National reconciliation day to become September statutory holiday in B.C.



VICTORIA — The British Columbia government introduced legislation Tuesday to make Sept. 30 a statutory holiday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a recognition that Labour Minister Harry Bains said will provide opportunities to hold annual commemoration events similar to Remembrance Day.

Bains introduced a bill in the legislature, saying the holiday will be observed this year and every Sept. 30 afterwards.

The B.C. holiday follows the federal government's decision in 2021 to declare Sept. 30 a national truth and reconciliation holiday for its workers.

"I'm proud and humbled to be part of what I consider a historic step as a British Columbian," said Bains at a news conference following the introduction of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Act.

"This day provides an annual opportunity for people to learn about our colonial history and how it has impacted Indigenous communities, and to participate in commemorative events in a way similar to Remembrance Day," he said.

Those ceremonies are held across Canada every Nov. 11 to honour the sacrifices of the casualties of war and military members who serve the country.

"Reconciliation is about each and every one of us," Bains said. "All British Columbians and Canadians have a role to play. This new statutory holiday in B.C. will allow more people to get involved in advancing reconciliation."

He said all workers in B.C. will be covered by the province's Employment Standards Act and will be entitled to a paid day off every Sept. 30.

Prior to the introduction of the act, business, labour, Indigenous and social groups were consulted about a new statutory holiday, Bains said.

Bains told the legislature the government's decision on the holiday is in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action No. 80, which requested the federal government establish a holiday to honour residential school survivors, their families and communities.

B.C. will join Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon and Canada as jurisdictions that have already designated Sept. 30 as a statutory holiday, if the legislation passes. New Brunswick has made the day a provincial holiday but says it's optional for the private sector.

Murray Rankin, B.C.'s Indigenous relations and reconciliation minister, said the holiday will provide opportunities for people to understand and reflect on a time in Canada's history when children were forced to attend schools that stripped them of their culture and caused emotional and physical harm.

"I can say we will all recall the shock, the sadness, the anger that followed the findings at the Kamloops residential school," he said. "Many Indigenous children suffered physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse at these institutions, and sadly many Indigenous children died at them."

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation reported in May 2021 the discovery by ground-penetrating radar of what were believed to be possible remains of more than 200 children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Similar reports of possible remains at residential school sites at former institutions across Canada have been made since the Kamloops discovery.

The Kamloops residential school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and ran it as a day school until it closed in 1978.

A 4,000-page report by the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission released in 2015 detailed harsh mistreatment at the schools, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children, and at least 4,100 deaths at the institutions.

The report cited records of at least 51 children dying at the Kamloops school between 1914 and 1963. Health officials in 1918 believed children at the school were not being adequately fed, leading to malnutrition, the report noted.

"This is the heavy truth of our history that we must confront as British Columbians and as Canadians," Rankin said. "Reconciliation is a process of healing relationships. It requires public truth telling, apology, commemoration that acknowledges and seeks to address past harms."

He said B.C. has a responsibility to remember the children who never came home and honour residential school survivors.

Phyllis Webstad said she was "humbled and honoured" that her Orange Shirt Day campaigns have become part of the Sept. 30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Webstad started wearing an orange shirt on Sept. 30 to mark her first day of school as a child. She said residential school administrators took away her clothes, including her new orange shirt.

She said the statutory holiday ensures people no longer have an excuse "to not know what happened to us."

Premier David Eby says his government is taking the important step to enshrine the day in law to acknowledge the wrongdoings of the past, and to take meaningful action toward reconciliation.

"Many British Columbians have been marking Orange Shirt Day with humility, respect and reflection in their own way for years," says Eby in a statement, referring to a day that honours survivors and those who didn't return from residential schools.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, says the day of reconciliation is welcome.

"For this day to be truly meaningful, it requires healing and capacity for change," Phillip says in a statement.

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

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Explainer-What ails Canada's healthcare system?

Anna Mehler Paperny
Tue, February 7, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Humber River Hospital in Toronto


By Anna Mehler Paperny

(Reuters) - Canada's provincial and federal leaders were slated to meet on Tuesday in an attempt to agree upon potential solutions to bolster the country's stretched public healthcare system. Long a source of pride, Canada's publicly funded healthcare system has been strained to the breaking point due to factors including the pandemic and staffing shortages.

