Alberta mural project illustrates Métis experience in residential schools

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The community-led project is now installed at the 

Canadian Museum of Human Rights

Clare Bonnyman · CBC News · Posted: Sep 03, 2022 7:00 AM MT | Last Updated: September 3

Métis Memories of Residential Schools is an interactive mural project that features the story of Métis children in the residential school system. The final artwork was painted by Albertan artist Lewis Lavoie. (Submitted by Billie-Jo Grant)

An Alberta-made mural has found a new home at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR).

Métis Memories of Residential Schools is an interactive mural project that tells the distinct experiences of Métis youth in the residential school system. 

"Our project was an attempt to help people understand that the colonial experience is inclusive of the Métis," project creator Yvonne Poitras-Pratt told CBC's Radio Active.

"We have a unique story here."

Co-creators Pratt and Billie-Jo Grant often refer to it as "heart work".

The full mosaic shows the Métis sash in red and blue, and the larger image is made up of 24 smaller pictures illustrating the history of residential schools. 

Radio Active9:19Métis Memories, an Alberta mural project

A new piece of art depicting the Métis experience in residential schools is on display at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

What's on display at the museum is a physical mural, but as educators, both Grant and Pratt wanted this to become a tool that goes beyond the walls of a museum. The entire piece is available online, including free downloadable resources. 

"It demonstrates our collective strength," said Grant.

"As you click on each of the art cards, you'll be taken to another page where you get teaching resources, reflective questions and some foundational knowledge that it's really important for Canadians to have an understanding of."

The exhibit will be on display at the CMHR until Jan. 13 of next year, but the original copy lives at Métis Crossing, which is about 120 km north east of Edmonton. 

A version was also presented to the Pope as part of the Rome delegation in early 2022.

Billie-Jo Grant, left, and Yvonne Poitras-Pratt built a team to bring the artwork to life. 

Both see this as 'heart work.' (Submitted by Billie-Jo Grant and Yvonne Poitras-Pratt)

Pratt, an associate professor at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, said educating others on the Métis experience at residential schools is important.

"To a wider national audience, the Métis story is something that we often don't hear about. It tends to be either misunderstood, ignored or sort of erased from the regular curriculum," she said.

Grant, an Indigenous consultant with Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools, said the project brought her closer to her own family's experiences, while creating tools for use in classrooms across the province. 

"My mother was in a day school, my grandfather was in a residential school and it really is a missing piece of my history that I found," she said. 

"I want to support teachers and people not to shy away from it."

• Mural to honour residential school survivors while declaring 'We are still here'

A more inclusive story of residential schools

The mural is based on a 2004 book by author Jude D. Daniels, which transcribed interviews with Métis residential school survivors. 

Stories recall how the children were treated as an afterthought, or a different class. 

In her research, Grant even read that Métis children were treated as "half-civilized," so they received less education and spent more time working for the school. 

"I just felt that there was a lot of work to be done, and a lot of understanding," Grant said.

"These stories need to be heard so that people can heal."

The mural was based off a book by Jude D. Daniels, and includes the story of Métis Elder Angie Crerar. The creators held a gathering in Grande Prairie, where Crerar lives to celebrate its creation. (Submitted by Billie-Jo Grant)

To create the mosaic, Grant and Pratt built a team that included Daniels and Métis Elder Angie Crerar, a residential school survivor whose story was included in the book. 

The artwork was even designed by Pratt's daughter, Samantha, before Albertan artist Lewis Lavoie painted the final mural. 

"It was community-led," said Grant. "It's not our story to tell. It's a collective experience and it's really important to honour those stories and those people."

"The arts provide this really powerful vehicle," said Pratt.

"It's a way of welcoming people into our stories in a very inviting way. Once we have their interest, then it's time to educate."

