Trans Mountain trying to bypass 'critically important' fire bylaws: Burnaby fire chief

City says pipeline hasn't proven 'site constraints' prevent it from meeting requirements for fire truck access to tank facilities

Cornelia Naylor
a day ago

Trans Mountain's Burnaby Mountain Terminal.Cornelia Naylor

Fire truck access to Trans Mountain’s tank facilities has become the latest battleground between the federally-owned pipeline and the City of Burnaby.

Trans Mountain filed a request to the Canada Energy Regulator earlier this month, asking for relief from certain Burnaby bylaws because it claims the city is being “unreasonable” and encroaching on the constitutional powers of the federal government, which has approved the pipeline expansion project.

The pipeline says the city wants fire truck access plans before it will grant the necessary building permits for the expansion of the Burnaby and Westridge Marine terminals.

Trans Mountain has submitted and repeatedly amended the plans as per the city’s request, it says, but the city has said they are still deficient in terms of access road width and turning radius.

Trans Mountain says its plans are “substantially compliant” with the building code, but some of the city’s requests can’t be implemented because of “site constraints.”

The company says it needs “timely relief” from the city’s bylaws to keep the project on track, noting each month of delay past the target in-service date of Dec. 31, 2022 will result in lost earnings of $100 million and millions of dollars in excess capital costs.

Trans Mountain argues Burnaby has been using its bylaws – including its tree bylaw – for years to delay the expansion project and the Canada Energy Regulator and its predecessor, the National Energy Board, have sided with the pipeline with four previous orders rendering the city’s bylaws inapplicable or inoperative.

“As the Project has already been determined to be in the public interest, there is no justification for further harm as a result of additional unnecessary and unreasonable permitting delays,” states the notice.

But the city says it’s Trans Mountain that’s holding up its own project.

“It is Trans Mountain’s failure to follow the fire services bylaw and building bylaw that has prevented the issuance of permits, and it is Trans Mountain resistance to following these city obligations that has led to any time delays,” states the city’s response by lawyer Greg McDade on Dec. 23.

McDade says the city “recognizes and accepts” the terminal projects have federal approval and the city isn’t allowed to make it impossible to get the necessary permits, but that’s not what’s happening here.

McDade says it wouldn’t be impossible for the company to comply, and Trans Mountain hasn’t provided any evidence to prove otherwise.

“That evidence is uniquely in the possession of the company, and without more, it is not reasonable to draw a conclusion of impossibility on mere assertions,” McDade states. “The standard on constitutional matters is high, and mere added expense or inconvenience is not sufficient.”

McDade also notes compliance in this case is “a matter of important public safety.”

“It would not be appropriate for the CER to use a constitutional argument to reduce safety standards for this project,” he said.

In an affidavit, Burnaby fire Chief Chris Bowcock says that, despite the fire department raising concerns from the very beginning, it was never consulted on the layout or design of the expanded tank facilities, and has never been provided with any detailed information about the “site constraints” that prevent Trans Mountain from adhering to the city’s fire services bylaw.

Bowcock says the bylaws governing fire truck access are “critically important.”

“The wider fire services bylaw fire lane and turning radius requirements are intended to ensure effective fire response efforts and the health and safety of fire and other emergency response personnel,” he says in his affidavit.

Trans Mountain notes the city is not responsible for responding to fires inside the tank farm, but Bowcock says there are “multiple potential tank fire scenarios within the terminals that would be unextinguishable due to lack of safe firefighting positions.”

He says the fire department could be called on to respond to emergencies both inside the tank facilities – including rescues and structure fires – and outside of them – including evacuations, wildland firefighting and monitoring toxic smoke. 

“Given the significant mobilization of resources and personnel required by the Burnaby Fire Department in a fire emergency situation at either of the terminals, Trans Mountain’s failure to comply with critical and mandatory fire access standards would place the efficacy of Burnaby’s response efforts, as well as the efforts of other first responders and contractors, at risk, thereby increasing the likelihood of harm to the public and to firefighting personnel, first responders and facility staff,” Bowcock says.

Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
Email cnaylor@burnabynow.com

Finding closure when a ‘zero-Covid’ future is unlikely

 Rajesh M Parikh writes: History shows that the end of the pandemic would be better viewed as the return of social life rather than the attainment of specific epidemiological goals

Written by Rajesh M Parikh |
Updated: December 31, 2021 

Multiple factors contribute individually or in combination to determine disease patterns.

 (C R Sasikumar)

We do not have a precise timeline, but past pandemics offer tantalising clues. The widespread use of dashboards has created the perception that the pandemic will end when all dashboard indicators hit zero (infections, cases and fatalities). However, history suggests this is the most unlikely outcome.

In the past 130 years, respiratory pandemics have been followed by annual seasonal waves fuelled by viral endemicity, which generally lasts until the next pandemic. What goes down, comes back up. The term “waves” to refer to patterns of disease spread during an outbreak was first used during the Russian Flu pandemic of 1889. It lasted three years, had multiple phases of spikes and valleys with the second phase being the most severe.

The Spanish Flu of 1918-20 had three distinct peaks. It began as a small wave in March 1918, which subsided during the summer. Following the initial peak in cases, a larger peak occurred in the fall of 1918. A third peak occurred during the winter and spring of 1919. This wave subsided in the summer of 1919, signalling the end of the pandemic. It is estimated that over 500 million people were infected and about 100 million died. Although the pandemic subsided, the viruses didn’t go away; a descendant of the Spanish Flu virus, the contemporary H1N1, is circulating even today.

