Federal labor board sues Starbucks for union retaliation


The National Labor Relations Board filed two lawsuits against Starbucks on Friday accusing the company of illegally retaliating against employees organizing unions. 

File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo


April 23 (UPI) -- The National Labor Relations Board filed two lawsuits against Starbucks in federal court this week accusing the company of retaliation against union organizers.

One suit is linked to the February firing of seven Starbucks workers in Memphis, which the board said was retaliation because they "joined or assisted the union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities," The New York Times reports.

Another suit is an attempt to force Starbucks to rehire three employees in Phoenix, Ariz., that the NLRB claims were fired or forced out illegally. Both lawsuits were filed on Friday.

"Employees have the fundamental right to choose whether or not they want to be represented by the union without restraint or coercion by their employer," Cornele Overstreet, the director of NLRB's Region 28 in Phoenix, said in a press release.

"The faith of Starbucks employees nationwide in workplace democracy will not be restored unless these employees are immediately reinstated under the protection of a federal court order."

Friday's filings mark the latest development in Starbucks' ongoing battle with organized labor efforts. Earlier in the week, the company filed two of its own complaints with the NLRB accusing the union Workers United of intimidating workers.

In the complaints, Starbucks alleges that representatives of Workers United "unlawfully restrained and coerced partners in the exercise of their rights" during incidents at Denver and Phoenix locations.

"We're doing this to protect the physical safety and emotional wellbeing of our partners and to make it very clear that the behavior we're seeing from some union organizers is not acceptable and we won't tolerate it," Rossann Williams, president of Starbucks' North American operations, wrote in a letter to employees obtained by CNBC. "I want every partner to know we respect and honor all their rights - the right to choose a union, and the right to choose to speak for themselves."

The union countered that filing the complaint took "a lot of gall for a company that's launched one of the most aggressive & intense anti-union campaigns in modern history," CNBC reported.

Across the country, Starbucks employees are organizing to bargain for better pay and working conditions. Workers at 200 of Starbucks' approximately 9,000 domestic locations have filed paperwork to unionize; so far, 24 stores have voted in favor and two locations have voted against

Labor officials sue Starbucks to rehire employees who say they were fired in retaliation for union involvement

Employees of a Phoenix Starbucks location said the company retaliated after they tried to unionize.

Signs held by Starbucks union supporters as they protest for Laila Dalton's reinstatement April 6.

They filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.The NLRB's Phoenix Director sued Starbucks to reinstate three employees on Friday.

The National Labor Relations Board filed a petition in federal court for Starbucks to rehire three Arizona employees who say they were removed for unfair labor practices, the agency announced on Friday.

The NLRB's Phoenix Director Cornele Overstreet asked the court for an injunction that would require Starbucks to reinstate three employees with their usual schedules and accommodations, and expunge disciplines from their records. The employees say they were either illegally discharged, forced out, or placed on unpaid leave for union involvement, the NLRB said.

"Employees have the fundamental right to choose whether or not they want to be represented by the union without restraint or coercion by their employer," Overstreet said in a statement. "The faith of Starbucks employees nationwide in workplace democracy will not be restored unless these employees are immediately reinstated under the protection of a federal court order."

Employees at a Starbucks in Arizona that began unionizing this year previously told Insider's Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert that the company has engaged in a pattern of retaliation for organizing.

Laila Dalton, a 19-year-old former barista at a Phoenix Starbucks, told Insider that she was fired after publicly organizing. Dalton said the retaliation began as soon as the union effort went public.

Dalton, alongside other co-workers, fileda complaint with the NLRB in January claiming the coffee giant violated federal law by retaliating against unionizing employees.

Starbucks locations across the country are increasingly participating in a nationwide unionizing effort across the coffee chain. In December, a Buffalo, New York location became the first company-owned Starbucks store in the US that voted to unionize.

Several other locations across the country have voted to unionize since then, including stores in Virginia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington.

