Wednesday, May 18, 2022

New York State agency files unfair labor complaint against Amazon


A state agency in New York has filed a complaint against Amazon over unfair labor practices, Gov. Kathy Hochul, pictured, announced Wednesday. 
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 18 (UPI) -- A state agency in New York has filed a complaint against Amazon over unfair labor practices, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The New York State Division of Human Rights filed the complaint, accusing Amazon of discriminating against pregnant workers and workers with disabilities.

The complaint alleges Amazon denied pregnant women and workers with disabilities "reasonable accommodations," instead forcing them to take an unpaid leave of absence.

New York State law requires all employers to "reasonably accommodate" workers with disabilities or pregnancy-related conditions.


The complaint accuses the multinational tech company's managers of "overriding" decisions made by so-called "Accommodation Consultants," requiring pregnant employees to continue heavy lifting.

Amazon operates 23 worksites with over 39,000 workers across New York State. Its "Accommodation Consultants" evaluate requests for amended duties based on things like pregnancy, on a case-by-case basis.

The complaint points to an example of one pregnant worker being told by one of the consultants that she shouldn't have to lift anything over 25 pounds, only to have that overruled by a manager.

The complaint lays out another case where a worker requested and then was denied a modified work schedule related to a documented disability.

"My administration will hold any employer accountable, regardless of how big or small, if they do not treat their workers with the dignity and respect they deserve," Hochul said in a statement.

"New York has the strongest worker protections in the nation and was one of the first to have protections for workers who are pregnant and those with disabilities. Working men and women are the backbone of New York and we will continue to take a stand against any injustice they face."

This is not the first time the company's labor practices have been in the news.

In early May, ​​a labor union that successfully organized an Amazon.com facility in New York City in April, failed to do the same thing at a second workplace in nearby Staten Island.
The Year Canada Didn’t Have a Summer

Robert Liwanag, readersdigest.ca 

© Photo: MCarter/Shutterstock 1816-the-year-without-a-summer


The year without a summer

In the spring of 1815, things were looking up for Canada.

Local Canadian militia, along with British forces and their Indigenous allies, had just thwarted an American invasion in the War of 1812. Casualties aside—York (now Toronto) was briefly captured and Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) was burned down—the Canadians stood their ground. Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) had a population of about 335,000 people, while Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) had 95,000. Newfoundland, meanwhile, was home to a further 52,000 people.

For the first time, these Canadians—many of whom were newly-arrived immigrants with no connection to the Crown—started to feel like Canadians.

Sixteen-thousand kilometres away, however, trouble was brewing.
The largest volcanic eruption in 2,000 years

On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in the Indonesian archipelago, suddenly erupted. Five days later, Tambora erupted once again, this time releasing 100 cubic kilometres of molten rock—and ash clouds that covered an area the size of Australia—into the sky.

Nearly 12,000 people living near Mount Tambora died—the victims of falling rocks and fast-moving gas currents. Over the next several months, an estimated 80,000 more would perish from starvation, contaminated drinking water, or respiratory infections from the ash that still remained in the atmosphere.

Scientists now know that Mount Tambora is the largest volcanic eruption of the last 2,000 years. In order to "rate" a volcano, today's researchers use the Volcanic Explosivity Index: a system that uses whole numbers from zero to eight to measure the amount of ash, dust and sulphur a volcano throws into the atmosphere.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which erupted in 2010 and delayed air travel in Europe for six days, rates a mere four on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, is considered a five. Krakatoa, which erupted in 1883 and is also located in Indonesia, has been deemed a six.

Mount Tambora is the only stratovolcano (a volcano composed of alternating layers of lava and ash) to ever receive a score of seven.

Along with ash particles, the eruption also released 100-million tonnes of sulfuric acid into the stratosphere, writes historian William K. Klingaman and meteorologist Nicholas P. Klingaman in the book The Year Without Summer. Over the next 12 months, this aerosol cloud spread around the world, cooling temperatures by drastically reducing the amount of solar energy that was able to reach Earth.

A summer of starvation and misery


It took a full year after the eruption for the shockwaves to reach Canada. On April 12, 1816, it began snowing in Quebec City—and it didn't stop. A news report from April 18 wrote, “The country has all the appearance of the middle of winter, the depth of snow being still between three and four feet. We understand that in many parishes the cattle are already suffering from a scarcity of forage.”

By June, the noontime temperature in central Ontario was just one below zero. In the Quebec countryside, newly-shorn sheep began dying from the cold. The Montreal Herald, meanwhile, urged readers to plant as many potatoes as possible in case the summer's wheat crops failed completely.

Out west in Brandon, Manitoba, Peter Fidler of the Hudson’s Bay Company witnessed a cold spell that began on June 5. “A very sharp frost at night… killed all the barley, wheat, oats and garden stuff above the ground except lettuce and onions,” he wrote. “The oak leaves are coming out as if they are singed by fire and dead.”

Cold fronts continued to sweep through Lower Canada in July. By then, growing season was three weeks behind. To avoid famine, the governor of Lower Canada banned the export of wheat, flour, beans and barley until September. At the same time, he opened Canadian harbours to grain imports from the U.S.—free of tariffs.

His efforts, however, were in vain. By September, Lower Canada was destitute. Up to four-fifths of the region's hay crops were ruined, while the frost left the province with a small wheat harvest and an even smaller supply of oats. Farmers were forced to sell their dairy cows to buy bread, while others survived on a diet of wild herbs.
Disaster for the rest of the world

Eastern Canada was far from the only region affected that summer, however.

Summer frosts also devastated much of the eastern United States, from New England to Virginia. Failing crops and rising bread prices led many hungry settlers to leave for areas in the Midwest, particularly modern-day Indiana and Illinois.

Across the Atlantic, the citizens of Germany and France struggled with surging food prices. In the Netherlands, rainstorms destroyed so much hay and grain crops that farmers, fearing their livestock would die of starvation, began slaughtering them. Ireland, meanwhile, faced famine as the region's wheat, oat and potato harvests failed.

India was ravaged by several late-season downpours. As harvests failed, a combination of famine, mass migration and crowded communities led to the world's first cholera pandemic. By the winter of 1816, the disease broke out of northeastern Bengal—where it killed 10,000 people in two weeks—and spread across Nepal, Thailand, the Philippines, China and Japan.
The aftermath

While Mount Tambora's toxic aerosol cloud had its most catastrophic impact in the summer of 1816, weather patterns around the world continued to be affected for at least another two years.

The stratovolcano erupted again 1819—this time, it registered only a two on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. It erupted twice more between 1847 and 1913, and again in 1967. A string of earthquakes on Sumbawa in 2011 led the Indonesian government to fear another eruption, but experts believe no explosion from Mount Tambora would again approach the magnitude of 1815-16.

Now that you know the story of the year without a summer, find out what it was like on the coldest day in Canadian history.

The post The Year Canada Didn’t Have a Summer appeared first on Reader's Digest Canada.
Western Canadian chapter of American Chamber  of Commerce focused on expanding cross-border commerce

CALGARY; LARGEST AMERICAN CITY NORTH OF THE 49TH 

David Parker, Calgary Herald -

The western Canadian chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham West) is forging ahead with renewed enthusiasm and a new focus on better serving a wider geography after the setbacks caused by the pandemic.


