphone and playing a country music ballad.

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US unions call for halt to Amazon buyout of MGM


Amazon offered to buy the storied MGM studios for $8.45 billion in May 2021 (AFP/Chris Delmas)


Mon, November 22, 2021

A consortium of US unions called Monday for Amazon's buyout of the legendary Hollywood studio MGM to be blocked, citing concerns about the tech giant's growing power over the subscription video streaming sector.

"Amazon's influence on the health and diversity of the film-making industry is likely to be negative if the company is permitted to grow larger," said the Strategic Organizing Center, a federation of four major labor unions that represents some four million workers.

The group called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block the takeover, which was announced in May.

Amazon has offered $8.45 billion dollars for more than 4,000 films, including the James Bond series, "The Silence of the Lambs," "Robocop," "Basic Instinct," "Raging Bull" and "Thelma & Louise," as well as an extensive catalog of TV series including "The Handmaid's Tale," "Fargo" and "Vikings."

"Amazon's current control over massive amounts of streaming content means the merger is likely to give Amazon greater incentive and power to exclude and discriminate against its competitors," the group said in its statement.

It argued that the buyout will give Amazon control of some 56,000 titles, far ahead of Netflix, which would have just under 20,000.

The unions further argued that Amazon's market power is not just "horizontal" but also "vertical," with the sale of electronic devices for video streaming (the company's "Fire" line) and cloud services for storing the content of its competitors, starting with Netflix, the most popular of the platforms.

Questioned by AFP, Amazon highlighted the variety of choices currently available to consumers, citing in particular Netflix, Disney +, Apple TV +, HBO Max and Peacock.

The company also noted that neither MGM nor Amazon were involved in the production or distribution of any of the 20 most successful films around the world in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The FTC and many US states have launched investigations and lawsuits against Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, which they accuse of abusing their dominant position in their own markets, from social networks to digital advertising and online commerce.

Amazon has come to broadly lead the cloud services sector, but it is its towering dominance of e-commerce that raises the hackles of its critics.

"The company has a long history of leveraging its dominance to gain a foothold in new markets by using practices we believe are unfair and anticompetitive," the unions said.

"This merger would allow Amazon to use the same playbook against the streaming video industry, inevitably impacting producers and consumers of video content and squeezing diversity as it gains market share," the unions said.

juj/vgr/jh/to

Back in the spotlight: Africa's Great Green Wall

After years of struggling with insufficient funds, efforts to build Africa's Great Green Wall -- a massive defence line against desertification -- have received a major boost.

© Issouf SANOGO 

Green shoots: So far 11 countries have self-financed the recovery of 4.6 million hectares of impoverished land

The initiative concerning 11 countries on the rim of the world's biggest desert was first launched to great acclaim in 2005, only to battle a lack of cash.

But 2021 could be the year of change.

Donors this year pledged $19 billion for the scheme, half of which has now been committed, while at the recent COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, US billionaire Jeff Bezos indicated that his foundation would stump up $1 billion to help fight land degradation, particularly in Africa.

- What is the Great Green Wall? -

The idea is to plant diverse trees and shrubs in a corridor about 8,000 kilometres (4,900 miles) long and 15 kilometres (nine miles) wide across Africa, hugging the southern edge of the Sahara.

The African Union endorsed the initiative in 2007, two years after the leaders of Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan hatched the plan at a summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States held in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.

The project is being coordinated by the Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency.

Once completed, it will be the largest living structure on the planet, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

- What are its aims? -

The Great Green Wall is Africa's flagship programme for fighting climate change and desertification, and also aims to combat food insecurity and poverty across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

The region, among the world's poorest, is also seeing some of the steepest temperature increases on the planet.

Concrete goals include rehabilitating 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, sequestering 250 million tonnes of carbon and creating 10 million green jobs.

"It's not just a curtain of trees," Senegalese geologist Abdoulaye Dia, executive secretary of the Great Green Wall Agency, told AFP.

- What is the situation today? -

Since 2005, the Green Wall has recovered 4.6 million hectares of impoverished land across the 11 countries, according to Dia.

The main strategies have been reforestation and measures to prevent soil degradation and over-grazing, he said, noting that the financing came from individual governments -- well short of the funds needed for the overall success of the programme -- without giving a figure.

In January this year, the Green Wall received a major shot in the arm at the One Planet Summit in Paris, where donors pledged $19 billion for the programme.

