Six First Nations chiefs call for end to New Brunswick commission on systemic racism
Yesterday 

© Provided by The Canadian PressSix First Nations chiefs call for end to

 New Brunswick commission on systemic racism

FREDERICTON — The six chiefs of New Brunswick's Wolastoqey Nation are calling on Premier Blaine Higgs to scrap his commission on systemic racism.

In a statement issued Friday morning, the Mi'kmaq chiefs said the premier will be wasting time and money if he allows the commission to continue because it lacks independence.

"Provincial government departments and institutions were built to racially discriminate against the Indigenous people of this province," wrote Chief Ross Perley of the Tobique First Nation.

"There seems to be no will from the Higgs government to acknowledge it or fix it."

The call to scuttle the commission comes amid a dispute over a draft interim report, which was shelved in April when the Higgs government raised concerns that the commissioner had not met with many government departments to learn of work that was underway.

The Mi'kmaq chiefs decided to release the draft report on Monday.

Written by commissioner Manju Varma, the draft report recommends the creation of a Indigenous-led public inquiry into systemic racism in the province.

That's something the chiefs have been demanding for the past two years


In a statement released Monday, the chiefs said they would no longer work with the commission because the government was interfering with its work.

As for Varma, she issued a statement saying the report released by the chiefs was a preliminary draft. She said she is working on a final report that will be released this fall.

But controversy flared again on Tuesday when a senior policy advisor resigned, saying he was worried that the commission was losing its independence.

Robert Tay-Burroughs posted his resignation letter on social media on Tuesday, saying he has been troubled "by the false pretenses" under which the office was doing its work.

"The limits placed by external forces on what we can and cannot say ... has compromised our already fragile independence," he wrote.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn later said she had no idea what Tay-Burroughs was talking about. She said no one in the government told Varma to shelve her report.

On Friday, Chief Patricia Bernard of the Madawaska First Nation said the commission "has been corrupted by government interference."

"Worse than that, his minister is now offering to spend more money on employees after a key staffer quit. Higgs doesn't know when to stop digging."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.

Kevin Bissett, The Canadian Press

HEDGING THEIR BETS

AT&T, Walmart, Citi, and other megacorporations bankrolled a wave of state abortion bans

ngaudiano@insider.com 

(Nicole Gaudiano,Tanya Dua,Kimberly Leonard,Andrea Michelson,Sindhu Sundar,Rebecca Ungarino,Angela Wang)

 - Yesterday 

Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/Insider

Walmart, Exxon, and Citigroup each gave about $300,000 to politicians backing abortion bans.
AT&T is the biggest corporate backer, giving politicians behind abortion "trigger laws" more than $1 million.

Major corporations far outspent anti-abortion groups in bankrolling these politicians in 13 states.

This story is part of an investigative series from Insider examining the demise of abortion rights in so-called "trigger law" states. It was originally published on May 12, 43 days before the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right. Read all the stories from "The First 13" here.

The last time you filled up at Exxon, grabbed paper towels at Walmart, or paid your AT&T bill, your dollars may have been used to fund an expected wave of state abortion bans.

An Insider investigation found that contributions from dozens of well-known corporations or their affiliated PACs played a decisive role in bankrolling the lawmakers behind 13 state "trigger laws," written to take effect immediately if the landmark Roe v. Wade decision is overturned.

The state legislators and governors responsible for these laws, passed between 2005 and 2022, are overwhelmingly Republican, and they relied heavily on Republican parties and political action committees for campaign contributions. But they were also backed by companies that are part of your daily life, such as AT&T, Comcast Corp., CVS Caremark, Citigroup, Walmart, Anheuser-Busch, Exxon Mobil, and UPS, which each gave more than $190,000 to the effort — in some cases, far more.

Some of these familiar brands have been endorsed by celebrities who are women's-rights advocates, including the feminist icons Serena Williams and Rosario Dawson, who have each served as paid spokespeople for AT&T. AT&T gave more than $1 million to politicians behind the bills in all 13 trigger-law states.

The singer John Legend, who teamed up with Walgreens on a campaign for COVID-19-vaccine awareness, once suggested Hollywood should boycott Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and other states that pass restrictive abortion laws.

"I don't know if it definitely will work, but I know that money talks," Legend said in 2019. Walgreens gave more than $96,000 to backers of the bills in seven states.

Some of the companies are known as conservative political donors, such as the free-market-focused Koch Industries and its subsidiaries, whose owner bankrolled the effort to pack the courts with conservatives, the tax-services and technology firm Ryan LLC, and Clay Cooley GMC Investments, whose principals have spoken out against abortion rights. Other companies' contribution decisions may have had nothing to do with abortion. But their contributions still played a significant role in sustaining the legislative sponsors of abortion trigger laws and the governors who signed them into law.

"I confidently — in large part — assume the intent wasn't to enable an extremist social agenda across many issues," said Jen Stark, the senior director of corporate strategy at the Tara Health Foundation, which funds reproductive and maternal health. "But at the same time, women and other communities have now become the collateral damage of companies not minding who they were propping up."

Trigger laws have been enacted in Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. The laws impose statewide abortion bans, with narrow exemptions, if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, which has been expected since Politico published a leaked draft of the conservative majority's opinion on the matter.

