Another P.E.I. health-care union enraged over selective retention bonuses

Wed, October 19, 2022 

Tracy Robertson is president of IUOE 942, which represents P.E.I workers from sectors like construction and healthcare. (Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC - image credit)

Union leaders came to the P.E.I. legislature Wednesday to discuss scope of practice, but those discussions were overshadowed by the $8 million in bonuses the province announced on Monday for a select group of health-care workers.

On Tuesday, CUPE spoke up for its members who work in health care but will not be offered the bonuses and on Wednesday, it was IUOE with strong words for the government.

"Sorry, I'm getting a little upset here, it was just such a slap in the face, and such disrespect that only nursing would be recognized," said Tracy Robertson, president of IUOE Local 942.

IUOE represents hundreds of health-care workers including lab and X-ray technicians, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC

The provincial government announced the $8 million incentive program Monday, offering thousands of dollars in bonuses if people keep working in the province for one year.

Registered nurses and nurse practitioners will get $3,500 for a one-year return in service agreement. Licensed practical nurses and paramedics will receive $3,000 and residential care workers, home support workers and patient care workers will receive $2,500.

Workers feel 'insulted'

IUOE members are not included in the retention incentive program, and Robertson said workers feel "insulted."

"Lab worked above and beyond, completely excluded. Respiratory therapists, the people who would have looked after you if you had COVID — completely excluded. People who make sure you walk after a stroke, physiotherapists, occupational therapists — completely excluded," she said.

"So, I'd really like to see Premier King and Minister Hudson go back and explain to everybody why their work is not worth [a bonus]."

Michele Beaton, Green Party MLA for Mermaid-Stratford, said she has heard from many IUOE and CUPE members about this issue already.

"I wholeheartedly agree with you, that if we're going to look at retention, we have to look at the entire team," Beaton said.

'Pick and choose' will create 'unease'

Robert Henderson, Liberal MLA for O'Leary-Inverness, agreed and said it will likely be bad for morale.

Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC

"All of a sudden to pick and choose some professions for certain bonuses and certain retention initiatives will obviously create some sense of unease amongst many of these professions," Henderson said.

Union leaders said the government's decision could lead to health-care workers leaving the Island, and said some are already looking for work elsewhere.

"I mean, this would create a lot of toxicity in the workplace — 'You got the bonus, you didn't.'" Robertson said.

Government response

The Department of Health and Wellness said it has reached out to other unions to hear their concerns, and meetings are planned for later this week.

"In developing our most recent workforce stabilization programs, our government began with the areas where human resource needs and vacancies were most pressing," Minister of Health and Wellness Ernie Hudson said in a statement.

"We were very pleased with the programs developed to date and we look forward to meeting with representatives of P.E.I.'s remaining health-care unions in order to hear their concerns and do our best to support them and their members."

Robertson said her members have been without a contract since March, and this is not the way she wanted to kick off contract talks.

Ultimately, opposition MLAs and union leaders both say it will be Islanders who are going to suffer, especially if more health-care workers decide to leave the Island.

IUOE ineligibility for management positions

Robertson said another issue is that her members, including occupational and physiotherapists, cannot apply for management positions within Health P.E.I. She said these positions are only available to registered nurses, which leads to even more RN shortages.

She said this is not the case in other provinces and has asked for changes in P.E.I., with no results yet.

Health P.E.I. said its leadership is aware of this concern and is exploring options to address it.

"While some management positions do require the position holder to be an RN, Health P.E.I. is looking at ways to ensure areas that where nursing expertise is not required are able to filled by professionals from other backgrounds," spokesperson Everton McLean said in an email.

"There are many system-wide concerns that are being worked on, and this is one of them."

LET'S BECOME A REPUBLIC
Quebec opposition party refuses to swear oath to King, reopens constitutional debate

LEFT WING QUEBEC SOLIDARE

Wed, October 19, 2022 



MONTREAL — The debate over Quebec's power to unilaterally change the Canadian Constitution has resurfaced as members of an opposition party refused Wednesday to swear allegiance to King Charles III.

The 11 members of Québec solidaire declared their loyalty to the Quebec people, but they did not swear loyalty to the King, as required by the Constitution.

Describing the oath as "colonial, archaic and out-of-date," Québec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said after the swearing-in ceremony that he's been told his party's members won't be able to sit in the legislature until they swear the full oath — though they will have access to their offices and funding.

Nadeau-Dubois told reporters he now wants to work with the other parties to find a way for his members to sit when the legislature reconvenes Nov. 29 without having to swear the oath.

"It's our responsibility as parliamentarians to find a way out of this current cul-de-sac," he said.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said earlier this week that the three members of his party elected Oct. 3 will also refuse the oath when their turn comes Friday.

