NATIONALISTS ARE RACISTS

Quebec Immigration Minister Jean Boulet Apologized For Saying 80% Of Immigrants Don't Work

Sofia Misenheimer - Yesterday  - mtlblog

Quebec's immigration minister has backtracked on comments that a majority of immigrants in the province have a poor work ethic and aren't well-integrated into society. At a debate in Mauricie last week, Jean Boulet asserted, "80% of immigrants go to Montreal, do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to the values of Quebec society." He apologized on Wednesday, following widespread backlash, saying he misrepresented what he actually thinks about immigrants.



"I'm sorry for expressing my thoughts poorly. The circulating clip does not reflect what I think. We must continue to focus on the reception, francization and integration of immigrants, who are an asset to Quebec," Boulet tweeted.

Statistics Canada reports that over 80% of immigrants to the province can speak conversational French, and over 66% use the language more than English in daily interactions.

Quebec Liberal politicians were swift to denounce Boulet's rhetoric.

"What have you been doing since 2018? You are the outgoing immigration minister, your government has even implemented a values test. Tell us about your regionalization record instead of spreading your prejudices," posted Monsef Derraji, a representative for the Nelligan electoral district in Montreal.

Meanwhile, Mayor Valerie Plante called on Boulet to take back his remarks. "Montreal is a welcoming place for immigrants, who contribute to the economic, social and cultural vitality and to the dynamism of French," she tweeted.

Boulet came under similar fire last December after calling for the closure of Roxham Road, which he claimed had become a "sieve" for asylum seekers who were putting Quebecers at risk for COVID-19. He later admitted, "I don't have statistics that these people caused outbreaks."

Premier François Legault announced on Wednesday that, if re-elected, he would replace Boulet as Immigration Minister.

Thousands of Virginia students walk out in protest at governor’s trans proposals

Gloria Oladipo - Yesterday 


Thousands of Virginia high school students walked out of school on Tuesday to protest proposed guidelines put forward by Governor Glenn Youngkin that would restrict protections for transgender students.


Photograph: AP© Provided by The Guardian

Students from nearly 100 high schools staged walkouts across the state to protest the new policies, holding signs criticizing the guidelines and waving pride flags in support of their LGBTQ+ peers.

“We decided to hold these walkouts as kind of a way to … disrupt schools and have students be aware of what’s going on,” said high school senior Natasha Sanghvi to NBC Washington. Sanghvi is part of Pride Liberation Project, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group that helped organize the walkouts.

Lauren Truong, 16, who led dozens of her schoolmates in a walkout, said several LGBTQ+ students she knows are fearful of how the new policies could impact them. “We want our school districts to stand up for us and support us and say that they’ll reject these guidelines,” Truong told the Washington Post.

On 17 September, the Virginia Department of Education announced several rewritten policies affecting transgender students in classrooms. The policy reversals, which are currently under 30-day public comment period, would require students to use school facilities that match their biological sex and make it more difficult for students to change names and gender pronouns by requiring parents to give their approval for students who are minors.

Advocates say the new policies are transphobic and risk the health and safety of transgender students, who could be outed to their parents.

They add the suggested policies are especially difficult for students who had grown used to protections established under the administration of former governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat.

Several students at the protest expressed their fear and disappointment at how the new policies could impact them and their peers.

High school senior Casey Calabia, who is non-binary, told a local news station of Youngkin and the proposed guidelines: “I am scared of this man. My friends are scared of this man. How can he stand there and say he loves this country and loves this state if he wants to hurt us?”

Calabia said they have experienced being misgendered and bullied at their previous school before transferring to a more inclusive environment. They worry about how the policies and increased intolerance could impact the mental health of transgender students.

“I nearly committed suicide. These are really kids who are scared out of their minds because of this policy,” Calabia said.

Students also decried the political nature of the proposed rollbacks, especially as Republican politicians continue to advance policies that target LGBTQ+ students in and outside of the classroom.

“These revised guidelines will only hurt students in a time when students are facing unparalleled mental health challenges, and are a cruel attempt to politicize the existence of LGBTQIA+ students for political gain,” said Pride Liberation Project in a statement.

If approved by the state’s superintendent after the public comment period, Youngkin’s proposal could still face legal challenges, say experts, especially given recent federal protections for transgender students that allow them to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity.

Edmonton councillors urged to include precariously housed people in creating affordable housing solutions

Lauren Boothby - Yesterday 

The best way to meet the needs of precariously housed people in Edmonton is to respect and include them in creating solutions, a council committee heard Tuesday morning.


Wet streets reflect the lights from City Hall on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in Edmonton.

More than a dozen people urged the community and public services committee to hear and reflect their wishes and experiences as the city updates its affordable housing strategy . Difficulty affording a place to live, problems navigating and getting support from the social services and housing systems, and desiring to be treated with dignity were common themes.

Some said they didn’t think politicians would really listen.

Twilene Moisson said she was forced to leave her home after someone damaged her door while she was hospitalized for COVID-19. She began to cry after speaking about a history of abuse, saying people need to stop painting everyone who is homeless with the same brush.

“After you pay rent, you’ve paid your bills, you’re lucky if you can barely buy groceries,” she said. “They set people up here, and then they knock them down, and now we’re all living in tents — it’s coming winter … People walk around and shun these guys? They work harder than any goddamn person that works hard in a paying job.”

Sydonie Okheema moved to Edmonton from the Northwest Territories expecting it would be an affordable place to live. But she spends nearly half of her income on rent, saying if the city wants to end poverty they need to address the cost of rent.

