NOVA SCOTIA

Active shooter training still not sufficient following Portapique: paramedic union

The union representing paramedics in Nova Scotia says the current active shooter training still isn't up to standard, after first responders who worked during the 2020 mass shooting told an inquiry they were put into a position of danger "we should never been put in."


© Liam Hennessey/CPA memorial remembering Lillian Hyslop is seen along the road in Wentworth, N.S. on Friday, April 24, 2020.

Graeme Benjamin and Rebecca Lau - Wednesday

The mass casualty commission, which is looking into the April 2020 mass shooting that claimed 22 lives in the Portapique, N.S. area, heard from the paramedics on Monday.

Read more:

Mass shooting inquiry - N.S. paramedics offer dramatic testimony about their role

"Things that I think are really important in order to grow from the whole situation still hasn't been addressed," Melanie Lowe told the inquiry.

The paramedics were staged just off Portapique Beach Road across from Blueberry Field Road, which the shooter used to escape.

The first responders went home that night not knowing he was still on the loose, and was told to come back to work the next day.

"At the end of the day, where was the support? Where was the care?" said paramedic Jeff Aucoin.

"I think we were put in a position of danger we should have never been put in."

Kevin MacMullin, a spokesperson with International Union for Operating Engineers Local 727, which represents Nova Scotia paramedics, says the current active shooter training isn't sufficient.

"We should be fully prepared to know what to do when we arrive on those scenes, how to protect ourselves and our patients," said MacMullin.

"It's something that's high time to be done. This is two years later and we're not trained."

The lack of mental health services has also been a concern, with all the paramedics saying they never received follow-up calls after their post-incident briefing.

"Something that traumatic, they should have been put off work for an indefinite period," said MacMullin.

EHS, which employs the paramedics, did acknowledge in a statement that they "continue to learn about how we could have supported them more fully since that unexpected event."

An internal review process found several areas of change, including moving EHS radios to an encrypted system and drafting guideline that states employees will be relieved from duty "in these instances."

EHS Executive Director Charbel Daniel told Global News that among the changes made since the mass shooting are a bolstered mental health team and an overhaul of its "All Hazards Plan."

"Ensuring that our teams have a voice, that they're heard, and that our continuous improvement process is led by their voices and the changes that they'd like to see," explained Daniel.

Daniel praised the first responders who answered the call that day, saying EHS "greatly appreciate the strength and honesty the team has demonstrated."

As for the first responders, they hope sharing their experience will result in real change, although that is yet to be seen.

"If it happened again tomorrow, I don't see what would be different," Advanced Emergency Medical Dispatcher Bruce Cox told the inquiry.

N.S. teachers' union ponders how to restore gains taken by unconstitutional law

HALIFAX — The union representing Nova Scotia teachers is pondering options to restore the losses its members incurred because of an unconstitutional law that imposed a labour contract on them in 2017.



The law passed by the former Liberal government five years ago was struck down Tuesday by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, with Justice John Keith commenting that Bill 75 violated good-faith collective bargaining "and was terribly wrong."

Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, says it's complicated to undo the actions of the Stephen McNeil government.

"The years when the wages and contract language would have applied have already passed .… We're now dealing with a different government, and how do you address those harms?" he asked in an interview Wednesday.

The Supreme Court decision noted that when the bill passed, the union lost key provisions it had negotiated, including two days of professional leave and the creation of a labour-management council that would provide for arbitration if disputes over working conditions couldn't be resolved.

The imposed contract set wage increases to three per cent over four years. It also wound down a long-term service award, which had allowed teachers to accrue up to one per cent of their salary each year toward a lump-sum payment at the end of their careers.

Wozney said some of the damage caused by the province's actions, particularly the restrictions on the ability to strike, have been erased by the court decision. However, he said the contractual losses of teachers remain unresolved.

He says the union's options include appealing the court decision to seek more remedies, or attempting to persuade the current Progressive Conservative government to restore the union's lost gains through negotiations.