© Provided by Calgary HeraldLee Malleau is board chair of AmCham, which is broadening its geographic reach and scope of the industries it serves.

Lee Malleau, board chair of AmCham West, says she is encouraged by the loyalty and energy of her board and the support of members shown by their interest in the first two events the organization has been able to hold recently.

The first in-person event was an energy panel hosted by ARIS — SAIT’s Applied Research and Innovation Services that responds to the innovation needs of industry — moderated by Brad Robson, vice-chair of AmCham West and president and CEO of Dotted i Strategies.

The second was a sold-out luncheon at the Ranchmen’s Club when an attentive audience listened to a message from U.S. Consul General Holly Waeger Monster, followed by a fireside chat with Malleau and a lively question period.

It was a good opportunity for Monster to finally address a face-to-face Calgary business group since arriving in the city last summer amid public health restrictions.

AmCham West serves as the first point of contact with the U.S. Commercial Service at the consulate — well represented by commercial specialist Connie Halder but expecting a new director to be posted here within a couple of months.

The local chapter has experienced and diverse board members who act as the go-to persons for any of its members needs.

Malleau is a good example.

Her education and background in journalism, communications, economics, business and management are a great asset to the organization.

She runs her own company, Globalnomics, a multidisciplinary corporation focusing on strategic and action planning, project management, research and analysis, and international investment.

In various executive roles, Malleau has facilitated new investment across Western Canada over the past 25 years, including as CEO of the Vancouver Economic Commission where she led the city’s Olympic business programs through the 2010 Winter Games.

Also a recognized community leader, Malleau has a strong volunteer track record, including past-president of her Rotary club and recipient of the international organization’s Paul Harris Fellow Award for her service.

In her current volunteer role as chair of AmCham West, she has a mandate to broaden the organization’s focus on the energy industry and to expand services to better reflect the geographical area covered by the consulate.

That means canvassing for directors and new members in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as across this province.

Patrick Lamoureux, president of Lams & Associates — a business advisement firm based in Sherwood Park — is an AmCham board member who is helping facilitate a followup energy panel in Edmonton in early June, partnering with the Edmonton Chamber, Edmonton Global and the Alberta Enterprise Group.

In Calgary, AmCham West will be present alongside the U.S. Consulate in its booth at next month’s Global Petroleum Show. It is holding an agritech event at the Calgary Petroleum Club on June 16 and 17, and future events are planned that will embrace digital and creative media, reflecting the diversity of industries the organization serves.

Much of what it offers its members is in support of their pursuit of access to new markets through education, a willing network of business and government leaders, and as a resource of trusted information that will help stimulate and encourage positive investment both at home and internationally.

That means AmCham West has access to the right resources to help any small, medium or large company in its efforts to facilitate cross-border work.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner: 
A duty to reject conspiracy theories about white replacement

Special to National Post - 

While campaigning in the greater Toronto area in the lead up to the 2015 election, I knocked on a door and an older white woman opened. After my opening spiel, she looked for confirmation, “so you’re with the Tories?


Mourners gather two days after a shooting in Buffalo, New York, U.S. May 16, 2022. Picture taken May 16, 2022. REUTERS/Jeffrey T. Barnes N

After I answered in the affirmative, she let me have it. “Harper let so many brown people in around here that none of you deserve to win. You’ve replaced us with them. Canada is ruined.”

That was not the first or the last time I have had to counter that particular racist diatribe. It is a core tenet of so-called “great replacement theory”; an anti-Semitic white-nationalist conspiracy theory involving a supposed plot to replace white people with non-whites.

The narrative it usually follows is that the immigration policy of western countries is designed to replace whites, or to “out breed them,” in order to prevent whites from getting jobs, dominating culture, or electing a “pro-white” government. It is racism built on longstanding colonial and white nationalist dogma that never truly has been erased, even after decades spent building pluralistic policy

And this dangerous sentiment is mainstreamed.

Having proliferated in online forums, a poll released this month by the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research showed that 32 per cent of Americans believe that “a group of people is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” Nearly one in three respondents also agreed that, “an increase in immigration is leading to native-born Americans losing economic, political and cultural influence.”

Those numbers have significance for politicians. In the wake of white replacement rhetoric being found in what appears to be the manifesto of the suspected perpetrator of Saturday’s Buffalo murders — of which a majority of the victims were black — on Monday, prominent Republican Elise Stefanik leaned into replacement theory. Instead of being introspective about the actual reasons why new immigrants may not want vote for her party, she instead pointed to the replacement theory and wrote, “Democrats desperately want wide open border and mass amnesty for illegals allowing them to vote.”

It is pure ignorance to believe that white replacement dogma doesn’t exist in Canada.

In a wink to this sentiment, some right leaning political candidates in recent years, both at the federal and provincial levels, have promised to “lower immigration levels” without explaining what benefit this would bring to Canada.

Long before the blockade in Ottawa happened, organizer Pat King, who rose to mainstream prominence during the occupation, posted a video stating that, “And that’s what the goal is, is to depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race because they are the ones with the strongest bloodlines … It’s a depopulation of race, okay, that’s what they want to do.”

And white replacement dogma has fuelled murder in Canada, having been cited as motivation for acts of terrorism that slaughtered people at a Quebec City mosque and mowed down a Muslim family in London, Ontario.

There is no justification for this murderous garbage. The assumption that white Canadians are more hard done by than immigrants is rooted in the racist notion that the right to basic dignities and equality of opportunity is predicated on someone’s skin colour as opposed to shared humanity, not fact.

The proof of this is a lived reality for many racialized Canadians. During the pandemic, new Canadians were significantly more likely to be affected by pandemic related job losses than Canadian-born workers. The first year of the pandemic also saw police reported hate crimes in Canada increase by an alarming 37 per cent. New immigrants are far more likely to work in low-income jobs than Canadian born-workers. Non-white Canadians are still far more likely to experience discrimination, hate crimes, and have less representation at the senior levels of power than whites. A significant portion of Canada’s agricultural labour is provided by non-Canadians who are afforded precious few opportunities to permanently reside in our country.

Beyond the fear, murder and destructive power white replacement dogma brings to Canada’s pluralism, it also cripples action from occurring on issues that need to be addressed. How can we truly address inequality if we believe some are more worthy of equality than others? How can we address First Nations and Indigenous reconciliation if there are those who still hold fast to white entitlement beliefs? How can we address the lack of focus on integration supports that belies most of Canada’s current immigration policy? How can women become more equal if the act of childbearing is reduced a notion of “breeding” solely to maintain the numbers one racial group or another?

With Canadian politics becoming more divisive and polarized every day, this dogma can’t be ignored. It must be vehemently, and proactively, denounced and stopped. This is particularly true for leaders in right leaning political movements where this sentiment may be more pervasive, and the temptation to mainstream it for political gain is greater. Promoting it or being silent when it occurs in the ranks amounts to the same thing.

The freedom of our nation exists only as long as we are willing to fight for the dignity and rights of every human, no matter what, skin colour be damned.

Michelle Rempel Garner is the Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill and the co-chair of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown’s campaign to lead the Conservative Party of Canada.

