Paid Leave for All: Worker Advocates Demand Expanded Protections

"The call for paid leave has never been clearer or louder from all corners of our country," said a pair of Senate Democrats marking the 29th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act.


A woman works at a distribution station at the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, on February 5, 2019. (Photo: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)


ANDREA GERMANOS

February 5, 2022

Economic justice advocates and Democratic lawmakers on Saturday issued fresh demands for comprehensive paid leave for the nation's workers, saying such protections would address crucial gaps in labor law that the ongoing pandemic has underscored.

The calls came on the 29th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to care for a new child or take care of one's own or family member's illness. But, worker advocates say, the groundbreaking law is sorely insufficient, because the leave is unpaid and FMLA doesn't cover all workers.

"It's been 29 years today since the FMLA was passed—the first federal protection for people to take time off work when they need it most. But about 10.5 million need leave and don't take it," tweeted the National Women's Law Center.

"All workers should not only be covered," the group added, "but be able to afford to take their leave."

The House Education and Labor Committee similarly noted that "millions of workers are not eligible for FMLA. And unpaid leave is not practical for most Americans."

"We must build on the FMLA by expanding access to PAID leave for workers across the country," the panel added.

Such expansion would also help advance racial equity.

According to NARAL Pro-Choice America: "The 44% of Americans not covered by the FMLA include 48% of Latinx workers, 47% of AAPI workers, and 43% of Black workers. Every American should be covered by the FMLA."


In a Friday statement, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who heads the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said the lack of guaranteed paid leave is especially problematic in light of the ultra-contagious Omicron variant.

"American parents still can't take paid time to care for a seriously ill child. Patients can't take paid time to recover from surgery or cope with a cancer diagnosis. And workers with a cold, the flu, or even Covid-19, can't take the time to get well and keep their coworkers safe—because they would risk losing a paycheck or even their job," said Murray and Gillibrand.

Related Content

Calls for Paid Leave Grow as Workers Face 'Vicious Cycle': Their Jobs or Covid Safety

In addition to harming families and the economy, the pair said the absence of paid leave and sick days is "hurting our ability to fight this pandemic. If we want to stop the spread of Omicron, be ready for whatever this pandemic brings next, and prepare for future public health crises—then we need paid leave."

Pointing to recent polling showing overwhelming public support for such protections, the lawmakers added that "the call for paid leave has never been clearer or louder from all corners of our country" and urged their congressional colleagues to help enact such a measure.

President Joe Biden, for his part, said in a Saturday tweet marking the FMLA anniversary that he is "committed to continuing the fight for national paid family and medical leave."

That vow was welcomed by Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Eileen Appelbaum, who expressed hope Biden would "push for it when bills to provide it are introduced in the Congress."

"People are desperate for paid leave," she said, calling it "policy that is needed and popular."

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Advocates urge Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier

by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

February 10, 2022

President Biden must take action, granting long overdue clemency to Leonard Peltier after close to half a century in prison for a blatantly political prosecution.

Leonard Peltier is a 77-year-old Anishinabe-Lakota Native American activist imprisoned for 46 years for a crime he says he did not commit. Amnesty International calls him a political prisoner. Peltier recently contracted COVID-19 inside the Coleman maximum security federal penitentiary in Florida, where prisoners have reportedly been denied vaccine booster shots.

“In and out of lockdown last year at least meant a shower every third day, a meal beyond a sandwich wet with a little peanut butter—but now with COVID for an excuse, nothing,” Peltier recently wrote. “No phone, no window, no fresh air—no humans to gather—no loved one’s voice. No relief. Left alone and without attention is like a torture chamber for the sick and old.”

Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was convicted of involvement in the killing of two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on June 26th, 1975, during a period of intense violence on the reservation. Peltier’s arrest and trial were marred by prosecutorial misconduct, withheld evidence, coerced and fabricated eyewitness testimony, and more.

The shootout occurred just three years after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Under Hoover, the FBI engaged in widespread illegality with its COINTELPRO program, directed against civil rights and antiwar organizations. Groups like the Black Panthers and individuals including Martin Luther King, Jr. were targeted for surveillance, disruption, infiltration, intimidation, and false prosecutions. The FBI intensively targeted the American Indian Movement, which was active protecting elders on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Peltier’s attorney, Kevin Sharp, learned that Peltier had a negative COVID test recently, but not much more: “When will boosters be made available? Any changes in prison COVID protocols to ensure prisoners are safer? When can I speak to Leonard? ” Sharp wrote in an email to us Wednesday. “I was earlier denied a call with the Assistant Warden trying to get these answers.”