SARAH AL-ARSHANI
April 24, 2022 

Only one Starbucks in Canada is currently unionized, and it’s in B.C. Why is Starbucks so afraid of unions?

Unionization simply provides a safety net for employees and shouldn’t be viewed as a threat, writes Amir Barnea.

By Amir Barnea

Contributing Columnist
Sat., April 23, 2022

Starbucks Coffee has gained the reputation of a company that provides great benefits to its employees. It refers to its workers as “partners” and is proud of investing in them. But the idea of these partners joining a union is something the coffee giant never liked. And until recently, save a few cases in New Zealand and Chile, has managed to avoid.

More than 383,000 people work for the Starbucks Corporation worldwide, including 245,000 in the U.S. and 23,000 in Canada. Until June 2021, none of the North American workers in company-owned stores belonged to a union.

But last summer, some 30 employees at a Starbucks drive-thru location at Douglas and Alpha streets in Victoria, B.C., changed that, making their store the only corporate-owned Starbucks in North America to unionize.

Sarah Broad, a barista at the Victoria location — one of the busiest on Vancouver Island — was the driving force behind the idea to unionize in the midst of the pandemic.

“It was the summer of 2020 and there was a lot of miscommunication and lack of communication between us and management. For example, with respect to what type of PPE we were supposed to be wearing. It felt like we weren’t being protected and we weren’t being prioritized. And we were being mistreated by customers,” Broad told me in an interview in Ottawa last month.

At dinner one night, Broad and her friends joked about unionizing and then decided to seriously look into it.

After reaching out to a few unions, the employees chose to work with the United Steelworkers (USW).


The decision caught Starbucks’ management by surprise, Broad said.

“We were receiving emails all the time about how disappointed they were in us,’ Broad recalled. “We were having conversations with the district managers and staff where they were saying how bad of an idea it is because unions are just a third party that gets in the way of communication, and we would have to pay union dues and it’s not worth it, and we wouldn’t be able to function as a normal Starbucks,” she said.

The vice-president of Starbucks Canada came to the store to speak with the employees. The workers decided to stick with their plan.

“Starbucks is a massive corporation, and we were asking them to treat us better. It was really intimidating, but it was empowering and exciting,” Broad said.

After months of negotiations, United Steelworkers (USW) announced a three-year deal that the union says better protects workers against workplace violence and aggression. It negotiated wage increases of up to $2.47 per hour based on years of service.

In a statement following the agreement, Starbucks Canada minimized the achievements accomplished by the employees. “After union dues and donations, some hourly employees in this store will earn only a few cents ($0.04 to $0.07) more per hour than other Starbucks partners in the province,” the statement reads.

Nevertheless, when reached for comment, a spokesperson for Starbucks Canada said in an email that while “All claims of anti-union activity are categorically false,” the company “continues to respect our partners’ right to organize, or not to organize, and we respect the union process.”

Yet, judging by recent comments by its interim CEO it appears that Starbucks is still frightened of the idea that more of its stores will unionize. In any case, it seems like the horse has left the barn. While there is only one unionized store in Canada (a recent attempt to unionize a Calgary store was voted down), south of the border a strong momentum is building: workers at more than 200 stores are in the process of unionizing.

Starbucks has been a leader on so many fronts. From being one of the first S&P 500 firms to publish a Corporate Social Responsibility report back in 2001, to its current initiatives with respect to fighting climate change. So it’s disappointing that it seems to view unionization as a threat.

Most worrying is a report by the New York Post of comments made by Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ legendary CEO who built the company into a coffee empire during his first term as CEO between 1987 and 2000 and was called to serve as interim CEO in the beginning of April.

In a recent meeting with Starbuck employees in California, Schultz told a 25-year-old barista advocating for unionization at his store in Long Beach, “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” the New York Post reported.


The Starbucks Canada spokesperson echoed a similar sentiment in her statement saying: “From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners at Starbucks, without a union between us.”

But the reality is that unionization simply provides a safety net for employees and shouldn’t be viewed as a threat.

