CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Executive gets 15 months in prison in doomed nuclear project

Wed, March 8, 2023 



COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A former executive utility who gave rosy projections on the progress of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina while they were hopelessly behind will spend 15 months in prison for the doomed project that cost ratepayers billions of dollars.

Ex-SCANA Corp. Executive Vice President Stephen Byrne apologized in court Wednesday, saying he thinks about how he let down customers, shareholders, employees, taxpayers and his family almost every day.

The two nuclear plants, which never generated a watt of power despite $9 billion of investment, were supposed to be “the crowning achievement of my life,” Byrne said. “But I failed.”

Byrne is the second SCANA executive to head to prison for the nuclear debacle. Former CEO Kevin Marsh was sentenced to two years in prison in October 2021 and released earlier in March after serving about 17 months.

Two executives at Westinghouse, which was contracted to build the reactors, are also charged. Carl Churchman, who was the company's top official at the Fairfield County construction site at V.C. Summer, pleaded guilty to perjury and is awaiting sentencing. Former Westinghouse senior vice president Jeff Benjamin faces 16 charges. His trial is scheduled for October.

Both defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed to delay Byrne's prison sentence until he testifies at Benjamin's trial to make sure he is honest and helpful.

But that isn't in doubt. Prosecutors said Byrne was the first executive to come to investigators after the project was abandoned in July 2017. His careful notes taken in every meeting of who spoke and what was said saved the government years of work unraveling the lies, prosecutor Winston Holliday said.

“They are the handwriting of an engineer," Holliday said.

In all, Byrne met with state and federal agents 15 times, sometimes for entire days. He walked them through what happened from the 2008 proposal to build the plants that led to a state law allowing the utility to raise rates so much of the risk fell on customers, to the final desperate meetings in 2017 when it was obvious the project was dead.

His cooperation led U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis to agree with the defense and prosecution recommendation of a 15-month prison sentence, a $200,000 fine and $1 million in restitution. Federal sentencing guidelines suggest a maximum five-year sentence for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Byrne, 63, told state regulators in 2016 that construction of the plants would finish in time to get more than $1 billion in tax credits vital for SCANA and its subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas to afford the project. The goal was to reassure shareholders and others that the project, which leaders knew was hopelessly delayed and over budget, was on track.

But unlike other executives, whose sin was greed and wanting to line their own pockets with bonuses, Holliday said Byrne's sin appeared to be pride.

“I genuinely believe as an engineer he wanted to build this thing," Holliday said.

The first words Byrne said in court were “I'm sorry.” He has been a nuclear engineer all his life and said he regrets the role he played in stifling the growth of nuclear power in the United States because the SCANA debacle showed the projects are too expensive and unwieldy.

“I failed the nuclear industry as well. What we hoped would be a nuclear renaissance — we put the brakes on it,” Byrne said.

Since losing his job in 2018, Byrne has been building houses with Habitat for Humanity. His lawyers said he took classes to be an electrician at a technical college so he could better help the organization.

“It is my fervent hope that when I retire I can go on to live a quiet life and no one in here ever hears from me again,” Byrne said.

Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press

Tens of thousands march in Greece to protest train disaster


Wed, March 8, 2023



ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Tens of thousands marched Wednesday in Athens and cities across Greece to protest the deaths of 57 people in the country's worst train disaster, which exposed significant rail safety deficiencies.

Labor unions and student associations organized the demonstrations, while strikes halted ferries to the islands and public transportation services in Athens, where at least 30,000 people took part in the protest.

More than 20,000 joined rallies in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, where clashes broke out when several dozen youths challenged a police cordon. Twelve students from the city’s university were among the dead in last week's head-on crash between two trains.

Police fired tear gas in the southern city of Patras, where a municipal band earlier played music from a funeral march while leading the demonstration. In the central city of Larissa, near the scene of the train collision, students holding black balloons chanted “No to profits over our lives!”

The accident occurred on Feb. 28 near the northern Greek town of Tempe. A passenger train slammed into a freight carrier coming in the opposite direction on the same line, and some of its derailed cars went up in flames.

A stationmaster accused of placing the trains on the same track has been charged with negligent homicide and other offenses, and the country's transportation minister and senior railway officials resigned the day after the crash.

But revelations of serious safety gaps on Greece’s busiest rail line have put the center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the defensive. He has pledged the government's full cooperation with a judicial inquiry into the crash.

“This is more than a train collision and a tragic railway accident. You get the sense that the country has derailed,” Nasos Iliopoulos, a spokesperson for Greece's main left-wing opposition party, Syriza, said.

Senior officials from a European Union railway agency were expected in Athens as part of promised assistance to help Greece improve railway safety. The agency in the past publicly highlighted delays in Greece's implementation of safety measures.

Safety experts from Germany also were expected to travel to Greece to help advise the government, Greece's new Transport Minister George Gerapetritis said.