“We’re human. There’s stuff that happens, or you lose a job. That can happen to anyone at any time.”
Newcomer challenges

Ali Mahdi, speaking on behalf of Multicultural Health Brokers , an agency helping newcomer Edmonton families navigate government bureaucracies , said newcomers are in a housing crisis. He sees first-hand their struggles with affordability and says there needs to be more affordable rental homes with several bedrooms to accommodate large families.

“If we do not address the housing crisis of the newcomer and refugee population, it will lead to a new generation and demographic of homelessness. This is why the city should give the housing crisis for our population the same priority as the housing projects for the homeless population.”

Graham Nserko told councillors he’s been caught in a cycle he can’t get out of. He came to Canada as an international student but had to leave school before completing his degree because of family and financial issues. He couldn’t work because of his immigration issues, started couch surfing, and then became homeless during the pandemic.

“It feels like you’re just stuck in a system, and that system just keeps rolling. If you roll with it, you’re lucky. If it leaves you behind, you’re left behind,” he said.
Related
Edmonton expects housing affordability shortage by 2026 hitting nearly 60,000 households, mostly renters
Deaths due to homelessness in Edmonton up by 70 per cent last year: advocacy group

Direct investment in affordable and supportive housing, leveraging funds from the province and federal government, investment in housing social supports, and leveraging city-owned lands to improve the affordable housing supply were some of the most common themes heard in engagement by the city.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who was grateful social design and research firm InWithForward facilitated many of Tuesday’s speakers, said these stories will help the city meet peoples’ needs including rental housing and social supports.

“We have a huge need for deep subsidy in housing, particularly those who are renters, and that’s where we need to focus,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Looking at what people are saying and then finding solutions based on their lived experience — I think it is going to help us make better decisions in the long run.”

Coun. Keren Tang wants to dig deeper into these stories because they give a glimpse of where the system is failing people, she said.

“I think for too long, we haven’t really honed in on those voices … they’re struggling to get by and survive,” she said.

She wants the city to look at how its regulations could be contributing to problems, such as having people living in vehicles being evicted from city-owned parking lots.
Affordable housing shortage

Edmonton is expecting a housing shortage impacting 59,000 households in core housing need, including a shortage of 40,000 affordable rentals, by 2026.

A new housing needs assessment by the city for its updated affordable housing strategy found housing policies and programs must focus on renters, and governments need to make deliberate plans to address this as the private market will not be able to solve it. Some groups, including people with disabilities or health and mobility challenges, single mothers, seniors, Indigenous peoples, and those with mental health and addictions issues are faring worse than others.

Ahead of Wednesday’s homeless count in Edmonton, Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH) said homelessness is the tip of the iceberg where housing becomes unaffordable.

“ECOHH wants people to send the premier and the prime minister a message that it is time for a significant investment in non-market housing to end this long-drawn out pain,” president Nadine Chalifoux said in a news release.
Committee recommends funding End Poverty Edmonton

Meantime, End Poverty Edmonton (EPE) representatives were on the defensive Monday as councillors questioned the not-for-profit on its approach and effectiveness, and its progress toward fixing problems highlighted in a scathing analysis by the city last year.

That analysis found EPE couldn’t show what impact it was making on poverty, didn’t have a way to measure its success, lacked involvement of people in poverty, lacked clarity and transparency in governance, and there was a general lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities within the organization.

Ultimately, councillors voted to give EPE the $600,000 held back last year, but funding will need to be finalized at a future city council meeting.

Committee members questioned EPE representatives ahead of the vote about how they can ensure they are making headway on their goals.

“Ultimately, are we making progress to end poverty?” executive director Erick Ambtman responded on Monday, adding they will soon release metrics for measuring success.

Sohi said he needs to see a clear plan and progress toward the “systems change” the group is working towards.

“I continue to support the work you’re doing, but I just want to know the path and demonstrating value for money, that these are transformative changes we are making that will give us benefits not next year, but maybe five or 10 years from now.”

Coun. Jo-Anne Wright asked if the “chaotic and disorganized culture” identified in an updated report from this year has changed since then.

Ambtman believed the issue had been sorted. EPE, he said, has gone through an elaborate human resources overhaul, the governance issues are being sorted out and clear work plans are being created.

Tang said she’s seeing progress and looks forward to the work on metrics EPE will release soon.

“Recognizing there are still some of these ongoing issues that need to be resolved … I just want to flag that is something I will continue to keep my eye out for,” she said. “While poverty is difficult to measure and quantify, I think there is a way to tell really compelling stories about how we are alleviating that.”

Despite voting in favour Monday, Wright said she wasn’t sure how she will vote when this comes to council.

“I was hoping to have seen more results from it, so I will take the time to be thoughtful about it.”

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby

TRC head questions why Catholic Church didn't sell property to compensate victims

OTTAWA — The former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says the argument Ottawa made in 2015 that the Catholic Church was unlikely to raise the money it promised to residential school survivors is "blatantly dishonest."


TRC head questions why Catholic Church didn't sell property to compensate victims

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Murray Sinclair, a former senator, also believes the current Liberal government should seek outside legal advice on the final agreement that released Catholic entities of their remaining financial obligations, including raising $25 million for survivors.

"I don't think that Justice Canada has come out very well, not only in regard to this, but with regard to other matters, including the fact that it advocates so strongly against the interests of survivors," he told The Canadian Press in an interview earlier this month.

"I think that relationship needs to be looked at more closely."

