It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, February 06, 2022
UPDATED
Toronto's latest: Here's what the trucker protest looked like on the streets of the city on Saturday
Thousands on foot listened to rabble-rousing speeches at Queen’s Park before marching north to the trucks in Yorkville
Author of the article :Tom Blackwell Publishing date: Feb 05, 2022 •
People mass around trucks at the corner of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road just north of Queen's Park during the protest on Saturday. PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST Article content
Toronto police succeeded in one of their goals Saturday, keeping a truck convoy protesting COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns away from the provincial legislature and several downtown hospitals.
Whether that’s something to celebrate or not remains to be seen.
The service failed to stop the demonstration from causing major disruption elsewhere, as several huge dump trucks, tractor trailers and thousands of protesters clogged a major intersection.
And the driver of at least one of those vehicles vowed to stay put for days or more until governments rescind COVID vaccine mandates.
With his dump truck parked a few feet from the police lines outside the Royal Ontario Museum, driver Dejam Radovic said he will stay there “as long as it takes.”
“I have to make money but I’m not going to go anywhere. You know, I would sacrifice even one year of my life,” he said from the cab of his vehicle. “Nothing can stop us. Nothing can push us. We are not afraid.”
With the route into Queen’s Park – Ontario’s legislative buildings – blocked off by police, a stream of “Freedom Convoy” vehicles came to a halt and produced instant gridlock just to the north of the area.
Rigs filled the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in the heart of the city’s tony Yorkville neighbourhood, with the ROM at one corner of the intersection.
A child looks upon rows of farm tractors Friday on University Avenue, just north of Queen’s Park, as farmers and truckers protest. PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
A backlog of protest automobiles stretched east and west for several blocks on Bloor and north on Avenue as demonstrators streamed around them, effectively shutting down two major thoroughfares. Some of the protesters stopped next to luxury-goods stores like Gucci and Cartier, making for an odd juxtaposition.
South of where police had barricaded streets, more protest vehicles brought traffic to a standstill on busy Queen Street West. Unlike the area around Queen’s Park and the five hospitals that line University Avenue, the neighbourhoods where the honking protesters wound up are packed with condominiums and other homes.
Vaccine mandate protesters displayed signs at Queen’s Park. PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
Residents of Ottawa, where such commotion has been going on now for a week, have grown increasingly angry at the imposition, some of them even launching a class-action lawsuit against the protesters.
Toronto police charged a 22-year-old man with administering a noxious substance, assault with a weapon and public mischief for allegedly setting off a smoke bomb near Queen’s Park. But the protest was largely peaceful, as an almost-festive mood prevailed at the Bloor and Avenue intersection.
People danced to recorded music, waved flags and climbed on top of the big trucks parked in the middle of the road.
Despite taking place near the seat of Ontario’s government and the fact that most vaccine mandates have been imposed by the provinces or private business, much of their anger was directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Flags and signs that simply said F— Trudeau were a popular item. One of the speakers at the start of the demonstration said the prime minister is not even Canadian.
“We should strip him of his passport and get him the hell out of Canada,” the man said to cheers from a crowd that braved temperatures hovering around minus 10 degrees.
Protesters Queens Park withstood the cold on Saturday.
PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
Speakers and protesters evoked human-rights legislation and chanted “freedom,” depicting as autocratic policies that require vaccination to work for certain employers and to access such services as restaurants and gyms.
Yiqi Zhang, 28, said he spent a week in North Korea a couple of years ago and is worried Canada is heading in the same direction.
“If it can happen there, it can happen here. And it is happening here,” said the software developer. “I think vaccines are great, but when the government says you have to do something … it’s immoral.”
His white German Shepherd, Lucy, was wearing a T-Shirt that said “mandate snacks, not the vax.”
I think vaccines are great, but when the government says you have to do something … it’s immoral
PROTESTER YIQI ZHANG
Jason Fleming, whose tractor was also stopped a car-length from a line of police officers, said he had been a cross-border trucker and was unemployed for a month when the federal government insisted that such drivers had to be vaccinated. He had to re-certify his truck for domestic routes. Asked what he wants out of the demonstration, Fleming said “our freedoms back. Exactly that.”
Getting vaccinated “should be my choice to make,” he said.
Police maintain a strong presence as people mass around trucks at the corner of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road on Saturday. PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
The protest effectively began Friday afternoon when hulking farm tractors parked near the ROM, blocked from driving any further.
The barricades around Queen’s Park were part of a law-enforcement effort designed to stave off a long-term occupation of the city’s core and safeguard the five major hospitals that lie just south of the legislature on University Avenue.
Civic leaders vowed to stop them from repeating what happened in the nation’s capital, where tractor-trailers and protesters have clogged streets around Parliament Hill and filled the core with honking.
“We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa,” said Mayor John Tory Friday. “If anyone is planning to come here for a protest that is not peaceful and is not respectful, I would urge you on behalf of all Toronto residences and businesses, to please stay home.”
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Police used buses to block protest vehicles from reaching the hospitals and downtown core. People used at least one bus to scratch messages in the grime.
PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
By Friday afternoon, police had used parked buses to block off the stretch of University Avenue known as hospital row, home to some of Canada’s largest health-care centres. Previous anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests in Toronto and elsewhere have targeted hospitals , in some cases impeding access to the facilities. Some health-care workers held their own counter-protest Saturday.
Tory, meanwhile, appeared to take an indirect dig at the protesters, citing the fact that over 90 per cent of eligible Toronto residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 60 per cent are triple vaccinated.
“What great demonstrations of the unity of the people of this city, of teamwork, of concern for each other,” he said.