• T-shirt designed by Mi'kmaw artist to be worn across Canada

Opinion: Reconciliation in Edmonton should begin on the Rossdale Flats

Phillip Coutu 
Publishing date: Sep 03, 2022

Artist Ken Lum created The Buffalo and the Buffalo Fur Trader Bronze sculpture intended to be installed beside the new Walterdale Bridge in Edmonton. The city has decided not to install the art work. The Buffalo and the Buffalo Fur Trader features two 13-foot bronze sculptures intended to highlight the history and impact of the fur trade in Edmonton. The City's decision rests on the potential for the artwork to be misinterpreted as a celebration of colonization.
PHOTO BY SUPPLIED /City of Edmonton

THE CURRENT MEMORIAL ON THE SACRED GROUNDS


From 2000 to 2005, a small group of descendants of Fort Edmonton played an integral role in the preservation of the Fort Edmonton burial grounds.

It was a good start on a long road to reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples, but we were discarded in favour of a Wicihitowin process which was primarily led by Mr. Lewis Cardinal. Despite a lot of unfinished business, nothing has happened since that time. Consultations with a privileged few while avoiding the most knowledgeable, simply has not worked. As a Metis who has lived and worked with Indigenous people my whole life, I wish to say that reconciliation needs to be seen to be done and the Rossdale Flats is an ideal location to reimagine our relationship with First Peoples.

It begins with allowing Cree, Metis and others in the plains culture to talk to each other in a consultation process that honours its oratory nature. I am very saddened by the recent art installation debacle which featured a buffalo fur trader and a buffalo but excluded any acknowledgement that the Metis existed here for 100 years. Worse, it confuses our history. We are the children of the fur trade who hunted buffalo and viewed them as a gift from the creator. This art did not reflect our history. It reflected American history where buffalo herds were slaughtered for their pelts and their carcasses left to rot on the plains.

I believe the bronze buffalo belongs at the entrance of the burial grounds so all who drive down River Valley Road would be reminded of the power of our buffalo culture. The Metis often say we are like the buffalo, who stand to face the cold north winds. I believe other descendants would support this idea as this buffalo, like us, has been discarded from the flats.

A beautiful act of real reconciliation would be to create another bronze statue of a real fur trader being greeted by perhaps his Indigenous wife, holding their child and standing next to her father. The north end of the bridge is a very special place for us Metis. It is the historic landing where after months of travel with the brigade, voyageurs were reunited with their loved ones. This was the rendezvous — a celebration of culture.

A second step to reconciliation is to define the sacred grounds — our burial grounds. If not, the gondola debacle shows us that if it is all sacred, nothing becomes sacred and the flats will remain as abandoned lands. Hudson’s Bay Company diagrams and a documented history of desecrations confirm burials extended into the transformer yard but not much further. It must be removed as Epcor’s persistent repairs using a hydro-vac methods to dig, sends our ancestor’s remains to the sewer system. Spiritually, the above situation brings disharmony to us all and is an affront to our dignity.

A third step to reconciliation is to return the nearby baseball field to First Nation peoples to use for cultural purposes. These were their ancient sundance grounds which were taken from them to create a horse track and later the exhibition grounds. It’s time for the city to return what is not theirs.

A fourth step which might be considered is to use the large brick building as a venue to display large black and white pictures of the First Nation peoples and their trauma in the residential schools. Edmonton cannot be a great city until it finds the courage to embrace its past. It begins with allowing the Rossdale Flats to return to its rightful place as a great gathering place of all cultures.

Phillip Coutu is a retired psychologist, author and direct descendent of Marie Anne Gaboury and Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere who lived on the Rossdale site from 1808 to 1811. They are the grandparents of Louis Riel.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for REBEL YELL

How machine learning can help identify new, deeply buried porphyry copper deposits

Staff Writer | September 4, 2022 | 

Todd Creek project in British Columbia. (Reference image by ArcWest Exploration).

A recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, presents two novel machine learning techniques to identify new, deeply buried porphyry copper deposits by characterizing magma fertility.


Fertile magma refers to magmas that can form porphyry deposits.

According to the paper’s authors, their main objective was to improve traditional geochemical indicators plagued by high false-positive rates.

To achieve such a goal, the researchers developed two algorithms, which they called ‘random forest’ and ‘deep neural network.’ They formulated the models using a global dataset of zircon chemistry, which is normally employed to evaluate the porphyry copper deposits in magma.

In detail, they focused the models on 15 trace elements. They then validated the models with independent data sets from two well-characterized porphyry copper deposits in south-central British Columbia, Canada, and Tibet, China.