“I, too, express my anguish and heartbreak over what happened in Tempe. This is an unprecedented national tragedy, which has scarred us all because of the magnitude of the tragedy: this unjustified loss of a great number of our fellow human beings,” Gerapetritis said.

He acknowledged major omissions in safety procedures on the night of the crash. Strikes have halted all national rail services since the collision.

Wednesday’s protests were also backed by striking civil servants’ associations and groups marking International Women’s Day.

Subways ran for a few hours in Athens to allow people to get to the demonstration. The strikes also closed state-run primary schools and had public hospitals operating at reduced capacity. ___ Thanassis Stavrakis in Athens and Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, contributed.

Derek Gatopoulos And Theodora Tongas, The Associated Press

TikTok push targets Biden on Alaska’s huge Willow oil plan


Wed, March 8, 2023 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A social media campaign urging President Joe Biden to reject an oil development project on Alaska's remote North Slope has rapidly gained steam on TikTok and other platforms, reflecting the unease many young Americans feel about climate change.

The #StopWillow campaign has garnered more than 50 million views and counting, and was trending in the top 10 topics on TikTok, as users voiced their concerns that Biden wouldn't stick to his campaign promises to curtail oil drilling.

“It’s just so blatantly bad for the planet,” said Hazel Thayer, a climate activist who posted TikTok videos using the #StopWillow hashtag.

“With all of the progress that the U.S. government has made on climate change, it now feels like they’re turning their backs by allowing Willow to go through," Thayer said. "I think a lot of young people are feeling a little bit betrayed by that.”

At the same time, Alaska Native leaders with ties to the petroleum-rich North Slope support ConocoPhillips Alaska's proposed Willow project. They've pushed back, saying the Willow Project would bring much-needed jobs and billions of dollars in taxes and mitigation funds to the vast, snow- and ice-covered region nearly 600 miles (965 kilometers) from Anchorage.

The Alaska Native mayors of two North Slope communities — Asisaun Toovak, of Utqiaġvik, the nation’s northernmost community formerly known as Barrow, and Chester Ekak, of Wainwright, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) to the southwest — penned an opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News in support of the project.

In the debate, “the voices of the people whose ancestral homeland is most impacted have largely been ignored," they wrote. "We know our lands and our communities better than anyone, and we know that resource development and our subsistence way of life are not mutually exclusive.”

Biden’s decision on Willow will be one of his most consequential climate decisions.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who fought the Willow project as a member of Congress, has the final decision on whether to approve it, although top White House climate officials are likely to be involved, with input from Biden himself. The White House declined to comment Tuesday.

Climate activists are outraged that Biden appears open to the project, which they call a “carbon bomb,” and would risk alienating young voters who have urged stronger climate action by the White House as he approaches a 2024 reelection campaign.

Willow's critics include the Pueblo Action Alliance, which is where Halaand's daughter, Somah Haaland, once worked. The Western Energy Alliance, an oil industry trade organization, claims that creates a conflict of interest for the secretary. Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz denied any conflict.

Alaska’s congressional delegation — including Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, who is the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress — backs the project and met with top officials at the White House last week.

With a decision anticipated soon, attention to Willow is growing online.

The project’s nature-themed name is making it easier for the topic to gain traction on social media than other oil projects with more technical-sounding names, said Cassidy DiPaola, spokesperson for People Vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of groups pressing Biden for an end to fossil fuel projects. A petition on change.org had more than 3 million signatures by Wednesday, making it the third most-signed petition in the company's history, it said.

“Young voters felt like this was betraying the climate goals they had set forth,” said Tyler Steinhardt, a vice president at Pique Action, a company that produces social media and mini-documentaries about climate solutions.

The proposed Willow project is within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an area the size of Indiana, though about half of the reserve is off limits to oil and gas leasing under an Obama-era rule reinstated by the Biden administration last year.

It’s also where subsistence hunters harvest caribou, seals, fish and bowhead whales to supplement extremely high food costs in rural Alaska, where for example a 24-ounce bag of shredded cheese can cost $16.99.

ConocoPhillips Alaska said Willow, one of the biggest oil fields to be proposed in Alaska in decades, could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, or about 1.5% of the total U.S. oil production. It could also help fill the 800-mile (1,287-kilometer) trans-Alaska oil pipeline, which is running at about a fourth of the peak capacity in the 1980s, when more than 2 million barrels a day flowed through the line from the North Slope to Valdez for shipment.

In oil-friendly Alaska, there have been visible shows of support for the project.

The Alaska Legislature unanimously passed a resolution last month in support of the project. Local governments and Alaska Native corporations on the North Slope also back the project, and union leaders — a major Biden constituency — support it.

The Alaska Native mayors said in their opinion piece that the project is expected to generate $1.25 billion in taxes for the North Slope Borough to pay for basic services like education, fire protection and law enforcement. Another $2.5 billion is expected for a grant program that will provide other improvements like a new recreation center for youth and community programs in Wainwright.

“It’s time for Washington, D.C., to listen to the voices of Alaska Native communities on the North Slope and approve Willow without further delay or deferral,” Toovak and Ekak wrote.