Multiple factors contribute individually or in combination to determine disease patterns. Some diseases are seasonal, and the waves follow seasonal patterns. Human behaviour and interactions also affect viral spread. In India, during the monsoons, due to crowding, a spike in vector-borne diseases (dengue and malaria) is common. Lifestyle choices, too, play a role — school closings during summer and winter have been linked to reduced social contacts, and thereby reduction in influenza cases.

A third factor that influences disease spread is the level of immunity in the community (herd immunity). As more individuals gain immunity either through infection and/or by vaccination, they indirectly offer protection to those who are not infected. The disease spread slows and eventually halts as the virus is unable to find new hosts to infect.

The epidemiology of previous deadly coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV) differs significantly from that of SARS-CoV-2; hence these pathogens are not helpful models for predicting the future of the Covid-19 pandemic. Influenza pandemics are our best comparative models. At least eight influenza pandemics have occurred since the early 1700s. Seven of them had an initial peak that faded away without any major intervention over the course of a few months. Following that, around six months after the initial spike, each of those seven pandemics experienced a second significant peak. After the initial wave of infections, certain pandemics displayed recurrent smaller waves of cases over the next two years. The 1968 pandemic was the only one to follow a more classic influenza-like seasonal pattern, with a late fall/winter spike followed by a second surge the following winter. The second year saw an increase in pandemic-related mortality in various locations, notably in Europe.

The course of these pandemics was not significantly influenced by vaccination. There were no flu vaccinations available in 1918. When the H2N2 epidemic swept the globe in 1957, flu vaccination was primarily used by the military. The United States developed approximately 22 million doses of vaccine during the 1968 pandemic of H3N2, but by the time it was available, the worst of the epidemic had gone. Yet, vaccines play a crucial role in controlling mortality and the burden on healthcare.

A combination of herd immunity and the virus mutating to become less infectious and severe led to the eventual end of past pandemics. Usually, viruses don’t just go away. Following three pandemics since 1900, the influenza A strain mutated to become increasingly human-adapted and eventually displaced the dominant seasonally circulating influenza virus. Viruses descended from the 1918 virus have caused almost all instances of influenza A since, as well as all subsequent flu pandemics. Seasonal flu continues to result in the deaths of 6,50,000 people each year.

SARS-CoV-2 will most likely become endemic and continue to circulate in the human population synchronising to a seasonal pattern with less severity over time, as other less pathogenic coronaviruses, such as the OC43, 229E, NL63 and HKU1 and past pandemic influenza viruses have done.

One of the probable scenarios is that through vaccination or natural immunity the adult population will develop immunity and only contract mild illness. SARS-CoV-2 will then primarily affect young children, who will probably only have mild illnesses. The duration of immunity against SARS-CoV-2, both natural and through vaccination, is still uncertain. After six to eight months, individuals who have had Covid-19, show declining levels of neutralising antibodies. However, their bodies also produce memory B cells, which may develop antibodies in the event of a reinfection, and T cells, which can kill virus-infected cells.

SARS-CoV-2’s destiny will also be determined by whether or not it spreads to wild animals. Several illnesses that have been controlled continue to exist because animal reservoirs allow infections to spread back into humans. Yellow fever, Ebola, and the chikungunya virus are examples of these diseases. Many animals, including cats, rabbits and hamsters, are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Mink are particularly susceptible to Covid-19, and outbreaks have occurred on mink farms in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Omicron has rapidly become the prevalent variety in many countries. In their modelling study, the US-based Covid-19 Scenario Modelling Hub predicts a significant wave of Covid-19 cases that, by the first week of January 2022, will surpass those seen nationwide during the height of the Delta wave. While it is evident that the infection wave will be considerable, it is less clear what Omicron’s effect will be in terms of hospitalisations and fatalities, as much is unknown about the severity of primary, secondary, and breakthrough infections with Omicron compared to Delta and preceding variants. Regardless of where Omicron’s relative severity falls, the sheer number of cases expected implies that even a relatively mild Omicron variation has the potential to significantly stress, if not overwhelm, already overburdened healthcare systems. We are yet to see if Omicron is a step towards endemicity or one away from it.

The hope for targeting SARS-CoV-2 eradication has passed. Transitioning to a post-pandemic environment is not likely to be one with “zero-Covid”. The challenge then is to define the Covid-19 level that is acceptable for countries in a world that is fundamentally interconnected.

The epidemiological characteristics of a pandemic’s end are not universally defined. Prior respiratory pandemics illustrate that ends are usually ambiguous, and that pandemic closure is better viewed as the return of social life rather than the attainment of specific epidemiological goals. Pandemics end not when disease transmission ceases, but rather when the disease ceases to be newsworthy in the eyes of the public and in the judgement of media and political leaders who mould our attention and opinions. The end of a pandemic is more of a concern of lived experience than of biology, making it a social rather than a medical event.

The writer is director, Medical Research and Hon. Neuropsychiatrist, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai. He has co-authored The Coronavirus: What You Need To Know About The Global Pandemic

When will the COVID-19 pandemic end? Past diseases, and how they played out, offer some clues

JANUARY 2, 2022

Everyone is hoping we finally reach one destination in the new year: the end of the pandemic.

