It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, February 19, 2022
US resumes avocado imports from Mexico
Guacamole lovers can relax: the US government has allowed avocado imports from Mexico to resume (AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN) (JUSTIN SULLIVAN)
Fri, February 18, 2022, 1:17 PM·1 min read
Avocado imports from the western Mexican state of Michoacan have resumed following a week-long suspension after steps were taken to ensure the safety of American inspectors, the US government said Friday.
Shipments were halted after a US inspector received a threatening phone call a week ago, prompting fears among lovers of guacamole and avocado toast that prices could spike.
But the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said security and industry organizations "have enacted additional measures that enhance safety for APHIS' inspectors working in the field."
As a result, the avocado inspection program "has restarted and avocado exports to the United States have resumed," APHIS said in a statement.
Michoacan is the world's largest avocado producer, with 85 percent of its crop exported to the United States, but it is also one of the Mexican states hardest hit by violence linked to organized crime.
Last year a group of avocado producers formed a self-defense group they said was needed to prevent kidnapping, extortion and theft by criminal groups.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that "economic and political interests" afraid of competition also played a part in the US decision to pause exports.
In the statement Friday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said employee safety "is of paramount importance" and noted the "positive, collaborative relationship" between the neighboring nations to resolve the issue.
In 2021, 92 percent of the $3 billion in avocados imported into the United States came from Mexico, and Michoacan is the only Mexican state with approval to export to the US market, which it has done for some 25 years, according to APHIS.
hs/cs
Ottawa police say convoy blockade ‘aggressive;’ some arrested with body armour, smoke grenades
The Chaudière Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau has been closed by police “to prevent an influx of protesters into Ottawa for everyone’s safety.”
Ottawa police say demonstrators wearing body armour and with smoke grenades have been arrested.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says banks have frozen 76 accounts worth $3.2 million in connection with the convoy.
Some of the demonstrators in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” blockade in downtown Ottawa have been arrested with body armour and smoke grenades as a police push to end the convoy encounters what officials describe as “assaultive” and “aggressive” behaviour by the crowds.
The push comes as federal officials on Saturday announced $20 million in funding will be made available to local businesses forced to close by the convoy, and said that 76 bank accounts worth $3.2 million have so far been frozen over ties to the convoy under the powers of the Emergencies Act.
“Police arrested protesters wearing body armour, they had smoke grenades on them and miscellaneous fireworks in their bags,” police said shortly before noon on Saturday. “Additional smoke grenades and fireworks were located and seized in a vehicle on Wellington.”
In statements posted on Twitter earlier on Saturday, Ottawa police said their officers on the ground are equipped with helmets and batons for their own safety due to the conduct of demonstrators.
“We told you to leave. We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses,” police said on Day 23 of the blockade.
In two additional tweets, police said that a detonation of some kind of smoke device that was visible to crews on the ground was caused by demonstrators, not officers.
Police also confirmed that a loud noise heard on the ground came from officers, and that “it was used to resolve an unsafe situation.” They said they have not used tear gas either on Friday or on Saturday, and that demonstrators continue to launch gas cannisters at police.
Law enforcement including tactical teams from multiple jurisdiction as well as mounted units, armoured vehicles and riot police equipped with tear gas moved rapidly Saturday morning in a push that built on territorial gains from Friday during what had been a slower, more cautious advance.
Police on Friday moved from east to west, retaking control of Nicholas Street and Rideau Street before ending the night in the area roughly in front of the iconic Chateau Laurier, near the National War Memorial.
On Saturday morning, they pushed hard to move up Rideau Street onto Wellington Street, which is the road directly at the base of Parliament Hill which has seen perhaps the tightest encampment of big rigs and convoy-related infrastructure over the past three weeks.
Police also could be seen moving down Sparks Street, which is one street south of Wellington Street, and down the surrounding intersecting streets in what appeared to be a bid to break up some of the more tightly packed areas held by demonstrators.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO – FEBRUARY 19: Police guard a barricade set up in order to tow trucks blocking the street to Parliament Hill on February 19, 2022 in Ottawa, Ontario.(Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images). Getty Images
The convoy blockade has been encamped since Jan. 28.
Ottawa police urged the protesters to leave the area or risk being arrested.
“You must leave. You must cease further unlawful activity and immediately remove your vehicle and/or property from all unlawful protest sites,” Ottawa Police Service said in a Tweet Saturday morning.
A tense stand-off between protesters and heavily-armoured police – decked out in body armour and shields – took place Friday night outside Ottawa’s iconic Chateau Laurier hotel.
More than 100 protesters, including four key organizers, have been arrested and at least 21 vehicles towed.
Protest organizers Pat King and Tamara Lich were due to appear in court Saturday.
King, of Red Deer, Alta., has been charged with mischief, counselling to commit the offence of mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobey court order and counselling to commit the offence of obstruct police.
Lich, who will appear in an Ottawa courtroom for a bail hearing, is also charged with counselling to commit the offence of mischief, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Tensions escalated on Friday with the Ottawa Police Service accusing protesters of assaulting officers, trying to take their weapons, and in one case throwing a bicycle at a police horse. Some protesters claimed they were assaulted by officers.
Ottawa police interim chief Steve Bell told a Friday evening news conference that clearing the area would take time, but the operation was “deliberate and methodical” and police were in control on the ground.
