REVEALED BY COVID
Report uncovers signs of violence, negligence at two Montreal long-term care homes



MONTREAL — A government-commissioned report into the conditions at two privately owned long-term care homes in Montreal has revealed widespread mistreatment of residents at both facilities.

Les Résidences Floralies locations in the Lachine and LaSalle boroughs were put under trusteeship on Sept. 1 amid allegations of poor care.

A report by a retired Health Department employee made public Thursday alleged “abuse in all its forms” at the residences, including violence and negligence on the part of employees and a lack of treatment and services.

Residents were found with untreated sores, dehydration and signs of violence such as bruises, and the report found there was little in place to prevent falls or address dementia-related behaviours.

Investigator Michel Delamarre also concluded that poor care and infection control probably worsened a streptococcus A outbreak last summer that killed a total of six people.

Seniors Minister Sonia Bélanger promised to act towards implementing Delamarre’s 21 recommendations and improve quality of care for all the residents of the long-term care system.

“What we saw at Floralies was not the treatment our seniors deserve,” she said in a statement.

She said changes were underway across the network, including adding more inspectors, and said her department would follow up to ensure homes are up to standard.

“I will not tolerate any form of abuse, particularly when it affects elders,” she added.

In the report, which is dated Oct. 7, Delamarre found widespread problems with the homes’ management, including a lack of qualified staff and lack of co-ordination and planning.

Professional services were nearly non-existent, and the facility lacked programs and policies regarding “wound care, use of restraints, following up on weight, hydration, behaviours linked to dementia, evaluating pain or end-of-life care,” the report read.

His recommendations included the creation of a complete plan to improve care, including ensuring adequate staffing, as well as working more closely with residents.

He suggested the province also needs to clarify the roles and responsibilities of local health authorities and private homes.

While the homes are privately owned, half or more of their beds were occupied by residents covered by an agreement with the public health authorities.

The long-term care portions of the residences were placed under trusteeship by local health authorities for 180 days, as of Sept. 1, but that could be extended if needed, the province said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2022.

COP27: Canada won’t back call to phaseout fossil fuels



OTTAWA –

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Canada will not agree to include language calling for the phaseout of all fossil fuels in the final agreement at this year’s United Nations climate talks in Egypt.

The agreement from the UN conference in Scotland last year called for countries to move faster to get rid of coal-fired electricity plants that are not abated with technology to capture emissions.

India is pushing to add oil and gas to that paragraph in this year’s final pact.

The European Union is supportive of the idea as long as it does not weaken the language on coal and the United States is on board as long as it applies only to “unabated” oil and gas.

Canada backed the coal language last year, but Guilbeault says it cannot get behind adding oil and gas.

He says the federal government does not have jurisdiction over natural resources and backing the language could risk a lawsuit from the provinces that Ottawa could not win.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2022.

WE ARE INSTITUTIONALIZED TO WORK

Many Prefer to be Employer Dependent Despite Influencers Claiming 9-5 Is Repulsive

on November 17, 2022
By Nick Kossovan


I empathize with people who dislike the idea of working 9-5. Who likes the idea of constantly putting aside their authentic self so they fit in and being under management’s control, who can let you go at any time

Recent layoffs at Meta, Twitter, Redfin, Shopify, Flipboard, Dapper, et al. are reminders that:

You do not own your job.

All jobs are temporary and disposable.

You are a free agent.

You should consistently save no less than 20% of every paycheck.

You should constantly be building skills that add value to your employability.

I understand the appeal of 9-5.

All the turmoil in the job market over the past four decades due to recessions, jobs being sent overseas, erratic consumer demands, a worldwide pandemic, and today’s supply chain issues coupled with runaway inflation has made downsizing so common that when the media announces layoffs, we barely shrug our shoulders. Yet, despite the constant turbulence in the job market, wishful thinking makes many believe a “steady job” is not the oxymoron it has become but is still more stable and less risky than going out on your own.

A self-employed person (an entrepreneur or freelancer) is gambling with their livelihood. Despite what people preach, it takes more than strategy and hard work to succeed in the non-9-5 world; luck plays a significant role. First, you need to resonate with a large audience and then—here is the hard part—offer something of value your audience is willing to you pay for.

