CANADA

Stakes are high for farmers as 2022 crop shapes up to be most expensive in history



The Canadian Press

CALGARY — The stakes are high as Canadian farmers take to the fields to plant 2022's crop, which some are saying could find a place in the record books as "the most expensive ever."

On her family's farm northeast of Calgary near Acme, Alta., where she farms with her husband Matt, Tara Sawyer already knows she's going to need a better-than-average crop this year just to break even.

All of her input costs have surged since last year due to inflationary pressures, spiking energy costs, and the war in Ukraine. The price of fertilizer is more than double what it was last year, and the diesel used to power her farm equipment also costs nearly twice what it did last year at this time.

But getting that above average crop could be a challenge. Last year, Sawyer's farm was hit hard by the widespread drought that reduced crop yields across Western Canada and there are fears already that this could be another dry year.

"Most farmers, including us, saw a 30 per cent reduction in our yields, so we need to be able to have really good yields come out this year in order to pay for that," she said. "But in our region, we're already horribly dry, so we're concerned."

But it's not all bad news. While the cost of everything from seed to herbicides to tractor tires has increased in 2022, so too have crop prices. Sawyer, for example, grows wheat, barley and canola — all of which are hot commodities right now due to supply pressures created by the Russia-Ukraine war and the aftermath of last year's drought.

“There’s a number of crops that are sitting at all-time highs, or near all-time highs," said Jon Driedger, of Manitoba-based LeftField Commodity Research. "If you go back two years, the price of canola has doubled, almost tripled. Wheat's higher than it's been in 20 years, corn's pushing up against a record high. It's really across the board."

In fact, Driedger said crop prices are high enough that any farmer able to produce a "normal-sized" yield should still be able to earn a sizable profit. But in addition to the dry conditions in Alberta, many farmers in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan have the opposite problem and haven't even been able to get onto the land yet due to flooding and excess moisture.

The acres seeded by Canadian farmers this spring will not only be the most expensive in history, but in some ways, the riskiest as well, Driedger said.

“For those farms that are fortunate enough to harvest a normal crop or even better, it could be a great year. But there’ll be a lot of farms for whom that’s looking awfully precarious right now.”

Cornie Thiessen — general manager of ADAMA Canada, a Winnipeg-based company that sells crop protection products like fungicides, herbicides and insecticides — said some of these inputs have become significantly more expensive and harder to find due to supply-side factors like COVID-driven disruptions at manufacturing plants and shipping delays. But he added the war in Ukraine is also increasing demand for these products, as farmers get the message that this year, their work is more vital than ever.

“Very high crop prices change the economics for farmers of how much they invest to protect the crop," Thiessen said. "With really high prices like we're seeing right now, it sends a message to farmers that the world really needs your crop so you need to make it as big as possible. You need to spend more on fertilizer and herbicides to maximize those yields."

Thiessen said 2022 will likely be the most expensive crop ever planted in Canada, and there's a lot riding on it.

"For the individual farmer, certainly there is an opportunity to take advantage of these high prices, but it's a bigger investment than before," he said. "If the weather works against them and they have a poor crop, that's where the downside risk comes in."

"And for the world, to help alleviate concerns about food security, we really do need Canada to produce a great crop this year," Thiessen added. "If Canada's crop isn't as strong as possible this year, it will further exacerbate concerns about food security."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022.
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Weather conditions continue to affect agriculture industry in Saskatchewan

From rain to snow to nothing at all, Saskatchewan weather is leaving many farmers wondering if they will be able to seed at all this season.


© Global News

Many fields in the eastern half of the province are still too wet to allow producers to seed, however some areas are desperate for rain, which brings mixed emotions from farmers across the province.

Kayla Guerrette - Yesterday 
Global News

It truly is a tale of two worlds. East Saskatchewan has too much moisture in its soil while the west is hoping to get even one rainy day. It's a challenge farmer Clinton Monchuk understands firsthand having farmland near the Lanigan area.

"We've probably had a little over three inches of rain since the beginning of May," Monchuk said. "So it is a little bit wetter and we're just having a little bit more of a tough time getting seeding done."

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It's a reality faced by farmers across the province. On average, more than half of the seeding process is complete by this time. But, this year it's a different story.

Ian Boxall, president of the Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan. has farmland near Tisdale.

"It's raining here today and it snowed this morning," Boxall said. "We're way far behind. Normally we would start seeding on May 1 and now I haven't started and it's the 19th of May so we are behind.

"I am not panicking yet but if it doesn't straighten up soon, I am going to start to panic."

According to Boxall, the seeding deadline is June 20. He says for producers in the west of the province with no moisture to be found on their land, it's a deadline they may not meet.

"Once it warms up we'll have a good crop started and out of the ground," said Boxall. "But those guys in the west, they really need rain to get that germinated and get that crop going over there so my concern is with them."

Video: Wet grounds slowing seeding in Saskatchewan

But seeding is not farmers' only concern. For Monchuk, it's the cost to farm. With inflation continuing to rise it's becoming more and more expensive to get their products out to the public.

Read more:

‘Very stressful’: Cold weather delays crops for many B.C. farmers, but no relief in sight

"We know as we move forward food inflation is going to get higher," said Monchuk. "We are seeing some of those shortages so this is some of the reasons, some of the extra cost that we have now. It does filter down and will result in higher prices of food as we move forward."

Video: Sticker Shock: Navigating the increasing food costs

CN Railway braces for surge in grain shipments as optimism grows for harvest

Jake Edmiston - Yesterday 
Financial Post


© Provided by Financial PostAfter a tough year in Canadian agriculture, CN Rail believes farmers will see a better crop this year.

Canada’s largest railroad is bracing for a surge in grain shipments across the country this year — a sign of hope that this year’s harvest will be better than the last one, when extreme drought devastated crops across the Prairies.

“Every kernel that’s harvested this year is going to want to move,” Canadian National Railway Co.’s new CEO Tracy Robinson told the Bank of America’s transportation conference on May 17. “We need to be ready for that.”

After a tough year in Canadian agriculture, CN believes things are starting to look up, judging from soil moisture levels this spring that suggest a more normal grain crop is coming.

“It would be a good thing for the world, wouldn’t it?” Robinson said. “A lot has to happen right from here. But I think we’re starting out in a positive way.”

The shot of optimism comes as the world faces a food crisis driven in large part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has destabilized one of the most important regions in the world for grain exports, causing major spikes in commodity prices that have contributed to a troubling burst of inflation. Prices are likely to stay high for months due to global supply issues, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week.


© Dave BishopA farmer plants durum wheat in a field on his farm by Barons, Alta.

And no matter how good Canada’s crop turns out to be, it won’t be enough to alleviate those issues on its own. The country’s agricultural output — even with a bumper crop — isn’t large enough to make a major impact on global supply, according to Ted Bilyea, a former executive at Maple Leaf Foods Inc. who is now a distinguished fellow at the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute.

“I don’t think I see it moving the needle much,” Bilyea said. “We need a good crop just to keep things going where they are. … We’ve got to hope that the rest of the world has a good crop.”

