Alberta house leader Jason Nixon accused of trying to intimidate opponent in chamber


Dean Bennett
The Canadian Press
Staff
Published April 20, 2022 


EDMONTON -

Alberta government house leader Jason Nixon is facing accusations of intimidation following a fiery exchange in the house that saw him lob a swear word toward the Speaker.

Independent legislature member Todd Loewen asked Speaker Nathan Cooper on Wednesday to sanction Nixon, saying Nixon tried to intimidate him from pursuing his work - a fundamental breach of his rights as a parliamentarian.

“This legislature is not a one-man show and, no, it doesn't revolve around a small group of people that feel it is their personal playground that they can manipulate,” Loewen told Cooper in the legislature chamber.

The exchange happened three weeks ago, when Loewen was introducing documents for the legislature record and, while doing so, publicly accused Nixon of making false statements about him.

That caused Nixon to shout back and, when Cooper intervened, Nixon directed a profane word so loudly in Cooper's direction that it was captured on the written parliamentary record.

Nixon then told the house he may change the rules to prevent or put limits on the tabling of documents, which Loewen said is grounds for intimidation.

“This has affected myself and all members who now worry about tabling documents in case the house leader finds further personal offence and does in fact bring forward changes stopping this important part of members' business,” said Loewen.

Opposition NDP house leader Christina Gray agreed Wednesday with Loewen.

“There has been a very chilling effect by the government's house leader's words,” Gray told Cooper.

“Through his action he has not only breached the privilege of (Loewen) but has committed a contempt against the entire assembly.”

Nixon was not in the house and his case was argued by deputy government house leader Joseph Schow.

Schow said Nixon had been responding to provocative, unwarranted and spurious accusations by Loewen. He said Loewen was breaking the rules by making “drive-by smears” with his comments and that Nixon, and anyone else in the house, is free to propose changes to make things run more smoothly.

“This government caucus is always looking to find ways to improve how the business of the assembly is managed and how to prevent abusive behaviour,” Schow told Cooper.

“The government house leader did not threaten any member of the assembly.”

There's a recent history of bad blood between Loewen and the United Conservative Party government.

Loewen was elected as a member of the government in the 2019 election but was voted out of caucus almost a year ago for questioning Premier Jason Kenney's leadership and publicly urging Kenney to resign. He now sits as an Independent.

During debate on March 31, just before the house adjourned for an extended two-week break, Loewen was tabling documents to underscore his criticism of Kenney. He also wanted to refute accusations from Nixon that Loewen was an NDP sympathizer and had advocated for mandated COVID-19 vaccinations.

That prompted Nixon to shout at Loewen across the floor.

When Cooper intervened, Nixon turned to Cooper and said, “Mr. Speaker, the guy just called me a f---ing liar in the middle of the damn legislature.”

That brought Cooper to his feet to loudly rebuke Nixon.

“Using language that's unparliamentary, including an F-bombdirected at the Speaker, is wildly inappropriate,” said Cooper.

Cooper had Nixon apologize for the profanity and for using Loewen's proper name in the legislature - another procedural no-no - when Nixon told Loewen during the exchange: “What a joke. That's why your career is over, Todd.”

Loewen, at Cooper's direction, apologized for accusing Nixon of misleading the assembly.

Cooper said he will deliver a ruling on Loewen's complaint in the next few days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2022.

'Soap opera': Kenney says he's been too tolerant of open dissent

'If I've made a mistake in the past three years, perhaps it's (that) I've been far too tolerant of public expressions of opposition'

Author of the article:
CP, The Canadian Press
Dean Bennett
Publishing date: Apr 21, 2022 

 

Premier Jason Kenney says Albertans are unimpressed with the intraparty melodrama of his United Conservative government and adds that, if anything, he has been too soft on dissenters.

“What Albertans expect from their government isn’t a constant soap opera, and they certainly don’t want to see a family feud,” Kenney said, responding to questions Wednesday night during a Facebook town-hall meeting.

“Conservatives know that we must be united, and unity requires a degree of discipline.”

United Conservative Party members are currently voting by mail on whether Kenney should remain leader. If he receives less than 50 per cent support, the party must call a leadership race.

The vote has exposed deep discontent with Kenney’s leadership. Some members of his caucus have openly called for him to resign for the good of the party.

Kenney said while he respects free speech in his caucus, he has probably been too tolerant of open dissent.