Constitutional experts are divided on whether the legislature can allow members to sit without swearing the oath and whether Quebec has the ability to change the oath on its own.

Patrick Taillon, a law professor at Université Laval in Quebec City, said the Constitution is clear that members of all legislatures have an obligation to swear allegiance to the monarch, but that the consequence of not swearing the oath — and whether those members will be able to sit in the national assembly, participate in debates and vote — is up to the legislature itself.

While Taillon acknowledged in an interview that constitutional law experts are not unanimous, he thinks the province could unilaterally change the oath through its power to change elements of the Constitution that affect only Quebec.

In 1968, he noted, Quebec unilaterally eliminated its upper house, a body whose existence and structure was provided for in the Constitution. More recently, Quebec passed language legislation in May changing the Constitution to declare that Quebecers form a nation and that French is the province's only official language.

Taillon said the oath is not a declaration of personal loyalty to King Charles, but rather to what the Crown represents. Replacing the name of the monarch with “our laws and our institutions" would create an oath with essentially the same meaning, he said.

“I think that would be a very minor constitutional change, quite in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution, and I don't see how the courts could overturn it," he said.

But Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo who studies the Constitution, said he doesn't believe the province's legislature can allow people to sit without swearing the oath.

"It means they are constitutionally ineligible to sit in the legislature," he said in an interview. "The Constitution is quite clear that this particular oath is required."

Macfarlane said that unlike the elimination of the upper house, which applied only to Quebec, the oath is a requirement of the Constitution that applies to all members of provincial legislatures and Parliament.

"It is not a feature of the provincial constitution of Quebec. It is a feature of the federal Constitution and so it's out of reach for the Quebec national assembly to unilaterally change," he said, adding that it would require a constitutional amendment.

While Macfarlane said there's nothing wrong with debating the wording of the oath, it remains part of the Constitution.

"We should be deeply concerned any time the Constitution is flagrantly ignored by elected officials. It's dangerous. It's corrosive to our existence as a democracy," he said.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters it is up to the Quebec legislature to decide how it manages the swearing-in process.

Later in the day, he closed the door to any constitutional change. "I won't speculate on what the national assembly can or cannot do. What I can tell you is that there's not one Quebecer who wants us to reopen the Constitution," he told reporters.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2022.

— With files from Émilie Bergeron in Ottawa.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

ONTARIO

The Issue with Tissue connects Indigenous history with industrial exploitation

“The forest is alive, the land wants to talk to us – we have to train humanity to listen.”

Wed, October 19, 2022 


On September 18, The Issue with Tissue: A Boreal Love Story made its world premiere at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. The documentary by award-winning actor and filmmaker Michael Zelnicker draws a connection between colonial violence and unfettered extractive industrial exploitation.

While its catchy title springs from a 2019 report exposing how major US tissue brands degrade boreal forests for throwaway products, the film serves as a launching point for a group of First Nations leaders to talk about the importance of these forests for both cultures and the entire world.

“It has evolved into a much deeper story that runs from trees to toilet paper to treaties, from carbon to climate change to caribou to colonization, from water to birds to Indigenous stewardship,” Zelniker told the Nation.

Zelniker says the 600 First Nations communities inhabiting Canada’s boreal forest need to be front and centre of any story about the world’s largest forest ecosystem. It’s why he embarked on an epic 42-day, 16,000-km journey to meet with more than 50 Indigenous leaders and conservation scientists.

Despite pandemic protocols, Zelniker was able to conduct outdoor interviews exploring the stories his subjects wanted to tell. With the Kamloops residential school discoveries fresh on people’s minds, these often-emotional discussions probed the painful legacy of colonization while transmitting generous cultural wisdom.

“They shared their stories with an honesty and candour that is surprising to most people who see the movie,” said Zelniker. “When I met Senator Michèle Audette, after three minutes she was talking about feeling she didn’t have a place on Earth in 2013. I’m humbled by the fact these people trusted me the way they did.”

Framed as a talking circle, numerous Indigenous storytellers speak intimately about their “umbilical” connections with their traditional territories. As Kaska Elder Dave Porter said in the film, “The forest is alive, the land wants to talk to us – we have to train humanity to listen.”

“Our identity is embedded in the land and expressed through the trees themselves,” explained the late Anishinaabe Elder Dave Courchene. “The boreal forest carries that identity of who we are as a people. The trees hold the memory of our creation. It is said if you want to hug the Creator, hug a tree.”

