Skateboarding group brings together young girls in Ethiopia

Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

01:43

Ethiopian Girl Skaters is a female-only skateboarding group that brings together young girls from different backgrounds, building a community that challenges the stereotype that girls shouldn't be involved in extreme sports like skateboarding. The project, founded by female skater, Sosina Challa, invites many young girls to spend their leisure time learning a new sport that helps them with their physical and mental health.

School trains new generation in Mexican cowboy traditions


AFP
Issued on: 07/09/2022 - 

Victor Teran, 17, practices with a lasso at a "charreria" school in Mexico

 ULISES RUIZ AFP

Tlajomulco de Zúñiga (Mexico) (AFP) – Wearing a wide-brimmed hat, silver-buttoned shirt and embroidered tie, teenager Victor Teran skillfully twirls a lasso at a Mexican school training younger generations in traditional cowboy skills.

Three years ago Teran's father gave him the choice of learning soccer or "charreria" -- cattle-ranching techniques that are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

"I told him, 'let's go and do charreria right now!'" the 17-year-old said.

With the help of teachers at the school in Tlajomulco de Zuniga in the western state of Jalisco, Teran learned to ride a horse and to spin and throw a lasso so that it loops around the front legs of a horse.

The school, which opened in 2016, the same year that the tradition was inscribed by UNESCO, offers free classes to budding young "charros."

Novices and foreigners are welcome.

"Charreria has grown a lot at the national level," said school founder Victor Hugo de la Torre, who has 24 years as an instructor under his cowboy belt.

"Most of the students at the school don't come from a charro family, but they like it and join in," he added.

Today there are 100 regular students, of both sexes.

Beginner, intermediate and advanced groups of up to 15 students take part in three hours of training twice a week to hone their skills.

The first challenge is to learn to twirl a lasso and throw it around the neck of a docile bull.

When they have mastered that they progress to mounting a horse unaided using stirrups.

Then comes learning to ride the horse and eventually to lasso moving animals.

The girls also learn "escaramuzas" -- Spanish for "skirmishes" -- which involve performing tricky formations on galloping horses while riding sidesaddle.

"I started when I was four years old when my parents got me riding," said Alma de la Torre, 20, wearing traditional dress inspired by the garments of women who fought in the Mexican revolution.

Becoming a charro requires "a lot of dedication," but the financial rewards can be worth it, said school founder De la Torre.

Average salaries range from $1,500-4,000 a month, while those at the very top can take home around $7,500, he said -- a wage beyond the dreams of most Mexicans.

While the ideal age to start learning is six years old, many students begin as teenagers, said school head Rocio Rodriguez.

"Anyone can learn, of any nationality, so long as they want to," she said.

© 2022 AFP

Mexico’s cowboys struggle to maintain traditional …

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/mexicos-cowboys...

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How Mexican Vaqueros Inspired the American Cowboy

https://www.history.com/news/mexican-vaquero-american-cowboy

2021-09-24

Learn All About the Charrería: An Amazing Mexican Tradition

https://mansionmauresque.com/learn-all-about-charreria-an-amazing...

2021-03-19 · Origin of charrería. Charrería is a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation in Mexico and has its origins in the state of Hidalgo. Back then, it …

The History of the Vaquero - American Cowboy

https://americancowboy.com/lifestyle/history-vaquero

2022-06-10 · By the early 1700s, cattle ranching had spread north into what is now Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico

French Court Upholds Assad Uncle's Conviction Over Ill-gotten Assets

By Anne LEC'HVIEN
09/07/22 

Rifaat al-Assad (L) fled Syria after a failed coup against 

his older brother Hafez, the president

France's top administrative court on Wednesday confirmed the conviction of Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in an "ill-gotten gains" case over wealth estimated at 90 million euros ($89 million).

Rifaat al-Assad, 85, is the younger brother of Bashar's father and former Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad, and himself held the office of vice president but fled the country in 1984 after a failed coup.

He had made a final appeal to France's Court of Cassation after a lower court last year confirmed his four-year jail sentence for conspiracy to launder Syrian public funds between 1996 and 2016.

In the same judgement, he was convicted of concealing serious tax fraud and employing servants off the books, with authorities confiscating a slew of his properties.

Rifaat, who has not attended hearings due to ill health, insists his property empire stretching across Spain, France and Britain stems from gifts from Saudi crown prince and later king Abdullah, who died in 2015.