Here are some of the issues facing Canada's health system:

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES?

A shortage of healthcare workers fueled in part by burnout and attrition has plagued Canada's hospitals, clinics and primary care resources. The health and social services sector vacancy rate was 5.7% in November, down from a multi-year high of 6.6% two months earlier.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information there were 93,998 physicians in Canada in 2021, or 2.46 per 1,000 people.

According to the World Bank using World Health Organization statistics, the United States had 2.6 physicians per 1,000 people in 2018 and the United Kingdom had 5.8 in 2019.

WHERE ARE THE PRESSURE POINTS?

The crisis is most evident in the country's hospitals, which faced a surge in respiratory illnesses last fall that left some people waiting hours in emergency departments, sometimes being treated there because of a lack of staffed beds. There were high-profile deaths of people whose families said they could have lived had they received timely care.

WHAT IS THE PRIMARY CARE CONUNDRUM?

Primary care providers are considered the "front door" of healthcare - they are the clinicians who follow patients, deal with a range of concerns and determine who needs a specialist's care. But millions of Canadians do not have one. A survey conducted last fall found 22% of respondents lacked a family doctor or nurse practitioner they could talk to about their health. Lacking a primary care provider can mean problems do not get caught early or people rely on walk-in clinics or emergency rooms.

WHAT ROLE DOES AN AGING POPULATION PLAY?

Canada has failed to address the growing healthcare needs of an aging population, said Alan Drummond, an emergency physician at the Great War Memorial Hospital in Perth, Ontario.

On any given day, a fifth of hospital beds in Ontario are taken up by people who do not need to be hospitalized, Drummond said. They are often awaiting transfer to a long-term care facility or to their home where they are assisted by a caregiver. But there are not enough home care or long-term care resources to provide for them, Drummond said.

WHAT DOES CANADA SPEND ON HEALTHCARE?

Total health spending in Canada was expected to reach C$331 billion in 2022, or C$8,563 per Canadian, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Total health expenditure in 2022 was expected to rise by 0.8%, following a high growth rate of 13.2% in 2020 and 7.6% in 2021. From 2015 to 2019 health spending growth averaged 4% per year.

In 2022 total health spending was 12.2% of GDP, down from 13.8% in 2020. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada's per-capita health spending was below that of the United States, Germany, Switzerland and other rich countries in 2021.

WHAT DO THE PROVINCES WANT?

The provinces have asked for billions more in funding from the federal government. Ottawa, for its part, has said such a funding boost must come with strings attached. This could include improvements in data collection and the provision of mental health care, among other things. The federal government and the provinces have cautioned not to expect finalized deals on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Canada pledges C$46.2 billion in new funding to fix strained healthcare system



Tue, February 7, 2023 
By Ismail Shakil and Anna Mehler Paperny

OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada's federal government will provide an additional C$46.2 billion ($34.4 billion) in new funding for the country's public healthcare system over 10 years, it said on Tuesday following a meeting with its provincial and territorial counterparts to hammer out a deal to fix the overburdened system.

Canada's public healthcare systems have been under strain thanks in part to the pandemic and staffing shortages that have left hospitals stretched to the breaking point.

For years the provincial governments, which are responsible for healthcare delivery, have asked Ottawa to increase its contribution to health spending. The federal government, for its part, said it wanted new money to come with conditions.

Provincial premiers told reporters they had to digest the proposal but were underwhelmed by the dollar amount. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said they were "a little disappointed."

"What we see this as, is a starting point. It's a down payment on further discussion," said Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Long a source of pride, Canada's publicly funded healthcare system has been strained by the pandemic and staff shortages.

Some of the new funds promised Tuesday are unconditional; others are earmarked for certain priority areas. The federal government is asking the provinces to commit to better data gathering and sharing in order to access the increased funds.

But the proposal, which seeks to use bilateral agreements to target priority areas such as primary care and mental health, suggests the federal government has more ability to dictate health spending than they do, said Sara Allin, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.

