Largest strike in decades brings Germany to a standstill

Story by By Klaus Lauer and Ilona Wissenbach • 6h ago

Verdi calls nationwide strike over wage dispute in Germany© Thomson Reuters

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Airports and bus and train stations across Germany were at a standstill on Monday, causing disruption for millions at the start of the working week during one of the largest walkouts in decades as Europe's biggest economy reels from inflation.



Verdi calls nationwide strike over wage dispute in Germany© Thomson Reuters

The 24-hour strikes called by the Verdi trade union and railway and transport union EVG were the latest in months of industrial action which has hit major European economies as higher food and energy prices dent living standards.

Terminals were largely deserted as airports, including two of Germany's largest in Munich and Frankfurt, suspended flights, while rail services were cancelled by railway operator Deutsche Bahn. Striking workers wearing yellow or red high-visibility jackets blew horns, sirens and whistles, held up banners and waved flags during protests.

The Airports Association ADV estimated that 380,000 air passengers were affected. In Frankfurt alone, almost 1,200 flights for 160,000 passengers were cancelled and stranded travellers slept on benches. In Cologne, the lack of city trains prompted a dash for taxis.



Verdi calls nationwide strike over wage dispute in Germany© Thomson Reuters

Employees are pressing for higher wages to blunt the effects of inflation, which reached 9.3% in February. Germany, which was heavily dependent on Russia for gas before the war in Ukraine, has been particularly hard hit by higher prices as it scrambled for new energy sources, with inflation rates exceeding the euro-area average in recent months.



Verdi calls nationwide strike over wage dispute in Germany© Thomson Reuters

Persistent cost pressures have pushed central banks to a series of interest rate increases, though policymakers have said it is too early to talk of a price-wage spiral.

Verdi is negotiating on behalf of around 2.5 million employees in the public sector, including in public transport and at airports, while EVG negotiates for around 230,000 employees at Deutsche Bahn and bus companies.

In the hours running up to the strike, both sides dug in their heels, with union bosses warning that considerable pay hikes were a "matter of survival" for thousands of workers.

"Millions of passengers who depend on buses and trains are suffering from this excessive, exaggerated strike," a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson said on Monday.

Verdi is demanding a 10.5% wage increase, which would see pay rising by at least 500 euros ($538) per month, while EVG is asking for a 12% raise or at least 650 euros per month.


Stranded passengers expressed both sympathy and unhappiness about the strike action.



Verdi calls nationwide strike over wage dispute in Germany© Thomson Reuters

"Yes, it's justified but I for one never went on strike in my entire life and I have been working for more than 40 years. At the same time, in France they go on strike all the time about something," said passenger Lars Boehm.

Massive strike brings Germany to standstill  Duration 0:45  View on Watch

Sharp wage increases would squeeze the fiscal room for manoeuvre for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, making already fractious negotiations over the federal budget more difficult in his three-way coalition.

Employers are warning that higher wages for transport workers would result in increased fares and taxes to make up the difference.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the pro-business FDP is focused on reducing the deficit after higher spending during the pandemic and energy crisis.

A government spokesperson on Monday said politics should stay out of the wage talks, while Interior Minister Nancy Faeser expressed confidence that a solution would be found this week.

FURTHER STRIKES

EVG chairman Martin Burkert warned further strikes were possible, including over the Easter holiday period.

"We have been dragged along here for too long. The big ones benefit and the small ones, who keep everything running, get nothing," said striking worker Christoph Gerschner. "People have second or third jobs to make ends meet."

Monday's walkouts are part of waves of disruptive labour strikes in wealthy European countries in recent months including in France and Britain, where hundreds of thousands of transport, health and education workers are pressing for higher wages.

Protests against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms have sparked the worst street violence in years in France.

Commerzbank Chief Economist Joerg Kraemer said the economic impact of Monday's strike on Germany's 181-million-euro ($194-million)-a-day transport sector was limited so far but this could change if the strikes persisted over a longer time.

"The strike will strain people's nerves" and "damages the image of Germany as a business location", he said. "But economically, the losses are likely to be limited to the transportation industry because factories will continue to operate and many employees will be working from home."

The head of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, said last week Germany needed to avoid a price-wage spiral.

"To be clear: Preventing inflation to become persistent via the labour market requires that employees accept sensible wage gains and that firms accept sensible profit margins," he said.

"Despite signs of second-round effects, we have not observed a destabilising price-wage spiral in Germany so far."

($1 = 0.9293 euros)

(Reporting by Klaus Lauer, Tom Sims, Ilona Wissenbach, Balazs Koranyi, Christoph Steitz, Sarah Marsh, Writing by Miranda Murray and Matthias Williams; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Ed Osmond)

Louvre staff block entrances as part of pension protest

Story by The Canadian Press • 

PARIS (AP) — The Louvre Museum in Paris was closed to the public on Monday when its workers took part in the wave of French protest strikes against the government's unpopular pension reform plans.


Louvre staff block entrances as part of pension protest© Provided by The Canadian Press

Dozens of Louvre employees blocked the entrance, prompting the museum to announce it would be temporarily closed.

The demonstrators toted banners and flags in front of the Louvre's famed pyramid, where President Emmanuel Macron had celebrated his presidential victory in 2017. They demanded the repeal of the new pension law that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The showbusiness, broadcasting and culture branch of the CGT union tweeted an image of the Mona Lisa with an aged and wrinkled face, with the words: “64 it’s a No!”

