Letter:  Only Alberta prevents Sask. from being Canada's laughingstock

Reader Letters - Star Phoenix

Were it not for the flat-earthers in Trumpville, Alberta, we in Saskatchewan would be the laughingstock of this country. Imagine the modifying shame of it all if Alberta didn’t exist.


Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Christine Tell speaks at an event at the Regina Wildlife Federation on Monday, September 27, 2021 near White City. 

TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post© Provided by Star Phoenix

We have a premier who must have missed the day at school his teacher taught arithmetic , and who doesn’t know if his ministers vet who is invited to sit in the public gallery.

A minister of public safety who states that it doesn’t bother her that a convicted murderer was a guest of the government for last week’s throne speech as “he’s a free citizen.”

And yet she won’t allow the RCMP to use provincial funds to assist in the federal handgun buy-back program, stating that the “handgun freeze” will not “in any significant way affect actual crime.”

In fact, the individual who sat in the gallery for the throne speech is on full life parole. The federal gun program is not a freeze or confiscation, it’s a buy-back program. Why does the program have to reduce crime in a “significant” manner? If it saves only one life, is that not worth it? What is an “actual” crime?

Related video: Growing frustrations from premiers in prairies as they push for sovereignty

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Police training must have been very different back when Ms. Tell graduated.

Then we have the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, who must have been in the premier’s math class, stating that the government is getting out of retail liquor sales because the stores could start losing money, even though they are currently profitable.

Oh, the shame of it all. Thank God for Alberta.

J.J. Young, Saskatoon

Alberta NDP says B.C. doctor deal a wake-up call to Smith to knock off pseudo-science

EDMONTON — Alberta’s Opposition NDP leader says a proposed pay deal for B.C. doctors is a wake-up call to Premier Danielle Smith to knock off the pseudo-science and put down the wrecking ball aimed at the province’s health system.


Alberta NDP says B.C. doctor deal a wake-up call to Smith to knock off pseudo-science© Provided by The Canadian Press

Rachel Notley says the B.C. contract shows the race is on for scarce talent in the health field and that the organizational chaos and anti-science bent of Smith’s government are setting Alberta back.

“People who are trained in health care — whether they are nurses' aides, whether they are neurosurgeons — all understand evidence and science,” Notley said Tuesday.

“And those folks being told they have to work in a health-care system that is being led by a premier who doesn’t believe that vaccines are an important part of any health-care regime, those folks are much more likely to go somewhere else.

“All this at a time when we see other provinces acting quickly to attract health-care professionals to their jurisdictions.”

This week the B.C. government announced a tentative deal that could see a full-time family doctor paid about $385,000 a year – a pay boost of about one-third from the current $250,000.

Notley said it’s hard to make direct comparisons, but the B.C. deal is on par if not better than Alberta’s.

Alberta Health spokesman Steve Buick disputed that.

“More fearmongering by Alberta’s NDP does not change the facts: Alberta full-time family doctors were paid $393,000 in 2019-20, more than the $385,000 B.C.’s new deal would pay them next year. And Alberta’s family doctors will earn more compensation under the new agreement with the Alberta Medical Association,” said Buick in a statement.

“The NDP are once again showing they have nothing to contribute on health care but empty politics.”

Related video: Provinces call on Ottawa for more health-care funding
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Smith became premier three weeks ago, replacing Jason Kenney as United Conservative Party leader and premier.

She campaigned on a platform that blamed Alberta Health Services, the agency tasked with operating front-line care, for what she terms punitive and unnecessary vaccine mandates and rules. She also blames the agency for fumbling the COVID-19 response, leading to hospitals teetering dangerously close to collapse during multiple waves of the pandemic.

Smith said action must be taken immediately to fix jammed emergency wards and ambulance bottlenecks. She has promised to fire the AHS board and revamp the entire system with an eye to decentralizing it by mid-January.