Not all elected officials on the North Slope favor the project, however,

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, the mayor of Nuiqsut, the community that would be closest to the Willow project, said she worried about the impact to her community's subsistence lifestyle.

“There are many who would like to say everybody in Alaska supports oil and gas development,” she told The Associated Press last month. “Well, for our village, this development is in the wrong area ... We oppose it."

___

O'Malley reported from Philadelphia, and Gutiérrez reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Matthew Daly in Washington, D.C., Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana also contributed to this report.

Mark Thiessen, Isabella O'malley And Natalia Gutierrez, The Associated Press

Métis National Council at crossroads as it marks 40-year anniversary

Wed, March 8, 2023 

A Métis Nation flag flies in Ottawa in January. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Forty years ago in Regina, on the eve of a high-stakes constitutional conference on Indigenous rights, the Métis decided to go it alone.

Three Métis associations from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the largest in the country, decided to ditch the Native Council of Canada and form a breakaway group, the fledgling Métis National Council (MNC).

A day later, on March 9, 1983, the new group made its move. The MNC sued then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau in a last-minute bid to block the conference.

It was a risky play, but the Métis were in a position of strength, remembers Tony Belcourt, who is Métis from Lac Ste. Anne, Alta., and served as the Native Council's founding president.

"The Justice department understood right away they could not go forward," Belcourt said.

Canada had patriated its Constitution a year earlier, capping a drawn-out struggle between Trudeau's Liberals and a loose coalition of Indigenous lobby groups who fought to secure protections for treaty and Indigenous rights.

Peter Bregg/The Canadian Press

Belcourt, an adviser at the Native Council at the time of the split, said the Métis built momentum during that push. Rather than stand off in court, Trudeau offered them a seat at the table.

"They had no choice," said Belcourt.

He had helped bring Métis and non-status First Nations people together in 1971 under the umbrella of the Native Council, which later became the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, a union Belcourt says was rooted in strength in numbers.

The two groups set their differences aside to build a national political movement, but by 1983 the relationship was frayed.

The final straw came when the Native Council's board appointed its president Louis "Smokey" Bruyere and vice-president Bill Wilson, both representing non-status First Nations, to the Métis seats at the talks.

Submitted

It was then, said Belcourt, that the Métis knew the time for strength in numbers had passed.

"It was time for Métis nationalism," he said.

"We had to break away and speak for ourselves."

Bright future or spent force?

This month, the MNC will mark 40 years since then with one of its founding members gone, amid multiple ongoing legal battles and sprawling new self-determination initiatives.

The council now consists of associations from Saskatchewan and Alberta, who are both founding members, plus the Ontario and British Columbia branches that joined in the 1990s.

The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) withdrew in 2021 following years of internal controversy over Métis citizenship, which was marked by bitter feuds and accusations of political backstabbing, betrayal and backroom deals.

The MMF has long accused the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) of opening the doors to members who may have Indigenous ancestry, but aren't Métis.

The MMF says the national council is a spent force, one fallen prey to a "pan-Indigenous agenda" that no longer represents the historic Métis Nation.

"That organization's purpose was served," said MMF President David Chartrand in a recent statement to CBC News.

"As we all know, it has lost its identity as representative of our proud Métis Nation."

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

MNO President Margaret Froh rejects that argument and accuses MMF of promoting misinformation.

As far as she's concerned, the MNC, led by a new president and with an injection of young leaders, will press on without Manitoba.

"There is a beautiful and very bright future for the Métis National Council," said Froh in a recent interview.

"I'm very excited to think about where we might be 40 years from now in advancing Métis rights."

Métis Nation of Alberta

A spokesperson said MNC President Cassidy Caron was working on pre-budget consultations in recent weeks and planned to officially celebrate the anniversary later this month. On Wednesday, Caron called the anniversary a moment to pause and reflect on the council's accomplishments.

"Forty years is a monumental and significant milestone for us to celebrate," she said, adding she doesn't feel Manitoba's absence casts a shadow on the day.

Caron was elected in 2021 as the MNC's first woman president and first new president in nearly two decades. She said she ran because she saw the need for an "ethical refresh" at the national council and frank discussions about its future.

The decades have brought gigantic leaps forward in Métis rights, she said, but she acknowledges charting a path for the next 40 years won't be easy.

"Our work is not done yet," she said.

"The Métis National Council needs to evolve to meet where our Métis governments are at today."

A truck with 3 wheels

Jean Teillet, a Métis author, lawyer and great-grandniece of Louis Riel, says the frantic rush in which the MNC was formed in 1983 meant flaws were baked into it then.

She likes to think of the vehicle for Métis rights that was created on March 8, 1983, as a truck with three wheels.

"It's been galumphing along for a long time but it's not established on any principled basis. It was established on need," Teillet said.

"It's not something I think of as a great celebration moment."

Brian Morris/CBC

The MNC has made some advances but it still has major structural problems traceable to its hurried creation, according to Teillet.

