Opinion: Fighting anti-Asian racism requires bold action, not passive endurance

Mei Mingxue Nan 

OPINION

EDMONTON JOURNAL

I have lived in Edmonton for 10 years now without encountering blatant racism, but that changed one Monday evening in early January 2022. I was visiting the AHS COVID-19 walk-in clinic at the South Park Centre to receive my booster shot. I was fourth in line and standing about 1.5 metres away from the people in front of me, a young white hetero couple with a preschooler sobbing for fear of needles. The man suddenly turned around, quickly looked me up and down, and then waved the back of his hand vehemently towards me as if shooing away a pest, all the while shouting impatiently at me as if he were annoyed at having to spell out every word for an ignorant foreigner: “Six feet, you know, six feet, six feet please.”

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Hundreds came out to support the Stop Asian Hate rally at the Olympic Plaza hosted by the Calgary Asian Community in Calgary on Sunday, March 28, 2021.

I stood there dumbfounded at suddenly being put on the spot. His child stopped crying and stared back at me. Why did he choose to turn around and admonish me for standing too close, when his family kept a closer distance to the group in front of them? My impression from his hateful gesticulations was that I was the embodiment of COVID, given my Asian appearance — a member of an ethnic community that has been unjustly blamed for the pandemic. As the queue moved forward without me I stayed where I was, with several metres of distance between myself and anyone else.

Paralyzed and tongue-tied, I thought of Larissa Lai and her book Slanting I, Imagining We, in which she illustrates how anti-Asian racism denigrates Asian Canadians as both proliferating and perpetually foreign. I thought of Cathy Park and her book Minor Feelings, in which she trenchantly observes that for Asian-Americans, racism means adults being treated like kids and kids like adults.

I thought of my parents, who had been berated by an elderly white man in the South Park Walmart in the spring of 2020, when hate crimes and hate incidents against Asians and Asian-Canadians were spreading as quickly as the virus. “Don’t touch anything!” he hissed as my parents grabbed a shopping cart. He took his verbal assault a step further, following my parents through the store to ensure they did not touch any merchandise. My parents only smiled nervously and left the store after this racist tirade, and they have never gone back.

I was not with my parents during the Walmart incident, but I had assumed all along that I would respond differently under similar circumstances — respond better — with my proficiency in English and my knowledge of critical race theory. But alas, as it turned out, none of that mattered. In facing a similar situation, I too was tongue-tied.

At that time, I only glared at the man with disapproval, but now I am writing this little piece to illuminate how insensitive and under-informed some North Americans can be when it comes to anti-Asian racism. When the 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang made his plea for Asian-Americans to “embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before,” did he really think that “wear[ing] red white and blue” would rewrite the history of early Chinese immigrants who were regarded as harbingers of contagion?

Yang’s plea sounds particularly ironic in face of University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax’s recent comment that the U.S. is “better off with fewer Asians,” given the “danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country.” Wax’s comment embodies both yellow peril discourse and the model minority myth and shows how these dichotomies — upon which anti-Asian racism functions in North America — have remained largely unchanged.

I am therefore writing to remind myself and whoever may be reading this that we all must actively work to make our society, our Canada, our world better, less racist, and more inclusive. Doing this will require bold action, not passive endurance. History has taught us that taking the high road is ineffective in resisting racial violence and promoting social transformation. Truly accomplishing this will take generations of people who reshape public culture by speaking up and making waves.

Mei Mingxue Nan is a PhD student of comparative literature at Harvard University. She is a two-time recipient of the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

UK regulator fines Mastercard, others for prepaid cards cartel


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's payments regulator on Tuesday fined five payments companies including Mastercard a total of 33 million pounds ($45.01 million) for cartel behaviour involving prepaid cards issued to vulnerable people on welfare benefits.

© Reuters/Thomas White FILE PHOTO: Illustration photo of a Mastercard logo on a credit card

Mastercard received the largest fine of 31.56 million pounds ($43.04 million). The other companies fined were allpay, Advanced Payment Solution, Prepaid Financial Services and Sulion.