Sharp’s route to Peltier’s case was unusual. Nominated to the federal bench by President Obama in 2011, he served as a federal judge in Tennessee for six years, three of them as Chief Judge. In 2017, he resigned, denouncing the mandatory minimum sentences that he was forced to impose. He then worked for the release of Chris Young, who he had mandatorily sentenced to life without parole. TV personality Kim Kardashian got involved, and they won clemency for Young from President Donald Trump. Publicity from that prompted long-time Peltier supporter Connie Nelson, the ex-wife of musician Willie Nelson, to send Sharp information on Peltier’s case.

“I sat down to read the stacks, just reams of information on Leonard’s case, not really coming at it with any preconceived notion… looking at it from the viewpoint of a federal judge,” Sharp explained on the Democracy Now! news hour. “What I saw was shocking. The constitutional violations just continued to stack up. I was outraged that this man was still in prison.”

The movement for executive clemency for Peltier peaked in late 2000, as President Bill Clinton was leaving office. Clinton promised to give Peltier’s clemency application “a looksee” on WBAI radio in New York City, when he called us on election day to get out the vote.

Clinton infamously abused the presidential power of clemency, granting pardons to campaign donors and cronies of his half-brother, among others. He denied clemency to Peltier, as did his successors, Presidents George W. Bush, Obama and Trump.

One of the federal prosecutors who put Peltier in prison spoke out, in 2017. “Leonard Peltier’s conviction and continued incarceration is a testament to a time and system of justice that no longer has a place in our society,” retired U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote to President Obama. “I have realized that the prosecution and the continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is injust.”

Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who chairs the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, wrote a letter to President Biden on Jan. 28. “I write to urge you to grant a commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence. Mr. Peltier meets appropriate criteria for commutation: (1) his old age and critical illness, (2) the amount of time he has already served, and (3) the unavailability of other remedies,” Schatz wrote.

On February 2nd, HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki, “Does the President know who Leonard Peltier is?” Psaki replied, “I’m sure he does, but I have not discussed it with him.” Bendery also asked Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Patrick Leahy about Peltier. Leahy said he would ask President Biden about Peltier in their upcoming private meetings.

President Biden must take action, granting long overdue clemency to Leonard Peltier after close to half a century in prison for a blatantly political prosecution.

This column originally appeared in Democracy Now!

 

Fighting with Tools: Prefiguration and Radical Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Rethinking Marxism, 2015)

Mathijs van de Sande

299 Views18 Pages

1 File ▾

Social Movements,

Anarchism,

Antonio Negri,

Mikhail Bakunin,

Autonomous Marxism

 ...more ▾

This article conceptualizes some of the political practices and discourses that characterize recent protest movements such as Occupy and the Indignados. These movements’ strategies are distinguished by the central role they give to the occupation and recomposition of public spaces and also by their refusal to engage with representative politics and public institutions. Critics argue that this so-called strategy of withdrawal illustrates a categorical misunderstanding of the political. But as notions such as “withdrawal” or “exodus” give only a rather partial account of these movements’ practices and discourses, this paper aims to introduce an alternative, contemporary concept that has a much stronger explanatory potential: “prefiguration” or “prefigurative politics.” In order to flesh out and apply this concept, it reconstructs the political ontologies of two radical traditions that significantly influenced more recent protest movements—namely, early anarchism with its antithetic dialectics (Mikhail Bakunin) and contemporary autonomist Marxism (Antonio Negri).

Anthropology and the Social Factory

Stephen Campbell

2018, Dialectical Anthropology

417 Views13 Pages

2 Files ▾

Anthropology,

Antonio Negri,

Operaismo

Show more ▾

Since its birth in the early 1960s, Italian operaismo (workerism) has provided an optimistic reading of working-class militancy, a theoretically stimulating account of capitalist transformation, and a set of highly productive conceptual categories. Despite a shared provenance, however, operaista-influenced movements and theorists have since taken these categories in quite varied directions. Given this conceptual heterogeneity, I consider herein one such category—the “social factory”—and its conceptual reworking by Antonio Negri, as he elaborates in his 2017 book, Marx and Foucault. I employ, as means to pursue this inquiry, an anthropological lens—drawing, to do so, on anthropological theory and ethnographic research. My aim is to build toward to a reconception of the social factory analytic for use in a contemporary anthropology of state formation.