(PROGRESSIVE) CONSERVATIVE MP
WHO SUPPORTS WICCA

Michelle Rempel-Garner Gives Witchy Halloween Tribute To Women In House

Ahead of a rare Halloween full moon, she told all the witches out there to “keep rockin’ it.”

By Mel Woods
Oct. 30, 2020,

Must be the season of the witch on Parliament Hill.

At the very least, it is for Calgary Nosehill MP Michelle Rempel Garner.

The Tory health critic marked Halloween weekend Friday with a tribute to the witches of the past and the present.

“Throughout the course of history, women have been burned at the stake and tortured for being witches,” Rempel Garner said. “In reality they were herbalists, midwives or just too independent for the patriarchy’s liking.”


According to the rules of the House of Commons, MPs may take one minute to give a statement on whatever they want. Rempel Garner used the time to make a seasonally appropriate and expansive statement on women and Halloween.

She also specifically shouted out independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, who was booted from the Liberal caucus in 2019 after speaking out during the SNC-Lavalin affair.

“Today we might not literally burn women at the stake, but we still don’t believe them when they’re abused, we still punish them when they speak truth to power,” Rempel Garner said.


The speech was timed not only with Halloween, but Samhain, a traditional festival marking the end of the harvest and beginning of the dark winter. It’s traditionally observed starting on Halloween night and rolling into Nov. 1. The festival is marked annually by neo-pagans and wiccans as a religious holiday.

This weekend will be extra special, as it’s the first full moon visible across North America on Halloween in 76 years. It’s also a rare Halloween “Blue Moon,” meaning the second full moon of the month. October is the only month with a Blue Moon in 2020, according to NASA.

Conservative Party investigating racist email sent to Brown campaign

Richard Raycraft - 

The Conservative Party of Canada says it's investigating a complaint from the Patrick Brown campaign about a racist email which expressed support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism.


© Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Workers prepare the room before the opening of the Conservative Party's national convention in Halifax on Thursday, August 23, 2018. The party is investigating a racist email sent to leadership candidate Patrick Brown's campaign.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, co-chair of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown's campaign for the Conservative leadership, posted the text of the email Wednesday on her Twitter account.

In it, the sender expresses support for Hitler and Nazism and makes hateful and racist remarks about a number of ethnic groups. The sender goes on to say they support Pierre Poilievre, a Conservative MP who is one of Brown's rivals in the Conservative leadership campaign.

Rempel Garner said the message was sent to the Brown campaign after the campaign sent en email denouncing the "white replacement" conspiracy theory, which has been a source of tension in the leadership race since a shooter killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, N.Y. last weekend.

She added the Brown campaign had confirmed the message came from an active Conservative Party member.

"The campaign has forwarded this email to the party's Executive Director and have asked that this membership be revoked. We expect all campaigns will support this call," Rempel Garner said in a follow-up tweet.

"No person who holds these vile beliefs should have a home in the Conservative Party of Canada."

In a tweet, the Conservative Party said it will investigate the complaint under the party's Membership Revocation Bylaw.

"The Conservative Party of Canada condemns racism in all its forms. We take any and all allegations of racism seriously," the party said in a tweet.

In a statement sent to CBC News, Poilievre denounced racism.

"I reject all racism. If you are a racist, I don't want your vote. Anyone promoting racism has no place in our party and should lose their membership," he said.
Brown campaign email attacks Poilievre

The email and investigation follow a campaign email the Brown team sent out earlier Wednesday which implied that Poilievre was trying to appeal to racists.

The email says a supporter of Poilievre said Brown's strategy in the race is to "replace the CPC membership with ethnic and religious minorities," but the email does not name the alleged Poilievre supporter or go into further detail.

"If that kind of alarming language about "replacing" people sounds familiar to you, it may be because it closely resembles the racist rants of Pat King, one of the organizers of the illegal blockades that took place across our country a few months back," Brown says in the email.

Brown has attacked Poilievre over his vocal support for the protest convoy.

The email mentions comments King made in a video about a conspiracy to "depopulate" the "Anglo-Saxon race."

Earlier this week, in an interview with psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, Poilievre said in response to a question about his political appeal that he speaks in "clear, plain language that makes sense to people" and uses "simple, Anglo-Saxon words" that don't obscure what he's trying to say.

Brown said in the email that while he doesn't believe Poilievre is racist, he draws a link between King's beliefs and Poilievre's words.

"Before I make my next point, let me just say there are things being said about Pierre Poilievre online that simply aren't true. For one, I do not believe Pierre Poilievre holds racist views," Brown says in the email.

"But when Pierre Poilievre says things like, 'I'm a believer in using simple, Anglo-Saxon words,' who does he think he's appealing to? Who is he trying to bring into the Conservative Party?"

Brown ends the email by denouncing the white replacement conspiracy theory, saying he'll never allow it "to flourish in the Conservative Party."

Poilievre and Brown have traded barbs throughout the campaign. Poilievre's gone after Brown over passages in his book that are critical of social conservatives and has accused him more than once of making misleading statements
ABOLISH THE MONARCHY
AFN national chief calls for Queen to apologize for past wrongs

John Paul Tasker - 

The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations said late Wednesday the Queen must apologize for the Crown's "ongoing failure to fulfil its treaty agreements" with Indigenous peoples, and suggested there should be some "restitution" for harms perpetrated by the Canadian government in her name.


RoseAnne Archibald met with Prince Charles today at a reception in Rideau Hall following his tour of Ottawa with his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Archibald told reporters she brought up the subject of an apology with Charles.

"I did it respectfully and I told him this wasn't a political request. I told him it would be something that would help people heal," Archibald said.

"I let him know that this would be a healing path forward for us — to receive an apology. He did talk about the failures. I found him to be very empathetic."

Archibald said the Queen needs to apologize for both the government's conduct and that of the Anglican Church of Canada, which ran some of the residential schools that forcibly took First Nations children in the 19th and 20th centuries. The church itself already apologized in 1993. It also paid significant damages to survivors.

The Queen is the titular head — officially the "supreme governor" — of the Church of England, which is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She does not hold any official position with the Anglican Church in Canada.

Archibald said the Queen must "apologize to survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors" in her capacity as "the leader of the Anglican faith for the role the church played in institutions of assimilation and genocide in Canada."

It is not clear if the Queen herself can actually apologize for Canadian abuses. It would be unusual for the Queen to issue that sort of statement. The Governor General, as the sovereign's representative in Canada, usually takes the lead on all royal matters.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for residential school abuses in 2008 and initiated the compensation program that paid out more than $3.2 billion to survivors.

WHY HE IS NO LONGER AFN CHIEF 

Also on hand at the reception was Perry Bellegarde, the former AFN chief. Bellegarde told CBC News an apology from the Queen should not be a top priority.

He said Indigenous activists should instead focus their energies on lobbying the government to tackle social issues like inadequate housing, ending boil-water advisories and the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in prisons and foster care.

"That would be more of a benefit," Bellegarde said. "Let's direct our energies towards that. That's what I'd focus on — putting pressure on nation states to deal with these issues."

In her address to the assembled dignitaries, Governor General Mary Simon said he was happy Charles and Camilla were headed to the Northwest Territories tomorrow so that they can "continue to engage with Indigenous leaders, elders and community leaders."

