Scientists use peroxide to peer into metal oxide reactions

Using advanced in-situ spectroscopy techniques, scientists at Binghamton University and Brookhaven Lab gain new insights into catalytic oxidation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: LAB BASED AMBIENT PRESSURE X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY (XPS) INSTRUMENT AT CFN view more 

CREDIT: BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

UPTON, NY— Researchers at Binghamton University led research partnering with the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—to get a better look at how peroxides on the surface of copper oxide promote the oxidation of hydrogen but inhibit the oxidation of carbon monoxide, allowing them to steer oxidation reactions. They were able to observe these quick changes with two complimentary spectroscopy methods that have not been used in this way. The results of this work have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Copper is one of the most studied and relevant surfaces, both in catalysis and in corrosion science,” explained Anibal Boscoboinik, materials scientist at CFN. “So many mechanical parts that are used in industry are made of copper, so trying to understand this element of the corrosion processes is very important.”

“I’ve always liked looking at copper systems,” said Ashley Head also a materials scientist at CFN. “They have such interesting properties and reactions, some of which are really striking.”

Gaining a better understanding of oxide catalysts gives researchers more control of the chemical reactions they produce, including solutions for clean energy. Copper, for example, can catalytically form and convert methanol into valuable fuels, so being able to control the amount of oxygen and number of electrons on copper is a key step to efficient chemical reactions.

Peroxide as a Proxy

Peroxides are chemical compounds that contain two oxygen atoms linked by shared electrons. The bond in peroxides is fairly weak, allowing other chemicals to alter its structure, which makes them very reactive. In this experiment, scientists were able to alter the redox steps of catalytic oxidation reactions on an oxidized copper surface (CuO) by identifying the makeup of peroxide species formed with different gases: ­O2 (oxygen), H2 (hydrogen), and CO (carbon monoxide).

Redox is a combination of reduction and oxidation. In this process, the oxidizing agent gains an electron and the reducing agent loses an electron. When comparing these different peroxide species and how these steps played out, researchers found that a surface layer of peroxide significantly enhanced CuO reducibility in favor of H2 oxidation. They also found that, on the other hand, it acted as an inhibitor to suppress CuO reduction against CO (carbon monoxide) oxidation. They found that this opposite effect of the peroxide on the two oxidation reactions stems from the modification of the surface sites where the reaction takes place.

By finding these bonding sites and learning how they promote or inhibit oxidation, scientists can use these gases to gain more control of how these reactions play out. In order to tune these reactions though, scientists had to get a clear look at what was happening.

The Right Tools for the Job

Studying this reaction in situ was important to the team, since peroxides are very reactive and these changes happen fast. Without the right tools or environment, it’s hard to catch such a limited moment on the surface.

Peroxide species  on copper surfaces were never observed using in-situ infrared (IR) spectroscopy in the past. With this technique, researchers use infrared radiation to get a better understanding of a material’s chemical properties by looking at the way the radiation is absorbed or reflected under reaction conditions. In this experiment, scientists were able to differentiate “species” of peroxide, with very slight variations in the oxygen they were carrying, which would have otherwise been very hard to identify on a metal oxide surface.

“I got really excited when I was looking up the infrared spectra of these peroxide species on a surface and seeing that there weren’t many publications. It was exciting that we could see these differences using a technique that’s not widely applied to these kind of species,” recalled Head.

IR spectroscopy on its own wasn’t enough to be sure though, which is why the team also used another spectroscopy technique called ambient pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). XPS uses lower energy x-rays to kick electrons out of the sample. The energy of these electrons  gives scientists clues about the chemical properties of atoms in the sample. Having both techniques available through the CFN User Program was key to making this research possible.

“One of the things that we pride ourselves in is the instruments that we have and modified here,” said Boscoboinik. “Our instruments are connected, so users can move the sample in a controlled environment between these two techniques and study them in situ to get complementary information. In most other circumstances, a user would have to take the sample out to go to a different instrument, and that change of environment could alter its surface.”

“A nice feature of CFN lies not only in its state-of-the-art facilities for science, but also the opportunities it provides to train young researchers,” said Guangwen Zhou professor at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science program at Binghamton University. ”Each of the students involved have benefited from extensive, hands-on experience in the microscopy and spectroscopy tools available at CFN.”

This work was accomplished with the contributions of four PhD students in Zhou’s group: Yaguang Zhu and Jianyu Wang, the first co-authors of this paper, and Shyam Patel and Chaoran Li. All of these students are early in their career, having just earned their PhDs in 2022.

CAPTION

Binding energy and location of peroxide (OO) formation on Copper Oxide (CuO)

CREDIT

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS

Future Findings

The results of this study may apply to other types of reactions and other catalysts besides copper.   These findings and the processes and techniques that led scientists there could find their ways into related research. Metal oxides are widely used as catalysts themselves or components in catalysts. Tuning peroxide formation on other oxides could be a way to block or enhance surface reactions during other catalytic processes.

“I’m involved in some other projects related to copper and copper oxides, including transforming carbon dioxide to methanol to use as a fuel for clean energy,” said Head. “Looking at these peroxides on the same surface that I use has the potential to make an impact on other projects using copper and other metal oxides.”

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

Follow @BrookhavenLab on Twitter or find us on Facebook.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2215189120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Tuning the surface reactivity of oxides by peroxide species

Biodiversity auditing key to success of new conservation plans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) suggests a way to greatly improve the outcomes of biodiversity conservation efforts globally.

Scientists from UEA, the RSPB and Natural England, propose that biodiversity auditing should be integral to the ongoing development of regionally-targeted conservation plans, such as the Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) established by the UK Environment Act 2021.

It follows work conducted with two conservation projects in the East of England - one in North Norfolk and another in the Brecks - using this approach to guide conservation locally.

A biodiversity audit sees a small team use every available data source to work out which species are the most important locally, and what conservation management they need.

On the North Norfolk Coast, for example, the team collected more than one million records from 38 different data sources including local records offices, NGOS and natural historians, to get a final species list of 10,726 species.

This information is used to ascertain which species are of national importance – in order to help land managers do what they can to help the largest number of important species.