Judge grants City of Edmonton interim injunction for downtown protest convoys

Emily Mertz and Caley Gibson - Yesterday

The City of Edmonton applied for and was granted an interim injunction on Friday in regards to the noise from downtown protest convoys that have taken place around the Alberta legislature and 109 Street the last two Saturdays.

Drivers in the convoys have been showing their opposition to a number of issues, mostly to do with public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more:
Ottawa asks Superior Court for injunction against trucker convoy protesters

In a special council meeting Friday afternoon, city manager Andre Corbould told councillors that an Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice granted the city's request for a temporary injunction "to address nuisance noise from vehicles that participate in protests against public health restrictions," under Section 554 of the Municipal Government Act.

He said it would apply to prohibiting protesters from creating incessant sound with horns and megaphones.

A news release from the city said: "the injunction compels people who are organizers, participants or drivers involved in a protest convoy of vehicles or farm equipment to refrain from sounding vehicle horns, airhorns or other noise-making devices from creating unnecessary noise within the city.

"The city sought this injunction after witnessing and hearing from residents and businesses about the effects of noise during protest convoys on Jan. 29 and Feb. 5."

City officials said they believe another protest will take place Feb. 12.

"We fully support the right to peaceful protest," said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. "When that protest impacts nearby people and businesses to the degree that the well-being of individuals is compromised or a business cannot operate, we must take action.

"As a legal measure that prohibits certain behaviours or actions, an injunction was a reasonable step that allows the city to also support those Edmontonians who want to carry on with daily life.

"The people of Edmonton have been through so much over the last two years, this was one way we could stand up for their right to peace and quiet."

Sohi said the temporary injunction will give bylaw and police officers "added tools" to enforce the noise bylaw.

"I also hope it sends a message to protestors that what they're doing is breaking the law and there's an injunction in place to prevent them from doing what they're doing.

"If they're going to protest, they have to protest peacefully."

Sohi said the city has heard from a lot of downtown residents, including seniors, who felt disturbed by the loud horns and scared to go outside their homes.

The injunction is in effect immediately until March 4, 2022.

Read more
Trucker protest: Judge grants injunction against honking in downtown Ottawa

On Monday, an Ontario judge granted a 10-day injunction to prevent protesting truckers in downtown Ottawa from honking their horns incessantly.

That same day, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford that the city needed 1,800 more officers, in addition to his current contingent of 2,100 police and civilian members, to “quell the insurrection” the local police cannot contain.

An injunction is a court order that a person cease certain behaviour. If they don’t comply, they can be charged with contempt of court.

Paul Champ, a lawyer representing central Ottawa residents in a proposed multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit, argued the loud and prolonged honking is causing irreparable harm.

Keith Wilson, representing three of the respondents in the case, told the judge the ruling on the injunction would carry national importance.

Read more:
Injunction granted to prevent protesters from blocking Ambassador Bridge

Councillors were meeting Friday to discuss possibly implementing a local COVID-19 vaccine passport, what that would look like and what implications it might have.

Video: Injunction considered against anti-mandate protesters

Earlier Friday, the Edmonton Police Service issued a media release saying it is aware of another convoy planned for the city on Saturday.

Police said convoys may be coming from various parts of the province, convening at the Alberta legislature grounds. The convoys are anticipated to affect Edmonton traffic anywhere between 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Significant traffic disruption may include Anthony Henday Drive, Yellowhead Trail, Stony Plain Road, Whitemud Drive, Gateway Boulevard, Walterdale Hill, Queen Elizabeth Park Road and the downtown core.

"We recognize that these demonstrations cause significant disruptions to traffic and create many concerns for residents and businesses," the EPS said.

The EPS said policing during public demonstrations is a complex task that includes upholding multiple laws, while balancing fundamental rights set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The EPS said it will continue to work with municipal and provincial partners to ensure proper resources are in place to manage traffic and crowds, while preventing situations from escalating.