Richard Grey, an agricultural economist at the University of Saskatchewan who helps his son run a family farm in Indian Head, Sask., was checking prices for canola on May 18. He could lock in a contract at about $24 a bushel, to be harvested and delivered to a shipper in November.

“That’s double what it was last year,” Grey said, adding that higher gasoline prices are driving up demand for ethanol and biofuel, which in turn drives up prices for grain and oilseeds, such as canola. “This is all to do with the international situation.”

Statistics Canada reported May 18 that food inflation is accelerating at a pace not seen since 1981. The consumer price index found grocery bills in April shot up 9.7 per cent compared to last year, with bread up 12.2 per cent, cereal up 15 per cent, pasta up 19.6 per cent, and cooking oil up 28.6 per cent.

“High inflation is here to stay in 2022,” Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Patricia Baker wrote in a note to investors. “Supply constraints and geopolitical conflict are expected to impact the energy, agriculture, and commodity markets.”

While Canada’s crop is expected to be better than last year, it’s not guaranteed to be good. In the middle of the spring planting season, farmers in Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan are facing fields so wet that they’re struggling to get seed in the ground. In southern Alberta, however, it’s too dry.

“Those that are saying we’re poised to have at least an average crop wouldn’t be out of line,” said Tom Steve, general manager with the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “To say that it’s going to be what we call a bumper crop, that’s pretty early to be saying that.”

CN’s chief executive agreed. “Now listen, I come from a farm in Saskatchewan,” she told the Bank of America conference. “And my father likes to say to me, `You’d like to get really excited about the grain crop, but so far we’ve never harvested one before we’ve seeded it.'”

Still, CN is preparing for an “inevitable surge” in grain shipments in the latter part of the year, investing in high-capacity hopper cars that can carry 10 per cent more grain, Robinson said. The railway confirmed it has added 3,000 hopper cars since 2019, with another 1,250 expected between 2023 and 2024.

“Getting this running is not just about the railroad getting ready,” Robinson said. “We need our partners, the terminals, and we need our customer facilities to be (ready) … We’re optimistic, for all of our sake, that this happens.”

The grain industry has been at odds with the railways this year, with grain companies complaining that CN and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. haven’t been able to meet demand for railcars despite a 30-per-cent drop in crop yields due to last summer’s drought. The railroads counter that they have been facing challenges since late last year, when massive floods in British Columbia washed out rail lines and then extreme cold forced trains to slow down.

“Their performance has been absolutely abysmal this past crop year,” said Steve at the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “It was just horrible. They couldn’t move the crop that we had. So they’re telling their investors and shareholders that they’re going to do better? We’ll believe it when we see it.”

• Email: jedmiston@nationalpost.com | Twitter: jakeedmiston

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SIKSIKA NATION, ALBERTA
Somehow, cherished Blackfoot items ended up in Devon, England. Now they're headed home

Chris Brown - 3h ago
cbc.ca

For Siksika Nation Chief Ouray Crowfoot, precisely how the beaded buckskin shirt and leggings his ancestor wore a century and a half ago ended up at a museum in Devon, England, is less important than finally having the opportunity this week to bring them back to southern Alberta.

"Were they sold? Were they stolen? Were they given as gifts? It was probably all of those things. I don't know how this got over here and I think it's irrelevant," Crowfoot told CBC News after an inspiring ceremony at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

"They need to be back with the people who created these items."

The repatriation ceremony, which featured traditional Blackfoot or Siksika songs of heroism and colourful traditional headdresses, was the culmination of years of effort to repatriate a collection of items that belonged to the legendary Chief Crowfoot.

"It's a very strong emotional feeling reminding me about life back then," said Siksika councillor Jenny Goodin.

"I'm very honoured to be here and be reminded of Chief Crowfoot."

Crowfoot, who died in 1890, is revered by his people as a powerful warrior, an influential diplomat and a statesman whose influence transcended southern Alberta and was felt across the continent.

One of his legacies is Treaty 7, signed between the Blackfoot and the Crown.

Ouray Crowfoot, 42, is his great-great-great-great-grandson and the current Siksika chief who led the delegation to Exeter.

"These items were never intended to be in museums — they were intended to be with the living," Crowfoot told members of the Blackfoot delegation who were joined by members of Exeter's city council.

"Until I saw [the Crowfoot collection] with its rightful owners today .. you don't really understand its significance," said Jon-Paul Hedge, the director of Exeter City Council, which manages the museum and who has been part of the repatriation efforts for several years.

Exeter city council voted more than two years ago to return the collection of Crowfoot's items but the process was delayed by COVID-19 and travel restrictions, said Hedge.

"It's not about what happened in the past. It's about Exeter city's relationship with Siksika Nation now — these are their items and we are happy to see them go to their rightful home."


© Chris Brown/CBC

Strater Crowfoot, left, and current Siksika Chief Ouray Crowfoot examine some of the artifacts being returned by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.

The most prominent piece of the Crowfoot collection is the beaded buckskin shirt, decorated with locks of human hair, along with matching leggings.

There are also a bow, arrow, quiver, a pipe and other items.

They were all initially obtained from Crowfoot by Cecil Denny, a co-signatory of Treaty 7. From there, it appears he passed them onto a family member back in England who put them on display in Exeter.


© Dave Rae/CBC

The grave of Chief Crowfoot is in Blackfoot Crossing, near where he signed Treaty 7.

The museum officially purchased the items from the family in 1904 for the sum of 10 pounds — an exorbitant amount at the time — and has held them until now.

In the coming days, the Crowfoot items will be carefully packed and put on a specially chartered flight to bring them back to Calgary.


© Chris Brown/CBC

Councillor Jenny Goodin was part of the Blackfoot, or Siksika, delegation to Exeter and said she was 'very honoured to be here and be reminded of Chief Crowfoot.'

They're expected to arrive on May 25 and the Blackfoot are planning a welcoming ceremony as soon as the precious cargo clears customs and formally enters Alberta.

Beyond that, the plan is to put the items on display at the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park outside Calgary.

Siksika elder Herman Yellow Old Woman, a former cultural curator at the site, helped start the repatriation process almost a decade ago, and was visibly moved at Thursday's ceremony.

"It gives me chills to think Canadians will be able to be educated the proper way — with evidence — to see a true history of our people," he said, suggesting the repatriation will help with the national reconciliation that's ongoing between Canadian Indigenous communities and wider society.


© Chris Brown/CBC

The items held by the Exeter museum included a beaded buckskin shirt worn by Chief Crowfoot and leggings.

"A lot of our children and grandchildren don't know our history and we are going to bring this home and we can share," said Yellow Old Woman.

In addition to meeting Exeter museum staff, the Siksika delegation has also been travelling further afield to visit British museums where other Blackfoot items are also being held.

Our CBC team met them at a museum in Bristol, where Yellow Old Woman surveyed several deer or elk shirts dating from the 19th century.