Introductory segments break down the basic science of how trees have evolved, the photosynthesis process and the symbiotic forest ecosystem. Viewers learn the boreal forest contains a quarter of the world’s wetlands and more freshwater than anywhere else on the planet. It stores more carbon than any other ecosystem, including twice the amount available in remaining oil reserves. However, forest destruction turns it into a deadly carbon source.

With vivid glimpses of the region’s wildlife, the film shares that about two billion birds nest in the boreal each year, although that number has declined 30% in the last 50 years. Parallels are inferred between species loss, like the 99% decline of the George River caribou herd from 1990s levels, and industrial motivations.

“As scientist Martin St-Laurent said, no more caribou on the land, no more constraints to get at the resource, which you could substitute for no more Indigenous peoples on the land, no more constraints,” Zelniker asserted. “So much of this genocide against the First Peoples was to get at their land to auction it off for industrial exploitation.”

According to Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, southern forests are lost at a rate of 1% each year, a pace matching the tropical rainforest’s destruction. Another study by Wildlands League found an average of 14% of clear-cut areas surveyed showed no tree regeneration decades after logging, exacerbated by roads, slash piles and other logging infrastructure that inhibit vegetation.

The film implies we are complicit in flushing our forests down the toilet by purchasing toilet paper brands sourced from virgin boreal. In 2020, activism led to a Procter and Gamble shareholder revolt, yet the corporation’s biggest tissue products remain unchanged, and its supplier even launched lawsuits against Greenpeace to silence the protests.

“Accumulating more and more is only lining pockets of the corporate world and destroying our planet,” Zelniker said. “What were we hording at the beginning of Covid? Toilet paper, of all things!”

Environmentalists emphasize the boreal forest’s role in stabilizing the climate and mitigating global warming. This “boreal love story” takes Courchene’s words as its motto: “What we do to the land, we do to ourselves.”

The Issue with Tissue concludes with potential solutions, particularly Indigenous-led environmental stewardship. By becoming aware of where our products come from, consumers can choose more sustainable options.

As Sturgeon Lake First Nation Elder AJ Felix suggests, the way forward may be to emulate a forest’s mutually supportive methods. Understanding our shared connection to Mother Earth and respecting all life as family could help humanity escape its existential crisis.

“The larger systemic issue is one of disconnection, which allows us to do things like colonization, exploiting resources without concern of how we’re impacting the rest of creation or our children’s future,” said Zelniker. “Trees have existed on the planet almost 400 million years. Surely, they have something to teach us about longevity and sustainability.”

When crossing the border once again at his journey’s end, Zelnicker explained his film’s message to a border guard. She told him he could avoid the two-week quarantine and she would promise not to use Charmin toilet paper again.

Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/trees-help-protect-planet-from-climate.html

https://www.ursulakleguin.com/the-word-for-world-is-forest

The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin 

The Word for World Is Forest was originally published in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions in 1972. It was published as a standalone book in 1976 by ...

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-word-for-world-is-forest-1

The Word for World Is Forest | The Anarchist Library 

Written in the glare of the United States' war on Indochina, and first published as a separate book in that war's dire aftermath, The Word for World is Forest ...

MANITOBA

AMC must create 2SLGBTQQIA+ council, says advocate


Wed, October 19, 2022 

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) will elect a new Grand Chief next week, and one long-time advocate says he hopes whoever is chosen to lead AMC immediately takes more action to fight for the rights of First Nations 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.

“We cannot continue to invest in old patriarchal systems that are ineffective or not willing to change,” Albert McLeod, a Winnipeg-based 2Spirit elder said on Wednesday.

“We still see a lot of male-dominated attitudes in leadership, and we see homophobia and transphobia because we still see things running under that patriarchal system.”

McLeod, who took part in Manitoba’s very first Pride Parade back in 1987, and who helped write the MMIWG 2SLGBTQQIA+ National Action Plan, says that after the AMC chooses a new leader next week during their Annual General Assembly he wants work to begin to create a 2Spirit/First Nation LGBTQI+ Council at the organization.

He said that council would give a voice to 2SLGBTQ people, and “change the conversation” at AMC.

“It forces people to think more broadly in terms of service delivery, and who they are serving,” he said.

McLeod has successfully lobbied for similar councils to be formed in the past, as he and others successfully advocated for a 2Spirit Council at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) which was officially added to AFN’s charter in December of 2021.

AMC currently represents and advocates for 62 First Nations communities across the province, but McLeod said he believes Indigenous leaders at all levels in this province need to do more to both help 2SLGBTQ people, and also to understand the specific issues that matter to and effect that community.

“Why are we still electing chiefs and band councillors who have no knowledge or training to prevent gender-based violence, and homophobia and transphobia in our communities, or in the workplace?” he said.

