U of A research has identified urban heat islands in Edmonton

These areas of the citiy contain low vegetation and have higher temperatures than other areas.

Supplied

Researchers from the Urban Environment Observatory Lab at the University of Alberta have found certain areas in Edmonton have higher temperatures than other areas. These areas are known as Urban Heat Islands (UHIs). 

The research was done by Nilusha Welegedara, U of A postdoctoral researcher in the earth and atmospheric sciences department. Welegedara worked with Sandeep Agrawal, director of U of A’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, and their colleagues. The researchers were interested to see if the phenomenon of UHIs, known to happen in tropical cities, was also happening in winter cities like Edmonton, specifically during the summer. 

“[Edmonton has] lower temperatures during winter and really high summer temperatures … extreme temperature differences,” Welegedara said. “So we thought we would like to study the UHI effect [and] whether winter cities have any UHI effect.”

Their research used satellite images of 402 residential neighbourhoods and industrial areas from 1999 to 2021 to locate the UHIs. The areas with the highest heat intensity were commercial and industrial areas of the city.

The analysis of the UHIs showed that there is a lack of vegetation in urban development that causes the hotspots. Commercial and industrial areas were found to have the least amount of trees, bushes, and other vegetation. The “really low” vegetation coverage in some of these areas was found to be less than five per cent.

Concrete from roads and rooftops of tall buildings absorbs the heat of the sun which creates UHIs. Additionally, the concrete in high-traffic areas absorbs more heat. Other causes are high traffic and high-density population dwellings.

The research also found that the north side of the city and some downtown areas had higher temperatures than the south side. The south side was cooler because of the river valley and older neighbourhoods with more vegetation.

Higher temperatures can lead to heatstroke, exhaustion, and increase health risks. These effects of UHIs were seen through the hot summers Edmonton has had for the past few years.

Over the past 20 years, the city’s land surface temperatures, which is how hot the ground feels to touch, has increased by six to 12 degrees overall compared to rural areas, according to Welegedara. She added that Edmonton could experience more heat waves in the future.

“[Heat waves] might increase the adverse effects of urban heat islands,” Welegdara said. “We might need to prepare for the future, because if you’re not prepared some more people will get affected.”

Welegedara said that the UHI effect is “mainly related to replacing natural areas with manmade structures” and suggested that more vegetation is needed to cool the area.

In the short term, to help mitigate the effects of UHIs, Welegedara advises people to take public transit more often, turn off appliances that are not being used, and preserve mature trees. In the long term, Welegedara recommends for more green coverage through initiatives like tree planting.

“We need to adapt to the changing environments, especially for urban heat islands.”

While Welegedara and her team have so far focused their research on UHIs in Edmonton, they are also researching Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. Welegedara said there’s a possibility that they might focus on some international cities for their research as well.

Panelists for Better Way Alberta Tour discuss issues in Alberta post-secondary

The Better Way Alberta Tour panelists discussed issues in Alberta post-secondary, and made five recommendations for the sector.

THE GATEWAY

U OF A STUDENT PAPER 

 2 days ago

Supplied: Better Way Alberta

On October 28, the Better Way Alberta Tour came to Edmonton to discuss the public post-secondary education system.

According to Brad Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, the purpose of the tour was to talk about “the importance of reinvesting in our public post-secondary education system, reversing the cuts, and talking about accessibility and affordability.”

The panel was held at MacEwan University, and live-streamed to the University of Alberta. The event was hosted by Public Interest Alberta in collaboration with the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), U of A’s Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA), Friends of Medicare, and the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Hope in young Albertans who are “striving for change”

The first panelist was Rafat Alam, president of the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association. Alam explained that for most universities, there is a third party brought in for bargaining. This happens when an agreement cannot be reached over an extended period of time and bargaining moves into what is called formal mediation.

Last school year, many post-secondaries in Alberta underwent extended bargaining processes, with some resulting in a strike.

“Bargaining should be fair [and] transparent,” Alam said. “But we feel that each time any decisions are made, the university side has to run back to the phone to talk to a third party.”

According to Alam, this affects the faculty, which in return affects the learning environment. He also mentioned that those working in university faculties don’t have a nine-to-five job, as those roles have a heavy workload.

“We [do] teaching, research, service, and beyond that we contribute positively to society,” he said.

Alam concluded saying that he is hopeful in young Albertans who are “striving for change” in the post-secondary education system.

“My hope is [that] the youth will bring change, and put up pressure [for] political change that will positively grow the sector.”

