Marineland drops $1.5M lawsuit against former employee and agrees to rehouse walruses


After a decade-long legal battle, former Marineland trainer Philip Demers was able to see his beloved walrus Smooshi this week, after the Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction dropped a $1.5-million lawsuit against its former employee.


Phil Demers worked at Marineland for 12 years before becoming an animal activist. Demers and the Niagara Falls, Ont., park have settled a decade-long legal battle that will see two walruses relocated.© Submitted by Phil Demers

Demers, the animal rights activist and whistleblower, is still banned from Marineland, but was allowed inside the park Wednesday for a reunion with Smooshi — the first time he had seen her in a decade, he said — after news emerged that the legal issues were resolved.

The lawsuit, filed in 2013 by Marineland, alleged Demers trespassed and plotted to steal the 800-pound walrus. Demers filed a counterclaim, also in 2013, for defamation and abuse of process, he told CBC Hamilton.

After several weeks of negotiations, both sides have dropped legal action and, as part of the mutual agreement, Smooshi and her calf Koyuk will be rehoused as soon as "reasonably possible" where "they can join other walruses."

In a news release issued Wednesday, Marineland said "litigation between Marineland … and Phil Demers has been resolved amicably... Mr Demers acknowledges Marineland's evolution towards education, conservation and research, and its commitment to enhanced animal care."

Demers said he would leave the exact location of where the walruses are going to Marineland to share publicly but that he agrees the new location is better.

"I'm incredibly pleased. I'm ecstatic," he said. "The contrast of where she's going now, and the fact she will no longer perform and she won't be under the blazing hot sun and she won't be separated from her baby anymore, which to me is probably the greatest piece of justice that that animal deserves."

Koyuk was born in June, 2021, but Demers said the two have been kept apart since Koyuk's birth so Smooshi could perform in shows.

The fight to free Smooshi

Demers was a Marineland trainer for 12 years before becoming a whistleblower and activist, shedding light on the conditions the animals were living in at the facility.

Demers said he decided to use the lawsuit to leverage the animals' release.

"It's been a tunnel vision-like experience for me. I've only ever thought about the walrus and the conflict with Marineland."

He said the settlement has taken a weight off him.

"There's a certain poetic justice to it all."

Marineland still in court

Demers's efforts aren't the only ones that have put Marineland in hot water for its use of animals.

The animal rights group Last Chance for Animals (LCA) filed complaints against the facility last year, saying videos showed illegal dolphin and whale shows.

Miranda Desa, a lawyer for LCA, said a 2021 video shows "dolphins performing tricks to music for an audience" and "beluga whales being instructed to perform tricks for food in front of on-watchers" but that Marineland refers to their shows as "educational presentations" to get around not having a licence.

Under a section of the Canadian Criminal Code introduced in 2019, captive cetaceans — large sea mammals such as dolphins and orcas — cannot be used "for performance for entertainment purposes" unless the performance is authorized with a licence from the Ontario government.

Niagara Regional Police told CBC Hamilton that the complaint resulted in Marineland being charged with the criminal offence related to the of "use cetacean for performance/entertainment without a licence" and that this charge is still before the courts.

Police said they have received additional complaints but as they are actively under investigation, police cannot provide further information.

Desa said Marineland will have its seventh court appearance on September 28 in St. Catharines, Ont.

As for Demers succeeding in having Marineland rehousing Smooshi and Koyuk, Desa said it is an important step in increasing awareness of "animals in captivity and the harms they suffer, especially at Marineland."

In its statement Wednesday, Marineland said it "has a historic obligation to care for the marine mammals in its care.

"Marineland must care for its animals and there is no simple or obvious solution to rehouse them."

The most important reunion

Demers called his reunion with Smooshi "powerful." He joked it was a red-carpet entrance, adding, "It was more like grey, dreary, concrete carpet."

He also tweeted a photo of himself being allowed back onto Marineland's grounds.

Demers said he plans to keep advocating for marine mammals in captivity, but for now, he's happy he caught his proverbial white whale in seeing Smooshi and Koyuk being freed from captivity.

Although he wasn't able to get really close to Smooshi Wednesday, he's hopeful it's just the beginning of a new chapter.

"The door for many more [visits] is wide open," he said. "I look forward to all of them."

Cara Nickerson -CBC- Sept 21

Restoring the culinary and cultural bounty of ancient Indigenous sea gardens in B.C.

SALT SPRING ISLAND, B.C. — A family of sea otters emerges from the ocean and rambles up the rocky shoreline, while a great blue heron in search of a meal pokes at a wall of rocks.

Fountains of water squirt upwards from clams that have buried themselves across the beach.

Ken Thomas, standing on a rocking boat just off British Columbia's Salt Spring Island, marvels at the beauty and bounty of the ancient Fulford Harbour sea garden.

He reflects on how the long row of rocks piled along the shoreline represents both past and modern-day West Coast Indigenous culture.

"I'm like, 'My ancestors touched this, were part of building this.' It's something more special than a pile of rocks to hold clams," said Thomas, the fisheries, wildlife and natural resources director for the Penelakut Tribe on southern Vancouver Island.

For years, academics wondered about the origins of the long string of rocks piled along the tide line. The answer came when they spoke to local First Nations, who said the rocks were sea gardens created by their ancestors as cultivation sites thousands of years ago.

Indigenous Peoples used the tides to trapclams, mussels, kelp and fish in the shallows once the water receded.