He said he learned the importance of discipline while he was in the cabinet and caucus of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

“Sometimes (Harper) was criticized for being too strong in maintaining that discipline, but in retrospect I think it was necessary to maintain the unity and coherence of our government, party and movement,” said Kenney.

“If I’ve made a mistake in the past three years, perhaps it’s (that) I’ve been far too tolerant of public expressions of opposition.

“There are totally legitimate times when MLAs should be able to speak out for their constituents or share somewhat different views on policy. But if that becomes nothing but a constant effort at an internal civil war, I don’t think that’s acceptable.”

Almost 60,000 party members are eligible to vote in the leadership review. Results are to be announced May 18.


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Kenney reiterated that if he fails to get 50 per cent, he will step aside, but if he gets the support he needs to continue, he expects everyone in caucus to fall in line so that the party can present a united front to defeat the Opposition NDP in the 2023 election.

Kenney has been dealing with dissent for more than a year, a situation exacerbated by and stemming from low poll popularity ratings.

Opponents have criticized his COVID-19 decisions, but have also said he has ditched the party’s grassroots ethos for top-down, centralized command and control.

Who gets punished and who doesn’t for public criticism has been hit and miss. A year ago, backbenchers Todd Loewen and Drew Barnes were voted out of caucus for criticizing Kenney. Soon after, Leela Aheer was dumped from cabinet for doing the same.

  

Leela Aheer, former minister for culture, multiculturalism and status of women, appears at a press conference with Premier Jason Kenney before she was removed from cabinet. 

PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM /Postmedia, file

Others have spoken out against the premier but have been allowed to stay in caucus, including two backbenchers who recently renewed calls for Kenney to quit.

The highest profile dissenter is Brian Jean, the newest member of the legislature. Jean won a recent byelection for the UCP on a promise to fight to have Kenney ousted. Some UCP members support Jean, while others have accuse him of being an Opposition NDP collaborator.

A revised seating chart in the house this week reflects the rift. Most of Kenney’s critics are now seated in the back row of the government benches. Jean is at the far end in the corner, furthest away from Kenney and the door.

On Tuesday, backbencher Jason Stephan renewed an earlier attack on Kenney in a speech to the house.

“Some say that unity requires you to follow the leader, but what if you’re being led over a cliff?” said Stephan. “Should you fall like a lemming? No.”

He added that “unity cannot be forced or coerced. Without trust, there is no unity.”

Braid: UCP member startles legislature with leadership blast

When the party changed to mail-in voting it extended the whole drama for another month

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date: Apr 19, 2022

The Alberta legislature on Nov. 5, 2020. 

PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia, file

As the legislature reopened Tuesday, criticism of Premier Jason Kenney came right from the heart of his own government.

It was dramatic and unexpected. Even some of Kenney’s most ardent opponents were surprised.

“Some say unity requires you to follow the leader,” UCP MLA Jason Stephan said in a formal member’s statement before the daily question period

“But Mr. Speaker, what if you’re being led over a cliff? Should you follow like a lemming? No.”

The place fell into deep silence followed by some applause, even on the government side.

Stephan was one of the seven who stood on the legislature steps after the party moved from in-person to mail-in voting, demanding that Kenney switch back or resign.

That was striking. But taking the leadership struggle to the legislature floor is another level entirely.

The UCP vote is the business of a political party, and thus not open for legislature discussion.

But Stephan adroitly found a way around the rule.

The MLA for Red Deer-South didn’t mention the premier by name, or the party. He talked about unity, trust, cheating and leadership.

But everybody knew what he was getting at.

  

United Conservative Party Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan (at podium), several UCP constituency association presidents, and several MLAs, speak about their discontent with recently announced changes to the UCP Special General Meeting voting rules during a press conference held below Premier Jason Kenney’s office at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Thursday March 24, 2022. 

PHOTO BY DAVID BLOOM /Postmedia

Stephan hit on what I believe has been Kenney’s big mistake with the party — his contention that the UCP is threatened “by lunatics who want to take over the asylum.”

Mental-health advocates weren’t the only ones appalled by that comment. Kenney has convinced many reasonable UCP members that he thinks they’re bigots and racists just because they oppose him.

Kenney also wraps himself in the mantle of party unity, saying it will collapse without him.

Stephan tackled all that when he told the house: “There is too much division. Albertans need more unity.

“Some say, of course we can have unity, if only you will agree with me.

“That’s not unity.

“What about labelling and calling people names? Is that going to produce unity? No.

“If you’re a member of a team and there is cheating, are you supposed to look the other way for the sake of unity?

