ARACHNOPHILIA

Black Widow Spiders Are Getting Slaughtered by Aggressive Brown Widows

Isaac Schultz
Mon, March 13, 2023 

Adult female brown (left) and black (right) widow spiders. 

The former may be displacing the latter.

Black widow spiders across the southern United States are getting eaten up by brown widows, their lesser-known cousins, according to new research investigating the relationship between the two arachnids.

Three species of black widow are native to the United States; brown widows are believed to be native to Africa but are now present on all continents but Antarctica.

While black widows are a shy spider species—only getting aggressive when they are pinched or pressed—brown widows seek out black widows to bite. Bit(e) by bit(e), in a pattern first noticed a decade ago, the black widow spiders are being displaced by the interlopers. The team’s research is published today in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

Widow spiders have a bad rap for their venomous bites, which can be very painful to humans but rarely cause death. The species like to weave their haphazard cobwebs in urban and suburban environments (think garden sheds or under the sink), putting them in regular proximity to humankind.

“Brown widows are not labeled invasive. They’re still non-native,” said study lead author Louis Coticchio, a spider biologist specializing in the widow and recluse families, in a phone call with Gizmodo. “If it does come out that the introduction of brown widows is absolutely the main reason why we’re seeing a huge decline in black widow populations, I would love to see the attitude towards them changed.”

In 2018, researchers found that northern black widows (Latrodectus variolus) were expanding their range northward; in the west and south, it appears their world is shrinking due to the aggressive incursions by the brown spiders.

The team’s study involved three parts. First, they modeled the survivability of black and brown widows based on risk factors, and found that both spiders were more likely to be predated than starve. In other words, limited access to food wasn’t a reason for the shifting habitats of the two spiders.

Comparing the fecundity (amount of reproduction) and growth rates among the spiders also revealed some important takeaways: the brown widows reached reproductive maturity sooner and produced more egg sacs than black widows.

But this is where things get really interesting. When subadult spiders were put in proximity of one another, the brown widows killed and ate the black widows in 80% of encounters. When adults were put together, black widows were killed in 40% of trials, while they killed brown widows in self-defense in 30% of in counters. In the other 30% of trials, the spiders cohabitated.

In no trials did black widows take aggressive actions against the brown widows. The spiders sense each other using innervated hairs on their body and legs. When the brown widows “got a whiff” of the black widows, Coticchio said, it would send them into “aggression mode” in a way the presence of other spider species would not.

Coticchio added that more studies needed to be done to determine exactly how much of the black widow’s decline could be chalked up to brown widows’ aggressive presence. But the tentative theory has legs—eight of them, to be exact—and more research could well confirm the lab-based findings.

More: Black Widow Spiders Are Spreading Farther North Than Ever Before

Gizmodo

Posthaste: Canadians' interest payments are growing at a record pace


Pamela Heaven
Tue, March 14, 2023 



Good Morning,

These are historic times for Canadian debt.

Canadians are now paying 45 per cent more interest than they were a year ago, the fastest increase in records going back to 1990, Statistics Canada said on March 13.

Interest payments totalling $33.2 billion rose 14.1 per cent from the quarter before, surpassing the record increase set in the third quarter.

Nor is there any relief on the horizon. With interest rates likely to remain higher for longer, debt servicing costs are expect to continue rising and not peak until the second half of 2024, said TD economist Ksenia Bushmeneva.

All this raises concern about the increasing burden on Canada’s heavily indebted households amid the most rapid run-up in interest rates in the Bank of Canada‘s history.

The central bank’s own indicators of financial vulnerabilities released last week showed the share of households falling behind on their debt payments is on the rise — but still below pre-pandemic levels, said Bushmeneva. But with some consumer loans households are not doing so well. The share of loans in arrears on credit cards has returned to pre-pandemic levels and on auto and instalment loans they are now above.

“The Bank of Canada will need to maintain a close watch on household credit performance as headwinds from higher interest rates continue to hit Canadian households this year,” wrote Bushmeneva in a note on the data.

Another concern is growth in alternative loans. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, mortgage investment entities, which includes mortgage investment corporations and private, non-bank lenders, accounted for 10.2 per cent of residential mortgages in the third quarter of 2022, up from 8.43 per cent the year before.