“People need training and education, and as far as I am concerned we are still electing people without that kind of experience and that truly boggles my mind,” he said.

There will be seven candidates on the ballot during next week’s AGM, including former journalist Sheila North, and current AMC First Nations Family Advocate Cora Morgan.

Also running are Eugene Eastman, Jennifer Flett, George Kemp, Cathy Merrick and Darrell N. Shorting.

The AMC's AGM and election for Grand Chief will be held in Winnipeg Oct 25-27, with an all-candidates forum scheduled for Oct. 25, and then the vote scheduled for the next day.

The AMC did not reply to a request for comment from the Winnipeg Sun.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun

Sullivan's warning: Journalists should be on high alert


Wed, October 19, 2022 



NEW YORK (AP) — Margaret Sullivan cringed one day when a former colleague at The Washington Post, critic Carlos Lozada, tweeted with exasperation about books pitched to him as combinations of memoir and manifesto.

That's exactly what she was writing.

Sullivan's “Newsroom Confidential” traces her career from The Buffalo News to The New York Times and The Washington Post, but its meat lies in the challenge she puts to fellow journalists in the Trump era: Too many times she saw journalists slow to recognize threats posed to democracy during his presidency and now, with Donald Trump poised for a potential comeback and followers his taking cues, Sullivan said she worries that reporters are unprepared.

“There still seems to be a tendency to not want to offend,” she said, “to not want to offend the Republican establishment, to not offend the Trump Republicans, but rather to normalize them with democracy on the brink. I don't think that's the right approach.”

Several news organizations now have special beats to cover threats to the electoral process. Sullivan acknowledges that work, and praises Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, radio station WITF, which reminds listeners on a regular basis about local legislators who rejected the results of the 2020 election.

Moving forward, journalists need to stand for truth and not amplify the words of politicians who refuse to acknowledge it, she said.

The issue hasn't gone away, as illustrated this past weekend when CNN's Dana Bash sparred with Kari Lake, Arizona's Republican candidate for governor. Bash repeatedly asked about false fraud reports and pressed Lake about whether she would accept her own election results. Lake complained Bash was concentrating on old news.

“I don't think it's about being aggressive,” Sullivan said. “I think it's about framing things differently so we don't see these very high stakes politics as a game, we don't see it as horserace, we don't see it as entertaining. We see it as extremely consequential and happening before our eyes.”

Press criticism is not new; for instance, the media's performance before the Iraq War was widely condemned, said Will Bunch, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. But not many who raise concerns have Sullivan's stature, he said.

“This criticism isn't coming from the outside,” Bunch said. “It's coming from someone who is in many ways the ultimate insider. People at the highest levels are going to have to engage with someone like Margaret.”

But, Bunch conceded, “listening to her and doing something in response are two different things.”

The concern is whether hostility toward the press has reached a point of no return. Too many Americans are tuned out or more interested in their own beliefs than truth, Sullivan said.

“Both of those things are very, very troubling,” she said. “Do I think we're too far gone? I don't want to think that.”

Born and raised in nearby Lackawanna, New York, Sullivan was a summer intern in 1980 at what was then called the Buffalo Evening News. She rose through the newsroom to become its top editor in 1999. She describes sexism she encountered along the way, like when an older male editor took credit for her idea.

They were good years, grounding years, for newspaper work.

“Journalism offered a viable career path,” she wrote. “Not a great way to get rich, perhaps, but certainly a way to earn a living wage. As a bonus, it struck me as exceedingly cool.”

She wasn't intimidated when she spotted an opening for The New York Times' public editor job in 2012, pursuing it hard. Local newspapers were contracting, and she didn't have the stomach for steering The Buffalo News in a diminished state.

The public editor is a thankless job. You're situated in a newsroom, charged with publicly evaluating the work of those around you. Nobody likes to be criticized, whether it's someone at the highest levels of journalism or the person serving you coffee.

Sullivan became known for her blunt writing about the Times during her years there, tackling such issues as the overuse of confidential sources, its coverage of Hillary Clinton's emails and national security issues, even poking fun at so-called fashion trends touted by the Styles section.

In four years, she never had a completely comfortable day, she wrote.

“I liked being an outsider,” she said in an interview. “It's important to me. I was an outsider at the Times and when I felt like I was losing that a little bit — I was asked to stay longer — I left of my own volition because I thought these people were starting to feel like my friends and I didn't think that was healthy.”

The Times had one more public editor after her and has since eliminated the public editor's position, a decision she disagrees with but doesn't expect will be reversed.

She moved to the Post as a media columnist, never realizing how so much of her time would be spent writing about Trump and his norm-busting presidency.