She has also promised to not impose new health restrictions or mask mandates to combat any future COVID-19 outbreak. She is contemplating legal steps to ensure schools can’t impose mask rules, and next month plans to change human rights laws to forbid discrimination, such as banning someone from coming to work because they are not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Smith, on her first day as premier on Oct. 11, said she takes her health cues from documents such as the Great Barrington Declaration. The 2020 open letter from a group of health specialists argues for shielding the vulnerable but otherwise letting COVID-19 run unchecked to create herd immunity and reduce long-term harmful side-effects from isolation, such as drug use and mental health problems.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, publicly rejected the declaration, calling it scientifically flawed and logistically unworkable. Her views echoed other academics and the World Health Organization.

Smith has said Hinshaw will be moved out of her current job.

The premier also said she will not do joint press conferences with Hinshaw, and on Oct. 22 told reporters, “A lot of the bad decisions were made by Alberta Health Services on the basis of bad advice from the chief medical officer of health.”

She has also asserted that allowing health workers to come to work without being vaccinated would be a drawing card, something Notley labelled “an utterly ridiculous, ridiculous assertion.”

Smith, a former journalist, has made headlines for arguments challenging mainstream science. Last year, she pushed for livestock dewormer ivermectin to be used as a COVID-19 treatment – a cure since debunked.

This summer, she apologized after announcing on a livestream interview that people have it within their power to avoid contracting early-stage cancer.

The UCP government has had a fractious relationship with health providers since it tore up the doctors’ master agreement almost three years ago, then fought to roll back nurses’ wages during the pandemic.

The doctors have since agreed to a four-year deal that delivers pay hikes of four per cent or more.

The Alberta Medical Association said it plans to continue suing the province for tearing up the agreement, unless the province follows through on revoking the legislature power it granted itself to tear up the deal in the first place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

Climate Changed: Canada's health system isn't ready for new reality, say doctors

Montreal family doctor Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers sees climate change as an all-encompassing "risk amplifier."


Climate Changed: Canada's health system isn't ready for new reality, say doctors© Provided by The Canadian Press

She says it raises the potential for hazard across the board, from threatening the most basic health determinants, such as air quality and access to food and water, to exacerbating seasonal allergies and tick-borne Lyme disease.

Pétrin-Desrosiers, president of the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, is among a group of doctors who say Canada's health-care system isn't prepared for the worsening effects of climate change.

Finola Hackett, a locum physician working in rural communities throughout southern Alberta, said ignoring the "climate crisis when it comes to health, long-term, it's going to be very costly, not just in terms of dollars, but in lives."

Both say acting now has the potential to save lives.

"That's motivating enough for us to do the work," said Pétrin-Desrosiers.

Hackett and Pétrin-Desrosiers are the lead co-authors of a policy brief on Canada released last week alongside a global report produced by the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, which is published by the Lancet medical journal.

The Lancet report underscores the health risks of global heating, pointing to the heat dome that settled over British Columbia in summer 2021 as an example.

The heat dome, which caused more than 600 deaths in B.C., would have been "virtually impossible" without the influence of climate change, the peer-reviewed report says.

The Canadian policy brief says the health-care system has the potential to increase resilience to such extreme heat and other climate-related health risks, but it's far from ready, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic.

It says heat waves may increase the number of emergency room visits by 10 to 15 per cent, further straining health-care capacity and reducing quality of care.

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Climate change has 'massive' impact on health, expert says
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In Alberta, Hackett said she sees patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, during periods of air pollution from wildfire smoke.

Both Hackett and Pétrin-Desrosiers said they're also concerned about the effects of climate change on mental health, having seen evidence of increasing instances of post-traumatic stress disorder following extreme weather events, such as flooding.

That's worrying, Pétrin-Desrosiers said, because access to mental health care in the public system is already lacking, with long waiting lists across the country.

Health Canada's own assessment of climate change and health published earlier this year says global heating is "already affecting the health of Canadians, and, without taking concerted action, will continue to result in injury, illness and death."

Greater warming will bring greater risks, but many impacts could be avoided "if Canada rapidly and substantially scales up efforts now to adapt," the report says.

The linkages between climate change and health are also the focus of the annual report from Canada's chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, released last week.

The report says "urgent public health action is required to prepare for, protect against, and respond to current and future health impacts of climate change."