"Their stories are an integral part of our journey of reconciliation," Simon told the royal couple.
Letters reveal what energy companies told RCMP before Wet’suwet’en raid

LONG READ

In late April, RCMP officers walked into the Gidimt’en Camp near the confluence of Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek) and Wedzin Kwa (Morice River). Their visits on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northwest B.C. had been a daily occurrence, with members of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group showing up at all hours, including in the middle of the night according to locals.

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham drummed and sang while approaching the police, her young daughter at her heels, according to videos shared to social media. The officers retreated to their vehicles outside the camp, where Coastal GasLink private security maintains an around-the-clock presence.

The RCMP told The Narwhal the purpose of these visits is related to a February incident, during which unidentified individuals chased off Coastal GasLink security workers and vandalized equipment.

“After the violent confrontation against employees of Coastal GasLink on the Marten Forest Service Road on Feb. 17, the RCMP has been concerned for the safety of those in the area and has increased our presence patrolling around the industry camps and other camps along the route, and interacting with people in the area,” Madonna Saunderson, with the RCMP’s media relations team, wrote in an emailed statement.

Wickham is a wing chief in Cas Yikh House of the Gidimt’en Clan and spokesperson for the Gidimt’en checkpoint, which monitors activity on clan territory. She lives on the territory with her family, and on April 22 when she drove home down a dirt and gravel forest service road she said she was followed by RCMP. The next day, she said officers returned to her house and issued her four tickets, including one for having illegible licence plates. Her plates, she explained, were covered in mud from her regular use of the backroads.

While some elected chiefs and councils and Wet’suwet’en members support the Coastal GasLink project, Wickham, other land defenders and their allies say the escalating police activity is a sign of how a private corporation has been able to get RCMP officers to handle its own security needs. Internal correspondence and emails obtained by The Narwhal also show how pipeline company TC Energy provided instructions to the RCMP that made their way to the force’s headquarters in Ottawa.

“It indicates the relationship between the RCMP — C-IRG specifically — and TC Energy, Coastal GasLink employees,” Wickham told The Narwhal in an interview. “On multiple occasions, I have witnessed the RCMP on the ground take direction from Coastal GasLink workers. Their relationship is so close and intertwined that it’s hard to distinguish roles.”

When asked about that relationship, RCMP denied it gives preference to industry.

“The RCMP, including Chief Superintendent Brewer, meet with all stakeholders as and when necessary,” the police force’s media relations team wrote in an email to The Narwhal. “These stakeholders include elected chiefs and council, hereditary leaders, industry stakeholders and all levels of government. No one stakeholder is given preference. Meetings may occur in person, or over the phone or virtually based on availability.”

When asked about the traffic tickets, the RCMP referred The Narwhal to a website that lists traffic violations. But the alleged offences were not immediately posted.

On April 29, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued Canada a reprimand for escalating the use of “force, surveillance and criminalization of land defenders.” This is the third time the committee has sent a letter calling out Canada for its complicity in supporting industrial development despite the pleas of First Nations directly impacted by that activity. The committee noted that “numerous Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peaceful land defenders have been victims of violent evictions and arbitrary detentions by the RCMP, the [Community-Industry Response Group] and private security personnel” since it flagged its concerns in late 2020.

At a press conference on May 11, 2022, Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Woos, whose house territory sits at the centre of where RCMP has been patrolling, didn’t mince words when discussing the United Nations rebuke.

“The government of Canada, right now as it stands, is at its highest in hypocrisy,” he said. “They do this and do that for the international stage and yet behind closed doors, in their own backyard, so to speak — our backyard — they continue to push us around, to be ignorant toward our culture. It’s horrendous.”

The international spotlight has led to support from a cadre of concerned celebrities. Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo is leading a charge of prominent Hollywood figures calling on Royal Bank of Canada and its subsidiaries to divest from fossil fuel projects, including the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Ruffalo and Wickham collaborated on a piece recently published in Rolling Stone that was widely shared on social media platforms and Ruffalo’s tweets about the situation regularly receive thousands of shares. Critics of the celebrity support have called out Ruffalo and others for speaking about an issue they don’t fully understand. For Ruffalo, it’s about human rights.

“What’s happening is very disturbing. We are witnessing the occupation of a people,” he wrote in an email to The Narwhal. “This is a form of psychological terror and warfare. The RCMP in conjunction with the political machine of British Columbia, Coastal GasLink pipeline and Royal Bank of Canada are criminalizing and occupying the lives of this sovereign First Nation.”

“If this was, let’s say, the community in North Vancouver, we would be seeing a very different tactic,” he added. “The only reason this is happening and is allowed to happen is because these people are First Nations people and North America has become inured to these racist policies.”

RCMP maintain that entering the camps is within its jurisdiction.

“These officers are patrolling on public lands to ensure that no one is setting up structures or to impede access through these public lands,” Saunderson wrote. “This is not private property, officers do not enter into structures or tents during the course of these patrols. This is exercising common law authorities to enter public land.”

But in some cases, RCMP action appears to coincide with lobbying by private industry stakeholders such as TC Energy, which is building the pipeline, and LNG Canada, which needs the pipeline built to ensure that a new fossil fuel export facility in Kitimat is profitable.

The multibillion dollar Coastal GasLink project has been mired in delays with both companies locked in a dispute over who will pay for significant cost overruns.

Both companies sent separate letters to senior RCMP officials in early November, according to private correspondence obtained by The Narwhal through freedom of information legislation.

TC Energy’s Kent Wilfur, a vice president of Coastal GasLink, wrote to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and RCMP Chief Superintendent John Brewer on Nov. 2. Brewer is the gold commander of a special RCMP unit that was created in 2017, the Community-Industry Response Group, to support resource companies.

In the letter, Wilfur said the police force was “not enforcing the injunction” and stated that lack of action is “contrary to upholding the rule of law.”

The injunction he referred to was issued by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church in December, 2019, which replaced a temporary injunction first issued in late 2018. It prohibits anyone blocking or impeding work on the 670-kilometre pipeline, which would connect fracked gas sources in northeast B.C. to the LNG Canada liquefaction and export facility currently under construction on the northwest coast.

Wilfur singled out Wickham in his letter, noting that she “has been arrested in the past for breaching the injunction as a result of the unlawful activities.”

“As was first communicated to you on September 25, 2021, Ms. Wickham and a number of other blockaders, including several who are known to the RCMP, occupied the Marten Forest Service Road (Marten FSR) and the Morice River Crossing drill site located where the Marten FSR intersects the [pipeline] right of way.”

Wilfur went on to note that the injunction order “contains enforcement provisions compelling the RCMP to enforce the injunction.”

While it is true the injunction order explicitly includes enforcement provisions, it also notes police “retain discretion as to timing and manner of enforcement.” It specifically advises discretion around “timing and manner of arrest and removal of any person pursuant to this order.”

Wilfur concluded: “We are left with very little recourse but to make an application to the court to have direction provided to the RCMP to enforce, so that we may resume work on this critical aspect to our project.”

“The courts can’t instruct police to enforce,” Jeffrey Monaghan, associate professor at Carleton’s Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice, told The Narwhal in an interview. “The company just has no clue what they’re talking about.”

