APEC host Thailand's budding marijuana industry faces backlash

Story by By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat •

 Thursday Nov 17,2022


Cannabis shop next to the venue of the APEC Summit, in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Near the grand conference halls in central Bangkok where Asian leaders will meet this week, a plethora of marijuana shops - the Thai capital's newest tourist draw - were bustling despite a controversy that threatens the growing sector.



Cannabis shop near the venue of the APEC Summit, in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

Since Thailand decriminalised cannabis this year shops selling homegrown and imported strains, pre-rolled joints and gummies sprang up rapidly.

New cafes with names such as MagicLeaf and High Society are located just minutes from the meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

But the proliferation of such businesses has sparked a backlash from some politicians and doctors who say the change was pushed through without regulation and are now calling for tougher rules, or even a new ban.



Cannabis shop next to the venue of the APEC Summit, in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

A cannabis regulation bill to govern cultivation, sale, and consumption has been delayed in parliament, causing confusion over just aspects will be legal.



Cannabis shop next to the venue of the APEC Summit, in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

"We’re in a vacuum," one senator, Somchai Sawangkarn, told a domestic broadcaster on Wednesday, adding that announcements by the health ministry had not curbed recreational use.

Related video: Thai activists burn chilies in anti-government protest with APEC summit underway   Duration 1:01   View on Watch

Southeast Asia has strict laws prohibiting the sale and use of most drugs, but Thailand became a major exception in June, when it dropped cannabis from its list of narcotics.

The move was spearheaded by health minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who framed marijuana as a cash crop for farmers and championed its medical use, but recreational use exploded.

Authorities later rushed through piecemeal updates to the regulation clarifying that cannabis could not be sold to children or near schools and temples.

‘SUPER HIGH’ PROFITS

Netnapa Singathit had a smoking room for a short while after opening her RG420 cannabis store in central Bangkok, but she switched to serving drinks after authorities banned such rooms.


Cannabis shop next to the venue of the APEC Summit, in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

She called for regulation that standardises quality, adding, "We are concerned about operators who are not compliant, and customers end up with bad products."

Recent weeks have brought a wave of news reports about hospitalisations and use by children.

The president of Thailand's association of forensic physicians, Smith Srisont, petitioned a court last week to re-list it as a narcotic.

"It was wrong to not have governing laws before unlocking cannabis ... it is not being used medically, but recreationally," he told reporters.

Yet with major profits to be had, many business owners are relaxed about coming changes. Anutin has ruled out recriminalisation, but supports greater regulation.

Akira Wongwan, the chief executive of a medical cannabis business, Adam Group, said profit margins for recreational cannabis were "super high".

The sector could be worth $1.2 billion by 2025, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce has estimated.

"Most people still think at least they can get the profits now, even if regulations change," said Akira.

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Poppy McPherson and Clarence Fernandez)

PETA urges boycott of coconut milk from Thailand over use of monkey labour

Story by Kathryn Mannie • Nov 15,2022

NOTE: This article contains disturbing imagery of animals. Please read at your own discretion.


Monkey in a cage, photographed as part of a PETA Asia investigation.© PETA Asia

A recent investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is alleging that Thai producers of coconut milk are engaging in "rampant abuse" of monkey labour, in which the chained primates are forced to spend long hours picking heavy coconuts.

In a press release, the organization names delivery giant HelloFresh in particular for allegedly using suppliers that engaged in the abusive practice.

Photos and videos collected by PETA Asia investigators show monkeys being chained, whipped, beaten, and dangled from their necks at coconut farms and monkey-training schools. PETA says it visited 57 operations in nine provinces across Thailand between December 2021 and July 2022, and found animals being abused at each one, according to the investigation's webpage.

PETA is calling on consumers to stop buying coconut milk that was produced in Thailand and is urging subscribers of HelloFresh, and its subsidiaries like Green Chef, to boycott the meal delivery service until it moves its coconut milk supply chain out of Thailand.

In a statement, HelloFresh defended itself against PETA's claims, saying it received assurances from suppliers that they were not engaged in monkey labour.

"HelloFresh strictly condemns any use of monkey labour in its supply chain, and we take a hard position of not procuring from suppliers or selling coconut products which have been found to use monkey labour. We have written confirmation from all of our suppliers — in the U.S. and globally — that they do not engage in these practices," the statement reads.

But PETA says that brokers from two of HelloFresh's coconut milk suppliers, Aroy-D and Suree, admitted to using monkey labour to investigators. Aroy-D can also be commonly found on Canadian grocery store shelves, including in Walmart and T&T.

PETA says that monkeys who become exploited in the coconut milk trade are typically kidnapped from their families as infants and sold to "monkey schools" that use violent methods to train monkeys to pick coconuts. The animal welfare group said that one owner of a monkey school told investigators that he buys baby monkeys from farmers who use nets to catch them, even though he knows it is illegal.

Footage and photos from within a monkey school taken by PETA showed a trainer whipping an infant monkey with a tether and jerking him around.

Other footage shows a boy trying to train another monkey by dangling him from the chain around his neck, likely cutting off the monkey's oxygen supply, PETA said.

When monkeys complete training, they are sold to coconut pickers.

Photographs from a Suree supplier show monkeys chained up on trash-strewn patches of dirt with little protection from the elements. A worker for Suree allegedly said that the monkeys are forced to pick coconuts for more than a decade before they are "retired," and chained up for the rest of their lives, PETA said.

A different employee told PETA investigators that the monkeys are often bitten by insects and can incur broken bones from falling out of trees or being yanked down.

