Century-old building that was 1st Catholic school on Edmonton's south side for sale at $6.6M

Madeleine Cummings - Thursday

A 116-year-old building that was the first Catholic school on Edmonton's south side is on the market for $6.6 million.

The St. Anthony building on the corner of 84th Ave. and 104th St. in Old Strathcona was first built in 1906. In recent decades, Edmonton Catholic Schools has used it as a meeting centre, storage facility and archives.

ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OLD SCONA PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILT IN 1905

WHERE I WAS HEAD CUSTODIAN FOR 14 YEARS

The district is now selling the property as it consolidates six administrative buildings and plans to move staff to the new Lumen Christi Catholic Education Centre on 50th St. this summer.

"We admit, it was not an easy decision to list St. Anthony for sale, but given our fiscal reality, the costs associated with operating and maintaining a building that is over 100 years old, it does not justify keeping it," spokesperson Christine Meadows said.

A first for the south side

In the 1890s, Catholic students who lived south of the North Saskatchewan River attended a one-room school within St. Anthony Roman Catholic Church.

According to the school district's records, Father Albert Lacombe named the parish, quoting an old church tradition that "a parish named after St. Anthony will never want for money."

As the population grew, more space was needed and a school was built, with the first floor and basement completed in 1906. When it opened, it became the first Catholic school in what was then Strathcona.

Helen Scarlett, Edmonton Catholic Schools' archives co-ordinator, said the building received a series of additions over the years before closing to students due to low enrolment in 1973.

Scarlett, who has worked there since 2003, knows the building's every nook and cranny, from the original air vents and separate entrances for boy and girls to the markings students etched on bricks outside.

A plaque from the city acknowledges its history but the building does not have historical designation.

Additions partially obscure the original school, so people walking by might not notice its age.

"Because of that, they don't really realize the rich history of the school, how long it's actually been here and how core of an element it was to Strathcona," Scarlett said.

Scarlett is collecting stories of the building from residents and plans to memorialize its history in some way.


© Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi/CBCEdmonton 

Catholic Schools archives co-ordinator Helen Scarlett has been working in the St. Anthony building since 2003.

Interest from developers

Jandip Deol, with the commercial real estate company Avison Young, said a wide array of developers and builders have expressed interest in the St. Anthony site and the company is in talks with a few parties.

He said a parking lot on the property could accommodate something more urban, like a mixed-use development.

Deol said developers and builders understand the building's cultural and historical significance.

"I think everyone in the neighbourhood would like to see this building stay and that's been expressed to all the parties that had interest," he said.
Looking back and ahead

Anita Jenkins, who worked at the school as a Grade 4 teacher for two years in her early twenties, said that even in the 1960s, the building seemed dated.

"It was a very creaky old place," she recalled.

She said teachers addressed each other formally, not using their colleagues' first names, and the student population was diverse, with children coming from nearby apartments and the homes of provincial politicians and academics.

Jenkins said she is interested in preserving history but does not feel attached to the St. Anthony building.

"Some things have a best-before date," she said.

Lech Leszczak, who volunteers at a recovery program in the basement of the nearby Strathcona Baptist Church, said the neighbourhood could use a homeless shelter.

"Another shelter would be a good idea to take some of the burden off the churches," he said.

Scarlett said she hopes the building is preserved in some way.

"Having a link to an important part of the community's history is important and preserving that is very worthwhile," she said.

B.C. shellfish growers experiencing a watershed moment

Quadra Island oyster farmer Steve Pocock believes B.C.’s shellfish sector is facing a watershed moment.

West Coast growers have endured a tough couple of years as the COVID-19 pandemic dried up demand from restaurants and international markets, and extreme temperatures in June cooked countless beach-grown oysters and clams alive in their shells.

And now growers have another sink or swim dilemma — the need to change farming practices and tackle marine debris created by the shellfish sector, said Pocock, who is also president of the BC Shellfish Growers Association (BCSGA).

Beach cleanups by some coastal stewardship groups and communities have documented large amounts of debris and plastic coming from areas where shellfish farming is concentrated.

Social licence for old farming practices is in steep decline, and producers need to overcome their resistance to change and improve or consider getting out of the sector, Pocock said.

“There's a little bit of frustration … with people who think they can carry on the same way they did 20 years ago,” he said.

“Shellfish growers, like anyone else, need to adapt and change to the new standards that are expected of them.”

Shellfish operators will soon have to enclose Styrofoam floats in a hard casing, inspect and dive beneath their platforms to retrieve debris annually, mark all gear with identifying data, and self-report annually to demonstrate compliance or risk fines or the loss of their licence.

It will be hard for smaller operations to be able to absorb the costs, Pocock said.

However, most active shellfish producers are on board, with 75 per cent already reporting they’re in compliance with the association’s new stewardship plan and the new regulations from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), some of which will come into effect in April, Pocock said.

“Unfortunately, the industry gets tarred as a whole when people aren’t compliant,” he said.

“If nine farms you drive past look fine, but the 10th farm is a complete mess, people are going to remember the one that is a mess.”

There’s also a misperception growers are profiting from federal or provincial funding programs that subsidize some of the costs they face in meeting improved environmental standards, Pocock said.

“The farmer has to put up a percentage of cash and also make significant labour commitments to carry out the projects,” he said.

