The Arctic hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., is collapsing into the ocean as it loses up to a metre of coastline each year.

The people who live there are in a race against time to preserve their way of life — and their community — before it is washed away.

Emma Morrison is the first Indigenous woman to win Miss World Canada

Social Sharing

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Ema
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

'I wanted to open that door for other Indigenous peoples to walk through'

Jenna Benchetrit · CBC News · November 17, 2022

Emma Morrison is crowned Miss World Canada 2022 on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. A member of Chapleau Cree First Nation, Morrison is the first Indigenous woman to hold the title. (Peter Jung Photography)

A few years ago, Emma Morrison was just like any other 16-year-old from a small town. A member of Chapleau Cree First Nation in Ontario, she spent most of her time hunting, fishing and playing sports — until she joined the world of beauty pageantry.

Now 22, Morrison was crowned Miss World Canada on Sunday evening, making her the first Indigenous woman to hold the national title. She'll advance to the international Miss World competition next year in Vietnam. 

"It wasn't about being the first Indigenous woman to hold this title," Morrison told CBC News. "Of course that's a high honour … but I wanted to open that door for other Indigenous peoples to walk through."

Morrison's first pageant was in the Miss North Ontario competition, where she was just one of three Indigenous contestants among 39 overall. 

But the state of Indigenous representation in Canada's beauty pageant scene has since improved, she said, noting that this year's Miss North Ontario, Grace Webb, is a young woman from Dokis First Nation who was one of several Indigenous contestants in the 2022 event.

"I really do it for them, Indigenous youth, Indigenous little girls. Because I was once in their position," Morrison said. She competes to show her six younger foster siblings that they can reach their full potential.

"It doesn't have to be pageantry but it could be applying to university or stepping outside of your comfort zone, and it's just important to be that positive example that your dreams too are in reach."

Mentored by Mrs. Universe 2015, a 'big sister' 

Morrison might be the first Indigenous Miss World Canada, but she isn't the first to ascend to the top of the beauty pageant world. 

After winning Miss Teenage Canada in 2017, Morrison received a surprising social media friend request from Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit, who was the first Canadian and Indigenous woman to win Mrs. Universe in 2015.

Likening her to "a big sister," Morrison said that Callingbull-Rabbit has become a mentor and a guide as she advances through her pageant career.

Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit, Mrs. Universe 2015, says Emma Morrison, Miss World Canada 2022, is ‘breaking glass ceilings’ for Indigenous people in pageantry and inspiring future generations.

"She too comes from a reserve and she is an example of, through passion and drive, you can achieve anything. So it's been fantastic having her take me under her wing," Morrison said.

Callingbull-Rabbit, in addition to Morrison, coaches a handful of other Indigenous beauty pageant contestants across Canada and the United States. She says she wishes she had someone to show her the ropes when she first started out.

"You can push someone in the right direction and give them all the tools, but it's really up to them to make that dream come true, and [Emma] has," Callingbull-Rabbit told CBC News. 

"Being a representative — it's not just being a face, and going around and waving and saying look who I am," she added. "For me it's about, what are you going to [do] with this platform, how are you going to use your voice and what kind of positive change are you going to create?"

Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit, a model, actress and host, was the first Indigenous woman to be crowned Mrs. Universe in 2015. She mentors Morrison along with other Indigenous women in the North American beauty pageant world. (Submitted by Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit)

Morrison, for her part, was tasked with developing a humanitarian project for the Miss World Canada's main competitive event, Beauty With a Purpose.

Her winning effort, called Reconnecting with Ribbon Skirts, began after the preliminary finding of 215 unmarked graves at the site of the Kamloops residential school in 2021, inspiring her to reconnect with her culture. 

"So far I have made 23 ribbon skirts for Indigenous women to feel beautifully empowered, and this is what I want to do," she said. "I want to give Indigenous women a physical link to our culture, to remind them to stand strong and be proud of their cultural identity."

She hopes to bring the initiative to the international stage when she competes at Miss World next year. As an Indigenous woman, she doesn't have any hesitancy about representing Canada on the world stage — but she recognizes the responsibility that comes with her title, she said.

"I come from such a strong community of people. I'm coming from Chapleau Cree First Nation in Treaty Nine Mushkegowuk territory. And everybody in my community, my territory has been so incredibly supportive," she said.

"It makes it easier knowing that I have this support, this backbone to help me move forward with this title."

Northern Ont. woman is first Indigenous

 winner of Miss World Canada

First Indigenous winner of Miss World Canada
09:16
Watch: Full interview with Miss World Canada 2022

01:35
Watch the moment Emma Morrison was crowned

01:59
CTV National News: A first for Canada’s Miss World

02:59
Meet Emma Morrison, Miss World Canada 2022


Chelsea Papineau
CTVNorthernOntario.ca Lead Digital Content Specialist
Follow | Contact
Updated Nov. 15, 2022 

A woman from a First Nation in northern Ontario has made national pageant history as the first Indigenous winner of Miss World Canada 2022.