© Adrian Di Virgilio/CBC

Members of the Blackfoot delegate visit a museum in Bristol, England and examine regalia in its collection.

"They've been preserved [well]," he said of the collection in Bristol.

"But back home, we don't have old collections like this in North America, they're long gone. So it's amazing how well preserved a lot of them are, especially the shirts."

Ouray Crowfoot, the current chief, said the next step will be to hold similar discussions with the Bristol museum, and another in Manchester, to discuss future repatriations.

"When I see these things, these very well could have belonged to somebody in this room's great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather — so it's a real personal connection."

Siksika delegation builds relationships in the UK as repatriation of cultural, sacred items begins

The Canadian Press

Yesterday 

After a “very emotional day” of ceremony on May 19 at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter, England, regalia from Chief Crowfoot is on its way home to the Siksika Nation.

“There’s a living spirit in this material coming home,” said Herman Yellow Old Woman, who along with Kent Ayoungman performed the ceremonial songs.

The items were to have been returned in 2020, but the onset of the coronavirus pandemic delayed repatriation by two years.

Siksika Nation Chief Ouray Crowfoot, who led the small delegation to England, called the work that had been undertaken “very ground-breaking, not just for us, but for other First Nations, for other Indigenous people to repatriate these items.”

He noted that the trip from London to Exeter involved stopping at a number of museums along the way where other Blackfoot items were identified. Now relationships are begin formed with different curators as a new list of Blackfoot items to be repatriated is being created.

“A lot of these items have spread all over the world, but now it’s like their spirits are calling to bring us back home…We want to continue to bring more and more and more items back home,” said Crowfoot. “It’s about building these relationships.”

It’s that relationship, said Jon-Paul Hedge, director at Exeter City Council, that led to council passing a unanimous motion to return the items.

“This is very much in the spirit of the wishes of the people of Exeter, fully supportive of this and we’re absolutely delighted,” said Hedge. “It’s the start of a new relationship.”

Crowfoot’s regalia had been loaned to the museum in Exeter in 1878, a year after being acquired by Cecil Denny, who served as a Northwest Mounted Police for a time and was also one of the signatories of Treaty 7 in 1877 along with Crowfoot.

In 1904, the museum purchased the regalia. In 2013, the Siksika Nation went to Exeter and issued a formal request for the items to be repatriated. Those items include a buckskin shirt, a pair of leggings, a knife with feather bundle, two beaded bags and a horsewhip.

Elders from the Blackfoot Confederacy made their first trip to England in 2011 where they attended a conference at Oxford and Blackfoot items were unveiled. Ayoungman and Yellow Old Woman were part of that delegation too and they performed ceremonial songs.

That was also “very touching,” said Ayoungman.

Hedge said Exeter will work with other museums to help the repatriation process along.

“This isn’t a one-and-done,” said Hedge. “We’ve got some learning from having gone through this experience from a city council and museum point of view…We can share that experience to maybe speed up the process with other institutions.”

Crowfoot said he felt a “mutual respect” in dealing with the other curators.

“It may have taken 10-15 years to get that door open, but now the door’s open so it’s not going to be another 10-15 years to reopen it. That’s why I’ve said it’s all important in how you build these relationships. It’s just as important of what you do; it’s more important as to how we’re doing it,” said Crowfoot.

Yellow Old Woman agreed.

“It’s only been 30 years in North America that we’ve been repatriating into our communities. So for overseas it’s going to be a learning process, not only for the museums but also the customs (in airports). It’s nothing that they’ve ever experienced. It’s totally new,” he said.

As for the Crowfoot regalia, a shipping company that specializes in antiquities will undertake the packaging and transportation.

A coming home ceremony is scheduled for May 25 in Calgary.

The Siksika Nation will lend Chief Crowfoot’s belongings to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park for display.

However, said Yellow Old Woman, there is the possibility that some of the items may be transferred to people who have been raised in the Siksika ways and who “will take the responsibility in putting them back in the cycle that they were in when they left home 130 years ago.”

Crowfoot said he “definitely” felt connected to the items.

“When these things come back to Siksika, somebody comes into Blackfoot Crossing and they…have that intimate relationship with some of these things. It’s a physical connection that ties you back to your ancestors and even if you’re not a Crowfoot you’re still a Blackfoot,” said Crowfoot.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

Adrian Stimson's bison paintings force viewers to reckon with Canada's colonial history

Lauren Sproule - 
cbc.ca

A solitary bison walks the snow-covered Prairie plains, swathed in rich colours of red and dark brown, the only sign of life in an otherwise barren landscape.

Variations of this image appear over and over again in Alberta Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson's first solo European exhibit, which opened in London, England, on May 16.

Stimson said he hoped his collection, entitled Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream, would create a space for people to engage in conversations about Canada's dark history with Indigenous people.

The title of the exhibit is a nod to "manifest destiny," the 19th-century cultural belief that the North American settlers were destined to colonize the continent.


© Lauren Sproule/CBC

Adrian Stimson is a celebrated Indigenous artist from Alberta who was awarded the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts in 2018, the Blackfoot Visual Arts Award in 2009, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005 and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003.

"As human beings, we all have to get along. But that doesn't mean that we should forget what happened, because when we forget what happens … it will continue to happen," said the 58-year-old Stimson, a member of the Siksika First Nation, who spoke to CBC on the night of the opening.

In 36 paintings created especially for the exhibition, Stimson reimagines the bison in a variety of scenes: sharing the canvas with a nuclear explosion; fenced in by a pipeline; and a calf playfully leaping through the air, an oil rig in the background.


© Lauren Sproule/CBC

The bison has found its way into Stimson's work since he began painting in 1999. This painting juxtaposes a jumping calf with an oil pumpjack.

The juxtaposition of this centuries-old icon of the Prairies roaming next to modern-day items such as an airplane was not lost on art fan Adam Heaton, who visited the exhibit on opening night.

"There's a past, present and future theme going on here, but you're not quite sure what the future is, and there's an inherent tension in that," said Heaton.
'This is something different'

Housed in a small gallery at Gurr Johns, an art advisory and appraisal group, Stimson's collection is a welcome change in genre from the works of Old Masters that had adorned the walls of the space just a week before, said senior director Spencer Ewen.

"This is something different," Ewen said, "but equally valid and equally relevant."

He reflected on the significance of an Indigenous voice having a platform on the historic Pall Mall, "the bastion of traditional art," which was the centre of London's fine art scene in the early 19th century.

Once home to the Royal Academy, the National Gallery and Christie's auction house, the artists who were permitted to develop and showcase their work here were white, European men.

Stimson, who is not only Indigenous but has a gender-bending alter ego named Buffalo Boy, provides a strong contrast.


© Lauren Sproule/CBC

Manifest Buffalo, which opened in London on May 16, marks Adrian Stimson's first solo European exhibition. Other solo exhibitions are planned for Germany and Japan in the coming year.

Stimson's solo European debut was attended by Jonathan Sauvé, the head of public diplomacy for the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, who thanked Stimson for bringing his art to Britain.