But with two-year lockdown cycles, exponential case counts, a testing crunch, and an omicron curveball just a few to come by, it can sometimes seem like that point keeps rolling back and forth on the horizon.
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Experts agree that the coming year is difficult to predict, but they can take some of their hopes and fears and lessons from past pandemics.

It is unlikely, they say, that the virus will disappear. But the sharp increase in new cases could mean that they drop quickly before expected to settle into some kind of low-grade, continuous, less heavy presence.

Cases doubled every few days at the end of 2021, with Omicron quickly overtaking Delta to become the dominant version in Canada.

“But sometimes when that happens we also see a really rapid decline,” said Winnipeg-based epidemiologist Cynthia Carr, adding that whether that happens will define the first few months of 2022.

“It burns through a large section of the population.”

An infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Dr. Sira Help said, there are still too many unknowns.

The data is “coming out fast and furiously from all different angles, from different countries, I think there’s good and bad,” she said, speaking by phone from New York City, the epicenter of Omicron. one of. Madad is also senior director of the System-Wide Special Pathogens Program at NYC Health & Hospitals.

“The good news we’re seeing right now is that the Omicron version seems to be milder than other types of anxiety in terms of causing serious illness,” she said.

“But because it’s so highly transmissible, you’ll see a lot of people get infected with this virus.”

There have already been some concerning reports of hospitalizations in the US, mostly involving children who have not been vaccinated.

In Ontario, where there are so many new cases that lab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are now limited to people at high risk, Hospitalizations are also increasing,

a recent report Public Health Ontario found that the risk of hospitalization and death from Omicron was approximately 54 percent lower than from Delta, adjusting for vaccination status and region. However, the number of hospitalizations and the impact on the health care system are still “likely to be significant” because it is so contagious.

the variant appears reached its peak in South Africa, where it was first detected, said Madd, who was featured in Netflix’s early 2020 documentary series, “Pandemic.”

“The best way to put it is crash and burn,” she said. But there are “various factors” to consider; South Africa for example “could reach a threshold in terms of testing capacity,” and still “asymptomatic cases are not being taken up.”

Carr suspects that COVID will go away, like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people in about 30 countries, including Canada, in the mid-2000s.

Instead, Carr said that COVID can be seasonal, like a flu, “which can still have a very severe impact on some people, vulnerable people in the population,” or called endemic (a stable , but not a heavy presence in some areas).

“If we continue to see again that people are not getting shortness of breath or very medically severe cases, it could be good news that we are turning to an endemic situation where perhaps this strain is no longer there. Moving towards having more strains of coronavirus,” said Carr.

He said these strains cause “one in four” common colds. Although it’s too early to say with certainty, “It’s my hope, that it might actually steer us in this direction, given how quickly it’s moving.”

No one could have predicted Omicron’s “efficacy and just the rate of transmission,” said Tim Sly, a professor emeritus in the School of Occupational and Public Health at the university, formerly known as Ryerson.

“Never underestimate Mother Nature, she has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve.”

Sly agrees that COVID probably won’t “disappear” as SARS did, as eventually “everybody is going to be exposed”. Instead he thinks it will be “in line with the model we’ve seen with influenza viruses for years.”

The flu of 1918–19, which spread around the world after World War I, eventually ended with infected people dying or gaining some immunity. But new strains of that virus have emerged over time, including the swine flu pandemic in 2009, Sly said.

“So these things enter the population and if they stay there, they pop up a few years later as part of the normal seasonal influenza virus,” he said.

“We’ll probably be seeing an annual flu shot that also includes a coronavirus antigen, just to keep us on top every year.”

Where she sits, New York City’s help hears “much fear, a lot of anxiety,” and “flashbacks to March 2020.” But, she said, it’s important to remember that we now have a lot of tools to fight the virus, including vaccines, masks and even new promising treatments.

A few days before Christmas, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer approved a new antiviral pill, called Paxlovid, for emergency use. It is not yet authorized in Canada.

“It’s the kind of sunshine we all needed in the midst of a viral blizzard,” Madd said, and “will definitely be a game changer.” Before people can receive treatment, he said, they need to be diagnosed.

Unfortunately, “the boom and demand for testing is quite astronomical,” in both the US and Canada, and many people may not have access to testing.

Help hopes the virus will transition “in a more seasonal pattern,” with fewer deaths and dire consequences. But that’s “really it’s just a hope and a wish. I’m not going to say it’s going to happen in 2022 just now.”

And what about the likely future, even worse, variants? Eric Arts, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Western University, said that “most of the time” when a virus mutates, it does so to find a way to transmit more easily between people than it seems. That’s what Omicron has done.

Going forward, “we hope that’s what’s going to happen, but again we don’t know. You can get a mutation that helps transmission and that can have really serious consequences in disease, but it There’s a mutation that comes with the ride.”

The best way to prevent this scenario, he said, is to ensure that everyone has access to vaccines.

“We have focused a lot on our situation in Canada and the US, country by country, let us get our vaccines, let us protect ourselves. This world is too small for him,” he said.

“If we really want a good 2022, and we want to see the end of it, we need to do more to vaccinate the world. It’s that simple.