Related video: Pension reform protesters block Paris' Louvre (Reuters)   View on Watch

The action comes on the eve of another nationwide protest planned for Tuesday against the bill — and as Macron holds a meeting with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to discuss the way forward. The Louvre is always closed on Tuesdays, so staff protested a day earlier.

Some tourists were stoic about the artistic blockade.

“If you firmly believe that this will bring some change, there’s plenty of other things that we can see in Paris," said Britney Tate, a 29-year-old doctoral student from California.

Others who had traveled thousands of miles were more vocal about the inconvenience.

“We’re going to respect their strike tomorrow, but to do this today, it’s just heartbreaking,” said Karma Carden, a tourist from Fort Myers, Florida. “We knew that Versailles would not be open because of the protest, but we knew the Louvre was open.

"I understand why they’re upset, but (it's bad) to do this to people from around the world who’ve traveled from around the world for this and paid thousands of dollars,” she added.

The Associated Press

Louvre Museum in Paris blocked by union protests

Story by Barbara O’Sullivan • 6h ago

The protests called by the unions to protest in France against the pension reform have moved this Monday to the vicinity of the Louvre Museum in Paris, which has been forced to close its doors due to the blockade of its main access.


File - Main entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris - Europa Press/Contacto/Paulo Amorim© Provided by News 360

The museum itself has reported on social networks that it does not admit visitors due to the mobilizations. ''We thank you for your understanding,'' added the institution, which does not clarify when it plans to reopen its doors.

Related video: Pension reform protesters block Paris' Louvre (Reuters)
Duration 1:06  View on Watch

DailymotionLouvre museum closed due to pension protests
0:35

CNBCThe French protests seem to be growing — and that wasn't expected, economics lecturer says
4:32

StringersHubFrance: Pension Reform Protesters Block Louvre Museum In Paris
0:20


The action had been previously announced by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), which had confirmed the participation of staff of the museum itself has also joined the strike. They demand ''the withdrawal of the pension reform'', promoted by the government of Emmanuel Macron.

This reform, which proposes among other measures to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years, has led to a wave of protests that began in January and has intensified in recent weeks, after the Executive approved by emergency the processing of the measure in Parliament.

Source: (EUROPA PRESS)

FIRST READING: How Canadian politics is (actually) different than U.S. politics

Opinion by Tristin Hopper • 6h ago
National Post

U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a gala dinner in Ottawa on March 24.

Whenever a U.S. president comes to Canada, their advisers usually tell them to say something about how Canada is different than the United States. “We have our separate identities. We are not the same,” goes one particularly blunt example from Richard Nixon in 1972. The idea is to reassure Canadians that they are unique and special, and aren’t just cold-weather facsimiles of their hegemonic neighbour.

Nevertheless, Canada and the United States are indeed two of the most eerily similar countries on earth. We are both transcontinental former British colonies primarily populated by immigrants. Our respective national holidays are only three days apart. We use the same electrical outlets and even our currency is the same size and shape.

But to the keen observer, there are differences much more fundamental than the fact that one country celebrates Thanksgiving in October, while the other does it in November. Below, a quick guide to how to tell the difference between U.S. and Canadian politics.

We both love guns, but in deeply different ways

Although the United States has the world’s highest rate of civilian gun ownership, Canada isn’t far behind. If you exclude microstates and failed states, Canada easily ranks as the world’s second gun-owningest nation.

But the similarities grind to a halt when it comes to gun culture. The United States is home to the unique belief that guns are an inalienable birthright that should be chiefly retained for the purpose of violently overthrowing the government if required.

In Canada, guns are a state-controlled privilege that are officially used only for two things: killing animals and putting holes in targets. With vanishingly few exceptions, Canadian law does not acknowledge firearms even as a means for self-defence. If you show up to the (mandatory) Canadian Firearms Safety Course talking about how you need a shotgun to protect your family, there’s a chance you may get your acquisition licence denied.

Indigenous issues are a much bigger deal in Canada

Canada’s institutionalized repression of Indigenous people easily ranks as one of the country’s greatest national sins. And yet, for every wrong Canada has committed against its first peoples, there’s usually an equivalent or greater wrong in the U.S. Like Canada, the U.S. even maintained a vast network of abusive, assimilationist Indian residential schools, complete with forgotten children’s graveyards.

Despite this, Indigenous issues in the United States aren’t a major part of the national conversation. It wasn’t until 2014 that a U.S. president even visited a Native American reservation.

One reason is that the Indigenous population is proportionally much smaller in the U.S. There are about three million Native Americans in the United States, as compared to 1.8 million Indigenous people in Canada.

Ironically, the reduced political visibility of Indigenous people in the United States may be to their advantage. While Canadian governments are much louder with their pro-Indigenous rhetoric, there’s a case to be made that Native Americans in the U.S. have been more successful at securing self-government and economic sustainability. “Much of Canada’s progress remains symbolic, based in government recognition as opposed to policy,” reads one recent analysis published in the Harvard Political Review.

Canada doesn’t really do free speech

Canada has “free expression,” to be sure: You’re free to tweet as many insults as you want at your least favourite journalist, and you can slap a bumper sticker on your truck reading “f—k Trudeau.” But Canada does reserve the right to throw its citizens in jail if they say something that “incites hatred.”