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said the firms broke competition law by agreeing not to compete or poach each other's customers on pre-paid cards offered by local authorities to distribute welfare payments to vulnerable people.

The cartel meant recipients of the cards - who included the homeless, victims of domestic abuse and asylum seekers - could have missed out on cheaper or better-quality products, the regulator said.

The PSR previously announced in March last year it planned to fine the five companies in preliminary findings. It said on Tuesday it had concluded the investigation.

The regulator said during the course of the investigation, all the parties settled and admitted breaking the law.

"This investigation and the significant fines we have imposed send a clear message that the PSR has zero tolerance for cartel behaviour," said Chris Hemsley, Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator.

($1 = 0.7332 pounds)

(This story corrects regulator name in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)

A BOOMER ECONOMY
Why the government is raising an eyebrow at Gen Z's favorite new way to spend: 'Buy now, pay later'

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck) 

© Provided by Business Insider 

Buy now, pay later companies like Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna are making big marketing pushes. Don Arnold / Getty Images

Buy Now, Pay Later services have exploded in recent years, and the government is playing catch-up.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened an inquiry into the sector last month, citing debt concerns.

The firms' rapid growth and popularity with young shoppers bring a spate of credit risks, experts say.

Americans — and mainly Gen Zers — have been increasingly tapping Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services for instant gratification and delayed payment.

That's sounding debt-risk alarms in Washington.

The services essentially do what they say on the tin. Shoppers using BNPL take on short-term, often interest-free loans to pay for their purchases and sign on to a scheduled repayment plan to pay back the debt.

But the services' surging popularity has raised concerns over how much debt these BNPL businesses are letting people assume, and how quickly it's happening. Additionally, a lack of oversight has also clouded whether the lending is safe, or potentially the foundation for a broader financial mess.

The firms in question aren't just handing out free cash over the internet. Participating businesses pay BNPL services a small cut for the extra business — yet details around these terms and disclosures to consumers are murky.
BNPL has led to a pandemic-era spending and debt boom

BNPL services emerged before the pandemic, but the health crisis lit the fuse for their explosive growth. The businesses boomed as people stuck at home moved their shopping online. The option is most popular with younger consumers, with 61% of Gen Z having already used a BNPL service, according to a March survey conducted by The Ascent.

That meteoric rise has sparked some concern with regulators around just how much debt risk BNPL could be creating. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened an inquiry into BNPL firms including Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay on December 16, citing concerns around debt growth, data harvesting, and consumer disclosures. Since the services don't yet face the same regulations as other forms of borrowing, they pose new risks of a possible credit bubble, according to the agency.

"Buy now, pay later is the new version of the old layaway plan, but with modern, faster twists where the consumer gets the product immediately but gets the debt immediately too," Rohit Chopra, the bureau's director, said in a statement.

The debt pile could be massive. Cornerstone Advisors estimates BNPL purchases totaled nearly $100 billion in 2021. That's up from just $24 billion the year prior. Separately, CB Insights projects the global BNPL industry could surpass $1 trillion in yearly volume as early as 2025.

Gen Z could be facing a debt cliff

BNPL's top users are possibly an even bigger risk. The services have successfully attracted a younger audience that "might not be credit-worthy or have a lot of experience with traditional types of credit," Marisabel Torres, director of California policy at the Center for Responsible Lending, told Insider.

Gen Z is also the most likely to be caught off guard when student loan repayment is set to resume in May. The generation's oldest members have spent more time post-graduation with their payments frozen than not due to the federal government's pandemic moratorium. The May 1 deadline could be "concerning" for those who can't balance student loan obligations with delayed BNPL payments, Torres said.

It isn't just government authorities that are catching up to the BNPL boom. Credit-rating agencies including Equifax and TransUnion are still working on adding BNPL debt to their reports and aim to start the services in the coming weeks, American Banker reported earlier in January.

The firms probably aren't too late to catch a major bubble, but their slow action is some cause for concern, especially with the financial crisis still a recent memory, Susan Sterne, president and chief economist at Economic Analysis Associates, told Insider.