Now, Indigenous leaders hope to to gain approval for clam harvesting at the sea garden site on Salt Spring Island's coast, and another at nearby Russell Island in Gulf Islands National Park, both of which are undergoing restoration. They are thousands of years old.

Thomas said on a recent trip to the sites that all participants want to ensure the clams and other food from the gardens are safe to harvest, which involves testing by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian Food Inspection Agencyand Environment and Climate Change Canada.

He said he's optimistic harvesting approval could come within one year, although others suggest it could be three or four years.

Indigenous nations, Parks Canada, scientists and academics are jointly participating in the restoration of the sea gardens, located along ancestral territories of Coast Salish First Nations who travelled the Gulf Islands trading and gathering food.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted efforts to restore the sea gardens, but the rebuilding work is resuming, Thomas said.

"When the tide comes in and out, it's got the seeds floating around in the current, and if you've got a wall there, the seed will get stuck behind the wall when the tide goes out and settle into the beach," said Thomas.

"These gardens have been here for generations and generations, pre-contact," he said.

Elizabeth May, Saanich-Gulf Islands member of Parliament and former Green Party leader, said the presence of the rock walls on B.C. beaches had confounded scientists for years.

"We are, as settler-culture Canadians, blind to what's right in front of us," she said. "A wall along the side of an island, and to know that for quite a long time our expert geologists we're baffled by these walls. Where did they come from? How were they formed?

"How about the obvious thing: Indigenous people moved the rocks to create a place to ensure food supplies of multiple species," said May.

The work to restore the sea gardens involves aeration, debris removal and some harvesting and marks them as much more than heritage zones, said Nicole Norris, a First Nations partnerships co-ordinator who works for the Solicitor General's Ministry.

"We're not just here removing and filtering rocks through a wall," she said. "We're creating a sustainable food source in the same way that our old ones did."

Adam Olsen, the Gulf Island region's Green representative in the B.C. legislature, said sea gardens were managed for thousands of years until colonial settlers banned Indigenous Peoples from the beaches.

"This is an example of environmental racism," said Olsen, who's a member of the Victoria-area Tsartlip First Nation. "These policies are used to deliberately disconnect Indigenous people from their lands."

The work to jointly restore the sea gardens is "inspirational," considering past government policies of prohibiting access and disregarding Indigenous knowledge, said Erich Kelch, the sea garden project's restoration manager for Parks Canada.

"It's foundational how government and First Nations can be working together in a positive way on the land that's taking care of it for future generations," he said.

For the longest time, the government disregarded and even disbelieved the traditional Indigenous practices of managing the land, he said.

"And this is trying to change that, recover that and restore that and build a better future," Kelch said.

Thomas said he once considered moving rocks as a form of exercise, but when he's at the sea gardens it becomes a matter of cultural rebuilding.

"It's more than just a clam bed," he said. "It's more than just a rock wall. It's the connections there that our people have."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2022.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

#ABOLISHMONARCHY

Majority of Canadians want referendum on monarchy ties after queen’s death: poll

The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, adorned with a Royal Standard and the Imperial State Crown is pulled by a Gun Carriage of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, during a ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. Wednesday Sept. 14, 2022. Thousands of members of the public are expected to come to pay their final respects at her lying in state. 

(Isabel Infantes/pool photo via AP)© Provided by Global News

Majority of Canadians want referendum on monarchy ties after queen’s death: poll

Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians want a referendum held to determine whether the country stays tied to the British monarchy, a new poll suggests — despite nearly equal support both for and against preserving those ties.

The Ipsos poll, conducted exclusively for Global News just days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, found support for a referendum on the future of the monarchy has gone up since last year, from 53 per cent in 2021 to 58 per cent today.

"(Canadians) would like to have their say," said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs.

Whether support continues to grow for holding a vote on the issue will likely depend on "the performance of King Charles III and what people feel about him after we get out of this period of mourning" for the queen, Bricker added.

Ipsos interviewed over 1,000 Canadians online earlier this week for the survey.

The results suggest King Charles has a lot to prove with the Canadian public.

While 82 per cent of respondents said they approve of Queen Elizabeth's performance as monarch, just 56 per cent agree Charles will do a good job in her place. Even worse, only 44 per cent said they view Charles favourably, with that support dipping to just 27 per cent for his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort.

"There's never been a great deal of enthusiasm about King Charles," said Bricker, who pointed to the bruising his reputation took in the aftermath of his divorce from Princess Diana.

"People aren't hostile about the new King, but they're certainly not as enamoured with him as they were with his mother. ... That 82 per cent (support) is not just a sympathy number for Queen Elizabeth. She consistently got numbers like this for as long as we've been polling.

"It's a very, very hard act to follow."

‘We shall all miss her immensely’: Canadian MPs pay tribute to Queen in special Parliament session

Notably, Canadians appear eager to skip over King Charles' right entirely and enter the era of William, Charles' son and the new heir apparent.

Compared to 47 per cent of survey respondents who believe King Charles and Camilla will help keep the monarchy relevant to Canada, 60 per cent feel the same about Prince William and Princess Catherine — though that number has fallen seven points since 2016.

Both William and his brother Harry, as well as their respective wives Kate and Meghan, earned a majority of support from respondents compared to their father. William scored the highest support rating among them, with 66 per cent saying they view him favourably.

Read more:
As King Charles III begins his reign, what legacy will he bring to the British throne?