“No. Winning does not justify cheating.”

Listeners could only take that as a reference to the leadership race, and the ensuing mistrust over the mail-in leadership vote.

Stephan told me afterward that Kenney only switched to mail-in voting because he knew he was about to lose

“Of that I have no doubt. As a political party, you have hit the jackpot when 15,000 people are going to come to the biggest meeting in Alberta history. Why would you cancel it?”

Regarding his speech, Stephan said, “I just want the public to have faith in the integrity of government. I want our integrity to be trusted. I did not run to be part of a government that is not trusted.”

Concluding his statement in the legislature, he said, “unity without integrity makes unity unvirtuous. Unity cannot be forced or coerced.

“But what if the truth angers some? Should we forsake truth for the sake of unity? No.

“Can we sow disunity and expect to reap unity? No.”

Kenney wasn’t in the house to hear all that. But he’ll have to wonder what’s coming next.

When the party changed to mail-in voting it extended the whole drama for another month.

All return votes have to be received by May 11, so there’s still nearly three weeks more of this to come.

Kenney has his own campaign team on the ground. Many of his staffers are on unpaid leave to work full-time on securing a positive vote.

Dissident riding groups are still active, now calling for the resignations of both the party president and executive director.

And Jason Stephan is not the only MLA with a lot more to say.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
Facebook: Don Braid Politics

LAWN ORDER GOVERNMENT

Braid: Criminals walk as UCP faces chronic problems with prosecution service

If prosecutors walk off the job, hundreds of cases would suddenly shut down, letting more perpetrators walk free

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date: Apr 20, 2022 •

Crown prosecutor Aaron Rankin poses for a portrait at Centrium Place in downtown Calgary on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. 

PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Postmedia

Alberta’s Crown counsels — the ones who prosecute offenders — are talking seriously about going on strike. This is another crisis nobody needs, least of all the UCP government.

The Crown attorneys association has a meeting Thursday with Treasury Board officials that could lead to progress on pay.

This is welcome. Most Alberta prosecutors earn far less than their counterparts in other provinces. The gap with Ontario is said to be 40 per cent.

But pay is only one problem. On March 22, the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association sent Premier Jason Kenney a letter, asking for an urgent meeting.

They said, in part: “The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service is in crisis.

“Crushing file loads, inadequate mental health supports and uncompetitive compensation have led to dozens of unfilled prosecutor positions.

“We have seen a significant number of prosecutors leave the ACPS for places like British Columbia and Ontario, to the extent that the ACPS often seems like a farm team for other prosecution services.”

If prosecutors walk off the job, hundreds of cases would suddenly shut down, letting more perpetrators walk free.

As many as 3,000 cases are already at risk of withdrawal because they haven’t been taken to court within time limits. A work stoppage by the Crowns would add many more. After a strike of any length, the courts would face even greater backlogs when trials resumed.

“One of the very last things we want to do is go on strike, but we’re forced to look out for the long-term viability of the (prosecution) service,” says Dallas Sopko, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association (ACAA).

Dallas Sopko, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association, says there is strong support for a strike. 

PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia

“We did a survey of our members and a very strong majority were in favour of going on strike. This isn’t just a bluff. This isn’t just words we throw around loosely.”

Under current conditions, the letter says, cases that could be stayed include “sexual assault, robberies, domestic assaults and other crimes of significant violence.” That doesn’t include hundreds of even more serious cases awaiting trial in Court of Queen’s Bench.

The prosecutors didn’t get a meeting with the premier. But “discussions” have started.

Alberta has about 380 Crown lawyers. The count is fluid because departures (and some additions) happen regularly.

The government did announce hiring of 50 new Crown prosecutors, mostly at the junior level. Officials say those people were brought on.

But still, departures are so high that nearly 40 positions are now vacant. In recent weeks three prosecutors from the Calgary office and four in Edmonton have taken jobs in other provinces. Every time that happens, the court backlogs stack up further.


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The UCP has said for three years now that public servants make too much money in comparison with other provinces, based on the findings of the MacKinnon Report. The government’s key policy goal is to bring pay into line.

But the standard should apply both ways. If a vital area such as Crown prosecution is seriously underpaid by national standards, the compensation should surely be raised.

The government acknowledges that some Crowns, although not all, face a significant pay gap. There seems to be a will to fix that.

But the prosecutors have other problems. In 2017, the UCP, then in opposition, called for an end to triage; the system brought in by the NDP that allows picking and choosing which cases go to trial. Some are never heard because of staff shortages.