Unvaccinated workers who lose jobs ineligible for EI benefits, minister says

The policy is intended to protect workplaces from outbreaks and encourage vaccine uptake, says Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough

Author of the article:National Post Staff
Publishing date:Dec 31, 2021 • 

Canada's Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Carla Qualtrough. 

PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE /REUTERS


Jobless Canadians who refuse to get vaccinated for COVID-19 could be shut out of unemployment benefits, warns Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.

Speaking to Canadian Press, Qualtrough said as long as there’s a public health emergency, unvaccinated workers who lose hours or their job may not be eligible for employment insurance benefits.

Liberals tacked on the condition to a number of benefit payments, the news outlet reports, although those with a medical exemption are excluded.

The policy is intended to keep workplaces open and free of COVID outbreaks, and encourage vaccine uptake, Qualtrough said.

“As long as the collective public health of Canadians is jeopardized, and our economy is thereby threatened, we’re going to have to keep public health policy top of mind in our employment and labor and economic decision making,” she noted.

“And I don’t know how long that will be.”

Employment and Social Development Canada has issued a notice to employers enforcing vaccine mandates to help them fill out records of employment, a document needed to apply for EI benefits.

The department said if an employee doesn’t report to work or is suspended or terminated for refusing to comply with a vaccine mandate, the employer should indicate that they quit, took a leave of absence or were dismissed – potentially disqualifying them from collecting EI.

The notice also lays out multiple factors that could be considered, including whether the vaccine policy was clearly communicated, if it was reasonable within the workplace context and any potential exemptions from the vaccine policy.

In November, the federal government expanded the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit to provide temporary support to workers if their workplace has been affected by capacity-limiting restriction of 50 per cent or more during the pandemic.

Eligible workers may receive $270 after taxes for each one-week period leading up to Feb. 12 if they have lost 50 per cent or more of their income as a result of the capacity limits.

The Trudeau Liberals made stipulations in the federal pandemic aid policy in the fall to encourage participation in the labour force, explained Qualtrough.

“We knew we had to make sure that if something like Omicron happened, that we still needed a tool to help Canadians who either would lose their jobs or would face reduced hours,” she said.

“But we knew the economy in September of 2021 looked very different than it did in September of 2020. So we couldn’t just continue with broad measures that maybe would disincentivize work or wouldn’t encourage maximum labor force participation.”

Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 6.0% in November, 0.3 percentage points shy of data from February 2020, just before the pandemic hit, Statistics Canada estimates. The report found that 19.3 million people in the country were employed, the highest ever recorded and 183,000 more than pre-pandemic levels.

Additional reporting from Canadian Press

The $30B child-care challenge: building a new program from the ground up

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Advocates say that without proper compensation for workers, it will be impossible to build a program

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News · Posted: Jan 01, 2022 

As the federal government and provinces look to build a fully national child care program that delivers care for $10 a day, they'll have to recruit more than 40,000 works and pay them well enough to keep them in the profession. (Steve Bruce/CBC)

Ottawa has struck child-care deals with various provinces — but experts say building a viable national child-care system means turning a market into a government program and low-wage child care workers into a new professional class.  

The federal government announced in April that it's offering roughly $30 billion over five years to help provinces offset the costs of a national early learning and child care program.

The plan is to halve the cost of child care in the first year and bring daily fees down to $10 a day per child in participating provinces five years from now. 

Deals have been struck with every province and territory but Ontario and Nunavut — but those deals are just the start.

"The way child care has evolved in Canada is that it's a market, it's not really a system," said Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, a child-care advocacy group. "The consensus is that the market really doesn't work for child care in different ways."

Friendly said the legacy of private, market-based child-care services is low wages for child care workers. Wages still account for 85 to 90 per cent of a non-profit child care provider's total budget, she said.

• Liberals promise $30B over 5 years to create national child-care system

• Parents weigh child-care options as federal parties put policies in election window

• Quebec daycare workers approve agreement in principle, ending unlimited strike

According to a report by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, the median annual wage for a Canadian child care worker in 2015 was $34,192; that figure varied from province to province. The median wage was highest in the Northwest Territories at $42,862; New Brunswick child care workers earned the least — an average of $27,817.

Wages in Quebec are now going to be much higher than the 2015 average of $35,022 a year because child care workers in the province walked off the job to protest low pay. In December, the Quebec government agreed to a deal that will see early learning educators get a pay bump of 18 per cent and support staff receive a raise of 12.5 per cent. 

"The problem in the child care market situation that we have is that, essentially, the parent fees are pitted against the wages and working conditions of the workforce," Friendly said.

To bring fees down without government help would require cutting already low wages for workers, making staff retention even more problematic.

According to the same report, monthly child care fees in 2018 ranged from a high of $1,207 in Toronto down to $179 a month in Quebec, where a provincial system — much like the one the federal government is trying to build — already exists. 

"There are a number of people ... almost all women, young women, who decide that they want to be early childhood educators and they are entering colleges to get certification," said Morna Ballantyne, executive director of Child Care Now.

"The problem is that once they graduate and they ... look around for employment, that's when it really hits them that most places are not paying a living wage. Having been trained, they might go into [child care] but the problem is that they don't stay."