"Monkeys are chained around the neck and forced to toil day in and day out, all for HelloFresh and other companies that lack a conscience," said PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman in a press release. "PETA is calling on everyone, including HelloFresh, to stop buying canned coconut milk from Thailand until monkeys are no longer used and abused for profit."

PETA suggests buying coconut milk from providers who do not source their ingredients from Thailand, including Trader Joe's and Vita Coco.

After the results of a similar PETA investigation in 2019, the Thai government assured the public that monkeys were no longer being used to pick coconuts. Thailand is a top exporter of coconuts, according to Reuters, having exported US$396 million worth of coconut milk in 2019.

Video: Hundreads of starving monkeys fight over food in Thailand

This Saskatchewan homeless man patrols streets to save others from freezing to death

Story by Bonnie Allen • Published Nov. 16, 2022

Ernest McPherson rarely sleeps on a cold winter night.

Instead, the 54-year-old homeless man wanders the streets of Meadow Lake, Sask., 300 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, in order to keep himself and others from freezing to death.

During his nightly patrols, McPherson checks on about two dozen people huddled in different locations, such as alleys, derelict buildings or vehicles.

"I walk around, make sure they stay awake and they stay alive," said McPherson.

Like many small cities, Meadow Lake, with a population of 5,300, doesn't have a homeless shelter or any place for vulnerable people to warm up after 4 p.m. or on weekends.

Saskatchewan's harsh winter is just beginning, but the coroner's service is already investigating the deaths of two men found frozen — one in Saskatoon and another in Prince Albert.

'There's nowhere in the world for them'

On a recent patrol, McPherson bought soup from 7-Eleven for a young woman who was shivering without a jacket.

Then, in a back alley, he banged on an old car half-covered in snow.

"Anybody here?" he shouted. No one ended up being inside, but there were scraps of food, bedsheets and a black garbage bag filled with clothes.

"It's like there's nowhere in the world for them and nobody wants them," McPherson said. "They're really happy when they see me come along, and I'm really happy to find them [alive], because it doesn't take long to freeze out here."



Ernest McPherson eats a hot lunch at Door of Hope soup kitchen in Meadow Lake five days a week. There is no homeless shelter or warm-up place in this small city after 4 p.m. or on weekends.© Bonnie Allen/CBC

There's only so much that McPherson can do to help, though. Often, he will wake someone up, get them moving, give them warm clothing or take them to 7-Eleven or an ATM lobby for a brief respite from the cold.

He feels compelled to watch over others in the same way a "guardian angel" watched over him last winter. He nearly froze to death in a –38 C snowstorm.

"I lost direction and time… so I sat down for a minute, and thought I'd rest for a minute. I fell asleep," McPherson said. "I had a guardian angel that night. She came and kicked me in the foot."

Seeking refuge in hotel rooms, police cells

Last week, Saskatchewan announced up to $1.7 million in additional funding to increase emergency shelter spaces in larger cities.

"In communities without shelters, or if an emergency shelter is full or doesn't meet a person's needs, residents will be connected to a hotel or different shelter that offers the support they require," said the government press release.


At the Door of Hope soup kitchen in Meadow Lake, Natanis Bundschuh doesn't consider hotel room tokens to be a real solution.

Bundschuh is the executive director of a non-profit Christian organization called Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries. It serves about 100 hot lunches a day, distributes free clothing and stocks a food bank, but its doors are only open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.



Natanis Bundschuh is the executive director of the Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries, which runs a soup kitchen, food bank, thrift store, daycare and other programs. The non-profit does not have funding or staff to run a homeless shelter.© Bonnie Allen/CBC

Bundschuh said she has escorted homeless people to the Social Services office, only to have them denied a hotel room — either because hotels were full or because the person had "maxed out" an undefined limit on tokens.

"I've often had to tell people, 'Call the RCMP and they'll give you a safe, warm place [in the cells]. They'll give you a meal, they'll make sure you're not too cold.' But most people don't like that, because they feel trapped, they feel locked in. For some, it's traumatic. Maybe they've been to jail."

Bundschuh said a woman told her that McPherson pulled her out of the cold one night and thawed her out.

"She said, 'I would be dead if it was not for Ernie,'" said Bundschuh. "She cried."

Homeless coalition

Volunteers who have worked with vulnerable clients at Door of Hope for decades say homelessness is growing in the northern community for many reasons, including addiction, mental illness, changing social assistance policies and the rising cost of living.

The situation is so alarming for some that a group of business people, church leaders and concerned residents formed Home Plate, a homeless coalition in Meadow Lake to lobby for funding for a shelter. But so far, it's run into roadblocks.

"People are going to die. And it's on us. It's gotta be addressed," said Bob Steeg, chairman of Home Plate. He said he's frustrated by all the bureaucracy involved, from building codes and zoning issues to insurance and funding criteria.

"I highly doubt we'd see a shelter in six months. We're struggling just to have a warm-up spot," said Steeg. "Someone has to say, 'We're just going to do it.' And get it done. And have people survive."

"In my mind, turn on the heat, throw them a sleeping bag."



Left to right, Meadow Lake resident and retired doctor Merv Johnson poses with the chairman of the Meadow Lake Outreach Ministries, Bob Steeg, and a board member, Bill Sclater, at the Door of Hope soup kitchen and drop-in centre. A new housing coalition wants Door of Hope to become a 24/7 warm-up place in the winter.© Bonnie Allen/CBC

The coalition is convinced that someone will die this winter if it can't find safe shelter for about two dozen chronically homeless people in Meadow Lake.