Emma Morisson is a 22-year-old proud Mushkegowuk woman from Chapleau Cree First Nation, 200 kilometres west of Timmins.

Over the weekend she competed in Toronto against 49 competitors from across the country and took home the crown.

RELATED STORIES Miss Teenage Canada competing globally

"I was recently taught, it's not about being the first, it's about opening that door for others to walk through," Morrison told CTV News in a Zoom interview.

"And that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to show all Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous youth, and all Canadians that it doesn't matter how small the community or reserve you're coming from, you can still accomplish big things and make a large impact,"

Emma Morrison, Miss World Canada 2022, was crowned by the previous year's winner Jaime Yvonne VandenBerg. (Pageant Group Canada)

Not only did she win the title of Miss World Canada, she also won the Beauty with a Purpose 2022 title.

The Beauty with a Purpose portion requires all delegates to have a humanitarian project or be of service to their community. Download our app to get alerts to your device
Get the latest newsletter right to your inbox

Morrison's project involved reconnecting with her Indigenous culture by making traditional ribbon skirts, which took her a year to prepare.

"After the 215 unmarked graves were found at the Kamloops residential school, this inspired me to reconnect with my culture. And this is when I began sewing ribbon skirts for myself to wear to remind me to be proud to be an Indigenous woman and all these feelings I knew I wanted to share with others," she said.

"So this is when I began creating ribbon skirts for other Indigenous women to wear so they'll have a physical link to their culture and remind them to feel empowered, to be proud to be an Indigenous woman."

This is not the first national beauty pageant Morrison has won.

Her interest in pageants began when she won the title of Miss Northern Ontario 2017.

"Growing up in Chapleau, I really was just hunting and fishing and playing sports and doing all the small town northern things, but what attracted me to pageants is it was something new," Morrison said.

"It sounded so exciting to step outside of my comfort zone and be surrounded by empowering women."

She then went on to nationals where she won Miss Teenage Canada the same year and was the first Indigenous woman to win the title.

Miss Teenage Canada, Emma Morrison of Chapleau

After taking four years off from the pageant world to pursue her education in hair and esthetics, Morrison hasn't skipped a beat.

Now, she will spend the next year preparing for the Miss World competition in Vietnam.

"This is the oldest, most prestigious competition, beauty pageant in the entire world where I'll be meeting over 90 delegates to compete for the title," she said.

Her advice for other young beauty pageant hopefuls?

"Always be brave and have courage to step outside of your comfort zone and through this, it will only expand and open more opportunities for you," Morrison said.

She said in 2012, she was a young girl watching someone from her town compete in a pageant she would go on to win years later and calls her recent title a "full circle moment."

Canadian scientists discover new COVID-19 variant in deer that may spread to humans

The study presents what may be the first documented case of deer-to-human COVID-19 transmission, recorded in Ontario

.
By Kevin JiangToronto Star
Tue., Nov. 15, 2022

Researchers have discovered a “highly divergent” variant of COVID-19 in Canadian white-tailed deer — and it’s already been detected in at least one person.

The study, published Nov. 10 in journal Nature Microbiology, might represent the first ever documented case of deer-to-human COVID-19 transmission, according to one of the study’s authors.

The variant, named B. 1.641, was detected in late 2021 from the nasal swabs of five white-tailed deer in southwestern Ontario. Around the same time, a “highly similar” genetic sequence to the variant was found in a human in Ontario, the paper read, suggesting that person caught it from a deer.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed the incident, stating the person “appears to be an isolated case with no further transmission.”

According to Brad Pickering, the first author of the paper and a research scientist at Canada’s National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, exactly how the person contracted the virus remains unclear.

“Obviously it’s rare because, you know, we’re only seeing one (case) out of all of these things we surveilled,” Pickering told the Star.

Pickering’s team of collaborators from across Canada have been monitoring 20 species including skunks, raccoons and bats since the summer of 2020, but this study was the first evidence they’ve seen of non-human spread in the wild.


“I don’t think we necessarily have to be overly concerned about (this exact variant),” Pickering said. “it’s not going to be this huge public health threat. But I think it’s informative to know that there’s a potential risk for viruses to be maintained in wildlife.”

According to Pickering’s paper, this deer variant descended from the B. 1 version of the virus — which circulated about a year ago — and has 76 mutations compared to the original COVID-19 strain. That’s more than the currently dominant Omicron BA. 5 variant, which has over 50.

Unlike Omicron, and despite nine of the deer variant’s mutations being on the spike protein — the feature of the COVID-19 virus targeted by major vaccines — B. 1.641 was effectively wiped out by blood samples of people either vaccinated two to three times or who have already recovered from infection, the study found.

“The interesting part is … we think because there is so many changes — there is about 76 changes to the virus — we’re thinking that it was probably circulating in deer for a long period of time, almost a year,” Pickering told the Star. “And a year for (the COVID-19 virus) is a long time.”

This potentially means older variants of the virus could keep evolving in animals like deer and minks, then eventually leap back into humans with new functions and abilities, Pickering said.