Five years later, feeling burnt out from column writing, she sensed it was time to move on again. She had written a book on the decline of local news and found she liked the form. She quit the Post and wrote “Newsroom Confidential,” and her next step is teaching at Duke University.

What Sullivan has left behind is the bluntest of warnings. American journalists, she wrote, “should be putting the country on high alert, with sirens blaring and red lights flashing.”

David Bauder, The Associated Press

Dalhousie University teaching assistants go on strike

Wed, October 19, 2022 

The university and union have failed to agree on a pay increase, which teaching assistants haven't received since 2019. (Paul Palmeter/CBC - image credit)

Teaching assistants at Dalhousie University went on strike Wednesday.

CUPE Local 3912 says the strike also includes some instructors, markers and demonstrators.

The two sides are at an impasse over a pay raise, which union members haven't received since 2019.

Dalhousie teaching assistants are paid $24 per hour. By comparison, the union says a teachers' assistant at Western University is paid double that amount.

"It's bittersweet," said Adam Foster, who teaches in the political science department. "This was not something we were hoping we would have to do. We were hoping that Dalhousie's administration would be able to offer us a fair contract."

Paul Palmeter/CBC

Foster says support from students and the public has been encouraging.

"I think that their salary needs to be increased for sure," said Brooke Barness, a medical sciences student. "Compared a lot of other schools, it's a lot lower is what I've heard, so I'm definitely on their side."

The president of the Dalhousie Faculty Association also backs the union, even walking with members on the picket line Wednesday afternoon.

"We're 100 per cent behind our CUPE colleagues," David Westwood. "CUPE 3912 workers are our academic siblings ... our members require and depend upon the good work and expertise of our CUPE colleagues."

Westwood says these employees have been underpaid for a long time compared to their counterparts across the country.

Paul Palmeter/CBC

The details of Dalhousie's final offer, which the union rejected, was posted on its website Wednesday afternoon.

"Certainly this isn't the outcome the university was looking for with these negotiations," Chris Hattie, who works in human resources at Dalhousie, told CBC News on Wednesday.

"This is the first labour disruption that Dalhousie has had in over 20 years which really means this is a significant event in our university, one that we recognize will have a disruption on our community and particularly our students."

Hattie said the school offered the union a significant pay raise in the latest offer.

"The university has put forward a proposal that provides, on average, 15 per cent increases over the life of the proposed agreement."

Paul Palmeter/CBC

That 15 per cent is over three years.

"Ultimately I think that the proposal makes an important and meaningful step towards addressing affordability and the comparability issues that the union has brought forward," he said.

There are no new negotiation meetings scheduled between the two sides.

Campus remains open for students, but classes taught by CUPE instructors will be suspended.

The university said in a news release students should watch for information from their instructors or faculty about how their courses may be affected.

No follow-up after ice struck worker weeks before Olivier Bruneau's death, inquest hears

Wed, October 19, 2022 

This photo was found in Olivier Bruneau's phone. It was taken a few weeks before his death. (Submitted - image credit)

The Ontario Ministry of Labour employee who inspected the construction site where a worker was hit by falling ice — weeks before a chunk struck and killed 24-year-old Olivier Bruneau in 2016 — never followed up to ensure safety standards around ice were being followed.

A Bellai Brothers worker was hit by a piece of ice on Feb. 4 at the Claridge Icon condo site in Ottawa's Little Italy, which automatically launched an investigation by Ontario's Ministry of Labour.

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, a constructor must ensure a wall of an excavation is stripped of loose rock or other material that may slide, roll or fall upon a worker.

When labour ministry inspector Brent Tureski arrived at the site, he said he saw workers power-washing thick formations of ice away from the walls of the excavation site. A conversation with site supervisors indicated that work had been ongoing for several weeks and the employee was not seriously injured.

He was told power-washing away the ice would continue, Tureski told the jury Tuesday in the inquest to Bruneau's death, which started last week.

Submitted

When asked why Tureski didn't issue any orders or investigate the incident further, he said his only concern was to ensure the walls of the pit were clear and he believed that work was being done.

"I had no other conclusion that it was adequate because the ice was gone from the wall," he said.

Those measures ended up being temporary and ended weeks before Bruneau was hit by falling ice on March 23, 2016.

"I have no idea why they would have stopped," said Tureski, who said he has spent a lot of time since 2016 reflecting on his decisions, adding they would not necessarily be the same today.

He could not recall discussing the installation of a snow fence along the south wall, from which the ice had fallen, though several witnesses have testified such a conversation did happen with site supervisors.

Supervisor felt site was safe

The ministry ended up charging Claridge Homes, subcontractor Bellai Brothers Construction Ltd., and two site supervisors under the health and safety act. Each defendant pleaded guilty in 2019 and paid fines.