And yet, triage still exists under the UCP. The Crowns want it ended. There is also a shortage of security in rural courtrooms, a high level of stress and burnout, and many other problems.

The prosecutors are classified as managers even though, as Sopko says, “95 per cent of our lawyers don’t manage anyone.”

That classification means Crown prosecutors have faced several politically motivated pay freezes. It also keeps them from negotiating with the government. Unlike prosecutors in every other province but Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island, they do not have collective bargaining rights.

The government’s position seems to be that the Crowns are welcome to join the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. By law, all units with employees who work for government must bargain through AUPE.

But the lawyers argue persuasively that this would create a conflict of interest.

In trials, prosecutors often call witnesses who work for the government.

   

A courtroom at the Edmonton Law Courts building. 

PHOTO BY JASON FRANSON /The Canadian Press, file

A social worker might testify against an abusive spouse, for instance. The defence could claim that the worker and the Crown prosecutor are in conflict as AUPE members.

The Crowns asked the Labour Relations Board for certification as an independent bargaining unit. They were unsuccessful at the Board and again at Queen’s Bench. The case is now before the Appeal Court, awaiting decision.

The Queen’s Bench judgment rejected the prosecutors’ case on technical grounds, but pointed out that Crowns have their own independent bargaining units in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

About 300 of the province’s Crown lawyers have joined the voluntary ACAA. It has gained informal standing with the government. The mere fact of a meeting with Treasury officials is a big step.

While the union question sorts out, there has to be urgent action on pay, staff shortages, security in rural court, work conditions and triaging.

Government neglect, alternating with occasional action, has allowed problems to fester and grow.

“There has to be some structure in place to prevent standards in the ACPS from slipping while political attention is directed elsewhere,” says Aaron Rankin, secretary of the prosecutors’ association.

“Albertans should be able to count on that.”

Only the criminals would disagree.


Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
Facebook: Don Braid Politics

Alberta Crown prosecutors in a 'holding pattern' as talks with province to avoid strike continue

The witness box and Judges's bench at the Edmonton Law Courts building, in Edmonton on Friday, June 28, 2019 (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson).

Adam Lachacz
CTVNewsEdmonton.ca Digital Producer
Updated April 18, 2022

Discussions between Crown prosecutors and the province are ongoing with the hopes of preventing a mass strike action that would paralyze Alberta's justice system.

Justice ministry and treasury board officials met with the Alberta Crown Attorney's Association (ACAA) last week, with another meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Dallas Sopko, ACAA president, said frozen wages, low morale, and an ever-increasing workload represent concerns prosecutors hold, especially as more attorneys consider moving to other jurisdictions.

"We've made it clear to the government that what we are really seeking here is the ability to collectively bargain on behalf of prosecutors," Sopko said. "We had some higher-level conversations about expectations."

According to Sopko, no formal commitments were made by the government, but there is a small "glimmer of hope" that a strike won't occur.

"We are in a bit of a holding pattern," he told CTV News Edmonton. "The ball really is in the government's court.

"We are waiting to get a response from them about what they are willing to do to resolve the issues."

Joseph Dow, Justice Minister Tyler Shandro's press secretary, said discussions continue.

"Discussions with ACAA will help inform the development of an objective, market-based approach to compensation for Crown prosecutors," Dow said. "Which we understand is a key priority for ACAA and its members."

Should the government respond with a proposal not in the best interest of the ACAA, Sopko said the more than 300 members of the association are "united" in the belief that job action would need to be taken.

"We want to be as reasonable as possible," Sopko said. "We want to at all costs avoid a disruption or a shutdown of the justice system or a number of cases in the justice system."

"What we really need is to avoid this vicious cycle of things boiling over and feeling like we've been ignored and then things boil over and then there's a knee-jerk reaction that temporarily solves the problem but has no long-term solution," Sopko added.

'A HUGE CAMPAIGN PROMISE'

Chaldeans Mensah, MacEwan University political scientist, said avoiding a Crown prosecutor strike remains in the best interest of the United Conservative Party.

"They definitely have to be motivated because the UCP promised in the last campaign that they would be tough on crime and they committed to providing resources to prosecutors to be able to accomplish this," Mensah said. "This is a huge campaign promise.

"Any movement to a strike in this period as we prepare for the next election would be very, very tough on the UCP," he added. "I think there is an incentive for the government to compromise here."

Mensah said the conflict with the ACAA is just the latest example of tensions between the UCP and public sector unions and employees.