Years ago, the point that luck is a key component in achieving success was made to me on a Friday morning, around 2:30 AM, in New York City’s Times Square. It had stopped raining. My friend was trying to hail a taxi to get us back to Hackensack, New Jersey. I took out a cigarette and realized I did not have a lighter. A hunched-over man was walking by, so I asked him for a light. Without uttering a word, he pulled out a Zippo. I commented on how beautiful the neon lights looked, reflecting off the wet pavement. My new friend snapped shut his Zippo. As he walked away, he said, “For every lightbulb on Broadway, there are a thousand broken hearts.”

Internet talking heads, peddling lessons they have barely learned, preach that the entrepreneur/freelancer lifestyle should be everyone’s dream. They would like nothing more than to start a #HireYourself movement. Conveniently they do not mention the loneliness, fear, constant instability, and chronic worry that often come with such a lifestyle.

Nowadays, there’s so much noise around the best way to earn a living; much of it is just made-up stories by influencers, a subjective label, trying to manipulate you for their benefit.

A sentence designed to make you unhappy: If you work a 9 to 5 job, you are working for someone else’s dreams. Is it not possible that working for someone else helps you to live your dream? Your dream could be to save enough money to retire at 55. Your dream could be to golf every weekend with a clear mind. (When you own a business, it’s on your mind 24/7.). Your dream could be as simple as making enough money to pay the rent, eat and enjoy a few of life’s pleasures while having two days off a week to chill. Today approximately 734 million people around the globe live on $2 a day, a 9-5 job that keeps them out of extreme poverty is an unimaginable dream.

There is no shame in wanting and being happy with a 9-5 job. Most people just want to show up, perform their duties, get paid and have evenings and weekends to enjoy their lives and try to accumulate some savings—a financial cushion for the inevitable “Sorry, we no longer need you.”

Not everyone wants to work from home, have a side hustle or become a millionaire. Money is not everything. (Gasp!) The happiest people I know are those chasing a purpose instead of money.

A trend among influencers is to tell their followers to quit their jobs because they are being exploited, so they, too, can make $5,000 by creating content such as writing a blog or a newsletter, podcasting, or making videos. Yes, it is possible not to work a 9-5, as millions do, but you will work, and you will constantly be hustling for your next gig.

Influencers make their money by selling dreams, hopes, and emotions. Their business model is telling their followers what they want to hear. In order to make money, they must tell thousands of people they have a sure-fire 5 Easy Ways to Make Money methodology and then digitally reel you in to buy their book and courses or to attend their virtual boot camp to learn the secrets and skills that will free you from, God forbid, relying on an employer to earn a living.

I am sure your social media feeds, like mine, are full of self-serving motivational quotes and posts designed to make people, especially those who have not yet settled on a career path (READ: young, impressionable, haven’t yet taken on full adult responsibilities), feel guilty if they want to be a doctor, accountant, engineer, or chef.

At my age, I am deeply ingrained in the corporate world; thus, it is easy for me to see through these attempts to make those who have chosen to be an employee miserable. In my opinion, their sales pitch is equivalent to, You may be good at working on someone’s dream, but you do not feel and look good. So why not blow off your 9-5 to become a millionaire and get plastic surgery?

So, what if a person is happy trading their time for money?

Everyone has different circumstances. Being an employee is far more secure, especially if you adopt the habit of saving 20%, than going on your own.

Many people buy into the self-serving narratives influencers sell. First, they write a blog, but as much as they try, they cannot get traffic to their blog. Then they write a book; only it does not sell because there are 1,000s of books evangelizing what they are evangelizing. Next, they set up a YouTube channel and upload their homemade video, Ten Ways to Cook Eggs. DAMN! NO VIEWS!

Much of the craziness, toxicity, and photoshopped pictures that primarily populate social media are desperate attempts to generate the number of followers and viewership believed to be a requirement to becoming an influencer and escaping their 9-5.

Random people on the internet bragging about their supposed four-hour work week gives many the idea that hustling 24/7 is the life they should be leading.

Welcome to the hustle culture.

I have seen firsthand the consequences of participating in the hustle culture.Constantly feeling the urge to be busy. (A recipe for inducing anxiety.)

Wanting to make everyone around them join the “productivity” cult.

Being disrespectful to those around them whom they perceive as less ambitious than they are.
Feeling guilty when spending leisurely, socializing, or having fun.