Living in 'an ice box'

In the short term, the coalition is seeking emergency funding to extend the Door of Hope's drop-in hours from eight hours a day, five days a week, to 24/7. That wouldn't create any shelter beds, but it would provide people with round-the-clock heat, supervision and security.

Beyond that, the coalition wants to procure some of the vacant social housing units and eventually secure funding to cover a building and staffing for a homeless shelter.

Ernest McPherson usually couch surfs or sleeps rough on the streets of Meadow Lake, a small city in northwestern Saskatchewan. This winter, he plans to stay in a truck camper if he can afford the propane to heat it.© Bonnie Allen/CBC

Ernest McPherson said the only reason no one died last winter is that a group of homeless people, including him, illegally occupied a vacant downtown hotel.

The Métis man, who dumpster-dives to earn money from recycling, recently scrounged up $300 from friends to buy a truck camper, even though he doesn't have a truck.

"It's an ice box in there right now," he said, standing in the doorway of the camper, which is propped up on a stand.

While the camper provides a roof over his head, McPherson still needs to find money to fuel a propane heater.

He said he will continue to sneak naps at the soup kitchen and on a friend's couch. He won't stop wandering the streets at night, though.

"Until there's a shelter, I'll be here, patrolling every night."

SASKATCHEWAN
Murray Mandryk: Moe should listen to doctors' pleas for pay changes

Opinion by Murray Mandryk • Wednesday

The Saskatchewan Party government is hoping their doctor recruitment will be enough to ward off angry rural protests over health service reductions like the one Rural and Remote Minister Everett Hindley and Canora-Pelly MLA Terry Dennis faced this summer.

One thing out this Saskatchewan Party government is that it likes things pretty much as they are.

For all its sabre-rattling over constitutional change and Saskatchewan being a nation within a nation, the hallmark for Premier Scott Moe has really been about keeping things as they are.

This seems to work rather well in a place where the voters that stay here don’t seem to want much change, either.

The problem, however, is maintaining things as they are in Saskatchewan has never been easy. This remains a province with a declining rural population and isolated urban centres that make it difficult to attract amenities … or even the people we need to keep us healthy and safe.

Consider Saskatchewan’s perpetual problem of family physician recruitment where critics have been quick to argue that government answers adhere to the long-standing definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results.

Of course, after a long, hot summer of rural health-care protests in places like Kamsack over the closures of emergency, lab and X-ray departments and other services, the Sask. Party government now eagerly argues its strategy is working and those closures are now a thing of the past.

In question period Monday, Moe recited a list of rural communities that have had health services restored after major disruptions this summer while Health Minister Paul Merriman called the government’s four-stage recruitment plan “the most aggressive in the country.”

By now you’re likely sensing the government’s synchronized messaging.

“The difference is that Saskatchewan has an aggressive four-point action plan: Recruit, train, incentivize and retain over 1,000 health-care workers in communities across the province including Kamsack,” Canora-Pelly MLA Terry Dennis — one of many government members who had to deal with the anger this summer — told the assembly Monday.

Notwithstanding criticism from the the NDP Opposition — or, better put, in defiance of it — there is no doubt the government has earmarked substantial tax dollars to address the recruitment and retention problem and to get services restored. The demand to do so in rural communities would have been hard to ignore.

But the reality is that we continue to put plugs and patches in a health system that instead needs innovative redesign to retain people. It’s all a tad insane.

At a time when even doctors are clamouring for a major departure from the fee-for-service remuneration model, the government seems content to instead throw money at recruitment in a manner that, so far, is mostly indistinguishable from how we’ve always done things.

The self-assured response from the government came during question period in which NDP health critic Vicki Mowat encouraged the government to consider a call by the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians for the option of a new payment model similar to what B.C. is adopting next year.

“Our health-care system was already feeling the impact of a family doctor shortage before the pandemic,” SCFP president Dr. Andries Muller wrote in a letter sent to Mowat earlier this month. “This problem will become a crisis as more doctors retire and fewer medical school graduates enter this profession.”

Muller noted the option that will soon be available for B.C. family physicians better “recognizes that family physicians’ work includes significant time outside patient encounters” and pleaded for Saskatchewan to “move with urgency to also transform our outdated payment model to retain our family physicians.”

“The new payment model in British Columbia will be very attractive to family medicine graduates, as well as to new Canadian physicians looking to start their careers in Canada,” Muller chillingly noted.

The government didn’t outright reject the suggestion from the SCFP and is awaiting more doctors’ input before moving forward. Merriman also mentioned other innovative strategies like better utilization of nurse practitioners.

But nothing from the government on Monday suggested it is eagerly considering a radical overhaul or even minor innovation in doctors’ pay.

Keeping things as they are seems the Sask. Party way.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Published Nov. 16, 2022.

G20 leaders end summit with pledges aligned with Trudeau government's agenda

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — The world's largest economies closed the G20 summit on Wednesday with strong condemnation of Russia and a pledge to deepen collaboration aimed at preventing another pandemic.


G20 leaders end summit with pledges aligned with Trudeau government's agenda© Provided by The Canadian Press

The summit hosted by Indonesia came with a surprising amount of consensus in a world roiled by geopolitical power struggles, and aligned closely with what the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau government had been seeking.

"I think most Canadians would say that this is what they want out of a G20," said Andrew Cooper, a professor with the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo.

"They want something that really points a finger at Russia, and says Russia has done criminal acts and a war of aggression."

Canada had been among the most vocal of countries pushing their peers to further isolate Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Many developing nations have been trying to preserve relations with Russia and the West, abstaining from a handful of United Nations votes this year to condemn Moscow.

