LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Can a chess grandmaster save the world?
by Frederic Friedel

3/14/2022 – Cobicistat is a drug that was originally devised for HIV/AIDS therapy. Now a new study shows that it can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 – which would mean we could have a powerful therapeutical drug against Covid-19. Very encouraging news – but why are we reporting this on a chess news page? Because one of the virologists working on the project happens to be a chess grandmaster. Here's his story. | Photos Lara Gallucci.

Iart Luca Shytaj

He was born in Albania (Tirana) in 1986. His parents moved to Italy when he was six years old and he became an Italian citizen in 2007.

Luca (as he is known to friends) is a very strong player who won the Albanian Chess Championship in 2003 and represented Albania twice in Olympiads (Calvia 2004 and Turin 2006) and Italy once in an Olympiad (Dresden 2008 – the picture above, by Cathy Rogers, was taken there) and once in a European Team Championship (Novi Sad 2009).

He won the Albanian Championship (2003), the Italian Rapid Championship (2009), and the Italian Team Championship in 2016 playing for the Fischer Chieti team.

Luca was awarded the title in October 2018, the 14th Italian player to achieve the title of GM.

In the scientific field Luca holds a master degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology (from the “La Sapienza” University in Rome). He obtained a PhD in “Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases,” working on an HIV cure project under the supervision of Andrea Savarino. Later he performed his research at the Italian Institute of Health in Rome and at Heidelberg University in Germany. He is currently a visiting Professor at the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

When I showed Luca the click-bait title of my article, he asked me if I knew Betteridge's law, which states that "any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no". I definitely hope that this is not the case here. I have urged Luca to abandon his attempts to rearrange little pieces of wood on a checkered board slightly better than other people, and concentrate on the more urgent global tasks that need to be solved.
Cobicistat

Luca and his team have been working on Cobicistat, a drug used in HIV/AIDS therapy, showing that it could have an effect against COVID-19. That is the result of a study, until now conducted only in vitro and in an animal model, published in the journal of the American Society of Microbiology, mBio.

The international team of authors proved that Cobicistat inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 with a different mechanism from those of the drugs currently used, i.e. by blocking the fusion of the virus to its target cells. Furthermore, the drug can attenuate the progression of the disease in a hamster animal model (Mesocricetus auratus), by enhancing the effect of another drug previously tested against COVID, i.e. Remdesivir.

If you are interested in the details of the research, the article on COVID is now published and free to read:

ASM Journals: The FDA-Approved Drug Cobicistat Synergizes with Remdesivir To Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Replication In Vitro and Decreases Viral Titers and Disease Progression in Syrian Hamsters

Abstract

Combinations of direct-acting antivirals are needed to minimize drug resistance mutations and stably suppress replication of RNA viruses.

Currently, there are limited therapeutic options against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and testing of a number of drug regimens has led to conflicting results.

Here, we show that cobicistat, which is an FDA-approved drug booster that blocks the activity of the drug-metabolizing proteins cytochrome P450-3As (CYP3As) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp), inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication. Two independent cell-to-cell membrane fusion assays showed that the antiviral effect of cobicistat is exerted through inhibition of spike protein-mediated membrane fusion. In line with this, incubation with low-micromolar concentrations of cobicistat decreased viral replication in three different cell lines including cells of lung and gut origin.

When cobicistat was used in combination with remdesivir, a synergistic effect on the inhibition of viral replication was observed in cell lines and in a primary human colon organoid. This was consistent with the effects of cobicistat on two of its known targets, CYP3A4 and P-gp, the silencing of which boosted the in vitro antiviral activity of remdesivir in a cobicistat-like manner.

When administered in vivo to Syrian hamsters at a high dose, cobicistat decreased viral load and mitigated clinical progression. These data highlight cobicistat as a therapeutic candidate for treating SARS-CoV-2 infection and as a potential building block of combination therapies for COVID-19.

The Italian Institute of Health covered the news also in Italian and English.

Frederic Friedel

Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page.

Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

Transport Canada investigating whether Freedom Convoy supporters aboard flight were screened for vaccination

Glen McGregor

CTV National News Senior Political Correspondent

Published Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Transport Canada is looking into a chartered flight that brought supporters of the so-called Freedom Convoy from Western Canada to Ottawa last month, to ensure passengers were properly screened for COVID-19 vaccination.

According to one of the passengers on the flight, some of those aboard were not vaccinated, an apparent violation of the federal government mandate requiring most air and rail passengers to produce proof of vaccination before travel.

“Transport Canada has been made aware of the incident and is following up with the air operator to ensure compliance,” Transport Canada spokesperson Sau Sau Liu said in an email.

At a bail hearing for protest organizer Tamara Lich last month, her husband Dwayne testified that he arrived in Ottawa on Feb. 2 aboard a “private jet,” with the expense covered by a benefactor he identified only as “Joseph.”

In fact, the aircraft they travelled on was far less grand – a twin-engine turbo-prop with limited range that had to make multiple stops on the way to Ottawa.

“That plane was not a super powerful private jet that propelled us through space and time in luxury,” said Chad Eros, an accountant from Saskatchewan who travelled to Ottawa to help the protesters deal with issues involving the GoFundMe crowdsource funding drive.

Eros now identifies himself as “acting co-president, Freedom 2022 Human Rights and Freedoms,” the federal corporation he set up to receive crowdsource funding.