The case is the second in France under a law passed last year targeting fortunes fraudulently amassed by foreign leaders.

Teodorin Obiang, the eldest son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, last year had his conviction to a three-year suspended sentence and 30 million euros in fines confirmed at appeal.

In Syria, Rifaat al-Assad was the head of the elite Defence Brigades, internal security forces that violently quashed a 1982 Islamist uprising in the city of Hama.

Having stayed away for three decades following his failed attempt to seize power, pro-government media reported that he returned to Syria last autumn.

In 1984, he fled first to Switzerland then France, where he received the Legion of Honour -- the country's top award -- in 1986 for "services rendered".

French investigators opened a probe into his property holdings in 2014 after complaints from watchdogs Transparency International and Sherpa.

They seized two Paris townhouses, dozens of apartments in chic neighbourhoods of the French capital and office spaces.

Since then, around 80 of his former employees living at an estate outside Paris have been mostly without water and electricity as no one was paying the bills.

While Rifaat's age and poor health mean he is unlikely ever to serve jail time in France, Wednesday's ruling confirms the confiscation of the properties for good.

That could set up Syria as one of the first countries to potentially benefit from a scheme to return funds recovered under the ill-gotten gains law.

"The confiscation... is the first necessary condition to be able to plan for restitution of the ill-gotten gains," Transparency International France chief Patrick Lefas said in a statement welcoming the court ruling.

But he added that it would be vital to get the resources to ordinary Syrians rather than simply returning them to the Assad regime -- which Transparency says could be achieved using another French law passed last year.

"Restoring ill-gotten gains requires guarantees, without which it would be naive to hope to give them back to the populations of their countries of origin," Lefas said.

Rifaat al-Assad also faces a court case in Spain over far larger suspicions of ill-gotten gains covering 500 properties, as well as a prosecution in Switzerland for war crimes dating back to the 1980s.

SEXIST, CHAUVINIST MASCULINITY

‘I figured it was about time somebody told her no’: Woman says manager bragged about denying her a raise because she’s ‘one of those girls that never gets told no’

Cecilia Lenzen - Yesterday -  The Daily Dot.

Asking your boss for a raise can be hard, especially when they tell you "no" and then brag about telling you no in a work meeting. One TikToker says this is exactly what happened to her.


woman eating in kitchen© Provided by Daily Dot

The TikToker, Malorie Harris (@malorieharris), shared a video explaining what happened about three years ago in her corporate job. As of Tuesday, the video went semi-viral with about 30,000 views on TikTok.

In the video, Harris says her coworkers at the time who had been at the company about as long as her were starting to get raises. So one of her managers told her she needed to ask the company's regional manager for a raise, assuring her the request would be approved. Harris says she took the regional manager out for lunch, which was common at the company, and she asked for the raise.

"He said no right to my face," Harris says in the video. "He said 'what makes you think you deserve that?'"

Being rejected to her face wasn't the worst part of the experience, the TikToker says. When the two returned to the office after lunch, Harris explains they went to an all-staff company meeting. During the meeting, the regional manager announced that Harris had asked him for a raise and that he told her no, Harris says.

"Another manager out loud said 'why?' and [the regional manager] said, 'because she's one of those girls that never gets told no, so I figured it was about time somebody told her no,'" Harris says, recounting the meeting. "Corporate America is still broken."

Multiple viewers commented on the TikTok, saying Harris' manager acted illegally.

"That’s quite a few witnesses to some likely illegal behavior," one viewer commented.

"Babe that’s illegal," a second viewer commented.

Others commented, asking whether Harris found a new job after the incident.

"Please tell me you found a different job soon after that," one user said.

Another user wrote, "So tell me you found a new job with out telling me you got a new job."

"Hope u Quit or got him fired," another user commented.

Harris clarified in an update video that before she could decide what to do about the situation, the company laid off all the employees shortly after amidst the first wave of COVID-19.

Some users had ideas for why Harris' manager felt the need to shut a woman down.

"I have a feeling he's one of those guys that always gets told no!" one viewer wrote.

"Oh that man has major issues!" a second viewer wrote.

Another viewer commented, "he has probably been rejected by beautiful popular women all his life and this was his opportunity for revenge."

The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.

TOXIC MASCULINITY
Andrew Tate's been banned from social media. But his harmful content still reaches young men

Brock Wilson - CBC

Last month, controversial influencer Andrew Tate was banned on several social media platforms for violating their policies.