Overall, only a slim majority (54 per cent) said Canada should sever its ties with the monarchy now that Queen Elizabeth has died. That number largely aligns with other polls held both before and after the queen's death.

That majority was largely driven by respondents in Quebec, where 79 per cent of those surveyed agreed Canada should separate from the monarchy. In English Canada, support for such a move only reached 46 per cent on average, with only Saskatchewan and Manitoba seeing a slight majority.

Younger Canadians under 55 years old also drove animosity toward the monarchy, with 57 per cent saying the bond should be severed compared to 49 per cent of older Canadians.

Those relative splits in opinion were also seen when survey participants were asked if they agreed with arguments both for and against keeping the monarchy in Canada.

Poll: Majority of Canadians not feeling impacted by Queen’s death

A small majority (between 55 and 61 per cent) agreed that the constitutional monarchy helps to define Canadian identity and should continue as the current form of government, that keeping the monarchy helps separate Canada from the United States, and that it is important to Canadian heritage.

Yet the roughly same range of respondents also agreed that the royal family should not have any formal role in Canadian society and should not be seen as more than celebrities; that Canada is not a truly independent nation if it stays tied to the monarchy; and that the monarchy is too linked to the history of colonialism and slavery to have a place in modern Canadian society.

"All of this suggests that Canadians are not particularly intense on this issue one way or another, though they are somewhat concerned about it," Bricker said.

"There's definitely more room for the anti-monarchy side to grow ... as one generation replaces the other. But right now ... these symbolic feelings are not enough to trigger something decisive yet."

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 13 and 14, 2022, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

GLOBAL NEWS - Sean Boynton - Sept 16, 2022

Messy process to abolish monarchy likely ‘nonstarter’ amid pressing problems: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the complicated process that would come with any attempts to abolish the monarchy are likely a "nonstarter" for Canadians amid pressing national problems like inflation, climate change and the need for continued work on reconciliation.


Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau arrives at 10 Downing Street for a bilateral meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss, in London, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. 

(Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

In an interview with Global News from London, U.K., where he is part of a Canadian delegation attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Trudeau reflected on what her death means for this country, and why he thinks Canadians have bigger things on their minds than abolishing the monarchy.

"We are able to have all the strength of debates that we need to have in Canada without worrying about the overarching stability of institutions because they are embodied by structures that have been in place for hundreds of years," Trudeau said in the interview, which airs in full Sunday on Global National.

"Canadians have been through a lot of constitutional wrangling over the past decades. I think the appetite for what it would take when there are so many big things to focus on, is simply a nonstarter."

Among the big challenges, he pointed to are inflation and the cost of living, climate change, greater clean technology jobs, reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples, and global affairs in what his defence minister, Anita Anand, earlier this year called a "darker" and "more chaotic" world.

Last week, Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News just days after the death of the queen suggested nearly 60 per cent of Canadians want a referendum on the future of the monarchy.

That's an increase from last year, when the sentiment stood at just over half of respondents.

At the same time, that poll suggested there is nearly equal support among those who favour both preserving or eliminating the ties to the monarchy.

In particular, the polling indicated King Charles III has a lot to prove with the Canadian public.

While 82 per cent of respondents said they approved of Queen Elizabeth’s performance as monarch, just 56 per cent agreed Charles will do a good job in her place. Even worse, only 44 per cent said they view Charles favourably, with that support dipping to just 27 per cent for his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort.

“It’s a very, very hard act to follow," said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, last week.

However, abolishing the monarchy would require a feat of political maneuvering that has rarely been seen throughout the years, requiring unanimous agreement among the House of Commons, the Senate and all of the provincial legislatures.

Read more:
Queen Elizabeth death: What will her passing mean for the future of Canada’s monarchy?

Trudeau said his impression of the new king is that he will be "steady and engaged and thoughtful like his mother was."

"He knows Canada very well. He spent so much time there. He's been active on protecting the planet, on engaging with people around the world. He's very interested in Indigenous reconciliation," Trudeau said.

"There's a lot of good work to do that he is going to be able to to lead, within the limits and the position he has. But I think his commitment to listening, engaging, learning, embodying a thoughtful, generational path forward rather than short-term political preoccupations is exactly the kind of frame that I think democracies like ours need."

Read more:
Ahead of queen’s funeral, governor general says King Charles ‘committed to reconciliation’

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who is also in London as part of the delegation for the queen's funeral, expressed similar thoughts in an interview with The West Block's Mercedes Stephenson on Sunday.

Simon, who is the first Indigenous person to hold the position as the monarch's representative in Canada, described King Charles as “very different” from his mother, while being "very committed to reconciliation … between Indigenous peoples and the Crown."

“He has told me directly that he’s committed to working on these issues, and hopefully I’ll have a lot of opportunities to continue working with them," Simon said in the interview.

Video: Gov. Gen. Mary Simon remembers the queen’s calm, steadfast leadership

Trudeau added he believes that rather than being an impediment to reconciliation, the Crown is "a powerful tool" in those efforts.

"It's going to be a part of the path forward. Appointing the first Indigenous Governor-General, for example, was a key step forward in reconciliation," he said.

"Having a King who is making deliberate efforts to learn, to understand, to embody a new relationship with Indigenous peoples that we're developing as a country is essential."

Video: Queen Elizabeth death: Can King Charles III keep the monarchy alive?

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Trudeau's spouse, also weighed in.