Yet Brewer flagged the company’s intent to have the court intervene in an email to Assistant Commissioner Eric Stubbs and Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald in an email he sent on Nov. 3.

“Police do not have to enforce these injunctions — they have discretion to be able to enforce injunctions, they don’t have to do it,” Monaghan emphasized. “The police are choosing to enforce these injunctions. They go all in, SWAT team, Oka-style. Police are making those decisions and those decisions are very closely aligned with the interests of the companies.”

The letter from TC Energy stressed its position that its work is “lawful and permitted” and the actions of opponents to the project were preventing its “critical” work on micro-tunneling under the river.

LNG Canada’s former chief executive officer, Peter Zebedee also urged RCMP officials to enforce the injunction in his own letter, sent on Nov. 10, 2021.

Zebedee noted the export facility would be a “major driver of positive social and economic benefits” and delays to the pipeline would have a “knock-on impact to the start-up and operations of the LNG Canada project.”

“LNG Canada has signed agreements with five First Nations in the vicinity of the LNG Canada project, and [Coastal GasLink] has obtained agreements with the 20 First Nations along the pipeline route,” as spokesperson for the company told The Narwhal in an emailed statement, noting the project has awarded $3.7 billion in contracts as of February, 2022. Of that amount, $2.9 billion was awarded to First Nations-owned businesses and local businesses.

“LNG Canada respects the rights of individuals to peacefully express their points-of-view, as long as their activities do not jeopardize people’s safety and are within the law,” the spokesperson wrote. “We also respect the rights of the 20 First Nations along the pipeline right-of-way, their councils and their nations who have put in considerable effort and due diligence to come to a decision to support LNG development in B.C. and have signed project and benefits agreements with [Coastal GasLink].”

Wickham said she’s not surprised Coastal GasLink is singling her out. She told The Narwhal the company’s lawyers have referred to her as the “protest leader,” which she said “speaks to their inability to comprehend the ways that we make decisions and the way that we do our work as Wet’suwet’en houses and clans.”

“They’re lacking the understanding that this is about Wet’suwet’en sovereignty and title and not just about one individual.”

She explained that she is a spokesperson for the checkpoint and does not speak on behalf of the nation or clan.

“I think it was very clear during the arrests and raids that they were targeting me because they arrested my husband and called him Cody ‘Wickham’ — when that’s not his name. They knew exactly who he was. They illegally arrested him and put him in jail for four days.”

Wickham’s husband, Cody Merriman, was arrested on the afternoon of Nov. 19. At the time of arrest, he was standing at a junction between the Morice River road and another forest service road that leads to his home.

TC Energy did not answer questions about why they decided to note the presence of Wickham in communications to the RCMP, noting “there are a number of matters before the courts and an active criminal investigation underway.”

“At Coastal GasLink, nothing matters more than the safety of our people and the public, including those who oppose this project. We will never compromise on safety,” the company wrote in a statement emailed to The Narwhal.

“Coastal GasLink had serious concerns about escalating protester actions in 2021 threatening our workers and our work in contravention of a court order. These actions included blockades, acts of vandalism, threats of violence to people and property, which ultimately led to a number of individuals being arrested.”

TC Energy also stressed that its work is “lawful, authorized, fully permitted, and has received unprecedented support from all 20 elected Indigenous communities along our project corridor,” adding that it recently signed equity option agreements with 16 of those elected First Nations.

But Wickham suggested it was misguided for the company to target her in its communications with police.

“In 2020, there was huge resistance to the project and I was nowhere to be found behind the blockades. I was eight months pregnant.”

She added that it’s obvious that the RCMP is giving the pipeline company preferential treatment.

“The other day, as an example of this collusion, the Forsythe security was instructing the RCMP officer how to get to my home,” she said at the press conference. “They have regular meetings right outside of Gidimt’en checkpoint, where they’re sharing information with one another.”

Forsythe is a private security force that works with fossil fuel companies, led by a former RCMP officer, Warren Forsythe. It is unclear whether there are multiple security companies working for Coastal GasLink and who is on site at any given time. It is also unclear what information the company is gathering, what it does with that information and how much is shared with RCMP or what the RCMP shares with private security personnel.

Shiri Pasternak, co-founder of the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led research organization, and an assistant professor in criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), described the connections between police, government and industry as “an astonishing kind of corruption and malfeasance by the B.C. government.”

“There is a quixotic love triangle between [Coastal GasLink], RCMP and the B.C. provincial government,” she told The Narwhal in an email.

“There’s so much mystery to unpack about the authorization of the pipeline and the way that they’ve been positioning the Hereditary Chiefs as having no authority. That’s totally contradicting B.C.’s negotiations over land claims with the Hereditary Chiefs for a period of decades.”

The November raids garnered international attention, in part because along with dozens of land defenders the RCMP also arrested and incarcerated photojournalist Amber Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano.

For Pasternak, that attention is simply a by-product of the real issue at play.

“The political risk for Indigenous people of exercising their inherent rights on their own lands is the reason why journalists are being arrested,” she explained. “It’s the collateral damage of the denial of Indigenous Rights.”

Ruffalo agreed.

“What used to be done outside the eyes of the good, decent and caring people of Canada is now happening under the cool light of a video camera with the press in attendance,” he said.

“But the world is watching and history will see this no differently than Wounded Knee or the boarding schools of oppression and despair. It’s all part and parcel of the same mentality and it is time for it to end and for mankind to move away from this savage brutality and inequality.”

Both Bracken and Toledano approached the media spotlight with the same focus, always driving interviews back to the reason why they were there in the first place: to document Indigenous land defenders as they stood up for their rights in the face of government-sanctioned industrial development and police intervention.

Charges against Bracken and Toledano were dropped in December but 27 land defenders and community members — including Wickham and Merriman — still face charges of civil contempt. In a brief hearing on April 13, Coastal GasLink lawyers petitioned the courts to have Crown lawyers intervene and escalate the charges to criminal contempt. On June 1, the B.C. Prosecution Service will decide whether it is in the public interest to step in and pursue criminal litigation.

“Every time that I’ve been arrested, every time that I’ve seen guns and canine units coming at us, we’re standing in our strength and our power under Wet’suwet’en law,” Wickham said. “And that is what we will continue to do.”

“This is our livelihoods that we’re talking about. This is the livelihoods of everybody downstream. This is the livelihoods of so many Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. We, under our law, are required to protect that by any means necessary.”

— With files from Mike De Souza

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

Hydro-Québec’s plans to power New York City reignites historic concerns

Despite Hydro-Québec’s history of environmental devastation and exploitation of Indigenous communities, the crown utility is promoting its growing collaboration with First Nations to promote expansion into markets in the United States.

Hydro-Québec received final approval April 14 to supply about 20% of New York City’s annual electricity needs via the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) transmission line that would travel 545 km underground from Quebec to the borough of Queens. The Quebec portion of the CHPE will be jointly owned by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, securing the community economic benefits for 40 years.

“The Champlain Hudson Power Express is a game changer,” Mohawk Council Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer stated in a press release. “We are ensuring Indigenous people have a seat at the table as business partners and have a voice in the overall economy moving forward.”