The United States maintains a much more uncompromising view of free speech. The U.S. Constitution bars the government from making any law “abridging the freedom of speech,” and multiple court challenges have found that this includes rhetoric that would be considered “hate speech” almost anywhere else.

It’s a philosophy that trickles down to all aspects of U.S. civic life. For one, it’s much harder to win a defamation suit in the United States; the litigant has to prove malice instead of just proving that the defendant was incorrect.

Americans are also much more free-wheeling in their regulation of broadcast media. The radio dial in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all feature U.S.-registered stations that are openly targeted at cross-border Canadian audiences.

The CRTC would have no problem shutting down a Canadian radio station operating as a front for a U.S. audience, but the Americans leave them alone on the grounds that it’s not the place of the government to decide what should be on the radio.

Canadian government is way more opaque and secretive

Bob Woodward is the U.S. journalist famous for uncovering Watergate, the 1970s-era scandal in which the administration of U.S. president Richard Nixon was found to be ordering illegal monitoring of political opponents and then using federal resources to cover it up.

Woodward has said that if Watergate happened in Canada, the perpetrators probably would have gotten away with it. The culture of official opacity is just too strong.

For example, during the Trump administration, American reporters were fed almost daily leaks from the FBI. But in Canada, the recent CSIS leaks regarding allegations of Chinese electoral interference were so unusual that they immediately led to official calls for the leakers to be hunted down and prosecuted.

Our health-care systems both suck (but in the exact opposite way)

The health-care systems in the United States and Canada both suffer from the same general problem: They’re disproportionately expensive, while still underperforming relative to all other advanced economies. The United States has the world’s highest per-capita health-care expenditure only to have huge swaths of its population unable to access health insurance. Canada has the world’s second highest per-capita health-care expenditure only to suffer chronic shortages, resulting in millions of people being denied access to primary care or placed on interminable waiting lists.

The U.S. differs from every other advanced economy in the belief that health care should be provided almost exclusively by private actors. Canada, meanwhile, also differs from every other advanced economy in the belief that health care should be covered exclusively by the public option. They’re both uncompromising positions resulting in massive inefficiencies that don’t exist to the same extent in more nuanced systems.

Abortion law is … different

After the repeal of Roe v. Wade last year, the United States has witnessed the virtual criminalization of abortion in some of its more conservative states.

The situation couldn’t be more different in Canada. Not only is Canada more liberal on abortion than the U.S., it’s home to the most liberalized abortion regime in the world. There are no laws whatsoever governing abortion in Canada. While Canadian hospitals do maintain ethics guidelines curbing practices such as elective late-stage abortion and sex-selective abortion, neither is subject to state penalties. You won’t find this even in the most pro-abortion corners of Europe, where the practice is typically cut off after 12 weeks’ gestation.

What’s more, there is basically nobody in Canadian politics who has any interest in changing this. Even the People’s Party of Canada — the usual home for fringe right-wingers — has announced that it doesn’t want to touch the abortion issue with a 10-foot pole.

Americans are weirdly more deferential to their political class

The United States takes a lot of pride in the fact that they fought a war to break away from the British monarchy. In the words of one frequent refrain among American political pundits, “we fought a war so we wouldn’t have to listen to royals.”

So it’s somewhat odd that the Americans maintain a level of etiquette with their political class that borders on the crypto-monarchist. For one, elected politicians retain their titles for life. More than 20 years after he last served in elected office, Al Gore is still officially referred to as “Mr. Vice President.” Even Hillary Clinton is known as “Madam Secretary” — a reference to the four years she spent as an appointed member of the U.S. cabinet.

Biden apologizes for his French, promises strong ongoing ties, and disses Toronto's Maple Leafs

Full video and transcript: Read or watch Joe Biden's speech to Parliament

JOE BIDEN VISIT

Probably the biggest policy takeaway from the visit is that Canada and the U.S. rejigged the Safe Third Country Agreement to now include illegal border-crossers. Under the prior version, Canada could turn away asylum-seekers from U.S./Canadian border crossings on the grounds that they were already in a safe country and thus didn’t need the protection of the Canadian refugee system. But the measures didn’t apply if the asylum-seeker crossed the border illegally and made an “inland” claim. Naturally, there are some cynics out there who will claim that Canada doesn’t need permission from the United States to close a giant, brazenly exploited hole in its border – particularly when Canada very easily did just that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.


It was basically a guarantee that Biden would have to deliver at least one hockey joke while in Canada – and his wasn’t actually that bad. “I like your teams, except the Leafs,” he told the House of Commons.© Kenny Holston/Pool via REUTERS

Canada made sure to gently remind the U.S. delegation that two Canadians did hard time in a Chinese prison because the RCMP answered a U.S. request to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the two Canadians detained by Beijing in retaliation for the Wanzhou arrest, were guests of honour at Biden’s speech to parliament – and they even got a standing ovation.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien was seen wandering the halls of parliament before Friday’s address by Biden. When reporters asked him how U.S.-Canadian relations were doing, he replied “good.”

It was the considered opinion of First Reading that if Biden misspoke at any point during the visit, it would probably be to refer to the prime minister as “Pierre Trudeau.” Biden knew Pierre Trudeau when he was a U.S. senator, and the word “Pierre” would have been on his mind after a private meeting with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. But Biden’s most notable gaffe was instead to refer to Canada as “China” during his speech to Parliament.

