Liberals spend $3.5M on abortion access projects as U.S. puts issue back in spotlight


Wed, May 11, 2022,



OTTAWA — The Liberal government is spending $3.5 million on two projects to improve abortion access in Canada, as the re-emergence of the landmark Roe v. Wade case in the United States brings renewed attention to the issue on both sides of the border.

The funding stems from a year-old budget pledge to spend $45 million over three years to help organizations make sexual and reproductive information and services more available. Advocates said last week that none of the money had been paid out yet.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference Wednesday that the legal battle has been won in Canada and its regulatory framework is strong.

"And yet for too many Canadians, access to abortion remains a significant challenge. Access — that is where our efforts should be focused, and that is why we are here today," he said.

Duclos was joined by Women and Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien, who said those working to provide sexual and reproductive health services are very familiar with the barriers that youth, racialized, LGBTQ and rural-residing people face when seeking abortion.

"No one should be denied an abortion because it is too far to travel or too difficult to co-ordinate an appointment. We know that we have to do better," Ien said.

Ien said the news of the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn the right to an abortion south of the border made her feel "sick."

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights will use the federal money to expand programs that provide accurate information about sexual and reproductive health and referrals, as well as help cover women's travel and accommodation costs.

The National Abortion Federation will use funding to give women seeking abortion services financial and logistical help, as well as train health-care providers to administer those services.

"These investments reflect our belief that women and women alone have the right to make decisions about their bodies, as well as our unequivocal commitment to ensure comprehensiveness and accessible reproductive health care for all in Canada," said Duclos.

The Liberals chose to make the abortion access funding announcement as well as a separate announcement on gun restrictions on Wednesday — the same day the Conservatives are holding their official English leadership debate in Edmonton.

Abortion access and gun control are both issues the Liberals have long used successfully as wedges against the Conservatives during elections.

Liberal Judy Sgro didn’t disagree when asked if she thought there was still a way to use them to drive a wedge against the Liberals main opponents.

“Of course there is," said the veteran Toronto MP on her way into the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday.

Trudeau said the announcements are both things the government had been working on for a long time because “these are things that matter to Canadians.”

But asked whether it was just a coincidence they happened to be bringing both topics up the day of a Conservative leadership debate, Trudeau demurred.

“We continue to work on all these issues as we will, but if the Conservatives want to talk about these things, I think it would be a very good idea for Canadians to know where their perspectives are,” he said.

Asked about the timing of the abortion funding announcement, Duclos said the government has been working with Action Canada and the National Abortion Federation for many months.

Ien added: "It is never a bad day to talk about women's rights in our country and the right to choose in this country. It is never a bad day to do that."

The announcement also came a day before an annual anti-abortion March for Life rally on Parliament Hill.

Anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition spoke Wednesday in front of the Supreme Court of Canada ahead of Thursday's rally, which typically attracts thousands.

Pete Baklinski, director of communications for the coalition, said the leaked U.S. Supreme Court document has made the issue of abortion "suddenly explode" in Canada.

Josie Luetke, youth co-coordinator, said the coalition expects that Roe v. Wade will eventually be overturned, representing one step toward "abolishing abortions" in the United States and across the world, including in Canada.

The Liberals promised last fall to bring in new regulations solidifying access to abortion services as a requirement for federal funding under the Canada Health Act, but Trudeau last week raised the spectre of doing that in legislation instead. That could make it more difficult for future governments to make adjustments.

On Wednesday, Trudeau said the government is still looking at the best way to proceed, noting there are experts who say legislation is best and others who think it is not the way to go.

The prime minister is "rightly so" keeping options open to have the ability to move quickly in a fluid situation, said Ien, "as we keep a close eye on what is happening."

The $45-million fund for organizations providing sexual and reproductive health services and information was first announced in the 2021 budget. The budget projected $16 million would already be allocated by now.

Advocates said while the money is welcome, more permanent funding for sexual and reproductive health care is needed.

Health Canada said nine contribution agreements worth $15.2 million have been signed, including these two announced for the first time Wednesday that involve access to abortion.

There are another five projects involving LGBTQ communities and two addressing youth.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Erika Ibrahim, The Canadian Press

A new earthquake warning system will prepare Canada for dangerous shaking


Shona L.van Zijll de Jong, 

Adjunct Professor,

 Geological Sciences and Engineering, 

Queen's University, Ontario

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, May 11, 2022

Damaged wood houses after the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18, 1906. (Shutterstock)

Large earthquakes can wreak enormous violence upon lives, livelihoods, infrastructure and the environment. High-density urban populations in the relatively small, seismically active areas of British Columbia and the Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa corridor leaves residents extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.

A 2013 report commissioned by the Insurance Bureau of Canada notes that “a major earthquake would have a significant economic impact regionally, and cause a domino effect on the economy of Canada, with major impacts on critical infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, communication and agriculture, public assets, residences and much more.”

It concluded that a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in British Columbia would rack up almost $75 billion in costs, and a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in the Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa corridor would cost almost $61 billion.

Canada does not have an earthquake early warning system to provide alerts to the 10 million people who live in these areas — or a national education initiative to develop an earthquake-aware culture. But that will soon change.
10 million at risk

Canada’s most active seismic zones fall into three main areas:

Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone, along the St. Lawrence River in southeastern Québec.