• Ontario's 'fair share' of $10.2B child-care deal puts province at odds with feds

• 'It's not enough': Money at the heart of child-care disagreement between Ontario and Ottawa, sources say

Experts say that a national child care program must be built on a wage grid that establishes minimum wages and sets out how they'll increase over time.

"Within all of our agreements, one thing all provinces and territories have to agree to is a wage grid because we recognize that this is one of the most important areas to be able to grow the child care system but also to be able to professionalize child care workers as well," Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould told CBC News.

"Different provinces have different wage grids and scales ... We kind of have a minimum that we require because we know that in order to retain [workers], you have to make sure that you are paying them adequately."

Pensions, benefits needed, say advocates

Gould would not say what that minimum is. A government official speaking on background explained that the federal government is not setting a minimum salary but is leaving that up to the provinces to determine. The federal government's role does not extend beyond the demand for a wage grid, the official said. 

Child care advocates also say that workers need benefits and pensions to encourage them to stay. Gould said the federal government is limiting its efforts to encouraging, rather than demanding, benefits and pensions for child care workers.

"It's not something that the federal government specifically is requiring but we certainly encourage it," she said, adding that benefits and pensions fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial governments overseeing the programs. 

• Ottawa, P.E.I. strike new child-care deal aiming for $10 daily fees within 3 years

• N.W.T. expected to sign federal child care deal this week

• Ottawa, Alberta reach deal for $10-a-day child care

When the Liberals rolled out their child care plan, they promised to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the country. At a ratio of about one early learning/child care worker to every six children, Canada will need to attract more than 40,000 new workers to the industry.

Boosting wages and benefits would help, but Canada still needs more child care facilities, said Friendly.

"We have child care deserts, where we have no child care because no one has turned up to … initiate [it]," she said.

In order to ensure there are enough spaces, she said, construction of child-care facilities should be included in urban planning the way public schools are now.

A shortage of spaces

According to the same report by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, there were enough spaces across the country for only about 30 per cent of children aged 12 and under in 2019. The problem varies by province.

Quebec, with its own child care system, had enough spaces for about 57 per cent of children under 12 in 2019. In Newfoundland and Labrador in the same year, there were spaces for only 13 per cent of children. Nunavut had spaces for just under 12 per cent of its kids and Saskatchewan had room for only 9.5 per cent of children 12 and under.

"Building a system like child care, or health care, or public education or colleges and universities, is something that has to happen over time. You need the people to work on it and to work in it," Friendly said.

"It's a long-term proposition, hopefully one that some people will feel the effects of right away, and some people will four or five years from now."

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The $30B child-care challenge: building a new program from the ground up | CBC News

Calgary Chinese community members protest premier's 'bat soup' comment

KENNEY OWES ALBERTANS AN APOLOGY
Author of the article:Jason Herring
Publishing date:Jan 01, 2022 

The Chinese community held a rally to demand Jason Kenney to make a public apologize about his Wuhan Bat Soup controversial comments at the McDougall Center in Calgary on Saturday, January 1, 2022. 

Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia 

Members of Calgary’s Chinese community are demanding a public apology from Premier Jason Kenney for what they describe as racist comments made in a recent media interview.

More than 60 people gathered outside of McDougall Centre on a frigid New Year’s Day morning to condemn Kenney’s comments, in which he told Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell in a year-end interview , “What’s the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan? I don’t know.

Attendees held signs with lines like “Racism is a disgrace to Alberta” and “Zero tolerance for anti-Asian hate” as a series of speakers took to the mic with concerns the premier’s comments will worsen discrimination against Chinese Canadians, a group which faced an increase in vitriol following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We gather here to voice concern on Jason Kenney’s irresponsible and toxic comments,” said Jiannong Wu during the rally. “(This type of language) has provoked a significant increase in hate crimes against Asian people in general and Chinese in particular.”

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. A viral video which circulated shortly afterwards purported bat soup in a Wuhan wet market was the origin of the virus, but that claim was quickly debunked .

Kenney’s press secretary Justin Brattinga said Kenney gave an apology for the comments in a Dec. 24 interview with LifeCalgary, a local Chinese-language outlet which publishes on the Chinese WeChat social media platform. Their interview with Kenney was published Wednesday.

“I do want say that by the way, if anybody did take offence, that I apologize to them, if they took offence, certainly none was intended,” said Kenney in the interview, quotes from which were provided by Brattinga.

“I’m sorry if people felt offended by what I said, that was not my intention. And I certainly want to thank the Chinese Canadian community in Alberta for the tremendous care that it has shown in being responsible during COVID.”

In an earlier statement to CTV, the premier’s office had defended Kenney’s comments, saying it was “obviously ridiculous” to call his words racist.

Wu works at the Foothills Medical Centre as a medical technologist. He said he’s faced racism as a front-line worker since the start of the pandemic, including from one patient who demanded he speak English when he was already speaking the language, and from another who refused his care altogether.

Members of Calgary’s Asian community gathered to protest comments made by Premier Jason Kenney in a year-end interview.

 PHOTO BY JASON HERRING /Postmedia

He said he fears Kenney’s comments will provoke further hatred, and said a broad public-facing apology is necessary.

“I think it’s intentional, because (Kenney) is trying to cover up his failure to handle the pandemic,” Wu said. “I would like him to come out on television, facing the mainstream media to apologize to us and to the province, because his job is to unite us rather than divide us.”