Documents released to The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request detail the reasons Ottawa decided not to appeal a 2015 court decision that ruled in favour of Catholic entities that were party to the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

The 2006 agreement included a group of Catholic entities who signed on to provide financial compensation to residential school survivors, including by way of a $25-million fundraising campaign.

The matter ended up before a Saskatchewan judge, who in 2015 ruled the Catholic entities were free of their remaining obligations in exchange for a payment of $1.2 million.

By that time, the Catholic groups had raised less than $4 million of the $25 million promised, and the court decision allowed them to walk away without fulfilling the rest of the pledge.

Canada was in the middle of a federal election at the time, but internal briefing documents show that the Conservative government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper chose not to appeal.

The briefing notes contain a copy of the signed agreement Canada struck with the Catholic entities following the court ruling. It shows Canada agreed to "forever discharge" the Catholic groups from their financial obligations under the residential school settlement agreement.

The documents also show that one of the considerations officials weighed when deciding whether to appeal the court decision had been that they felt the chances of being able to compel the Catholic entities to meet the fundraising promise were "very low."

"It's blatantly dishonest," Sinclair said in reaction.

He said Catholic entities own "considerable properties" across the country, which they could have disposed of to finance their fundraising campaign.

"That's what they should have done."

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minster Marc Miller said in a statement that he hasn't sought further review of the 2015 release agreement. "Outside legal counsel was not sought, as after review, it was confirmed that there were no outstanding or unresolved questions about the legal parameters of the agreement."

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the national assembly representing Catholic leadership in the country, has acknowledged that the first fundraising campaign was a failure that sowed significant disappointment and anger among residential school survivors.

The conference was not a party in the initial settlement agreement.

Nonetheless, in fall 2021 it committed to undertake a new drive to contribute $30 million to reconciliation-related initiatives over five years.

The conference released a statement on Thursday that says 73 Catholic dioceses have committed to paying into the fund, which has been registered as a charity.

So far, $5.5 million has been raised in that campaign, the statement says.

More scrutiny has been applied to the steps the Catholic Church in Canada has taken to make amends to residential school survivors since last year.

That's when First Nations across Western Canada began announcing that ground-penetrating radar technology had confirmed the presence of what are believed to be unmarked graves at the former sites of residential schools.

More than 150,000 Indigenous people were forced to attend the institutions, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse, as well as neglect and malnutrition. A majority were operated by the Catholic Church.

Friday marks the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour survivors of the system and the children who died.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2022.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Go west, young  WOman: Alberta sees largest wave of interprovincial migration since 2014

Karen Bartko -


Almost 10,000 more people moved into Alberta from other parts of Canada in the second quarter of 2022 than vice versa, according to a Statistics Canada analysis released by ATB Financial on Thursday.


A Uhaul truck passes a van loaded with furniture on moving day

 in Montreal, Friday, July 1, 2022.© Graham Hughes, The Canadian Press

It was the largest net gain since the second quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter in a row in which Alberta's population grew as a result of interprovincial migration, Rob Roach with ATB Economics reported.

University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe pointed out the inflow was dominated by young people in their 20s and 30s.

Blake Shaffer, an assistant economics professor at the U of C, shared a breakdown of Alberta's population change going back to 1971.

It highlights the interprovincial population boom the province experienced in the early 2000s due to high oil prices, an abundance of jobs and overall strong economy.

Read more:
Alberta housing starts rebound to 2015 levels as oil prices surge

Then, the trend reversed and there was an outflow of young people in recent years. Now, people are beginning to move to Alberta again.

The province's relatively affordable housing market is expected to help attract and keep young people. Although prices have risen, they're nowhere near the astronomical growth seen in some Ontario and British Columbia markets.

Read more:
Alberta economy shifting but growth expected to stay strong, census data suggests

The Alberta government said so far in 2022, the province has welcomed 15,208 people and over the past four quarters, 23,132 moved to the province from across the country.

"I really think what's drawing people in is all that Alberta has to offer, from well-paying jobs to affordable homes to low taxes, and still the only province without a provincial sales tax -- and then a high quality of living," Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Tanya Fir said on Thursday.

Read more:
Banff feeling the pinch of worker shortage: ‘They have not come back’

Fir also noted Alberta is hiring — and not just in the areas the province is typically known for.

"Not just in our traditional industries like oil and gas and tourism and agriculture and forestry, but we are seeing levels of diversification in Alberta like I've never seen in my lifetime," she said.

"Emerging and growing fields like film and television, technology, aerospace and aviation, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing -- so such a wide variety of of jobs that can bring people to the province regardless of their background."

Fir said while Edmonton and Calgary are, perhaps not surprisingly, seeing an influx of new residents, there are jobs available across the province needing to be filled.

"Depending on where their skill set is or what industry they're in, that's the beauty of it as well — there are jobs from north to south, rural, urban, small towns, big towns," she said.

"It's not just one particular area."

Read more:
Edmonton home sales drop, time on market grows as real estate cools

When it comes to people moving between provinces, the Statistics Canada numbers show Alberta posted the largest gain. Meanwhile, Ontario lost the most residents with a net outflow of 21,008 residents in the second quarter.

Ontario was also the main contributor to Alberta's net gain with 6,281 more people moving from Ontario to Alberta than the other way around, the ATB summary said.

"With Alberta's economy continuing to grow faster than most of the other provinces, positive net interprovincial migration is likely to continue over the second half of the year and into 2023," Roach added.

Read more:
Province launches ‘Alberta is calling’ talent recruitment campaign

Earlier this year, the province launched a large advertising campaign targeting skilled workers in Vancouver and Toronto, but both Fir and Tombe noted the "Alberta is Calling" campaign started after June 30, which is when the Q2 data ended.