Insider used FollowTheMoney.org data, based on state and federal election filings, to examine all political donations to 444 state lawmakers who sponsored or cosponsored the laws and the 13 governors who signed them. The analysis covered donations for the election cycle immediately before the passage of each law, as well as all subsequent cycles.

The analysis found that corporate contributions to these politicians eclipsed those from anti-abortion organizations.

The Texas Alliance for Life, Idaho Chooses Life, and other anti-abortion groups gave about $60,000 combined to those legislative sponsors and governors. More than 170 companies gave more than that.

The telecom giant AT&T donated nearly $1.2 million, the Insider analysis found — more than any other company. The Friedkin Group, a consortium of companies that includes one of the largest independent Toyota distributors, was next, with contributions totaling more than $1.05 million.

AT&T and Pfizer were the only two companies that backed politicians behind trigger laws in all 13 states.

Empowerment of women, an AT&T 'core value'

Many of the corporate contributions stand in sharp contrast to each company's public stance when it comes to gender equity and women's empowerment. Take AT&T, which celebrated Women's Equality Day last year "to reflect on the many challenges women in our society still face to achieve equity." In its 2020 diversity, equity, and inclusion report, CEO John Stankey called "gender equity and the empowerment of women" one of AT&T's "core values."

An AT&T spokeswoman said the company was focused on broadband and workforce-related policies and that the company's PACs had contributed more to politicians "who voted to enact laws protecting abortion access in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court" than to those who voted to restrict it.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has touted the financial-services firm's efforts to achieve gender equity in the male-dominated industry, saying she's "very optimistic" about that goal. Following passage of Texas' ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, the bank offered to cover travel costs for US employees who must travel out of state to receive an abortion. But Insider found that Citi had donated about $285,000 to state legislators who sponsored trigger laws in four states and to governors who signed them into law in five states.

AT&T, Citigroup, and other companies bear responsibility for the politicians they support, Michelle Kuppersmith, the executive director of Campaign for Accountability, said.

"When AT&T gives money to a politician who then signs a trigger law, maybe AT&T did not intend for that to happen, but that politician is only able to perpetuate their power because of AT&T and other corporations' support," she told Insider.

Other findings show contributions that appear to work against corporations' stated values or, in some cases, against their own business interests.

Amazon and Microsoft have staked out leadership roles in responding to the expected reversal of Roe v. Wade, pledging publicly to assist employees with travel expenses so they can access abortions if needed. Yet each company shows up in Insider's analysis. Amazon and Microsoft have donated $205,900 and $95,500, respectively, to lawmakers behind state bans.

Likewise, many top US law firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright, Adams and Reese, Locke Lord, Hunton Andrews Kurth, and Vinson & Elkins LLP, have developed women's career-advancement initiatives and diversity programs — yet they or their associated political action committees were each among the companies that donated more than $100,000 to politicians behind trigger laws.

Contributors in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, including hospitals, drug companies, pharmacies, and medical associations, contributed $14.6 million to politicians behind trigger laws that could lead to criminal penalties for abortion providers in most trigger-law states. Among those contributors are companies that have marketed birth control — Pfizer, which gave about $341,000, and Merck, which gave about $205,000 and spun off its contraceptive portfolio last year — that is often dispensed through clinics that offer abortions. Pfizer also markets Cytotec, a drug used in medication abortions.

Major corporate players in low-wage industries already struggling with recruitment and retention show up as influential donors in Insider's analysis. These companies may face significant new disruption and turnover as employees in trigger-law states grapple with unplanned pregnancies. Walmart, a major employer in trigger-law states, is also one of the largest contributors, donating nearly $315,000 to trigger-law backers. McDonald's and the fast-food corporation Yum Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, are dominant trigger-state employers that gave lesser amounts.
'By no means a blanket endorsement'

The findings raise questions about corporate responsibility as companies face increased scrutiny for their role in politics. After the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, major corporations halted contributions to the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. More recently, Disney CEO Bob Chapek criticized state legislation restricting instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools, and he announced the company would halt donations to state political campaigns there. The move provoked sharp backlash, with the Florida Legislature stripping Disney of its special tax status in April.

Half of US voters in a Morning Consult and Politico survey conducted after Politico broke the news of the Supreme Court's plans to strike down Roe said companies should speak out on abortion access. Only one-third of those surveyed disagreed.


Corporate America and law firms need to be "far more sophisticated," said Michele Goodwin, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.

"They have to do a more thorough job of unpacking what the candidates they support are actually up to," Goodwin added. "They can't just say they're writing checks for a candidate based on a single issue."

Publicists for the celebrities Williams, Dawson, and Legend did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Very few companies responded. Those that did said they contributed to members of both political parties.

"Past political contributions are by no means a blanket endorsement of an individual's position on every issue, nor are they an indication of where we'll direct our future support," Mike DeAngelis, the executive director of corporate communications for CVS Health, said.

Companies have long rationalized that giving to politicians in both political parties gives them more access, said Shelley Alpern, the director of corporate engagement at Rhia Ventures, an investor in reproductive-health companies. But the risks of corporate giving are increasing with the polarization of politics, she said, and the discernment and oversight these contributions require have not kept pace.

In an effort to tweak the tax code, for example, companies end up contributing to politicians promoting an agenda that often conflicts with the company's organizational values, making them look like they're hypocrites, indifferent, or simply not paying attention, she said.

