KNOW NOTHINGS

Watch: Extremist Republicans openly attack public schools teaching science, history and social studies to kids

AlterNet - 
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Kari Lake speaking in Scottsdale, Arizona in August 2021© provided by AlterNet

The Arizona Republican Party’s nominee for governor, Kari Lake, is telling supporters there’s no reason for schools to spend so much time teaching science, math, and history. If elected she would recreate public schools into factories producing young adults who can immediately enter the workforce without the benefit of understanding basic information necessary in a democratic society. In North Carolina, the dominionist Lt. Governor wants to ban the teaching of science and history in elementary schools. And a Fox News host this week claimed that social studies – classes that teach history, culture, geography, political science, philosophy, and psychology – is a fake subject, “made up by progressives.”

That Fox News host is Pete Hegseth, who Donald Trump, when he was president, wanted to nominate to head the Veterans Administration. Hegseth may be best-known, however, for once bragging on Fox News that he hadn’t washed his hands in over a decade.

The Arizona Republican Party’s nominee for governor, Kari Lake, is telling supporters there’s no reason for schools to spend so much time teaching science, math, and history. If elected she would recreate public schools into factories producing young adults who can immediately enter the workforce without the benefit of understanding basic information necessary in a democratic society. In North Carolina, the dominionist Lt. Governor wants to ban the teaching of science and history in elementary schools. And a Fox News host this week claimed that social studies – classes that teach history, culture, geography, political science, philosophy, and psychology – is a fake subject, “made up by progressives.”

That Fox News host is Pete Hegseth, who Donald Trump, when he was president, wanted to nominate to head the Veterans Administration. Hegseth may be best-known, however, for once bragging on Fox News that he hadn’t washed his hands in over a decade.

“Germs are not a real thing,” Hegseth said. “I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real.”

RELATED: ‘This Is Who They Are’: Critics Blast Kari Lake for Mocking Paul Pelosi After Brutally Violent Assault

“Everything about the confines of my classroom was created by progressives 100 years ago,” Hegseth told a live audience this week. “You mentioned the rows. You mentioned that approach – the bell ringing. God being removed of course, lunch breaks, lunch breaks, different subjects, Social Studies.”

That’s when Hegseth got agitated.

“The idea we’re not going to study civics, history, philosophy, theology, we’re going to create psychology and social studies and split it all up as if we can dissect human nature and through a scientific method which they’ve invented.”.

“That’s right, create more perfectible human beings by controlling how they think and what they think, all created by progressives.”

Hegseth thinks taxpayer-funded public schools should teach everything through the “lens” of God, or, more specifically, his God

“Did you take social studies? I took social studies. The progressives made it up it – it’s, it’s a made-up conglomerate of subjects meant to silo the way that we think as opposed to basing all of wisdom in God’s wisdom, in His word, and it all makes sense, looking at it through that lens.”

Social Studies, of course, includes civics and history, and philosophy. In fact, the National Council for the Social Studies offers a definition for social studies:

READ MORE: Watch: Kari Lake Ad Features Pastor Who Frames LGBTQ People as Sex-Obsessed Violent Criminals

“Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence,” which Hegseth appears to object to.

“Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences.”

“The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”

Hegseth is not alone in wanting to reduce what children learn.

Republican Kari Lake, Arizona’s GOP nominee for governor and a former TV news reporter whose entire education was in public schools, now thinks school children don’t need to learn as much as they are currently when it comes to science, math, and history.

READ MORE: ‘We the People – Not Enemies’: President Biden Urges Americans to ‘Preserve Democracy’ in Address to Nation

“I believe we are at a prime opportunity to completely re-envision how our government schools are run, because everyone’s eyes are open,” Lake told supporters at an event while campaigning with far-right white Christian nationalist U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

“And who says we have to have this many hours of science, this many of math and history? We can change that up,” said Lake about an entire state’s public school system that already has been “ranked worst across the 50 United States of America,” according to a report in Arizona’s KGUN 9 News.

“What does it mean to have a high school diploma? It should mean that you know some of the basics, and you also have some ability to go out and make a living. Our schools have our kids for 13 years from K through 12 and at the end of 13 years, we should have some competent adults going into the world who can make a living because there are jobs out there.”

Notice how Lake doesn’t say, “public schools,” but “government schools,” a term many on the right use to demonize public schools, expanding their belief that anything the government does is wrong, bad, or a waste of tax dollars.

Lake also sounds like she’s suggesting high school graduates are not able to get jobs because they have spent too much time learning about science, math, and history.