"So I think the campaign is just going to continue to grow those numbers as we see more and more people come to Alberta where, again, they can have a well-paying job, afford a home, and be able to to have such a beautiful province with so many amenities so close to them," Fir said.

Video: Phase 2 of the ‘Alberta is Calling’ campaign launches in Vancouver, Toronto

TikTokers In Toronto & Vancouver Are Getting Heated About Alberta's New Campaign

Charlie Hart - 4h ago

TikTokers in Toronto and Vancouver are sharing their thoughts on a new campaign that's trying to convince them to move to Alberta and they have some strong feelings.


TikTokers In Toronto & Vancouver Are Getting Heated About Alberta's New Campaign

© Provided by Narcity

Last month, Premier Jason Kenney launched the "Alberta Is Calling" campaign targeting workers in Toronto and Vancouver and trying to get them to move to Alberta with the promise of affordable housing, well-paying jobs and low taxes.

In September, Kenney upped the stakes of the campaign and unveiled a bunch of new ads posted at Toronto's Bloor-Yonge station.

Of course, TikTokers in Toronto and Vancouver have taken to the app to share their thoughts on the whole campaign and safe to say, the results have been pretty mixed so far.

One Torontonian spotted the new ads and was pretty surprised to find that they were working on them.

The ads featured pictures of Alberta's stunning mountains and talked about the fact you can buy bigger homes in Alberta for way less money than in Ontario.

"You know what… they do have a point," they said.

However, people in the comments were quick to shoot down the idea.

"As someone who moved from Toronto and now lives in Edmonton… No," one person said.

Another person said the campaign was trying to convince people to leave their "overpriced, shoebox apartment" and move to Alberta as the ads were targeting a lot of painful points for those in Ontario, like high house prices and rent.

"Ever since I visited a couple of months ago, I'd be lying if I said it never crossed my mind," she added.

However, one person said that after they moved to Alberta from B.C., they realized they "hate it here."

"Lived in both Calgary and Edmonton. I'd go back to B.C. in a heartbeat but I can't afford it," they said.

However, a TikToker in Vancouver was way less impressed with the ads, saying they received a lot of "Calgary propaganda" that was "oddly specific."



"Tired of paying for gas? Being 30 minutes from the mountains is just like being a few hours away," she joked.

"Come to Calgary, you barely go in the ocean anyway."

While it's too early to say if the ad campaign is working, it's proving to be divisive online.

ALBERTA IS MORE THAN CALGARY

Sabrina Maddeaux: Ontario has become an unaffordable dystopia. Time to move to Alberta

Sabrina Maddeaux 

“Actually, I love Calgary.” This is the sort of statement that, when uttered to other Toronto-based millennials, used to earn me blank stares and dubious eye rolls. Most could never see themselves leaving the city for nearby Hamilton, let alone Alberta. I might as well have professed my fondness for Saturn’s third ring.


Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks during a press conference in Calgary about a new campaign to attract workers to the province, on Aug. 15.© Provided by National Post

Perhaps this is the type of attitude that led Ontario politicians to believe they could make life continually worse for young people with little risk of blow-back. It’s not like they were going to pack up and move to Alberta, after all.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney thinks otherwise. He’s spearheading a clever campaign dubbed “Alberta Is Calling,” which attempts to capitalize on millennial and gen Z strife in Ontario, in order to entice them to the Prairie province.

“A nurse, programmer and electrician all walk into a province,” starts one ad. The punchline: “They all get jobs.” Another simply reads, “Bigger paycheques. Smaller rent cheques.” A third poster points out that childcare is 30 per cent cheaper in Alberta, which means “30 per cent more money for date nights.”

A subway station mural contrasts the $1.4-million average price of detached homes in Ontario with Alberta’s $490,000 average.

Until very recently, such a campaign would’ve been a colossal waste of taxpayer money, but times have changed in Alberta’s favour. The campaign is successfully generating buzz among its target demographic.


Sabrina Maddeaux: Ontario has become an unaffordable dystopia. Time to move to Alberta

I’ve seen it mentioned, out of the blue and in a positive light, in several separate group chats this week alone — chats populated with young professionals who don’t pay all that much attention to politics, but are upset about what their salaries can afford, and are skeptical of what kind of future they can build in Ontario.

In fact, the migration has already begun. Kenney’s campaign doesn’t have to spark a fire, it simply needs to keep fanning the flames. New Statistics Canada data shows that the number of people leaving Ontario each year increased 94 per cent between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

The recipient of the most Ontarians in 2021-22 was Alberta, which saw its intake increase 110 per cent since 2017-18. Nova Scotia’s intake, although a lower total number, increased by a stunning 180 per cent over the same period.

You may recall that Nova Scotia recently ran its own ad campaign, “ Work From Nova Scotia ,” to lure remote workers from elsewhere in Canada. It’s proposition: “If you can live anywhere, live in Nova Scotia.” The ads feature beautiful coastlines and, perhaps most importantly, affordable real estate.

As it turns out, life in Ontario has become so expensive, so limiting and economically unjust that people are willing to pick up and move. The trend represents an opportunity for other provinces — some with aging populations, others with unfilled jobs, all eager for an economic boost — to benefit from disillusioned and dejected young Ontarians.

There are some who doubt that significant numbers of young Torontonians would seriously consider Alberta, and who think Kenney’s campaign is little more than wishful thinking. These people generally wave at Alberta’s reputation as a province full of Conservatives, which, as everyone knows, young urbanites abhor.