"It just sounds so much more prescriptive than the federal government actually can be."

A cash infusion could help Canada's healthcare, Allin said. But the real problem is one of governance.

"How do we manage the system? How do we hold the different actors accountable?"

The additional C$46.2 billion in funding unveiled Tuesday is part of a larger C$196.1 billion package in increased health funding over a decade.

"Canadians deserve better health care and we need immediate actions to address current and future challenges," Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement.

The deal needs signoff from the provinces, which have previously pushed back against the federal government's conditions.

Tuesday's meeting in Ottawa could result in an agreement over a general outline of healthcare funding, but the federal government and the provinces have cautioned not to expect finalized deals on Tuesday.

Tuesday's package includes C$25 billion over 10 years to be hammered out in bilateral agreements to target shared health priorities in the fields of family health services, healthcare workers and backlogs, mental health and substance use, and "a modernized healthcare system."

The Canada Health Act governs the country's publicly funded healthcare system, which is meant to offer Canadians equitable access to medical care based on their needs, not their ability to pay.

($1 = 1.3414 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Sandra Maler, Aurora Ellis and Jonathan Oatis)

Factbox-Details on Canadian government new healthcare funding


Tue, February 7, 2023 

Provincial and Territorial premiers gather to discuss healthcare in Ottawa


TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Tuesday announced C$46.2 billion ($34.4 billion) in new funding for provinces and territories to tackle the country's strained public health system.

Here are some of the key aspects of the plan:

* An immediate C$2 billion Canada Health Transfer (CHT) to

address pressures on the healthcare system, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms, and long wait times for surgeries.

* A 5% CHT guarantee for the next five years, which will be provided through annual top-up payments as required.

* C$25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities through tailored bilateral agreements that will support the needs of people in each province and territory in four areas of shared priority: family health services; health workers and backlogs; mental health and substance use; and a modernized health system.

* These additional federal investments will be contingent on continued healthcare investments by provinces and territories.

* C$1.7 billion over five years to support hourly wage increases for personal support workers and related professions, as federal, provincial, and territorial governments work together on how best to support recruitment and retention.

* C$2 billion over 10 years to address the unique challenges indigenous peoples face when it comes to fair and equitable access to quality and culturally safe healthcare services.

($1 = 1.3414 Canadian dollars)

(Compiled by Denny Thomas; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

SEIU HEALTHCARE RESPONSE TO NEW FEDERAL FUNDING FOR PERSONAL SUPPORT WORKERS


RICHMOND HILL, ON, Feb. 7, 2023 /CNW/ - The following statement can be attributed to SEIU Healthcare president, Sharleen Stewart:

Canada's Healthcare Union (CNW Group/SEIU Healthcare)

"SEIU Healthcare welcomes the federal government's commitment today of $1.709 billion to invest in personal support workers (PSWs) and care workers like them who support our vulnerable loved ones.

This funding marks a giant step forward towards achieving a $25 per hour national minimum wage for all PSWs across Canada.

Our message to provincial and territorial governments is simple: the time for excuses is over—it's time to raise wages for PSWs and provide better healthcare jobs—it's time for $25 for Canada's PSWs and all underpaid healthcare workers like them.

We call on Canada's premiers to accept this money and raise wages for healthcare workers immediately because good healthcare jobs mean better care for seniors and patients.

Canada's health human resources are in crisis and workers on the frontline are demanding that all governments invest in safe staffing levels. That's why SEIU Healthcare will never stop fighting for all healthcare workers who are overworked and underpaid, and with action from all levels of government we can end the exploitation of women in the care economy more broadly, and all healthcare workers in particular."

SEIU Healthcare represents more than 60,000 healthcare and community service workers across Ontario. The union's members work in hospitals, homecare, nursing and retirement homes, and community services throughout the province. www.seiuhealthcare.ca

SOURCE SEIU Healthcare

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2023/07/c6390.html

Controversial Calgary Lecturer Shut Down At University Of Lethbridge

Tue, February 7, 2023 

(ANNews) – Hundreds of University of Lethbridge students protested a scheduled talk from a former Mount Royal University (MRU) professor who has engaged in residential school denialism. The talk was cancelled as a result of the protest.