The human-to-animal spread of COVID has been well-documented — we know of at least 54 mammal species that are susceptible, the paper reads. However, viral spread from animals back into humans is much rarer. Minks were the first and, until now, potentially only example, according to PHAC.

According to Sarah Otto, head of the BC COVID-19 Modelling Group and a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of British Columbia unaffiliated with the study, just because a virus might leap from animals to humans, doesn’t mean it’s able to then spread from human to human.

“I am not particularly concerned about this lineage because there has not been documented spread from human to human,” Otto said.

Like Pickering, she primarily found the study “eye-opening” for documenting COVID-19’s spread within animal species in the wild. Most of our previous non-human cases were in domesticated animals, like minks, she said, which were kept in high densities where disease could spread.

“I think that this study was really eye-opening for demonstrating that not only is the virus spread among deer, but it’s evolving in its own direction within deer,” she continued.

There are two possibilities for how this strain might evolve over time, Otto said: “It could be evolving to specialize in deer and actually be very poorly replicating in humans.

“Alternatively, it can evolve different capacities and different ways of infecting cells that are still functional in humans, and jump back into humans, which is the worst (outcome).

“It’s too early to tell, but I think in general, having many large reservoirs of this virus in animals is bad news,” she said. “The more opportunities for this virus to evolve and jump back into humans, the worse it is.”

In a news release, Dr. Samira Mubareka, a corresponding author of the paper and an associate professor at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said “I was not expecting to find this highly divergent virus.”

Mubareka explained that because humans are often in close contact with deer populations, “including public interactions with wild deer and captive deer for farming, exhibition or hunting,” it may be easier for our diseases to spread within the species.

“For many communities, deer are important from both a food security and a cultural perspective,” Mubareka said.

“Usually when you find a new virus that has spread between species, you want to understand how hazardous it is,” she continued. “Our followup work is going to focus on what this virus does in human and animal cells, and how it transmits.”

The PHAC has updated its recommendations to hunters and trappers when handling game meat. Its website includes tips like cooking the meat to 74° C or 165° F internally; processing carcasses in a well-ventilated area with appropriate gloves and eye protection; wearing a mask when exposed to animal lung tissues and fluids; and more.

“Based on available information to date, animal-to-human transmission is likely very uncommon,” its website reads. “COVID-19 is mainly transmitted from human to human.”

In the future, Otto said she’d like to see more research on the impact of COVID-19 on wild animal populations.

“We’re taking a fairly limited snapshot of what’s going on because of the focus on this one species,” she said. “And so I think the question is, how many other species is this also happening to?”

Kevin Jiang is a Toronto-based digital producer for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @crudelykevin

WORKERS CAPITAL

Canada's biggest pension fund will sell companies that don't take ESG seriously

CPPIB chief says it will divest if other efforts to commit to net zero fail

Bloomberg News
Sheryl Tian Tong Lee
Publishing date: Nov 16, 2022 

John Graham, chief executive of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. PHOTO BY BRYAN VAN DER BEEK/BLOOMBERG
Article content

The head of Canada’s US$400-billion pension fund said he’s willing to cut ties with companies that aren’t committed to their net-zero targets.

While the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board doesn’t believe divestment is the right path forward, it will do so if other efforts fail, chief executive John Graham said on a panel at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.

“We’re there as an investor and we share our expectations and use our governance rights,” he said Wednesday. If companies aren’t following through on their commitments, “then you have to use what governance tools you have to either seek change or we will sell at that point if we just don’t think it’s being taken seriously.”

Known as CPPIB, the Toronto-based pension fund is one of the world’s largest institutional investors in private equity, with billions invested directly and through funds. The firm has said it will consider voting against all directors at companies where there are oversight failures related to climate change, board gender diversity and deficient corporate governance.

Temasek Holdings Pte.’s chief executive Dilhan Pillay took a different view on how to deal with portfolio companies. “You can’t force change because it has to come from within,” he said on the same panel.

Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, which manages more than US$280 billion, has long argued that divesting from sectors such as fossil fuels could transfer the problem to new owners that aren’t as committed to tackling climate change.

“You have to make sure you pull everyone along with you to make it really sustainable in the long term,” Pillay said.

As traditional energy outperforms and security concerns grow, the debate around divestment is intensifying. It’s one of the biggest dilemmas for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) proponents: whether investors trying to help reduce emissions should stop funding businesses that pollute the planet, or engage and guide them toward a just transition, while reaping windfall profits.

RECOMMENDED FROM EDITORIAL

Canadian pensions join stampede out of Chinese stocks amid prolonged rout, delisting threat

CPPIB flexes its muscle in board rooms around the world to stem climate change

CPPIB breaks winning streak with $23-billion loss amid ‘market turbulence’

Faltering tech markets don’t bother CPPIB’s new equity growth team

Sarah Williamson, chief executive at FCLTGlobal, a nonprofit whose backers include McKinsey & Co. and BlackRock Inc., said selling off fossil-fuel investments doesn’t help with real-world decarbonization.

“The solution is not essentially to take the garbage out of your own house and throw it in your neighbour’s yard,” she told the panel.

