Opinion: Canada’s failure to properly respond to protests threatens democracy and the rule of law

Folks participate in a Sept. 18 protest in opposition to COVID-19 public well being measures in Toronto.Chris Younger/The Canadian Press

Ken Coates is the Canada Analysis Chair in Regional Innovation on the College of Saskatchewan. A model of this piece was first revealed by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

These are tumultuous occasions. The 2020s might not match the “energy to the folks” protests of the Nineteen Sixties and even the Occupy actions and anarchist uprisings of the 2010s, however latest Canadian conflicts have a nasty and offended edge. And whereas the nation might have averted the sorts of very damaging conflicts skilled south the border, the re-emergence of bitter confrontations challenges democracy and as soon as extra checks the power of our authorities to maintain the rule of legislation.

The parameters are clear. Governments make legal guidelines and laws. The police and the courts implement these guidelines. Protesters categorical their factors of view and, to draw consideration and reinforce their factors, disrupt common actions.

Supplied the protests are time-limited, non-destructive and with out fast penalties for folks, sources and amenities, the police and governments tolerate short-term disruptions.

Issues emerge when the protests are extended, when there may be violence, if business pursuits are disrupted, or if broader society is critically inconvenienced. When protests change into unruly, when the legislation is ignored, when the duly constituted authority is threatened, traces have clearly been crossed.

Well being care employees have a look at anti-vaccine protesters from inside Toronto Common Hospital on Sept. 13.Chris Younger/The Canadian Press

Canada enters this present age of unrest weakened in its capability and willingness to reply and uncertain of how to deal with an assertive citizenry.

The general public at massive is kind of cynical about most of the protests, typically writing off activists as naive, ignorant, harmful, uninformed or simply manipulated by environmental organizations, political events or particular curiosity teams.

Governments have been reluctant to behave, partly out of worry of an escalation of battle but in addition due to the dearth of a nationwide technique for the administration of protests.

Probably the most memorable uprisings of 2021 are these related to the anti-vaccine motion and libertarians protesting authorities intrusions of their lives. Their most high-profile actions – blocking entry to hospitals and throwing gravel on the Prime Minister – have been appropriately condemned (with an arrest within the latter case).

However the pandemic-related protests are outliers in a sample of common authorities inaction and disturbing passivity within the face of disruptive protests. In these cases, and in earlier conflicts over useful resource developments, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and different police forces have been positioned within the uncomfortable place of imposing Canadian legal guidelines and laws within the face of decided citizen protests and infrequently with out strong backing from the federal government.

The Moist’suwet’en standoff of 2020: At high, counter-demonstrators in Edmonton take away elements of a rail blockade erected in assist of Moist’suwet’en chiefs on Feb. 19, and at backside, the Ontario Provincial Police take a person into custody close to a rail crossing in Tyendinaga Mohawk territory on Feb. 24.Codie McLachlan/Reuters; Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail

Take into account the prepandemic pipeline-related protests. Over the previous few years, supporters of a few of the hereditary chiefs of the Moist’suwet’en Nation tried to dam building of a portion the Coastal GasLink pipeline, sparking sympathetic protests throughout the nation. In February, 2020, a small group of activists blocked the mainline of the CN Railway, disrupting Toronto-area commuters and inflicting thousands and thousands of {dollars} in financial hurt. The federal government response to those clearly unlawful acts was tepid, at greatest.

Canadians have been tolerant of a rising variety of protests that carry substantial social and financial prices. The place the protests intervene with clear federal aims – as with the anti-vaccination uprisings – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rapidly launched new laws to criminalize actions that interfered with hospitals and medical actions. When the protests are extra intently aligned with declining authorities curiosity within the fossil gasoline sector and its need to keep away from additional conflicts with Indigenous peoples, as with the anti-pipeline actions, the federal government has been loath to maneuver rapidly, if in any respect.