Police urged people not to call 911 unless it is an emergency.

The EPS said it may use verbal warnings, tickets and arrests to mitigate any disorderly conduct.

"Our focus will be to prevent these convoys from developing into situations that actively threaten the safety and security of our community. We are closely monitoring this demonstration and are ready to adapt our response as required."

When asked how the injunction would impact EPS' response, a spokesperson told Global News:

"The EPS will continue to work with its municipal and provincial partners to ensure proper resources are in place to manage traffic and crowds and prevent situations from escalating," Cheryl Voordenhout wrote.

"The injunction will be incorporated into these enforcement strategies."

Video: Ontario under state of emergency as police prepare for third weekend of convoys

-- With files from Mike Blanchfield and Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

 

Global Gender Gap in Unpaid Care: Why Domestic Work Still Remains a Woman’s Burden

February 12, 2022

In the brief Global Gender Gap in Unpaid Care: Why Domestic Work Still Remains a Woman’s Burden, the author reviews the literature on both the economic and sociological factors which perpetuate the pattern of gender disparity in unpaid domestic care work. The author also summarizes the “recognize, reduce and redistribute” policies which could be adopted to help address the problem.

The policy brief includes country reports on gender gap in unpaid domestic care in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. It was published by The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE Network).

Download

• FROGEE POLICY BRIEF 4 Insights from Armenia
• FROGEE POLICY BRIEF 4 Insights from Belarus
• FROGEE POLICY BRIEF 4 Insights from Georgia
• FROGEE POLICY BRIEF 4 Insights from Ukraine

EU4GENDEREQUALITY

RETURN OF THE NORTHWEST COMPANY
Federation fur company promises to get Métis trappers back on lines
Thursday

Over a year in the planning, the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) is taking the next step in revitalizing the Red River culture and way of life.

First it was about the music and getting more than 3,500 kids fiddling and promoting square dancing. Then it was about providing economic support to artisans in the form of grants and purchasing the high-quality products to sell in the MMF store locally, nationally and internationally. Now, it’s about the trappers.

“I have a passion for history and culture and just our nation in general. This is part of the evolution of our nation and we kind of got pushed out of the market many, many moons ago,” said MMF President David Chartrand.

Come spring, the new Red River Métis Fur Company will purchase muskrat and beaver pelts from Métis trappers and pay them an above-market price. As the year goes on, the furs of other animals in season will be purchased.

The Red River Métis Fur Company has committed $1 million to purchasing those furs.

The fur industry for Métis trappers has taken a beating over the years, says Chartrand. Animal rights and environmental activists have campaigned against trapping. Fur farms have grown in numbers. Farmers and ranchers have killed coyotes and other predators to keep their properties clear.

“This has impacted the way we trap and do things,” said Chartrand. “We want to give (the trappers) not only the opportunity to practise something they love to do, their traditions, but to at least give them a chance to make some money. We’ll buy from them and then we’ll worry about selling them.”

Local Métis artisans will get first priority for the furs to create beaver mitts or muskrat hats and other products.

Working with artisans and trappers, points out Chartrand, is about creating microbusinesses. He believes local economies will benefit from small businesses more than any large business.

MMF is also investigating overseas markets for fur sales, with possibilities existing in countries like Turkey, Russia and China.

To ensure the environment and species are protected, a quota-based system will be put in place, which will limit how many animals of each species Métis trappers can take. Chartrand says those numbers will be easy to track, pointing out that trappers will be aware of when their lines are coming up empty in specific fields.

“We always want to make sure the trapper has something to trap and at the same time ensure a balance in the environment,” said Chartrand.

While the MMF’s goal is to give Métis trappers the opportunity to renew their culture and gain economically, if there aren’t enough furs coming in, Chartrand says he will speak to local First Nation trappers, set quotas and purchase their furs.

There will also be grants in place through the MMF for trappers to purchase traps.

Chartrand says the MMF is also looking at “getting the traditional hide back.” He says many artisans would prefer to work with moose, elk or deer hide instead of cow hide. However, the present price for those traditional hides is low.

The MMF is also considering the bead market. Beads are becoming scarce, says Chartrand, and are an important part of the Métis culture. Métis are known as the Flower Beadwork People. The MMF will either consider purchasing a “massive amount of beads” or developing a company that will make their own beads.