"If you're going to spend the money on a really delicious pizza with all the meat toppings," she said, "you're getting all the cholesterol and heart attack that you paid for as well."

'Sophisticated donors know'

Since Politico published the leaked draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion, many politicians have released statements reaffirming their anti-abortion bona fides — including those responsible for state trigger laws.

"I have advocated for the reversal of Roe v. Wade all my political career," Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas who signed his state's trigger law in 2019, tweeted. "The leak from someone within the court is reprehensible and should lead to an investigation but I do hope the court returns authority to the states."

Where lawmakers stand on abortion isn't typically a secret. In many cases, it's a central part of their brand and shouldn't be a surprise to their donors.

In states with trigger laws, a Republican candidate or officeholder "who isn't 100% pro-life is the equivalent of a pro-life Democrat in the Northeast or West Coast," Nick Maddux, a vice president at Axiom Strategies who has consulted for GOP candidates across the country, said.

"They don't exist or are being actively primaried," he wrote in an email. "Candidates and officeholders in those states are not hiding how pro-life they are. Sophisticated donors know exactly who they are supporting and what they stand for."

Alpern, who works with investors to advocate for stronger corporate reproductive- and maternal-healthcare policies, agreed that it would be "disingenuous" for donors to feign ignorance on this issue.

"Do they know that they're giving to the most extreme sponsors of these bills?" she asked. "It certainly is easy information to find."

Corrections: An earlier version of this story relied on an inaccurate list of trigger-law sponsors in Tennessee. The contribution totals have been updated to reflect the correct list of legislators. This article also included Merck in a list of pharmaceutical companies that market birth-control drugs. Merck spun off its contraceptive portfolio into a new company last year.

NYC Library board reverses removal of Pride displays for children following outrage

Yesterday 

A New York library system has reversed its decision to remove all Pride displays and Pride-related books from display in children's sections. The initial move generated controversy amid a nationwide wave of legislative efforts to remove LGBTQ books and content from schools and libraries.

The Smithtown Library on Long Island had said it would remove the displays and books after the library board voted 4-2 to approve the motion. The board hosted an emergency meeting late Thursday following backlash, and decided to reverse the decision and issue an apology.

"The majority of the board recognizes that our earlier decision was made without the time, care and due diligence that a decision of this type deserves and that it was the wrong decision," the board said in a statement. "Moving forward, we will commit our collective energies toward ensuring that we get the advice and guidance needed from our library administrators, staff, outside experts, legal counsel and, most importantly, from Smithtown residents before we make important decisions regarding our library."


© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILEChildren books that are fighting for survival at public schools because of their LGBTQ content are displayed at the annual Pride Town Hall at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., May 21, 2022.

The move came as the nation grapples with ongoing legislative efforts to remove LGBTQ books from libraries and schools or ban LGBTQ content in some classrooms.

Republicans have introduced more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills and at least 9 states have passed one into law.

The initial decision from the board would have kept Pride month displays in teen and adult areas of the library. Books on the LGBTQ communities would still have been "part of the library's children's collection and can be checked out by anyone wishing to do so."

The board's decision was quickly condemned by the likes of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York Library Association.

"For many LGBTQ+ youth, libraries are the only safe, affirmative, and welcoming space during these formative years of their personal development," the NYLA said in a statement. "Libraries, for our LGBTQ+ youth, are the first place where they see themselves for exactly who they are without retribution."

The statement added, "The removal of Pride displays and all related materials on display further perpetuates the cycle of shame and silence of our LGBTQ+ youth."

Hochul used the news to reaffirm her support of LGBTQ residents in the state.

"To LGBTQ+ New Yorkers: We stand with you, we support you, & you are welcome here," Hochul said in a post on Twitter.

Smithtown Library representatives did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

ATHEIST HAS CIVIL MARRIAGE
Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ Gets Married To Liza Mundy

Shakiel Mahjouri - Thursday

The newlyweds wrote their own vows for the ceremony. Robert Picardo, who portrayed the Doctor on "Star Trek", served as the officiant for the wedding. Nye, 66, embedded blue stones belonging to his father in his cufflinks. Mundy, 61, wore a jewelled belt with her sleeveless gown.

Mundy and Nye first connected over email. Nye reached out to Mundy after she mentioned his cryptanalyst mother Jacqueline Jenkins-Nye in her book Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II.

ANGRY MISOGYNIST WHITE POWER GUY

Former Canadian Nationalist Party leader guilty of assaulting 2 women in Regina

Dayne Patterson - Yesterday

© Nationalist.ca

Travis Patron, the former leader of the defunct Canadian Nationalist Party, has been convicted of two counts of assault causing bodily harm.

The former leader of the defunct Canadian Nationalist Party has been found guilty of assaulting two women in Regina in November 2019.

A 12-person jury found Travis Patron guilty of two counts of assault causing bodily harm at the Regina's Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday after four days of trial.

Patron was originally charged with aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and breach of probation after police said they were called to Victoria Avenue in the early morning hours on Nov. 2.

In an interview with CBC News on Friday, Crown prosecutor Ryan Snyder described the nearly week-long trial.

The case

Snyder said the women, Allison Tokarz and Amanda Ruschiensky, were enjoying a night out when they met Patron at a Regina bar.