"The UCP government has traditionally had a difficult relationship with public-sector unions," he said, adding that tensions between doctors, nurses, and other health-care workers compensation remain, in addition to a push to change teacher discipline.

"There's no doubt that there's no love lost between the public sector and this government," he said. "(However), if there's too much upheaval, demonstrations, that plays into the hands of the NDP, particularly in the big cities."

With Jason Kenney's leadership review ongoing and a looming provincial election to be called no later than May 2023, Mensah expects the government to settle the issue with Crown prosecutors before it gets to job action.

"The government is in a better financial position than they were months ago," the political scientist said. "So they can afford to make a deal and settle this because Jason Kenney doesn't want things like a strike hanging over his head."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski

02:09
Alberta prosecutors continue talks with government

01:39
Alta. prosecutors could strike

02:15
Overwhelming amount of work for crown prosecutors

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Pterosaur Discovery Solves Ancient Feather Mystery: Flying Reptiles Could Change the Color of Their Feathers

By UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK APRIL 20, 2022

Artist’s reconstruction of the feathered pterosaur Tupandactylus, showing the feather types along the bottom of the headcrest: dark monofilaments and lighter-colored branched feathers. Credit: © Nicholls 2022 Copyright Bob Nicholls

Remarkable new evidence that pterosaurs, the flying relatives of dinosaurs, were able to control the color of their feathers using melanin pigments has been discovered by an international team of paleontologists.

The study, published today (April 20, 2022) in the journal Nature, was led by University College Cork (UCC) paleontologists Dr. Aude Cincotta and Prof. Maria McNamara, and Dr. Pascal Godefroit from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, with an international team of scientists from Brazil and Belgium.

Artist’s reconstruction of the feathered pterosaur Tupandactylus, showing the feather types along the bottom of the head crest: dark monofilaments and lighter-colored branched feathers. Credit: Copyright Julio Lacerda

The new study is based on analyses of a new 115 million-year-old fossilized head crest of the pterosaur Tupandactylus imperator from north-eastern Brazil. Pterosaurs lived side by side with dinosaurs, from 230 to 66 million years ago.

This species of pterosaur is famous for its bizarre huge head crest. The team discovered that the bottom of the crest had a fuzzy rim of feathers, with short wiry hair-like feathers and fluffy branched feathers.

University College Cork (UCC) Professor Maria McNamara holding tiny samples of the pterosaur feathers. Credit: UCC

“We didn’t expect to see this at all,” said Dr. Cincotta. “For decades paleontologists have argued about whether pterosaurs had feathers. The feathers in our specimen close off that debate for good as they are very clearly branched all the way along their length, just like birds today.”

The team then studied the feathers with high-powered electron microscopes and found preserved melanosomes – granules of the pigment melanin. Unexpectedly, the new study shows that the melanosomes in different feather types have different shapes.

University College Cork (UCC) Professor Maria McNamara. Credit: UCC

“In birds today, feather color is strongly linked to melanosome shape,” said Prof. McNamara. “Since the pterosaur feather types had different melanosome shapes, these animals must have had the genetic machinery to control the colors of their feathers. This feature is essential for color patterning and shows that coloration was a critical feature of even the very earliest feathers.”

Thanks to the collective efforts of the Belgian and Brazilian scientists and authorities working with a private donor, the remarkable specimen has been repatriated to Brazil. “It is so important that scientifically important fossils such as this are returned to their countries of origin and safely conserved for posterity,” said Dr. Godefroit. “These fossils can then be made available to scientists for further study and can inspire future generations of scientists through public exhibitions that celebrate our natural heritage.”

Reference: “Pterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers” by Aude Cincotta, Michaël Nicolaï, Hebert Bruno Nascimento Campos, Maria McNamara, Liliana D’Alba, Matthew D. Shawkey, Edio-Ernst Kischlat, Johan Yans, Robert Carleer, François Escuillié and Pascal Godefroit, 20 April 2022, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04622-3

Forget passenger cars, here’s where hydrogen make sense in transport

Hydrogen is attractive to trucking and ports, but only if it's clean.

JONATHAN M. GITLIN - 4/20/2022, 

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Earth Day is April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their sustainability and minimize their climate impact.

You can understand why the idea of a hydrogen-powered car is appealing. Humans aren't great at accepting change, but we do find comfort in the familiar. Being told that our transport must decarbonize means more change. While electric vehicles are better at almost everything, even the world's biggest EV evangelist must concede that charging a car takes longer than filling a fuel tank. Hydrogen can be pressurized and pumped, and hydrogen can be clean, therefore hydrogen-powered cars make sense, the argument goes.