Cascadia Subduction Zone, stretching from the north end of Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, Calif., and connected to the Queen Charlotte Fault, from Haida Gwaii northward along the Alaska coast.

Baffin Island and the Boothia and Ungava peninsulas in the Arctic, due to post-glacial rebound, where the ground slowly rises as glaciers melt.

Seismologists forecast significant shaking for Québec (Montréal, Québec City, Rivière-du-Loup), Ontario (Ottawa, Toronto) and British Columbia (Vancouver and Victoria) in the future. But earthquake prediction timelines are an imprecise science.

For example, the recurrence interval for a large earthquake in the Pacific Northwest is about 500 years — there have been seven in the past 3,500 years. Seismologists say there’s a 30 per cent chance of a megathrust earthquake — a very powerful quake that occurs at a subduction zone — in this fault zone in the next 50 years. But earthquakes are quasi-random — they don’t occur at regular time intervals.

Read more: Contrary to popular belief, Eastern Canada is more at risk of earthquakes than perceived

In my work with communities in New Zealand, Samoa and Nepal that have experienced lethal earthquakes, I’ve learned about individuals’ heightened risk awareness after an earthquake. Their stories taught me that time lost is lives lost, and that those who took protective action survived.

This life-risk awareness is the foundation of an earthquake early warning system. With only seconds of advance warning, people can take protective action such as drop, cover and hold on. But developing an earthquake-aware culture can take time.

Earthquake-prone communities often experience fatalities, anxiety and fear, and widespread damage to homes, infrastructure and economies. A community with an earthquake-aware culture has grasped lessons from seismology, social science and economics, painfully aware of what damages and losses it might experience.

Developing an earthquake-aware culture relies on the data collected by seismologists. Their interpretations help us understand how local fault lines will shake during an earthquake, how often the shaking has occurred in a location and how fast the shockwaves might travel.
2024: All systems go

In March, Natural Resources Canada set up an earthquake-monitoring station at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal in West Vancouver, B.C., the first station in what will become a national early earthquake warning system by 2024.

The 1925 Charlevoix-Kamouiraska earthquake was felt all the way in Virginia and along the Mississippi River. It damaged several towns and cities along the St. Lawrence River and the aftershocks lasted for weeks. (Natural Resources Canada)

The system uses the same software as the early-warning system located along the U.S. West Coast. It aims to reduce the number of injuries, the cost of damage and losses, and the impact to critical infrastructure operations.

Millions of people — and the Canadian economy — could benefit from the early earthquake alert system. Once it is fully operational, it should provide five to nine seconds advance warning to those in Haida Gwaii, Queen Charlotte and Masset, B.C., for ruptures in the Queen Charlotte Fault, and 43 to 91 seconds for the mainland towns of Bella Bella, Prince Rupert and Kitimat, B.C. In Québec, a repeat of the 1988 Saguenay earthquake would offer 84 seconds advance warning for Montréal and 29 seconds for Québec City.

How people will respond to the alerts remains unknown. But Natural Resources Canada has funded the University of Calgary to work with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology to learn from their experience of building an earthquake-aware culture, as well as with other nations, including Japan, China, Turkey, Greece and Italy.
Challenges and next steps

By 2024, the Canadian earthquake early-warning system will have more than 400 land-based sensors deployed throughout Ontario, Québec and British Columbia. It will send the alerts to radio, television, internet and cellular networks, allowing people to take action quickly.

The advance notice is meant to avert deaths. A mere 10 to 90 seconds warning could save lives, protect infrastructure and utilities. Researchers, however, still need a better understanding of how Canadians will respond to these alerts.

Vancouver Island’s historic earthquake was a 7.3 magnitude event that occurred at 10:13 a.m. on June 23, 1946. It damaged buildings in nearby communities, including the Bank of Montreal in Port Alberni. (NRCan)

For example, Canada’s earthquake hazard maps suggest there are two widely separated seismically active areas: one in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick, and the other in British Columbia. But each location will suffer different types of damage and losses after a large earthquake.

These maps give the erroneous impression that the earthquake risk applies to everyone equally. My preliminary research shows distinct geological, political, economic and emergency management contexts between Eastern Canada and Western Canada.

For example, those in Eastern Canada are very vulnerable to seismic hazards: The soft soils in the Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone amplify ground motion and the heritage housing cannot withstand shaking. There’s also low participation in earthquake preparedness exercises.

According to a 2017 report by Swiss Re, 65 per cent of home owners in Vancouver and Victoria have purchased residential property earthquake insurance. In contrast, in the Charlevoix–Kamouraska seismic zone, only two per cent of home owners in Québec City and five per cent in metropolitan Montréal have residential property earthquake insurance.

The ultimate goal of the earthquake early warning system is to ensure that those most at risk — the disabled, elderly, very young, caregivers and those living in remote rural areas — have practical knowledge of what to do — and what not to do — during an earthquake.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Shona L.van Zijll de Jong, Queen's University, Ontario.