Within the Moist’suwet’en case, the B.C. authorities responded by offering substantial funding to the hereditary chiefs whereas largely ignoring the elected chiefs and councils, who favoured the pipeline. The governments of Canada and Ontario, in shut co-operation with the suitable police authorities, ought to have stopped the CN rail protests on the primary day; a brief protest makes a essential level, however extended actions switch the ache and inconvenience from the political actors to the general public at massive. Many harmless folks paid an unacceptable value for the actions of self-appointed activists reacting to 1 facet of a sophisticated inner First Nations dispute a couple of improvement challenge 1000’s of miles away.

Supporters of Moist’suwet’en hereditary chiefs carry banners in Toronto this previous November.Chris Helgren/Reuters

Protests alongside the Coastal GasLink route in north-central British Columbia re-emerged final month, when folks related to one of many clans ordered the pipeline employees to depart their territories. The activists re-established a blockade and minimize off entry to a piece camp. The police stepped in, eliminated the barricades and arrested most of the protesters. The protesters’ actions weren’t supported by the elected chief and councils of the Moist’suwet’en, and it’s not clear how most of the Moist’suwet’en folks assist it. Because the First Nation just lately acknowledged: “Although we’re additionally members of the Gidimt’en Clan, the protesters on the Coyote Camp and different protest websites have by no means consulted us about their actions and can’t declare to characterize us or some other members of the First Nation.”

The elimination of the blockade was not dealt with effectively. Photographs of closely armed cops had been jarring and, within the context, unwarranted. The protesters had been disruptive however not violent or armed. Furthermore, the Moist’suwet’en activists had typically spoken out in regards to the lengthy expertise of First Nations folks with violence from Canadian officers. Exhibiting up with automated weapons each escalated the battle and added credence to the protesters’ issues. The assertiveness of the police, notably the effectively documented entrance into the small constructing housing the protesters, appeared unduly aggressive. That the police arrested a number of journalists, equally, made certain that the story discovered a wider and extra engaged viewers than had they dealt with the state of affairs much less dramatically.

The protesters made their level and bought the media protection that they so clearly desired. The police actions ensured that the obstacles had been eliminated and that lawfully licensed work might resume. On this occasion, the general public discovered, once more, of the place of the hereditary chiefs and their supporters and, significantly better than up to now, the opposite views of elected Moist’suwet’en leaders and lots of neighborhood members.

The Fairy Creek standoff of 2021: At high, purple clothes honouring lacking and murdered Indigenous ladies are scattered on a hillside close to Port Renfrew, B.C., and at backside, police extricate an anti-logging protester from a ‘sleeping dragon’ contraption this previous Sept. 4.COLE BURSTON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

One other high-profile protest, on the logging websites alongside Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, speaks to different disquieting realities. To the diploma that the variety of arrests displays the depth of the battle, this resistance has change into the biggest in Canadian historical past, an “achievement” a lot heralded throughout the environmental motion.

The British Columbia authorities, native First Nations governments and the corporate concerned, Teal Cedar Merchandise, have had the backing of the courts and are decided to proceed, with discussions about harvesting plans underneath approach with the First Nations. The protesters aren’t glad with the selections of the politicians or the courts and proceed to push for a lot broader safety of the outdated development forest.

There isn’t any doubting the great intentions and the the Aristocracy of the reason for a few of the protesters. Mates of my household – latest retirees with distinguished work histories, an extended report of assist for civil society, and usually upstanding Canadians – have two daughters at Fairy Creek. The younger ladies aren’t long-time activists however they had been drawn to the protests by the irreversible consequence of harvesting outdated development forests. They didn’t transfer to activism incautiously. They studied the problems extensively and have immersed themselves in Indigenous tradition whereas within the camps. They imagine within the trigger and remained on the entrance line when the police moved in; they don’t seem to be crowd-followers, nor are they simply manipulated by environmental activists.