“In our case, tens of thousands of dollars.”

Derelict farms already pose a big part of the shellfish debris problem, he added.

Previously, the province or federal government, which share jurisdiction over the industry, had to take operators to court to enforce environmental standards, a costly and time-consuming exercise.

But new regulations will allow fisheries officers to immediately ticket and fine licence- or tenure-holders who aren’t in compliance, he said.

Regardless of the challenges, Pocock is optimistic a continued push by the association, the province, and DFO will produce results on the pollution front.

“I’m hoping that with a joint effort between the industry and the regulators, we can get to a better place.”

Solving the debris issue guarantees the future and marketing potential of an industry that has the advantage of a light carbon footprint to produce a high-quality protein for consumers who are more and more environmentally conscious, he added.

Shellfish are also superheroes when it comes to tackling climate change. Bivalves such as oysters, mussels and clams filter their own food from the ocean, improving water quality and marine habitat for other wildlife, and reducing the likelihood of harmful algal blooms in warming waters. They also store significant amounts of carbon in their shells.

But growers will have to bite the bullet and pay for the sector’s necessary environmental upgrades to continue to profit from the industry, Pocock said.

“The farmers have to dig in their pockets and find a lot of money to make those improvements,” Pocock said.

“And you either improve and comply, or you need to stop because there really isn’t any other option.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer

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Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

CANADA
Unions, employers split on 'right to disconnect' legislation: advisory committee


An advisory group tasked with recommending how Canada should handle the right to disconnect after work hours was split on whether the country should adopt a legislative requirement for workplaces.

A final report released Thursday by the Right to Disconnect Advisory Committee said unions and non-governmental organizations that were consulted want the country to use legislation to force workplaces to establish a right to disconnect.

Advocates say a voluntary approach will not work because without legislation, workers may be penalized for exercising their right to disconnect and non-unionized workers will have no effective way to push for such a policy.

However, employers consulted by the government favoured a voluntary approach because they felt the Canada Labour Code already has clear guidelines around hours of work and appropriate compensation for after-work tasks.

The right to disconnect, which involves letting workers ignore electronic communications related to their job when they're not on the clock, has been a hot topic since the federal government promised to tackle the issue in 2018.

It formed its advisory committee in 2020 and the group met 10 times before releasing its report on Thursday, which Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan will use to guide any policy he brings forward.

The committee was in part prompted by a right to disconnect law in France, but the COVID-19 pandemic put the issue in the spotlight once more as Canadians found themselves working longer hours from home.

Ontario has chosen not to wait for a federal policy and received royal assent for new "right to disconnect" legislation on Dec. 2. It forces employers with at least 25 staff to develop policies on disconnecting from work in the next six months, but doesn't specify which scenarios businesses have to address.

Some of those consulted through the federal advisory committee want the countrywide approach to right-to-disconnect to be more specific.

Some committee members highlighted that the government will have to decide "the extent to which, due to operational realities and flexible work arrangements, certain employees cannot be subject to barriers to communication."

While the committee was split on whether a legislative approach is needed, it agreed any right to disconnect policy should ensure employers retain the ability to contact workers in emergency situations and to communicate critical health and safety information.

The committee also agreed that employees should be paid for work performed and have a positive work-life balance and flexibility.

In formulating any right to disconnect policy, they said there is a need to recognize existing arrangements, such as collective agreements, and understand that absolute limits like shutting down email servers or network access may not be realistic in some situations.

The employer members of the committee include several federally-regulated employers in the transportation and communications industry, the Canadian Bankers Association, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Railway Association of Canada and the National Airlines Council of Canada.

The consulted unions include the Canadian Labour Congress, Unifor, Confédération des syndicats nationaux, Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, Canadian Union of Public Employees and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Canada.

Non-Governmental Organisations involved are the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and the Atkinson Foundation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2022.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Wolves use trails created by humans for convenient hunting and easier access to prey

Melanie Dickie, PhD candidate, Biology, University of Alberta - 

The Conversation

Zoom in and explore the northern boreal forests of western Canada on Google Earth and you’ll see long straight lines making their way through the forest. These lines are cleared trails through the forest to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits.

Now picture yourself faced with the task of moving across this landscape: Will you push your way through dense trees and underbrush, or will you choose to walk on the trails?

Like humans, wolves often choose the path of least resistance, moving faster and farther on human-created trails through the forest. Increased wolf movement is believed to play an important role in the decline of the threatened boreal woodland caribou — an iconic species in Canada (just look at the quarter in your pocket).

When wolves move farther, they encounter their prey more frequently, and caribou are being hunted by wolves at rates they cannot sustain.


© (Natasha Crosland/Caribou Monitoring Unit)A seismic line created by searching for underground oil and gas deposits.
Smaller territories

But now, we’ve also found that wolves living in areas that make it easier for them to get around need less space to make a living. The relationship is particularly strong when prey are scarce.

We tracked 142 wolves using GPS collars across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan — spanning over 500,000 square kilometres. The tracked wolves spanned areas with low to high prey density (measured using a metric of habitat productivity, or how much vegetation there is for species like moose), and had varying access to human-created trails.

Wolves living in areas with high densities of human-created trails took up an area roughly 20 times smaller than wolves without trails, but only when they lived in areas with low habitat productivity. Comparatively, trails didn’t change the area needed for wolves when they lived in areas with high habitat productivity.