Among rally attendees was Irfan Sabir, NDP MLA for Calgary-Bhullar-McCall, who described Kenney’s comments as a racist dog-whistle.

“(Kenney) is dividing people and creating fear and hatred among our communities. That’s unacceptable. That’s irresponsible,” Sabir said.

Also Saturday morning, members of Edmonton’s Chinese community gathered for a similar rally outside the Alberta legislature.

TEMP -31 C.

Amid protests, Kenney walks back 'bat soup thing out of Wuhan' comment

Author of the article: Jonny Wakefield

Publishing date: Jan 01, 2022 •

Members of Edmonton's Chinese communities gathered outside the Alberta Legislature on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, to protest Premier Jason Kenney's remarks about "bat soup" as a source of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM /Postmedia
Article content

Premier Jason Kenney is walking back a recent remark about the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic after protests from Alberta’s Chinese communities.

In a year-end interview last week with Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell , Kenney made reference to “the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan” as part of a longer response about new COVID variants.

Members of Edmonton and Calgary’s Chinese communities protested on New Year’s Day demanding an apology.

Alice Yang, a Grade 12 student and an organizer of the Edmonton event, said the comments inflame anti-Asian prejudice. The rally attracted around 40 participants.

“We believe that his comments were extremely racist and unfounded in any scientific theory, and not something a public figure should say,” she said. “This rally was made for the purpose of him to publicly apologize for his remarks.”

Such statements allow those with anti-Asian attitudes “to rationalize the racism that they feel, because they can go ‘yes, our premier would agree with me,'” she said.

ONCE AGAIN WE HAVE PRESS SECRETARIES ANWSERING FOR THEIR BOSS
In a statement Saturday, Kenney’s press secretary Justin Brattinga said the premier apologized for the remarks in a Dec. 24 interview with Life Calgary, a local Chinese publication.

“I do want to say that by the way, if anybody did take offence, that I apologize to them, if they took offence, certainly none was intended,” Brattinga quoted Kenney as saying.

“I’m sorry if people felt offended by what I said, that was not my intention. And I certainly want to thank the Chinese Canadian community in Alberta for the tremendous care that it has shown in being responsible during COVID.”

The statement comes after Kenney previously defended the bat soup comment. In a statement to CTV News last week, acting press secretary Harrison Fleming said “it is obviously ridiculous to suggest that these widely reported scientific theories are ‘racist,'” adding the premier’s comment “underscored that there is no way to predict what the catalyst of a future pandemic will be, or how future variants might evolve.”

“The premier’s comment obviously referred to the widely reported theory that the first human infection of COVID-19 resulted from transmission between an infected bat and a human in the Wuhan region of China,” Fleming told the broadcaster.

COVID is believed to have originated as a bat virus , though its exact origins remain mired in controversy. An article in The Guardian newspaper Friday summarized: “the search for the origin of the COVID pandemic has come in the middle of a global controversy that has mixed public health, domestic politics and international diplomacy.”

Initially, it was believed the virus jumped to humans at a seafood market in Wuhan. Among the pandemic’s first debunked viral videos was a clip claiming to show a woman in Wuhan eating a bat with chopsticks. The video was in fact shot in Palau, an island nation several thousand kilometres away.

Later, the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology gained currency. A World Health Organization investigation — which was bogged down by allegations of political interference — initially said the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely” and that the virus probably began in animals. By August, however, the WHO was saying all theories remained “on the table,” and a report by U.S. intelligence agencies was inconclusive about how the virus originated .

Yang said the premier’s Dec. 24 statement is not good enough, saying he needs to make a public apology in person.

“I’m sorry if you are offended isn’t an apology,” she said. “It doesn’t recognize the effects of his words and the issues with what he said … It just feels like what I’ve struggled with during the pandemic, and the racism that other Chinese people have faced, isn’t an issue in his eyes.”

— with files from Jason Herring

Alberta’s Chinese community continues push for apology from Premier Kenney

By Matthew Conrod Global News
Posted January 1, 2022 

DOING NEITHER

It’s been over one week since a Postmedia story was published that contained a controversial remark made by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

While speaking with Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell, Kenney made what many believe was an insensitive comment regarding the origins of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China.

READ MORE: Calls for Alberta premier to apologize for comments made in year-end interview

On Saturday, members of Calgary’s Chinese community gathered outside of the McDougall Centre to call on the premier to make a formal apology.

Some of those in attendance feel Kenney’s comments contributed to the discrimination and anti-Asian hate that some Chinese citizens have experienced since the start of the pandemic.

“People cannot express their anger with China,” said Jiannong Wu. “They express it with us.”

Another protestor, Rona Kong, feels the comments have added to her already feeling ostracized by her ethnicity.

“For him to say this it makes me feel almost scared to say that I’m Chinese.” said Kong.

“I also feel ashamed of this province in a way.”

On Saturday, the premier’s press secretary told Global News that Kenney had made an apology during an interview on Dec. 24.

“I do want say that by the way, if anybody did take offense, that I apologize to them,” the emailed transcript of Kenney’s apology said. “If they took offense, certainly none was intended.

“I’m sorry if people felt offended by what I said, that was not my intention. And I certainly want to thank the Chinese Canadian community in Alberta for the tremendous care that it has shown in being responsible during COVID.”