Frances Widdowson, who has said residential school survivors received an education “normally they wouldn’t have received” and that the Black Lives Matter movement “destroyed” MRU’s campus was fired from her role as an economics, justice and policy studies professor last year.

While Widdowson claimed she was disciplined for “criticizing ‘woke’ ideas,” the university issued a statement saying academic freedom “does not justify harassment or discrimination.”

The protests against Widdowson’s appearance at U of L were led by Indigenous students and faculty, with allies joining them in support.

Some protestors surrounded Widdowson and shouted her down while others chanted and played guitar. A drumming circle also formed, with community members dancing in the hall.

“Every time Widdowson was forced to move further away from the atrium, loud applause and cheering erupted in the crowd,” Stephen Hunt reported for CTV News, adding that a “handful of people” were there to support her.

She was ultimately whisked away from campus by security and was scheduled to deliver her talk over Zoom.

Keely Wadsworth, a fourth year Aboriginal Health student, told CTV she “100 per cent support[s] cancelling” Widdowson’s lecture.

Wadsworth spent last summer researching and detailing incidents that took place on six residential schools on the Blood Reserve.

“I know every single incident, I know every single death that happened,” she said,” How do you take all that knowledge and think that it’s positive?”

Brittany Lee, a councillor with Lethbridge Metis Local 2003 said she was there to support the more than 2,000 Metis people who live in the Lethbridge area.

“We believe that education should be the means to repairing the damage that was done to our peoples via the residential school system, and not a means to rehash some of the tragic events that have happened in the past. So we’re here to rebuild that relationship and make sure that everybody’s feeling supported in that way,” she said.

After the event’s cancellation, U of L president Mike Mahon issued a statement expressing his “sincere appreciation to our community members for conducting themselves in such a peaceful and powerful manner.”

In an interview with the Lethbridge Herald, Widdowson said she places blame “squarely at the feet of the university’s president for not cultivating an environment for intellectual discussion, open inquiry and academic freedom.”

The Widdowson incident highlighted tension between U of L’s commitment to academic freedom and its stated commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

The university originally said it would provide space with her lecture in line with its free expression policy, but then backtracked based on its TRC commitments. Widdowson still showed up.

The cancellation of Widdowson’s lecture produced a backlash from the provincial government. Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that universities will now be required to submit annual reports on their efforts to “protect free speech” on campus, and threatened further measures.

“It is abundantly clear that more needs to be done to ensure our institutions are adequately protecting free speech,” Nicolaides wrote.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers initially said the cancellation of Widdowson’s lecture raised ““serious concerns about the University of Lethbridge’s commitment to freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

But after the government announced its apparent reprisal, the association emphasized that the state “cannot and should not dictate how universities run their internal academic affairs.”

In response to the government’s announcement, the University of Calgary Students’ Union issued a statement in support of the U of L community “strongly standing against hate on their campus.”

“U of L students stood up, held firm, and made it clear that they had no interest in hearing a lecture that denies the genocidal nature of residential schools and the lasting harm these institutions have done to Indigenous peoples,” it said. “That decision should be respected.”

Former premier Jason Kenney forced all post-secondary institutions, except for Lacombe’s religious Burman University, to adopt free speech policies by December 2019 based on the so-called “Chicago principles,” which state community members “may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe.”

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

WestJet pilots at an 'impasse' with airline over contract talks: union

CALGARY — The union representing WestJet pilots says contract negotiations with the airline have been unproductive and federal arbitration may be needed to avert a strike.

ALPA Canada, which represents approximately 1,800 pilots at WestJet and its low-cost subsidiary Swoop, says it has been negotiating with the Calgary-based company since September.

It says the two parties are at an impasse over issues like wages and scheduling.

WestJet pilots first unionized in May 2017, marking a major shift in culture at the famously non-union airline.

The pilots' first union contract, which expired at the end of 2022, was the result of an arbitrated settlement.