That's probably all the prompt any regular Ars Technica reader needs to list the reasons why hydrogen is a non-starter. Like mammals after the Chicxulub asteroid, battery electric vehicles are poised to fill the niches soon to be left by the dinosaurs, in this case fossil fuel-powered vehicles, leaving alternative fuels like hydrogen evaporating into thin air.

But don't count the universe's simplest molecule out just yet. While it's unlikely to catch on in the near future for light passenger vehicles, there are commercial applications like trucks, trains, and other heavy equipment where it does make sense. (For this entire article, we're talking about green hydrogen, made of wind or solar energy; using fossil fuels to make hydrogen—even with carbon capture—offers little to no benefit. Unfortunately, the vast majority of hydrogen currently produced is derived from hydrocarbons.)

Forget about hydrogen cars—at least for now

There are two main ways to use hydrogen to power a vehicle. You can burn pressurized hydrogen in an internal combustion engine or use the hydrogen in a fuel cell to generate electricity to power electric motors.

Burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine is probably the most straightforward in terms of existing tech—after modifications to the engine and fuel system, the rest of the car's powertrain remains the same. And the only exhaust product is water. But hydrogen has little energy density, with just a single covalent bond between two atoms to be broken. Hydrogen combustion engines also make little power, and very inefficiently compared to a similar engine burning gasoline.Advertisement

So, BMW's 2006 Hydrogen 7 used a modified version of the company's V12 engine that, burning hydrogen, generated about 60 percent as much power as the gasoline-burning V12 and required five times as much fuel to do so.

Hydrogen fuel cells have a lengthier automotive history: the first was the General Motors Electrovan in 1966, which had a curb weight that would shame even a Hummer EV and used actual space-age technology. By the mid-2010s, automaker interest in fuel cells was surging, with Audi, BMW, GM, Genesis, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and others portending fuel cell EVs in the next few years.

Some even made it into production: Ars tested two generations of Toyota Mirai, and the Hyundai Nexo, all of which use hydrogen fuel cells to power their electric motors. But neither Mirai nor Nexo is common on the roads. Here in the US, neither is viable outside of California, which remains the only state with any level of public hydrogen refueling infrastructure.

Hydrogen's fast refueling times (relative to fast-charging an EV) count for nothing if you can't find a filling station, which has created a chicken-and-egg problem. Without hydrogen fuel cell EVs on the roads, there's no demand for building the infrastructure. And there's no demand for a car or SUV you can't refuel anywhere.

"The challenge doing it for retail customers who have a very different set of needs than, let's say, commercial customers in the aerospace business or in the trucking business or the rail business is they want hydrogen everywhere. They don't know where they're going to want it, but they want it there when they need it, and they don't want the inconvenience or the range anxiety of trying to hunt for hydrogen. And so that means you put in a lot of stations when you don't have a lot of vehicles on the road, and those stations don't operate efficiently," explained Charlie Freese, the head of GM's fuel cell program.

Fixed routes let you plan

It takes a lot less work to build out hydrogen refueling infrastructure if you're on a fixed route or always returning to the same place—like the drayage trucks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California. In 2017, Toyota started testing its fuel cell technology adapted from the Mirai sedan to power a class 8 tractor-trailer. By June 2021, the project expanded to five heavy-duty trucks and plans to add five more, as well as two battery-electric yard tractors.

GM has been looking at trucking as a better fit for its hydrogen fuel cells than another SUV. "We're able to leverage investments that are already going in for hydrogen at factories and at warehouses where forklifts are operating, economically, on hydrogen today. We can use those same refueling points to fuel the trucks," Freese told me.

Frank Weber, a BMW board member with responsibility for new technology, also sees a future for hydrogen fuel cells as a way to electrify heavy vehicles. "Hydrogen is one of the few options to get them to zero emissions. Because a battery-electric heavy truck is a problem. If you have 40 ton and you have to dedicate 10 ton into batteries—wow," Weber exclaimed. "So when you look at the European development, even the Chinese development and the Asian development, it is obvious—We will see infrastructure in mobility for heavy trucks that is hydrogen infrastructure," Weber said.

"So for larger vehicles, fuel cells become a very interesting point. Because with those large batteries, the fuel itself becomes very competitive and with hydrogen being more available and being affordable, when we look at the industrialization of hydrogen, then we can say for large vehicles fuel cells might be an alternative in the future," Weber told Ars.