"I don't think it works very well right now," she said.

"I'm thinking of it, at the moment, as pretty dysfunctional."

She said Manitoba's withdrawal, coupled with the exclusion of the eight Alberta Métis settlements which together occupy more than 500,000 hectares of territory, pose serious questions about the MNC's future.

But that doesn't mean she's pessimistic about the future of the Métis Nation. She said a shakeup might even help.

Put another way, she said, maybe it's time for a new truck.

"Maybe this particular vehicle has served its purpose," she said, "and they can get one that has four wheels."

Actor Nazanin Boniadi asks world to back Iran women protests


Wed, March 8, 2023



ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Actor Nazanin Boniadi on Wednesday urged the world to back the protests in her native Iran calling for women's rights and political change, saying despots fear nothing "more than a free and politically active woman.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, Boniadi told The Associated Press that she hopes people will sign a petition she's supporting accusing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Iran of committing “gender apartheid” with their policies targeting women.

“These systems of oppressing women, of dehumanizing women, are based on strengthening and keeping these entrenched systems of power in place," she said. "So we have to legally recognize this as gender apartheid in order to be able to overcome it.”

Boniadi, who as a young child left Tehran with her family for England following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has used her fame as an actor in the series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime and in roles in feature films to highlight what's happening back in Iran.

Since September, Iran has faced mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being detained by the country's morality police. In the time since, activists say over 500 people have been killed and more than 19,000 others detained in a security force crackdown.

“The thing that is unprecedented is we’re seeing 12-year-old girls, schoolgirls, come out into the streets saying, 'We don’t want an Islamic Republic," Boniadi said. "The courage that takes is astounding. And that courage has been contagious.”

However, recent months have seen suspected poisonings at girls' schools in the country. While details remain difficult to ascertain, the group Human Rights Activists in Iran says at least 290 suspected school poisonings have happened over recent months, with at least 7,060 students claiming to be affected.

It remains unclear what chemical might have been used, if any. No one has claimed the attacks and authorities have not identified any suspects. Unlike neighboring Afghanistan, Iran has no recent history of religious extremists targeting girls’ education. However, some activists worry extremists might be poisoning girls to keep them out of school.

“The thing that ties us together is that (with) dictators and despots, there’s nothing that they fear more than a free and politically active woman. And so that’s why the crackdowns exist today in Iran ... as you’re seeing with the chemical attacks on schoolgirls."

She added: "We have to come together. We have to unite. We have to find a way forward and end these atrocities against women.”

___

Follow Malak Harb on Twitter at www.twitter.com/malakharb.

Malak Harb, The Associated Press

5 stories of women tackling climate change with science


Digital Writers
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Meet the first women to overwinter alone this small Arctic hut

From Arctic expeditions to innovative solutions, these Canadian women have been on the ground doing what they can to make the world a better place.

International Women’s Day was created to celebrate exactly that: women's achievement, all while raising awareness about discrimination that still exists around the world.

And as the world grapples with the complexity of climate disruption, it’s much needed work. See just exactly what these Canadian women got up to this past year below.

De-icing solutions for icy wind turbines

Click here to view the video

With colder air temperatures and a higher air density, Canada sees some of its strongest winds during the winter season — a perfect thing for wind farms. But with it comes ice, and that remains a persistent issue across North America.

Water droplets in the air can freeze on spinning turbines when temperatures are at or below 0°C. Accumulating ice makes the blade less aerodynamic, which reduces the amount of energy that can be generated and can cause damage to the turbine. Ice could also be flung hundreds of metres away from the turbines, which presents serious safety concerns.

It’s something Daniela Roeper, founder and CEO of Borealis Wind, decided she wanted to tackle straight out of university. Today they have created a de-icing system that allows the wind turbines to keep spinning.

“We started in 2016 and installed the first systems in 2018. We've sold over 20 systems since then and our systems are running smoothly through the winter with relatively little maintenance,” Roeper told The Weather Network last December.

Now she wants to take this Canadian-made solution international as renewable energy continues to expand worldwide.

READ MORE: Ice can be a problem for wind turbines. Here's a Canadian company's solution

Making history with citizen science

Sorby and Fålun Strøm collect samples while Ettra supervises their work. (Hearts in the Ice)

Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Fålun Strøm collect samples while Ettra supervises their work. (Hearts in the Ice)

Could you brave 19 months in a non-insulated hut with no running water (or Netflix! gasp) for citizen science?

That’s exactly what the duo behind Hearts in the Ice did in a history-making expedition to a remote area of Norway’s wilderness in Svalbard. While living in a 20-square-metre hut called Bamsebu, their goal was to collect science data and share knowledge about the climate crisis impacts in the Arctic during the pandemic when it was difficult for researchers to travel as the world went into lockdown.

The initiative was sparked after Norwegian-born Canadian Sunniva Sorby and Norway’s Hilde Fålun Strøm had a chance encounter that led them to embark on the epic journey together — and they aren’t done either.

They told The Weather Network last year they hope to travel to northern Canada for their next citizen science adventure this summer.

READ MORE: These two women made history by overwintering alone in a tiny Arctic hut

Experimenting for better soil

Click here to view the video

Climate change is expected to bring extended periods of drought. It’s an issue that led research scientist Vicky Levesque to experiment with soil in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley to combat the risks.

The use of chemical fertilizer can have an opposite effect and degrade soil quality, leaving researchers looking for ways to help improve the soil properties and make agriculture sustainable.

One potential solution, says Levesque, is biochar, a substance “produced by thermal decomposition of organic material (biomass such as wood, manure or leaves) under limited supply of oxygen, and at relatively low temperatures (under 700°C),” according to the International Biochar Institute.

Crops using biochar wouldn't see an effect in the first year but Levesque says they would in the second and third it will.

READ MORE: What is biochar and how can it help combat droughts?

These young women are already an inspiration

Melanie Downer, Samia Sami, Sarah Syed

Samia Sami, Melanie Downer, and Sarah Syed all spoke to The Weather Network last year for International Day of Women and Girls in Science. (Submitted)

Who runs the world? Well, according to Beyoncé, it’s girls.

That type of woman empowerment message is also at the core of International Day of Women and Girls in Science declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 to address the “significant gender gap” that has persisted in all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world.

But more women and girls are getting involved in the sciences every day.

The Weather Network spoke to three of those young women — who were also featured in Starfish Canada’s Top 25 environmentalists under 25 — in February 2022.

From ocean conservation to implementing artificial intelligence into power grids to hackathons and prototypes, they have an impressive list of accomplishments for women their age.

READ MORE: Three inspiring stories from young women making a mark on climate change

Who's got the power? Moms do

Click here to view the video

It turns out that climate change isn’t going away in the coming decades, but maybe there will be a brighter future for the next generation if moms realize their power to take climate action.

Mothers across Canada have the potential to enact serious change through household spending, banding together, and teaching their children about the dangers of a changing climate armed with the latest research.

“We see the impacts of climate change all around us. It's no longer a future problem. It’s impacting us in the now and we know it's getting worse,” Toronto mother Brianne Whyte told the Weather Network last May about why she joined the For Our Kids campaign.

Mothers are more powerful than they realize, according to Dr. Melissa Lem.

“My son and the beautiful landscapes in this country are the most wonderful things I've ever seen in my life. And I'm really inspired to protect them,” she said, adding that’s how she got involved in the park prescriptions program for the BC Parks Foundation.

Lem says the research shows being out in nature not only helps with well-being, but appreciating nature often leads to wanting to protect it as well.

READ MORE: Why mothers hold untapped power in the climate fight

Thumbnail image: Daniela Roeper, founder and CEO of Borealis Wind, stands near a wind tower. (Borealis Wind)

Ontario to be short 33,000 nurses and PSWs in five years: financial watchdog

Wed, March 8, 2023 



TORONTO — Ontario's fiscal watchdog says the province is expected to be short 33,000 nurses and personal support workers in five years.

The Financial Accountability Office says in a special health-care report that the government will be short $21 billion to cover its commitments to expand hospitals, long-term care and home care.

The province's health-care system has buckled in recent years with severe staffing shortages that have led to temporary emergency room closures, a massive surgical backlog and fed-up patients.

The financial watchdog says the province could address the funding shortfall by incrementally spending more in upcoming budgets and a boost from Ontario's ballooning contingency fund.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the province is investing heavily in health care, has reduced wait times for key surgeries and "broke records" by registering more new nurses in 2022.

Hannah Jensen says they will use money from the pending health-care deal with the federal government to hire more nurses and sign up more people with family doctors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Gender inequality driving wave of female Japanese immigrants to Canada

Wed, March 8, 2023

Yuka Yamamoto Woods and her husband Chris Woods are raising two children together in New Westminster, B.C. Yamamoto Woods, who works as an early childhood facilitator, says she saw first hand how difficult it was to be a working mom in Japan.

 (Ben Nelms/CBC - image credit)

Yuka Yamamoto Woods has loved travelling since childhood and began her dream career with an airline as a ground staff member in Tokyo at age 19.

But after four years of working long hours, she realized she was unlikely to become a mother while keeping her job, let alone get promoted.

"I didn't see a lot of moms there, especially [among] the managers … managers were [mostly] male, [and] the ground staff who worked at the airport were women. Most people quit their job once they got pregnant," said Yamamoto Woods, now an early childhood facilitator who lives with her Canadian husband and their two young children in Metro Vancouver.

Yamamoto Woods, 40, is one of the nearly 14,000 women who have emigrated from Japan to Canada over the past two decades. This accounts for 76 per cent of all Japanese immigrants during that period, census data shows.

And the entrenched gender inequality in Japan is a compelling reason for many to leave, according to some of those who have emigrated — including a University of Toronto social work professor.