The definition of success varies from person to person. How someone defines their success is personal. You are no less human because a 9-5 job works for you, as it does for most people. Do not let “influencers,” whose purpose is to make you unhappy for being an employee and then conveniently sell you their solution to the unhappiness they created, steer you otherwise—just do not forget to save 20%.

____________________________________________


Nick Kossovan, a self-described connoisseur of human psychology, writes about what’s on his mind from Toronto. You can follow Nick on Twitter and Instagram @NKossovan

THERE ARE NO NDP SENATORS

Senators pass Liberal dental benefit for kids, housing benefit for renters



OTTAWA — Senators have passed a bill that will allow low- and middle-income families to access government money to help care for their kids’ dental care, starting as early as Dec. 1.

The dental benefit was a compromise between the Liberals and NDP, as part of the supply-and-confidence agreement that will see the New Democrats support the minority government until 2025.

The Liberals are working to create a dental insurance program, but have created a new benefit to allow qualifying families to get help in the meantime.

Families with a household income lower than $90,000 who do not have private insurance can apply for up to $650 per child under the age of 12.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the portal to apply is expected to open on Dec. 1.

Bill C-31, which also includes a one-time housing benefit of $500 for low-income renters, still needs royal assent before it is signed into law.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2022.

Cannabis: Canadians have lost $131B in investments, firm says



Canadians who invested in cannabis companies have lost more than $131 billion, according to data collected by law firm Miller Thomson, which calculated the total losses of 183 publicly traded and licenced cannabis producers.

It’s a staggering number that if broken down per capita would equate to each Canadian citizen losing about $43,000.

Larry Ellis, a lawyer with the firm, points out to CTV National News that he “doesn’t know of many Canadian investors who can afford to lose $40,000 individually.”

From high times to large swaths of an industry now going up in smoke, the money lost is just one example of the current state of the Canadian cannabis industry. Many are now pointing the finger at the federal government’s rollout of legalization, while noting that the black market is thriving.

Levon Kostanyan thought he’d found the perfect location for his retail cannabis shop on a busy pedestrian street in downtown Toronto. He opened his doors in September of 2021. Twelve months later he was forced to close.

Kostanyan says he has another three years on his lease. With a rent of $6,000 per month, he admits that “bankruptcy may be the only way to get out of here.” He spent nearly $300,000 on his retail store, with his family lending him the bulk of the money.

“Licensing cost me $10,000 for this location. Then I had all my renovations, that was about $150,000. Then I had rent and operating costs, that’s $60,000. Then I had an inventory of $50,000. So, we’re already at $280,000, and that’s not including payroll for employees and overhead like that,” Kostanyan told CTV National News.

When he picked his location, there was a black-market cannabis shop two doors from his own, but he figured it would be closed quickly or that the government would adjust their legislation to allow him to compete with an unregulated store that continues to offer much more potent edible products.

But that never happened.

“From my perspective I did everything. I applied for all the licences; I did everything. Why should I go bankrupt?” Kostanyan asked.

The store next door sees a steady stream of customers and is able to sell cannabis products free of government regulations and taxes.

“They’ve done nothing to shut them down. Right now, there is no point in opening a store. I mean, there’s too much competition. The margins are very low,” Kostanyan added.

Currently in Toronto, there are more weed stores than Tim Hortons.

Ellis’s firm has helped dozens of cannabis companies reorganize their businesses as they fight to stay afloat.

“It’s an industry that has been created by the Canadian government and frankly set up to fail.” Ellis said.

CTV National News gained access to a 10,000-square-foot unregulated grow-op in southern Ontario. We were taken for a tour inside where roughly 1,600 plants are in various stages of growth. Every few months a crop is harvested and a new one is planted.

Paul Maris calls the space a co-operative medical marijuana facility and claims that, “the flower that’s coming out of this medical environment is no different than what’s coming out of a licenced facility. The only governance that’s needed to make it to any consumer shelf in the retail market is a certificate of analysis.”

Maris says that thousands of plants are allowed to be grown at the sprawling operation using the medical marijuana licences issued to just four individuals by the federal government. He says that the cannabis in the facility is shared with medicinal users who pay only a quarter of the price to have their plants grown here instead of buying product from a licenced producer or retailer.

However, there are concerns being shared that the eye-opening amount of cannabis grown using medical licences at some facilities is finding its way to the unregulated market.