“We have some soul-searching on what to do about making this right for teachers who suffered from this legislation," Wozney said.

"You can spend a lot of money on legal processes and come out a loser. We've invested a lot of energy in this challenge, and the question is, will there be another pathway without spending a whole lot more money on court processes?"

Premier Tim Houston said Thursday that he believes the court decision means the parties should "discuss what remedies there should be." His government is "open to some of the things that are important to the union membership," he added.

Asked if the specific losses of the union would be reconsidered, he responded, "I would encourage both sides to go to the table with the things they want to talk about, and all of those things would and should be included in the discussions moving forward."

Wozney said one other option is for the NSTU to work with other unions as they consider their next steps in a constitutional challenge of Bill 148, a separate bill the McNeil government passed that imposed a wage package on tens of thousands of public sector workers.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, along with the Federation of Labour said Thursday in an email they are considering "appropriate next steps with the legal challenge to Bill 148."

Finance Minister Allan MacMaster, whose department is responsible for labour talks, said neither of the two bills have an impact on current negotiations. "Our government wants to be different than the last government. We don't want to be seen as antagonistic. We want to be fair and reasonable," he said.

However, Wozney said labour law reform is needed to discourage similar behaviour from future premiers.

"McNeil benefited politically from this," he said. "He used teachers as a punching bag to play to a political base. He won the election by the skin of his teeth, and he did so on the backs of a base who believed it was right to be tough on unions."

Michael Lynk, a law professor at Western University, said it's unlikely that governments will pass legislation that reduces their ability to impose contracts on public sector unions when talks fail. He said he's hoping the Supreme Court of Canada will further clarify conditions under which governments can impose contracts on unions.

"What it's going to be in the future is judge-made law, where public sector employers have to allow the bargaining process to go its full route, and, if the government still feels it needs to impose an agreement, (it) can only do so after bargaining in good faith," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2022.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Halifax children’s hospital sounding alarm over its ER department ‘crisis’

As Nova Scotia's health system continues to face strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency department at a Halifax children's hospital is sounding the alarm.


l Halifax  IWK Health Centre

Karla Renić - Wednesday

Katrina Hurley, the chief of the IWK emergency department, says the hospital's ER is in a crisis, seeing record numbers of patients for spring

“It’s nearly beaten a record level of ever, patient volume in a single day,” said Hurley.

“A lot of these patients are also acutely ill. So it's a high level of acuity in addition to a high volume of patients.”

Read more:

COVID-19: N.S. health workers ‘overwhelmed’ as hospitals reach capacity, staff off sick

Hurley said there’s no one illness that’s dominating in the high patient volumes, something that’s unusual for this time of the year.

“In the past, when we've had a large surge, it's been almost exclusively due to a single virus such as RSV or influenza.”

Nova Scotia continues to see hundreds of newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 each week and restrictions — including wearing face masks — have been lifted since March 21.

But according to Hurley, it’s not just that everyone has COVID-19 without masks in place.

“(It is) masks are off and everyone has everything,” she said.

The IWK emergency department has been seeing patients with fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea and hand-foot-and-mouth disease, among others.

“The masks protected the children from COVID, but they also protected them from all those other childhood ailments. And so removing the masks has brought all of those illnesses back, pretty much at the same time.”

The ER at the hospital has been working at overcapacity for six weeks every day, said Hurley.

“Some days are better than others. But at some point during most days we become overwhelmed.”

According to Hurley, the previous single-day record for ER visits at the IWK was 180 patients. Last Monday, they saw 178. In previous years, the average would be about 100 patients a day during this time.

Because of overcrowding during a normal day at the ER, waiting rooms become full and some patients end up waiting for hours. In the past six weeks, Hurley said there have been 47 long waits, which exceed 12 hours.

“The fact that 47 people sat in our department and waited for 12 hours to me is a sign of a crisis in our department.”