The skylines of Toronto, left, and Calgary.© Peter Redman/National Post; Colleen De Neve/Calgary Herald

Except maybe they don’t — at least not anymore. Recent polls show Canada’s youth increasingly shifting their support to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, whose leadership campaign also focused on housing and affordability, and who handily won all but two ridings in Ontario.

According to Angus Reid, the male 18-34 demographic’s top three issues are: cost of living, housing affordability and the economy. For the female 18-34 demographic, it’s: cost of living, health care and housing affordability.

Long-held political certainties about who young Canadians vote for and why are changing fast, as are notions about where they want to live. It’s difficult to be precious about partisanship when you might not be able to afford next month’s rent, or can’t afford enough space to start a family. It’s ridiculously naive — in fact, insulting — to think that living among Liberals is a greater privilege than access to affordable, stable housing.

To discount Alberta because of the Freedom Convoy, or some loopy legislation proposed by Danielle Smith, is to engage in the exact sort of “what are they gonna do about it?” hubris that got us here.

Alberta is calling and, if Ontario doesn’t get its act together fast, it may be surprised by how many young people pick up.

National Post

Climate change has come for the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter

Muizz Akhtar - VOX

China just finished one of its most disastrous summers on record, with record-breaking heat, drought, and wildfires leading to water shortages even into the fall. More than 900 million people — or about 64 percent of China’s population — faced brutal heat waves alone, highlighting how much further the nation has to go to protect itself against worsening climate-related disasters.


Smoke and flames rise from a hill during a forest fire in Chongqing, China, on August 18, when the highest temperature recorded there was 112 degrees Farenheit.

© Chen Chao/China News Service via Getty Images

As weather historian Maximiliano Herrera told New Scientist magazine last month while the heat waves were ongoing, “There is nothing in world climatic history which is even minimally comparable to what is happening in China.” In at least 17 provinces, more than 240 cities saw temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit. (Normally, a metropolis like Chongqing, at the center of this heat wave in southwestern China, only sees temperatures as high as 92°F.) China’s largest river and freshwater lake mostly dried up, reaching record-low water levels due to drought, all while wildfires raged. As in the United States, while some places baked, others flooded.

All this is taking place as China, the world’s largest current emitter of greenhouse gases, has positioned itself as a leader on mitigating climate change. With President Xi Jinping committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2060, China is already investing heavily into clean energy domestically and plans to stop financing coal-fired power plants abroad.

However, while China has increasingly focused on carbon mitigation efforts over the last decade, the country is just beginning to seriously tackle the equally difficult question of adapting to the effects of climate change. China’s complex geography and large landmass spanning various types of climate zones have always made it vulnerable to extreme weather events like droughts and floods. Due to the worsening factor of climate change, Beijing will need to step up its game to future-proof the country. As the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports emphasize, both mitigation and adaptation work is key to reducing vulnerability to climate change — and China still has a long road ahead of it.

“The climate story is a China story”

As Jeremy Wallace, a professor at Cornell University focusing on the effects of Chinese politics on climate and cities, told me, “The climate story is a China story.” China’s rapid industrialization and recent rise to becoming the second largest global economy was mostly fueled by coal. As a result, China was responsible for 27 percent of global greenhouse emissions by 2019, the most in the world and greater than every country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union combined. That carbon-heavy energy load helped drive prosperity and historic poverty reduction, but there was a steep environmental cost for China, too, including major air and water pollution, desertification, ecological devastation, and the rise of extreme weather events.

Anglers fish along the Huangpu River across from a coal-fired power station in Shanghai, China, on September 28, 2021.© Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Mounting concern and political pressure, mostly internal and to a lesser extent international, forced Beijing to act. Over the last two decades, the Chinese government passed domestic climate legislation, and made commitments to the international community, most notably when it signed the 2015 Paris agreement.

Scott Moore, director of China programs and strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, told me that the Chinese government acknowledged opportunity and risk, with the latter especially playing a big role in climate policymaking. “​Of the world’s large economies, China is probably the single most exposed to climate risk,” he said.

The first factor is that many major cities, like Shanghai or Tianjin, are located in low-lying coastal or river valley areas that are vulnerable to flooding. Second, glacier melt from China’s portion of the Tibetan plateau is increasing floods downstream. And finally, China’s highly urbanized landscape, and the concentration of population and infrastructure that comes with that, makes China more vulnerable to disasters like floods.

There’s self-interest, too. The Chinese government also saw a huge opportunity in investing in the global clean energy market, which today is worth trillions of dollars. “China is the world’s largest investor, developer, deployer, and manufacturer of clean energy across the board,” said Michael Davidson, professor of global policy and engineering at the University of California San Diego. China invested $380 billion in renewable energy in 2021 alone, accounting for almost half of new renewable energy capacity worldwide. Because of entrepreneurship and large government subsidies, the country has built out an enormous domestic network of wind and solar plants, and become the global leader on electric vehicles.



Beachgoers walk near wind turbines along the coast of Pingtan in southern China’s Fujian province on August 6.© Ng Han Guan/AP

Related video: WION Climate Tracker: Nations to weigh aviation CO2 target at UN meet
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These changes are reflected in the very air that people living in China breathe, with the air quality in cities like Beijing markedly improving over the past decade. “It’s hard to say that they’re lagging” on tackling climate change, Davidson told me, and indeed, a recent report by Carbon Brief found China’s carbon emissions have seen their longest decline in a decade.