Both the Health Canada and public health officer's reports emphasize the importance of involving people who are most affected by climate change in adaptation planning, noting vulnerability is often linked with additional social inequities, such as low income, inadequate housing and food insecurity.

Such reports, along with some actions at the provincial level, show there is increasing recognition of the health risks posed by climate change, Hackett says.

"But in terms of, actually, do we have measures in place in our clinics, in our hospitals, in our health organizations, we're just in the early stages," she says.

The Canadian policy brief notes the governments of B.C., Ontario and Quebec have taken steps to assess links between climate change and health, but Hackett said such initiatives are "fragmented" without some kind of national co-ordination.

Similarly, Pétrin-Desrosiers said Health Canada committed on paper to improving resiliency in the health-care system, but that hasn't yet translated into action at the pace needed to address the growing risks.

The doctors' policy brief recommends that provincial and territorial health authorities undertake climate-resilience analyses to identify priority actions, and calls on Ottawa to create a national secretariat "to co-ordinate the transformation of Canada's health system" into one that's resilient to the effects of climate change.

Itsuggests adaptation measures could include climate risk training for health workers and creating health-care contingency plans for extreme weather events.

The federal government is set to finalize a national climate change adaptation strategy by the end of this year, with health and well-being as one of five key areas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2021.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

Federal government contributing $970M to fund small modular nuclear reactor in Ontario

Peter Zimonjic - Oct 25,2022

The Canada Infrastructure Bank has made a deal with Ontario Power Generation to provide $970 million to build the country's first small modular reactor.

Over ten years, the deal will fund construction of a 300-megawatt small modular reactor next to the existing 3,500-megawatt Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington, Ont.

"Today's announcement represents a significant step towards the development of a non-emitting electricity grid and a prosperous net-zero future," said Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in a media statement.

"The deployment of one of Canada's first small modular reactors [SMRs] at Darlington Station will further enhance Canada's leadership in nuclear technology, create sustainable jobs and reduce emissions."

SMRs have smaller footprints and shorter construction schedules than traditional nuclear generating stations.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank, CIB, a federal Crown corporation, said in a media statement that small reactors are crucial to achieving Canada's goal, laid out in the Paris agreement, of cutting national greenhouse gas emissions 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Related video: The Canadians who want to see more nuclear energy

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Ontario Power Generation, a provincial Crown corporation responsible for about half of Ontario's energy production, said the reactor is key to its goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

The Darlington SMR, the CIB said, will also be used to help spearhead similar projects in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta.

The future of low emissions

The transition from gas-powered vehicles to ones that rely on electricity will result in a sizeable increase in electricity demand — and the government wants the future grid to be zero-emitting by 2035.

OPG and the federal government say that once the Darlington SMR is up and running, it will be able to provide enough power to run 160,000 cars.

Earlier this year, the federal government said it would work with the provinces and territories to establish a "a Pan-Canadian Grid Council" to promote clean electricity infrastructure investments and develop emerging technologies like geothermal, tidal and SMRs.

"As our largest clean power investment, we are supporting technology which can accelerate the reduction in greenhouse gases while also paving the way for Canada becoming a global SMR technology hub," said Ehren Cory, CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank.



Federal government contributing $970M to fund small modular nuclear reactor in Ontario© CBC News

Bloc leader condemns 'racist' and 'humiliating' monarchy while calling for Canada to cut ties with Charles

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet delivered a provocative speech Tuesday condemning the monarchy as a "racist," "archaic," "almost archeological" and "humiliating" institution that should be scrapped.

The comments came during debate on the party's motion, which calls on the federal government to sever ties with what the Bloc calls the "British monarchy."

The motion is purely symbolic because, under Canada's Constitution, it would take more than a vote like this to cut ties with the Crown.

Such a constitutional change would require the unanimous consent of all provinces and both houses of Parliament — an unlikely prospect, given the reluctance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most premiers to engage in constitutional talks.

The Bloc's critics decried the motion as a meaningless political stunt and a distraction from the real problems facing the country, such as a lack of affordable housing, the high cost of living, climate change and a health care system under severe stress.

They also questioned whether a separatist party should have any say in deciding who symbolically leads the country.