“Canadians are taking out more alternative loans, and according to FSRA, they are holding them for longer periods of time,” said RATESDOTCA.

Private lenders do not have to follow the same rules as government-regulated banks, making it easier for customers to take out a mortgage. But those loans offer carry higher rates and fees.

“For homeowners squeezed by rising rates and tougher lending guidelines, private lenders can appear to be a saving grace,” said Victor Tran, RATESDOTCA mortgage expert. “However, there are risks that homeowners need to be aware of when taking out a mortgage with alternative lenders. There are significant differences between taking a mortgage from a traditional lender and taking one from an alternative lender, and these differences can cost consumers more than they might think.”

There was good news in Statistics Canada’s household balance sheet. After two straight quarterly declines, household wealth rose 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter.

The gain was mainly down to a better performance by the stock market, which lifted the value of financial assets by 3.4 per cent. This offset the drop in home prices.

That said, household net worth was down 4.7 per cent from the same quarter in 2021, points out Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian Economics for Desjardins.

Disposable income, thanks to income growth in the fourth quarter, rose by 3 per cent, beating the 1.6 per cent rise in household consumption. And the pace of household borrowing slowed.

This pushed the debt-to-income ratio down to 180.5 per cent in the fourth quarter from 184.3 per cent in the quarter before.

However it didn’t stop the debt service ratio from ticking up to 14.3 per cent.

“Today’s release speaks to an economy that is defying the gravity of rate hikes to some extent,” wrote Desjardins’ Bartlett in a note. “The question is not so much if rate hikes will be felt in full but when.”

The U.S. is playing border politics again — this time with Canada

Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor, Department of History, Carleton University

THE CONVERSATION
Sun, March 12, 2023

Montana Republican congressman Ryan Zinke, once Donald Trump's Interior Secretary, is among the politicians raising alarms about the Canada-U.S. border. Zinke referrred to migrants crossing into the U.S. from Canada as an assault. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Concern is reportedly growing among some American legislators about migrants crossing into the United States from Canada.

One recent headline intoned: “U.S. Republicans are now warning: Migration from Canada is a problem” as some lawmakers have likened the apparent trend to “being assaulted.”

Since Republican governors started to send migrants arriving in their states to Democrat jurisdictions in the summer of 2022, the question of border control has been a major subject of public policy discussions in the United States.

In Canada, this topic gained traction when it was revealed that some American public officials have been facilitating the movement of people to the Canadian border, particularly to the unofficial crossing at Roxham Road in Québec.

Asylum-seekers from Congo cross the border at Roxham Road into Québec in February 2023 in Champlain, N.Y. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Public opinion polls, and heated rhetoric, are politicizing an issue that shouldn’t be political at all.

Since the rapid growth in the number of borders in the 19th century and the securitization and militarization of those borders in recent years, they’ve become a focal point in conversations about power and sovereignty. But they aren’t the real issue.

Borders simply offer an opportunity to score political points. In this case, it’s at the expense of migrants who have the right, under international law, to seek refuge.

Read more: Migrants deserve the right to make decisions about where they live

Old anti-migrant playbook

By turning their attention to the Canada-U.S. border while also continuing to flag concerns about migration across the southern border with Mexico, American lawmakers are creating a perception that migration is a problem and polls show it’s reverberating domestically in Canada as well.

They’re also turning to a very old playbook in which migration across all borders is used to amplify the idea of migration as a threat.

In the 1880s, Canadian and American governments employed various measures to prevent both the continued migration of Chinese labourers to their shores as well as their permanent settlement.

Politicians had looked across the border (and across the Pacific to Australia) to see what kinds of measures were being envisioned elsewhere.

As historian Erika Lee has shown in her 2002 article in the Journal of American History, “Enforcing the Borders: Chinese Exclusion along the U.S. Borders with Canada and Mexico, 1882-1924,” this resulted in policymakers in the United States, in particular, using their ostensible concern about immigration issues as a way to deal with the so-called “Chinese problem.”

During that time period, the borders with both Canada and Mexico were seen as problematic by the United States, and migrants became the scapegoat in debates about American economic and social well-being. Crucially, this rhetoric was often racialized.