"Canada has a lot of work to do … but we truly believe that arts and culture are probably the best way to advance Indigenous reconciliation and expression," said Sauvé.

Stimson, whose Blackfoot name is Little Brown Boy, began painting in 1999, after he left his role as a tribal councillor for his First Nation. He considers himself to be an interdisciplinary artist, and his sculpture, photography and performances have been presented across Canada and internationally.

This is not the first time Stimson's reimaginings of the bison have caught the attention of the London art scene. In 2016, two of his paintings were purchased by the British Museum for its Blackfoot collection.
The role of the bison

The historical and cultural significance of the bison to First Nations is a major part of why the animal features so prominently in his dossier, Stimson said.

Bison was a source of food and clothing as well as a fixture of Siksika spirituality, among other purposes, that was almost entirely wiped out by the fur trade, as detailed in George Colpitts's 2014 book Pemmican Empire: Food, Trade and the Last Bison Hunts in the North American Plains, 1780–1882.

"Every time I paint a bison, it's a memory of one of those slaughtered," said Stimson.

"At that time of the slaughter, I believe that that energy, those particles, were released into the universe. And I believe that it still exists in and around us. So as an artist, I get the pleasure and the privilege of being able to sort of reach into that ether and sort of grab that energy, bring it into myself and create the work."

Siksika Nation's relationship with the Crown

At the exhibit opening, Stimson welcomed attendees in the Blackfoot language and wore his traditional headdress as a means of bringing his ancestors and descendants into the room, he said.

He added that donning his regalia also reaffirmed the Siksika Nation's special relationship with the Crown, one that was cemented in legislation by the signing of a treaty in 1877, which established an area of land for the tribes, promised annual payments from the Queen and ensured continued hunting and trapping rights in exchange for the Siksika ceding their rights to their traditional territory.


© Lauren Sproule/CBC

At the opening, Adrian Stimson welcomed attendees in the Blackfoot language and wore his traditional headdress. He said it was a way to bring his ancestors and descendants into the space.

Stimson maintained that this "nation-to-nation relationship" will remain strong as long as "the sun shines, grass grows and river flows."

Manifest Buffalo: A Bison Dream is opening the same week that other members of Stimson's nation are travelling to a museum in Exeter, in southwestern England, to repatriate several items belonging to Crowfoot, a late-nineteenth-century Blackfoot leader.

Stimson himself was invited to participate. As a former president of the First Nations Confederacy Culture Education Centres, Stimson said he "forwarded a lot of legislation" on the repatriation of historical artifacts.

The artist said that in "bringing the herd" to London, the bison has once again become a means of survival, stirring painful memories of colonization and teaching the world about the resilience of his people.

ALBERTA DEJA VU

Ex-Wildrose leader Danielle Smith reannounces UCP leadership bid as next step in Alberta politics

Paula Tran - Yesterday 
The Canadian Press

Former Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith reannounced that she will run in the upcoming United Conservative Party leadership race on Thursday.

She thanked Kenney for the work he has done for Alberta's energy industry and added she wouldn't mind seeing Kenney stay on as premier until a new leader has been elected.

Read more:

UCP begins search for new leader with Jason Kenney stepping down

"I want to start off by thanking Premier Jason Kenney for all the work that he's done over the last number of years.

"I've decided to jump back into politics, seeking the leadership of the UCP. That is just a continuation of my last political life," Smith said.

Video: Jason Kenney announces intention to step down as UCP leader

Smith spared no time getting into her platform, saying she will fix and restore faith in Alberta politics. She also said she will attempt to unite the UCP and pointed to the large number of people who registered to vote in Kenney's leadership review.

"If you look at what happened during the UCP leadership contest, there were a lot of people who got brought into the UCP who had never been in politics before and I think that's what has occurred," Smith said.

"I think there has been a lot of division that has happened between friends and family, and we need to stop dividing people along identity lines... We are stronger united and that holds for our conservative movement as well."

Kenney’s plan to step down as UCP leader shows how hard merging 2 parties is: political commentator

Smith also said she wants to see more people run in the leadership race and noted she respects the role of individual MLAs in Alberta politics.

"I would love to see Todd Lowen and Drew Barnes throw their name in the race for UCP leadership. We need to start unifying the movement again and that's going to require all hands on deck over the next couple of years," Smith said.

Video: UCP caucus meeting to discuss future after Jason Kenney announces plan to step down

But Smith also spent time talking about her own credentials, saying she has a lot of experience as the former party leader for the Wildrose Party, which merged with the UCP in 2017.

She also talked about her time as a former radio host on 770 CHQR as proof she can "take the heat" in Alberta politics.

ON HER FIRST CAMPAIGN THE WHEELS LITERALLY CAME OFF HER BUS

Read more:

Ex-Wildrose leader Danielle Smith returns to Alberta politics, will vote against Kenney leadership

"I'm not going to enter a contest thinking I'm going to come in second place... This is a real opportunity for the UCP to make sure that we're selling memberships, that we're getting people excited again.

"I can handle the heat. I have handled it for a lot of years, and that's the way I conducted myself on the radio," Smith said.

Hopefuls for UCP leadership jockey for position, disagree over interim head

Bill Kaufmann - Yesterday 9:15 p.m.
Calgary Herald

© Gavin Young

Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche MLA Brian Jean speaks with media at McDougall Centre in Calgary before a UCP caucus meeting on Thursday, May 19, 2022. The UCP were meeting following Premier Jason Kenney's announcement Wednesday night that he will be resigning as leader.

Less than a day after Premier Jason Kenney announced he would step down, two candidates intending to replace him are already disagreeing on how the governing UCP should move forward.

Former Wildrose party leaders Brian Jean and Danielle Smith are the only ones to state their intentions to seek the UCP’s top job so far, after Kenney told supporters Wednesday he’ll resign after capturing just 51.4 per cent of the vote in a leadership review.

On Thursday, Jean was adamant the only way for the party to move forward is to immediately jettison Kenney from the top spot and elect an interim leader.

“The leadership process can’t start until Kenney leaves — he knows that, we know that,” said Jean as headed into a UCP caucus meeting at Calgary’s McDougall Centre.

“We need to renew it and excite Albertans about the future of the party.”

In an online news conference, Smith said she wouldn’t object to Kenney staying on as premier until September — when she expects a leadership vote to be held — partly so he can host the Alberta visit of Pope Francis in July.

“The premier did a lot of work in getting reconciliation and an apology from the Vatican and the Pope . . . if he wants to stay as premier and stay for the honour he deserves, I wouldn’t object to that,” he said.

“I would defer to caucus in making that judgment.”

Later on Thursday, party officials announced Kenney would remain at the helm until a replacement was elected on a yet-to-be-determined date.

Smith said she’s learned from the past, which included what she called the “mistake” of crossing the floor as leader of the Wildrose to join with then-premier Jim Prentice’s ruling Progressive Conservatives in late 2014.

