HRW denounces «widespread abuses» of human rights in El Salvador since the adoption of the state of emergency

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced Wednesday that El Salvador's security forces are committing widespread human rights abuses since the adoption of a state of emergency against gang violence in March of this year.


El Salvador's Territorial Control Plan Security Strategy against gangs - 

PRESIDENCIA DE EL SALVADOR© Provided by News 360

A report released Wednesday with Salvadoran human rights organization Cristosal documents mass arbitrary detentions and torture, as well as deaths in custody or forced disappearances.

"Salvadoran security forces have brutalized vulnerable communities with widespread human rights violations in the name of public security," lamented Juanita Goebertus, HRW's Americas director.

"To put an end to gang violence and human rights violations, the government of El Salvador must replace the state of emergency with an effective, rights-respecting security policy that gives Salvadorans the security they so richly deserve," added the NGO's regional director.

They also criticized the fact that the country's president, Nayib Bukele, has publicly supported the security forces, promoting "a dehumanizing rhetoric against detainees and their families".

They have also pointed out that there are reasons to question the effectiveness of these measures, as gangs have in the past benefited from mass incarceration to recruit new members.

HRW and Cristosal have interviewed more than 1,100 people, including victims of abuse, family members, lawyers, witnesses and government officials.

With this documentation, the organizations have found that agents have committed similar violations repeatedly in different parts of the country.

In many cases, detentions appear to be based on the appearance and social background of the detainees, sometimes without warrants or arrest warrants.

In addition, the NGO accuses El Salvador's authorities of committing enforced disappearances under international law, as they have reported numerous cases in which agents have refused to provide information on the whereabouts of detainees.

SUPER POPULATION IN JAILS

 Police and soldiers have carried out hundreds of raids, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, since the state of emergency was adopted. Authorities have arrested more than 58,000 people, of whom more than 1,600 have been children.

Thus, the prison population has increased in nine months from 39,000 to 95,000 people, more than three times the official capacity, criticize human rights organizations.

In this context, at least 90 people have died in police custody in circumstances that have not yet been investigated.

INTERNATIONAL CALL 

Therefore, HRW and Cristasol have urged the country's authorities to take rights-respecting measures to dismantle the gangs and protect the population.

Along these lines, the organizations have called on the United States and the European Union, as well as Latin American governments, to generate multilateral pressure.

"The international community must redouble its efforts to help ensure that Salvadorans are safe from gang atrocity crimes, human rights violations by security forces and other abuses of power," added Goebertus.

Beyond this, they have asked financial institutions to suspend loans that benefit government agencies involved in these abuses, such as the National Police, the Armed Forces, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the prison system.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Mozambique ex-president's son, ex-spy bosses jailed for 12 years for graft

Story by AFP • 

A Mozambican court on Wednesday sentenced two ex-spy bosses and the son of a former president to 12 years each for their part in a corruption scandal in which the government sought to conceal huge debts, triggering financial havoc.


Former president Armando Guebuza, seated, greets his son Ndambi, a defendant, at the session on November 30 when verdicts began to be read out© Alfredo Zuniga

The former head of security and intelligence, Gregorio Leao; the head of the security service’s economic intelligence division, Antonio do Rosario; and ex-president Armando Guebuza’s son Ndambi Guebuza were among 19 defendants accused in the country's biggest graft scandal.

"The crimes committed have brought consequences whose effects will last for generations," said Judge Efigenio Baptista.

The scandal arose after state-owned companies in the impoverished country illicitly borrowed $2 billion (1.9 billion euros) in 2013 and 2014 from international banks to buy a tuna-fishing fleet and surveillance vessels.

The government masked the loans from parliament and the public.

When the "hidden debt" finally surfaced in 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other donors cut off financial support, triggering a sovereign debt default and currency collapse.

An independent audit found $500 million of the loans had been diverted. The money remains unaccounted for.

Handing down the sentence following after a week of reading the verdicts, the judge said the scam "aggravated the impoverishment of thousands of Mozambicans."

"The country became famous for the worst reasons," he said.