"The three big agencies that follow consumer debt have yet to really get their hands around this as its a relatively new concept," Sterne said. "They've been diligent post-financial crisis, but I guess nothing has changed. They should have been more aware of this."

The fine print could trip up borrowers

The CFPB's inquiry represents a "great first step," but the BNPL industry needs more transparency if it's to keep growing at its current pace, Torres said. Regulation can put new protections in place so buyers aren't tripped up by each services' differences. Even something as simple as returning an item can be confusing and put buyers at risk, Torres said. Where people can expect refunds in a certain number of days with a traditional purchase, those guidelines don't exist for BNPL shopping. One service could require someone to pay off the remainder of their loan, while another could give refunds of only the amount paid back.

The complications around returning items are only one example where the law hasn't caught up to the industry. The longer the government waits, the greater the chance shoppers fall in the gaps between existing regulations, Torres said.

"We've been flooding the market with all this credit and no one's been keeping track of what's been happening," she said. "Unfortunately, if it seems too good to be true, it might be. This is not always the free financing option that it's marketed to be."

For Activists, The Garment Worker Protection Act Is Just The Beginning

Frances Solá-Santiago

For the past 30 years, Maria has worked in Los Angeles as a seamstress, steamer, and trimmer. Back in the ‘90s, she made $20 per week, a salary she used to support herself and her three kids who lived in Mexico.

“The world was collapsing for me,” Maria, who wished to keep her last name private, tells Refinery29 in Spanish. “[The United States] was supposed to be the land of opportunity.” Her salary wasn’t enough to cover her basic needs in Los Angeles, let alone succeed as a breadwinner for her family.

But as of January 2022, she is covered under the Garment Worker Protection Act, also known as SB62, a bill she helped lobby for since 2020. “It’s a great victory for us garment workers,” says Maria.

The Garment Worker Protection Act — signed into law last September by California Governor Gavin Newsom — is an anti-wage theft and brand accountability bill that makes the state the first in the country to require hourly wages for garment workers. It also bans piecework, a practice that allowed manufacturers to pay workers per garment, resulting in a salary of less than $6 per hour, according to Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Workers Center (GWC), a 20-year-old organization that helps low-wage garment workers in California.

Furthermore, the law establishes a new accountability precedent for brands and manufacturers that will penalize wage theft and other illegal pay practices. Led by the GWC, state senator Maria Elena Durazo, and organizations like Remake — which works to shift the fashion industry away from practices that are harmful to workers and the environment — the bill was backed by 158 retailers and designers, including Reformation, Eileen Fisher, and Mara Hoffman.

“You couldn’t really eliminate the piecework system if the biggest actors weren’t taking responsibility,” says Nuncio. “So together we thought it was a really strong bill.”


Today, Los Angeles is the biggest garment hub in the United States, servicing some of the world’s largest fast-fashion retailers. For decades, the industry has profited from a loophole that allows fashion companies to circumvent their responsibility in wage theft claims by subcontracting manufacturers. This way, fashion companies are able to argue they are not “garment manufacturers,” forgoing accountability for wages of workers making their products. SB62 expands the definitions of garment manufacturing to include anyone who is “dyeing, altering a garment’s design, and affixing a label to a garment.”

For the 45,000 garment workers in Los Angeles, this law is a chance at a better future. According to Maria, it’s about dignity.

“Wage theft is a very dramatic reality for us and people don’t know about this,” says Maria, who has been unable to afford basic necessities like housing and food in the past. “I think that this new law will allow us to live more calmly.” In the past few years, Maria got a taste of what life as an hourly worker could be like when she found a job that paid her a wage by the hour instead of per garment. Now, her salary is around $500 per week, a $200 jump from when she was being paid per garment. “It’s a big difference,” she says.

Nuncio says SB62 follows in the footsteps of other legal agreements passed around the world, most notably including the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh between brands and trade unions to guarantee safe working conditions for workers in the country’s textile industry. Passing SB62, she claims, is just the beginning.

“There is momentum and real organizing happening in the global anti-sweatshop movement toward brand accountability,” she says. “We are seeing more successful campaigns toward this end.” And while passing SB62 is a big win, Nuncio says the work is far from over. The GWC is now starting the next phase of its advocacy, which will focus on education and fiscalization. “We are moving from a policy campaign to an education campaign for workers and businesses,” she says.