In the final communiqué, leaders took note of UN votes that called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. They noted that despite mixed views on the war and on imposing sanctions, everyone agrees that the conflict is hurting the global economy.

John Kirton, head of the G20 Research Group, said the statement clearly shows Russia is losing influence with the booming countries it used to collaborate with tightly, such as Brazil, India and China, but with phrasing that allows Moscow to save face.

That paved the way for other commitments on the environment and public health.

"It wasn't clear that there was going to be a communiqué at all," Kirton said.

His team, based out of the University of Toronto, was still tabulating what leaders had agreed to in the declaration on Wednesday, but within a few hours of its publication they had spotted more than 175 pledges.


"It's quite lengthy and detailed," Kirton said. "Many of the commitments are what we think are weak ones, rather than strongly binding ones, but that reflects the fact that this was a bottom-up process."

Those include formalizing the plans to launch a global fund to prevent pandemics, even if countries have pledged just US$1.4 of the US$10 billion required to get it going.

G20 leaders agreed to centre the World Health Organization as the lead coordinator for global health programs, which might avoid a siloed approach to issues such as the monkeypox outbreak.

Leaders of the bloc also committed to aim for the UN target of containing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which dovetails with a plan revealed Tuesday to help Indonesia wean itself off its massive dependence on coal.

Yet Kirton noticed relatively little in the communiqué on women's rights, global tax reform and food security, despite a looming famine in Eastern Africa.

Trudeau said the G20 was a success because most of the countries agreed that Russia's invasion has made energy and food crises worse.

"This was an opportunity for us to come together and address these challenges head on and face to face, and I think it was an extremely important thing," he said.

"Global challenges need to have global solutions, and that's exactly what we're working on."

Kirton said that the various working groups in the months that preceded the summit showed India making a push to have developing countries call out Russia for disrupting the global order without losing all ties.

"(Trudeau) wasn't the one that brokered the deal, the best evidence shows. It was really (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi of India who did it," Kirton said.

"India is clearly building alongside Canada in the Indo-Pacific what we want, with big democracies."

Yet when asked what role India, the most populous democratic country in the world, had in reaching Wednesday's consensus on Russia, Trudeau declined to specify which countries supported and opposed the phrasing, instead thanking the host country.

"All members of the G20 worked and came to something that we could agree on, and put out as a strong statement," Trudeau said.

"That is a credit to everyone who worked at it around the table, particularly the Indonesian presidency.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2022.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

As Canada boosts immigration, skills mismatch ‘discouraging’ newcomers

Story by Saba Aziz • NOV 16,2022

Immigrants make up nearly a quarter all people in Canada, and the majority are coming from India, according to the latest 2021 census data.© Getty Images

Canada announces new immigration target of 500K per year by 2025

When Tanya Raizada immigrated to Canada as a permanent resident this summer, she was hoping that her resume with over a decade of work experience would be good enough to help land her a job in her field.

Before moving to Toronto in June, the 34-year-old Indian professional quit her job as a senior human resources manager in Mumbai, in hopes of taking her career to the next level and gaining international exposure.

Read More
Canadians worried about housing as Ottawa raises immigration targets: poll

Over a span of three and half months, Raizada applied for 600 positions, out of which she got 20 interview calls, but wasn’t given a single job offer.

She was living alone with no family around for support, while the rent and daily expenses were eating up her savings.

It was a “heartbreaking” and discouraging experience, she said, that made Raizada decide to move back to India in September.

“I was personally feeling like a failure there,” Raizada told Global News.

“It demotivated a professional like me to … have second thoughts about my experience and to actually understand whether I was capable enough or whether I was competent enough …. that anybody would hire me.”

Immigrants make up nearly a quarter of all people in Canada, and the majority are coming from India, according to the latest 2021 census data.

But as the federal government plans to boost immigration to fill critical labour gaps and offset Canada’s aging workforce, experts point to an underlying issue of skills mismatch that could dissuade newcomers.

“The mismatch that's happening is when immigrants come here, they're traditionally underemployed and so we end up devaluing the same skills that we appreciated and considered,” said Nita Chhinzer, a human resources management expert at the University of Guelph.

Read more:
Canada lifts work limit for international students to help with labour shortages

The problem, according to Chhinzer, arises because employers have “biases” that discount foreign education and international work experience and make assumptions about language skills.

“I think this completely discourages immigrants from feeling that their skills are valued and we see this consistently when they're applying for jobs,” she said.

Ottawa pressured to act against online hate after hiring immigration consultant with antisemitic tweets

Sherri Rabinovitch, an HR expert in Montreal, said she has also noticed a similar trend where employers are not prepared to pay immigrants as they would someone with local experience.

She says it’s not reasonable to “devalue” candidates because they don’t have “Canadian experience.”

“Experience is experience,” Rabinovitch said.

“It's because we know where they're coming from that we tend to have these biases, unfortunately.”

Immigration accounts for 90 per cent of Canada’s labour force growth and approximately 75 per cent of population growth, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

On Nov. 1, the federal government announced its 2023-25 immigration plan, with the target of welcoming 1.45 million new immigrants over the next three years.

Out of these, 848,595 people will come under different economic streams for skilled workers to help industries struggling with acute labour shortages, according to the government.

Read more:
Ottawa raises immigration targets with new goal of 500K per year by 2025

The aim is to tap into talent required in key sectors, such as health, skilled trades, manufacturing and technology, IRCC said in its announcement.

The move has been widely welcomed by industry experts who say this will benefit the economy, but a more strategic and skills-based approach is needed to better integrate newcomers into the Canadian job market.

“We need to have more targeted approaches based on our needs across provinces and across trades to get more of these folks into Canada,” said Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Union (CBTU).

Strickland said the construction sector, which comprises 20 per cent new immigrants, is working with the government and unions to find out exactly which trades are needed and where to address the “misalignment.”

Over the past six months, the manufacturing sector employed an average of 1.76 million workers, out of which nearly one-third were immigrants, according to Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME).

Dennis Darby, president and CEO of CME, said there are about 80,000 vacancies in the manufacturing sector, mostly in Ontario and Quebec, and an increased influx of immigrants will be crucial in filling those jobs.

The sector is looking for workers over a wide range of skills, including general labour, factory work, engineering, maintenance, repair, automation and robotics, he said.

“We need to make sure that the federal government and the provincial governments work together to make sure that we're bringing in the people that we need,” Darby said.

Canada’s health-care system is in crisis with staffing shortages, long emergency room wait times and surgical backlogs.

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) said the recruitment of internationally educated health professionals can “play an important role in addressing the workforce challenges” but Canada cannot solely rely on foreign nurses and doctors.

Read more:
Immigration could be needed relief for businesses stuck in labour shortage, experts say

A comprehensive approach to mitigating health worker shortages should also include retaining the existing workforce and increasing the capacity to train new health workers within Canada, said CMA president Dr. Alika Lafontaine.

“We cannot merely recruit away other countries’ health workforces,” he told Global News.

Video: International students allowed to work more hours to help with labour shortage

As for the technology sector, 34 per cent of people working in scientific research and development services across Canada are foreign-born, according to the IRCC.

Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), said besides the classic IT jobs of developers, designers and coders, there are also some real gaps in senior leadership and management positions in Canada.

Immigration programs allow a niche focus on specific foreign individuals that can help these companies rise, he told Global News.

“Often, you actually need to bring in highly skilled workers who have that unique skill set to be, let's say, a CFO or a CTO, from another jurisdiction,” he said.

Video: The immigration experience in Canada

Currently unemployed and living in Chandigarh, India, Raizada is continuing to apply for jobs in Canada so she can come back next year and settle in the country.

She wants to see more opportunities for immigrants in senior-level positions and free training programs.

Despite being discouraged by her last visit, Raizada told Global News she is hopeful.

“I still haven't given up and I really want to try out and stay there and I'm hoping that it will be good.”

-- with files from The Canadian Press

Canadians divided on Ottawa's plan to admit more immigrants: poll

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests the vast majority of Canadians are worried about how the federal Liberal government's plan to dramatically increase immigration levels over the next few years will affect housing and government services.


Canadians divided on Ottawa's plan to admit more immigrants: poll© Provided by The Canadian Press

The poll, conducted by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies, also found many respondents hesitant about the use of the notwithstanding clause, which lets legislatures override parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for five years.

Based on an online survey of 1,537 Canadians polled between Nov. 11 and 13, the results come about two weeks after Ottawa unveiled plans to admit 500,000 immigrants per year starting in 2025 to address a critical labour shortage across the country.

The government and industry have described the new targets, which represent a significant increase over the 405,000 immigrants admitted last year, as critical for filling about a million job vacancies across the country and to offset Canada's aging workforce.

Yet 75 per cent of poll respondents agreed that they were very or somewhat concerned that the plan would result in excessive demand for housing as well as health and social services.

That is despite Immigration Minister Sean Fraser having suggested that the new workers could actually enable the construction of more homes by addressing a shortage of tradespeople, along with an increase in federal support and settlement services.

Leger executive vice president Christian Bourque suggested that the poll results reflect the pressures many Canadians are feeling because of a lack of affordable housing and inflation rates driving up prices.

"There's a heightened sense of concern over stretching our tax dollar and stretching our dollar," he said.

"In good, positive economic times before the pandemic hit, these numbers might have been different. But now I think there's a growing concern of how far and how much we can afford."

The government might need to do a better job explaining the benefits of immigration to average Canadians, Bourque suggested.

Opinions were more divided over the number of immigrants the government plans to admit, with 49 per cent saying it was too many versus 31 per cent who felt it was the right number. Five per cent said it was not enough, while the rest didn’t know.

While opinions were largely the same across different parts of the country, respondents who identified as Conservative, Bloc Quebecois and People’s Party of Canada supporters were more likely to say the target was too high.

"I was not surprised to see a left-right, cleavage on this issue, it's the same in the United States and the same in Europe," Bourque said. "Slowly but surely, the issue of immigration levels is becoming political."

The poll, whose results cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples, also asked Canadians about their views on the notwithstanding clause.

The question followed the Ontario government's decision to include the notwithstanding clause in legislation that imposed a new contract on 55,000 education workers. The province later rescinded the law, which had effectively banned workers from striking.

It found that 48 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that it was a bad idea for Ottawa or the provinces to shield some of their laws from the Charter, while 19 per cent said it was a good idea. The remaining 33 per cent did not know.

While Quebec has a long history of debate over the notwithstanding clause, and recent events in Ontario have awoken some people to it as well, Bourque said that many Canadians remain unaware of its existence.

"It basically says this is not really a hot button, politically," he said. "Even with the recent events in Ontario, they don't really seem to care. Or not that they don't care, but it's something that's a bit beyond what their primary concerns are in national politics."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2022.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Newfoundland's fishing towns were built to survive, but Fiona changed the game

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — For generations, Cory Munden's family has been building and living on the same piece of oceanside land in the southwestern Newfoundland town of Port aux Basques.