The approach, which has also been used elsewhere in the region, in the Broads and Fens, reprioritises management efforts to support greater numbers of important species, with all available data used to find out what is in a local area and what land-management they need, so that it can be targeted at hundreds of rare species at a time.

The new LNRS policies, which look to generate a plan and set of priorities for every local area in England, currently make no provision for identifying the species that inhabit strategy areas, but they provide the ideal vehicle to roll out this auditing approach to benefit biodiversity nationally.

Writing in the journal Biological Conservation, the team argue that auditing should be integrated into environmental policy globally, and specifically for the European Union’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and in the formal guidance for the LNRS planned for England.

Lead author of the paper Dr Liam Crowther, of UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “Despite decades of effort, conservation has not been successful in reversing species declines at either global or regional scales. With respect to nature recovery, we are standing at a crossroads.

“The LNRS and the associated delivery mechanisms are hugely ambitious and have the potential to reverse the patterns of decline across many of our endangered plants and invertebrates.

“But, if they don't use data to actually target management to support as many important species as possible then we stand to miss a huge opportunity to recover nature.

“If we don't take this approach, then we stand to squander an historic opportunity by replicating the broadbrush strategies that haven't worked so far. Because the effectiveness of interventions can differ across landscapes, conservation strategies should be locally tailored to meet the ecological needs of their species pools.”

The paper provides methods for incorporating rapid low-cost biodiversity auditing into local conservation strategies, to ensure these support the widest complement of priority - rare and threatened - species.

Biodiversity auditing uses existing repositories of species data to group priority species that share similar responses to conservation interventions, allowing practitioners to identify and implement regionally-optimized, evidence-based action plans.

Where previously implemented, such as in East Anglia, this approach has successfully transformed conservation practices, increasing the richness and abundance of important species compared to the pre-existing management.

On the heathlands of Breckland, the approach found that grazing with additional physical ground disturbance could support nearly six times as many priority invertebrates and plants than the light grazing that had been used before.

On the freshwater wetlands of the North Norfolk Coast the approach revealed that almost twice as many priority invertebrates and plants could be supported by having more complex and varied wet grasslands and wet features, relative to the current approach where grasslands are closely-grazed to support wading birds.

Both of these findings are informing Landscape Recovery pilots where the Breckland Farmer’s Network and Norfolk County Council have been selected to develop ambitious plans to recover nature across their areas.

Dr Katy Owen, Protected Landscapes Manager for Norfolk County Council oversees the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB), where one of 22 national Landscape Recovery pilots will be delivered.

She said: “Bringing a nationally significant pilot project and associated funding to the North Norfolk coast is a great example of using this type of high-quality biodiversity data to inform decision-making - and most importantly to deliver real, significant change on the ground.

“Through Landscape Recovery, we are working with farmers and land managers to make space for nature in a working landscape. This type of data will be invaluable when considering land use change to deliver suite of ecosystem services.

“We can evidence that thriving biodiversity and vibrant rural economies don’t need to be exclusive – in fact they can work together to make our coastline a great place to live - for humans and the millions of other species we share it with.” 

Comprehensive biodiversity audits in England typically identify 10,000-14,000 species, and 1,000-1,500 priority species, per ecoregion, the majority of which are plants and invertebrates that have been historically neglected in conservation planning.

The paper draws together evidence to show that the new policies for ‘Nature Recovery’, while ambitious, are severely limited because they do not include any direction on how LNRS need to use the wealth of species data available.

As such, incorporating biodiversity auditing can make an important contribution both to the management of existing semi-natural sites and the design of restoration efforts.

‘Harnessing biodiversity data to inform policy: rapid regional audits should underpin local nature recovery strategies’ is published in Biological Conservation on April 7, 2023.

ENDS

 

 

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JOURNAL

Biological Conservation

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Harnessing biodiversity data to inform policy: rapid regional audits should underpin local nature recovery strategies

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Apr-2023

Justice Clarence Thomas’s megadonor friend collects Hitler memorabilia – report

Story by Martin Pengelly in New York • 

The Republican megadonor whose gifts to the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas have come under the spotlight has a private collection including a garden of statues of dictators, including Mussolini and Stalin; Nazi memorabilia; and paintings including two works by Adolf Hitler, the Washingtonian reported.


Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock© Provided by The Guardian

Related: Clarence Thomas defends himself after undisclosed gifts revelation

“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” the Washingtonian quoted an anonymous source as saying, regarding a visit to Harlan Crow’s Texas home. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.”

Crow, the source said, also had paintings “done by George W Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler”.

A painting of Thomas and Crow smoking cigars in company including the rightwing activist Leonard Leo was included in an explosive report by ProPublica, detailing Crow’s lavish gifts to Thomas over more than 25 years.

ProPublica also described trips on private planes and yachts and stays at lavish resorts.

In a rare statement, Thomas said he had been advised such “personal hospitality” did not have to be declared under federal rules.

He added: “I have endeavoured to follow that counsel throughout my tenure and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

Critics said Thomas had “clearly” broken the law regarding the declaration of gifts. The Washington Post noted Thomas has declared just two since 2004.

Related video: Biggest Bombshells From New Clarence Thomas Report (Newsweek)

Duration 1:12   View on Watch

Crow denied discussing or seeking to influence the court through his friendship with Thomas and his wife, the far-right activist Ginni Thomas.

Critics questioned that, given Crow’s seat on the board of the American Enterprise Institute, a rightwing thinktank which regularly files amicus briefs with the court.

Outraged Democrats promised investigations and, in the case of the New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, threatened to introduce articles of impeachment.

Thomas is the senior conservative on a conservative-dominated court that has issued controversial rulings including Dobbs v Jackson, which last year removed the federal right to abortion.

But impeachment and removal is highly unlikely. Supreme court justices effectively govern themselves. Only one has ever been impeached, in 1804, before being acquitted. Republicans hold the House, where impeachment would start.

Still, news of Crow’s far-right memorabilia seemed bound to add to Thomas’s embarrassment – perhaps in part because Thomas has written that arguments for abortion rights spring from theories of eugenics, as espoused by Hitler and the Nazis.

When Thomas made that argument, in an opinion in 2019, Philippa Levine, a University of Texas history professor, told the Washington Post the justice was “guilty of a gross misuse of historical facts”.