“It’s not what Albertans wanted me to do, they wanted me to continue holding (Prentice) to account. I didn’t, it was a big mistake on my part and we were both judged very harshly for that,” she said, adding she’s committed to party unity.

“Albertans recognize that with the NDP polling at 44 per cent, that if we split this movement we won’t be successful at forming the next government.”


Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wildrose Party and talk show host, is running for the United Conservative Party of Alberta in the 2023 General Election.

Part of the healing and uniting process, said Smith, would be officially apologizing to all those charged or arrested for violating COVID-19 public health restrictions in the past two years and exploring how such enforcement could be avoided in the future.

Jean has said he opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates and expanding an immunization passport program imposed last fall.

On April 1, Smith, 51, announced she’d seek the UCP nomination in the Livingstone-Macleod riding currently held by MLA Roger Reid but also made it clear she was ready to run for the party’s leadership .

She led Wildrose beginning in October 2009 and positioned the party to defeat Allison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives in the 2012 provincial election.

But issues over perceived extremism in the Wildrose ranks and her refusal to exert discipline torpedoed those electoral hopes.

In a surprise move, she crossed the floor to join Premier Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservatives in December 2014.

That was seen by many on the political right as a betrayal and she failed to win the PC nomination in the Highwood riding the following year.

Smith worked as a radio host for six years until stepping down in January 2021, citing an increasing hostility toward free speech .

She insisted that doesn’t mean she’s too thin-skinned for a return to politics.

“I can handle the heat, I’ve handled heat for a lot of years — what I can’t handle is cancel culture and that’s what we’ve really got to push back against,” said Smith.

Jean, 59, easily won the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche byelection in March on a platform of ousting Kenney as party leader.

Prior to that, he’d been an MP in the Stephen Harper federal Conservative government and led the Wildrose party after Smith’s departure from 2015 to 2017, until its merger with the PCs.

He was MLA for Fort McMurray-Conklin from 2015 to 2018, leaving after he lost the party leadership to Kenney in a race tarnished by the so-called “kamikaze campaign” that remains under RCMP investigation.

Calgary-Klein MLA Jeremy told reporters Thursday he’s not ruling out a run for his party’s leadership.

“I haven’t made that decision at this time – I have a lot to add to the conversation whether thats’s running myself or getting behind somebody,” said Nixon.

“I wouldn’t rule myself out of anything at this time.”

Jean and Smith represent the right wing of the UCP, but current cabinet ministers further to the centre, including Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer and Finance Minister Travis Toews, would be credible candidates, said Mount Royal University political science professor Lori Williams.

But Williams said that leadership choice might not come down to a left-right split given what ousted Kenney.

“It had a lot more to do with his leadership choices, his flip-flopping and inability to operate to what Albertans wanted,” she said.

“He didn’t seem to hear or understand that.”


FILE PHOTO: Doug Schweitzer and Travis Toews attend the rural crime town hall at the Hampton Inn in Grande Prairie, Alta. on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019.

But because of his divisive influence, the sooner Kenney leaves the party’s top position the better, with a change in leadership automatically making an NDP election win next year harder to achieve, said Williams.

“There’s no question (the NDP) would prefer Jason Kenney staying on and the party remaining split,” she said.

Another name that’s arisen as a UCP leadership possibility is Calgary Nose Hill Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner.

She didn’t answer when asked Thursday if she’s considering entering the race, but in a statement called for unity and for her provincial cousins to strive for equality of opportunity as she does in Parliament.

“I know my conservative colleagues in the Alberta legislature will continue to do the same,” said Rempel Garner.

Former federal cabinet minister Rona Ambrose, who’s seen by some as a natural successor to Kenney, has said she doesn’t want the job.

Cypress Hills-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes, who was booted from the UCP over his opposition to Kenney’s leadership, also gave no intention of challenging for the leadership but said he was ready to return to the party.

Meanwhile, Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said uncertainty in the UCP’s leadership will continue to ensure the government’s dysfunction.

“The drama and infighting plaguing the UCP is not over,” she said, while surrounded by NDP candidates and MLAs.

And she said no matter who the UCP chooses as the next leader, they’re still headed for a tough reckoning with voters a year from now.

“What we’re hearing on the doorsteps is people don’t trust the UCP and it doesn’t matter who ultimately leads the UCP,” said Notley.

— With files from Dylan Short

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Related

UCP Leadership updates: How long will Kenney stay in power? Who's queuing up for the race ahead?

Who could replace Jason Kenney as UCP leader? Some possible contenders

 “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” 

Kenney stays on as leader, media invited to watch cabinet deliver standing ovation

TRUMP LIKE

1h ago

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says he will stay in the top job to maintain continuity and stability in government until a new United Conservative Party leader is chosen.

Kenney says it’s important to remain focused on public priorities, including reducing wait times in the health system and growing the economy.

He made the comments to reporters who were invited in to watch, take photos, and shoot video of his cabinet ministers giving him a standing ovation before the start of their meeting at McDougall Centre in Calgary.

He says the media opportunity was organized to demonstrate his government remains on the job, focused on public priorities.

Kenney did not take questions and has not done so since announcing earlier this week he was quitting as party leader after receiving just 51 per cent support in a party leadership review.

The party has not delivered any details or a timeline on the leadership race, and party rules do not prohibit Kenney from running again.

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

PRIVATIZING HEALTH CARE WILL CONTINUE

'Eye on the ball': Kenney says he's focused on health care, economy

Lisa Johnson - 1h ago
Edmonton Journal

Premier Jason Kenney is aiming to portray a government still focused on public priorities in his first comments since caucus announced Thursday he will remain in power until a new leader can be chosen.


© Provided by Edmonton JournalJason Kenney speaks at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. During the speech, he announced that he was stepping down as leader of the Alberta UCP party.

On Wednesday Kenney said he intends to resign after a narrow leadership review win, saying 51.4 per cent support was not “adequate.”

Before a Friday morning cabinet meeting that saw ministers offer Kenney a standing ovation, the premier said staying on for the time being will allow for continuity, stability and for his government to focus on the people’s priorities, including revamping the health care system and growing the economy.

“For me, that’s the most important thing. This is a critical time in Alberta’s history. We are determined to keep our eye on the ball,” said Kenney. The premier also reiterated much of his pitch to keep his job from April, touting his government’s progress in passing legislation and continued promotion of the province’s energy sector abroad.

“This is a demonstration that Alberta’s government continues to do the people’s business, continues to fight for this province, to work for a strong economy, to make life better for Albertans,” said Kenney, who has not appeared at a news conference to take questions from reporters since before the results of his leadership review were announced Wednesday night.

The premier’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Postmedia about whether Kenney intends to run in the upcoming leadership race, which is yet to be scheduled by the party.

Kenney has been facing criticism from both inside and outside his party over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and allegations that he has been ignoring the grassroots of the party.

Before entering Thursday’s marathon six-hour caucus meeting , a number of his critics called for Kenney to step aside immediately and allow for an interim leader to step in. Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche UCP MLA Brian Jean, who won a byelection on a campaign to take over Kenney’s job, told reporters he hoped for a new interim leader to be appointed immediately.