“Post-secondary education is riddled with barriers,” said SAMU exec

The second panelist was Matthew Yanish, vice-president (external) for the Students’ Association of MacEwan University and former vice-chair for CAUS.

Yanish shared his vision for post-secondary education in Alberta by talking about his personal experience as a first-generation student. He grew up in rural Alberta, and moved to Edmonton to pursue post-secondary education. He said he experienced first-hand how “post-secondary education is riddled with barriers.

“Attending university can be an alienating experience if you can’t find a sense of community and belonging on campus,” Yanish said. “[This is what] many first-generation students experience when they first show up to campus. It’s a barrier that was very present in my own journey.”

Yanish added that students come from many diverse backgrounds, and a “one-size fits all approach” isn’t the best method when it comes to supporting students.

“We need to be making sure that our institutions are anticipating the needs of the students before they show up, and then adequately responding to those needs,” he said.

Yanish mentioned that another obstacle for students in Alberta is a financial barrier, which is due to the rising cost of education, and the lack of financial support.

“It’s not all doom and gloom though,” Yanish said. “Students and faculty alike strive to create an authentic and impactful educational experience.”

“Workers are burnt out beyond belief,” NASA president says

The final panelist was Jillian Pratt, president of NASA. She talked about the cuts that the U of A has seen over the last three years.

“When you consider that there was about $500 million of cuts to post-secondary — and the U of A has had $222 million of that — that’s over a third of the cuts,” Pratt said.

Pratt also said that the cuts led to a loss of many full-time positions, which “affected over 1,100 people.”

She shared that she knows of a graduate student advisor who went from supporting one department to three after cuts were made, leaving her with three times the amount of work she had previously.

“The system is not working well. We’re asking folks to take on more with less. Workers are burnt out beyond belief, and it’s just trickling out throughout the system,” Pratt said.

According to Pratt, there are certain things that need to happen in order to help the situation. These include adequate and increased funding, the government no longer being involved in the bargaining process, and an elimination of all performance-based funding indicators.

Public Interest Alberta makes five recommendations for Alberta post-secondary

After the panelists concluded their speeches, Lafortune shared five main recommendations for post-secondary education in Alberta.

“[We need to] reinvest at least $500 million back into the system,” he said. Lafortune added that this is the “bare minimum” for “reinvesting and rebuilding the system.”

The second recommendation is to reverse the across-the-board tuition increases, and to focus on programs that have been “the target of even more severe tuition increases.”

Lafortune also said that political interference needs to be stopped. “That means stopping political interference at the bargaining table,” he said. “Institutional autonomy and academic freedom is very important.”

The last two recommendations Lafortune made were getting rid of performance-based funding, and reinvesting in the workforce.

BC

The 20-year campaign to protect the endangered fish only found one place on earth

Morrison Creek Headwaters, a 22-hectare parcel of protected land in the Comox Valley home to four species of salmon and the endangered Morrison Creek lamprey.Chad Hipolito/The Globe and Mail

The Morrison Creek lamprey might be beautiful only in the eyes of a biologist. But the jawless fish, with its gaping, disc-shaped mouth and eel-like silver body, has become a preoccupation even among those less susceptible to its charms, because it is found in only one place on earth: an unusual, drought-proof stretch of wetlands on Vancouver Island.

This species of lamprey has evolved since the last ice age, surviving even dry spells like the one that has left many of the island’s rivers parched over the past few months. That longevity is a result of a special hydrological feature of its home: the creek is constantly replenished by freshwater springs that bubble out of the ground, a gift from the glacier-fed Comox Lake.

While climate change threatens sensitive ecosystems around the globe, this little pocket of forest and wetlands is well buffered. But most of the land is zoned for heavy industry and owned by a multinational logging company.

“It’s a magical thing, here,” said conservation biologist Tim Ennis, who was running his fingers through one of the small, eternal trickles of water that nurture the wetlands.

Mr. Ennis, the executive director of the Comox Valley Land Trust, has been involved in a 20-year-long community effort to protect the Morrison Creek lamprey, which faces extinction if development is allowed.

The Morrison Creek lamprey, found only in the creek it is named for, has evolved since the last ice age, surviving dry spells thanks to the creek constantly being replenished by freshwater springs that bubble out of the ground, a gift from the glacier-fed Comox Lake.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Globe and Mail

His goal is just weeks away from being realized. The owner of the headwaters of Morrison Creek, Manulife Investment, has offered to sell a 289-hectare parcel to the land trust. The deadline to close the deal is the end of December, and a network of conservationists has raised most of the $4.75-million purchase price.