Fuel cells are an attractive way to electrify rail lines where adding a third rail or catenary is unworkable or cost-prohibitive, and GM is working with train-maker Wabtec to adapt GM's Hydrotec fuel cell platform to power freight locomotives. Hydrogen fuel cells are also candidates for replacing fossil fuel-burning auxiliary power units on aircraft. "We can provide the zero-emission solution, and we can provide improvements in terms of performance—now I can have a system that is optimized, I don't have a compromised turbine that doesn't really want to sit there and run on the ground, but it has to. And I don't have to have the noise that comes along with these big APUs on these aircraft," Freese told me.

Hydrogen is also appealing for applications in places with a complete lack of infrastructure, in addition to reliable fixed routes around places like ports, rail hubs, and airports.

Enlarge / At the recent Hummer EV first drive event, GMC used a number of Hydrotec fuel cell generators to fast-charge the trucks each night between waves of journalists.
Jonathan Gitlin

The fledgling Extreme E off-road racing series travels with its own solar array and electrolyzer, making hydrogen that's used to run generators to charge the electric racing cars.

Anglo American is exploring a similar concept, minus the racing and focus on environmental destruction. It's testing out a hydrogen fuel cell-powered mining truck fueled by hydrogen that's electrolyzed on-site. And the potential to make your own fuel with not much more than water and some solar panels or wind turbines has led to interest from airship developers and marine biologists.

Assuming that hydrogen fuel cells find favor for uses like freight trucking, rail transport, aviation, and other industries, it's possible to see that eventually leading to a second chance for light passenger vehicles powered by hydrogen. I'm just not sure whether the Mirai and Nexo will have faded from memory like the Electrovan before that happens.

JONATHAN M. GITLIN

Jonathan is the automotive editor at Ars Technica, covering all things car-related. Jonathan lives and works in Washington, D.C.EMAIL jonathan.gitlin@arstechnica.com // TWITTER @drgitlin

Global warming is speeding up ocean currents. Here’s why

Excess heat constricts water flow in shallow surface layers

20 APR 2022
BY PAUL VOOSEN

Surface ocean warming appears to be speeding up global currents, reconstructed here from satellite and ship readings.

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO

Two years ago, oceanographers made a surprising discovery: Not only have oceans been warming because of human-driven climate change, but the currents that flow through them have accelerated—by some 15% per decade from 1990 to 2013. At the time, many scientists suspected faster ocean winds were driving the speedup. But a new modeling study fingers another culprit: the ocean’s own tendency to warm from top to bottom, leading to constricted surface layers where water flows faster, like blood in clogged arteries. The study suggests climate change will continue to speed up ocean currents, potentially limiting the heat the ocean can capture and complicating migrations for already stressed marine life.

“This mechanism is important,” says Hu Shijian, an oceanographer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Oceanology, who was the lead author on the 2020 paper. “[The new paper] links directly the surface warming and acceleration of upper ocean circulation.”

Currents like the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream are highways for marine life, ushers of heat, and drivers of storms. Driven in large part by wind, each of them moves as much water as all the world’s rivers combined. And, despite the fact that the ocean absorbs more than 90% of the heat caused by global warming, until 2020, there had been little evidence that these currents were changing.

When Shang-Ping Xie, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, saw Hu’s study, he immediately suspected that the structure of the ocean—not winds—played a leading role in the speedup. He knew the excess warmth from climate change is not distributed evenly through the ocean but is instead concentrated at its surface. This causes surface waters to grow more buoyant—and more reluctant to mix with waters below. The shallower surface layers created by this process have been seen across the world’s oceans.

Xie and his colleagues also realized that, in shallower layers, currents would naturally have to speed up: In effect, the winds were pushing the same amount of water through a narrower pipe. “If you assume the total transport can’t change, your stuff is going to accelerate,” Xie says.

To test that hypothesis, Xie’s team turned to a climate model of all the world’s oceans. The researchers increased either winds, saltiness, or surface temperatures, while holding all other variables steady. Increasing temperatures alone caused currents to speed up more than 77% of the ocean’s surface. That was by far the largest increase, they found in a new study published today in Science Advances. One notable exception was the Gulf Stream, which is likely slowing for an unrelated reason: As Arctic ice melts, it dilutes the sinking, salty water in the North Atlantic that pulls the current northward.