Blanchet said Canada's Parliament can tackle the challenges of the day while also engaging in some soul-searching about what kind of country Canada should be.

Blanchet said Canada's sovereign, Charles III, is a "foreigner who knows nothing about Canada" and would struggle to pass the country's citizenship test.

Charles has made 18 official visits to Canada since 1970 — more than to any other Commonwealth realm. He also often talks about his love of Canada and his affection for its people.

Blanchet said Charles is from a family who "crushed us in Quebec with cannonballs and muskets," referring to the British victory in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the larger Seven Years' War, which resulted in France ceding most of its North American territory to Great Britain.

"We're told we're a secular democratic country but they protect a King who is the head of a church," Blanchet said, referring to Charles's role as the supreme governor of the Church of England. Charles does not have any formal leadership role in the church's Canadian counterpart, the Anglican Church of Canada.

"It's archaic. It's a thing of the past — it's almost archeological. It's humiliating. It's completely illogical to have this monarchy. We need to exit this monarchy because it's important to do so," Blanchet said.

Speaking of Liberal and Conservative MPs, Blanchet said some of them condemn The Adventures of Tintin cartoons, which have been criticized for their racial stereotypes and colonial tropes, but "stand up and defend a racist British monarchy."

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, said now is not the time to debate the role of the monarchy.

With the economy in a fragile state, housing increasingly unaffordable and a climate crisis looming, Oliphant said the government doesn't want to be bogged down by divisive constitutional talks.

He also offered a defence of Canada's system of government, saying the Crown is "the bedrock of our constitutional democracy," a form of government that has served Canada well over the last 150 years.

Related video: Bloc Québécois calls for Canada to end monarchy

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Queen Elizabeth helped usher in the modern era in Canada, signing the Constitution Act, 1982 and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Oliphant said, "ensuring stability in our country and guaranteeing rights of it citizens."

"We have a system of government that Canadians trust. It's a system that was fought for and it came at the cost of many men and women's blood. We will continue to defend that democracy," Oliphant said.

Oliphant said the Bloc's motion, which only runs to a few lines, also doesn't offer any alternative.

Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden said dumping the Crown would prompt "chaos" and a "fundamental rethinking of all our institutions and how they relate to each other. It's no simple task."

Bloc is just looking for attention: Conservative MP

Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus said the Bloc launched this motion now because it wants to prop up its sister party, the Parti Québécois. The PQ's three MNAs protested swearing an oath to Charles after the recent provincial election.

Paul-Hus said that, like the PQ MNAs, the Bloc is just trying to grab media attention.

"They say, 'Let's be the talk of the town. Let's get in the news. It's going to make headlines and we're going to have a lot of fun dong it,'" Paul-Hus said.

Rather than tackle more pressing issues, Paul-Hus said, the Bloc wants to revive old constitutional debates to show they still have relevance after decades on the opposition benches.

"Does anyone still believe in the Bloc? It's just looking for a reason to exist," he said.

"What do they propose in return? We pledge allegiance to the president of Canada? We'd do that and then they'd turn around say, 'We must cut ties time with the Canadian republic.' They already call this a foreign Parliament."

Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, said that in his 12 years as an MP, he's never once heard a constituent ask him about the monarchy.

'Nobody is talking about this'

He said it's a waste for the Bloc to use one of its three opposition days this year — a day in the Commons when an opposition party sets the agenda — to discuss this subject.

"Surely to goodness the Bloc understands no matter what region you're from, nobody is talking about this issue. Except for the Bloc," Lamoureux said.

"Why does the party that wants to see Canada fall apart want to talk about this issue? I won't speculate. But this motion just shows how truly irrelevant the Bloc really is. They're just being mischievous."



King Charles III shakes hands with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he receives realm prime ministers in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace in London, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. A Bloc motion introduced Tuesday calls for Canada to cut ties with the Crown.

© Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP Photo

NDP MPs were more divided than the other federalist parties on the question of the Crown's future.

NDP MP Nikki Ashton said the monarchy is "a symbol of colonial, a symbol of slavery, oppression and repression and a symbol of conflict."