"Forty-eight percent of the funds have been committed (to work) on the ground," French President Emmanuel Macron said at a side event at the climate summit in Glasgow.

But progress has been slow. In a 2020 report, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification said there was an "insufficient, unpredictable and insecure funding situation".

Adama Doulkom, the Great Green Wall's Burkina Faso manager, pointed to rampant insecurity as a "major difficulty".

Amazon founder Bezos said work on the wall -- which he called a "remarkable innovation" -- had to be sped up.

Still, Dia praised the global surge in "visible and tangible activities" tied to the wall, saying the project had been criticised as being "a never-ending saga -- but now it has become a reality."

mrb/gd/ri/eml/gd/dl


Great Green Wall brings life back to Niger desert



A farmer sits in the shade of a tree in the Great Green Wall site in Simiri, Niger

 (AFP/BOUREIMA HAMA)

Boureima HAMA
Mon, November 22, 2021, 10:16 PM·3 min read

Once a desolate landscape, the Simiri plateau in Niger is now a small paradise for fauna and flora.

Goats crunch acacia seeds, squirrel and partridge prints dot the ground, praying mantises hang from trees and swarms of grasshoppers devour the verdant foliage.

"A small forest has miraculously been reborn," marvelled Simiri mayor Moussa Adamou.


The transformation is part of the African Union's Great Green Wall project, which aims to restore 100 million hectares of dry land by 2030 along an 8,000-kilometre (5,000-mile) strip stretching from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east.

Arable land is prized in landlocked Niger, where desert covers three-quarters of the territory and 80 percent of the population lives on subsistence farming.

The World Bank predicts its population will rise from 23 million in 2019 to 30 million in 2030 and 70 million in 2050, underlining the vital importance of the Green Wall's success.

Niger's contribution is mainly made up of white gum and Bauhinia rufescens trees, two drought-resistant species that can grow 12 metres (40 feet) tall.

Armed with pickaxes and spades, villagers built earthen embankments that hold rainwater around the saplings longer to ensure they grow even during droughts.

"Their leaves and seeds are rich in protein for livestock," explained local farmer Garba Moussa.

"Cooked or dried, we also eat them as survival food during severe food shortages," he added.

Mayor Adamou said that game animals and even giraffes have been leaving their remote habitat south of the capital Niamey to savour the tender acacia leaves since the Simiri plateau reforestation programme started in 2013.

Niger's southern forests have lost one-third of their surface area and now make up only one to two percent of the country, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

By 2030, Niger aims to "green" 3.6 million hectares of land, which represents more than 37.5 percent of its territory, said Maisharou Abdou, the Green Wall's director-general in Niger.

Abdou said between eight and 12 percent of the total had been achieved by 2020, but emphasised the project was "a long-distance race".

Mouhamadou Souley, head of the anti-desertification services, added that work had already begun to extend Simiri's reforestation by another 65 hectares.

- Jihadist threat -

To achieve this dream, the country -- one of the world's poorest -- needs more than 454.645 billion CFA francs ($780 million), he added.

The European Union, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank and other donors have already given money.

In addition to halting desertification, the Great Green Wall also focuses on access to water, solar energy and socio-economic development including market gardening, fish farming, cattle rearing and poultry farms to provide employment for the local population.

Local NGOs have joined the battle, with plans to reforest 100 hectares, cultivate nurseries and dig water wells, according to Issa Garba of Young Volunteers for the Environment.

However, the jihadist attacks that have plagued several Great Green Wall countries could jeopardise the project.

Niger expert Sani Yaou said farmers are afraid to carry out reforestation or tree maintenance activities due to the jihadist threat.

"Insecurity has dealt a heavy blow to its realisation... All countries are focused on the fight against insecurity," Garba added.

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Small Edmonton natural food stores expect short-term supply gaps this week due to B.C. flooding

Two Edmonton natural food stores expect some products will temporarily run out this week as distributors find ways to move their goods around B.C.’s flooded transportation routes.

Lauren Boothby 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal 

Michael Kalmanovitch, owner of Earth's General Store in Edmonton, expects to be out of produce this week due to supply chain issues complicated by landslides and flooding in British Columbia.

Managers for Whyte Avenue businesses Blush Lane Organic Market and Earth’s General Store say their stocks of organic produce, milk and some other goods will be depleted this week. Big companies like Save-On-Foods haven’t reported the same problem.