© (Created by FUSE for Caribou Monitoring Unit/UBC-Okanagan/Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration)The territories covered by wolves are changing.

Think about picking berries. If the berries are hard to find, you have to go looking far and wide to get enough to fill up your basket. But if something makes it easier for you to find the berries, then you don’t have to look around as much. You can just grab all the ones that you see close to you. The advantage of being able to easily find berries would be less important if there are a lot because you can skip over a few without noticing. But it becomes more important when there are few to begin with, and every last berry counts.

This is exactly what we are seeing with wolves: Instead of choosing to travel far and wide, wolves with access to lots of trails stay close to home and get by with what they have.

The space animals use to carry out their lives is called a home range, or if defended from conspecifics like in the case of wolves, a territory. If animals have smaller home ranges, that means more animals can crowd into a given space, increasing the density of that species. It is well documented that animals need less space when there is an abundance of food around — and now we know that easier access to that food can also decrease home range size. We found that increasing a wolf’s access to their prey, through things like cleared trails through the forest, can decrease their home range size, likely increasing the regional density of wolves.

Habitat restoration

But why do we care about how big wolf home ranges are? One of the biggest conservation challenges in Canada is that of woodland caribou. Caribou live across large areas, overlapping places where the energy and forestry sectors are actively extracting natural resources like oil, gas and timber.


© (Melanie Dickie/Caribou Monitoring Unit)A remote camera capture of caribou in the boreal forest. Changes in wolf-hunting patterns are threatening the already endangered caribou.

Habitat restoration and protection have been identified as key steps needed to recover declining populations. Despite existing efforts and policies, caribou habitat loss continues to accelerate across much of western Canada.

Habitat restoration is imminently needed, but is expensive and time consuming. Prioritizing habitat restoration in areas where it will be most beneficial to caribou as soon as possible is necessary for effective caribou management.

Habitat restoration has two main goals: to reduce wolf hunting efficiency by limiting their use of trails and slow their movement when on them and to return the forest to caribou habitat. But now we have reason to believe that slowing wolves down can also reduce wolf density on the landscape — forcing individual wolves to take up more space and push others out — especially in low-productivity peatlands, where the effect on home ranges is stronger.

Effective habitat restoration is going to be important for moving away from other management actions like wolf management in the long term. But, we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these cleared trails that need to be restored. Our study points us towards prioritizing low-productivity areas to see the biggest effects sooner.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
How will climate change affect Arctic caribou and reindeer?

Melanie Dickie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The 'meat paradox': Why people can love animals — and eat them

Canadians prefer pepperoni on their pizza. And though one in four considered cutting it during COVID-19, beef is still a staple .

Laura Brehaut -National Post - Thursday

© Provided by National PostMany people experience the

If you eat meat — as more than 90 per cent of Canadians do — chances are good, it comes from factory farms. Each year, 80 billion animals are slaughtered for meat globally, more than 90 per cent of which are estimated to live in intensive farming systems.

The alternative — meat bearing labels such as “free-range,” “grass-fed” and “certified humane” — is very much the minority. But those $7.99 rotisserie birds come at a cost to animal welfare and the environment.

According to Our World in Data , livestock production takes a significant environmental toll. Beef (meat and dairy), lamb and mutton emit the most greenhouse gas per kilogram than any other food. And when it comes to producing the beef that leads the pack in emissions, a study published in the journal Animal Welfare suggests that 13.6 per cent of bulls are inadequately stunned.

Many of the same people who regularly put meat on their plates are also likely to identify as animal lovers — sharing their homes with pets they adore, devouring cute animal videos on social media and supporting stricter food labelling around animal welfare.

A 2017 study published in the journal Society & Animals even suggests that people empathize more with dogs than they do other adults.

So, how do people reconcile their affection for animals with their desire to eat them in the form of meat?

The answer lies in the psychology behind the way we perceive contradictory information: a manifestation of cognitive dissonance (the discomfort of our beliefs clashing with new information) called the “meat paradox.”

In a first-of-its-kind literature review published in the Social Psychological Bulletin , U.K. researchers from the Societies Research Hub at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Nottingham Trent University investigated the meat paradox and identified its two main psychological processes: triggers, such as reminding people of meat’s animal origin; and restorative strategies including disengagement from the issue.

“One of the big triggers of this meat paradox and of this cognitive dissonance, as we call it — this feeling of discomfort — is just hearing information about animals,” says ARU doctoral researcher Sarah Gradidge, lead author of the literature review.

“So simply just, for example, saying to somebody that their meat comes from an animal could be a trigger of this discomfort and can make them feel very uncomfortable and potentially very threatened.”

The researchers found that people use different strategies to deal with the meat paradox and alleviate their discomfort. Different people — intersecting with age, culture, dietary preferences, gender, occupation or religion — use different strategies, adds Gradidge, though figuring out why requires future research.

Some tend to use indirect strategies, the most common of which is avoidance: mental (e.g., avoiding thinking about meat as animal flesh) or physical (e.g., steering clear of slaughterhouse footage).

“Obviously, if you’re eating meat, you might not want to think about where that meat has come from. So very simply, you might just be avoiding any thoughts that this meat has come from an animal,” says Gradidge.