With the city under pressure to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, which have provided nearly 90% of its power since a nearby nuclear plant was closed last year, New York is touting hydropower as a clean energy alternative. With permits in place and the support of city and state leaders, the $4 billion CHPE project is seen as the most readily available solution.

However, the project faces stiff resistance from environmental groups and Canadian Indigenous leaders. Organizations like Sierra Club and Riverkeeper argue the CHPE will squeeze out more energy-efficient local options, dredge up pollutants in the Hudson River and further damage Indigenous communities.

A coalition of five First Nations – Lac Simon, Kitcisakik and Abitiwinni (Anishnabeg Nation), Wemotaci (Atikamekw Nation) and Pessamit (Innu Nation) – that opposed similar export schemes to Maine and Massachusetts, wrote to New York deputy mayor Dean Fuleihan last May denouncing the project.

“There is a direct relation between the increased demand for electricity and their impact on our traditional activities and rights,” read their letter. “Not a single impact assessment has been carried out for the construction of 33 power stations in our traditional territories, which generate 36% of Hydro-Québec’s total capacity.”

Activists accuse the power giant of “greenwashing” its environmental impact. Decaying vegetation from dammed rivers causes methane, disrupting the natural carbon cycle, and the harmful neurotoxin methylmercury, which builds up in fish and other wildlife, disproportionately affecting Indigenous people up the food chain.

“In our eyes, it’s not all that clean,” said one of the coalition’s signatories, Lucien Wabanonik of Lac Simon. “It has major impacts on climate change that they don’t say when they speak to people in the States. We’ve been struggling for some time to at least have some agreements or compensation to help our people live on the land.”

Decades ago, the former Anishnabeg Grand Chief witnessed Lac Simon and other First Nations lands exploited by the corporation without consent or compensation, depriving members of their territory and way of life. While his community continues to rely on diesel generators, the nearby hydro reservoir that flooded their land sends power to consumers in southern Quebec and the United States.

“They never consulted us first, we were never compensated and don’t have any agreement yet to find solutions,” Wabanonik told the Nation. “There are a lot of things we need to talk about if they want to have an agreement with us. We’re open to real, long-term solutions because at this time we have nothing.”

While the Lac Simon community hasn’t benefited from hydro expansion, the coalition’s “Hydro-Québec Clash” website has stopped being updated because Wemotaci is currently in negotiations with the company. There’s also been less criticism from the Innu Nation since the 200 MW “Apuiat” wind-farm joint project was announced on their territory last year.

Although recently wind projects are presented as win-win for the planet and Indigenous communities, they represent a relatively small proportion of the power necessary to appease the Northeast’s growing energy demands.

Champlain Hudson’s opponents in New York worry that Hydro-Québec’s contract doesn’t commit it to delivering power during winter months, when electricity is most needed for Canadian consumers. This past winter, the company asked people to voluntarily use less electricity during the coldest days when demand was highest.

With Quebec’s hydro demand expected to grow by 20 TWh by 2029 and 100 TWh by 2050 – half of today’s output – the province isn’t likely to be able to meet peak demand by 2027. Hydro-Québec CEO Sophie Brochu recently admitted that the company hasn’t ruled out building new dams and is already evaluating potential sites.

“They’ll probably have to make dams or increase capacity of old dams,” speculated Wabanonik. “They asked people to diminish their hydro consumption this winter and now they say they have capacity to sell to the States. Hydro-Québec says two things at the same time – which one is reality?”

Although the New York City contract stipulates that electricity can’t come from new dams and includes provisions requiring consultations with Indigenous communities for construction of new transmission lines or refurbishments that might cause environmental impacts, questions remain about how Hydro-Québec can meet demand without increasing capacity.

Similar concerns contributed to Maine rejecting its transmission-line project in a referendum last November despite a publicity campaign reported to cost $20 million. If Hydro-Québec loses its case in the state’s Supreme Court, it could add more than a half-billion dollars to its existing nearly $50 billion debt.

A previous Hydro-Québec attempt to sell electricity to New York state was thwarted in the 1990s when a Cree Odeyak was paddled to the Big Apple to oppose the proposed damming of the Great Whale River. In 2019, New York officials toured and consulted with Indigenous communities to avoid repeating history.

Now, environmental activists in New York say there is still time to organize resistance before the Canada Energy Regulator approves the project.

“Hydro-Québec needs to understand the impact of its structures and that things need to change in many ways,” Wabanonik asserted. “Unity and collaboration among neighbouring First Nations is something that has worked well in the past.”

Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation
DIS-UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney intends to step down as UCP leader

globalnewsdigital - 


© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney provides details on sustainable helicopter air ambulance funding in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 25, 2022.

Premier Jason Kenney announced his intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party on Wednesday night.

He announced the move even though his leadership still maintains approval from just over half of the members of his party, the UCP announced in a livestream Wednesday night.

READ MORE: Kenney dismisses need for big number in UCP leadership review

When asked if they approve of Kenney as leader, 51.4 per cent said yes while 48.6 per cent said no.

In all, 34,298 votes were passed.

Kenney said that while the results would not automatically trigger a leadership election, they were not what he hoped for nor expected.

"It is clearly not adequate support to continue on as leader," he said.

READ MORE: Kenney seriously considered leaving his post before deciding to fight for his job: audio recording

Kenney said the vote shows he doesn't have enough support as leader. He said he will push for a leadership vote to be held in a timely fashion.

"It's clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province, our party and our caucus."

More to come...

Video: Why all Albertans should be paying attention to the UCP leadership review

Jason Kenney stepping down as leader of UCP after narrowly surviving leadership review

Ashley Joannou , Lisa Johnson -

© Provided by Edmonton JournalJason Kenney meets supporters after speaking at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Jason Kenney is stepping down as leader of the United Conservative Party and will serve as premier of Alberta until a new leader is sworn in.

Only 51.4 per cent of the more than 34,000 mail-in ballots cast in the leadership review voted to keep Kenney in charge of the UCP he helped form, party president Cynthia Moore and chief returning officer Rick Orman announced via livestream Wednesday.

Kenney said even though that meets the party’s threshold of a majority, it’s “clearly” not enough support for him to continue as leader.

“The result is not what I hoped for, or frankly expected,” Kenney told supporters at a gathering in Calgary after the results were announced. With just over a year before the next election, he said he has asked party executives to schedule a leadership contest as early as possible.

“I’m sorry, but friends, I truly believe that we need to move forward united, we need to put the past behind us, and our members — a large number of our members — have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election,” he said.

“It’s clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province, our party and our caucus, but it is my fervent hope that in the months to come we all move on past the division of COVID,” Kenney said.

Kenney’s ousting comes after more than a year of infighting including very open and public dissent from party members and his own caucus as the government managed a global pandemic coupled with a period of plummeting oil prices.

Party rules say the UCP caucus is required to name an interim leader “at the earliest possible opportunity.” The next caucus meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Calgary.

The party will then form a formal leadership election committee to set out the rules for finding a new leader. The interim leader cannot run for leader in that election.

Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche MLA and former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, who campaigned in a byelection on a platform to get Kenney out of office, has expressed interest in the premier’s job, as has another former Wildrose leader, Danielle Smith.


