MAGA GOP WITCH HUNTRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee
Story by bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger) •
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York at the Capitol on November 15, 2022. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images© Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for an unknown matter.
It may pertain to a complaint from a conservative group over her attendance of the 2021 Met Gala.
"We are confident that this matter will be dismissed," AOC spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told Insider.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
The committee said they had received a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics, a separate office that reviews misconduct allegations, on June 23 of this year. That meant that a majority of that body had decided the matter was substantial enough to refer to the committee, which is currently chaired by Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania.
They committee noted that the disclosure of the investigation was mandated by a decision by the committee to extend the amount of time that they're investigating the matter, and that the panel had not made a judgement on whether any ethics violation had occurred. They also said they would "announce its course of action in this matter" next year, after the 118th Congress had convened.
The committee did not indicate why the congresswoman was under investigation, and in a statement to Insider, her spokeswoman Lauren Hitt did not offer further details.
"The Congresswoman has always taken ethics incredibly seriously, refusing any donations from lobbyists, corporations, or other special interests," said Hitt. "We are confident that this matter will be dismissed."
It's possible that the investigation was spurred by a September 2021 complaint from the conservative American Accountability Foundation, which accused the congresswoman of accepting an impermissible gift by attending the 2021 Met Gala, where the cost of attendance is $35,000.
The congresswoman notably wore a dress emblazoned with "Tax the Rich" at the event.
Ocasio-Cortez wearing a dress emblazoned with “Tax the Rich” at the 2021 Met Gala in New York City on September 13, 2021. Ray Tamarra/GC Images© Ray Tamarra/GC Images
Ocasio-Cortez has said that she attended the event in her official capacity as a member of Congress, and that lawmakers from New York are routinely invited.
House rules state that members may not accept gifts, accept under certaint exemptions for widely-attended events or charity functions.
The group argued that Ocasio-Cortez's attendance violated those rules, because the event was exclusive and is run by Conde Nast, a for-profit company.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Ye's Yeezy clothing brand owes California $600,000 in unpaid taxes
Story by Ben Goggin •
The rapper Ye has been vocal about his personal financial struggles and debts. In 2016, before he became a billionaire, he said he was $53 million in debt, and in the last month, he’s claimed that four of his personal accounts have been frozen over claims of tax debt.
Now, government records reviewed by NBC News show that at least one of his businesses may also have six-figure debt issues.
The records, a series of state tax lien notices from the last two years, show the state of California claiming that Yeezy Apparel, a company managed and reportedly owned by Ye, owes over $600,000 in unpaid tax debt. Three separate notice letters were sent in July 2021, in February and in September. A lien is a claim made on a person or entity’s assets in response to an alleged debt.
The alleged debts add to a growing portrait of chaos surrounding Ye and his businesses, which has been described by former associates and Ye himself in recent weeks. Forbes recently removed Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from its billionaires list, citing his terminated business deals.
Four tax law experts said the amount owed by Yeezy Apparel is significant and could be a sign of deeper issues at the company.
“Multiple California tax liens, adding up to $600,000, that’s certainly a sign of either extreme incompetence or extreme cash problems,” said USC Gould School of Law Professor Edward McCaffery, who specializes in tax law. “That is kind of an Amber Alert for the financial health of the enterprise.”
According to the state of California’s government website, a lien may be imposed if a company or taxpayer doesn’t respond to their letters about taxes owed, pay in full or set a payment plan.
Yeezy Apparel has been operating in California since 2017, according to public California business records, and was recorded as being active and in “good” standing in an annual filing in January. Yeezy is Ye’s core fashion and lifestyle brand, known for its tumultuous collaborations with Adidas and Gap, both of which have been terminated over his antisemitic remarks. Yeezy Apparel is one of five active Yeezy limited liability corporations in California managed by Ye. In 2019, Forbes reported in a profile of Ye that he owned 100 percent of Yeezy. A year later, Yeezy took over $2.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Lynn LoPucki, a professor of law at the University of Florida who specializes in secured transactions and bankruptcy research, said the liens also raise questions about California’s debt collection policies.
“The state is subject to some criticism for just sitting on this when there is a going business there from which they could collect,” he said.
Representatives for Ye and for Yeezy did not respond to a request for comment.
An NBC News investigation uncovered accounts from former colleagues who said Ye would use antisemitic language in the workplace and praise Hitler. The report unearthed a settlement agreement and payment between Ye and a former colleague that came after allegations of such comments.
On Monday, Ye painted his own picture of the financial chaos that he says he’s living with, telling the far-right podcast host Tim Pool that four of his bank accounts had been frozen on a $75 million hold, and that he was told by his accountants that morning that he owes $50 million in taxes.
The Internal Revenue Service said, “Federal law prohibits the IRS from commenting on or confirming anything related to private taxpayer matters.”
While the amount said to be owed by Yeezy Apparel is just a fraction of the multimillion-dollar figures cited by Ye himself, the liens fit into a pattern found among his other businesses.
NBC News found 17 government-imposed liens in California against three of Ye’s businesses and a charity created in his name dating back as far back as 2012. Four of the liens were labeled active with no indication of them having been terminated or paid.
“Tax lien indicates that the state maintains that a debt is owing to the state,” LoPucki said. The majority of the liens reviewed by NBC News were issued by the California Employment Development Department.
A representative for the department said it could not comment on taxpayer information.
Four experts who reviewed the liens agreed that they most likely pertained to payroll taxes, given that the department oversees payroll taxes and unemployment in the state.