Both models resulted in a classification accuracy of 90% or greater. The ‘random forest’ model exhibited a false-positive rate of 10%, whereas the ‘deep neural network’ model had a 15% false-positive rate. In comparison, traditional metrics report false positives at a 23%–66% rate.

Europium, yttrium, neodymium, cerium, and other elements emerged as significant indicators of magma fertility.

The models’ performances show that the algorithms can distinguish between fertile and barren magmas using trace element ratios. Notably, model performance was not affected by regional differences or geologic settings.

In the scientists’ view, as the demand for rare earth elements, minerals, and metals surges, machine learning is going to continue to be used as a robust, accurate, and effective approach for identifying and locating porphyry copper resources.

A brief history of U of A; The Gateway

How well do you know your campus newspaper? In the past 112 years, The Gateway has seen a lot of changes while one thing has remained consistent: serving students campus 

 

Helen Zhang

Founding

Two years after the founding of the University of Alberta, The Gateway was born.

The first issue of The Gateway was printed November 21, 1910, establishing itself as the oldest university paper in Western Canada (Brandon University’s The Quill published their first issue two months later). Being situated in Edmonton, commonly known as “The Gateway to the North,” the founders of The Gateway saw the University of Alberta and their newspaper as a “gateway” to opportunities for this geographic region.

“There is something unique about our position in this institution, the university farthest north in America and farthest West in Canada,” said The Gateway staff in the first issue.

In the 112 years since its founding, The Gateway has been front and center for the most significant events facing the university, province, and country – the same year The Gateway was founded, a typhoid outbreak struck campus.

Much like The Gateway of the past two and a half years, The Gateway of 1910 wrote an editorial calling for measures to be taken to protect students’ health,and argued that “present conditions point to the need of some protection for students who may be stricken down by such epidemics in the future.”

They even proposed the introduction of a health insurance fee specifically for students. “The time seems most opportune for the introduction of a scheme of insurance.”

The following year, two Gateway editors contracted typhoid, which led to only six issues being published that year. The Gateway also experienced disrupted publication in 1914-1918 due to influenza outbreak, meaning The Gateway has survived not one, not two, but three pandemics!

The Canadian University Press

The Gateway has also played an important role supporting student journalism in Canada. The Gateway was a founding member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), the association of student newspapers across the country, in January 1938. The paper was represented by Editor-in-Chief Duncan Campbell in the founding and helped produce the collective’s constitution.

“New Year’s Eve in the Manitoba metropolis, seventeen editors, head men on college papers from the Atlantic to the Pacific put their heads together and gave birth to the C.U.P..”

The Gateway goes on Strike

For years, The Gateway selected a new Editor-in-Chief each year through an election by staff. The newspaper, however, was not yet independent from the Students’ Union and the UASU Personnel Board was responsible for the final decision. Typically, the board respected the choice of Gateway staff and hired their choice of EIC as a convention.

In 1972, the UASU overruled The Gateway‘s selection of Ron Yakimchuk, who had been with the paper for five years, and selected Terri Jackson, a student who had never done work for The Gateway. Jackson applied on the basis of changing the consensus-based structure of the organization and the need to focus on local campus news. However, her appointment was met with a backlash from The Gateway staff, resulting in staff unanimously deciding to go on strike.

The strike featured a petition, picket line, and a rally, and The Gateway received messages of support from students, faculty, and other community organizations.

“If you care about your paper, even with all its deficiencies, and do not want an uncritical Student Council mouthpiece, you have a chance Friday to guarantee our right to publish unhindered by petty bureaucrats and power-trippers,” wrote the staff in a special strike issue of the paper.

The UASU carried forward their decision despite protests. This conflict ultimately resulted in all members of that year’s staff resigning and starting their own newspaper called the Poundmaker, housed a block off campus, which lasted until 1974.

During the strike, the former Gateway staff received support from other student papers who viewed the situation as SU overreach and a threat to a free press on campus. As a result of the UASU appointment of this EIC, The Gateway was expelled from CUP by request of the former staff.