In a Facebook video, Eros said he helped arrange the flight to bring lawyers who were also helping the convoy to Ottawa. He said he had suggested using a chartered flight because some of those coming to the Ottawa protest couldn’t fly on a commercial flight due the vaccine mandate put in place by the federal government last fall.

“They didn’t even know how they were going to get out to Ottawa because a lot of them weren’t vaccinated,” he said.

In fact, according to Transport Canada, passengers flying on chartered flights from most Canadian airports must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination before boarding, with some exceptions for remote communities.

“Charter flights are included in the vaccine requirement—they carry commercial passengers, and the rules apply to passengers and crew,” Transport Canada said in an email.

Other charter companies contacted by CTV News said they require proof-of-vaccination, even on private charters.

Several lawyers from the Edmonton-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom came to Ottawa during the protests to represent protest organizers.

Eros said the charter company was supportive of the protest.

“They were willing to fly us out at super-reduced rates, basically for fuel,” he said in the video.

Eros said the company had been hurt by the vaccination mandate and had been forced to shut down half its business.

He described a flight that made a stop in Medicine Hat, Alta., to pick up Dwayne Lich, then went on to Saskatoon, Sask., before making a last-minute detour – heading south to Regina to pick Eros up, then flying on to Ontario.

Flight records obtained by CTV News show the same route on that date was flown by an aircraft operated by Northern Air Charter (P.R.) Inc., an air operator based in Peace River, Alberta.

The company’s Beech Super King Air 200 left from Calgary early in the morning on February 2, then headed to Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, and Thunder Bay, before arriving in Ottawa at 10:05 pm, 13 hours later.

Northern Air’s president, Nathan Hilman, did not respond to repeated phone calls, emails, and a fax requesting comment.

In addition to its charters, the company had provided scheduled service from Peace River to destinations in Western Canada, but temporarily suspended the routes due to the pandemic, according to its website.

Chad Eros also did not respond to CTV News’ questions about the flight and who funded its cost.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Lebanon judge freezes assets of five banks and members of their boards - document

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Lebanese judge froze the assets of five top banks and members of their boards while she investigates transactions they undertook with the country's central bank, a judicial document showed on Monday.

© Reuters/MOHAMED AZAKIR FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank in Beirut

The asset freeze against Bank of Beirut, Bank Audi, SGBL, Blom Bank and Bankmed applies to properties, vehicles and shares in companies owned by the banks or the members of their boards.

She has not charged any of the parties mentioned with any crime.

Raya Hassan, chairman of the board of Bankmed, declined to comment, as did Blom Bank chairman Saad Azhari and a spokesperson for Bank Audi.

Bank of Beirut and SGBL did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Judge Ghada Aoun on Thursday issued travel bans against the heads of the boards of the five Lebanese banks as a precautionary measure while she carried out her probe, she told Reuters.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Jon Boyle and Barbara Lewis)

Ontario Teachers' fund gains 11.1% on private equity, resources

Layan Odeh, Bloomberg News

Mar 14, 2022

The CN Tower stands among buildings in the downtown skyline in this aerial photograph taken above Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. , Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan returned 11 per cent last year, helped by big gains in private equity and natural resources investments that mitigated losses in its bond portfolio.

The fund outperformed its benchmark by 2.3 percentage points, lifting assets under management to $241.6 billion (US$189.2 billion), the Toronto-based pension manager said Monday in a statement.

The fund told third-party managers that it has no desire to be exposed to Russia, Chief Executive Officer Jo Taylor said in an interview, adding that the firm’s indirect exposure to the country is less than CUS$50 million. Ontario Teachers’ also is ensuring its portfolio companies comply with the sanctions imposed on Russia, he said.

Private equity holdings advanced 29 per cent, while resources returned 28 per cent. The fund’s private investments in resources include royalties on metals, mining, energy as well agricultural assets, Chief Investment Officer Ziad Hindo said in the interview.

The pension fund said its efforts to balance and diversify its portfolio through increasing allocations to credit, real assets and inflation-sensitive investments proved timely, and that it’s positioned to weather the impacts of higher prices.

Ontario Teachers’ made almost 50 deals for private assets last year, including a 40% stake in Finland’s largest electricity distributor and 50% of a U.S. solar and energy storage portfolio from NextEra Energy.

Teachers’ committed US$5 billion in energy transition assets, pushing its green portfolio to $30 billion.

PPP

PUBLIC PENSIONS FUND PRIVATIZATION

Ontario Premier Ford announces largest expansion of medical education in 10 years

Global News

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the creation of an additional 160 undergrad positions and 295 post-grad positions in the medical field during an announcement in Brampton, Ont. on Tuesday. The positions will be added across the province's six medical schools over the next five years. This is said to be the largest expansion of medical education in a decade. Ford made the announcement alongside Deputy Premier Christine Elliott and Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop. “We’ve already shored up domestic production of critical supplies like PPE and have added thousands more hospital beds. Now, building on our work to recruit and retain nurses and personal support workers, we’re launching the largest expansion of medical education in ten years,” said Ford. For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/8682406/on...

Doug Ford’s government is quietly privatizing health care

On the cusp of an election, Ford may play down plans for privatizing hospitals. But it is his record, not his words, that is important.

By Nancy Olivieri, Michael Hurley, Natalie Mehra

Contributors
Tue., March 15, 2022

Words matter.

Recently, Health Minister Christine Elliott announced the expansion of private hospitals in Ontario. Missed this? So did many of us, possibly because of the words she selected: “we can let independent health facilities operate private hospitals.”