“I’ve been talking about traditional economies and figuring out how to do it for at least 20 years. I’m so proud as a Métis government that we have the resources economically now to do our part. To make sure we give a hope to our trappers, a hope to our culture and way of that life, that we do not give it up. That is part of who we are and that will carry on for centuries to come,” said Chartrand.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

Founded in 1779, the North West Company was a major force in the fur trade from the 1780s to 1821. Managed primarily by Highland Scots who migrated to Montréal after 1760, or came as Loyalists escaping the American Revolution, it also drew heavily on French-Canadian labour and experience. The name first described Montréal traders who in 1776 pooled resources to reduce competition among themselves and to resist inland advances of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/north-west-company

Sen. Bernie Sanders warns of 'drumbeats' of war in Washington


Sen. Bernie Sanders gave a speech on the Senate floor Thursday expressing grave concern over the "drumbeats" of war building in Washington, D.C., amid escalating tensions along the Ukrainian border.

Sanders, I-Vt., the de-facto leader of the Democratic Party's progressive wing, which had kept relatively quiet on the issue to this point, pleaded with government officials to not follow a similar path of past military conflicts.

"I'm extremely concerned when I hear the familiar drumbeats in Washington, the bellicose rhetoric that gets amplified before every war, demanding that we must 'show strength,' 'get tough' and not engage in 'appeasement'," said Sanders, who has, in the past, led the charge to defund the war in Iraq and to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.


Bernie Sanders leaves the Capitol following a vote on January 31, 2022

 in Washington, DC.

The senator focused on the "unintended consequences" that have resulted from previous American military involvements and the way wars have been portrayed in the lead up to those conflicts.

"They [wars] rarely turn out the way the planners and experts tell us they will. Just ask the officials who provided rosy scenarios for the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be proven horribly wrong," Sanders said.

Sanders reaffirmed his support for the pursuit of a diplomatic solution with Russia, the latest attempts of which have been led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately this week.


Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President

 Emmanuel Macron attend a joint press conference, in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 7, 2022.

MORE: Macron: Putin told him Russia won't escalate Ukraine crisis

While condemning Putin over his responsibility for the current crisis, Sanders also called on officials to "consider the perspectives of our adversaries." Putin has demanded the U.S. and Europeans commit to keeping Ukraine out of NATO, something the West has rejected outright.

"One of the precipitating factors of this crisis, at least from Russia's perspective, is the prospect of an enhanced security relationship between Ukraine and the United States and Western Europe," Sanders said.

In addition to his war critique, Sanders objected to potential sanctions against Russia and the possible impact on civilians. That includes a package the Senate has been discussing that could cause economic devastation in Russia and reverberate across Europe.

The legislation appears to be on hold following disagreement on a variety of issues, including the strength of the sanctions, leading some to suggest President Joe Biden should proceed on his own.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated it would be better for Biden to take action as opposed to waiting for the passage of a sanctions package he believes wouldn't deter Putin. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., struck a similar tone.


Chairman Bob Menendez, left, and Senator Jim Risch, during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

"We're just a hair's breadth away from an agreement on strong, message-sending sanctions legislation, but I really believe the Biden administration should act now -- in fact yesterday," said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.


A soldier fires during a Russian and Belarusian joint military drills at Brestsky firing range, Belarus

.MORE: Russia begins huge war games in Belarus amid Ukraine invasion fears

Concerns about a Russian invasion into Ukraine continue to build as the Russian military began a series of exercises in Belarus on Thursday that are expected to continue until Feb. 20.

"[We] must work hard to achieve a realistic and mutually agreeable resolution...that is not weakness," Sanders said. "That is not appeasement. Bringing people together to resolve conflicts nonviolently is strength, and it is the right thing to do."

ABC News' Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

'I'm proud of the truckers,' says Poilievre in lambasting Justin Trudeau's response to protests

Catherine Lévesque - Yesterday 


© Provided by National PostPierre Poilievre:

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre says he is “proud” of the truckers and stands with them.

Poilievre also says he blames Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the situation, which is paralyzing critical infrastructure at the border.

“I’m proud of the truckers and I stand with them,” Poilievre said in an interview recorded on Thursday for next week’s episode of the Postmedia podcast Full Comment with Anthony Furey.