"Symbolic institutions are not just symbols. They also have the power to validate, recognize and legitimize people's emotions and their lives and what they have gone through," she said.

"And I think that holds a great strength and depth."

The symbol that the monarchy represents, the prime minister added, also gives Canadians a powerful opportunity to "position ourselves in the sweep of history" as the Crown passes from the longest-reigning monarch in British history to the first King in 70 years.

"We know how fast everything moves and how complicated, how troubled the world is right now," he continued.

"This is a moment to take stock, to reflect on where we're going and what we're focusing on and how we continue to be there for each other — in a world that is changing, but still has symbols of steadiness that we can anchor ourselves to."

Amanda Connolly - Sept 18, 2022
— With files from Global News' Sean Boynton.

ECOCIDE TOO - COLD WAR 2.0

Swedes refuse Russian request for pipeline probe info

In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, the gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream photographed from the Coast Guard's aircraft on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2022. A fourth leak on the Nord Stream pipelines has been reported off southern Sweden. Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines running from Russia to Germany. 

(Swedish Coast Guard via AP)

Tue, October 11, 2022 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s prime minister says that her country cannot share with Russia details from its probe into last month's underwater explosions that ruptured two key gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, citing confidentiality surrounding the investigation.

“In Sweden there is secrecy around preliminary investigation and that also applies in this case,” Magdalena Andersson said of the blast and ruptures that happened in international waters off Sweden's Baltic coastline but within the country's exclusive economic zone.

The explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which until Russia cut off supplies at the end of August was its main gas supply route to Germany. They also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The damaged pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

Russia formally asked Sweden’s government to be part of the Swedish investigation in a letter dated Oct. 6.

“We’re still working on how we exactly formulate the answer,” Andersson said Monday at a naval base in southern Sweden.

In its preliminary investigation, Sweden’s domestic security agency said last week that its probe “has strengthened the suspicions of serious sabotage” as the cause of the blasts. Sweden’s prosecutor in charge of the investigation said evidence at the site has been seized.

The Swedish Security Service said the probe confirmed that “detonations” caused extensive damage to the pipelines. Authorities had said when the four leaks off Sweden and Denmark first surfaced that explosions were recorded in the area.

In a separate statement, Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said “seizures have been made at the crime scene and these will now be investigated.” Ljungqvist, who led the preliminary investigation, did not identify the seized evidence.

In Denmark, authorities remained tight-lipped about its investigation. Denmark broadcaster TV2 reported from the site that ships with the Danish and German navy ships were in the area.

German federal prosecutors, who investigate national security cases, also have opened an investigation against persons unknown on suspicion of deliberately causing an explosion and anti-constitutional sabotage.

The German investigation comes on top of the Danish and Swedish probes but are carried out with the European Union framework.

German federal prosecutors said the reason for them getting involved as well is that an attack on energy supplies could affect Germany’s external and domestic security. On Sunday, authorities said that two German boats had set off for the area where the leaks occurred to look into what happened.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of attacking the pipelines, which the United States and its allies vehemently denied.

Germany opens investigation of Baltic gas pipeline blasts

In this photo provided by the Armed Forces of Denmark, a view the disturbance in the water above the gas leak, in the Baltic Sea, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Following the suspected sabotage this week of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that carry Russian natural gas to Europe, there were two leaks off Sweden, including a large one above North Stream 1, and a smaller one above North Stream 2. 

(Rune Dyrholm/Armed Forces of Denmark via AP)

Mon, October 10, 2022 

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors on Monday opened an investigation into the suspected sabotage of two gas pipelines built to bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Undersea explosions late last month ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which until Russia cut off supplies at the end of August was its main supply route to Germany. They also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

German federal prosecutors, who investigate national security cases, said they have opened an investigation against persons unknown on suspicion of deliberately causing an explosion and anticonstitutional sabotage.

Prosecutors said that there is sufficient evidence that the pipelines were damaged by at least two deliberate detonations, and the aim of their investigation is to help identify the perpetrator or perpetrators as well as a possible motive.

The German investigation comes on top of a probe in Sweden. A prosecutor there said last week that evidence had been seized at the site.

The governments of Denmark and Sweden previously said they suspected that several hundred pounds of explosives were involved in carrying out a deliberate act of sabotage. The leaks from Nord Stream 1 and 2 discharged huge amounts of methane into the air.

German federal prosecutors said the reason for them getting involved as well is that an attack on energy supplies could affect Germany's external and domestic security. On Sunday, authorities said that two German boats had set off for the area where the leaks occurred to look into what happened.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of attacking the pipelines, which the United States and its allies vehemently denied.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

SO WHAT
Gazprom: NATO mine destroyer was found at Nord Stream 1 in 2015

The logo of Gazprom is displayed on a screen during the Saint Petersburg 

international gas forum in Saint Petersburg


Mon, October 10, 2022

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A spokesperson for Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday that a mine destroyer discovered at the Nord Stream 1 offshore gas pipeline in 2015 belonged to NATO.

Nord Stream reported on that date in 2015 that a "munitions object" had been cleared by the Swedish armed forces, without giving more detail on the object.

Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov told Russian state television on Monday that a NATO device, called a SeaFox, was retrieved from a depth of around 40 metres (125 feet) and made safe.

"Gas transportation, halted because of the incident, was restored," he said, according to a published extract from his TV appearance.