With some concern that hospital access for workers might be blocked during the protests, one person wore a sign offering help in getting them to their workplace if needed. PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
Huge crowd of protesters hold anti-mandate demonstration in Toronto; 1 person arrested
Kerrisa Wilson, CP24 Web Content Writer Bryann Aguilar, CP24 Web Content Writer Published Saturday, February 5, 2022
The sound of honking trucks echoed through the streets of downtown Toronto Saturday as a large crowd of protesters descended upon the city to demand the end of COVID-19 restrictions.
The protest, organized by the "Freedom Convoy," started at noon at Queen's Park, with protesters carrying signs and flags and chanting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including proof of vaccination in certain indoor settings.
Several people who attended the protest told CP24 that they don't want vaccines, masks and other public health rules that are aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 to be forced on them. They believe that all levels of government are not handling the pandemic correctly.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m., police said a 22-year-old male protester was arrested at the north side of Queen's Park.
The man was arrested for assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance (smoke bomb), and public mischief, police said.
No other arrests have been reported.
The protest later moved north at the intersection of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road, where a large volume of trucks and demonstrators blocked the road.
The blockade slowed down Peel paramedics, police said, warning protesters to let emergency vehicles through.
"This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," police tweeted. There are also two fire stations in that area and police said they were concerned that the fire trucks may not be able to leave if needed.
Later in the afternoon, a CP24 crew saw several smoke bombs set off at that intersection but there was no immediate word on whether someone was arrested.
In an update Saturday afternoon, Toronto police Staff Supt. Lauren Pogue said the protest has relatively been "peaceful."
"We still do have a very large Toronto police presence in the core and this is to ensure public safety, that our community has unimpeded emergency vehicle access, and also to minimize disruption to the residents and businesses in the area," Pogue told CP24.
"Our plans are fluid. We're dynamic. I can tell you that we're there to ensure that everyone remains safe and that and that includes our police officers who are on the ground."
Widespread traffic delays in the downtown area were also reported Saturday as a result of the protest and the number of road closures.
It is not known when roads will reopen.
"We're assessing things as we go and we'll certainly look to open up things when it's safe to do so," Pogue said.
She added that there have been no issues reported at Hospital Row, saying hospital workers, patients and others trying to access the facilities have been able to do so.
Ahead of the protest, the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) released a statement saying they do not support and disapprove protests on public roadways, highways and bridges.
The OTA said the majority of Ontario truckers are vaccinated.
"While some Canadians are at Queen's Park today to voice their displeasure over this mandate, it appears that most protestors have no connection to the trucking industry and have separate grievances beyond the cross-border vaccine requirements," OTA said.
"As these protests unfold, OTA asks the public to be aware that many of the people you see and hear in media reports do not have a connection to the trucking industry and do not represent the view of the Ontario Trucking Association or its members."
City officials and police learned about the planned protest earlier this week, prompting them to prepare for similar disruptions brought on from the ongoing protest in Ottawa.
On Friday police started to close roads in the downtown core and have advised residents to expect a large police presence in the area this weekend.
“The service is required to facilitate peaceful demonstrations,” Police Chief James Ramer told reporters at a briefing Friday. “This will be balanced by our priority to ensure public safety to protect hospitals and infrastructure and the city's emergency response needs.”
Ramer said that large vehicles will not be allowed to congregate around Queen’s Park and that the demonstrators will be encouraged to go to staging areas and then travel to the provincial legislature by foot if they want to protest there.
He added that anyone who tries to block access to nearby hospitals will be “subject to strict enforcement.”
Some hospital staff were advised on Thursday to avoid wearing any scrubs or clothing identifying them as health-care workers when they come into work this weekend to avoid being blocked or harassed.
Women’s College Hospital rescheduled some appointments and closed its COVID-19 assessment Centre early on Friday and altogether over the weekend “out of an abundance of caution.”
HEALTH-CARE WORKERS STAGE COUNTER PROTEST
In response to the demonstration, a group of health-care workers is planning a counter protest downtown to ensure protesters do not interfere with anyone trying to receive health-care services.
"The goal is to let Torontonians know that we want to ensure that they will have unfettered access to hospitals in downtown, to community-based clinics in downtown, and to let our colleagues who are working in the hospitals today know that they should feel safe and secure walking the streets dressed however they want to, in their white coats," Dr. Philip Berger, organizer of the Access to Care rally, told CP24.
City Councillor Joe Cressy also attended the health-care workers' protest to show his support.
"While there are people protesting with a different message, the vast vast majority of Torontonians have done the right thing and continue to do the right thing and these health-care workers help make it happen," Cressy told CP24.
Mayor John Tory urged anyone who does not plan to protest peacefully to “stay home.”
“If anyone is planning to come here for a protest that is not peaceful, and that is not respectful, I would urge you on behalf of all Toronto residents and businesses to please stay home. Peaceful and respectful is the way we do things here,” Tory said at a city press briefing on Friday.
Last weekend, thousands of protesters and truckers, many of whom drove from the west coast, gathered in the nation’s capital to rally against COVID-19 mandates.
The demonstration, which some have described as an “occupation,” is now in its ninth day, resulting in ongoing traffic gridlock and honking vehicles.
Ottawa police reported significant disruptions due to the convoy, including vandalism, harassment, expressions of hate and violence and ongoing obstruction of many services.
On Thursday evening, federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the RCMP approved Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson's request for the RCMP to support city police in monitoring the protest.
Local protests have also broke out in southern Alberta, Quebec City and Winnipeg.