“They have reached a breaking point after two years of massive government overreach of a prime minister who insults and degrades anyone who disagrees with his heavy-handed approach.

“But let’s be honest, if Canadians are being inconvenienced, or in any way suffering from these protests, it is because Justin Trudeau made these protests happen and his intransigence is keeping the protests going,” he added.

Poilievre said it looks to him like Trudeau put a vaccine mandate on truckers “as a vindictive wedge strategy to divide Canadians and demonize an apparently unpopular minority of unvaccinated people to his own political advantage.”

“But now it’s blown up in his face,” said Poilievre.

“So he’s gotten himself into an impossible political situation. And unfortunately, the rest of the country is held hostage by his unwillingness to do the right thing, admit he was wrong, and lift these mandates.”

Earlier Thursday, Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen called on Freedom Convoy protesters to take down the barricades and go home.

Bergen, who has been sympathetic to truckers since the beginning of the protests in Ottawa, changed her stance and asked for blockades to end. She made the comments as she presented a motion in the House of Commons asking for the end of federal restrictions.

In an appeal to the protesters, Bergen said, “I believe the time has come for you to take down the barricades, stop the disruptive action, and come together. The economy you want to see reopen is hurting. Farmers, manufacturers, small businesses and families are suffering. I believe this is not what you want to do.

“You came bringing a message. That message has been heard,” she continued. “Conservatives have heard you and we will stand up for you and all Canadians who want to get back to normal life. We will not stop until the mandates have ended.”

Ontario freezes $8 million from online fundraiser bound for truckers

Trucker protests: What started in Ottawa could roll round the world

The protests have been going strong in Ottawa for two weeks now, but the police’s reluctance to act has resulted in demonstrations taking place across the country.

Blockades have now spread to border crossings in Alberta, Ontario and, more recently, in Bergen’s home province of Manitoba, causing significant disruption in trade between Canada and the United States and forcing the auto industry to shut down factories.

Just last week, Bergen was siding with the protesters in Ottawa, calling them “passionate, patriotic and peaceful.” Other Conservative MPs, including former leader Andrew Scheer, took pictures with them or were encouraging them while making their way to Parliament Hill.

Bergen urged other parties to join the Conservatives in supporting the motion, which calls for the Liberals to present a plan before the end of the month to end federal mandates and restrictions.

The Bloc Québécois will vote in favour of the Conservative motion, which will guarantee almost a majority of votes in the Commons when the time comes. Motions are however non-binding and the government will not be forced to implement it even if it is adopted.

Bloc Public Safety critic Kristina Michaud told the National Post that the federal government should re-evaluate and reconsider a number of measures, as a number of provinces including Quebec have already done in the past few days.

Meanwhile, Liberals are showing no signs of changing their course of action.

During Question Period, Trudeau continued to repeat that the best way through the pandemic is by listening to science and by following health advice “and indeed, by getting vaccinated.” He encouraged more people to “step up” and get their shots.

Trudeau also mocked the Conservatives’ new position on the convoys, saying that they had “spent the last two weeks endorsing and enabling these blockades” and that Bergen and some in her team had been “their biggest champions.”

Discovery of what ailed Dolly the dinosaur is a first, researchers say

By Ashley Strickland, CNN - 
© Woodruff et al. (2022), Corbin Rainbolt


About 150 million years ago, a young long-necked dinosaur fell ill, likely coughing and suffering from a fever as it wandered what is now southwest Montana.

The fossil of this dinosaur, nicknamed "Dolly" for Dolly Parton, has revealed what could be the first evidence of a respiratory infection in a dinosaur, according to new research. A study detailing the findings published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The diplodocid, an herbivorous dinosaur with a long neck, reached about 60 feet (18 meters) in length and was between 15 and 20 years old when it died, according to Cary Woodruff, lead study author and director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana.

Dolly's remains, including a complete skull and neck vertebrae, were first discovered in 1990 at a site in Montana yielding other dinosaur discoveries. They aren't able to determine Dolly's gender based on the fossils.

Recently, Woodruff and his colleagues decided to take a closer look at three of Dolly's neck bones and discovered abnormal bony protrusions with an irregular shape and texture.