“The healing process can’t start until Jason Kenney leaves. He knows that, we know that and we need to start the renewal process of the UCP,” said Jean.

-With files from Dylan Short

More to come…

lijohnson@postmedia.com

Bell: What the hell? Kenney is sticking around until God knows when

Rick Bell - 6h ago
Calgary Sun

Elvis has not left the building.


© Provided by Calgary Sun

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

In fact, no one knows when Elvis is leaving the building.

For that matter, no one will tell us if Elvis will be leaving the building.

The show is not over.

Maybe you are one of those folks who thought Premier Jason Kenney was headed out the door.

Maybe you thought the UCP MLAs would choose an interim leader and that interim leader would serve as premier until a permanent leader was chosen and the UCP would get on with the job of digging themselves out of the political ditch.

Maybe you are one of those folks who actually truly believed the premier was stepping down sooner rather than later and he would no longer be the story and this would benefit the UCP because they could get a fresh start with only a year before the next election.

On the morning after the Wednesday night when only 51% of party members supported Kenney , UCP MLAs descended upon Calgary’s McDougall Centre, the premier’s southern Alberta HQ.

The MLAs were scheduled to figure out their next moves.

The Kenney folks had hoped the gabfest would be about arm-twisting UCP MLAs to follow the leader or else.

That didn’t happen because Kenney had only half the party on his side.

Instead, there was Kenney supposedly bound for the exit and talk of which individual could stand in as premier until a new leader took over. There were UCP MLAs actively seeking the gig.

There was some talk of how the UCP had to get their act together after Kenney.

Alas, in most cases, what the UCP MLAs coughed up as their ideas wasn’t worth the oxygen.

It was as if Kenney’s loyal soldiers were still waiting for the premier and his devoted minions to provide the officially-approved empty-calorie talking points suitable for regurgitation.

Outside, the mercury dropped, the clouds gathered, the rain fell, the winds blew.

Were they the winds of change? We could hope.

Inside the building, the UCP politicians talked and talked and talked and talked.

It was clear there was a push for the premier to stay until a new leader was elected.

There were those who still support Kenney.

There were those who don’t want to shake things up. They’ve got it good under Kenney.

They enjoy things the way they are. They’re looking out for number one.

One or two who might have plans to succeed Kenney did the suck-up Thursday, no doubt trying to curry favour with the premier’s loyalists.

Of course, there were others who believed kicking Kenney’s departure down the road would do more harm than good.

The show would go on. Kenney would remain a distraction. It would be the same old song and dance.

Someone on the outside looking in said Kenney couldn’t even resign without stepping on a rake.

People in the outside world, beyond the UCP circus, would be puzzled.

What the hell? Isn’t Kenney supposed to be gone?

Besides, Kenney did not have the backing of half his party.

But those who are on the premier’s team have a hell of a lot of skin in the game and they assemble their arguments.

Kenney passed the leadership review. Sure it was only 51%. Sure it wasn’t the 70% the out-of-touch inhabitants of the Kenney cocoon figured.

But 51% is technically a win. He doesn’t have to leave. He can leave when he wants. He is still the boss.

Rewind to Wednesday night.

When the 51% Yes vote is announced, Kenney speaks to his diehard supporters.

Cheers! Applause! Whistles! Yahoos!

Kenney tells his fervent followers he will respect the decision of the members.

Cheers! Applause! Yells!

They think he is staying on with 51%!

Kenney says he expects all UCP members to respect the result.

More Cheers! More Applause!

They REALLY think he is staying on with 51%!

And when he tells them he intends to step down as UCP leader and premier …

You can hear them. No! No!

Some cry. Some hang their heads. Someone calls the press “vultures,” because they do not embrace the exalted leader.

The Kenney love-in is reportedly in shock. They think Kenney is gone just like that. Poof! From hero to zero.

Fast forward to the next afternoon.

The wheels in motion.

The vote on Kenney staying on for a yet-to-be-determined time is by secret ballot.

He wins.

The UCP MLAs leave McDougall Centre the back way, avoiding the waiting microphones where questions would be asked and answers would not pass the smell test.

A short statement announcing Kenney’s latest victory goes out from the guy who chairs the UCP MLA chinwags, a guy by the name of Nathan Neudorf.

Kenney writes a letter to the party. He advises them of his intention to resign as leader when there’s a new leader elected.

From now to an unknown when, who knows what will happen?

By the way, the rain stopped. The sun came out briefly. The winds died out.

There was no wind of change.

rbell@postmedia.com

UCP leadership hopefuls jockey for position, disagree over interim head

NDP Leader Rachel Notley builds team as UCP caucus debates leadership

Who could replace Jason Kenney as UCP leader? Some possible contenders

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH

Jason Kenney to remain Alberta premier until new UCP leader chosen by party

Yesterday 7:05 p.m.
 The Canadian Press


Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, one day after announcing he was stepping down for the good of his United Conservative Party, will stay on until a new leader is chosen.

UCP caucus chair Nathan Neudorf said members met Thursday and decided that Kenney should remain in the top job for now.

“The United Conservative caucus had a vigorous discussion and debate about the future of our party and our government,” Neudorf said in a statement following an all-day meeting at McDougall Centre in Calgary.

“We agreed that we must remain united, focused on the best interests of Albertans and committed to doing the job Albertans elected us to do.

“In that spirit, we have affirmed Premier Jason Kenney’s continued leadership of our caucus and government until such time as a new leader is chosen, the timing of which will be determined by the United Conservative Party.”

Kenney did not issue a statement or speak to reporters but tweeted out a letter he sent to the UCP stating he will step down once a new leader is picked.

No caucus members came out to talk to the media after the meeting.

Earlier Thursday, some of Kenney’s caucus critics called for him to step down immediately to help heal divisions wracking the party.

“The healing process can’t start until Jason Kenney leaves. He knows that. We know that and we need to start the renewal process of the UCP," said backbencher Brian Jean.

Leela Aheer, who was kicked out of Kenney’s cabinet last year after criticizing him for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, said: “You need a team player who is going to bring folks together, because there has obviously been a lot of division.”

Todd Loewen, a former UCP backbencher voted out of caucus a year ago for openly demanding Kenney resign, said the decision to keep Kenney on is a slap in the face to the thousands of party members who voted for party renewal in the leadership review.

“This is the Jason Kenney Party. This is the JKP,” said Loewen.

“He remains in control of the party even though members rejected him.”

Kenney announced his departure Wednesday night after receiving 51 per cent support in a mail-in ballot of party members. The total was enough for him to technically stay in the job, but Kenney said it was not enough to maintain confidence and quell disharmony in the ranks.

His press secretary, Justin Brattinga, said shortly after that Kenney would remain as party boss until an interim leader was chosen.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Kenney is now officially a caretaker leader, further delaying crucial work on issues that matter to Albertans, such as health care and long waiting lists in hospitals.

“The drama and the infighting that has plagued this UCP is not over,” said Notley. “(Kenney’s resignation) is the starting gun for more chaos and more distraction.”