Unlike larger chains that are regularly stocked from other parts of North America, some small businesses focusing on organic and natural foods are supplied directly from warehouses in the Vancouver area. Scott Bladon, Blush Lane’s director of operations, expects the local natural food industry will struggle for a short period of time until shipment plans are sorted out.

“Conventionally, (big grocery chains) have large warehouses that are local in the city so they should be good to go because they get trucks direct from the U.S. to their warehouses, where we don’t,” he said. “We’re going to see some holes in our shelves. We’re going to replenish them as quick as we can.

“I also want to urge people not to start hoarding food because that’s not going to help anyone.”

Bladon said organic produce will be the first to go as well as some brands of milk.

Earth’s General Store owner Michael Kalmanovitch thinks his supply of some organic fruits and vegetables will also run out temporarily as his B.C. suppliers warned shipments would be delayed .

“If our sales continue right now the way they are, we’re going to start seeing gaps on our shelves probably by (mid-week),” he said. “I’m accepting of it. It’s beyond my control, and I can’t create any more cauliflower than we have on the shelf.”

Both B.C. Premier John Horgan and the B.C. Trucking Association have urged the public to stay calm. Panic buying , not the flooding disaster, is causing much of B.C.’s current shortages according to the Retail Council of Canada.

Jude Groves, chair of the Alberta Motor Transportation Association, says he’s confident the industry will quickly find workarounds and adapt.

“There will absolutely be impact in terms of delays but we are working on options,” he said. “The last 24 months have just reinforced how critical our supply chain is.”

Strained supply

All major routes connecting B.C.’s interior with the Lower Mainland were cut off by extreme flooding and mudslides when an atmospheric river dumped a record-breaking amount of rain in the region. Some pipelines were also turned off .

Repairs to damaged and blocked roads and railways could take weeks or months to fix, and as of Thursday, many trucks had begun to be re-routed from Vancouver through the United States to get around the damage.

Edy Wong, associate dean international for the Alberta School of Business, said Alberta relies on these routes to bring in goods from Asia via the Port of Vancouver, and this situation will strain the supply chain . He expects multiple industries in Alberta will struggle to keep some goods in stock for the holidays.

“This is a sort of like a black swan event, perfect-storm situation for the supply chain,” he said. “Some firms might not get the product in time for the Christmas season and that’s something that’s worrying for some companies.”

Consumer goods and construction materials could be affected and prices may go up, Wong said.

Justin Brattinga, press secretary for Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer, said in an email Thursday the province’s first priority is helping B.C.

“We expect that there may be some short-term disruptions to the supply chain but we are working with our stakeholders and counterparts across all levels of government to limit any delays.”

No grocery shortages at big chains

Grocery chains and local food distributors contacted by Postmedia do not expect customers will see a noticeable difference on the shelves in Edmonton.

Save-On-Foods expects a minimal impact to deliveries heading to Alberta stores. In an email, the company urged customers to maintain their normal shopping habits: “Overbuying puts a strain on our ability to get our shelves re-stocked as quickly as we would like … we encourage everyone to be patient and to be kind to each other and to our team members.”

Donavan Tong, co-owner of Wan Da Wholesale, said some suppliers are already re-directing shipments through the United States. He said he isn’t concerned, though he might run out of a few brands of noodles temporarily.

“(It’s) just a probably week or two shortage — don’t panic,” Tong said.

Bulk Buy Wholesale also doesn’t expect to be affected as most of its poultry comes from Ontario and Alberta, and its suppliers haven’t issued warnings. Costco Canada declined to comment.

— With files from Matt Scace

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby

Prosecutor shortage puts 1,200 court cases at risk, says Alberta Crown Attorneys' Association

Paige Parsons

© Trevor Wilson/CBC 

Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association president Dallas Sopko says his regional office has lost 80 years of experience due to prosecutors departing over the last year.

About 1,200 provincial court cases involving serious and violent crimes are at risk of being stayed because of a shortage of prosecutors, says the Alberta Crown Attorneys' Association.

"Despite the fact that there is a viable case, we're having to tell victims that we just don't have the time and resources to proceed with their cases," association president Dallas Sopko said in an interview this week.

According to Alberta Justice, 47 out of 378 total prosecutor jobs were unfilled as of Sept. 30.

"The number of vacancies remains fluid due to numerous factors, however, [Alberta Crown Prosecution Service] is aggressively recruiting to fill all vacant positions across the province," Alberta Justice spokesperson Carla Jones said in an email.