When the night ended, they were outside of a condo building when Patron asked them whether they would like a ride home. When they declined "he ended up getting upset and he struck … Ruschiensky outside and then he struck her again inside," Snyder said.

When Tokarz followed Ruschiensky inside, she was knocked down and fractured her wrist. Ruschiensky was later diagnosed with a concussion and missed almost three months of work.

"[Ruschiensky] suffered for quite some time with her vision and headaches and the like, struggling with bright light," Snyder said. "It had a significant emotional impact on her as well."

Snyder says Patron tried to plead no contest early in the trial believing that he hadn't injured the women.

Patron didn't call any witnesses or provide evidence in his defence, Snyder said, and made the "ludicrous" claim to the jury that he wasn't given an opportunity to cross-examine the complainants, only cross-examining the third witness, a Regina Police Service constable.

When Patron was asked by Justice Beverly Klatt whether he wanted to cross-examine the complainants, he declined to answer, Snyder said.

Patron also claimed the charges were malicious prosecution, which Snyder called "unfounded."

Both of those claims, Snyder said, were subject to a jury correction.

It took the jury about 90 minutes to come to a decision — longer than Synder thought it would take.

Patron is set to be sentenced on July 20.

He had also been charged with wilful promotion of hate after an allegedly anti-Semetic video was posted on YouTube. That case remains in the courts.

The Canadian Nationalist Party, which Patron founded and led into the 2019 federal election, folded at the end of March 2022.

Urban farm in the middle of Calgary industrial area celebrates milestone

Helen Pike -CBC

Instead of a red ribbon cutting, Highfield Farm celebrated the opening of its greenhouse by cutting a garland crafted from greenery and weeds.

Thanks to a $227,000 grant from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF), this farm can extend its growing season and begin its bigger mission: building community.

The project is a partnership between the farmers, the City of Calgary and the Compost Council of Canada.

"For us, the ability to grow year-round, extend our outdoor season, and have a safe indoor space for us to gather as a community and for education is absolutely invaluable," said farm operations manager Heather Ramshaw.


© Helen Pike/CBC

Highfield Farm operations manager Heather Ramshaw said opening the greenhouse is an important step in their mission.

Highfield Farm took over more than 15 acres of land in one of Calgary's industrial areas back in 2019. The land is nestled between 11 Street S.E. and the Deerfoot right-of-way. Years ago, Ramshaw said it was used as a farmer's market, but sat vacant.

"The weeds took over," she said, laughing.

The first task was regenerating the land — ensuring the soil could be productive and healthy after years of invasive overgrowth and illegal dumping. Then, last year Ramshaw said they got productive, planting seeds, growing and harvesting 2,000 pounds of food.

"It's really quite a remarkable thing knowing that a Calgary Food Bank will receive produce from this marvellous building that other organizations will as well," said Compost Council of Canada Executive Director Susan Antler.

Half of the greenhouse will serve as a community space, and the remainder will be turned into a year-round growing site. The team at Highfield is dreaming up different ways to grow.

"We'll have some permanent beds along the edges, some movable beds," Ramshaw said. "We'd like to see some aquaponics in here, maybe some hydroponics, maybe some aeroponics."

Once the beds are built Ramshaw hopes to raise the farm's growth potential to 6,000 pounds this season and to grow more than 10,000 pounds of produce next season.

When Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra was first elected in 2010, he and other council members worked on the Calgary Eats! Action Plan, approving the document in 2012.

The food action plan aimed to make healthy food accessible to all. Much of the plan played out by reducing red tape, and in this case connecting underutilized land to the people who could make it thrive.

Carra said these are the types of projects he envisioned at that time.

But much of the ideas planted a decade later are still slow to grow, he said.

"Nothing moves fast enough, right?" Carra said.

"I wish we could snap our fingers and some of the empty office towers downtown were vertical farms … It'll happen, I just wish it happened faster. But, you know, right now it's exciting to see these green shoots emerging."

'I will always honour her': Husband files lawsuit in Ontario animal activist's death



Every Monday, Mark Powell drives to the Burlington, Ont., pork plant where his wife died to give water to pigs on their way to slaughter.

It's what Regan Russelldid every week, until one day in June 2020 when a transport truck driver drove over her and killed her.

Police charged the driver with careless driving causing death – a non-criminal provincial offence – because investigators said he did not have criminal intent.

Two years later, with the case languishing in court and no trial date yet set, Powell says he has lost faith in the probe and is turning to civil court to try to get answers about his wife's death.

"I want to know what happened to my person," Powell said.

Last week, he filed a $5-million lawsuit over her death. The truck driver, Andrew Blake, the trucking company, Brussels Transport, and Sofina Foods, the company that owns Fearmans Pork processing plant, are among those named in the suit.

The unproven claim alleges negligence on their parts led to the death of Russell.

The claim alleges the driver failed to keep a proper lookout and made an unsafe and improper turn. It also alleges Brussels Transport failed to take steps to ensure the driver was competent and that Sofina failed to provide safety for pedestrians around Fearmans.

"Given that this matter is currently before the courts, we are not able to make a comment at this time other than to say that the allegations contained in the statement of claim against Sofina are unproven and Sofina will vigorously defend this matter," Sofina said in an email.

Neither the truck driver's lawyer, nor Brussels Transport, responded to requests for comment.