First on the agenda: training workers on their new rights. The team started meeting in October 2021 to put together a step-by-step plan that will educate garment workers on how to exercise their right to an hourly wage, as well as file claims of wage theft. They are also working on an education campaign for businesses to make sure manufacturers and brands are obliging by the state’s new law.

“We want to really share this win in the spirit of solidarity and the spirit of mutual learning,” says Nuncio. The GWC also plans to expand its Wage Justice Clinic, hiring a new staffer in January to help workers file wage theft claims, as well as assist in the SB62 education campaign. There’s also $5 million on the table that was granted to the GWC through a budget process for legal services, education, and outreach that Nuncio says will be a prominent part of the organization’s focus this year.

“We also are going to really be talking with our legal allies about how we strengthen the support network out there for workers who want to bring wage claims forward,” she says. “And how do we use it best to get those funds out into the community.”

Nuncio adds that the GWC is now keen on replicating the success of SB62 elsewhere: “We have to create this transnational movement for it,” she says.


Her eyes are set on New York. While Los Angeles is U.S.’s biggest garment manufacturing city, New York’s Garment District is home to over 5,000 garment workers as of 2018. The hourly minimum wage in New York ranges from $11.80 to $15, depending on where in the state the company is located. Many garment workers are still impacted by wage theft. “It’s really interesting to see that in two of the major garment centers in the U.S., wage theft is prominent,” says Nuncio.

New York’s SWEAT bill is intended to take care of this. Unlike SB62, the SWEAT bill extends beyond garment workers in New York State. But similarly to SB62, it’d make companies liable for unpaid wages.

According to a representative from National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), a 20-year-old organization focused on ending workers’ rights violations, businesses get away with not paying around $1 billion to garment workers every year in New York State. Furthermore, companies are able to forgo paying workers back even when the court rules in the workers’ favor. Right now, companies are able to move or hide assets, making it hard for workers to collect their payments even when a resolution is passed. The SWEAT bill would force companies to freeze their assets until the resolution of a case, ensuring workers will be able to collect their money.

That’s why New York organizers and legislators are looking to pass the SWEAT bill this year.

First proposed in 2019, the bill was vetoed by former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in January 2020. Now, with the appointment of Governor Kathy Hochul, SWEAT sponsor Senator Jessica Ramos is hoping to get the bill passed when the senate is back in session in January.

“[SWEAT] is a bill that has been languishing in the state senate for a long time,” says Ramos. “We are ready to start the cycle all over again.” Hochul already established herself as a supporter of New York’s fashion industry during New York Fashion Week last September, announcing a state partnership that would open the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in downtown Manhattan and Moynihan Train Hall in Midtown to designers participating in NYFW — for free. (Most designers pay between $20,000-$50,000 to rent a fashion show venue, according to Vogue Business.)

For Ramos, it all comes back to the workers. “What we are trying to do is make it easier for these workers to obtain their lost wages,” says Ramos, who is the chair of the New York State Senate’s committee on labor. “We seek to empower workers in any industry with the tools to get their money back.”

NBA Social Justice Coalition vows to fight for voting rights

As the fight for voting rights stalls in Congress, the NBA Social Justice Coalition continues its call for lawmakers to act urgently to protect the right to vote.

The NBA Social Justice Coalition was formed in 2020, after the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake. The group, which includes players, owners and staffers, has advocated for policy changes regarding voting rights, criminal justice, policing and justice reform, by reaching out to lawmakers in targeted efforts in Congress and state and local legislatures.MORE: One year after George Floyd's murder, NBA social justice coalition urges passage of policing reform bill

Over the past two years, the group has been active across the country and in Washington, D.C.

Voting rights were at the forefront for the NBA Social Justice Coalition in 2020. The NBA opened up 23 league facilities to help increase voting participation by using them as polling locations and voter registration locations.