With the current worker shortage, especially in the food and service industries, the bargaining power in the workforce has shifted to the side of the employees. This makes it a perfect opportunity to unionize. Workers at retail giant Amazon scored an historical first win on a vote to unionize a Staten Island warehouse giving the labour movement another tailwind.

Schultz, who built Starbucks on principles of corporate social responsibility, should know better than anyone that employees who feel supported by their company are key to the company’s success. Hopefully, he will change his anti-union attitude and work with his partners and not against them.

Canada has 1,400 Starbucks stores, but only one is unionized. Victoria store organizer Broad said many employees are uninformed about the process and the potential benefits of unionization. Others are simply afraid of getting in trouble, she said.

Baristas of Canada, with or without Schultz’s support, this is your moment to take action. Improving working conditions and having a union representing you is your right, and it doesn’t stand in contradiction to being loyal to the coffee company you love working for.

Amir Barnea is an associate professor of finance at HEC Montréal and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @abarnea1

Starbucks eyes changes to mobile app after order deluge fuels barista burnout

Former Couche-Tard exec Deb Hall Lefevre tapped by CEO Howard Schultz as chief technology officer

Author of the article:
Hilary Russ

Apr 22, 2022

 

NEW YORK — Starbucks has hired a former McDonald’s executive to oversee technology as returning CEO Howard Schultz explores changes to the coffee chain’s drive-thru, mobile order-and-pay and other systems.

Deb Hall Lefevre will become Starbuck’s chief technology officer on May 2, according to a spokesperson. She takes over for Hans Melotte, who served as interim CTO for five months.

Changes are likely to include increasing personalization in the company’s mobile app for customers, as well as improvements to systems for employee training, scheduling and equipment maintenance to free up baristas to spend more time with customers, a Starbucks spokesperson said, adding Lefevre was not available to comment.

Hiring a CTO with experience in restaurants and retail will ensure that digital transactions run smoothly, which became particularly important during the pandemic as more customers flocked to mobile apps and new payment systems, said Chas Hermann, a consultant and former vice president of marketing at Starbucks.

Schultz “wants to have someone that can really run the engine in the car,” Hermann said. “But the driver in the seat will be Howard.”

As he returns to the CEO role for the third time, Schultz is plotting a broader corporate overhaul that also includes improved employee benefits aimed at deflating a ballooning union organizing effort at hundreds of cafes, which has been driven in part by barista burnout from a deluge of mobile orders.

Schultz already freed up potentially billions of dollars for investments by suspending share buybacks. When Starbucks reports earnings on May 3, investors will look to see if the company cuts its guidance and if price hikes have offset rising costs. The coffee chain missed sales and profit estimates last quarter and its stock has since fallen another 20 per cent and is down nearly 33 per cent for the year.

“We have to reimagine the customer experience….We have to reimagine mobile-order-and-pay, the drive-thru,” Schultz said in an April 11 video message to store managers and seen by Reuters.



At McDonald’s Corp, Lefevre oversaw all aspects of technology for its roughly 14,000 U.S. restaurants — helping launch its first app, introducing kiosks where customers place their own orders, launching digital menu boards — before moving in 2017 to Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the global operator of Circle K and other convenience stores.



Under her watch, Circle K launched trials of automated checkout systems at stores in Arizona — similar to Starbucks’ first cashier-less location that it opened with Amazon Go in New York City in November.



© Thomson Reuters 2022

"Dangerously Terrifying": Canadian poet Rupi Kaur's book banned in Texas

Daily Hive Staff 
Apr 24 2022

rupikaur_/Instagram

Book bans in Texas are affecting Canada, where one author is deeply troubled by young people no longer having the same access to their work.

On Friday, April 22, Canadian poet Rupi Kaur shared video clip of an interview she did with ABC News Live on her Instagram account after her work was banned in Texas.

“It breaks my heart,” Kaur said in the interview about the ban.

“It’s kind of disturbing to see the way those poems, our experiences about the abuse that we endure, are the reason that this book is being banned.”