A protester waves to supporters as he’s pushed away close to Fairy Creek on Could 25.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail

Trendy protests are recorded reside, that means that we’d like not depend on second- and third-hand accounts of protests. In Fairy Creek, there are prolonged, disturbing movies. The scenes of activists being pepper sprayed are excruciating to look at. The choose overseeing the case was not happy with a few of the police behaviours. And my mates and their daughters are additionally profoundly disturbed by what transpired: the apparent singling out of First Nations folks on the protest traces, seemingly deliberate efforts to inflict ache, willful destruction of the protesters’ property, and palpable aggression. It has been reported that protesters used a wide range of ways to thwart and frustrate police, however this isn’t Canada at its greatest; these police actions are merely not per Canadian values.

Ultimately, nonetheless, Canada prospers or founders on the rule of legislation. No matter we’d consider our flesh pressers, political events, parliaments, insurance policies and authorized processes, these establishments collectively characterize certainly one of this nation’s biggest strengths. We ignore or reject political and authorized processes at our collective peril. It’s a skinny line, however one which should be each outlined and guarded with ferocity by governments and residents. Protesters have each proper to attempt to change public opinion and alter the federal government’s thoughts; they don’t have the correct to set coverage.

Authorities representatives should at all times act with integrity and decency. From the police by to the judicial system, these officers should be the easiest of us. Something much less diminishes them and the authorized course of and, much more, weakens respect for the nation. Within the context of Fairy Creek, the actions of the RCMP – and the truth that few of its members have been known as to account for his or her behaviour so far – is unacceptable.

RCMP officers chase a protester up a logging street close to Fairy Creek this previous Could 25.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail

Nevertheless, transferring ahead, the federal government of British Columbia should correctly implement the injunction in opposition to the protesters at Fairy Creek and should shield the rights of the corporate and the First Nations concerned. The authorities, in dealing with tough and intense conditions, should deal with the protesters with dignity and never give the activists or the general public cause to assume ailing of the state or the nation. A vibrant democracy requires opposition and protest. However, all through, the political and authorized course of, which incorporates the RCMP, it additionally requires decency and integrity on the a part of authorities.

Justice Douglas Thompson of the B.C. Supreme Court docket reviewed the request for the extension of the Fairy Creek injunction and located himself caught in a dilemma: shield the rule of legislation (and the corporate’s authorized rights) or defend the protesters’ rights within the face of police behaviour. In a judgment launched in late September, he wrote in regards to the “irreparable hurt if the injunction just isn’t prolonged” and famous that “standing behind lawful rights in these circumstances promotes the rule of legislation and is undoubtedly within the public curiosity.”

Nevertheless, regardless of this robust assertion, Justice Thompson got here down on the facet of the protesters, writing, “Most of those (interactions) have been respectful, and almost all so far have been non-violent. That is per what I’ve come to know throughout many bail functions by even probably the most militant of the protesters. They’re respectful, clever, and peaceful by nature. They’re good residents within the essential sense that they care intensely in regards to the widespread good.”

Justice Thompson did word “the police have usually used cheap power to impact arrests and management crowds, and cheap means to take away protesters from trenches and gadgets.” But he additionally concluded the police at occasions had stepped past cheap bounds – this behaviour he discovered disquieting and challenged the repute of the Court docket in granting the injunction. Generally, he “thought of the infringements of civil liberties to be unjustified, substantial, and critical.”

His ruling addressed important issues about cops “rendered nameless to the protesters, a lot of these cops sporting ‘skinny blue line’ badges. All of this has been completed within the title of imposing this Court docket’s order, including to the already substantial threat to the Court docket’s repute every time an injunction pulls the Court docket into the sort of dispute between residents and the federal government.”