Leo Simard, one of those site supervisors, also testified Tuesday.

Giacomo Panico/CBC

Simard was unable to remember some details of the events leading up to Bruneau's death. He did confirm he was not included in the meeting with the ministry after the first employee was struck. He was told by others a snow fence would be installed four-and-a-half metres from the south wall.

"Fifteen feet to me sounded pretty good," said Simard, even though he was told the worker was struck while standing about twice as far from the wall.

There have also been questions about the decision to stop hiring a company called Clean Water Works to come onto the site and remove the ice. Simard said he wasn't involved in that decision.

No instruction to go near south wall, says supervisor

In the days leading up to Bruneau's death, Simard asked for a pile of blast rock — placed along the south wall — to be removed, even though it was expected work on that wall wouldn't begin until weeks later. Up until that point, supervisors had kept workers away from the wall after crushing the snow fence.

Submitted to CBC News

Simard said there was no instruction to go near the wall on March 23, the morning Bruneau died. He had just come out of his office trailer, located at ground level above the pit, and was looking in when he saw the ice fall.

"I'm not that old but I've never seen ice fall like that in my life," said Simard. "It was like it was shot out of a cannon."

Bruneau's father, Christian, cross-examined Simard, asking if he knew there was a possibility ice could fall, and why the site was in operation.

"It is a bit of a problem, don't you think?" asked Christian.

"For me, it was safe," answered Simard.

The inquest continues Wednesday.

Investor group, unions push Hyundai to address child labor at U.S. suppliers

Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke
Wed, October 19, 2022 

A welcome sign stands next to the SMART Alabama, LLC auto parts plant in Luverne

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -A group that works with union pension funds is pressing Hyundai Motor Co to respond to reports of child labor at U.S. parts suppliers, warning of potential reputational damage to the Korean automaker.

SOC Investment Group, which works with union pension funds that have more than $250 billion in assets, sent a sharply worded letter on Wednesday to company chairman Euisun Chung, saying investors were concerned in the wake of a July investigation by Reuters that found child labor at a Hyundai subsidiary in Alabama. In addition, the letter cited a recent federal and state investigation into children working at another Hyundai supplier in the state.

"Child labor and poor workplace health and safety have regulatory and legal repercussions for Hyundai in the U.S. and can cause reputational damage across the globe," said the letter from the group, which advises on corporate accountability issues.

The letter urged Hyundai's board of directors to oversee the company's response and called for several actions including an independent assessment of human and labor rights risks in the supply chain with publicly released results and ongoing monitoring.

Reuters first documented child labor practices at Hyundai-owned SMART Alabama LLC earlier this year. Then in August, authorities found children as young as 13 working at Alexander City, Alabama-based SL Alabama, a Korean-operated parts supplier and unit of Korea's SL Corp, and the company entered in to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Hyundai's global chief operating officer, Jose Munoz, told Reuters on Wednesday that the company is investigating child labor violations in its U.S. supply chain and plans to "sever ties" with suppliers in Alabama found to have relied on

underage workers.

Earlier, Hyundai spokesperson Ira Gabriel said the automaker's subsidiary, SMART Alabama, had already ended its relationship with a third-party staffing company.

SOC's letter to the company comes after a public rebuke last week from leaders of the United Autoworkers union (UAW) and a September letter to the company from more than two dozen local and national advocacy groups and unions calling for an end to child labor practices.

The Washington, D.C.-based SOC, which said the funds it works with hold an estimated 27,000 shares in Hyundai, has taken a more activist approach to call out worker mistreatment and other social issues, including pressing major companies like Apple Inc and Tesla Inc to make corporate changes, said Dieter Waizenegger, the group's executive director.

"In the U.S. system, oftentimes the monetary risk for labor rights violations is relatively small so it might be seen as a cost of doing business," Waizenegger said. "I think investors like us need to step out and say, 'the value of the fines is not capturing your risk even remotely. Your product might be tinged for a long time.'"

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San FranciscoAdditional reporting by Joshua Schneyer in New YorkEditing by Matthew Lewis)

IT'S FALL

B.C. drought recovery will take time, even with rain in the forecast, forecasters say

"It's extremely rare," the head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre, said. "We're seeing, in some areas, historic low stream flows — the type of thing we've never experienced before."

Tue, October 18, 2022 

People walk along the shore of Alouette Lake on Tuesday, October 18, 2022. The lake in Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge, B.C., has receded dramatically due to drought conditions. (Ben Nelms/CBC - image credit)

Unusually warm temperatures and a surprisingly dry September and October have been guilty pleasures for some British Columbians in recent months.