I WAS A MEMBER OF THE GATEWAY UNDERGROUND/POUNDMAKER COLLECTIVE WHICH LASTED WELL OVER FOUR YEARS AS AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY WEEKLY WHICH RAN OUT OF A COLLECTIVE HOUSE ON CAMPUS, THEN CONTINUED PUBLISHING OUT OF OUR ANARCHIST BOOKSTORE; EREWHON BOOKS.  

The Gateway continued to print the following school year, without any of the institutional knowledge of previous staff. It wasn’t until fall 1975 that the paper started publishing as a member of CUP again. Over the years, new generations of staff joined The Gateway and worked to revitalize The Gateway’s focus on independent journalism — but never forgot the limitations of being owned by a third party. 

The Autonomy and Magazine Era

Fast forward over thirty years, and The Gateway ran a successful campaign to achieve independence from the UASU in the spring of 2002. 71.4 per cent of voters chose to support The Gateway as an independent publication separate from the Students’ Union. Students committed to paying a fee to support this independence, at $2.50 per semester for full-time students, and $1.25 for part-time.

Allowed The Gateway to become a registered non-profit, hire its staff without the UASU’s involvement, and manage its own finances to better fulfill its mandate as the community’s media outlet.

But more importantly, it gave the paper autonomy to cover all aspects of campus life, without facing conflicts of interest or undue interference.

“Finally, we’re free to pursue [our ideas] without having to go through miles of red tape and a mountain of bureaucracy,” said former EIC Dan Lazin.

The next big structural change for The Gateway was the introduction of a monthly magazine, rather than a weekly paper in 2016 — otherwise known as the “swagazine era.” 

The Gateway published its “the end of an era” paper on April 6 — the last printed newspaper (until now!). The issue featured years-worth of alumni tales and renditions of their time publishing the newspaper.

The Magazine went on to be a success for five years, winning the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association “Best New Alberta Magazine” award in 2020.

The following year, The Gateway lost its DFU, necessitating a reassessment of the organization from the ground up. The Gateway became an online publication, staffing was reduced to make a more lean and nimble editorial team, and new revenue sources were pursued by the business management unit — all with a focus on continuing to provide journalism by students, for students.

A New Era

The Gateway has proudly served the students of U of A for 112 years and continues to carry forward that legacy. This paper has survived pandemics, strikes, cuts, and immense changes of all shapes and sizes since 1910; most importantly, it is still around today because of the dedication and hard work of generations of university students.

The first issue of The Gateway wrote “​​We believe that this journal will fill a real need and that it will more and more make its influence felt as a factor in student life” — not only do we believe this to be true today, but we see it also as an aspiration to live up to tomorrow

This print edition of The Gateway is about tapping into our roots, showing what we are capable of, and telling stories that matter to students. Through all the changes we have gone through, we truly believe we are at the beginning of a new chapter of The Gateway.

Welcome to the legacy era!

US internet service company blocks controversial online forum citing 'imminent threats to human life'


By Donie O'Sullivan, CNN
Sun September 4, 2022

New York (CNN)Cloudflare, a major American internet services company, pulled its support for Kiwi Farms, a controversial online message board, Saturday evening citing "imminent threats to human life." 

The move temporarily forced Kiwi Farms offline.

Cloudflare's decision came as Kiwi Farms was linked to a campaign of harassment and violent threats targeting Clara Sorrenti, a Canadian trans woman who is a streamer on Twitch, a platform popular among video gamers.

Sorrenti, better known by her online name "Keffals," launched a campaign calling on Cloudflare to stop providing services to the site.

Fearing for her safety after her personal details were posted online, Sorrenti said she left her home in Canada in recent weeks and traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to stay with a friend. However, she says, the online harassers were able to track her down there.

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating threats made against her there, The Sunday Times reported.

Cloudflare's decision comes amid an ongoing debate about what major internet companies and platforms should do about online hate and harassment campaigns that are organized with the support of their services.

Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, has long expressed discomfort about his company's potential role of deciding what can and cannot be online. It is a position echoed by others in Silicon Valley who argue it shouldn't be up to them to police speech online.

"This is an extraordinary decision for us to make and, given Cloudflare's role as an Internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with," Prince wrote in a blog post Saturday after blocking Kiwi Farms.