The province has committed to hiring 50 new prosecutors, including 20 this year, by the end of 2022-23. The plan began in 2020-21 and is projected to cost about $10 million per year by the time it concludes.

Sopko said creating new positions doesn't help much when existing vacancies are difficult to fill.

Many Alberta prosecutors are leaving for other provinces or to work in the federal service, following opportunities for better pay, smaller workloads and better mental health supports, he said.

Addressing challenges that prosecutors are facing is a top priority for the government, said Alex Puddifant, press secretary to Justice Minister Kaycee Madu.

"We understand the tremendous, tremendous pressure our Crown prosecutors, and we're certainly looking to ensure they're well-supported and receive the resources that they need," Puddifant said.

Cases at risk

The 1,200 serious provincial court cases at risk are on top of many other cases that prosecutors have already dropped as part of a triage policy to prioritize violent crimes, Sopko said.

The association did not have permission to share how many cases in Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench are in danger of being stayed due to delays in getting to trial.

Sopko acknowledged COVID-19 has contributed to court backlogs, but said resources were a problem well before the pandemic.

The former NDP government brought in the triage policy five years ago as a response to the Supreme Court of Canada's Jordan decision, which put a time limit on waits for trials.

  

© Trevor Wilson/CBC 

The Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association says understaffing and unmanageable workloads have put a number of serious and violent prosecutions at risk of being stayed due to a lack of resources.

During the 2019 provincial election campaign, now-Premier Jason Kenney promised to end the triage system.

Sopko said the situation is becoming particularly critical in rural communities, where prosecutors have had to tell complainants in cases that range from business fraud to assault to repeat property crimes that their day in court is never going to happen.

"People in those communities aren't getting the justice they deserve," he said.

Puddifant said the province has taken a number of steps throughout the pandemic to try to help ease the burden on courts, including the creation of remote and online processes.

He said the province has increased the number of articling students hired by the ministry and has prioritized placing the students in rural communities to help with backlogs.

"We are actively working to relieve the pressure and hire new prosecutors, new staff and bring on as many hands on deck as we can."
'Crushed under the workload'

Sopko works in an office that serves communities surrounding Edmonton. He said that in the last year, his office has lost 80 years of experience, and new hires have no experience.

"While every organization has to bring in new people when you are consistently and chronically over a period of five years, replacing people with 30 years of experience with people with none — eventually, you end up in the critical situation that we're in," he said.

© Trevor Wilson/CBC

 Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association Edmonton vice-president Breena Smith says morale in Crown prosecution offices is very low as many lawyers are opting to leave the service.

In Edmonton, turnover is high and morale is "really bad," said Breena Smith, the association's Edmonton-vice president.

The Edmonton office currently has about 90 prosecutors. Seventeen of them were hired in the past year, but 13 people have left in the meantime, Smith said. And while the new lawyers are keen and work hard, it puts them in a difficult position.

"You are continually being crushed under the workload that's being expected of you, and often for many of these prosecutors, it's files that are above their experience, their level of knowledge at this point in time in their careers," Smith said.

And with working conditions the way they are, even the newest hires aren't sticking around for long, she said.

"Essentially Alberta's becoming a training ground to then supply other prosecution services," Smith said. "Because after a couple of years of dealing with the situation in Alberta, they see a better situation somewhere else."

Management is so passé — it's co-creation that workers are demanding

It’s time for business, political and organizational leaders to give up on “management.”

© (Pexels) Today's workers are rejecting management hierarchies and want more autonomy and teamwork.

David Weitzner, Assistant professor, Administrative Studies, York University, Canada 

Workers today don’t want to be managed, even benevolently. They want to be partners in co-creation, where all members are empowered to bring their whole selves to the organization regardless of hierarchies.

Consequently, those uncomfortably perched atop organizational hierarchies are faced with a stark choice: Co-create or manage, because you cannot do both.

As businesses start to envision a post-pandemic world, they are faced with unprecedented challenges, like the so-called Great Resignation that involves millions of employees opting to quit their unfulfilling jobs, and political pressures to “build back better.” As I argue in my recent book, Connected Capitalism, we need to move away from an emphasis on “management” and towards a focus on co-creation.