For example, Chinese migrants were depicted in editorials and editorial cartoons that featured gross distortions of their physical features and cultural practices.

By contrast, in the early 1900s, migrants from Syria, Greece, Hungary, Russia, France, Belgium and Spain were also known to have migrated to Canada first before making their way to the United States. This led to familiar complaints about Canada as a “back door” for entry to the United States, but in this case, the migrants themselves weren’t targeted.

But as Lee documented, they were often seen as the victims of “unscrupulous agents.”

Just as in the past, exploiting differences between migrants (in this case in terms of how they’re seeking refuge) creates greater inequalities and problems, and doesn’t attend to the core needs of migrants or potential host societies.

Larger systemic problems

The borders of the world are inextricably linked. What’s happening at the Canada-U.S. border is the result of growing numbers of dispossessed and displaced migrants globally and the failure of governments to grasp the fact that migrants themselves are not the problem.

Unfortunately, when people arrive in Canada uninvited — in other words, when they have not been selected in advance as part of a formal resettlement process — there is often visceral opposition. The presence of migrants at the border is seen as scary, in part because of the way this situation is presented by our neighbour to the south.

Given the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the highly militarized response to migrants arriving there, it’s not really a surprise that we’re now seeing similar anti-migrant rhetoric about the Canada-U.S. boundary too — and seeing lawmakers use words like “assault” to describe cross-border migration.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2018. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

But border arrivals, whether on land or at sea, have often been met with considerable outcry. This was the case with migrants who arrived by boat in Canada in 1987 and 1999.

The exception was perhaps in 2017, when Donald Trump’s administration inspired generosity in Canadian politicians, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously tweeting #WelcomeToCanada in response to the announcement of Trump’s so-called Muslim ban.

Border politics

The current outrage about migrants from Canada entering the U.S., however, harkens back to an earlier period when borders were politicized with the goal of exclusion in mind.

The fact that some American politicians are once again asserting that migration across the Canada-U.S. border is a problem, and are using heated rhetoric to try to score political points on the issue, is having the biggest impact on the people at the heart of these migrations.

As was the case for Chinese migrants beginning in the 1880s, migrants are being exploited for partisan, nationalistic purposes. The potential for enduring harm is great.

All people have the right to seek refuge — indeed, the “right to seek asylum” and “enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution” is enshrined in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though the means to seek this right are less explicitly outlined.

Seeking to get political mileage out of a situation that stems from an ongoing global crisis and involves innocent people seeking better lives ignores bigger political, social, legal and economic conditions. Rather than demonize migrants, legislators everywhere should address the issues that lead them to migrate.

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

It was written by: Laura Madokoro, Carleton University.

Read more:

A world without immigration detention is possible

Canada must grant permanent immigration status to undocumented residents

Laura Madokoro receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Government of Ontario's Early Researcher Award Program.

CNN follows migrants illegally entering Canada from New York road

CNN
Mar 13, 2023

CNN's Polo Sandoval visits Roxham Road, a northern US border entry in New York, where officials see an influx of migrants trying to use the illegal entry point to seek asylum in Canada

White House demands Pence apologize for 'homophobic joke' aimed at Buttigieg

LIBBY CATHEY
Mon, March 13, 2023 

Mike Pence is seen at Fox News Channel Studios, Feb. 22, 2023 in New York City.

 (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images, FILE)

The White House on Monday asked former Vice President Mike Pence to apologize for what it called a "homophobic joke" he made over the weekend geared at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"The former vice president's homophobic joke about Secretary Buttigieg was offensive and inappropriate, all the more so because he treated women suffering from postpartum depression as a punchline," White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre said in a statement. "He should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect."

Pence, headlining at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington for journalists and politicians, mocked Buttigieg for taking parental leave after the birth of his adopted twins while he said Americans faced issues with air travel.

"He took two months 'maternity' leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways. Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression," Pence said, according to reporters present.

Notably, Buttigieg's twins were born prematurely, developed Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) and one was hospitalized and put on a ventilator, a point his husband, Chasten, called out in a tweet directed at the rumored 2024 presidential hopeful.