To watch the whole speech (it’s only 30 minutes) or read a transcript, click here. We also called up a bunch of politicos (including Brian Mulroney’s former speechwriter) to get their take on the speech.


As much as this newsletter delights in covering the obscene travel expenses of the Canadian prime minister, here’s a quick reminder that it’s way, way more expensive to move the U.S. president. For one thing, during the entire 27 hours that Joe Biden was in Ottawa, a refueling tanker had to circle above the city just in case nuclear war broke out and Biden had to take shelter at 40,000 feet (the tanker also had to top up the fighter jets that were similarly maintaining a constant vigil over the Canadian capital). Here’s a snapshot, captured by the National Post’s Bryan Passifiume, showing an RCAF tanker returning to base and passing on the “overwatch” duties to a USAF plane.© Bryan Passifiume

Disorganized foreign-aid reporting means Ottawa can't track feminist outcomes: audit

Story by The Canadian Press •

OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada has no sense of whether development aid meant to help women and girls abroad is actually advancing gender equity, according to an audit tabled in Parliament on Monday morning.


International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan 

"It was highly problematic that critical information, such as project progress reports, could not be readily found," reads a report by auditor general Karen Hogan.

"The department could not use that information to monitor overall progress toward gender-equality outcomes."

Hogan found Ottawa does not track whether an annual $3.5 billion in bilateral aid is actually meeting the goals of Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy, and she noted that aid for Africa has been diverted to Ukraine.

The audit found the department struggled to provide information on projects because of a lack of standardized record keeping and forms not getting filled out.

"Some of the required information had been stored on computers of staff who had since left the department, so officials were unable to find the required information," the report says.

"The department missed an opportunity to demonstrate the value of international assistance."

Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked Canada and Iceland first for their spending on foreign aid that contributes to gender equality.

But the audit says Ottawa can’t track of whether money is helping improve the lives of women and girls.

Still, Hogan found that Global Affairs Canadatracks indicators — but not actual progress — on half of the projects covered by the audit.

In one case, this saw the department assessing how many people received food but not whether their health had improved.

In another, programs meant to keep teen girls in school during menstruation did track whether Canada's funding created separate bathrooms and handwashing facilities in schools, but did not assess whether this had improved school attendance.

These difficulties with measuring outcomes applied for 24 out of 26 of the department's stated policy indicators, in part due to poor data collection, Hogan found.

"While individual project files included useful information, because of the weaknesses in information management practices … this information was not being rolled up and used at the departmental level," the audit says.

"Senior management did not, and were unable to, review the complete impact of programming. Without a full account of project outcomes, senior management could not respond to evolving conditions and make changes to improve policy implementation."

However, the audit did find that Global Affairs Canada is generally successful at designing programs through an equity lens using the criteria set out under its gender-based analysis, with more than 80 per cent of spending going to projects that integrate gender.

Yet the auditor warns this is coming at the expense of meeting another target, which is to have at least 15 per cent of project funding directly target the empowerment of women and girls, instead of just including them in projects.

The report notes that academics generally say this is required in order to produce meaningful change that makes countries less reliant on foreign aid.

The department says it accepts the findings of the audit and is planning to shore up its data collection.

Auditors only looked at direct development aid, which excludes the one-third of Canada's aid dollars that are sent to United Nations organizations or as humanitarian relief to emerging crises.

The analysis examined records Ottawa created and assembled in the four years ending in March 2021, but not the actual activities of the foreign groups that get Canadian funding.

International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan will speak with reporters this afternoon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Site of Atlanta’s proposed ‘Cop City’ training center is partially closed after deadly traps found

Story by Nick Valencia • Yesterday 

Alarge portion of a public park near Atlanta on the proposed site of a police and fire training facility – dubbed “Cop City” by critics – has been temporarily closed by an executive order, after county officials said they located “life threatening” hidden traps scattered in the park.

“They confiscated booby traps, boards with nails that were hidden by leaves and underbrush. You could kill a small child or a pet with those,” DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond told CNN by phone.

Thurmond said the park is a very popular area where people walk and enjoy nature.

“It’s just not safe right now,” he added.

The planned facility has received fierce pushback since its conception, by residents who feel there was little public input, conservationists who worry it will carve out a chunk of much-needed forest land and activists who say it will militarize police forces and contribute to further instances of police brutality.

Thurmond said he “understands the pushback against Cop City, but this is too far.”

Under the executive order, unauthorized persons entering the properties will be subject to prosecution for criminal trespass, and unauthorized parked vehicles will be towed and impounded, according to a news release about the executive order.

NOT AN IED

Site of Atlanta’s proposed ‘Cop City’ training center is partially closed after deadly traps found© Provided by CNNThe nail-filled boards were found throughout the shuttered sections of the park, a county official said. - DeKalb County

DeKalb County has been unable to send its parks employees into the site of the proposed $90 million, 85-acre training facility because “they have been attacked with rocks” and other objects, Thurmond said.

Tensions between law enforcement and protesters have continued to rise since the January shooting death of a protester, who law enforcement says fired on officers first and seriously wounded a state trooper.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Friday released an incident report in which a trooper with the state’s Department of Public Safety SWAT team described law enforcement officers calling for the protester, Manuel Paez Terán, to come out of his tent during a clearing operation.