But, he said the rhetoric on Kiwi Farms "and specific, targeted threats have escalated over the last 48 hours to the point that we believe there is an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life unlike we have previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before."

"Cloudflare provides security services to Kiwifarms, protecting them from DDoS and other cyberattacks. We have never been their hosting provider," Prince added.
In 2019, Cloudflare pulled its support for the hate-filled forum 8chan after that site was linked to a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 people.

Last Wednesday amid increasing public pressure to stop providing support to Kiwi Farms, Cloudflare released a blog post attempting to clarify its position.

The post did not reference Kiwi Farms directly, but Cloudflare said its decisions to stop providing support to 8chan in 2019, and to the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer in 2017, had unintended consequences.

"In a deeply troubling response, after both terminations we saw a dramatic increase in authoritarian regimes attempting to have us terminate security services for human rights organizations," the blog post read.

By Sunday morning, Kiwi Farms was mostly back up online, finding another service provider to keep it on the web.

Sorrenti told CNN Sunday she is going to continue to campaign to have all internet service providers refuse Kiwi Farms business.

 Caisse, OMERS hit hard after renewables company Azure Power’s share price plummets

written by Admin September 6, 2022 

Journalists and stakeholders at Azure Solar Power Plant, New Delhi, March 2018.Money Sharma/Getty Images

The stock market crash of India’s renewable power companies has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from the portfolios of two major Canadian pension funds.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) own 75% of New Delhi-based Azure Power Global Ltd. AzuleneThe company lost two-thirds of the value of its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange last week, most of which fell on Aug. 29.

On that day, the company announced that CEO Harsh Shah had stepped down after less than two months in office. In addition, since May 2022, we have identified the existence of whistleblower complaints alleging “potential procedural misconduct and misconduct by certain employees of factories belonging to one of our subsidiaries.” did.

After reviewing the whistleblower’s complaint, Azure said it found “deviations from safety and quality standards” and “evidence of manipulation of project data and information by certain employees.” The company said it is taking corrective action and has communicated its findings to the “appropriate authorities.”

The company said on August 1 that it had not completed an assessment of its internal controls over financial reporting and said it would delay filing its annual report. (A company that cannot assess its internal controls cannot prove that its financial statements are accurate.)

On Wednesday’s conference call with investors, board chairman Alan Rosling could not comment on the magnitude of the financial impact of the project data issue, noting that Azure may have to rectify its financial situation. Said it can’t even be ruled out. Asked by analysts if the CEO’s resignation was related to the whistleblower’s report, Rosling said Shah “came to me with a very personal request.” Confidentiality contract with. ”

Over the past six years, Caisse has spent approximately US$488 million to purchase over 34 million shares of Azure Power at an average price of approximately US$14, according to trading records. He closed at $3.55 for shares on Friday and $121.6 million for Caisse shares, an unrealized loss of more than $350 million.

OMERS has purchased approximately 14 million shares of Azure Power stock for a total of US$289.2 million, spending an average of just over US$21 per share since August 2021. The stock was worth US$48.8 million as of Friday, leaving him with a loss of more than US$200 million in just over a year.

Canadian pension funds have invested in giants, with portfolios in the hundreds of billions of dollars and dozens of large investments. Many are home runs rather than strikeouts, as the fund has reported returns above its benchmarks for many years.

Similarly, Caisse and OMERS lock in losses only when you sell shares. If held and Azure Power restored, the two would be able to get their stock back and minimize the pain. Rupesh Agarwal, Azure’s acting CEO, said Wednesday:

But the timing and perspective of the controversy are poor for both Caisse and OMERS.

When Caisse reported half-year results for August featuring a loss of $33.6 billion, huge amount of time addressing US$150 million wipeout of Celsius Network, a major cryptocurrency investment filed For bankruptcy protection in July.

Caisse CEO Charles Emond said in response to a myriad of questions from the media: “Otherwise, all investments will pay off.”

OMERS, on the other hand, has reported industry-leading revenue over the last 18 months. Reversing the story from 2020 when Canada was the only major pension fund lose moneyBut OMERS lost all of its investment in Vue International Bidco PLC, Europe’s largest cinema chain, in July. When a debt restructuring wiped out capitalOMERS jointly owned the chain with Alberta Investment Management Co. (AIMCo).