British Columbia is home to the greatest amount of biodiversity in the country, but the provincial government and Ottawa have been unable to reach an agreement on securing new protected areas. Where there is progress, it is being achieved by First Nations and non-profits, and sometimes both together, while government talks grind on.

Many of those non-profits are land trusts like the one Mr. Ennis runs – organizations whose primary business is buying private land and protecting it from development. The 148 that currently exist in Canada have collectively assembled more than half a million hectares. They often use seed money from government, which is matched by private contributions.

Their work fills a gap left by halting government action. Canada, along with the other Group of Seven countries, has committed to conserving or protecting at least 30 per cent of its lands, inland waters and coastal and marine areas by 2030. As an interim step, Ottawa has set a target of 25 per cent by 2025, but it has a long way to go.

Less than 14 per cent of Canada’s lands and waters are protected, and on average the country is adding 0.8 per cent annually. That pace does not put Canada on track to succeed.

See some of the landscape around Morrison Creek, BC via drone.

The Globe and Mail

Morrison Creek has long been eyed for protection by local conservationists, and the status of its unique lamprey is a rallying point. Formally known as Lampetra richardsoni, the fish has been listed as endangered for two decades. The federal government issued a legal order to protect the lamprey’s critical habitat from destruction in 2019, which established a narrow protected area on either side of the water where it lives.

Still, the lamprey, which is “extremely susceptible to habitat loss” according to the federal protection order, is on the decline. There is constant development pressure in the surrounding urban area of ​​the Comox Valley. A small portion of land near the creek has been protected as parkland, but the land trust’s purchase of the Manulife lands would secure most of the rest of the lamprey’s habitat.

Mr. Ennis was wearing tall waterproof boots to lead a tour through the land he hopes will soon be preserved. The boggy terrain keeps away people for the most part, with their dogs and loud voices, “and so it ends up functioning as like a wildlife refugium,” he explained as he sloshed around the edge of a beaver dam.

Development in the Comox Valley has left few remaining large pockets of nature. “So it’s really important as a way of keeping wildlife in our communities alongside us,” he said.

Conservation biologist Tim Ennis uses GPS to point out the Morrison Creek Headwaters.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Globe and Mail

Morrison Creek is dense with wildlife. Including the lamprey, it is home to 14 species at risk. Red alders lining a well-used wildlife trail are scarred by the claw marks of black bears, and the landscape is shaped by beavers.

A mink peered at a visitor from its shelter in a riverbank before swimming past the carcass of a Coho salmon that had finished spawning. The reliable streamflow has made this a highly productive salmon habitat.

Of all the creatures, Mr. Ennis has a soft spot for the lamprey, which grows to no more than 15 centimeters. “Lamprey is a particularly old lifeform, and seeing how it can evolve into a completely different kind of lamprey in this one place is really a testament to the stability of the hydrology in this ecosystem,” he said. “I think they’re quite beautiful. They are a long very sleek silver fish, and I think quite elegant when you watch them moving in the water.”

The local K’ómoks First Nation call the Morrison Creek headwaters qax mot, meaning “lots of medicine” in their traditional language. Mr. Ennis noted that the conservation effort will ensure the K’ómoks people can access the abundance and diversity of medicinal plants in the area that have been effectively locked up by private land ownership.

The Morrison Creek lamprey, which is ‘extremely susceptible to habitat loss’ according to the federal protection order, is on the decline.Morrison Valley Stream Keepers

The Comox Valley Land Trust has partnered with the BC Parks Foundation to raise the money for the real estate transaction. The foundation’s chief executive, Andrew Day, said the pandemic has increased the public’s appreciation for nature, and that this has helped drive fundraising efforts.

“There’s a tremendous amount of goodwill and gratitude for the natural areas we live in. And a tremendous desire to give back,” he said.

“But also, there’s just a much higher level of global awareness, particularly in BC, about climate and our diversity loss. People want to do tangible things about larger issues, and protecting land in your area where you live is a very concrete thing that people can do.”

Mr. Ennis, also executive director of the Comox Valley Land Trust, has a soft spot for the lamprey. CHAD HIPOLITO/The Globe and Mail

Unique fish found only on Vancouver Island under threat, conservationists say

CTV News Vancouver Island
Updated Nov. 16, 2022

Tucked away on a small parcel of land on Vancouver Island is a creature you will only find in the Comox Valley.

It's called the Morrison Creek Lamprey, and it's a unique form of the Western Brook Lamprey.