On Friday, the Washingtonian published pictures of Thomas’s friend’s collection of Nazi artefacts, which includes a signed copy of Hitler’s memoir, Mein Kampf.

The magazine also noted how the Florida senator Marco Rubio ran into problems in 2015, over a Crow-hosted fundraiser on the eve of Yom Kippur.

Related: Rightwing legal activist accused of misusing $73m from non-profit groups

The year before that, the Dallas Morning News reported that Crow became “visibly uncomfortable” with questions about his dictator statues and collectibles of Hitler, whose regime murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.

The paper described the statues of dictators as “a historical nod to the facts of man’s inhumanity to man”.

Crow also reportedly owns statues of two British prime ministers he counts among his heroes: Winston Churchill – who defeated Hitler – and Margaret Thatcher.

The megadonor and his wife were “such hospitable Texas hosts”, according to the Washingtonian’s source.

But, the source added, it was “just strange – they had family photos in one room, then all this world war II stuff in another room, and dictators in the backyard”.

‘Unborn human’: the anti-abortion rhetoric of Texas judge’s ruling

Story by Guardian staff • 

Texas-based federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Friday issued a ruling aiming to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a common abortion drug approved for use 23 years ago that has been consistently found to be safe and effective.


Photograph: Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

Related: US abortion pill access in doubt after Texas judge suspends approval

It is widely believed that the anti-abortion groups who brought the case challenging the FDA’s authorization of the drug did so in Amarillo, Texas, so that it would be certain to land on the desk of this particular judge. Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by Donald Trump, is known for disregarding precedent and for weighing in on the far-right side of culture war issues.

Kacsmaryk’s 67-page decision – a preliminary ruling that will be appealed and is likely to wind its way up to the supreme court – makes plain that the strategy paid off. His decision employs the same rhetoric that has been deliberately seeded over decades by the anti-abortion movement. Some examples are below.

‘Unborn child’

In the very first footnote to the decision, Kacsmaryk sets the tone for the opinion, explaining he why he will use “unborn human” or “unborn child” throughout his ruling:

Jurists often use the word “fetus” to inaccurately identify unborn humans in unscientific ways. The word “fetus” refers to a specific gestational stage of development, as opposed to the zygote, blastocyst, or embryo stages … Because other jurists use the terms “unborn human” or “unborn child” interchangeably, and because both terms are inclusive of the multiple gestational stages relevant to the FDA Approval, 2016 Changes, and 2021 Changes, this Court uses “unborn human” or “unborn child” terminology throughout this Order, as appropriate.

‘To kill the unborn human’

Mifepristone, the drug at the center of the case, works by blocking progesterone, a hormone required for a pregnancy to develop. It is approved by the FDA to be taken up until 10 weeks of pregnancy and is generally used in conjunction with misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract. This is how Kacsmaryk describes this two-pill regimen, which together account for more than half the abortions in the US:

Related video: How to understand the dueling abortion pill court rulings (MSNBC)

Duration 11:56 View on Watch

Because mifepristone alone will not always complete the abortion, FDA mandates a two-step drug regimen: mifepristone to kill the unborn human, followed by misoprostol to induce cramping and contractions to expel the unborn human from the mother’s womb.

‘Shame, regret, anxiety, depression’

The anti-abortion movement is known to champion the idea that people who have abortions come to be plagued by regret – an idea promoted by former supreme court justice Anthony Kennedy in a 2007 decision, even as he admitted there’s “no reliable data to measure the phenomenon”. But reliable data finally came in 2020, with the landmark Turnaway Study, which spent five years following nearly 1,000 women who sought abortions. The study found that 95% of women who had abortions reported five years later that it had been the right decision for them.

Related: US abortion pill ruling: what happened and what’s next?

Kacsmaryk, however, writes:

Women who have aborted a child – especially through chemical abortion drugs that necessitate the woman seeing her aborted child once it passes – often experience shame, regret, anxiety, depression, drug abuse and suicidal thoughts because of the abortion.

‘Fetal personhood’

Kacsmaryk also writes that any consideration of alleged damage caused by the abortion pill should extend to the fetus. This is a nod to the radical idea of “fetal personhood” – that embryos and fetuses are people entitled to the full protection of the US constitution. That argument presumes abortion to be murder, and were it to take hold in the legal system, could lead to a national ban on the procedure. Invoking the name of the US supreme court decision which eliminated federal abortion rights, he writes:

Parenthetically, said “individual justice” and “irreparable injury” analysis also arguably applies to the unborn humans extinguished by mifepristone – especially in the post-Dobbs era.

Comstock Act

The groups that brought the case ruled on by Kacsmaryk aim to revive a long dormant, 150-year-old anti-obscenity law called the Comstock Act, which prohibited sending abortifacients in the mail. Kacsmaryk’s decision indeed revives that law – and some experts fear his logic could extend to more abortion methods and even lead to a national ban.

This purported “consensus view” is that the Comstock Act does not prohibit the mailing of items designed to produce abortions “where the sender does not intend them to be used unlawfully”. Id. This argument is unpersuasive for several reasons … In any case, the Comstock Act plainly forecloses mail-order abortion in the present … the law is plain.

Abortion as eugenics

Kacsmaryk also quotes conservative US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, who has linked abortion to eugenics, the belief in selective breeding to produce a superior society. In rejecting research pointing to worse psychosocial and financial outcomes for children of people denied abortions, he also seems to draw a line between abortion and the worst atrocities of the last century:

(“[A]bortion has proved to be a disturbingly effective tool for implementing the discriminatory preferences that undergird eugenics.”) Though eugenics were once fashionable in the Commanding Heights and High Court, they hold less purchase after the conflict, carnage and casualties of the last century revealed the bloody consequences of Social Darwinism practiced by would-be Übermenschen.

Predictions about the decline of Christianity in America may be premature

THANKS TO JESUS, MARIA AND JOSE

Opinion by John Blake • CNN

The cross, and the empty tomb.

Both Christian symbols are bookends to the Easter story. One symbolizes the tragic execution of Jesus while the other represents the Christian belief in his resurrection, and the claim that death does not have the final word on him or his followers.

As millions of Americans celebrate the holiest day in the Christian calendar on Sunday, most will hear some variation of this Easter message — finding new life in unforeseen places.