He said no serious injuries had been reported, and those arrested had been charged with various offences including mischief, adding that police were still urging demonstrators to leave peacefully.
Meanwhile, inside the House of Commons, MPs resumed a debate on the use of the Emergencies Act invoked by the federal government in repose to the illegal blockade.
Meetings of the House of Commons and the Senate were cancelled on Friday due to safety concerns.
The debate is expected to continue Sunday and Monday, with the final vote on the measure to be held Monday at 8 p.m. ET, according to government House Leader Mark Holland.
“I am looking forward to the historic and fulsome debate that lies ahead,” he said on Twitter.
— with files from The Canadian Press
Pharmaceuticals in rivers threaten world health - study
Jonah Fisher - BBC Environment Correspondent Fri, February 18, 2022, The Blue River in Tunis has one of the highest pharmaceutical concentrations, the study shows. Pollution of the world's rivers from medicines and pharmaceutical products poses a "threat to environmental and global health", a report says.
Paracetamol, nicotine, caffeine and epilepsy and diabetes drugs were widely detected in a University of York study.
The research is among the most extensive undertaken on a global scale.
Rivers in Pakistan, Bolivia and Ethiopia were among the most polluted. Rivers in Iceland, Norway and the Amazon rainforest fared the best.
The impact of many of the most common pharmaceutical compounds in rivers is still largely unknown.
But it is already well established that dissolved human contraceptives can impact the development and reproduction of fish, and scientists fear the increased presence of antibiotics in rivers could limit their effectiveness as medicines.
This section of the Nam Khan river in Laos generally has low concentrations of pharmaceuticals
The study sampled water from more than 1,000 test sites in more than 100 countries.
Overall, more than a quarter of the 258 rivers sampled had what are known as "active pharmaceutical ingredients" present at a level deemed unsafe for aquatic organisms.
"Typically, what happens is, we take these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave our bodies," Dr John Wilkinson, who led the research, told BBC News.
"What we know now is that even the most modern efficient wastewater treatment plants aren't completely capable of degrading these compounds before they end up in rivers or lakes."
The two most frequently detected pharmaceuticals were carbamazepine, which is used to treat epilepsy and nerve pain, and metformin, used to treat type 2 diabetes.
High concentrations were also found of so-called "lifestyle consumables" like caffeine [coffee] and nicotine [cigarettes] as well as the painkiller paracetamol.
In Africa, artemisinin - used in anti-malarial medicine - was also found in high concentrations.
"We can say [the impact of the presence of such pharmaceuticals in rivers] is likely to be negative but you have to do individual tests with each one and there are relatively few studies," Dr Veronica Edmonds-Brown, an aquatic ecologist from the UK's University of Hertfordshire told BBC News.
"This is only going to get worse as we are increasingly using pharmacological solutions to any illness whether physical or mental."
The report says the increased presence of antibiotics in rivers could also lead to the development of resistant bacteria, damaging the effectiveness of medicines and ultimately posing "a global threat to environmental and global health".
The most polluted sites were largely in low- to middle-income countries, and in areas where there was sewage dumping, poor wastewater management and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The Nairobi River in Kenya - among the world's waterways most contaminated by pharmaceuticals
"We have seen contaminated rivers in Nigeria and in South Africa with very high concentrations of pharmaceuticals and this is basically down to the lack of infrastructure in wastewater treatment," said Dr Mohamed Abdallah, associate professor of emerging contaminants at the UK's Birmingham University.
"This is most concerning because you have the most vulnerable populations with the least access to healthcare exposed to this."
On the question of what can be done, the lead author of the report, Dr Wilkinson, has a somewhat depressing outlook.
"It's going to take many people who are a lot smarter than me to tackle the problem," he said. "One of the few things that could have an effect right now is the proper use of medicines."
That would mean making it harder to get hold of medicines like antibiotics, and tighter restrictions on doses.
NASA scientists say the Tonga volcano eruption shot out the highest ash plume satellites have ever captured
Morgan McFall-Johnsen Fri, February 18, 2022, A sequence of still images from the GOES-17 satellite shows the Tonga plume at various stages on January 15, 2022.
Joshua Stevens/Kristopher Bedka/Konstantin Khlopenkov/NASA Langley Research Center/NOAA GEOS-17/NESDIS
When a volcano in Tonga erupted on January 15, it gave satellites their first glimpse at a plume of volcanic ash shooting into the mesosphere, the third layer of Earth's atmosphere.
According to NASA, the Tonga event was the largest volcanic eruption since satellites began monitoring our planet. As the Pacific volcano shot a burst of ash and gases into the sky, with the force of about 10 megatons of TNT, two weather satellites were passing overhead.
The spacecraft — the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's GOES-17 and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Himawari-8 — captured the eruption in infrared every 10 minutes for about 13 hours.
NASA scientists analyzed the satellite imagery to determine that the initial outburst of ash rocketed 36 miles (58 kilometers) high, breaching the mesosphere — the region where meteorites falling to Earth burn up and create shooting stars streaking across the night sky.
It took the volcanic plume about 30 minutes to travel that high. Then a secondary plume rose more than 31 miles (50 kilometers). Both are visible, in yellow, in the satellite imagery below. The upper part of those plumes turned to gas and dissipated almost immediately because of dry conditions in the mesosphere.