While being able to enjoy sunshine and not having to carry a raincoat or umbrella for the first few weeks of fall is a nice change of pace, a lack of precipitation that's drying up creeks, streams and lakes is a real cause for concern.

"It's extremely rare," David Campbell, the head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre, said in an interview.

"We're seeing, in some areas, historic low stream flows — the type of thing we've never experienced before."

According to Emergency Info B.C., the following regions are experiencing severe drought and are now at Level 5, the province's highest drought response level:

North, South and East Peace.


Fort Nelson.


Lower Mainland.


Sunshine Coast.


East and West Vancouver Island.

State of emergency on the Sunshine Coast

Drought conditions on the Sunshine Coast prompted the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), the District of Sechelt and the shíshálh Nation to declare local states of emergency and ban large non-essential commercial uses of water Tuesday.

As of 11:59 p.m. PT Tuesday, breweries, cideries, distilleries, water bottlers, non-medical cannabis growers, people with swimming pools and hot tubs as well as businesses that work with concrete and cement products are all under order to stop using treated drinking water.

The order applies to businesses using water from the Chapman Water System, as the district says the reservoir only has enough water to last until early November, depending on how much water the community uses and how much rain falls in the coming weeks.

"We're seeing the effects of climate change happen in a very real and tangible way on the Sunshine Coast here," said Clinton McDougall, co-owner of Sunday Cider in Gibsons.

McDougall now has to pause production, and he says his business will be going into "survival mode" for the next month, selling off the inventory he has in stock.

"Everything will slow down, in hopes we can ride this out," he said.

Simon Gohier/Radio-Canada

Remko Rosenboom, the SCRD's general manager of infrastructure services and director of its emergency operations centre, says the district had no choice but to prioritize the water supply for essential use only and to make sure the Sechelt Hospital and the region's fire protection service have what they need.

"We've never had to implement restrictions like this before," said Rosenboom, adding that the district has been working for years to develop more water sources.

He said last year the region got to drought Level 4, but saw plenty of rain roll in by mid-September.

"There is rain in the forecast," he said. "But we need about 100, 150 millimetres before I can say confidently that we'll be out of this situation."

Back at the River Forecast Centre, David Campbell said drought conditions throughout B.C. are having an impact on both people and the environment.

For those who have to limit the amount of water they're using on a daily basis there are socioeconomic consequences, but Campbell said people are also losing ecological benefits, such as improvements in air quality provided by rainfall.

He added that there's a negative impact on fish and other aquatic species as well, because they're no longer able to swim through certain creeks and rivers that have started to dry up.

Environment Canada is predicting rain in Metro Vancouver, on Vancouver Island and on the Sunshine Coast on Friday, a change in pattern that Campbell hopes will help shift weather conditions back to normal.

"It's going to take some time," he said. "We probably need to have a few hundred millimetres of rain to get ourselves back to reset."

Quebec City Iranian community navigates Iran's mass protests from afar

Wed, October 19, 2022 

Ava is part of Quebec City's Iranian community trying to keep tabs on friends and family during the most recent protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. Ava is not her real name. CBC News is protecting her identity because she fears for her family’s safety in Iran for speaking publicly. (Rachel Watts/CBC - image credit)

Ava says it feels like just yesterday that she was on campus at a university in Tehran.

But her life before immigrating to Canada four years ago seems so distant now, it also feels like "ages ago."

Sitting outside the library on the campus of Université Laval in Quebec City, the PhD student recalls all the things she misses about her life in Iran.

Studying in the café next to university, chatting with friends, going to the cinema, visiting her grandparents and planning picnics and road trips.

"The streets in Tehran beside my university were very beautiful during fall. It was exactly like here," said Ava, looking up at the trees, which have turned a hue of yellow.

Along with the fond memories of growing up in Iran surrounded by family and friends in an "open-minded community," Ava notes there are darker reminders, some which speak to why she left the country in 2018.

Ava is not her real name. CBC News is protecting her identity because she fears for her family's safety in Iran for speaking publicly.

"My university was kind of the open-minded university among all the universities," she recalled. "We were not forced to wear very tight hijabs."

"(But) even in my university, there were some professors that were coming to us and telling us, you know, you're not allowed to come to university (without tight hijabs)," said Ava, referring to the strict modesty rules in Iran which were implemented in 1979.

"I was tired of that prison."

Ava says she made the decision to leave her country and pursue her education in Canada but she has struggled with how to navigate and support friends and family from afar as unrest built and protests erupted in her home country.

Most recently, Ava was one of the hundreds of Iranians in Quebec City who attended protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran.