One other day within the Fairy Creek standoff: At high, RCMP hold watch as a protester is taken out of a ‘sleeping dragon’ on Sept. 4, and at backside, fellow protesters sing as they watch.COLE BURSTON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

The Fairy Creek battle and the administration of the protest by the activists, authorities officers, the police and the courts level to a basic rigidity in Canadian democracy. First, governments make legal guidelines and laws; they don’t seem to be and shouldn’t be created by a small variety of activists or protesters. Second, protesters have the correct to protest, throughout the limits of the legislation, and should observe the legal guidelines, laws and, the place related, courtroom choices. The police, when positioned in a tough state of affairs, are duty-bound to observe applicable procedures and codes of conduct. In all their actions, they characterize the federal government, the courtroom and the nation at massive.

Canada has an excellent model for sustained and significant protest: the Idle No More movement This loosely co-ordinated neighborhood empowerment effort, notably in 2012-13, concerned lots of of particular occasions and actions. They had been peaceable, minimally disruptive, highly effective and surprisingly efficient. Idle No More did an awesome deal to advance many native and nationwide causes for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Relations with the police had been respectful; in various events, the officers joined in with the marchers and dancers and listened with curiosity to the audio system. Protest needn’t transcend authorized boundaries to have a serious political influence, to seize the general public’s consideration, and to spark coverage modifications.

Protests will probably escalate within the coming years. Local weather change and associated environmental issues have drawn collectively well-organized environmental non-governmental organizations, native activists and anxious residents from outdoors the fast areas. Clashes between protesters, firms, employees and neighborhood representatives are escalating, as seen with the numerous anti-pipeline protests. Social media provides an explosive ingredient to those already intense conditions.

Governments have struggled to seek out the protected line between a sustainable financial system and altering environmental requirements. They’ve additionally been reluctant to behave, notably when Indigenous folks and their allies are concerned. However Fairy Creek reveals a complexity that’s way more commonplace on useful resource points than the general public understands. That the federal government of British Columbia is actively contemplating a moratorium on old-growth logging and, province-wide, giving Indigenous communities extra of a say in improvement, reveals that public strain is having a political impact and that the federal government is ready, at a minimal, to enter into co-management preparations with First Nations.

Justice Thompson has set a positive and applicable customary for the administration of protests in Canada: requiring respect for the legislation and for the selections of governments, balanced by the unalterable dedication to treating protesters with dignity and respect. His ruling clearly defines the problems at hand. Justice Thompson clearly needed to rule in favour of the corporate. He knew that the rule of legislation supplied apparent steering. However he was upset by the behaviour of the police, whose actions introduced the broader authorized course of into disrepute. The ethical excessive floor had shifted to the protesters, largely due to police misbehaviour.

The significance of this subject to Canada can be evident. Canadians ought to count on that battle will change into extra commonplace in an period of environmental concern and international uncertainty. Folks will protest public motion and they’re going to achieve this with ardour and dedication in lots of cases. Governments can be known as to defend their insurance policies and shield the pursuits of society at massive. Police can be positioned in awkward and infrequently tense conditions. However the rule of legislation, protected by the police and overseen by the courts, should stay a cornerstone of the democratic processes in Canada.

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Protests in Canada: Extra from The Globe and Mail

Jen Osborne/The Globe and Mail

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At Least One Dead as Volcano Erupts in Indonesia, Spewing Ash Cloud

Dozens more suffered burns as lava flowed from the eruption of Mount Semeru, on the island of Java.


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Volcano Erupts on Indonesian Island
At least one person was killed and dozens were injured by lava flow after Mount Semeru erupted on the island of Java. Officials said several areas reported falling into darkness because of fog from volcanic ash.

By Aina J. Khan and Muktita Suhartono
Dec. 4, 2021

Searing ash towered in the sky over the Indonesian island of Java on Saturday after the Semeru volcano erupted, killing at least one person and injuring dozens.

Indah Amperawati Masdar, the deputy head of East Java’s Lumajang District, near Mount Semeru, said in a news conference that at least 41 people had suffered burns from the lava flow that also nearly destroyed the village of Curahkobokan and caused a bridge to collapse, making evacuation difficult.