Paez Terán refused to leave, the report says, and as the protester was zipping up the front door of the tent, the trooper fired pepper bails into the opening. Paez Terán then started shooting “steadily,” the report says. The trooper says he ditched the pepper ball launcher and fired his pistol at the shooter.

“While shooting I observed a small explosion at the front of the tent and a large plume of white powder going into the air,” the officer writes in the report.

The officer says he fired until it became clear Paez Terán was no longer shooting or had set off additional explosive devices. A use of force report indicates in addition to the trooper firing at the protester, five other troopers shot their weapons.

A spokesperson for Paez Terán’s family sent CNN a statement calling on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to release witness statements and evidence. It also criticized the bureau for investigating the shooting, which came during an operation the bureau planned.

“The GBI is investigating its own tragic operation. The family calls upon the GBI to explain what steps it has taken to preserve the integrity of its investigation of its own operation,” said Enchanta Jackson.

Jackson noted the incident report was filed February 13.

“The officer narratives released today by the Department of Public Safety were drafted weeks or, in some cases, months after the incident,” Jackson said. “When officers drafted these statements, each had the opportunity to review the publicly available video and the press releases issued by the GBI.”

Kamau Franklin, the leader of the Community Movement Builders organization which opposes the facility, calls the latest move by DeKalb County an excuse to close the park and criminalize the climate activists working to preserve the green space.

“I think part of the reason is to stop and quell protests and then, to continue putting out a narrative that suggests that people who are protesting against Cop City are criminals or criminal-minded,” he told CNN. “They want to put fear into people who use the park by suggesting it’s sabotaged and booby-trapped, but without presenting any real evidence that links anything that they allegedly found to any organizers or activists.”

He says the claim that organizers sought to hurt anyone trying to enter the park flies in the face of why they’re protesting in the first place.

“The very reason we use the area, the very reason that these protests are happening is to stop the Cop City training center from going on so that the community around here can have continued access, as was promised, to that environment and to that park.”

Task force will look into controversial plan

The South River Forest Public Safety Training Center is set to be built on a piece of land which used to be a prison farm. Though it is just outside Atlanta city limits, the plot of land is owned by the city, meaning residents who live around the site do not have voting power for the leaders who approved it.

The training center would be built in a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has established a community task force to address the opposition and controversy surrounding the training center.

More than 40 “experts and community stakeholders” will join the South River Forest Public Safety Training Center Community Task Force, according to the mayor’s office. The task force adds members to the existing advisory committee.

“The new Community Task Force will add more voices and broaden the scope of community input to include the surrounding green space and the nearby site of the former Atlanta Prison Farm, as well as public safety training curriculum,” the mayor’s office said in a news release.

Included in the task force are representatives from the Georgia NAACP, ACLU, and Georgia State University, as well as other community and clergy members.

“The ACLU of Georgia is committed to helping ensure the safe and unencumbered right to protest, and as such, joins the City’s task force with demonstrators’ First Amendment rights at the forefront,” officials from the organization said in a statement.

The organization said “dozens of people” at the site have been charged with domestic terrorism in recent months. They call the charges “an over-criminalization of demonstrators under a constitutionally dubious statute.”

“The ACLU of Georgia is committed to helping ensure the safe and unencumbered right to protest, and as such, joins the City’s task force with demonstrators’ First Amendment rights at the forefront,” the ACLU of Georgia, which is part of the new task force, said in a statement.

Like many of those who are part of the new task force, the ACLU of Georgia opposes the training center’s construction.

Noticeably absent from the task force is anyone from the Muscogee Nation, or “Creek” Native American tribe. When asked by CNN why there was no Native American representation on the task force, the mayor’s office did not reply.

The “Creek” have maintained the land in the Weelaunee Forest, which is expected to house the training center, is sacred Native American land. Their fight has been joined by a robust coalition of decentralized activists, including climate activists who believe paving the 85 acres would – among other things – lead to an increase in flooding in an already flood-prone area.

Anti-policing activists, some of whom have traveled from as far as France and Canada, have also joined the movement.

CNN’s Pamela Kirkland contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Canadian young adults who live alone are more likely to struggle with unaffordable housing, study finds

Story by Kate Choi, Associate Professor, Sociology, Western University and Sagi Ramaj, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto • THE CONVERSATION 

Canada is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. Over the past 20 years, housing prices have increased at double the rate of income growth. Partly fuelled by dramatic interest hikes, rental prices have also risen precipitously in recent months. In March 2023, the year-over-year rent increased by 9.7 per cent.


One in five young adults live in unaffordable housing and spend 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on housing costs.© (Shutterstock)

Young adults are among the groups most adversely affected by the housing crisis. One in five young adults live in unaffordable housing and spend 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on housing costs.

Rising housing costs, declining real wages and increasing job instability have been identified as key reasons why young adults have limited access to affordable housing.

During this time, Canada has also witnessed the diversification of young adults’ living arrangements. More young adults live with their parents, extended family or roommates, primarily because there is a greater need to pool resources to cover high housing costs.

A young adult’s living arrangement is the product of their ability to transition into an adult economic role and gain access to private safety nets during financial crises.

The diversification of Canadian young adults’ living arrangements during the housing affordability crisis raises two questions. First, among young adults, who are the ones with the highest risk of having unaffordable housing? Second, to what extent does living with family or roommates reduce young adults’ risk of having unaffordable housing?