Russell, a 65-year-old activist, was demonstrating outside the slaughterhouse westof Toronto, on June 19, 2020, as she had done every week for years. She and some friends, as part of the activist groupToronto Pig Save, protested controversial provincial legislation that had just passed that hiked fines for trespassing on farms and food-processing facilities.

The bill also made it illegal to obstruct trucks carrying farm animals. The bill appeared, in part, to target Toronto Pig Save, whose advocates for years had filmed and given water to pigs inside transport trucks as they neared slaughter. They call it "bearing witness."

Since his wife's death, Powell has lived with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

He wasn't there at the time, but Russell's friends have described how she died under a wheel of the truck. He's seen video of the aftermath.

"I see it every night when my head hits the pillow," he said.

His friends wonder how he copes.

"I've had some practice," he said, his voice trailing off.

In 2014, Powell lost his 29-year-old son, Zachary. He can still see the paramedics pounding on his boy's chest as he was wheeled on a gurney into an ambulance. Zachary's heart had given out.

Powell is using the strength of his family to move forward after the losses.

He credits his other son, Joshua, for holding him up when he was down, and helping him pick up the decades-long animal rights fight his wife undertook.

Last week on Father's Day, he and Joshua donated a bench at an animal sanctuary north of Toronto to honour Russell. It reminds Powell of a bench in Zachary's name in a Hamilton park.

He and Joshua have also launched the Regan Russell Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to keeping her voice alive by funding and supporting the battle against the bill she had been fighting.

The foundation is trying to intervene in a constitutional challenge to the laws by Animal Justice.

"It gives us a vehicle to fight bad legislation," he said.

"I have hope and strength, hope that something like that foundation puts a voice for animals on the floor of government and strength knowing that Regan's voice is being heard."

Every week, activists gather to protest outside Fearmans Pork. But now they stand on the median where the trucks stop at the lights – away from the spot where Russell died – to give water to the pigs.

"I will always honour her and I will stand for what she stood for until I die," Powell said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2022.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

Indigenous farewell for expert killed in Amazon

AFP - Yesterday

© BRENDA ALCANTARA

Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips went missing on June 5 in a remote part of the Amazon rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking

Bruno Pereira, the Brazilian Indigenous expert murdered in the Amazon with British journalist Dom Phillips, was given a moving sendoff Friday by members of one of the tribes he had spent his life and work defending.


© BRENDA ALCANTARA 

Pereira was married and had three children

Dressed in straw and feather loincloths and headgear, members of the Xukuru Indigenous group chanted funeral hymns and mourned at a solemn ceremony near Recife, where Pereira was born, in the northeastern Pernambuco state.


© BRENDA ALCANTARA

Pereira's body was to be cremated after the Indigenous ceremony

A photograph of 41-year-old Pereira was perched on his coffin, also draped with the flag of his favorite football team, Sport Recife.

"It is a great loss not only for us but for all of Brazil, for those who fight to defend Mother Nature, which is to defend life," chief Marcos Xukuru told AFP.

Pereira and veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, went missing on June 5 in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

- 'Destroyers of the forest' -

Philips was the author of dozens of articles on the Amazon and a long-time contributor to The Guardian newspaper and other major news organizations.

He was traveling to the Javari Valley as part of research for a book with Pereira as his guide, when they were ambushed.

Police say the men were shot, Indigenous groups claim in retaliation for exposing illegal fishers in the region.

Pereira, an expert at Brazil's indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from criminals with their eye on isolated Indigenous resources.

The men's bodies were handed over to their families on Thursday.

"Today, the land where he was born welcomes him. His body finds the clay, the roots of plants, the water and the heat of the soil," the Observatory for Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples, with whom Pereira had worked, said in a statement.

Pereira was killed, it added "by the destroyers of the forest."

"This crime is the tip of the iceberg of the critical situation in Brazil today, caused by the way the state treats indigenous issues," Vania Fialho, a 56-year-old anthropologist who attended the wake, told AFP.

Pereira was married and had three children.

His body was to be cremated after Friday's ceremony, while Phillips' family will hold a wake and cremation on Sunday in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro.

Four people have been arrested for the crime to date.

str-lg/jb/mr/mlr/bgs

Witchcraft Documentary ‘Heart, Don’t Be Afraid’ Conjured Up – C&E Europe News
Alexander Gabelia - Yesterday 

© Courtesy of Avtandil Khorava

Georgian director Ana Kvichidze is in production with her first feature documentary, the Georgian/French coproduction “Heart, Don’t Be Afraid.” The film is supported by the Georgian National Film Center and France’s CNC, Film New Europe reports.

Vardo lives alone and unlike the witches from the fairytales, she is a kind character. She was a popular “magician” years ago, but now her livelihood is mainly pension money and food brought by neighbors. With the help of her spells, the film examines the lives of everyone in the village and witnesses their plight, from young women who have reproductive problems to families who are losing the last of their livelihood.

“I fell in love with witchcraft because of my grandmother, who was a spellcaster in our village. People came for spells and healing to her. I inherited spells and recipes from her,” Ana Kvichidze told FNE. “I want to relate the style of the film to magical realism. The magic of Vardo is not visible, but it can be felt through the visuals and colors. I would also like to illustrate the various rituals performed by her, which are both absurd and mystical.”