That offhand reference to “independent health facilities” sounds a whole lot better than this:

“We will award public funds to private, for-profit hospitals and clinics, knowing that these private facilities are associated with worse care, higher costs and more deaths.”

But if she’d said that, Elliott might have been asked about the Private Hospitals Act, which banned new private hospitals in Ontario in 1973. Or about the Canada Health Act, which bans extra billing for necessary services which is, nonetheless, regularly violated in private clinics.

After the Ontario Health Coalition picked up this bombshell, Premier Doug Ford began to furiously back-pedal, claiming what had been recorded was not accurate. But this was not the first declaration of Ford’s intention to privatize public hospital services — his COVID response plan had also announced that “innovative channels,” including “alternate health facilities,” would deliver additional surgeries and diagnostic services.

Again, words matter. What the plan said: Innovative channels and alternative health facilities.

What it means: For-profit clinics and hospitals.

All these euphemisms suggest the premier is finding it difficult to claim the private sector does things better, possibly because it virtually never does. During COVID, many Ontarians watched in horror as deaths in for-profit long-term-care homes rose to five times those in publicly owned homes — while company CEOs and shareholders profited.

Ford is positioning himself as Ontario’s rescuer, claiming to expand private hospitals — whoops, alternate health facilities — to clear backlogs, employing the popular fiction that private health care reduces wait times. Let’s be clear: private health care does not reduce wait times. And the backlogs themselves arose from the relentless downsizing of public hospitals: closures of operating rooms and staff shortages, including Ford’s appalling treatment of nurses, leading to an exodus from the profession.

Ford’s privatization agenda follows the standard playbook: Defund. Disable. Destroy. Once resource-starved public services no longer work well, respond to public anger — then transfer ownership to private capital. Per capita, Ontario now has the lowest health care and hospital funding, and the fewest hospital beds and nurses, of any province. Yet provincial revenues are $19.5 billion higher than estimated a year ago, providing plenty to spend on public services, if the will were there.

Worse, private hospitals come with another price tag: poor care and higher rates of death. Unsurprisingly, Ford is reluctant openly to state: “In private hospitals, more of you will die.” But an analysis of over 26,000 hospitals and 38 million patients found that, compared to not-for-profit hospitals, care in private hospitals carries a significantly increased risk of death. This is also true for private for-profit hemodialysis clinics.

In both settings, profits trump standards of care. Private hospitals employ fewer skilled personnel, a practice strongly associated with hospital mortality. Private hemodialysis clinics hire technicians over nurses, use (and often reuse) single-use equipment, and profit by shortening dialysis times, associated with higher mortality.

Think this couldn’t happen in Canada? At private Ontario pain and colonoscopy clinics, many failing safety standards and a series of medical and surgical disasters — including life-threatening, permanent complications — went unreported for years before exposure by the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, Ford is quietly privatizing over 18,000 long-term-care beds and home care. In the midst of a pandemic, he privatized vaccines and COVID testing. On the cusp of an election, he may play down plans for privatizing hospitals. But it is his record, not his words, that is important.

And speaking once more of words, Ford likes to campaign on the slogan “For the People.” But the People deserve the indisputable evidence: For-profit hospitals and clinics translate as worse health outcomes, increased suffering and avoidable deaths — and benefit only the wealthy.

In this election, “For some of the people, but not for you” are the words that matter.

Dr. Nancy Olivieri is a physician and professor at the University of Toronto. Michael Hurley is president, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and a member of CUPE’s National Executive Board. Natalie Mehra is executive director, Ontario Health Coalition.

‘We are seeing the creation of a two-tier system of health care in Ontario’

By Robert Williams

Record Reporter
Mon., March 14, 2022

WATERLOO REGION — A provincewide call to action on the alleged privatization of health care will see a series of emergency summits held across Ontario over the next month.

Kicking off next week in Ottawa and running in 20 different cities across the province over March and April, the Ontario Health Coalition — a network of over 400 member organizations including seniors’ groups, unions and non-profit community agencies — will host a series of summits to launch the “biggest fightback we have ever mounted.”

The Waterloo Region Health Coalition — the region’s local chapter — will host its summit on April 5, with a series of keynote speakers set to address the “subtle privatization” of the public health-care system.

“There is this relentless and ongoing strategy by the Conservative government to privatize the public health care system,” said Jim Stewart, co-chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition. “How they do it is they make these very quiet announcements, they pass legislation, and what occurs is the breaking down of our public health-care infrastructure.”

The summit is timed to roll out in the lead-up to the upcoming provincial election, when Conservative Premier Doug Ford will look to win a second term in office when voters head to the polls on June 2.

The organization said it intends to “set the threat to our public health care as a key election issue and push all political parties to make commitments to safeguard public health care, stop privatization and address the urgent needs to improve care and staffing,” in a release sent out on Monday.

It is not the first time the coalition has voiced its concerns on the privatization issue. With the decimation of long-term care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has long called for the province to allocate more resources to its publicly funded homes.

The province has been in the process of awarding 30-year capital funding deals and operational licenses for 30,000 new long-term care beds and upgrading thousands more outdated long-term care beds.

For-profit, non-profit and municipal-run organizations providing long-term care have been able to apply for the bed allocations.

However, in a report released last November, the coalition found most of the bed licenses in progress — over 16,000 — were being awarded to for-profit homes. They found almost 14,000 of the in-progress beds were going to non-profit and municipal homes.