But that message could also describe a surprising prediction about the future of Christianity in the US.

For years, church leaders and commentators have warned that Christianity is dying in America. They say the American church is poised to follow the path of churches in Western Europe: soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered church buildings converted into skate parts and nightclubs, and a secularized society where one theologian said Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”

Yet when CNN asked some of the nation’s top religion scholars and historians recently about the future of Christianity in the US, they had a different message.

They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US.

And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.

Joseph P. Slaughter, a historian and assistant professor of religion at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, says people have been predicting the extinction of Christianity in the US for over two centuries, and it hasn’t happened yet.

A sparsely attended Good Friday mass in Cologne, Germany, on April 2, 2021. 

- Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

He pointed to Thomas Jefferson, one of the nation’s founding fathers, who predicted in the 1820s that Christianity would be replaced in the US by a more enlightened form of religion that rejected Jesus’ divinity and belief in miracles.

Instead, Jefferson’s prophecy was followed by a series of revivals, including the Second Great Awakening, which swept across America and reasserted Christianity as a dominant force in American life.

“I’d never bet against American Christianity — particularly evangelicalism,” Slaughter says, “and its ability to adapt and remain a significant shaper of the American society.”

What’s happening in Europe is the church’s nightmare scenario

If one only looks at the numbers, Slaughter’s optimism seems misguided. Virtually every recent poll about Christianity in America has been brutal for its followers.

About 64% of Americans call themselves Christian today. That might sound like a lot, but 50 years ago that number was 90%, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study. That same survey said the Christian majority in the US may disappear by 2070.

The Covid-19 pandemic also hurt the church in America. Church attendance has rebounded recently but remains slightly below pre-pandemic levels. A 2021 Gallup poll revealed another grim number for Christians: church membership in the US has fallen below 50% for the first time.

In addition, a cascade of headlines in recent years have stained the church’s reputation, including sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention; the spread of White Christian nationalism; and the perception that the church oppresses marginalized groups such as LGBTQ people.

Church leaders in the US also have fretted about the rise of “nones.” These are people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked their religious identity.

The ascent of nones will transform the country’s religious and political landscape, says Tina Wray, a professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. About 30% of Americans now call themselves nones.


A billboard in 2010 in Oklahoma City, paid for by a local atheists' group called "Coalition of Reason." - Sue Ogrocki/AP

“The interest of the nones will soon outweigh those of the religious right in just a matter of years,” Wray says. “Nones are going to vote as a bloc and they’re going to be pretty powerful. White evangelicals will eventually be eclipsed by the unaffiliated.”

Wray says those who are optimistic about the future of the American church underestimate how quickly Christianity can lose its influence even in a place where it once thrived. She cites what’s happened in the Republic of Ireland, an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The Catholic Church prohibits divorce and was once so powerful in Ireland that the country wouldn’t legally grant its citizens the legal right to a divorce until 1995, says Wray, author of “What the Bible Really Tells Us: The Essential Guide to Biblical Literacy.” But Wray adds that she recently traveled to Ireland and discovered many of its citizens have left the religion. Churches are being closed and turned into apartment buildings, she says.

“People who went to mass everyday stopped going,” she says. “There’s this cultural Catholic identity, but as far as practicing their faith, it’s just disappearing. So within a generation, that’s all it took. It’s just shocking.”

Why the American church’s future may be different than Europe’s

Most of the religious scholars CNN spoke to said the American church may find salvation in another demographic trend: the booming of Christianity in what is called the “Global South,” the regions encompassing Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The world’s largest megachurch, for example, is not in the US. It’s in South Korea. The Yoido Full Gospel Church has a weekly attendance of about 600,000 members.

Perry Hamalis spent time as a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea, where he personally witnessed the vitality of the Christian church in the Global South.

He says the church is not perceived in South Korea as an instrument of oppression, but one of liberation. When South Korea was colonized by the Japanese in the early 20th century, the church aligned with Koreans to protest.

“Christianity was looked at not as a religion of empire and of the colonizers, but as the religion of the anti-colonial movement and of pro-democracy,” says Hamalis, a religion professor at North Central College in Illinois.

The US has more immigrants than any other country. People from Latin America and Asia now make up the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the US, and many are bringing their religious fervor with them.



A service on Christmas Day 2022 at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea. - Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

This migration is known as the “Browning of America,” a phrase describing a demographic shift that is expected to make White people the minority in the US by 2045.

Those who predict that the church in America will collapse often overlook how the migration of Global South Christians to America will revitalize the country’s religious landscape, scholars say. Christianity could rebound in America if White Christians embrace this one change, they say.

Tish Harrison Warren, a New York Times columnist, pointed out recently that Latino evangelicals are now the fastest-growing group of evangelicals in the US.

“We cannot assume that America will become more secular so long as the future of America is less white,” Warren wrote.

The influx of Black and brown Christians from places like Latin America and Asia collides with another trend: a burgeoning White Christian nationalist movement that insists, incorrectly, that the US was founded as a White, Christian nation. It is hostile to non-White immigrants.

Some churches may discover that Jesus’ command to welcome the stranger collides with their definition of patriotism, Hamalis says.

“Many congregations don’t realize how much of their Christian identity is wrapped up with a kind of (Christian) nationalist narrative,” Hamalis says. “There’s nothing wrong with loving one’s country, but from a Christian perspective that ought to always be secondary to the mission of building the body of Christ and witnessing to the Gospel in the world.”

How Christianity could re-establish its dominance

There are other factors hiding in plain sight that point to the continued vitality of Christianity, others say.

For one, declining church membership doesn’t automatically translate into declining influence.

Consider some recent landmark events. White evangelicals played a critical role in getting former President Trump elected. Conservative Christian groups played a crucial role in the recent passage of state laws limiting LGBTQ rights. And the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe vs. Wade was a massive victory for many conservative Christians.

And atheism remains a taboo in American politics. American voters still prefer candidates – including presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden – who profess or evoke Christian beliefs.

“Christianity still holds a lot of capital in this country,” says Lee M. Jefferson, an associate professor of religion at Centre College in Kentucky.