"It's an anachronism that should be done away with," she said.

Her colleague, NDP MP Alistair MacGregor, said he takes a more "laissez-faire" approach, preferring to debate other democratic reforms like the enactment of proportional representation in Canada.

Regardless, MacGregor said the Crown offers stability. "I believe the monarchy's continual rule provides legislative consistency. Governments come and go but the Crown remains."

MPs will vote on the Bloc's motion on Wednesday.

Oct 25,2022

Ottawa hospital calls out to Alberta health-care workers in wake of Premier Smith's comments

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith holds her first press conference in 

Edmonton, on Tuesday October 11, 2022. 

Tyler Dawson - Oct 24, 2022 - National Post

Alberta is calling. Or is it Ottawa?

In the latest twist of inter-provincial drama and worker-harvesting, an Ottawa hospital said it would be happy to crib health-care workers from Wild Rose Country, while Alberta’s government is trying to convince beleaguered skilled workers in Toronto (and Vancouver) to head west.

The call for Alberta health-care workers came on the heels of comments from the province’s new premier, Danielle Smith, which she made at the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting in Edmonton.

“I think that the staffing shortages have been manufactured by the bad decisions of Alberta Health Services,” Smith said in a Saturday news conference.

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s responded on Monday. In a tweet, Alex Munter, the president of the pediatric care centre at CHEO, posted a link to jobs at the hospital.

“Alberta Health Services staff: If you feel discouraged because you’re being blamed for healthcare problems rather than being thanked for 2 ½ years of tireless work… We’d welcome your dedication and expertise at @CHEO,” Munter wrote on Twitter.

Health-care workers and the Opposition New Democrats also responded to Smith’s comments. Janis Irwin, an Edmonton NDP MLA, asked the premier to visit a hospital.

“Talk to those on the frontlines. Your words are incredibly disrespectful. You’re completely out of touch,” Irwin wrote on Twitter.

It’s not the first time Munter has offered up a pitch to Alberta’s health-care professionals. On her very first day as provincial leader, Smith said the unvaccinated were the most discriminated-against group of Canadians she had witnessed in her lifetime.

A day later, Munter took to Twitter, saying Alberta workers would be welcome if they are vaccinated against COVID and their other shots are up to date. “We think racism is bad, immunization is good and we (love) occupational health+safety,” Munter wrote.

Meanwhile, Alberta has been trying to woo skilled workers from other parts of the country, and before he left office, former premier Jason Kenney unveiled an advertising campaign in Toronto and Vancouver entitled “Alberta is calling.” It directs Torontonians, groaning under outlandish rental rates and home prices, to come to Alberta, where the wages are the highest in the country, property prices are low and there are spectacular mountains within a few hours’ drive of the province’s major cities.

It’s unclear what impact the campaign has had — though the province saw nearly 35,000 people move in during the second quarter of 2022, according to government statistics.

While Ontario has largely declined to respond to the campaign, outgoing B.C. Premier John Horgan said he wasn’t happy that Alberta’s ad campaign in Vancouver was targeting skilled workers, which would include health-care staff. He said earlier this month that Alberta shouldn’t be competing for health-care workers, and instead asking for more health-care money from the federal government.

“Alberta’s approach is at odds with what the provinces have been doing for the last four or five years,” Horgan said.

AOC vows to champion LGBTQ+ rights after hecklers storm New York event

Erum Salam in New York - 

The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said she will stand up for LGBTQ+ rights after an attack by hecklers caused chaos during a recent speaking event in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York.


Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

The Democrat from New York met the heckles at the back of the Boys and Girls Club with dancing, the video of which has gone viral on social media.

“AOC has got to go,” the protesters shouted in unison to the sound of a beating drum.

On Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez responded to the video, saying the hecklers “were yelling Westboro Baptist-style anti-LGBT+ slogans. What do you think I’m gonna do? Take them seriously?

“If you want to associate with their views, that’s your business.”

Referring to the 14th congressional district of New York she represents, Ocasio-Cortez added: “But NY-14 will always have a champion for LGBTQ+ people on my watch. Period.”