-With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman
HIRE MORE TRAFFIC COPS INSTEADOttawa police hire elite crisis-management firm to handle protest messaging
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Navigator, with tagline 'When you can't afford to lose,' is
The Ottawa Police Service has hired a high-profile crisis communication firm to help Chief Peter Sloly and the service manage the messaging around the ongoing demonstration. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press)
In the moments before the Ottawa police's Friday morning briefing on the ongoing anti-vaccine mandate protest on Parliament Hill, officers — both in uniform and plain clothes — and media alike awaited the arrival of the chief and deputy chiefs.
Meanwhile, a few folks were passing around a news release on tougher police measures coming in the days ahead, including one man who was not with the police services, but with the chief's office, CBC was told.
That man was Matthew Barnes, a senior consultant for Navigator — an elite and expensive crisis management firm.
Police chief Peter Sloly's office confirmed by email that Navigator was hired last weekend to "assist the Ottawa Police Service and Ottawa Police Services Board with communication/community engagement support on the first weekend of the demonstrations."
The full costs of the services aren't known yet, but according to the statement, taxpayers are paying Navigator on what's being described as a "fee-for-service basis," with "an upside limit" of $50,000 to $75,000.
There was no competitive bid for the communications work because, according to police, the contract is within the service's sole-source guidelines for special events.
According to CBC sources, Sloly didn't strictly follow his speaking notes during Wednesday's news conference, when he suggested that it might be necessary to call in the military to cover the protest, and that policing alone may not be enough to bring the demonstrations to an end.
Police did not comment on whether Sloly went off-script on Wednesday.
Matthew Barnes is a senior consultant for Navigator. (Navigator)
'High-stakes communications strategist'
With the tagline, "When you can't afford to lose," Navigator describes itself as "Canada's leading high-stakes strategic advisory and communications firm."
It was founded more than 20 years ago and its executive chairman, Jaime Watt, was a Progressive Conservative strategist who worked with former premier Mike Harris, helping him launch his "Common Sense Revolution." He's represented high-profile clients — including, briefly, former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi.
According to the bio on the company's website, Watt is "widely regarded as Canada's leading high stakes communications strategist, he is a trusted advisor to boards of directors, business and professional leaders as well as political leaders at all three levels of government across Canada."
Navigator opened an office in Ottawa last March, according to a news release at the time, led by Graham Fox and Barnes.
Before joining Navigator, Barnes was a senior communications manager to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and worked for her predecessor Bill Morneau.
Fox was formerly the CEO of think tank Institute for Research on Public Policy, and previously worked in government relations for the clients of law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain (now Dentons).
A newly published report found there was both an 'appearance and existence of racism in the public complaint process' after officers at the Brooks RCMP detachment investigated their own officers who had arrested a Black woman after a man disclosed she was a prostitute, which is not illegal in Canada. (Google Street View )
One October night on a downtown street in the small southeastern Alberta city of Brooks, RCMP officers were in the process of arresting a man for drunk driving when he pointed at his passenger.
He told police she should be arrested for prostitution because he'd just paid her $300 for sex.
Selling sex is not illegal. Buying sex is.
That means the woman was not doing anything wrong but, by his own admission, the man was.
The passenger was Black. The man and the officers were all white.
Officer swears at woman
RCMP Const. Robert Loder took the investigative advice of the allegedly intoxicated john.
"You Black mother f–ker," the woman says Loder yelled at her as he removed her from the vehicle and brought her to the local Brooks detachment, where she was held overnight.
That initial interaction with RCMP and what came next is the subject of a report published last week that found racism in the public complaint process.
It also found that the woman, identified only as AB in the report, was the victim of, at the very least, the "appearance" of unequal treatment on the basis of her race.
The commission ultimately found AB's arrest was unlawful and said she should have been released during the traffic stop after officers were able to confirm her identity.
RCMP were asked for comment but did not respond.
'Complete hatred'
In a phone interview with CBC News, AB says that night was the most frightened she's ever been.
"I didn't know racism was a real thing. I just thought it was prejudice, fear of the unknown, so when they get to know me, it'll be OK," said AB.
"But this was different. This was actual hatred, complete hatred. They didn't even know me to hate me that much."
That incident on Oct. 8, 2015, led to AB being charged with obstruction of a peace officer for refusing to co-operate with the officers who were trying to arrest her for something that is not a crime in Canada.
The charge stuck for just three months before a prosecutor took a look at the file and had it dropped in January 2016.
Alleged drunk driver given ride home
AB says the officers ticketed the man who was charged with drunk driving and then drove him home.
Their treatment of her, which included dragging her though the window of the vehicle, was nothing but racism, she says.
"They wouldn't do that to another person who was a different colour. They proved that by driving the guy who was drunk home. And me who was the passenger, doing nothing, I got treated like that."
Just days after her unlawful arrest, AB made a public complaint to police.
'Grave' concerns over investigation into complaint
The investigation of that complaint was so problematic, the RCMP's Civilian Review and Complaints Commission looked into it and found "extremely concerning conduct."
The commission's concerns were so "grave" that a chairperson-initiated investigation was then launched by Michelaine Lahaie, whose final report was published online last week.
In that report, Lahaie wrote that there was both an "appearance and existence of racism in the public complaint process."
"The complainant in this case experienced the appearance of inequitable treatment on the basis of her race," wrote Lahaie.
Investigator ignored evidence
In October 2015, just days after her arrest and detention, AB filed a complaint with the Brooks RCMP.
AB's complaint was assigned to RCMP Sgt. Raimo Loo, an officer who worked in the Brooks detachment alongside the members he was tasked with investigating.