“There has always been a popular notion that a religious community’s strength or influence is connected to numbers and attendance,” Jefferson says. “Even if there is ample space in cathedrals, Christianity will still hold some strong relevance in different landscapes in the US.”

Even the rise of the “nones,” the growing number of Americans who say they don’t care about religion, is not as much of a threat to the church as initial reports suggest, scholars say.

A growing number of Americans may no longer identify as Christian, but many still care about spirituality, says Hans Gustafson, author of “Everyday Wisdom: Interreligious Studies for a Pluralistic World.”


Maria Antonetty, foreground, joins others in a Spanish Easter service at the Primitive Christian Church in New York City on April 12, 2009. - Tina Fineberg/AP

“Just because more Americans are disaffiliating with institutionalized religion — most notably Christian traditions — this does not always mean that people are becoming less religious,” says Gustafson, director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

“Many still practice spirituality: prayer, meditation… and sometimes even regularly attend religious houses of worship,” he says.

Among Americans with no religious affiliation, some still pray daily and say religion is very important in their lives, Gustafson says.

He cites a surprising finding from a 2018 Pew Research Center study of religion in Western Europe. The study found that nones in the US are “much more likely” to pray and believe in God than their European counterparts, said Neha Sahgal, a vice president of research at Pew.

“In fact, by some of these standard measures of religious commitment, American ‘nones’ are as religious as — or even more religious than — Christians in several European countries, including France, Germany and the UK,” Sahgal wrote.

Why the Easter message offers a note of hope

Despite the optimism of many religious scholars, the future of Christianity in America still seems uncertain. Poll numbers about the decline of religiousness in the US cannot be ignored, along with something more intangible: the frailties of human nature.

What if the US enters another xenophobic period and limits migration from non-White Christians?

What if progressive Christians prove unwilling to align with non-White immigrants who tend to be more conservative on issues of sexuality and gender?



A woven crown of thorns, depicting the one placed on the head of Jesus before his crucifixion, at Transfiguration Of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. - Carolyn Kaster/AP

And what if some Christians still cling to the belief that America is supposed to be a White Christian nation, even if that assumption causes them to close their church doors to non-White immigrants who could be their salvation?

If that happens, an Easter morning symbol in American churches won’t just be an empty tomb, but empty pews.

But Hamalis, the religion professor who saw Christianity boom in South Korea, says Christians who fear that kind of future can take solace in the Easter message.

“From a Christian perspective, there’s nothing to fear because even death has been conquered,” Hamalis says. “When we are liberated from that fear, we can embrace the person who’s different from us, who speaks a different language or comes from a different culture. We can put ourselves out there in a way that we can’t if we’re just afraid.”

He and other scholars envision a vibrant future for Christianity in the US that’s shared by Warren, the New York Times columnist:

“The future of American Christianity is neither white evangelicalism nor white progressivism,” Warren wrote. “The future of American Christianity now appears to be a multiethnic community that is largely led by immigrants of the children of immigrants.”

If the American church can embrace this future and reverse its shrinking membership, it will have experienced its own resurrection.

John Blake is a Senior Writer at CNN and the author of “More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew.”

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IT COULD HAVE CAUGHT FIRE!

Barge carrying methanol is removed from Ohio River after being stuck more than a week

Story by Sara Smart • TODAY

A barge carrying methanol has been removed from the Ohio River after being stuck for more than a week.

The barge was one of two that became stuck against the McAlpine Dam near Louisville, Kentucky, on April 28 after they broke loose from a vessel on the river.

Methanol was pumped from the barge Friday. When enough was transferred out, crews safely pulled the barge off the structure, according to a news release from Louisville Metro Emergency Services.

“At no time during the recovery operations has there been any indication that the stranded tank barge’s cargo holds are compromised or that any methanol was release into the environment,” the release says.

Tests since the incident have found no sign of methanol in air or water, officials said.

Methanol is a highly flammable alcoholic chemical compound. It is considered an alternative fuel under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, according to the US Department of Energy. Methanol was used in the 1990s as a transportation fuel but is no longer developed for that purpose, the department said.

Crews will continue to free the remaining barge stuck on the dam. It is carrying corn.

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RIP
Ben Ferencz, last living Nuremberg prosecutor of Nazis, dies

Story by The Canadian Press •

Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps, has died. He had just turned 103 in March.

Ben Ferencz, 

Ferencz died Friday evening in Boynton Beach, Florida, according to St. John's University law professor John Barrett, who runs a blog about the Nuremberg trials. The death also was confirmed by the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington.

“Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes,” the museum tweeted.

Born in Transylvania in 1920, Ferencz immigrated as a very young boy with his parents to New York to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined the U.S. Army in time to take part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. Using his legal background, he became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against U.S. soldiers as part of a new War Crimes Section of the Judge Advocate’s Office.

When U.S. intelligence reports described soldiers encountering large groups of starving people in Nazi camps watched over by SS guards, Ferencz followed up with visits, first at the Ohrdruf labor camp in Germany and then at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. At those camps and later others, he found bodies “piled up like cordwood” and “helpless skeletons with diarrhea, dysentery, typhus, TB, pneumonia, and other ailments, retching in their louse ridden bunks or on the ground with only their pathetic eyes pleading for help,” Ferencz wrote in an account of his life.

“The Buchenwald concentration camp was a charnel house of indescribable horrors,” Ferencz wrote. “There is no doubt that I was indelibly traumatized by my experiences as a war crimes investigator of Nazi extermination centers. I still try not to talk or think about the details.”

At one point toward the end of the war, Ferencz was sent to Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps to search for incriminating documents but came back empty-handed.

After the war, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army and returned to New York to begin practicing law. But that was short-lived. Because of his experiences as a war crimes investigator, he was recruited to help prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, which had begun under the leadership of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Before leaving for Germany, he married his childhood sweetheart, Gertrude.

At the age of 27, with no previous trial experience, Ferencz became chief prosecutor for a 1947 case in which 22 former commanders were charged with murdering over 1 million Jews, Romani and other enemies of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe. Rather than depending on witnesses, Ferencz mostly relied on official German documents to make his case. All the defendants were convicted, and more than a dozen were sentenced to death by hanging even though Ferencz hadn't asked for the death penalty.

“At the beginning of April 1948, when the long legal judgment was read, I felt vindicated,” he wrote. “Our pleas to protect humanity by the rule of law had been upheld.”

With the war crimes trials winding down, Ferencz went to work for a consortium of Jewish charitable groups to help Holocaust survivors regain properties, homes, businesses, art works, Torah scrolls, and other Jewish religious items that had been confiscated from them by the Nazis. He also later assisted in negotiations that would lead to compensation to the Nazi victims.

In later decades, Ferencz championed the creation of an international court which could prosecute any government’s leaders for war crimes. Those dreams were realized in 2002 with establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, though its effectiveness has been limited by the failure of countries like the United States to participate.

Ferencz is survived by a son and three daughters. His wife died in 2019.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press

IMPERIALISM FALTERS

Haiti's outgunned police will have to wait even longer for Canadian armoured cars

SENT TO UKRAINE

Story by Evan Dyer • CBC

Another delay in the delivery of Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles (MRAPs) to Haiti means that Haitian police will have to wait even longer for the vehicles they desperately need to protect their dwindling force from Haiti's ruthless and well-armed gangs.

The manufacturer has confirmed for CBC News that the earliest potential delivery date is May 3 — and that is subject to change.

Mississauga-based INKAS signed a contract to deliver 18 armoured vehicles to Haiti last year. The contracted delivery date was subsequently extended to the last day of 2022. But by that date, only six of the MRAPs had been delivered.

Since then, three more have been transported to the island by the Canadian Air Force. Half of the contract remains unfulfilled.


Police transport the coffins of three police officers killed in the line of duty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Jan. 31, 2023. The officers were killed in an ambush by gang members in the capital on Jan. 20

.© Odelyn Joseph/The Associated Press

Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mentioned the vehicles frequently when discussing Canadian assistance to Haiti, they are not a gift of Canadian aid. Rather, they're the subject of a commercial contract with a private Canadian company and the government of Haiti is paying full price for the equipment.

Ottawa has provided the military's heavy C17 Globemaster transport aircraft to rush the vehicles to the Haitian National Police as soon as they become available.

Haitian government points the finger

The delays have caused tensions between Canada and Haiti and between the Haitian government and Haitian national police, who find themselves on the losing side of a war with heavily-armed gangs that have overrun much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

March 2023 was the worst month yet of the recent crisis in terms of homicides, kidnappings and territory lost to gang control.



A child gestures as he looks for cover after leaving school amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on March 3, 2023

.© Ralph Tedy Erol/REUTERS

The gangs have access to guns ranging in power up to .50-caliber, while Haitian police depend heavily on the few armoured vehicles they have.

Last month, the country's acting justice minister, Emmelie Prophète-Milcé, accused INKAS of not respecting the terms of its contract.

"The supplier did not keep its word," Prophète-Milcé told Haitian radio Magik 9.

The manufacturer hits back

Related video: Worsening situation in Haiti puts pressure on Canada to intervene (cbc.ca)

Duration 2:12 View on Watch

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Gang violence forcing people in Haiti to abandon their homes

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Canada’s military wary of U.S. request to take on Haiti mission

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Foreign Affairs Minister Joly to announce new Haiti sanctions

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INKAS responded to the criticism with a harshly-worded rebuke to Haitian media.

"We are pained to learn that certain news outlets in Haiti believe they have a free licence to spread vile lies about our organization, about our activities, and most of all about our obligations," wrote chairperson Margarita Simkin.

"We've always tried to keep a low profile, and to help the people of Haiti and Haitian National Police, not to the best of our ability, but far beyond.

"With production being crippled by the global supply chain disruption, affecting every major automotive manufacturer, we have gone out of our way with gestures of good will — we have provided multiple additional Armoured Personnel Carriers, armoured vehicles, high-end drones and multiple, long-term training engagements, as well as vehicle maintenance to Haiti National Police — all free of charge to the nation of Haiti.

"All of the above is conveniently overlooked by every two bit 'journalist,' couch commentator and politician trying to cash in on issues, in the hopes of increasing their political capital, or perhaps dancing to the strings of their criminal masters."

Simkin also denied Haitian reports that INKAS had been paid in full and up front for the vehicles. She insisted the company lost money on the contract.

Supply chain problems

Speaking with CBC News earlier this year, INKAS company officials cited supply chain problems as the main cause of their failure to meet the terms of the contract.

"The war in Ukraine has affected manufacturers like Volkswagen Audi. It turned out that wiring harnesses for many vehicles that Volkswagen Audi produces are made in Ukraine," INKAS managing partner Eugene Gerstein said.

"More often than not, a vehicle is ready but it lacks a part that might be worth $100, like a sensor. Without that sensor, the vehicle cannot operate.



People flee their homes to avoid clashes between armed gangs in the Diegue district of Petion-Ville, Haiti on March 23, 2023

.© Odelyn Joseph/Associated Press

"In our case, for example, transmission speed sensors were one of the issues that we've encountered.

"We're doing everything in our power to speed up the manufacturing process. We are acquiring the needed parts from everywhere, from all over the world ... working around the clock in shifts. Our procurement department is chasing parts around the world.

"It's a trench fight trying to get parts that someone else is trying to get."

'More snags'

Gerstein told CBC News that the company was working to overcome those problems and expected to deliver additional MRAPs by the end of March.

When that didn't happen, Gerstein told CBC the next likely date for delivery would be this month.

"We've ran into more snags — the estimated date at this space in time is more towards mid-April," he said in an email.

"We've set out to rebuild the whole electrical array by hand. Because the shortage also affects actual connectors as well (which are very unique), we are removing factory connectors from items like speedometers and adding a different, available style, and then adding the other side to each harness, piece by piece."

But INKAS has now delayed the next estimated delivery again.

"We've suffered a setback — some of the items we've intended to use and need are still missing," Gerstein said in an email. "We put in play an alternative strategy, however it again boils down to lead times from outside suppliers.

"Four vehicles will be ready by May 3. The subsequent three will be ready by May 24, and then the last 3 by June 14."