The researchers used CT imaging to determine that the abnormal bone growth likely formed in response to an infection in Dolly's air sacs. The dinosaur had a complex respiratory system and the air sacs connected to its lungs.


© Woodruff et al. (2022)Abnormal bony growths, depicted in red, were found in Dolly's neck bones.

The researchers believe that the diplodocid developed a respiratory infection within its air sacs and the infection then spread to its neck bones.

"During times of trauma, bone can grow pretty fast, so I imagine all in all, we're looking at a prolonged infection that occurred sometime during the last year of Dolly's life," Woodruff said in an email.

"Given the likely symptoms this animal suffered from, holding these infected bones in your hands, you can't help but feel sorry for Dolly," Woodruff said in a statement. "We've all experienced these same symptoms -- coughing, trouble breathing, a fever, etc. -- and here's a 150-million-year-old dinosaur that likely felt as miserable as we all do when we're sick."


© Woodruff et al. (2022), Francisco Bruñén AlfaroThis diagram shows the pathway Dolly's infection might have taken. The human figure included for scale is Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The bony growths were only about a centimeter in height, so it's unlikely that they protruded or caused Dolly's neck to swell, Woodruff said. Instead, Dolly was likely most miserable due to her flu or pneumonia-like symptoms, including weight loss and sneezing.

Dolly's illness may have been caused by a fungal infection not unlike aspergillosis. This is a common respiratory illness in modern birds and reptiles that can lead to bone infections. When aspergillosis is left untreated, it can be fatal in birds, so it's possible that Dolly died after falling ill, although they can't tell when the dinosaur died after getting sick.

But how did Dolly get sick in the first place? Trying to piece together the puzzle of dinosaur disease with only bones, given that soft tissue doesn't fossilize, can be difficult.

It's possible that the environment in Montana 150 million years ago contributed to Dolly's illness. At the time, there was an inland seaway slowly withdrawing northward toward Canada, Woodruff said.

"The baby Rocky Mountains were in their infancy, and the environment would have been very similar to the Gulf Coast region of the US -- relatively flat, large rivers draining into the seaway, warm, humid, and well vegetated," he said. "One possibility we proposed was that Dolly's infection was from a fungal infection. Warm, humid climates are a perfect habitat for fungi today, and the same was true millions of years ago."

If Dolly had an aspergillosis-like infection, the dinosaur could have caught it in a multitude of ways, like accidentally breathing in a fungal spore or catching it from another member of the herd.

In modern birds, crowded conditions can cause the spread of infection. Dinosaurs like Dolly were known to stick close together during nesting season, which could have caused infections to "spread like wildfire," Woodruff said.

While the true cause will likely never be known, this research has provided more insight into the immune systems of dinosaurs.

"This fossil infection in Dolly not only helps us trace the evolutionary history of respiratory-related diseases back in time, but gives us a better understanding of what kinds of diseases dinosaurs were susceptible to," Woodruff said.

Previous research has revealed that, much like humans, dinosaurs suffered from gout, cancer and infections from injuries. There is also evidence of a tuberculosis-like infection in a marine reptile that lived 245 million years ago.

But this is the first time a dinosaur fossil has revealed evidence of a respiratory infection.

Making this discovery helps researchers to better understand how dinosaurs breathed, the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs, and the pathways of infections and diseases in dinosaurs that aren't too dissimilar from ones we experience today, Woodruff said.

Next, the researchers want to determine if any of the other dinosaur fossils found in the same location as Dolly had this infection and explore what other diseases dinosaurs may have had that can be found in modern birds.

Paleopathology, or the study of pathological conditions found in ancient human and animal remains, is growing as scientists across different disciplines work together to understand the lives of dinosaurs.

Woodruff predicts that the approach, techniques and makeup of research teams will change in the future, something that has him excited for discoveries on the horizon. Including specialists from different disciplines, such as medical experts, is allowing for new insights as researchers analyze fossils.

"Previously, we could only really speculate," Woodruff said. "We could tell that a bone had broken and healed, but we had no idea of what caused the break. While that can certainly still be the case today, the more we approach these pathologies from a differential diagnosis perspective, and importantly, the more we work with medical professionals, the greater our identification accuracy is."

Most Sask. residents believe society has become more polarized compared to a year ago: survey

Theresa Kliem -CBC

A strong majority of respondents in a new poll in Saskatchewan said society has become more polarized compared to a year ago.

The Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research (CHASR) at the University of Saskatchewan conducted the survey on divisiveness in partnership with CBC Saskatchewan, collecting data by phone from 400 residents across the province between Dec. 1, 2021 and Dec. 30, 2021.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.90 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

According to the survey, 78.7 per cent of respondents believe that society has become more polarized. Just over 17 per cent said polarization is about the same, and around two per cent said society has become less polarized.

"It seems to be a very timely topic to ask," said CHASR director Jason Disano.

"We don't have any sort of historical or retrospective data to compare this to…. But what the data do indicate is that people are largely feeling that we are divided as a province. "
More than 8 out of 10 people think pandemic has been dividing people in Sask.

Survey participants were asked about five potentially divisive topics: the COVID-19 pandemic, fighting climate change, the energy sector, the federal election and increasing ethnic diversity.

In three out of the five categories, the majority of respondents said the issue has served to divide the people of Saskatchewan over the past year, with a fourth coming just shy of 50 per cent.

About 83 per cent agreed that the pandemic has been dividing people, and more than 70 per cent said the same about the federal election.

Disano said he was surprised to see 44 per cent of respondents say that increasing ethnic diversity has served to unite the Saskatchewan population.

"I was expecting that one to sort of fall more on the side of divisiveness as opposed to uniting folks," he said.

"But I was happy to see that one came out a bit more balanced."

Responses varied somewhat by demographic.

For example, younger survey participants (18 to 34) were more likely to believe that ethnic diversity has been uniting people (74 per cent), particularly compared to the 55 and older age group (32.8 per cent).

Respondents in larger cities like Saskatoon or Regina were more likely to think the COVID-19 pandemic united people of Saskatchewan (around 19 per cent) in comparison with respondents from smaller cities or rural areas (around seven per cent).

Respondents also ranked the energy sector (49.8 per cent) and climate change (62.3 per cent) as divisive subjects.

Younger respondents were more likely than older respondents to think that the energy sector united the people of Saskatchewan, with 57.1 per cent in the 18 to 34 age group saying so. More participants 55 or older thought the topic was divisive (74 per cent) rather than a unifying force (26 per cent).


© Omayra Issa/CBC

Glenn Wright is urging world leaders to be bolder in setting climate goals.

As an advocate for the fight against climate change, Saskatchewan farmer and lawyer Glenn Wright often experiences the polarization first hand.

"In the farming circles, I see many people feeling threatened," he said.

"A lot of them can't envision a way to grow our food without the connection to fossil fuels, whether that is fertilizer that's applied or whether it is diesel fuel to run their tractors and combines."

Wright farms between Vanscoy and Delisle, southwest of Saskatoon.

He is very outspoken about climate change, which has led to estrangement from some friends and family members.

"I've been subject to personal attacks," he said.

"I have pushed the issue at family discussions and at Christmas time to the point where I've seen some of my relatives get upset and push themselves up from the table to get up and leave."

Wright said he hopes the polarization will not last forever.

"Am I going to take any pleasure in 20 years from now saying I told you so? Probably not."
1 in 3 people have reduced contact with someone because of differing views

Wright is not alone.

When survey participants were asked if, over the past year, they have had reduced contact with a friend or family member because of differing views or opinions, almost 32 per cent — nearly one in three people — said they had.

"That's a pretty sizable chunk," said Disano.

The vast majority of the respondents (around 94 per cent) who had this reduced contact said it was due to disagreement about COVID-19.

A larger proportion of women (39.2 per cent) than men (23.5 per cent) had reduced contact with someone in the last year because of differing views.

Darla Read is one of those people.

The Saskatoon woman left her parents' house in November 2020 after a disagreement about how the pandemic was being handled by politicians in the province.

While the relationship was not perfect before COVID-19 hit, Read and her mother used to be close after Read's now-seven-year-old son was born.

Now the Saskatoon woman doesn't talk with her parents unless they are making arrangements for her son to meet his grandparents. She said she doesn't want her son's relationship with his grandparents to become estranged.

"My parents are good grandparents," said Read.

"You can love someone and love many parts of them, and there are also going to be other parts that you don't like. It's not that easy. Nothing is that black and white."