What if an Indigenous woman was the face of Canada’s $20 bill?

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday

The Queen is dead. Is it now time for an Indigenous woman to take her place on the $20 bill?

The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is asking that question through its new art exhibition, “Change the Bill.” The concept for the exhibition began following the Queen’s death, as the decision of changing the figure on the back of the Canadian dollar loomed near, Irene Goodwin, NWAC's director of policy and programs, culture and art, told Canada’s National Observer.

An Indigenous woman has never been represented on a Canadian banknote, Goodwin explained.

The exhibition, which runs from Jan. 20 to 28 at The Local Gallery in Toronto, is a call to action to promote reconciliation through art, according to an NWAC press release. Art pieces are also available to be viewed and purchased online, with all proceeds going to the artists.

The exhibition is on display as part of Design TO’s 2023 festival. NWAC also enlisted TAXI, a leading brand experience agency, to emphasize underrepresented and marginalized Indigenous women in Canadian society, the press release added.

Each piece in the exhibition is a different artist’s reimagination of the $20 bill in both its background design and historical figure. Each artist decided which woman they wanted on their bill as well, Goodwin said.

Some figures include child welfare activist Cindy Blackstock, water protector and Elder Josephine Mandamin and former Chief, Elder and Air Force veteran Margaret Pictou.

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“If the $20 bill was to be reimagined, it would be to highlight the significant contributions of Indigenous women to the development of Canada, as well as highlight the Indigenous artists that we have,” Goodwin said.

NWAC reached out to several artists towards the end of 2022, a quick turnaround for the art exhibition, and Goodwin says artist contributions continue to roll in. For the exhibition, each artist was asked to celebrate an Indigenous hero without any parameters, Goodwin said.

Some artists chose historical figures like Pictou. Another artist, Mando Littlechild, chose her Kokum (grandmother) who was a residential school survivor, which is “an important story” to tell, Goodwin said.

Goodwin thinks the exhibition isn’t merely about putting an Indigenous woman on the banknote as an end in itself; instead, it’s a celebration and recognition of the significance of the contributions of Indigenous women.

It’s an act of reconciliation to promote both the women on the banknotes and the artists who composed them, Goodwin explained.

“Educating future generations about the contributions of Indigenous women and fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of their significance creates a more just and equitable society for all Canadians,” Lynne Groulx, CEO of NWAC, said in the press release.

Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Murray Mandryk: Sask. Government misses history lesson from First Nations

Opinion by Murray Mandryk • Yesterday 

Opposition First Nation Metis Relations critic Betty Nippi-Albright holds eagle feathers as First Nations people demand honest dialogue of Crown land leasing.© Provided by Leader Post

As First Nations leaders came to the podium in the Opposition caucus conference room Monday to speak to why the Saskatchewan Party government is wrong to auction off Crown land without proper consultations, each was handed eagle feathers to hold.

Traditionally in many First Nations cultures, the eagle feather is a powerful religious object obligating the holder to speak the truth.

The problem, it seemed, is no one from government was there to hold the eagle feathers.

Especially after last fall’s introduction of the Saskatchewan First Act, there seems little trust among First Nations people that this government abides by traditions of truth telling.

“What I hear are empty words spoken with a forked tongue,” said Ochapowace Nation Chief Margaret Bear told the Monday gathering as she lambasted Premier Scott Moe and demanded the immediate repeal of the Saskatchewan First Act.
 
“That’s what I hear — saying one thing and doing another.”

Her words were passionate and sometimes stinging. But like other First Nation speakers from across the province who travelled to the legislature Monday, Bear spoke with a great deal of knowledge about treaty history. It’s too bad no one from government was there to listen and learn.

Much of recent treaty history in Saskatchewan has revolved around finding ways to make modern-day things like Crown land leases work within the historical treaty agreement framework.

“That’s part of our history,” Bear said. “That’s part of your history.”

As such, a “duty to consult” matrix has been established to have meaningful dialogue before any Crown land is leased or sold for agricultural purposes — something likely to alter the environment and the historic First Nations use of the land.

That hasn’t happened in this most recent land lease/sale proposal, First Nations argued, vowing to take government to court over it.

While there had been notices of preliminary discussions, Onion Lake’s duty to consult co-ordinator Terri Quinney said her First Nation was not informed of the upcoming lease auctions and might not have known about them had she not seen an online posting in December.

“Duty to consult is an obligation that flows from the honour of the Crown,” said Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis. “The goal is to listen to the views and concerns of those affected groups and where necessary and possible, modify the actions.”

But as frustrating as this ongoing battle over duty to consult has been, palpable in the room was frustration over what has simultaneously happened with last fall’s Saskatchewan First Act.

Calmly, Bear explained why the act was unacceptable and far beyond the Crown land lease dispute.

Much of Canada’s economy was built on the extraction of natural resources as the federal government unilaterally transferred control of the First Nations land and natural resources to provinces pursuant to the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Agreement, Bear explained. “We have always maintained this transfer was unlawful.”

As per the wording of the treaties, First Nations never relinquished the rights to natural resources, Bear explained.

“We wanted to share our beautiful land — our Mother Earth — with our newcomers,” she said. “At that time, we shared only the top six inches of the ground or the depth of a plow for agricultural purposes. Nothing deeper.”

Adding to this maddening situation is Moe’s suggestion Sept. 30 on Truth and Reconciliation Day that his government believes in “economic reconciliation.”

That was great to hear at the time,” Bear said. But then came the Saskatchewan First Act that Moe and Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre maintain required no input from Saskatchewan’s First Nations.

This act has been carried forward by a minister who questioned the portrayal of white pioneers in classroom treaty teachings. There’s plenty of reason for First Nations not to trust this government.

At the very least, they do seem to have an argument that the Sask. Party government has moved away from its commitment to better teach treaty history.