Leao and do Rosario were found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of power, while Guebuza was convicted for embezzlement, money laundering and criminal association among other charges.

str-ub/sn/ri

Mozambique court finds former president's son, others guilty over $2 billion scandal

Story by By Manuel Mucari • Yesterday 


Verdict in the $2 Billion "hidden debt" case in Mozambique© Thomson Reuters

MAPUTO (Reuters) - A Mozambican court on Wednesday found a former president's son and 10 other people guilty on charges related to a $2 billion "hidden debt" scandal that crashed the southern African nation's economy, sentencing them each to more than 10 years in prison.

Eight of 19 individuals, including state security officials, who had been on trial on charges such as money laundering, bribery and blackmail were acquitted by the court.

Armando Ndambi Guebuza, son of former president Armando Guebuza, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the scandal, which saw hundreds of millions of dollars in government-backed loans disappear. Others who were convicted were handed sentences of between 10 and 12 years.


Verdict of the court relating to the $2 Billion "hidden debts" in Mozambique© Thomson Reuters

"Armando Ndambi Guebuza showed no remorse for committing the crime and he maintains that he has been targeted for political reasons," Judge Efigenio Baptista of the Maputo City Court said.

"Ndambi still does not reckon that he wrongfully benefited from $33 million that the Mozambican people badly need."

Two top intelligence service officials, General Director Gregorio Leao and head of the economic unit, Antonio Carlos do Rosario, were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The judge said those convicted had by their actions helped impoverish Mozambique's people.

"The defendants tarnished the good image of the country abroad and in the international markets, with enduring and hard-to-repair effects," he said.

In 2016, Mozambique unveiled hefty state-backed borrowing it had previously failed to disclose to parliament or donors like the International Monetary Fund. The scandal prompted the IMF and other donors to cut off support, triggering a currency collapse and debt default.

The debt, including an $850 million Eurobond dubbed the "tuna bond", was ostensibly raised to develop a tuna fishing industry and other projects, including maritime security.

An independent audit found in 2017 that the government had not done enough to explain how funds were spent and that roughly a quarter of the money was unaccounted for.

Much of the money raised for the fishing project was diverted via kickbacks to bankers and Mozambique officials.

In a separate case related to the loans, Credit Suisse Group agreed to pay about $475 million to American and British authorities to resolve bribery and fraud charges.

A London-based subsidiary of Russian bank VTB also agreed to pay $6 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges it misled investors.

"It is proven that the defendants swindled state funds loaned by Credit Suisse and VTB which were supposed to be used to protect the special economic zone," the judge said during sentencing on Wednesday.

(Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by James Macharia Chege, John O'Donnell and Catherine Evans)

CIA HACKERS

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces cyber attack

The Cuban Foreign Ministry has denounced that its website suffered a cyberattack on Tuesday that caused "limited" access for several hours, although it has clarified that the integrity of the portal was not compromised at any time.


Archive - Two women wearing masks stroll through the streets of Havana, Cuba.

The department itself has explained Wednesday on social networks that hackers intentionally saturated the servers, which left the website unusable from 11.00 (local time).

"This attack is part of the communication war against Cuba," said the Ministry, which has "strongly" denounced actions that violate the rules "governing relations for the peaceful and responsible use of cyberspace".

PRISON NATION U$A

Watchdog finds prison failures before Whitey Bulger killing

WASHINGTON (AP) — A series of missteps by federal Bureau of Prisons officials preceded the October 2018 beating death of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report on Wednesday.




The watchdog is recommending that at least six Bureau of Prisons workers be disciplined, according to the report. The inspector general found no evidence that there was “malicious intent” by any Bureau of Prisons employees involved in decisions made before Bulger’s slaying but found multiple levels of management failures that left Bulger at the mercy of rival gangsters behind bars.

The report found that Bureau of Prisons officials tried several times to downgrade Bulger's medical status, meaning he could be moved to other prisons, and then moved him from being housed alone at a Florida prison to being housed in the general population at a West Virginia prison. It said the officials had shared information about Bulger’s prison transfer widely.

“In our view, no BOP inmate’s transfer, whether they are a notorious offender or a non-violent offender, should be handled like Bulger’s transfer was in this instance,” the report said.