Management is passé. Co-creation will allow us to thrive in meeting the changing demands of key stakeholders like employees, customers and governments.
Employee malaise

Even before the pandemic, there was a crisis of worker dissatisfaction, with millennials — the generation poised to make up the majority of our workforce — viewing business as out of step with their priorities.

Corporations must commit to a broader social purpose or face disconnected and unmotivated workers unlikely to stay in their jobs. Co-creation builds on that rare and valuable sense of connection emerging in the very best type of purpose-driven co-operative partnerships.

The feeling of connection is so important, I believe we will start to normalize viewing friendship as an essential work resource, since we now know that co-operation is not born of deep analytical calculations, but intuition and feelings.

Read more: After a year of Zoom meetings, we’ll need to rebuild trust through eye contact

Often, when management gurus talk about co-operation, what they really mean is managing subordinates into passivity.

Co-operation in this context is contingent on repression. That’s not co-creation.

© (Pexels) Managing employees into passivity is increasingly a thing of the past.

Panicked responses

When I speak to executives, I often get a panicked reaction: “What does this mean for my power to run the business?!?”

Assuredly, decision-making power stays in the C-suites. But an empowered team only increases the effectiveness of leadership. And while corporate behemoths like Google are leading with this new course of action, a 20-year study of more than 300 companies found human-centric approaches that empowered employees improved performance in a wide variety of settings.

And co-creation is not only about loosening the managerial reins on employees. Many businesses have come to realize that they don’t get the best product by closely managing their suppliers with laundry lists of desired specifications.

Instead, optimal outcomes are often attained by supporting suppliers in co-creation, giving up control and letting them lead the way. This exercise in trust and vulnerability showcases the deepest level of relationship — when two organizations surprise one another by understanding each other so deeply that one delivers what the other wants but did not ask for.

Does the ultimate decision-making power still sit with the paying client? Of course. Clients can demand their supplier’s development team stick to product roadmaps and manage the process so requested features get built.

Are there significant efficiency and reputational risks involved when managers take the liberties afforded by co-creation? Absolutely. But the better question to ask is this — does a path to innovation exist that isn’t full of risk and inefficiencies? I don’t know of one.
Generational shift

Consider current indicators that workers are quitting rather than giving up the ability to work from home.

Michael Solomon, co-founder of 10x Management, explained to me that this is an expected feature of the “talent economy.” Everybody, up and down the hierarchy, is both empowered and willing to take responsibility for what they do.

Whether the outcomes are good or bad, those who take risks own the consequences. Are there risks in letting workers set the terms of how they work? Yes. And to some executives, workers making such demands appear to have an unjustifiable sense of entitlement.

But feeling like you are being managed is antithetical to productive work. Solomon explains this as a generational shift, and warns that the old style of management is being phased out fairly quickly.

© (Piqsels) Younger employees in particular want autonomy and to feel empowered at work.

Co-creation doesn’t mean we no longer need CEOs. But it may be more helpful to view leading exclusively as a verb and not a noun.

Business researchers are finally emphasizing the relational and dynamic aspects of power, how a leader’s relationships with stakeholders can be a source of support or resistance and how they must continually adapt to changes in social systems.
Human-centric work future

The shift away from the stifling, controlling and outdated dominance of management in favour of co-creation is an absolute must for those helming organizations — from private sector businesses to governments and health-care organizations — even if the prospect makes some existing leaders uncomfortable.

Read more: To build back better after COVID-19, we must support parents

Using the tools of co-creation where we once used management hierarchies means expanding the rigid boundaries between the social, professional and personal, which we have been clinging to in corporate settings for too long.

Workers are demanding a more human-centric future, with space for trust and vulnerability. There is no going back to the “before world.” Management is over. The era of co-creation is underway.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

David Weitzner receives funding from SSHRC.

Indian farmers hold mass rally, make additional demands to keep pressure on Modi

Farmers celebrate after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he will repeal the controversial farm laws, at the Singhu border farmers protest site near Delhi-Haryana border, India, on November 19, 2021. (Reuters)

Reuters, Lucknow, India
Published: 22 November ,2021 

Flushed with victory after Prime Minister Narendra Modi caved into demands for agricultural reform laws to be repealed, Indian farmers held a mass rally on Monday to demand minimum support prices be extended to all produce, not just rice and wheat.

The protest movement launched by farmers more than a year ago became the most serious political challenge to the government, and resulted in Modi making a surprise commitment on Friday to roll back the reforms.