Percentages of women out of Asian immigrants to Canada, 2001-2021

Yamamoto Woods, who first came to Vancouver in 2006 on a working holiday and became a permanent resident several years later, says it's easier to be a working mom in Canada than in Japan. Most of her co-workers are mothers, and her husband helps with child-rearing and housework, she said.

"I feel more free in Canada," she said.

Ben Nelms/CBC

Sexism remains strong in Japan, prof says

Emigration numbers have made national headlines in Japan in recent months.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper says more than 550,000 Japanese citizens — 62 per cent of them female — live and work abroad as permanent residents mainly due to frustration with Japan's sluggish economy, fears of another natural disaster after the 2011 earthquake and, for women specifically, deep-seated gender inequality.

Japan hasn't progressed much in women's empowerment, according to the World Economic Forum's annual Global Gender Gap Report, which has consistently ranked it around 120th among approximately 150 countries — and dead last among the G7 group of industrialized democracies — due to a declining female workforce and a low number of women in leadership positions.

University of Toronto social work professor Izumi Sakamoto, who moved from Japan to work in Canada in 2002, says women are as well educated as men in Japan, but the gender gap becomes obvious immediately after graduation.

She says Japanese society still places disproportionate expectations on women to rear children and manage household chores, making it difficult for them to stay in the workforce and advance their careers.

Koji Sasahara/The Associated Press

Japan's economic downturn — which began in the early 1990s after an asset bubble burst — has forced an increase in precarious jobs, Sakamoto says, adding that women take up most of these roles due to pervasive male privilege in the workplace.

"Sexism at all levels of the male-dominant society is very strong," she said, adding that this might explain why many Japanese women have come to Canada as a working holiday visa holder or as a Canadian's spouse in order to get permanent residency.

Anecdotally, only a few have returned to Japan due to language barriers or being unable to find meaningful employment.

'Suffocating' culture

Mika Nakagawa Antonovic, who gained permanent residency in 2009 and works as a braille transcriber for visually impaired students in Victoria, says she immigrated to Canada to break free from what she describes as the "suffocating" aspects of Japanese culture, including its emphasis on women's physical appearance.

One example of this, says Nakagawa Antonovic, 44, is that whenever she travels back to Japan she has to hide the tattoo she got in Victoria, due to the commonplace association of tattoos with gangsters in her home country.

That's not an issue in Canada, she says — not even in the workplace.

"My bosses don't care that I have a tattoo," she said.

Nakagawa Antonovic said she feels more comfortable in Canada because she's an outspoken person and felt like she didn't fit in Japanese culture, which prefers conformity; and she generally feels more respected here because she was able to get professional qualifications in her field.

Submitted by Mika Antonovic

Gender studies professor Jacqueline Holler of the University of Northern British Columbia, who taught in Tokyo a decade ago, says female emigration should concern Japan given the country's aging population and low birth rate.

She says Japanese society should try to strike a better balance between its traditional communal culture and Western individualism in order to accommodate women's aspirations.

At the same time, Canada can take advantage of the trend, she said.

"Canada is doing a really good job of attracting highly educated immigrants in general, and these Japanese women are probably part of that broader trend," Holler said.

SASKATCHEWAN

4 women explain what feminism looks like to them in 2023

Wed, March 8, 2023 

On March 8, 1979, Iranian women’s celebrations of International Women’s Day turned into protests against a new decree by Khomeini about mandatory veiling. (Hengameh Golestan - image credit)

The meaning of feminism has changed over the years — from fighting for rights to vote and own property, to equality and anti-discrimination, to now a push for more inclusivity beyond white, cisgender women.

On Tuesday, one day before International Women's Day, CBC Saskatchewan's Blue Sky hosted a discussion on feminism in 2023. Guests shared their unique experiences and spoke about what feminism means to them.

"When I had a same sex partner in the late '90s and was in the process of coming out, the personal definitely became political," Nicole White said on the program.

"The fight isn't over yet. There has been an active attack on particular marginalized communities and it's been really disconcerting. We have to constantly be looking around the table and asking ourselves who isn't here and why aren't they here and creating space for them and amplifying those voices whenever possible."

White said her version of feminism is different as it was 20 years ago and hopes it will continue to evolve.

Submitted by Nicole White

White founded Moontime Sisters, an organization that supplies free menstruation products to people in Northern Saskatchewan.

"A menstrual product that I would pay $5 for in Saskatoon could be upwards of $20 in northern Saskatchewan communities, and that is absolutely considered a luxury product for a family," she said, noting access and equity remain as hurdles.

After consultation with two-spirit elders, White said the organization has started the process of changing its name to Moontime Connections.

"To honour two-spirit and trans menstruators in Canada and recognizing that we can still honour the sisterhood and the kinship when it comes to menstruators across the province. We never ever want to turn someone away with the use of language that's not inclusive."

She is now the project leader of Enough Already, an organization that challenges sexual harassment in the workplace, and said the situation with gender-based and sexual violence is still fairly dire.

Responding to a Blue Sky listener's question about ageism, White said more safe spaces should be created for female seniors.