© Petre Thomas/USA TODAY Sports Jan 13, 2022; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center/forward Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts to a foul call during the second half against the Memphis Grizzles at FedExForum.

In 2021, NBA all-star forward Karl Anthony Towns, from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Caron Butler, an assistant coach of the Miami Heat, held a virtual roundtable with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., on the topic of policing reform.

Last year, the group publicly endorsed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and pushed for the passage of the EQUAL Act, a bill that seeks to eliminate the federal differences in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine.

Privately, the group has also held several bipartisan meetings with lawmakers.MORE:NBA Social Justice Coalition backs EQUAL Act, urges Congress to move quickly

Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers told ABC News, fighting for equal rights "has been part of my life throughout my life."

© Michael Reaves/Getty Images MIAMI, FLORIDA - JANUARY 15: Head coach Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts against the Miami Heat during the first half at FTX Arena on January 15, 2022 in Miami, Florida.

Born and raised in Chicago, Rivers, 60, grew up going to Operation Breadbasket, a 1960s era program that fought for jobs and services on behalf of the Black community.

Rivers was only three years old when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965 and stressed that Americans should not normalize the fight for voting rights.

"You should be able to vote and you should be fighting for everyone to be able to do it. And the more people you can get engaged in the fight to vote, which shouldn't be a fight anymore," he said.

The coach added, "we can't normalize it that for a long period of our history, and not just Black Americans, women, minorities, were kept out of the right the vote, which is literally the single most important thing about democracy being able to vote, and it's been attacked throughout my lifetime."

In August, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act passed in the House of Representatives. However, in the months since, the bill has stalled due to partisan gridlock

.

© William Lovelace/Getty Images, FILE John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Bunche, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others lead marchers as begin the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march from Brown's Chapel Church in Selma, Ala., March 21, 1965.

Rivers told ABC News, "this shouldn't be controversial ... This has nothing to do with color. This has to do with equal rights."MORE:Clyburn asks senators 'which side are you on?' for voting rights

"It's been made hard for targeted groups throughout my lifetime to vote, and I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican, the one thing that everybody should be fighting for is not making it harder to vote, but making it easier for everyone to vote," Rivers said

When asked what he would say to lawmakers today on the issue of voting rights, he said he'd simply ask them to protect his right to vote.

"Can you protect my right to vote? Don't make it harder for me, or certain groups make it easier for all groups. Protect our rights, and we love using the Constitution. That is constitutional," he said.

Head of Alberta paramedic union wants more done to protect staff

Carolyn Kury de Castillo 

GLOBAL NEWS

The president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) says staff are being denied time off and is calling on the province to take action to protect workers from burnout.

Staff shortages have lead to red alert situations in Calgary and Edmonton, meaning no ambulances were available to respond to calls and lab closures occurred in Edmonton this weekend.

Read more:
At least 6 EMS red alerts in Calgary over the weekend caused by staff shortages

"Our lab capacity is currently curtailed by the inability to fill vacant positions and most weeks we have over 200 paramedic shifts vacant because there’s no staff available," HSAA president Mike Parker said on Monday.

The HSAA is calling on the province to supply all front-line workers with N95 masks, come up with a plan to retain and recruit health-care professionals and protect the mental health of workers by allowing them days off with an "appropriate" workload.

Parker said the system is running on overtime.

"I can tell you that time off is being denied. We have pressure from employers to aggressively encourage our folks back to work again. This has been a relatively new piece in the last few weeks," Parker said.

Read more:
Alberta sees historic demand for paramedics: AHS

The wife of an Airdrie paramedic who was suspended for two days this month says he posted publicly available information about response times and ambulance shortages.

"The specific post that he was suspended for, in quite a few of the comments he clearly states that this is his opinion. So now they are trying to go back on him, saying he was representing AHS," Middleton said.

Middleton said her husband did not make any statements as an AHS employee.

"It makes me super angry because he is trying to do what is right for everybody and trying to make Airdrie and surrounding communities a safer place for everybody," Middleton said.

Video: Alberta paramedics union concerned with increase in calls, ‘red alert’ ambulance shortages

Parker said he's encouraging workers to reach out to the union.