Read more:
Why some earthquakes are so deadly

Too little, too late? The devastating consequences of natural disasters must inform building codes

Shona L.van Zijll de Jong receives funding from Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary

BUY CHAPMANS ICE CREAM

Ontario ice cream maker tarred by 'lies' from anti-vaxxers, this time after doctor's 'nice' tweet

Wed, May 11, 2022

Ashley Chapman, chief operating officer of Chapman's Ice Cream, says his company has been tarred with falsehoods on social media after an Ontario doctor praised the company for being a good corporate citizen. (Chapman's Ice Cream - image credit)

One of Canada's most iconic brands of ice cream has found itself in the eye of a social media firestorm after an Ontario doctor's tweet became the target of anti-vaxxers.

Chapman's Ice Cream is one of Canada's best-known brands in dessert products, manufactured at its family-owned Markdale, Ont., plant, about a two-hour drive northwest of Toronto.

The company has long positioned itself as a good corporate citizen, offering to buy a neighbourhood school to keep children of employees close to home, offering freezer space for the government's COVID-19 vaccination efforts, and keeping unvaccinated employees on staff at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic so long as they took two rapid tests a week.

Now, the company is embroiled in a controversy over a tweet from Dr. Sohail Gandhi, who was out getting ice cream for his wife on Mother's Day.

Doctor's ice cream tweet garners 'insults'

"I would not have expected the response I got," said Gandhi, a family physician based in Stayner and a past president of the Ontario Medical Association.

"I baked a strawberry pie for my wife for Mother's Day and I needed some ice cream. So I went to the store, I happened to see Chapman's and I said, 'Hey, this is a good corporate citizen. I should support them,' so I tweeted about them."

The tweet racked up thousands of likes and hundreds of comments, and while many of them were supportive, a number were critical and even downright hateful.

"Some of the comments were basically insults," Dr. Ghandi said. "What I was surprised about was there were some people making allegations about the way Chapman's ran their business without having the facts to prove them."

Those tweets — from allegations of firing employees who refused to get vaccinated, to misinformation about what the company puts in its ice cream — are lies, according to Ashley Chapman, the company's chief operating officer.

A lot of these people who didn't get the vaccine, I know them, I know their families, I know they're good people. - Ashley Chapman

"A nice doctor tweets something really nice about our product and suddenly all these really nasty people come back onto the scene," he said, referring to the fact his company has seen online backlash before, when it offered vaccinated employees a financial incentive.

"We were very concerned because we live in a small rural area, and a lot of these people who didn't get the vaccine, I know them, I know their families, I know they're good people.

"Being accused of segregation, medical fascism and some other insane things that people have been calling us, it just seems sad to be honest with you."

Chapman said he didn't want to let good people go, so he came up with a compromise: they could still report to work unvaccinated, but had to submit to a rapid test twice a week to keep others from getting sick.

Vaccinated workers, on the other hand, would receive a raise of a dollar an hour because the company didn't have to pay for any tests.

'We're not bad guys in this situation'

Once pandemic health restrictions ended, Chapman said, he raised the unvaccinated workers' wages so they were on par with their vaccinated counterparts, and bought a PCR test machine so all workers could self-diagnose if they had any unusual symptoms.

Chapman said he doesn't understand why a company that makes ice cream has become a political lightning rod, especially when it has put so much back into the community.

"We're just decent people. We're just trying to make a good product for a fair price. We always treat our community and our employees well, and we're not the bad guys in this situation. How suddenly ice cream gets to be a political thing is just silly."

Companies going public about vaccine policies

However, "a political thing" is exactly what vaccines have become, regardless if it's coming from a manufacturer of something as apolitical as ice cream, according to Alison Meek, an associate professor of history at King's University College in London, Ont., who studies cults and conspiracy theories, including the anti-vaccine movement.

Shutterstock

"I think these days there is no way to engage in this conversation about vaccines without it becoming politicized."

Meek said if companies want to be public in any way about their vaccination policies, they have to expect the conversation to become politicized, especially when it involves a company as well known as Chapman's Ice Cream.

That's because those who refuse to get vaccinated, Meek said, now portray themselves on social media as victims on a scale akin to some of the most persecuted groups in modern history.

"They are the new African Americans of the civil rights movement or Jews in the Holocaust because they refuse to submit," Meek said.

"Of course, it's ludicrous. Your choice not to be vaccinated is completely different from what we saw with Jews in the Holocaust or African Americans because of the colour of their skin, but that's just the age we live in."

Australia's #MeToo puts miners and ministers in crosshairs of history

The political response to revelations of workplace harassment is a white-hot issue in the run-up to a May 21 national election

Tourists walk around the forecourt of Australia's Parliament House in Canberra

By Byron Kaye and Praveen Menon

Wed, May 11, 2022,

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's mighty #MeToo wave is piling pressure on mining and political leaders who are preparing to face a reckoning over sexual harassment scandals stretching from the arid Outback to Parliament House.

Over the past 18 months, thousands of women have exposed a culture of bullying and abuse in mining, the country's economic engine, as well as other workplaces, provoking public outrage and pledges of decisive action from politicians and executives.

Matters are now coming to a head.

The political response to revelations of workplace harassment is a white-hot issue in the run-up to a May 21 national election, with the ruling conservative coalition itself assailed by accusations of sexual impropriety and poor handling of an alleged rape case inside the parliament building in Canberra.

Meanwhile, mining companies are bracing for the publication next month of a report by Western Australia into sexual harassment at their operations in the state, one widely expected to zero in on their internal handling of complaints.