© Provided by Edmonton JournalJason Kenney speaks at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

In a statement Wednesday, Jean thanked Kenney for his service and confirmed he will run for leader. He said his campaign “will demonstrate how we can do things differently, together, to recapture the enthusiastic support of the over one million Albertans who elected us in 2019.”

In a statement of her own, Smith also thanked Kenney.

“The result we have witnessed today is a truly grassroots resolution. The membership of the United Conservative Party is hungry for a leader that will be responsive and fight for the interests of Alberta,” she said.

It’s believed that there are others who will throw their hats into the ring given the opportunity.

NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley thanked Kenney for his service to the province.

“There are obviously many things about which we don’t agree, but that doesn’t negate the time and sacrifice that goes into taking on the role of premier,” Notley said on Twitter. “The work is never easy. The days are long and often difficult, as I’m sure today is. I wish Jason the best.”
Lori Williams, political scientist at Mount Royal University, said she was surprised by the announcement, and did not expect Kenney to voluntarily resign with more than 50 per cent of the vote.

“He looked like he was going to tenaciously cling to this, no matter what, into the next election because he seemed convinced he was the only person who could lead the party to victory. He saw it as his party,” said Williams.

“Jason Kenney managed something remarkable in persuading (the PC’s and the Wildrose) to come together, but he made a lot of promises that he couldn’t keep,” said Williams, referring to opposition from party members who valued grassroots democracy.

“I think his political career is at an end,” said Williams.

Kenney arrived on the Alberta political scene in 2016, already well known as a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper.

Kenney’s political legacy in the province was cemented when he helped orchestrate the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties, effectively uniting the right in Alberta.

He campaigned for and won the leadership of the PC party in 2017 on the platform to merge with the then-opposition Wildrose.

Kenney argued that multiple right-leaning parties were to blame for splitting the vote and giving Notley’s NDP a majority in 2015 after decades of conservative governments.

Kenney would go on to beat Jean and current Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer to become leader of the newly-formed United Conservative Party that would win a sizeable majority in the 2019 provincial election on a promise of “jobs, the economy and pipelines.”

By early 2020 Alberta was dealing with the global COVID-19 pandemic at the same time as oil prices turned negative. Kenney has faced criticism from both those who believe he did not do enough to slow the spread of COVID-19 and those who believed the restrictions went too far.

In early 2021, 16 UCP MLAs, representing mostly rural ridings, signed a public letter arguing that closing dine-in service in restaurants and lowering capacity for retail stores and gyms is the “wrong decision,” even as COVID-19 variant cases surged in Alberta.

Months later a now-former vice president of the party would call for Kenney’s resignation claiming that he had become a threat to the party after losing the public’s trust during the pandemic.

The infighting was enough to push Kenney to promise an early leadership review but when more than 15,000 people registered to vote at the in-person event scheduled for April in Red Deer, the party changed that to a mail-in ballot system.

That led to accusations of the rules being torqued in Kenney’s favour and suggestions it opened the door to cheating.

Correspondence obtained by The Canadian Press indicates Elections Alberta is investigating allegations of possible illegal bulk buying of party memberships.

As Alberta’s economy began to recover and oil prices climbed high enough to help the province project a balanced budget this year, Kenney pushed back against his critics, framing himself as an experienced leader who knows how to win elections.

He unapologetically called some of his opponents “lunatics” and warned that without him the United Conservative Party risks becoming home for those with extreme and intolerant views.

Alberta’s MLAs are currently on a constituency break and will not return to sit in the legislature until May 24.

Carson Jerema: Jason Kenney quits as Alberta's conservative movement eats itself

Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party has eaten itself.



Alberta Premier Jason Kenney responds to the results of the United Conservative Party leadership review in Calgary on May 18, 2022.

The dismal 51.4 per cent approval rating that led Premier Jason Kenney to step down Wednesday night is a victory for a long-percolating revolt, mostly coming from the party’s right wing. But this is no win for conservative politics in Alberta and could signal the movement’s shift further away from where voters are comfortable.

Kenney’s handling of the COVID pandemic irritated the more conservative elements of his caucus, who had been publicly criticizing him and calling for his resignation for months. While some of the dissent came from corners that thought Kenney wasn’t doing enough to quell the spread of COVID-19, it was driven chiefly by those who thought he was doing too much.

This is a faction that demands nothing less than ideological purity, with any deviation dismissed as unforgivable, even traitorous, socialism.

Despite the malcontents, Kenney ran among the most consistently conservative governments in Canada in years. Whereas Ontario’s Doug Ford has been accused of governing from the centre even though he campaigned on the right, Kenney has more or less stuck to his principles.

This has included cutting corporate taxes by a third, taking a machete to red tape, reforming union rules so members have to opt in to contribute dues to political campaigning, expanding charter schools and a planned return to a flat tax. His government flattened spending and brought in Alberta’s first balanced budget in 14 years. Many of these policies have been controversial, no more so than the government’s overhaul of the school curriculum to place a heavy emphasis on facts and memorization. But the controversy was often confined to the left, to the Opposition NDP and its supporters.

By any measure, Kenney was a stridently conservative premier. As former Harper advisor Sean Speer argued in the Post recently, “the Kenney government has effectively turned Alberta into Canada’s conservative policy laboratory and in so doing is expanding the country’s other centre-right governments’ sense of what is possible.”



Even under COVID, Kenney attempted, often clumsily, to follow his libertarian instincts and lean first on guidance and encouraging personal responsibility, before bringing in restrictions. This led to multiple embarrassing comedowns, most prominently when the complete lifting of restrictions last summer led directly into some of the harshest pandemic rules the province had seen.

For the most part, however, Alberta used a light touch to control the spread of the virus. Those whose main complaint was that Kenney wasn’t pure enough may soon regret forcing him out of the premier’s office.

All last year, Kenney tolerated open dissent from critics, waiting weeks, or months, before turfing the most vocal of them from caucus. Those close to Kenney told me at the time that he was following his genuine belief that caucus should be free to speak. He hoped by offering an outlet for dissent, it would serve as a pressure valve.

Instead of endearing his critics to him, this approach to caucus management only emboldened them. In the fall, a group of angry MLAs were expected to bring a vote of non-confidence, but they lost their nerve when it was clear they didn’t have the votes. But after a group of riding associations requested it, a planned fall leadership review was moved to the spring.

Somewhat controversially, the party executive altered the rules to make it a mail in ballot, which prompted howls the change was made for Kenney’s benefit. Whether that was true or not, it clearly didn’t matter. The unhappiness the party membership had with the premier was evident.

With Kenney gone, there is no guarantee a more idealogical conservative leader will take over. A more moderate leader could force a split, while someone too far to the right may be unappealing to the average voter.

If it was a good night for anyone, it was Opposition Leader Rachel Notley.

Braid: After epic political success, Kenney is defeated by his own party

Don Braid, Calgary Herald -

© Provided by Calgary Herald
Jason Kenney speaks at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

There was only one way to upstage the hockey Battle of Alberta. Premier Jason Kenney found it, to his sorrow, by saying he will step off the stage entirely.

Despite predictions of a solid victory, only 51.4 per cent of more than 34,000 UCP members who voted in the leadership review said they approved of him.

