Hudson's Bay, Gap, PetSmart among stores that gave customer data to Facebook's owner

Tue, February 7, 2023 

The retailer PetSmart Canada appears in a user's list of 'off-Facebook activity' downloaded from the social media platform. (Thomas Daigle/CBC - image credit)

When a shopper shares their email address at the cash register — to receive an electronic receipt, rather than a paper one — do they really know where their details are being sent?

A CBC News review of Facebook user data suggests a variety of well-known retailers in Canada have been sharing customer information with the social media platform's parent company to gain marketing research in return. And it's not clear what steps have been taken to warn shoppers.

Purchases from department store giant Hudson's Bay, athletic apparel chain Lululemon, electronics retailer Best Buy, homeware store Bed, Bath & Beyond and beauty products chain Sephora all appeared in the Facebook data seen by CBC.

This is "a wake-up call," said Wendy Wong, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan who studies emerging technologies. "These revelations are showing the extent to which the public does not know how much of our activities are trackable."

Retailers that appeared in the Facebook data include:

Anthropologie.


Bed, Bath & Beyond.


Best Buy.


Gap.


Hudson's Bay.


Lululemon.


PetSmart.


Sephora.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne recently published a scathing report about the data-sharing practices of another major retailer, Home Depot. The report last month found the big-box retailer didn't seek proper consent from in-store customers as it systematically transmitted e-receipt details with Facebook's owner, Meta.

Dufresne's investigation only focused on Home Depot, but the process appears widespread.

Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press

"We expect that this practice is used by other organizations," he said in an interview. "We found that this was in breach of privacy law and that this practice has to stop."

Hudson's Bay said in light of the privacy commissioner's findings about Home Depot, the department store chain has "suspended all data transfers to Meta."

Hudson's Bay spokesperson Tiffany Bourré told CBC the company is reviewing its data-sharing practices.

The privacy commissioner said Home Depot customers' encoded email addresses and purchase information were handed over. Meta then used the data to analyze how online ads lead to purchases in brick-and-mortar stores.

Dufresne's report raised concerns that in certain stores, purchase details could prove "highly sensitive … where they reveal, for example, information about an individual's health or sexuality."

Facebook user data reviewed

The privacy watchdog's report stemmed from a complaint filed by a man who was deleting his Facebook account, only to discover the platform had a list of in-store purchases he'd made at Home Depot.

A group of CBC journalists each downloaded their personal data from the social media company — information known as "off-Facebok activity" — and found retail purchases listed from multiple chains. (Facebook tells users how to request their own files here.)

Facebook data showing purchases from PetSmart, for instance, aligned with e-receipts received in recent months for in-store purchases.

A PetSmart spokesperson declined to say how much personal customer data the chain shares with Meta, and how it warns shoppers about its data-sharing practices when they're asked for their email address.

"We continuously review our data-sharing practices," the company said in a statement.

PetSmart's privacy policy states: "We may share the information we collect with companies that provide support services to us."

Andrew Kelly/Reuters

The privacy commissioner said Home Depot's privacy statement didn't constitute consent "for its disclosure to Meta of the personal information of in-store customers requesting an e-receipt."

Other retailers with purchases listed in the downloaded Facebook data include fashion chains Anthropologie and Gap, which also owns brands Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta.

CBC reached out to each retailer and provided purchase data downloaded from Facebook. Gap declined to comment. The other companies did not respond.

"For the average person, it might feel invasive," said Opeyemi Akanbi, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University's school of professional communication. But from a business's perspective, "data is very precious… to get a better sense of what people are doing and to target advertising more effectively."

Companies, however, "must generally obtain an individual's consent when they collect, use or disclose that individual's personal information" under Canadian law, according to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

"The risk is that we trivialize the use of personal information," Dufresne said. "Treat privacy as a priority. It's a fundamental right."

In reality, businesses face little risk. The privacy commissioner does not have the authority to levy fines. He can only issue recommendations.

Class action launched

Regina-based lawyer Tony Merchant launched a national class action against Home Depot in light of the privacy watchdog's findings. The lawsuit has not yet been certified.

Facebook compiles massive amounts of data about individuals and "ends up with a total profile of when you're having a baby, when you'll need a mortgage ... all these kinds of things are exceptionally intrusive," Merchant said.

Home Depot said it stopped using Meta's offline conversions tool last October, after the privacy watchdog approached the company.

The program is designed to gauge the effectiveness of ads on Meta's platforms and how they "lead to real-world outcomes," such as in-store purchases, according to the Silicon Valley firm. Meta declined to say how many retailers in Canada provide data about their customers.

Facebook users may request the platform stop logging their interactions with some or all businesses. Instructions are listed here.

"It's important we become more aware of the datafication of our lives," Wong, the UBC professor, said, referring to the way personal information is increasingly treated as a commodity.

"It's happening regardless of whether we're aware of it or not."

SOUR PUSS MEETS MR.CHARMING

Alberta Premier Smith meets Prime Minister Trudeau; awkward handshake ensues

Tue, February 7, 2023 


OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has met face to face with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a photo opportunity punctuated by short statements and a very awkward handshake.

Smith and Trudeau met briefly to discuss shared aspirations and concerns over pending federal legislation aimed at helping Canadian workers adapt to the global move to increasing reliance on renewable energy.

The short meeting began with Trudeau reaching down to shake hands, with Smith offering a hesitant palm down hand in return, prompting Trudeau to take it and hold it in place with his thumb on top as the cameras clicked and whirred.

Smith, in Ottawa with other premiers for talks on health-care funding, faces an election this spring after successfully harnessing party anger with Trudeau to win the UCP leadership race to become premier.

She has disparaged Trudeau's government as not a true national government and passed controversial legislation granting her government power to direct provincial agencies to ignore federal laws.

She has accused Trudeau of trying to decimate Alberta’s oil and gas industry with his green transition legislation, but now says she wants to at least try to work collaboratively.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2023.

The Canadian Press

BC

Canada betrays its ‘Species at Risk Act’ while province wipes out mountain caribou habitat: VWS

Tue, February 7, 2023 

The nation’s Species at Risk Act is no law at all, says a local environmental group.

The Valhalla Wilderness Society contends that the Species at Risk Act (SARA) does not provide protection under the law for the endangered mountain caribou and its habitat, 30 years after Canada signed an accord — at the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Rio De Janeiro — to protect biodiversity, which spawned the enactment of SARA.

In early December Canada hosted the 15th U.N. Convention on Biodiversity in Montreal, but the event served to mark the current state of fate of the mountain caribou in the province, said Valhalla Wilderness Society’s (VWS) Craig Pettitt in a press release.

“B.C. is ravaging biodiversity, not only by cutting down some of our most biodiverse and oldest forests, but also by slaughtering predators to prop up caribou numbers while the habitat destruction continues,” he said.

“The truth is that Canada has a long record of withholding enforcement of the SARA for species that have an economic value. Simply put, it appears that B.C. and Canada have decided it is more profitable to log caribou habitat than to save the caribou.”

Pettitt said Canada’s Species at Risk Act has failed to protect habitat for the endangered deep-snow mountain caribou.

“These rare and irreplaceable caribou are declining toward extinction due to extensive logging of their critical habitat,” he said.

The caribou reside in an old-growth inland temperate rainforest, an area that contains trees up to 1,800 years old that have been targeted for clearcutting for nearly 100 years — and less than three per cent of the big-treed old-growth remains.

In 2009 the province did protect some of the caribou’s habitat, but it wasn’t enough as the herds were unable to thrive, said Pettitt.

“The province blames predation by wolves and cougars for the loss of the caribou, but scientific research has proven that the increase in predation is caused by logging forest and fragmenting it with logging roads,” he said in the press release. “This increases the number of large predators, makes their hunting easier, and makes the caribou more vulnerable.”

The VWS and other environmentalists, biologists and lawyers filed separate legal petitions under SARA in 2017 concerning the plight of the mountain caribou with the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

“We all provided expert scientific testimony that the deep-snow mountain caribou faced imminent threat to their survival,” recalled Pettitt.

One year later the federal minister declared imminent threat to the caribou’s recovery, and said an immediate increase in habitat protection was urgently needed.

“Nearly four years later there has been no increase in habitat protection while hundreds of wolves have been slaughtered,” said Pettitt. “According to Canada’s SARA, the minister should have made a recommendation to cabinet for an Order forcing B.C. to increase habitat protection. No recommendation happened.”

Two years ago VWS filed a second petition alleging that the minister of Environment and Climate Change was in violation of the SARA by failing to recommend that cabinet write an Order.

“Seven months later the ECCC publicly acknowledged that a recommendation had been made,” said Pettitt. “But the political arm of government refused to write an Order.”

He called on the government to honour the Species at Risk Act to save the caribou.

“Once the caribou have lost too much habitat, the caribou may never again be able to be recovered to a self-sustaining level,” he said. “Their survival may always be dependent on cow penning and the extensive slaughter of wolves and cougars, which is known to cause a serious loss of biodiversity.”

Timothy Schafer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nelson Daily

N.L.'s social justice co-op calls on provincial government to end no-fault evictions

Tue, February 7, 2023

Shirley Cox, 82, was evicted from her home in St. John's last week. 

(Curtis Hicks/CBC - image credit)

Following the City of St. John's eviction of an 82-year-old woman last week, the Social Justice Co-operative of Newfoundland and Labrador is calling on the provincial government to change legislation to end no-fault evictions in government or social housing.

Shirley Cox was removed from her apartment in Riverhead Towers, owned and operated by the City of St. John's, on Hamilton Avenue last Tuesday after receiving an eviction notice last October.

Cox maintains she was never given a reason why but said she suspects she was evicted for smoking in front of the building's main floor entrance. She said she couldn't navigate her wheelchair to and from the property's designated smoking area.

The city told CBC News it doesn't discuss private tenancy matters.

Debbie Wiseman, an activist with the Social Justice Co-Op, told CBC News she was surprised by the no-fault eviction.

"It just was not something I thought would happen," Wiseman said Monday.

"When we saw it happen and the city kind of hid behind the fact that it's legal — in our opinion it's not ethical but it's legal — we thought we should do something about that."

Curtis Hicks/CBC

According to Wiseman, an access-to-information request she filed with the city found there have been no other no-fault evictions in at least four years.

"Even if it's just one person, it's really disturbing that somebody was removed from that situation and basically rendered homeless," Wiseman said.

"In our eyes it's a way to kind of discriminate against someone legally. When you look at social housing, affordable housing, it's designed for people with lower income to be able to afford to rent a home."

Cox was moved to an emergency shelter.

Wiseman said only the Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador allow no-cause evictions.

If the city had offered an explanation for Cox's eviction notice, she said, the problem could have been fixed.

"She was just left with no choice but to be evicted and made homeless," Wiseman said, adding the SJCNL hasn't heard back from the provincial government yet.

CBC News also requested comment from the provincial government.

Newfoundland and Labrador

If next Muskrat Falls tests fail, project won't cross finish line until next winter

Tue, February 7, 2023

The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam is pictured on Jan. 26. The project is billions over budget and years behind schedule but could soon cross the finish line.

 (Danny Arsenault/CBC/Radio-Canada - image credit)

Final testing on the Muskrat Falls transmission system begins anew Tuesday. If the tests succeed, the megaproject on Labrador's Churchill River will have finally crossed the finish line, albeit five years later than initially projected.

However, in the case of another failure, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro will have to wait the better part of a year before trying again — a setback that would mean millions in added interest costs for the multibillion-dollar "boondoggle" whose price tag has nearly doubled since 2012.

The reason? High-power testing, during which 700 megawatts of electricity is sent from the Muskrat Falls dam to Newfoundland across more than 1,000 kilometres of power lines, must occur when there's ample backup power elsewhere on the grid, in case the Muskrat Falls lines go down.

Put another way, final testing can only happen during peak demand periods in winter, when demand spikes and more generators are up and running.

"To reliably send that much power into the system and, more importantly, be able to withstand the sudden loss of that power should the tests go wrong, we need to have a lot of generation online and places to sink that load, including sending power off to Nova Scotia," said Hydro's vice-president of engineering and system operator, Rob Collett.

"Cold weather is critical for these tests to be performed."

60,000 customers lost power in November

The last round of tests on Nov. 24 ended in failure, when a software bug led to a measurement problem during power switching. About 60,000 electricity customers in Newfoundland temporarily lost power, according to Hydro.

Collett said it took Hydro two months to find the problem, repair the software and prepare for another series of tests.

"We've drawn a circle around the issue that caused us to fail that test last time. So our view is that we are confident … we will be able to successfully complete this testing and and enable final commissioning of the link," Collet said Friday.

"The winter window is open to us now, and we need to make sure that we get this right in terms of this test."

According to an update Hydro provided Thursday to the Public Utilities Board, which regulates electricity utilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, factory testing of the new software will begin Tuesday. Should those initial tests be successful, the software will then be tested on the Labrador Island Link transmission lines between Feb. 15 and Feb. 28.

At present, the link is approved to transmit a little more than half the electricity the 824-megawatt Muskrat Falls dam can produce.

According to Hydro, each new month of delays adds millions in extra interest costs to the Muskrat Falls project. A Hydro spokesperson couldn't provide an exact estimate but said the Crown corporation would soon provide an update on the total cost of the Muskrat Falls project.

According to the most recent estimates, the cost of the Muskrat Falls project, pegged at $7.4 billion in 2012, has since ballooned to $13.4 billion. Construction was initially expected to end in 2017.

Switzerland's solar dam: Why are mountains and snow the perfect mix for solar energy?

FOR THE SAME REASON THEY ARE MELTING

Angela Symons
Tue, 7 February 2023 


A snaking wall of solar panels has been attached to Switzerland's longest dam. The solar dam is helping the landlocked nation maximise its green energy production in the winter months.

The Lake Muttsee dam, in the central Swiss canton of Glarus, is over 7,800 feet (2,400 metres) above sea level and is surrounded by snow-capped peaks - something that the team behind the AlpinSolar project says is a key benefit.

Why are alpine solar plants so effective?

"One of the qualities of alpine solar plants is that, especially in winter, they produce up to three times more electricity than a comparable facility in the midlands," says Jeanette Schranz, communications lead for renewables at Swiss energy producer Axpo.

The dam's almost 5,000 solar panels produce 3.3 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, enough to supply around 700 houses. Installation of the panels was completed last year and production at the site has already begun.

The reflection from the snow helps solar power production at the AlpinSolar dam. 

- REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Schranz says Switzerland's mountains are less affected by fog in colder months, meaning the panels see more sun than they would at lower altitudes.

"The reflection from the snow also helps," Schranz says, adding that "solar panels like the cold and have a higher yield in cooler temperatures."

Sweden, Finland, Latvia: Which EU countries use the most renewable energy?


Installing solar panels on these family homes led to spare cash and more free time
Switzerland is leaning on solar in its nuclear power phaseout

AlpinSolar is part of a larger vision for Axpo, which says it aims to install 4,200 solar projects in Switzerland's mountains and lower-lying regions by 2030.

Switzerland's government is also making it easier for solar energy to become more prevalent. Last year the federal parliament amended the country's Energy Act to fast track the approval process of new solar plants that aim to produce significant levels of energy during the winter months.

Solar power is an important part of Switzerland's green energy transition.

- REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

The country's drive towards more green means of energy production is tied to its decision to phase out nuclear power. In June 2011 parliament resolved not to replace any existing reactors, which was confirmed in a 2017 referendum.

Schranz says a balanced power mix is key to Switzerland achieving the transition to green energy. “Alpine solar plants can also make an important contribution here.”

Study: 15 million people live under threat of glacial floods

Tue, February 7, 2023 



As glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds.

More than half of those living in the shadow of the disaster called glacial lake outburst floods are in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China, according to a study in Tuesday’s Nature Communications. A second study, awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal, catalogs more than 150 glacial flood outbursts in history and recent times.

It's a threat Americans and Europeans rarely think about, but 1 million people live within just 6 miles (10 kilometers) of potentially unstable glacial-fed lakes, the study calculated.

One of the more devastating floods was in Peru in 1941 and it killed between 1,800 and 6,000 people. A 2020 glacial lake outburst flood in British Columbia, Canada, caused a tsunami of water about 330 feet (100 meters) high, but no one was hurt. A 2017 glacial outburst flood in Nepal, triggered by a landslide, was captured on video by German climbers. Alaska’s Mendenhall glacier has had annual small glacial outburst floods in what the National Weather Service calls “suicide basin,” since 2011, according to study lead author Caroline Taylor, a researcher at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.

Heavy rains and a glacial lake outburst flood combined in 2013 in India to kill thousands of people. A 2021 deadly flood in India that was initially attributed to a glacial lake outburst wasn’t caused by one, studies later found.

Scientists say so far it doesn’t seem like climate change has made those floods more frequent, but as glaciers shrink with warming, the amount of water in the lakes grows, making them more dangerous in those rare situations when dams burst.

“We had glacier lake outburst floods in the past that have killed many many thousands of people in a single catastrophic flooding event,” said study co-author Tom Robinson, a disaster risk scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “And with climate change glaciers are melting so these lakes are getting bigger, potentially getting more unstable.”

Dan Shugar, a geoscientist at the University of Calgary who wasn't part of the two studies, said much of the threat depends simply on how many people live in a glacial flood zone.

“In a warming world we certainly expect more and larger glacial lakes,” Shugar said in an email. “But the threat that these lakes might pose critically depends on where people are living and what their vulnerabilities might be."

Robinson said what’s different about his study is that it’s the first to look at the climate, geography, population, vulnerability and all these factors to get “a good overview of where in the world is the most dangerous places'' for all 1,089 glacial basins.

At the top of the list is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa basin in Pakistan, north of Islamabad.

“That’s particularly bad,” Robinson said. “Lots of people and they’re very, very vulnerable” because they live in a valley below the lake.

The trouble is that scientists are focusing too much attention on the Pakistan, India, China and the Himalayas, often called High Mountain Asia, and somewhat ignoring the Andes, Robinson said. The second and third highest risk basins are in Peru's Santa basin, and Bolivia's Beni basin, the paper said.

After the deadly Andes flood in the 1940s that region “was sort of a leader” in working on glacial flood outburst threats, but in the last decade or so, High Mountain Asia has taken over because of the high population, said University of Dayton geology professor Umesh Haritashya, who wasn’t part of the studies.

India ranks high in the threat list not so much because of the physical setup but because of “a huge number of people downstream.”

Three lake basins in the United States and Canada rank high for threats, from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, but aren’t nearly as high as areas in Asia and the Andes with few people in the danger zone. They are in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula — distinct from the Mendenhall glacier near Juneau — northeast Washington and west central British Columbia.

“This ranking is a good checklist for further research,” said Oliver Korup of the University of Potsdam in Germany, who co-authored the list of glacial lake outburst floods.

___

Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

German court rejects climate lawsuit against automaker BMW


Tue, February 7, 2023 


BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by environmental campaigners seeking to force automaker BMW to stop selling vehicles with combustion engine by 2030.

The group Environmental Action Germany, also known by its German acronym DUH, argued that manufacturers such as BMW pose a threat to people's right to property, health and life if they continue making vehicles that produce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Munich regional court ruled Tuesday that while the plaintiffs' arguments couldn't be dismissed from the outset, “at present there is no threat of illegal encroachment” of their rights.

Judges noted that German and European lawmakers, spurred partly by a 2021 ruling by Germany's top court, have taken numerous measures to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord. As such there was no absence of laws that would warrant civil action against BMW “at last not at this time,” they said.

The Munich-based automaker welcomed the ruling, saying efforts to cut emissions should be determined by democratically elected parliaments, not in the courts.

DUH said it was satisfied the court had recognized the permissibility of their lawsuit in principle. It plans to appeal the ruling.

The group said vehicles sold by BMW in 2021 were responsible for more emissions of planet-heating carbon dioxide than countries such as Finland or Portugal produce in a year.

A similar lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz was rejected by a German court last year and the appeal is pending.

A third lawsuit, against energy company Wintershall Dea, is scheduled to be heard in August.

The Associated Press

Hong Kong transgender men win appeal over status change

Mon, February 6, 2023 



HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court ruled Monday that full sex reassignment surgery should not be a prerequisite for transgender people to have their gender changed on their official identity cards, in a move that is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the transgender community.

A transgender activist, Henry Edward Tse, and a person identified only as Q appealed to the court last month over the government’s refusal to change the genders on their ID cards because of their decision not to have full sex reassignment surgeries.

Tse and Q are both transgender men who have had their breasts removed, received hormonal treatments and lived their lives as males with professional support and guidance as well as psychiatric treatment.

The judgment by the Court of Final Appeal is expected to have a wide impact on the LGBTQ community because many of its transgender members consider having the operation unnecessary and risky.

The two went to court because existing government policy only allows transgender men to change their official gender if they have removed their uteruses and ovaries and constructed male genitalia. Only those who cannot undergo the surgical procedures due to medical reasons can be exempted.

Both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal dismissed judicial review proceedings brought by Tse and Q. The two were allowed to go to the Court of Final Appeal.

In a judgment made public Monday, the court said the government's policy was unconstitutional and imposed an “unacceptably harsh burden.” They also said that the policy was “disproportionate" in its encroachment upon the rights of the two to gender identity and physical integrity.

The judges also said any administrative issues that usually arise tend to pertain to a transgender person's outward appearance and not the appearance of their genital area, and that leaving the gender on their identity card unamended “produced greater confusion or embarrassment."

Tse welcomed the ruling, saying many transgender people have been longing for a “final victory” for years.

“Now I have a male ID card, it will be a lot easier for me to access gender-segregated spaces,” he said. “I wouldn’t be questioned and humiliated by being outed by my ID that’s incongruent to who I am.”

Liam Mak, co-founder and chairperson of local transgender youth organization Quarks, described the win as an “important milestone” for the transgender community in Hong Kong.

“We believe that the gender identity of oneself should not be tied to medical intervention, we should ensure minimal to no medical intervention in the policy,” said Mak. “Given that every individual has different preferences or decisions in their own gender transition journey, I hope that the government will be referencing the advice from the court to protect the right of all transgender people.”

___

Associated Press journalist Alice Fung contributed to this report.

Zen Soo And Kanis Leung, The Associated Press

Nearly 10 years after rail disaster, Lac-Mégantic residents watch new series but some say it's 'too soon'

Tue, February 7, 2023 

Yvette Cellard was one of the residents who watched the first screening of a new limited series on the Lac-Mégantic rail explosion on Monday evening. (Rachel Watts/CBC - image credit)

Emerging from a school auditorium on Monday evening, Yvette Cellard stood in the exact same spot she did nearly 10 years ago.

Cellard awoke to the sounds of explosions on July 6, 2013 and showed up at the local school to volunteer when she heard the news.

That's when a train carrying crude oil crashed into the centre of Lac-Mégantic, Que. killing 47 people in what went down as one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history.

"I was writing the names of people missing … I was one of the first arriving and we were at the table, right there," said Cellard, pointing to the doors of the school.

On Monday night, she was back in the school and among the group of residents to see the first episode in a limited TV series titled Mégantic for its first public viewing.

Released by Club Illico, the eight-episode series follows the community that was shaken, the lives lost and the people who volunteered to help pick up the pieces. Part of it is based on true stories, while other parts are fiction.

Like many other residents of Lac-Mégantic and surrounding towns, Cellard says she had mixed feelings about the series at first, which has received a significant amount of pushback from residents since its announcement.

Martin Bilodeau/Radio-Canada

Series was 'big issue in town'

Although Cellard was emotional before the film, she says she was glad she saw it.

"Something told me not to go and other things told me I had to go. So I just followed my instinct … I wanted to know if I was able to look at this," said Cellard.

Resident André Tanguay says the series was "a big issue in town," making him and his wife, Diane Boulet, wonder if they should attend in the first place.

"We decided that the best way to do it [was] to go, look at it and then make your own decision on that. We know some people who said 'we don't want to go, we don't want to hear about it' but I think that we have to cope with what happened, we have to look forward and the [way] to look forward is [to] make peace with the past," said Tanguay.

"It's not about making the best movie in town or getting an award, it's about how simple people, working people cope with something that's bigger than them. We are resilient and that's what the whole series is going to be about."

Rachel Watts/CBC

Boulet says she "adored" the humanity that was portrayed in the series, and how it followed individuals' lives — adding that she hopes to recommend it to her group of friends who didn't attend.

But some residents won't be convinced to look at it.

'It's too soon' say some residents

Yolande Boulet-Boulanger is among the group who was against the creation of the series from the start.

Sitting in her home located on the border of Frontenac and Lac-Mégantic, she recalled losing her grandson, Frédéric Boutin, in the tragedy in 2013.

"I have a difficult time talking about him. He was 19 years old… in the peak of his youth," said Boulet-Boulanger.

Rachel Watts/CBC

Her grandson was sleeping in his apartment when the explosion happened. She says he was a "prisoner" in his apartment, trying to get out through the fire escape — his body being discovered outside the building in the alley.

When she heard about the creation of this series, Boulet-Boulanger says her family didn't want Boutin's story to be included.

"It's too soon. It's a bit cruel," said Boulet-Boulanger with a pause. She notes that she didn't appreciate how it is fictitious and questioned the creators' motives.

Submitted by Isabelle Boulanger

Donald Stewart, her neighbour and a resident of Frontenac, Que. says he can appreciate the effort put into the series but doesn't see "the sense in it."

"Why don't they just leave it as it is? They are commemorating the 10th anniversary but in 25 years the feelings are still going to be there. I don't see anything good coming out of this," said Stewart.

Rachel Watts/CBC

Five-year project incorporated locals' testimonies

Sylvain Guy, the writer of the series, says he understands residents' apprehension.

"If it were me, well it's hard to say, but I don't think I would have liked to watch it," said Guy, putting himself in the shoes of families who lost loved ones.

Although some will never want to see it, he says he has received positive feedback on how this type of storytelling could benefit families.

"For many people … They wanted people to remember, they wanted to tell their story. That was very important for them," said Guy.

"For instance, I met the mother of a firefighter who committed suicide three months after the tragedy and each time people were talking about Mégantic, it was always the 47 people that died and her son was always left out so she wanted to tell her story."

Rachel Watts/CBC

The project, which took five years from start to finish, incorporated testimonies from families and friends, said Alexis Durand-Brault, the director. He says he heard 40 different stories from people who lost loved ones.

"I could have done 30 episodes," said Durand-Brault, adding that they could only use about 10-15 per cent of what they heard.

"We had to chop some of this stuff up, we couldn't show everything that we wanted but also it would have been irresponsible if we were to have put everything that we heard on the screen because it's very very overwhelming," said Sophie Lorain, one of the producers.

Rachel Watts/CBC

'Trauma-burdened town' supported by social workers

It's part of why public health got involved and deployed social workers to be in attendance on Monday's first screening.

Isabelle Samson, the director of public health for the Eastern Townships, says her team created pamphlets and did research about how best to support residents.

"These things don't happen everyday that a series comes out in a trauma-burdened town," said Samson.

"What the literature tells us is that there's no reason to put a warning and for people not to watch it but we have to give them information to make a clear choice. So that's what we did."

Rachel Watts/CBC

Outside the auditorium, social workers created a welcome space for those needing counselling.

She notes that they expect people to have "strong emotions" watching the show, but should be wary of "red flags" that may be warning signs of mental health stress.

"If you start getting more anxious, stressed and this anxiety lasts way beyond the episode and to the next day and they prevent you from doing the things you are usually able to do, that's another red flag," said Samson, adding that people should be encouraged to view the show surrounded by people who support them and remember that the characters are fictitious.

"Yes, there's a lot of true bits to it clearly, but there's a lot of fictional aspects to it as well so we have to keep that in mind. And that's going to be a challenge to decipher the reality from the fiction."

Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press

ECOCIDE

Crews release toxic chemicals from derailed tankers in Ohio



EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Crews released toxic chemicals into the air from five derailed tanker cars that were in danger of exploding Monday and began burning it after warning residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to leave immediately or face the possibility of death.

Flames and black smoke billowed high into the sky from the derailment site late in the afternoon, about an hour after authorities said the controlled release would begin.

The slow release of vinyl chloride from five rail cars into a trough that was then ignited created a large plume above the village of East Palestine but authorities said they were closely monitoring the air quality.

“Thus far, no concerning readings have been detected," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a brief evening news conference about three hours after the venting and burning procedure began.

However, he urged Pennsylvania residents within a 2-mile (3.2 kilometer) radius of the derailment site to shelter in place and keep their doors and windows closed through the evening as a precaution in case of wind shifts.

Shapiro also said he had spoken to President Joe Biden, who had offered “the full support of the federal government" to Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine earlier ordered evacuations in the area of the derailment that has been smoldering since Friday night. Authorities believed most, if not all, residents in the danger zone had left but they were knocking on doors one more time before releasing the vinyl chloride inside the cars, he said.

“You need to leave, you just need to leave. This is a matter of life and death,” DeWine said at news conference.

Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I.

Scott Deutsch of Norfolk Southern Railway earlier said doing this during the daytime would allow the fumes to disperse more quickly and prevent the rail cars from exploding and sending shrapnel and other debris from flying through the neighborhood.

“We can't control where that goes,” he said.

The process involves using a small charge to blow a hole in the cars, allowing the material to go into a trench and burning it off before it's released in the air, he said. The crews handling the controlled release have done this safely before, Deutsch said.

About three hours into the procedure, Norfolk Southern Railway issued a statement saying that experts and first responders had breached the rail cars, chemicals were burning off and the cars were expected to drain for several more hours.

The site is very close to the state line, and the evacuation area extends into a sparsely populated area of Pennsylvania. About half of the 4,800 residents in East Palestine had been warned to leave over the weekend before officials decided on Monday to use the controlled release.

Shapiro said the evacuation zone includes about 20 Pennsylvania residences. Pennsylvania State Police went door-to-door to assist the last remaining residents and ensure they leave.

Shapiro later said he’d been told that residents with a mile (1.6 kilometers) of the controlled burn had left.

Forced evacuations began Sunday night in East Palestine after authorities became alarmed that the rail cars could explode after a “drastic temperature change” was observed in a rail car.

Residents were packing overnight bags, loading their pets into cars and searching for hotel rooms Monday morning. Police in the village moved out of their communication center as the threat of an explosion increased.

Police cars, snow plows and military vehicles from the Ohio National Guard blocked streets leading into the area.

About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board. No injuries to crew, residents or first responders were reported.

Five were transporting vinyl chloride, which is used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in plastic products and is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute

Federal investigators say the cause of the derailment was a mechanical issue with a rail car axle.

The three-member train crew received an alert about the mechanical defect “shortly before the derailment," Michael Graham, a board member of the NTSB, said Sunday. Investigators identified the exact “point of derailment,” but the board was still working to determine which rail car experienced the axle issue, he said.

Mayor Trent Conaway, who declared a state of emergency in the village, said one person was arrested for going around barricades right up to the crash. He warned people to stay away and said they'd risk arrest.

“I don't know why anybody would want to be up there; you're breathing toxic fumes if you're that close,” he said.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists Kantele Franko, Gene Puskar and Brooke Schultz in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed. Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Patrick Orsagos And John Seewer, The Associated Press

Mon, February 6, 2023