“When you see the volumes that these various [medical] growers are producing, it’s a decent instinct to think it’s going somewhere else,” Ellis said.

Maris disagrees.

“I don’t know of this black market that you’re speaking of. I know of medical patients that are supported from co-operatives like this,” he said.

Maris admits he’s been growing marijuana for more than two decades, long before legalization, and as a result has a criminal record.

“I had to go away and serve time for conspiracy to traffic cannabis, and it has inhibited me from owning any more than 10 per cent of a cannabis business,” he said.

Maris believes it’s individuals such as himself who have the knowledge to help make Canada’s marijuana market viable for the future, and he’s calling on the federal and provincial governments to loosen their restrictions on who gets to participate in the country’s “so-called legal system.”

Currently, a long overdue review of Canada’s Cannabis Act is underway. The federal government claims part of their focus is to cultivate a “diverse and competitive legal industry made up of small and large players to displace the illicit market.”

Though for Kostanyan and so many other small retail business owners, any legislative changes to the Cannabis Act are simply too late. Hundreds of independent retail shops are expected to close across the country this year.

As he packs his final boxes and locks his doors for good, Kostanyan doesn’t mince words.

“I got screwed by the government 100 per cent. The number of illegal stores keeps increasing, the number of legal stores keeps decreasing. So, what was the point of all this if it’s not working?”

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MAKE THE RICH PAY

People in Canada back surtax on $1M homes: poll – CTV News



A new survey shows that the majority of Canadian residents would support a modest price on housing inequity, with many calling for a surtax on homes valued over $1 million – comprising 10 per cent of the country’s housing market.

Such a tax measure could raise around $5 billion per year in revenue, as reported by BNN Bloomberg.

The data, collected by Generation Squeeze, a Canadian nonprofit, points to unified homeowner hopes of combating unaffordability.

“We should celebrate those among us willing to contribute a small amount of their housing wealth to help put the brakes on crushing levels of unaffordability,” Generation Squeeze wrote on their website.

“Our poll suggests many Canadians are open to changing a dysfunctional housing system that pits younger aspiring home owners … against older established home owners who bought into the market decades ago and have watched as rising prices created wealth windfalls.”

The poll surveyed 1,010 Canadian adults. Fifty-seven per cent of respondents living in million-dollar homes said they would be in favour of “putting a modest price on housing inequity.”

In October, the average home price in Canada dropped to $756,200, down 1.2 per cent from the previous month, according to a report released by the Canadian Real Estate Association on Tuesday.

Many poll respondents claimed that taxing support would rise if revenue increases went toward more affordable housing units.

“What our poll found is that many Canadians would be willing to go further than politicians expect to check home price escalation,” Generation Squeeze said.

Methodology:

This data was collected by Research Co. for Generation Squeeze. The poll was conducted among 1,010 Canadian adults, and the margin of error for the results is +/- 3.1 per cent age points, 19 times out of 20.

November 16, 2022
By Harry Miller

Food banks in Canada sound alarm for record-breaking visits

November 16, 2022
By Harry Miller


Food Banks Canada’s report, Hunger Count Report for 2022, shows more Canadians than ever need access to food.

Despite low unemployment rates in March 2022, the report says there were 1.5 million visits to food banks across Canada, the highest usage on record. This was a 15 per cent increase from the year prior and a 35 per cent increase from March 2019.

Food Banks Canada used statistics from “most” organizations and only recorded numbers from March 2022. This “snapshot” means some people accessing the food bank may not have been counted. Income data from StatCan Income Survey reported 5.8 million Canadians lived in food-insecure households in 2021.

“(These are people) who are going into work and having to say, ‘Am I going to pay my rent this month or buy food for my kids?,’” Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Wednesday. “It’s the human toll of being in a situation where you have to make a choice like that. It’s really awful.”

For the first time, there was a significant increase in the number of food bank clients who have a source of income, rising 14.1 per cent in 2022.

“According to the survey respondents, the top three reasons people accessed a food bank this year were food costs, low provincial social assistance rates, and housing costs,” the report reads.

This comes as Statistics Canada said Wednesday the October inflation rate was 6.9 per cent, the same reported for September. Inflation has been declining for several months, even as the prices of gas and groceries continue to soar.

The report explains, “generally” food bank usage mirrors unemployment rates, as seen after the 2008 recession. At that time food bank visits were “a last resort” and people turned to organizations only after severance pay, employment insurance, and savings had run out.

“‘Working poor’ is kind of the terminology that’s being used,” Stephane Sirois, executive director of the New Brunswick Food Depot told CTVNew.ca Wednesday in a telephone interview. “It’s not just the people on social assistance who are poor… If you’re close to minimum wage, you can’t make it.”

Sirois oversees 64 food banks and community kitchens across N.B. The province is recording 25,000 to 30,000 visits to food banks each month. At the time of the national Hunger Count, Sirois said inflation hadn’t reached the Atlantic provinces.

“We kind of caught up over the summer (to inflation) so we saw a major increase here in June, July, August, where typically we see a decline,” he said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and mass employment occurred, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) rolled out keeping many out of poverty and away from food banks.

“In last year’s report, we referred to this as a ‘perfect storm,’ with the rare combination of largescale unemployment occurring simultaneously with food and housing inflation,” the 2022 Hunger Count reads. “This year’s findings indicate that last year’s storm may have been just the beginning.”

Beardsley says all organizations across Canada are concerned about the impending recession and what it could mean for the future of donations.

“The public donations and some of the food recovery donations have declined (so) food banks have had to buy food to fill in the gaps,” Beardsley said. “So those budgets are obviously also stretched.”

Those hit the hardest are already people with lower incomes struggling to keep food on the table.

Indigenous people accessing food banks rose from 8 per cent in 2021 to 15.3 per cent a year later. This alarming rise is impacted by the number of Indigenous households already dealing with food insecurity and a reduction in income.

The report acknowledges that climate change is contributing to food insecurity in Indigenous communities because it limits traditional foods and reduces the ice roads to northern areas.

“Food insecurity in Nunavut was already called the longest-lasting public health emergency in Canadian history,” Rachel Blais, executive director of Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre, previously told CTVNews.ca. “And this is before the drastic increases in food prices and the resulting demand on food charities in the territory.”

Blais said the food centre used to serve 150 meals a day. That number has increased drastically, as inflation rose, to between 450 and 500 meals a day.

“It’s been a really startling increase in demand, especially considering 400 to 500 people (accessing food) in a community of 7,500 people is really substantial and beyond anything that we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

The increase in food bank usage during the pandemic was a stark increase from years prior, but organizations continue to see increases in usage despite unemployment dropping.

Almost half (45.4 per cent) of food bank users rely on provincial social assistance, which includes general welfare and disability support, as their main source of income.

The youngest Canadians make up 20 per cent of the general population, however, they are greatly overrepresented at food banks with 1 in 3 clients in 2022 being children. The report says, due to the higher costs of raising a family and inflation, more children are vulnerable to poverty and hunger.

Seniors accessing food banks has increased 8.9 per cent from 2019. Food Banks Canada says low-income seniors “generally” are on fixed incomes making them more vulnerable to inflation.
WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?

Beardsley says these food bank usage statistics highlight the need for investments in affordable housing, a minimum income bracket aiding anyone from falling into “deep poverty”, reform for employment insurance and further investments in social assistance programs.

“Food insecurity is a systemic issue, so it requires a systemic response,” Beardsley said.

“We see the solution really as a policy solution,” she added.

She noted Food Banks Canada was created to advocate to the federal government, aiming to reduce the number of people dependent on local food banks.

Through research gathered by reports like the Hunger Count, Beardsley is able to see where food insecurity is highest and understand the troubling trends.

“So by and large, we see this as a systemic and a government issue,” she said. “Food banks are there to do the day-to-day community work, finding the food, making sure people have the food, but it really it is on governments to address the issue at its roots.”

At an individual level, Beardsley said donating food and monetary donations to local organizations will help feed communities into what is likely to be a tough year ahead.

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Auditor general finds aging icebreakers, aircraft hamper monitoring of Arctic waters


More than a decade of delay and inaction has left the ships, planes and satellites that monitor Canada’s rapidly opening Arctic on track to be retired before they can be replaced, the auditor general says.

“The federal government has not taken the required action to address long-standing gaps affecting its surveillance of Canada’s Arctic waters,” says the report released Tuesday.