A video online of the 19 October confrontation between Ocasio-Cortez and the hecklers showed one of them badgering her about how a policy providing affordable housing for LGBTQ+ seniors would discriminate against heterosexual people.

Another heckler shouts “there’s only two … genders” – a concept that is discriminatory toward people who identify as non-binary.

One heckler held up a homemade sign in support of Tina Forte, a rightwing candidate from Rockland county running against Ocasio-Cortez in the midterms.

Last month, the local news outlet NY1 reported that Forte was at the US Capitol during the January 6 attack staged by supporters of Donald Trump.

In a video posted on the day, Forte is seen wearing a pro-Trump beanie on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (not in fact at the Capitol). The video showed her standing next to a large caricature of Nancy Pelosi, saying “we will not allow this election to be stolen from us” even though Joe Biden beat Trump in the 2020 presidential race.

In response to questions about her whereabouts on 6 January, Forte has said: “I went there to shine light on the election. I did nothing. I didn’t participate in anything that went on that day, from what I see on videos or anything that they want to call it. I’m not going to say I regret it because I don’t.”

As Forte’s campaign vows to “stop socialism”, Ocasio-Cortez is expected to easily win reelection to a third term during the 8 November midterms.

Polls show the congresswoman holds a significant lead over Forte. Her campaign has raised more than $11m (£9.8m) while Forte has raised less than $1m (£887,995).

Last week was not the first time that a video of Ocasio-Cortez dancing went viral. A video of her dancing on a rooftop while she was a student at Boston University went viral on the day she was sworn in to her first term in 2019, with her opponents on the political right wing trying to use it to embarrass her and her supporters, drowning out that criticism with positive reactions.

INFLATION IS WALL ST. WAR PROFITEERING

Biden, days to midterms, accuses oil companies of 'war profiteering' on gas prices

President Joe Biden, little more than a week away from Election Day, presented something of an ultimatum to gas and oil companies: ramp up production or pay a higher tax rate.

President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks on oil company profits in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Oct. 31, 2022, in Washington, D.C.© Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Biden announces more steps to lower gas prices

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"It's time for these companies to stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities to this country, give the American people a break and still do very well," Biden said as he spoke from the White House on Monday afternoon alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Biden threatened imposing a higher tax on excess profits and other restrictions if companies don't increase production and refining capacity to drive down prices at the pump.

"My team will work with Congress to look at these options that are available to us and others," he said. Congress is currently in recess as lawmakers return home to campaign and stump for their preferred candidates ahead of the Nov. 8 elections.

Oil companies have made staggering profits while Americans are paying higher energy prices.

ExxonMobil said last week it had its highest earnings ever for the third quarter, with a net income of $19.7 billion. Chevron reported making $11 billion in profits, while Shell made $9.5 billion in profits.MORE: 'Big Oil' CEOs testify before Congress amid skyrocketing gas prices

"What I mean is profits so high it's hard to believe," Biden said, accusing companies of passing the profits back to shareholders and buying back their stock.

"Give me a break, enough is enough," Biden added.

MORE: Rising gas prices could shape the midterms: Here's where fuel costs stand in key states.

As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.76, according to the American Automobile Association. That's 30 cents higher than the price of gas a year ago.

If oil companies passed on their excess profits to consumers, Biden said the price of gas would go down by 50 cents.

Higher energy prices also impact manufacturers, and those costs are often passed down to consumers by raising prices on food, clothing, furniture and more. Inflation is at a level not seen in decades, with the consumer price index rising 0.4% in September and consumer prices overall rising 8.2% in the last 12 months.

Nearly half of Americans say either the economy (26%) or inflation (23%) is the most important issue this midterm cycle, according to a new poll conducted by ABC News and Ipsos.

Republicans have seized on high prices in their midterm messaging, blaming inflation on Democratic policies and spending packages. The ABC News/Ipsos poll found nearly three out of four Republicans point to the two economic concerns as a priority.

THIRD WORLD UK

Warnings grow of dire conditions at migrant processing center in England
Allegra Goodwin - 

British charities and officials are warning of increasingly dire conditions at a migrant processing center in England and urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to act.

The situation at the Manston asylum processing center constituted a “breach of humane conditions,” British Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale said Monday, as dozens of charities wrote to the prime minister to raise concerns about “overcrowding.”

The Manston migration center in Kent, southeast England, is currently holding around 4,000 people, among them women and children, despite being intended to hold only 1,500, local MP Gale told Sky News.

“That is wholly unacceptable,” Gale, who visited the former RAF base last week said, though he added staff were “trying to do a good job under impossible circumstances.”

It comes as dozens of charities signed an open letter from the charity Positive Action in Housing to Sunak, raising concerns about what they called “overcrowding and inhumane conditions” at the Manston center.


Warnings grow of dire conditions at migrant processing center in England© Provided by CNNCharities urged British prime minister Rishi Sunak to take action over "inhumane conditions" at the Manston center. - Gareth Fuller/PA Images/Getty Images

“We take the safety and welfare of those in our care extremely seriously and are working closely with our health professionals and the UK Health Security Agency to ensure their wellbeing,” the Home Office told CNN.

The Home Office also confirmed it was aware of a very small number of cases of diphtheria reported at the Manston center: “The Home Office provides 24/7 health facilities at Manston, including trained medical staff and a doctor.”

On Sunday, around 700 people who crossed the English Channel in small boats were relocated to Manston after “incendiary devices” were thrown at a migration center in Dover, local police confirmed.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who visited Manston on Sunday, acknowledged the “immense pressure” at the center in a tweet.

“Over 1,000 migrants crossing the Channel yesterday creates immense pressure. I was hugely impressed by the staff I met, managing this intolerable situation,” Jenrick said on Sunday.

The warnings come as criticism regarding the re-appointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary continues. Braverman is known for her tough stance on immigration.

More than a hundred refugee charities wrote an open letter to Braverman on Monday, urging her to address what they called a “backlog in asylum cases,” and to create safe routes for refugees to travel to Britain.

The letter referred to comments made by Braverman during the Conservative Party conference earlier in October, in which she said it would be her “dream” and “obsession” to see a front page of the Telegraph newspaper show a plane of migrants taking off to Rwanda, where some UK asylum seekers could be relocated under a controversial scheme.

“You have referred to this country’s proud history of offering sanctuary. So, we ask you to make this happen with a fair, kind and effective system for refugees,” the letter said.

Braverman – who has referred to illegal crossings of the English Channel as “an invasion” – defended her immigration policies on Monday.

Speaking to lawmakers at the House of Commons, she said she had tried to prepare the Manston site for a surge of people, and denied allegations that she blocked the use of hotels for immigrants.

“I foresaw the concerns at Manston in September and deployed additional resource and personnel to deliver a rapid increase in emergency accommodation,” she said.

“What I have refused to do is to prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay,” she added, saying that it will be the “worst thing to do.”

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS NOT TERRORISM

Activists, advocates criticize CSIS for weighing if rail blockades could be classed as terrorism

CSIS IS FOR EXTERNAL THREATS ONLY

Brett Forester - Yesterday 

Activists and advocates who've been targeted for government snooping in the past are denouncing what they see as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's "vilification" of First Nations activism.

They say they know the state is watching, but it still came as a surprise to learn CSIS secretly weighed whether rail blockades could qualify as "acts of terrorism" in reports beginning in November 2020.

"It is an absolutely ridiculous sentiment to me that in 2022 when Indigenous people make a stand for their lands and their water, we get called terrorists," said Skyler Williams, a prominent Mohawk activist from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.

"It's a real struggle for me to understand how you could be called a terrorist for that, or a violent extremist."

Williams is the spokesperson for a group of Six Nations members who occupied a housing development in July 2020 in Caledonia, Ont. They renamed the site 1492 Land Back Lane and continue to hold it.

In September 2020, Caledonia's municipal police services board called them "terrorists."

But the CSIS intelligence assessments, produced shortly after that and released this year through access-to-information law, show the spy service believed the label to be inaccurate.

CSIS concluded "unsophisticated acts of unlawful interference," like blockades and vandalism, "do not cross the terrorism threshold."