"Survivors of sexual misconduct should no longer live in fear, or shame, or silence," said Elizabeth Broderick, a former Australian sex discrimination commissioner. "When one woman speaks, others will follow. I call on those who lead in the mining and resources sector to listen and learn from these stories and to step up with strong action."

Reuters interviewed six women who said they had experienced sexual harassment or bullying at Australian mining sites in the past 18 months. Most of the alleged incidents were after Western Australia launched its highly publicised inquiry last August, putting the industry on notice to clean up its act.

Kylie-Jayne Schippers, a kitchen and maintenance worker at a remote mine owned by Adani Group was fired in December 2021, two days after lodging a complaint of sexual harassment and bullying that she said left her afraid to enter the site's communal dining room, according to copies of the complaint and termination letter reviewed by Reuters.

Schippers filed the formal complaint to her employer, French services contractor Sodexo, on Dec. 20 saying that an unknown person had circulated a note in the camp, falsely claiming to be from her, offering to grant a male engineer sexual favours at the site in exchange for favourable treatment.

On Dec. 22, she was fired for "failure to adhere to reasonable and lawful managerial instructions", according to her termination letter from Sodexo. The letter said a review of her complaint concluded "no finding of bullying or harassment was substantiated".

"I was scared, had anxiety through the roof, depression," said Schippers, 48, adding the experience drove her to leave the industry. "They've done nothing except swept it under the carpet and got rid of me so they don't have to deal with it."

Sodexo said Schippers' complaint "was urgently investigated before being resolved", and that her "employment was later terminated for reasons unrelated to the grievance".

Adani, which has renamed its Australian unit Bravus, said its staff had assisted Schippers during her experience and had made witness statements for Sodexo's investigation. However, since the investigation was finalised, "this now a matter for the contractor and the employee", it added.

'NO FEAR, SHAME, SILENCE'

Mining underpins the economy, with the industry accounting for 11% of national output and Western Australia providing more than half of the world's iron ore. Adani's Carmichael mine in Queensland is one of the world's largest untapped coal reserves.

But the sector's workforce of 150,000 is predominantly - five-sixths - male, a gender mix that's little improved since its beginnings over a century ago.

Melissa McLellan, who was a maintenance supervisor for mining giant BHP Group in Western Australia, said she filed a gender discrimination complaint in June 2021 after being passed over for increased responsibilities. Three days later, she was suspended from duties for a "fitness for work" assessment because she looked tired, a potential safety risk, according to documents and transcripts reviewed by Reuters.

"It's jobs for the boys," said McLellan, 37, who quit in January, citing bullying. "You're just second class."

BHP said McLellan's allegations of bullying and harassment were investigated promptly and found to be "not substantiated". A spokesperson added that the company was committed to creating a safe environment for people to speak up "and we regret that Ms McLellan did not have a positive experience with us".

Most of the women who spoke to Reuters, including McLellan and Schippers, said their lawyers had filed, or were preparing to file, claims for compensation from the companies in question with the Fair Work Commission, a national workplace tribunal.

The FWC declined to comment on individual cases.

Such cases comprise just a sliver of the industry's workforce. They nonetheless chime with a report published in February by leading miner Rio Tinto into its own culture that detailed an environment of bullying, harassment and racism - abuse described by CEO Jakob Stausholm as "systemic".

That review, conducted by former discrimination commissioner Broderick and informed by the experiences and views of more than 10,000 employees, found that nearly 30% of women had experienced sexual harassment at work, with 21 women reporting actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

WOMEN VOTERS TO THE FORE

The country's political response to sexual harassment and discrimination is firmly under the public microscope.

Political commentators say a national furore over workplace harassment and discrimination have been a major cause of a decline in support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government among women, with opposition politicians and equality campaigners accusing the administration of shying away from necessary reforms.

In early 2021, female voters were evenly divided between the government and the opposition Labor party. By April this year, less than 40% of women planned to vote for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government, according to pollster https://bit.ly/3LX7AH2 Roy Morgan.

The case of alleged rape in parliament, in which a former staffer has been charged with sexually assaulting a colleague in a ministerial office in March 2019, sparked nationwide protests. Morrison and the government subsequently issued a public apology for the treatment of women in Australia.

The former staffer denies the allegation and the case will be in court later this year.

Equality advocates want mining companies to be stripped of their powers to internally investigate complaints of bullying and sexual harassment, and for an independent oversight body to be established instead.

The federal government has acted on some recommendations from the Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 2020 to crack down on harassment in workplaces, but not all, and says existing laws should already cover many types of complaints.

The Minerals Council of Australia, an industry body, says it supports giving the Australian Human Rights Commission power to investigate sexual discrimination in workplaces, but with "carefully defined" parameters to ensure procedural fairness and avoid reputational damage.

A process for people to get a "stop sexual harassment" order – similar to a restraining order - from the Fair Work Commission against alleged offending parties in a workplace has proven ineffective since it began in November.

In the first three months of the program's existence, 17 people applied for the orders but none were granted, the Commission told Reuters, the first time those figures have been disclosed publicly.

A spokesperson for the FWC declined to comment on why it hadn't issued a single anti-sexual harassment order but noted that some complaints "may still be open or may have been finalised without an order being made ... or withdrawn".

University of Technology law professor Karen O'Connell, who advised the government commission that recommended the creation of the orders, said the orders were too narrow because they failed to intervene when a complainant had quit or when an accused harasser was moved elsewhere in the company.