"I encourage any members, if they want to speak out, go through us so we can protect them," Parker said.

In response, Alberta Health Services says all AHS employees are expected to adhere to a Code of Conduct, which covers social media activity and includes treating all people with respect, compassion, dignity and fairness.

As for union staffing concerns, AHS said EMS employees have multiple avenues to take time off – including vacation time, personal days and shift trades.

EMS has also brought on additional staff and ambulances and filled 100 paramedic positions across the province.

"EMS continues to see an increase in emergency calls due to several combined factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid concerns, and emergency calls related to people returning to regular levels of activity.

"All call types have increased, and staff illness and fatigue are also contributing to challenges in the EMS system," said an AHS spokesperson on Monday.

He said to ensure shifts are filled, AHS EMS redeploys supervisors to front-line duty and is also offering overtime to staff who are willing to fill shifts.

AHS also said EMS has an adequate supply of N95 masks and EMS staff are using these.

HSAA represents 28,000 health-care workers.

USA

The majority of PPP loans went to business owners and high-earning households, a new study shows

hcuccinello@insider.com (Hayley Cuccinello) 

© Provided by Business Insider As much as three-quarters of PPP loans extended in 2020 went to business owners and shareholders, not employees. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

$510 billion in loans were extended by the Payroll Protection Program in 2020.
Business owners and stakeholders were the main beneficiaries of these loans, according to a new study.
As a result, only 2% of those loans flowed to low-earning households, economists concluded.

The Payroll Protection Program was launched in April 2020 and issued $510 billion in uncollateralized, low-interest loans of up to $10 million by the end of the year. The speed of this unprecedented program helped businesses keep their doors open, but workers weren't the main beneficiaries of PPP, according to a study authored by economists earlier this month.

The authors, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor David Autor and economists from the Federal Reserve, found that PPP saved 1.98 million and 3 million years of employment over 14 months. The study was conducted using data from payroll software provider ADP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The economists estimated that $115 billion to $175 billion in PPP loans went toward paychecks, meaning that only 23% to 34% of PPP funds went directly to workers who would otherwise have lost jobs.

Where did the rest go? The remaining 66% to 77% went to business owners and stakeholders, including shareholders, creditors, and suppliers.

The authors also estimated that the program spent $170,000 to $257,000 per job-year saved.

"PPP's breakneck scale-up, its high cost per job saved, and its regressive incidence have a common origin: PPP was essentially untargeted because the United States lacked the administrative infrastructure to do otherwise," reads the working paper, shared by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The picture gets more stark when the authors traced how PPP dollars flowed to households. The study estimated that $365.9 billion, or 72%, of the PPP dollars ultimately flowed to the top-fifth of high-earners, who make up a disproportionate amount of the country's income and business owners. The bottom quintile got $13.2 billion, or 2.6% of the $510 billion.

The authors also noted that PPP's per dollar boost to GDP was 0.36, according to the Congressional Budget Office, versus 0.60 and 0.67 for stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment insurance checks.

"Taking account of the highly distributionally-skewed incidence of PPP payments, we concur that PPP was likely the least effective of the three programs in boosting the macroeconomy," the study reads.

The authors put much of the blame on the PPP's minimal loan qualifications. The first two tranches, a combined $510 billion, had few requirements beyond having 500 or fewer employees and attesting to financial harm due to the pandemic.

The economists recommended that the US prepare a more sophisticated administrative system like those of other high-income countries so it can execute programs that target the most needy Americans during future emergencies.

Canada’s former China ambassador won’t face ethics probe over Rio Tinto job

Alex Boutilier 

GLOBAL NEWS

Canada’s former ambassador to China will not face a federal ethics probe into his joining mining giant Rio Tinto while finishing his diplomatic posting.

Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion’s office confirmed to Global News Monday that Dominic Barton, who served as Ottawa’s man in Beijing from Sept. 2019 until last month, will not face an investigation over accepting a job on Rio Tinto’s board.