Stewart is also concerned with the growth of for-profit private clinics, which he said will move resources for diagnostic and surgical floors away from public hospitals to private spaces.

The long-term impact, he said, is longer wait times for patients to enter and move through the health-care system, and fewer resources to treat them once they’re there.

“Ultimately, we are seeing the creation of a two-tier system of health care in Ontario,” he said. “We are terrified that private clinics and private hospitals are going to be established, and we know these facilities just don’t do a better job, moving resources away from a public model that desperately needs it.”

Those interested in taking part in the summit can register in advance online. The speaker series will include patient advocates, a member of the Ontario Nurses Association and an Ontario health-care investigative researcher.

Ontario colleges could strike on Friday. Here’s what that means

16,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges could strike on Friday unless the College Employer Council (CEC) agrees to voluntary binding interest arbitration, says the union.

By Ivy MakToronto Star
Tue., March 15, 2022

The union representing more than 16,000 faculty members from Ontario public colleges is threatening to walk off the job Friday if its bargaining demands are not met.

In Brampton on Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford addressed the looming strike deadline, adding he doesn’t like when anyone goes on strike, especially “when we went through such tough times.” He called on Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop, who added that the province is monitoring the process closely.

“I've heard from students and from parents who are very upset. Students cannot afford a strike at this time. They're finally back in the classroom. That's where they need to be,” Dunlop said.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) issued an open letter to college presidents on Monday, saying staff are prepared to strike if the College Employer Council (CEC) does not agree to “voluntary binding interest arbitration” to settle outstanding contract issues.

In response, the CEC notes that its made numerous attempts to reach an agreement, but the union rejected request without discussion, they said in a statement.

Here’s what we know so far.

When is the strike deadline?

Some 16,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges could go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Friday after staff rejected the latest offer from the CEC last month.

The union has been in contract negotiations with the CEC since July around better educational tools and job security. Ontario public college staff have been working without a collective agreement since Sept. 30. Negotiations between the two groups broke down in November.

The faculty have been working to rule since December, instead of picketing, said the union.

JP Hornick, chair of the bargaining team, said, “Our members are fighting for the best education for students,” said Hornick. “We haven’t made any unreasonable demands, and everything we have asked for is easily achievable.”

Who would the strike impact?

The looming strike deadline includes professors, librarians, instructors and counsellors employed by Ontario’s 24 public colleges. It could impact nearly a quarter of a million students. OPSEU represents more than 16,000 public college staff members.

It would impact colleges in the GTA including Centennial College, Durham College, George Brown College, Humber college, and Seneca college.

The College Student Alliance (CSA) is calling on the province to step in now ahead of a possible strike.

“Students should be the priority during this process. CSA encourages college faculty and the colleges themselves to come back to the table and negotiate to avoid a strike,” said Eli Ridder, president of the CSA in an emailed statement to the Star on Tuesday.

College students penned an open letter earlier this month addressed to the CEC, OPSEU, and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

The Ontario Students Association expressed fear of a repeat of the 2017 strike, which it says, “left students feeling that the culminating weeks of their year were rushed and incomplete, that they were unprepared for the workforce, and that their relationships on campus were damaged.”

The 2017 strike lasted five weeks before the province passed back-to-work legislation paving the way for students to return to class.

What is the union fighting for?

Bargaining team chair JP Hornick said union members want better job security for faculty who are on partial-load contracts. Hornick said the CEC reported profits of $1.65 billion in the last five years, most of it coming from outside contracts, unpaid overtime and uncompensated work of partial-load staff.

She added that due to Bill 124, which caps public-sector wage increases at one per cent a year for the next three years, the union is not bargaining for additional compensation.

The union is also demanding the following terms:

An improved mechanism to evaluate instructor workload

Increase maximum time they can dedicate to evaluate to 6.8 minutes per student, per week. Right now, this figure stands at five minutes per student.

Preparation time for online learning

Stop contracting out counsellors and other faculty work, especially in the midst of a mental health crisis for students.

Hire full-time academic librarians. There are 11 colleges without a full-time academic librarian and all of them offer degree programs.

Get faculty consent before the sale or reuse of faculty course materials.

Jointly led committees and round tables that can actually study, make and implement changes around workload, equity, and Indigenization, decolonization and Truth and Reconciliation.

What is CEC’s response?

The CEC says it made “numerous attempts to reach an agreement” with the union, and that in March 2021, asked OPSEU to, “extend the current agreement without any changes so that we could complete the school year without interruption and recognize the uncertain times in which we are living.” According to a statement by the CEC, the union rejected the request without discussion.

The CEC says the union is, “demanding changes that they know colleges cannot make,” like, “demands about their workload that violate the law governing compensation.”

“The Union is claiming it had no choice but to strike because the Colleges have refused to bargain and have refused arbitration. This is simply untrue.” read the statement by the council representing colleges.

Binding interest vs. final offer arbitration

In labour disputes, binding interest arbitration is often used in post-secondary education bargaining in order to resolve differences in the proposals from both sides. A third party neutral arbitrator is asked to review both proposals and “creates a compromise from the two proposals,” OPSEUs said. The union says binding interest is an alternative to a strike or a lockout.

The CEC, says the union, uses a different form of arbitration where the arbitrator selects the proposal from only one of the parties and appears to double down on its refusal to enter binding interest arbitration.

“These demands fall well outside any acceptable provision. We can never accept them,” says the CEC.