The location of the film covers the Lechkhumi region. Filming began in November 2021. “About half of the film has already been shot and the production process is planned to be completed in October/November 2022. We have distributor candidates, but we have not made the final decision in this regard and we are open to all offers and interest (distributor, sales agent or coproducer),” Kvichidze said.

The film is produced by Mariam Bitsadze and Ana Kvichidze through 17/07 Productions in Georgia and coproduced by Stéphane Jourdain through La Huit in France.

“Heart, Don’t Be Afraid” is the winner of the Georgian National Film Center’s 2020 Project

 Development Competition and the 2021 Documentary Film Funding Competition (20,000 Euros/60,000 GEL). It is also supported by the French CNC with 40,000 Euros.

The total budget is 100,000 Euros/300,000 GEL.

“This is a special project for me. The idea and storytelling are unique and I consider the involvement of the director as a main asset; she knows exactly what to shoot and how to achieve her goals as a documentary filmmaker. This is a wonderful story, which actually describes the hard social life of the village and its inhabitants. Our main goal is to bring this story to the audience, who will come up with their own conclusions,” Bitsadze told FNE.

Kvichidze studied feature film directing at the Shota Rustaveli theater and film department of the Georgia State University. She has worked on films and TV shows as a script supervisor, casting director and assistant director. Her first short fiction film “Downpour” was inspired by Georgian folk tales and mythology. She has also directed two short documentaries, “Magic Recipes of Deniza” and “Madona and Upside-down Moon,” which is inspired by charmers and legends from the mountains of Georgia.

Macedonian TV Series ‘Clear Water’ in Production

Director Jani Bojadzi is filming the drama thriller TV series “Clear Water” (Bistra voda) at several locations in Skopje, North Macedonia. The shoot started June 2 and runs to July 31. The 12 episode series is produced by Macedonian Cinnamon Media Factory in coproduction with Macedonian Alfa TV.

“Clear Water” unravels the secret intrigues of business, crime and high politics, presented through the prism of two families and a 45-year-old conflict.

The project was started 12 years ago as an idea of the late Ljupcho Todorovski Upa, Moni Damevski, Jani Bojadzi and Vladimir Karpuzovski, and it has been developed and prepared in the last few years. Dejan Milosevski is the executive producer.

The main characters are played by Dejan Lilic, Jelena Zugic, Vasil Zafircev, Aleksandar Mikic, Robert Veljanovski and Zoran Ljutkov, and the cast consists of more than 100 actors.

The series will be filmed on more than 50 locations in Skopje, but also throughout the country.

“Clear Water” will start airing in mid-September 2022 on Alfa TV.

Multi-national TV Series ‘Estonia’ Shoots in Belgium

The TV drama series “Estonia,” a coproduction between Finland, Estonia, Belgium and Sweden, is shooting in Belgium.

“Estonia” tells the story of the tragic events of Sept. 28, 1994, when the MS Estonia ferry sank in the Baltic Sea, taking 852 lives. The series is budgeted at 13 million Euros and is set to be broadcast as eight 45-minute episodes or four 90-minute episodes.

The showrunner is Miikko Oikonen from Finland, and Swedish Måns Månsson and Finnish Juuso Syrjä are directing.

The series is produced by Fisher King Oy from Finland in coproduction with Estonia’s Amrion, Belgium’s Panache Productions and Kärnfilm from Sweden. The producers are Tarja Ahava (Finland), Lina Ehrenpreis (Sweden) and Elina Litvinova (Estonia). Matti Halonen (Finland), Johannes Lassila (Finland), Martina Stöhr (Sweden), Petra Jönsson (Sweden), Riina Sildos (Estonia) and André Logie (Belgium) are executive producers.

MTV/CMore and the Scandinavian, Finnish and Belgian national film funds are supporting the project.

Estonia is prominently represented in the creative aspects of the series, with Andris Feldmanis and Livia Ulman involved as screenwriters, Jaanus Vahtra as costume designer, Kaire Hendrikson as make-up designer, Matis Mäesalu and Eva Maria Gramakovski as set designers, as well as several actors like Gert Raudsep, Priit Pius and Juhan Ulfsak in key roles.

The shoot started in Belgium on May 30, 2022. The production is planned to continue until Oct. 30, 2022 with locations in Belgium, Turkey, Estonia, Finland and Sweden. The Estonian parts will be filmed from Aug. 10 to Sept. 9.

Germany’s Beta Film is handling the sales.

This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.

Trans Mountain Expansion a Money Loser for Taxpayers

Independent parliamentary budget officer warns soaring costs means Trudeau’s 2018 purchase of the pipeline has gone wrong.

David Climenhaga 

23 Jun 2022

Alberta Politics

‘Trans Mountain no longer continues to be a profitable undertaking,’ the parliamentary budget officer reported Wednesday.

 Photo via Trans Mountain.

The soaring cost of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has pushed the uncompleted megaproject Ottawa bought to satisfy Alberta further into the red, says a report released Wednesday by the parliamentary budget officer.

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This quickly earned the project the uncomplimentary sobriquet “boondoggle” from Environmental Defence’s national climate program manager Julia Levin.

The Trudeau government decided in 2018 to buy the 70-year-old pipeline that runs 1,150 kilometres from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C., from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. It also took on the cost of tripling the pipeline’s capacity, which the company had first proposed in 2013.