"Those stop sexual harassment orders are still really important and they need to exist but they are not going to cover the vast majority of situations that people are in when they're being sexually harassed," said O'Connell, adding that laws putting a "positive duty" on companies to create a safe environment would be more effective.

"It's ridiculous to require an individual to step up and take on all of that system themselves."

($1 = 1.4370 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Praveen Menon in Sydney; Editing by Pravin Char)

Healthy young adults on P.E.I. lived as if they had chronic illness during pandemic, researchers say


Wed, May 11, 2022

UPEI Canada Research Chair Caroline Ritter and Gemma Postill, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, looked at why healthy, young adults living in a relatively low-risk province like P.E.I. were lining up in droves to get tested for COVID-19 around December 2020. (Steve Bruce/CBC - image credit)

Young people on P.E.I. were so severely impacted by the social circumstances and policy regulations around managing the COVID-19 pandemic that they lived life as if they were ill even if they weren't, according to new research.

The research project — led by UPEI Canada Research Chair Caroline Ritter and Gemma Postill, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto — examined why healthy, young adults in a relatively low-risk province like P.E.I. were lining up in droves to get tested for COVID-19 around December 2020.

The researchers examined the motivation to get tested, and found young Islanders felt profound negative effects from the virus regardless of whether they contracted it or not.

"With the real virus, you might have a fever or you might have a cough, those kind of symptoms. But what we found is kind of like when you're diagnosed with a chronic disease," said Postill.

"Living in the pandemic really shaped the day-to-day activities."

Evan Mitsui/CBC

Altered behaviours

Postill said young people were shaping their dreams and career goals around the pandemic as if they were ill.

"They changed their career because they wanted more stability in a way that one might if they were diagnosed with a chronic condition," said Postill.

The researchers found young people were prioritizing getting tested over going to work and were rearranging their days due to pandemic considerations.

"Living in the pandemic really shaped the day-to-day activities." - Gemma Postill, lead author and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto

The severe downturn of mental health proved to be another shared experience for many young adults on P.E.I.

Postill quoted one participant who said his mental state during the pandemic was the worst it's ever been.

"When you're so young and you maybe haven't had all these other lived experiences ... this really is kind of the mentally worst or the most difficulty that a lot of them had experienced," she said.

Risk factors

The research saw young people complied with public health restrictions because they were motivated by the moral obligation to support and be part of the community, on top of the stigma against a non-compliance to the rules.

"A couple of people compared non-compliance to drunk driving, which is quite a severe comparison. But I think it really speaks to how they viewed spreading COVID and those impacts," said Postill.

CBC

And while transmission among family and friends has been a general concern for most throughout the pandemic, the research showed young people were particularly concerned for everyone in the community — which Ritter and Postill said had something to do with the size of P.E.I. and its close-knit communities.

"Some participants reported they felt observed ... that the neighbours might see, or the neighbours might recognize them in the store if they didn't wear a mask, things like that," said Ritter.

She said public health measures also affected young people's social lives by forcing them to limit their social circles and increasing concern around how they would find life partners in their twenties with such restrictions in place.

Main takeaways

Ritter said the emotions revealed in the interviews were a mix of pride and guilt.

Young adults are motivated when things are going well, she said, and their pride in being part of a community comes with keeping it as a low-risk environment.

But when it came to comparing themselves to people in other provinces, the research found young people shied away from posting on social media to reduce the spotlight on what they were still allowed to do on P.E.I.

"These public health measures should really be treated as limited natural resources because it has these massive impacts ... on the mental well-being of young adults," said Ritter.

"A lot can be learned from our research, not just for P.E.I. but also for Canada internationally as a whole," Ritter said.

Both researchers will be sharing their work at the upcoming Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences — Canada's largest academic gathering, taking place virtually this year from May 12-20.

Ritter said they plan on getting in touch with the provincial government and health officials to provide them with information that might be useful in navigating the ongoing pandemic.

GREEN COAL

Crowsnest coal supporters host Danielle Smith

Wed, May 11, 2022

Citizens Supportive of Crowsnest Coal has been busy recently, with chairman Mike Dobie presenting its position on the benefits of local coal mines to the councils of the MD of Pincher Creek, Town of Pincher Creek and Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

Another way CSCC has been advocating for local mine development is by hosting public information meetings, the most recent of which was held April 28 at the Isabelle Sellon School gymnasium in Blairmore.

Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wildrose party and host of the Danielle Smith Show on 770 CHQR Radio, attended as the keynote speaker. Smith rose to political prominence as leader of the Opposition in the provincial legislature in 2012, and she is seeking the UCP nomination for Livingstone-Macleod in the next provincial election.

Smith spoke about the need for the mining industry to improve its public engagement on the issue of developing mines in the area. One specific way she suggested companies approach their advocacy is to focus on net-zero carbon projects.

Since green energy initiatives like wind and solar power projects require steel, Smith argued “green energy” will not fully be environmentally friendly until metallurgical coal mining and steel production achieve net zero.

An important way net-zero emissions could be achieved is in supporting domestic industry. Rather than transporting coal to the coast by rail and then shipping it overseas for steel production and then having the product shipped to consumers around the world, Smith said a home-grown production industry would decrease the overall carbon footprint of solar and wind infrastructure.