Kenney had previously said that “50 per cent plus one” is the majority in a democracy, implying that was enough for him to continue.

To many observers it seemed he was quitting cold. But late Wednesday, it was confirmed that he intends to stay on as party leader until the next leader is chosen.

It’s even possible that he could run for the job again. That possibility did not get a denial from his staff Wednesday night.

In 2006, Ralph Klein stayed on for months after scoring 55 per cent approval. But those were different times. Despite problems with the party, Klein remained popular with the public.

Kenney’s effort to stay on will draw bitter opposition from his opponents in caucus and beyond. It will likely start Thursday, when many of them are expecting to vote on a caretaker leaders and premier.

Technically, Kenney has a case for staying on the job. He wasn’t actually defeated. He can argue that his resignation as party leader is voluntary and, like Klein, he gets to time it.

Kenney asnnopunced his intention to resign in a dramatic way , first saying he had his majority but suddenly adding: “It is clearly not adequate support to carry on as leader . . . I truly believe we need to move forward together, we need to put the past behind us.”

The small gathering of his strongest loyalists, an invited group that didn’t include many UCP ministers and MLAs, was shocked both by the result and the resignation.

Kenney asked the UCP board to set a date for a new leadership election.

On Thursday at least some UCP MLAs were expecting to carry out will carry out one of the most serious functions a government caucus ever exercises, choosing a new leader and premier.

That’s what happened in 2014 when Premier Alison Redford quit immediately as both leader and premier. Vetern Minister Dave Hancock became the caretaker premier.

On Tuesday I named several UCP members whose names were already being mentioned for the caretaker role.

They include Nate Glubish (Service Alberta); Demetrios Nicolaides (Advanced Education), Rajan Sawhney (Transportation); Ric McIver (Municipal Affairs); Nathan Neudorf (UCP caucus chair); and Sonya Savage (Energy).

The person who gets the caretaker job will have the critical task of running the party and government while restoring an image of sensible competence and unity.

But now, it appears that Kenney prevent that from happening, or try to. There will be furious backlash from MLA who think he needs to leave immediately for the good of the party.

Clearly, there will be a leadership election. Kenney said it’s necessary. What he did not say is whether or not he’ll be a candidate. Nothing in the UCP rules would prevent him from resigning, and then running.

There will be a struggle over whether the UCP edges more to the centre, or veers sharply to the right. Many of the MLAs who opposed Kenney prefer the latter.

New MLA Brian Jean will run. Danielle Smith will likely join in, too. They’re well-known voices from the party’s past, but many members will want to move beyond the old merger struggles.


© Provided by Calgary Herald
Brian Jean and Jason Kenney shake hands after Kenney’s leadership victory on Oct. 28, 2017.

Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer’s name often comes up. So does Finance Minister Travis Toews. Other campaigns will take shape very quickly.

Whoever wins, this remains a dangerous moment for the UCP.

The Progressive Conservatives never regained winning form after Premier Alison Redford quit in 2014. Dave Hancock became the caretaker and Jim Prentice the premier. But the NDP won the 2015 election, partly because of the long years of PC division.

Kenney’s biggest mistake, I think, was to preach party unity even as he attacked people on the fringe as lunatics and radicals.

He wasn’t talking about moderate UCP members who might disagree with him, but a lot of those people thought he was. That might have been the difference between 51.4 per cent and a survivable number.

Kenney’s political accomplishments have been remarkable. With ex-prime minister Stephen Harper’s backing, he launched a drive to unify the PCs and Wildrose, which led him to first win the PC leadership.

That was an awkward fit — Kenney owed far more to Social Credit than the PCs — but it led him directly to the negotiated union with Wildrose.

Then came the UCP leadership, followed by the 2019 election and premier’s office. Nobody had ever done anything like it in Alberta politics.

On Wednesday, Kenney suffered a setback he considered serious enough to leave the party leadership, eventually.

But that does not mean he’s done with governing for many more months, and even trying a comeback.

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

CANADA
Parliament creates day to remember Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka

OTTAWA — Canada's Parliament has created a day to recognize the genocide of Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

Parliament unanimously adopted the motion to make May 18 of each year Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree put forward the motion on Wednesday.

Anandasangaree, the MP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, says in a statement that Canada became the first national Parliament in the world to create such a day.

He says the passed motion is the result of years of work by the Tamil community, survivors and their loved ones.

Anandasangaree says he knows much work lies ahead to make sure those responsible for the "atrocities" are held to account.

He says, "I hope this will give some solace to those who are impacted and traumatized by the genocide."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2022.

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

The Canadian Press
Sri Lanka honours Tamil war-dead after 13 years


Anti-government demonstrators gather in remembrance of the thousands of minority Tamil civilians killed in the decades-long separatist war
 (AFP/ISHARA S. KODIKARA)

Amal JAYASINGHE
Wed, May 18, 2022, 

Thousands of Tamils killed in Sri Lanka's decades-long separatist war were commemorated on Wednesday for the first time outside the minority's heartland in the north and east of the country.

Clergy from Buddhist, Hindu and Christian communities offered prayers in Colombo and lit a clay lamp for those who perished between 1972 and May 2009 when the fighting ended.

The ceremony coincided with the 13th anniversary of the ending of hostilities.

"This is highly symbolic and very important for Tamils," legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan, an MP from the northern Tamil heartland of Jaffna, told AFP.

"In previous years, there were private memorials held in secret, but this public event is highly welcome."

Any remembrance of Tamil war victims had been banned under Sri Lanka's powerful Rajapaksa family which is currently under siege over the country's dire economic crisis.

The head of the separatist Tamil Tiger movement, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was shot dead by security forces on May 18, 2009, bringing a formal end to the bloody ethnic war.

Current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa led the government's military campaign against the Tigers as the head of the defence ministry under his president brother Mahinda.

Mahinda stepped down as prime minister last week after weeks of protests over severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

The government defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt last month as it ran out of dollars to finance even the most essential imports.

The country's main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, said the commemoration showed that the country's majority Sinhalese were willing to support reconciliation after decades of ethnic war.

"This gives us a lot of hope and I hope that Tamil people will also reciprocate," TNA spokesman M. A. Sumanthiran told AFP. "There may be pitfalls along the way, but this is a very good start."

- Porridge feast -

On Wednesday, volunteers offered porridge to passers-by as a symbol of the humble food that tens of thousands of Tamils were left with during the final stages of the war.

"The kanji (porridge) was the life-saving food for Tamil people in the last stages of the war," a Hindu priest said at the ceremony. "They struggled in the midst of shelling and bombing and underwent untold suffering."

Government forces imposed an economic embargo, ordered civilians into what they called "no-fire zones" and allegedly bombarded them killing an estimated 40,000 Tamils.

Successive Sri Lankan governments have denied allegations that troops committed war crimes but have refused to allow any independent investigation.

Rights activist Mari de Silva said she hoped Wednesday's commemoration would lead to ethnic reconciliation in the Sinhalese-majority nation.

"I sincerely hope this is also a first step towards real reconciliation in Lanka and that we can join the call for justice and accountability," she said on Twitter.

The UN Human Rights Council last year set up a mechanism to preserve evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka so that prosecutions could take place in the future.

aj/ssy