Congo crisis in focus at UN General Assembly

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda aired their dispute over one of the armed groups causing instability along their borders to the world this week. The UN has conceded that its peacekeepers can't defeat the M23.

It is estimated that 120 armed groups are active in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo

President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an address to the UN General Assembly, said the M23, a key armed rebel movement causing instability in his country, is supported by Rwanda.

"The involvement of Rwanda and its responsibility in the tragedy that my country and my compatriots, in the areas occupied by the Rwandan army and its allies of the M23, are no longer questionable," Tshisekedi said on Tuesday evening. 

The allegations are not new. Tensions between the two countries over the M23 flare sporadically.

The M23 had been relatively dormant for years but has resumed its attacks in eastern Congo. It has since intensified its activities in the region along Congo's border with Rwanda and, in June, captured the strategic town of Bunagana near the border to Uganda.

Congo suspects UN 'complicity'

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President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Tshisekedi addressed

 the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 20, 2022

Tshisekedi also warned world leaders that any failure to take into account UN expert reports on the crisis  "will only encourage Rwanda to pursue its agression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the DRC." 

It would also fuel the suspicions of the Congolese people on the impartiality of the UN and what Tshisekedi called "the complicity of some of its members in these crimes.”

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, in his subsequent address to the assembly, highlighted the crisis in eastern Congo but refrained from responding directly to Tshisekedi.

Kagame has repeatedly denied the allegations over M23. The crisis in eastern Congo, he told the UN General Assembly, has continued for more than two decades and requires serious attention.

The deployment of UN peacekeepers is exposing Congo's neighbors to cross-border attacks that are preventable, he suggested. "There is an urgent need to find the political will to finally address the root causes of the instability in eastern DRC. The blame game does not solve the problem,” Kagame said.

M23 attacks are concentrated on eastern Congo provinces bordering with Rwanda and Uganda

UN mission 'not able to beat M23' 

Tshisekedi and Kagame were speaking just days after the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres conceded that the UN peacekeeping mission to Congo, MONUSCO, was no longer capable of defeating the M23. 

Guterres told French media that the UN "is not able to beat the M23."

"The truth is that the M23 today is a modern army with heavy equipment that is more advanced than the equipment of MONUSCO," he said.

The UN chief's comments were not unlike those that saw the MONUSCO spokesman Mathias Gillmann expelled from the DRC last month.

Kinshasa has increasingly questioned the value of the UN peacekeepers. Since 2019, pro-democracy movements and some elected officials have been calling for the departure of MONUSCO. In July, four UN peackeepers were among the 36 people killed in anti-UN protests in Goma and Butembo in eastern Congo.

The protesters accused MONUSCO of failing to stop the resurgence of violence. Civilian massacres are common, and the number of people displaced has run into the millions.

The UN Secretary General's remarks surprised and shocked some Congolese citizens and activists.

"He [Guterres] is probably passing the baton to the African Union, or perhaps the East African Community," Pierre Boisselet, coordinator of the Kivu Security Tracker, told DW. "In any case, he himself believes that there are other institutions, other configurations and other armies that are better equipped to deal with this threat of the M23."

What about negotiations?

MONUSCO is one of the largest and most costly UN peacekeeping missions, with an annual budget of around $1 billion (€1 billion). An estimated 120 armed groups, including M23, are active in eastern Congo. 

Bienvenu Matumo of LUCHA, a local citizens' movement, told DW that it is difficult for many Congolese people to understand why MONUSCO has been ineffective in their country. 

"If one force cannot help us eradicate the M23, neutralize the ADF, stop the actions of local armed groups, this force cannot be another force in the Kivu region," Matumo told DW. 

A MONUSCO peacekeeper in Kibumba near Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The UN chief Antonio Gutteres has highlighted the need for negotiations to restore peace to Congo.

Matumo is however not convinced that negotiations between Congo and neighboring countries such as Rwanda are a viable solution. "You cannot negotiate with countries that are involved in aggression. We can't."

Pierre Boisselet of the Kivu Security Tracker is one of several analysts who suggest that that the UN is betting on regional negotiatons to end the crisis.

"The way I analyze this is that the [UN] secretary general believes that only a regional negotiation between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda could resolve this situation," he said.

The UN may be unwilling to risk a situation of rupture with Rwanda, which may make it harder to mediate in the crisis, according to Boisselet.

Tshisekedi's government has already said it was not ready for negotiations with the M23. The Congolese leader told the UN General Assembly about the response to his efforts at diplomacy and negotiations.

"Despite my good will and the outstretched hand of the Congolese people to peace, some of our neighbors have found nothing better than to thank us by aggression and support for armed terrorist groups that are ravaging the east of the DRC," he said.

After addressing the UN, Kagame and Tshisekedi discussed the Congo crisis with French President Emmanuel Macron.

MONUSCO withdrawal imminent

MONUSCO was deployed in 2010 with a mandate to conduct offensive operations. The mission is expected to come to an end in 2024.

Rose Tuombeane, coordinator of the women's rights network Dynamics of Women for Good Governance, is concerned over the mission's failure to restore peace. MONUSCO should withdraw immediately to prevent an escalation in tensions, she believes.

"We have always asked for MONUSCO to be able to leave without conditions. An attempt should be made to speed up the process of their withdrawal. 2024 is too far away," Tuombeane told DW.

Protesters stormed a MONUSCO base in Goma on July 26, 2022

The acting spokeswoman of MONUSCO, Ndeye Khady Lo, told DW that the withdrawal is already underway. The mission was scaled down in 2014 and eight of its offices were closed in 2018. Over the past two years, it has withdrawn from Kasai and Tanganyika, two of the five provinces where its peacekeepers have been stationed.

The transition plan for the responsible, orderly and sustainable withdrawal of the mission was signed by the UN and the Congolese government a year ago, she said.

Political scientist Jean Claude Mputu told DW that once the mission ends, it would be up to the Congo to end the crisis.

"There are three things that need to be an alternative. The first is at the political level, secondly the thing to be done is that the Congolese army must be provided with sufficient resources and, finally, it is absolutely necessary to put an end to the impunity that reigns in this region and within the armed forces."

Saleh Mwanamilongo and Wendy Bashy contributed to this article.

Edited by: Benita van Eyssen

7 ways we can help slow climate change

While individual carbon footprints are dwarfed by global fossil fuel companies, we can do a lot to tackle the climate crisis and 'be the change we wish to see in the world.'

Planting a tree is one of numerous ways individuals can help to limit global heating

Many of us bemoan our inability to limit the wildfires, cyclones and flooding that are being experienced with more frequency and intensity due to climate change. There is a belief that polluting fossil fuel companies cannot be stopped, that governments will not regulate them, that emission reduction targets will never be met.

But individually — and in the end collectively — there are many things we can do to help limit the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that supercharge global heating.  

1. Ditch airplanes and petrol vehicles for buses, trains or bicycles

Transport generates around one fifth of the world's emissions, with road traffic as the worst offender.

One easy way we can cut emissions is to decarbonize our transport by ditching petrol cars for trains, bicycles, e-vehicles, and, whenever possible, walking — the ultimate zero-emission transport.

In cities, electrified transport options from e-scooters to e-buses are becoming a low-emission route from A to B. A petrol car pumps out over 10 times more carbon than an electric scooter — even when factoring in manufacturing and disposal emissions.

For the roughly 10% of the world's population who has ever boarded a flight, favoring trains over planes can also have a big impact. A typical rail journey between European cities emits up to 90% less CO2 than an equivalent flight.

2. Eat more plants instead of animals

Farming meat and dairy contributes around 15% of global GHG emissions — not to mention biodiversity loss, contamination of soils and pollution.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this year said that emissions need to be cut by half by 2030 to mitigate global heating, it stressed that a shift to "diets high in plant protein and low in meat and dairy" had the greatest potential to lower greenhouse gases.

So going vegetarian — or vegan — could be the way to go for those looking to mitigate their climate impact. 

A boom in climate-friendly plant-based meats makes that choice even easier.

But so far plants only provide 2% of protein — though that's set to rise to 11% by 2035 and could be accelerated if more of us reduce our demand for meat and dairy, according to the Boston Consulting Group. 

Shopping at the vegan instead of meat butcher to help the climate

3. Pressure governments to take action

School kids at the Fridays for Future protests showed it's possible to take a collective stand for the climate. Politicians might not be doing enough, but they have had to listen as climate concerns drive voting intentions at elections around the world — including recently in Australia, with the new leader promising to significantly raise climate ambition (even if many believe the target remains inadequate).

And sometimes the courts also listen. In April 2021, young people from Fridays for Future successfully argued in a German higher court that a lack of climate action threatened their fundamental freedoms and was unconstitutional. As a result, the court forced the government to strengthen emission reduction targets — which it did a couple of months later.

With climate ranking as the top issue of concern among a rising generation of voters, many are pressuring politicians on climate via protests, social media campaigns, or writing to local representatives.

Demanding carbon neutrality by 2030 — the goal of a citizen initiative for a climate referendum in the German capital — is a good place to start.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke at a Fridays for Future climate strike

 in Berlin in 2021, the year the movement also won in court

4. Switch to green energy providers and (when possible) install renewables

Burning fossil fuels for energy is the largest source of global GHG emissions. This makes choosing green electricity from clean, renewable sources such as wind or solar a great way to cut a key source of climate wrecking carbon.  

And consumers have already made a difference. By 2019 in the European Union, renewable electricity generation doubled from 2005, making up 34% of all electricity generation. This means that coal, the highest emitting fossil fuel, no longer supplies most of the EU's electricity.

Those living in a house or even an apartment block can also try to install clean solar power on the roof, or electric heat pumps — where possible — as a substitute for gas heating. Some communities are even getting together to run their neighborhoods almost exclusively on renewable energy.

Freiburg in Germany's south is known as the solar city

5.  Turn off the lights, turn down the heating

Something as simple as turning the heating down can save a lot of energy. That's why the German government, faced with an energy crisis due to the nation's reliance on Russian gas, will limit heating temperatures to 19 degrees Celsius this winter in public buildings.

Shutting down your computer at night and eliminating "vampire" power by unplugging idle electronics is another climate change busting action we can achieve today. Even easier is to simply turn off the lights when we aren't in the room.

Using highly energy-efficient appliances — induction instead of gas stoves, for example — is another step forward. Better still, demand that your government switch off the night lights at monuments and buildings, a policy recently implemented in the German capital.

6. Waste less food

Meanwhile, around one third of food grown globally is thrown away. This food loss and waste is a massive carbon emitter when the production, transportation and handling of food is calculated — food that ends up in landfills also generates methane, a highly potent GHG over the short term. 

In the US, annual food loss and waste creates 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent GHG emissions, and that's excluding landfill emissions. It's equivalent to the annual emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants.

So if we can't eat everything in the fridge, at least compost the rest — to fertilize the garden or for biogas.

Meanwhile, pressure supermarkets to stop throwing away extra food, instead offering it to foodbanks or charities; or ask restaurants to offer "doggy bags" for uneaten food — both measures are included in a food waste law recently passed in Spain.    

7. Plant trees

Trees are vital carbon sinks yet deforestation continues at alarming rates — logging of the Amazon forest, for example, rose by 20% in the last year. 

More than ever, planting trees is one of the best thing we can do as individuals to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.

While also cleaning the air, increasing biodiversity and maintaining healthy soils, trees too save energy — especially in cities where more plants on the street keep things cooler and reduce the need for air conditioning — according to non-profit Become Carbon Negative.

So too in the winter, trees can shelter homes from the wind, helping to reduce heating costs by up to 25%.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

CLIMATE CHANGE: FLOODING, DROUGHT, FIRE AND 

HEAT WAVES AROUND THE WORLD
Heavy rains devastate communities in Kentucky, USA
Heavy rain has pummeled mountain communities in the US state of Kentucky. Water rushed down hillsides, swallowing towns, washing away homes and trapping hundreds of people. At least 30 people have been killed. US Vice President Kamala Harris said the flooding showed the urgency of crisis and announced $1 billion in grants to help states prepare for weather extremes worsened by climate change.
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Edmonton police spent $164K in overtime costs during convoy protests

The Edmonton Police Service spent $164,000 on overtime to cover six Freedom Convoy protests held in the city in January and February.


Edmonton police estimated about 1,000 to 2,000 people were in Edmonton on February 5 participating in a local convoy protest to show support for demonstrators in Ottawa, with several hundred more potentially on the way.© Nicholas Frew/CBC

Janice Johnston - CBC

A police spokesperson said the overtime was incurred due to staffing shortages caused by COVID-19, along with the need to "maintain adequate staffing levels for the crowds."

"These were unbudgeted expenses that impact our operating budget that are not recoverable from any other entity," Cheryl Sheppard wrote in an email to CBC News, noting that "the results of this adequately resourced police operation over six weekends resulted in no injuries, no mass arrests and no riots."

Sheppard compared 2022 overtime costs to the preceding three years, revealing that more was spent on policing protests in 2019 for seven yellow-vest demonstrations and Greta Thunberg's visit and in 2020, which included a number of Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

EPS Protest Overtime costs

Exhaustive details about police planning and the execution of those plans for the Freedom Convoy protests were revealed in a 63-page package sent by the Edmonton Police Service to Haruun Ali, after he filed a formal complaint about EPS conduct during the protests.

Ali shared those documents with CBC.

The police chief dismissed Ali's complaint and Ali has since notified the Edmonton Police Commission that he plans to appeal the chief's decision.
'Peaceful and orderly'

The largest protest was the first one staged by protestors on January 29. According to the police documents, more than 5,000 vehicles and 9,500 pedestrians participated.

Despite the large numbers, police issued only two traffic violations. A subsequent report authored by Staff Sgt. Bill Krull described the protestors as "peaceful and orderly", though Krull also stated, "the drivers were constantly blaring their vehicle horns creating an intense level of noise throughout the downtown core which continued throughout the afternoon."

The Feb. 5 protest saw eight traffic violations issued.

The report authored by Krull said public pushback had increased by February 12 when the third Saturday protest was staged.

"The local Canada freedom protest/convoy environment was garnering the attention of local politicians and the public questioning the EPS policing response to the noise from the convoy vehicles driving in downtown Edmonton," Krull wrote.

The City of Edmonton was granted an injunction through court order to prohibit the constant blaring of horns in Edmonton for the Feb.12 protest.

Police decided to increase traffic enforcement, but according to the documents, based on legal advice, EPS opted to continue using the Traffic Safety Act and city bylaws for enforcement rather than the newly issued court order.
Counter-protestors

Tensions flared on Feb. 12 when counter-protestors blocked one side of River Valley Road. At the time, the counter-protestors complained about police actions.

An organizer told CBC that someone at the counter-protest was told that if they did not get off the road, they could be arrested and charged with mischief. The counter-protest ended without incident after the group moved to the sides of the road and traffic was able to get through.

"The counter-protestors attracted far more punitive measures than the right-leaning freedom convoy folks," said University of Alberta criminology Prof. Temitope Oriola.

"What struck me the most was the cumulative reverence, often deference, to the freedom convoy protestors … that essentially spoke to the ideation or underbelly of policing."

Leading up to the Feb.19 protest, the documents reveal police were concerned that counter-protestors could possibly block downtown streets and a railway.

As a result, the report notes, "patrol branches would be directed to send police wagons and resources to support a mass arrest protocol if activated."

However, there were no counter-protest blockades and no arrests were made.

The Feb. 19 convoy protest was the third-largest of the six and resulted in the most traffic violations (209) issued or mailed, including 71 noise violations.

Freedom Canada protest convoy data

There was a relatively small protest at the Alberta Legislature on Feb. 22 to mark the opening of the legislative session. That protest resulted in 108 traffic violations.

By the time the sixth and final protest was staged on Feb. 26, Krull noted, "The intensity of public and political scrutiny was far less than the previous weekend's events but there were still concerns about vehicle horns and lack of enforcement of the [City of Edmonton] court order."

There were 138 traffic violations issued including 30 for unnecessary noise.

An analysis of the numbers shows that the number of tickets issued increased as the size of the protests decreased.

Sheppard said that officers were able to see more violations taking place when there was less congestion and fewer people on the road. She also said that it was safer to conduct traffic stops when the convoy size decreased.

According to the Krull report, there was also increased attention paid to traffic enforcement.

"It is recognized that there were many public concerns that the EPS enforcement strategy was not aggressive enough to quell noise and traffic disruption," Krull wrote.

"The EPS command team believes that although not perfect for all, the outcomes achieved during these deployments were reasonable in balancing persons lawful right to protest versus other persons lawful enjoyment and safety."

The criminology professor agrees that policing protests is difficult. But Temitope Oriola believes the way EPS handled the six protests in January and February frayed the bond of trust with police for some members of the public.

"What it says to them is that the police may act, but it depends on who is protesting," Oriola said.

Kenney declines comment on cabinet minister lauding "freedom convoy" protesters

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EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is declining to weigh in on one of his cabinet ministers lauding protesters and “freedom convoys” fighting COVID-19 restrictions.


“I actually don’t monitor Twitter,” said Kenney, speaking to reporters in Toronto Wednesday, while pitching a renewed ad campaign to get more Canadians to move to Alberta.

“If you want to hear (Labour) Minister (Kaycee) Madu’s views or a clarification from him, I suggest you talk to him.”

Madu made the comments on Twitter Tuesday, reacting to news the federal government is debating whether to renew COVID-19 vaccine mandates and mandatory random testing for travellers when those rules expire at month’s end.

“It (the slate of restrictions) was never about science but about political control and power,” Madu tweeted.

“Thanks to all those citizens, freedom convoys, who had the courage to mobilize against these tyrannical policies. They endured a lot (of) hate (and) name calling, suffered and vilified on behalf of all of us. I thank them!”

Madu’s office didn’t respond to a request for an interview.

He has served in cabinet since the start of Kenney’s government in 2019 in three portfolios: municipal affairs, justice and now labour.

Madu became labour minister in late February, when Kenney removed him from the justice portfolio after an independent report determined Madu had tried — but failed — to interfere in the administration of justice by calling up Edmonton’s chief of police to complain about a traffic ticket.

Alberta had its own COVID-19 restrictions, gathering limits and vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

As justice minister in May 2021, Madu, who is also a lawyer, told reporters that while he doesn’t direct police and prosecutors, "it is my expectation that law enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service will deploy all tools available to them to ensure that the (COVID) public health orders are enforced."

Kenney will cease to be in charge in two weeks, when United Conservative Party members pick a new leader and premier on Oct. 6.

Madu is backing leadership candidate Danielle Smith. Smith has promised to reject any COVID-19 rules and restrictions deemed harmful to Alberta's autonomy and well-being.

Alberta’s main U.S. border crossing at Coutts was one of a number of sites — along with downtown Ottawa — that were snarled earlier this year by “Freedom Convoy” protesters demonstrating against the Trudeau government and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The Coutts standoff paralyzed cross-border traffic for two weeks, ending in mid-February soon after RCMP made mass arrests and seized a cache of firearms and ammunition near the protest site.

A trial has been scheduled for June of next year for four men charged with conspiracy to commit murder at the blockade.

Opposition NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said on Twitter: “Kaycee Madu needs to go. He should’ve been removed from the cabinet for interfering in the administration of justice (in the traffic ticket incident).”

Kenney agreed with Madu on the travel rules. At present, foreign nationals are typically not allowed to travel to Canada unless they have completed a primary series of approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Unvaccinated travellers allowed to enter Canada are subject to mandatory arrival tests and a two-week quarantine.

“It’s no secret that our government has been consistently opposed to unnecessary federal travel restrictions, specifically the ones that are still in place,” said Kenney.

He said he and other premiers made their concerns clear to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there was no scientific rationale for the rules. Kenney said Trudeau wanted to be seen taking action on the pandemic.

"It has been clear to me from the beginning that at least this latest round of travel restrictions were political and optical, not about reducing transmission," said Kenney.

"I think it’s become a huge inconvenience."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

 UCP leadership race power rankings: It’s all over but the groveling

Never underestimate a politician's ability to grovel.  Now that Danielle Smith has the UCP leadership race all but locked up, conciliatory trial balloons are being floated, emails are being exchanged between former rivals and phone calls are being made to friendly columnists. This Don Braid column is a very effective bit of propaganda for the UCP and for Danielle Smith. It goes into some detail of what a Danielle Smith premiership would look like that and the conciliatory moves she’s already making.  Braid very kindly decided to run a quote from an anonymous MLA that sums it all up.  “There is no one in this caucus, not one person, who thinks a Rachel Notley-led government is better than a Danielle Smith-led government. The feeling is, let’s get our arrows pointed in the same direction.” A man begging for his wife's forgiveness inside Chicago divorce court. 1948.  It’s also entirely believable that all the UCP MLAs and leadership candidates who said they’d never vote for the Alberta Sovereignty Act would turn around and immediately cave and vote for an Alberta Sovereignty Act. Nothing unites a fractured political project like losing your job or status. There’s all the perks, pay and power that come with a cabinet post (an extra $60K a year) or even just your ability to run as an MLA again since the leader of the party signs your nomination papers. I expect we’ll all see a very rapid change of tune on how bad the Alberta Sovereignty Act is, not just from UCP MLAs but also Postmedia columnists and talking heads shortly after October 6.  This Rick Bell column imagines a sniveling UCP insider character that Bell creates dialogue for instead of Braid’s tactic of quoting them anonymously. But it’s the same message: Smith is going to win and the groveling has begun. While Bell mocks his made up insider character, don't think for a second that the coterie of government relations hacks and conservative insiders who surround this government like a noxious gas cloud will vanish if Smith wins. Smith has been around conservative politics for a long time and knows how things get done.  Kenney may decry Smith’s latest stunts—he would prefer his chosen heir Travis Toews win the leadership instead—but once you get past the Alberta Sovereignty Act theatrics there’s no big policy disagreement between the two. Smith will continue gutting the healthcare system, killing people en masse for “freedom”, handing over public assets to private interests for pennies on the dollar and the rest of the odious conservative political project with just as much verve as Kenney. Our only blessing is that she’ll only be premier for a few months before an election.  But it’s pretty funny that the UCP just skipped through the actual leadership race and are moving on to post-leadership race jockeying.  Some journalists have tried to ask the UCP candidates about policy. Michelle Bellefontaine of the CBC asked the candidates about healthcare, no one cared. Alanna Smith of Globe and Mail asked about the drug poisoning crisis that continues to kill so many. Crickets. What are the UCP leadership candidates going to do about this inflation crisis? Maybe fiddle with the small business tax. This column was originally going to be about policy but the battle of ideas in the UCP leadership race lasted less than a week. There’s no significant policy disagreement between any of the leadership candidates, although Leela Aheer might want the UCP to be a bit more polite if she was leader.    So instead of doing a power ranking of the policies of the UCP leadership candidates I’m going to rank their wordmarks.   7. Travis Toews Boring dark blue, reverse text and a weird superfluous outline of Alberta next to the word Alberta mean this wordmark ends up last. The font is also a pricey one, Ysans Std Extra Bold. That goes for $80. For that money he probably could have gotten two bottles of Jameson’s for his Sky Palace dining experience.  6. Todd Loewen Maybe I’m just biased against reverse text but Todd Loewen’s wordmark just isn’t doing it for me. I also don’t like the design choice to put the logo above the name and to have the slogan be skinny all caps. The font looks to be Marat Sans Bold Small Caps which goes for a cool $60.69 (nice.) There’s been a bit of custom design work here as well as the T and the L have been made larger though it just doesn’t jibe once you look at it for more than a second. This guy actually participated in the convoy in Ottawa and is now set to become a cabinet minister. 5. Rebecca Schulz Another stale blue colour choice. Boring super common bold sans serif font that according to myfonts.com and my eye looks like Hamburg Serial Heavy. The little pop of light blue from the slogan doesn’t add much to a design that’s so focused on the big blocky name. Also she refused to sign the childcare deal with the feds until after a federal election making thousands of parents pay extra money for childcare unnecessarily.  4. Brian Jean We all love mountains and honestly it’s the visual element that brings this one all the way up four. I also like the font used used for the name even though I can’t figure out which one it is when I plug it into myfonts. The blue is tedious but standard. He’s also a politician who uses an “aw shucks” image to hide the fact that he’s a man living off the fortune his mom made when Fort McMurray became a boomtown.  3. Leela Aheer I don’t quite know what that design element to the left of her name is but I kind of like it and it has some colour which is welcome. And the bold mix of the serif and sans serif fonts is a refreshing change from a sea of sans serifs. Shame about the blue.  2. Rajan Sawnhey She deindexed AISH and presided over an entirely unnecessary change to giving out AISH money that resulted in thousands of disabled folks being stuck with NSF charge but I do like the little pop of yellow and the font on the word Forward.  1. Danielle Smith I’m a sucker for wheat and the two blues used in the name with the two blues in the outline of Alberta work quite well. Design wise it’s solid. It’s just a shame she wants to immediately cause a constitutional crisis and start feuding with Ottawa instead of actually making people’s lives better while our healthcare system crumbles to dust and the price of everything goes up.  Duncan Kinney http://www.progressalberta.ca/ PS. You can find the online version of this piece here.

'Hitler's Girl' explores British ties with the Nazis

A new book discusses how close Britain's aristocracy was to the Nazi regime and what the situation in those times tells us about the dangers to democracy today

'Hitler's Girl': Unity Mitford (left) with her sisters Diana (center) and Nancy (right)

Anyone trying to dive deep into the history of British far-right and fascist movements in the 1930s is bound to come across the names of Unity Mitford and Oswald Mosley.

Rumored to have been Hitler's girlfriend, Unity Mitford's personality and ideas have been discussed in books such as David Pryce-Jones' "Unity Mitford: An Enquiry into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil" (1977) and David Litchfield's "Hitler's Valkyrie: The Uncensored Biography of Unity Mitford" (2014).

Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) from 1932 to 1940, and his movement have similarly been analyzed in several books, including "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" (2005), Graham Macklin's "Failed Führers: A History of Britain's Extreme Right" (2020) and Richard C. Thurlow's "Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to the National Front" (1998).  

Now a new book on the topic, "Hitler's Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WWII," has been published. The author, Yale lecturer Lauren Young, has used newly unclassified material for the work.

By revealing the complicity of British aristocrats with Hitler's Germany and the possible threat to British democracy at the time, Young aims to demonstrate how Western liberal democracies face the same challenges today as in the 1930s.

"We are inundated with information about the Second World War, Hitler and the Nazis. This book argues that today's challenges to democracy are similar to those of the 1930s," Young tells DW. The author and lecturer has previously taught at the London School of Economics and served as a political adviser in many international forums, including the UN.


HOW HITLER AND THE NAZIS DEFAMED ART
Degenerate art
Modern artworks whose style, artist or subject did not meet with the approval of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists were labeled "degenerate art." From 1937, the Nazis confiscated such works from German museums. In a traveling exhibition, "degenerate art" was held up for public ridicule. Here we see Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Hitler at the original exhibition in Munich.
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Britain in the 1930s

The book first establishes the historical background by chronicling how Germany's crushing defeat in World War I and the severe terms of the Treaty of Versailles led to financial and social crises in the country, setting the stage for Hitler's rise to power.

Young then looks into how the British aristocracy started flirting with fascism as early as the 1920s, when members of the upper class, including the Duke of Westminster, the Duke of Buccleuch and politician Harold Nicolson traveled to Italy to observe the fascist movement for themselves.

Winston Churchill, who later became Britain's prime minister, had also visited Italy during this period, leaving the country with a favorable impression of the fascists as an "antidote to the Russian poison," according to the book.

Young also examines the emergence of the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and discusses how many members of the aristocracy, including Unity Mitford's family, were connected with it.

The author points out that pro-Nazi views were also found among the royal family. She mentions a 1933 video of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was seven years old at the time, giving the Nazi salute along with her mother and her younger sister, Margaret, as instructed by their uncle, future King Edward VIII. The publication of the picture in 2015 in British tabloid The Sun caused a furor and a dismissive response by the royal family.

The Queen's Nazi salute caused a stir in the UK in 2015

The book also mentions aristocrats like the Duke of Connaught and the Earl of Kincardine showing interest in visiting a concentration camp in Germany to understand how the Nazis were implementing "race purity and fitness."

It also discusses how the cornerstone of Neville Chamberlain's foreign policy was to avoid war at all costs, and this included an unspoken rule to refuse German and Austrian Jewish refugees entry into what was then British-mandated Palestine. Chamberlain, who had preceded Churchill, was British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940.

Even the Kindertransport to Britain could have been more robust and saved more Jewish children, had the British government been less eager to please Hitler, the author argues.

'Hitler's Girl'

The title of the book, "Hitler's Girl," was inspired by a headline from the British press in the 1930s about Unity Mitford, explains Young. As the title suggests, Mitford is a central figure in the book.

Born as one of seven children in the aristocratic Redesdale family, Mitford was — almost prophetically — conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario, Canada and christened Unity Valkyrie. Over the years, she and her sisters, Nancy and Diana, would grow up to become "Bright Young Things," which was the nickname given by the tabloid press to describe young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London, and flirted with the far right in Britain.

Yale lecturer and author Lauren Young

Unity's sister, Diana, famously married BUF leader Oswald Mosley. Unity herself was a fierce antisemite, completely taken in by Hitler and his personality. She even joined a finishing school in southern Germany to be able to personally meet the Führer. Altogether, she met him over 160 times.

According to Young, "everybody knew what Unity Mitford was doing. It was gossip. It was intriguing. Yet nobody thought that it was worth using her as an intelligent asset, a way to learn more about their adversary, Hitler, or even as evidence to imprison her for treason when she was repatriated to England."

The book ends with Unity Mitford coming back to England in 1939 after reportedly trying to kill herself. Despite Britain being at war with Germany, she was not tried for high treason, a subject that has been much discussed in political circles and the media at the time. She was also rumored to have had a child — possibly Hitler's child, whose birth was not recorded because the mother was not married.

The future of democracy

"Hitler's Girl" is not an attempt to find proof for what might have been, but it's about complacency and the lack of public outcry on important issues.

During the period described in the book, Chamberlain's policy of appeasement was beneficial in many respects, and there was also a groundswell of support for Hitler among the British ruling classes as well as a resurgence of right-wing movements.

'Hitler's Girl' was released this year on August 22

The author argues that there are many implicit parallels in today's world: "If we look at democratic erosion, for example, in America today, we have important warning signals like voter suppression legislation that has been enacted in 19 states just in this past year. Are we doing enough to protect our basic democratic right to vote," Young asks, citing examples like the recent landmark judgement by the Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

Ultimately, through this book, Young aims to raise awareness that "democracy is not our birth right."   

"In many cases, complacency is tantamount to complicity in the erosion of our democracy, our democratic rights, and potentially to the future as liberal democracies," she says.

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier