CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

Voices from the picket line: Paramedics explain why they walked off the job

Wed, January 25, 2023 

Emily White, a paramedic for one of seven companies owned by Bob Fewer, and her colleagues were at Confederation Building on Monday, as elected officials debated a bill to send them back to work with more regulations to help continue negotiations. 

(Terry Roberts/CBC - image credit)

More than 100 employees of seven private ambulance services are back to work, but their labour dispute is far from over.

The paramedics and emergency medical responders now have a piece of legislation calling them essential workers, but they can return to the picket line again, as soon as they reach an agreement with their employer on how many people are needed to maintain a minimum standard.

Whether they reach a satisfactory deal or head back to the picket line, Emily White won't stay long.

"A lot of us are leaving this job. I myself am leaving in the next couple of months," the six-year paramedic told CBC News.

White was one of dozens of paramedics protesting outside Confederation Building in St. John's on Monday. They wanted people to know why they were on strike, and the conditions they've been working with for years.

Several medics — who are unionized under Teamsters Local 855 — said they work seven consecutive 24-hour shifts, but are paid for only 11.43 hours per shift.

"I love the job, but [not] the politics and not getting paid," White said. "Only getting 11.43 hours for 24-hour shifts is not right. I don't get a pension plan. I don't have RRSPs. I have nothing in line for my retirement."

Terry Roberts/CBC

All seven striking ambulance services are owned by one man, Bob Fewer. He hasn't responded to any requests from CBC News since the job action began.

Fewer is quoted in a VOCM article published Wednesday as saying he welcomes the new legislation but it will take a long time to get over bad blood created during the strike.

Teamsters Local 855 business agent Hubert Dawe said talks with Fewer have been unproductive from the beginning. Despite months of attempts to negotiate, Dawe said, a written offer was submitted for only one of seven services.

Dawe said "procrastination" was one of the worst problems they faced with the employer and he was glad to see legislation with prescribed timelines for negotiating contracts and settling disputes.

Under the new legislation, if both sides cannot reach an essential services agreement, they can apply to the provincial labour relations board, which will set the terms of the agreement within 45 days. Workers can return to striking after that.

The act also comes with fines, ranging from $500 to $10,000, for breaking the rules set forth.

Should there be a private sector?

Nathanael White was also on the picket line on Monday, outside the James Paton Memorial Hospital in Gander. He works for the ambulance service in Carmanville, where he moved about 12 years ago.

The pay structure and lack of retirement plans have left him worried for his future.

"I watched my neighbour do 23 years in the ambulance service and at the end of the day, all he got was a plaque thanking him for his service. So who's looking after him now?" he said.

Submitted by Carly White

Nathanael White wants to see the private sector pull in line with the public sector on wages and pensions. Better yet, he said, he'd like to see the private service abolished.

"The government has done audits multiple times in the last decade and found issues with the private sector. It should never have been a for-profit model. It should be directly funded by the government and the money should go where it's supposed to go," he said.

The legislation passed on Monday was rare in labour circles. Legislating people back to work is rarely popular, but it was a move welcomed by the union in this case. Along with the essential designation, the legislation set out a roadmap for handling future disputes. If the Teamsters can't reach a deal with Fewer, the matter can be sent to the labour relations board and on to an independent arbitrator.

"The important thing is that we're still able to provide service for our community, but we still have a voice and we're able to get the things we deserve to make our job better," Nathanael White said.

GOOD NEWS
B.C. valley of ancient trees, rare animals preserved in deal with forest firm

Wed, January 25, 2023 


VICTORIA — A valley of intact forests, lakes and wetlands in southeastern British Columbia nearly 200 times the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park is being preserved in an agreement with governments, Indigenous groups, a forest company and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The partnership to protect the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, B.C., involves Interfor Corp. giving up 75,000 hectares of its forest tenure.

The valley is a rare inland temperate rainforest with substantial areas of mature and old-growth trees, some ranging in age from 800 to 1,500 years.

The Nature Conservancy says it a statement that several species at risk are found the valley, including two endangered bats and the threatened southern mountain caribou.

The northern edge of the project abuts against Glacier National Park, which the conservancy says increases important habitat for wide-ranging animals across the southern Interior B.C. mountains.

Environment Minister George Heyman told a group gathered for the announcement at the legislature that the area is one of the few temperate rainforests in the world.

"It is a unique part of the province," he said.

"The conservation community and people who live in the area understood and understand what an important and unique region this is and they've been calling for protection for many years."

Heyman says the announcement supports the B.C. government's commitment to protect 30 per cent of the land base by 2030.

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

The Canadian Press

NIMBY

Protesters in Mainland block road to wind power test site over water supply fears

Wed, January 25, 2023 

Protesters take shifts blocking a road that leads to a wind power test site.

 (Troy Turner/CBC - image credit)

A group of protesters from Mainland, on Newfoundland and Labrador's Port au Port Peninsula, has blocked a road to a wind power test site for more than a week, citing concerns about their water supply.

Crown land near Mainland has been identified as a site of a future meteorological evaluation tower designed to collect data and help determine the future viability of a development by wind power company World Energy GH2.

But Mainland residents opposed to the construction of the tower say the road a contractor has cut to the area is creating problems with their supplemental water supply.

"What's coming down is not fit to drink," said Zita Hinks. "We have an all-grade school here in our community, a lot of small children — that water was going to them as well. Somebody will get sick if this water system is not cleaned up."

The road to the tower site runs about nine kilometres along the side of a mountain, heading to the peninsula's interior. Streams and brooks in the area run into LeCointre's Brook, the secondary source of water for the local service district.

Troy Turner/CBC

"We're asking the government, 'Why?'" said Hinks. "'Why are you doing this to our water supply?' It's not fair. It's inhumane because the way we feel, water is the very basic necessities of life. The government cannot deny us a good drinking water source."

According to the local service district, a pumphouse, funded largely by the provincial government, was installed near the mouth of LeCointre's Brook in the late 1990s. It pumps water into the primary reservoir when water levels are low.

Dwight Cornect, who was elected to the local service district committee in 2009, said the provincial government's subsidization of the project means the land should be protected from development.

"It is not a secondary water supply. It is actually part of our water system."

Submitted by Brandon Lainey

When the committee heard in late 2022 the mountainous area around LeCointre's Brook was not considered a protected area, it applied for protection for the land to prevent any work from happening in the area.

"We as an LSD, as elected representatives of a community, that we have a responsibility to ensure that access to our public drinking supply is controlled, limited, that not just anybody can enter this area," said Cornect.

Troy Turner/CBC

The Department of Environment and Climate Change declined an interview request.

In a statement, the department said it issued two temporary licences to World Energy GH2 to permit temporary wind-monitoring activities in the area. Once World Energy GH2 completes its data collection, the licences end and the site is to be returned to an acceptable condition, says the statement.

The department says it collected samples from LeCointre's Brook twice, most recently on Nov. 24.

"Results indicated that turbidity and colour were elevated, but no other water quality concerns were identified," the statement reads. "Officials conducting a site visit in early December have indicated that silt control measures were installed at the culvert replacement locations."

Troy Turner/CBC

Since the watershed is not considered a protected area, the road upgrading work did not require any permits under the Water Recourses Act.

World Energy GH2 declined an interview but in a statement the company said it's carefully following provincial guidelines on operating near bodies of water. The company is using local, native material from the existing Crown Lands access road to widen it, according to the statement.

Troy Turner/CBC

"The primary road material is clay-like," the statement reads. "The clay is not poisonous and is not a contaminant."

To help prevent storm water runoff from contributing to turbidity in the brook, World Energy GH2 said it is surrounding the access road with mitigation meausres such as silt fencing and check dams.

"We have also asked a third-party engineering consultant to assess the mitigations and recommend improvements.

"Aside from our commitment to mitigate turbidity in Mainland's proposed backup water supply … we are willing and able to help improve water supplies in the area. We are committed to being a good community partner and to bringing tangible benefits to the area."

Troy Turner/CBC

The only way for World Energy GH2 to help the people of Mainland is by packing up and leaving, said Hinks, and the blockade will continue as long as is needed.

"We don't want the windmills. We don't want them here in our area. It's our water. Don't mess with our water," she said.

"I would love to see them come here and say … 'We're getting out of here, we're getting off the peninsula.' Best thing ever. Because the Port au Port Peninsula does not want this."

Troy Turner/CBC

HEY DANIELLE SMITH:
Oilsands execs say a 'just transition' isn't a worry — it's their next big 'boom'

Mia Rabson
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA -

The CEOs of some of the biggest oilsands companies in Alberta say transitioning their workforce for a net-zero emissions future isn't about cutting jobs, it's about creating them.

"We estimated that we will spend somewhere in the range of $70 billion over the next 30 years to decarbonize the production of the oilsands," Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix said in an interview with The Canadian Press this week.

"If we're successful in doing that, that is going to create a boom in the oil-producing provinces that is equivalent to what happened in the '80s and the '90s."

Cenovus is one of six oilsands companies in the Pathways Alliance, a consortium created to work together to decarbonize their production entirely by 2050. Pourbaix said the companies believe reaching their goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 will create 35,000 jobs.

The "just transition" debate is raging in Canadian politics this week as Alberta politicians slam a federal plan to introduce legislation intended to guide the adjustment to a clean energy economy.

The Liberals have promised such legislation since the 2019 election and are expected to introduce it in the House of Commons sometime this year.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith jumped on reports that a federal memo suggested millions of jobs will be lost in the transition. The memo actually referred to the number of jobs that currently exist in industries that could be affected by decarbonization.

Despite that clarification, Smith doubled down on her insistence that a "just transition" is a plan to shut down Alberta's energy industry.

"I will fight this 'Just Transition' idea with every tool at Alberta's disposal," she said in a video posted to Twitter Wednesday.

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley added her voice to the fire, telling the Edmonton Journal in an interview that Ottawa should scrap plans for the legislation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that transitioning to clean energy is about creating good middle-class jobs "in a world that is changing."

"The energy workers that we rely on, the natural resource workers, will continue to be essential parts of our economy moving forward," he said.

Randy Boissonnault, the associate finance minister, had a hurried op-ed published in the Edmonton Journal Tuesday decrying Smith's accusations as fearmongering.

"I can be unequivocal about this: with our sustainable jobs plan, your federal government is interested in creating and supporting jobs, not eliminating them," he wrote.

MEG Energy CEO Derek Evans told The Canadian Press in an interview that his worry about the transition isn't job cuts, it's a labour shortage.

"I'm quite worried, let me put it this way, that we don't have enough people in Canada to get the job done," he said.

The Pathways companies are looking to spend $24 billion by 2030 on emissions cutting, two-thirds of it on carbon capture and storage systems. After 2030 they expect to be turning to installations of hydrogen and small nuclear reactors as their energy sources.

All of that will require additional workers to build, install and operate.

Demand for fossil fuels won't be zero by 2050 but most projections point to a significant dip as electrification takes hold, particularly in transport. Canada and its producers want Canadian products to be the most cleanly produced to keep demand high.

It's why Pathways was created, said Kendall Dilling, the alliance's president.

"The energy transition or decarbonization or whatever you want to call it, this is probably the defining challenge in the next couple of decades," he said.

A decent chunk of the debate may be a battle over semantics.

"Just transition" was coined by the labour movement in the United States in the 1990s to help workers in industries caught up in toxic waste problems. It now plays a role in global climate pacts aimed at helping both fossil fuel workers and people most affected by climate change.

Canada has already used the same language in its efforts to help workers in the shrinking coal industry.

But the term "just transition" has become politically loaded and despised, even by some proponents.

"Workers hate it, I hate it," said NDP MP Charlie Angus, who is working with the Liberals to develop the legislation as part of the NDP and Liberal supply and confidence deal.

"In my community when they talk about a transition, we knew what that meant: they're shutting the lights off. It's not great language and I can see why people get their back up. I get my back up."

The Liberals seem to agree, although it is still the term used in both their 2019 and 2021 platforms, and their months of consultations to develop the legislation.

Both Boissonault and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson have indicated a preference for calling it a "sustainable jobs plan."

Whatever it's called, Pourbaix said a successful net-zero plan will make the entire debate somewhat irrelevant.

"I actually think this the idea of a just transition solves itself if we're successful in our in our quest to decarbonize our production," he said. "We ensure the sustaining and even growing of the industry in the country."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2023.

— With files from Mickey Djuric.

Calgary company's technology, used in NASA Mars mission, could help reduce oilsands emissions

A photo from NASA, taken during the first drive of the Perseverance rover on Mars on March 4, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

Melissa Gilligan
CTVNewsCalgary.ca Digital Journalist
Follow | Contact
Updated Jan. 12, 2023 

A Calgary company’s cutting edge technology – originally used by NASA in a Mars mission – could be utilized to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oilsands.

Pathways Alliance, a group representing Canada's largest oilsands producers, held a global challenge to find innovations that can help accelerate the use of steam-reducing technologies in oilsands operations.

Calgary company Impossible Sensing Energy's optical technology, called FLOW, was awarded first prize in the competition, beating out 50 other entries and claiming a $45,000 prize.

The technology was first developed by the company's U.S. affiliate for use by the Mars Perseverance Rover to find traces of life on the planet’s surface.

As it turns out, it can not only be used to search for trace amounts of potential carbon-based past life on Mars, but can also detect precise amounts of solvents (hydrocarbons) in oil production stream.

Solvents – such as butane and propane – are naturally occurring in oilsands bitumen and are used as a much less energy intensive alternative to steam.

"The increased use of solvents offers a breakthrough potential to reduce—or eliminate—the need for energy-intensive steam generation in steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operations," explained a Thursday news release from Pathways Alliance.

The group says the use of steam reduction technologies in oilsands extraction is one of the most "promising and important" technologies to help reduce emissions.

"Replacing steam in SAGD production with solvents could result in up to a 90% reduction of CO2 emissions," said a release.

"However, to fully advance the process, the industry has been searching for a real-time, accurate method to measure the precise amounts and concentrations of solvents to maximize recycling throughout the full oil recovery process."

Pathways Alliance says cost-effectiveness is an important element in the effort to commercialize the use of solvents in oilsands production.

"The economics of solvent use is dependent on the ability to recycle it. By measuring the solvent in the production stream, it can be determined how much is being returned and can adjust processes to maximize recycling," the group explained.

Two Calgary companies were runners up in the competition, including Burnt Rock Technologies Ltd. and Exergy Solutions Inc., both of which will be awarded a technological-economic assessment valued at $35,000.

FDA food safety official resigns, cites structural issues

Wed, January 25, 2023

The federal Food and Drug Administration's top food safety official resigned Wednesday, citing concerns about the agency's oversight structure and the infant formula crisis that led to a nationwide shortage.

Frank Yiannas, the deputy commissioner for food policy and response since 2018, told FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf in an email that he would leave Feb. 24.

He said he told Califf early last year that the structure of the foods program “significantly impaired FDA's ability to operate as an integrated food team and protect the public.”

But Yiannas said he postponed leaving last year after learning of problems at the Abbott Laboratories infant formula plant in Michigan, which was shuttered for months because of contamination. The plant has since reopened, and Abbott is facing a Justice Department criminal investigation.

Yiannas said infant formula supplies have increased and necessary monitoring is in place, making it the right time to leave FDA.

“My fervent hope is that American consumers, especially mothers and fathers of infants, never again have to face this type of preventable situation,” Yiannas wrote. He called for a independent and thorough review of the crisis.

FDA spokeswoman Tara Rabin confirmed Yiannas' resignation.

Yiannas' notice comes less than a week before Califf is expected to release a response to a scathing report calling for an overhaul of the way the agency regulates human and animal foods. Currently, no single official has full oversight of FDA’s sprawling food operations.

Yiannas called for the appointment of a “fully empowered and experienced” deputy commissioner for foods, with direct oversight of those issues. Advocacy groups and several former FDA officials have also called for such a position.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Jonel Aleccia, The Associated Press

Have you been labelled at work by your gender, age or ethnicity? Here's how those labels can delegitimize you


Claudine Mangen, 

RBC Professor in Responsible Organizations and Associate Professor, 

Concordia University
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Women who are seen as assertive can often be negatively labelled at work. 

Have you or a colleague ever been negatively labelled at work, whether it’s based on your gender, age, race or ethnicity? Labels can often be mundane because we use them spontaneously on an everyday basis. But they can also be far from innocuous. Labels convey value judgments and serve to control the behaviour of the people they’re applied to.

My explanations of labelling draw on research, including my own. I head a research program on gender inequalities and organizational leadership at Concordia University. My research is concerned with everyday practices like labelling, how they arise and what they do.

Differing expectations

To understand labels, we have to look at how we interact with the world around us. We make sense of this world by using mental shortcuts that enable us to save our mental resources. Shortcuts draw on categories; one of the most salient categories is gender.

We instantaneously and spontaneously categorize people around us in gender categories, relying on information accumulated throughout our lives. Categories of course go beyond gender and also include race, age, ethnicity and so on.

When we assign a person to the woman category, we are inclined to see her in a caregiving role rather than an agentic role like a leader. 

As we assign people to gender categories, we evaluate them in their roles, notably whether these roles are consistent with their gender category. During this evaluation process, we draw on social norms about women and men, who they are and what they do. Today’s social norms continue to view men and women differently: women are expected to act communally and care for others; men are expected to be agentic and assert themselves.

As a result, when we assign a person to the woman category, we are inclined to see her in a caregiving role rather than an agentic role like a leader. Our beliefs are gender-biased: if she had been a man, we would have attributed a different role to her.

When we see others behave in ways that deviate from the roles associated with their gender categories, we often draw on labels that designate this deviance. For instance, suppose we see a woman who is assertive. Since we categorized her as a woman, we expect her to be caregiving; we see her assertive behaviour as a deviance from this caregiving behaviour. We might then draw on a label that identifies and designates this deviance.

Labels matter

Women leaders I interviewed told me how they have been labelled “bitch.” The names of interview participants I cite below have been changed to protect their anonymity.

For instance, Leslie explained: “Women are still perceived as the ones who should be softer, caretaking; everything is just from the heart, and doting and nurturing.”

When we see others behave in ways that deviate from the roles associated with their gender categories, we often draw on labels that designate this deviance. 

When women do not meet expectations around caretaking, they are penalized for their deviance. Leslie pointed out: “When you don’t fill that role, and people expect you to fill that role going back to expectations, you’re seen as a tough, sorry to say it, bitch.”

Tina argued that men do not have similar caretaking expectations: “We all know a guy who’s tough — he’s assertive, he’s confident. A woman who’s tough, she’s a bitch.”

Labels have consequences for those who are labelled. When labels are used to designate behaviour that deviates from an expectation, they can delegitimize and undermine people.

Consider again the women leaders I interviewed. Labels that emphasize their gender obscure their other identities and roles. In other words, the labels suggest that their identities as women and leaders are incompatible.

The interview participants reacted in three ways to their labelling. They accepted it and made efforts to be seen as nice. They also rejected it, questioning the person who did the labelling. Finally, they sometimes ignored it. Either way, they spent time and energy dealing with labels that went to the core of who they are.

There are many other labels that we often use, many of which do the same thing as the “bitch” label that I illustrated. We do not question labels because they often seem so mundane and spontaneous. Therein, however, lies the danger of labels: they constitute a way of putting people down and delegitimizing them.

We should observe ourselves and question why we use the labels we do. What are our expectations of the people we label? If they don’t meet our expectations, rather than blaming them through a label, perhaps we should question our expectations.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Claudine Mangen, Concordia University.

Claudine Mangen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Read more:

Instead of asking women to ‘fix’ their choices about work, let’s help them belong in a workplace

Supporting feminine leadership can help create a just and kinder future

Niagara advocate pushing region to declare emergency on mental health, homelessness

Wed, January 25, 2023 

After four years of trying in vain, an advocate from Niagara is hoping to convince regional council to declare homelessness, mental health and addiction public emergencies.

“I think I’m gonna see a lot of changed hearts and a lot of changed minds,” Steven Soos told The Lake Report.

Before the proposal can make it to council, it will first be reviewed by the region’s public health committee Feb. 14, he said.

When his proposal last came to the region in fall 2021 it was dismissed, though it received endorsements from 11 of Niagara’s 12 lower-tier municipalities.

The region formally acknowledged the issues raised by Soos, but stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.

Soos self-identifies as Metis and traces his ancestry back to his grandfather.

He sees the region’s “watered-down response” to the triple threat crisis as another broken promise to Indigenous people.

According to Statistics Canada, 12 per cent of First Nations people living off reserve have experienced homelessness.

Statistics Canada also estimates the rate of suicide in Indigenous groups is three times that of non-Indigenous groups.

The rate of alcohol-related deaths in Aboriginal communities is also twice that of the the general population, according to research by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Soos believes if council passes his motion, the region will be able to get a “co-ordinated response” from the province.

He said the region can drum up additional support and funding for the crisis by “using the same legislation” used to respond to COVID-19.

Long-term, he wants the federal government to conduct a national study on the emergency of mental health.

Evan Loree, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Lake Report

'We need action, not annual empty words': Bell Let's Talk campaign ads are 'awful', only for 'shock value', critics say

While the Bell Let's Talk campaign has raised millions, many want more mental health action -- without the branding

Elianna Lev
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Wasting time in smartphone. Millennial generation mental health. Life in metaverse, not in real world. Conceptual of bad condition of broken hearted, sadness, loneliness or depress woman. 

(Oleg Breslavtsev via Getty Images)

Trigger warning: The content and commercials featured in this article may be disturbing to some readers.

If you or a loved one is struggling, visit talksuicide.ca. You can also call Talk Suicide Canada toll free at 1-833-456-4566. Québec residents can call 1 866 APPELLE (277-3553).

Bell Canada’s annual mental health campaign day, Let’s Talk, is receiving criticism in its 13th year. While many across the country took to their social media to promote or take part in the day, including major corporations and facilities like the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators, Toronto’s CAMH hospital, the Toronto Film Festival and Calgary Police, some Canadian viewers and experts are sharing a different view

This year, the campaign's television advertisements and billboards have struck a nerve. Some feel the grave subject matter, which addresses issues like suicide and anxiety, is sensationalizing the topic, as well as has the potential to negatively trigger people with mental health issues.

Others point out that more needs to be done for mental health in the country, where it can often be complicated, convoluted and expensive to access the right services.

Others were critical of the corporations intention. Some put a spotlight on Bell Media's employment practices and recent controversy over the firing of anchor Lisa LaFlamme.

I Take metal health very seriously. However, I will not support #BellLetsTalkDay after the fiasco with Lisa Laflamme and the layoffs last year. Bell caused mental health issues

— halifax man (@sdpuddicombe) January 25, 2023

The Let's Talk campaign first launched in 2010, with the intention of creating a dialogue around mental health issues. It has raised tens of millions of dollars towards funding more than 1,400 community grants and various mental health programs and research. According to the Let's Talk website, one third of Canadians say they've taken action related to mental health since Let's Talk first beg

FEMICIDE
I covered murder-suicides, and learned how journalists were vulnerable to trauma

Norma Hilton, Global Journalism Fellow, University of Toronto
Wed, January 25, 2023 

Researching and reporting on traumatic events can affect journalists' mental health. (Shutterstock)

It never really dawned on me how vulnerable journalists were to trauma until I took a job as an investigative reporter. I spent most of 2021 and 2022 verifying, analyzing and writing stories about murder-suicides.

Every morning, I would make myself a cup of coffee in my New York City apartment, then sit down at my desk to pore over cases of murder-suicides — a total of 1,500 a year in the United States at the time.

I was consumed by my work. I was going through every news story about a specific murder-suicide, checking the accuracy of facts like the spelling of names, ages of the perpetrators and their victims and details of where the events occurred and how the murder-suicides were carried out.

In one case, I spent a month working out the number of children killed by their parents in various parts of the country. When relatives I hadn’t seen in four years came to visit, I spent most of their trip elsewhere, interviewing with experts on gun and domestic violence.

Some stories were gruesome and graphic, like the case of José Valdivia in California who killed his ex-wife and children the day after she filed for a restraining order before turning the weapon on himself. That was one which hit me especially hard; I was living alone, and each time I would see a child with their parent, I would try to figure out what could possibly trigger such an awful event.

Covering Violence by Roger Simpson and William Coté is one of the few guides for journalists reporting on traumatic events. (Columbia University Press)

Trying to understand why a parent would take the life of their own child was important. But I felt as if I was trying to justify these heinous acts, and I didn’t want to make them acceptable.

Journalists are trained to be objective and neutral, so we’re able to report on events, no matter how disturbing, without emotional involvement.

But staying detached was impossible.

Journalism stress

Stress has detrimental effects on the body. I had frequent migraines and I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t silence my thoughts and quiet the chaos in my head. I began feeling claustrophobic in unfamiliar surroundings, and jumped at sudden loud noises. I felt unsafe and anxious.

My feelings made no sense to me because I had neither witnessed a crime nor reported on one directly, and yet I was deeply affected, physically and emotionally.

My experience was just one example among the soaring incidence of stress among journalists. Covering wars, diseases and deaths is stressful, and this is compounded by increasingly demanding workloads and uncertain job security.

Experienced trauma

The Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma looked at the mental health of more than 1,200 journalists in late 2021. More than two-thirds suffered from anxiety, 46 per cent reported depression, and 15 per cent said they had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the past four years.

Anna Mortimer is an ex-journalist who founded The Mind Field, a group that provides therapy to journalists and humanitarian workers remotely around the world.

“A journalist may not identify the problem as quickly and might feel more ashamed displaying it than someone who was a bystander for other reasons,” Mortimer says. “I think journalists expect to be less vulnerable, less affected, but that is not the case. Just because you are a witness and not a participant, it doesn’t mean you will not carry it with you forever.”

The health issues reported to The Mind Field therapists include insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, general anxiety and more obviously physical symptoms like headaches or gastric problems. Many journalists also turn to coping strategies like excessive drinking or a reliance on drugs.

Vicarious exposure

The clinical definition of trauma has evolved, as the events that cause it have become more complex. Research shows that journalists can be “adversely affected by emotional stressors and that most journalists are exposed to potentially traumatic events at least once in their career.”

“If you are exposed to visually troubling images in your line of work, that’s now considered sufficient stress to cause post-traumatic stress disorder”, says Anthony Feinstein, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a leading expert on the trauma faced by journalists.

Journalists whose work places them in danger are at higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder. 

He adds: “You are not directly being threatened, but the imagery in front of you can be very disturbing. So, you still witness it vicariously.”

Some factors can heighten a journalist’s vulnerability and increase their risk for developing PTSD. In a 2017 study, researchers working with journalists in Europe found the risk soars if a journalist is physically or verbally attacked or injured while on the job.

Unexplained workplace changes, inconsistent leadership styles and conflicts with supervisors exacerbate the problem. What’s more, journalists who try to shield their emotions through coping mechanisms like denial, behavioural disengagement and self-distraction have reported more severe PTSD symptoms.

The problem is exacerbated by journalism’s rapidly expanding boundaries. Journalists now frequently work with user-generated content, including violent images and video material transmitted to newsrooms from sources on the ground. Frequent exposure to disturbing content — like from the war in Ukraine or political unrest in the U.S. — presents new challenges for journalists, Feinstein says.

“The majority of journalists will never develop PTSD or depression,” he says. “However, the minority who do is quite a significant one and quite higher than what you would see in the general population. And that point is very important.”

Music has been my greatest comfort and something I turn to every day. Opening up to my friends and family about my mental state, even when it’s uncomfortable, has helped me immensely.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Norma Hilton, University of Toronto.

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First Nations say Alberta's oilsands mine security reform unlikely to fix problems

A dump truck works near the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta 

Jason Franson
Bob Weber
The Canadian Press


EDMONTON -

Alberta is preparing to change how it ensures oilsands companies are able to pay for the mammoth job of cleaning up their operations, but critics fear a year of consultations hasn't been enough to avoid repeating past mistakes.

"There's no signal to me from this government that they are going to hold industry accountable for clean-up costs," said Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, one of the Indigenous groups consulted.

Official estimates price that cleanup at $33 billion while internal estimates from the Alberta Energy Regulator put it closer to $130 billion. Even at the lower figure, industry has only put up about four per cent of the money required, a percentage that is shrinking as the liability grows.

After two highly critical reports from the province's auditor general, Alberta's United Conservative government began considering reforms to the Mine Financial Security Program in January 2022 through a series of meetings with industry and area First Nations.

Consultation ended this month. No public hearings were held and no public input was sought.

"We anticipate completing the review of this program in 2023, with implementation of any changes, if necessary, beginning in 2024," Alberta Environment and Protected Areas spokesman Jason Penner wrote in an email.

The provincial government did not address concerns raised by the First Nations in response to queries from The Canadian Press.

After attending all the meetings, four First Nations submitted a document to the government, obtained by The Canadian Press, that suggests they fear meaningful reform is not forthcoming.

"(The Athabasca Region First Nations') overall assessment is that the review was often perfunctory, especially in the initial phase, and that (Alberta Energy Regulator) and (Alberta Environment and Parks) staff were often defensive and less than forthcoming," it said.

The document outlines a series of concerns with the direction First Nations fear the government is going.

"It is a lot of the same concerns the (auditor general had)," said Martin Olszynski, a University of Calgary resource law professor who worked as a consultant to the groups.

The document said the program is not designed for an increasingly low-carbon world. Mine closures are slated to coincide with worldwide net-zero targets, meaning oil demand — and its price — are likely to start falling just as that money is needed for cleanups.

University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach was also hired as a consultant to the First Nations. He concluded the assumptions used in the government's modelling of the industry's future were unconvincing and simplistic.

"The models provided to me … provide a false and dangerous sense of security," he wrote.

Leach said the government's direction will work if oil prices remain stable or increase. If they don't, Alberta — and its taxpayers — risk having to cover a vast liability left stranded.

"Within the bounds of current scenarios examined by major energy analysts, there are several scenarios under which existing oilsands projects cease to be viable," Leach wrote.

Companies still are not required to release projected clean-up costs, the document said.

Although companies are required to return their operations to "equivalent land usage," the First Nations say they have not been consulted on what that means.

The document said the regulator consistently overvalues oilsands assets, a calculation used to gauge how much companies must set aside. It points to one case where an oilsands asset that was sold for $5.5 billion was valued by the regulator at $37 billion.

The First Nations say the integrity of the process was undermined when, midway through the process, the government changed the rules on how companies guarantee they will pay for cleanup.

The Alberta Energy Regulator now accepts a type of demand bond issued by an insurance company instead of cash reserves or a line of credit. A spokesman for the regulator said some companies are using such bonds, but information on how many, who they are or the size of the bonds is "confidential."

Thomas Schneider, associate professor of accounting at Toronto Metropolitan University, said accepting an insurance policy instead of requiring companies to set resources aside will allow producers to delay reserving the billions of dollars the cleanup will take even as some mines approach end of life.

"As these liabilities grow and grow and grow … (industry) is trying to figure out as many ways as they can to delay the timing that they have to tie up capital."

As well, documents released under freedom-of-information legislation suggest the government has considered accepting bonds from so-called captive insurance companies, which are wholly owned by oilsands companies.

The government hired consultants to study whether such bonds put taxpayers at risk. In a heavily redacted report, Marsh consulting said the bonds themselves weren't inherently riskier than lines of credit.

But Marsh warned that it wasn't possible to make a reliable estimate of risk from captive insurance companies, a corporate structure enabled by legislation passed in 2022.

"To complete the assessment for a captive insurance company would be challenging as each captive could be differently capitalized," the report says. "Thus, it would be difficult to assess the inherent likelihood of default without making very broad assumptions."

The regulator does not currently accept bonds from captive insurance companies.

Mark Cameron of Pathways Alliance, an association of Canada's six largest oilsands producers, said the group is waiting for the government's decision on reforms.

"The Pathways Alliance appreciates the opportunities provided by Alberta Environment and Protected Areas to engage with and hear from Indigenous communities," he said in an email.

The stakes, said Lepine, could not be higher. Taxpayers have billions of dollars on the line, but First Nations have even more.

"We got nowhere else to go. It's been our home for thousands of years," she said.

"But if it becomes a toxic wasteland, will we be forced to leave? I don't know."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2023.

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