That settlement, reached in 2018, averted a threatened pilots' strike, as WestJet pilots had voted in favour of job action after contract talks fell apart.

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

Lower turnout in renewed protests over French pension reform

Tue, February 7, 2023 



PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of French marched in a third round of protests Tuesday against planned pension reforms, while new nationwide strikes disrupted public transport and schools, as well as power, oil and gas supplies. Turnout at the demonstrations was lower than on previous occasions.

Train passengers were expected to face more delays Wednesday, with two rail unions calling to extend their strike by 24 hours.

The protests came a day after French lawmakers began debating a pension bill that would raise the minimum retirement from 62 to 64. The bill is the flagship legislation of President Emmanuel Macron's second term.

Over 750,000 people marched in Paris, the cities of Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and elsewhere, according to the Interior Ministry. That’s fewer than on the last protest, on Jan. 31. The nearly 60,000 protesters in the French capital marched from the Opera area across the city carrying placards reading “Save Your Pension” and “Tax Billionaires, Not Grandmas.” The strike disruptions were also milder than on Jan. 31.

France’s current pension system “is a democratic achievement in the sense that it is a French specialty that other countries envy,” said one protester, media worker Anissa Saudemont, 29.

“I feel that with high inflation, unemployment, the war in Ukraine and climate change, the government should focus on something else,” she added.

Much of the Paris march was peaceful, but there were flashes of unrest; police said officers detained 17 people for “throwing projectiles” and alleged vandalism.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the government plan Tuesday but suggested there was room for adjustments.

“I’m convinced there are points of agreement to be found. I’m convinced that we can improve this text together. It will be through debate, confronting ideas and, of course, respect,” she said, noting graffiti that appeared on the meeting place of the National Assembly, including a door marked with “60.”

If nothing is done, Borne said, taxes and social charges will increase, along with unemployment and lower purchasing power. That would would cost retirees with modest pensions and “all those who worked all their lives, and certainly not the big bosses," she said.

“Voila, your alternative project,” Borne said.

Last week, an estimated 1.27 million people demonstrated, according to authorities, more than in the first big protest day on Jan. 19. More demonstrations, called by France's eight main unions, are planned for Saturday.

Rail operator SNCF said train services were severely disrupted Tuesday across the country, including on its high-speed network. International lines to Britain and Switzerland were affected. The Paris metro was also disrupted.

Saad Kadiui, 37, a consulting cabinet chief who had to go through a disrupted Paris train station Tuesday, said he did not support the “wearisome” strikes. “There are other ways to protest the pension reform,” he said.

Kadiui said he supported the principle of the pension reform but wanted the bill to be improved in parliament. “I think that for some jobs, 64 is too late,” he said.

Train travel in France is set to remain disrupted into Wednesday. The CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail unions on Tuesday evening extended their members' walkout by a day. SNCF said the action would lead to delays or cancellations in up to a third of high-speed trains.

Workers in oil refineries have said they also plan to continue their strike action into Wednesday.

Power producer EDF said the protest movement led to temporarily reduced electricity supplies Tuesday, without causing blackouts. More than half of the workforce was on strike at the TotalEnergies refineries, according to the company.

The Education Ministry said close to 13% of teachers were on strike, a decrease compared to last week's protest day. A third of French regions were on scheduled school breaks.

Macron vowed to go ahead with the changes, despite opinion polls showing growing opposition. The bill would gradually increase the minimum retirement age to 64 by 2030 and accelerate a planned measure providing that people must have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension.

The changes are designed to keep the pension system financially afloat. France’s aging population is expected to plunge the system into deficit in the coming decade.

The parliamentary debates at the National Assembly and the Senate are expected to last several weeks.

Opposition lawmakers have proposed more than 20,000 amendments to the bill debated on Monday, mostly by the left-wing Nupes coalition.

Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the powerful CGT union, called on the government and lawmakers to “listen to the people.” Speaking on French radio network RTL, he denounced Macron’s attitude as “playing with fire.”

Macron wants to show that “he is able to pass a reform, no matter what public opinion says, what the citizens think,” Martinez asserted.

Rancor over the pension plan went beyond parliament's raucous debate. The speaker of the lower house, the National Assembly, reported that the bill had triggered anonymous voicemails, graffiti and a threatening letter to the head of the chamber's Social Affairs Committee.

“That’s enough,” Yael Braun-Pivet tweeted. “These acts are an attack on our democratic life. ... We won’t tolerate it.”

Several lawmakers from the far-right National Rally party received voicemails during Monday's debate saying that loved ones were hospitalized, in an apparent ploy to make them leave the assembly.

Party leader Marine Le Pen filed a complaint via a letter sent to the Paris prosecutor.

____

AP journalists Sylvie Corbet, Oleg Cetinic and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed.

Thomas Adamson And Jade Le Deley, The Associated Press

French unions remain defiant in face of proposed pension reform despite dip in protester numbers

RFI
Tue, February 7, 2023

REUTERS - SARAH MEYSSONNIER


Opponents of France's controversial pension reform plan sought to keep up the momentum on a third day of protests and strikes. However, the numbers taking to the streets were down on the previous week.

President Emmanuel Macron's bid to raise the retirement age has sparked immense opposition from unions, the left and the wider public, with previous protests on 19 and 31 January sparking mass demonstrations and walkouts.

But turnout was trending downwards on Tuesday with the hardline CGT union saying almost two million people protested nationwide compared with its estimate of 2.8 million last week.

It said 400,000 people were protesting in Paris compared with 500,000 on January 31 and 400,000 on January 19.

The interior ministry is due to publish its own estimates - usually sharply lower than those of the unions - later.

There were isolated clashes in some cities, including Nantes, Paris and Rennes, with police using tear gas against protesters.

Police said that 17 people were arrested in Paris, where bins were set alight, the fronts of McDonalds restaurants smashed as well as glass bottles and other projectiles thrown.

The head of the CGT union, Philippe Martinez, indicated there would be no let up in the fight, warning that more "numerous, massive and rolling" strikes were coming if the government did not drop the pensions plan.

"If the government keeps on refusing to listen then of course things will have to be ratcheted up," he said.

Macron and retirement age

Macron put raising the retirement age and encouraging the French to work more at the heart of his re-election campaign last year, but polls suggest that two-thirds of people are against the changes.

(with AFP)

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/third-wave-of-french-pension-protests.html

Third wave of French pension protests keeps pressure on Macron

https://plawiuk.blospot.com/2023/02/france-braces-for-new-pension-strikes.html

 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/france-controversial-pension-reform.html

Controversial pension reform plan faces first parliamentary showdown

Red Cross helped more people after Fiona than any other disaster in Canada

Tue, February 7, 2023 

An SUV rests at the bottom of a road washed out by torrential rains from post-tropical storm Fiona in Cape Breton's Richmond County.

 (Communications Nova Scotia/The Canadian Press - image credit)

New numbers released by the Canadian Red Cross show the organization provided assistance to nearly 100,000 households, more than any other natural disaster in Canada.

"With Fiona, it impacted hundreds and hundreds of communities scattered throughout all of Eastern Canada," said Bill Lawlor, the Atlantic director of governance and stakeholder relations with the organization.

Fiona resulted in wide-scale impacts, including massive destruction of property and lengthy power outages.

Thanks to the generosity of Canadians who contributed to the Hurricane Fiona in Canada Appeal, the Canadian Red Cross was able to assist individuals and families from more than 96,000 households impacted by the powerful storm. That campaign raised more than $54 million, including matching funds provided by the federal government.

By comparison, the wildfires near Fort McMurray, Alberta in 2016 saw the Red Cross assist 88,000 households. The organization helped 7,540 households after the flooding in British Columbia that swamped entire regions of the Fraser Valley in 2021.

"Only through the generosity of those donors were we able to do some of the activities that we had done," Lawlor said. "There were different impacts in different provinces, and we were able to provide a wide variety of supports."

'Very demanding' work

More than 1,000 volunteers and staff were key to the Red Cross helping so many people in Atlantic Canada. They worked together to provide emergency lodging to more than 1,200 individuals on behalf of provincial governments.