"An honest question for you, @Mike_Pence, after your attempted joke this weekend. If your grandchild was born prematurely and placed on a ventilator at two months old - their tiny fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beep in the background - where would you be?" he said.

Marc Short, Pence's former chief of staff, called the response from the White House "faux outrage."

"The White House would be wise to focus less on placating the woke police and focus more on bank failures, planes nearly colliding in mid-air, train derailments, and the continued supply chain crisis," Short said in a tweet.

MORE: Pete Buttigieg defends paternity leave

It's far from the first time that Buttigieg has faced criticism from those on the right for taking paid parental leave, with Pence's language echoing lines repeatedly espoused by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

"Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it. Trying to figure out how to breastfeed, no word on how that went," Carlson said on his prime-time show two months after the twins were born.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at O'Hare airport in Chicago, Nov. 21, 2022.

 (Jim Vondruska/Reuters, FILE)

ABC News' Gio Benitez asked Buttigieg on Monday if he thinks Pence owes him an apology, to which he responded, "You know, I'll I'll let others speak to that. You know, it's it's a strange thing to me because last time I saw him, he asked me about my kids like a normal person would. I guess, you know, at a political event in white tie, it's a little different. But again, there's not a lot of time for me to focus on the Washington game because we have real work to do."

Buttigieg has spun the criticism before to say that "maybe some good came out of" the attacks he's faced.

"It's helped us have a conversation about parental leave," he told co-hosts of "The View" in Oct. 2021. "Every American ought to be able to get paid parental leave. That's something that the president believes in and has proposed. It's something I believe."

But, he continued, "When parents take that parental leave, they need to be supported in making that choice."

Pence notably broke with Carlson's recent whitewashing of Jan. 6 in his speech Saturday and offered his strongest rebuke of former President Donald Trump yet.

"History will hold Donald Trump accountable for Jan. 6," Pence said at the dinner. "Make no mistake about it: What happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way. President Trump was wrong. His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day."

"Tourists don't injure 140 police officers by simply sightseeing," he added. "Tourists don't break down doors to get to the Speaker of the House. Tourists don't threaten public officials."

ABC News has reached out to Pence's team for comment.

ABC News' Amanda Maile contributed to this report.

Novo Nordisk plans price cuts for several insulins

Tue, March 14, 2023 


Novo Nordisk will start slashing some U.S. insulin prices up to 75% next year, following a path set earlier this month by rival Eli Lilly.

The Danish drugmaker said Tuesday that pre-filled pens and vials of long- and short-acting insulins will see list price reductions. They include Levemir, Novolin, NovoLog and NovoLog Mix70/30.

Novo also will drop the list price of unbranded products like Insulin Aspart to match the lower price of the branded insulins.

The price cuts go into effect Jan. 1. A vial of NovoLog and NovoLog Mix 70/30 will drop 75% to $72.34 from $289.36. FlexPen options will fall to $139.71 from more than $500.

Levemir and Novolin vials and FlexPens will drop 65% from their current list prices.

List prices are what a drugmaker initially sets for a product and what people who have no insurance or plans with high deductibles are sometimes stuck paying.

Patient advocates have long called for insulin price cuts to help uninsured people who would not be affected by price caps tied to insurance coverage. They have noted that high insulin prices force many people to ration doses, which can be dangerous for their health.

Research has shown that prices for insulin have more than tripled in the last two decades. Pressure is growing on drugmakers to help patients.

Insulin affordability in the United States depends largely on whether patients have health insurance and the details of that coverage. People with employer-sponsored coverage, for instance, may pay little out of pocket for their insulin or they might pay hundreds of dollars if they must first meet a high deductible before the coverage kicks in.

High deductibles also are common with coverage purchased through the individual insurance market.

Major insulin makers like Lilly, Novo and the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi have said they offer several assistance programs to help patients with costs. Those can include free refills for people with low incomes and cheaper versions of older insulins.

But high list prices remain a problem.

Eli Lilly and Co. CEO David Ricks noted earlier this month that discounts the drugmaker offers from its list prices often don’t reach patients through insurers or pharmacy benefit managers.

The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said March 2 that it will cut the list prices for its most commonly prescribed insulin, Humalog, and for another insulin, Humulin, by 70% or more in the fourth quarter, which starts in October.

The federal government in January started applying a $35 cap on monthly out-of-pocket costs to patients with coverage through its Medicare program for people age 65 and older or those who have certain disabilities or illnesses.

Insulin is made by the pancreas and used by the body to convert food into energy. People who have diabetes don’t produce enough insulin. Those with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin every day to survive.

More than 8 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the price cuts Tuesday morning.

____

Follow Tom Murphy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thpmurphy

Tom Murphy, The Associated Press

German court upholds move to take control of Rosneft units

Tue, March 14, 2023 


BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court on Tuesday upheld a government decision last year to put two subsidiaries of Rosneft under the control of German authorities, throwing out complaints from the Russian oil giant.

The Federal Administrative Court found that the decision in mid-September to put Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and Rosneft Refining and Marketing GmbH under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency was lawful.

The trusteeship, which was initially imposed through March 15, gave German authorities control of three Russian-owned refineries in Germany.

Rosneft accounted at the time for about 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity, importing oil worth several hundred million euros (dollars) every month, according to the German government.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in September that the government was “ensuring that Germany is supplied with oil in the medium and long term as well.” He said that was particularly true of a refinery at Schwedt, on the Polish border northeast of Berlin, which provides petroleum products for the capital and much of northeastern Germany.

The complaints against the move faulted the government for going ahead without a previous hearing, argued that insufficient reason was given for it and that it was disproportionate.

The court found that, in the circumstances, the government wasn't obliged to give Rosneft a hearing before acting. It said that indications of a possible withdrawal of capital backed fears that the subsidiaries could collapse — a scenario that the government already had moved to avoid with gas company Gazprom's former German unit by taking control of that.

Germany later nationalized the former Gazprom unit, which has been renamed Securing Energy for Europe.

Germany's Economy Ministry welcomed Thursday's court ruling and said it plans to extend the trusteeship for the Rosneft subsidiaries for another six months.

Economy Ministry Robert Habeck said in a statement that the verdict is “good news for the security of supply” and for the Schwedt refinery.

The Associated Press

Assault on archaeologist triggers protests in Greece

Tue, March 14, 2023 a


ATHENS, Greece (AP) — State-employed archaeologists in Greece launched strike action Tuesday to protest an assault on an archaeologist responsible for the resort island of Mykonos, an attack they say may have been linked to commercial pressure to extend tourism development.

Archaeologist Manolis Psarros was beaten by an unidentified man with a possible accomplice in Athens last week and was left unconscious and bleeding in the street. The 53-year-old was taken to a state hospital in the Greek capital.

Archaeologists employed by the Culture Ministry staged a five-hour work stoppage to protest what their association described as a “mafia-style attack.”

“Our colleague’s ... personal life does not justify any such criminal attack and we directly relate it to the cases that he handled on the island of Mykonos,” Despina Koutsoumba, the head of the protesting archaeologists’ association told an online news conference Monday.

“In the course of his duties he had dealt with serious cases of violations of archaeological and environmental legislation and of the legislation to (protect) coastal areas.”

The protest was joined by ministry employees in Athens as well as the national Association of Archaeological Conservators.

Planning permission in Greece is often subject to a veto by the local archaeological service, which is tasked with protecting the country’s ancient heritage.

One of Greece’s best known holiday destinations, Mykonos was settled in ancient times and hosts an archaeological museum. It is located next to the tiny and uninhabited island of Delos, an ancient commercial, religious and political center that is considered one of Greece’s most important archaeological sites.

The Culture Ministry condemned the assault, while Mykonos Mayor Constantinos Koukas described the beating as a “criminal and brazen attack that has shocked us all.”

'Delete this': Columnist under fire over 'racist' tweet involving NDP leader Jagmeet Singh

Twitter users are reacting strongly to a tweet by Toronto Sun columnist involving NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's religious headwear


Corné van Hoepen
·Contributor, Yahoo News Canada
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Canada's New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada March 8, 2023. 

 (Blair Gable / reuters)

A racially insensitive tweet from a political columnist at the Toronto Sun posted on Wednesday is drawing strong reactions on Twitter.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who faced off against Loblaws CEO Galen Weston Jr. during a committee hearing on food insecurity in the House of Commons was seen wearing a yellow turban.