Joshua Stevens/Kristopher Bedka/Konstantin Khlopenkov/NASA Langley Research Center/NOAA GEOS-17/NESDIS
"The intensity of this event far exceeds that of any storm cloud I have ever studied," Kristopher Bedka, a NASA atmospheric scientist who specializes in extreme storms, said in a statement on Wednesday. "We are fortunate that it was viewed so well by our latest generation of geostationary satellites, and we can use this data in innovative ways to document its evolution."
Prior to this, the biggest known volcanic plume ever captured by satellites was Mount Pinatubo's 1991 eruption, according to NASA. That plume shot 22 miles (35 kilometers) above the Philippines, well into the stratosphere, but fell short of reaching the mesosphere.
Thunder and lightning research helped track the Tonga eruption
Lightning strikes amid an eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, January 14, 2022, in a screenshot from a social media video.Tonga Geological Services/Reuters
The Tonga volcano was once completely underwater. It captured scientists' attention in 2015, when it erupted beneath the ocean and suddenly rose, creating a landmass that connected two preexisting islands: Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai.
Nearly a decade of low-level volcanic activity culminated in a series of violent eruptions in January, which wiped out the newborn island and took off large chunks of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai.
That land was uninhabited, but the eruption and the tsunami it triggered destroyed homes, boats, and fisheries in populated islands nearby, and severed the undersea internet cable that keeps Tonga online. Three people died in the aftermath of the eruption. The World Bank estimates that the event caused $90.4 million in damages — 20% of Tonga's GDP.
To map the ash plume from the initial eruption, Bedka and his NASA colleague, Konstantin Khlopenkov, used images from the two satellites, the same way our brains use images from our two eyes. They ran an algorithm that compared the images from the satellites, and the different angles at which they were taken, to construct a 3D profile of the plume. It's a technique they developed to study severe thunderstorms in the stratosphere.
"The combination of volcanic heat and the amount of superheated moisture from the ocean made this eruption unprecedented. It was like hyper-fuel for a mega-thunderstorm," Bedka said, adding, "The plume went 2.5 times higher than any thunderstorm we have ever observed, and the eruption generated an incredible amount of lightning."
According to a global lightning-detection network run by the Finnish company Vaisala, the eruption triggered 400,000 lightning strikes over the course of six hours.
"That is what makes this significant from a meteorological perspective," Bedka added.
The NRC is considering issuing a “white” violation finding to Energy Northwest over the incident at its nuclear power plant near Richland, Wash.
A white violation, the second lowest on NRC’s four-step color scale, has low to moderate safety significance and can lead to an additional NRC inspection to make sure issues have been corrected.
“Energy Northwest’s top priority is the health and safety of our employees and the public and we are taking this event very seriously,” said Grover Hettel, chief nuclear officer at Columbia Generating Station.
The incident happened on May 28 when the commercial nuclear power plant, the only one in the Northwest, was shut down for planned maintenance. It was shortly before Brad Sawatzke, then chief executive, officially retired.
Radiation workers and pipefitters on the night shift May 28 were preparing for welding on piping of the highly contaminated reactor water cleanup heat exchanger, according to an NRC inspection report.
After the pre-job briefing, a radiation protection technician was unable to get on the work platform attached to scaffolding and left to find another technician to fill in. The technician who filled in had not attended the briefing and arrived after workers already were cutting into a pipe.
The work on the pipe, including grinding, required using an enclosure glove bag to contain any radioactive particles that might become airborne.
But workers used the wrong glove bag inlet attachment, and the glove bag collapsed when a vacuum system was turned on. Workers turned off the vacuum system, which allowed airborne radioactivity to collect and escape when the glove bag was removed, according to the inspection report.
Fortunately, a radiation protection technician happened to be watching work on video surveillance cameras.
He immediately spotted the issue and within 30 seconds was in the room and had ordered work stopped.
Radioactive contamination was found on the faces of two pipefitters, leading to the evacuation of 20 more workers in the room.
One pipefitter was found to have an internal dose of 961 millirem and the second had an internal dose of 711 millirem.
The NRC limits exposure to 5,000 millirem per year for both external and internal radiation, and Energy Northwest sets a more conservative limit of 2,000 millirem.
One radiation protection technician received an internal dose of 14 millirem. Eighteen other workers had unintended uptakes of less than 1 millirem after passing by the area of the airborne radioactive particles as they evacuated the room.
“The U.S. nuclear industry has large safety margins in place that Energy Northwest works under to ensure workers are protected,” Hettel said. “The dose the workers received was well below the regulatory limits and the administrative limits that Energy Northwest has for our workers.”
Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station near Richland, Wash., is the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear power plant.
NRC: Workers exposed
Energy Northwest failed in several ways to provide adequate radiological controls for the work, according to the NRC report.
It said Energy Northwest was fortunate that the radiation protection technician happened to see the work on a remote monitor, had enough experience to recognize a problem and was only 40 feet away from the room.
Had the pipefitters remained in the room for another five minutes, they could have been exposed to more than 5,000 millirems, exceeding the NRC annual limit, the inspection report said.
“While this event should not have happened, we don’t credit luck for preventing a worse scenario,” Hettel said. “And that is because of our high safety standards and thorough oversight and monitoring processes we had in place that allowed us to immediately identify and address the situation.”