Gazprom owns 51% in Swiss-based Nord Stream AG, operator of Nord Stream 1.

An international investigation is underway into a rupture, discovered late last month, in the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea.

The pipelines, which have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis, have been leaking gas into the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden.

Europe suspects an act of sabotage that Moscow quickly sought to pin on the West, suggesting the United States stood to gain.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jan Harvey and Ron Popeski)

ECOCIDE
Leak detected in pipeline that brings Russian oil to Germany

 A general view of a pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in the east German refinery PCK in Schwedt, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007. A leak was detected in an oil pipeline in Poland which is the main route through which Russian crude oil reaches Germany, the Polish operator said Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022. The operator, PERN, said it detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline, which originates in Russia, on Tuesday evening about 70 kilometers (45 miles) form the the central Polish city of Plock. 

(AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File) 

Wed, October 12, 2022 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A leak was detected in an underground oil pipeline in Poland which is the main route through which Russian crude reaches Germany, the Polish operator said Wednesday.

The operator, PERN, said it detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline, which originates in Russia, on Tuesday evening about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the central Polish city of Plock.

It said the cause of the leak wasn't known. The incident follows leaks late last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the Baltic seabed.

The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship,” is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines, and after leaving Russia it branches out to bring crude to points including Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

Firefighters were working in the cornfields near the village of Zurawice to determine the exact point of the leak, according to a spokesman for firefighters, Brig. Karol Kierzkowski. He told the state all-news broadcaster TVP Info that approximately 400 cubic meters of spilled crude had been pumped out, and transmission along the line had been blocked.

Last year, Russia accounted for around 35% of Germany’s crude oil supply. But that proportion has been reduced following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and Germany's focus now is on phasing out the remaining supplies before a European Union embargo on most Russian imports goes into effect next year.

A month ago, the German government took control of three refineries owned by Russian energy company Rosneft, which account for about 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity.

Poland investigates leak in key pipeline carrying crude oil from Russia to Europe


George Glover

.Reuters
Wed, October 12, 2022 

Polish authorities are investigating a leak in the Druzhba crude oil pipeline

Polish operator PERN found a leak in the Druzhba oil pipeline on Tuesday.

Europe is fretting about the state of its energy infrastructure with some analysts warning crude prices could surge to $150 a barrel.

The leak was likely an accident rather than sabotage, a Polish minister said.

Polish authorities are investigating a leak in an oil pipeline carrying crude from Russia to Germany as Europe frets that issues with its energy infrastructure will reduce supplies and push prices even higher.

Operator PERN halted flows through one of the Druzhba system's northern legs after detecting a leak on Tuesday.

"At this point, the causes of the event are not known – the flow in the damaged thread was immediately turned off," it said in a statement.

The Druzhba pipeline is split into two sections, with the northern channel supplying oil to Germany and Poland. It has pumped about 490,000 barrels a day to the two countries in recent months, according to Reuters.

Russia has weaponized its energy exports in retaliation to western sanctions imposed after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

It has slashed the capacity of key pipelines to Europe including Nord Stream and supported the OPEC+ cartel's refusals to boost oil production despite the US pushing the bloc to increase its output.

Tumbling oil supply from Russia could push prices up to $150 a barrel, JPMorgan analysts warned last month.

Europe has fretted that supply could fall further if Russia sabotages its energy infrastructure after leaks were detected in the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.

German authorities have accused Russia of sabotaging the pipeline system after Denmark and Sweden discovered damage had been caused by hundreds of pounds of TNT.

Poland's top energy official, Mateusz Berger, told Reuters that initial assessments suggested that Druzhba had suffered "accidental damage" – but traders may still be fretting about Europe's energy supplies.

Brent crude jumped as much as 1.2% to $94.96 after news of the leak broke Wednesday, while WTI crude climbed 1.4% to $89.77. Both benchmarks traded roughly level at last check.

Read more: This map shows where Europe gets its natural gas - and why economic disaster is looming if Russia cuts off its fuel supply

SHE IS CORRECT

Ilhan Omar equates women protesting Islamic law in Iran with abortion fight in US

Jessica Chasmar

FOX NEWS

Mon, October 10, 2022 

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., drew comparisons between women risking their lives to protest Islamic law in Iran to women fighting for abortion rights in the United States.

During a campaign rally to re-elect Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Friday, Omar said pro-life Republicans are challenging women’s bodily autonomy, much like Iran’s oppressive clerical regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Dozens of people throughout Iran have been killed by police and thousands arrested in protests ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

"As we watch the brave, incredible young girls in schools in Iran who are standing up to teachers, young women in buses and in public streets who are saying ‘no’ to the morality police – because there is no morality in trying to oppress women," Omar said. "There is no morality in forcing people to participate in a religion they don’t want to. And there is no morality in believing government’s our God.

"So we know the women in Iran are bravely chanting, ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ for their rights, for their right to bodily autonomy," she continued. "So, here in the United States, when the right extremists are challenging our bodily autonomy, we have to stand up and say, ‘Women, Life, Freedom.’"

Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29, 2022. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million

Omar made the comments in front of a raucous crowd of students at the University of Minnesota, where Ellison, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., were also in attendance.

"We are here to do one single thing, and that is to protect and preserve our democracy," Ellison said, Minnesota Public Radio reported. "What is on the line is whether or not the United States, starting in Minnesota, will remain a democratic, multiracial society that respects everyone's rights."