Best opportunities

Graham said CPPIB is “really excited” about investing in ESG, and sees it providing some of the best opportunities in the next 10 years. At the same time, the firm has moved away from using the term internally because “it’s three kinds of distinct areas that require its own discussion” and grouping them together “just simplifies it too much,” he said.

CPPIB is focusing on liquidity in the current volatile market environment, to give more room to invest when opportunities present themselves, Graham said in a separate interview.

“Liquidity is probably more valuable today than it has been in a long time,” he said on Bloomberg Television. “Our portfolio is $529 billion. We can’t move that overnight, but what we can do is have enough dry powder.”

—With assistance from Layan Odeh, David Ramli, Abhishek Vishnoi and Francine Lacqua.

Bloomberg.com

GM says deal to source nickel from Vale's Quebec plant will help trigger U.S. tax credits

Nickel feed will be used in General Motors' battery cathodes to power about 350,000 electric vehicles annually

Author of the article: Naimul Karim
Publishing date: Nov 17, 2022

POSTMEDIA

General Motors assembly workers connect a battery pack underneath a partially assembled 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicle on the assembly line at Orion Assembly in Lake Orion, Michigan. 

PHOTO BY REBECCA COOK/REUTERS FILES

Brazil-based Vale SA has inked an agreement to supply General Motors Co. (GM) with 25,000 tonnes of battery-grade nickel sulfate annually from the miner’s proposed plant at Bécancour, Que.

The nickel feed will be used in GM’s battery cathodes to power about 350,000 electric vehicles annually, the companies said in a press release on Thursday. The delivery is expected to begin in 2026.

Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice-president of product development, said that the deal was part of the company’s goal of building a secure EV supply chain. He added that Canada will play an important role in GM’s “all-electric future” as the material sourced from the nation through Vale will help it become eligible for new clean-energy tax credits in the U.S.

Parks was referring to Washington’s recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which offers a US$7,500 subsidy meant to encourage the production of EVs in North America.

The act is part of a series of steps taken by the U.S. and Canada to ensure EV production occurs close to home, or at least in places where they wield influence and to make sure that they reduce their dependency on China, which dominates this industry.

In late October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government raised the bar that foreigners must clear to join Canada’s critical minerals industry, saying any attempt by a state-owned enterprise to purchase assets in the sector can now trigger a section of the Investment Canada Act that determines whether deals that could be “injurious to national security,” requiring lengthy review.

Days later, Ottawa ordered three Chinese companies to divest their investments in three Canadian junior lithium miners.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland used a series of speeches this fall to stress the need for “friendshoring,” an idea that would see democratic allies build supply chains through each other’s economies and tackle the influence of authoritarian regimes in the energy sector.

Through deals with key companies of the battery supply chain, Canada has progressed this year in its goal of building a battery supply chain. In August, it signed agreements with automakers Volkswagen AG and Mercedes-Benz AG to “deepening” co-operation on EVs. Earlier this year, Ottawa inked deals with Umicore SA, Stellantis NV and LG Energy Solution Ltd. to build cathode and battery factories.

The demand for EVs and other renewable materials has increased in recent years as countries accelerate towards meeting their climate goals.

“This is a momentous agreement for Vale,” Deshnee Naidoo, Vale’s executive vice-president of Base Metals, said regarding the deal with GM in a press release on Thursday. “The proposed nickel sulfate project would utilize high purity, low-carbon nickel from our Canadian refineries … and a fast entry and anchor point into the North American electric vehicle market.”

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

Rio Tinto terminates deals with dissident Turquoise Hill shareholders a week after Quebec watchdog raises concerns

Terminations increase doubts about whether Rio will be successful in its attempt to buy the remaining shares of Turquoise

Author of the article: Naimul Karim
Publishing date: Nov 17, 2022 • POSTMEDIA

The Rio Tinto logo is displayed on a visitor's helmet at a borates mine in Boron, California. 

PHOTO BY PATRICK T. FALLON/REUTERS FILES
Article content

Rio Tinto Ltd. terminated the side deals that it had inked with two minority shareholders of Montreal-based Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. in its bid to gain full control of the Canadian miner, a week after Quebec’s securities regulator said that the deals raised “public interest concerns.”

The terminations increase doubts about whether Rio will be successful in its attempt to buy the remaining shares of Turquoise that it doesn’t already own.

According to the deals struck on Nov. 1 with investment firms Pentwater Capital Management LP and SailingStone Capital Partners LLC, which had publicly opposed Rio’s US$3.3 billion takeover offer, the firms would withhold their votes and exercise their dissent rights instead.

Exercising these rights opens a door for a shareholder to sell its shares at a price it believes is fair through arbitration in the event a company makes a decision it does not agree with.

However, on Thursday, Rio said that it was going back its original proposal. The global mining giant also asked Turquoise to hold a shareholder vote on the takeover — which has already been postponed thrice — as soon as possible.