CRA workers vote in favour of strike action as tax deadline nears
Story by Eric Stober • Yesterday 

The Canada Revenue Agency sign outside the National Headquarters at the Connaught Building in Ottawa

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) workers have voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of taking strike action, according to a statement released Friday from the Union of Taxation Employees and the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

“Our members have sent a strong message to CRA,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC national president, in a statement. “Workers can’t wait, and we’re ready to show this government we won’t let workers fall behind.”

The nearly 35,000 workers represented by the unions have been without a contract for more than a year, according to the statement, and the government has yet to respond to the unions' wage proposals.

A final round of negotiations is set for April 17-20 between PSAC and CRA, with members at CRA in a legal strike position as of April 14.

“Our members are falling further behind as inflation soars and wages are stuck in neutral,” Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, a component of PSAC, said in a statement.

“We’ve negotiated in good faith, but our members have had enough. Our bills are mounting and our families are feeling the pinch. And now, we’re going to show the government that workers won’t wait."

Brière said going on strike isn't a first choice.

“Tax season is here,” he added in the statement. “But securing a strong strike mandate now gives us the leverage we need to reach a fair and decent contract. And if we need to take job action to get the collective agreement our members deserve, that’s what we’re prepared to do."

PSAC is Canada's largest federal public service union, representing nearly 230,000 workers.

The strike votes began on Jan. 31 and ended Friday, and came after negotiations over wages and remote work broke down.

CRA ‘confident’ a compromise is possible as tax season strike fears grow

Story by Saba Aziz • 8h ago


As the deadline for filing taxes approaches, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says it will be transparent about any impact to its services if workers go on strike -- potentially as soon as this week.

At the same time, the agency says it is "confident" a compromise can be reached.

“The CRA is committed to being transparent with Canadians about impacts to services, should they happen,” the agency said in a statement released Friday.

The deadline for filing income tax and benefit returns for 2022 is April 30, but since that's a Sunday CRA says Canadians can still file on May 1.

An ongoing labour dispute over contracts and wages resulted in CRA workers voting Friday in favour of strike action.

The CRA said it will resume negotiations later this month with the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Union of Taxation Employees to try to reach a new collective agreement that is both fair to workers and reasonable for taxpayers.

A final round of negotiations is set to take place April 17-20, with CRA workers in a legal strike position starting April 14.

“We are confident that the parties will find many areas of potential compromise and trade-off, through honest discussions and concessions by both sides, during the upcoming negotiations,” the CRA said.

According to the unions, more than 35,000 CRA workers have been without a contract for more than a year and the government has yet to respond to their wage proposals.

“Our members are falling further behind as inflation soars and wages are stuck in neutral,” Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees, a component of PSAC, said in a statement Friday.

“We’ve negotiated in good faith, but our members have had enough. Our bills are mounting and our families are feeling the pinch. And now, we’re going to show the government that workers won’t wait.”

Voting for the strike started Jan. 31 and ended Friday.

-- with files from Global News’ Eric Stober.

Danielle Smith says call with Artur Pawlowski was between two party leaders

Story by Brodie Thomas • Calgary Herald

Premier Danielle Smith gave a new explanation about her phone conversation with street preacher Artur Pawlowski during her radio show Saturday.


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a press conference at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Monday, April 3, 2023

People have been questioning why the premier was having a conversation with Pawlowski when he had been involved in the Coutts border crossing blockade, and was facing criminal charges in relation to that incident.

Pawlowski was leader of the fringe Alberta Independence Party at that time the call was made.

On her weekly Chorus radio show, Smith said she believed she was having a call between two party leaders when the topic changed to COVID amnesty.

“Obviously, Mr. Pawlowski holds some very extreme views that I do disagree with completely,” said the premier. “When we talked, I thought we were talking in the context of him being a political party leader, because he was at the time the head of the Independence Party. And it turned into a discussion about what I was doing with COVID amnesty and I’ve been very clear about what I was trying to do with COVID amnesty.”

Smith said she understands people’s concerns about the call.

A recording of the call was leaked to the Opposition NDP, which played it for reporters March 29, prompting Smith to announce a week ago she will not discuss the issue publicly because she is considering defamation action and can’t talk on the advice of her lawyer.

Melanee Thomas, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said although the premier of any party has to engage in partisan matters at times, it doesn’t absolve them from their role as a representative for everyone in the province. Thomas said there is a well understood norm of significant restraint expected of any elected official in a role such as premier.

“This idea that (she) was only acting in (her) capacity as a party leader, that’s not consistent with the content of the phone call, because the premier was speaking and indicating things that she was prepared to do as premier,” said Thomas.

She said if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had tried to use a partisan excuse in the SNC Lavalin affair, it would not have excused what happened in that case, nor would it have eased the concerns of critics.

“I think she’s tilting at windmills to try to make this make sense, and make it go away, and it’s not helping,” said Thomas

Alberta NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir again called for an independent investigation into the call following the morning radio show.

“This is yet another desperate move from Danielle Smith to distract from her attempt to block the prosecution of Pawlowski and others at Coutts,” said Sabir in a press release.

“The entire call between Pawlowski and Smith is her describing her efforts to block these charges, either by weekly calls to prosecutors or her expressing her dissatisfaction to the Attorney General and deputy Attorney General. There’s absolutely no discussion of party politics in the call.”

Sabir said the matter needs an independent investigation from a judge, and he’d like to see it turned around in 30 days.

— With files from the Canadian Press
brthomas@postmedia.com
Twitter: @brodie_thomas

Calgary Herald Letters, April 8: 

No excuse for premier to meddle in justice

The standard applied by Crown prosecutors as to whether a prosecution will proceed is twofold: Is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction?; and, is prosecution in the public interest?

Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a news conference at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on, April 3.© Provided by Calgary Herald

These are the inquiries made by individual prosecutors, primarily to themselves, as charges are assessed for advancement or withdrawal. Neither are, in any context, questions properly made by a premier to a prosecutor.

In the Pawlowski tape, Premier Danielle Smith asserts that she has the authority to ask those questions and has been doing so almost weekly.

The premier has since said that in terms of talking to “prosecutors,” this was limited to inquiries with the minister of Justice and the deputy minister. If in fact such questions were being asked “almost weekly,” it must not have taken many weeks before the premier was finally tuned in to the absurdity of doing so — such questioning being both a violation of her duties as premier and obviously quite pointless.