CSIS added, however, that it believed rail disruptions could still be linked to "extremist elements" within the Indigenous rights and environmental movements and other "ideologically motivated violent extremist" groups, like anarchists.

Hereditary chief concerned about continued surveillance

Na'moks, a Wet'suwet'en hereditary chief who opposes construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia, is glad CSIS backed off from the terrorist label.

But he worries that by branding elements of First Nations rights movements as "extremist," CSIS leaves the door open to continued surveillance.

"We know we've been under constant surveillance for decades," said Na'moks, whose English name is John Ridsdale.

"I'm very glad that they said it can't be done, but in public opinion if they label us extremists, then they get to do as they wish."

Hereditary chiefs have been pushing to have Wet'suwet'en jurisdiction recognized over the nation's unceded, off-reserve territory for decades. While they oppose the Coastal GasLink project, five of six Wet'suwet'en bands have signed on in support.

There have been two separate incidents of sabotage and vandalism in the area this year. One targeted Coastal GasLink construction equipment while the other saw emergency response vehicles, including RCMP cruisers tasked with policing resistance to the pipeline, torched.

Police have yet to name suspects.

Na'moks said the chiefs condemn such tactics but he does wonder whether these events represent the sort of thing CSIS will cite to justify ongoing surveillance.

"As hereditary chiefs, we would never condone any sort of violence. The violence comes at us," he said.

"We will continue to do what we do non-violently, peacefully, and I know we're doing the right thing."

'They need to look in the mirror'

The CSIS assessments show these two standoffs in southern Ontario and northern B.C. respectively were the primary drivers of the spy service's concerns.

In February 2020, protests targeting railways popped up to show support after B.C. Mounties executed a raid on blockades preventing Coastal GasLink pipeline construction. In Caledonia, activists twice shut down CN tracks in response to Ontario Provincial Police attempts to clear the 1492 Land Back Lane occupation.

Andrew Brant, who is Mohawk, Turtle Clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, supported the solidarity demonstrations in his community in 2020.

He said turning blockades into national security issues of extremism and terrrorism ignores centuries of treaty-making and alliances between the Mohawk Nation and the Crown.


Tyendinaga member Andrew Brant supported the solidarity action in his community in 2020.© Michelle Allan/CBC

He believes CSIS's monitoring of Wet'suwet'en and Mohawk activism is "all about villainizing people" who resist resource extraction and oppose colonial policies.

"They have extracted so much from us: our women, our children, our land, our resources, our languages, our cultures. Everything. And then they want to turn around and call us extreme for wanting to exist," said Brant.

"To label us as extremists? I think they need to look in the mirror."

Surveillance 'a terrible thing' to get used to

CSIS said it doesn't investigate lawful protest or democratic dissent, or comment on any of its operations.

The spy service said people with concerns about CSIS's activities have the ability to lodge complaints with the watchdog National Security Intelligence Review Agency.

For Williams, life under surveillance is "a terrible thing" to get used to.

He was charged criminally and will stand trial for his role in the Caledonia occupation. He recently pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of court in connection to another round of blockades in support of the Wet'suwet'en chiefs in northern B.C. in November 2021.

At the time, officials at Crown-Indigenous Relations were tracking Williams's movements via social media to brief senior bureaucrats, internal documents show.

He said it's the Canadian state that uses violent and extreme tactics to repress Indigenous people.

Pam Palmater, a Mi'kmaw lawyer and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, agrees.

She has filed federal access-to-information requests for her own security file, only to receive documents censored for national security reasons.

She said colonial authorities in Canada have a history of labelling First Nations people as irrational and potentially violent.

"It's racist stereotyping that started since contact, always portraying us as dangerous, villains, violent, savage — you name it," said Palmater.

"Now the modern terminology, if it's not zealot or militant or domestic terrorist, it's extremist."

But First Nations-led activism, even via blockades and occupations, poses no real national security threat, Palmater said. Rather, like Brant, she feels this surveillance comes from politically motivated desires to clamp down on resistance.

"If we are threats to national security, think about how deeply ingrained this vilification of Indigenous peoples is," said Palmater.

"I think this is about trying to silence people."