Pediatric emergency medicine is the most overcrowded, with the average child patient being under the age of five.

Hurley said she believes people come to the ER as a last resort.

“The epidemiology of illness in the community has changed and the health-care system has changed," Hurley said. "There are more patients than ever that don't have a family doctor, and patients’ ability to access care in walk-in clinics appears to be quite limited — at least that's what patients tell me.”

Read more:

New Doctors N.S. president on burnout, backlogs and embracing virtual care

In addition to that, the pandemic has placed a lot of strain on staffing in Nova Scotia, so the department often needs to fill shifts on short notice.

And after spending hours in the waiting room, patients often become “verbally very upset with staff,” said Hurley.

“That can be difficult to face day in and day out, particularly when ... the staff is working in triage.”

She also said it can be distressing for health staff to see people in need waiting for care. “I feel really badly. I feel that I haven't maybe done my job well enough,” she said.

The department currently has vacancies, though they rarely work understaffed because people will work overtime, or assist from other units.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson said in a media availability Wednesday, there has been some work done to assist the IWK with staffing

“Nurse practitioners, as well as an increase in physician hours to assist with the increase in patients that they’re seeing,” said Thompson.

But the overcrowding can’t just be boiled down to issues within the emergency department, according to Hurley.

“We can't control what's happening in the community. We can't control where and how people access health care… People decide what their emergency is. Some of those are things that I don't consider an emergency, and some of them are things I wish they had come for sooner.”

Hurley said there’s no one solution to this problem.

“If we add more walk in clinics, does that mean people will use them? If we add more nurses to the emergency department, does it mean we can move patients faster when we don't have enough beds?”

Read more:

N.S. health-care worker unions optimistic about province’s health plan

Heading into the summer, Hurley said July and August have in the past been the quietest months of the year in terms of patient volumes. But this year, that might not be the case.

When it comes to what the government can do, Hurley said she’s not sure as it’s a complex system. Data gathered now can inform decisions in six months, but not immediately.

“My biggest concern is that we don't have the ability to respond to surges while they're occurring,” she said.

“I can't tell you how hard we're trying. We meet all the time, we're always strategizing.”

In the meantime, she wants families to be prepared when visiting the ER. The sickest patients are seen first, and others may have to wait so bringing toys, food and distractions is a good idea.

“I want them to know that we're doing the best we can to provide them with the care they need.”

-- With files from Alicia Draus.

With more kids working and getting hurt on the job, Quebec to review labour laws


MONTREAL — Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet says the government will review the laws governing working conditions for children because of a reported increase in child labour across the province — and in the number of kids getting hurt on the job.



Boulet says he mandated a committee to look into reports that an increasing number of children aged 11 to 14 were joining the workforce as a result of persistent labour shortages. The committee, composed of major union and employers groups, recommended the government investigate.

In an interview on Tuesday, Boulet said he would conduct an "in-depth reflection on child labour," but he said the government should remain open to letting kids work under certain circumstances. He said, however, that child labour should be viewed as something "atypical."

"I asked my team to make an inventory of all regulations … concerning child labour," Boulet said. "After, I will compare it with legislation in other provinces. We are going to analyze the impact, and then we are going to determine the necessity, or not, to improve our laws."

Unlike other provinces, Quebec has no minimum working age. In British Columbia, for instance, the minimum working age was raised in 2021 to 16 from 12, with some exceptions.


Boulet, however, said Quebec's lack of a minimum working age doesn't mean the province encourages children to toil in unsafe conditions. He said the province has a series of "scattered" laws that govern the work kids can perform.


"There's a regulation … that makes sure you need to be at least 16 years old to drive a forklift, at least 18 years old to do (sandblasting) work … to go underground, it's at least 18," Boulet said. "Child labour is well regulated in Quebec. Everything that is dangerous, that is risky is prohibited."