Read more:
Dominic Barton leaving post as Canada’s ambassador to China

“(Barton) did not have direct and significant dealings with Rio Tinto while he was Canada’s Ambassador in China. This was discussed with the commissioner prior to Mr. Barton’s pursuit of employment,” wrote Melanie Rushworth, a spokesperson for Dion’s office in a statement to Global News.

Rushworth said Barton, a former chief executive of international consulting firm McKinsey, contacted Dion’s office in October 2021 to “seek specific guidance in respect of post-employment pursuits.” Barton disclosed an Oct. 8 meeting with representatives from Rio Tinto at that time.

“Based on the information provided, Commissioner Dion determined Mr. Barton would not contravene (ethics rules) by accepting a position on the board of directors of Rio Tinto … As such, no examination will be undertaken based upon Mr. Barton’s actions prior to accepting the position,” Rushworth said.

Barton, who developed close ties in China through his business career, surprised observers in December when he announced he’d be stepping down after just two years in the key diplomatic job.

At the time, Barton said he worked to ease tensions with Beijing during his tenure, and cited the return of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — who had been detained by Chinese authorities since late 2018 — as the fulfillment of a key mission given to him by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Just weeks after his announcement, Barton’s name was floated in the international press as a potential successor to Rio Tinto’s outgoing chairman, Simon Thompson. On Dec. 19, the mining multinational made his appointment official.

More than half of Rio Tinto’s revenue comes from China, where the Anglo-Australian miner sells a significant amount of iron ore for the country’s steel mills. The opposition New Democrats called on Dion to investigate Barton’s appointment in December.

But Dion’s office found that Barton’s Oct. 8 meeting with Rio Tinto executives did not amount to “direct and significant official dealings” with the miner while he held the ambassadorial post.

“Upon determination that this meeting was not significant within the meaning of the Act, no other follow-up on this meeting was needed with (Dion’s office) before Mr. Barton’s acceptance of the offer of employment,” Rushworth said in a statement.

Ethics commissioner will not investigate former envoy to China for taking mining job

© Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press Canada's former ambassador to China Dominic Barton will not be investigated by the federal ethics commissioner for accepting a job with mining giant Rio Tinto.

Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion's office says he will not be investigating Canada's former ambassador to China for accepting a job with mining giant Rio Tinto, which has extensive business dealings in China.

"I can confirm Commissioner Dion is not launching an examination into Dominic Barton as he did not have direct and significant dealings with Rio Tinto while he was Canada's Ambassador in China," Dion's office said in an email to CBC News.

The NDP wrote to commissioner Dion earlier this month asking his office to probe Dominic Barton's appointment as chair of the board of directors at Rio Tinto.

"Given that Mr. Barton met with Rio Tinto executives as recently as October 2021, it should be of concern to all Canadians that less than three months after meeting with the gold mining company, he announced his intention to become the Chair of Rio Tinto's Board of Directors," NDP MP Matthew Green said in his letter.

The statement from Dion's office said Barton reached out to the ethics commissioner last October to ask whether a virtual meeting with representatives of Rio Tinto on Oct. 8 violated the Conflict of Interest Act.

"Upon determination that this meeting was not significant within the meaning of the Act, no other follow-up on this meeting was needed with the Office before Mr. Barton's acceptance of the offer of employment," Dion's office said, clearing the way for Barton to accept his new post.

Before becoming Canada's top diplomat in China, Barton led and was a managing partner of McKinsey and Co. While in the role, the company provided advice to Chinese state-owned businesses and companies investing in China.

Barton also served as chair of the finance minister's advisory council on economic growth.

He was appointed ambassador to China in September 2019 and tasked with securing the release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Kovrig, a diplomat, and Spavor — an entrepreneur who worked in North Korea and China — were first detained in December 2018, just after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on behalf of U.S. authorities. Their detention was widely seen as an act of retaliation in response to the Huawei executive's arrest.

After the two men were released in September of 2021, Barton said that helping to free them was "the honour of a lifetime."

LANDED ON BED
Scientists study trajectory of meteorite that landed in B.C. in October

© Provided by The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Scientistsstudying a meteorite that landed next to a British Columbia woman's head last year say it was diverted to that path about 470 million years ago.