Energy Northwest should have done more radiation surveys the day before work started, should have prevented airborne radioactive particles and should have had a radiation protection technician with the two pipefitters at all times.
Energy Northwest conducted an investigation and took immediate actions to prevent similar problems from occurring again, it said.
The NRC will hold a regulatory teleconference with Energy Northwest officials at 7 a.m. Pacific Time on March 1 to discuss the incident.
The public can listen to the business portion of the meeting and then ask questions by calling 800-857-5003 and entering passcode 5204033#.
The teleconference will be an opportunity for Energy Northwest and the NRC to discuss the circumstances of the incident and make sure the NRC has a full understanding of information before it makes a decision on whether a “white violation” occurred, according to Energy Northwest.
No decision is expected to be made during the teleconference.
Top WHO official laments abuse, death threats against scientists: 'Being a younger female, I'm an easy target'
Aria Bendix Fri, February 18, 2022 WHO technical lead for COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove gestures during a press briefing on January 29, 2020 in Geneva.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove said as a younger female scientist, she's "an easy target" for harassment.
Van Kerkhove lamented online attacks on scientists at the AAAS annual meeting on Friday.
"Some of the accusations of being a murderer, death threats, threats against our families, I just don't quite understand," Van Kerkhove said.
Epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove was thrust into the global spotlight in January 2020 as the World Health Organization's technical lead for COVID-19. More than two years later, she is one of the pandemic's most recognizable faces, appearing frequently at WHO press briefings and live Q&A sessions.
That visibility comes with drawbacks, Van Kerkhove said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting on Friday.
"The abuse that we take for doing our jobs and speaking — imperfectly, of course — it's something I'm still trying to wrap my head around," she said, adding, "Some of the accusations of being a murderer, death threats, threats against our families, I just don't quite understand."
Female scientists face a particular threat of online harassment, she added. In December 2020, female scientists in Brazil, France, and Switzerland reported death threats and cyber harassment after publishing studies showing that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine weren't effective COVID-19 treatments.
"Women are easier targets than men. It's a generalization, but I see it. I see it with my own colleagues. I think being a younger female, I'm an easy target," Van Kerkhove, age 44, said. Maria Van Kerkhove (left), WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Professor Didier Houssin, and WHO official Michael Ryan at a press conference in Geneva on January 22, 2020.Pierre Albouy/AFP/Getty Images
She called for more training and support for scientists who face similar vitriol. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also received death threats that forced him to procure a security detail, and his three adult daughters have been harassed, Fauci told an online forum in 2020.
Van Kerkhove said she was unprepared for the backlash to her public comments.
"It's definitely not something that I am trained for, nor do I think I handle [it] all that well," she said. 'If I oversimplify too much, I'll get a phone call' Maria Van Kerkhove speaks during a daily press briefing on COVID-19 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva on March 9, 2020.Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
The pandemic has often forced scientists to issue public-health guidance with limited data.
In one of the earliest examples, the WHO said there was no need for healthy people to wear face masks in April 2020, then reversed its decision two months later. Those changing recommendations opened WHO officials to criticism, but Van Kerkhove said she stands by her decisions throughout the pandemic.
"Every single piece of evidence that we have issued, we could have waited for more information," she told Insider at the AAAS meeting. "The timing could have been different," she added, but "looking back with hindsight is really unfair."
Van Kerkhove also acknowledged the difficult task of communicating the same message to different types of people.
"When I speak publicly, I'm speaking to my mom, I'm speaking to political leaders, I'm speaking to my peers, all at the same time," she said. "So you bet, whenever I say something, if I oversimplify too much, I'll get a phone call."
But much of the harassment against scientists happens on social media platforms like Twitter, she said.
"I use social media, because I think there's important information to get out," she said, adding, "I do mute people. I don't block anyone anymore because I blocked some people and, again, the accusations were worse."
Despite the harassment, Van Kerkhove said she doesn't often think about her status as a public figure.
"I am still in that phase where it's every day working and focusing on that," she said, adding, "I'm not actually out and about that much."
An entire lizard trapped in amber is gazing back at us from 110 million years ago
Elizabeth Rayne Fri, February 18, 2022
The unsung star of Jurassic Park was a mosquito frozen in amber. While you can’t really extract blood from specimens like that, you could be transported back in time if you looked at a specimen of fossilized tree sap and found a 110 million-year-old lizard staring back at you.
Creatures get trapped in amber all the time, but most prehistoric finds are insects. Amber is a great material for preserving arthropods because of their already tough shells that will hold on even if the insides disintegrate. But what about a lizard? Retinosaurus hkamentiensis is a new extinct species of lizard that was unexpectedly found trapped in Burmese amber. No one expected an entire reptile to be preserved so well, from its scaly skin down to its skeleton.
What are now the empty eyes of Retinosaurus may have once seen dinosaurs or giant ferns or dragonflies the size of your head. It was determined to be a juvenile that ran into a sticky situation when it ran into a glob of tree amber that it couldn’t escape. It was so well preserved that paleontologist Andrej Čerňanský of Comenius University and his team, who recently published a study in Scientific Reports, approached the prehistoric lizard almost as if it were alive.
“We were able to study not only a skeleton, but even the external appearance (scalation) of the lizard,” Čerňanský told SYFY WIRE. "In fact, we can study the animal in the same way that herpetologists study modern species.”
Liz Lizard in Amber Photo: Joseph Bevitt/Edward Stanley/Andrej Čerňanský et al
Retinosaurus is no dinosaur (“saurus” actually means “lizard”), but still a fascinating relic from a lost era. CT scanning can be problematic sometimes, but the unreal preservation of the lizard — so much as the double eyelids of the left eye are still there — helped the researchers turn scans into eerily lifelike renderings of a creature that has not walked the Earth since the mid-Cretaceous. Its organs may have not made it, but the trachea and bronchi were preserved. By taking a closer look at the skeleton and patterns of the scales, they were able to make out that it was not yet mature.
This tiny lizard could have huge implications for how its successors ended up where they are now. Morphological comparisons were used to find its closest surviving relatives, as well as phylogenetic analysis, which finds out evolutionary connections through morphology of both extinct and extant species, and molecular data of extant species. What the researchers found from taking a closer look at the specimen was that it is a scincoid (meaning it resembles a skink) that echoes the features of some xantusiids, which are endemic to North America. So how did the fossil end up in Myanmar? It is possible that Rhetinosaurus spawned somewhere else when its territory moved elsewhere.
“This is complicated, because other hypotheses about the origin and paleoposition of the Burma Terrane microplate exist,” Čerňanský said. “It is still rather controversial and leaves room for further interpretations regarding the origin of the animal lineages occurring there during the Cretaceous.” Liz Lizard in Amber Photo: Joseph Bevitt/Edward Stanley/Andrej Čerňanský et al
Xantusiids, or night lizards, are thought to have diverged from cordyloformes, heavily armored lizards which first emerged in Africa, sometime during the Jurassic. If Retinosaurus is really is an ancestor of American xantusiids, or night lizards, that could mean they were crawling around more areas of what was once the supercontinent of Gondwana. There were parts of Myanmar still holding on to Gondwana then. Retinosaurus and related species could have survived for some 50 million years before the Burma Terrane plate drifted to Southeast Asia. Others which were left behind on Gondwana could have then crept over to North and Central America.
There is something else Retinosaurus could be telling us if it really is a proto-xantusiid. The left eye, which was better preserved, has eyelids but is missing the brille, a transparent layer that shields the eyes. Some reptiles with a brille have no eyelids at all. Čerňanský thinks it might imply that, if this lizard really is a proto-xantusiid, the brille in xantusiids might have evolved after the protective bony plates and small scales around their eyes.
“Retinosaurus shows evolution of these lineages in deep time,” he said. “Elsewhere in the world, a majority of terrestrial lizard fossils of similar age are represented by disarticulated and isolated elements. Burmese amber provides a unique window into the mid-Cretaceous world.”
ALBERTA
Opinion: Clare's Law has flaws but it's a vital tool for domestic abuse victims
Clare's Law may need improvements but it is a step in the right direction for victims of domestic violence, writes Colleen Pirie.
Colleen Pirie - Edmonton Journal Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to read two fascinating articles released by respected members of the news media community, Janet French and Colby Cosh . The intent of the articles was to inform the public on the shortcomings that exist within new legislation brought into effect April 1, 2021: Clare’s Law.
Their prudent reviews of Clare’s Law illuminates the systemic areas that certainly need improvements; however, they failed to highlight the early indicators of success. Clare’s Law provides two important components critical to the safety of women:
1.) The law gives those at risk, or an individual given consent by someone at risk, the ability to apply for a disclosure to find out if their intimate partner has a history of domestic violence or related acts. (Safety over Privacy. Right to Know and Right to Ask.) It also gives police the ability to disclose that information to the at-risk individual if they feel as though they have reason to suspect a person could potentially be victimized by an intimate partner. (Right to know.)
2.) With the application for disclosure, comes a referral and access to social supports the individuals may otherwise not have known about. This component of Clare’s Law is its current strength. Women are being connected to communities of care and support, and this is shown by the number of query rates noted by the partner organization Sagesse. When I started in the violence prevention industry eight years ago, we reported the alarming statistic of one woman every six days in Canada is killed at the hands of an intimate partner. Fast forward to 2021-22 and reports now indicate that figure to be one woman every 2.5 days.
Alberta continues to have the third-highest rate of intimate partner violence in the country, and the city of Lethbridge has the highest rate of violence against intimate partners in the country. Between 2008 and 2019, Alberta lost 204 Albertans to family violence-related deaths, and in 2018, a quarter of the homicides in both Calgary and Edmonton were believed to have been from domestic violence. These numbers are unacceptable, but I believe they are preventable.
The unfortunate truth is that domestic and gender-based violence are complex issues. These issues are rooted in gender inequity and these issues are intersectional. We will not end gender-based violence with one, or even a few pieces of legislation, or a few programs, alone. It will take intention, a multi-sectoral approach, time, and long-term strategizing to have a transformational, cultural change.
Ending domestic violence will not be possible without increasing the overall well-being of people in our communities — and that is a long-term, daily commitment. That is a commitment that will require every one of us doing our part to contribute to a society where all members feel safe, supported and are free from violence.
The Alberta government got this one right — passing Clare’s Law legislation. This is one step in the right direction and a much-needed tool for all Albertans to have in their tool kit for safety planning (when and if needed) and access to information. Being informed will empower choices, provide options, and potentially save lives.
The Government of Alberta is committed to ending gender-based violence in Alberta and is committed to supporting innovative strategies that will make long-term, sustainable changes to improve the lives of all Albertans. Through our experience with working with the Ministry of Culture and Status of Women, our feedback has always been valued, and the dialogue productive.
The current evaluation of Clare’s Law 10 months after going into effect shows areas that need to be addressed. I have no doubt the government is eager to address these issues, however, I cannot stress enough, it is not on the government alone to ensure all Albertans are safe and thriving.
This responsibility falls on all Albertans working together to ensure that our communities are safe and free from gender-based violence.
Colleen Pirie is executive director of Be the VOICE. www.bethevoice.ca
Support for domestic abuse survivors ‘more challenging on every level’ in rural Alberta
Cara met Paul in 2008. They were both attending high school in a small central Alberta town.
It was a whirlwind romance, Cara said. She was “love bombed.”
They dated for a year at the end of high school before she started noticing red flags. But it was her first serious relationship and, with nothing to compare it to, she thought it was normal.
“He became very manipulative and controlling. I was no longer my own person. My family grew fearful for me. They saw the signs,” Cara recalled.
“The relationship became very emotionally abusive and I was manipulated into doing things that I wasn’t comfortable doing.
“Every time I tried to stand up for myself I was told that I was selfish, that I was crazy, that I was wrong, that I was imagining it all. It was really hard for me to stand up for myself because he was a very well-known person in our community. We live in a small town. He was born here, he was raised here, everybody knew him.”
He started following her, waiting outside her work, her home or in parking lots, Cara said.
“When I would try to leave or distance myself, he was always around. He would either miraculously show up where I was or I’d receive text messages of him telling me, ‘Oh, you’re hanging out with so and so and you went for here for dinner, hey?’ and I never gave him that information.”
He was even aggressive with members of her family, Cara said. When he cornered her in a parking lot one evening, grabbed her car keys and threw them into a snow-covered field, essentially stranding her, she was done.
“This is not OK. This is not right for me. This is not a safe relationship,” she remembers thinking. “I left the relationship but I found out I was pregnant shortly after.”
Looking back, Cara realizes some of the things he was doing to her were in fact criminal.
“Stalking, harassment, forcible confinement… He was stalking me. At the time I didn’t realize it was stalking and I brushed it under the rug when that’s something you can go to the police for.
“About 10 years ago, if it wasn’t physical abuse, I don’t think a lot of people realized it was abuse.”
At the time, Cara said she felt her truth would be dismissed and she wouldn’t be believed.
“I felt very defeated when I had to call police in that one instance and nothing was done. I did feel like the reason nothing was done was that he was known, he was respected. That took all the fight out of me.”
Small town barriers
Some of the hurdles faced by survivors of abuse can be compounded by where they live, said Mary Jane James, director of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton.
“It definitely is more challenging on every level,” she said.
People in rural areas, for instance, might have access to fewer resources, a smaller, stretched-thin RCMP force and potentially more disincentives to report or share what happened to them.
“In a small town, you’ve got the survivor, who has their friends and family, and you have the perpetrator, who has their friends and family. And it’s going to be taking sides,” James said.
“The people who know the alleged perpetrator… are really going to find it difficult to believe that someone that they knew and they trusted and they worked with or they went to church with could possibly be guilty of doing such a thing.
“There’s already predetermined opinions and a lot of it, unfortunately, often goes against the survivor.”
After they broke up, Cara started dating someone else, which seemed to upset Paul, she said.
“He showed up at my house, forced his way in… he barged in, it was very scary. It got to the point where I had to call the police to have him removed.
“When I asked the police: ‘What can I do about this?’, they told me: ‘There’s nothing really. He didn’t put his hands on you. It just sounds like he’s not over you. We’ll just talk to him and if it happens again, give us a call.’
“That doesn’t make you feel good or safe when you know the extremes that this man will go to and now he’s just seen that law enforcement isn’t going to do anything, so the next time it’ll probably escalate.”
The behaviour escalated and was mirrored in subsequent romantic relationships. Two other women told Global News of abuse – which had intensified — incurred by the same man.
One of the women went to police and several charges were laid, but later withdrawn.
The prosecutor told Global News in an email that the Crown determined “there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction by proving beyond a reasonable doubt the allegations made against the charged person can be made out by the evidence.”
Charges being withdrawn is not uncommon, explained Morgan Bissegger, a registered psychologist and the director of clinical services at SACE.
“When the police move forward with an investigation, they are gathering evidence… charges may be laid,” she said. “When it’s time for the process to go into court, the Crown can look at the evidence and say there’s not enough information there for a person to be found guilty. So it doesn’t mean that the person did or did not commit the crime.”
Cara is not the survivor’s real name. Global News has decided not to use it in order to protect her daughter’s identity and the identities of the other survivors.
James grew up in a small town too and understands the extra barriers that presents.
“It starts with the community as a whole standing up for survivors and saying: ‘We will not and we do not want this to be part of our society going forward. We believe survivors. We want to support them. We’re listening to them.'” Resources and victim supports in rural Alberta
Cara has never lived in a larger city and says she wasn’t aware of any victim supports in her area.
“I only learned that recently (through) another survivor. I don’t see anybody putting those resources out there for us to see and to know they’re available.”
One of the services SACE offers survivors is police and court support programs, where an employee will guide a person through the reporting, court and justice process, and even accompany them to the police station and to court, if they choose to go that direction.
SACE can also help access counselling services.
Those kinds of supports are more scarce in smaller towns, Bissegger said.
“They don’t have necessarily immediate one-on-one support with an agency like SACE,” James said. “They have a 1-800 line where they’re speaking to a stranger, an anonymous person, who can give them some resources to follow up on, but that’s what they have.”
And there’s another complicating factor: in a small town, it’s more common for the people running the services to be connected to their lives.
“There’s a vulnerability that’s associated with sharing this experience, and that might not be safe or comfortable in the context of a rural community,” James said.
In rural areas, RCMP resources are also a factor, she added.
“They don’t have the capacity to assign a specific section to domestic and sexual violence like we do in the bigger cities… whose only job is to investigate allegations of sexual and domestic violence and of course they have much more expertise in this area.
“There’s just not a lot of support in place for them.”
Education and understanding the law
More than a decade later, Cara is in a good place. Still, she can’t help but think about her younger self.
“If I was to tell myself 10 to 12 years ago, (I’d say): ‘Listen to your gut, set your boundaries and stand up for yourself.’”
Being taught about healthy relationships and what abusive behaviour looks like would have been helpful, she said.
SACE has a public education team that would, prior to the pandemic, drive around to rural communities and teach youth about healthy relationships, communication, boundaries and the law.
“Education around relationships and education around consent is something that is incredibly important,” Bissegger said. “Education around what is OK in a relationship and what is not OK in a relationship is vital for everybody… and there’s unequal access to this information.”
Alberta’s current kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum asks students to identify the characteristics of healthy relationships, how to develop and maintain effective relationships, examine stressors in relationships and develop strategies to deal with unhealthy relationships and traumatic events (such as domestic violence, assault and sexual assault).
In Grade 8, students are taught the signs, methods and consequences of various types of abuse, and in grades 10 to 12, they learn to identify unhealthy relationships and deal with exploitation and violence in relationships.
Domestic violence and consent are included in the proposed K-12 curriculum, Alberta Education said.
“There can be really ingrained perceptions of what relationships may look like and behaviour that might be considered OK that result in some really significant challenges,” Bissegger said.
“It’s a big job to start to shift a social narrative that certain patterns of behaviour are actually inappropriate.”
But James stresses the blame should never be put on the survivor for “letting” something happen “to” them; the blame should always be placed on the offender.
“Stalking, harassment, non-consensual sharing of photos are all criminal offences… are indictable offences.
“Those relationships are not normal, they are not healthy, they are not safe. If there is a way for them to safely reach out for help, I strongly encourage them to do so.”
Cara said she’s still working on that — the not blaming herself part. But, she feels heard, she feels strong and she’s ready to share her story.
“This is now extra important to me because I have a daughter of my own and I realize how easy it is to be tricked or manipulated. I think more women need to have that safe space and that comfort to come forward and share their experiences and help raise awareness.”
James also believes there needs to be stronger education and cultural sensitivity awareness training for those working in all parts of the justice system for nuanced issues like sexual assault.
“We have to stop excusing the behaviour of assailants and perpetrators while compounding the same sorts of issues on a survivor. For instance, the consumption of drugs and/or alcohol by an alleged perpetrator is often used as an excuse… but on the flip side of that, drugs and alcohol are used against the survivor by saying, ‘Well, she or he really shouldn’t have had that much to drink.'”
James said she’s repeatedly pushed the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General about the need for this training.
“The RCMP needs to have specifically and professionally trained officers who know about sexual assault and all the myths and stereotypes and nuances that go along with it if they’re going to be able to successfully prosecute these sorts of things in rural areas.”
Alberta’s One Line for Sexual Violence is 1-866-403-8000, which you can call or text any time.
The Family Violence Info Line is 780-310-1818, through which Albertans can get help anonymously in more than 170 languages.
SACE can help with advice, resources, legal counsel and counselling. The SACE support and info line is 780-423-4121.
Anti-restriction protests making life miserable, downtown Edmonton residents say
Paige Parsons - CBC
Downtown Edmonton residents are bracing for yet another weekend of snarled traffic, blaring horns and what they say are at times frightening confrontations with anti-restriction protestors.
"We don't feel safe. We feel like hostages in our own buildings," said Tammy Kobliuk who lives on 110th Street, which is near the main route the convoy.
WHERE IS SGT PEPPER?!
While protesters in Ottawa have been settled in full-time for weeks, Edmonton's demonstrations have been less permanent, with convoys travelling through the city each weekend.
Kobluik and other central Edmonton residents and business owners say they have seen protestors in large trucks, passenger vehicles and on foot descend on the core and loudly make their presence known for about eight hours each Saturday for the past three weekends.
Kobliuk and the other people CBC interviewed about the weekend protests say that many of participants aren't harassing residents and businesses – but those that are have been making life difficult.
CBC reached out to two people affiliated with the protest. One declined to comment, and the other has yet to respond.
A temporary injunction granted to the City of Edmonton, prohibiting the frequent honking of horns, was largely ignored during last weekend's demonstration.