Lampreys are a small type of parasitic fish that look like eels.

"Lamprey themselves are ancient in the evolutionary tree. They predate sharks," said Janet Gemmell, president of the Morrison Creek Streamkeepers.

"They’re jawless fishes, so it's even before any fish got jaws. They’re scaleless, they have cartilage, so they’re very primitive," she said.

SEEKING LAND PURCHASE

Volunteers with the Morrison Creek Streamkeepers and with the Comox Valley Land Trust are trying to preserve a forested area around the Morrison Creek headwaters.

"In 2019 we did our first land acquisition in the headwaters, which was about 50 acres," said David Stapley, director of the Comox Valley Land Trust.

"This piece here is 750 acres, or 280 hectares, and basically we're purchasing almost the rest of the headwaters," he said.

The groups have their sights set on land that is currently held by private forest companies so that the area doesn’t become logged or turned into industrial land.

"It’s really important for us to protect this area because of the threats of logging or industrial development, because it’s such a rich site for biodiversity," said Stapley.

"It’s not just the aquatic species here but all your major animals like the cougars and bears and martens," he said.

Through government and private funding, the two groups are trying to raise $4.75 million by Dec. 31. They've already raised millions and are down to the final $375,000 needed to meet their goal.

"About 40 per cent of the area is wetland, and of course these maturing second-growth forests of cedar and fir and alder and cottonwood, they’re all sequestering carbon and storing it in the soil," said Stapley.

"It’s really important that we maintain our natural areas so that nature can help absorb some of the CO2 in the atmosphere," he said.

Volunteers say they're dedicated to preserving the area for creatures that travel through the region both on land and in the water.

"This particular lamprey has adapted to this ecosystem and so if there are changes to this ecosystem then we might lose that amazing creature that’s a very niche creature – that’s like a boutique creature," said Gemmell.

 British Columbia

'Widespread' amounts of cocaine, painkillers found in fish habitat on Sumas Prairie after 2021 floods: study

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Excessive metals, pesticides, fecal bacteria also found in samples, Raincoast Conservation report says

CBC News · Posted: Nov 17, 2022 

Staff with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation took samples of water in the former Sumas Lake area in Abbotsford, B.C., over a seven-week period after the floods in November 2021. (Supplied by Alex Harris/Raincoast Conservation Foundation)

Fish habitat in the lower Fraser Valley was found to have an "astounding" amount of contaminants after extreme flooding last fall, according to a new study.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation said excessive nutrients, metals, fecal bacteria, hydrocarbons and pesticides — as well as cocaine and painkillers — were detected in 29 surface water samples from the Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, B.C., over a seven-week period after the flood.

"This is a red flag saying these waters are unsafe for salmon and unsafe for fish," said Peter Ross, a toxicologist and the report's lead author, speaking Thursday morning on The Early Edition.

In a statement released with the findings the same day, the foundation said the degradation in the health of Sumas fish habitat became clear during this research.

Raincoast said its analysis of water in fish habitat found "excessive nutrients, metals, hydrocarbons and pesticides" were the primary pollutants of concern.

It also said cocaine and painkillers were found in its samples, which were taken from 11 sites between December 2021 and February 2022. Ross puts these contaminants in a category he called pharmaceuticals and personal care products and said cocaine dominated it.

"We found cocaine to be the most widespread contaminant in this category," said Ross.  "The concentrations were not very high, but ... it was everywhere."

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation collected water samples from 11 sites in Sumas Prairie between Dec. 15, 2021 and Feb. 2, 2022. The area in blue shows the location of Sumas Lake before it was drained in the 1920s. (Supplied by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation)

The study was supported by a number of groups including the Sumas First Nation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and B.C.'s Ministry of Environment.

The foundation noted water quality in the Sumas Prairie — formerly Sumas Lake, before the area was drained in the 1920s — is "poor, regardless of flooding, having been degraded by agricultural and domestic activities."

• Swimmers, waders and looky-loo boaters warned to stay out of toxic floodwaters

A lack of historical data makes it difficult to know how much contamination was a direct result of the flood and how much was a pre-existing problem, it added.

Residents were warned to stay out of the icy, murky floodwater that swamped the area last November. Officials warned debris like oil, garbage, jerry cans and dead animals were polluting the water.

Soil quality 'not compromised': ministry

Much of B.C.'s food production happens in the Sumas Prairie, a low-lying part of the Fraser Valley about 90 kilometres east of Vancouver. The area is irresistible to some of the largest agriculture operations in the province for several reasons: the fields are flat, there's a temperate climate year-round and it's close to the big city.