Newfoundland's fishing towns were built to survive, but Fiona changed the game© Provided by The Canadian Press

The town is a former fishing village, and like many of the houses destroyed by post-tropical storm Fiona on the morning of Sept. 24, the Munden family home was built by fishers. The land on which it stood was bought by Munden's fisherman grandfather because it was close to where he worked, and it was protected by an offshore island.

For 70 years, the houses on that land withstood the worst weather Newfoundland had to offer. Then Fiona hit.

Munden is now among those who worry storms like Fiona — forecast to become more frequent as the climate changes — will change the face of Newfoundland for good, wiping away its historic, weather-hardened fishing communities one by one.

"All of the traditional living-near-the-ocean spots, those are all old properties that dated back since the dawn of time, right?" Munden said in a recent interview. "That's where all the fishermen settled."

The island of Newfoundland is rocky, rough and unforgiving. Most of its communities are former fishing villages, tucked away into coves, bights and bays along the coastline.

"They settled in these secluded places because they were aware of the power of the ocean," said Andrea O'Brien, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial registrar. "They built their homes far enough back from the high tide and from any kind of storm surges so their homes will be protected."

Fiona upended centuries of that wisdom in a single morning, she said. Looking to the future, O'Brien said she's particularly concerned about the fishing stages that often dot the waterside in these communities. A fishing stage is a shed-like building often sitting atop a platform that reaches out over the water, held up by wooden posts. Fishermen would unload their catches there, splitting their fish on sturdy wooden tables.

Colourful fishing sheds have come to define the province's historic allure; they're easy to spot in tourism ads. O'Brien said she doesn't know how they'll ever withstand storms like Fiona.

"I think with those buildings gone, it really does change the face of how this place has been for centuries," she said, adding that she's not sure what, if anything, could be done about it.


Munden points to the dormant fishing community of Petites, which is about 40 kilometres east of Port aux Basques along Newfoundland's remote southern shore.

Petites was resettled by the provincial government nearly two decades ago. Before then — and before the 1992 cod moratorium that put an end to many of these communities' local economies — the town had been home to fishers since the mid-1800s.

Fiona destroyed buildings and stages in Petites that had withstood over 100 years of ferocious Newfoundland storms, Munden said. "That was a sheltered harbour," he said. "And this Fiona storm came in and levelled it."

Port aux Basques was settled year-round in the 1700s, and it was a thriving fishing town until the 1992 moratorium. The community is now home to about 3,500 people, down from about 4,000 people five years ago. Before Fiona plunged it into the headlines, it was perhaps best known as the place to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia.

A narrow island sits just offshore from the town's most densely populated area. Until Fiona hit, the island shielded those homes from the sea for centuries.

Munden said he worries for those whose homes are still standing but could be hit by the next big storm. Like many whose homes were destroyed by storm surge, his family was denied any insurance coverage for their loss. Storm surge coverage isn't an option with most insurers.

"I mean, what are we going to do, we're going to move every property that's on coastal water? That's impossible," he said. "People need protection from these type of events. We can't leave them high and dry like this."

Amanda Dean, the Insurance Bureau of Canada's Atlantic vice-president, says insurance providers want to partner with the federal government on a program to cover those whose homes are now in harm's way as the climate changes.

That should happen alongside discussions about where people should build in the future, Dean said in an interview.

"Just because we've been building in a certain way for several hundreds of years doesn't mean that that's necessarily the way we should be building going forward," she said. "It's an awfully tough conversation to have."

Meanwhile, the Newfoundland and Labrador government announced plans Tuesday night to help those on the southwest coast denied by their insurance companies. The aid includes compensation for the land on which destroyed houses stood, or help finding a new lot to rebuild on.

Munden said some are simply moving away.

"It's changed the community, it's changed the landscape, and it's going to change the dynamics," he said.

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

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

Climate Changed: Limited transportation infrastructure facing threats in the North

YELLOWKNIFE — Andrew Arreak says travelling on the ice — the main highway in Canada's Arctic — provides access to the land and food, connects communities and is part of Inuit identity.


Climate Changed: Limited transportation infrastructure facing threats in the North

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But climate change is making ice travel less predictable.

"I'm noticing that the ice is forming a little later each year and breaking off a little earlier each year," said Arreak of Pond Inlet, Nvt.

Arreak is one of many Indigenous northerners finding ways to adapt. He works with SmartICE, an organization that integrates Inuit traditional knowledge with modern technology to better inform decisions on ice travel in several northern communities.

When he's on the ice, he tows a "smart qamutiik," an Inuit sled with a sensor measuring ice thickness. A "smart buoy"inserted into the ice measures the temperatures of air, snow, ice and water.

SmartICE has also begun looking at satellite imagery to produce ice hazard maps as part of a pilot project started last winter in the Nunavut communities of Pond Inlet and Gjoa Haven and in Nain, the northernmost permanent settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"People here in the community have been really excited about it and have been asking when the next map will be available," Arreak said.

Across the North, already underdeveloped transportation networks needed for access to resources, medical care and travel face increasing threats due toclimate warming happening nearly three times faster than the global average.

Many northern communities and mining operations rely on winter roads for annual supplies of fuel, construction materials and other goods too expensive to transport by air. Climate change is reducing the amount of time these roads can remain open.

A report published by the Canadian Climate Change Institute in June says more than half of northern winter roads could become unstable in the next 30 years. It predicts the cost of road damage from climate change could exceed $70 million annually in Yukon and $50 million in the Northwest Territories if adaptation measures aren’t taken.