Rachel Watts/CBC

Amini died on Sept. 16 following her arrest by Iran's morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely.

Her death sparked international condemnation and protests in, and outside of, the country.

Dealing with the anxiety of being disconnected from family and friends after weeks of protests and violent government crackdowns in Iran, Ava says expatriates like herself have been trying to show support any way they can.

'My heart is in Iran': Fears over family and friends' safety

Ava says that when she first heard about Amini's death she felt "panicked" and saddened she couldn't protest alongside many of her friends and family members — many of whom, she says, are in danger of getting killed, injured or arrested in the demonstrations.

"But I'm here, freely living," said Ava. "The feeling is why I'm not there to fight with them …(Any) person who is arrested, it can be me. I want to be there and fight because I love my country. For a while … I lost my hope."

While some of Ava's friends joined her in Canada, her parents, other friends and two of her siblings are still there.

"It's been three years that I haven't seen my parents and my siblings. Every day I wake up and I'm like, 'what if I don't see them anymore?' And that's very hard.… That's all the time in your mind. It's been awhile I'm not eating well, I'm not cooking, I'm not doing my routine. And I have so many nightmares."

Parvin Ramezani, who immigrated to Quebec City eight years ago, says she too has experienced a lot of anxiety over the past few weeks.

"My heart is in Iran. I cannot sleep very well. I cannot eat. I cannot focus on my work," said Ramezani. "I grew up there. I have lots of friends there who couldn't immigrate. I have friends in prison and they are like family for me."

Rachel Watts/CBC

Supporting those back home

Ramezani says she needs to channel her anger. Although she wants to travel back to be with friends and family, she says doing so would just get her arrested.

"I will be useless there but I want to do something here for them," said Ramezani, who noted that the small Iranian community in Quebec City has come together to support each other.

"Pain can (bring) people together and we feel like we are a family because (the) Iranian community is not a big community. We are very different. We have different opinions, we have different languages. But … we have one very, very important goal and this is very sure … we want to have peace."

Karim, who immigrated from Iran to Quebec City around 11 years ago, says those outside the country have a responsibility to raise awareness. Karim is not his real name. CBC News is protecting his identity because he fears for his safety for speaking publicly.

"We cannot do much for Iran these days except for spreading the word, spreading the message of Iranian people who want revolution," said Karim. "They are fighting for freedom. That's why the principal slogan for this revolution is 'women, life, freedom.'"

He says all they can do is try to relay the situation in Iran to elected officials in Western nations, in the hope they might intervene and "stop legitimizing the Iranian regime."

Rachel Watts/CBC

Remembering life in Iran

One of Ramezani's first memories in Iran is being told to wear a hijab.

Walking on the street with her mother in her hometown of Ahvaz, two men stopped Ramezani's mother and asked why her daughter's hair was not covered. She was in Grade 1.

"I was ashamed of myself, (thinking) why did I do something wrong?" recalled Ramezani.

Her childhood memories of the morality police are part of what made her promise never to have children in Iran.

As someone who participated alongside numerous students at some major demonstrations before leaving the country, she swore she would never bring a daughter into the world under the regime.

In 2014, Ramezani immigrated to Canada with her husband of 17 years, Keivan Karimzadeh, and they now have two daughters. Their eldest, Viana, is six — about the age Ramezani was when she started wearing the mandatory hijab.

"When we arrived here, we learned that we were going to have a girl. I promised her to make the world a better place for her, for both of them," said Ramezani.

"I promised them every year on their birthday … I do my best to make the world a better place for them."

Feeling hopeful: 'the world can hear us'

Last month, Ramezani and her daughter Viana participated in the first of many protests organized in Quebec City. She says, this time around, the protests feel different.

Rachel Watts/CBC

"I have hope this time, because this time I feel the world can hear us and I feel that the Iranian regime is afraid of that," said Ramezani.

Roozbeh Tajik, who immigrated to Canada about three years ago, says he is hopeful after seeing how the world responded to Mahsa's death. He says he believes it could be a catalyst for bigger change in Iran.

"I am optimistic we are going to have a good country, a great country and democratic country, and a free country," said Tajik.

He notes that when he was younger, he didn't know things could be different in Iran.

"I did not know what other alternatives would be until I reached the age of 18, until I entered the university, knowing that there is something called freedom, knowing that there is something called democracy and justice," said Tajik.

"At the same time I knew I was not free. I knew I was not allowed to express my ideas freely."

He says, fortunately, Iranians in and around Quebec City are supportive of each other and they feel deeply for friends and family on the ground in their homeland.

"The people of Iran, who are people right now on the streets… it's (as though) myself I am on the street and I am being beaten and I am being shot," said Tajik.