“This is an interesting study with a provocative finding,” says Sarah Gille, a physical oceanographer at Scripps. “We usually assume that if you uniformly warm the ocean, there will be no major impact on ocean circulation.” Accounting for the top-down nature of ocean warming changes that picture, she adds.

The new findings also suggests that in much of the ocean, lower waters, some 400 meters or so down, would slow as warm upper waters take up more and more of the movement, Xie says. Hu is not so certain of that, however. Unpublished measurements of the speed of Argo floats, a fleet of robotic instruments that have been drifting through the ocean for nearly 20 years, show a significant acceleration in surface currents—and a modest increase at lower depths. “I trust what the observations tell us,” Hu says. The new finding, he adds, “might not be the total story.”

But if ocean currents are indeed becoming faster and shallower, there are many implications for the planet. For example, the shallow, speedy currents could ultimately limit how much heat the ocean can absorb, causing more of that excess heat to remain in the atmosphere. Marine microbes and wildlife could be subjected to shallower, hotter, and faster surface waters. And given that the speedup is driven by the steady drumbeat of warming, it means these trends are likely to continue in the future—as long as human emissions of greenhouse gases continue.

doi: 10.1126/science.abq6332

Uber to drop mask requirement as one Toronto taxi company vows to keep it in place

The Uber app is seen on an iPhone near a driver's vehicle after the company launched service, in Vancouver, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck


Chris Fox
CP24 Web Content Writer
Published April 20, 2022

Uber Canada has announced that it will no longer require riders to wear masks as of later this week but at least one Toronto taxi company is keeping the requirement in place for the time being.

A spokesperson for Uber told CP24 that customers outside of Quebec will no longer be required to wear masks when using the ridesharing service as of April 22.

The spokesperson, however, said that drivers will still be permitted to require that riders wear masks and can cancel a trip “for safety reasons” if they refuse.

“We still strongly recommend wearing a mask depending on personal risk factors and infection rates in your area,” the spokesperson said.

Uber has required that all passengers wear masks since May, 2020 but with many provinces now having removed mask requirements for most settings, the ridesharing company is following suit.

In Ontario masks do continue to be mandatory in a number of high-risk settings, including in hospitals, long-term care homes and on public transit.

Toronto’s biggest taxi company, Beck Taxi, has also said that it will continue to require that all passengers and drivers wear masks for the time being.

“We know that many, including the most vulnerable, rely on the safety and security of for-hire services like ours and drivers depend on us to make informed decision when it comes to masking policies,” the company said in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “We will continue (to require masks), as we do know that the inside of a vehicle does not allow six feet of distance between riders and drivers, which makes it a high-risk setting. We see this as a smart health and safety policy and as a policy that hopefully lends itself to keeping our economy open for business.”

While Uber will drop its mask requirement as of April 22, its competitor Lyft has told CTV News that its mandatory mask policy remains in effect.

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Canada to keep mask mandate for travellers after judge strikes down U.S. rule

The federal government also requires travellers to mask and track close contacts for 14 days after arriving in Canada


Anna Mehler Paperny
Publishing date:Apr 19, 2022 •

Passengers at the nearly empty departure level of Trudeau International Airport in Montreal on December 17, 2021. 

PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF/POSTMEDIA/FILE

TORONTO — Canada’s federal government said on Tuesday it has no plans to stop requiring masks on planes after a Florida judge struck down a U.S. version of the law.

“We are taking a layered approach to keeping travellers safe, and masks remain an incredibly useful tool in our arsenal against COVID-19,” a spokesperson for Canada’s Transport Minister wrote in an email.

The spokesperson confirmed masks will be required on Canadian airlines and on flights that depart from or arrive in Canada. The federal government also requires travellers to wear masks and track close contacts for 14 days after arriving in Canada.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the U.S. mandate, which required masks on airplanes, trains and in taxis, among other locations, saying the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exceeded its authority.

In Canada, the landscape is different. Surveys have shown masking to be widely popular. More than challenges to mask mandates, there is vocal opposition and legal challenges to lifting them.

Last week an Ottawa school board introduced its own mask mandate after the province dropped its requirement. In a letter to parents, the board said students will not be suspended or expelled for non-compliance but their parents may be called.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association did not consider challenging Canada’s mask mandate, its fundamental freedoms director Cara Zwibel said.

“It’s hard to know, really, what right is kind of being violated by a mask mandate” assuming medical exemptions were permitted, she said.

It’s “what the court would probably characterize as ‘de minimis’ — it’s a minor sort of incursion.”

Zwibel said travel is one of the most justifiable places to impose these kinds of measures.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)