Kenney is the fourth conservative Alberta premier in the last 16 years to step down following a low endorsement vote from party members.

Former Progressive Conservative premiers Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach stayed on as caretaker premiers until new leaders were picked. Alison Redford quit immediately, and caucus chose Dave Hancock as interim leader until Jim Prentice was selected as a permanent replacement.

Kenney has said anger from party and caucus members over decisions he made to limit personal liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic ignited the anger against him and led to the underwhelming vote of support in the review.

Opponents have said the dissatisfaction was not just over COVID-19 policies but also over Kenney's management style, which they deemed to be top-down, dismissive and undemocratic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2022.

Dean Bennett and Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press

Colombian leftist Petro holds lead in presidential race, poll shows



BOGOTA (Reuters) - Leftist Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla vowing to tackle grating inequality, held a big lead ahead of the May 29 vote, a poll showed late on Thursday, though center-right rival Federico Gutierrez saw an uptick in support.

Petro, who was the mayor of Bogota between 2012 and 2015, had 40.6% support, according to pollster Invamer. That is three percentage points lower than what he had in an April 22 poll.

Gutierrez, the former mayor of Colombia's second-biggest city Medellin, has 27.1% support, up from the 26.7% he got in April.

If no one wins more than 50% in the first round of voting and the two men head to a June run-off, Petro would win 52.7% against 44.2% for Gutierrez, the survey showed.

Petro has pledged to stop all new oil development and redistribute pension savings, while Gutierrez has promised better salaries and cuts to inefficient government spending.

Independent candidate Rodolfo Hernandez, also a former mayor, saw a significant leap in first-round support - jumping to 20.9% from 13.9% in April.

Hernandez, a businessman from the city of Bucaramanga who casts himself as the anti-corruption candidate, has attracted attention for his whimsical uploads to social media site TikTok.

In a run-off between Petro and Hernandez, the leftist would win 50% to 47.4% for his opponent, the poll showed.

Support for centrist Sergio Fajardo fell from 6.5% to 5.1% support.

More than 39 million Colombians are eligible to vote in the election.

The poll has a margin of error of 2.2% and comprised 2,000 surveys. It was conducted between May 13 and May 18.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Paul Simao)

Unions call on gov't to free Canadians held in the Dominican

Liz Braun - Yesterday 
Toronto Sun

© Provided by Toronto Sun

Eight black gym bags, each containing 25 smaller packages of cocaine, totalling 200 packages, were located in the aircraft’s control compartments.

Three unions are calling on the Canadian government to intervene in the ongoing case of five Canadians being held in the Dominican Republic — for reporting a crime.

The Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and Unifor are launching a public campaign in hopes of getting the Canadians safely returned home.

The nightmare started in early April when the Canadian aircrew of a Pivot Airlines plane and seven passengers were preparing to fly from Punta Cana to Toronto.

As reported in the National Post, a mechanic reported to the flight captain that he had discovered a black suitcase in the avionics bay.

Authorities were notified at once. Anti-narcotics investigators searched the plane and found seven bags packed with cocaine — with an estimated street value of $25 million.

According to Pivot Airlines, the two pilots, two flight attendants, a mechanic and the seven passengers were imprisoned in the Dominican after the contraband was found.

Jail conditions for the men were reportedly particularly unsavoury.

Almost everyone in the group was released on bail around April 18, but they were advised not to leave the country.

Dominican prosecutors claim all involved are somehow part of a trafficking scheme; it’s an interesting stance, considering that one of the crew discovered the drugs and another reported the find to authorities.

Defence lawyers have cited a lack of evidence in the case. The local judge who granted bail agreed.

But the standoff continues.

The Canadians have fears for their safety, given that somebody somewhere in the drug trade is out some 200 kg of narcotics.

Now the unions are standing up for their members.

According to their news release, for more than 40 days, the Canadian aircrew — which includes two CUPE members, one ALPA member, and one Unifor member — “have been arbitrarily detained, threatened, and prosecuted,” after discovering and reporting the drugs.

Noting that it is entirely unacceptable that members were jailed for dutifully reporting a crime, Capt. Tim Perry, president of ALPA Canada, said, “We are urging the Canadian government to take serious action and help bring our crew home.”

The three unions represent more than 90 000 airline workers and now caution all travellers and employees about the risks of travel to the Dominican Republic.

The prosecutor in the Dominican hopes to have bail revoked and wants to hold the Canadians for up to 12 months in jail as the case is investigated.

“The Canadian government needs to do all in its power to bring the Pivot Airlines crew safely back home,” said Scott Doherty, the executive assistant to Unifor’s national oresident, expressing concern for the safety of those being held.

As part of this campaign, ALPA, Unifor and CUPE have online petitions available for all to sign; they urge their members to write the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly, and ask her to call for the immediate release of these Canadians.

With Roe in doubt, some fear tech surveillance of pregnancy
By MARYCLAIRE DALE

May 18, 2022

1 of 4

Chandler Jones, 26, from Baltimore County, who will graduate this spring from the University of Baltimore School of Law, stands in Baltimore before a pro-choice rally, Saturday, May 14, 2022. Jones consulted the internet on her cellphone for information and advice before having an abortion during her junior year in college. In a post-Roe world, if the Supreme Court soon reverses the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, as a draft opinion suggests it may, pregnancies could be surveilled and the data shared with police or sold to vigilantes. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When Chandler Jones realized she was pregnant during her junior year of college, she turned to a trusted source for information and advice.

Her cellphone.

“I couldn’t imagine before the internet, trying to navigate this,” said Jones, 26, who graduated Tuesday from the University of Baltimore School of Law. “I didn’t know if hospitals did abortions. I knew Planned Parenthood did abortions, but there were none near me. So I kind of just Googled.”

But with each search, Jones was being surreptitiously followed — by the phone apps and browsers that track us as we click away, capturing even our most sensitive health data.

Online searches. Period apps. Fitness trackers. Advice helplines. GPS. The often obscure companies collecting our health history and geolocation data may know more about us than we know ourselves.

For now, the information is mostly used to sell us things, like baby products targeted to pregnant women. But in a post-Roe world — if the Supreme Court upends the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, as a draft opinion suggests it may in the coming weeks — the data would become more valuable, and women more vulnerable.

Privacy experts fear that pregnancies could be surveilled and the data shared with police or sold to vigilantes.

“The value of these tools for law enforcement is for how they really get to peek into the soul,” said Cynthia Conti-Cook, a lawyer and technology fellow at the Ford Foundation. “It gives (them) the mental chatter inside our heads.”

___

HIPAA, HOTLINES, HEALTH HISTORIES

The digital trail only becomes clearer when we leave home, as location apps, security cameras, license plate readers and facial recognition software track our movements. The development of these tech tools has raced far ahead of the laws and regulations that might govern them.

And it’s not just women who should be concerned. The same tactics used to surveil pregnancies can be used by life insurance companies to set premiums, banks to approve loans and employers to weigh hiring decisions, experts said.