But Maj. Gen. Suharyanto, the head of the B.N.P.B., Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, said at the news conference that evacuation points had been set up in three nearby villages and in two subdistricts.

In a statement, the agency said that several areas were reporting “darkness due to fog from volcanic ash.” But as of late Saturday, air travel remained unaffected, a state-owned air navigation company said.


Mount Semeru was spewing volcanic ash on Saturday.

Credit...Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin, Australia, issued a red aviation warning on Saturday, saying that ash had “detached from the volcano,” and that it was moving southwest and west.

But the state-owned air navigation company, AirNav Indonesia, said in a statement that no airports or flight routes had been affected by the eruption. Nonetheless, it warned pilots of volcanic ash reaching heights of up to 40,000 feet.

Mount Semeru, which last erupted in January, is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes and is Java’s tallest mountain. It is among the country’s more than 120 active volcanoes; several hundred others are now considered extinct.

Java’s Volcanoes

Inside a Volcanic Ritual on the Indonesian Island of Java
Nov. 8, 2021

Muktita Suhartono reports for The New York Times in Indonesia and Thailand. She joined The Times in 2018 and is based in Bangkok.

Indonesia’s volcano spews ash, gas; 1 dead, dozens hurt
By AGOES BASOEKI2

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Ash covers the street in the Lumajang District in Indonesia, on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021 after Mount Semeru’s eruption. Indonesia's highest volcano on Java island has spewed thick columns of ash, searing gas and lava down its slopes in a sudden eruption triggered by heavy rains. (AP Photo)

LUMAJANG, Indonesia (AP) — The highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java spewed thick columns of ash, searing gas and lava down its slopes in a sudden eruption triggered by heavy rains on Saturday. At least one villager died from burns and dozens were hospitalized.

Mount Semeru’s eruption in Lumajang district in East Java province left several villages blanketed with falling ash.

A thunderstorm and days of rain, which had eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Semeru, triggered an eruption, said Eko Budi Lelono, who heads the geological survey center.

He said flows of searing gas and lava traveled up to 800 meters (2,624 feet) to a nearby river at least twice on Saturday. People were advised to stay 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the crater’s mouth, the agency said.

“Thick columns of ash have turned several villages to darkness,” said Lumajang district head Thoriqul Haq. Several hundred people were moved to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas, he said, adding that power blackout hampered the evacuation.

The debris and lava mixed with the rainfall formed thick mud that destroyed the main bridge connecting Lumajang and the neighboring district of Malang, as well as a smaller bridge, Haq said.

Despite an increase in activity since Wednesday, Semeru’s alert status has remained at the third highest of four levels since it began erupting last year, and Indonesia’s Volcanology Center for Geological Hazard Mitigation did not raise it this week, Lelono said.

One man died from severe burns, and 41 others were hospitalized with burn injuries, said Indah Masdar, the deputy district head. She said two villagers were reported missing and several sand miners were trapped in isolated areas along the village river.

Entire houses in Curah Kobokan village were damaged by volcanic debris, Masdar said.

Television reports showed people screaming and running under a huge ash cloud, their faces wet from rain mixed with volcanic dust. The last time Semeru erupted in January, there were no casualties.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.

Remains of a bridge in a slope, destroyed by the flowing lava, is shown in the Lumajang District in Indonesia, on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021 after Mount Semeru’s eruption. Indonesia's highest volcano on Java island has spewed thick columns of ash, searing gas and lava down its slopes in a sudden eruption triggered by heavy rains. (AP Photo)

Canada should focus on vaccine equity — not travel bans — human rights advocate, doctors say

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The emergence of omicron shows Canada needs to send

 more vaccines overseas, and soon, the doctors told CBC

Stephanie Dubois · CBC News · Posted: Dec 03, 2021 

Canadian experts say the country needs to do better to address vaccine equity by providing more vaccines and supporting vaccine production. (Michael Probst/Associated Press)

Health and infectious disease specialists are calling for the government of Canada to focus on global vaccine equity, not travel bans, as it takes measures to respond to news of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

The doctors, along with a human rights policy specialist who spoke to CBC this week, said the federal government can and should increase its vaccine shipments to low-income countries sooner than planned, encourage more vaccine production and advocate for rules to make pharmaceutical companies release vaccine recipes.