The complaints commission reported findings that Loo "refused to obey directions from a superior," showed a "disregard and ignorance" of available evidence and was hostile toward AB's lawyer to the point of being "unreasonable and unprofessional."
It also found that he facilitated a mistranslated crucial statement that left out information that bolstered AB's complaint and added details that were supportive of RCMP officers.
As he began his investigation of AB's complaint, Loo wrote several emails to colleagues in which he made note that AB was Black, information that the commission found was not relevant to whether her arrest and detention were unlawful.
Loo repeatedly referred to AB as a Black 'call girl'
In an emailed summary of the incident to another member involved in the investigation, Loo wrote: "[The driver] claims he paid $300 for the services of a prostitute, the black female passenger in his car."
When preparing an officer to question AB, Loo emailed a list of proposed questions, including one asking how long she'd been a "call girl."
"Working as a "call girl" is not a crime in Canada," wrote Lahaie, who further found that Loo's interview plan for AB was "irrelevant" and suggested that he had predetermined the outcome of the complaint.
Loo also directed the officers who were under investigation to add to their statements based on the details in her claim.
Loder drafted a new report that "addressed each aspect of her public complaint allegations and struck a defensive tone," reads Lahaie's decision.
"This new report added different justifications for his arrest of A. B.," wrote Lahaie.
'An intentional disregard' for instructions
Loo was ordered removed from the investigation on Dec. 22, 2015, after AB's lawyer Tom Engel complained to the officer's superiors, who found the officer "presented a perception of bias."
But despite clear direction that he cease any involvement, Loo continued to investigate. He also authored monthly updates on the case, and corresponded with both AB and Engel.
"[Loo] demonstrated an intentional disregard for clear instructions," reads the commission's decision.
Loo's actions during his two months as AB's complaint investigator led the commission to make several findings of "the appearance of bias."
'No mere mistranslation'
The complaints commission also took issue with Loo's tone in emails between himself and AB's lawyer, finding that the investigator was hostile. It also found Loo communicated with AB directly despite repeated instruction to do so through her lawyer.
Another damning area of Loo's flawed investigation involved the translation of a key witness statement from French to English.
Loo assigned another Brooks RCMP member to do the translation despite the fact that French was the officer's fifth language and he had no translation training.
A proper translation showed the English version was "not accurate" and, as an example, added a sentence to the English translation that did not appear in the French statement, describing AB as violent during her arrest.
"This is no mere mistranslation," wrote Lahaie. "An entire sentence that was potentially prejudicial to AB was added to the English version that was not contained in the original French statement."
Commission's recommendations
The complaints commission made several recommendations, some of which were adopted by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.
Loo has been removed from internal complaint investigations until he receives further training.
The RCMP has updated its practices and policies related to conflict of interest and bias. It is also in the process of revising its National Public Complaints Guidebook.
Still, Lahaie expressed concerns that the RCMP should do more.
"The commission continues to harbour concerns that these initiatives are general in nature and do not address the more specific concerns that the commission had raised with respect to the public complaint process."
Saturday, February 05, 2022
SASKATCHEWAN
Meili has a few choice words about Moe’s leadership
Ryan Meili. (Libby GIesbrecht/650 CKOM file photo)
The leader of the Official Opposition in Saskatchewan had some strong words for the premier Thursday.
Referencing a rally scheduled to take place this weekend at the Legislative Building in Regina in support of the trucker convoy in Ottawa, NDP Leader Ryan Meili said his message to people wanting to take part is to stay home and “stop this nonsense. You’re making things worse.”
“It’s not smart, it’s not safe and it’s not right,” Meili said during a Zoom media conference Thursday.
He then fired a broadside directly at the premier, saying: “Scott Moe, show some goddamn leadership.”
Meili has repeatedly criticized Moe and the Saskatchewan Party government for their handling of COVID-19. The purpose of Meili’s gathering with reporters Thursday was to respond to the province’s plan to transition public health management in a move that would see Saskatchewan progress towards the goal of living with COVID.
While meeting virtually with reporters, Meili once again voiced concerns that Moe is putting politics before Saskatchewan people.
Calling it a “difficult” and “challenging” time in Saskatchewan, Meili said the province is lacking a principled leader, just a day after the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada was removed.
Meili said Moe is now caving to the “worst elements of his own party” after witnessing Erin O’Toole lose his position while Moe also refuses to save the lives of Saskatchewan people in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The province’s plan to move towards a more normalized approach with COVID-19 will see reporting on the state of the virus in the province move to weekly updates instead of daily.
PCR testing will also be further limited to only the most high-risk illnesses, instead putting priority on Saskatchewan people to self-test and self-isolate as necessary.
But chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said Thursday during a technical briefing that Saskatchewan hospitalizations are just peaking, and a period of at least two weeks will be needed to see the high numbers of people receiving care lower and stabilize, finally alleviating some pressure on the Saskatchewan health-care system.
“This is not the way we do things here,” Meili told reporters. “We are a land of honest and decent people and we deserve honest and decent leadership.”
Meili accused Moe of resorting to lies about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccinations in preventing transmission of the virus and avoiding serious health outcomes.
The NDP leader promised he and his party will never give up, stop asking tough questions, seeking truth and speaking truth.
While he decried Moe’s lack of action against the pandemic during the height of the Omicron wave, Meili also implored Saskatchewan people to not give up their own fights against COVID and to continue taking care of each other.
Toronto update: Trucker protest held back from main target area but still clogs significant intersection
Three or four thousand people on foot listen to rabble-rousing speeches at Queen’s Park before marching north to the trucks in Yorkville
Author of the article:Tom Blackwell Publishing date:Feb 05, 2022 •
A child looks upon rows of farm tractors Friday on University Avenue, just north of Queens Park, as farmers and truckers protest.
PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST
Several huge dump trucks, tractor trailers and thousands of protesters clogged a major Toronto intersection Saturday as the trucker-led movement against COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns hit Canada’s biggest city.
But a major police presence and barricaded streets managed to keep the noisy truck convoy away from the area immediately around the Ontario legislature, and further downtown.
Instead, the trucks filled the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in the Yorkville neighbourhood, across from the Royal Ontario Museum.
A string of trucks and other protest vehicles stretched east and west on Bloor and north on Avenue as demonstrators streamed around them. It was unclear how long the trucks planned to stay there.
Despite the disruption in a busy part of Toronto, the event remained relatively peaceful as of mid-afternoon Saturday.
Toronto police said they arrested a 22-year-old man at around 2 p.m. for allegedly igniting a smoke bomb at the demonstration at Queen’s Park.
The man faces one count each of assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance and public mischief.
Earlier, a few thousand of the protesters descended on the provincial legislature by foot for a more conventional protest.
About three or four thousand people listened to an hour of rabble-rousing speeches before marching north to Yorkville, where the horn-honking trucks had been held back.
Cries of “Freedom” and attacks on the federal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rang out repeatedly from the microphone as a peaceful crowd braving minus-10 cold cheered “We need to resist,” said a speaker who identified himself as Danny DeSantis.
“We’re going to crush this establishment and we’re going to get our freedoms back,” shouted another.
Hulking farm tractors and smaller trucks began arriving for the demonstration at on Friday afternoon. Police barricades prevented them from getting near the legislative building, leaving the activists to park alongside the Royal Ontario Museum.
It was part of a law-enforcement effort designed to stave off a long-term occupation of the city’s core and safeguard the five major hospitals that lie just south of Queen’s Park on University Avenue.
The arrival of the farm vehicles was further indication that the movement has expanded beyond just the truck drivers who spearheaded the Ottawa event.
Civic leaders vowed to stop them from repeating what happened in the nation’s capital, where tractor-trailers and hundreds of protesters have clogged streets around Parliament Hill and filled the core area with honking.
“We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa,” said Mayor John Tory at a news conference Friday. “If anyone is planning to come here for a protest that is not peaceful and is not respectful, I would urge you on behalf of all Toronto residences and businesses, to please stay home.”
By Friday afternoon, police had used parked buses to block off the stretch of University Avenue known as Hospital Row, home to some of Canada’s largest health-care centres. Previous anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests in Toronto and elsewhere have targeted hospitals , in some cases impeding access to the facilities.
Anyone who tries to disrupt the hospitals or emergency routes will be met with “strict enforcement,” said Police Chief James Ramer.
The police service also filled the downtown area with an influx of officers, who have been instructed to keep their body cameras on for the duration of the protest.
Residents may find the large presence of uniformed officers “unsettling” but the department is doing everything it can to make the city safe, Staff-Superintendent Lauren Pogue told the same news conference.
As well, the force placed additional close-circuit cameras throughout the area, to help with police operations and investigations, she said.
Ramer said police will ensure that no vehicles are parked around Queen’s Park and said his officers will not allow encampments in the area by demonstrators arriving on foot.
Tory, meanwhile, appeared to take an indirect dig at the protesters, citing the fact that over 90 per cent of eligible Toronto residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and 60 per cent are triple vaccinated.
We all want to do what we can to avoid the situation we’re seeing in Ottawa
“What great demonstrations of the unity of the people of this city, of teamwork, of concern for each other,” he said.
BAD SPELLER
It’s unclear exactly who organized the Toronto event. One of the promoters of the demonstration is an anti-lockdown / anti-mask group called The Line Canada, whose leader Lamont Daigle appeared on the radar of an anti-extremist watchdog last year.
In a post on his Facebook page supporting the cause of Palestinians in the occupied territories, Daigle propagated anti-Semitic tropes about a conspiracy of Jews that control world banks and the media, wrote the Canada Anti-Hate Network .
“The Israelis who are oppressing the Palestinians are (Z)-ionist Rawthchildrens who own 75 per cent of Israel, the World banks and the World Health Organization,” the network quoted Daigle as writing in a 1,400-word essay. “The Globalist Elites are the ones responsible for the Palestinian occupation ‘testing ground’ for how they propose to ‘Occupy’ and ‘lockdown’ the rest of the World.”
Dissolving in Toxic Oceans: How an Ancient Extinction Happened
Scientists say rocks on the English coast contain clues of the processes that drove the end-Triassic event that killed as much as a quarter of all life on Earth.
An artist’s reconstruction of a phytosaur — an extinct crocodile cousin — surveying a horizon with rising sulfurous plumes from distant eruptions that prompted the Triassic mass extinction.Credit...Victor O. Leshyk
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Some 200 million years ago, the rocks that became the Palisades cliffs just across the Hudson River from Manhattan formed during volcanic activity that helped rip apart the ancient supercontinent Pangea. That volcanism helped lead to the birth of the Atlantic Ocean while it also contributed to killing off as much as a quarter of all life on Earth during the event known as the end-Triassic mass extinction.
Marine animals like ammonites, ichthyosaurs and corals took huge hits during the extinction, and scientists have long suspected that the Atlantic-forming volcanism had something to do with it because of its effects on the climate and oceans. But evidence of what exactly killed life has been scant, making it one of the least understood of the so-called Big Five mass extinctions that punctuate the history of life on Earth.
Research published in January in the journal Geology, though, is starting to fill in the gaps of this prehistoric murder mystery.