It’s the only pipeline carrying Alberta’s petroleum products to the Pacific Coast, and Ottawa was clearly responding at the time both to pressure from the NDP provincial government of then-premier Rachel Notley and threats by Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. to pull the plug on the project in the face of environmental and political opposition in British Columbia.

The charming belief prevalent then and now in Alberta was that, never mind the law of supply and demand, the expanded line would miraculously increase the price fetched by oilsands bitumen by getting it to new markets in Asia via pipeline and ocean tanker, an idea that inflamed the debate in B.C.

At the time of the federal decision to take over the project, the cost of the purchase was said to be $4.5 billion.

The short analysis report published Wednesday by the Office of Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said the estimated cost of the massive construction budget for the project has surged from $12.6 billion when the office last looked at the project in 2020 to $21.4 billion now.

When Ottawa made the decision in 2018 to buy, expand, run and eventually sell off the pipeline to the private sector, the expansion project’s cost was estimated to be about $7.5 billion.

As a result of the soaring costs, the parliamentary budget office report by analysts Jason Stanton and Kaitlyn Vanderwees said, “Trans Mountain no longer continues to be a profitable undertaking” and will result in a net loss for the federal government.

A chart in the report shows the current value of the pipeline system is now estimated at negative $600 million.

What’s more, the report said, if Ottawa were to pull the plug on the TMX project at the end of this month and suspend it indefinitely, the Canadian government would have to write off more than $14 billion in assets.

“The net impact would result in a significant financial loss for the Government and would lead to the Trans Mountain Corp. no longer being a going concern,” the report said. The company is a subsidiary of Crown-owned Canada Development Investment Corp. that has operated the pipeline since Kinder Morgan was paid off and got the hell outta Dodge.

Well, no surprise there, really. The business plan on which the expansion project and subsequent federal purchase was based always seemed more than a little iffy, especially since it depended in large part on the notion that expanding the supply of diluted Alberta oilsands bitumen to Asia would cause the price fetched by the stuff to increase.

That’s not actually how the law of supply and demand, normally thought to be pretty ironclad, is supposed to work. Indeed, one would have thought that, as earth scientist David Hughes has been predicting since 2016, increasing supply might just do the opposite.

More than a little ironically, world oil prices are now way up — for the moment, at least — not because the Government of Canada has been building pipelines, but because Canada and other western nations have been trying to force Russia to shut pipelines down in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

This is another indication that the law of supply and demand still operates just as explained in economics textbooks.

Long-term contractual agreements with shippers that mean most of the growing costs of the expansion can’t be passed on to oil companies also impact the viability of the project.


All this said, the report does not present information that non-expert readers would need to reach their own conclusion about what Ottawa should do next.

“PBO requested updated projected future cash flows for the Trans Mountain Pipeline system from the Canada Development Investment Corp., the Crown corporation holding the Trans Mountain assets,” the report explains.

The Crown corporation, it said, “provided all requested information to PBO, but the information was classified as commercially confidential. The data’s confidentiality did not inhibit PBO’s work to model the data, assess the value of the Trans Mountain assets, or publish the analytical results in this report.”

In other words, we’ll just have to trust the PBO — a situation that provides the grounds for a lot of mischief by supporters of pipelines, no matter what.

As a result, the report requires a certain amount of reading between the lines to try to figure out which course of action — pumping or dumping — makes more sense in the long run.

Notwithstanding the PBO’s stated mission of helping Parliament “by providing economic and financial analysis for the purposes of raising the quality of parliamentary debate and promoting greater budget transparency and accountability,” nowhere in Wednesday’s report does it say explicitly that a write-off would be a more prudent course of action than continuing to operate what may well turn out to be a white elephant.

Without the data not available to the public, it’s hard to argue with Levin’s conclusion that “the Trans Mountain pipeline has become a financially dangerous boondoggle.”

“The government has often justified the pipeline by promising that its eventual profits will fund clean energy projects; this is flimsy logic given the disastrous climate and environmental impacts of the project,” she said in a news release. “The PBO update shows this argument doesn’t hold water: there will be no profits, only financial losses for Canadians and more carbon emissions for the planet.”


Why the TMX Will Endlessly Spill Taxpayers’ Money

READ MORE

“As the costs of the project keep ballooning, the government should cut its losses and cancel construction of the expansion pipeline,” she concluded, “before even more of our dollars are wasted; public dollars that could be instead invested in developing sustainable energy systems.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have noticed by now that the only thing likely to earn him more abuse from Albertans than not giving them what they want is giving them what they want. But there’s still not much chance of his government killing the project.

Both the federal and Alberta governments signalled their determination Wednesday to keep working on the expansion project.

“The Trans Mountain Expansion project is in the national interest and will make Canada and the Canadian economy more sovereign and more resilient,” Adrienne Vaupshas, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s press secretary, told the Canadian Press.

“This project is necessary for Alberta and Canada’s energy sectors,” Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage advised CBC News.

 

David J. Climenhaga is an award-winning journalist, author, post-secondary teacher, poet and trade union communicator. He blogs at AlbertaPolitics.ca. Follow him on Twitter at @djclimenhaga.

Canada's business case for Trans Mountain assumes 100 years of operation. The PBO is not so sure

Canada's National Observer
Yesterday 

Secret reports the federal government is relying on to argue the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is commercially viable are based on the unrealistic assumption the pipeline will operate for 100 years, Canada’s financial watchdog told Canada’s National Observer.