On the adaptation side, despite the severity of the current floods, far fewer people are dying today from floods in China than they used to. Floods are a historic problem in China, but because the Chinese government invested in flood control over the past two decades, the risk of death isn’t as high as it used to be, Moore told me, when the worst floods could kill people in the millions. The flood adaptation measures included the construction of large dams and reservoirs, but also the improvement of early warning systems and emergency management strategies such as evacuation.

The dam projects came with sizable environmental and human costs, ironically, including the destruction of wetlands that may have otherwise absorbed floodwater. Floods in recent years have also called the effectiveness of megaprojects like the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project ever created, into question. The central government recently acknowledged the unintended side effects in its climate adaptation strategy, finally passing a wetlands protection law last year to not only conserve but restore wetlands. China is also increasingly embracing nature-based solutions like “sponge cities,” retrofitting and designing cities to better absorb floodwaters, which could help reduce the severity of future floods.

Beyond its carbon mitigation efforts, the Chinese government also released an updated climate adaptation plan in June to better prepare the country by 2035. Its aims include improving early warning systems for extreme weather, shoring up food security, and boosting conservation efforts both inland and along the coast. Notably, the plan is a follow-up to a 2013 adaptation plan that heralded China’s “war on pollution” and led to China decreasing as much air pollution in seven years as the US did in three decades. This new plan will hopefully be similarly ambitious, because it aims to have a nationwide climate impact and risk assessment system by 2035. This would ensure major infrastructure projects consider potential environmental consequences, like the aforementioned dams used to control flooding and generate hydropower.

China has a plan to adapt, but is it enough?

Still, for whatever progress China has made toward mitigating climate change, its adaptation strategies may not be enough to meet the current moment. The consequences of climate change are coming faster than most governments, policymakers, and even scientists anticipated. “The reality we’re facing now is that the carbon emissions that are already in the atmosphere are baked in for a period of time,” said Jonas Nahm, professor of energy, resources, and environment at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “Things are going to get worse before they get better, even if we do everything to meet the Paris agreement models.”



Firefighters deliver water to residents due to a shortage amid a heat wave, in Loudi, China, on August 24.© STR/AFP via Getty Images

The realities of the baked-in effects of climate change were in full view in Sichuan, the southwestern province at the center of this summer’s heat wave and drought. Hydropower systems there faced a serious electricity shortfall due to reservoirs and rivers drying up. “For all of this sort of anticipation, and planning, China’s also scrambling to try to figure out how to respond to this in the same way that the Europeans are with all these rivers running dry,” Nahm told me.

While hydropower makes up 16 percent of China’s total power production (almost equal to its other renewable energy sources combined), it’s more than 80 percent of Sichuan’s power production, and in fact, it usually has so much excess hydropower that it delivers a third of what it produces to the rest of the country. However, drought affected Sichuan’s hydropower generation, and because it couldn’t curb its power sharing with other provinces, rolling blackouts had to be implemented to prevent the grid from being overwhelmed by demand. Even as the drought eases, there are worries that Sichuan and other parts of China will face power shortages in the winter.

“You’ve seen over the last several years that some of the existing infrastructure just isn’t prepared,” said Nahm. A key example of this is the South-North Water Transfer Project, the largest water diversion project in history, and perhaps even the most expensive infrastructure ever built, period. Built over the past two decades, the project aimed to bring water from water-abundant southern China to water-scarce northern China, which, despite containing around half the country’s population, only has about 20 percent of the country’s total water supply.



The Hongze Station, part of the South-North Water Transfer Project in Huai’an, Jiangsu province, in January.© Wan Zheng/Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

But at best, the South-North Water Transfer Project has served as a Band-Aid to buy the government more time, and has done little to solve the issue of water scarcity. More damning, it has actually worsened the issue of water pollution. As Jennifer Turner, director of the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum, told me, water pollution doesn’t make the headlines like air pollution, but is probably China’s biggest environmental problem. And the water pollution problem is so bad that it actually exacerbates China’s water scarcity problem. The resources that went into this megaproject could have gone to less flashy solutions like better collection of rainwater and water recycling. Ultimately, Turner said, the Chinese government has to address both the short and long term if it wants to fix its water problems.

China’s infrastructure issues go beyond just its water projects, however. Wallace, the Cornell professor, said China may also need to fundamentally rethink how it builds urban areas. As in the US, Chinese cities have a tendency toward sprawl that is more polluting and carbon-intensive. “Once you build the city,” Wallace said, “it’s really hard to go back, right?” There is some research to suggest that sprawling cities have to deal with more extreme heat events than do more compactly designed cities.

In the meantime, UC San Diego’s Davidson told me, there are still things China could do to protect provinces like Sichuan from extreme weather in the future. For one, the central government could ensure that it has a more unified power system that can better respond to energy shocks, such as a spike in demand for air conditioning when it’s boiling hot.

Another is better urban design: More efficient air conditioning, better insulation, planning, and cooling centers can help Chinese cities better cope when there’s a heat wave. China could also improve monitoring systems for extreme weather, support the agriculture sector, reevaluate current infrastructure projects, and bolster reforestation and flood control efforts to not only control flooding but also prepare for future drought scenarios.

With the advent of its new 2035 climate adaptation plan, which will implement a road map to bolster China’s risk assessment and its “climate-sensitive sectors,” it appears the Chinese government is looking to implement many of these policies. But this will require upending what Nahm described to me as the economic and engineering approach that China has largely taken to its infrastructure up to this point, green or otherwise. Rather than building dams or water diversion systems, China will have to double down on nature-based solutions.

Workers plant new trees on a mountain in China’s Hebei province, on April 27, 2020.

© Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

At an environmental conference in Beijing, Ge Le, director of the climate change and energy program at the Nature Conservancy in China, pointed to recent reforestation efforts in China and trying to integrate more greenery into cities, like the aforementioned sponge cities, as positive examples for China to expand on. She also brought up the oyster reef restoration projects in Alabama, which aim to strike a balance between ecological restoration, climate adaptation (as reefs function as seawalls), and commercial benefit for the communities that harvest oysters.

To some observers, China’s catastrophic summer may appear to be an indictment of Beijing not having done enough to meet the current climatic moment. But the truth is that China has done a lot to mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as adapt to its effects. And while the Chinese government could certainly do more, the unveiling of the 2035 adaptation plan makes it clear that there is a lot more to come. The problem facing Beijing, then, is the same faced by Washington, Brussels, and elsewhere: Climate change is already here, and things are going to get worse before they get better. China, like the rest of the world, is going to have to buckle in and work harder than ever.

Indigenous youth leaders call for a Truth and Reconciliation Day that remembers history, honours survivors and celebrates cultural resilience


Reconciliation is as much a personal journey as it is a collective one.

Twenty-six-year-old Taylor Behn-Tsakoza, a member of Fort Nelson First Nation and co-chair of the Assembly of First Nations Youth Council, has wrestled with that maxim since walking through Vatican City last spring.

She met Pope Francis as part of an Indigenous delegation urging the Catholic Church to apologize for its role in Canada’s residential school system. Behn-Tsakoza spoke with him for just under 10 minutes, but surrounded by the gilded halls of the Vatican, she became disillusioned.

On the flight back to northern B.C., and since then, she’s reflected on what reconciliation means to her coming from a family of survivors and as a second-generation survivor herself. In those meditations, she understood that reconciliation wasn’t just a collective awakening for a country but a personal journey of healing.

“I think Canada is always trying to shout from the rooftops: ‘Canada as a whole, we’re going to treat Indigenous Peoples better,’” Behn-Tsakoza told Canada’s National Observer.

“And it had me reflecting [on] what I’m doing personally to walk this path,” she said. “To reconcile with Canada, but to also reconcile with my community and my family.”

Now, Behn-Tsakoza and fellow Indigenous leaders Jama Maxie and Dr. Meghan Beals are promoting a positive vision of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation that centres celebration, education and healing for individuals and communities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

The three were among five Indigenous youth leaders who gave speeches on Monday to the Senate’s Indigenous Peoples committee ahead of the second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. They spoke about what truth and reconciliation mean to them through personal storytelling and political demands.

The youth delegation was welcomed and heard, Maxie told Canada’s National Observer.

However, the Senate has wrestled with residential school denialism in the past. For years, the Red Chamber included Lynn Beyak, who repeatedly pushed the harmful narrative that residential schools were “well-intentioned,” downplaying the forceful separation of children from their parents and the rampant sexual, physical and emotional abuse that took place in those institutions. Beyak resigned from her post in 2021 shortly after fellow Sen. Mary Jane McCallum introduced a motion seeking to expel Beyak over her “individual racism.”

Since the discovery of 215 unmarked graves last year on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., this dark part of Canada's history has been front and centre.

Still, there are some media outlets and pundits who continue to push the narrative that the Kamloops graves are a hoax or concocted for political aims.

For someone like Maxie — whose kokum is a residential school survivor, whose mother survived the ’60s Scoop and who is a survivor of the child foster system and addiction — the lived stories of Indigenous Peoples counteract these harmful narratives.

“I think sometimes it’s unwilful ignorance,” Maxie said, speaking to residential school denialism. “They haven’t sought out actual knowledge and experiences of people in residential schooling.

“A lot of the time, they hear theory or read about residential schooling and they’re able to intellectually debate it,” he added. “It’s really hard to sit down with a survivor and tell them there were no impacts for their descendants.”

Marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation could help raise awareness of the history of residential schools and other parts of Canada’s past and present. So far, however, only one province and two territories have followed the federal government’s lead and recognized Sept. 30 as a statutory holiday.

Maxie, Beals and Behn-Tsakoza all agree it should be adopted by every province and territory.

“It is hard for me to even comprehend the reluctance to make this an official holiday,” Beals said.

Behn-Tsakoza chalks it up to capitalism and eurocentrism. Truth and Reconciliation Day as a nationwide holiday would bring with it accountability for Canadians to reckon with the realities of the past, she said.

“All the provinces are operating under a colonial system,” she added. “I think acknowledging [this] day is dismantling that, and that’s terrifying for them.”

For all three Indigenous youth, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation should not only remember those who didn’t return from residential schools or the trauma survivors brought home, but also be a celebration of cultural and spiritual resilience.

“I think it’s so important to show the world that, no, we cannot just get over the trauma, but at the same time, we are healing, processing and rising up through the turmoil for our generations to come,” Beals told Canada’s National Observer in an email interview.

Beals proposed making the traditions of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation resemble the traditions of Remembrance Day, with a moment of silence and gatherings held in Ottawa and other locations.

Behn-Tsakoza supports this idea because the day is about how Indigenous Peoples and Canada can build awareness, respect and a better path forward, she said.

“If we have that one moment, I think we should do it the most and best that we can to have that generational impact that makes all Canadians aware and respectful of who we are as Indigenous Peoples,” she added.

For Maxie, the day is for every single Indigenous person and community to heal, remember and celebrate.

“I know every individual’s journey is different, but it’s a day to take pride in our culture, it’s a day for us,” he said. “We should … celebrate progression and transcendence towards a better life for our kids and our future generations.”