They also provided more than 5,700 emergency items to affected individuals and communities, including hygiene kits, cots, blankets and even teddy bears for young children.

"It can be very demanding when we are in response mode, and we are so very appreciative of the 1,000 staff and volunteers who were able to support these efforts," said Lawlor. "Without them we would have had a much more limited capacity and availability to make as much outreach as we did."

Michael King

The Red Cross also provided support at 33 reception centre sites and conducted 22 mobile visits to impacted communities in partnership with local authorities.

While registration for the Canadian Red Cross financial assistance programs related to Fiona closed in December, Nova Scotians eligible for remaining Hurricane Fiona financial assistance programs have until Feb. 24 to apply.

Black '1870' pins worn by Congress members for State of the Union have deep significance

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus wore black pins with the number “1870” on them, which marks the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person in the U.S.

Marquise Francis
·National Reporter
Tue, February 7, 2023

An "1870" pin to be worn by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and others at the State of the Union address. 

(Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos courtesy of the office of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)

At President Biden's State of the Union speech Tuesday in which he addressed the country’s top issues before Congress, members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats made a bold statement of their own — albeit a silent one.

Many of them wore black pins with the number “1870” on them, which marks the year of the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person that occurred in the U.S. The pins are a call for action on reforming the institution of policing that has killed thousands of Black people in the 153 years since.

“I’m tired of moments of silence. I’m tired of periods of mourning,” New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who came up with the idea to create the pins, told Yahoo News ahead of the speech. “I wanted to highlight that police killings of unarmed Black citizens have been in the news since 1870, and yet significant action has yet to be taken.”

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman at an event at the Capitol to demand that Congress renew an assault weapons ban, July 12, 2016. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for MoveOn.org)

On March 31, 1870, 26-year-old Henry Truman, a Black man, was shot and killed by Philadelphia Officer John Whiteside after being accused of shoplifting from a grocery store.

Whiteside had allegedly chased Truman into an alley when at some point Truman turned to ask what he had done wrong, and the officer fatally shot him, according to an account in the Philadelphia Inquirer the following day. At trial, Whiteside claimed he had been ambushed by a crowd while he chased Truman. Whiteside was later convicted of manslaughter. That same year the country adopted the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote.

Over a century and a half since Truman’s killing, a steady stream of Black people have been killed by law enforcement, including 1,353 since 2017, according to data from Statista, a digital insights company. In fact, Black Americans are three times as likely to be killed by police as white people are, and they account for 1 in 4 police killings despite making up just 13% of the country’s population.

Many of the parents, siblings and children of Black people killed by police over the last decade were invited to Tuesday’s address as guests of members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The guest list included the families of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was gunned down by Cleveland police in 2014 on a playground; Amir Locke, the 22-year-old fatally shot by Minneapolis police in a predawn, no-knock raid last year; Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old fatally beaten by Memphis police during a traffic stop early last month; and a dozen other families who have lost loved ones.

“I hope today that we can get Congress to see that we need to pass this bill because this should never happen,” Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, said Tuesday afternoon at a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers, speaks with reporters on Tuesday about police reform. (Cliff Owen/AP)

In contrast, several Republicans chose to honor members of law enforcement as their guests, including Rep. Mike Garcia of California, who brought Tania Owen, a retired detective and widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant who was shot and killed by a suspect when he answered a burglary-in-progress call in 2016. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon hosted police officers from their respective districts.

The invitations came after several other Republicans last week, during National Gun Violence Survivors Week, were photographed wearing AR-15 pins, which were passed out by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia on the House floor. Clyde claimed the pins were “to remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.”

Many police reform advocates have argued that the systemic issues tied to policing transcend even racial lines, highlighting the fact that the five main officers involved in the brutal beating of Nichols were also Black.

“Blackness doesn’t shield you from all of the forces that make police violence possible,” James Forman Jr., a Yale law school professor and expert on race and law enforcement, told the New York Times. “What are the theories of policing and styles of policing, the training that police receive? All of those dynamics that propel violence and brutality are more powerful than the race of the officer.”

Karundi Williams, CEO of Re:power, an organization that trains Black people to become political leaders, told NBC News that addressing the core issues is the only way to prevent more killings.

“When we have moments of racial injustice that is thrust in the national spotlight, there is an uptick of outrage, and people take to the streets,” Williams said. “But then the media tends to move on to other things, and that consciousness decreases. But we never really got underneath the problem.”

Protesters in Oakland, Calif., on Jan. 29 to protest the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In 2022 alone, police killed 1,192 people, more than any year in the past decade, according to a new report released last week by the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence. Black people accounted for more than 300 of those killings. The report also claimed that many of these killings could have been avoided by changing law enforcement’s approach to such encounters, such as sending mental health providers to certain 911 calls.

But substantial police reform has continued to lag.

The 2021 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was put forth following the murder of 46-year-old Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, seeks to end excessive force, qualified immunity and racial bias in policing and to combat police misconduct. The bill passed the House of Representatives twice in the previous Congress, but has continued to fail in the Senate.

"With the support of families of victims, civil rights groups, and law enforcement, I signed an executive order for all federal officers banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act," Biden said in his State of the Union speech. "Let’s commit ourselves to make the words of Tyre’s mother come true, something good must come from this."

Following the recent police killing of Nichols, members of the Black Caucus are cautiously optimistic that change will soon come.

“This unfortunately reignites the fervor and the necessity and the urgency,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, recently told Yahoo News. “With 18,000 police communities, there has to be a federal law that addresses the training and the relationship between police. We have to restart.”

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the Oval Office last week. (Susan Walsh/AP)

An info card attached to the black pin given to members of the Black Caucus expresses the frustration of numerous police killings from Truman to Nichols.

“153 years later, nothing has changed,” the note reads in part. “We are tired of mourning and demand change.”

NOVA SCOTIA

Province approves green hydrogen project for Point Tupper

Tue, February 7, 2023

An aerial photograph shows black rectangles where EverWind Fuels plans to contruct portions of its industrial facility at Point Tupper, N.S. It will produce hydrogen and ammonia using methods that are considered more environmentally friendly than techniques which use natural gas. (Department of Environment - image credit)

Nova Scotia's Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tim Halman approved a proposed green hydrogen project in Point Tupper, N.S., on Tuesday

EverWind Fuels plans to use fresh water from a nearby lake to produce hydrogen in a process that's powered by renewable electricity from local wind-energy suppliers.

EverWind has said its hydrogen-making processes will create a much smaller carbon footprint than methods which use natural gas.

The system also creates nitrogen which the company plans to convert to ammonia and export for various industrial uses, including the production of agricultural fertilizer.

In a letter to the company released by the minister, Halman wrote:

"Following a review of the information provided by EverWind Fuels Company, and the information provided by the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, and the public during consultation on the environmental assessment, I am satisfied that any adverse effects or significant environmental effects of the undertaking can be adequately mitigated through compliance with the attached terms and conditions."

The accompanying terms and conditions include 14 provisions that span the life of the project from design to decommissioning.

Among the conditions, the company:

Must "commence work" on the project within two years.


Must report yearly on "concordance" with the conditions of environmental approval.


Is forbidden from transferring or selling the project to anyone else without the minister's approval.


Must complete and file, with the province, management plans that detail operations, as well as measures to safeguard the environment, and deal with groundwater and wastewater.


Must monitor the air quality on the site.


Must create a reporting system which records all complaints received and details all corrective measures taken.


Must develop contingency plans for "worst-case scenarios" in case of an accident or malfunction.


Must submit an emergency evacuation plan to the province, local municipalities, Nova Scotia's Emergency Management Office, as well as local police and fire departments for review prior to the start of operations.

EverWind

In a company news release, EverWind called the decision "a significant milestone."

Company founder and CEO Trent Vichie said "EverWind is establishing a globally competitive clean energy hub" in the province.

"The Environmental Approval announced today, will enhance the region's ability to create the first mover supply chains necessary to scale quickly in new markets," said Vichie. "It creates the foundation of a new industry in Canada and Nova Scotia that will lead the green energy transition."

The company is hoping to begin operations by 2025.