And yet a rising number of children are getting hurt on the job. The province's workplace safety board said that in 2021, 203 children under 16 years old suffered a work-related injury — a jump of 36 per cent from 2020, when there were 149 injuries. In 2019, 154 kids under 16 were hurt on job, while in 2018, there were 85 injuries reported in that age group.

Safety board spokesperson Antoine Leclerc-Loiselle says "various factors" are leading to the rise in young people getting hurt at work.

"The weeks following hiring are those when workers of all ages are most at risk of injury," he said in a statement Wednesday. "Young people, finding themselves more often in a 'new employee' position, are therefore more vulnerable."

Boulet urged anyone who witnesses a child being poorly treated at work to file a complaint with the safety board. "We will make sure they pay fines," Boulet said about employers who violate the law.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2022.

Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press

Julian Assange's extradition to US approved by UK government

Tara John - CNN-TODAY

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has signed an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he faces espionage charges, in a decision Wikileaks said marked a “dark day for press freedom.”

A London court issued a formal extradition order back in April, leaving Patel to rubber-stamp his transfer to the US after a years-long legal battle.

The decision will likely see months more of legal wrangling: Assange has the right to appeal Friday’s decision within 14 days, according to a Home Office statement announcing the order.

Wikileaks said Assange’s extradition will be appealed, stressing that the “next appeal will be before the High Court,” according to a Friday statement.

The organization asserted that Assange “committed no crime and is not a criminal,” adding that he is a “journalist and a publisher” who “is being punished for doing his job.”

“This is a dark day for Press freedom and British democracy. Anyone who cares about freedom of expression should be deeply ashamed,” Wikileaks added.

In Friday’s statement, the Home Office stressed that the UK courts have not found that extradition of Assange would be incompatible with his human rights.

“The UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange. Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, and that whilst in the US he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his health,” it said.

Assange is currently in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London, where he has been held since being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London three years ago.

He is wanted in the US on 18 criminal charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified files and diplomatic cables in 2010. If convicted, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.

His extradition has been the subject of numerous court dates since his arrest, which took place after Assange sought diplomatic refuge in the embassy for seven years. In January 2021, a magistrates’ court ruling found that Assange could not be extradited as it would be “oppressive,” by reason of his mental health.

But the High Court overturned that decision in December, saying Assange could be extradited on the basis of assurances given by the US government about his treatment there.

Rights groups have expressed concerns over the US’s indictment of Assange, saying it undermines freedom of the press.

“Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International secretary general, said in a statement Friday.

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.

Support for refugees rises, survey finds, amid Ukraine war exodus



WARSAW (Reuters) - The world has become more compassionate towards refugees, according to a survey by pollster Ipsos published on Friday, a finding it said suggested the war in Ukraine had increased public openness to people fleeing war or oppression.


© Reuters/JAKUB STEZYCKIFILE PHOTO: Ukrainian refugees granted free accommodation at a hotel in Bratkowice

Some 78% of people in 28 countries believe those escaping conflict or persecution should be able to take refuge in another country, up from 70% in a 2021 survey.


© Reuters/SPASIYANA SERGIEVAFILE PHOTO: A Ukrainian refugee looks out of a bus in Sunny Beach

Fewer people also believe borders should be entirely closed to refugees, with 36% agreeing in Friday's poll, against 50% a year earlier, in part reflecting decreasing concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.


© Reuters/GWLADYS FOUCHEFILE PHOTO: Ukrainian refugee Katerina Bezruk and her daughter Arena pose for a picture in the Norwegian Arctic town of Kirkenes,

The Ipsos survey of attitudes towards refugees polled 20,505 people from 28 countries, including Australia, Argentina, China, France, Great Britain, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.

"Attitudes have become more favourable since last year in most of the countries surveyed, suggesting that the Ukraine crisis has increased public openness to refugees and reversed some of the concerns generated by the pandemic," IPSOS said.

The Ukraine conflict has forced over 6.5 million people to flee to neighbouring countries.

A report by the U.N. body showed on Thursday that some 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, abuse and violence at the end of 2021.