“Those would be things like unemployment insurance and state disability insurance taxes, things like that,” said Kirk Stark, the Barrall Family Professor of Tax Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.
It’s not clear what chain of events led to the liens being filed, but the four experts agreed that a lien being imposed indicates that there were most likely previous communications between the state and Yeezy Apparel that would allow the company to resolve or challenge the debts before a lien was imposed.
“They’ve gotten pretty serious before a lien is imposed usually. This is not the first step of a tax enforcement agency,” said David Gamage, a professor of law specializing in taxes at Indiana University Bloomington.
“Consistently ignoring communications from the EDD would eventually be a basis for the department to just say, ‘OK, well then you know, we’re going to file this lien, and you know, set this in motion,’” Stark said, using an abbreviation for the Employment Development Department.
Of the liens listed as active with no indication of termination, the earliest is from the tax year 2020.
The experts who spoke with NBC News said the liens could be indicative of several larger business concerns.
“If you’re screwing up on this, you’ve got bigger problems and there’s probably other things you’re not paying,” said McCaffery. “But on the other hand, it could be consistent with just kind of a bare-bones operation that’s a little sloppy.”
It’s not clear what the future of the Yeezy brand and its associated companies looks like following the termination of the Adidas deal.
According to Forbes, which reportedly saw internal Yeezy documentation in the process of assessing Ye’s billionaire status, the Yeezy brand was “functionally tied” to Adidas during the period of their contract.
After the termination of the deal, Adidas said on an earnings call that it would continue to sell Yeezy designs under different branding.
“Let me be clear, we own all the IP, we own all the designs, we own all the versions and new colorways,” Harm Ohlmeyer, chief financial officer of Adidas, said.
Zak Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of the law firm Sneaker & Streetwear Legal Services, said the paths forward for Yeezy as a viable business are limited given Adidas’ ownership of much of Yeezy’s intellectual property.
“What he can use is what he has, you know, his trademarks, and any new designs or any new stuff that he comes up with,” Kurtz said. “And I think that’s really where the brand has to go — in my opinion, they’d have to create new stuff.”
Kenneth Anand, co-author of the sneaker legal and business book “Sneaker Law,” added that the company could pursue another partnership with a major brand.
“It could align with a new licensee, perhaps one that can offer the same type of products and services that the Gap and/or Adidas did, although it seems unlikely that any companies would be willing to take a risk on a volatile brand and designer such as Ye,” Anand, who has also worked as the head of business development and general counsel for Yeezy, wrote in a text message.
Anand said he could only comment on the company from the perspective of an industry expert, and noted that consumers had begun to turn on Ye.
“Ye’s recent statements have clearly hurt the Yeezy brand,” Anand wrote. “Consumers are openly declaring that they will no longer support and wear Yeezy, even if they have spent a considerable amount of money on the brand’s products.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
'Warped stance on COVID': Fired Alberta Health Services board member calls out Smith
EDMONTON — A health system leader fired by Premier Danielle Smith has fired back in an open letter, saying her abusive, divisive attacks, blended with “warped” anti-science beliefs, make her a poor excuse for a leader and one literally putting Albertans in harm’s way.
'Warped stance on COVID': Fired Alberta Health Services board member calls out Smith© Provided by The Canadian Press
“(Albertans) are entitled to governance that is principle-based, respects decency and inspires confidence in its citizens," Tony Dagnone said in the letter issued Friday.
He was one of 11 members of the governing board of Alberta Health Services recently fired by Smith.
"The current premier defies all those aspirations as she spews wacko accusations at Alberta Health Services and its valued workforce," he wrote.
The premier has chosen to "play to her misguided followers who rant against science and academic medicine under the veiled guise of freedom," Dagnone said in the letter.
“Her warped stance on COVID, which I remind the premier was and is a public health issue not a political punching bag, is nothing short of borderline dereliction when the lives of AHS staff and Albertans are at stake," Dagnone wrote.
“In light of her unhinged public pronouncements, the premier represents the bleakest of role models for women who aspire to be accepted in positions of influence and leadership.
“Why would any self-respecting graduate pursue their health-care vocation in a province led by an anti-science premier?”
Dagnone could not be immediately reached for comment.
He and the other AHS governing board members were fired Thursday by Smith, fulfilling a promise she made in her successful summer campaign to win the leadership of the United Conservative Party and become premier.
The 12th board member, Deborah Apps, quit after Smith won the UCP leadership race in early October, citing concern for the disruption Smith promised to impose on a fragile health system.
Alberta Health Services is the agency of more than 100,000 staff tasked with delivering front-line care in the province.
Smith blamed both AHS and Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, for bad advice and execution in the pandemic, leading to jammed hospital wards and forcing the province to impose freedom-limiting vaccine mandates and passports.
Hinshaw was removed from her job earlier this week.
The board has been replaced by Dr. John Cowell, who is charged with fixing multiple stress points in the system, including surgery wait times, ambulance bottlenecks, doctor shortages and overcrowded emergency wards.
Dagnone, an Order of Canada winner with four decades of work in hospital and health administration, said he has no political affiliations and felt compelled to defend AHS staff.
“I witnessed the extraordinary collective will of our health-care providers confronting the unimaginable COVID,” he wrote.
“All deserve our respect and gratitude, however, the premier chooses instead to vilify those who were saving Albertans.”
Smith spoke Friday at a meeting of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce but declined to speak with reporters. Her office, in a statement, said the province had to take action to address pressing issues in the health system.
"This decision (to fire the board) was not personal, this is about better outcomes for Albertans, and we are grateful for the work done by the AHS board," reads the statement.
Smith has said there will be no health restrictions or vaccine mandates during future waves of COVID-19. And she has said there will be no mask mandates in schools currently dealing with respiratory viral illnesses that are spiking absentee rates and filling children’s hospitals.
Smith has publicly embraced alternative approaches to COVID-19, including herd immunity and the since-debunked COVID-19 treatment ivermectin.
Earlier this month, she announced she wants to hear from Paul Alexander, a controversial critic of mainstream science who has characterized COVID-19 vaccines as “bioweapons.”
"The premier is taking her nonsense to a new level by inviting a former Trump adviser (Alexander) who has been universally scorned for promoting medical quackery,’ wrote Dagnone.
“If (she) persists in vocalizing false, conspiratorial and unfounded claims, she will be responsible for putting health-care providers and Albertans needlessly in harm’s way.
“Her loose and corrosive words appear to satisfy her need for bizarre musings that can and will ultimately impact people’s lives.”
NDP health critic David Shepherd, responding to Dagnone’s letter, echoed the concerns.
“(Smith) will continue to blame health-care workers for the current state of care while taking no responsibility herself for the impact of the dangerous misinformation and conspiracy theories she promotes,” Shepherd said.
“Her reckless politicization of our public health-care system will make it harder to recruit and retain health professionals and for Albertans to access care.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2022.
Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
Canada must provide equitable funding for on-reserve policing, says First Nation lawsuit
Story by Logan Turner • Yesterday
An Ojibway First Nation in northern Ontario has filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging that chronic inequitable funding of their policing services has created a public safety crisis in the community.
Wilfred King, chief of Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation), speaking during a news conference in Ottawa, says they are filing a lawsuit against Canada for inequitable funding of their police service.© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
"It happens more often than not where our officers couldn't execute an arrest because they had no back-up in the community. In fact, there are times when offenders were basically allowed to commit crimes and walk away," said Wilfred King, chief of Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (KZA) (also known as Gull Bay First Nation) during a press conference Monday morning in Ottawa.
"It's a very dire situation," King added.
The statement of claim, filed Monday afternoon with the Federal Court, alleges, "First Nation policing services have been systematically and chronically underfunded, endangering First Nation [officer and community] safety."
The federal government has 30 days to file their defence with the Federal Court.
It's the latest move adding pressure on the federal government to ensure equitable funding and adequate policing services in Indigenous communities across the country, something the federal government says it is working toward.
Often no police protection in KZA
There are currently only two active police officers in Kiashke Zaaging, King said, which means there are often times when there is no police protection.
The officers often work alone, and sometimes have to request back-up support from Ontario Provincial Police detachments that don't always respond to those calls, he said.
"In a recent incident, we had a violent offender in the community and the police would not respond because they could not get the necessary backup," King said, adding he worries for their safety.
Chantelle Bryson, a lawyer representing the First Nation, added the officers are working without adequate resources, including no cell or satellite phone access, no police station or support staff, and receiving lower pay than other officers in Ontario.
"We have officers in KZA that don't have housing. We have one officer that was driving back and forth three hours each way from Thunder Bay, and another officer who sleeps on a friend's couch," said Bryson.
She said the federal government continues to invest its money elsewhere, instead of supporting the self-determination of First Nations and responding to recommendations set out by national inquiries, like the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report published in 2019.
"KZA will not wait to become a lawless enclave," she said.
Momentum toward declaring First Nation policing 'essential service'
Unlike non-Indigenous communities across Canada where policing operates as an essential service, under the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP), funding agreements are negotiated between the communities, Public Safety Canada, and the province.
There are currently 35 First Nations police services and one Inuit police service across Canada, with most located in Ontario and Quebec.
Lennard Busch says the legal challenge launched by KZA speaks to the mounting frustration about how First Nations policing services are funded and administered. He's the executive director for the First Nation Chiefs of Police Association.
"We certainly have been for quite awhile now pushing to eliminate some of the disparity between self-administered First Nations police services and mainstream policing," he told CBC News.
Funding has been a key issue, causing conditions that put both the communities and the police officers at risk, Busch said, but there is momentum toward declaring the service essential and providing equitable funding.
In January 2022, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled the Canadian government was discriminating against the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, located 260 kilometres north of Quebec City, by chronically under-funding the Mashteuiatsh Police Service.
In the fall, Public Safety Canada released a report about the FNIPP detailing considerable problems highlighted during public consultations, and Minister Marco Mendicino has consistently reaffirmed his commitment to introducing new legislation this year.
The ministry did not respond to questions from CBC News about the legislation or about KZA's concerns by the deadline.
Busch says their organization, along with the Assembly of First Nations, have been supporting the consultations and the development of the legislation, and is cautiously optimistic about it.
"A lot of stuff we've heard before and then it just kind of died," Busch said.
"Hopefully this will change a lot of things in terms of how we resource First Nation police services, how we support them, how we fund them and how we regulate them."
But Wilfred King says he doesn't know what's in that long-promised legislation, and his First Nations police force needs sufficient resources and funding now.
"We cannot wait for that legislation," he said.
WORKERS CAPITAL
Exclusive: Canada's biggest pension plan, CPPI, ends crypto investment pursuit - sources
Story by By Divya Rajagopal • Yesterday
FILE PHOTO: A representation of bitcoin is seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration© Thomson Reuters
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's biggest pension fund, CPP Investments, has ended its effort to study investment opportunities in the volatile crypto market, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The reasons behind CPPI's abandonment of crypto research were not immediately clear. CPPI declined to comment but said it has made no direct investments in crypto. It referred to previous comments on cryptocurrency by its CEO, John Graham, in which he sounded a note of caution.
CPPI's Alpha Generation Lab, which examines emerging investment trends, had formed a three-member team in early 2021 to research crypto currencies and blockchain-related businesses, with a view to taking potential exposure, the people added.
But CPPI abandoned the pursuit this year and redeployed the team to other areas, the sources said.
CPPI's move also comes as two of Canada's largest pension funds have written off their investments after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and crypto lender Celsius this year.
Earlier this year CPPI CEO Graham said that the pension plan, which manages C$529 billion ($388 billion) for nearly 20 million Canadians, did not want to invest in crypto merely because of the fear of missing out.
"You want to really think about what the underlying intrinsic value is of some of these assets and build your portfolio accordingly," Graham said in a June speech. "So I'd say crypto is something we continue to look at and try to understand, but we just haven't really invested in it."
It was unclear when CPPI dropped its plan. One of the sources said the team was actively assessing investment opportunities as late as July this year, but the second source said the team ended its work earlier than that.
The details of CPPI's pursuit of cryptocurrency investment and its decision to end it have not been previously reported.
The sources declined to be identified because the information was not public.
Canadian pension funds' exposure to crypto sector has come under scrutiny following the FTX debacle. While Canadian pension funds are not prohibited from buying cryptocurrencies, they are known for their risk-averse investing strategies to generate steady returns for pensioners.
While CPPI has avoided crypto investments, some of its peers have been caught up in the sector's mayhem this year. The Ontario Teachers Pension Fund (OTPP), which oversees about C$242 billion in assets, has written off its investments worth C$95 million in FTX. OTPP said it was "disappointed" with its investment in FTX.
Earlier this year, Canada's second-largest pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), said it was writing off its investment of C$150 million in bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius. CDPQ has initiated legal proceedings against Celsius in bankruptcy court.
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), which manages C$121 billion, made three allocations to crypto-linked businesses through its OMERS Ventures business between 2012 and 2018 but exited all investments in 2020.
Another Canadian pension fund, OP Trust, told Reuters that it has investments in the digital asset fund space that is managed externally. The investment is in the underlying crypto technology, it said.
($1 = 1.3650 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto; Additional reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Denny Thomas and Matthew Lewis)
COP15
Nature 'under attack' says Trudeau as UN biodiversity conference opens in Montreal
MONTREAL — In the 73 minutes on Tuesday afternoon that it took for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and five other dignitaries to officially open the 15th global talks to save nature from human destruction, statistics suggest another 4,000 hectares of forest around the world was lost to that same force.
Nature 'under attack' says Trudeau as UN biodiversity conference opens in Montreal© Provided by The Canadian Press
It is the kind of damage the meeting is looking to stop as the world faces a biodiversity crisis that is risking human health, contributing to food insecurity and exacerbating climate change.
"Nature is under threat," Trudeau said at the opening ceremonies of COP15 in Montreal.
"In fact, it's under attack."
Over the next 14 days, negotiators from all 196 countries in the world are being asked to hammer out an agreement to both end and begin to restore the ecosystems we have destroyed and damaged.
It is being called the "Paris for nature" hoping Montreal will see an agreement to slow the destruction of nature the way the 2015 UN conference Paris set the road map for slowing climate change.
In 2019, the UN issued a grim scientific assessment warning that about one-quarter of every species assessed in both animal and plant groups were at risk of extinction before the end of this century. It also said three-quarters of land-based ecosystems and two-thirds of marine environments had been "significantly" changed by human actions, including agricultural and industrial expansions, consumption patterns and population growth.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was also in Montreal on Tuesday, urging countries to stop treating nature "like a toilet."
"The loss of nature and biodiversity comes with a steep human cost," he said.
"A cost we measure in lost jobs, hunger, disease and deaths. A cost we measure in the estimated $3 trillion in annual losses by 2030 from ecosystem degradation. A cost we measure in higher prices for water, food and energy."
Nature can help prevent devastating losses due to climate change, not just by absorbing more of the carbon dioxide that is contributing to global warming, but also by reducing the impacts of extreme weather.
Related video: UN Biodiversity Conference kicks-off in Montreal (WION)
Duration 3:20
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The nature talks in Montreal are looking to agree to set 22 targets to reverse biodiversity loss. That would include everything from using less plastic and increasing urban green space to finding the money to help pay for it.
While all the targets depend on each other for success, the big get would be an agreement to protect 30 per cent of the world's land, inland waters and marine coastal areas from development by 2030.
But even before the COP15 UN nature talks officially opened Tuesday afternoon, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary for the UN convention on biodiversity, was warning things were already off course.
"Some progress has been made, but not so much as needed or expected," Mrema said at a news conference in Montreal on Tuesday morning. "And I have personally to admit that I don't feel that the delegates went as far as we had expected."
The negotiations are officially scheduled to begin Wednesday, but countries have been slowly putting together a draft agreement for the last few years. On the weekend, negotiators spent three days in a working group hoping to tame that draft into something more manageable.
It didn't work.
The main goal of protecting 30 per cent by 2030 didn't even come up because of time constraints, said Guido Broekhoven, head of policy at the World Wildlife Fund International.
As it stands the draft doesn't agree even on which land and water to protect, or how much.
Canada has its own goal of protecting 30 per cent of land and coastal marine areas by 2030 and has reached about 14 per cent of both already. Globally about 16 per cent of land and inland waters are under some level of protection, and about eight per cent of marine and coastal areas.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said 30 per cent is the minimum that must be protected.
Trudeau opened the talks Tuesday with a pledge to add another $350 million to Canada's global financing for international biodiversity protections. Quebec Premier François Legault told the delegates his province will commit to meeting the 30 per cent target within Quebec by 2030.
There are expectations of many protests at the event, which is expected to draw 17,000 delegates over the next two weeks. The first made itself known Tuesday when a small group of Indigenous protesters began drumming and singing during Trudeau's opening speech.
After about three minutes they were escorted out of the room by security.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.
— Bob Weber in Edmonton, Mia Rabson in Ottawa and Jacob Serebrin in Montreal.
The Canadian Press
New food technologies could release 80% of world’s farmland back to nature
Opinion by Chris D Thomas & Jack Hatfield & Katie Noble
Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Here's the basic problem for conservation at a global level: food production, biodiversity and carbon storage in ecosystems are competing for the same land.
Longhorn cattle on a rewilding project in England: if we got most of our protein and carbs through new technologies, this sort of compassionate and wildlife-friendly farming could be scaled up. Photo courtesy of Chris Thomas/University of York© of Chris Thomas/University of York
As humans demand more food, so more forests and other natural ecosystems are cleared, and farms intensify and become less hospitable to many wild animals and plants. Therefore global conservation, currently focused on the COP15 summit in Montreal, will fail unless it addresses the underlying issue of food production.
Fortunately, a whole raft of new technologies is being developed that make a system-wide revolution in food production feasible. According to recent research by one of us (Chris), this transformation could meet increased global food demands by a growing human population on less than 20% of the world's existing farmland. Or in other words, these technologies could release at least 80% of existing farmland from agriculture in about a century.
Around four-fifths of the land used for human food production is allocated to meat and dairy, including range lands and crops specifically grown to feed livestock. Add up the whole of India, South Africa, France and Spain and you have the amount of land devoted to crops that are then fed to livestock.
Despite growing numbers of vegetarians and vegans in some countries, global meat consumption has increased by more than 50% in the past 20 years and is set to double this century. As things stand, producing all that extra meat will mean either converting even more land into farms, or cramming even more cows, chickens and pigs into existing land. Neither option is good for biodiversity.
Meat and dairy production is already an unpleasant business. For instance, most chickens are grown in high-density feeding operations, and pork, beef and especially dairy farming is going the same way. Current technologies are cruel, polluting and harmful to biodiversity and the climate -- don't be misled by cartoons of happy cows with daisies protruding from their lips.
Unless food production is tackled head-on, we are left resisting inevitable change, often with no hope of long-term success. We need to tackle the cause of biodiversity change. The principal global approach to climate change is to focus on the cause and minimize greenhouse gas emissions, not to manufacture billions of parasols (though we may need these, too). The same is required for biodiversity.
How can we do this?
Cellular agriculture provides an alternative, and could be one of this century's most promising technological advancements. Sometimes called "lab-grown food," the process involves growing animal products from real animal cells, rather than growing actual animals.
If growing meat or milk from animal cells sounds strange or icky to you, let's put this into perspective. Imagine a brewery or cheese factory: a sterile facility filled with metal vats, producing large volumes of beer or cheese, and using a variety of technologies to mix, ferment, clean and monitor the process. Swap the barley or milk for animal cells and this same facility becomes a sustainable and efficient producer of dairy or meat products.
Animal cruelty would be eliminated and, with no need for cows wandering around in fields, the factory would take up far less space to produce the same amount of meat or milk.
Other emerging technologies include microbial protein production, where bacteria use energy derived from solar panels to convert carbon dioxide and nitrogen and other nutrients into carbohydrates and proteins. This could generate as much protein as soybeans but in just 7% of the area. These could then be used as protein food additives (a major use of soy) and animal feed (including for pets).
It is even possible to generate sugars and carbohydrates using desalination or through extracting CO₂ from the atmosphere, all without ever passing through a living plant or animal. The resulting sugars are chemically the same as those derived from plants but would be generated in a tiny fraction of the area required by conventional crops.
What to do with old farmland
These new technologies can have a huge impact, even if demand keeps growing. Even though Chris's research is based on the assumption that global meat consumption will double, it nonetheless suggests that at least 80% of farmland could be released to be used for something else.
That land might become nature reserves or be used to store carbon, for example, in forests or the waterlogged soils of peat bogs. It could be used to grow sustainable building materials, or simply to produce more human-edible crops, among other uses.
Gone too will be industrial livestock systems that produce huge volumes of manure, bones, blood, guts, antibiotics and growth hormones. Thereafter, any remaining livestock farming could be carried out in a compassionate manner.
Since there would be less pressure on the land, there would be less need for chemicals and pesticides and crop production could become more wildlife-friendly (global adoption of organic farming is not feasible at present because it is less productive). This transition must be coupled with a full transition toward renewable energy as the new technologies require lots of power.
Converting these technologies into mass-market production systems will of course be tricky. But a failure to do so is likely to lead to ever-increasing farming intensity, escalating numbers of confined animals, and even more lost nature.
Avoiding this fate -- and achieving the 80% farmland reduction -- will require a lot of political will and a cultural acceptance of these new forms of food. It will require economic and political "carrots" such as investment, subsidies and tax breaks for desirable technologies, and "sticks," such as increased taxation and removal of subsidies for harmful technologies. Unless this happens, biodiversity targets will continue to be missed, COP after COP.
Chris D Thomas is the director, Jack Hatfield is a postdoctoral research associate and Katie Noble is a PhD candidate at the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity at the University of York.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.
Oneida First Nation woman sues London, Ont., police, alleging officers sexually abused her for years
Story by Kate Dubinski •
A 67-year-old Oneida Nation of the Thames woman has launched a $6-million lawsuit against the London Police Service (LPS) in southwestern Ontario, alleging three officers sexually assaulted her for years and officials did nothing to stop it.
Two officers sexually assaulted her over the course of 18 months starting when she was 12 and a third officer's abuse continued for five years, starting when she was 30, Elaine Antone says in her lawsuit.
Antone says she first reported the abuse to police and Ontario's police oversight body in early 1994, when she called the then police chief, Julian Fantino, and said she was worried one of the officers, the one who abused her in her 30s, was harming other women, according to documents filed with Ontario Superior Court.
"I have an excellent memory, and I wish I didn't," Antone told CBC News. "I thought police officers were supposed to help people."
Oneida Nation of the Thames, an Iroquois community that's home to about 2,200 residents, is about 30 kilometres south of London.
Antone's lawsuit names the LPS and the three officers: the estates of Brian Garraway and Keith Bull, who have died, and Edward (Ted) Lane, who is retired. A separate lawsuit asks for $4 million in damages for Antone's two daughters, who she says were fathered by Lane.
The allegations have not been proven in court. CBC has also reached out to all the defendants, but all have refused to comment because the matter is before the courts.
In a statement of defence filed with the court, lawyers for the LPS have denied any wrongdoing, saying the officers were screened and trained properly, officials didn't know about any sexual abuse, and that if it did happen, the officers were acting entirely on their own "without the knowledge or acquiescence of LPS."
But Antone's lawyer, Joe Fearon, disagrees, saying police had at least four separate occasions to investigate the officers since the late 1960s and did nothing to stop ongoing abuse or investigate allegations.
"It goes against every ounce of Elaine's dignity for her to have to go through that, survive that, live a life surviving that and the consequences of that, and to report it, and for the chief of police to do nothing," said Fearon, who is based in Toronto.
Antone shared her story in 2018 with the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), naming the officers she says sexually assaulted her.
"I'm Indigenous and because of my criminal record, they figured that they had the OK, that nobody was going to listen to me," Antone said in the recent interview with CBC. "I believe that there might be other victims, maybe not victims of Bull or Garraway or Lane, but other victims of the London Police Department, and I feel that they should have a platform to tell their stories also."
Abuse began at age 12, woman says
Antone lived in Oneida with her grandmother until she was five, a childhood she describes as happy and carefree.
"I loved sports. I wanted to be a high school math teacher because I loved numbers," Antone said.
But when she moved with her mom and siblings to London, she said, life got tougher — Antone's mom was addicted to alcohol and police were often called to the family home for domestic disturbances.
When she was 12, Garraway came to the family's home, asked if Antone was alone, and took her into a bedroom, Antone alleges.
"He locked the door and he didn't do too much talking," Antone recalled. "He took his gun off and put it beside me on the mattress, and he forced me to have sex with him. He was on duty. The scariest part was that the gun was there, and I was petrified."
Abuse by Garraway and similar sexual assaults by a second officer, Bull, continued over 18 months, Antone alleges.
At one point, an officer found Antone in Garraway's vehicle, Antone said.
"She was brought back to the station, but no investigation was done," Fearon told CBC News. "When you find somebody with a 12-year-old Indigenous girl in the car, and they have no explanation as to why they're there and that person is a police officer, there should be an investigation."
Eventually, Antone was sent to the Ontario Training School for Girls (later called the Grandview Training School for Girls) in Galt, Ont. — a provincially run reform school for girls aged 12 to 18. Survivors, including Antone, allege abuse and neglect at the school. It closed in 1976 and in 2000, the Ontario government formally apologized to the hundreds of girls sent there. Eight former employees were eventually charged with various offences and two guards were convicted.
Antone said that by the mid-1980s, she was living in London, using drugs to cope with years of childhood abuse, and had frequent run-ins with police officers, including Lane.
Allegations in the lawsuit
"Antone alleges that commencing in or about 1985, when Antone was approximately 30 years of age, and on many occasions over the following approximately five years, the defendant Lane repeatedly sexual abused, battered, assaulted and molested the plaintiff, Antone," the lawsuit states.
"The plaintiff Antone alleges that the defendant Lane impregnated the plaintiff, Antone, twice, leading to the birth of two children."
Joe Fearon, from the law firm Preszler Injury Lawyers, is working on Antone's case.© Kate Dubinski/CBC
According to Antone, Lane at first denied he was the father of her two daughters, but after paternity tests proved he was, he was ordered by a family court judge to pay child support.
"At all material times, it would have been obvious to the defendants that the plaintiff, Antone, was a vulnerable person," the lawsuit says.
The three officers used their positions of authority and trust to make sure that Antone didn't tell anyone about the abuse, and "interfered with her normal upbringing solely for the purpose of their own gratification," it claims.
The defendants were in positions of power because of her age and family circumstance, and because they were police officers, the lawsuit alleges, and she trusted them and was dependent on them for safety and security.
The LPS didn't properly supervise the three officers, investigate their backgrounds and characters, or document their shortcomings as police officers, the court documents also claim.
The lawsuit also alleges the London police chief at the time knew that Lane repeatedly sexually assaulted Antone after she reported him, but didn't investigate or reprimand him and allowed him to remain on active duty.
Lane retired in 1996. CBC News has tried repeatedly to get in touch with him, but has been unsuccessful. He is not represented by a lawyer in this lawsuit and has not filed a statement of defence.
Antone said that in 1994, she had reached out to Fantino and Howard Morton, head of the then new Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates incidents when police interactions lead to serious injuries or involve allegations of sexual assault. She had called both men at home to report she had run into Lane at a bingo and she was worried he was harming other women. Antone said she couldn't remember how she got their home numbers.
According to a letter filed as part of the court documents, Morton wrote to Fantino: "Ms. Elaine Antone contacted the director Mr. Morton at his residence on Nov. 20, 1994, and complained of a sexual assault by Const. Ted Lane. She indicated she met Const. Lane in April 1985 and although they had intercourse, it was without her consent. She stated that she has two children fathered by Const. Lane, who does pay child support. Ms. Antone fears that Constable Lane might be assaulting another woman, but has no proof."
Morton's eventual report to Ontario's attorney general that's dated Jan. 30, 1995, states Antone "does not wish SIU to investigate the matter nor does she wish to complain to the police complaints commissioner." Because Antone didn't want the matter investigated, Morton writes, "I have determined that no further action is warranted by my office and I am, therefore, closing our file."
In another letter to Fantino that's contained in the lawsuit documents, Morton suggests "it would be perfectly in order" for the chief to discuss the matter with Lane. There is nothing to indicate whether that was done, and the London police have not turned over any records to indicate that an internal investigation was done or that Antone's allegations were investigated further.
Lane remained on duty for another year.
CBC News reached out to Fantino, the police chief in 1994 and 1995 — the years the correspondence was dated — and the deputy chief at the time, Elgin Austen, who was in charge of public complaints.
Fantino said he didn't recall such a situation, and even if he did, he could not comment because of the ongoing legal case. Austen said he remembered Antone as a troubled teen that officers dealt with. He also said he had no knowledge of Lane fathering her two children and didn't recall her allegations against the officer.
Morton remembered the phone call from Antone because it was so unusual to get a call at home, but he couldn't recall what happened with the case. Lawyers for the estates of Garraway and Bull said they couldn't comment because of the ongoing lawsuit.
'Trying to keep my spirits up'
Antone's voice is steady as she tells her story. She's told it many times before — at the MMIWG inquiry and to classes of criminology students because one of Antone's best friends is a professor.
She is in touch with her daughters and loves playing with her grandchildren. She writes poetry and watches television in her apartment.
"Health wise, I'm not doing well. Emotionally, I'm trying to keep my spirits up," Antone told CBC News. Still, she said, she has bouts of severe depression for about a week every month, the symptoms keeping her from performing her daily routine.
At a minimum, the LPS should pay for Antone's counselling while this case winds its way through the court system, Fearon said.
This week, he will be back in court to try to amend the claim to include allegations that the LPS breached Antone's charter rights. Lawyers for the police oppose that amendment.
A trial date will be set shortly.
A mix of worry and hope as Iranians in Canada watch an uprising from afar
Story by Katie Nicholson, Marie Morrissey • Nov 22
Sara Shariati stares intently at her phone screen, willing it to connect to her grandfather in Iran. The University of Toronto student hasn't been able to get ahold of the 95-year-old for two weeks. When the call doesn't go through, she tries a text message and shakes her head.
"The message doesn't even deliver. Their internet is shut," Shariati said, her voice catching.
Shariati is one of the nearly 90,000 Iranians who have settled in the Greater Toronto Area, according to Statistics Canada. Only Los Angeles has a larger Iranian population outside of Iran.
For many in the wider Iranian diaspora, the last three months have been rife with worry, anger and frustration as they watch the ongoing cycle of protests and violent crackdowns in Iran sparked by the in-custody death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16.
The 22-year-old died while she was in the custody of Iran's morality police after she had been detained for reportedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly, violating the strict public dress codes imposed on Iranian women. Her death has sparked outrage in and outside of Iran.
"So many years that we had to be worried about whether the colour of our shirt is too bright, whether our toes are showing because we are wearing open-toed shoes or whether our hair is showing too much," Shariati said. "And now this generation is saying enough is enough."
Shariati is proud of the stand many in the country are taking, but she also worries about the safety of her friends and family in Iran and feels guilty about her own relative safety in Canada.
"Some of my friends have been arrested. We have no news of them. Some of them have been injured. There has been so much tear gas into university dormitories," she said.
"I keep thinking when I'm walking on campus [here] that, 'Oh my God, how safe I am and how normal life is here.' And they have to worry if they can even be alive tomorrow," she said.
Shariati is doing what she can to bring attention to the protests in Canada and pressuring the Canadian government to do more, including helping organize three protests.
Members of the Iranian community gather in Toronto on Sept. 20 to protest after the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died after being detained by Iran's morality police, reportedly for wearing her headscarf incorrectly.© Darek Zdzienicki/CBC
She also knows her work to amplify the voices of revolt in Iran has put a target on her back.
"When I go to Iran, I will probably be arrested at the airport. And I know that. And my family knows that. But I keep thinking in my head, what have I done to deserve this?" she said.
'Impossible' to stay in touch with friends, family
Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group monitoring the ongoing protests, estimates at least 388 people have been killed and more than 16,000 have been arrested since they began nearly two months ago.
There are few Iranians in Canada who understand the price of standing up to the Iranian regime as well as Azam Jangravi. In 2018, the young mother climbed on top of an electric transformer box in Tehran, removed her headscarf and was promptly arrested.
Jangravi escaped with her daughter to Turkey and now lives in Canada. Watching the events unfold in Iran has filled her with worry and hope.