READ MORE: Calgary seeing rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, incidents: police, community members

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley and other members of the caucus have called for Kenney to further address the comments.

“I think it’s critically important for this government to make that statement and make it clear that people from Alberta come from many different backgrounds, cultures and talents and they all belong here” said Alberta NDP MLA Irfan Sabir.

Wu feels the premier failed in his duties as leader of the province.

“His job is to unite us, not divide us.”

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© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

 

Protesters in Calgary and Edmonton seek apology from Jason Kenney

Anti-racist protesters hold rally

Michael Franklin
CTVNewsCalgary.ca 

Senior Digital Producer

Updated Jan. 1, 2022 

It's a new year for Jason Kenney and his government, but the leader of the UCP is facing the same old battle for the favour of Albertans he fought in 2021.

This time, twin rallies are scheduled to take place in Calgary and Edmonton, calling for the premier to apologize for comments he made during a year-end interview.

Kenney was speaking with Postmedia's Rick Bell, sharing his thoughts on the challenges he faced throughout 2021. When the subject turned to the COVID-19 pandemic, the premier drew a reference to the city of Wuhan, China, the location where the first known case of the virus was detected.

"Who knows what the next variant that gets thrown up is? I don't know," said Kenney in the interview. "And what's the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan? I don't know.

RELATED LINKS

Change.org: Petition to Demand Jason Kenney to Apologize

"I've learned from bitter experience not to make predictions about this."

Opposition members, including Alberta NDP Rachel Notley, were quick to call for an apology for the off-hand remark, which was criticized as being "racist."

While the premier's office attempted to defend the comments as "widely reported scientific theories," some Albertans are still demanding further action from Kenney.

"No one could believe our premier is so 'ridiculous' and arrogant," said a statement written on an online petition started by one of the groups.

"There is no such a thing as bat soup in Wuhan and there is even no credible link between COVID-19 and bats. His ridiculous remarks would definitely cause more racism, discrimination and hate towards the Chinese communities. We want an inclusive Alberta and he must apologize!"

KENNEY'S OFFICE RESPONDS

Despite what the protesters said in their statement, officials with the Alberta government say Kenney has already apologized for the comments, saying that no offence was intended.

During an interview last week, the premier addressed the topic directly and said he apologizes to anyone who was offended by the remark.

"That was not my intention," Kenney said. "And I certainly want to thank the Chinese Canadian community in Alberta for the tremendous care that it has shown in being responsible during COVID."

YEAH UNLIKE HIS CABINET AND BACK BENCHERS!

 

WUHAN WAS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OPENING UP ALBERTA FOR BEST SUMMER EVER

 

Environmental Coalition Calls on Retailers to Cut Shipping Emissions

File image courtesy CMA CGM

PUBLISHED DEC 31, 2021 9:14 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

A coalition of environmental NGOs is working to decarbonize container shipping by applying pressure to the largest U.S. retailers, who are among the biggest customers for the ocean freight industry.

In a report released last month, the Ship It Zero coalition shows that goods imported via maritime shipping to the U.S. by Walmart, Target, Amazon and IKEA between 2018–2020 accounted for an estimated 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e). These goods were predominantly shipped by a small group of leading ocean carriers, which have long-term relationships with each of the retailers.

“There is now a moment of opportunity where record breaking profits for retailers and cargo carriers are at a nexus with increasing consumer demand for emissions-free shipping, opening up new avenues and increasing motivation for the decarbonization of the container fleet,” states the report by Stand.Earth and Pacific Environment.

Walmart topped the list of companies with the highest volumes traded and the most emissions. The retailer is also the number one goods importer in the U.S. The report shows that Walmart emitted an estimated 11.5 million tonnes of CO2e to ship 2.7 million TEUs between 2018 and 2020. 

CMA CGM was Walmart's main carrier over the course of 2020, accounting for 68 percent of the retailer’s shipping emissions.

Target emitted around 6.4 million tonnes of CO2e over the same period to ship an estimated 1.8 million TEUs. Amazon.com emitted an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e to ship approximately 463,500 million TEUs of goods, and IKEA emitted 1.3 million tonnes of CO2e to ship 425,201 TEUs. 

IKEA was the only top retailer to post a reduction in emissions, which have been on an overall downward trend. Its emissions fell by 16 percent between 2018 and 2019 and a further 8.5 percent between 2019 and 2020.

The shipping industry accounts for nearly three percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is more than the emissions from global air travel and equivalent to the annual electricity usage of almost 200 million homes.

Immigration, booming population and global influence: Is this the 'heroic' Canadian dream?

Hand-painted arms signifying Canada's racial diversity are displayed on a home on Canada Day in Airdrie, Alta., Wednesday, July 1, 2020. 

(THE CANADIAN PRESS / Jeff McIntosh)




Meredith MacLeod

CTVNews.ca Writer

 Saturday, January 1, 2022 

The future belongs to Canada, says author and global strategy advisor Parag Khanna, thanks to the country’s “heroic” approach to welcoming newcomers and its geographic advantage in a time of climatic emergencies.

In fact, he argues the Canadian dream is now more attainable (and more sustainable) than the American dream – and that will make the True North a superpower when it comes to attracting immigrants.