And doing so is in the best interest of everyone, they said.

"If you don't want to be altruistic ... and if you only want to be self-interested, it's in your interest to have everybody on this planet vaccinated as soon as possible," said Dr. Ross Upshur, a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the department of family medicine at the University of Toronto.

After news of omicron emerged, Canada announced it would limit travel from countries in southern Africa, a region that had reported cases of the new variant of concern. Critics immediately questioned the move — as it became clear that the variant was also surfacing in different parts of the world and in Canada.  

Vaccine targets not being met

Infectious disease specialists have long said the way to prevent spread and mutation is to make sure countries around the world have enough vaccines for significant portions of their populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) set a goal to have 70 per cent of the globe's population fully vaccinated by mid-2022. 

But the world is far from that target with roughly 40 countries — most of them in Africa — that have less than 10 per cent of their populations vaccinated against COVID-19, according to vaccination data from local governments as of Wednesday via Our World in Data.

"You're right to protect people in your countries, but then I would also caution you and say no one will sleep safely at night, not before Africa has been vaccinated," said Dr. Angelique Coetzee, one of the first doctors to detect the omicron variant in patients in South Africa.

Canada needs to do more — and fast

Throughout the pandemic, Canada has provided vaccines and financial support to other countries through global efforts like the COVAX initiative, which pools funds from wealthier countries to buy vaccines for those countries and to ensure low- and middle-income countries have access.

The initiative had aimed to deliver at least two billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021. But the latest supply forecast in September showed it is expected to only have access to 1.425 billion doses this year.  COVAX has struggled to procure vaccines because many factories producing the shots are fulfilling orders placed by rich countries that paid top dollar for their doses.

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The emergence of omicron shows Canada needs to do more and sooner, said the policy specialist who spoke to CBC. The first thing on the list should be prioritizing sending as many doses to countries with lower vaccination rates as soon as possible, he said.

"Until COVAX gets access to the doses that they need, we're going to continue to see this huge gap," said Ian Thomson of aid agency Oxfam Canada. 

Officials posed next to Canada's first donated doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which arrived in three countries in Africa on Sept. 2. The doses were part of a Canadian pledge to COVAX. (Gavi)

Ottawa has pledged to donate the equivalent of 200 million vaccines (in actual doses and money to purchase doses) through COVAX by the end of 2022.

As of Wednesday, 8.3 million of Canada's donated vaccine doses had been delivered through COVAX, and Canada's financial contributions to the initiative procured about 87 million vaccines doses for low and middle-income countries, according to Global Affairs.

"Vaccine equity involves lots of ingredients. And I think in Canada's case, we've actually stepped up and the Canadian government has offered financial support to COVAX," Thomson said.

"What Canada hasn't done is actually followed through on those commitments."

• Rich countries only shared 14% of COVID-19 vaccine doses promised to poorer nations: report

He pointed to a report published in October by the People's Vaccine Alliance, which includes Oxfam that found of the 40 million doses that Canada had promised early on in the pandemic, only eight percent — or about 3.3 million — of those doses had been delivered.  

In an email response to CBC questions Wednesday, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Geneviève Tremblay said Canada donates doses on "a rolling basis as they are released by the manufacturers."

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Canada has close to six million doses in the national inventory according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, and another million doses that have reportedly gone to waste since the rollout began — and critics say those should be going to countries in need.