Toronto Sun political columnist Brian Lilley took to Twitter shortly after writing "Jagmeet looks like he wore his No Name turban today just to grill Galen Weston at committee. I know he changes the colours for special days or occasion but didn't expect to see No Name yellow today. Is it on purpose or a coincidence?"

Jagmeet looks like he wore his No Name turban today just to grill Galen Weston at committee.
I know he changes the colours for special days or occaision but didn't expect to see No Name yellow today. Is it on purpose or a coincidence? pic.twitter.com/rOmModWgkc

— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) March 8, 2023

Twitter users were quick to type strongly-worded responses opposing Lilley's tweet, which has garnered over 900,000 views as of Thursday afternoon.

Canadian Minister of International Development Harjit Sajjan posted a photo of himself with his own take on Lilley's tweet.

Carolyn Jarvis, Chief Investigative Correspondent with Global News just needed one word to express her thoughts.

Rishi Kumar Nagar, a teacher and journalist based in Calgary, AB, responded with how the tweet was seen as mocking.

Another user took to the comment section to provide insight into the significance the colour yellow has in India.

Many comments were left by social media users who seemed astounded that the tweet remained up on the site nearly 24 hours after it was posted.

Sarah Hoffman, deputy leader of the NDP also chimed in, offering the context she saw Lilley's tweet in.

Singh, the first member of a visible minority to lead a federal party in Canada, is no stranger to racism.

In May 2022, protesters at a provincial campaign stop in Peterborough, Ont. hurled expletives towards the leader — an incident he says is one of the most troubling of his career yet.

Again in October 2019, while campaigning in Montreal, a male approached Singh at Atwater Market and urged the NDP leader to "cut off" his turban to "look like a Canadian."

"This is Canada, you can do whatever you like," Singh said to him before walking away.

"I got a turban and a beard and I'm out here talking about loving the language, fighting against climate crisis, investing in people, investing in universal medication for all,' that people can see ... maybe it isn't a good idea to have divisive laws that discriminate [against] people based on the way they look," Singh told reporters while addressing Quebec's controversial secularism bill earlier that day.

'Koromousso: Big Sister': Women overcome the trauma of female genital mutilation

"It was a way for me to kind of give hope to women living with FGM, to know that there's something you can do to change your life," Habibata Ouarme says


Elisabetta Bianchini
Thu, March 9, 2023 

African-Canadian women are breaking taboos around female sexuality in the documentary Koromousso: Big Sister (part of the Human Rights Watch Canada Film Festival), which follows three women who are overcoming the trauma of female genital mutilation (FGM).

"Genital mutilation and sexuality are still very taboo," Habibata Ouarme says in the film. "We need to draw attention to the issue specifically."

Ouarme leads us through the story on screen and behind-the-scenes as a co-director of the film as well, alongside Jim Donovan. Ouarme was subjected to FGM and in Koromousso: Big Sister, we see her supporting other women navigate the reconstructive surgery she went through, particularly a woman named Safieta Sawadogo.

“I wanted to do the surgery, but I couldn't find the surgery,” Ouarme told Yahoo Canada. “I had to go to San Francisco to do it.”

“So after that, I decided that I wanted to tell my story ... and also, it was a way for me to kind of give hope to women living with FGM, to know that there's something you can do to change your life. ... I want women to have the option to have the surgery, or not."

For Donovan, he said he didn't know anything about FGM until he meet Ouarme, and that's how he learned about it and ultimately decided it was something he wanted to explore in a film.

“It became clear that [Habibata] would need to be in the film and not just behind the camera because the idea of the film is she's the big sister to Safieta, who wants to change your life at age 42,” Donovan said.

“When the camera was not rolling, we'd be talking about, what do we need to do and how do we continue to tell the story."

KOROMOUSSO: Big Sister from filmmakers Habibata Ouarme and Jim Donovan
'This is one issue where progress needs to be made'

In Koromousso: Big Sister Sawadogo, under the guidance and support of Ouarme, goes through her journey of reconstructive surgery. It highlights the barriers to getting this surgery, including having to leave Canada, the cost, and the loss of paid working time for the surgery and recovery. Additionally, the film highlights the lack of resources there are in Canada when someone has gone through FGM, or has had reconstructive surgery.