With files from Joshua Chong and Akrit Michael.

Durham College faculty could be on strike as of Friday

College faculty at Algonquin, across province set strike date of Friday

Ontario college faculty staged a five-week strike in 2017. It ended after the provincial government legislated employees back to work.

Author of the article: Jacquie Miller
Publishing date: Mar 15, 2022

A student walks past an Algonquin College sign at the Woodroffe campus on Tuesday.

PHOTO BY ERROL MCGIHON /Postmedia
Article content

Faculty at Ontario colleges, including Algonquin and Collège La Cité in Ottawa, are prepared to strike on Friday, says the union representing them.

As the clock ticks toward the 12:01 a.m. Friday strike deadline, each side in the dispute accuses the other of failing to be reasonable and says it wants to avoid disrupting the school year for students.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union union says they won’t stage a walkout if the colleges agree to use “binding interest arbitration” to settle contract negotiations that have reached an impasse.

That means a third-party arbitrator would settle the dispute, a course of action that is often employed in the post-secondary sector, the union said in an open letter.

“This would end the negotiations without a strike or lockout,” OPSEU’s letter said.

Ontario college faculty staged a five-week strike in 2017. It ended after the provincial government legislated employees back to work.

The College Employer Council, which bargains for management, has proposed “final offer” arbitration, which means both parties submit a proposal and an arbitrator picks one. That is supposed to force both parties to compromise.

The Employer Council, in a statement, said it offered a year ago to extend the current agreement with no changes “so that we could complete the school year without interruption and recognize the uncertain times in which we are living.”

The council says the union’s proposals are unrealistic and some are not possible — for example, a reduction in workload that an independent mediator said would contravene Bill 124, passed by the Conservative government to limit wages of public-sector employees.

Salary increases are not a key issue since that legislation prohibits increases in compensation of more than one per cent annually.

The union’s lawyer provided a different opinion, saying the proposals would not violate Bill 124.

Some major issues in the dispute are the same as they were in 2017: workload and job security and benefits for part-time staff.

Many college courses are taught by contract instructors who have no job security. “Essentially, they have to reapply for their position every (semester),” said Annette Bouzi, president of the OPSEU local at Algonquin.

The workload formula hasn’t changed since 1985, Bouzi said. However, the workload has increased “exponentially,” with changing technology adding things like email, building websites and digital platforms to every-day faculty duties.

Other issues include contracting out of work, the status of academic librarians and equity issues, she said.

The union represents 16,000 faculty, professors, librarians, instructors and counsellors at Ontario’s 24 publicly-funded colleges.

The contract expired Sept. 30, 2021. Negotiations began in July, but went nowhere, according to mediator Brian Keller, who was hired last fall to help the parties reach an agreement.

Keller concluded the unions’s proposals were “highly aspirational and completely unrealistic” and “almost all that was being sought by OPSEU was “unachievable either through direct negotiations with the employer or, if it came to that, in binding arbitration.”

The Employer Council forced a February vote on a final contract offer that union members rejected.

OPSEU members have staged a work-to-rule campaign since December. It includes, among other things, not working beyond the hours for which they are compensated, not entering grades into the college data system and not grading assignments, submitting grades, preparing courses or taking part in college activities or meetings during reading week.

“Faculty have done our best to limit the impact of our strike action on students and to avoid a picket line,” OPSEU’s letter said.

“Now, however, you (management) have again ramped up your threats against individual faculty and appear to be moving toward a lockout instead of negotiating a deal.”

The employer council says it will not lock out staff.

Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s minister for colleges and universities, said she was monitoring the situation. “I’ve heard from students and from parents who are very upset,” she said Tuesday in response to a question at an unrelated media conference.

“Students cannot afford a strike at this time. They are finally back in the classroom. That’s where they need to be, that’s where their best education is, where they are collaborating with their colleagues and their faculty.”

Student association presidents from eight Ontario colleges sent a letter to Dunlop, the union and management on March 4, saying students should not have their lives disrupted by the dispute.

“This is happening alongside various other global events, the most pervasive being the ongoing pandemic and the restrictions and difficulties it poses to students. Students are already experiencing surges in mental health crises, financial insecurity and reduced quality of education.”

The letter said students feared a repeat of the 2017 strike, which “left students feeling that the culminating weeks of their year were rushed and incomplete, that they were unprepared for the workforce, and that their relationships on campus were damaged.”

The student associations at Algonquin and La Cité were not among the signatories to that letter.

jmiller@postmedia.com

Ontario college students are absolutely freaking out over forthcoming strike

If you've been a student in Ontario in the last two years, you've had anything but the normal school experience that one would hope for.

The impromptu switch to completely remote learning has been a disaster for many, with only brief stints of a return to classroom for proper in-person instruction and undeniably vital socialization.

For post-secondary learners, it's been especially frustrating, as many feel that they haven't been getting what they're paying big bucks for. And now, a looming strike has served as the cherry on top of a crummy few semesters.

Approximately 16,000 faculty across the two dozen public colleges in Ontario are set to strike later this week, with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) saying in an open letter on Monday that members will strike starting this Friday if their demands are not taken seriously.

The union is asking that ongoing labour disputes be taken to binding interest arbitration, in which an impartial arbitrator looks at the wants of both parties and makes the ultimate decision — hopefully some type of fair compromise between the two — with both sides having to stick to their proposed resolution.

The deadline that OPSEU has given the College Employer Council (CEC) to respond is 12:01 a.m. on March 18, at which time employees will walk off the job if the CEC has not accepted.