By studying rocks in the southwest of England, a team of scientists found evidence of two triggers. One is that as oceans absorbed carbon dioxide emissions from the volcanic activity, they became so acidic that animals with shells dissolved in the water and died. The other is that the oceans lost their oxygen and became toxic to all but the most hardy ocean creatures.
“The main question that we set out to address is: What are the specific kill mechanisms of marine life at the end-Triassic?” said Jessica Whiteside, a geochemist at the University of Southampton in England, and an author of the new research. “The answer to which helps provide context for, and perhaps helps predict the future ecological and biodiversity effects of current CO2.”
Dr. Whiteside described the discovery of clues in rocks of England’s Blue Lias Formation, which emerged in the wake of the volcanism.
“What I noticed early on were these weird ghost fossils,” she said. Ghost fossils are impressions of things like shells that remain in the rock, but without any remnant of the shells that made them — a sign that the shells dissolved in acidic waters.
Blue Lias formation near Lilstock in southwest England.
Credit...Fabienne Fossez/Alamy
Other clues were chemical traces, or “biomarkers,” of a kind of bacteria known to thrive in waters without oxygen, and where there are dangerously high levels of a toxin called hydrogen sulfide.
Bathed in toxic waters with no oxygen to breathe, marine life — on top of being dissolved alive — was all but doomed.
Noah Planavsky, a biogeochemist at Yale University who was not involved in the research, said the discovery of the biomarkers provided strong evidence for toxic, oxygen-deficient waters. He added that “this is something we can expect in the future,” in our contemporary oceans.
These kill mechanisms also reveal how mass extinctions aren’t always instant events like an asteroid hitting the planet, said Stephen Brusatte, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the new work.
“We’re used to thinking of mass extinctions as these single catastrophic events, where there is a lone killer that we can put all of the blame on,” Dr. Brusatte said. “But this study shows that there is often nuance to these episodes of mass death.”
Less clear is what drove the extinctions on land. Until the end-Triassic extinction, relatives of today’s crocodiles dominated land ecosystems, while early dinosaurs were relatively minor players. But after the extinction, the crocodile relatives vanished, and dinosaurs started shifting into the limelight.
“This part of the story is still poorly known compared to what was happening in the oceans, and it’s intriguing to wonder whether there were multiple kill mechanisms on land, too,” Dr. Brusatte said. “If so, this could help explain why the dinosaurs were able to survive, and then disperse across the wasteland world in the aftermath.”
Amazon Warehouse in Alabama Is Set to Begin Second Union Election
Workers overwhelmingly voted down a union last year, but labor regulators threw out the result, citing company misconduct.
An organizer with the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union in front of the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., last March.Credit...Bob Miller for The New York Times
During the first union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., warehouse early last year, organizers largely avoided visiting workers at home because Covid was raging and few Americans were vaccinated.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union believed the precaution was prudent even if it made persuading workers harder and may have contributed to the union’s lopsided defeat.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board will mail out ballots to workers at the same warehouse in a so-called rerun election, which the agency ordered after finding that Amazon behaved improperly during the last campaign.
But for this election, which runs through March 25, the labor movement is pulling few punches. Several national unions have collectively sent dozens of organizers to Bessemer to help rally workers. And organizers and workers have spent the past several months going door to door to build support for the union.
“It’s a huge difference that was made possible by vaccinations,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the retail workers president. “By the time people start voting on Monday or Tuesday, we will have gone to every single door — all 6,000 workers.”
None of those changes make the odds of a different outcome high, however. Unions have won fewer than half of similar rerun elections since late 2010, versus far more than half of all elections during that time, according to data from the National Labor Relations Board.
“In cases where the margin of victory is pretty significant one way or the other, the outcome often doesn’t change the second time,” said David Pryzbylski, a management-side lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg.
Those odds may be longer still at a company like Amazon, which has the resources to hire consultants and saturate workers with anti-union messages, as it did during the last election.
Turnover at Amazon is high — over 150 percent a year even before a recent surge of quitting nationwide — and could introduce uncertainty because it’s unclear how new workers will respond to arguments on either side.
But in practice, such turnover could further dampen the union’s support, said Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University, since frustrated workers may leave rather than wait out a campaign. Many workers who support the union have complained about punishing productivity targets, insufficient break times and low pay, which is just under $16 an hour for a typical, entry-level full-time position.
“We’re proud to create both short-term and long-term jobs with great pay and great benefits,” said Barbara Agrait, an Amazon spokeswoman. She added that employees had access to health benefits as soon as they joined the company and that more than 450 employees had been promoted at the Alabama warehouse since it opened in 2020.
Amazon has previously said its performance targets take into account safety and employees’ experience.
For Amazon, which is facing challenges to its labor model on multiple fronts, there is little incentive to ease its resistance to the union. Last year, California approved a law that would restrict the company’s use of productivity targets, and the roughly 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters elected a new president who promised a large investment in unionizing the company.
An organizer speaking with a driver at an Amazon facility on Staten Island last May.
Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Amazon also faces the prospect of at least one more union election this year. In late January, the labor board determined that organizers at JFK8, a massive warehouse on Staten Island, had submitted enough signatures to warrant a vote. The organizers are trying to form a new union, called Amazon Labor Union, rather than working with established groups. The labor board will hold a hearing in mid-February to determine how many workers could be eligible to vote, as well as the timing and terms of the election.
This week, the same union filed a petition for an election at a neighboring Amazon facility on Staten Island.
In many ways, the mechanics of the revote in Alabama will be similar to the mechanics of the initial election. Though both the union and Amazon pressed for in-person voting, albeit at an off-site location in the union’s case, the labor board decided to run another mail-in election because of the pandemic.