Despite being banned from TikTok for nearly two weeks, a quick search produces countless videos, 

like this one, of Andrew Tate.© @benleavitt/TikTok

But nearly two weeks into these bans, platforms are still inundated with clips of Tate making derogatory comments about women — highlighting what some media experts suggest is part of a dangerous system whose algorithm can be manipulated to radicalize young men to adopt harmful views against women and the LGBTQ community.

And as Tate's case shows, banning controversial figures can actually make the problem worse.

Tate, a former kick-boxer, gained notoriety after appearing on the U.K. reality show Big Brother in 2016. He was removed from the show when a video of him appearing to assault a woman with a belt was made public. Tate has said the incident was consensual.

Recently, he went viral for soundbites shared on platforms like TikTok. These clips feature Tate, often clad in sunglasses sans shirt, making offensive comments about women. One notable example includes clips of Tate saying that if a woman is dating a man she "belongs" to him. In another clip, Tate suggested women in relationships who have their own social media accounts are cheating.

In a video posted to Vimeo on Aug. 23, Tate responded to the bans saying he's been "unfairly vilified" and his comments were taken out of context.

Tate did not respond to a request from CBC News for comment.

Content like Tate's often starts in a way that seems relatively harmless, but then it slowly becomes more nefarious, says Joanna Schroeder, a writer whose work focuses on gender and media representation.

For example, she says, young boys often visit sites like YouTube to search for videos related to Minecraft, a wildly popular video game. But the YouTube algorithm will often guess their age and gender — and Schroeder says it might then push harmful content at them.

"There are people who want to target this demographic who start showing them content that becomes more and more racy."

Schroeder says Tate's appeal is, in part, because of how his views are framed. The idea that what he's saying is an "unpopular opinion that nobody else will say out loud" might suggest to a young person that it has value, she says.

And since "edgy" content often presents itself as something a younger demographic should consider normal — or even find funny — it slowly becomes problematic.

An example of that is the Pepe the Frog meme, something that started as a harmless cartoon frog and devolved into a symbol of hate.

It began as an apolitical meme popular on sites like Myspace and 4chan in the 2000s. But as its popularity grew, it was appropriated by the alt-right movement.

Schroeder says Pepe began to represent "anti-gay" and "anti-women" sentiments. And she says teens might initially perceive the memes as jokes, but over time it can influence how and what young people think.

And clips like Tate's are a common way people are radicalized, says Ellen Chloë Bateman, a documentary and podcast producer who's researched online radicalization among young men and incel subculture.

Violence against women gets normalized, she says, embedding itself into the psyches of young men through images and memes, in what she calls a "culture of intense competition and one-upmanship."

Schroeder says this can often be seen on TikTok. Videos featuring clips of creators like Tate will often also share a screen showing video from games like Minecraft or Call of Duty to try to keep teens engaged.

At this point, she says, some social media algorithms notice the user's high levels of engagement — and then begin to serve them more "overtly racist" content.

"Algorithms push content that is often extreme. Extreme views, hate-filled views get a lot of traction on places like YouTube … and TikTok," Schroeder says.

The parts of the internet where these memes, and oftentimes more outright racist or misogynistic content, circulate is a place Bateman calls the "manosphere."

She describes it as a space where "men's rights activists, male separatists, nihilists, sexual predators and trolls — who often share membership with neo-Nazi and alt-right groups — congregate."

"What unites them all is an extreme anti-feminist world view," Bateman says.

And alt-right groups often use this space to target young and impressionable men, she says.

Social media companies say they're actively working to remove this kind of content — as studies have found that hate speech online has correlated with an increase in physical violence and hate crimes.

In Tate's case, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram removed his content.

A TikTok spokesperson said "misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok," and it continues to investigate other accounts and videos that violate its policies.

The spokesperson also said that TikTok is looking at ways to "strengthen enforcement" against this type of harmful content.

That includes a partnership with UN Women and other non-governmental organization seeking to stop Violence Against Women and Girls to launch a new in-app hub to educate users about gender-based violence.

Bateman says partnerships like these are essential in order for social media spaces to become safer and more educational, especially for young people.

Twitter has also taken action against controversial creators. The platform has issued temporary bans to creators like Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh and Steven Crowder. (Each creator was later allowed back on the app.)

But Schroeder says bans can sometimes be counterintuitive. In Tate's case, it may have, in some ways, actually helped him.

"The bans are just drawing more attention to him," she said. "It's given him a very big microphone."

Bateman agrees, pointing out that these creators often find new apps, like Reddit, Gab, Telegram and Discord, to post their content.

She says some of these platforms are actually harder to monitor because of their closed-group structures or registration requirements, making it more difficult to study and track the content. A site for incel subculture, which promotes misogyny and violence, has upwards of 17,000 users, she found.

"It's such a complicated online world. It's fluid … it's moving. It's spreading around and these groups are interconnecting basically into one big cesspool of hate."

Western University gets court approval to rename scholarships honouring 'racist' professor

Colin Butler - CBC

An Ontario court has granted Western University permission to remove the name of an emeritus history professor from six academic prizes funded by his estate following criticism that he espoused radical, racist views.

Kenneth Hilborn taught history and international relations at the London, Ont., university from 1961 to 1997. After his death in 2013 at age 79, Hilborn's estate bequeathed $1 million to Western, including $750,000 to the history department for four undergraduate and two graduate awards that have been handed out since 2016.

In 2019, scholars began calling on the school to intervene, linking the scholarships with the legitimization of extreme right-wing beliefs by universities.

"He openly opposed the equality of human beings," said Will Langford, who teaches history at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Langford wrote a 2020 essay in which he called Hilborn "a racist" and criticized Western for not acknowledging Hilborn's views in awarding the scholarships.

A battle of essays

Langford, who learned of Western's plans to remove Hilborn's name from the scholarships during a phone call from CBC News, called the development "a good news story."


Students are shown participating in orientation events Tuesday at Western, a school Hilborn taught at from 1961 to 1997.© Colin Butler/CBC News

"I think the department is taking the opportunity that is before them to engage with this history, the history of their own department, their own university, and I hope they're teaching about the scholarships in their courses.

"I would hope too for some kind of acknowledgment, maybe on the department's website, so anyone in the public who wants to learn more can readily find it."

Francine McKenzie, an assistant professor at Western who also teaches history and international relations, responded to Langford's 2020 essay with one of her own that same year entitled "Western's history department and the Hilborn student awards."

"The Hilborn awards do good, now and forever," she wrote. "While the Hilborn awards are on a much more modest scale than Rhodes scholarships, the comparison is useful: The Rhodes Trust does not endorse Cecil Rhodes' views; the history department doesn't endorse Ken Hilborn's views."

In the essay, she noted Western's history department "discussed the implications of having student awards created through his bequest and decided that the awards should stay."

Three years later, Western University quietly made a 180-degree turn, applying to an Ontario court this year to remove Hilborn's name from the awards.

Hilborn's work 'did harm,' says group

"As the matter remains before the court, it would not be appropriate to comment at this time," Jordan Diacur, the Hamilton lawyer who represents Western in the legal case, wrote to CBC News in an email Friday.

Newly discovered court filings from the university, in its application to the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee to remove Hilborn's name from the scholarships, do offer some insight into what might have prompted Western to change its mind.


Students returned Tuesday to Western for the 2022-23 academic year.© Colin Butler/CBC News

According to the documents, Western's history department created a research group to consider "whether the criticism levelled at Hilborn had merit."

The research group believed Hilborn's academic work "did harm" and caused "epistemic violence by suppressing, dismissing and trivializing people who were oppressed, vulnerable or discriminated against."

The court documents also state Hilborn's work "bolstered white supremacist arguments, attached importance to the safety of white people, never Black people, and affirmed the goodness and superiority of white people explicitly."

The history department research group recommended removing Hilborn's name from the scholarships, court documents indicate, because if the school didn't, Western would "be seen as tacitly condoning and endorsing his views," something the researchers noted "runs counter to Western University's goals and values."

Hilborn seemed to have died without living relatives. The court filings in the case make no mention of his family with the exception of his mother and father, who were already dead in 2013. Hilborn's obituary, which still exists on Western University's website, mentions no children or friends, and the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee is routinely called upon to make legal decisions for estates when there is no else to do so.

The court filings do not indicate how Western would rename the scholarships or when it may happen.

NOT THE FIRST TIME WESTERN HAS HAD CONTROVERSIAL RIGHT WING PROF'S

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Rushton Is A Fascist 

Lethal rabbit disease 'strongly suspected' to be killing feral bunnies in Calgary communities

Stephanie Babych - Yesterday - Calgary Herald

As many feral bunnies are found dead in several Calgary neighbourhoods, concern is growing that a deadly disease known to wipe out rabbit populations is spreading in the city.


Pictured is a bunny HARE  in Lindsay Park outside the MNP Community

 and Sport Centre on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.© Provided by Calgary Herald

Amanda Greening, the co-founder of Against All Odds Rabbit Rescue, said in the last several days, they’ve received reports from people who have spotted quite a few dead bunnies in Manchester Industrial and Seton — which both have large populations of feral rabbits.

“Someone actually witnessed one die right in front of them,” said Greening. “It appeared to vomit blood, urinate and then die, which are common symptoms of rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD).”

The disease is extremely contagious and lethal for rabbits, spreading among bunnies through physical contact or through contact with an infected rabbit’s blood or excretions. The disease causes organ damage and internal bleeding.

Dr. Kelsey Chapman, with the Calgary Avian and Exotic Pet Clinic, said reports show that RHD has a 70 to 100 per cent fatality rate among bunnies.

“These are bunnies that have been let out then bred themselves in the city,” she Chapman. “The feral rabbit population is the most at risk because they’re all living together in tight quarters. And it could be transmitted on people’s shoes to indoor rabbits.”

Chapman explained that RHD is relatively new to Canada and has now been recorded in Edmonton and Lethbridge. Last year, a population of rabbits living in an Edmonton cemetery was wiped out by the disease . Alberta’s first case of RHD was detected in Taber in March 2021.

Related
Rabbit rescuers call on city to take humane action against growing Calgary colonies

Edmonton's syphilitic cemetery bunnies killed off by different rare rabbit disease

In May, there was the first official confirmation of RHD in an indoor, pet rabbit in Calgary, but the test results for several feral rabbits found dead in the city are still being processed so their cause of death remains unconfirmed.

Against All Odds Rabbit Rescue has been taking in and rescuing rabbits since 2012, while working to educate people about proper rabbit care. The group estimates the feral rabbit population could be as high as 500 between Manchester Industrial, Erlton and the Talisman Centre area, while Seton likely has about 200 to 300.

“If this is RHD, I would not be surprised if it wipes out 90 per cent or more of those populations,” said Greening.

She said businesses in these areas have told the group they’ve gone from seeing many rabbits throughout the day to none.

“If it is just the ferals, they are an invasive species — although, they are a food source for the coyote and bobcats. However, if this is a strain that affects native hares and cotton tails, the effects would be more severe,” Greening explained.



Pictured are bunnies HARES in Lindsay Park outside the MNP 

Community and Sport Centre on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.

Dr. Margo Pybus, the wildlife disease specialist with Alberta Environment and Parks, said they’re concerned about RHD spreading to the city’s wild rabbit population. Feral rabbits aren’t considered to be wildlife in the province so it’s not something Fish and Wildlife deals with directly.

“But we do track this virus because, although it hasn’t been reported yet in wild rabbits like snowshoe hares or jackrabbits in Alberta, we are watching to see whether it will or will not spill over from feral or pet rabbits to them,” said Pybus. “We’re hoping to avoid it getting out into wild populations.”

Pybus said it’s important for cases to be documented and to inform rabbit owners about the risks to their domestic bunnies. She said that it still isn’t confirmed the rabbits had RHD but it is strongly suspected.

“Outbreaks usually happen quickly and then disappear because most of the rabbits are killed. It doesn’t stick around or persist in the soil or anything, so that’s likely what is helping to protect the wildlife, like the snowshoe hares. The virus is so hot that it burns out quickly,” said Pybus.

The City of Calgary doesn’t currently have a policy on how to deal with feral rabbits and did not comment further about the situation when contacted by Postmedia on Tuesday.

sbabych@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BabychStephanie

BUNNIES ARE DOMESTICATED RABBITS, WILD RABBITS ARE KNOWN AS HARES

WILD HARES ARE NOT FERAL (WHICH IMPLIES DOMESTICATED BUNNIES RAN AWAY OR RELEASED FROM HUMAN CARE)

‘Unnecessary’: Lethbridge teacher speaks out against new registry

Eloise Therien - Yesterday - Global News

On Sept. 1, the Alberta government launched a new online teacher and teacher leader registry that includes around 162,000 educators.


Laurie McIntosh is a Lethbridge teacher.© Eloise Therien / Global News

According to the province, the purpose of the registry is to list every certificated teacher, along with all their legal names, the type of certificate they hold and the dates those were issued dating back to 1954.

The province said the registry includes details about whether the teacher or school administrator is deceased, has been disciplined or has had their licence suspended.

However, some teachers are speaking out about just how much of their personal information is being included.

Read more:

Alberta to start online registry of teachers, school administrators this September

Laurie McIntosh, a kindergarten teacher in Lethbridge, said seeing her information online Friday came as a shock.

"(I expected to see) my current legal name and saying that I had a certification," she told Global News.

"It included my first name, middle name, maiden name, a previous married name from a traumatic relationship about 20 years ago -- a name I never taught with as a teacher -- and my current legal name."

McIntosh said the documentation she was provided in June regarding the launch of the registry didn't make it clear previous names would be included.

Those documents also state "the granting of an exemption by the Registrar will be rare and determined on a case-by-case basis."

She said the issue has raised alarm bells for her safety and the safety of others in similar situations.

"I think so many people didn't apply for exemptions (beforehand) because they didn't expect for deadnames, previous married names, maiden names to be listed," McIntosh said, adding that applying for an exemption would rehash previous traumatic experiences for some.

"I think this is an unnecessary program."

McIntosh said after a thread she posted to Twitter gained some traction, all her previous names were mysteriously removed from the site. As of Tuesday morning, she said she had not yet heard back from the province on whether or not to apply for an official exemption.

Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association, said there appeared to be a lack of information provided to the association and teachers in general prior to the launch.

"There's a big difference between saying, 'We're going to have a registry,' and telling somebody about it (versus) actually having an in-depth conversation about what it looks like, what will it include and what will it be when it rolls out," Schilling explained.

Video: Students, staff excited for new school year in Lethbridge

"The ministry made this decision to put this registry in place and they're the ones that are going to have to fix the issues.

"It's my hope that they do it sooner than later because this is one thing teachers don't need on their plate right now."

The Ministry of Education declined a Global News request for an interview and instead provided a lengthy statement.

"Information provided was clear that the registry would include all legal names as reflected in the information that was sent to all teachers when they received notification about the online registry in June 2022," said press secretary to Minister LaGrange Katherine Stavropoulos.

"Previous names are not searchable in the registry because we understand these names are no longer used and that teachers may want to leave them in the past," the statement continued.

"At the same time, to help preserve some level of relevance and usability for people whose teachers have changed their name, a search of current legal names will also show a person’s previous legal names. This way, users whose teachers have changed their name still have some way of confirming their teacher’s professional status."

'Chronically ignored': Alberta police reform legislation ready to go fall session

Jonny Wakefield - Monday

Edmonton Journal


Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro answers questions at a news conference, in Calgary on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. Criminal defence lawyers escalated job action Thursday in an ongoing dispute with the provincial government over the amount of compensation paid by Legal Aid Alberta.© Provided by Edmonton Journal


Legislation to update Alberta’s Police Act will be ready for debate this fall if the UCP’s new leadership makes it a priority, says the province’s justice minister.

“It’s been needed for many years and chronically ignored,” Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said in a recent interview. “We have done our review … it’s at least available for the legislative agenda for the future government to consider. We’re ready for it to hit the floor of the legislature this fall, and I hope that the next government allows it to be debated and voted on.”

Alberta’s Police Act has not seen a full-scale update since 1988 , when it was passed to govern the operation of municipal police services. Community and policing leaders have repeatedly called for changes to the Police Act, saying it no longer meets the needs of modern policing.

United Conservative Party members will elect a new leader and Alberta’s next premier Oct. 6. The next legislative session is scheduled from Oct. 31 to Dec. 1. Shandro — who is also promoting the controversial idea of an Alberta provincial police service — said there are no guarantees the new premier will ask him to remain in the justice role

The NDP government under Rachel Notley began consultations on Police Act reforms in 2018 but did not implement any changes prior to the 2019 election. In June 2020, amid outcry over the police U.S. murder of George Floyd, then-UCP Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer he would “ accelerate ” reforms to the legislation. Schweitzer’s replacement — Edmonton MLA Kaycee Madu — said in September 2020 he would “make sure that work is expedited and completed,” but did not produce any legislation before being shuffled out of the ministry in February following a phone call to Edmonton’s police chief over a distracted driving ticket.

Shandro said the new legislation will address concerns about the police disciplinary process. With the exception of cases in which police officers kill or seriously injure someone, or face accusations of criminal wrongdoing, police discipline in municipal departments is handled by each service’s chief through a professional standards branch. Under the current legislation, chiefs lay misconduct charges and select the judge to preside over the accused officer’s hearing, which some say creates the potential for bias.