"You know, I broke my silence. This is the key. Now every Iranian broke their silence," she said. I think they are so brave. They know they might be killed, but every day, they come back to the street."
It has been hard to get a good sense of what's really happening on the streets of the country. Like so many, Jangravi depends on social media posts and WhatsApp messages from friends to get a sense of what's happening, as information trickles out between government-imposed communications blackouts.
It's also made it near impossible to stay in touch with friends and family on a regular basis.
"When I called and I don't know what happened to my family or to my friends, I am really frustrated. I am worried. I cry," she said.
Even when people successfully manage to get in contact with loved ones in Iran, it's not always safe to talk.
Protests 'on everybody's minds'
In his usually bustling Persian grocery store Khorak Supermarket, Sam Fayaz describes how cautious his in-laws in Iran are when they speak with his wife because of fears their phone might be monitored by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"It becomes a one-way conversation where when you ask the other side 'hey, what's going on over there,' a lot of them, my brother-in-law, won't talk, right? So he'll avoid the questions," he said.
The months-long unrest and violence has put a damper on the wider Iranian community, Fayaz said.
Sam Fayaz, whose Persian grocery store Khorak Supermarket in Toronto is a hub for the Iranian community, says the protests in Iran weigh heavily on the minds of everyone who shops here.© Katie Nicholson/CBC
"Everybody's upset. Everybody's down," Fayaz said, gesturing around the store. "Things quiet down, right? I mean, it's Monday. My store's supposed to be a little bit busier than it is right now, but, you know, we're not."
"It's on everybody's minds. Nobody wants to go out and party. Nobody wants to go to, you know, go to a concert. A lot of events have been cancelled because people are just… it's on their minds," Fayaz said.
A poster hangs in the door of the store reading "Women, Life, Freedom" and "Be the voice of the Iranian people." Fayaz isn't shy about his own support for the protesters whose voices he says he tries to amplify as much as possible.
This poster hangs in the window of Khorak Supermarket, a Persian grocery store located in north Toronto. Owner Sam Fayez says he does everything he can to amplify the protesters' voices.© Katie Nicholson/CBC
"The more this gets shared, the more likely the, you know, external governments such as the Canadian government, the U.S. government, hopefully, you know, different parts of the world will impose stricter sanctions on this regime and bring change," Fayaz said.
As snow falls from a grey Toronto sky, Shariati thinks about what more Canada and the world could do to help the Iranian protesters.
"Canada has done a lot. A lot more than many European countries. A lot more than even the U.S. But I think there can be more. I think they can push for more action from other countries as well because Canada has a strong voice in international platforms," she said.
Canada has issued five sets of sanctions on Iran this year in response to what Global Affairs Canada calls "ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and continued actions to destabilize peace and security." The sanctions lists include businesses and leaders associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"There can be more targeted sanctions on the leaders. IRGC can be recognized as a terrorist group," she added.
She also wants to see UNICEF and the United Nations step up their involvement.
"Statements don't cut it. We need a lot stronger action."
Federal NDP leader says Alberta sovereignty act 'a distraction' from real problems
CALGARY — Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says Alberta's proposed sovereignty act is undemocratic and an unwelcome distraction from the struggles residents of the province are facing.
Federal NDP leader says Alberta sovereignty act 'a distraction' from real problems© Provided by The Canadian Press
After a meeting Friday with union leaders in Calgary, Singh took aim at the bill Premier Danielle Smith introduced on Tuesday.
Smith has described it as a deliberately confrontational tool to reset the relationship with a federal government she accuses of interfering in constitutionally protected areas of provincial responsibility, from energy development to health care.
But Singh said that at a time when Albertans are suffering from record-high inflation and an overloaded health-care system, the proposed legislation makes no sense.
"I think it is a bit of a distraction at a time when we're seeing unprecedented record inflation, at a time when people are having a hard time buying groceries and people are using food banks more than ever," Singh told reporters Friday.
"At a time like that, Danielle Smith chooses to bring in this act. It really shows a lot of heartlessness."
Smith has rejected accusations that the bill amounts to a power grab.
“Every decision that is going to be made has to first get the validation from this assembly,” she told the legislature earlier this week.
If a resolution passes in the house identifying a federal matter deemed unconstitutional or harmful to Alberta, the bill grants cabinet powers to unilaterally rewrite provincial laws without sending them back to the legislature for debate or approval. Cabinet would be allowed to direct public agencies, including police, municipalities, school boards, post-secondary institutions and health regions, to flout federal laws.
It would also give cabinet wide latitude on how to interpret the resolution it receives from the assembly. It says cabinet should follow the direction of the house, but doesn't mandate it. Instead, cabinet is told to exercise its new extraordinary powers however it deems "necessary or advisable.''
"It's dangerous and it's undemocratic, and there was no mandate for this," Singh said.
Kaycee Madu, Alberta's deputy premier, has said amendments may be needed to clear up confusion over some aspects of the proposed legislation.
However, Singh said the bill "shows a callous behaviour" by the governing United Conservative Party.
"I think it is intended to be a distraction from the real problems people are faced with," Singh said.
"The worry I have about Danielle Smith as premier is about people being left behind — and I really mean it."
Last month, the provincial government announced payouts of $600 for middle- to lower-income families to help with the increasing costs of living.
Those with a household income of less than $180,000 a year are to get $600 for each child under 18 over a period of six months. The same income threshold and benefit applies to seniors.
The government also promised to remove its provincial gasoline tax and to continue providing electricity rebates. It has also earmarked $20 million to help food banks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.
Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press