Caisse spokesperson Kate Monfette said in an email that the fund manager “has strong long-term beliefs in the renewable energy sector, which plays an important role in addressing climate change. We expect to maintain the highest governance and compliance standards and to address any issues that may arise in such matters promptly and effectively.”

OMERS spokesperson Neil Hrab said in an email that pension managers are “investors in quality investments around the world. We are committed to acting with integrity and upholding the highest professional standards. We invest in companies that share our values, including: Consistent with this, we expect the companies in our portfolio to adhere to strong and effective governance and compliance practices, and to avoid related issues. We fully support the necessary and appropriate measures against

Indeed, Azure Power appears to be an ideal investment in multiple themes that are popular with institutional investors, combining the renewable power industry with India’s home to one of the world’s largest economies. rice field.

Founded in 2008, Azure Power says it installed India’s first utility-scale private solar power project in 2009. It issued India’s first ‘green bond’ and claims to own and operate the largest single-site solar power project in India.

It also said it was the first power company outside India to list on the New York Stock Exchange. This makes them subject to US securities laws and regulations, which is typically attractive to major institutional investors.

Caisse joined Azure Power from the beginning as a public company by purchasing US$75 million in shares at $18 per share in its October 2016 initial public offering. I bought more shares on the open market and even participated in several company public offerings.

OMERS was first acquired in August 2021 with an investment of US$219 million.

However, both funds may have made their most serious commitment to Azure Power earlier this year. The company has launched an equity sale called a rights offering. Caisse and OMERS have signed a “backstop agreement” to purchase unsubscribed Azure Power shares in the offering.

When Azure Power announced in January that it had only sold 78.4% of its rights, Caisse and OMERS, which had already bought nearly 11 million shares in the offering for US$15.79 each, stepped in to step in to add another $340. I bought 10,000 shares.

Overall, Caisse spent just under $158 million and OMERS spent just under $70 million, including backstop shares.

As part of their ownership of Azure Power, the two funds placed their employees on the Azure board.

Cyril Cabanes, Managing Director of Caisse’s Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investment business based in Singapore, has been a member of Azure’s Board of Directors since January 2017. November 2019.

Delphine Voeltzel, managing director of OMERS Infrastructure in Asia, joined the board in May.

“As a board of directors, we are deeply concerned, outraged, upset and deeply involved in this issue,” Rosling, chairman of Azure, said on an investor conference call. “It is clear that as a company we need to take a very hard look at ourselves and ask questions like the ones you are asking … to be able to answer quickly and confidently about our management. is needed.”

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Canadian Employment Fell As Young Adults Bear Most Job Losses While Seniors Gain

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Canada’s rate hikes are finally beginning to slow unemployment, but the losses are being carried by young adults. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows the unemployment rate increased in July as job losses came in. Breaking it down, most of the jobs lost are young adults, or people in the education and construction industries. Higher interest rates are finally slowing down the job market, but not for seniors, the only employment demographic to grow in Canada.  

Canada’s Unemployment Rate Rises, But Still Unusually Low

Canadian unemployment fell for a third consecutive month. Seasonally adjusted employment fell by 39,700 jobs in July, bringing the unemployment rate 0.5 points higher to 5.4%. Previous losses had been attributed to a lack of workers. “… this time we can’t pin it on a lack of workers,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO. 

Most jobs lost were full time, with education representing the bulk of the decline. “The details of the report weren’t great either, with full-time jobs dropping a hefty 77,200, and both goods-producing and service industries falling,” said Porter. 

He emphasizes while the decline isn’t great, the unemployment rate is still at an overheated level. “[the unemployment rate is] still at a level (5.4%) that had been seen only once in the 45 years before the pandemic,” he explained 

Canada’s Young Adults Are Getting Crushed, They Represent Most Losses

Notable is who was losing their job and searching for work — young adults. Most of the jobs lost last month were people between the age of 20 and 24, representing a loss of 31,200 jobs from a month before. The unemployment rate for this group increased to 8.6%, up 1 point, and significantly higher than the average.

Workers from 25 to 54 years old also took a big hit. The cohort lost 25,700 jobs, with unemployment rising 0.6 points to 4.6% in July. At least the unemployment rate for this demographic is still extremely tight. 

Canada’s seniors saw some losses, but were generally winners of the group. Workers aged 55 and older saw employment rise 10,800 jobs, with the unemployment rate rising just 0.3 points to 5%. Not only is the rate still below the average with the smallest growth of any cohort, it’s also still full employment.

Housing Slowdown Starts To Bite, Conditions Are Cooling Fast

Higher interest rates are beginning to slow down employment. Construction jobs fell 28,200 jobs in July, representing the bulk of losses when combined with education. While education might pick up in the September report, construction is more likely to be a little longer. Rates are only expected to climb further from here. 

“While we can readily find some “yes, buts” in this release, there is no debating that conditions are cooling quickly, with the pullback in construction a clear indication that rate hikes are beginning to bite,” said Porter. 

Remember, these are still strong employment numbers, and the market is considered overheated. However, this is an overheated labor market that’s producing more inflation than economic output. Job losses are likely to result in an economic contraction before inflation stabilizes, making it difficult to use rate cuts to soften the blow without seeing even more risk.

Canada's real problem is not job losses, it's the rush to retire

By Julie Gordon - 3h ago

View of a wood flooring sales office and an employment agency in Toronto

© Reuters/CHRIS HELGREN

OTTAWA (Reuters) - More than a year after the Great Resignation took hold in the United States, Canada is grappling with its own greyer version: The Great Retirement.

Canada's labor force grew in August, but it fell the previous two months and remains smaller than before the summer as tens of thousands of people simply stopped working. Much of this can be chalked up to more Canadians than ever retiring, said Statistics Canada.

It is not just the 65-and-over crowd packing up their offices and hanging up their tool belts. A record number of Canadians aged 55-64 are now reporting they retired in the last 12 months, Statscan data shows. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3RVXvNM)

Graphic: Canadians are retiring in droves - https://graphics.reuters.com/CANADA-ECONOMY/EMPLOYMENT/lgpdwdxkovo/chart.png

That is hastening a mass exodus of Canada's most highly skilled workers, leaving businesses scrambling, helping push wages sharply higher and threatening to further drag down the country's sagging productivity, economists say.

"We knew from a long time ago that this wave was coming, that we would get into this moment," said Jimmy Jean, chief economist at Desjardins Group. "And it's only going to intensify in the coming years."

"The risk you have, and in some sectors you're already seeing it, is that people are leaving without there being enough younger workers to take over. So there's a loss of human capital and knowledge."

During the pandemic, retirements fell as many Canadians decided to stay in their jobs longer. With restrictions now lifted, many are rushing to make up for lost time, choosing to travel and spend more time with family.

Related video: Canada posts 40,000 job losses in August

Duration 1:52  View on Watc

Their departures are shrinking the labor force, which could weigh on economic growth at a time when the central bank is aggressively hiking interest rates to counter spiking inflation, fanning fears that the economy will fall into recession.

Canada - which has ramped up immigration to help drive economic growth - has the largest working-age population, as a percentage of the overall population, in the G7, but at the same time its labor force has never been older, according to Statscan. One in five workers in Canada is 55 or older. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3RTcMyJ)

Graphic: Canada's labor force is rapidly aging - https://graphics.reuters.com/CANADA-ECONOMY/EMPLOYMENT2/xmvjoajkypr/chart.png

There were 307,000 Canadians in August who had left their job in order to retire at some point in the last year, up 31.8% from one year earlier and 12.5% higher than in August 2019, before the onset of the pandemic, Statscan said.

Adding to the problem, more than 620,000 Canadians entered the 65+ age category during the pandemic, a 9.7% increase in that population group. Despite three straight months of job losses, job vacancies and postings remain well above pre-pandemic levels.

NURSES AND TRUCKERS

The retirement problem is particularly dire in skilled fields like trades and nursing. Since May, Canada has lost 34,400 jobs in healthcare even as a record number of nurses reported working overtime hours.

Those were not jobs being cut, but rather people retiring, said Cathryn Hoy, president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association.

"It's a huge problem right now, because we've had so many that have retired unexpectedly," she said, citing the pandemic, working conditions and a wage dispute with Canada's largest province.