Thousands gathered for the latest rally in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party will seek to hold onto power in state elections due early next year. They turned their attention to minimum support prices (MSP), which were a side issue in the agricultural reform laws.

“Our battle is only half won,” Joginder Singh Ugrahan, a prominent farmers’ leader, said in an address to about 5,000 farmers waving flags of various farmer and labor organizations.

“Ensuring that the government makes a law MSP is a big issue for all of us,” he said. “Our protests will end once the government passes the law on MSP.”

Currently, the government mainly buys rice and wheat at minimum support prices or guaranteed prices, but the safety net benefits barely 6 percent of India’s millions of farmers.

In a letter addressed to Modi on Sunday, the main farmers’ body said: “Minimum Support Price, based on the comprehensive cost of production, should be made a legal entitlement of all farmers (and) for all agricultural produce . . .”

Farmers also asked in the letter for the federal government to withdraw a draft electricity bill, which they fear would lead to state governments withdrawing their right to free or subsidized power, used mainly for irrigation.

Farmers have also asked the government to drop fines and other penalties for burning their fields after harvesting to remove stalk and chaff. The smoke has become a major source of air pollution in Delhi and satellite towns bordering the crop growing northern states.

Read more: Explainer: Why did PM Modi repeal India farm laws after a year?

 

Kremlin Not Commenting on Alternative Versions of Kursk Submarine Disaster

© AFP 2021 / POOL/STRINGER

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kremlin is not commenting on alternative versions of the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Kursk sank during naval drills in the Barents Sea, and all 118 crew members died in the accident. The officially-recognised cause of the tragedy was a torpedo explosion.

"We leave it [the version] absolutely without comment. You know that there was an investigation, the investigation came to a final conclusion, and therefore we do not want to comment on the appearance of any other hypotheses," Peskov told reporters.

Earlier in the day, retired Admiral Vyacheslav Popov who commanded Russia’s Northern Fleet in 1999–2001 said that Kursk actually suffered from a collision with a NATO submarine, adding that he knows its name "with 90% probability."

Russian admiral: Kursk submarine disaster caused by NATO sub


Pontoons (L and R) are brought to the Giant-4 barge with the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine under it at the port of Roslyakovo, near Murmansk, on October 11, 2001. (AFP)

The Associated Press, Moscow
Published: 22 November ,2021: 0

A retired Russian admiral has alleged that the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster was caused by a collision with a NATO sub, an unproven claim that defies the official conclusion that the country’s worst post-Soviet naval catastrophe was triggered by a faulty torpedo.

Adm. Retired Vyacheslav Popov, who was the commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet when the Kursk exploded and sank during naval maneuvers in the Barents Sea, charged in an interview released Monday that the NATO submarine inadvertently bumped into the Kursk while shadowing it at close distance.

Popov told the state RIA Novosti news agency that the Western submarine was also damaged in the powerful explosion and sent a distress signal from the area. He didn’t identify the submarine and acknowledged that he lacks proof to back up his claim.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Popov’s claim and pointed to the official probe that concluded that the catastrophe was triggered by an explosive propellant that leaked from a faulty torpedo.

Popov, who was blamed for his slow and bungled response to the catastrophe as the Northern Fleet’s chief, has made the collision claim before, but his latest statement was more outspoken and detailed.

Russian media reports have claimed that two U.S. submarines and a British sub were spotted in the area near the Russian naval exercise in the Barents Sea when the Kursk disaster happened.

The Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, after suffering two powerful explosions. Most of the 118 members of the crew were killed instantly, but as the submarine sank to the bottom of the sea, only about 350 feet (108 meters) below the surface, 23 men were able to flee to a rear compartment, where they waited for help.

The disoriented Russian navy command wasted hours before launching a search, and the authorities turned down offers of Western assistance, stubbornly sending Russian mini-submarines to make repeated futile attempts to hook onto the submarine’s escape hatch. After a week, Russia finally invited Norwegian divers and it took them just hours to open the hatch, but by then it was too late to save anyone.

After the catastrophe, some navy officials said the crew members who survived the blast might have been alive for three days, but the investigators eventually concluded that all of them died of carbon monoxide poisoning within eight hours of the blasts — long before any help could arrive.

The government’s bungled handling of the rescue effort shook the nation and dented President Vladimir Putin’s prestige.

The Kursk’s wreckage was lifted in October 2001, allowing the investigators to retrieve 115 bodies and search the mangled hull for clues about the cause.