Then there’s far right Christian dominionist Republican Lt. Governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson, who is another extremist attacking education.

Robinson made national headlines after calling LGBTQ people “filth.”

In August MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones wrote that Robinson “may well be the most bigoted official in the United States with the least name recognition.”

Calling him “a full-on extremist,” Jones writes that Robinson And “reportedly has a new, ludicrous belief to share with the masses: Science and history shouldn’t be taught to students until they reach sixth grade.”

“First through fifth grades ‘don’t need to be teaching social studies,’ he wrote, according to local NBC affiliate WRAL-TV, which obtained an advanced copy of his upcoming book,” Jones adds, reporting that Robinson wrote: “We don’t need to be teaching science. We surely don’t need to be talking about equity and social justice.”

There’s more to Robinson’s extremist ideas on education.

Get rid of it. Or, specifically, Jones writes, Robinson has ” called for the elimination of the state’s board of education.”

“Robinson said flatly what most fact-averse conservatives won’t admit about their education crusade,” Jones continues. “They fear accurate history lessons that could inevitably lead to discussions about systemic disparities. And they fear discussions about science, which may undermine the fundamentalist Christian beliefs at the heart of the conservative movement.”

Jones sums up this entire approach to public education from the right.

“Robinson’s reported ideas about education showcase the logical endpoint of the Republican Party’s assault on lessons about social inequality: an eagerness to keep children stupid.”

TRANSHUMANS

Future humans will have deformed bodies and a 'second eyelid' due to overuse of tech

Jeff Parsons -  Metro

Cramped fingers? Crooked neck? Aching elbows?


Take a look at your future (Credit: TollFreeForwarding.com)

You, my friend, are using too much technology.

It’s time to put down the smartphone, game controller or TV remote and step away from the screen.

Or else, you could end up looking like Mindy here.

Mindy has been constructed as a vision of our future selves. She’s what we all might end up looking like because we’re all too addicted to our screens.

A research project commissioned by TollFreeForwarding.com employed a 3D designer to come up with Mindy based on common tech-related problems.

Things like spending all day in a chair hunched over a keyboard or constantly looking down at the phone in our hands.

They reckon it’ll lead to humans having a hunched back, clawed hand and – weirdly – a second eyelid which could be used to protect us against blue light.

Here’s the full list of afflictions we can expect to come our way:
Hunched back
Text claw
90-degree elbow
Second eyelid
Thicker skull
Smaller brain
Tech neck


Meet Mindy (Credit: TollFreeForwarding.com© Provided by Metro

‘Spending hours looking down at your phone strains your neck and throws your spine off balance,’ said Caleb Backe, a health and wellness expert at Maple Holistics in a statement issued alongside Mindy’s terrifying visage.

‘Consequently, the muscles in your neck have to expend extra effort to support your head. Sitting in front of the computer at the office for hours on end also means that your torso is pulled out in front of your hips rather than being stacked straight and aligned.’

That one seems rather obvious, but lets dive into a few of Mindy’s other symptoms.

Text Claw

Over time, the fingers on our hands could change because they’re so used to clutching a phone.

A recently coined condition, ‘text claw’ occurs after consistently gripping your smartphone, curling your fingers round into an unnatural position for long periods of time.


‘Take my strong hand’ (Credit: TollFreeForwarding.com)© Provided by Metro

Dr. Nikola Djordjevic from Med Alert Help expanded on the problem: ‘A few years ago, mobile internet usage surpassed desktop, and we now hold the internet in our hands.

‘However, the way we hold our phones can cause strain in certain points of contact – causing “text claw,” which is known as cubital tunnel syndrome.’

This same issue is what’s causing Mindy’s arm to be bent at 90 degrees at the elbow.

‘This syndrome is caused by pressure or the stretching of the ulnar nerve which runs in a groove on the inner side of the elbow,’ Dr Djordjevic said.

‘This causes numbness or a tingling sensation in the ring and little fingers, forearm pain, and weakness in the hands. Keeping the elbow bent for a long time – most often, while holding your phone – can stretch the nerve behind the elbow and put pressure on it.’

Tech neck


This is why posture is so important (Credit: TollFreeForwarding.com)© Provided by Metro

Returning to Mindy’s posture, the effects of technology on the neck have also given rise to a new condition – aptly named ‘tech neck’. In an article for Health Matters, Dr. K. Daniel Riew from the New York-Presbyterian Orch Spine Hospital, broke down exactly what tech neck is:

‘When you’re working on a computer or looking down at your phone, the muscles in the back of the neck have to contract to hold your head up.