Improved carbon-capture technology, Smith added, is also important in the industry reaching net zero, with technology using carbon dioxide to improve oil and gas flow, create carbon nanofibres, strengthen cement, and produce products like soap, plastic, ethyl alcohol and even vodka.

“Net zero, I believe, is achievable and here in Alberta we can get there faster than everyone else,” Smith said.

Net-zero projects, she continued, would not require approval from a federal government that is hostile to traditional resource extraction and energy production.

“If we developed net-zero industry here, we would not run afoul of the federal government,” she said.

CSCC organizers said developing local industry would ultimately be healthier for the environment than denying local mining projects.

In particular, the group supports metallurgical coal development in the Crowsnest Pass because steel demand is expected to increase 20 per cent by 2050. CSCC says that if this demand is not filled by a jurisdiction like Alberta, with some of the best environmental regulations and policies in the world, countries with less stringent pollution rules like Russia and China will fill that need, securing for themselves an estimated $6-billion annual economic increase.

“In Canada we have better environmental regulations and policies than in those foreign lands, and the use of our high-quality coal will reduce the coal burnt per tonne of steel to the betterment of the global environment,” says Tim Juhlin, one of CSCC’s directors.

Dobie says he is happy with how the April 28 meeting turned out and that the CSCC will continue providing the public with information about the benefits of coal development in the Crowsnest Pass.

“Overall it was a success with a good turnout — just over 100 — and good questions. I was pretty pleased with it,” he says. “One of the things [MLA] Roger Reid has told us is to make noise, so that’s what we’ll do.”

More information on CSCC can be found online at citizenssupportivecrowsnestcoal.ca.

Sean Oliver, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Shootin' the Breeze

Report finds that BC mining laws contradict commitment to UNDRIP

Wed, May 11, 2022,

(ANNews) – British Columbia’s mining laws are out of step with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the provincial government adopted in late-2019, according to the First Nations Energy and Mining Council.

The council is calling for Indigenous peoples to take back sovereignty over their lands through their own laws and traditions while the government revamps its laws, The Tyee reports.

The council’s most recent report, “Indigenous Sovereignty: Implementing Consent for Mining on Indigenous Lands,” provides 25 recommendations for how Indigenous communities can take their power back, which are broken down into five stages — claim-staking, planning and environmental assessment, leasing and permitting, compliance and enforcement, and mine closure and reclamation.

“At the time of its passing, we welcomed the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and praised the provincial government for its bold leadership,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs president.

“We thought the recognition of the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous nations was finally being actioned and that First Nations’ consent would be the basis of all prospecting and mining on our lands, and we could ensure the protection of our lands and water,” he continued. “But, more than two years on, no action has been taken to align provincial laws.”

The First Nations Energy and Mining Council is a non-profit under the aegis of the First Nations Leadership Council of BC, which is composed of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the BC Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Summit.

Allen Edzerza, an Elder who was the project lead for the report and has worked in mining since the ‘70s, was recently tasked by the Tahltan Central Government, of which he is a band member, with handling all negotiations concerning salmon.

Salmon is intimately connected to mining due to the impact of mining on the health of waterways.

“The report was intended to say to First Nations, we have never surrendered or ceded or released our title and rights,” Edzerza told The Tyee. “We are sovereign nations, and the idea of free, prior and informed consent is merely a tool for us to exercise our jurisdiction and authority as a sovereign nation.”

Seeking out free, prior and informed consent — a key requirement for extraction projects under UNDRIP — can also benefit mining companies, since they would no longer have to worry about costly legal challenges to their projects, he added.

The report identified two B.C. laws that are out of step with the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, the legislation the B.C. government put forward to bring its laws into line with UNDRIP — the Mineral Tenure Act and the Mines Act.

These laws are a relic of the colonial-era “free entry system” that has been the status quo for 150 years based on the doctrine that the land didn’t belong to anyone until settlers arrived.

“This legal framework is outdated, colonial and not aligned with Indigenous human rights,” the report noted.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation told The Tyee that the government’s recently-released Declaration Action Plan will address the gaps in the Mineral Tenure Act.

“Any steps to modernize the MTA will be undertaken with Nations and First Nations leadership organizations and industry as well as engagement with other stakeholders and the public,” the spokesperson said.

The Gitxaala Nation has a challenge underway in the B.C. Supreme Court against the province’s free entry system, challenging seven mineral claims made on their traditional lands between 2018 and 2020.

“Gitxaała’s system of governance and ayaawx (Gitxaała law) has enabled us to care for healthy territories for thousands of years. Yet, under the Mineral Tenure Act, the B.C. government gives away rights to our lands through an automatic online system, as if Gitxaała does not exist at all,” Gitxaala Elected Chief Coun. Linda Innes told The Tyee.

Environmental concerns are a focal point in traditional Indigenous law, Edzerza said.

“In our language we say that we are interconnected,” he said. “You can’t separate us from our lands. We are part of the environment there. It’s based on the belief that all things have a spirit and are interconnected.

“It’s a sacred responsibility that’s been handed down to our people to protect those lands and waters for all living things.”

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Newfoundland

Environmental groups sue feds to overturn Bay du Nord approval

Wed, May 11, 2022,

A group of protesters stood outside Equinor headquarters in St. John's Wednesday to denounce the approval of the Bay du Nord oil project. (Ted Dillon/CBC - image credit)

Ted Dillon/CBC

Enivronmental law group Ecojustice has launched a lawsuit against the federal government that aims to overturn the massive Bay du Nord oil project off Newfoundland's east coast.