Omar made headlines in July after she was one of more than a dozen members of Congress arrested by Capitol Police during a abortion rights protest outside the Supreme Court after it overturned Roe v. Wade.

Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Olivier Douliery/Abacapress.com

"Today I was arrested while participating in a civil disobedience action with my fellow Members of Congress outside the Supreme Court. I will continue to do everything in my power to raise the alarm about the assault on our reproductive rights!" Omar tweeted on July 19.

Video shows Canada protest against Iran's government, not Iranians 'celebrating supreme leader's death'


Rachel YAN, 

AFP Hong Kong
October 11, 2022 

Following massive protests in Iran triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, a video was viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows Iranians celebrating the death of the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The posts circulated as Khamenei made his first public comments since Amini's death, in which he accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting a wave of nationwide unrest. But the video in fact shows a protest in Canada's Ontario province against the Iranian regime. As of October 11, there have been no official reports that Khamenei has died.

"The whole of Iran celebrated 'Khamenei is dead!'" reads the caption of this Twitter video in simplified Chinese characters.

It has been viewed more than 32,000 times since it was published on October 3, 2022.

The 52-second clip appears to show dozens of people chanting on the street while waving Iranian flags.

Texts superimposed onto the video also in simplified Chinese translate as: "This country is having a nationwide celebration / It seems the big boss has died!"

Screenshot of the misleading Twitter post, taken on October 7, 2022

The September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of Iran's morality police has sparked a major wave of protests and a crackdown that has left dozens of demonstrators dead.

Amini, 22, died in Tehran three days after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women that demands they wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.

At least 95 protesters have died in the crackdown, according to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.

The same video alongside a similar claim was also shared here and here on Twitter; and on US social media site Gettr here and here.

The posts circulated as Khamenei made his first public comments since Amini's death, in which he accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting a wave of nationwide unrest, AFP reported.

However, the claim is false. The video was actually filmed in Canada during a protest against the Iranian government.

As of October 11, there have been no official reports that Khamenei has died.

Ontario rally

A keyword search on YouTube found a slightly longer version of the same video published on YouTube here on October 1.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the online posts (left) and the YouTube video (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video shared in the online posts (left) and the YouTube video (right).

Bearing the hashtag "IranProtests2022", the video is captioned: "Iran Freedom Rally happening in Richmond Hill right now. Woman Life Freedom."

Richmond Hill is a city in Canada's Ontario province.

A further keyword search found the same location here in Richmond Hill, as shown below on Google Street View:


Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the online posts (left) and the same location on Google Street View (right). AFP highlighted corresponding features in circles.



Screenshot comparison of the video shared in the online posts (left) and the same location on Google Street View (right)

On October 1, protesters rallied against the Iranian regime around Richmond Hill Public Library on October 1, according to this tweet from the library's official account.


The regional police force warned people to expect "increased crowds and traffic delays due to a demonstration" in Richmond Hill.

Similar scenes of the same protest were also included in news reports by Canadian news outlets here and here.

VIDEO

The Iranian Canadians behind the art of Iran's protest movement | Watch (msn.com)

'Every one of us was a Mahsa': Iranians in Canada cut hair at women's rights rallies

OTTAWA — Azin Rezaeian kneels on the ground and screams "Say her name" each time she snips off a chunk of her long black hair.

'Every one of us was a Mahsa': Iranians in Canada cut hair at women's rights rallies

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A crowd around her shouts back "Mahsa Amini," the 22-year-old woman whose death in Iran has sparked protests like this one around the world.

Rezaeian, who moved to Ottawa about a year ago from Iran, shared the video of herself to draw attention to what she said are human rights abuses against women in the country.

It was taken at a rally last week in the capital, one of many demonstrations across Canada where supporters have called for decisive action by the government to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"It's not about Mahsa, it's about all of the women who live in Iran. Every one of us was a Mahsa," Rezaeian said in an interview.

Protests have erupted across Iran since Amini died in police custody this month after being arrested, allegedly because her head scarf was too loose.

In response, women have burned their hijabs during large-scale protests across the country, prompting Iranian security forces to push back amid scenes of violence and street clashes uncommon in the Middle Eastern country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Canada will sanction senior Iranian officials, while some Liberal MPs, including Ali Ehsassi, have said the United Nations must do more on a global scale.

The Conservatives also want Canada to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the country's military, as a terrorist group.

Some experts, meanwhile, have warned that both demands may be difficult to implement.

Rezaeian, who said she was arrested eight times by the morality police who took Amini into custody, said she wants the Canadian government to be a voice for women in Iran.

The first time she was arrested for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly, she was only 16. The experience turned her into an activist for women's rights, she said.

Related video: Mahsa Amini's death in Iran brings worldwide solidarity

Duration 2:06   View on Watch

Rezaeian said she now fears for friends who are in custody, including a journalist whose photo of Amini in hospital drew international attention. Rezaeian said she didn't want to leave Iran or her family behind, but she moved to Canada for fear of the police.

"Every night I have a nightmare about prison, I have nightmares about my friends who are in prison," she said.

Rezaeian isn't alone in hoping to draw attention to the issue in Canada. Thousands gathered for a rally in Vancouver on the weekend, while others have protested in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto.

An Iranian student at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., who asked to be referred to only as D.D. because she fears for her safety, joined others in taking scissors to her hair.

The gesture is a nod to Amini, who was allegedly arrested because her hair peeked out from her hijab. D.D. said she cut her hair to symbolize the pain Iranian women are feeling.