“The federal organizations that are responsible for safety and security in the Arctic region do not have a full awareness of maritime activities in Arctic waters and are not ready to respond to increased surveillance requirements.”

Auditor General Karen Hogan found that sea ice cover has shrunk by 40 per cent over the last 50 years, with a corresponding tripling in vessel traffic to more than 450 transits.

That has left Canada’s Arctic open to threats including unauthorized entry, illegal fishing and marine pollution. As well, Canada’s ability to respond to accidents, such as the grounding of a cruise ship in poorly charted waters, is limited.

“More traffic just means more possibilities and more risk,” Hogan said.

The federal government first noted those challenges in 2011, Hogan wrote. Work plans and gap assessments followed periodically, but little action ensued.

As a result, Hogan found the planned service life of all six of the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreakers will expire before new ones can be delivered. The lifespan of those vessels has had to be extended through retrofits and upgrades to keep them operating.

Even so, two of them, the Louis St-Laurent and the Terry Fox, will be permanently docked just as the new icebreakers are expected to enter service.

“(That leaves) little room for further delay if a gap in icebreaking capacity is to be avoided,” says the report.

Three second-hand commercial icebreakers have had to be purchased and refitted to ensure icebreaking continues.

The situation is similar with satellites and airplanes.

The RADARSAT satellites that peer from space have an expected service life that extends until 2026. The Canadian Space Agency says it won’t be able to orbit a replacement for another decade and a system operated by National Defence won’t be working until 2035.

The Aurora aircraft that patrol the skies have an expected life through 2030, but they won’t be replaced until at least two years later.

The report notes that three of the eight naval patrol vessels intended for Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard have been delivered — although that program is also behind schedule.

Meanwhile, an Arctic naval base built on the site of an old mine port on the north tip of Baffin Island is of little use. Hogan wrote that because of budget cuts to the design, the Nanisivik Naval Facility, to open 2025, will only be used four weeks a year.

“The … facility will not effectively support the vessels that operate in the Arctic,” the report said.

Arctic security expert Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary praised the report for clearly laying out what others have thought for years.

“I’m seeing nothing I haven’t suspected all along,” he said. “Don’t you have to shake your head and wonder ‘are we going to see movement?’”

Huebert called the imminent lack of satellite capacity particularly damning.

“To hear that by 2026 RADARSAT is going to be coming to the end of its life and there’s no plans in place for the replacement. … That’s not front and centre in terms of government replacement?”

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the government has accepted the report’s recommendations.

“We are committed to working with our partners to address long-standing gaps in Arctic maritime domain awareness, particularly the continuous tracking of vessels … and to improving information sharing to ensure our Arctic waters are safe and secure,” he said in a statement.

Canada can no longer afford to shortchange its northern frontier, Hogan said.

“The ability to surveil the Arctic takes tools and tools are aging. As delays continue, a gap will materialize.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2022.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Indigenous Services Canada failing First Nations in response to wildfires, floods: AG



OTTAWA — The federal government still hasn’t provided First Nations with the support they need to respond to emergencies such as wildfires and floods despite warnings almost a decade ago, says a new report from Canada’s auditor general.

Karen Hogan audited Indigenous Services Canada’s handling of emergency management, concluding the department was too reactive, instead of proactively spending on infrastructure to mitigate damages when floods, fires and landslides strike.

The report points out that as of April, there were 112 such projects that did not have funding despite meeting the criteria for eligibility. It says 74 of them had been in the department’s backlog for more than five years.

“Until these projects are completed, First Nations communities are likely to continue to experience emergencies that could be averted by investing in the right infrastructure,” the report reads.

Based on the First Nations Infrastructure Fund’s annual budget of $12 million, it would take the department an estimated 24 years to fund the projects, the report adds.

“As a result, First Nations communities are likely to continue to experience emergencies that could be prevented or mitigated by building the infrastructure.”

Hogan found that the Indigenous Services department provides emergency assistance to First Nations by negotiating agreements with provinces and agencies such as the Canadian Red Cross.

Her report says there have been more than 1,300 emergencies in First Nations communities over the past decade, resulting in more than 130,000 people being forced to leave their homes and traditional lands.

The figures are only expected to grow, given the impacts of climate change, Hogan said, telling a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday that Indigenous people are “displaced more often by natural disasters.”