The transportation industry is also grappling with a severe worker shortage, both because of the pandemic-driven frenzy for more goods and as the workforce ages.

"More and more drivers are aging and therefore retiring or contemplating different lifestyle," said Tony Reeder, owner of Trans-Canada College, a career college that trains transport truck drivers.

At the same time, demand is booming from trucking companies, many of which take on student drivers for on-the-job training courses and then hire them outright as soon as they are fully licensed, said Reeder.

"Without trucks and people to drive trucks ... goods will sit at ports and in warehouses as opposed to getting to the destination where they can be consumed," he said.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Steve Scherer and Matthew Lew

India's top court grants bail to journalist two years after his arrest

By Suchitra Mohanty - Friday

FILE PHOTO: Television journalists are seen outside the premises 

of the Supreme Court in New Delhi© Reuters/ANUSHREE FADNAVIS

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to a journalist two years after he was arrested on accusations of incitement and terrorism while reporting on the alleged rape of a young woman whose death sparked nationwide protests.

Siddique Kappan, a journalist from the southern state of Kerala, and three co-accused were arrested while on the way to report from the site of the alleged rape in Hathras district, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in October 2020.

Prosecution for the state of Uttar Pradesh said they were travelling with an intention to incite violence and were collecting funds to run a website full of misinformation.

The top court granted bail to Kappan after observing that no formal charges were filed against him and a document named "Toolkit" recovered by the state police only propagated a call for justice in the rape case.

Kappan's lawyers have said that no evidence was produced in support of the allegations made against him, according to media reports.

A Supreme Court bench chaired by the Chief Justice of India observed during the hearing that every person had the freedom to express their views on the justice delivery system.

"Sometimes protests are necessary as there are some deficiencies," Justice S Ravindra Bhat, one of the judges in the bench, said.

The top court directed Kappan to remain in New Delhi for six weeks after which he can move to his home state Kerala.

(Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi, writing by Shivam Patel, Editing by William Maclean)

Poll shows Bolsonaro narrowing gap to Lula ahead of Brazil election


Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro visits the 45th

 Expointer agricultural fair in Esteio

Fri, September 9, 2022 at 5:40 PM·1 min read

(Reuters) -Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro slightly narrowed his deficit to opponent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of an October election, a poll published on Friday showed.

The survey by Datafolha showed Lula's lead dipping to 11 percentage points in the first round of the election, with 45% support against Bolsonaro's 34%. Bolsonaro recorded 32% support in the previous poll last week.

In an expected second-round run-off, Lula would be elected with 53% of the votes versus 39% for Bolsonaro, a 14 percentage point advantage, down from 15 points one week ago, the poll showed.

Bolsonaro's approval and rejection rates did not change from a week ago, at 31% and 42% respectively.

Datafolha interviewed 2,676 people in person between September 8 and 9. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Pedro Fonseca; editing by Richard Pullin)

Brazil election front-runner Lula calls Bolsonaro 'worse than Trump'

Friday

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is "a bit worse than (Donald) Trump," leftist election front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday, describing him as "ruder, less civilized and a bad copy," of the former U.S. president.


Former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 

meets evangelical leaders in Sao Goncalo

© Reuters/PILAR OLIVARES

Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who trails Lula in polls ahead of the Oct. 2 election, has long admired Trump and has been dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics." The two were ideological allies, and the time they overlapped was one of closer ties between the two largest nations in the Americas.

By contrast, Bolsonaro was one of the last global leaders to recognize President Joe Biden's election victory, and ties between Brasilia and Washington have become frostier since Trump left office.

 Lula widens lead over Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil election

Duration 3:39

View on Watch

Critics fear Bolsonaro may seek to copy Trump and refuse to accept losing to Lula in the upcoming election. For months, Bolsonaro has been making unfounded claims of election fraud, and said the country's widely praised electronic voting system lacks credibility, sparking fears of a constitutional crisis.

Lula, speaking with reporters in Rio de Janeiro, said the world was a better place without people like Bolsonaro and Trump in charge.

"The world is already suffering a lot," Lula said, adding he would have preferred if Bolsonaro had modeled himself on Biden and his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Bolsonaro's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by David Gregorio)