"That was basically the only thing I could do at that moment to make this, our word, spread more so people realize we are suffering from some pain," D.D. said.

Another woman who participated in the protest at the Burnaby campus said she hopes the rallies help amplify the message of protesters in Iran.

She wants to see the Canadian government cut ties with the Iranian government, she said.

"We want to reach out to every country to ask their governments not to negotiate with this regime," she said.

She also said she wants to see repercussions for anyone with links to the morality police living in Canada. That wish was echoed by Rosa Kheirandish, one of the organizers of the protests in Ottawa, who said the protests were not about getting rid of head scarfs.

"We are not against the hijab. We are pro-freedom of choosing what you want to wear, where you want to wear it," Kheirandish said.

Kheirandish added that she fears there will be more deaths in Iran, where internet access has been cut, making it more difficult to get updates on the situation on the ground.

However, she also said she has been heartened by the movement in Canada.

"I never knew that many Iranian people lived here in Canada. We never gathered for any cause like this, we were never united like this," she said.

Additional rallies are planned in Ottawa for Oct. 2 and Oct. 4, she said.

— By Amy Smart in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2022.

Factbox-Death of young Iranian woman puts spotlight on morality police


A newspaper with a cover picture of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police, is seen in Tehran


Mon, October 10, 2022 


DUBAI (Reuters) - Britain said on Monday it had sanctioned Iran's so-called morality police, saying the force had used threats of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public.

The death last month of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody sparked protests across Iran, with demonstrators calling for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Citing her death and the subsequent protests, Britain said it had sanctioned the morality police in its entirety, as well as both its chief, Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and the Head of the Tehran Division, Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.

Here are some facts about the force - known as the Gasht e Ershad or guidance patrols - which has also been sanctioned by the United States. The force is tasked with detaining people who violate Iran's conservative dress code. It aims to "promote virtue and prevent vice".


- The morality police, attached to Iranian law enforcement, are mandated to ensure the respect of Islamic morals as described by the Islamic Republic's top clerical authorities.

- The typical unit consists of a van with a mixed male and female crew that patrols or waits at busy public spaces to police behaviour and dress considered improper.

- People apprehended by the morality police are either given a notice or, in a few cases, taken to "correctional facilities" or a police station where they are lectured on how to dress or act morally before being released to their male relatives.

- Fines are sometimes given, although there is no general rule about pecuniary punishment.

- In Islam, hijab refers to what is deemed modest attire. Under Iran's sharia, or Islamic law, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.

- Decades after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, clerical rulers still struggle to enforce the law, with many women of all ages and backgrounds wearing tight-fitting, thigh-length coats and brightly coloured scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.

- The morality police are often made up of and backed by the Basij, a paramilitary force initially mobilized to fight in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

- Basij have a presence in every Iranian university to monitor people's dress and behaviour, as higher learning is where Iranian male and females meet for the first time in a mixed educational environment.

HISTORY

- The fight against "bad hijab" is as old as the Islamic Revolution, which has erected the conservative dressing of women as one of its pillars.

- Over the revolution's early years, the state gradually imposed rules to enforce the wearing of Islamic attire by women.

- Buoyed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's claims in favour of hijab after the Shah's 1979 fall, revolutionaries took it upon themselves to enforce their leader's positions by attacking unveiled women in the streets and shouting "Woman, wear a veil or eat my hand".

- Following several circulars shared by senior clerics and ministers, unveiled women were no longer allowed in public buildings and the non-wearing of the veil became punishable by 74 lashes after a 1983 law.

- Iran's new rulers struggled to control self-styled elements such as the Jundallah group, which patrolled streets to "combat bad hijab", and so they decided to institutionalise a morality police.

- Under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, state fervour to control dressing and behaviour in public spaces subsided, but at the end of his term in 2005, the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution adopted a resolution entitled "strategies to develop a culture of chastity".

- Under Khatami's successor, the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the morality police took their current Persian name of Guidance Patrols (Gasht e Ershad) and increased their presence in the streets of Iran's large cities.

- The need for a morality police was subsequently debated in the 2009 presidential elections, with reformist candidates calling for the dissolution of the force. However, no action has so far been taken to remove it, and many videos continue to be shared online of their sometime heavy-handed approach.

(Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)

Iran's morality police sanctioned by UK for 'repression of women'


Newspapers with Amini, a victim of country's "morality police", are seen in Tehran

Mon, October 10, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain said on Monday it had sanctioned senior Iranian security officials and the country's "so-called Morality Police", saying the force had used threats of detention and violence to control what Iranian women wear and how they behave in public.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody has sparked protests across Iran and internationally, with demonstrators calling for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Citing her death and the subsequent protests, Britain said it had sanctioned the morality police in its entirety, as well as both its chief, Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and the Head of the Tehran Division, Haj Ahmed Mirzaei.

"These sanctions send a clear message to the Iranian authorities – we will hold you to account for your repression of women and girls and for the shocking violence you have inflicted on your own people," Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.

Iranian authorities have described the protests as a plot by Iran's foes, including the United States.

The sanctions were made using British laws designed to encourage Iran to comply with international human rights law and respect human rights. They mean that those individuals named cannot travel to Britain and any of their assets held in Britain will be frozen.

Last week, the foreign ministry said it had summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires, Iran’s most senior diplomat in Britain, over the crackdown on the protests.