"Building a stockpile of vaccines does nothing other than creating a liability of an expiry date and vaccine spoilage, which is a tragedy considering this global situation," said Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and associate professor at McMaster University. 

"We have to be very cognizant that doses that come onto our soil need to have a demand," Chagla said. "Otherwise, they should not be coming here."

Experts say expanding vaccine production is also a key part to getting closer to vaccine equity. (Hannah Beier/Reuters)

More manufacturers will lead to more vaccines

Thomson said Ottawa could also contribute to vaccine equity by joining advocacy efforts to change to the intellectual property (IP) rights rules that vaccine makers can use to keep their recipes and manufacturing technology confidential.

"We've been pushing for a number of months at the World Trade Organization to have the rules relaxed so that we can have more manufacturers get into the COVID vaccine manufacturing game, particularly in developing countries," Thomson said. "The production can happen there and it can be distributed more quickly to those populations."

The Current20:09Omicron variant drives calls for vaccine equity, waiving of patents

The emergence of the omicron coronavirus variant is sparking fresh calls for vaccine equity, including calls to temporarily waive patents around vaccine production. 20:09

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that his government will consider waiving IP rights enjoyed by those vaccine makers to improve access but stopped short of supporting a plan supported by other countries — known as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Right (TRIPS) waiver proposal — to dismantle IP protections for vaccines.

Global Affairs spokesperson Tremblay said Wednesday that the federal government is participating in discussions to waive IP protections.

• SECOND OPINION
  Canada needs to make a tough call on boosters as a new variant emerges

• Trudeau non-committal on waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines

 

Canada donated up to $15 million to establish the South Africa Technology Transfer Hub, which could see regional development and production of mRNA vaccines and technologies, Tremblay said.

Syringes and other supplies needed

The WHO warned last month that there could be a shortage of one to two billion syringes needed to administer COVID-19 vaccines next year, and UNICEF Canada president David Morley told CBC such supplies are already in high demand in many countries.

Canada has provided $70 million to COVAX's COVID-19 Support and Delivery envelope "to help countries with efficient and effective in-country roll out, delivery and distribution," Tremblay said.

It has also promised to match the nearly $10 million donated by individual Canadians to the #GiveAVax Fund through UNICEF Canada to cover costs of transporting vaccine and training health care workers. 

The president of UNICEF Canada said Wednesday that syringes are badly needed to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in lower-income countries. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

Directing resources to ensure staff are trained to administer the vaccines and that there are culturally appropriate explanations available to combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy is an important part of vaccine equity, said Dr. Anna Banerji, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

"We need to work with countries around the world to help them in what they need to try to get their people vaccinated, so we're not continuously battling new mutations as they occur," Banerji said. 

"If you believe that we are our brother's keeper, we really need to help the world for us to move forward with this."

‘No easy fix’: polar bear capital of the world turns to electric buggies to save the bears

The move comes as Churchill, Canada, remained ice free for the first time in years, resulting in less feeding time for its population of polar bears

Polars bears in Churchill, Canada. One of the town's polar bear tour companies is now using electric vehicles Photograph: Leyland Cecco

Leyland Cecco in Churchill, Manitoba
Fri 3 Dec 2021 

When tourists reach the north Canadian community of Churchill they have long been greeted by two sounds: the howling of sub-Arctic winds and the rattle of diesel engines.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors have come to the “polar bear capital of the world”, in the hopes of spotting the predators. They journey on “tundra buggies” – hulking, spacecraft-like vehicles that rumble over the stark landscape.

Now, one of the town’s tour companies has unveiled the region’s first-ever electric buggy – a vehicle that can move almost silently into areas where the polar bears congregate. The buggy has an estimated range of three days worth of tours and can operate in frigid temperatures.

Frontiers North Adventures, which provided transport to the Guardian and other media outlets to view the vehicle in Churchill, plans to convert the remainder of its fleet over to electric motors, reducing more than 3,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 25 years – the equivalent of 353,635 liters of diesel fuel.