‘The more you look down, the harder the muscles have to work to keep your head up. These muscles can get overly tired and sore from looking down at our smartphones and tablets or spending the majority of our working day on computers.’

Second eyelid

This is a bizarre one, but future humans could become so affected by blue screen light that we adapt to counteract it.


Well, this is just creepy (Copyright: TollFreeForwarding.com)© Provided by Metro

Kasun Ratnayake from the University of Toledo, spoke to the researchers to suggest that a ‘second eyelid’ may develop over time.

‘Humans may develop a larger inner eyelid to prevent exposure to excessive light, or the lens of the eye may be evolutionary developed such that it blocks incoming blue light but not other high wavelength lights like green, yellow or red,’ he said.

How to avoid becoming Mindy

The ways to avoid an inevitable slide into a Mindy-like future are obvious and oft-stated: take regular screen breaks and prioritise exercise in your daily routine.


Drop the screen time in favour of some exercise (Credits: Getty Images)© Provided by Metro

Of course, employers have their part to play too.

Adding initiatives to get employees not just off their seat, but actively exercising would go a long way.

‘Exercise is an obvious way to reduce stress and improve health and wellbeing for anybody, but it also inadvertently limits the use of technology as well, explained Jason Kay, CEO of Retreaver.

‘If employees spend some portion of their day exercising, then that is a welcome relief from technology.

‘Businesses can promote exercise by either buying equipment for the office or offering free gym memberships to their employees. Healthy employees will always be a benefit to any business as it helps create a positive and productive mindset.’

MYOB
China says US has 'no right to interfere' in Hamburg port deal

BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S has "no right to interfere" in Chinese cooperation with Germany, the foreign ministry said Thursday, after Washington "strongly suggested" that Beijing would not get a controlling stake in a contested deal regarding Hamburg's port terminal.

The U.S. interference is symptomatic of its practice of coercive diplomacy, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing.

Chinese container ship "Cosco Shipping Aries" is unloaded at a loading terminal in the port of Hamburg

© Reuters/FABIAN BIMMER

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The Indiana doctor who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim is suing the state's attorney general over his investigation

Jason Hanna - Yesterday 


An Indiana doctor being investigated by the state attorney general after she provided abortion services to a 10-year-old Ohio girl has sued the official, alleging his office used illegitimate consumer complaints to seek patient records and pursue the probe.

Attorneys for Dr. Caitlin Bernard and her medical partner filed the suit Thursday in Indiana’s Marion County, asking a court to prevent Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita from using those complaints to continue the investigation.

Rokita’s office issued subpoenas for confidential medical records based on complaints from third parties “who have no relationship with the targeted physicians or their patients” and “who lack any personal knowledge of the alleged circumstances,” the lawsuit alleges.

That’s improper, the lawsuit argues, because state law requires an attorney general’s investigations of licensed professionals to be based on complainants’ relationship to, or personal knowledge of a transaction with, the subject of the complaint.

The attorney general’s office issued at least five subpoenas seeking confidential medical records based on the allegedly improper complaints, Bernard’s lawyers allege. The medical records are those of patients “who did not themselves file complaints about their physicians and who by all accounts are perfectly satisfied with the medical care they received,” the lawsuit reads.

“These improper investigations unfairly burden plaintiffs in numerous ways, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the availability of the essential services they provide to their patients,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit names as defendants Rokita and Scott Barnhart, the director of the attorney general’s consumer protection division.

CNN asked the attorney general’s office Thursday about the subpoenas, the state of the investigation into Bernard, and for comment about the lawsuit.

“By statutory obligation, we investigate thousands of potential licensing, privacy, and other violations a year. A majority of the complaints we receive are, in fact, from nonpatients,” said office spokesperson Kelly Stevenson. “Any investigations that arise as a result of potential violations are handled in a uniform manner and narrowly focused. We will discuss this particular matter further through the judicial filings we make.”

CNN’s attempt to obtain comment from Barnhart was not immediately successful.

The suit is the latest development in a drama that thrust Bernard into the debate over abortion rights in the United States after a Supreme Court decision overturned Roe vs. Wade on June 24 and ended the federal right to abortion.

Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, provided abortion services in Indiana to a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim in late June, Bernard told CNN. Ohio banned abortion as early as six weeks of gestation following the Supreme Court ruling, and the girl was six weeks and three days into the pregnancy, Bernard said.

Rokita in July said he would investigate Bernard for potential failure to report the abortion and possible violation of patient privacy laws.

At the time, Indiana allowed abortions up to 20 weeks after fertilization. However, an abortion performed on a person younger than 16 needed to be reported to the state’s Department of Health and also to the Department of Child Services within three days of the abortion.

Bernard reported the abortion procedure to the Indiana Department of Health on July 2 – two days after it was performed – as required by the department, according to agency documents obtained by CNN.

Indiana’s Department of Child Services declined on Thursday to confirm whether it received a report from Bernard, citing confidentiality law.

Bernard’s employer, Indiana University Health, conducted a review in this case with Bernard’s “full cooperation” and determined she was “in compliance with privacy laws,” it said in July.

As for the consumer complaints, the suit says they “were submitted by individuals who are not consumers and who did not engage in, or attempt to engage in, a transaction in Indiana, let alone a transaction with plaintiffs.”

“Indeed, most of the complaints were submitted by individuals who do not reside in Indiana and have no connection to the state. … The complaints expressly asserted they were based on news stories and social media posts,” the suit reads.

In late July, Bernard’s attorney, Kathleen DeLaney, told CNN that the attorney general had sent Bernard six letters initiating investigations stemming from complaints from residents of California, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio, along with one from Indiana.

CNN’s Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.

Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on


DUBAI (Reuters) -A cleric at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the restive, mostly Sunni Muslim Iranian city of Zahedan has been shot dead, the official news agency IRNA said, threatening a spike in sectarian tensions complicating government efforts to contain widespread unrest.


Iranian flag is seen flying over Evin prison in Tehran© Reuters/WANA NEWS AGENCY


Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a meeting with a group of students in Tehran© Reuters/WANA NEWS AGENCY

IRNA named the dead cleric as Sajjad Shahraki.

"A special task force has been formed for the purpose of identifying and arresting the perpetrators," said Ahmad Taheri, police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Zahedan was the scene of one of the deadliest days during a wave of popular protests that have swept the Islamic Republic since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police on Sept. 16.

Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people in a crackdown on protesters in Zahedan on Sept. 30.

Authorities in the city in Iran's far southeast sacked its police commander and the chief of a police station afterwards.

The Zahedan deaths were widely criticised, including by a top Sunni cleric who said senior officials in the Shi'ite establishment including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were responsible "before God".

The nationwide demonstrations, which resound with chants calling for the death of Khamenei, have posed one of the boldest challenges to the state since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran blames its foreign foes and their agents for the protests and accuses them of trying to destabilise the country.

Zahedan, close to Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to a Baluch minority estimated to number up to 2 million people who have faced discrimination and repression for decades, according to human rights groups.

The Sistan-Baluchistan region around Zahedan is one of the country's poorest and has been a hotbed of tension where Iranian security forces have been attacked by Baluch militants.

Related video: Gravitas: Iran's Supreme Leader seeks "revenge" from the US
Duration 6:30
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Forty prominent Iranian human rights lawyers publicly criticised Iran's Shi'ite theocracy, saying crackdowns that have crushed dissent for decades will no longer work and protesters seeking a new political order will prevail.

"The government is still drowning in illusions and believes it can repress, arrest and kill to silence," the lawyers, some inside the country and some outside, said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"But the flood of people will ultimately remove a government because the divine will side with the people. The voice of the people is the voice of God."

Those inside Iran risk arrest with such comments. But the lawyers' statement is the latest example of how an increasing number of Iranians are no longer paralysed by the fear of the state that kept them in line for decades.

Among the lawyers signing the statement is Saeid Dehghan, who has represented dual nationals jailed in Iran on security-related charges. Another is Giti Pourfazel, who was among activists jailed for signing an open letter in 2019 urging Khamenei to resign. She was released in 2021.

'EVERY TACTIC'

In past years major protests, which were violently quelled, focused on election results and economic woes while the current unrest has one main demand - the fall of the Islamic Republic.

Iran has been widening its crackdown, deploying security forces at protests and making arrests of a wide range of Iranians from lawyers to doctors to rappers.

Videos shared on social media show that a crowd of hundreds gathered on Thursday in a central avenue of the city of Karaj to pay respects to Hadis Najafi, a young woman who was shot dead by security forces, according to her sister and social media.

Protesters in Karaj, which lies just west of the capital Tehran, were seen in an online video burning and ripping up a brown "abah", the long robe that Shi'ite clerics wear.

A member of the hardline Basij militia was killed in Karaj and five police officers were wounded during a riot, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Human Rights Watch said Iranian authorities had escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests by filing dubious national security charges against detained activists and staging grossly unfair trials.

“Iran’s vicious security apparatus is using every tactic in its book, including lethal force against protesters, arresting and slandering human rights defenders and journalists, and sham trials to crush widespread dissent,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Yet every new atrocity only reinforces why Iranians are demanding fundamental changes to a corrupt autocracy.”

Rights group Hengaw reported on Thursday that a 27-year-old rapper from Kermanshah was charged as being an "enemy of God", a capital offence under Iran's Islamic law. According to the rights group, Saman Yasin had sung protest songs in Kurdish and has been tortured during his first three weeks in detention.

Iran has denied allegations by human rights groups that it abuses prisoners.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean and Mark Heinrich)

Vancouver critical-mineral firms caught in strategic bind over Chinese investments

Derrick Penner - Yesterday -  Vancouver Sun


Ottawa’s decision to limit investments in so-called “critical minerals” by Chinese state-owned firms is short-sighted, says a Vancouver exploration company losing a stake from one such investor. Asia experts, however, said the increasingly aggressive stance by the federal government is overdue.


A worker looks over car batteries at a factory in Nanjing, China.

Of three companies being ordered to divest interests in Canadian exploration firms, two — Sinomine Rare Metals Resources and Zangge Mining Investment — held equity stakes in Vancouver-headquartered firms exploring deposits that hold lithium, a key component in rechargeable batteries, and either cesium or tantalum, rare-earth elements critical for electronic components.

Countries are increasingly treating such minerals as strategic assets, including Canada.

In one sense, federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne’s decision “is a signal to other companies that you have to pay attention to geopolitical risks,” said Asia trade expert Yves Tiberghien, a professor in political science at the University of B.C.

But the chairman of Vancouver’s Power Metals questions how Champagne is going about it. Jonathan More said he doesn’t have a problem with Canada trying to secure its strategic interest because, “I’m Canadian.”

Ottawa, however, needs to consider how Canadian firms can replace the investments that the less risk-averse Chinese firms have been willing to make.

“Why aren’t they (cabinet ministers) there with their chequebooks,” More said. “Where’s the money supposed to come from?”

Last January, Sinomine invested $1.5 million in Power Metals to buy just over five per cent of the company, and with it a right to secure supplies of rare-earth elements from its Case Lake property in northeastern Ontario.

That ore would be destined for the only cesium processing plant in Canada, which Sinomine already owns in Manitoba. That plant is associated with the Tanco mine, which Sinomine purchased outright in 2019 without protest from Industry Canada.

“The government seems to have a grandiose plan of controlling this, but they’re kind of missing the point where they’re not helping the supply chain issue because (nothing else) is in place,” More said.

Losing Sinomine’s $1.5 million won’t have a huge impact on Power Metals, More said. The company still has enough resources to keep doing exploration work, but he worries about the potential chilling effect Ottawa’s decision will have on other foreign investors looking at Canadian firms across the base-metals sector.



Yves Tiberghien is a professor of political science at UBC.© Handout

Tiberghien acknowledged that Canada’s abrupt change in direction on Chinese investments in Canadian critical-mineral exploration — Sinomine struck its deal with Power Metals last January, and Zangge put $4.14 million into Vancouver-headquartered Ultra Lithium in February — will cause some collateral damage.

However, the rapidly changing geopolitical scene that has seen the U.S. distance itself from China in what is practically a new Cold War and countries other than China treating critical minerals as strategic assets can’t be ignored.

That, Tiberghien said, should tell companies, “You can’t just keep doing what you were doing before. It’s a new world out there” and conditions are dramatically different than they were even three years ago.

“Canada has been a liberal believer in markets, but those markets are not markets anymore,” Tiberghien said of critical minerals. “They are increasingly strategic spaces” where countries including China, the U.S., Japan and South Korea seek more direct control.

Critical minerals are key to the evolution toward green and digital technology that will transform the global economy over the next 20 years, Tiberghien argued.

“It’s a strategic battle,” Tiberghien said. “Those who lead will end up having jobs and security and prosperity. Those who fall behind will just be poor and pushed around by others. That’s the reality of industrial revolutions.”

depenner@postmedia.com

SHOULD HAVE USED OGOPOGO FOR CANCON

Loch Ness Monster teachings unacceptable in Sask. independent schools: NDP

Jeremy Simes - Yesterday

As three former students affected by alleged abuse from their independent school sat in the Saskatchewan Legislative gallery on Thursday, NDP education critic Matt Love whipped out and read a biology textbook they would have used.


(From left) Stefanie Hutchinson, Caitlin Erickson and Coy Nolin, former students of Legacy Christian Academy, speak to the media on Thursday.

© Provided by Leader Post

Directly quoting the textbook, Love said, “This book says scientific evidence tends to support the idea that men and dinosaurs existed at the same time.” 

It referenced the Loch Ness Monster “as proof that dinosaurs still exist today,” he told the chamber.

“These are textbooks that have been outlawed and banned in many jurisdictions around North America, but somehow they’re still allowed here in schools that have received millions of dollars in provincial funding over the last 10 years,” Love later told reporters.

The revelation of the Loch Ness Monster teachings that have been taught by at least one independent school in Saskatchewan come as students continue to raise concerns about allegations of abuse and mistreatment.

Sitting in the gallery were Caitlin Erickson, Stefanie Hutchinson and Coy Nolin, who have all alleged mistreatment and abuse from what is now called Legacy Christian Academy and its parent organization, Mile Two Church.

Nolin and Erickson, have filed a class action lawsuit seeking at least $25 million, alleging the two organizations perpetrated and abetted the spanking of students, fondling of minors by church staff and other graphic abuse.

The allegations have not been proven or tested in court. Education Minister Dustin Duncan has appointed two supervisors to oversee schools where there have been alleged wrongdoing, including Legacy. The province cancelled the certificate of one school because it refused to co-operate.

In addition to the allegations, the former students say they were taught many controversial and scientifically incorrect subjects.

Erickson said she learned about the comparison of the Loch Ness Monster to dinosaurs when she was in Grade 12. The monster, which also goes by the name Nessie, is a mythical creature that has been said to live in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands.

She said the textbook is still used to this day, as well as other controversial teachings that she said has been banned elsewhere. She had also referenced “highly inappropriate” and sexist booklets.



The Legacy Christian Academy shares the same building as Mile Two Church, which is located in Saskatoon’s Lawson Heights neighbourhood.© Michelle Berg

The teachings come through programs called Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) and the Saskatchewan Association of Independent Church Schools (SAICS), she said.

While the Loch Ness reference might seem bizarre to some, Erickson said, at the time, they weren’t allowed to question anything. If they did, they would be disciplined.

“This type of curriculum enforces indoctrination. It doesn’t further learning,” she said. “It really just fails them later on in life.”

Duncan told reporters on Thursday he saw the controversial biology textbook when he met with the former students, but said he didn’t spend much time flipping through the pages.

He said he had instead been focusing on engaging with the students during their meetings.

When asked if he thinks ACE is acceptable for schools to use, he said he doesn’t know much about it.

He said Qualified Independent Schools must follow the provincial curriculum to receive funding and that ministry staff work to ensure students meet learning outcomes when they graduate.

“The ministry officials, in meeting with the schools that have had concerns, they’ve made sure that there has been corrective action on that,” he said, adding he hasn’t been flagged by staff that this is being taught.

Even though Erickson said these teachings are still accessible, Duncan said he was unsure of “how much of that is actually taking place.”

Love said the province shouldn’t allow these resources to be taught because it doesn’t achieve acceptable outcomes.

He noted the NDP supports independent schools receiving public funding when they adhere to the human rights code.

Duncan has maintained the province supports parental choice in sending their children to independent schools. He has argued the province had increased oversight of these schools in 2012.

jsimes@postmedia.com

Convicted murderer Colin Thatcher's invitation to the Saskatchewan legislature diminishes us all

Kathy Walker, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan and Susan Gingell, Professor Emerita (Decolonizing & Women's Literatures in English; Women's and Gender Studies), University of Saskatchewan - 

THE CONNVERSATION

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and key legislators are under fire for inviting and initially defending the invitation of convicted killer and former cabinet minister Colin Thatcher to the throne speech.


Colin Thatcher, former MLA of Saskatchewan and convicted murderer, walks out of the chamber after the speech from the throne at the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina on Oct. 26, 2022. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

The invitation was issued by Lyle Stewart, a Saskatchewan Party MLA and legislative secretary to the premier responsible for provincial economic autonomy.

Describing Thatcher as a “fine individual,” Stewart said: “If anybody has a right to be here, it’s Colin Thatcher.”

Stewart’s supposed “fine individual” is the same person who was convicted in 1984 of the first-degree murder of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson, in the garage of her Regina home. The pair was in a custody battle when Wilson was severely beaten before being shot in the skull.

It wasn’t the first time Wilson had been violently assaulted after the marriage breakdown. In 1981, she was shot in the shoulder through a patio door.
Longtime abuser

Thatcher’s final act of violence was, according to Wilson’s earlier statement, the culmination of abuses that experts — those who have lived and/or studied intimate partner violence — recognize as a classic escalation.

Under the influence of stress and alcohol, Thatcher reportedly pushed and kicked Wilson because she couldn’t soothe their sick infant and shoved her when she was nine months pregnant. Among several threats, he once said he would kill her and hide her body so it would never be found.


Thatcher had a right to be at the throne speech, Tell told reporters.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

Yet when responding to questions about Thatcher’s invitation to the province’s throne speech, Christine Tell, minister of corrections, policing and public safety, said: “It doesn’t matter, he has a right to be here, just like anybody else. He is a free citizen.”

The comment implies that because Thatcher served a 22-year jail sentence before being released on parole, his crime is no longer relevant.

Moe has backpedalled on his initial refusal to apologize for the incident and reprimanded Stewart by removing him as his legislative secretary.

Tell, however, appears to have not suffered any political repercussions for her comments, though she admits her words were “inappropriate” and should not take away from the “horrendousness” of Thatcher’s “situation.”

Related video: Ex-partner of Saskatchewan mass murderer shares story of abuse, survival, and hope
Ex-partner of Saskatchewan mass murderer shares story of abuse, survival, and hope

Normalizing violence against women

To treat these reactions as the wrongful attitudes of a privileged few only compounds and masks what is really wrong with these responses. They illustrate that we live in a society that normalizes violence against women, and this normalization is reflected in systems that not only routinely fail to protect women from further violence, but also become the tools of abusers.

Saskatchewan, which has the highest rates (tied with Manitoba) of interpersonal family violence in Canada, according to the latest statistics, is a quintessential example. This kind of violence in Saskatchewan also rose between 2016 and 2019, so the problem is getting worse.

Thatcher is escorted by police into the Regina provincial courthouse in June 1984 for a preliminary hearing after being charged with murdering his ex-wife in 1983. He was later convicted.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lorne McClinton

What does it say to those who have experienced or are experiencing such violence, when even the most horrific intimate partner violence is not enough to make a man a permanent pariah to the province’s most powerful politicians?

The Saskatchewan government should be just as concerned with the safety of domestic violence survivors as it currently is with asserting provincial autonomy.

Domestic violence survivors also require autonomy so they are not subject to violence in their own homes. The Saskatchewan Party’s version of autonomy is inherently patriarchal; we’d all benefit from measures that recognize women’s rights to a life free of violence and terror.

Survivors need resources

The same week Thatcher was being invited to the legislature, a forum was being held in Saskatoon called “Walking with Domestic Violence Survivors: Stories, Prevention, Responses and Healing.” It focused on the voices of survivors and those who work to support them.

An illusory autonomy is produced for domestic violence victims, typically women, when the onus is placed on them to protect themselves by moving away — despite widespread knowledge that the most dangerous period for victims is immediately after separation. As the speakers at the Saskatoon forum stated: “Why should the abused be the ones who lose their homes?” and “Where are they going to go?”

Survivors’ stories at the forum indicated that they need to be better connected with resources to help them heal. Saskatchewan currently does not provide operational funding to second-stage shelters that could provide security and counselling support.

Survivors also feel police frequently don’t believe them and do not provide adequate protection in an abuse situation. Social workers too often intervene by taking children from the abused parent on the grounds that they’re not providing a safe environment for their children. Family law courts do not take domestic violence into adequate account when determining custody of children.

English poet John Donne once remarked:
“Every [human] death diminishes me because I am involved in [Human]kind.”

The Saskatchewan government’s version of law and order would do well to recognize that Wilson’s death diminished us, and actively address its ongoing systemic causes and conditions — not accommodate and defend the supposed “rights” of her killer.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Federal election 2021: Gender-based violence is an issue we should all prioritize

Kathy Walker has volunteered in the campaigns of provincial and federal NDP and Liberal Party candidates she knows and respects. Susan Gingell is a member of the Saskatchewan NDP and edits the newsletter of her MLA, Erika Ritchie.

Susan Gingell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

24 more graves excavated, including those of children, in Tulsa Race Massacre probe

Forensic scientists have uncovered 24 additional unmarked graves in an Oklahoma cemetery, three of them containing child-sized coffins, as part an effort to identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, officials said.