As Ontario gynaecologist and obstetrician, Dr. Angela Deane, indicates in the documentary, there needs to be more expertise domestically on this reconstructive surgery. Canada lacks trained personnel and we don't have established funding to support wholistic care if someone identifies that they have been subjected to FGM.

“Canada presents itself as a sort of flag bearer in terms of liberal democracies and sort of beacons of hope for the world, in terms of social justice and all this,” Donovan said. “Well, this is one issue where progress needs to be made.”

“You allow people into your country as immigrants, you accept them into the family, therefore you have to start caring for them as completely as possible. … For the first three years that we were working on this film, it was impossible to find anybody in the health system that would have a straightforward answer in terms of how can we get help."

KOROMOUSSO: Big Sister from filmmakers Habibata Ouarme and Jim Donovan

'It's not just cultural. It's human. It's pain.'

Koromousso: Big Sister features women who are incredibly open and honest about the long lasting emotional effects of FGM, and how a reconstructive surgery can help to re-build their self-esteem and feel in control of their own bodies.

“I wanted to say how I felt when I had my surgery because for me it was like, … OK you took something for me,” Ouarme said. "At the end I know I needed to have my surgery to kind of have a complete experience."

"The other part was, ... I want women to have a safe space where they can talk about FGM. ... When you go to the hospital, the person you are seeing has to know what it is, at least. Often what I hear for women is that I went to see the gynaecologist and he said, ... 'I don't know what to do with it.' ... We need to change the way we talk about FGM when we have someone in front of us. It's not just cultural. It's human. It's pain."

Ultimately, Ouarme hopes that this movie gives hope to women who have these experiences, and she hopes this compels people to have more open conversations about sexuality.

“I think we want to open discussions about sexuality, about women’s bodies, women loving themselves, giving opportunity to women to have better access to healthcare," she said. "If you know somebody who is going through FGM, any kind of sexual issue, help them talk about it. The taboo is killing women.”

“I know in 2023 there's a lot out there that you can spend your time watching and it's a challenge for a film like this to be seen,” Donovan added. “If you see the film and you like it, please talk about it. Please spread it.”

“It's hard to find an audience and I honestly would love for this film to be seen as much as possible in the African diaspora because those women have tremendous power to affect change in the continent. So hopefully, it starts a discussion, and that's my hope for the film.”

KOROMOUSSO: Big Sister (Trailer 01m42s) from NFB/marketing on Vimeo.

The Human Rights Watch Canada Film Festival runs from March 8 to March 12 in-person at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, and March 13 to March 19 on Hot Docs digital platform. All screenings are free.

Toxic red tide causing burning eyes and respiratory distress in Florida

Cheryl Santa Maria
Tue, March 14, 2023 

Toxic red tide causing burning eyes and respiratory distress in Florida

Toxic red tide algae have upended life on Florida's southwest coast this week, forcing the cancellation of an annual beach festival and causing some residents to suffer from breathing problems and red eyes, the Associated Press reports.

The bloom has been an ongoing issue for months, first turning up in October.

“Red tide is currently present on the beach and is forecasted to remain in the area in the weeks to come,” the Indian Rocks Beach Homeowners, the sponsors of the now-cancelled event said in a statement.

“It is unfortunate that it had to be canceled but it is the best decision in the interest of public health.”

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There have been reports of dead fish related to the tide in several Florida counties. Mandy Edmunds, a parks supervisor with St. Pete Beach city, told the Tampa Bay Times about 454 kilograms of fish had been cleared from the city's beach since the start of the month.

USF - algae map
Statewide Red Tide Status Map on March 10, 2023 (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

What is a red tide?

Red tide events occur on coastlines when algae take over, posing a health risk to humans and wildlife. Overgrown algae cause the water to change red, green, or brown. Large blooms are associated with high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, which can wind up in waterways from fertilizer runoff.
Related: Food poisoning from contaminated shellfish could be on the rise

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Thumbnail image: File photo of red tide in Florida (Canva/Getty Images Signature).