The company pitched it as part of a move to address the climate crisis, which experts have long said will have an outsized impact on polar bears.

The company’s maiden voyage for its electric vehicle came as the area remained ice free for the first time in years – a scenario that may prove deadly for the bears.

A handful of kilometers from where the vehicles parked, the dark waters of Hudson Bay lashed at the shore – a rarity for late November and a warning sign for 800 or so polar bears in the region waiting to begin their hunt on sea ice for ringed seals.

In recent years, that wait has grown longer and longer.

While the timing of the ice formation varies from year to year, experts say the trend over recent decades is cause for concern.

Frontiers North Adventures plans to convert its fleet of buggies to electric motors, reducing more than 3,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 25 years. Photograph: Leyland Cecco

That is bad news for the bears, which don’t feed for the months leading up to ice formation. Instead, they laze around the bay, conserving their energy.

“We’re not getting the good years of sea ice formation that we used to have. We’re getting bad years and OK years,” said Andrew Derocher, a professor of biology at the University of Alberta. “When you do that over a long enough period of time, you can expect that your population is going to decline.”

It had been 156 days since most of the bears last ate. At 180 days, starvation begins to set in.

Ice is also breaking up earlier in the season, meaning bears are forced to return to land weeks earlier than normal and have a smaller window for hunting.

Over the last decade, the bears have lost nearly a total of 12 days of ice on either end of the season.

Polar bears have lost 12 days of ice on either end of the season. Photograph: Leyland Cecco

“We’ve always been concerned about an early break-up with a really late freeze-up,” said Derocher. “And that would be the worst-case scenario for polar bears.”

Already, the bears are showing warning signs.

The weight of pregnant polar bears has declined over the years, as have new births. Bears typically lose one kilogram of weight each day they remain on the tundra instead of ice – further adding pressure on the population.

The bear population has dropped by nearly 30% since 1987. If current trends hold, the bears are predicted to undergo a reproductive failure by 2040, accelerating the species’ demise.

“Eventually, you’ll pretty much have like a zombie population of polar bears that just can’t sustain themselves and it’s a matter of time before they’re extirpated. When? That’s the million-dollar question,” Derocher said.


'Sea, ice, snow ... it’s all changing': Inuit struggle with warming world

With warming in the north tied to mounting worries over carbon emissions, the longtime Churchill mayor, Michael Spence, has praised the company’s electric vehicle prototype, calling it a vision for “where tourism is going and where our climate is going”.

But the contrast between a futuristic vision of electric vehicles in northern communities and the stark reality of disappearing sea ice, highlights the challenges the region faces.

Churchill once pinned its hopes on a world-class sea port, only to see that vision end in disappointment after the only rail track was washed out by floods. Some in the community of 1,000 hope that the changing climate will enable it to become a major grain port, but much of the town’s economy still relies on tourism . According to government figures, the industry brought in more than C$35m (US$27m) in 2017, mostly related to polar bear safaris.

Manitoba does as much as it can to protect the bears on the ground. Hunting is prohibited, tour vehicles have a narrow set of tracks they can follow to spot the mammals and human-bear interactions, including garbage dumps, have been minimized.

But the late freeze-up is a glimpse at the reality that local operators and scientists are forced to grapple with: the landscape will probably undergo significant changes in the coming years – and polar bear populations will suffer the most.


Could sprinkling sand save the Arctic's shrinking sea ice?

While other at-risk species can benefit from human intervention – for example fishers in Atlantic Canada are experimenting with rope-less gear to help endangered whales – saving the disappearing sea ice is a far more difficult task.

“There’s no easy fix. We can’t just put a park somewhere. And while it’s a nice idea and indicative of the kind of solutions we need, an electric tundra buggy isn’t going to save the world,” said Derocher. “The only levers that we have left that we can pull are the human behavior ones.”