Staff rejected the CEC's last offer in February, with their union saying in a letter yesterday that their employers have "told us from the outset of bargaining that [they] are unwilling to negotiate unless we drop our proposals that [they] find unacceptable."

"Binding interest arbitration has been the usual way for labour disruptions to be settled in the past when we have not been able to negotiate an agreement. It is the common way for labour disputes in the post-secondary sector to get resolved — common enough that it’s written into several collective agreements," the union's letter continues.

"All you have to do is AGREE... we will not strike if you agree to binding interest arbitration."

At this point, some seem sure that the union will indeed end up striking, while others are more hopeful that it may not happen.

But the threat of such an incident mid-second semester of the academic year is stressing the heck out of a lot of students, especially after what they've already had to deal with in terms of their education during the pandemic.

Instructors started work-to-rule action three months ago as part of the dispute, meaning that they have been deliberately doing the bare minumum required of them instead of going above in beyond — which has, of course, impacted students and their education.

Many are understandably pissed at the prospect of now also having to defer their schooling to a later date or completely lose the work they've done so far.

Those who have co-op and internship components in their programs are freaking out even more at the prospect of completely losing their placements.

And many feel completely in the dark about what a strike would mean for them.

"My college might be going on strike and it’s possibly the worst time to be doing it," one student tweeted in the middle of the night last night.

"If colleges strike I’m gonna lose my fkn mind I swear," another added around 1:45 a.m., also apparently kept awake by the drama.

Toronto institutions impacted include Centennial, George Brown, Humber, and Seneca Colleges, as well as nearby Durham, Conestoga, Fanshawe, Fleming, Georgian, Mohawk and Sheridan.

Students and staff at these schools will unfortunately just have to wait until Friday to see what happens.

Hong Kong's Covid divide: Expats get more perks while domestic workers lose their homes

By Michelle Toh and Lizzy Yee, CNN Business
Tue March 15, 2022

Hong Kong (CNN Business)Maria was just about to start a new job as a domestic worker in Hong Kong last month when she found out she had Covid-19.

She immediately told her employer, who urged her to get to a hospital. But once she was there, she said she was turned away, with staffers explaining there was no room. They advised her to go home and quarantine.

The problem? Her place of work was her home and "my employer didn't want me to come back," said Maria, noting that they had "kids in the house."

"I said, 'I don't know where I can go. We don't have a place,'" she told CNN Business, breaking into tears. She asked not to publish her real name, for fear of reprisals from current or future employers, and to not worry her family abroad. CNN Business agreed to call her "Maria."

Foreign domestic workers are required to live with their employers in Hong Kong, under a longstanding government mandate that has been contested for years.

Maria, who is from the Philippines, returned to the hospital, where she spent the night sleeping on a chair in the emergency room, along with a friend in a similar situation. But the next day, they were told by a nurse more expressly to "go away," she said.
Not knowing what else to do, they set up camp on the street.

In recent weeks, dozens of domestic workers have been cast out on the streets in Hong Kong after testing positive for Covid-19. One worker, not pictured here, said she was not allowed home with her employer over fears of contagion.

"We cannot express what [we] feel [at] that time — just crying only," said Maria.
Maria and her friend eventually found a shelter to stay in, run by the charity HELP for Domestic Workers.

Maria is one of dozens of migrant domestic workers who have been abandoned — and temporarily made homeless — in Hong Kong after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to the charity. Her story, and others like it, shine a light on deep-seated inequalities in the city that are worsening under a devastating fifth wave of Covid-19.

Pets travel in style as their owners race to get them out of Hong Kong 03:20

To be sure, workers across the spectrum are struggling in Hong Kong, given its rigid pandemic measures.

But as top companies give their employees more flexibility and even help pay for expensive hotel quarantines, local businesses are teetering on the brink of collapse. And while some expatriates can command higher salaries for simply agreeing to move to the city, the city's poorest are struggling just to afford food or basic necessities.

Heading for the exits

The widening gap comes at a time when Hong Kong is facing an exodus of expats, despite the additional benefits on offer, which continues to raise questions about its future as a global business hub.

Many foreigners have had enough of the city's unwavering commitment to its "zero Covid" policy, even as cases surge to record highs and cause more fatalities, overloading the health care system and delivering a huge punch to the economy.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, more residents left Hong Kong than came in, according to official population statistics. That marked a reversal from early 2019, when the population was going up.

Last month alone, more than 94,000 people departed the city, while only about 23,000 came in, immigration data showed.

Hong Kong expats are up in arms about quarantine. Singapore stands to gain

"The recent wave of emigration is leading to a shortage of skilled workers and impacting businesses of all sizes," the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce said in a statement earlier this month.

The group's chairman, Peter Wong, said the city was "facing an exodus of educated workers on a scale not seen since the early 1990s."

"This will have a material knock-on impact on the economy," he added. "There is real cause for concern if we cannot stem the current brain drain."

The city has been largely sealed off from the rest of the world for the last two years, in part because most inbound travelers must quarantine in hotel rooms at their own expense for two weeks. Previously, the requirement was for three weeks.

PRC CORRECT LINE

Hong Kong is sticking to zero-Covid, no matter what the cost

The issue has increasingly forced companies to rethink where their employees should be based, if only for now.