Northern Canada has long had a significant infrastructure gap compared tothe southern part of the country.Permafrost degradation, landslides, flooding and wildfires, among other climate change impacts, are only exacerbating the problem.

"Infrastructure across the North has been severely underfunded for decades," said Dylan Clark, lead author of the report. "It's that kind of gap that is making, in part, communities across Northern Canada much more vulnerable."

The report examines adaptation measures, includingreinforcing the base layers of roads and runways, cooling embankments, excavating permafrost, relocating roads and building gravel rather than paved runways.

Related video: WION Climate Tracker | Climate change threatens Canada's forests

Duration 4:33

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Clark said there are huge cost savings associated with climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

"More resources and funding are clearly needed here. We are talking about a large investment up front, but it's actually the more cost-effective approach here than doing nothing."

The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is one of the world's longest heavy-haul ice roads, stretching roughly 400 kilometres and servicing three N.W.T. diamond mines.

"If there was no winter road, there would be no diamond mines," said Barry Henkel, director of the winter road.

The ice must be at least 73 centimetres thick before it can open and 99 centimetres for full load capacity.

A 2021 study from the American Meteorological Society says global warming of 2 C could tip the road into needing costly adaptation measures. Thatcould meanreplacing river crossings with structural bridges, building all-weather road segments in problem areas, relocating over-ice segments to land, improved ice monitoring and spraying ice to increase thickness.

Climate change can affect all-season roads, too, with serious consequences for northern communities with only one road in and out.

Whitehorse Mayor Laura Cabbott said a heavy snowpack led to significant landslides this year, which caused road closures. The city had to increase its snow removal budget by $450,000.

"We need to do our effort in reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also being able to adapt and be resilient," she said.

Fabrice Calmels, research chair in permafrost and geoscience at Yukon University, has been involved with several projects monitoring sections of the Alaska and Dempster Highways vulnerable to climate change. Thermosiphons, which are gas-filled tubes that allow heat to escape the ground and keep permafrost cold, were installed on a section of the Alaska Highway outside Beaver Creek.

"It's all kinds of issues, all kinds of what we call geohazards that are impacting the highway, and there is no single solution," he said.

Permafrost thaw and extreme weather are also warping and cracking runways. Many northern communities rely heavily on air travel and in some cases it is the only year-round mode of transportation.

The N.W.T. and federal governments are spending $22 million to protect Inuvik's airport from climate change and reduce ground settlements from permafrost thaw. That includes widening the runway and taxi embankments, repairing the surface and improving drainage.

A new $300 million airport opened in Iqaluit in August 2017, with upgrades including extensive repairs due to permafrost thaw.

Nunavut is also developing proposals to fix severe cracking on the runway at Rankin Inlet's airport, said assistant deputy transportation minister John Hawkins.

A spokesperson for Transport Canada said the department recognizes the critical role northern transportation corridors play in "Canada's economic lifeline" and is working to improve understanding of the risks posed by climate change.

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

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Emily Blake, The Canadian Press

Biodiversity needs same protection as climate, say scientists, activists at COP27

Story by Sarah Lawrynuik • Thursday, Nov 17,2022

Civil society groups, Indigenous activists and scientists are standing together at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and demanding firm action be taken next month at the UN Biodiversity Conference that will be hosted in Montreal.

The conference aims to get governments to agree on a framework to "bring about a transformation in society's relationship with biodiversity," which is in rapid decline worldwide due to climate change and other factors.

The moment is seen as critical for biodiversity loss, as the world warms to a level that could soon trigger tipping points in the natural world that could have cascading and catastrophic effects not yet fully understood, but which experts say would be, in all likelihood, irreversible.

"The climate and biodiversity crises are deeply interconnected and must be addressed simultaneously," said Lucy Almond, chair of the Nature 4 Climate Coalition, a united group of 20 organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund and World Resources Institute, dedicated to elevating nature as a climate solution.

"In three weeks' time, ministers will arrive in Montreal for the Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15, with the aim of giving biodiversity and ecosystems the same international protection as climate," Almond said.

She called it a once-in-a-decade opportunity to create an international agreement that will actually set out to tackle both crises together.

The key architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement — Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal — have added their voices to the calls for the Montreal-based conference to create a sister agreement to that document to address biodiversity losses.

Currently, the planet is seen to be on the brink of the sixth mass extinction event, the first one triggered by humans, with approximately one million species already at risk of extinction.

Tipping past the point of being saved

Biodiversity loss is happening because of habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation and other reasons — and is forecast to accelerate because of the destabilizing effects climate change is having on planetary systems.

Research published this year in the journal Science found that if the planet exceeds 1.5 C of warming above pre-industrial levels, that could begin triggering irreversible effects around the planet, called tipping points.

As the name suggestions, a tipping point isn't a gradual change as the temperature increases, like a slowly melting glacier. Rather, the researchers forecast that at certain thresholds, the Greenland ice sheet is likely to collapse, coral reefs will rapidly die off, and so on. Scientists have identified 16 of these systems that are responsible for maintaining the planet's natural equilibrium, but those systems are destabilizing as the planet warms.

"The risk of tipping points — the science has highlighted that for a long time — but sometimes in COP negotiations, people don't talk much about the risks," said Carlos Nobre, an Earth system scientist from Brazil's University of São Paulo.

As examples, he noted how loss of tropical forests would trigger the release of enormous amounts of greenhouse gases, warming the planet further and setting off a nasty feedback loop. A similar dynamic exists as permafrost thaws in the Arctic, he added.

"So we have to avoid those tipping points. Otherwise, in the 22nd century, the temperature will be without control," Nobre said Wednesday.

From the Arctic to the heat dome

Among the 16 critical tipping points is the potential collapse of Arctic sea ice, which would have a devastating impact on plants, animals and the entire Arctic ecosystem, said Johan Rockstrom, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

He also underlined just how close to home this could hit for all Canadians, noting it's possible to draw a line from sea ice melt to the town of Lytton, B.C., burning in the summer of 2021.

"The ground zero for the most rapid changes on planet Earth is in the Arctic. The Arctic is where things are happening three times faster, on average, sometimes four times faster than the average temperature rise," Rockstrom said.

Melting sea ice is impacting all Arctic species, he said, but it's also connected into other tipping point systems in different parts of the world, specifically shifting the polar jet stream from its normal equilibrium.

"It's driven by the gradient of warm air in the equator and cold air in the Arctic," he said. "Which keeps the whole jet stream in a very stable circular form, pushing all the weather systems across the North Atlantic."

As the Arctic warms, that gradient weakens, and the jet stream stops flowing as quickly and the pattern loses its shape forming lobes, Rockstrom said. These lobes are responsible for the blocking weather patterns that result in heat waves, stalled out rainstorms and so on.

"The terrible summer in British Columbia last year — 49.6 C and the burning down of the town of Lytton — that was an omega blockage of the jet stream, related to the Arctic melting," said Rockstrom.



Lytton, B.C., burned down in 2021 when a wildfire ignited and tore through the community. In the days leading up to the fire, Lytton had set heat records for the entire country, reaching as high as 49.6 C.© Benoit Ferradini/CBC Radio-Canada

Since the last Ice Age, the world has existed in a way that has been ideal for human, plant and animal life on this planet, he said, but what we're seeing now is the potential for the dominoes to start falling.

"The purpose of the planetary boundaries is to prevent humanity from crossing tipping points. Because when you cross a tipping point, things get irreversible and irreversibility means that we drift off toward a less and less livable planet."

Indigenous leadership and solutions

In Canada's Arctic and elsewhere, Indigenous people are on the front lines of climate impacts — including in the Amazon rainforest.

Helena Gualinga, an Indigenous activist from Ecuador, spoke Wednesday in Egypt of the need for governments to take responsibility for their role in ecosystem destruction and allow for Indigenous voices to help heal the damage.

Gualinga also pointed out that 80 per cent of the world's biodiversity is held on land controlled by Indigenous people, who only represent five per cent of the world's population.

In her community, she said, there are only 1,200 people but they've taken on a stewardship role protecting 144,000 hectares of the Amazon.

"There is a reason for that, and it's the philosophy and mindset and culture and relationship that Indigenous people have to nature."

Scientists and activists were clear: the summit and Montreal must be taken seriously. The conference is held every 10 years — with this iteration delayed two years by the pandemic — and has a lower profile.

But Almond said this moment cannot be understated: It will be a defining moment for how we as a society will address that challenge.

"The science is definitive, we're losing biodiversity at the fastest rate in human history."

Saskatchewan RCMP commanding officer questions value of new marshals service

Thursday 11/17/22

SASKATOON — The commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP says she is uncertain about the value of a new marshals service that the provincial government promised in the latest throne speech.


Saskatchewan RCMP commanding officer questions value of new marshals service© Provided by The Canadian Press

Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said she has questions about the purpose of funding a new police service instead of injecting that money into the RCMP.

“Our one question is: 'What is the focus of putting new equipment on the street with a new police service and why is there an advantage to that as opposed to giving those resources to the RCMP?'" Blackmore said Thursday during a panel on rural crime at a Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention in Saskatoon.

Blackmore said Mounties are already established — the force has buildings, vehicles and equipment — and an increase in funding could help put more officers on the roads.

The governing Saskatchewan Party said it would commit $20 million annually to the new marshals service. It is expected to be operational by 2026 and include 70 officers.

Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said she expects to receive more feedback about the new police force, including more detailed conversations with policing partners, rural municipalities and First Nations in the future.

"We are very, very early on in this process," she said in Regina.

Tell said the service will not be for front-line policing, but is intended to tackle more complex policing issuesthat currently aren't being addressed.

The province has said the marshals service would have police authority throughout the province and its duties would include responding to areas with high crime rates, apprehending offenders with outstanding warrants and investigating farming-related offences.

The marshals service would support RCMP operations where appropriate, the province has said.


"It’s not an either/or here," Tell said.

Saskatchewan currently spends $211 million a year on RCMP, Tell said. The province is responsible for 70 per cent of operating costs and the federal government covers the remainder.

Opposition NDP justice critic Nicole Sarauer said other provinces that brought in provincial police forces found the implementation to be costly and ineffective.

There arealso concerns the service would compete with RCMP and municipal police for recruits, Sarauer said.

"It is unclear why the government is creating an entirely new force instead of working with the RCMP and existing municipal police forces to improve services in rural communities," Sarauer said in an email.

The province has seen a 25 per cent increase in violent crime in recent years and there has been a smaller increase in rural property crime, Blackmore said.

She said policing in Saskatchewan is complex due to the size of the province.

“You can’t put a police officer on every corner."

She said the Mounties asked for extra funds from the province earlier this year.

It would be used, among other things, to help increase funding for administrative personnel at detachments whose work has increased significantly, Blackmore said. She said it has resulted in some front-line officers being stuck at desks doing administrative work.

"(The funding would) put police officers back on the street doing the work that they should be doing," Blackmore said.

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

— With files from Mickey Djuric in Regina

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press