Her report warns the department is spending 3.5 times more money helping First Nations recover from such disasters than it is on helping them prepare.

Over the past several fiscal years, that has amounted to $646 million toward responding to disasters on reserves, compared to $182 million on preventive efforts.

“It is likely that Indigenous Services Canada is incurring significant costs to respond to — and help First Nations communities recover from — emergencies that could have been mitigated or avoided,” the report says.

“First Nations will continue to be more vulnerable to emergencies if they are not adequately supported to prepare for and mitigate emergencies.”

Hogan made a series of recommendations, all of which Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the department accepts.

“This work has to happen more quickly,” she said Tuesday, adding the government recognizes the need to get ahead of the effects climate change is having on First Nation communities.

The auditor had pointed out, however, that issues flagged by the office back in 2013 went unaddressed.

That included a recommendation, almost a decade ago, calling on Ottawa to identify which First Nations communities were the least equipped to manage an emergency.

Doing that work “would allow the department to target investments in these communities, such as building culverts and dikes to prevent seasonal floods, and to help avoid some of the costs of responding to and recovering from emergencies,” Hogan’s report says.

Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents many First Nations in the province’s north, said in a statement that the federal government is leaving communities to fend for themselves in the face of a “deadly climate crisis.”

“First Nations know what they need to do to manage emergencies in their communities and on their territories and what needs to be done to save lives. But the Liberals aren’t giving them the support they need.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2022.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Mother of Canadian detained in Syria accuses of Ottawa of shirking duty to help



OTTAWA — The mother of a Canadian man being held in northeastern Syria accuses the federal government of doing “precisely nothing” to secure his release.

Sally Lane urged the Liberal government Tuesday to send a delegate overseas to help free her son Jack Letts and other Canadians detained in atrocious conditions.

Letts, who turned 27 this week, is one of several Canadian citizens among the many foreign nationals in Syrian camps run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the war-torn region from the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Letts was born in Oxford, England, but the British government stripped him of citizenship three years ago.

He became a devoted Muslim, went on holiday to Jordan at 18, then studied in Kuwait before winding up in Syria and, his family says, getting captured by Kurdish forces while fleeing the country with a group of refugees in 2017.

His parents say they have seen no evidence that their son became a terrorist fighter, adding that Letts stood against ISIL and was even put on trial for publicly condemning the group.

“Every night when I go to bed, I have to think of Jack lying on a concrete floor, as he has done for the past five-and-a-half years, going to sleep hungry and in despair,” Lane said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa.

“I wonder if his kidney stones are giving him excruciating pain, and whether he has managed to persuade the guards to get him medical treatment.”

Lane was flanked by supporters including Green Party MP Elizabeth May and Alex Neve, former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.

Lane said she was told by Global Affairs Canada almost five years ago the government was doing everything it could to obtain her son’s freedom.

“Since then, the government has done precisely nothing to secure Jack’s release,” Lane said. “They have in fact actively prevented and opposed it.”

In a June message to Canada, United Nations officials who monitor human rights and arbitrary detention said they had “serious concerns” about Letts’s continuing detention “and his rights to life, security, and physical and mental health” due to the dire conditions in the camps.

A handful of women and children have returned to Canada from the region in recent years. But Canada has, for the most part, not followed the path of other countries that have successfully repatriated citizens.

The federal government has said Canada’s ability to provide consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited given the volatile security situation — a stance that critics have consistently challenged.

“These Canadians must be brought home,” Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, said during the news conference. “There are no clear answers as to why the government isn’t acting. It’s an issue of political will.”

Several families have turned to the Federal Court, saying the government’s refusal to step in breaches the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The federal government says Canada has provided consular assistance to the extent possible, adding there is no legal obligation under the Charter, statute or international law, for Canada to provide such assistance, including the repatriation of its citizens.

In a recent filing with the court, federal lawyers say the duties that the applicants seek to impose “conflict with the principled reasons for taking a restrained approach to the application of the Charter outside of Canada.”

A public Federal Court hearing is slated for early next month.

Last month, Oumaima Chouay and her two children, as well as another Canadian woman, Kimberly Polman, returned from Syria.

Chouay faces several charges, including leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group. Polman has been granted bail pending a peace bond hearing.

Lane said these recent returns have shown it is “not too difficult or too impossible, as the government falsely claimed before.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2022.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press