For months, Finance Canada has refused to share any information about the financial reports produced by TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, which Finance Canada says prove TMX is still commercially viable despite ballooning construction costs.

“We believe that's probably too long of a time horizon, to assume that the pipeline will be operating for at least another century ... let alone to take into consideration revenues that will be generated over such a long period of time,” Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told Canada’s National Observer.

“Also, because of the various commitments to net-zero or to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, we didn't think that using a 100-year time horizon was appropriate.”

Giroux said his office did not view the TD and BMO reports directly, but did talk to Finance Canada officials about the findings and methodology to inform its independent analysis.

Finance Canada did not return requests for comment by deadline.

In its most recent report, the PBO used a much shorter 40-year time frame to analyze the profitability of the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project. Giroux’s report confirms what was already clear: TMX is no longer a profitable investment.

The main difference between the PBO’s report and the TD and BMO ones is the time frame, which explains why the government believes Trans Mountain is profitable, said Giroux. “We don't have the same view.”

For the first time, the PBO also modelled a scenario where the project is cancelled immediately and found the government would have to write off an estimated $14.4 billion worth of assets. A cancellation would bankrupt the Trans Mountain Corporation, the report says. The federal government has shown no signs it intends to cancel the project.

Considering how much has already been spent on construction, it's probably better at this point to complete the project so it can start generating revenue, said Giroux.

The PBO just looks at the net present value of the project, or the value of its potential investment opportunity — other economic costs or benefits were not included in the analysis.

From Ottawa’s vantage point, it doesn’t matter if TMX is a money loser because it will incentivize investment, create jobs and increase income tax and royalty revenues, said Rory Johnston, a market economist at investment firm Price Street. Because it supports those aims, it makes sense as government policy when it wouldn't necessarily as a commercial, private decision, said Johnston.

For example, when the pipeline is in operation, there's an expectation Canadian oil from western provinces, notably Alberta, will be able to sell at a higher price than it currently does, which would generate benefits for the Canadian economy, said Giroux.


The PBO’s new analysis was prompted by questions from MPs like NDP environment critic Laurel Collins, who requested an updated cost analysis of the pipeline and expansion project after costs soared in February. The price tag currently sits at $21.4 billion — up 174 per cent from an estimated $7.8 billion when the government first bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan in 2018.

To keep the planet from reaching dangerous levels of warming, the world must rapidly move away from fossil fuels, which would render a lot of the industry’s infrastructure worthless. A study recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change found Canadians stand to lose $100 billion based on oilfields and production equipment alone — not including pipelines or refineries.

Canada’s Energy Regulator has yet to model a net-zero by 2050 scenario despite the fact that limiting global warming to 1.5 C requires the entire world to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions in 2050. In December, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson asked the regulator to include Canada’s net-zero by 2050 goal in its 2022 report.

The PBO’s calculations don’t account for the risk of TMX becoming a stranded asset during the global energy transition.

“That's a potential impact that would negatively weigh on the price of the pipeline and its long-term profitability,” said Giroux, adding it’s part of why his office doesn’t think TD and BMO’s century-long lifetime assumption is realistic.

There are many problems with using a 100-year time frame, said Omar Mawji, energy finance analyst for Canada for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“Either the people doing the analysis don't quite understand the dynamics of a pipeline and a supply source. Or, you know, they're doing it because … they're trying to look for a way to make it profitable,” Mawji told Canada’s National Observer.

He said a pipeline’s lifetime is typically 40 years, and the life of most oilsands projects is 40 to 50 years. If TD and BMO’s 100-year lifetime analysis is any indicator, there would have to be new oilsands projects approved in the near future and then again in 2050 or 2060, said Mawji.

The federal government says Canada’s current climate plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. If the government wants to hit that target, Mawji said it's “very hard to assume” it will approve more oilsands projects.

“On one hand, they're saying, ‘Our objective is to reduce CO2 emissions in the oil and gas sector by this much,’” he said. “But on the other hand, ‘We want to build a pipeline that, for it to be economic, would require additional oilsands production.’”

Ongoing investments in fossil fuel infrastructure are undermining the massive reduction in emissions needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 C (preferably 1.5 C), according to the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel also found emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure could single-handedly exhaust the world’s remaining carbon budget, meaning there is no place for new infrastructure in a climate-safe future.

Roughly halfway through its life, the project will also need “major reconstruction” to stay in use, and at that point, if there’s not enough oil passing through the pipeline, an operator could decide it's not worth reinvesting in, said Mawji.

Last month, the federal government greenlit a $10-billion guarantee on a loan for the Trans Mountain Corporation that was quietly financed by Canada’s six biggest banks, including BMO and TD. The loan guarantee assures investors that if the Crown corporation can’t repay the loan, the public will pick up the tab. This is a win-win for the banks because even if the project isn’t completed, they are guaranteed their money back, said Mawji. As underwriters of the debt, TD and BMO are “going to give the government a report that shows that it's worth it,” he said.

While a case can be made for the economic benefits of building TMX, Mawji said it's also important to consider what the benefits would have been if those billions had instead been spent to incentivize investment in renewable energy.

“It's a frustrating thing for the taxpayer … especially if you voted based on climate change,” said Mawji.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer