The right-wing turn against Ukraine may be around the corner


Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor

Columnist
Updated September 26, 2022 

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi leaves after voting in the Italian general election at a polling station in Milan on Sept. 25. (Matteo Corner/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

In a virtual address to the U.N. General Assembly last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was clear about the endgame. He dismissed making concessions to the Kremlin, called for military aid to help “return the Ukrainian flag to the entire territory,” and urged the international community to punish Russia for its invasion of his country and the alleged atrocities its forces have carried out since.

“Russia will be forced to end this war, the war it has started,” Zelensky said. “I rule out that the settlement can happen on a different basis.”

The Ukrainian president received a rare standing ovation after finishing his remarks, a sign of the global sympathy for his cause. No matter Kyiv’s frustration with the equivocation of countries in the “nonaligned” world, many of which have maintained friendly relations with Moscow as the war raged, Ukrainian officials had reason to feel heartened after diplomats aimed numerous stern rebukes of Russia at the United Nations. The disquiet with Moscow grew all the more pronounced after it took two escalatory steps last week — greenlighting illegal, sham “referendums” in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, while ordering a partial mobilization of some 300,000 more Russian troops.

Even more “neutral” powers voiced their disapproval of a Russian war effort that is widely viewed as violating international law and the principles of the U.N. Charter. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected.” His Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, warned against “egregious attacks committed in broad daylight” going “unpunished.”

But even as Russia’s international standing takes further hits, Ukraine may have reason to worry about shifting winds in the West’s democracies. Analysts have long fretted over the West’s stamina in the defense of Ukraine, aware of mounting concerns over surging energy prices and old suspicions of the liberal establishment in Brussels and Washington. That resolve has largely endured as we enter the eighth month of the conflict. But polls show flagging interest among some voters for supporting Ukraine, not least as economic challenges build up closer to home.

Electorally, Europe is seeing a mini-surge for traditionally Euroskeptic, Russia-friendly political factions. The far right has emerged as kingmakers in ongoing coalition talks in Sweden. And on Sunday, Italian voters elected what will likely be a coalition of right-wing parties led by the far-right Brothers of Italy and the charismatic politico Giorgia Meloni.

Meloni herself has rhetorically backed Kyiv in recent months, but key allies have made no secret of their affinity for the Kremlin. Matteo Salvini, head of the nativist League, has questioned the efficacy of sanctions on Russia. Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, took to Italian TV this month to defend Putin, a longtime buddy on the world stage.

“Putin was pushed by the Russian population, by his party and by his ministers to invent this special operation,” Berlusconi said. “The troops were supposed to enter, reach Kyiv within a week, replace Zelensky’s government with decent people and then leave. Instead they found resistance, which was then fed by arms of all kinds from the west.”

Center-left challenger Enrico Letta was scathing in response: “Those comments demonstrate that in part of our electoral system, on the right but not only, there are those who, in short, say: ‘Let’s stop this war, let’s give Putin what he wants.’ I find that unacceptable.”

To be sure, polling in Europe after the Feb. 24 invasion shows significant drops in approval for Russia and Putin among right-wing populist parties, especially in Italy. But, as a recent Pew survey noted, these right-wing parties still remain far more positive toward the Russian regime than the rest of the public in their societies. Such sentiments underlay a controversial planned “fact-finding” trip by politicians in Germany’s far-right AfD party to Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine, which was called off last week only after a massive backlash at the possibility of elected German officials directly boosting Putin’s propaganda machine.

As the war drags on, there are fears among both Ukrainians and Western strategists that public skepticism over the toll of sanctions on Russia — which has seen energy prices spike in Europe — and the significant financial outlay to support Kyiv may mount. Hungary’s illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long bridled at E.U. pressure on Russia, announced Monday plans to launch a “national consultation” on the continent’s sanctions regime.

There’s also the risk of growing indifference. Pew recently found that fewer Americans are concerned about the prospect of Ukrainian defeat than they were in the spring and a significant majority believe now that current aid to Ukraine is sufficient.

That’s not surprising given the tens of billions dollars of support already disbursed by the Biden administration. Pew also found that U.S. Republicans are more likely to believe their government is giving too much to Ukraine than too little. Distaste for the costs of the war are influencing the upcoming midterm elections, while a segment of the Republican base — championed by former president Donald Trump and cultivated by notoriously Putin-friendly Fox News host Tucker Carlson — has long harbored sympathy for Putin’s Russia.

“I think we’re at the point where we’ve given enough money in Ukraine,” J.D. Vance, Ohio’s Republican nominee for Senate, said this month. “I really do.”

Experts believe the latest round of congressionally sanctioned funding for Ukraine could be the last to pass smoothly through the American legislature. “It would be too simplistic to say it is one issue more than another at this point. But voters are speaking up to conservative members of Congress,” Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense expert at the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute, told Politico. “This is really driven from the grass roots to Washington and not the other way around.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are finding themselves in unusually hawkish positions compared with their domestic rivals. “The Ukrainians are making serious progress and are likely to continue to make progress into next year,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told The Washington Post. “If Republicans win the House, and word starts to leak out that they’re done funding Ukraine, that has potentially catastrophic impacts on Ukrainian morale and their ability to carry the fight.”



By Ishaan TharoorIshaan Tharoor is a columnist on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, where he authors the Today's WorldView newsletter and column. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. Twitter

Putin grants citizenship to Edward Snowden, who disclosed U.S. surveillance

By Mary Ilyushina
September 26, 2022 

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is seen on a screen during an interview via video link at the New Knowledge educational online forum in Moscow on Sept. 2, 2021. (Olesya Astakhova/Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship on Monday to Edward Snowden, the former security consultant who leaked information about top-secret U.S. surveillance programs and is still wanted by Washington on espionage charges.

Snowden, 39, was one of 72 foreigners granted citizenship in a decree signed by Putin.

Snowden, who considers himself a whistleblower, fled the United States to avoid prosecution and has been living in Russia, which granted him asylum in 2013.

Snowden was granted permanent residency in 2020, and his lawyers said at the time that he was applying to obtain a Russian passport without renouncing his U.S. citizenship.

Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Monday that Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, is also now applying for Russian citizenship. Mills joined Snowden in Moscow in 2014. They were married in 2017 and have a son together.

Kucherena also said that Snowden would not be subject to the partial military mobilization that Putin decreed last week to help Russia’s flagging war in Ukraine as Snowden never served in the Russian army. Putin said only those with previous experience would be called up in the partial mobilization though there have been widespread reports of summonses going to others, including men arrested at protests against mobilization.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Snowden’s new passport, and instead referred questions to the prosecutors seeking his extradition. “So, since I believe there have been criminal charges brought against him, we would point you to the Department of Justice for any specifics on this,” Jean-Pierre said.

Snowden’s revelations, published first in The Washington Post and the Guardian, were arguably the biggest security breach in U.S. history. The information he disclosed revealed top-secret NSA surveillance as part of a program known as PRISM and the extraction of a wide range of digital information.

In 2017, Putin said in a documentary film made by U.S. director Oliver Stone that he did not consider Snowden “a traitor” for leaking government secrets.

“As an ex-KGB agent, you must have hated what Snowden did with every fiber of your being,” Stone says in the clip.

“Snowden is not a traitor,” Putin replied. “He did not betray the interests of his country. Nor did he transfer any information to any other country which would have been pernicious to his own country or to his own people. The only thing Snowden does, he does publicly.”

In 2020, Snowden explained his decision to seek dual citizenship.

“After years of separation from our parents, my wife and I have no desire to be separated from our son. That’s why, in this era of pandemics and closed borders, we’re applying for dual US-Russian citizenship,” Snowden wrote on Twitter at the time.

“Lindsay and I will remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love — including the freedom to speak his mind. And I look forward to the day I can return to the States, so the whole family can be reunited,” Snowden added.

THE REALITY NOT THE RHETORIC

Support for independent Alberta drops to 23 per cent: poll

Author of the article: Josh Aldrich
Publishing date :Sep 02, 2022 •

Over 200,000 ballots for the UCP leadership vote are loaded 

onto a courier truck at All Rush Print and Apparel in northeast 

Calgary on Friday, September 2, 2022. Jim Wells/Postmedia

UCP leadership candidates flirting with the separation factions of the party are playing with fire.

According to a poll released by Research Co. on Friday, only 23 per cent of Albertans support the province becoming an independent country. The total has dropped two percentage points since it was last conducted in February 2021. Seventy per cent of respondents oppose the idea.

Mario Canseco, president of Research Co., said the rhetoric behind ideas like the Sovereignty Act may be good for selling memberships, but it is a short-sighted play.

“It’s the kind of thing that generates headlines, particularly within the context of a leadership race,” said Canseco. “But it’s not the kind of thing that is going to attract mainstream Alberta voters to say, ‘I’m going to get a membership of the UCP because this is exactly what I want to see happening.'”

The online poll was conducted Aug. 21-23 and received 700 adult respondents. It has a margin of error of 3.7 per cent and is statistically representative of the province and different demographics.

Several leading UCP leadership candidates have tried to capitalize on a sense of western alienation among their supporters. Brian Jean has promised a level of autonomy from Ottawa while perceived frontrunner Danielle Smith has made waves with her Sovereignty Act. Smith’s proposal would allow Alberta to opt out of federal legislation if deemed not in the best interest of the province. She says the act would be constructed with the collaboration of the UCP caucus.

On Thursday, Alberta Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani said her office would independently evaluate whether such legislation would be constitutional before signing it into law.

Premier Jason Kenney, whose impending departure prompted the leadership race, doubled down during a Friday morning radio show on previous references to the proposed act as “nuts,” this time characterizing it as “cockamamie.”

“It’s really the anarchy act or, as one conservative constitutional scholar puts it, the Alberta suicide act,” Kenney told Edmonton radio station CHED.

He said the act would be without precedent in Canadian history and would be a blow to investor confidence.

“If the government proposes (a law) saying that we will rip up contracts, we won’t enforce court orders, we’ll ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court, we’ll choose which laws we enforce, we’ll ignore the Constitution, well, what investor in their right mind would put money at risk in Alberta?”

The comments caused Smith to respond later on Friday, calling for Lakhani and Kenney to walk back the comments.

In a news release, Smith said Lakhani does not have the authority to refuse assent to bills democratically passed in the provincial legislature.

“Never in our Province’s history has an outgoing leader of a Party so brazenly and inappropriately inserted himself into the election of his successor,” she said.

“I am also concerned that the Premier appears to be using the powers and resources of his office for political purposes and truly hope that neither he, nor Justin Trudeau, were involved with the remarks given by the Lieutenant Governor yesterday. Such influence would be inappropriate in the extreme.”

The challenge for the eventual successor to Kenney is to also secure a provincial election victory next year.

Support for independence was at 21 per cent in Calgary, 24 per cent in Edmonton and 29 per cent in rural Alberta. Support did grow depending on how many provinces joined in separation to 24 per cent with the other Prairie provinces and to 30 per cent with B.C.’s inclusion. Canseco noted it is not a concept that has wide support on Canada’s West Coast, generally tracking at 10-15 per cent when the question has been asked.

The most revealing part of the survey was on identity, with 45 per cent of UCP supporters viewing themselves as Albertans first and Canadians second and only 17 per cent of NDP supporters carrying this view.


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Smith attacks Kenney's criticism of Alberta Sovereignty Act proposal as 'nuts'

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Canseco said this has the potential to be a wedge issue for the electorate and could drive enough supporters to other options to split the vote in critical ridings, and allow the NDP to pick up more seats.

“So there’s that tendency for the UCP voters who say, ‘Well, I’m not really going through with Danielle Smith and the stuff she’s talking about related to our place in the country, maybe I look at the Alberta Party as an option.'”

jaldrich@postmedia.com
Twitter: @JoshAldrich03

LOONEY TUNES

Danielle Smith’s dead political career?

It’s alive … with a vengeance!

by David J. Climenhaga

ALBERTA POLITICS/RABBLE.CA

September 26, 2022

Politically attentive Albertans are starting to realize Danielle Smith really is likely to be premier soon.
D

anielle Smith in 2014, around the time she led many of her Wildrose Party MLAs across the floor to join the Progressive Conservative Party; disaster followed. 

Credit: Dave Cournoyer


Last week politically attentive Albertans began to realize that Danielle Smith really is likely to win the United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership race and will soon be sworn in as premier of Alberta.

If that gives you a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach, you’re not alone.

Nevertheless, it’s now sinking in across the political spectrum that the former Wildrose leader who came close to becoming premier in the 2012 provincial election has finally done something right and is about to fulfill her ambition.

What comes after that, of course, remains a topic of conjecture.

So far, Smith has never had a political triumph that wasn’t followed by a political catastrophe. She seems to possess a sort of reverse Midas touch.

Back in 2012, as is well remembered, Smith’s Wildrose Alliance Party appeared to be on the brink of success when it was sunk by a sudden storm on a Lake of Fire brewed up by an evangelical candidate who didn’t know when to keep his lips zipped.

The revelation enabled Smith, who failed to condemn Pastor Allan Hunsperger’s words, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

In 2014, Smith seemed to pound the final nail into the coffin of her political career when as Opposition leader she persuaded most of her caucus to cross the floor to join the Progressive Conservative government of then-premier Jim Prentice.

In the spring of 2015, her career looked dead on arrival when voters in the Highwood Riding she had represented imposed the supreme political penalty for what they saw as the betrayal of her own party. She lost the battle for the PC nomination, knocked off by an Okotoks city councillor.

“I am leaving public life,” she texted to a reporter who asked her about her political future on the night of the nomination vote. She followed up by telling the reporter to “piss off” when she dared to ask a follow-up question. A month and a half later, Albertans elected a majority NDP government and sent Rachel Notley to the Premier’s Office.

Now we’re about to have to get used to talking about Premier Danielle Smith.

You can sense the other UCP leadership campaigns giving up, even former finance minister Travis Toews’s effort, which had legs.

Even poor old Brian Jean, the other former Wildrose leader who more than anyone else was responsible for successfully undermining Premier Jason Kenney’s campaign to survive last spring’s leadership review seems to be fading from the scene.

The MLA for Ft. McMurray-Lac La Biche, elected in March in a by-election on a campaign of getting rid of Kenney, already appears to have absorbed the lesson that “the hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown.”

Friday he posted an amateurish video on social media pretending to chop taxes with a large plastic Viking axe while yakking with a guy supposedly dressed like a Norse god.

You can see conservative mainstream media – the only kind of mainstream media there is in Alberta – trimming its sails to accommodate the not-very-fresh new breeze.

On Monday, a well-connected political columnist published a piece suggesting talk of the government melting down or splitting up if Smith is elected was all just political pish-posh.

Don’t worry, folks, Smith will forgive her enemies, hinted Don Braid. The UCP will remain united. “Recently Smith’s campaign has been privately sending out conciliatory messages to other candidates,” he said soothingly.

On Tuesday, another well-connected political columnist with the same employer reported vague details about an internal poll done for Smith’s campaign that showed her far ahead among UCP members eligible to vote in the leadership election.

If Rick Bell’s numbers were right, the only question remaining is whether she’ll win on the first ballot or will have to wait for the second or third.

Details were scarce, and there was some scoffing. But by Friday there was a low buzz that polls by other campaigns were netting similar results.

Conservative politicians formerly aligned with other candidates are starting to slip over to Smith’s side too, trying to repair any damage from their earlier critical comments about the economic harm the frontrunner’s promise of an unconstitutional “Sovereignty Act” will do.

Senior campaigners for other candidates are switching their allegiance to Smith as well.

And even some of Kenney’s ministers are obviously thinking about what they’ll have to do to stay in Smith’s good graces, and her cabinet – Kaycee Madu, c’mon down!

Thursday, the same columnist published a fanciful column suggesting Smith’s separatist legislation will have no impact on business investment.

He trotted out an announcement about an airplane plant planned east of Calgary – obviously a decision made long ago and quite possibly intended as a union-busting strategy – as proof passing the Sovereignty Act, which will supposedly allow Alberta to ignore federal laws, will do no economic harm.

Wednesday, just in case, Braid wrote a column suggesting Toews is still a player. But at this late hour you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

Despite knowing she will have been chosen for the job by less than 3.5 per cent of the province’s voters, Smith is still vowing to press ahead with her Sovereignty Act – or, as Kenney’s former principal secretary recently called it, the Alberta Suicide Act.

Once her selection is official, UCP MLAs, even those who have been very critical of the crazier aspects of her campaign, will close ranks. Count on it, she will have no trouble passing the Sovereignty Act, no matter who said what about it.

Her post-victory strategy will likely involve trimming her own sails to sound more moderate.

But it seems likely she’ll nevertheless press on with her Sovereignty schtick and stick to her plans to throw the province’s health care system into chaos through decentralization and a politicized inquisition into its conduct through the pandemic, revenge for to public health measures to control COVID-19 hated by the UCP base.

Smith is, after all, both a COVID skeptic and a utopian market fundamentalist.

She will have lots on money on hand to distract us from the harm she plans.

Still, the potential for a political or economic catastrophe is high.

Well, you have to give Smith this much: If she pulls a victory off on Oct. 6, it will rightly be regarded as the most remarkable political recoveries in Alberta history.

Fasten your seatbelts!

Corb Lund wants UCP front-runners to promise ban on new coal mines: 'It's a stupid idea'

Corb Lund in a social media video posted on September 20, 2022 

(Source: Facebook).

Sean Amato
CTV News Edmonton
Published Sept. 21, 2022

Alberta country artist Corb Lund delivered a familiar tune with a fresh twist Tuesday, when he called on UCP leadership candidates to make their coal policies "crystal clear" ahead of the final votes being cast.

Lund went public in January 2021 with his criticism of plans to establish new coal mines in and around the province's Rocky Mountains.

The outcry from him and others prompted the United Conservative Party government to back down from its position to remove a coal policy that had been in place since 1976.

"The government would like you to think that the coal issue in Alberta has been dealt with and has been put to bed, and it very much has not been," Lund stated in a Twitter video.

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"All the indications I've seen and heard is that the foreign coal companies are working away in the background, biding their time, trying to get those mines in, whether the Alberta public wants it or not."

Lund argues that the risk of polluting water and agricultural land is not worth a "handful of jobs" in new mines. He worries long-term effects could harm the farming and tourism industries that other workers rely on.

"I'm not against resources, I'm not. I'm just against this idea cause this is a stupid idea. There should not be any new coal mines in the Rockies in Alberta," Lund stated.

Lund named frontrunners Brian Jean, Travis Toews and Danielle Smith and asked for their platforms on coal.
BRIAN JEAN

Jean responded to Lund by saying he shares concerns about Alberta's watershed. He didn't, however, specifically say he would ban all new mines.

After speaking with ranchers in the foothills of southern Alberta, Jean stated he is against "the Kenney government's efforts to dramatically expand coal mining."

"These folks who have always been conservative voters know that in B.C., just over the Rockies, there have been water problems with coal mining companies not doing things right. We have to do things better in Alberta.

TRAVIS TOEWS

Toews also tweeted a response to Lund that did not commit to stopping new mines.

Instead, Toews promised to implement the recommendations of the Alberta Coal Policy Committee which he feels will improve consultation, reclamation and Indigenous input on mines.

"Implementing these recommendations will create the certainty that investors need to commit to new projects, creating jobs and keeping communities vibrant," Toews stated.

Smith did not respond to Lund on Twitter. A spokesperson for her told CTV News Edmonton that he would work on getting a response from the candidate.

Alberta's website said Wednesday that coal lease sales and exploration activity remain paused

on lands classified as Category 2 in the Coal Policy and that changes would be subject to "widespread consultation."

Lund is asking a fair question, political scientist Lori Williams said, adding it's a shame it wasn't asked before UCP mail-in voting began.

Candidates have spent most of the race speaking about Alberta autonomy, COVID-19 policies, and "freedom" rather than healthcare, affordability and issues like coal mining, Williams pointed out.

"They really have not addressed the front and centre issues for most Albertans. I think it's a failure of the race, a failure of the candidates and it may lead to their failure as candidates or as a party in the next election," she told CTV News Edmonton.

Mail-in voting in the UCP leadership race started earlier this month and in-person voting and results are scheduled to happen Oct. 6.

With files from The Canadian Press

Australian coal company files nearly $4B lawsuit over Alberta's ban on new exploration

Atrum Coal Ltd. of Australia and its subsidiary, Elan Coal Ltd. have filed a $3.83-billion claim

Author of the article: Kevin Martin
Publishing date:Sep 21, 2022 • 4 days ago 

In 2021, the Alberta government imposed an indefinite moratorium on coal exploration in the area north of Crowsnest Pass.

 PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RIVERSDALE RESOURCES

The province is facing another multibillion-dollar lawsuit over its decision to end all new coal-related exploration on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
\
Atrum Coal Ltd. of Australia and its subsidiary, Elan Coal Ltd., have filed a $3.83-billion claim against the provincial government over its decision last March to impose an indefinite moratorium on coal exploration in the area north of Crowsnest Pass.

The claim, filed in Calgary Court of King’s Bench, is at least the second multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed against the province this year over the decision to end coal mining in the Eastern Slopes.

It says Elan acquired coal lease applications in 2012 or 2013, that were “for the purpose of developing a metallurgical (steel-making) coal project on three different sites in southwestern Alberta.

“In total, the Elan Project has an estimated 486 million tonnes of metallurgical . . . coal and an approximate 34-year mine life,” the lawsuit says.

It says just one of the three proposed projects would create about 500 direct jobs, 650 indirect jobs and provide more than $2.38 billion in taxes and $450 million in royalties.

Atrum acquired Elam in March 2018 at a time when Alberta’s existing policy on coal exploration and development “both allowed and encouraged coal exploration and development in the lands underlying the Elan Coal Leases.”

The effect of Alberta’s actions has deprived the two companies of the value of the leases and caused Atrum’s share price to plunge from 30 cents Australian per share to one cent.

“As such, Alberta is liable to Atrum and Elan in the amount of approximately CAD$3.53 billion,” it states.

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The lawsuit also seeks an additional $300 million for losses to shareholders.

“Notwithstanding Alberta’s immediate, indefinite and complete ban on coal exploration and development, Alberta has not compensated, nor offered compensation, Atrum or Elan.”

The court document says Elam holds coal leases on about 223 square kilometres of Crown lands in southwestern Alberta approximately 40 kilometres north of Coleman.

“The Elan Project is made up of three distinct project areas: Isolation South, Elan South and he Northern Tenements,” it says.

“Isolation South has a mine life of about 19 years. Developing Elan South and the Northern Tenements would add at least another 15 years to the life of the Elan Project.”

Calgary-based Cabin Ridge Project Ltd. and its parent company, Cabin Ridge Holdings Ltd., also filed a more than $3.4-billion claim about three months ago.

A statement of defence disputing Atrum and Elan’s unproven claim has not been filed.

KMartin@postmedia.com
Twitter: @KMartinCourts

Notley promises end to 'double breasting' in Alberta in slew of labour pitches

Author of the article: Lisa Johnson
Publishing date: Sep 23, 2022 

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley speaks at Alberta Municipalities convention and trade show at Calgary Telus Convention Centre on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. 

Alberta Opposition Leader Rachel Notley is building a labour policy platform that would go beyond what her NDP government did while in office.

In a speech to a Building Trades of Alberta (BTA) convention in Jasper Tuesday, Notley said if New Democrats form government in Alberta’s next general election, they will end the practice known as “double breasting” — employing non-union workers and unionized employees in separate company branches.

The practice has been decried by labour advocates as unfair, but changes were put off during the NDP’s tenure.

Notley said at the time, there was a shortage of jobs rather than skilled labourers, and experts warned “unintended consequences” could drag the economy.

Now, she said that’s changed, adding the practice undermines union bargaining power.

“We have a shortage of skilled labor in this province and we are struggling to bring them back because of these kinds of negative pressures on wages, and double breasting is a big part of that.”

Among the slew of election-style pledges, Notley said an NDP government would immediately begin work on a construction policy that would see requirements for things like worker diversity and fair wages when government-funded projects go out to tender.

She said the specific requirements would need to be worked out in consultation, but could be modelled after a similar policy in British Columbia.

“It’s about ensuring that government procurement promotes diversity, and prioritizes local workforces, fair wages and supports strong communities,” she said, noting that New Democrats started a related pilot project near the end of their term.

“This is about scaling up from that,” she said.

While in government, the NDP overhauled labour laws, expanding worker protections and compensation measures, but many were later rolled back by the UCP.

Notley fought against those moves and is promising a string of repeals, including ensuring overtime hours are paid at time and a half, and eliminating the lower $13-per-hour youth minimum wage introduced by the UCP.

The Building Trades of Alberta represents about 60,000 workers in the skilled trades and 18 local trade unions.

Tyler Bedford, BTA’s director of communications, told Postmedia the organization is non-partisan but has been pushing all levels of government for social procurement rules, saying they would help get local people working, and help ensure that women and Indigenous apprentices get on the job.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” he said.

Bedford said the BTA is also looking forward to seeing the issue of double breasting addressed.

“(It) can really lead to a kind of competitive race to the bottom when it comes to wages,” he said.

Notley offered more dedicated funding to union shops in their training and apprenticeships efforts, beginning with $3 million, but expanding exponentially if demand is met.

The UCP government has long placed a premium on trades and apprenticeship programs, while overseeing years of budget cuts to post-secondaries like the University of Alberta.

On Friday, Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Niccolaides announced $15 million over three years to expand post-secondary apprenticeship programs.


lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix

Braid: Government hypocrisy on re-indexing offends all seven UCP candidates

In Jason Kenney's waning days as premier, the UCP is exhibiting odd and arguably heartless views on inflation and AISH payments

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date :Sep 23, 2022 •

UCP leadership candidates, left to right: Todd Loewen, Danielle Smith, Rajan Sawhney, Rebecca Schulz, Leela Aheer, Travis Toews, and Brian Jean, take part in a debate in Medicine Hat in July 27, 2022.

 Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press/File

In Jason Kenney’s waning days as premier, the UCP is exhibiting odd and arguably heartless views on inflation and AISH payments.

The province will restore 4.5 cents per litre of gasoline tax on Oct. 1. This is part of the policy announced in April, when the UCP suspended the 13-cents-a-litre provincial tax, but also said the levy would return in stages when oil prices fell.

From mid-August to mid-September, oil prices dropped to an average of US$89.26 a barrel. This triggered an increase of 4.5 cents at the pumps, beginning Oct. 1.

Gasoline prices have fallen considerably since spring, when they approached $1.90 per litre. On Friday, Calgary prices ran in the mid-$1.20 range to about $1.45.

These falling pump prices have almost single-handedly lowered the national inflation rate, which was seven per cent in August.

But adding any tax to the pump price now, even 4.5 cents, is an inflationary measure. It puts new pressure on the one sector that was falling even as others are rising inexorably, especially for food.

Another key measure is re-indexing personal income tax to inflation, which the UCP announced Aug. 31. This means Albertans will pay $304 million less tax in 2022-23.

De-indexing, which the UCP had begun in 2019, had already cost taxpayers $647 million from 2020 to 2022.

The re-indexing is exceptionally good news for regular Albertans in a time of high inflation.

Of course, re-indexing is also inflationary because it leaves people with more money to spend.

This is where heartless hypocrisy enters the picture.

At the same time tax re-indexing was announced, the government said payments for disadvantaged Albertans, including recipients of Alberta Income for the Severely Handicapped, or AISH, would NOT be re-indexed.

The government insists that payment levels for this benefit are 37 per cent higher than the second-most generous province. The NDP insists that’s simply not true.

A single Albertan living on AISH in the community receives $1,685 a month — not much to live on, no matter what the benefit might be elsewhere.


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Alberta UCP leadership candidate Travis Toews would reindex AISH by Jan. 1

Alberta partially reinstating fuel tax next month as NDP calls for longer delay

Inflation now takes seven per cent or more from that value. AISH recipients will continue to be hit with real-world reductions in payments.

On Sept. 7 Kenney was asked about the failure to re-index AISH and other benefits.

He cited the province’s high payments as a key reason. He also warned that the government has to contain costs because revenues might not stay high.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of our skis,” he said, adding that the province “can’t make the mistake of jacking up our spending.”

He also painted re-indexing of AISH as an inflationary measure.

“We don’t want to add fuel to the fire of inflation as some governments are doing by spending more and more,” he said, when speaking about AISH.

Finance Minister Jason Nixon made much the same argument.

Well then, why de-index income tax? Why raise gasoline prices? Both measures are inflationary and have a much bigger impact on the general economy than AISH.

All the UCP leadership candidates condemn the government’s failure to re-index AISH.

Rajan Sawhney, who as social services minister fought pressure to cut the program, says, “I was the first to say I will commence indexing.”

UCP leadership candidate Leela Aheer. 

Vincent McDermott/Postmedia

Leela Aheer also claims first place. “I was the first to put that out when I declared I was running.”

Rebecca Schulz says: “Re-indexing other supports, including personal income tax, but not seniors and AISH benefits, is not fair, isn’t aligned with the feedback I’ve heard, and is not flagrant spending.”

Todd Loewen, the most small-c conservative of all the candidates, also calls for re-indexing.

Travis Toews, who was treasurer when de-indexing was announced, says “I will re-index those programs where we paused indexation, and that includes AISH.”

Danielle Smith states: “If elected premier, I will urge caucus and Treasury Board to immediately approve the indexing of AISH and other benefit programs for low-income seniors and the vulnerable. It’s simply the right thing to do.”

Brian Jean, too, calls for AISH recipients to get the full benefit of re-indexing.

“I am also open to working with AISH advocates to increase the amount of money recipients can earn before their support gets clawed back,” Jean says. “It’s the right thing to do given what’s happening to the cost of necessities.”

Remarkably, all seven candidates to replace Kenney condemn a decision made by their own government during the leadership campaign. It was that hypocritical.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Calgary Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid

Arctic Sea Ice Tied for 10th-Lowest on Record

September 18, 2022JPEG

According to satellite observations, Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on September 18, 2022. The ice cover shrank to an area of 4.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles) this year, roughly 1.55 million square kilometers (598,000 square miles) below the 1981-2010 average minimum of 6.22 million square kilometers (2.40 million square miles).

The map at the top of this page shows the sea ice extent on September 18, 2022. Sea ice extent is defined as the total area in which ice concentration is at least 15 percent.

September 18, 2022


Summer ice extent in and around the Arctic Ocean has declined significantly since satellites began measuring it consistently in 1978. The past 16 years (2007 to 2022) have been the lowest 16 minimum extents, with 2022 tying 2017 and 2018 for 10th-lowest in 44 years of observations. The satellite record is maintained by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which hosts one of NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Centers.

“This year marks a continuation of the much-reduced sea ice cover since the 1980s,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “That is not something that is random variations or chance. It represents a fundamental change in the ice cover in response to warming temperatures.”

Each year, Arctic sea ice melts through the warmer spring and summer months and usually reaches its minimum extent in September. As cooler weather and winter darkness sets in, the ice will grow again and reach its maximum extent around March.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Story by Roberto Molar Candanosa/NASA’s Earth Science News Team.

The summer 2022 extent of Arctic sea ice continued the downward trend under way since the 1980s.

Image of the Day for September 25, 2022Instruments:DMSP — SSM/IDMSP — SSMISNimbus 7 — SMMR

Image of the Day Heat Water Snow and Ice Remote Sensing Sea and Lake Ice

Annual Sea Ice Extremes

Every year, the frozen seawater in the Arctic Ocean and around Antarctica reaches a maximum and minimum extent.

References & ResourcesNASA Earth Observatory (2021, January 6) The Long Decline of Arctic Sea Ice.
NASA’s Earth Science News Team (2022, September 22) 2022 Arctic Summer Sea Ice Tied for 10th-Lowest on Record.

Why the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation isn't just another stat holiday

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‘The gravity of the day isn't really understood or 

acknowledged,’ says professor

Stephanie Hogan · CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 24, 2022 

One year after the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, some wonder what the best way is to mark it and advance reconciliation. (Ivanoh Demers/CBC)

Unreserved46:20Making the most of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

On Sept. 30, Canada will mark its second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a time to commemorate children who died while being forced to attend church-run and government-funded residential schools, those who survived and made it home, their families and communities still affected by the lasting trauma. 

But despite the goal of the day, there is evidence that it's not necessarily clear to all Canadians exactly what the day is for or how it can be best used to advance reconciliation. 

"The gravity of the day isn't really understood or acknowledged," Eva Jewell, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and research director at the Yellowhead Institute, told Unreserved's Rosanna Deerchild. 

• Trudeau flew to Tofino, B.C., with family on 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Parliament approved the federal statutory holiday last year — days after the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation confirmed the discovery of 215 potential burial sites on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had called for its creation six years earlier as one of its 94 calls to action. 

Jewell, who is Anishinaabe from Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, says the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is perhaps still developing "an identity," and that while Indigenous peoples should be deciding how the day is observed, there needs to be a wider, collective conversation.

"I don't think it's sustainable for Indigenous peoples to have to trot out our trauma year after year. And I don't think that it's OK for Canadians to just sit back and consume our hardships," she said.

Eva Jewell, professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and research director at the Yellowhead Institute, says it's 'not sustainable for Indigenous peoples to have to trot out our trauma year after year.' (Submitted by Eva Jewell)

Ongoing inequities

Jewell believes that the day is a time for Canadians to reflect on the foundation of their country, "which is rooted in Indigenous genocide."

She would like to see Canadians reflect on "the ongoing inequities that we still face" such as high rates of child apprehensions, poverty and incarceration of Indigenous people, and what can be done in response.

"I can see it being a day where we can reflect on what Canada is really doing structurally as a country to relieve those burdens from Indigenous peoples," she said. 

She suggests there is great power in organizing at a local level and encourages people to lobby local politicians — municipal, provincial or federal — and ask them what their plans are to implement the 94 calls to action.'

Small gestures go a long way

"A huge part of reconciliation is understanding how small, genuine gestures contribute to the great reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people," says Sabre Pictou Lee, a Mi'kmaq advocate and researcher with Archipel Research and Consulting.

"Reconciliation means Indigenous communities having access to their lands in ways that they can act on treaty rights," she said. "It means that non-Indigenous people are benefiting from stewardship arrangements in safe and clean drinking water, in safe and healthy agricultural initiatives.

"It means developing a nation where our partnership has been centred and the well-being of the greater community is centred."

Indigenous advocate and researcher Sabre Pictou Lee says even the smallest gesture can go a long way toward reconciliation. (Submitted by Sabre Pictou Lee)

Shawn Francis, who is from the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick, works to bring back the Wolastoqiyik language and culture to his community. He suggests Canadians can wear an orange shirt or a pin on Sept. 30 to acknowledge what happened to Indigenous children — but not to stop there. 

"You wear it to honour the children for that day. But when you take it off, you still have to realize that you still have to have that in your heart, to honour the children that didn't come home."

• Why these Indigenous youth are part of the search for missing children from residential schools

Mindset of 'get over it'

Ian Thomas, who is from Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation and works as director for First Nations and Métis Relations at the Saskatoon Health Authority, says he would like to see Canadians attend an event on Sept. 30, either in person or virtually, "to really sit with an open heart and mind, to hear the stories of survivors."

Ian Thomas, director for First Nations and Métis Relations at the Saskatoon Health Authority, urges people who believe Indigenous peoples should just 'get over it' to examine what that 'it' truly is, and where their feelings come from. (Submitted by Ian Thomas)

He says too often he's heard the old refrain of "get over it" from non-Indigenous people. He encourages people with that mindset to instead "sit within themselves and think … 'What is that it that I'm saying they should get over?' and to really unpack that and where those feelings are coming from."

"I think that's really going to empower people to take a step to [consider], 'OK, what can I do as a treaty person on treaty land, you know, as a Canadian? What's my role in that? How can I support this healing?' "

Kayla Littlepoplar, Indigenous Youth Leader at BGC Canada, says non-Indigenous Canadians can help in the healing by listening to Indigenous voices and working toward making their communities more inclusive. (BGC Canada)

Kayla Littlepoplar has suggestions for how that can be accomplished. The 17-year-old from Sweetgrass First Nation is the 2022 Indigenous Youth of the Year and is also the first Indigenous Young Leader at BGC Canada —  formerly the Boys and Girls Club. She says non-Indigenous Canadians can be part of the healing by listening to Indigenous voices, offering a helping hand and working toward making their communities more inclusive. 

"Maybe buy some beadwork from an Indigenous vendor, buy some bannock, support Indigenous artists, and just really take the day to respect Indigenous cultures and celebrate Indigenous cultures as people should be doing every day," said Littlepoplar.

Enlightenment key to reconciliation

The president of the Native Women's Association of Canada urges people to drop by any of the organization's events planned for Sept. 30, which will include films, talks and stories. 

Carol McBride, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, is hopeful that there will be reconciliation at one point. (Lindsey Gibeau)

"If someone would just venture in and see what we have to share, I believe that they'll leave with a little bit more history of our country," said Carol McBride, who is an Algonquin leader and Elder from Timiskaming First Nation. 

"It will enlighten their knowledge in what exactly happened with the Indigenous people of this country. And I think by knowing that history, I think we'll come together and we will reconcile at one point."

Lakehead University, where Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux is Chair for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, has given all staff and students the day off on Sept. 30.

Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux of Lakehead University says reconciliation means 'a change in the face of Aboriginal Canada for everyone.' (Submitted by Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux)

She says that rather than "go home and play video games," she hopes people will take part in something related to the day.

"We are asking people to take the time to pause and learn something about Canada's history. And that history is inclusive of them, whether they were born here, whether they immigrated here, whether they're Indigenous," said Wesley-Esquimaux, who is from the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.

"Reconciliation means to me a change in the face of Aboriginal Canada for everyone."

• Where you buy your orange shirt matters — here's why

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