The soil is strong, too.

The fact the prairie was formerly a shallow lake makes its soil — sandy at the former lake's edge and clay-like toward its centre — especially nutrient-rich and suitable for dozens of varieties of vegetables and berries, as well as livestock.

WATCH | The 100-year-old decision that contributed to Abbotsford flooding:

More than 100 years ago, a lake outside what is now the Abbotsford, B.C., area was drained to create lucrative farmland. Many say that decision is a big contributor to the devastating flooding.

After the flood, the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture conducted a preliminary evaluation of soil quality to determine whether the area would still be viable for farming.

Roughly two dozen soil samples were analyzed for contaminants like gas, diesel, pesticides, herbicides and asbestos.

• Flood damage could cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars, B.C. Agriculture Council says

• Flood management in B.C. is left up to municipalities. Should it be?

"After reviewing the soil quality results, it was determined the sampled agriculture lands were not compromised during the flooding and the integrity of the agricultural food supply production for this area remains strong," read a statement.

An image of Sumas Lake before it was drained to make way for farmland. (City of Vancouver Archives)

Ross said the report reveals a collective failure to protect water and fish habitat from contamination. He wants these findings to contribute to "innovation, stewardship and collective investment in green infrastructure" that will protect people, communities, and fish habitat.

"What we would hope is that Sumas First Nation and other organizations and agencies will look to this report and use those conclusions, use our findings to try to design a better way of living with water during a time of changing climate," he said.

Sumas First Nation Chief Dalton Silver described the findings of the report as "alarming," and raised concerns about the state of the nearby waterways that salmon return to. 

"There's a big worry about the health of the salmon, of wildlife in general," he said. 

"If the environment is ailing around you, you need to look after yourself a little bit better."

CBC News has contacted the Ministry of Agriculture to clarify the discrepancy between its soil findings and the water findings in the foundation's report.

In a statement, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said it is carefully reviewing the report's findings.

On The Coast7:15'Widespread' contaminants found in Sumas Prairie fish habitat

Suma First Nation chief Dalton Silver speaks with Gloria Macarenko about a recent study detailing contaminants found in the water in the Fraser Valley region after the floods last year.

CALL AN ELECTION

Rally opposing Alberta provincial police force held at RCMP K Division

CTV News Edmonton
Updated Nov. 17, 2022 

Union members rally against a provincial police force outside RCMP K Division in 

Edmonton on Nov. 17, 2022. (Evan Klippenstein/CTV News Edmonton)

The union that represents 700 non-police workers in RCMP detachments in Alberta held a rally on Thursday against forming a provincial police force.

Members of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees (USJE), along with the prairie chapter of Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents workers in federal departments and agencies, convened outside RCMP K Division in Edmonton at 11:30 a.m.

Organizers of the rally say Premier Danielle Smith needs to consult with Albertans before moving forward with creating a provincial force.

“This current government’s plan to move to a provincial police force is not anything Albertans are asking for. All of the polling shows they don’t want this, the municipalities don’t want this, but yet this government is proceeding on this plan,” said Marianne Hladun of PSAC.

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“It’s not only going to be a public safety issue, but it’s fiscally irresponsible. It will cost Albertans millions of dollars to have their own provincial police force and the cost benefit just doesn’t add up.”

While representatives for the union say the plan could cost hundreds of detachment support workers in the province their jobs, they are also concerned about the impact replacing the RCMP would have on the community.

“We are members of these communities. Our members live in these small communities. They work in the detachments, they are members of the community, they are volunteers in the community, they spend their unionized paycheques in the community. That’s 700 jobs that are not going to be contributing to Alberta communities,” Hladun said.

Last week, Smith ordered ministers Mike Ellis and Tyler Shandro to move forward on creating a provincial police force, but did not provide a timeline on when the force would be launched.

OPINION

Lebanon bank holdups: Who is the real criminal?

Lebanon’s bank hold ups are the result of lawlessness created by banks, not desperate depositors.

Nizar Ghanem
Alex Ray

Published On 18 Nov 2022

AL JAZEERA

Lebanese depositors queue to withdraw money from an ATM machine outside Fransabank in the Lebanese port city of Saida (Sidon) on September 26, 2022 as banks partially re-opened following a week of closure due to security concerns. [File: Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP]

Today, Lebanon has an enormous $72bn hole in its national finances. That figure alone, by any measure of the law, maths or logic should mean that Lebanon’s banks are bankrupt. Yet since the onset of the financial crisis, Lebanon’s banks and their supposed regulator, the Banque du Liban (BDL), have been making a bizarre ontological argument to avoid paying back their depositors and officially declaring bankruptcy.