“Over the last few months, parts of Texas and Oregon have banned or attempted to ban Milk and Honey from schools and libraries. Why? Because it explores sexual assault and violence experienced by a young woman,” Kaur wrote.

Over three million copies of Milk and Honey, a book of poems and short stories, have been sold worldwide since it was published in 2014. Now, Kaur says that being banned in Texas is “scary,” but they hope they can continue working with teachers and librarians to get it unbanned.

“The banning of Milk and Honey along with an ever-growing list of literature is dangerously terrifying. Banning books is the banning of culture and experiences for everybody,” she wrote in her post.

Kaur is about to embark on a world tour that will take her to numerous Canadian cities, so it’s a perfect opportunity to support the author.

According to a report from Pen America, censorship in the US has “expanded rapidly” in the last nine months.

“In Texas, politicians have been especially assertive in exercising pressure to scrutinize school books,” reads the report.

“Resorting to draconian tactics of banning books, silencing writers, and attempting to erase stories and communities represents an unacceptable attack on First Amendment freedoms fundamental to democracy,” concluded the report.

Here's when Canadians can catch the Blood Flower Moon total eclipse

Sarah Anderson
Apr 24 2022, 

Ronald Nieves/Shutterstock

The Canadian skies are set to be extra captivating in May 2022.

During the total eclipse, the moon will be shrouded in darkness, hidden from the sun’s light by the earth’s shadow.

When is the next lunar eclipse?

The next total eclipse of the moon is happening on May 15, 2022.

“The Moon will enter the penumbra at 9:31 pm EDT on May 15 (6:31 PM PDT) and leave it at 2:52 am EDT on May 16 (11:52 pm PDT on May 15),” said the Farmers’ Almanac.
Where is the lunar eclipse visible?

The lunar eclipse on May 15, 2022, will be visible in most of Canada. According to Wonders of Astronomy, the East Coast will get a great view as the eclipse begins later at night, while on the West Coast, the eclipse will have already begun as the moon rises.



Wonders of Astronomy

This eclipse will last for 84-minutes in total. Thankfully, you don’t have to wake up at 3 am for a chance to see this spectacular lunar event.

Of course, the weather will have to cooperate for people in Canada to get a chance to see it, and ideal conditions would be clear skies.
Why is it called the blood flower moon?

This May, the full moon is called the blood flower moon. The origin of the “flower” part of its name is because May is the time of year when lots of flowers are blooming.

“Blood” comes from the dark, rusty red colour the moon takes on as it changes from gleaming white to red during the eclipse.

According to WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, “the colours of a “Blood Moon” are caused by the Earth’s atmosphere, which sent some scattered and bent sunlight onto the lunar surface.”

Curious to learn more about the coming eclipse? You can watch an animation of what the eclipse will look like across Canada.

Slavery protesters target royal tour in St Vincent

Earl and Countess of Wessex met with a frosty welcome amid demands for reparations

Protesters in St Vincent and Grenadines at the arrival of The Earl and the Countess of Wessex. 

Photograph: Kenton X Chance/I-Witness News

Kenton Chance in Kingstown, St Vincent, and Shanti Das

Sat 23 Apr 2022 

When the Queen visited St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1985, she was met with a jamboree, the prime minister presented her with a commemorative gold coin and residents lined the streets waving flags.

During a trip to the Caribbean island nation on Saturday, her son and daughter in law have received a somewhat frostier welcome.


After a red carpet arrival in the capital Kingstown, to a steel band playing One Love by Bob Marley, the Earl and Countess of Wessex were confronted by protesters calling for slave trade reparations.

Idesha Jackson, 47, was among a crowd of about 20 in the farming village of Diamond, where Prince Edward had travelled to watch athletes training for the Commonwealth Games.

She said she was there to show her “disgust and disappointment” for those who “over 400 years, had to suffer the slave master’s whip”.

“This wrong was done against a sector of the human race by another and this wrong must be compensated,” Jackson said.

Theo Thomas, 69, who travelled to the protest from the Lowmans Hill community on the other side of the country criticised his government for permitting the visit.