(Reporting by Muvija M and William James, editing by Sarah Young, William Maclean)

Protests galvanize Iranians abroad in hope, worry and unity

Many in the diaspora community say they feel an unprecedented unity of purpose and affinity with the demonstrations at home.

FILE - Iranians who live in Brazil protest against the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who died in Iran while in police custody, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. As anti-government protests roil cities and towns in Iran for a fourth week, sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman detained by Iran's morality police, tens of thousands of Iranians living abroad have marched on the streets of Europe, North America and beyond in support of what many believe to be a watershed moment for their home country. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

October 12, 2022

By 

Sylvia Hui

LONDON (AP) — As anti-government protests roil cities and towns in Iran for a fourth week, tens of thousands of Iranians living abroad have marched on the streets of Europe, North America and beyond in support of what many believe to be a watershed moment for their home country.

From those who fled in the 1980s after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to a younger generation of Iranians born and raised in Western capitals, many in the diaspora community say they feel an unprecedented unity of purpose and affinity with the demonstrations at home sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman detained by Iran’s morality police.

“I see this as a turning point for Iran in many ways — we’ve always had political fault lines that divided us, but this time it’s people saying, ‘I’m with women’,” said Tahirih Danesh, 52, a human rights researcher who lives and works in London. “It’s phenomenal, it’s happened at such speed, and this sense of camaraderie among Iranians has been amazing.”

In the past month, large crowds of people of Iranian origin in dozens of cities from London to Paris to Toronto have turned out every weekend for rallies in solidarity with protests that erupted in Iran after Mahsa Amini died in custody after she was detained for allegedly violating strict Islamic dress codes for women.

Many say they have been kept awake at night by a mixture of hope, sadness and apprehension – hope that their country may be on the brink of change after decades of oppression, and fear that authorities will unleash more violence in an increasingly brutal crackdown that has seen dozens killed and hundreds arrested.

Some, like Danesh –- whose family smuggled her and her siblings out of Iran in the 1980s to escape persecution — say the images of protesters being violently suppressed by authorities recall afresh the trauma of similar scenes around the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“I’m thousands of miles away, it’s 40 years later but the images I see are bringing it all back, it’s as if I’m reliving it again,” Danesh said.

While Iran has seen waves of protest in recent years, many agree that this time the resistance feels broader in nature and in scope because it challenges the fundamentals of the Islamic Republic. Some say they have never seen the likes of global solidarity for Iran shown by politicians, intellectuals and celebrities, many of whom have cut off locks of their hair in a gesture of support of Iranian women.

“Before, many of us outside had a distanced view of what’s happening inside, we couldn’t find the same connection. But today Iranians inside are calling for fundamental change. They’re saying ‘retrieve my Iran’,” said Vali Mahlouji, 55, an art curator in London who left Iran in the 1980s. He said he is self-exiled because his work deals with censored artists and art history.

“This unites every Iranian I know, all the different generations of exiles,” he added. “People who have been out of Iran most of their lives are feeling restless and sleepless. I don’t know anyone who is not sympathetic, and of course, not worried.”

The Iranian diaspora is large, including not just those who fled soon after the 1979 revolution, but also later waves leaving Iran because of continued repression or economic woes. More than half a million live in the U.S., and France, Sweden and Germany have communities in the hundreds of thousands, with major centers in Los Angeles, Washington, London, Paris and Stockholm.

In Paris, 28-year-old Romane Ranjbaran was among thousands last week who came out despite a heavy downpour and marched, sang and chanted “Khamenei get out” in Persian and French, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Several women cut off locks of their hair and threw them in the air joyfully.

Ranjbaran, who grew up in France, said she felt “stricken” by what’s happening in Iran.

“Iran is part and parcel of my history. My mom has known a free Iran when women were free,” she said, as her mother and other family members stood by her side at the rally. “It’s an international fight. If we want the situation in Iran to improve, we need international support.”

The 1979 revolution ousted the U.S.-backed shah, the monarch whose rule was resolutely secular but was also brutally repressive and plagued with corruption. The revolution joined leftists and other political factions including Islamists, who after the shah’s fall seized total power and created the Islamic Republic, ruled over by Shiite Muslim clerics.

Some expatriates have been wary of joining protests because they have family in Iran and regularly travel back and forth. Some raised concerns about the suspected presence of Iranian intelligence agents or extremist factions.

Others say they felt some unease about the protests’ aims beyond the unifying cry of “Women, Life, Freedom” and the leaderless nature of the protests.

“I love my country, I want to show support, but every time I go I’m also confused because in every corner of the demonstrations there’s a different chant,” said Amanda Navaian, a luxury handbag designer in her early 40s who has attended all the recent weekend rallies in London.

Navaian said she wanted to attend protests “for as long as it takes,” and has even made plans to potentially organize one herself. She wasn’t sure demonstrations abroad will make a real difference, but she said it was crucial “to show we care.”

At the very least, she knows she is doing something to dispel what she described as pervasive negative perceptions of Iran and Iranians.

“Islam was forced upon us, this extremism is not who we are. Our country has been hijacked — we were a country of music, dance and poetry,” Navaian said.

“People were coming up to me in Trafalgar Square to ask, ‘What are you doing?’ and I explained why we were there,” she added. “Through these demonstrations there’s more awareness. Maybe now the international community should wake up to what’s happening.”

___

Jade Le Deley in Paris contributed to this report.