Young adults’ housing vulnerability

Our study addresses these questions by documenting variations in young adults’ risk of having unaffordable housing according to their living arrangements. We focus on young adults between 25 and 34 years of age.

We show that young adults living alone with their children have the highest predicted risk of having unaffordable housing. Over half of Canadian-born young adults living alone with their children live in unaffordable housing. Those who live alone are a close second: 38 per cent of young adults who live alone do so.

Living with parents, extended family or roommates reduces young adults’ predicted risk of having unaffordable housing. However, the protective effect of living with parents or extended family is greater than that of living with roommates. For example, seven per cent of Canadian-born young adults living with parents live in unaffordable housing compared with 16 per cent of young adults living with roommates.



The predicted percentage of Canadian-born young adults versus foreign-born young adults having unaffordable housing.© (Kate Choi and Sagi Ramaj)

Unequal risks based on nativity status

Many foreign-born young adults come to Canada without their parents or without having extended family in Canada. As such, these young adults may not be able to pool resources with parents or kin to cover housing costs.

Due to labour market discrimination, others may not have access to the financial resources necessary to establish independent households. They may also have fewer social ties in Canada, meaning that they have limited access to information about housing vacancies.



The predicted percentage of Canadian-born young adults who have moderate versus severe unaffordable housing.© (Kate Choi and Sagi Ramaj)

Our findings reveal that foreign-born young adults are generally more likely than Canadian-born with the same living arrangement to live in unaffordable housing. Fifteen per cent of foreign-born and seven per cent of Canadian-born young adults who live with their parents live in unaffordable housing.

Those who live alone with their children are an exception. Foreign-born young adults who live with their children only are less likely than their Canadian-born peers to live in unaffordable housing. This is partly because a higher share of foreign-born single parents have been previously married.

Particularly concerning is that foreign-born young adults with housing unaffordability issues are disproportionately more likely to have severely unaffordable housing, spending at least half of their pre-tax income on housing.



The predicted percentage of foreign-born young adults who have moderate versus severe unaffordable housing.© (Kate Choi and Sagi Ramaj)

Reducing housing vulnerability

Canada is implementing its National Housing Strategy, which aims to invest at least $82 billion to address the housing needs of Canadians. Within this strategy, young adults have been identified as one of the groups with the most unmet housing needs.

When implementing this strategy, the Canadian government should increase the supply of affordable housing units that meet the housing needs of young adults in Canada.

In particular, the government should create more affordable housing that can accommodate young adults who live alone or only with their children. Doing so will reduce young adults’ risk of having unaffordable housing and the burden it places on families by forcing them to subsidise the housing needs of young adults.

Read more: How Canada plans to break records with its new refugee targets

To fuel the post-pandemic economic recovery, Canada is aiming to welcome 500,000 new immigrants a year by 2025. Immigration and Settlement Services should consider allocating more resources to address the housing needs of these newcomers into Canada.

Doing so will protect immigrants from having severely unaffordable housing and ensure that housing affordability in Canada does not erode any further. Access to affordable housing will create an environment where young adults and all Canadians can thrive.

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

Read more:
Ethno-racial minorities in Canada have less access to affordable housing than white people
New study reveals intensified housing inequality in Canada from 1981 to 2016

Kate Choi receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Sagi Ramaj has previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Black pharmacy students at U of A dispelling myths about darker skin through pop-up clinic

Story by Brendan Coulter • Saturday

The Black Pharmacy Students' Association from the University of Alberta is shedding light on how dermatological conditions display on skin of colour at a pop-up clinic.


Co-presidents of the Black Pharmacy Students' Association, Aisha Ibrahim and Camala Soliman, are hosting a pop-up dermatology clinic to teach people about managing skin conditions for people of colour.© Submitted by the University of Alberta Black Pharmacy Students' Association

Students in the group say university textbooks focus on diagnosing white skin, and there isn't enough information available on how conditions present on darker skin.

"Our learning and curriculum was lacking a lot in black health," said Aisha Ibrahim, co-president of the Black Pharmacy Students' Association.

"We saw a deficit in that, and we wanted to rectify that and get more information out into the public."

The group organized a pop-up clinic for Saturday (March 25) at the Castledowns YMCA to help people of colour identify and manage common skin conditions.

Students, pharmacists and dermatologists will share information through booths and presentations on topics like treating Acne and identifying Eczema. Medical professionals will also answer questions from attendees.

The Black Pharmacy Students' Association was founded in 2020 and members have worked with professors to improve representation in the University of Alberta's faculty and curriculums.

Ibrahim said there's a lack of content on darker skin in Canadian university classes.

"It's easy to kind of see it," she said. "And you see it in almost every course that you [take]."

Related video: 72% of Black Canadians experienced racism in the workplace, study finds (cbc.ca)  Duration 3:41   View on Watch

Ravina Sanghera, U of A Pharmacy professor, helped organize the pop-up event. She's worked with the association to create more inclusive pharmacy training.

Sanghera has also helped rewrite some textbooks to include more diverse discussions and photos.

She wants to ensure her three kids, who have different skin tones, have access to adequate dermatology care when needed.

"[I'm] always wondering if clinicians are equipped to notice signs and symptoms on your skin and how they would treat it," said Sanghera.

She also said the university is creating professional development sessions so care providers can better serve their patients, and faculty members are attending conferences on representative medicine to better serve their students.

Through the event, the students' association also aims to shatter myths around skin care.