“We have acknowledged feedback received from minority shareholders and returned to the proposal originally unanimously recommended by the Turquoise Hill Special Committee,” Rio’s copper chief Bold Baatar said in a press release. “We continue to believe that a premium of 67 per cent for their shares … is an attractive proposition for minority shareholders.”

Rio, which owns 51 per cent of Turquoise, had to improve its offer twice to end up at the $43 per share mark on Sept. 5 and reach an agreement with Turquoise’s senior executives after its initial bids of $34 and $40 were rejected.

However, the deal requires approval from two-thirds of Turquoise Hill shareholders, including Rio Tinto. It also requires a simple majority of the votes cast by Turquoise Hill’s minority shareholders, which include Pentwater and SailingStone, which own 15.14 and 2.2 per cent of Turquoise, respectively.

“There is no assurance that any of (Pentwater or SailingStone) will continue to withhold their vote or whether any of them will vote for or against the arrangement,” Rio said in the press release.

Rio added in its statement that all minority shareholders of Turquoise would have access to the “same dissent rights and statutory process through the Yukon Courts” for the transaction.

Turquoise Hill runs the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, which it has said is one of the world’s largest new copper and gold mines. Through five mineralized deposits, the mine, which started operating in 2013, has the potential to operate for about 100 years, according to Turquoise Hill, which owns 66 per cent of the mine. The Mongolian government owns the rest.

The mine is expected to produce 110,000 to 150,000 tons of copper and 150,000 to 170,000 ounces of gold in 2022. Production is expected to increase next year since the Oyu Tolgoi board has approved the start of the mine’s underground operations, with first production expected in 2023.

One of the world’s biggest mining corporations, Rio, like a number of other miners is looking to increase its control of metals like copper, which is likely to play a key role in the transition away from fossil fuels.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

BAD CANADIAN MINER

Barrick Gold under fire by UN for toxic spills from Veladero mine in Argentina

UN letters express concern about impacts on local population’s health and environment

Author of the article: Gabriel Friedman
Publishing date: Nov 17, 2022 • POSTMEDIA

An open pit at Barrick Gold Corp.'s Veladero gold mine in Argentina's San Juan province. 

PHOTO BY MARCOS BRINDICCI/REUTERS FILES

Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp. is once again under fire for its environmental track record and relationship with local communities in the Andes Mountains.

On Tuesday, the United Nations released letters that three advisors to its Human Rights Council — independent experts known as special rapporteurs — wrote in September to Toronto-based Barrick, the Canadian government and others, expressing concern about toxic spills from the Veladero mine in Argentina, which it owns jointly with China’s Shandong Gold Group.

Between 2015 and 2017, mercury and other contaminants were detected in the river system next to the mine, located at high elevation in northwestern Argentina, near the border with Chile. The mine, which uses heap leach processing in which ore is piled on a concrete pad and rinsed with cyanide to extract gold and silver, was linked to three spills and Barrick paid millions of dollars in fines.

Afterwards, the spills appeared to stop. But in June the Financial Post reported that members of nearby communities and local journalists leveled accusations of new spills of mercury and other heavy metals into local waters, in 2021 and 2022, citing data collected by scientists at a university in Mendoza.

The UN special rapporteurs’ letter to Barrick characterized the accusations as “sufficiently reliable” and expressed concern about the impacts on the local population’s health and to the environment.

“While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, we wish to express our grave concern about the impact on human rights caused by spills of cyanide, arsenic, mercury and other hazardous substances from the Veladero mine,” the letter states. “The lack of effective response by your company exacerbates these impacts.”

It is signed by Marcos Orellana, a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes; Fernanda Hopenhaym, chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations; and David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, who is also a professor at the University of British Columbia.

Barrick Gold Corp.’s gold, silver and copper mines in Argentina’s Andes mountains in Veladero, San Juan.

 PHOTO BY DIEGO LEVY/BLOOMBERG NEWS FILES

Letters were also sent to Shandong Gold, which purchased a 50 per cent stake in the mine in 2017 for US$960 million, to the Chinese government, and to the joint venture company, Minera Argentina Gold SRL, that operates the mine.

The UN releases letters 60 days after receipt but Barrick provided the Financial Post with a copy of its response, which denies nearly all the allegations.

The company said in its reply that it did not spill any contaminants into the environment in 2022, and added that the impacts of three historical spills were overstated because they “did not impact the environment or human rights.”


RECOMMENDED FROM EDITORIAL

Barrick facing new allegations of contamination near Veladero mine in Argentina

Barrick forges closer ties with Chinese partner in bid to revive South American mine

Chile's political shift to the left may raise risks for Canada miners

It added that mercury and other metals found in local waters “naturally occur in the region,” and noted that cyanide — which it uses to rinse ore — was not found in the water. The company also said it rejects accusations that it did not effectively communicate the previous spills to authorities and local communities.

Still, Saúl Zeballos, who lives in San José de Jáchal, a community of 21,000 about 200 kilometres downstream from the mine, said he blames Barrick for breaking its promises to protect the local water supply. He added the company has not met local expectations of providing jobs.

Zeballos said Barrick never alerted the community to the original spill in 2015, which he only heard about informally through connections in the community. Since then, everyone has been drinking bottled water, but continue to use the local water for cooking and washing despite concerns about the health impacts, especially for their children.

They need to leave and leave the area in the same condition as when they got here

SAÚL ZEBALLOS

“They need to stop polluting the area,” Zeballos said in an interview during which his comments were translated from Spanish by two translators provided by Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada. “They need to leave and leave the area in the same condition as when they got here.”

Barrick initially developed the Veladero mine in 2005. Within several years, it started building a second mine several kilometres away, straddling the Argentina-Chile border, known as Pascua-Lama. But in 2017, Chilean regulators ordered Barrick to halt all mining after finding adverse impacts on the environment.

Meanwhile, Argentina has passed legislation that says a mine that commits three environmental infractions can be forced to close.

The UN advisors’ letter to Barrick cites “information” it received from unnamed sources summarizing four spills linked to Veladero between 2015 and 2022:

in 2015, a valve broke, releasing millions of litres of water containing cyanide and other heavy metals into five rivers, resulting in a US$10 million fine;

in September 2016, ice damaged a pipe, and elevated levels of mercury were detected in the local river. Local government suspended mining operations, but mining resumed the next month;

in March 2017 another pipe ruptured. The company paid an additional $5.6 million in fines for the September and March spills, according to the letter;

this past June, a journalist in Argentina reported that scientists at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza analyzed local water samples and found that the level of mercury, aluminum and manganese exceeded health standards set by the World Health Organization.

The letter to Barrick does not address whether any regulators or government officials in Argentina are taking any action at present. It says the impacts on local communities’ health were a serious concern; it also notes concern about the impact on the local environment, including the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve.

“We are also concerned about the company’s failure to report these spills in a timely manner,” the letter states. “The lack of timely information hinders the adoption of protective measures for the populations exposed to toxic substances in the spills and the environment.”

(ESG) is skewed towards environmental concerns at the expense of social and governance

MARK BRISTOW

Last year, the mine produced 172,000 ounces of gold. In October 2021, Barrick announced it would create a trust fund for community development projects near the mine, financed by 1.5 per cent of all gold sales from Veladero.

Last week, on a third quarter earnings call with analysts, Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow said the company had recently built new pads for its heap leach operations and alluded to some difficulties.

“We are still getting our heads around the geomet and leach dynamics, which we believe have also been exacerbated by the abnormally long winter and freezing of part of the pads,” he said, without offering further details.

Repeating a message he has emphasized previously, Bristow also said on the call that he believes that ESG — the catch-all term to evaluate a company’s environmental, social and governance track record — “is skewed towards environmental concerns at the expense of social and governance.”

They’re completely destroying the water

SAÚL ZEBALLOS

His company is focused on investing in impoverished regions to help resolve local poverty, he said.

According to Barrick’s disclosures about payments to foreign governments, in 2021 the company paid US$170,000 in taxes in Argentina. In 2020, the company paid US$210,000 in taxes and US$12 million for infrastructure improvements in the country.

Zeballos, the resident of San Jose de Jachal, objected to the idea that Barrick was making a large economic difference in the community, saying the company’s environmental legacy would be pollution.

“They’re completely destroying the water,” he said through the translators.

• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com | Twitter: GabeFriedz

Saskatchewan First Nation accuses U.S. miner of extracting potash without providing 'benefit' to community

Kahkewistahaw First Nation chief said Mosaic has failed to live up to the 'very basic' Indigenous rights engagement

Author of the article: Naimul Karim
Publishing date: Nov 17, 2022 •

REGINA LEADER-POST

Kahkewistahaw First Nation Chief Evan Taypotat speaks

 at a press conference outside Mosaic Stadium in Regina.

 PHOTO BY KAYLE NEIS/REGINA LEADER-POST

A Saskatchewan First Nation has accused U.S. miner Mosaic Co. of extracting “billions of dollars” worth of potash from its land for decades without providing any “meaningful benefit” to the community.

The chief of the Kahkewistahaw First Nation, situated about 175 kilometres northeast of Regina, said that the community had applied to hundreds of bids for business contracts with Mosaic, but was awarded just one.

“That contract was minimal,” said chief Evan Taypotat. “For the very next one, we bid the same contract with the same amount, and they told us we are too expensive … Mosaic always comes back to us with either bid too high or they won’t tell us why.”

A Mosaic spokesperson denied the allegations and said the company had included 109 bids from the Kahkewistahaw’s steel fabrication facility. “They responded to three and after working closely with them, we did award them work in 2022 in the hopes that this would lead to a … long-lasting relationship,” said Sarah Fedorchuk, Mosaic’s vice president of public affairs.

But Taypotat said that the miner had been extracting billions of dollars for decades “from our land without giving us nothing more than a few free football tickets and little miner donations to our recreation fund a few years back.”

Florida-based Mosaic is one of the world’s leading producers of potash crop nutrients, primarily used in fertilizers to increase crop yield. The company’s North American potash operations in Saskatchewan and New Mexico are responsible for about 34 per cent of its annual production.

Fedorchuk said that Mosaic will pay about $1.2 billion in resource taxes and royalties to the government of Saskatchewan in 2022, which it says is “far and away the most exhaustive resource tax regime in the world” with its global competitors paying 40 per cent less taxes than the Canadian potash producers.

“As far as our other Indigenous engagement efforts go, we have made significant progress on all of our key pillars,” the Mosaic vice president added.

But Taypotat said the company has failed to live up to the “very basic” Indigenous rights engagement. He said that the First Nation was a co-owner of the resource by law and that Mosaic has a “moral and legal responsibility” to share the benefits.

“My message to Mosaic potash is stop lying to the First Nations people of Saskatchewan,” he said.

The chief also criticized the Saskatchewan government for not providing enough support to the First Nations. He said that currently the steel fabrication facility that the community owns has to go to British Columbia to get work contracts.

“That’s how far we gotta go for a fair shake, let alone the potash mine 10 km from our First Nation. And the only reason B.C. gives us a fair shake is because industry has to ask the First Nation in B.C. for business. In Saskatchewan, it’s the opposite, industry is in charge for everything here,” said Taypotat.

He added that the facility was “more than capable of doing much of the metal fabrication work” required by Mosaic’s mines, which would create “good jobs” for its members.

The Saskatchewan government wasn’t immediately available for a comment.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

Canada rejects Arctic mine expansion project after years of fierce protest

Community members and campaigners have hailed the move as a win for vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlife

An aerial view of Baffinland's Mary River iron ore mine on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. Photograph: All Canada Photos/Alamy

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

THE GUARDIAN

Thu 17 Nov 2022

Canada has rejected a mine expansion project in the Arctic after years of uncertainty and fierce protest, in what community members and campaigners say is a win for the vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlife.

Baffinland Iron Mines’ planned expansion to its Mary River site would have seen it double output to 12m tonnes of iron ore. To bring the ore to market, the mine also said it needed to build a 110km railway to a port near the community of Pond Inlet as well as doubling its shipping.



Cop27: coral conservation groups alarmed over ‘catastrophic losses’

The company – the biggest private-sector employer in Nunavut territory with nearly 2,600 workers – has said the expansion is critical to remaining profitable.

On Wednesday evening, after repeated delays, Canada’s northern affairs minister, Dan Vandal, rejected the company’s application, citing fears from Inuit groups that the expansion could have devastating effects on marine mammals, including key populations of narwhal. The region is home to the densest narwhal population in the world – an important food source for Inuit communities.
Advertisement

That decision comes six months after the Nunavut Impact Review Board came out against the expansion. The board held in-person meetings in Pond Inlet, the community closest to the mine, as well as in the territorial capital of Iqaluit. After hearing from community members and the mine, it concluded the project could result in “significant adverse eco-systemic effects on marine mammals and fish, caribou and other terrestrial wildlife, along with vegetation and freshwater” as well as “significant adverse socio-economic effects on Inuit harvesting, culture, land use and food security in Nunavut”. The board’s review lasted four years, the longest in its history.

In his Wednesday decision, Vandal wrote that he and other ministers had “carefully considered” the proposal, along with the input from Inuit groups, concluding that the project “should not proceed at this time”.

Vandal said both the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated wrote to him and raised concerns about the proposed expansion, arguing adverse effects couldn’t be “prevented, mitigated, or adaptively managed under the proposed mitigations”.

In his decision, the minister acknowledged the economic significance of the project, given that Baffinland’s operations make up nearly a quarter of the territory’s GDP.
Advertisement

“However, we have taken particular note of the conclusions of the board, the designated Inuit organizations and the Hunters and Trappers Organizations … who have expressed a lack of confidence that Phase 2, as currently conceived, can proceed without unacceptable impacts,” he wrote.

Many community members have said they aren’t against the mine, but worry the expansion will create irreversible damage.

The decision has been met with approval from marine conservationists. “Our first reaction was relief. It was a very arduous and protracted hearing process. But in that process, communities were loud and clear. They expressed a lot of concern about this,” said Chris Debicki, a vice-president and counsel at the conservation organization Oceans North. “But there are still unresolved issues with respect to the impact of mining and shipping on the ecosystem.” Among their concerns are the effects of the iron dust from large trucks, leading to the possible contamination of sea ice.

Others say they have been overlooked by decision makers in Iqaluit. Under the landmark 1993 Nunavut Agreement, which established a number of key rights for Inuit on their lands, Baffinland is required to negotiate a benefit agreement with the Inuit groups that represent residents of the territory.

Jerry Natanine, mayor of Clyde River, previously told the Guardian he and others were trying to form a new group that would have the power to negotiate royalty payments and have greater say over projects that could affect their communities.

In February 2021, a group of hunters blocked access to the mine in protest, braving frigid temperatures for nearly a week. Seven hunters, some of whom travelled from Clyde River, used snowmobiles and sleds to block the airstrip and service road to the Mary River Mine as temperatures dipped to -30C (-22F).