— With files from David Fraser, The Canadian Press

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

New Alberta Child and Youth Advocate report details 'alarming' deaths of 15 youth

Anna Junker - Edmonton Journal

The deaths of 15 youth over a six-month span are “extremely troublesome,” Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate says in a new report.

The report, published Wednesday by Terri Pelton, highlights the need for “urgent action” to address service-delivery gaps following the deaths of 15 young people between the ages of six and 19. Twelve were Indigenous and nine died related to drug toxicity — with one who began using substances at the age of seven.

Twelve youth were receiving child intervention services at the time of their deaths, and three within the previous two years.

According to the report, many of the children and youth had complex needs that required cross-system support, and in some circumstances, the services didn’t meet their needs or were not available.

“Many young people with complex needs are not receiving adequate supports and that must be rectified,” said Pelton in a news release. “We recognize some promising new initiatives are being developed; however, in the meantime, we need immediate action to address these service gaps and create better outcomes for these children and youth.”

Rodney

One of the 15 children whose deaths are described in the report is six-year-old Rodney (all names are pseudonyms for privacy reasons). He is described as a “little gentleman” who was loving and kind. He loved riding horses and wanted to be a cowboy and firefighter when he grew up. Growing up, he witnessed escalating family violence, substance use by his parents, and mental health concerns.

The advocate found, at times, he did not have his basic needs met and his family had a number of brief involvements with child intervention services. As a result, Rodney was often staying with relatives.

During a family visit to their First Nation community, Rodney died in a house fire.

Gemma

Gemma is described as a kind, confident transgender First Nation woman who loved fashion, modelling, and makeup. She began to openly identify as female when she was 12 years old.

She was placed in a group home for four years. While there, the advocate found group care staff was accepting but continued to use male pronouns when referring to her. She was then moved to another group home in her First Nation community.

A week after her 18th birthday, Gemma overdosed. She died in hospital with her family at her side.

Recommendations

Pelton is recommending the ministries of health, education, children’s services, community and social services and justice and solicitor general “develop and publicly report on a coordinated action plan to address service gaps for young people with complex needs while longer-term initiatives are under development.”

The plan should also include targets and milestones that meet the immediate needs of the youth.

The Child and Youth Advocate also previously recommended the province develop and implement a youth-specific opioid and substance-use strategy. To date, no progress on the recommendation has been made, Pelton said.

In a statement, Children’s Services spokesman NOT THE MINISTER 

Dan Laville said the department will work with its partners to consider the advocate’s latest recommendation, while longer-term initiatives remain under development.

Laville added several initiatives are underway to improve access for youth and young adults to mental health and addiction services, including new funding and a partnership between Children’s Services, Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services to expand the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program.

He added opioid and substance use training is mandatory for child intervention practitioners.

“With an increase of opioid and substance use, we recognized a need to provide training to staff that focuses on appropriate responses and the tools they need,” Laville said. “We will not stop in our work to make a meaningful difference. We are committed to continuously improving our system to support the safety and well-being of children receiving child intervention services.”

However, Opposition NDP children’s services critic Rakhi Pancholi said there is no reason the UCP government should not have addressed the call for an opioid and substance-use strategy by now.

“This distracted government is costing children and young people their lives, and we need someone who is focused on taking these important recommendations seriously,” Pancholi said in a statement.

Related 

New Alberta child and youth advocate sworn in

Final report of Alberta child and youth advocate calls for more accountability and co-ordination amid rising deaths

Stunning visuals show lightning crackling around the eye of Hurricane Ian as it sweeps over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida

insider@insider.com (Cheryl Teh) - Tuesday

Footage from the GOES-16 satellite showed bolts of crackling purple lightning around the eye of Hurricane Ian. Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (CIRA/CSU & NOAA).

© Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (CIRA/CSU & NOAA).

Satellite imagery showed the eye of Hurricane Ian as it passed over Cuba.

Also seen in the satellite footage was crackling purple bolts of lightning.

The hurricane is expected to strike Florida's Gulf coast on Wednesday.

Stark satellite footage of Hurricane Ian as it tears over the Gulf of Mexico shows its sheer scale — and the lightning crackling near the eye of the storm.

Footage of the hurricane was picked up by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-16 satellite on Tuesday.

A clip that tracked the hurricane's progress from 9.25 to 11.12 a.m. EST showed it swirling over the Gulf of Mexico. The satellite also picked up numerous bolts of lightning — represented in the clip with purple flashes — around the storm's clear eye.



Hurricane Ian is barreling toward Florida, prompting advice from Gov. Ron DeSantis for people to evacuate or seek shelter as soon as possible. The storm left Cuba's power grid decimated after hitting the country on Tuesday.

Related video: Key Changes To Hurricane Ian Forecast Ahead Of Florida Strike
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The Weather Channel



Hurricane Ian barrels towards Florida as Category 3 storm CNN

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the hurricane is expected to make landfall on Wednesday and could become a Category Four storm by the time it hits. The hurricane grew in strength from a tropical storm to a Category 3 hurricane within a single day, a phenomenon that research suggests is becoming more common as global temperatures rise.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ian is likely to cause a "life-threatening storm surge" and "catastrophic winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula."

"On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to pass west of the Florida Keys within the next few hours, and approach the west coast of Florida within the hurricane warning area on Wednesday," read the National Hurricane Center's public advisory on Tuesday night.

"The center of Ian is forecast to move over central Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning and emerge over the western Atlantic by late Thursday," the advisory read.