EPS Chief Dale McFee said Thursday that officers issued 70 tickets, and that while six were for noise violations, many others were for distracted driving.
Kobliuk said she's disappointed in the police for what she sees as a lack of action to help residents.
"Their primary concern seems to be traffic, and they're proud of themselves that they've kept the traffic moving," she said. 'A thousand cuts'
Living in the core means living with traffic noise, and frequent large events – including protests.
But the sustained, negative effect of the repeat weekend convoy is different, said Chris Henderson who lives and works in central Edmonton.
"It's people from external communities just rolling in, making life miserable for other people, laughing about it, and then taking off. And I don't know what purpose this is serving anymore," Henderson said.
Henderson, who describes himself as a big guy, says he feels safe personally when he's out walking around.
Windsor asks for help to end protest
But he's angry about reports that community members have been heckled and harassed while wearing masks as they make their way around the neighbourhood.
He also worries ambulances and firetrucks being blocked, and the effect the noise is having on the vulnerable and elderly who live in assisted living facilities near the convoy route.
"It's sort of a thousand cuts for the community," he said.
Protesters lined 99th Avenue, waving and cheering to people driving in the local convoy on Jan. 29, 2022
Businesses also affected
Downtown restaurant The Common has seen a drop in Saturday business due to people avoiding the area, said co-owner Kyla Kazeil.
Kazeil said she agrees with people's right to protest, but after two tough years, losing customers on what's traditionally the busiest day of the week for her small business has been tough.
"We had to cancel a wedding last Saturday, which is huge money lost and it's not money we can afford to lose right now," Kazeil said.
She said they've reduced their operating hours on Saturday because of the disruptions and have to have security on hand to deal with people upset with staff over the mask mandate. She said it's daunting not knowing when it will end.
"I don't really foresee it coming to a close anytime soon," she said. Commission fields complaints
The frustration spilled over at an Edmonton police commission meeting Thursday wherea number of speakers blasted police over the handling of the convoy, reporting hostile interactions with protestors, overwhelming noise, and critiquing the police's intervention in a counter-protest that was quickly broken up last weekend.
Michelle Peters-Jones told the commission about how she and her five-year-old son were yelled at by protesters and called "sheep" for wearing masks while downtown last weekend.
"There were no police officers anywhere in sight that I could actually turn to and say 'hello, help me," she said. "Instead I cowered in fear and distress."
Police Chief Dale McFee said Thursday that EPS needs to communicate more about its strategy for dealing with the anti restriction protests.
During the meeting, EPS officials said there are challenges with enforcing the injunction and managing the protestors but said they're working on it and take concerns seriously.
"The one thing that's very clear is that we have to start communicating more," said Chief Dale McFee.
The chief also said the number of people and vehicles attending the protests has been dropping, which makes it easier to do enforcement.
Ward O-day'min Coun. Anne Stevenson represents downtown, and said she's heard many concerns about the noise and feeling unsafe, particularly from people of colour or people who have been wearing masks.
"I am hopeful that we'll see a shift in the approach to managing the protest this week that will really seek to minimize those impacts to downtown residents, and also ensure that people are feeling safer on our streets," she said.
She also said the city has made changes to 311 to make reporting harassment easier, and said she's launching a community safewalk program to help people who need to get around.
With files from Janice Johnston
Law Society of Alberta to hold hearing into Shandro's conduct
Lisa Johnson - Yesterday Edmonton Journal Former health minister Tyler Shandro will face a hearing to decide whether he broke the Law Society of Alberta’s code of conduct.
While Shandro is now the labour and immigration minister following a cabinet shuffle in September, the law society’s three-member conduct committee will investigate complaints about the three incidents during Shandro’s time as health minister, including the allegation that Shandro “attended the private residence of a member of the public, (and) behaved inappropriately by engaging in conduct that brings the reputation of the profession into disrepute.”
A second citation alleges that Shandro used his position as health minister “to obtain personal cellphone numbers, contacted one or more members of the public outside of regular working hours using that information.”
A third alleges Shandro “responded to an email from a member of the public addressed to his wife by threatening to refer that individual to the authorities if they did not address future correspondence to his office as minister of health.” If the panel finds that Shandro’s conduct deserves sanction, he could be reprimanded, fined, suspended, disbarred or forced to pay the costs of the hearing.
Law Society spokeswoman Colleen Brown said in a statement the society decided to send the citations to a hearing on Jan. 28, although no date has been set for the virtual hearing yet. According to the society’s conduct process , after a complaint is reviewed it can be dismissed or referred to a practice review committee or the conduct committee. Joseph Dow, Shandro’s press secretary, did not respond to questions about whether Shandro would resign from cabinet in the event of sanctions, but said in an email anyone with a concern against a lawyer can make a complaint with the Law Society of Alberta.
He said two years ago, an anonymous account on social media published a post that encouraged the public to file complaints with the law society.
“Minister Shandro looks forward to resolving the matter through the Law Society of Alberta’s complaint process,” said Dow.
Premier Jason Kenney’s office did not respond to questions about whether Shandro would be asked to resign if sanctioned, NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley said Friday the minister should be asked to step aside in light of the citations. The NDP called for Shandro’s resignation in 2020 following the incidents that are now the subject of the law society’s investigation. “It’s kind of a standing position for us that this minister is not really equipped to function in cabinet,” said Notley.