© Reuters/STRINGERFILE PHOTO: Refugees from southeastern Ukraine, who are preparing to travel to the Palanca checkpoint to cross into Moldova en route to Germany, gather in Odesa

Since then, millions more have fled Ukraine or been displaced within its borders, with price hikes linked to blocked grain exports set to stoke more displacement elsewhere.

(Editing by William Maclean)

Ontario health-care workers sound alarm over ‘absolutely horrific’ hospital demand

Colin D'Mello - Yesterday 

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

A health-care worker walks past a thank you sign in the intensive care unit at the Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

Health-care workers are sounding the alarm over "exploding" emergency rooms in Ontario, as hospitals face increasing pressure from patient volumes and the province suffers from a shortage of nurses as a result of the pandemic.

A combination of factors has left patients sitting in emergency rooms for longer periods of time before being treated, according to data collected by Health Quality Ontario, a provincial agency.

Read more:

Brampton Civic Hospital in ‘code gridlock’ for more than 2 weeks

In April, a patient had to wait nearly two hours before an initial assessment with a doctor in an emergency room, compared with an hour and 18 minutes in 2021. That same month, patients spent an average of 20 hours in an emergency room before being admitted to hospital compared to a 14-hour wait this time last year.

"It's absolutely horrific. There are not other words to describe it," said Angela Preocanin of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA).

"We have hospitals in the GTA that are running at 60 per cent staff and a 300 to 400 per cent capacity."

The ONA contends there are several reasons behind the crunch in provincial emergency rooms, including capacity issues that existed before the pandemic, a steady admission of COVID-19 patients, and a shortage of nurses and family physicians who continue to work virtually and refer patients to hospitals instead.


Ontario nurses meet with Ford and Elliott to discuss shortage

Dr. Kashif Pirzada, a Toronto emergency room physician, told Global News patients have walked into the ER looking for specialist referrals and other non-urgent reasons that add to the crunch.


"You have people who have issues that are urgent to them. They're not exactly emergencies but they're just falling through the cracks," Pirzada said. "Someone who has a joint issue, they can't see anyone about it. ... They come to us for help."

The resulting backlog, the ONA said, contributes to the kind of hallway health care that plagued the hospital system before the pandemic — patients being treated in non-traditional areas of hospitals, such as storage rooms and auditoriums, while paramedics face difficulties offloading people in need of urgent care.

"Patients can't be transferred into beds because there are no beds on the floors, so on the units they open up patient lounges, and they start caring for patients in the lounges," Preocanin said.


"The emergency rooms are exploding. It's absolutely horrible."

France Gelinas, who served as the NDP's health critic before the election, said the long wait times add to a patient's pain and discomfort and create other challenges in emergency rooms.

"We're human beings. We need to sleep, we need to eat, we need to go to the bathroom," Gelinas told Global News.

"None of this is easy in the emergency department. It's not made for that."

Of particular concern, the ONA said, is the ever-growing ratio of nurses to patients. The association said in some cases a single nurse could be caring for up to 30 patients concurrently, up from a typical 1:5 nurse-to-patient ratio.

"There is no place in health care for one nurse to be with 30 patients," Gelinas said. "You will never be able to provide quality care with ratios like this."

While the Ford government announced a number of measures designed to retain and beef up the nursing staff in the province, create new hospital beds and build or upgrade hospitals, front-line heath-care workers are calling on the province to create an immediate strategy to tackle the current situation.

Read more:
Province pledges $17M for London hospitals for increased costs, lost revenue during pandemic

It used to be that flu season would come once a year, in January and February, and we would be strained with hallway medicine," Pirzada said. "Now COVID season comes every three to four times a year."

Pirzada said that the current system isn't designed to handle a constant strain and warned that it will lead to more burnout among health care providers, leading to calls for proper planning for an expected surge in the fall.

"The real test will be in the fall when people go back indoors, when we see another COVID season again, another flu season again," Pirzada said.