Ecojustice, which filed the lawsuit in federal court, is working with Équiterre, a non-profit environmental organization based in Quebec, and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, which has spoken out against the offshore oil megaproject.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced approval of Bay du Nord — a project led by Norwegian oil giant Equinor, which hopes to start producing oil as early as 2028 — in April.

The suit names Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) and Equinor.

While announcing approval, Guilbeault said the project would not have significant adverse environmental effects because of mitigation measures that will be in place. Guilbeault, who based his decision on the work of the IAAC, put the project under 137 conditions.

But Ecojustice lawyer Ian Miron said Guilbeault failed to account for key factors during the decision-making process.

"The minister had a legal obligation to evaluate the downstream greenhouse gas emissions that the project will generate when he conducted the environmental assessment. And that he failed to do that," Miron told CBC News Wednesday.

Miron said Ecojustice also plans to argue other factors should have been considered in the decision, including the impact that added shipping traffic could have on biodiversity in the region.

He hopes the lawsuit can be heard in court by the end of the year.

Bay du Nord could produce up to 200,000 barrels of oil daily, with current estimates of more than a billion barrels being pumped over the project's lifetime.

Both Equinor and the provincial government have insisted the project will limit harm to the environment, produce lower-carbon oil and be net zero in emissions by 2050.

In a statement to CBC News, Equinor said it appreciates that there are differing views on the project but see the upside of developing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Our focus is on the collaborative effort with partners and local authorities to mature the project towards an investment decision. We strongly believe that this can be an important project with high value creation, a low carbon footprint and strong economic value for the region," the company's statement said.

The IAAC told CBC News it is aware of the lawsuit and is preparing to oppose the application.

Protesters hit the ground Wednesday

Meanwhile, opponents of the project demonstrated Wednesday outside Equinor's St. John's headquarters. The parent company was at the time holding its annual general meeting in Norway.

Protesters held signs and rallied in downtown St. John's, chanting phrases like "Oil and gas is in the past" and "From Stavanger, Norway to Stavanger Drive, gas and oil has got to die."

Equinor

Yvonne Earle, representing the Avalon chapter of the Council of Canadians, said governments at all levels need to be held accountable in a transition away from oil and gas.

"Analyze the moral and economic madness, and reject moving ahead with Bay du Nord," Earle said. "And plan for a just transition, and I mean a just transition, for all workers from a fossil fuel economy."

Miron said the project is incompatible with Ottawa's plan for a "climate-safe future."

"Simply put, our position is that this project is just not compatible with what the science is telling us," he said. "Climate change doesn't respect political boundaries, and the emissions produced from consuming this oil are the same emissions, regardless of where the oil comes from."

UN committee criticizes Canada over handling of Indigenous pipeline opposition


Wed, May 11, 2022



A United Nations human rights committee focused on combating racism has reiterated its call for Canada to stop construction of two pipelines until it obtains consent from affected Indigenous communities in British Columbia.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says it has received information about the policing of Wet'suwet'en and Secwepemc people opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline being built in northern B.C. and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to B.C.'s coast.

A letter from committee chair Verene Shepherd says the information alleges that surveillance and use of force have escalated against those opposed to the pipelines in order to intimidate and push them off their traditional lands.

The April 29 letter addressed to Leslie Norton, Canada's representative to the UN in Geneva, points to a 2019 decision by the committee calling on Canada to "immediately cease forced evictions" of Wet'suwet'en and Secwepemc protesters by police and halt construction on the two pipelines.

The B.C. and federal governments and the RCMP had yet to respond to requests for comment on the concerns outlined by the UN committee.

Indigenous leaders responded to the committee's letter at an online news conference on Wednesday, saying their nations have never signed treaties and their territories have never been ceded to the Canadian government.

First Nation band councils are responsible for reserve lands, but they don't have authority to make decisions over broader Wet'suwet'en territory, says Sleydo', a spokesperson for a Wet'suwet'en group behind blockades that have been set up along a road used by Coastal GasLink pipeline workers.

Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs have opposed the natural gas pipeline for years, while 20 First Nation band councils have signed off on the project.

Police have made numerous arrests while enforcing a court injunction prohibiting blockades that was granted to the pipeline's owner, TC Energy.

Sleydo' told the news conference that she is "harassed and surveilled daily" by company-hired private security and the RCMP, particularly members of the Mounties' Community-Industry Response Group.

Kanahus Manual with the Tiny House Warriors, a group opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline, told the news conference that the federal government created the system of First Nation reserves and band councils don't hold the rights to 180,000 square kilometres of unceded Secwepemc territory.

Trans Mountain, a federal Crown corporation, says its 1,150-kilometre pipeline expansion project crosses "numerous traditional territories" and 15 First Nation reserves in B.C., and it only crosses reserve lands with consent.

The UN committee consists of 18 independent human rights experts elected to four-year terms by countries, including Canada, that have signed on to the convention to end racial discrimination they're tasked with monitoring.

Its decision in December 2019 called on the Canadian government to stop construction on the pipeline projects until it obtains free, prior and informed consent outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A followup letter in 2020 says the committee regretted that Canada was interpreting the principle as "a duty to engage in a meaningful and good faith dialogue with Indigenous peoples and to guarantee a process, but not a particular result," meaning the pipelines could go ahead after consultation.

The UN declaration, which both the federal and B.C. governments have in recent years pledged to implement, stipulates that governments must not make decisions relating to Indigenous rights or territories without consent.

The UN committee's most recent letter says Canada was due to report last November on any measures taken to address the concerns outlined in 2019, but it hasn't yet provided its report. The committee requested that the federal government provide a response to its previous communications by July 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2022.

The Canadian Press

OF COURSE THEY DID

RCMP commissioner denies claim Mounties used 'kid gloves' with Freedom Convoy protesters


Wed, May 11, 2022

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says she doesn't believe there was a double standard in the way Mounties policed the Freedom Convoy protests and blockades earlier this year and the tactics used with Indigenous protesters. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press - image credit)

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says she sees no double standard in the way Mounties policed the Freedom Convoy protests and blockades earlier this year compared to the tactics they have used with Indigenous protesters.

During a heated exchange in a committee meeting Tuesday night, NDP MP Matthew Green asked about the scenes that played out during border blockades over COVID-19 health mandates and compared them to blockades during protests against a pipeline drill site on Wet'suwet'en territory in northern British Columbia.

Green referred to the cases as a "juxtaposition of policing — what I'll call a failure of policing."

The RCMP has come under fire after a U.K. newspaper reported that police were prepared to use snipers on Wet'suwet'en Nation protesters and argued for "lethal overwatch" in 2019.

Last year, video footage provided to the media showed RCMP tactical officers breaking down a door with an axe and chainsaw to arrest pipeline opponents at Coyote Camp during another protest on the territory. The RCMP is also investigating reports of violence at a pipeline construction site on Coastal GasLink property earlier this year.

Green contrasted those incidents with reports that Alberta RCMP officers shook hands with and hugged some of the protesters who had halted traffic at the United States border crossing near Coutts, Alta., to demonstrate against pandemic health mandates.

RCMP said they seized more than a dozen long guns, hand guns, ammunition and body armour from that site.

Lucki says police are 'part of the community'

 SHE IS IMPLYING RCMP ARE NOT PART OF INDIGENOUSE CANADIAN COMMUNITIES

"How is it that you reconcile the double standard in policing?" Green asked Lucki Tuesday night as a special joint committee continued its study of the invocation of the Emergencies Act in February to disperse Freedom Convoy protesters.

"And what would you say to Canadians who have questions about the conduct of RCMP officers giving handshakes and high-fives and hugs shortly after these weapon stashes were found in what was admittedly a high-risk investigation and arrest?"

"What I can say was there were many legal protesters at the Coutts protest," Lucki responded

THERE ARE MANY PEACEFUL PROTESTERS AT INDIGENOUS PROTESTS WHO ARE JUST AS LEGAL AS WHITE PEOPLE IN TRUCKS

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

"And our members, who police there, are part of the community, they shop in those stores. They're neighbours to those people."

Green interrupted, asking if the difference in approach was due to the fact that the protesters at Coutts looked like the police officers themselves.

"No," said Lucki. "They live in those communities."

SO YES THEY DO LOOK LIKE OTHER WHITE PEOPLE IN THOSE TOWNS

"Can we acknowledge at least a double standard there?" asked Green.

"No, not at all, no," the head Mountie responded.

Green ended his allotted time by asking if Lucki would "at least admit that there were kid gloves for the protesters in Coutts directly after the discovery of the weapons cache."

"No," said Lucki. She said that in Coutts, it was protesters and supporters who approached police at the scene.

Allegations of police failure

MPs and senators tried to press Lucki during the three-hour committee hearing over how the RCMP and Ottawa Police responded to the hundreds of demonstrators who blocked streets in Ottawa with big rigs and other trucks to protest COVID-19 restrictions.

Beyond Coutts, protesters also blocked border crossings at Windsor, Ont., and Emerson, Man., and the pacific highway crossing in B.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued it was necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act to address "serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law."

The Emergencies Act authorized a ban on travel to protest zones, allowed banks to freeze the accounts of some of those involved in the protests and allowed officials to commandeer tow trucks. It also enabled the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences as required.

Lucki said she didn't think the convoy protests suggested a failure in policing, despite several senators and MPs on the committee suggesting the opposite.

Sen. Peter Harder said he thought the actions of police prior to the invocation of the act "demonstrated a series of police failures."

"Not willful failures," he said. "But the inability of police to contain and act appropriately in reducing the occupation here in Ottawa."

Conservatives say threshold wasn't met

Lucki said the temporary powers bestowed by the Emergencies Act served as a deterrent in Ottawa, but they weren't used to clear protest blockades at border crossings.

"In RCMP jurisdiction, we successfully used a measured approach and existing legislation to resolve border blockades," she told the committee.

Lucki also testified that she was involved in conversations about triggering the act a week before it was invoked on Feb. 14, but that she never requested it.

On Wednesday, the Conservatives said that shows Liberal government did not have the evidence to meet the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act.

"From the beginning, Conservatives have said that the threshold to invoke the unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act was never met and we have repeatedly called on the Liberal government to justify its actions — but they have failed to do so," reads the statement.