The report is the latest example of a serious failure by the Bureau of Prisons, which has been under increasing scrutiny from Congress and the public after the deaths of several high-profile inmates, including Bulger and wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in custody in 2019. An Associated Press investigation has found myriad crises within the agency, including widespread criminal conduct by employees, rampant allegations of sexual assault and significant staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies.

In response to the report's findings, prisons officials have improved communications between workers on medical transfers and are adding more training and technology, the Bureau of Prisons said Wednesday in a statement. The bureau said it may take more action based on the report’s findings later as it works with the Inspector General’s Office. It did not comment on whether any employees were disciplined.

Bulger, who had a heart condition and used a wheelchair, was 89 year old when he was beaten to death hours after he arrived at West Virginia's Hazelton prison after causing problems at the Florida lockup, where he had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders and other crimes.

Related video: Watchdog: Medical concerns ignored for Whitey Bulger prison transfer (CBS Boston)
Duration 1:12  View on Watch

Bulger led a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets and served as an FBI informant who ratted on the New England mob in an era when bringing down the Mafia was a top national priority for the FBI. He fled Boston in late 1994 after his FBI handler warned him he was about to be indicted and spent 16 years as one of America’s most wanted men before he was captured at age 81 in Santa Monica, California.

Bulger’s transfer to Hazelton — where workers had already been sounding the alarm about violence and understaffing — and placement in the general population instead of more protective housing despite his notoriety were widely criticized by experts after his killing.

The Justice Department only brought charges in the killing this year, nearly four years later, even though officials had identified suspects right away.

Fotios “Freddy” Geas, a former Mafia hitman, and Paul J. DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, are accused of striking Bulger in the head multiple times while another man, Sean McKinnon, acted as a lookout. An inmate witness told authorities that DeCologero said that he and Geas used a belt with a lock attached to it to beat Bulger to death, prosecutors say.

All three men are charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and McKinnon is charged separately with making false statements to a federal agent. Prosecutors say McKinnon told federal agents he wasn’t aware of what happened to Bulger.

More than 100 Bureau of Prisons officials were made aware in advance that Bulger would be moving to Hazelton, and the inmates also found out, the inspector general's report said. The watchdog said so many prison employees knew about Bulger's transfer that it’s impossible for them to determine who disclosed it to the inmates.

Bulger’s family sued the former director of the Bureau of Prisons, the former Hazelton warden and others, saying prison officials were well aware that Bulger had been labeled a “snitch” and that his life was at heightened risk behind bars. The family’s lawsuit said Hazelton was such an inappropriate place to send Bulger that it appeared he was “deliberately sent to his death.”

A judge dismissed the family’s lawsuit in January, concluding that federal law precludes the family’s ability to sue over a decision to transfer Bulger to the West Virginia prison.

___

Richer reported from Boston.

Lindsay Whitehurst And Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press

Sheepdog kills bloodthirsty pack of wild coyotes to save his farmer's flock

Story by Swikar Oli • Yesterday 

Casper, a Great Pyrenees from Decatur, Georgia, has proved himself as trusty as a sheepdog can be after killing a pack of coyotes hungry for his owner’s sheep, all on his own.

Casper, the 20-month-old sheepdog, bravely fought against eleven coyotes.© Provided by National Post

The 20-month-old dog bravely went up against a pack of 11 coyotes threatening his sheep farm — killing eight— in a fight that lasted more than half an hour, said farmer John Wierwiller.

A bloodied Casper survived with skin and part of his tail torn off, Wierwiller told Atlanta television station WAGA-TV.

He scampered off but returned injured two days later after Wierwiller put out a call on social media.

“He was kinda looking at me like, ‘Boss, stop looking at how bad I look, just take care of me,”’ Wierwiller said. “It looked like a coyote grabbed his skin and peeled it right off.”


Casper after being released from the vet.’It looked like a coyote grabbed his skin and peeled it right off,’ says Casper’s owner.© Facebook

Wierwiller took Casper to the hospital in critical condition, he wrote on Facebook. Casper received sutures and stayed under medical supervision, he added. While the loyal sheepdog is returning to his old self, he is “a little tentative about everything,” Wierwiler said.