All considered, the premier’s conduct in this matter is nothing less than astounding and highly persuasive of being unfit to serve in the role of premier. Even weekly discussions with the minister of Justice (if those occurred) would be highly improper, and arguably an attempt to interfere with the administration of justice. Nor is this excusable conduct should it be offered that she is ignorant of the various roles, responsibilities and duties that elected government officials carry and must be careful to uphold.

Pat Knoll, Calgary, professor emeritus of law, U of C

Alberta premier gives new version of why she spoke with accused before criminal trial

Story by The Canadian Press • 1h ago

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has delivered a new version of why she engaged in a controversial phone call with a Calgary street pastor in which they discussed his upcoming criminal case related to COVID-19 public health measures.


Alberta premier gives new version of why she spoke with accused before criminal trial© Provided by The Canadian Press

Smith told her weekly phone-in radio show Saturday that she took the call from Art Pawlowski because she thought it was going to be in the context of his role as the leader of another political party.

She said when the discussion veered into Pawlowski’s court case, she simply reminded the former head of the Alberta Independence Party that she had tried to gain amnesty for COVID accused but was told by justice officials the cases must play out independently, and that she accepted that advice.

She also said she disagrees strongly with Pawlowski’s “extreme views.”

“When we talked, I thought we were talking in the context of him being a political party leader because (Pawlowski) was at the time the head of the Independence Party,” Smith told her Corus radio audience on her show “Your Province Your Premier” in response to a question from the host.

“It turned into a discussion about what I was doing with COVID amnesty.

“And I've been very clear about what I was trying to do with COVID amnesty. I campaigned (for the party leadership) on it. I said I would look into ways in which we might be able to address the non-violent, non-firearms-related, non-contempt-of-court-related charges.”

The 11-minute phone call took place in early January, weeks before Pawlowski went on trial on charges related to the 2022 protest at the U.S. border at Coutts, Alta., over COVID restrictions.

He was charged with breaching a release order and mischief for allegedly inciting people to block public property at the border crossing.

He was also charged under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act with willfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure.

The trial has ended but the judge has yet to render a verdict.

A recording of the pre-trial phone call was obtained by the Alberta New Democrats and played for media on March 29.

In response to the account Smith offered on Saturday, NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir wondered why politics never came up if the phone call was ostensibly to discuss politics.

“The entire call between Pawlowski and Smith is her describing her efforts to block these charges, either by weekly calls to prosecutors or her expressing her dissatisfaction to the attorney general and deputy attorney general,” said Sabir.

“This is yet another desperate move from Danielle Smith to distract from her attempt to block the prosecution of Pawlowski and others at Coutts.”

Sabir repeated a call for an expedited internal probe into the matter before Albertans go to the polls on May 29 for a provincial election.

Related video: Alberta premier says she will no longer comment on Crown prosecutor controversy (The Canadian Press)  Duration 2:08  View on Watch

Smith first publicly acknowledged that she had spoken with Pawlowski on Feb. 9 when asked about it at a news conference.

She answered at that time she had engaged in discussions with those facing COVID-related charges to tell them she had explored amnesty and that it was not possible. She did not say the Pawlowski discussion was supposed to have been about politics or that she had expected to be talking to him in his role as a party leader.

When the NDP released the call recording seven weeks later, Smith announced she would not discuss the issue publicly because she was considering defamation action and was acting on the advice of her lawyer.

Saturday's explanation comes two days after reporters asked Smith whether the call with Pawlowski means her government has changed policy and that politicians were free to discuss active criminal cases with the accused.

Smith said there has been no policy change. She said it remains offside for politicians to discuss active court cases with accused, but her call with Pawlowski passed muster because it’s her job as an elected official to listen and act on concerns from members of the public.

Legal experts say the call was a clear violation of the firewall between politicians and the justice system to prevent politicians from getting a say in who gets charged and how.

They note while Smith is heard on the call reminding Pawlowski she can’t intervene directly, she also confides in him that she is questioning justice officials “almost weekly” about the cases.

On the call, Smith is also heard sharing details of an internal disagreement over Crown case strategy with Pawlowski. She promises to make inquiries on Pawlowski’s behalf and report back to him while also telling him the charges against him were politically motivated.

She commiserates with Pawlowski when he accuses the Crown prosecutor in his case of a last minute “document dump” of files which he said was aimed at frustrating his defence.

Legal experts have also said regardless of the context, Smith at the very least should have ended the call when Pawlowski raised the issue of his case.

Pawlowski is a controversial figure in Alberta for his high-profile, disruptive demonstrations against the LGBTQ community and COVID-19 health rules.

The Alberta Independence party announced it was parting ways with Pawlowski as leader late last month, saying their values no longer aligned.

On the January call, Smith is heard telling Pawlowski, “I’ve been watching your public advocacy for many years so it’s nice to connect with you.”

She struck a different tone on Saturday's radio show.

“Obviously, Mr. Pawlowski holds some very extreme views that I disagree with completely,” she said.

Smith has faced questions about her involvement with prosecutors since telling the media in mid-January she regularly reminds Crown lawyers the cases can only be pursued if they are winnable and in the public interest.

She later walked those comments back, saying she didn't talk to frontline prosecutors but only senior justice officials, as is proper. Her assertion is backed up by the Justice Department.

Since then, Smith has offered multiple, at times conflicting, explanations on who she talked to, what was discussed and when. She has said the talks were only about broad prosecution principles but has also said they were about issues related to the cases. She has stated the talks were ongoing and that the talks had ended.

On April 2, lawyers representing Smith sent a notice of defamation letter calling on the CBC to retract and apologize for a January story. The article alleged a member of her staff sent emails to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service challenging how it was handling court cases from the Coutts blockade.

While the CBC says it stands by its reporting, Smith has said a review found no evidence of contact between her office and the prosecution service.

That review has also featured conflicting statements from the Justice Department on how far back the search went on any emails between the department and Smith's office.

Smith said her United Conservative Party, not the government, is paying for the lawsuit. Smith's office and the party have declined to say why the party is paying.

Smith has long been critical of COVID-19 masking, gathering and vaccine mandate rules, questioning if they were needed to fight the pandemic. She has called them intolerable violations of personal freedoms.

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

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press