“It plays a role as a north star to other countries that are making their own immigration policy,” Khanna said in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Nov. 24 from his home in Singapore.

“And they can learn from Canada, how to do it right and how to do it proactively, how to do it for their own economic benefit rather than doing it reactively and stubbornly and thinking that it's not good for them when it's the best thing they could do.”

CANADA: 100 MILLION BY 2100

An all-out war for young talent is coming, says Khanna, as are massive shifts in where people live as climate change renders some regions inhabitable. On both scores, Canada is a winner.

The country has set a target of adding 401,000 immigrants this year and up to 421,000 in 2023. A movement underway called the Century Initiative promotes the idea of strategically targeting achieving a population of 100 million by 2100, and urges the federal government to ramp up annual immigration targets even further – from 1 per cent of the population to 1.25 per cent.

Low birth rate and an aging workforce means Canada must turn to immigration in order to grow. Newcomers accounted for more than 80 per cent of the country’s population growth in 2019

Khanna, founder and managing partner of global strategy firm FutureMap and author of a number of books, says all signs point to Canada leading the future global immigration race and overtaking the U.S. as a destination for the tired, poor and huddled masses. The world needs Canada to be a high-immigration society, he says.

Due to its large, open landmass, its position in the Northern Hemisphere and its developed economy and democracy, Canada has a “special responsibility” in an era of climate change, he says. Even at 100 million people, relative to its size, Canada won’t be pulling its weight, he says.

He predicts the population of the country will be much more highly spread out northward – thickening the existing band of density along the U.S. border.

“So, for me, to redistribute the human population, Canada is going to have a hell of a lot more of people than it has now,” said Khanna, who was born in India, grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York and Germany, and now makes Singapore his home.

“I hold up Canada as kind of a heroic case in a world where we do tend to think that xenophobia and protectionism and populism are the driving political narratives of the world.

Canada proves that's not true. Germany proves that's not true and, quite frankly, America under Biden proves that that's not true.”

Even under former president Donald Trump, the U.S. became more diverse, according to recent census data. All the racism and xenophobia and vilifying of immigrants and building a border wall with Mexico under the Trump administration did not change the tides of human migration, says Khanna.

“We will demographically look back 15 years from now, 20 years now and we’ll say, 'Trump who?' I literally mean that, because demographics is the most powerful force next to climate change, and demographics is a lot bigger than Donald Trump being president for four short years,” he said.

“America became more diverse, more Latino and more mixed race right under his nose.”

HEAD NORTH FOR THE NEW AMERICAN DREAM

Many have arrived in the U.S. in pursuit of the American dream: the idea that political, social and economic freedom mean that everyone can earn financial success through hard work.

But Khanna, whose latest book is called Move: The Forces Uprooting Us, says that for many young Americans, the dream is more about an ecologically balanced world, digital connectivity, and the ability to be truly mobile – to pack up an RV or even a tiny home ­– and to head to places where jobs and quality of life can be found.

“The American dream, part of that is that young people are saying … why buy a house and why get a degree? Why not skills and why not mobility? Why not a mobile home, so I can go to where the work is and enjoy freedom and avoid climate disasters?”

Why buy concrete when you can buy wheels? Why not learn remotely and hit the road?

Khanna says young people – millennials, Generation Z and Generation Alpha, who number roughly 5 billion globally – are choosing mobility because we are “entering a world of tremendous complexity and unpredictability and our only safeguard, our only insurance, against that unpredictability is mobility – the capacity to physically get up and move to survive.”

That mobility instinct is built into the DNA of humans, says Khanna, but over the last couple of centuries that instinct has been stifled in favour of pouring concrete into the ground and, later, driving gas-guzzling vehicles.

“That’s part of why we have this situation of accelerating climate change to begin with and that's the reason why now people have to be mobile again to avoid the disasters that are the result of that sedentary lifestyle.”

THE BRAIN DRAIN IN REVERSE

Where once Canada wrung its hand over a southern “brain drain,” the reverse is now underway, says Khanna.

According to the most recent Boston Consulting Group survey of 200,000 professionals across 190 countries, Canada overtook the United States as the No. 1 most desirable destination.

“And that's just one of many surveys that bear this out. Canada is doing so well that it's poaching people from the United States directly. And also poaching people who would have gone to United States but they’re now going to Canada instead. So, you're winning on many different dimensions of the war for talent.”

Canada lacks the political polarization and racial and cultural wars of the U.S. and its diversified economy, living standards and universal health care are well-regarded internationally. It has also simplified and accelerated its immigration process in a way the U.S. has refused to do.

“Young people are saying, ‘Oh my God, what a waste of time and all that bureaucracy and it costs so much money to deal with that country. To hell with it, I'll just go to Canada where everything is easy and faster and digital," Khanna said.

Under Trump, there was a lot of posturing from U.S. celebrities about moving to Canada and that garnered a lot of attention. But many ordinary people are quietly making the move, says Khanna, growing the ranks of the more than 1 million Americans who live north of the border.

And if fears increase that Trump could stage a comeback for 2024, that migration could grow.

“The key thing is that Canada is decoupling itself from the United States in the sense that it's becoming an attractive destination in its own right. It's not about saying, ‘Well, I'll move to America and Canada is nearby and maybe I'll go there on holiday.’ It’s now: ‘I want to go to Canada.’”