Perhaps it’s time for government to pick up the eagle feather.

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

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Manning COVID review to cover off work of long-promised Alberta public health panel

Story by The Canadian Press • 

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s promise to assemble a panel of medical experts to deliver ongoing advice on public health and COVID-19 will be covered off by former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning’s pandemic review, her office said Wednesday.


Manning COVID review to cover off work of long-promised Alberta public health panel© Provided by The Canadian Press

“The central role of the (Manning) panel will be to review legislation and recommend amendments to better enable the province to respond to future health emergencies,” Smith’s spokesman Taylor Hides said in a statement, responding to questions on when the science panel would be announced.

“The panel’s full membership is being finalized but will be announced as soon as possible.”

Hides did not respond to followup questions to explain how the Manning review fulfils the previously stated, divergent mandate of Smith’s promised ongoing public health science advisory panel.

Earlier Wednesday, Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley asked whether the science panel as promised by Smith would ever appear.

"I’d begin by looking at the concept of the panel with a great deal of skepticism — skepticism that it even exists at all or that we will see such a thing.

"Our premier does say things that aren’t true quite regularly, and, in fact, she’s operating within a context of overall chaos and incompetence in terms of failing to move forward on ideas.”

Last week, Smith announced Manning would head up a $2-million inquiry reviewing legislation and decisions to improve how Alberta could handle the next pandemic.

Manning will be paid $253,000 and report back once, in November. He will pick the other panel members subject to approval by Smith.

The panel's online portal is active. Those who sign on are invited to respond to one question: "What, if any, amendments to legislation should be made to better equip the province to cope with future public health emergencies?''

The science advisory panel promise dates back to Smith’s first day in office when she announced she was assembling a group of public health advisers while replacing Dr. Deena Hinshaw as chief medical officer of health.

Smith has blamed Hinshaw and Alberta Health Services for failing to provide the best advice and resources to the government during the pandemic, forcing it to impose restrictions.

“I will be developing a new team of public health advisers,” Smith told reporters shortly after being sworn in on Oct. 11.

Since then the promised panel has been beset by confused messaging.

In early November, Smith suggested at a public forum that the advisory team was in place and was contacting controversial experts such as Paul Alexander.

"I've got a group of doctors advising me and I know that they've already reached out to Dr. Paul Alexander, so I'm interested in hearing what he has to say,” Smith told a debate forum for the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection on Nov. 3.

Alexander, an adviser to former U.S. president Donald Trump, has been an outspoken critic of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and the usefulness of health restrictions while expounding on herd immunity to handle the pandemic.

He has dismissed COVID-19 vaccines as "bioweapons."

Two days later, on Nov. 5, Smith’s office stated the advisory team was not in place.

"The premier is in the process of consulting with Health Minister Jason Copping on putting together a qualified and diverse group of medical experts to advise the government on a range of health issues,'' spokesperson Becca Polak said in a statement at the time.

"This group of health advisers will be announced before the end of the year after the necessary vetting and selection process is complete."

By year’s end, the team had not been announced.

Two weeks ago, when asked by reporters about the team, Smith said she expected to announce it within days.

Smith leveraged support from United Conservative Party members to win the leadership last October by promising to redress what she has termed medically questionable violations of personal rights and freedoms — such as masking, gathering and vaccine mandate rules — during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smith has long aligned herself with those questioning the mainstream science approach to the pandemic.

She previously endorsed debunked treatments, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and embraced fringe views of the pandemic such as the Great Barrington Declaration, which calls for protecting the elderly and frail but otherwise letting COVID-19 run free to build up herd immunity.

Manning, like Smith, has publicly questioned the COVID restrictions. He has said the rules affected the long-term mental and physical health of Canadians while eroding their Charter rights.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2023.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

CANADA

COVID-19 misinformation cost at least 2,800 lives and $300M, new report says

Story by Darren Major • CBC

The spread of COVID-19 misinformation in Canada cost at least 2,800 lives and $300 million in hospital expenses over nine months of the pandemic, according to estimates in a new report out Thursday.

The report — released by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), an independent research organization that receives federal funding — examined how misinformation affected COVID infections, hospitalizations and deaths between March and November of 2021.

The authors suggest that misinformation contributed to vaccine hesitancy for 2.3 million Canadians. Had more people been willing to roll up their sleeves when a vaccine was first available to them, Canada could have seen roughly 200,000 fewer COVID cases and 13,000 fewer hospitalizations, the report says.

Alex Himelfarb, chair of the expert panel that wrote the report, said that its estimates are very conservative because it only examined a nine-month period of the pandemic.

"It's pretty clear that tens of thousands of hospitalizations did occur because of misinformation," Himelfarb told reporters. "We are confident that those are conservative estimates."

Himelfarb also said the $300 million estimate covers only hospital costs — the study didn't include indirect costs associated with factors such as delayed elective surgeries and lost wages.

A number of studies have found that getting vaccinated can reduce the risk of COVID infection and hospitalization. But only 80 per cent of Canadians have been fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from Health Canada.

The CCA report defines two groups of vaccine-hesitant individuals: those who were reluctant to get a shot and those who refused. It says that reluctant individuals expressed concerns about vaccines in general and questioned the speed with which COVID vaccines were developed.

Vaccine refusers, on the other hand, were more likely to believe that the pandemic is a hoax or greatly exaggerated, the report says.


A COVID-19 vaccine clinic for children age five to 11 at École des Belles-Rives elementary school in Gatineau, Que. on Nov. 29, 2021.© Jacques Corriveau/Radio-Canada

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Beyond the health impacts, misinformation is depriving people of their right to be informed, said Stephan Lewandowsky, a professor at the University of Bristol's School of Psychological Science in the U.K. and one of the report's authors.

"In a democracy, the public should be able to understand the risks we're facing … and act on that basis," he said. "But if you're drenched in misinformation … then you're distorting the public's ability — and you're denying people the right — to be informed about the risks they're facing."

The report says misinformation relies on simple messages meant to evoke emotional reactions. It says misinformation is often presented as coming from a credible source, such as a scientific publication.

Ideology can play a role: authors

The authors also suggest that misinformation can be driven by someone's personal worldview, ideology or political identity.

"Denial of collective action problems is going to be very [prevalent] among people who don't like collective action," Himelfarb said, noting that misinformation can flow into political messaging.

"When misinformation becomes tied up with identity and ideology, political leaders will often look to misinformation as a means of building their coalition," he said. He did not point to any single politician.

People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, a vocal opponent of COVID-19 public health restrictions and vaccine passports, appeared to unify a portion of the electorate that views pandemic policies as government overreach when he finished with roughly five per cent of the vote in the 2021 election.

Lewandowsky said social media can contribute to the spread of misinformation, but policies to counter such misinformation — such as requiring labels on inaccurate information — could help.

Himelfarb said it's important to balance tackling misinformation with freedom of expression.

"Finding that sweet spot is a challenge," he said.

Lewandowsky said one way to strike a balance would be to make sure reliable information is more widely available and to give people tools to identify misinformation.

"The people who do misinform us have a certain repertoire of rhetorical techniques … and we can identify those," he said.

COVID misinformation may have caused thousands of deaths in Canada: report

Story by Sharon Kirkey • National Post

A protest against COVID-19 vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations in Vancouver on September 1, 2021. 

Beliefs that COVID-19 is exaggerated or an outright hoax, that vaccines can alter a person’s DNA or cause other “covered-up problems” cost Canada an estimated 2,800 lives and thousands of hospitalizations over nine months of the pandemic, according to a new report.

The estimates, based on models, are conservative, the authors said, because they don’t capture all the “flow-on consequences” of misinformation, such as postponed surgeries, doctors’ billings, the cost of treating long COVID or “the social unrest and moral injury to healthcare workers.”

“Misinformation is an urgent societal concern that affects us all,” reads the expert panel report from the Council of Canadian Academies, the latest group to raise alarms over an “infodemic” of falsehoods that spread as widely and rapidly as COVID-19.

According to the far-ranging report, between March and November 2021, misinformation helped sway an estimated 2.4 million people in Canada to delay or refuse to get vaccinated against COVID. Had they been vaccinated as soon as they became eligible, by the end of November 2021, there would have been nearly 200,000 fewer cases of COVID and 13,000 fewer hospitalizations.

Who or what is to blame? A “perfect storm of actors,” Alex Himelfarb, the expert panel’s chair, told a media briefing Wednesday.

They include bad-faith actors on social media; conspiracy theories that offer up something, or someone to blame; the politicization of misinformation; and a “multi-decades long decline in trust,” in one another and institutions that were seen in the past to be reliable sources of information, Himelfarab said.

“Myth and misperception, lies and deception are not new — they’re probably as old as human communication,” said Himelfarb, a former Clerk of the Privy Council and professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick.

“But something different is afoot,” he said. Pundits have labelled ours a “post-truth” era, he said, “where the very idea of truth seems to be under attack, and where misinformation is tied in with ideology and identity and arouses great passions.”

As part of their report, Fault Lines, the 13-member panel set out to estimate the effects of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. How much faster would uptake have been if there was no misinformation? What did it mean for infections and deaths?

They reviewed peer-reviewed publications, government information and statistics and media reports. They also commissioned a model, plugging in “real world” data on the number of vaccinations, cases, ICU visits and deaths between March 1 and Nov. 30, 2021.

The model tracked everyone aged 12 and older over two waves of COVID.

It also drew on data from an Abacus survey at the time that found that 14 per cent of adult Canadians were either vaccine-reluctant (seven per cent) or vaccine-refusers (seven per cent.)

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Reluctant people reported lower trust in government, preferred to avoid vaccines in general and questioned how quickly COVID-19 vaccines were produced and approved.

Among the vaccine refusers, 85 per cent believed that vaccine harms are “covered-up” and 73 per cent believed COVID is fake or overblown.

Overall, the survey suggested that 2.1 million Canadians agreed with COVID misinformation beliefs.

The panel then looked at different hypothetical scenarios, including what happens to COVID vaccination rates and case numbers if the proportion of people who believed COVID is a hoax or vaccines caused hidden dangers were vaccinated as soon as they became eligible.

According to their analysis, if those who believed COVID was a hoax had been vaccinated once eligible, over 2.3 million additional people in Canada would have been vaccinated, resulting in roughly 198,000 fewer cases, 13,000 fewer hospitalizations, 3,500 fewer people needing intensive care, $300 million saved in hospital costs and 2,800 fewer deaths.

The report doesn’t contain recommendations. The CCA’s reports don’t, by design. The goal is to inform policy, not to direct government, a spokesperson said.

But misinformation matters, Himelfarb said, because an “abundance of evidence” shows it causes preventable illness, preventable death and makes people “vulnerable to financial exploitation.”

It also holds. “It’s sticky,” he said. An Abacus poll in June 2021 found that 19 per cent of 1,500 adults surveyed, the equivalent of 5.6 million adults, believe “COVID vaccines have killed many people which has been covered up.” Eleven per cent believed the vaccines contain secret chips “designed to monitor and control human behavior.”

But scientific research is also fallible, the panel report notes. “Misinformation can be the product of systemic failures in science and medicine, and in the communication of scientific knowledge and research findings,” it reads. Finding that don’t replicate and weak methodologies are among the reasons why “no one study can be treated as definitive.”

Some claims represented initially as “information,” become “misinformation” as new knowledge emerges, the report said.

Maya Goldenberg, a University of Guleph philosophy professor and expert in vaccine hesitancy, said public institutions that are supposed to keep the public safe have a responsibility to foster and maintain trust. “A lot of people felt abandoned during this pandemic — public outreach did not reach them; their needs were not met — and the response was to turn away and reject all public health communications, and even to respond and protest angrily,” Goldenberg said.

The panel is committed to the freedom of expression, Himelfarb said. But things can be done to combat misinformation, he said.

Media platforms could be more transparent “about the algorithms that may actually promote misinformation,” because misinformation gets traffic. More could be done to help people better “identify and reject” misinformation, he said, and promote digital literacy and critical thinking, starting with young school-age kids. Leaders must learn how to better communicate health and science information, including finding “trusted messengers” who can reach diverse communities and be open about uncertainty.

Like every model, the model is only as good as the data that went into it, Himelfarb said. But he said the estimates are conservative, they only focus on the two waves of COVID before Omicron emerged and they only looked at a narrow range of costs.

“It’s pretty clear that tens of thousands of hospitalizations did occur because of misinformation,” he said.

The non-partisan panel tried deliberately to stay out of politics. But it matters when political leaders “endorse (and) further promote misinformation,” Himelfarb said. “It accelerates the spread, it matters, it makes it harder to correct.”

“When it becomes tied up with identity and ideology, political leaders will often look to misinformation as a mean of building their coalition. It has become a tool in politics,” he said, and a threat to democracy.

Panel member Timothy Caulfield said the “grim data” were disappointing, but not surprising. “Canada has a reputation of being perhaps a little bit more removed from the polarizing discourse that permeates our neighbour to the south,” said Caulfield, a University of Alberta professor of health law and policy.

“But as we’ve seen over the past three years, we’re not immune to the harms that misinformation brings.”

Canada considering sending 4 Leopard tanks to Ukraine: sources

Story by Peter Zimonjic • Yesterday - CBC

Canada is considering contributing four Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, senior sources told CBC News — but no decision has been made.

The government could announce the donation of tanks as early as Thursday, the sources said.

CBC News is not identifying the confidential sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

One source said Canada is likely to send Ukraine the A4 variant of the tank — the oldest in the Canadian military's inventory. Canada bought the A4s from the Netherlands during the Afghan war.

The Globe and Mail first reported the number of tanks that Canada may send to Ukraine's war effort.

Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will provide more support to Ukraine but declined to join allies in announcing a donation of German-made tanks to fend off Russian forces.

One military expert said Germany's announcement that it's sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine puts pressure on Trudeau to follow suit.
 
"We will continue to be there to give whatever support we can to Ukraine," Trudeau said. "I won't be making an announcement today but I can tell you we're looking very, very closely at what more we can do to support Ukraine."

Trudeau made the remarks in Hamilton, Ont., where he is attending a cabinet retreat in advance of the return of Parliament.

For weeks, Ukraine has been asking its allies to supply it with up to 300 German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks. Several allies have those tanks in their inventories but were unable to donate them unless Germany gave its approval for the vehicles to be transferred to a third party.

Earlier Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that his country would provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2 tanks from his own military.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany advised several allies of its plan ahead of the announcement, including Canada.

"Germany will always be at the forefront when it comes to supporting Ukraine," Scholz said later in an address to lawmakers in the German federal parliament.

Allies step up

Germany made the announcement on the same day U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington that the United States will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

Germany, which was reluctant to incur Russia's wrath alone by sending tanks, had said the Leopards would not be sent unless the U.S. put its Abrams on the table.

The U.K. announced last week that it would send 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.

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Reuters reported Wednesday that Norway's defence minister announced his country also would donate Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, joining Poland, Finland, Spain and the Netherlands.

One of the old Soviet armoured vehicles Ukrainian soldiers are using in the field.© Stephanie Jenzer/CBC News

Walter Dorn, a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College, said the donations announced by other countries ramped up the pressure on Canada to do the same.

"I think there will be pressure from the United States for Canada to pony up on the Leopard-2 tanks, because Leopard-2s will be the mainstay of the Ukrainian tank forces," he said.

Dorn said that the Abrams tanks are very different from the Leopard-2 tanks and allies likely want Ukraine to have a more uniform fleet of vehicles to ensure they can be supported with parts and repairs on the battlefield.

Maintenance challenges

Dorn said the German announcement is significant because it allows Ukraine to counter Russian advances into Ukraine and launch attacks of its own.

"It's potentially a game-changer because it adds much more punch to the Ukrainian forces," Dorn told CBC News. "They are an entire generation better.

"The Western weapons are heavier, they've got better armour, they can pack more punch, they have the capacity to take territory more easily. Really, the [Russian] T-72s can't stand a chance against these more modern weapons."

Dorn said that while Ukraine has asked for 300 tanks, having just 100 of these vehicles would make a significant difference on the battlefield.

Germany said the tanks will not be battle-ready for several months.

Dorn said it will take time to train crews and build the maintenance facilities required to keep the tanks operational.

The Canadian Armed Forces has 112 Leopard 2s in its inventory. They include 82 designed for combat and 30 that are used for engineering purposes and recovering disabled vehicles. Many are not battle-ready because of maintenance issues.

According to a paper published last year by the Royal Military College, "the poor serviceability rate of the Leopard 2 main battle tanks is an endemic issue and a strategic-level concern since implementation."

The paper blamed the maintenance problems on a lack of infrastructure, technicians and spare parts.

Forces won't say how many tanks are battle-ready

Retired lieutenant-general and former Canadian Army commander Jean-Marc Lanthier said in an interview with the Canadian Press that any donation almost certainly will have to balance the needs of Ukraine against the potential impact on Canada's military.

"Getting rid of any tanks — because we have so few, and so few that are actively working — would have an immediate impact on the level of readiness of the Army," said Lanthier, who served as an armoured officer.

"Is that something that should stop us from sending tanks? I think we have a moral responsibility in terms of the immediacy of the requirements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian people. They are fighting a war. We are not."

Canada bought its Leopards from Germany during the war in Afghanistan. They are notionally divided into squadrons of 19 tanks each, with two squadrons in Edmonton and a third at CFB Gagetown, N.B. Most of the rest are at the armour training school in Gagetown.

"And normally you keep a bunch of them at a depot ready to be deployed, but that's not something we're doing necessarily because we don't have the numbers," said Lanthier.

Department of National Defence spokesperson Andrew McKelvey would not comment Wednesday on what percentage of the military's Leopard 2s are currently battle-ready, and how many are out of service for maintenance or other reasons.

"Tank maintenance is similar to aircraft maintenance, and the status of the fleet at any given moment depends on a comprehensive maintenance, repair and overhaul schedule, which is tied to specific requirements for training or operational employment," he said.

"For operational security reasons, we cannot specify how many Leopard 2s are being maintained at any given time or give indication of their maintenance schedule."

The question facing the government will be whether the benefit of sending tanks to Ukraine outweighs the impact on the military, Lanthier said. If it does, another question will be whether those tanks would be replaced — and if so, how quickly.

Antidepressants could fuel the rise of superbugs, lab dish study suggests

Story by Nicoletta Lanese • 8h ago

Antidepressants may drive bacteria to develop resistance against antibiotics, despite being a completely different class of drugs, a new study finds.


Antidepressants can spur the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria in lab dishes.© Rodolfo Parulan Jr. via Getty Images

"Even after a few days exposure, bacteria develop drug resistance, not only against one but multiple antibiotics," Jianhua Guo, the study's senior author and a professor at the University of Queensland's Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, told Nature magazine.

This effect was only observed in petri dishes, so more research is needed to show whether antidepressants help fuel the rise of superbugs in the environment or the human body, experts told Nature.

In the study, published Monday (Jan. 23) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Guo and his colleagues exposed the bacterium Escherichia coli to different doses of five common antidepressants: sertraline (Zoloft), duloxetine (Cymbalta), bupropion (Wellbutrin), escitalopram (Lexapro) and agomelatine (Valdoxan). Throughout the two-month exposure period, the team tested the bacteria's susceptibility to 13 antibiotics, representing six classes of the drugs.

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All the antidepressants pushed the E. coli to develop antibiotic resistance within the exposure window, but sertraline and duloxetine had the most pronounced effects and generated the highest ratio of resistant bacterial cells to normal cells, the researchers reported. Guo's lab previously found that antidepressants can kill or slow the growth of certain bacteria; under this stress, the bacteria may adapt strategies to overcome the drugs, and subsequently, they also fare better against antibiotics, Nature reported.

The higher the dose of antidepressant, the faster the E. coli developed resistance, and the more classes of antibiotics they came to resist within the two months. Notably, bacteria raised in well-oxygenated lab dishes gained resistance faster than those in poorly oxygenated dishes; the latter experiments may better represent the environment of the human intestine, where E. coli typically grows in the body.

The resistant cells produced toxic molecules called "reactive oxygen species;" activated pumps that help them push antibiotics out of their membranes; and mutated faster than normal E. coli, which raised their chances of acquiring drug-resistant gene variants. Sertraline also prompted bacterial cells to swap genes with one another, a key process in the spread of antibiotic resistance, Nature reported.

More research is needed to know whether antidepressants exert these effects on bacteria in the human body. "Strikingly, the antidepressants sertraline and duloxetine at clinically relevant concentrations in colon (e.g., 50 mg/L) caused an effect after only 1 d of exposure," the researchers reported; in other words, there may be high enough concentrations of the drugs in the human gut to drive resistance.

It's less clear whether antidepressants could spur these effects in wastewater, where antidepressants can be detected in lower concentrations. Read more in Nature.

SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD
Could a parasitic fungus evolve to control humans?

Story by Sarah Gibbens • Yesterday 

An ant, no longer in control of its body, crawls away from its colony, hangs perilously on a leaf, and waits to die as a fungus consumes its body, emerges from its head, and releases spores into the air.


Fruiting bodies erupt from a dead moth killed by the cordyceps fungus. The genetically related ophiocordyceps fungus similarly kills insects, but first makes its host body do its bidding.

© Photograph by Alex Hyde, Nature Picture Library

“They’re like these grim little Christmas ornaments out in the forest,” says Ian Will, a fungal geneticist at the University of Central Florida, where these zombified ants can be found.

What if this parasitic fungus could do the same thing to us?

That’s the premise of the new television show based on the video game The Last of Us in which, as a result of warming temperatures caused by climate change, a fungus takes over the world and turns humans into parasite-controlled zombies.

“In a fantastical way, the logical links are there, but it’s not likely to happen in real life,” says Will. But while scientists aren’t worried about fungi evolving to turn people into zombies, rising temperatures do pose a real risk of making fungal infections worse.

How does the parasite infect ants?

Creator of The Last of Us Neil Druckmann was reportedly inspired by a nature video showing the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infecting a bullet ant. Cordyceps are a broad category of insect parasites, and a popular health supplement. But only ophiocordyceps control their host’s body.

About 35 of these ophiocordyceps fungi are known to turn insects into zombies, but as many as 600 may exist, says João Araújo, an expert on parasitic fungi at the New York Botanical Garden.

The first signs of infection are erratic and abnormal behavior. Scientists think the parasite takes physical control of its host by growing fungal cells around the brain that hijack an insect’s nervous system to control its muscles. It’s unclear exactly how it does this, whether by releasing a chemical or altering a bug’s DNA, says Will.