"I'm really afraid to see what will happen then."

Ontario Medical Association Ask Ontario’s Doctors: Fixing Wait Times Ontario’s doctors are proposing an innovative new model of care that would reduce wait times by shifting many non-emergency, less complex surgeries to outpatient centres. The Ontario Medical Association released a comprehensive report today recommending creation of publicly funded Integrated Ambulatory Centres. These free-standing centres would work with local hospitals to provide OHIP-insured medical services, including surgeries and procedures, on an outpatient basis. Panellists: Dr. Adam Kassam, a Toronto physiatrist and president of the OMA. Dr. Jim Wright, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon leading health system transformation at the OMA as chief of the Ontario Medical Association’s Economic, Policy and Research division. Dr. Mary-Anne Aarts, chief of the Department of Surgery and co-medical director of the Perioperative Program at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, part of the Unity Health Toronto hospital network. Her clinical practice is in minimally invasive general surgery and bariatric surgery.

Link to the full report: https://www.oma.org/uploadedfiles/oma...

DOING WHAT TURKEY WON'T
US military ground raid in Syria captures top ISIS leader

A U.S. defense official said there were no injuries to U.S. military personnel and no damage to aircraft involved in the raid.

"Coalition forces detained a senior Daesh leader during an operation in Syria June 16," Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement. "The detained individual was assessed to be an experienced bomb maker and facilitator who became one of the group's top leaders in Syria."

A U.S. official told ABC News the name of the ISIS leader captured in the raid is Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi and described him as actively planning ISIS operations.

“Though degraded, ISIS remains a threat. We remain dedicated to its defeat. Last night’s operation, which took a senior ISIS operator off the battlefield, demonstrates our commitment to the security of the Middle East and to the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, in a statement provided to ABC News.


© Universal Images Group via Getty Images, FILEUS military ground raid in Syria captures top ISIS leader

U.S. military ground raids into northwestern Syria are risky because they are carried out far west from U.S. bases in eastern Syria in areas that are controlled either by extremists or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

"The mission was meticulously planned to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to civilians," OIR said. "There were no civilians harmed during the operation nor any damage to Coalition aircraft or assets."

MORE: Kansas woman pleads guilty to leading ISIS battalion

U.S. military ground operations in northwestern Syria have targeted top ISIS leaders, most notably Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who killed himself during an October 2019 raid near the border with Turkey that was carried out by the elite Delta Force.

His successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, detonated himself with an explosion during a similar raid in February this year.

MORE: Biden details US raid in Syria that left ISIS leader dead

"Coalition forces will continue to work with our partners, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga, to hunt the remnants of Daesh wherever they hide to ensure Daesh's enduring defeat.," Operation Inherent Resolve added. Daesh is another name used to describe ISIS.

The terror group was militarily defeated in Syria in 2019 and since then, its leaders have gone into hiding to prevent being targeted by U.S. forces.

However, ISIS fighters maintain a low-level insurgency in Iraq and Syria, and the group continues to inspire followers in the West to commit violent attacks.

In January, ISIS mounted its largest operation since its military defeat, as hundreds of ISIS fighters attempted to free thousands of terrorist fighters detained at a prison in Hasakah in northeast Syria.

After 10 days of heavy fighting, U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, helped by U.S. airstrikes, were able to retake the prison, though it is believed that several hundred ISIS prisoners were able to flee.

Kurdish forces claimed that 374 ISIS fighters had been killed during the attempted prison break.

BREAKING NEWS
SpaceX fires at least five for letter criticizing Musk-sources

By Joey Roulette and Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) - At least five employees were fired by private rocket company SpaceX after drafting and circulating an open letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and calling on executives at the start-up to make the company’s work culture more inclusive, according to two people familiar with the matter.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation.

It had not detailed the number of employees who had been terminated.