“It’s a shame that a so-called progressive government would be using our people as props to entertain members of the royal family and there has been no conversation about reparations,” he said.

Jomo Thomas, a former chair of the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Reparations Committee, was also among protesters. He called for reparations from Britain.

“They hunted us down, they kidnapped us, they stole us, they worked us. They owe us and they must now pay us,” he said. The protests are the latest controversy to mar recent Royal visits to the area.

Prince Edward presents medals to the T10 Cricket team at the Montreal Gardens Bloomers at Arnos Vale Playing Field. 

Photograph: Stuart C Wilson/Getty Images

Last month the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge faced demonstrations in Jamaica and the Bahamas.

And last week Prince Edward and Sophie’s visit to Grenada was abruptly called off. Grenada’s Reparations Commission on slavery had wished to meet the couple.

The next leg of the Wessexes’ tour will take them to Antigua and Barbuda, where things could become even bumpier. The local Reparations Support Commission chairman Dorbrene O’Marde has warned more protests are likely.

Protesters in Kingstown greet the Royal couple.

 Photograph: Kenton X Chance/I-Witness News

In an open letter, the commission accused the royal family and British government of coming to the Caribbean to “lament that slavery was an ‘appalling atrocity’, that it was ‘abhorrent’, that ‘it should not have happened’.”

“We hear the phoney sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a ‘stain on your history’,” the letter said. “For us, they are the source of genocide and of continuing deep international injury, injustice and racism. We hope you will respect us by not repeating the mantra. We are not simpletons.”

In the UK, the National Council of St Vincent and the Grenadines urged the royals to rethink future visits to the Caribbean.

“We as a community feel that the royal family and Buckingham Palace must rethink the future of royal tours following previous visits, given their involvement in the treatment of people of colour,” a spokesperson said. “Feelings were running very high after the last visit to the Caribbean. What’s changed?”

Royal Family face backlash on second Caribbean tour in a month as locals protest over slavery and colonialism

The Earl and Countess of Wessex are visiting the Caribbean just a month after Prince William and Kate Middleton

By Elizabeth Haigh
24 APR 2022

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex

 at Government House on April 23, 2022 in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines

 (Image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)


The Royal Family are facing a strong backlash and calls for an end to colonialism after a second tour of the Caribbean in less than a month. The Earl and Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward and wife Sophie, are currently in the Caribbean but have not been met with a welcome reception.

The royals had already been forced to cancel one leg of their trip to Grenada amid protests over Britain's record on slavery and reparations, with the Royal Family being warned about engagements which may seem tokenistic or ineffective when it comes to the legacy of slavery.

Now the couple has come face to face with anti-colonial and anti-commonwealth protesters as they arrived at Government House in St Vincent and the Grenadines. A group of protesters holding signs which read "Britain your debt is outstanding", "reparation now", "compensation now" and "down with neo colonialism" lined the road to coincide with the royals' arrival in the country.

READ MORE: Royal Family: Rare intimate photos of Prince Louis see fans gush over adorable 'Boss Baby '

The Cambridges faced particular criticism for greeting Jamaicans from behind a wire fence 

(Image: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Separately, the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission has released an open letter which said it had become "common for members of the Royal Family and representatives of the government of Britain to come to this region and lament that slavery was an 'appalling atrocity', that it was 'abhorrent', that 'it should not have happened'".

The letter added: "We hear the phony sanctimony of those who came before you that these crimes are a 'stain on your history'."


Last month the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge undertook a tour of the Caribbean as part of the Queen's Royal Jubilee celebrations - but faced strong criticism for what many termed an "insensitive" and "tone-deaf" tour. In particular photos of the royal couple passing dozens of impoverished children in Jamaica who were crammed against a wire fence were widely condemned.