Last month, Mandarin Oriental (MAORF) CEO James Riley told the Financial Times that the former British colony had become a "very, very poor" base due to the restrictions.
According to the newspaper, the hotel group recently advocated for senior executives to temporarily live abroad, away from its Hong Kong headquarters. Mandarin Oriental declined to comment to CNN Business.

Last year, Cathay Pacific (CPCAY) said that it would consider letting some of its pilots live abroad for a few months as aircrew continued to face arduous self-isolation measures. The carrier later said that its workers spent more than 73,000 nights in government-mandated quarantine in 2021.

Hong Kong kept out Covid, but exhausted and depressed pilots are paying the price

French spirits maker Pernod Ricard (PDRDF) has also asked top executives from its Hong Kong office to work abroad for some time, according to unidentified sources who spoke with the FT. The company did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Meanwhile, other players have moved away entirely.

In November, FedEx (FDX) said it would shut down its crew base in Hong Kong and relocate pilots, citing the city's "pandemic requirements."

From the start of the pandemic through the end of last year, at least 84 companies have either closed or moved their regional headquarters out of Hong Kong, according to CNN Business calculations based on government data.

Asked about the figure, a government spokesperson responded that "Hong Kong remains a competitive city globally and a major regional base for international companies."

The representative also pointed to emerging opportunities in the Greater Bay Area, a zone connecting Hong Kong, the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and the city of Macao as "a market of 86 million people." Many banks have honed in on the area as a key priority in the coming years.

The government, which includes mainland Chinese companies in its annual tally of international businesses in Hong Kong, said that the number had recently "risen to a record high of 9,049."

But the exodus amongst Western players may not slow down this year.

BASF (BASFY), a German chemicals giant, recently relocated its chief for Asia Pacific, excluding Greater China, to Singapore "after careful consideration of her office's strategic location in the region," according to the company.

The decision was based on "the requirement for proximity to relevant stakeholders and markets," it told CNN Business in a statement.

More than 40% of expats in a survey are thinking of leaving Hong Kong

Others may be biding their time. Hong Kong recently brought forward the end of the school year for some institutions to March or April, giving families more time to reevaluate their options before the new term begins in September.

In some sectors, bonus season typically takes place around this period, too.

"I suspect there's a lot of international bankers who may be waiting till then before they decide whether they've had their fill of Hong Kong," said a person working in the finance industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Free flights and country clubs

This exodus means that top companies in the city are working extra hard to attract — and retain — skilled workers.

Two senior headhunters in Hong Kong said that job candidates were increasingly pricing in the inconvenience of living in the city — if they were even persuaded to do so.

"Most of them are just kind of immediately saying no," said John Mullally, regional director of Southern China and Hong Kong financial services at recruitment agency Robert Walters.

"You've got a smaller candidate pool, especially when it comes to those with overseas experience."

Mark Tibbatts, managing director of Southern China and Taiwan for the agency Michael Page, described it as "an ongoing battle" that had made it "nigh on impossible" to lure international talent.

A view of Hong Kong's skyline, captured on Wednesday.

The circumstances have revived the so-called "expat package," which had mostly been scrapped in recent years, according to both recruiters.

"Let's go back a couple of decades. Most of the senior expats in Hong Kong were on a pretty juicy package that might have included flights home, and education, and club memberships and all these types of things," said Tibbatts. "Over the last, let's say, 10, 15 years, most of that's been phased out."

Alibaba co-founder: Jack Ma is doing well and Hong Kong will be 'fine'

Now, some of those deals are "coming back," he added.

Mullally also described a rising view that Hong Kong was becoming "a bit of a hardship posting" for expats, a term that typically refers to a place with hostile living conditions.
That perception was more common from the 1970s to early 1990s, and back then justified more perks for businesspeople, he said.

Now, companies are "going to have to try to bring that back because ... realistically, if you want to attract people, that's kind of the package you'll have to put together."

Nowhere to go

As international executives jump ship, blue-collar workers and the city's poorest are being left behind to face the darkening economic outlook.

It's not just in Hong Kong: Inequality around the world has worsened throughout the pandemic, with billionaires making unprecedented gains in wealth as tens of millions of people fall into poverty.

Despite a growing shortage of domestic workers in Hong Kong, "it is not easy to say whether [the pandemic] has as a whole positively or negatively impacted them," said Manisha Wijesinghe, executive director of HELP for Domestic Workers.

"We definitely have seen a number of domestic workers who are being offered higher than statutorily mandated wages due to the shortage of incoming domestic workers," she said.

Hear how restrictions in Hong Kong are affecting their citizens 02:51

"But we have also seen domestic workers being forced to take on salaries lower than the minimum allowable wage ... there is a power imbalance."

From January 2020 to the end of 2021, the city's number of domestic workers dropped from more than 400,000 to roughly 340,000, according to government statistics.
In a recent blog post, Hong Kong Labor Secretary Law Chi-kwong pointed to flight bans from certain countries as a possible reason for the slump, saying that some workers had likely been stranded abroad.

When asked about the plight of domestic workers, authorities told CNN Business that foreign workers who test positive for Covid-19 "will receive support and medical treatment like local people in Hong Kong." And, if unemployed, they will be admitted to community isolation facilities, they said.

A government spokesperson also said that it "has continuously reminded employers of their statutory obligations and requirements" during the pandemic, and "any breach of such requirements will render them ineligible to employ [a domestic worker] for a period of time."

'Zero income'

While big international firms may have the privilege to up and move, most local businesses have no choice but to hunker down.