Despite there being no official capital controls, more than 60 of the country’s commercial banks have adopted the policy that a US dollar is not really a US dollar if it was deposited into a Lebanese bank before the financial crisis. Instead, they claim, a pre-crisis dollar is equal to a Lebanese pound and can only be withdrawn at a severely reduced rate – some 90 percent less than the current value of an American dollar on the black market.

But any US dollars deposited to these same banks after the financial crisis would be “fresh” dollars, and thus, they can be withdrawn or exchanged with another currency at their real value at any time. Lebanese banks are basically claiming that not all debts to depositors are created equal.

Naturally, millions of Lebanese are not on board with this.

After enduring this absurd policy for three long years, a few desperate depositors have taken matters into their own hands.

There are near-weekly bank hold-ups across Lebanon, but with a twist: People have been threatening to use violence in banks not to steal other people’s money, but to obtain access to their own savings. Some believe, however righteous the depositors’ anger may be, threatening violence is a step too far. But when you think about how these people have lost their homes or found themselves unable to meet their families’ most basic needs, including food, education and medical care, – simply because a bank is not giving them access to their own money – it becomes hard to compare these acts to “normal” bank robberies.

In any country with a functioning social contract, the banking sector’s invented distinction between “fresh” and “old” money would have gone to court, and a sane judge would have ordered the bank to either pay up or declare bankruptcy – but not in Lebanon. In Lebanon, the judiciary is so scared to take on the banks – many of which are owned by political elites – that they are allowing the banks’ white-collar theft to continue, citing “exceptional circumstances”.

The bank hold-ups have already achieved some favourable results. Many of the depositors threatening the banks with violence have managed to retrieve large portions of their savings. And they are also forcing the bank’s creative accounting claims into a legal corner. In putting themselves on trial, depositors have brought banks’ indefensible policies and their complicity in what the World Bank deemed a “deliberate depression” under a legal spotlight.

The results of these trials are telling. Arrested depositors have not yet faced any formal criminal prosecution for their actions, with most receiving lenient punishments meted out in pre-trial negotiations. Judges have been lenient, and for good reason: After all, how can a judge deem it moral to severely punish someone for merely attempting to re-take what is legally theirs?

In response, banks have only been able to increase security at branches and implement strikes designed to pit the public against those conducting hold-ups.

Beyond that banks have few options, because there is only one way they can resolve the issues causing the hold-ups – by declaring bankruptcy and liquidating their assets to pay their debtors (ie depositors). However, under Lebanon’s Law No 2/67 (also known as the “Intra Law”) which governs the insolvency proceedings of Lebanese commercial banks, a bankruptcy declaration could lead to the liquidation of personal assets – yachts, cars, property – of bank executives, and the elites holding shares and management positions in these banks appear to have no intention of taking this risk.

It is not only Lebanese law that commercial banks are breaking by refusing to accept their liability against depositors and attempting to devalue their savings in order to save themselves. They are also breaking international banking regulations developed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Indeed, even the International Monetary Fund has stated that any bank restructuring process should see small deposits (the vast majority of accounts) protected at full value.

Furthermore, by arbitrarily confiscating the savings of their depositors these banks are also violating international human rights law, acting in direct contravention of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Despite all this, the international community has taken no real action to stop banks from aggravating the suffering of the Lebanese people for their own benefit. There is no doubt that meaningful sanctions from the US or the EU would pressure the political elites protecting these banks to do the right thing and start the process of returning to the Lebanese people what is rightfully theirs.

While bank hold-ups provided some positive results for those desperate enough to attempt them, they also set a dangerous precedent – where vigilante action goes unpunished because the rule of law has already been undermined by banks’ illegal actions. In times of desperation, this only encourages people to turn to violence to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

If the international community and the Lebanese judiciary do not act swiftly to bring Lebanese banks into line, the country will enter a cycle of violence it will struggle to break: there will be more bank hold-ups, more hunger, more cholera, more needless deaths and perhaps even active conflict.

If the international community, and the Lebanese elites responsible for this crisis, want to avoid this grim scenario, they should quickly develop a better ontological perception of who is stealing from who when banks’ crimes turn desperate parents into armed activists.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance 

.
Nizar Ghanem
Founder of the Depositor’s Union of Lebanon

Alex Ray
Analyst at the Beirut-based think tank Triangle