'Equity more than equality'

Yashica Bither says she faced microaggressions throughout elementary school in Regina, and found feminism in high school.

Bither is now women's centre co-ordinator at University of Saskatchewan Student Union. She spoke about intersectional feminism, which looks at how different elements of a person's identity — their race, gender, orientation and others — inform their experience.

"My definition of intersectional feminism is looking at equity more than equality. Feminism is all about equality. That intersectional lens allows all members of the community to benefit from that and not just a particular group," they said.

"We do need an intersectional lens to feminism. White folk are not the only people who should be at the forefront. Especially as Saskatchewan gets more diverse, we need to acknowledge that these voices need to be amplified."

Bither said the centre offers peer support, menstrual products, pregnancy tests, contraceptive products and a listening ear.

"Allyship is important to the movement, especially to the trans folks," Bither said, noting in many such movements, Black trans voices led the fight.

"They deserve safe spaces as much as we do. Trans people are not confused.… They are who they are and they need to be listened to."

Submitted by Yashica Bither

Tasnim Jaisee agreed, saying trans women are women and that everyone needs "to protect our sisters."

Jaisee is a USask undergraduate student in political studies and women's and gender studies, with a research interest in intersectional feminism and critical disability studies.

She said she grew up facing a combination of "sexism, racism and ableism," as she is a woman of colour who uses a wheelchair.

"Pop feminism is the first step of girls empowering girls, women empowering women. It's a feel-good version of feminism. But moving into intersectional feminism is a bit different, because it is essentially becoming more critical of the system of power."

Jaisee said intersectional feminism unpacks how identity has layers, like how women of colour experience racial and gender-based systemic barriers.

"That intersectional layer is very, very critical to understanding some of those unique experiences."

Submitted by Tasnim Jaisee

Jaisee's mother fled Bangladesh to Canada after the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

"Her feminism was different from mine. Her feminism was to seek opportunities of education and that again was quite revolutionary."

Disability activism work within intersectional feminism has helped Jaisee feel more included.

"My racial and disability identities have impacted everything I do. Intersectional feminism makes me realize that the systemic barriers I face are not my fault."

She said women mentors — like her professors, supervisors and bosses — have been pillars of support.

'The only way forward is with compassion and empathy and love in our hearts'

Cecilia Rands said growing up with a single father who identified as a feminist helped her immensely with embarking on her own feminist journey.

Rands said she realizes the privilege she has, being a white cisgender woman.

"Having those privileges never means you can't fight for the rights of others. My father always worked to be an ally and that gave me a good push," she said.

Rands's work focuses on education around gender based violence and allyship, and involves working with men and boys to make them realize their role in helping end oppression and violence.

"The only way forward is with compassion and empathy and love in our hearts," she said.

"We can't expect men and boys to take up that mantle if they don't feel that love and compassion and acceptance just as much as we want women and everyone to feel."

Submitted by Cecilia Rand

Rands, who has also worked at a Planned Parenthood, said demystifying abortion is also very important.

"Abortion is health care. It's that simple. Saskatchewan has a really tragic situation of access to reproductive health care," she said.

She said access to medical abortion is not equitable in the province, especially for communities in the northern communities.

She also spoke about violence against women.

"As many strides as we've made as women and feminists, particularly in Saskatchewan, the rates of intimate partner violence and gender based violence are still incredibly staggering and serious. There's still a lot of work to do," Rands said.

"It's hard for me not to worry about my daughter's future in terms of safety."

Canadian group on front line of efforts to ensure Afghan girls, women get an education

Wed, March 8, 2023 

Afghan students are shown attending class at an all-girls school in October 2021. Since retaking control of Afghanistan that year, the Taliban regime has increasingly blocked access to schooling for girls and women. (Jared Thomas/CBC - image credit)

After taking attendance and greeting each bright voice chiming in from behind the colourful circles on her screen, the teacher launches into her lesson. She lectures as she scrolls through slides, moving through rainbow-hued maps, photos of mountain ranges and geographical facts about Asia.

It seems like a typical virtual lesson — a format now familiar to most Canadians after the prevalence of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic — but this Grade 7 geography class is actually a clandestine one: The students are all girls in Afghanistan taking remote classes from their homes thanks to the work of a Canadian non-governmental organization.

Since retaking control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have increasingly blocked access to schooling for girls and women.

A growing list of restrictions spans elementary school through post-secondary, with edicts blocking access beyond Grade 6 and a ban on women in workplaces — including principals and teachers — also disrupting education for girls from Grade 1 onward.

Though some Afghan women and girls fled the country, students who remain are top of mind for many people worldwide, including Canadians supporting their efforts to continue learning.

WATCH | Canadians support secret classes as Taliban halt Afghan girls' schooling:

"It's a risky job and we're very careful about this.... [My students] face danger because they are not allowed," said A., the Afghan instructor teaching the virtual geography class from outside the country. CBC News is not disclosing her full name, nor that of her students, to protect their safety.