Ibrahim will share information about protecting darker skin from the sun and what type of sunscreen offers the best coverage for people of colour.

She says many people of colour believe cancer rarely presents in black skin because of melanin pigmentation.

"Growing up, I never worried about sunscreen because we believed in that," she said.

"It wasn't until I started learning more about this, got into sciences … I learned that this is completely false."

Skin cancer is often diagnosed later in people of colour when it's harder to treat, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

The pop-up clinic is the first event of its kind in Edmonton, but the Black Pharmacy Students' Association plans to host additional sessions.

Group members want people struggling with skin health to leave with new, everyday management tools.

"If [attendees] just took away one thing, that would be really beneficial," said co-president Camala Soliman.

Alberta legislature wraps up with attacks, insults; next stop is May 29 election

Story by The Canadian Press • Thursday, March 23,2023

EDMONTON — The Alberta legislature wrapped up its spring sitting Thursday with politicians on both sides of the aisle test-driving insults and expected attack lines ahead of the scheduled May 29 provincial election.


NDP LEADER RACHEL NOTLEY

The Opposition NDP lambasted Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party government for hiking fees, fighting with doctors, proposing royalty breaks for oil companies, firing educational support staff, breaking COVID-19 rules and failing to deliver promised economic stimulus to Calgary.

The UCP fired back, saying they saved Alberta after four years of disastrous NDP government that featured massive deficits, credit downgrades, nanny state rules and shameless kowtowing to Ottawa — all topped by a surprise consumer carbon tax.

“What a woeful group of provocateurs,” Energy Minister Peter Guthrie told the house as he squared off with NDP MLA Heather Sweet.

“The activist mentality of the NDP have a target: to end fossil fuel production.”

Sweet shot back: “Our record is (we delivered) one pipeline. UCP (delivered) zero pipelines.”

Finance Minister Travis Toews told the house Alberta’s economy is back in the black despite intrusive retrograde federal rules imposed with the quiet complicity of Rachel Notley's NDP.

“I call on the members opposite to stand with the government on this side of the house against the Trudeau-Singh alliance which is pushing our nation’s economy backwards,” said Toews.

“We’re doing everything we can to position Alberta for competitiveness, investment attraction and growth.”

Where’s the promised growth in Calgary, former NDP finance minister Joe Ceci needled Toews, citing high downtown vacancy rates.

“Why has the UCP spent the last four years holding Calgary back?”

“Every time the minister rises I’m afraid of another credit downgrade,” Toews shot back, echoing previous UCP taunts mocking Ceci as “Alberta’s worst finance minister.”

The NDP’s Rakhi Pancholi offered crocodile sympathy for UCP candidates heading to the doors selling four years of fee hikes.

“(They’ll) have to run on their record, their record of hiking utility prices, insurance rates, school fees, income taxes, property taxes, tuition (and) student loan interest all while handing out money to their friends and insiders,” said Pancholi.

“Alberta’s future is at stake in this election.”

The house wrapped up a short month-long sitting focused on passing a budget capped by a $2.4-billion petro-powered projected surplus to go with spending hikes virtually across the board, particularly on health care and education.

Both parties have been busy in recent weeks with pre-election announcements. Cabinet ministers have been reannouncing budget initiatives while the NDP has rolled out its own policy ideas while hammering on perceived UCP weak spots.

Smith’s government has moved controversial issues to the back burner. These include abandoning the Canada Pension Plan for an Alberta one, ditching the RCMP for a provincial police force and a proposal to reward oil companies with potentially billions of dollars in royalty breaks for cleaning up inactive wells that they are already mandated by law to do.

Notley, speaking to reporters in Calgary, said her government would introduce a bill to keep Alberta in the CPP rather than subject Albertans’ nest-egg savings to the whims of a provincial government of the day.

“Changing CPP is actually harder than changing the Canadian Constitution,” said Notley.

“But if Danielle Smith gets her way, political risk skyrockets. Smith and her UCP cabinet could change benefit levels or the retirement age in one cabinet meeting behind closed doors.”

Toews told the house that the pension plan is all about making sure Albertans have the chance to get the best deal possible.

“The NDP would not give Albertans that opportunity but this government will,” said Toews.

“We’re completing the work. We will ensure Albertans ultimately can make the choice.”

Smith, speaking at the Canada Strong and Free event in Ottawa, said her greatest achievement in her five months as premier was firing the board of Alberta Health Services, then revamping health care under a single administrator. She said the changes have resulted in reduced surgical wait lists and ambulance bottlenecks.

“You give (civil servants) clear goals and you measure them and you know you’re going to chop off a few heads if they don’t achieve results, they achieve results,” said Smith.

The focus of the campaign is expected to be Calgary.

Recent polls suggest the NDP and UCP are neck and neck in the popular vote. NDP support is strong in Edmonton while the UCP dominates outside the big cities and support is split in Calgary.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

STACKED ALBERTA APPEALS COURT

Alberta faces off against Ottawa this week in Supreme Court over 'no more pipelines' law

Story by Special to National Post • Monday

A federal environmental law that has been condemned as a “wrecking ball” goes on trial Tuesday as the Supreme Court of Canada considers whether Ottawa is stepping on provincial jurisdiction by giving itself more oversight of major resource projects.

UCP RENT A CROWD

People protest against Bill C-69, in Calgary on March 25, 2019.