As many as 50,000 small businesses could shut down over the city's fifth wave of Covid, estimates Danny Lau, chairman of the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association.

That's about one in seven such registered entities across the city — and there could be more, he said.

Despite soaring infections, Hong Kong officials have been holding onto the "zero Covid" strategy in recent weeks, introducing social distancing restrictions that have stifled local activity.

Hong Kong is facing an exodus of educated workers on a scale not seen since the early 1990s.
PETER WONG, CHAIRMAN OF THE HONG KONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Many places, such as beauty parlors and fitness studios, have been forced to stop operating for months until the current measures end.

"They don't have any income. Zero income," Lau said of those business owners. He added that some had resorted to operating secretly just to keep making a living.
Like elsewhere, small businesses had already been hit hard earlier in the pandemic, especially by the lack of tourists.

These firms were "almost half dead," said Lau, noting that some entrepreneurs had already taken out significant loans or dug into their reserves just to stay afloat.

"The worst thing is you cannot see the future," he added. "We don't know how long these restrictions will last for."

SHARKS SWIM TOGETHER

Toronto lawyer Jeremy Diamond deserves more than a reprimand, tribunal rules

Jeremy Diamond’s misleading advertising misconduct requires more than a reprimand, a Law Society Tribunal has concluded, rejecting a joint submission between the Toronto personal injury lawyer and prosecutors.

Last year, Diamond admitted before a disciplinary panel that between 2013 and 2017 he had improperly marketed personal injury legal services that he did not provide, failing to disclose “clearly and prominently” that Diamond & Diamond referred thousands of potential clients to other lawyers for fees.

In written submissions, Diamond argued his role was “not dissimilar to that of many senior lawyers who focus on business development and firm management, while serving as a mentor for junior lawyers and maintaining some involvement in individual cases.”

Diamond’s legal team, led by Toronto criminal lawyer Brian Greenspan, and law society prosecutors jointly submitted that a reprimand was the appropriate penalty, proposing Diamond pay $40,000 in costs.

However, Malcolm Mercer, tribunal chair, said he was concerned that the proposed reprimand would amount “to a mere slap on the wrist.”

That triggered more hearings, including over Diamond’s attempt to have Mercer removed as panel chair. That failed, and subsequently more arguments were held last fall on whether a reprimand was a sufficient penalty.

Last week, the tribunal released its decision containing detailed reasons why a reprimand — the most lenient penalty available to the tribunal — would be “unhinged from the circumstances of the misconduct in this case.”

“In our opinion, a reprimand is so lenient, in the context of failures of honesty and integrity in communications to very large numbers of potential clients over a lengthy period of time, that a reasonable and informed person would be concerned that the regulation of legal professions does not take honesty and integrity seriously,” the panel wrote.

After the tribunal indicated last year that it wasn’t prepared to go along with the penalty, Diamond filed a motion to withdraw his admissions of professional misconduct.

“I was never aware and I did not contemplate that a potential penalty could exceed a reprimand here,” Diamond said last year. “Had I known that that was a possibility, I would never admitted to the misconduct, and would have had a hearing.”

There are no minimum or maximum penalties for lawyers found guilty of professional misconduct, and the range can include suspension or even disbarment. Past tribunals have not accepted joint submissions on costs and have increased proposed penalties.

Last year, Greenspan said that for a guilty plea to stand, “an accused must be aware of the criminal consequences as well as the legally relevant collateral consequences.” Since that wasn’t the case here, he argued, “we say there is no alternative but to abort this hearing at this stage and go back to square one.”

Greenspan declined to comment but confirmed arguments will be held on the withdrawal motion later this month.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich speaks out against the war in Ukraine

by ChessBase

3/15/2022 – The American magazine "Mother Jones", seven times winner of the "Magazine of the Year" award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, just published interviews with 36 prominent personalities from the world of chess about the war in Ukraine. One of them is FIDE President and former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who spoke out against the war: "My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians. ... Wars do not just kill priceless lives. Wars kill hopes and aspirations, freeze or destroy relationships and connections." | Photo: David Llada

From "Mother Jones"

Exclusive: Former Top Kremlin Official Who Chairs Global Chess Federation Decries Russia’s War on Ukraine

"My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians," says Arkady Dvorkovich.

Daniel King

Note: The author is Mother Jones staff editor Daniel King of the United States, not to be mistaken for ChessBase author and popular chess commentator GM Daniel King.

Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.

Two weeks ago, the world’s top chess authorities voted to sharply rebuke Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The unanimous decision by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to ban Russians from competing under their own flag, and strip the country of the Chess Olympiad slated for Moscow this summer, is extraordinary not just because it sidelines Russia from the game it had dominated for half a century, but because of who joined the chess world in repudiating Russia: former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

In an interview with Mother Jones, Dvorkovich, who is now president of FIDE, voiced his opposition to the war, becoming one of the very few, or only, former senior Kremlin officials to openly criticize it. "Wars are the worst things one might face in life…including this war," Dvorkovich tells me from Russia, where he says he is "safe with my family and friends."

Dvorkovich, who served at the Kremlin for 10 years, joins scores of chess leaders in decrying Vladimir Putin’s invasion. "My thoughts are with Ukrainian civilians," Dvorkovich tells me. "Wars do not just kill priceless lives. Wars kill hopes and aspirations, freeze or destroy relationships and connections."

LONG READ

Read the full article and interviews with 36 top chess personalities at Mother Jones...

Links

Mother Jones

FIDE