Or it could — and sometimes does — send women who experience miscarriages cheery ads on their would-be child’s birthday.

It’s all possible because HIPAA, the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, protects medical files at your doctor’s office but not the information that third-party apps and tech companies collect about you. Nor does HIPAA cover the health histories collected by non-medical “crisis pregnancy centers, ” which are run by anti-abortion groups. That means the information can be shared with, or sold to, almost anyone.

Jones contacted one such facility early in her Google search, before figuring out they did not offer abortions.

“The dangers of unfettered access to Americans’ personal data have never been more clear. Researching birth control online, updating a period-tracking app or bringing a phone to the doctor’s office could be used to track and prosecute women across the U.S.,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said last week.

For myriad reasons, both political and philosophical, data privacy laws in the U.S. have lagged far behind those adopted in Europe in 2018.

Until this month, anyone could buy a weekly trove of data on clients at more than 600 Planned Parenthood sites around the country for as little as $160, according to a recent Vice investigation that led one data broker to remove family planning centers from the customer “pattern” data it sells. The files included approximate patient addresses (down to the census block, derived from where their cellphones “sleep” at night), income brackets, time spent at the clinic, and the top places people stopped before and after their visits.

While the data did not identify patients by name, experts say that can often be pieced together, or de-anonymized, with a little sleuthing.

In Arkansas, a new law will require women seeking an abortion to first call a state hotline and hear about abortion alternatives. The hotline, set to debut next year, will cost the state nearly $5 million a year to operate. Critics fear it will be another way to track pregnant women, either by name or through an identifier number. Other states are considering similar legislation.

The widespread surveillance capabilities alarm privacy experts who fear what’s to come if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its opinion by early July.

“A lot of people, where abortion is criminalized — because they have nowhere to go — are going to go online, and every step that they take (could) ... be surveilled,” Conti-Cook said.

___

PUNISH WOMEN, DOCTORS OR FRIENDS?

Women of color like Jones, along with poor women and immigrants, could face the most dire consequences if Roe falls since they typically have less power and money to cover their tracks. They also tend to have more abortions, proportionally, perhaps because they have less access to health care, birth control and, in conservative states, schools with good sex education programs.

The leaked draft suggests the Supreme Court could be ready to let states ban or severely restrict abortion through civil or criminal penalties. More than half are poised to do so. Abortion foes have largely promised not to punish women themselves, but instead target their providers or people who help them access services.

“The penalties are for the doctor, not for the woman,” Republican state Rep. Jim Olsen of Oklahoma said last month of a new law that makes performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

But abortion advocates say that remains to be seen.

“When abortion is criminalized, pregnancy outcomes are investigated,” said Tara Murtha, the communications director at the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, who recently co-authored a report on digital surveillance in the abortion sphere.

She wonders where the scrutiny would end. Prosecutors have already taken aim at women who use drugs during pregnancy, an issue Justice Clarence Thomas raised during the Supreme Court arguments in the case in December.

“Any adverse pregnancy outcome can turn the person who was pregnant into a suspect,” Murtha said.

___

STATE LIMITS, TECH STEPS, PERSONAL TIPS

A few states are starting to push back, setting limits on tech tools as the fight over consumer privacy intensifies.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, through a legal settlement, stopped a Boston-based ad company from steering anti-abortion smartphone ads to women inside clinics there that offer abortion services, deeming it harassment. The firm had even proposed using the same “geofencing” tactics to send anti-abortion messages to high school students.

In Michigan, voters amended the state Constitution to prohibit police from searching someone’s data without a warrant. And in California, home to Silicon Valley, voters passed a sweeping digital privacy law that lets people see their data profiles and ask to have them deleted. The law took effect in 2020.

The concerns are mounting, and have forced Apple, Google and other tech giants to begin taking steps to rein in the sale of consumer data. That includes Apple’s launch last year of its App Tracking Transparency feature, which lets iPhone and iPad users block apps from tracking them.

Abortion rights activists, meanwhile, suggest women in conservative states leave their cellphones, smartwatches and other wearable devices at home when they seek reproductive health care, or at least turn off the location services. They should also closely examine the privacy policies of menstrual trackers and other health apps they use.

“There are things that people can do that can help mitigate their risk. Most people will not do them because they don’t know about it or it’s inconvenient,” said Nathan Freed Wessler, a deputy director with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “There are very, very few people who have the savvy to do everything.”

Digital privacy was the last thing on Jones’s mind when she found herself pregnant. She was in crisis. She and her partner had ambitious career goals. After several days of searching, she found an appointment for an abortion in nearby Delaware. Fortunately, he had a car.

“When I was going through this, it was just survival mode,” said Jones, who took part in a march Saturday in downtown Baltimore to support abortion rights.

Besides, she said, she’s grown up in the Internet age, a world in which “all of my information is being sold constantly.”

But news of the leaked Supreme Court draft sparked discussions at her law school this month about privacy, including digital privacy in the era of Big Data.

“Literally, because I have my cell phone in my pocket, if I go to a CVS, they know I went to a CVS,” the soon-to-be lawyer said. “I think the privacy right is such a deeper issue in America (and one) that is being violated all the time.”

Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale

THE PARTY OF NO! NOTHINGS

Senate vote blocks restaurant COVID-19 financial aid bill

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday against replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, blocking a bill that would have provided $48 billion in financial relief to businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19. 

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

May 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate voted Thursday against replenishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, blocking a bill that would have provided $48 billion in financial relief to businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The Small Business COVID Relief Act included $40 billion for the restaurant industry and $8 billion for other affected businesses.

"While we didn't get the 60 votes we needed today, I remain committed to being a voice for small businesses in the Senate and will continue pushing to provide them with the support they deserve from the federal government," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., one of the bill's sponsors, said on Twitter.

The bipartisan bill was also sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., but failed to get the required 60 votes of support to overcome a filibuster by a 52-43 vote.

"Today, a Senate filibuster dashed the promise made to more than 177,000 small business owners in communities across the country" National Restaurant Association Vice President Sean Kennedy said in a statement.

"These restaurant owners believed the creation of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was a down payment, and that the Senate would complete the mission with this vote. A bipartisan majority voted to begin debate on this critical legislation, but it wasn't the 60 votes needed. While there are valid questions about government spending and inflation, restaurants should not be caught in the crossfire."


In January, the National Restaurant Association said 177,000 eligible restaurants applied for RRF grants but did not receive them; half said their restaurant would not be able to stay open without a grant.

Had it passed, Thursday's bill would have funded those restaurants that did not previously receive money.

"When Congress offered these restaurants the RRF lifeline, restaurant owners and operators made business decisions based on those commitments," said the restaurant association's president and CEO, Michelle Korsmo.

"Restaurants that are still trying to make up for what was lost in the pandemic today are struggling with workforce shortages, record-high inflation, and supply chain constraints. Today's vote will further exacerbate those challenges and result in more economic hardships for the families and communities across the country that rely on the restaurant and foodservice industry."