Last week, emergency vets closed up his neck wounds to halt the chance of an infection and, if all goes well, determined he may not need any skin grafts.

LifeLine Animal Project has raised more than $15,000 for Casper’s hospital bills.

Though dogs rarely prevail like Casper, packs of coyotes attacking pets have grown somewhat common in rural and growing suburban areas that abut wildlands throughout the United States and Canada.

Additional reporting from the Associated Press

Belarus protest leader's health problems caused by bad treatment in jail - allies

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 


KYIV (Reuters) - Political allies of jailed Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova said on Wednesday a rapid deterioration in her health last week and eventual hospitalisation were prompted by bad treatment in prison.


FILE PHOTO: Belarusian protest leader Maria Kolesnikova attends a news conference in Minsk, Belarus© Thomson Reuters

The strident critic of President Alexander Lukashenko underwent surgery last week and was put in intensive care in a ward in Gomel in southeast Belarus. Her father said she had been treated for a perforated ulcer and peritonitis.

Kolesnikova, who is serving an 11-year jail sentence after leading mass protests in 2020, had been in a solitary confinement punishment cell before her health worsened sharply, opposition politician Viktor Babariko's Telegram account said.


FILE PHOTO: Maria Kolesnikova, one of the leaders of mass protests in Belarus in 2020, attends a news conference in Minsk.© Thomson Reuters

"Her emergency hospitalisation with a perforated ulcer and peritonitis was the result of the disproportionately harsh detention in a punishment cell," it said in statement.

It said she had lost consciousness, complained of feeling unwell but been denied medical assistance for a long time.

"She began to have a crisis: in addition to problems with blood pressure, nausea and losing consciousness there was excruciating pain in her stock," it said.

Kolesnikova was one of several leaders of the street protests against Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She was jailed on what she says were trumped-up allegations of involvement in mass unrest.

More than 10,000 criminal cases have been opened since 2020 for involvement in protests or criticising the authorities, which is also an offence.

(Writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage)

In wake of baby formula crisis, highly critical report recommends major food safety changes at FDA

Story by Jen Christensen • Yesterday 


To help prevent outbreaks of food-related illness and problems like the formula shortage that left many parents in the US without adequate access to food for their babies, the US Food and Drug Administration needs a clearer mission and a different kind of leadership, and it has to act with more urgency, according to a highly critical new report.

After the agency faced serious criticism for its handling of the formula shortage, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf commissioned the review of the Human Foods Program in July from the Reagan-Udall Foundation, an independent group of experts.

The need for a review was considered so urgent that Califf asked the group to submit the report in 60 business days – lightning speed for government-focused reports. It was submitted to the FDA on Tuesday.

About 48 million Americans get some kind of foodborne illness every year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Produce alone in 2019 was responsible for 46% of foodborne illness outbreaks, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The FDA oversees the safety of 78% of the US human food supply.

It enforces food safety regulations, works with local governments on food safety information, promotes dietary guidelines, and develops food safety information and education, as well as overseeing nutrition labels on most food and being responsible for promoting good nutrition practices to the US public.

The US food supply is generally recognized as safe, the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s report said, but the FDA needs to be much more proactive in dealing with foodborne pathogens in order to protect Americans.

“An approach that is primarily focused on identifying and reacting to acute outbreaks of foodborne illness and death is unacceptable,” the report says.

Americans’ nutrition can also improve, the report says. Most people don’t follow the US dietary recommendations, and more than a million die of diseases that can be linked to diet such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer each year, according to the FDA

“Relying solely on food labeling and consumer education to drive the needed changes in the food supply is also an unacceptable strategy for reducing diet-related chronic diseases,” the new report says.

Major changes recommended

The report suggests that the agency needs major reform in order to do a better job managing food in the US. Some of the proposed changes would require congressional approval.

The report has several suggestions for ways to reach these goals. One would create a separate Center for Nutrition within the US Department of Health and Human Services. Another would have the FDA develop a strategy to increase funding for the Human Foods Program, with help from Congress. The agency could also connect its technology systems so they better communicate with each other.

The FDA could seek to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to allow the disclosure of more information to local agencies. Or it could get regulatory authority to request records from food manufacturers in advance or in lieu of inspection.