SpaceX employees call Elon Musk a 'distraction' in open letter to executives

Employees at SpaceX sent an open letter to the company’s executives which was published Thursday, taking issue with CEO Elon Musk’s recent behavior which it refers to as a 'distraction.' 

June 16 (UPI) -- Employees at SpaceX sent an open letter to the company's executives, published Thursday, which takes issue with CEO Elon Musk's recent behavior, calling it a "distraction."

The letter was published in its entirety by The Verge and the New York Times, and criticizes Musk as well as the culture at the space exploration company.

"In light of recent allegations against our CEO and his public disparagement of the situation, we would like to deliver feedback on how these events affect our company's reputation, and through it, our mission," reads the letter, addressed to "Executives of SpaceX."

"Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX-every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values."

The letter also references Musk's sexual harassment accusations that became public in May.

Musk has denied claims he groped and exposed himself to a SpaceX employee six years ago. It was reported the company settled the accusation after paying the ex-flight attendant $250,000.

"SpaceX's current systems and culture do not live up to its stated values, as many employees continue to experience unequal enforcement of our oft-repeated 'No A-----' and 'Zero Tolerance' policies. This must change," the letter reads.

"SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand."

It goes on to add other "action items," urging the company to act on them.

Those items include holding "all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone," and making sure to "define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior."

Thursday's letter was published shortly before Musk took questions from Twitter employees as he continues his quest to buy the social media platform and take it private.

Musk was asked about his previous comments saying he would bring free speech back to Twitter.

"There's freedom of speech or freedom of reach," Musk told Twitter employees.

"And freedom of speech is one thing, because, like, anyone could just go into the middle of Times Square right now and say anything they want, they could just walk into the middle of Times Square and deny the Holocaust, okay? You can't stop them, they will just do that. But that doesn't mean you have to -- that it needs to be promoted to millions of people."

Satellite images reveal huge explosion and destruction at Chinese rocket test site

Joshua Hawkins - Yesterday -BGR

China Space launch system

New satellite images shared on social media show evidence of a massive explosion at a Chinese rocket launch site. The Chinese rocket explosion took place sometime between October and November at China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the images show.

Satellite images suggest a Chinese rocket explosion took place in October 2021

The images show what appears to be a rocket test site. The site itself is located a good distance from the actual launch pad. Around 16km away from it, to be exact. The site was most likely used as an assembly and test facility before the rockets were moved to the launch pad. So far there have been no reports from state media about the Chinese rocket explosion.

Space enthusiast Harry Stranger shared the images on Twitter in early June. Stranger noticed the aftermath of the explosion in commercial satellite images captured by Airbus and CNES. According to SpaceNews, the Chinese state media has yet to make any reports on the explosion.

The good news is that the Chinese rocket explosion doesn’t appear to have involved any kind of crewed launch. SpaceNews notes that the site where the explosion took place may have been used for testing solid rocket motors. Upon further investigation SpaceNews also reports that the explosion took place between 0316 UTC on October 15 and 0407 UTC on October 16, 2021.

Digging deeper


Chinese rocket explosion did not take place at the actual launch pad

Based on the fact that no reports have been made by state media, it’s likely the Chinese rocket explosion had nothing to do with any high-profile launches. CASIC, a state-owned defense contractor has been developing new solid rockets for orbital launches. Thus far, those launches have ended in failure. China may have used the site to test those rocket motors.

Ultimately, though, this doesn’t seem to have affected China’s ongoing space missions. Missions like the possible development of an asteroid monitoring and defense system. With so many dangerous entities floating through the cosmos, it’s a noble effort many countries are striving towards.

The Chinese rocket explosion is still an intriguing mystery. If it was related to China’s ongoing solid rocket efforts, then it could set those efforts behind even more than they already are. Or it could be completely unrelated. Unfortunately, until we know more about the site itself, discovering what exactly exploded in October of 2021 is going to be difficult.

What we do know is that China already began cleaning up the facility, as seen in other images shared by Harry Stranger on Twitter.