© Provided by National Post

The federal government is asking the Supreme Court to overrule an Alberta Court of Appeal opinion that declared the 2019 Impact Assessment Act (IAA) to be unconstitutional.

The act was adopted to “establish a federal environmental assessment process to safeguard against adverse environmental effects in relation to matters within federal jurisdiction,” the attorney general of Canada stated in written legal arguments to the Supreme Court.

The Alberta government counters that the act is “a profound threat” to provincial jurisdiction over natural resources.

“Alberta’s economic wellbeing, and the employment and prosperity of its population, are dependent on its ability to sustainably manage and develop its natural resources, and in particular its oil and gas resources,” the attorney general of Alberta argues in its written legal brief.

Alberta court quashes Liberal environmental legislation in 'historic victory'

Under the Canadian Constitution, provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over laws relating to resource development. However, neither the provinces nor the federal government have total control over environmental regulation. The IAA, also known as Bill C-69, strengthens federal authority to assess the impact of, new resource projects, and potentially stop them, if they affect climate change, public health and Indigenous concerns. The act can also stop projects from moving forward if they affect other areas of the environment regulated by Parliament, including fisheries and federal lands.

The appeal, which is one the most significant in the Supreme Court’s winter term, is drawing 29 intervenors, including Indigenous groups, environmentalists, business groups and seven provinces. Environmentalists and most Indigenous organizations are siding with the federal government, while industry and some Indigenous organizations and all but one province are backing Alberta.

The Alberta Court of Appeal, in its 204-page judgment last year, acknowledged climate change is an “existential threat facing this country.” But the court’s majority concluded that the legislation also poses “another existential threat” and that is “the clear and present danger this legislative scheme presents to the division of powers guaranteed by our constitution and thus, to Canada itself.”



Alberta NDP allege corruption, conflict of interest in premier's office
1:31


The environmental law, the court continued, “has also taken a wrecking ball to something else — and that is the likelihood of capital investment in projects vital to the economy of individual provinces.”

Ottawa will try to convince the Supreme Court that it already established federal jurisdiction over the environment three decades ago when it ruled the federal government had the authority to conduct an environmental assessment of a major dam being built in Alberta. The 1992 decision in the case of the Oldman River Dam recognized the federal government’s power to enact legislation preventing detrimental environmental effects, the federal government says.

Indigenous groups on both sides of the case are closely watching the outcome of the appeal.

Ryan Beaton, a lawyer for the intervening First Nations Major Project Coalition, says there is “a third order of government in Canada’s constitutional landscape” and the case can be viewed as major one in determining how Indigenous jurisdiction fits with federal and provincial powers.

The legislation sets out requirements for consultation with Indigenous communities and requires Indigenous knowledge to be incorporated.

“If this act is not there, that kind of consultation becomes much more ad-hoc and case-by-case basis,” said Beaton. The coalition represents First Nations leaders who provide technical expertise for natural resource projects on their land.

The Indian Resource Council, a group representing more than 130 First Nations involved in oil and gas production, is siding with Alberta. The council says in its legal arguments that the IAA creates “a federal veto” and “presumes that certain extractive resource projects, such as oil and gas production, are inherently adverse to Indigenous peoples.” Alberta says in court documents that it and other provinces already have systems to regulate projects within provincial jurisdiction that balance environmental concerns and resource development.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation argues the federal legislation will result in “unnecessary and costly delays in project approval and construction, jurisdictional confusion, and the loss of clear lines of governmental accountability.”

The legislation has already had an impact, Ontario and Alberta assert in their court filings.

Ontario describes how federal concerns about birds and animals have delayed construction of proposed Highway 413. Alberta says that the law has stopped a coal mine and an oil sands project.

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney called the IAA the “no more pipelines” law , arguing it would, in effect, block further oil and gas infrastructure development in Canada.

This is not the first jurisdictional clash between Alberta and the Trudeau government. The appeal comes two years after the Supreme Court backed the federal government’s minimum national carbon tax program, overruling the Alberta Court of Appeal, which said the program’s intrusion on the province’s jurisdiction over resources violated the constitution.

The IAA hearing takes place Tuesday and Wednesday. One of the nine justices that was set to hear the case, Russell Brown, is currently on leave pending an investigation into a complaint over allegations he was involved in an altercation while on a trip to Arizona in January. Brown, who was appointed to the Supreme Court from the Alberta appeal court by former prime minister Stephen Harper, was one of the two dissenting Supreme Court judges who sided with Alberta two years ago in the carbon-tax hearing.

Benjamin Lopez Steven and Meagan Gillmore are students in a legal journalism course at Carleton University.

Special to National Post

Saudi National Bank chair resigns after Credit Suisse storm

Associated Press
Mon, March 27, 2023 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The chairman of Saudi National Bank resigned for “personal reasons” after his comments on Credit Suisse sent that firm's stock cratering, a regulatory filing in the kingdom said Monday.

The filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange announced Ammar al-Khudairy's resignation from Saudi National Bank. It dated his resignation as coming on Sunday.

Shares of Credit Suisse sank over 30% after al-Khudairy announced March 15 that its biggest shareholder — the Saudi National Bank — would not provide more money to the Swiss lender. Hours later, Switzerland’s central bank agreed to lend Credit Suisse up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) to shore up its finances.

Swiss authorities later cut a deal with its bigger rival UBS to acquire troubled Credit Suisse at a marked-down price.