“The decision comes from years of disappointment from Inuit organizations that don’t look out for our behalf,” Natanine said at the time, adding that hunters are forced to “fight for their culture and their way of life” when projects are imposed on them.

Baffinland, jointly owned by ArcelorMittal and the Houston private equity firm the Energy and Minerals Group, had previously tried to ease concerns over the project, saying it is confident wildlife will not be affected by increased ore shipments. The company has also touted more than C$2bn (US$1.5bn) in royalties paid to Inuit over the mine’s 30-year lifespan.

The company was expected to issue a statement on Thursday in response to the federal government’s decision.

On this day in history, Nov. 18, 1883, North American railroads create times zones, reshape global life

Brazen effort to bring sanity to cross-continental rail travel governs many aspects of life today

By Kerry J. Byrne | Fox News

American and Canadian railroads enacted time zones — a concept that schedules all aspects of life today — on this day in history, Nov. 18, 1883.

The rail industry's creation of time zones was a brazen attempt to bend time to its will.

It brought sanity to a sprawling patchwork system of local timekeeping based on the ancient method of following the sun, the system used since human time began.

"Back in the early 1800s, the sun served as the official ‘clock’ in the U.S., and time was based on each city’s own solar noon, or the point when the sun is highest in the sky," Union Pacific railroad writes in its history of time zones.

"This timekeeping method resulted in the creation of more than 300 local time zones across the country — not to mention disparity in local time depending on your location. So, for example, while it could be 12:09 p.m. in New York, it could also be 12:17 p.m. in Chicago."

Union Pacific Diesel Locomotive Train, Cajon Pass near Ono, California, 1964. Sprawling distances across North America and a patchwork of local methods of timekeeping encouraged railroads to adopt time zones in 1883. (Photo by: GHI/Universal History Archive via Getty Images)

The system that railroads pioneered did not become federal law until the passage of the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918, amid World War I.

With an estimated 100,000 Americans alive today over the age of 100, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens still alive now were born into a world without uniform time.

"Back in the early 1800s, the sun served as the official ‘clock’ in the U.S." — Union Pacific railroad

Charles F. Dowd, an educator at what's now Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, first proposed the concept of time zones across the U.S. in 1870.

"Dowd’s plan divided the country into four time zones. He used the 75th meridian, which runs through New York State, as the base for his Eastern Standard Time," explains the Madison Historical Society from the Connecticut hometown of the time pioneer.



A color map showing the divisions of standard time, Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern, across the United States, 1922. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)

"He then assigned three cross-country meridians: Central Standard (90th); Mountain Standard (105th); Pacific Standard (120th). Each zone time was set one hour apart."

Dowd slowly built support for his plan from academics. But the fractured railroad industry, with hundreds of companies competing for traffic and dollars, proved harder to harness.

He found an influential ally in William F. Allen, a railroad engineer and editor of the "Traveler's Official Railway Guide."

"With his helpful modifications — and Dowd’s continual work — Allen convinced railroad officials to adopt (time zones)," the Madison Historical Society explains.

Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan opened in 1913 just 30 years after railroads pioneered the creation of time zones — and five years before the system became federal law in the United States. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

"On November 18, 1883, Allen was on hand at the Western Union Telegraph System building in New York City to witness the plan’s implementation. Room 148 contained the company’s regulator clock. At 9 a.m., the clock was stopped for precisely three minutes and 58:38 seconds. The clock was then restarted, and Eastern Standard Time was born."

The concept of time zones quickly spread around the world.

"The following year a conference was held in New York City to determine the location of the prime meridian, which refers to zero degrees longitude," reports the website of California cartographer GeoJango Maps.

"It was decided that Greenwich, England, would act as the Earth's prime meridian and that the 24 time zones would be based off … this location."

The four continental North American time zones used today — Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific — look substantially similar to those envisioned by Dowd in the 1870s.

In this November 1943 file photo, bodies and wrecked amphibious tractors litter a battlefield after U.S. Marines from the 2nd Division forced back the Japanese on Betio island in the Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati. The nation of Kiribati sprawls across both the International Date Line and the equator. (AP Photo, File)
                                                            
The time zone concept, as clean as it may appear, creates chaos in one isolated Pacific Ocean island nation.

Kiribati sprawls across about 1.4 million square miles of ocean. The World War II Battle of Tarawa, pitting United States Marines against entrenched Japanese defenders, took place in what's now Kiribati.

The nation straddles both the International Date Line and the equator. So it can be Friday and Saturday in Kiribati — and both summer and winter — all at the same time.

The nation created its own unilateral time zones, bucking the international standard, on Dec. 31, 1994, to solve the problem.

"These rarest of time zones were established by Kiribati," writes watchmaker TAG Heuer, "for the purpose of removing certain absurdities from the daily lives of its citizens."

"Today, the U.S Department of Transportation oversees the nation’s time zones and the uniform observance of Daylight Saving Time," writes Union Pacific, "including exercising the authority that allows a state to change its official time zone."


Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.