Some, including the Edmonton Police Association, have called for an independent third-party agency, like the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), to handle Police Act charges. Shandro said consultations on the new act raised questions about whether “we need a … professional standards section, in every service to do the code of conduct reviews?”

He also said code of conduct reviews for RCMP officers should fall under provincial legislation, though “we would obviously need the federal government to agree to that.”

Other potential changes relate to HR and performance issues. “There’s a bit of a vacuum right now with HR and performance issues and how they’re not addressed in the Police Act.”

Shandro added there is talk of expanding ASIRT’s mandate but did not go into details.

“This is, at least from from our perspective as current government, in the pipeline for it to hit the floor this fall,” he said.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

ALBERTA FIREWALL

Kenney says won't stay quiet as possible successor pitches separation plan

COMES BACK TO BITE YA

Tue, September 6, 2022 


EDMONTON — Premier Jason Kenney says his party was founded on a strong Alberta within Confederation and he won’t sit idly by while one of the candidates vying to replace him pitches a "risky, dangerous, half-baked" and "banana republic" plan for more provincial independence.

Kenney was commenting Tuesday on a promise by Danielle Smith to immediately introduce what she calls an Alberta sovereignty act this fall, promising her government would ignore federal laws and court rulings it deems against Alberta's best interest.

“The so-called sovereignty act would effectively take us to the brink of separation from the Canadian federation, would shred the rule of law and would do devastating damage to jobs, the economy and the prospect of pipelines,” Kenney said at a news conference in Calgary.

Kenney said while he shares the frustration of some Albertans with federal policies under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “I have always been unapologetically a Canadian patriot."

“I’m not about to become spineless on my patriotism or my support for the rule of law because somebody in a leadership campaign disagrees.”

The Alberta sovereignty act is the signature platform promise of Smith, the former Wildrose party leader.

Smith announced the plan in June, grabbing headlines and large crowds at party events. She has since been the focus of attacks from most of the other six candidates, leading to the perception she is the front-runner to replace Kenney as United Conservative Party leader and premier when the votes are counted Oct. 6.

Ballots began being mailed out last week.

Smith has said the bill is needed to declare a shock to a “lawless” federal government passing policies she claims are profoundly undercutting Alberta’s energy development.

Alberta announced last week it expects to take in a record $28.4 billion in non-renewable resource revenue this budget year.

Smith, in a statement earlier Tuesday, reiterated that her government would only use the sovereignty act sparingly, subject to a free vote in the house, in situations where it believes its constitutional rights have been violated.

She said if the federal government doesn’t like it, it can take Alberta to court.

The plan, she said, is not about leaving Confederation, but in fact saving it.

“The restoration and reassertion of provincial rights across our country will protect all provinces from the destructive outreach of Ottawa, and is likely the only viable way for Canada to remain a unified nation," she wrote.

Government house leader Jason Nixon and Kenney have questioned whether the act would even pass in the house. Lieut.-Gov. Salma Lakhani said last week she is duty-bound to refuse to sign into law any bill offside with the Constitution.

Smith has accused Kenney of breaking his promise to be impartial in the leadership race, but Kenney said he is simply defending his government’s policies.

Two law professors say Smith’s plan would be a fundamental betrayal of the rule of law — and an unnecessary one.

Martin Olszynski, with the University of Calgary, said provinces have the power now to challenge the federal government through the courts, and can seek immediate remedies and injunctions if necessary while the cases move through the legal system.

“We don’t decide the constitutionality of laws by vote — popular or otherwise. That’s not how it works in a functioning democracy,” said Olszynski, with the University of Calgary.

“That’s fundamentally what Smith rejects. She rejects the idea that an independent court would make these decisions.

"She wants to make these decisions.”

Eric Adams, with the University of Alberta, said if the province wants to start ignoring the Constitution, then the issue becomes one of separation or sovereignty-association, and should be addressed as such.

“Those are issues that should be put honestly, squarely, and directly to the Alberta public,” said Adams.

“The idea that an individual who wins a leadership race takes control of a party and then places a particular province on the road to a kind of quasi-independence is just so completely unprecedented in Canadian constitutional history.

“In my view, (it’s) deeply undemocratic.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

Danielle Smith releases overview of proposed Alberta sovereignty act

Anna Junker  Edmonton Journal

UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith’s promised Alberta sovereignty act has “dubious constitutionality,” law experts say.


UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith speaks at a campaign rally in Chestermere on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022.

On Tuesday, Smith released an overview of the proposed act, which she says would be used to defend the province from “Ottawa’s continuous economic and constitutional attacks.”

“The majority of Albertans are frustrated with the ineffective letter writing campaigns and empty rhetoric employed by past premiers in dealing with attacks on Alberta by our federal government, and want effective action to deal with the ‘Ottawa Problem’ without further delay,” Smith said in a news release.

“Tens of thousands of Albertans have embraced the idea of the Alberta Sovereignty Act, and many more are open to learning more about how it could be practically and effectively deployed.”

According to the overview, the act would affirm the authority of the legislature to refuse provincial enforcement of specific federal laws or policies “that violate the jurisdictional rights of Alberta” under the Constitution of Canada or Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The act’s objective is not to separate from Canada but to assert Alberta’s constitutional rights “to the furthest extent possible by effectively governing itself as a nation within a nation.”

Related
Alberta's Lt.-Gov. says she's willing to toss Smith's sovereignty act if unconstitutional

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University of Alberta professor and constitutional law expert Eric Adams has concerns with the proposed legislation.

“I think the concept in and of itself, is of dubious constitutionality,” said Adams.

“It’s all well and fine for Ms. Smith to declare that it is constitutional, but any time you have one level of government claiming that it has the power to refuse the lawful enactments of another level of government or to be the institution in charge of determining what’s constitutional or not, then you raise a number of constitutional problems that the details probably can’t save.”

If the federal government institutes a law or policy that appears to violate Alberta’s jurisdiction rights, according to Smith’s overview, the Alberta government may introduce a “special motion” for a free vote of all MLAs.

The special motion would identify the law or policy believed to be in violation of the Constitution or Charter, include an explanation of the harms it would inflict on Albertans, and detail specific actions the province and its agencies will take to refuse or otherwise oppose enforcement in Alberta.

The special motion would also declare that by the authority of the act, the law or policy in question will not be enforced within Alberta, as outlined in the motion. Finally, she said, a review and debate of whether or not to amend, end, or continue the actions outlined in the special motion would be scheduled within two years, or within 90 days of a court order staying the special motion or declaring it unconstitutional itself, whichever is sooner.

While invoking the act will “likely be done relatively sparingly,” the overview outlines a number of areas where the act could be used. This includes federal mandatory vaccination policies, the use of the Emergencies Act to jail and freeze accounts of peaceful protestors, and mandatory emissions and production cuts to Alberta energy companies.

Smith ‘wildly incorrect’ says law professor

Adams said Smith is claiming the party has the power of a court of law to determine what is or is not contrary to the Charter.

“It points to, I think, the danger of a politician claiming that she has the authority and the monopoly on determining which laws she says are constitutional or not,” Adams said. “We have a process to do that in our system of government, and it’s the courts.”

University of Calgary law professor Martin Olszynski said Smith is “wildly incorrect” about the Constitution, the Charter and the division of powers between them. He said provinces can already use the courts to challenge laws believed to be unconstitutional and seek a temporary stay on the law in question.

“There’s absolutely no merit to what Ms. Smith is saying or suggesting, it is not the case that the federal government can act unlawfully and wait for years to have its comeuppance,” he said. “It just means that you have to use the tools that are available to you.”

He notes it is also concerning that if the act is passed and found unconstitutional, Alberta could use the same act to ignore the court’s decision.

“We would be a failed democracy at that point. We would be a lawless state,” Olszynksi said. “Governments and legislators can’t just ignore the courts. You’re no longer dealing with a democracy and the rule of law at that point.”

Political scientist Lisa Young said the proposed act is appealing to many of the worst fears of Smith’s supporters.

“What Danielle Smith has done here is to take us another step further on this path to fantasy federalism, where she now claims that there are threats out there and that the Alberta legislature can somehow neutralize these threats,” she said. “Both of those things are not true.”

During an unrelated press conference Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney commented on the sovereignty act as first proposed by Free Alberta Strategy , saying it is “catastrophically stupid” and would lead to Alberta becoming a “banana republic.”

Kenney, who recently returned from a trip to South Korea to promote investment in Alberta, said such legislation would be “kryptonite” for investors. He would vote against the bill if it comes forward in the legislature.

“They’re interested in political stability, not political chaos,” he said. “They’re interested in a jurisdiction that respects the rule of law and the authority of the courts.”

ajunker@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/JunkerAnna