Variations on practices that the labor board cited when invalidating the last election also remain in place, prompting the union to urge changes to the way the new election will be conducted. Not least is a so-called collection box that Amazon lobbied the U.S. Postal Service to install last year near the warehouse entrance, where workers were urged to deposit their ballots.
Amazon has said that it sought the collection box to help workers vote safely, and that it did not have access to ballots deposited inside of it. But a regional director of the labor board found that Amazon had “essentially hijacked the process” by procuring the box. “This dangerous and improper message to employees destroys trust in the board’s processes and in the credibility of the election results,” the regional director wrote.
Yet in the run-up to the revote, the regional director allowed the Postal Service merely to move the box to a “neutral location” at the warehouse, rather than remove it entirely. The union argued in a request for an appeal that there is no neutral location on the site, and that the new location is still in view of Amazon’s surveillance cameras. On Friday, the labor board denied the appeal request, but said the union could still object on the same grounds after the election, which could in principle lead to a third election.
Some employees also say that despite reaching a nationwide settlement with the labor board in December to give union supporters more access to colleagues while at work, Amazon is still making it difficult for them to plead their case where they work.
Isaiah Thomas, 20, among stacks of leaflets, T-shirts and buttons in the basement of his union’s headquarters in Birmingham, Ala.Credit...Bob Miller for The New York Times
Isaiah Thomas, a ship dock worker at the warehouse, recently received a letter from management saying he had violated the company policy against solicitation by talking to co-workers about the union during his break, though the company did not officially discipline him over the alleged violation.
“You were interfering with fellow associates during their working time, in their work areas,” the letter said. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge arguing that the letter violates the company’s settlement with the labor board.
Yet the circumstances of the second election do appear to differ from those of the first election in some key respects. There is, for one thing, the fact of the finding by the labor board that Amazon violated union election rules, which organizers say comes up regularly in conversations with workers.
Mr. Appelbaum, the union president, said the on-the-ground presence of other unions was substantially higher than last year, thanks partly to the urging of Liz Shuler, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., of which the retail workers union is a part.
Even non-A.F.L. unions like the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters have dispatched organizers to Alabama, underscoring the high stakes for labor.
“I think there’s a recognition of the importance and transcendent nature of this fight,” Mr. Appelbaum said. “People throughout the labor movement understand that we cannot let Amazon go unchallenged or else it’s going to set the model for what the future of work is going to look like.”
He said workers felt less intimidated by Amazon this time, with more of them speaking up during mandatory anti-union meetings. Pro-union workers also now wear T-shirts advertising their support for the union twice each week in a show of solidarity.
Mr. Thomas has been going door to door distributing leaflets, T-shirts and buttons to his co-workers, in hopes of persuading them to vote for the union.Credit...Bob Miller for The New York Times
One group of workers recently delivered a petition with over 100 signatures to managers complaining of undignified treatment, low pay, and insufficient breaks and break room equipment. Ms. Agrait, the Amazon spokeswoman, said the company encouraged constant communication between workers and managers.
Mr. Thomas, the ship dock worker, spends two days each week knocking on the doors of colleagues and said in an interview that many workers who voted against the union last year said they were supportive this time because the company hadn’t followed through on promises to act on their feedback.
“A lot of folks said they wanted to try to give Amazon a chance, but they didn’t meet their end of bargain,” he said. “Now they actually want to help form this union.”
Noam Scheiber is a Chicago-based reporter who covers workers and the workplace. He spent nearly 15 years at The New Republic magazine, where he covered economic policy and three presidential campaigns. He is the author of “The Escape Artists.” @noamscheiber
Karen Weise is a technology correspondent based in Seattle, covering Amazon and Microsoft. Her work aims to help readers better understand two of the most powerful companies in America and their growing influence on society. @kyweise
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 5, 2022, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Amazon Warehouse Begins a Second Union Election. Order
THE WORLD WEEPS
Morocco boy found dead after days-long rescue operation The body of a 5-year-old boy, who has been trapped in a well since Tuesday, has been recovered. His death was confirmed by a royal palace statement carried on local media.
The five-year-old boy had been trapped in a well for five days
Rescue workers on Saturday extracted the body of a 5-year-old boy who had been trapped in an underground well in northern Morocco.
Many have hoped until the last moment that the child, called Rayan, managed to survive the last five days despite low temperatures. He had fallen down a narrow 32-meter (100-foot) deep well in the village of Ighran in the country's Chefchaouen province on Tuesday.
His death was confirmed by state news channel 2M who also tweeted a statement from King Mohammed VI, along with a tribute to Rayan which read: "In God’s protection... We belong to God and to Him we shall return."
The king expressed his condolences to Rayan's parents in a statement from the palace.
Earlier, rescue workers said it was difficult to ascertain Rayan's condition, and many have hoped that it would be possible to preserve the child's life.
Lead rescuer Abdelhadi Tamrani told state television, "we hope we will rescue him alive."
Thousands took to social media to express their solidarity for the boy and his family, with the Arabic hashtag #SaveRayan trending for hours in Morocco and North Africa. How have rescuers worked so far?
The well narrows as it descends from a 45 centimeter (18 inches) diameter at the top. Rescuers have not been able to go down themselves to retrieve the child.
A massive trench was cut in the hill next to the well. By Saturday morning, rescuers were digging horizontally toward the well and installing PVC tubes to protect against landslides and get the boy out.
Moroccan media reported on Thursday that rescuers had managed to get water and oxygen delivered to the bottom of the well.