The unmarked burial sites were discovered in Tulsa's Oaklawn Cemetery after excavations resumed there on Oct. 26, according to city officials who authorized the investigation.

The latest discovery was made Tuesday in the graveyard just southeast of downtown Tulsa, officials said.

"Three additional child-sized burials were discovered...in the southern block (of the cemetery)," the city said in a news release.


State archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck makes notes at an excavation site at Oaklawn Cemetery while searching for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Friday, Oct. 28, 2022 in Tulsa, Okla.© City of Tulsa via AP

Twenty-one other burial sites were unearthed in the western section of the cemetery since the new excavation got underway last week, according to the city's statement.

Four of the graves are being excavated by hand to determine if the remains should be exhumed for further analysis.

Remains from one of the graves were found in a simple coffin and exhumed on Tuesday to be analyzed in an on-site lab.


Crews work on an excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery searching for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on Oct. 27, 2022, in Tulsa, Okla.© City of Tulsa via AP

"Experts continue to be narrowly focused on which graves will be exhumed and have determined that no child-sized burial will be," the city's statement reads.

This is the second excavation to occur at the cemetery. An excavation last year uncovered 19 unmarked burial sites, officials said.

Historians suspect that 75 to 300 people, most of them Black, were killed in the Tulsa Race Massacre, which the Oklahoma Historical Society calls "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history." The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics officially recorded 36 deaths.MORE: Tulsa Massacre 100 years later: Black Wall Street reimagined as Black tech hub

Following World War I, Tulsa was known for its affluent African American residents and black-owned businesses in an area called the Greenwood District, which was also referred to as "Black Wall Street."

White mobs attacked Black residents in the neighborhood and burned down more than 1,000 homes and businesses during two days of riots that broke out between May 31 and June 1, 1921, prompted by allegations that a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner assaulted a white female elevator operator.MORE: 100 years later, Tulsa Race Massacre survivors appeal to lawmakers: 'I hear the screams'

In 2018, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum announced the city would reexamine the unmarked graves identified in a 2001 state commissioned report. In addition to Oaklawn Cemetery, the city has designated three other potential areas to excavate, including a park in northwest Tulsa near the Arkansas River and the Rolling Oaks Memorial Gardens cemetery.

New York Attorney General Letitia James secures $523 million from Teva Pharmaceuticals for role in opioid crisis

Kristina Sgueglia - 14h ago

The New York Attorney General’s office announced it has secured $523 million from Teva Pharmaceuticals and affiliates for its role in the opioid crisis, effectively marking the end of the state’s litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors not currently in bankruptcy proceedings.

HOW THE PURDUE PHARMA BANKRUPTCY FAILED THE VICTIMS 
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The funds — secured as part of Teva’s $4 billion-plus global settlement and separately from the state achieving a “historic liability verdict” following a jury trial against the company in 2021 — marks the largest settlement that Attorney General James has reached with an individual opioid defendant, according to a statement from James’ office.

The agreement also commits Teva to prohibit marketing opioids and funding third parties that promote them, and a ban on high-dose opioids and prescription savings programs among other injunctive relief.

Teva Pharmaceuticals announced in July a $4.35 billion proposed nationwide settlement that could resolve thousands of lawsuits over the drugmaker’s alleged role in the US opioid epidemic.

The attorney general plans to make a motion to remove Teva from opioid litigation effectively concluding New York’s opioid trial after James filed what she called the nation’s most extensive lawsuit in 2019.

In total, the attorney general’s office has secured over $2 billion from opioid manufacturers and distributors to fund abatement, treatment, and prevention resources as part of her efforts.

“The false information that Teva and other opioids manufacturers propagated about the safety of their drugs inflicted tremendous damage on the lives of countless people, while also abusing the health insurance system,” said New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne Harris in a statement. “No monetary penalty can undo the immeasurable harm the opioid crisis has dealt to families across the country, but DFS is proud to have played a role in bringing about this resolution, holding opioid manufacturers and distributors accountable for their actions.”

The news comes on the heels of a separate tentative agreement from CVS and Walgreens to pay a combined $10 billion to settle lawsuits brought by states and local governments alleging the retailers mishandled prescriptions of opioid painkillers.

Those two agreements, unrelated to the New York settlement with Teva, continue to mark milestones in the effort to hold manufacturers and distributors accountable for the opioid crisis that have plagued America.