It’s a process the fungus has been refining within its specific host since before human history.

“Our hypothesis is that they have been coevolving for about 45 million years,” says Araújo.

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Are we sure it can’t infect humans?

For the fungus to move to any warm-blooded animal would require some serious evolutionary work.

“If the fungus really wanted to infect mammals it would require millions of years of genetic changes,” Araújo.

Each zombie-creating fungus species evolved to match a specific insect, so unique strains have little effect on an organism except for the one they evolved to infect. For example, a cordyceps that evolved to infect an ant in Thailand can’t infect a different ant species in Florida.

“If a jump from an ant species is hard, to jump to humans—that’s definitely sci-fi,” says Will. “But this idea that temperature plays a role in fungal infections is certainly reasonable.”

A threat from rising temperatures?

Even without a looming threat from parasitic fungi, there are plenty of other fungi to fear.

There are millions of fungal species estimated to exist in the world, and a few hundred are known to be dangerous to humans. One thing that’s protected us from serious fungal infections are our own warm bodies. At around 98°F, human bodies are too hot for most fungal species to spread an infection—they prefer a range of 77°F to 86°F.

“One of the reasons why we have skin fungi is they can get between folds of skin. Those are sort of wet, dark places fungi can proliferate that are cooler than body temperature,” says Shmuel Shoham, an infectious diseases expert at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“As the Earth warms up, there is concern that the change between environment temperature and body temperature won't be as dramatic,” he says. Hypothetically, that would make it easier for fungi that have evolved to withstand hotter outdoor temperatures to also be able to survive inside the human body.

There is one fungal species capable of infecting people that scientists think may have resulted from warming temperatures, called Candida auris.

It wasn’t even known to science until 2007, but in 2011 and 2012, it was suddenly found on three different continents.

“It came out of nowhere,” says Arturo Casadevall, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The idea is that this fungus was out there, and over the years it adapted to higher temperatures until it could break through.”

When they enter the bloodstream, fungi present symptoms similar to a bacterial infection, Shoham notes. For people with healthy immune systems, fighting them off is typically not an issue. But many are not so lucky: The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 30 to 60 percent of patients infected with the fungus have died, although the possibility they had underlying health conditions makes it difficult to determine how pivotal a role Candida auris played.

But when asked if a fungal outbreak akin to COVID-19 was possible, Casadevall says it’s not out of the question.

Considering that possibility, he posits, “Am I worried about an unknown disease emerging and infecting the immunocompetent? Sure.”

 

What scientists say about the real-life zombie fungi that inspired 'The Last of Us'

Story by Kate Golembiewski • CNN


The zombies are identifiable by the fungi bursting from their bodies: a thicket of spiky tendrils, a miniature garden of mushroom-like fruiting bodies. These fungal parasites act as puppeteers, commanding and positioning the zombies to infect entire communities.

It’s the premise of “The Last of Us,” a video game series and now a show on HBO, which shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN, but it’s also a scene that plays out in real life every day around the world.
Are zombie fungi real?

The creators of “The Last of Us” have said they were inspired by a sequence in BBC’s “Planet Earth” documentary series depicting an ant infected with a fungus that hijacks its brain, forcing it to climb a tree and dangle above the forest floor. There, the fungus digests the ant’s body from the inside out and unleashes a shower of spores to create more zombies.

When “Planet Earth” came out in 2006, the zombie ant fungus was believed to be part of the group Cordyceps, but genetic studies have since placed it in another insect-parasitizing fungus group, Ophiocordyceps.


What scientists say about the real-life zombie fungi that inspired 'The Last of Us'© Provided by CNNFungi of the group Ophiocordyceps, including Ophiocordyceps odonatae, the one that infected the dragonfly pictured here, each generally prey upon a particular insect. - Biosphoto/Alamy Stock Photo

There are well over 100 known Ophiocordyceps species that infect a wide variety of insects, including butterflies, moths and beetles, and at least 35 that perform “mind control” on their hosts.

“We only know 35, but our estimates range to more than 600 species, waiting to be described,” said João Araújo, an assistant curator of mycology at the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden.

Can fungi infect and control humans?

While zombie fungi are real and numerous, Araújo and others aren’t worried about Ophiocordyceps infecting people.

“They’re super species-specific,” said Charissa de Bekker, an assistant professor in the biology department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Each of the known Ophiocordyceps species preys upon a particular insect, and that specificity is a double-edged sword. “They have very refined machinery to interact with their hosts and do these really interesting things like changing behavior, but they can’t even jump from one species to the next,” let alone to an organism as distantly related as a human, de Bekker explained.

Humans’ immunity to Ophiocordyceps is evident in how many interactions with the fungi have so far proved harmless. People in parts of Asia use one type (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) in traditional medicines, and scientists who study the fungi haven’t been infected.

“I inhale Ophiocordyceps spores all the time because I work with them closely,” said Araújo, who remains un-zombified.

While we may be safe from Ophiocordyceps, David Hughes, one of the scientists who consulted on the video game, said there is a lesson to be learned from the “The Last of Us,” which is essentially a story about existential threats to humanity.

“The biggest threat globally is climate change,” said Hughes, who has shifted his research focus away from zombie ants and is now Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security at Pennsylvania State University.

Fungal disease and climate change

“The Last of Us” raises the point that climate change could spur on fungal adaptations to hotter habitats. That’s true of the infectious fungus Candida auris, which was discovered in 2009 and has since been found in more than 30 countries.

“In a warming world, fungi also have to adapt to a warmer climate,” de Bekker said. “And you can imagine then, if their optimal growth temperatures therefore become higher and closer to our body temperatures, it might be more likely that in the future, we have more fungal infections in humans than we see right now.”