This is the Healthiest Fish You Can Eat



Most fish is full of healthy fats, which make it a nutritious addition to any meal. And, since most fish is free from both saturated fats and trans fats, “it’s an overall really great lean protein source,” says Maiya Ahluwalia, registered dietitian and founder of Toronto-based nutrition counselling service Nourishing Balance.

The healthy fatty acids found in many types of fish, known as omega-3s, have a whole suite of health benefits. For instance, omega-3s are known for their anti-inflammatory properties and are essential to heart health. In fact, they've been shown to help prevent coronary heart disease.

Omega-3s are also great for brain health. Studies have shown that higher omega-3 consumption is associated with better cognitive function in adults over the age of 60.

“All you need is approximately two servings a week to meet your omega-3 needs,” says Annie Tsang, a Vancouver-based registered dietitian. “Each serving is about 75 grams: think the size of a deck of cards.”

To get the most out of those weekly servings, find out the five healthiest fish to eat.

Others tend to use more direct strategies to reduce dissonance by justifying their meat consumption. Most commonly: “denying positive traits to animals,” the 4Ns — defending meat eating as “natural,” “necessary,” “nice” and “normal” — and “denial of adverse consequences.”

“Instead of not thinking about it, they might actually be actively denying certain information. They may be denying that meat consumption causes harm to animals. They may be denying that animals even feel pain ,” Gradidge explains.

“And that alleviates guilt because obviously, if animals can’t feel pain, then meat consumption isn’t going to hurt them. It essentially renders meat consumption completely harmless because it doesn’t cause any pain.”

Vegaphobia — stigma against vegans and vegetarians — can also be a strategy for dealing with the meat paradox, she adds. Sociologists Matthew Cole and Karen Morgan first identified the phenomenon in 2011 in their examination of the British media’s “derogatory” portrayal of vegans.

Most people want to act in a moral way, says Gradidge. If someone were to tell them that their meat eating is causing harm, for example, it could make them feel threatened and uncomfortable.

Instead of dealing with those emotions of discomfort, reflecting on and perhaps changing their own behaviour — such as reducing meat consumption — they may deflect the threat towards vegans and vegetarians. “I suppose, almost like shooting the messenger.”

In “It ain’t easy eating greens,” a 2015 study published in the journal Group Processes & Intergroup Relations , researchers Cara C. MacInnis and Gordon Hodson observed that only people with an addiction are viewed more negatively than vegans and vegetarians.

“Unlike other forms of bias (e.g., racism, sexism), negativity toward vegetarians and vegans is not widely considered a societal problem; rather, (it) is commonplace and largely accepted,” the Guardian reports of their conclusions.

Demonstrating this stigma — a phenomenon called do-gooder derogation — doesn’t just apply to vegans and vegetarians, Gradidge highlights, but people dealing with other moral issues as well (e.g., resentment of others’ generosity ).

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The way people communicate information about the consequences of meat eating matters, highlights Gradidge.

An August 2021 study published in the journal PLOS One suggests that blaming people — intentionally or not — for their role in unethical behaviour “leads to increased defensiveness and may be counterproductive.”

Alleviating them of any wrongdoing, however, may make them more receptive to information and potential change.

“It’s really, really important that when we’re talking about these issues, we’re doing it in a way that is absolving. So, we’re doing it in a way that’s not blaming meat eaters and saying, ‘It’s all your fault, you’re a bad person,’ etc.,” says Gradidge.

“We want to try to do it in a way that’s compassionate, and in a way that’s relatable to them. We really want to avoid these ‘us versus them’ politics. We don’t want to be presenting it as us, the animal welfare advocates, against them, the meat eaters. We really want to be thinking about how we can relate and try to bridge the gap.”

Effective communication requires finding the “sweet spot of cognitive dissonance,” she adds. Behavioural change requires some discomfort — if people don’t feel any, they’ll continue doing what they’ve always done.

If people feel too threatened, however, they tend to switch off and avoid the issue. A minority of people will even do the opposite in an urge to rebel (a psychological effect called reactance ). If the message is to decrease meat consumption, they will increase it due to a perceived loss of freedom.

Raising awareness about animal welfare and environmental issues related to meat consumption is necessary, says Gradidge, but needs to be done in a way that will encourage people to reflect — not disengage.

“It raises some major issues when we’re talking about these issues, because we need to talk about them. But then we have to really navigate this cognitive dissonance and this potential discomfort as well,” she adds.

“It’s not about trying to force people to change their behaviour. It’s about trying to get people to reflect on their meat consumption themselves and to then make the decision themselves…. But obviously if we are presenting it in a way that’s threatening, then people aren’t going to reflect at all. They’re just going to ignore the information sadly.”

The meat paradox: how your brain wrestles with the ethics of eating animals
The Conversation
February 12, 2022

Photo by Daniel Quiceno M on Unsplash

Most people eat meat and dairy with little thought of the consequences. Yet those consequences are planetary in scale. Raising livestock for meat, eggs and milk accounts for roughly 14%

of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Beef production is the biggest driver of forest loss within agriculture. The meat industry has been linked to a host of other environmental harms, including water pollution.

Eating too much meat can be bad for your health too, particularly red and processed meat which is thought to increase your risk of developing colorectal cancer. Feeding the world’s appetite for meat costs the lives of billions of animals a year, and animal welfare is a concern on farms worldwide, with pigs, cows and chickens often subject to overcrowding, open wounds and disease.