They were also slammed as old-fashioned after a photo opportunity in the back of a 4x4 which imitated a similar photo shoot the Queen undertook on a previous visit to the Caribbean.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge undertook a 15-day tour (Image: Paul Edwards - Pool/Getty Images)

They too faced Caribbean citizens protesting for proper reparations for the slave trade from the UK and signs reading "apologise". Prince William did address the 'abhorrent' legacy of slavery in a speech on the tour, but many felt this stopped short of a full apology.

Before the most recent protest, Edward and Sophie were given their second red carpet and guard of honour of the tour after landing in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The couple are due to visit Antigua and Barbuda on a later leg of the tour.

It's official! This is the hottest rock ever recorded on Earth

Cheryl Santa Maria
Digital Reporter

Friday, April 22nd 2022, 4:05 pm - The findings could help researchers better pinpoint the locations of other hot rocks.

In 2011, then-Ph.D. student Michael Zanetti was working on a Canadian Space Agency-funded project in Newfoundland and Labrador's Mistasten Crater, a 28-kilometre wide area created when an asteroid hit Earth 36 million years ago.

During that expedition, Zanetti picked up a piece of rock, which was studied and first documented in 2017. In that paper scientists proposed it formulated at temperatures of 2,370°C during the violent asteroid impact. That's a temperature hotter than much of Earth's mantle, and would make it the hottest rock ever discovered on Earth.

Earlier this month, a team of researchers published a paper confirmed the findings of the 2017 study.

 

A sample of glass that recorded at 2,370 degrees Celsius. Photo credit: Gavin Tolometti.

The conclusion is based on mineral analysis led by researchers from Western University, led by postdoctoral researcher Gavin Tolometti. His team sampled four additional zircon samples from the Mistastin crater to confirm the 2017 findings.

Zircon is a hard mineral that crystallizes under high heat and is commonly used as a diamond substitute.

The four zircon samples were taken from different types of rocks in the crater and from separate locations, to help paint a clearer picture of how the ancient impact heated the ground.

The results showed the zircons formed in temperatures of at least 2,370 degrees Celsius. The research could help scientists better pinpoint where to look for evidence of other hotspots.

"We're starting to realize that if we're wanting to find evidence of temperatures this high, we need to look at specific regions instead of randomly selecting across an entire crater," Tolometti said in a statement.

The results could also provide insight into the impact cratering process on the moon and elsewhere.

“It can be a step forward to try and understand how rocks have been modified by impact cratering across the entire solar system," Tolometti said.

"This data can then be applied into impact models to improve the results that we get.”

VIDEO

AVIAN FLU

Discovery of dead birds prompts warning from Town of Coaldale

File photo of the sign for the Town of Coaldale.

 (Lethbridge News Now)
By Cathy Gibson

Apr 22, 2022 | 

COALDALE, AB — The Town of Coaldale has issued a notice to residents after receiving reports of dead Canadian Geese in the area.

Town officials are concerned that the deaths may be connected to the highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks that are affecting wild bird populations and commercial poultry operations across North America.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is currently investigating dozens of infections across the country.

READ MORE: Highly pathogenic avian flu found in Alberta poultry

READ MORE: Food industry adjusting to large outbreak of avian flu in Canada and around the world

The town is warning residents to stay away from any dead birds.

Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn says if you find a dead bird, don’t touch it. He recommends keeping children and pets away from the carcass and any droppings, and contacting the town office.

“We’ve dealt with this in the past,” says Van Rijn, “and we have people that are trained with our Parks Department to look after this, and we will pick up the dead animals and take them to a secure area. Then we’ll be in contact with Alberta Fish and Wildlife to talk about disposal.”

The current avian flu strain that is circulating is highly contagious among birds, so any spread presents a high risk to poultry producers in the area.

“As far as the avian influenza in this area, it’s very serious,” adds Van Rijn. “It doesn’t only affect municipalities like the town of Coaldale. It has huge impacts on poultry farms, and there are many that are affected across the country already. So, again, the town of Coaldale wants to be proactive and get the messaging out to our residents to be very cautious when they come across any dead birds.”

People are also being asked not to take any potentially infected birds to the local Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale because of the possible risk of spreading the disease.