A widespread fungal pandemic is unlikely, based on how fungal infections tend to spread in humans, according to Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, deputy head in the division of internal medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the leader of its Medical Mycology Research Center.



Meet the real-life zombie fungi that inspired 'The Last of Us'© Provided by CNNThe creators of "The Last of Us" have said they were originally inspired by a BBC documentary depicting a fungus that hijacks the brains of ants. - Oliver Thompson-Holmes/Alamy Stock Photo

However, Kontoyiannis noted that fungal diseases are harder to treat than bacterial infections because fungi, like humans, are made of eukaryotic cells and share the same basic cell structures. This makes it very difficult to find a treatment “that targets the fungus and not the humans,” he said.

A warmer future with more fungal infections would especially endanger people with weakened immune systems, Kontoyiannis added.

Hughes said he hopes people who engage with “The Last of Us” see the parallels to the real-life challenges facing our world, including climate change and new health threats that will accompany it. “The whole thing is a real-time study in what we pay attention to and what we act on,” he said.

Ants can detect the scent of cancer in urine

Story by Jennifer Nalewicki • 

Ants can be trained to detect cancer in urine, a new study finds.


Since they don't have noses, ants use their antennae to sniff out cancer.© Rob Ault via Getty

Although ant sniffing is a long way from being used as a diagnostic tool in humans, the results are encouraging, the researchers said.

Because ants lack noses, they use olfactory receptors on their antennae to help them find food or sniff out potential mates. For the study, published Jan. 25 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, scientists trained nearly three dozen silky ants (Formica fusca) to use these acute olfactory receptors for a different task: finding tumors.

In a lab, scientists grafted slices of breast cancer tumors from human samples onto mice and taught the 35 insects to "associate urine from the tumor-bearing rodents with sugar," according to The Washington Post. Once placed in a petri dish, the ants spent 20% more time next to urine samples containing cancerous tumors versus healthy urine, according to the study.

Related video: Study: Ants Could Be Surprising Key In Cancer Detection (Cheddar News)

Duration 0:30   View on Watch

"They just want to eat sugar," Baptiste Piqueret, the study's lead author and an ethologist at Sorbonne Paris North University in France, told The Washington Post.

Related: Some cancer cells grow stronger after chemo. Research hints at how to kill them.

Because tumor cells contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that researchers can use as cancer biomarkers, animals such as dogs — and now ants — can be quickly trained to detect these anomalies through their sense of smell. However, researchers think that ants "may have the edge over dogs and other animals that are [more] time-consuming to train," according to The Washington Post.

This is important because the earlier cancer is detected, the sooner treatment can begin. The researchers are hopeful that cancer-sniffing ants have the potential "to act as efficient and inexpensive cancer bio-detectors," they wrote in their study.

"The results are very promising," Piqueret said. However, he cautioned that "it's important to know that we are far from using them as a daily way to detect cancer."

Feds, First Nations settle class-action lawsuit over ‘collective harm’ of residential day schools

Story by The Canadian Press • 

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

The federal government and 325 First Nations have settled out of court a second class-action lawsuit by survivors who attended but did not board at residential schools. Indian residential day schools operated from the 1800s to as late as 2000.

Referred to as residential day scholars, they attended schools run by Christian churches. During the course of their education, they were subjected to assimilating abuse and loss of identity, culture and language.

The Gottfriedson settlement, named after former Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Shane Gottfriedson, was announced Saturday in Vancouver by Marc Miller, minister of Crown-Indigenous affairs, alongside Gottfriedson and other former First Nations leaders.

The $2.8-billion fund will be placed in a not-for-profit trust led by the First Nations and will be independent of government, a government press release about the announcement stated. The fund will allocate approximately $8.6 million to each of the 325 nations; amounts will be adjusted based on size and remoteness, according to the press conference on Saturday.

The settlement is the second Gottfriedson day scholars settlement, the first being finalized in 2021, which saw individual day scholars receive compensation. This one addresses the “collective harm” of the federal government’s day school policy. From 1870s onwards, Ottawa used day schools to pull First Nations’ children away from their communities and indigenity.

Day schools were not included in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or in the residential school agreement over a decade ago.

“In 2008, the residential school settlement excluded our people and our communities, and we saw the need to stand up for our people,” Gottfriedson said at the press conference.

The settlement will be guided by four pillars developed by representative plaintiffs, including revitalization of Indigenous languages, the revival of Indigenous cultures, protection and promotion of heritage, and wellness for Indigenous nations and their members.

At the press conference, Gottfriedson, a day school survivor, spoke about how he and many others his age lost their language because of "Canada’s policies of attacking Indigenous languages for 120 years.”

With the loss of language came the devastation of Indigenous nations’ political and legal traditions, Gottfriedson said.

Further information about the settlement agreement is expected in February as part of a broader notice plan, according to a press release. Ottawa and the plaintiffs will appear in a Federal Court on Feb. 27 to finalize the agreement.

The court will rule if the settlement is fair and reasonable for the class-action members.

“I would like to acknowledge all of our ancestors who didn’t make it, as well (as) all of our day scholars who signed on to the fight (and) who didn’t see the result, who moved on to the spirit world,” Gottfriedson said at the press conference.

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Ottawa to begin 'intense' talks to rewrite First Nations child welfare compensation deal

Story by Olivia Stefanovich • CBC

Ottawa will attempt to renegotiate its $20-billion compensation package for people affected by the First Nations child welfare system, court records say.


An ‘Every Child Matters’ sticker on a lamp post in downtown Vancouver near the Vancouver Art Gallery.© David Horemans/CBC

Federal officials are expected to begin "intense confidential discussions" on Feb. 7 and 8 to re-work the $20-billion compensation agreement that was rejected last fall by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, according to a letter filed in Federal Court.