Animal welfare laws in the UK compare poorly with standards set by organisations like the RSPCA. Chickens are forced to grow much faster than they naturally would and become ill as a result, while narrow crates and tying posts restrict the movements of pigs and cows. In extreme cases, captive pigs have been found engaging in cannibalism.

In what is no doubt a response to these concerns, veganism is on the rise. In the UK, the number of people eating a plant-based diet increased fourfold between 2014 and 2019. However, vegans still only make up about 1% of the UK population and vegetarians just 2%. On a global scale, meat consumption is actually increasing. So why do people keep eating meat, despite widespread awareness of the downsides?

Psychologists have some answers.

The meat paradox

Our recent paper reviewed 73 articles on a phenomenon called the meat paradox – the mental contradiction that helps devoted animal lovers continue eating animals.

This moral dilemma can cause people psychological discomfort, and our review revealed several triggers. For instance, you may relate to the jarring experience of realising for the first time that the meat on your plate came from an animal.

Meat-eating has consequences for how we interact with and perceive animals in later life, too. While eating beef in a 2010 study, participants were less likely to view animals as worthy of moral concern. And the more committed someone is to eating meat, the more likely they are to avoid information about the positive qualities of animals raised for food.

The discomfort people feel about eating meat presents them with a stark choice. Either remove the moral dilemma by giving up meat, or continue eating meat and morally disengage. Moral disengagement is when we choose not to act on our moral values. Our review highlighted several strategies that people use to maintain this moral disengagement.

After being reminded that the meat on your plate comes from an animal, you may try to forget its animal origins. People are more willing to eat meat when its animal origins are obscured, such as by calling meat beef instead of cow. Telling yourself that meat is necessary for health, socially normal, natural or too nice to give up can reduce the guilt people feel when eating meat. Giving up meat can seem difficult and so people often turn to these strategies to reconcile conflicting feelings.



Recalling the animal origins of meat can counter moral disengagement.
Moonborne/Shutterstock

Overcoming moral disengagement

If you would like to reduce your own meat consumption, psychological research has a few recommendations.

• Recognise and remember how reducing your meat consumption aligns with your values.

• Always keep animals in mind. Allow yourself to humanise them by considering their capacity for emotion, for example.

• Accept that changing your diet may be a gradual process.

If you want to encourage others to cut down on meat-eating, you can:

• Avoid blaming them for their meat consumption. This only makes people more resistant to vegetarianism and veganism. Instead, approach these tricky interactions with compassion.

• Avoid telling other people what to do. Let them make up their own minds.

• Humanise animals by encouraging people to view them instead as friends and not food.

Sarah Gradidge, PhD Candidate in Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University

Magdalena Zawisza, Associate Professor/Reader in Gender and Advertising Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Law students call on York University to reverse planned cut to its Innocence Project

York University law students working on Osgoode Hall’s Innocence Project are calling on their dean to reverse a decision to offer only one-third the spots in the upcoming school year.

The project, the first of its kind in Canada when it launched at York in 1997 — and still the only law school in Ontario to offer the program — currently has 12 students examining cases of suspected wrongful conviction and working to seek proof of incarcerated people’s innocence.

That will be cut to four in the 2022/23 academic year, with the near-weekly seminars offered by practicing lawyers as part of the program also at risk, the students wrote in an open letter published earlier this week.

“This decision will harm Osgoode Hall Innocence Project’s wrongfully convicted clients, reduce opportunities for Osgoode students to learn how to defend society’s most marginalized people, and tarnish Osgoode’s reputation as a law school that values social justice initiatives,” the students said in the letter dated Feb. 7 and addressed to Mary Condon, Osgoode’s dean.

Condon said in response to queries from Canada's National Observer that the program remains integral to Osgoode’s programming.

“Next year’s reduction is temporary while the law school puts in place the structure needed to make the Innocence Project clinical program stronger, more sustainable and an even better experience for Osgoode law students,” she said, noting the school hopes to offer more external placements with experienced lawyers.

Students who have applied to take part in the Innocence Project for next year have been advised of the shift, although the magnitude of the reduction has not been finalized at this point, the school said.

The Osgoode program has notched some notable achievements over the years, including playing a significant role in the overturned conviction of Romeo Phillion, who served 31 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder in 1972.

Forty students from the project investigated the case over a five-year period, uncovering testimonies never heard in earlier trials.

Osgoode students also found fresh evidence to exonerate Gary Staples and their work on the case of Bradley Albon, while not leading to his acquittal, pushed Ontario courts to recognize a constitutional right to post-conviction disclosure, seen as an essential tool for the innocent to appeal their convictions.

The open letter from current students notes that the reduction will mean the project must close client files and seek out lawyers who could take on matters currently before the courts or the federal government’s criminal conviction review group.

They said many of those they work with can’t afford to hire a lawyer but don’t qualify for legal aid, meaning replacement counsel would need to be able and willing to work pro bono on the files.

“Our clients have already suffered enough at the hands of the justice system and we do not want to disrupt their lives any further; as future lawyers, we feel ethically bound not to abandon our clients,” they said.

Morgan Sharp, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Canada's prison watchdog 'very disappointed' the government keeps ignoring his reports

Christopher Nardi - POSTMEDIA - Friday


© Provided by National Post

Canada’s prison watchdog says he is consistently disappointed by the government’s responses to his reports, which keep revealing significant and systemic problems with the country’s correctional system.

“It’s been two years in a row now that I’m very disappointed with the response of the Correctional Service of Canada,” federal Correctional Investigator Dr. Ivan Zinger said during a press conference marking the release of his office’s latest annual report.

“Absolutely, I’m very disappointed.”

In his 2020-2021 report, Zinger’s office once again found “serious shortcomings” in the Correctional Service of Canada’s (CSC) work ensuring “secure and humane” detention conditions for prisoners. It also contains 20 recommendations covering six investigations concluded in the past year.

One exhaustive review by his office found that use-of-force incidents — meaning events during which correctional officers used force to subdue an inmate — has jumped in recent years, and that Black, Indigenous and People of Colour are disproportionately the target of uses of force.

This, despite the department putting forward a new “Engagement and Intervention Model” that aimed to reduce the use of force by correctional staff.

“Since 2015-16, there have been 9,633 documented use-of-force incidents. Despite the overall decrease in admissions to federal prisons and decreases in the prison population, the number of use-of-force incidents has increased steadily over the last five years,” Zinger’s report notes.

“While concerning, these increases are particularly troubling given that they coincide with the introduction of strategies aimed at reducing uses of force.”

During the press conference, senior policy adviser Leticia Gutierrez said that Black and Indigenous people accounted for over half of all cases of use-of-force incidents despite representing just over one third of the carceral population.

“Based on the rather compelling evidence from our investigation, we conclude that force is indeed disproportionately used against Black and Indigenous persons in federal corrections in Canada. And that race is significantly and uniquely associated with the application of force in federal prisons,” she explained.

Zinger said he was “particularly concerned” by those findings and recommended that CSC address the “systemic prejudice” within its department and make public all changes to policy and practice it may put in place to address the “over-representation of these groups.”

His study didn’t identify exactly why Black and Indigenous people were overly targeted by use of force, but he theorized that it could be that correctional staff are “ill-equipped” to de-escalate situations, “cultural barriers” or “unconscious bias.”

Another troubling study by his office found that conditions for incarcerated women have worsened since a “ground-breaking” report aimed at better adapting the correctional system for women was published 30 years ago.


© THE CANADIAN PRESS, file

A segregation cell at the Fraser Valley Institution for Women in Abbotsford, B.C.

“Nearly all of the problems identified thirty years ago (inadequate infrastructure, oversecuritization, lack of programming and services, poor community reintegration practices) remain significant areas of concern today, some have deteriorated even further and all are contributing factors to poor correctional outcomes for many women,” Zinger’s report reads.

In fact, the most significant change for women in the federal carceral system over the past three decades has been the sheer increase in their numbers.

In 1990-1991, there were 170 new federally incarcerated women in the country. By 2019-2020, that had jumped to 562, the report found.

In response to the report, CSC put out a statement noting that it took the issue of use of force “very seriously.” To that point, it committed to carry out its own review of those incidents and how they involved “diverse sub-populations,” including BIPOC people and those with mental health needs.

More than one in four Canadians support jail time for the unvaccinated, poll finds

It also committed to conducting an audit of its “culture” to further fight racism within its department, and that it was working to address all the other issues highlighted in the report.

Zinger said he was wholly unsatisfied by the department’s response, which he says is basically committing to redo the work his office just completed.

“The response that I got is … defensive and inappropriate. They simply don’t accept the findings of our investigation,” Zinger told reporters.

He says their response should have been to create “an action plan, drafted right now. It should have started as soon as they got my report.”

His disappointment doesn’t stem just from this year’s report. Last month, National Post reported that the department still had no idea how many inmates are victims of sexual violence in prison, two years after Zinger concluded that it’s a pervasive problem.

The federal correctional investigator added that he sees a glimmer of hope with new Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino, whose mandate letter orders him to address many of these issues already.

“I think where there’s a disconnect, and even I would say cognitive dissonance, between what those mandate letters from the ministers say and what (CSC) is actually moving in terms of trying to address my recommendations,” Zinger concluded.

Marijuana bills stall in Virginia's GOP-controlled House
Thursday


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As the Virginia General Assembly reaches the halfway point of this year’s session, one of the year’s most complicated issues — possible changes to the state’s new law legalizing recreational marijuana — has stalled in the GOP-controlled House.

Terry Kilgore, the chamber's majority leader, said this week that he does not expect the House to vote on its own measures before the Tuesday deadline for each chamber to complete work on its own legislation. Instead, he said the caucus would wait for the Democrat-controlled Senate to send a bill over and “go from there.”

“We want to get it right. There’s a lot of regulation, enforcement ... so there’s just a lot of questions, and you’re running out of time," he said Wednesday.

Last year, when state government was under total Democratic control, lawmakers passed legislation that legalized adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and created a path for retail sales to begin in 2024. The bill passed in a chaotic rush, strictly along party lines, with no GOP support. But because the bill has a reenactment clause, lawmakers are scheduled to vote again this year on the complex regulatory structure needed to set up the retail marijuana market.

With adult possession legalized but no way to legally buy recreational marijuana in Virginia, both Republicans and Democrats have expressed support for moving up the date for retail sales to try to prevent growth in the illicit market. But the two sides do not agree on how to reinvest tax revenues from marijuana sales or on social equity provisions that would give advantages in the licensing process for marijuana businesses to people and communities that have been hurt by old marijuana laws.

The legislation passed last year called for 30% of tax revenues to go the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, which would funnel the money to predominantly minority communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. A bill proposed this year by Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment that called for redirecting the money to the state's general fund was quickly quashed by Senate Democrats.

Another bill sponsored by Republican Del. Michael Webert includes a provision that would redirect the tax revenue to a fund for rebuilding crumbling school buildings around the state.

The legislation, which appeared to be the main marijuana bill offered by House Republicans, also called for eliminating a provision in the 2021 law that calls for giving special consideration for marijuana business licenses to social equity applicants, including people convicted of marijuana crimes or members of their immediate families. And it would have slashed the overall tax rate on marijuana sales from 21% to 10%.

But Webert's bill, along with several others drafted by House Republicans, have had no movement at all during the first four weeks of the session, a sign that the caucus has been unable to reach consensus.

Kilgore acknowledged concerns about the issue from some caucus members.

Last week, Speaker Todd Gilbert told The Associated Press, “The whole space is a bit of a mess right now.”

“The mess was not created by us,” added Gilbert, who now leads the chamber after Republicans retook it and swept Virginia's statewide offices in the November election.

Other Republican bill sponsors and committee chairs did not respond to requests for comment from the AP.

Democratic Sen. Adam Ebbin, a lead architect of the 2021 law, is sponsoring two key pieces of Senate marijuana legislation this year. One bill would allow existing medical marijuana providers to begin selling recreational marijuana to adults a year earlier than the Jan. 1, 2024, date called for in the 2021 law. Among other things, the second bill calls for requiring cannabis retail stores to close by 9 p.m. and open no earlier than 8 a.m. and requiring the Cannabis Control Authority to come up with regulations by Jan. 1, 2023, instead of July 1, 2023.

Ebbin is also planning to incorporate a bill from Sens. Louise Lucas and Scott Surovell that would allow resentencing of people currently incarcerated for marijuana crimes.

Ebbin said he has had discussions with several House Republicans “in the hopes we can work out an equitable arrangement” on establishing the state's retail marijuana market.

“I know there are members of the House on both sides of the aisle who would like to see the illicit market reduced and eventually even close to eliminated,” Ebbin said. “In that spirit, I'm hopeful we can work out a way for adults 21 and over to be able to access a tested, regulated, taxed product.”

JM Pedini, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that if a reenactment bill is going to succeed during the current legislative session, “it will require major compromise.”

Denise Lavoie And Sarah Rankin, The Associated Press

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

First Black weather officers joined a segregated U.S. Air Force during WWII

Randi Mann - Friday
The Weather Network

On Monday, July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, colour, religion or national origin" in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of the U.S. military’s first Black pilots who fought in the Second World War. They were trained at the Tuskegee Institute, located near Tuskegee, Ala. These men fought in the segregated army air forces (now called the U.S. air force). So, with the first Black air force pilots came the first Black weather officers, dubbed the Tuskegee weathermen.


© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe first Black weather officers joined a segregated U.S. Air Force during WWII"Members of the 332nd Fighter Group in a mission briefing, Ramitelli, Italy, 1945." Courtesy of Toni Frissell Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZC4-4335)

But it wasn't so easy to just enlist the leading Black meteorologists because, at the time, there weren't any in the U.S. Weather Bureau.

The army recruited black men who had a background in science and trained them in meteorology.

Charles E. Anderson, who studied chemistry in college, was accepted to the army air forces. He wanted to fly, but his eyesight was too poor.

Archie Williams also wanted to be a pilot in the army air forces, considering he already knew how to fly a plane.

Williams was in great shape, winning the gold medal during the 400-metre event in the 1936 Olympics. But, at 27, he was too old for military flight training. So, Williams worked on weather forecasts, weather maps, and even taught intro to flying.

There were 14 Tuskegee meteorologists, about 0.2 per cent of all weather officers in the army air forces.

Black pilots were also few in numbers and were regarded with suspicion.

The Tuskegee Airmen and weathermen were a great team, which is evidenced by the results of their missions.


© Provided by The Weather NetworkFirst Black weather officers joined a segregated U.S. Air Force during WWII"Members of the 332nd Fighter Group preparing for a mission, Ramitelli, Italy, 1945." Courtesy of Toni Frissell Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-13259)

Air force historian Dan Haulman said, “Of the 179 bomber escort missions, they lost bombers to enemy aircraft on only seven of those missions,” adding that in total, they lost 27 bombers, while other groups lost 46 bombers on average.

Haulman said that “Just as the black pilots proved that they could fly military aircraft in combat as well as the white pilots, so did the black weather personnel prove that they could perform meteorological functions as well as the white officers."

The Tuskegee Airmen helped change the attitudes of their white counterparts. Williams saw this change occur, because at the beginning "...a lot of guys there were bigoted. The white guys didn’t want to fly with them and all, but they found out that these guys could fight, could shoot good and protect the bombers.”


© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe first Black weather officers joined a segregated U.S. Air Force during WWIIMemorial honouring the Tuskegee Airmen at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, Tuskegee, Ala. Courtesy of Staff Sgt. Christine Jones/U.S. Air Force

The Tuskegee weathermen had the same positive and progressive influence due to their success in weather forecasting.

Thumbnail image: Members of the 332nd Fighter Group, Ramitelli, Italy, in 1945. Courtesy of U.S. air force.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BLACK HISTORY MONTH 

BS THEY MADE RECORD PROFITS
Manulife, Sun Life say they are raising premiums to offset cost inflation
By Nichola Saminather - Thursday


© Reuters/John TilakFILE PHOTO - Roy Gori, chief executive of Manulife Asia, speaks at the company?s headquarters in Toronto

TORONTO (Reuters) -Manulife Financial Corp and Sun Life Financial, Canada's two biggest life insurers, are increasing premiums to offset higher costs this year from inflation that has risen to a three-decade high, executives said on Thursday.

A 50-basis-point increase in fixed income yields would also translate into a C$1.85 billion ($1.5 billion) rise in embedded value, Manulife Chief Executive Roy Gori told analysts on a post-earnings call.

Manulife on Wednesday posted core fourth-quarter earnings of 84 Canadian cents per share, up 13.5% from a year earlier and beating analysts' expectations.

Smaller rivals Sun Life Financial and Great-West Lifeco on Wednesday also reported higher earnings.

Manulife shares jumped 3.9% to C$27.95 in morning trading in Toronto, their highest intraday level since 2008. Sun Life, whose U.S. earnings dropped 51% due to higher COVID-related death claims, declined 3.9% to C$70.97, while Great-West shares fell 1.55%.

The main Toronto index rose 0.6%.

"There are some aspects of our business where higher rates will create some headwinds, but we have flexibility as it relates to driving scale through expenses or price changes to offset those," Gori said.

The company could push up prices in its long-term care business, which may be susceptible to increased costs, although a shift to cheaper home care prompted by the pandemic has offset some of that, Chief Actuary Steve Finch said.

Sun Life executives said higher costs due to inflation could be a positive in its stop-loss business, which protects employers against unpredictable losses.

As policies reprice every year, "we would be able to react very quickly," Dan Fishbein, president of the insurer's U.S business, said on an analysts call. "Not that we're hoping for medical inflation, but the primary impact of medical inflation on our stop-loss business would be more premium."

Sun Life has already raised premiums in its disability and group life businesses, but those will take some time to take effect as policies are longer, he said.

Sun Life's MFS Investment Management unit, which focuses primarily on equities, could see some challenges, CEO Michael Roberge said.

An expected increase in market volatility, higher interest rates and high stock valuations are likely to send more investors into cash, reducing flows into funds in 2022, he said.

($1 = 1.2647 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting By Nichola Saminather; Additional reporting by Manya Saini and Mehnaz Yasmin; editing by John Stonestreet and Chris Reese)

BOTH COMPANIES PROVIDE RETIREMENT PLANS AND BENEFITS FOR PRIVATE SECTOR BUILDING TRADES UNIONS IN CANADA

Manulife and Sun Life earnings rise on asset management growth

Nichola Saminather and Sohini Podder
Wed., February 9, 2022

The Sun Life Financial logo is seen at their corporate headquarters in Toronto

(Reuters) - Canadian insurers Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial narrowly beat quarterly earnings expectations on Wednesday, driven by strong growth in their asset management units, but Sun Life warned that the spread of the Omicron variant will impact first-quarter earnings.

Government stimulus and pandemic savings over the past year have sparked a boom in the wealth and asset management businesses of Canadian insurers, helping offset the impact of claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chief executive of Manulife, Roy Gori, said in an interview that during the quarter "Asia saw the challenges associated with ... COVID, but over the full year, it had a tremendous performance."

Manulife's 27% increase in global wealth and asset management earnings helped offset declines in profits in Asia, Canada and the U.S.

Core earnings in the three months through December rose to 84 Canadian cents per share, up 13.5% from a year earlier and compared with analysts' expectations of 82 Canadian cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Manulife, Canada's biggest life insurer, also saw new business growth across all markets.

"Manulife came in ahead of expectations on the back of ongoing growth in its Asia platform," Barclays analyst John Aiken said in a note. "The recovery in profitability from the third quarter, increase in its book value, and outlook for 2022 should help support its valuation moving forward."

Smaller rival Sun Life reported underlying profit that was largely in line with estimates, thanks to 15% growth in its asset management unit, to C$382 million. That, combined with increases in profits in Canada and Asia, helped offset a 51% decline in the U.S. business and lifted overall earnings 4%.

"The death rate in the working age-group was significantly higher in the fourth quarter in the U.S.," related to the Delta variant, CEO Kevin Strain told Reuters. "Omicron has high numbers of infections, which is becoming a higher number of hospitalizations and deaths, and we see Omicron having an impact on the first quarter."

Growth in Asia was partially offset by COVID-19-related mortalities of C$12 million, mostly in the Philippines.

Sun Life's underlying quarterly profit grew 4.2% to C$898 million from a year earlier, or C$1.53 per share, compared with analysts estimates of C$1.52 per share.

($1 = 1.2669 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru and Nichola Saminather in Toronto; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Leslie Adler)