The CFIA says avian influenza (AI) can affect several species of birds, including poultry raised for food production, as well as pet birds and wild birds.

That’s why one of the founders of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, Colin Weir, says he is concerned about the potential risk to the Coaldale facility.

“For the centre, I’m very, very concerned,” says Weir, ” because we don’t know if we’re going to be taking in any injured birds or not this summer. Of course, we’re always concerned about the health and welfare of our birds going forward. So, just because there’s so many unknowns about it, and how prevalent it’s going to be, we’re just keeping a watchful eye on what is happening, and then just trying to minimize the exposure ourselves.”

The CFIA says AI viruses are classified into two categories: low pathogenicity and high pathogenicity based on how severe the illness is in birds. In Canada, both types are are considered to be Notifiable Avian Influenza, which is a reportable disease under the Health of Animals Act. Therefore, all cases must be reported to the CFIA.

 

Canada eyes new measures to protect economy from national security threats

WORKING TO PROTECT ECONOMY

The Canadian Press - Apr 24, 2022  | Story: 366895

Photo: The Canadian Press

Caution tape is seen around the front lawn of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Tuesday July 7, 2020. 

New measures to ensure Canada doesn't export sensitive technology to foreign adversaries are among the changes being eyed by Ottawa to bolster the country's economic security.

Other possibilities include making it easier to fine companies that fail to comply with investment screening rules and mapping supply chains to identify critical vulnerabilities, according to a federal consultation paper.

The paper, released through the Access to Information Act, was circulated to key parties in industry, academia and civil society last spring to canvass views on better protecting Canada from hostile players out to exploit the country's technologically advanced sectors.

Public Safety Canada is expected to publish a summary of the feedback shortly.

The paper says Canada benefits from the vast majority of the foreign investment in the country, trade in Canadian goods and technology, and research partnerships between foreign organizations and Canadian universities and research institutions.

However, it adds, some foreign states and non-state actors try to acquire technologies or forge commercial partnerships that can potentially jeopardize Canada's national security and long-term economic prosperity.

"Canadian companies, in almost all sectors of our economy, have been targeted."

The frequency and sophistication of state-sponsored threat activity is increasing, the consultation paper adds.

Threats come in the form of espionage, theft and cyberattacks.

But the government warns they can also be waged covertly in otherwise legal transactions such as foreign investments in sectors and industries integral to Canada's security, or the purchase or transfer of sensitive goods, technology and know-how that are currently not subject to export controls.

Other threats involve the purchase of controlled goods and intellectual property through front companies, brokers or others that misrepresent the end use, as well as foreign-funded partnerships between Canadian researchers and entities linked to adversaries.

The consultation paper does not mention specific countries of concern. However, Canadian security officials have long warned that Russia and China, in particular, target Canada's classified information and advanced technology.

Even so, the exercise is intended to ensure Canada's approach is effective in responding to threats, no matter the source.

Among the federal suggestions:

— Creation of a continuously updated list of businesses, research institutions, governments and people subject to specific export permit requirements to help Canadian businesses feel more secure in knowing their goods are not being shipped to a buyer of concern;

— more flexible or even stiffer penalties for breaching investment screening rules intended to protect Canada from national security threats;

— government help to companies to better understand vulnerabilities in their global supply networks for procuring goods;

— and providing federal venture capital to sensitive technology firms to get around the need for foreign investment from potentially risky sources.

The government has spearheaded the creation of national security guidelines to help protect federally funded research.

The recent federal budget included almost $160 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, and $33 million ongoing, to implement the guidelines fully, largely through work with colleges and universities.

The consultation paper also asks how various levels of government can better co-operate to safeguard sensitive and emerging goods and technologies, critical infrastructure and personal data.

Cybersecurity is a vitally important issue that affects businesses large and small since breaches can mean losses to customer privacy as well as operational productivity, said Mark Agnew, senior vice-president for policy and government relations at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

"So that one really stands out to me as such an important part of the conversation around the threats to national security."