The report recommends that the FDA explore applying its authority to require infant formula manufacturers, for instance, to keep microbiological testing records that are available on request so there is real-time disclosure of results.

It also suggests that the FDA use its mandatory recall authority more often and that there should be a process by which accommodations are made for products that are considered life-sustaining, like formula. At the moment, food recalls are usually voluntarily initiated by a manufacturer or food distributor.

The report also notes that the food program is run under the leadership of several managers. This “lack of a single, clearly identified person” to lead the program has led to a culture of “constant turmoil” and “indecisiveness and inaction” that has created “disincentives for collaboration,” according to the report.

That turmoil was partly to blame for the agency’s problematic handling of the formula shortage, the report says.

Experts have said the agency failed to act quickly enough on sanitation complaints at an Abbott Nutrition formula manufacturing facility in Michigan, and because of a lack of communication across departments, it didn’t circumvent what became a massive shortage of formula after the plant shut down.

“A review of events indicates that lack of communication and engagement across the Agency accounted, in part, for missteps,” the new report says. “There was little motivation, and apparently no requirement, to share information and interact across the Agency to facilitate critical thinking and proactive decision-making.

“This is especially problematic in a crisis, where decisions should be made quickly and be vetted properly.”

The report suggests that the FDA create a new structure with clear roles and leaders. It also encourages development of a culture that is more transparent, that acts quickly and collaborates.

“The current culture of the FDA Human Foods Program is inhibiting its ability to effectively accomplish this goal” of protecting public health,” the report says.

‘A new vision’

Califf said Tuesday that the agency has not had the opportunity to review the report in depth but that the report provides “significant observations” and options to consider.

“The work of these independent evaluators will help to inform a new vision for the FDA Human Foods Program,” Califf said in a news release.

Some critics have suggested that food safety takes a back seat to the FDA’s regulations of drugs and medical devices. Califf acknowledged that food policy was important to the agency, citing the decline in life expectancy in the US largely due to chronic diseases that can be improved with good nutrition.

“The Human Foods Program is a top priority for the agency. America’s food supply is as safe as it’s ever been,” he said. “That said, over the past several years, the program has been stressed by the increasing diversity and complexity of the nation’s food systems and supply chain, the ongoing impacts associated with climate change and rapid advances in the science underlying many of the foods we eat today.”

The FDA will inform the public about how it is moving forward on the panel’s suggestions by the end of January and will provide additional updates at the end of February, including on any structural or procedural changes it will make, Califf said.

He said he’s putting together a group of leaders at the FDA that will advise him on how to “operationalize these findings,” and he expects these leaders to be “bold and focused on the transformative opportunities ahead for the FDA’s food program.”

‘A very encouraging first step’

In April, a coalition of 30 organizations that represent industry, local regulators and consumers sent a letter to the FDA asking for the creation of a deputy commissioner for foods with direct line authority over all the agency’s food components.

One of the organizations, Consumer Reports, has called for months for more accountability and focused leadership from the FDA.

“We need strengthened leadership and accountability at the FDA to implement a culture of prevention, respond more quickly to problems as they arise, and take timely action on proposed food safety rules and initiatives,” Brian Ronholm, Consumer Reports’ director of food policy, said Tuesday.

Ronholm called the new report a “very encouraging first step.”

“We cannot afford to tolerate the status quo and let this moment go by without adopting fundamental changes to improve the FDA’s ability to protect the public and ensure our food is safe,” he said in a statement.

The Consumer Brands Association, a trade association for food manufacturers that also signed the April letter, said Tuesday that the lack of a single leader on food policy leads to “a lot of inefficiencies.”

“A siloed approach across FDA makes it harder for industry to engage,” said Sarah Gallo, the organization’s vice president for product policy. “It is just really complicated when you don’t have somebody looking over the different parts of the agency that have some form of jurisdiction over all those things.

“We can’t ignore what happened with the formula crisis,” Gallo added, a tangible example of what can happen when the FDA is not functioning at its best.

Roberta Wagner, vice president of regulatory and technical affairs for the Consumer Brands Association, agreed that if there were one person in charge, they could make sure the inspection and policy parts of the FDA would work together.

Wagner added that the food industry has embraced a more prevention-oriented kind of philosophy when it comes to safety. “Quite frankly, the problem is, FDA’s inspection force has not modernized itself or its approaches to basically mirror that prevention-oriented system and philosophy,” Wagner said.

The FDA food division has its work cut out for it, though, added Wagner, who worked with the agency in several capacities before joining the association.

“Think about it: The FDA has to keep up with hundreds of thousands of farms and facilities,” she said. “If you have these siloed operations, you’re not having these really critical conversations about where we should be and what should we be doing out there.

“We all want an FDA with a strong foods program. We want consumers not to worry about what they’re eating or whether they’re going to be able to get that certain needed food product,” Wagner added.

Civil rights group says Vancouver has at least one secret police station
Monday

VANCOUVER — A Spanish civil rights group says Vancouver has at least one secret police station operated by Chinese authorities.



The group Safeguard Defenders said in a report in September that there were Chinese police operations around the world, including three in Toronto, and an updated report names another 48 locations.

Safeguard Defenders, a not-for-profit human rights group, said two of the new locations are in Canada: one in Vancouver and the second unknown.

The group's previous investigation looked into the expansion of "long-arm policing" and transnational repression imposed by the Chinese government.

Its latest report, titled “Patrol and Persuade,” gathered more evidence on how these police station function and their “persuasions of return” strategies, the group said in its report.

“Patrol and Persuade also documents the silent complicity of a number of host countries, instilling a further sense of fear into targeted communities and severely undermining the international rules-based order,” Safeguard Defenders said in an online statement.

Its previous report alleged employees from the overseas police system use intimidation and threats to enforce the “involuntary" return of immigrants back to China for persecution.

The group claimed that between April 2021 and July 2022, Chinese police “persuaded” 230,000 claimed fugitives to return to China.


Five alleged Chinese police service stations identified in Canada

cbc.ca


No one rom the Chinese Embassy was immediately available for comment on the new information, but it has previously described the offices as volunteer-run service stations to process things like driver's licences.

The report said the newly documented Vancouver-based police station is being operated by authorities from Wenzhou, a port and industrial city in China's Zhejiang province.

It said most of the newly documented stations were set up starting in 2016, directly refuting the government of China’s previous statements that the operations were started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"New information shows at least one illegal 'persuasion to return' operation run through the Wenzhou station in Paris, France; and at least 80 cases where the Nantong overseas police system assisted in the capture and/or persuasion to return operation," the report said.

The group claimed their work prompted at least 12 countries, including Canada, to launch investigations into local police stations.

A series of recommendations have been listed by Safeguard Defenders for all governments to consider, such as educating local law enforcement on the methods used by the operators and imposing costs on entities and individuals involved in the repression efforts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month he raised the issue of interference directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

Xi later berated him for informing the media about their conversation.

The RCMP said in early November that it is investigating the issue, and officials told MPs in early October that they were aware of the claims by the group.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.

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

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

Ottawa calls for project proposals that help internationally trained health workers

HALIFAX — A program announced Monday will fund projects to remove barriers preventing qualified new Canadians from working in health care, the federal immigration minister said.



Sean Fraser said Ottawa’s call for proposals is aimed at tackling major health labour shortages and the underemployment of internationally trained health professionals. The government will put $90 million toward projects that streamline medical credential recognitions or that provide Canadian work experience to internationally trained health workers.

“It's no secret that newcomers have the skills to fill the vacancies that we need, but they need our help to enter the workforce as soon as possible,” said Fraser, who took part virtually in a news conference held at a Charlottetown hospital.

The minister said immigrants make up about a quarter of all health-care professionals in Canada, but 2020 reporting from Statistics Canada shows that about 47 per cent of skilled immigrants with education in a health field are unemployed or underemployed.

Fraser said proposals for this funding are expected to come from provincial and municipal governments, non-profit organizations, unions, hospitals and other organizations.

“We’ve tried to run the gamut .… We’ll use the call for proposals process to funnel out the very best applications to ensure that we’re having the best possible impact with this funding,” he said. Successful projects can receive between $500,000 and $10 million for the work.

Related video: Ottawa hospital crisis could repeat without prevention effort, says specialist

Duration 1:50

View on Watch

The minister said there’s currently no timeline for when the successful projects must be completed. There’s also no set target for the number of new health professionals the funding is expected to add to Canada’s workforce.

“I don't expect this is going to alleviate the health-care worker shortage in the next couple of weeks, but I do think it's going to start having a very positive impact shortly after the money begins to flow,” Fraser said.

To apply for a portion of the $90 million in available funding, organizations must submit project proposals by the end of January 2023.

On the same day as the federal announcement, Nova Scotia said it will be adding 10 new residency spots for international medical school graduates. The province’s Health Department said priority for those positions will be given to graduates with “a connection to Nova Scotia.”

The move will bring the total number of medical residency positions for international graduates to 16.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.

---

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

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press

New Zealand follows Canada, Australia requiring Facebook, Google to pay for news

Story by Reuters • Monday

WELLINGTON — The New Zealand government said it will introduce a law that will require big online digital companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc to pay New Zealand media companies for the local news content that appears on their feeds.


A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is seen in front of displayed Google logo in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021.© Provided by National Post

Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson said in a statement on Sunday that the legislation will be modelled on similar laws in Australia and Canada and he hoped it would act as an incentive for the digital platforms to reach deals with local news outlets.

“New Zealand news media, particularly small regional and community newspapers, are struggling to remain financially viable as more advertising moves online,” Jackson said. “It is critical that those benefiting from their news content actually pay for it.”

He added that there has been a significant decline in journalists in the last decade.
Liberals say Facebook threat to pull news could harm Canadians’ safety
News compensation bill part of 'global movement' to regulate Big Tech, critic says

“We’ve probably lost 50 per cent of journalists in the last 10 years. We’ve got to give hope to the small players out there. I’m proud to bring forward this legislation to support them,” Jackson told the media on Sunday.

“It’s not fair that the big digital platforms like Google and Meta get to host and share local news for free. It costs to produce the news and it’s only fair they pay,” he said, according to Stuff news website.

Jackson suggested it was likely the two companies would want to do a deal to circumnavigate the mandated process.

“In Canada, deals are being done everywhere. They’ve just done 150 deals because they don’t want to go legislation,” he said.

The new legislation will go to a vote in parliament where the governing Labour Party’s majority is expected to pass it.

Australia introduced a law in 2021 that gave the government power to make internet companies negotiate content supply deals with media outlets. A review released by the Australian government last week found it largely worked.

Since the News Media Bargaining Code took effect, the tech firms had inked more than 30 deals with media outlets compensating them for content which generated clicks and advertising dollars, said the Treasury department report.

“At least some of these agreements have enabled news businesses to, in particular, employ additional journalists and make other valuable investments to assist their operations,” said the report.

Canada’s Bill C-18 follows Australia’s footsteps which aims to force Google and Facebook to negotiate commercial deals for news revenue-sharing with Canadian publishers.

The two companies could end up funding 30 per cent of the cost of producing news in Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated.

Currently, Google and Facebook earn 80 per cent of all digital ad revenue in Canada — ad revenue that used to go to Canadian news organizations and journalists. Since 2008, 468 news outlets have closed in Canada, most of them community news outlets.

In July, Postmedia, publishers of National Post, announced it had signed a deal with Google for payment of news articles. The National Post as well as daily and weekly newspapers and news sites around Canada, joined the ranks of other publishers that have signed deals with Google News Showcase, the company’s global content licensing program. Among them are Torstar, the company that publishes the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail, plus numerous smaller publishers around the country.

While Google followed the standard legislative process by presenting to Ottawa their proposed amendments of bill C-18, Facebook threatened to remove news off its platform if forced to share revenue with news publishers.

“Faced with adverse legislation based on false assumptions that defy the logic of how Facebook works, and which if passed, will create globally unprecedented forms of financial liability for news links and content, we feel it is important to be transparent about the possibility that we may be forced to consider whether we continue to allow the sharing of news content on Facebook in Canada,” Meta’s global policy director Kevin Chan said.