"I keep up hope that my child will get out of the well alive. I thank everyone involved and those supporting us in Morocco and elsewhere," Rayan's father told state broadcaster 2M on Friday evening.
How did Rayan get trapped?
Rayan's mother told the media that he had been playing nearby before disappearing on Tuesday evening. "The whole family went out to look for him then we realized that he'd fallen down the well," she said.
The incident has attracted crowds of supporters to the village, where they are currently camping. Police have been sent to the venue, and authorities have called upon the masses to let the rescuers do their job.
kb,tg/fb (Reuters, AFP)
Morocco’s king says boy, 5, trapped in deep well has died
A tractor digs through a mountain during the rescue mission of a boy who fell into a hole in the northern village of Ighran in Morocco's Chefchaouen province, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. Rescuers inched closer Friday to reaching a 5-year-old boy trapped for three days in a well in Morocco, in an operation hampered by concerns about ground stability that has captivated the North African country.
(AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
IGHRAN, Morocco (AP) — A 5-year-old boy who was trapped for four days in a deep well in Morocco has died, the royal palace said Saturday.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI expressed his condolences to the boy’s parents in a statement released by the palace.
The boy, Rayan, was pulled out Saturday night by rescuers after a lengthy operation that captivated global attention.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw the boy wrapped in a yellow blanket after he emerged from a tunnel dug specifically for the rescue.
His parents, Khaled Oram and Wassima Khersheesh had been escorted to an ambulance before the boy emerged. His plight had captured worldwide attention.
The place statement said the king had been closely following the frantic rescue efforts by locals authorities, “instructing officials to use all means necessary to dig the boy out of the well and return him alive to his parents”. The king hailed the rescuers for their relentless work and the community for landing support to Rayan’s family.
Hundreds of villagers and others had gathered to watch the rescue operation.
Online messages of support and concern for the boy poured in from around the world as the rescue efforts dragged on for four days.
Rescuers used a rope to send oxygen and water down to the boy as well as a camera to monitor him. By Saturday morning, the head of the rescue committee, Abdelhadi Temrani, said: “It is not possible to determine the child’s condition at all at this time. But we hope to God that the child is alive.”
Rayan fell into a 32-meter (105-feet) well located outside his home in the village of Ighran in Morocco’s mountainous northern Chefchaouen province on Tuesday evening.
For three days, search crews used bulldozers to dig a parallel ditch. Then on Friday, they started excavating a horizontal tunnel to reach the trapped boy. Morocco’s MAP news agency said that experts in topographical engineering were called upon for help.
Temrani, speaking to local television 2M, said Saturday that rescuers had just two meters (yards) left to dig to reach the hole where the boy had been trapped.
“The diggers encountered a hard rock on their way, and were therefore very careful to avoid any landslides or cracks,” he said. “It took about five hours to get rid of the rock because the digging was slow and was done in a careful way to avoid creating cracks in the hole from below, which could threaten the life of the child as well as the rescue workers.”
The work has been especially difficult because of fears that the soil surrounding the well could collapse on the boy.
The village of about 500 people is dotted with deep wells, many used for irrigating the cannabis crop that is the main source of income for many in the poor, remote and arid region of Morocco’s Rif Mountains. Most of the wells have protective covers.
The exact circumstances of how the boy fell in the well are unclear.
Nationwide, Moroccans had taken to social media to offer their hopes for the boy’s survival, using the hashtag #SaveRayan which has brought global attention to the rescue efforts.
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El-Barakah reported from Rabat, Morocco.
Trial delayed for Beijing Olympics protesters arrested in Greece
Olympic torchbearers arrive to light the cauldron at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in National Stadium at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday. Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A Greek court has delayed the trial for three protesters who were arrested in October for disrupting an Olympic flame lighting ceremony.
The Pyrgos Crown Court rescheduled the hearing, which was set to begin Thursday, for December 2022 in a bid not to embarrass China, where the Beijing Olympics opened Friday, human rights lawyers for the protesters told The Guardian.
Lawyers for the legal aid group Justice Abroad had traveled to Greece from Britain to defend the protesters -- who are British, American and Tibetan Canadian.
"They pushed it into the long grass so as not to have to deliver a decision before the Beijing Olympics," said Michael Polak, a lawyer for Justice Abroad.
One of the protesters, Jason Leith, 34, told The Guardian that he was disappointed that the trial was postponed and recounted being tackled to the ground by security forces.
"The protest itself must have lasted less than a minute," he said. "Our aim was never to cause damage, and it is absurd to say that we did. All we had was a flag and a banner. We just wanted our voice to be heard in solidarity with all those oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party."
In a video posted to Justice Abroad's Facebook page, Polak said the protesters "asked how Beijing can use the symbols of the Olympics and hold the Olympic Games whilst they commit genocide and crimes against humanity."
China has faced criticism that its treatment of its Uighur population, a Muslim minority group, violates every provision of the United Nations' genocide convention.
The United States has previously accused China of imprisoning more than 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps and subjecting them to forced sterilization, torture and forced labor.
Beijing said that an athlete who helped light the Olympic cauldron for the Winter Olympics on Friday is of Uighur heritage, an apparent message to the country's human rights critics.
China has also faced criticism for human rights violations against Tibetan Buddhists who face "severe societal discrimination."
Local lawyer Antonis Bachouros, who is also defending the protesters, told The Guardian that the case was toward the end of a list of scheduled hearings but that the three-judge panel could have prioritized the case "given its sensitivity and seriousness."
Alexis Anagnostakis, another local lawyer for the protesters, said in the video that it was a "peaceful" protest "against violations of human rights in Tibet and elsewhere."