The small meteorite broke through a woman's ceiling in Golden, B.C., in October, landing on her pillow, next to where she had been sleeping moments earlier.

Philip McCausland,a lead researcher mapping the meteorite's journey, said Monday they know the 4.5-billion-year-old rock collided with something about 470 million years ago, breaking into fragments and changing the trajectory of some of the pieces.

McCausland, who's an adjunct professor at Western University in London, Ont., said the meteorite is of scientific significance because it will allow scientists to study how material from the asteroid belt arrives on Earth.

"There's 50,000 to 60,000 identified meteorites now in the world, but most have no context. We don't know really where they came from," he said.

"In cases where we have known orbits, where they were observed coming in well enough that we can reconstruct what the orbit was before it hit the Earth's atmosphere, we can actually (determine) where they came from in the asteroid belt. Golden is one of those," he said, referring to the location of where the meteorite landed.

Researchers determined the meteorite is an L chondrite, one of the most commonly found types of meteorites to fall to Earth. Despite this, he said only about five L chondrites have known orbits.

He said the Canadian team is now working with scientists in Switzerland, the U.K., U.S. and Italy to learn more about the meteorite and its path to Golden.

"We know we're still going to get something interesting out of this," McCausland said. "We actually do want to get a good handle on how things get delivered from the asteroid belt, and this is a useful part of putting that together."

Most of the meteorite has been returned to Ruth Hamilton, the woman who had the close call, and McCausland said it's up to her to decide what to do with it.

Whether she decides to keep, sell or donate the rock, he said there is cultural significance of the rock to Canada. If she sells it to an international buyer, she would be required to go through the exportation process, he said.

Hamilton said she hasn't yet made up her mind on what to do with the meteor. It's currently sitting in a safety deposit box.

"I don't have any plans for it right now, but once they're done analyzing it, I'll get all the documentation that proves it's a meteorite," she said. "It's going to be officially named the Golden Meteorite."

Before her roof is permanently repaired this spring, Hamilton said she intends to remove the section where the meteorite crashed through to keep it preserved alongside the rock.

McCausland said the research will likely conclude in May, and the scientists will then publish their work in an academic journal.

"Whenever something like this happens, I like to tell people it could happen to any of us; anyone can find a meteorite. It's unlikely one will crash through your roof, but it can happen," McCausland said. "It's nature and, if anything, it's a reminder that we're part of something bigger."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2022.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press

Exclusive-French power policy shift has left EDF in shock, CEO says

By Benjamin Mallet

 

 French state-controlled utility EDF Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy speaks during a news conference in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) -The CEO of EDF on Monday broke with the convention that bosses of French state companies don't criticise the government to express "real shock" and indignation after the utility was told to sell more power to rivals at below-market prices.

In a memo to managers seen by Reuters, Jean-Bernard Levy said he had tried to persuade ministers to adopt a different course, and was now looking at steps to defend EDF's interests.

Shares in the firm slumped as much as 25% on Friday after the government of President Emmanuel Macron - facing a re-election battle in three months and keen to head off public anger over rising power bills - ordered the utility to sell more cheap nuclear power to rivals.

"This is not what we had proposed to the government," Levy said in the internal memo. Instead, he said, the firm had recommended targeted help for small businesses and the most vulnerable industrial users.

"Having fought hard against it, this decision comes as a real shock," he said of the government move. "Naturally, we have to deal with it. It is going to weigh very heavily on our results."

Referring to the government measures, combined with technical problems at several nuclear plants that forced them offline, Levy wrote: "This news is rocking the company."

"Many of you have shared with me your support, and even your indignation, and I share your emotions. You should know that the executive committee and I remain very combative," he said.

"Together with the executive committee, we will study the appropriate measures to reinforce the balance sheet of the group, and all measures that protect its interests. At stake is our capacity to safeguard our strategic development. We plan to make these measures public within a month."

The French state owns 84% of EDF's shares. The group forecast last week the government decision would knock around 8 billion euros ($9.13 billion) off its 2022 core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

($1 = 0.8764 euros)

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet Writing by GV De Clercq Editing by Christian Lowe and Mark Potter)