"I love my people," the teacher said. "That's why I [joined] this program: to teach them. To do something for them."

The value of education isn't lost on her students, who share that they're still dreaming of careers in such fields as medicine, engineering, computer science and aviation.

Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press

"We are studying for the future, and we hope the situation [in Afghanistan] changes and we would be able to work for this country," said M., one of the Grade 7 students. "If the girls are educated, in the future the society will be educated."

Without schooling for girls, "we won't have any power in the future," said B., her classmate. "We would like to take this risk to be educated and to build Afghanistan, because this country needs us."

Parents make 'sacrifices' for girls' education

Having seen the strides young women have made since the Taliban was last in government 20 years earlier, many Afghans are dedicated to ensuring girls continue learning, said Lauryn Oates, executive director of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan), an NGO with chapters in various provinces.

"Families recognize that this is the way out of poverty, that you really need education to make something of yourself in the world," Oates said from Vancouver.

"We're always so amazed at hearing these stories of women, mothers, fathers making sacrifices to get girls in school under the circumstances."

Nicholas Allan/CBC

Over the past 20 years, CW4WAfghan tapped into the internet infrastructure that was rapidly established across Afghanistan, using virtual technology to train Afghan teachers and share a trove of educational resources.

More recently, staff were developing a new sister site of online courses — like the ones offered by many international universities and colleges — for older students seeking to boost their higher education qualifications.

After the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, to the Taliban in August 2021, the group urgently pivoted to a new effort: continuing girls' learning through online classes. Primary and secondary students now log in for live lessons with educators, complete and submit assignments and write exams online to move onto the next grade. The schedule follows that of a regular school year.

"The longer someone stays out of school, the less likely they are to ever go back to school and gain all the benefits that come from completing one's education," Oates said, adding that the goal "is just to keep everyone learning, no matter the circumstances in the country. And we're reaching both Afghans in Afghanistan, but also displaced Afghans."

Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images

Over time, more online school offerings and alternative learning initiatives — many started by Afghans in the diaspora — are blossoming in what's becoming a somewhat busy space. Amid the ongoing crisis for female students, Oates said, she's hopeful that there will be more positive developments.

"This may spur innovation in access to education for everyone: for girls and women and the whole Afghan population, for people with disabilities and other challenges," Oates said.

Canadian schools encouraged to ease barriers

CW4WAfghan has also been working to quickly match Afghan post-secondary students with Canadian schools — an avenue given greater impetus since the Taliban extended restrictions to that sector in late 2022, beginning with its ban on women studying at the university level in December.

"We weren't asking universities to [start] new programs or start new scholarships, but to look at their existing resources and ask, 'What can we do in response to this crisis?'" Oates said.

"We might not see the change that we want to see in Afghanistan ... in our lifetimes, but the work that we're doing now will make a big difference in the future. It's like planting a seed for a tree to grow."

Carolyn Watters, a professor emeritus and a former provost at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was among the Canadian academics moved to act. Over the past few months, the retired computer science professor, now based in Victoria, has helped develop a toolkit for Canadian institutions to support Afghan women pursuing or continuing post-secondary studies.

Her suggestions range from adapting current programs to thinking differently about existing offerings. A school may already have a policy accepting students transferring under unusual or extreme circumstances, for instance, or scholarships for international students in need.

They may already be streaming online courses to students located abroad. These measures could include Afghan women as well — if the students know about it, Watters said.

Arshad Butt/The Associated Press

Watters also encourages easing barriers for Afghan women now applying to Canadian institutions, whether it be through waived application fees, creating bursaries for living expenses (which further support beyond academic scholarships), improved access to English-language classes if needed and a fresh look at transferring course credits or partial degrees from Afghanistan to the Canadian context.

"If the universities and colleges have capacity and [Afghan] women have needs, how do you make that connection? We need to make these things align a lot better," Watters said.

Spreading the word of these opportunities through partnerships — such as with NGOs like CW4WAfghan — is essential to ensure efficient uptake, she said.

"We need to kind of step up because two years from now, we will have lost a huge generation of people who want to learn."

'Life means nothing without freedom'

Grade 12 student Razia Arifi, a member of the Hazara ethnic and religious minority in Afghanistan, fled the country with her cousins in 2021. Adjusting to a new language and life in Toronto was difficult after the trauma of leaving behind her parents and a sibling, she said.

Still, Arifi said she knows her parents had her future and well-being in mind. The active teen has always been happiest going to the gym ("which was forbidden and taboo for girls" in Afghanistan, she said), talking about sports or cycling outside.

Paul Smith/CBC

"They prefer that if I go somewhere ... it's better to be somewhere else [where] I can be happy and still I can continue my education," the 18-year-old said, adding that physics and astronomy are her favourite subjects at school.

"Life means nothing without freedom," Arifi said. "When I'm thinking about [Afghan girls back at home], I think that now that I'm here and I have a big chance, I should try to work hard. I should try to do something, so that one day if I go back, I might be able to help some of them."