The Trudeau government is trying to save the multi-billion dollar agreement it struck with the Assembly of First Nations last year. The deal was supposed to compensate First Nations children and their families for chronic underfunding of the on-reserve child welfare system and other family services.

"I'm hopeful, but I'm also mindful that the prime minister originally said he would compensate these children back in 2019," said Cindy Blackstock, the First Nations children's advocate who initiated the case 16 years ago.

"Yet not one penny of compensation has gone out the door. So a promise to pay is not a payment."

Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, will be part of the negotiations with the government. She'll be joined by AFN representatives and class action lawyers who attempted to resolve two lawsuits with the $20-billion offer.

The agreement included two parts: $20 billion in compensation and another $20 billion for long-term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system.

The compensation portion required the agreement of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) before it could be sent to Federal Court for final approval.

In 2016, the CHRT ruled Ottawa's on-reserve child-welfare system and its health care delivery discriminated against First Nations children. In 2019, it ordered Canada to pay the maximum penalty under the Canadian Human Rights Act: $40,000 in compensation for every affected child and caregiver.

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Under the $20-billion agreement, 300,000 First Nations people were eligible for compensation.

The CHRT rejected the deal last fall, saying it shortchanged some victims and excluded others who are entitled to compensation. It also accused the government and the AFN of misleading the public by not disclosing the fact that their $20-billion child welfare compensation deal left out some victims and reduced payments for others.

Can the deal be salvaged?

The offices of Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told CBC News in a joint statement that the government vows to follow through on compensation.

"This is a historic, First Nations-led $20-billion agreement, and we'll continue to work together with the parties to deliver compensation to those who are entitled to it," the statement said.

So far, the government hasn't committed to putting more money on the table and is focused on distributing the $20 billion.

In its reasons for rejecting the agreement, the CHRT advised the government to put its $20 billion into an interest-earning trust for victims. Blackstock said that's the proper approach.

"We're going to build on the good parts of that final settlement agreement, but make it better by making sure that no one sees their compensation go away or be reduced," she said.

"They can put more money on the table."

Blackstock told CBC News she wants Ottawa to provide more comprehensive support for First Nations children, which could include help with housing, food, mental health and employment.

She's also urging the government to hire a team of archivists and genealogists, with proper cultural support, to help children and families locate their personal records.

The parties are supposed to report back to Federal Court on the status of talks by Feb. 10.

In the meantime, the federal government is still seeking a judicial review of the CHRT's decision rejecting the initial $20-billion deal and its 2019 compensation order.

The AFN is also appealing the CHRT's fall 2022 decision since it questioned the organization's authority, but has put its judicial review on hold while talks resume.

Less than half of Indigenous students graduate on time from Edmonton public high schools

Story by Madeleine Cummings 

Indigenous students in Edmonton continue to have lower high school graduation rates than their non-Indigenous peers.


According to reports, 67 per cent of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students in Edmonton Catholic schools and 47 per cent of those in Edmonton public schools completed high school in three years.© Codie McLachlan

Annual education results reports, which include statistics from Alberta Education for 2021-22, show that more than 80 per cent of Edmonton public school and Catholic school students finish high school on time, but the completion rates are significantly lower for students who self-identify as First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI).

According to the reports, 67 per cent of FNMI students in Edmonton Catholic schools and 47 per cent of those in Edmonton public schools completed high school in three years. The province-wide three-year high school completion rate for FNMI students was 60 per cent.

The three-year completion rates for FNMI students decreased slightly for both school divisions since the previous school year but they have been increasing over the longer term.

Edmonton Catholic Schools' previous three-year high school completion average for FNMI students was 61 per cent while the EBSB's was 45 per cent.

Both districts' reports warn that "caution should be used" when comparing high school completion rates over time since diploma exams were cancelled during the pandemic.

In their reports, the school districts outlined strategies for supporting Indigenous students, including working with families and communities, addressing calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and hiring more Indigenous staff.

"We have a significant amount of work to do," said EPSB Superintendent Darrel Robertson during a school board meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Board chair Trisha Estabrooks acknowledged during the meeting that there was work to do, but she was encouraged by the rising percentage of FNMI students graduating high school within five years.

Grad students push for more funding after nearly 20 years without a raise
1:51

EPSB's five-year high school completion rate for FNMI students is 59 per cent.

Christine Meadows, a spokesperson for Edmonton Catholic Schools, said the the division approaches this issue in a holistic manner, connecting with students throughout their educational journey.

"We want our students to see themselves in school, be successful in school, feel welcomed and have a sense of belonging," she said in an email.

She also said the division's Braided Journeys program has won awards for its success in increasing high school completion among Indigenous students. The program started in a few high schools but has since expanded to support younger students too.

In the 2019-20 school year, EPSB started a high school completion coach pilot at Queen Elizabeth High School that has since been brought to two other schools.

Ward G trustee Saadiq Sumar asked Robertson if the pilot could be expanded further to reach younger students.

"I think there's potential there, but we would have to proceed cautiously so we can afford what it is that we aspire to put in place," Robertson said.

Systemic barriers

Christine Martineau, an assistant professor in the faculty of education at Concordia University of Edmonton, said learning coaches and cultural programs are important for Indigenous students but so is addressing the systemic barriers to their success.

"For Indigenous students, systemic discrimination is at the root of non-completion and low academic performance," she said.

Martineau, who is Cree and Métis and dropped out of high school but went on to earn a PhD in educational leadership, said schools were not built with Indigenous students in mind.

She said there are no simple answers to closing the graduation gap but school divisions could benefit from more immersion and bilingual programs for Indigenous languages. More Indigenous teachers and leaders, she said, could mean more role models for students to look up to.

"Keep the individual supports, like the graduation coaches and the Braided Journeys programs, but also look inward at where the systems need to change," she said.