Does Ottawa's grocery rebate signal a shift to a broader guaranteed basic income?


Phoebe Stephens, Assistant Professor, Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, Dalhousie University

Hannah L. Harrison, Assistant Professor, Marine Affairs, Dalhousie University

Catherine Sweet, Adjunct Professor, Speech and Language Pathology, Dalhousie University

Sun, April 9, 2023 

Putting money in the pockets of Canadians most in need via the grocery rebate or a guaranteed basic income has myriad benefits for people, families and the economy. (Shutterstock)

The federal government’s latest budget included $2.5 billion towards a grocery rebate, a one-time GST credit available to low-income Canadians to ease the pressures of food price inflation.

Read more: Federal budget 2023: Grocery rebate is the right direction on food insecurity, but there's a long road ahead

For the roughly 11 million Canadians who qualify, it will provide eligible couples with two children up to $467 and people without children with up to $234.

While this one-time credit won’t provide much relief from climbing food prices, the grocery rebate represents a progressive initiative in that it provides direct cash transfers to low-income Canadians.

But does the rebate signal a philosophical shift towards a rights-based approach consistent with a guaranteed basic income model?

Surge in food bank use

The extreme inequities of Canada’s food systems are increasingly glaring. Across Canada, food bank use has reached record highs, with a major surge in food bank services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic, the federal government provided $100 million to the Emergency Food Security Fund to support food banks and other organizations that tackle food insecurity.

While the acute uncertainty brought on by the pandemic warranted such measures, food insecurity is still a threat to many Canadian families. And charity is a stop-gap effort, not a solution, in fighting hunger.

Food banks were never intended for long-term use in the first place. They were first introduced as a temporary measure in the early 1980s in response to economic downturn.

Over time, their temporary use became permanent — though inadequate — and they are now relied upon as part of the “social safety net.” But why does Canada’s food security still rely on temporary solutions? Why not address poverty directly?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau loads food baskets at a food bank in Montréal in December 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

A step in the right direction?

The grocery rebate may be a step in this direction. The direct cash transfer to food-insecure families moves away from the charitable approach that has traditionally defined government responses to food insecurity. While it’s called a grocery rebate, in practice, those who qualify will be free to spend the money as they wish.

Several experts have rightly commented on the inadequacy of the funds, but the rebate provides an example of how a broader basic income program could work.

A guaranteed basic income would represent a significant philosophical shift, moving away from requiring people to prove that they “deserve” income to treating all Canadians as worthy of having their basic needs met.

Read more: A guaranteed basic income could end poverty, so why isn’t it happening?

Coalition Canada, an alliance of basic income advocacy groups and networks, defines basic income as “a regular payment, made to people who need it and distributed with minimal bureaucracy.”

It’s a graduated system where the most benefit goes to those who most need it while not replacing existing services and supports.

Basic income is designed to minimize government bureaucracy as it requires those needing support to do nothing more to prove their need but annually file their federal taxes. It’s a much less bureaucratic approach to providing benefits than the current model.

Ultimately, basic income has the potential to provide Canadians with the dignity of choice in how they spend money to eat, live and participate in society.

Many potential benefits

The grocery rebate provides low-income Canadians with choice and agency when buying groceries.

But the benefits of the rebate’s basic income model aren’t limited to the consumer. Food providers like farmers or fish harvesters may also benefit from basic income support.

Recent case briefs organized by Coalition Canada discuss how basic income could positively impact the agriculture and fisheries sectors by providing an “income floor” that will help food producers if fishing is bad or crops fail.

Such measures reduce the precarity of these critical industries by giving new entrants a reliable income during their first years of heavy capital investment into food production. They could also support rural revitalization initiatives by allowing food producers to maintain a standard of living in the rural places where fishing and farming often take place.

Similarly, basic income could provide social resilience to food producers as they grapple with the impacts of climate change and harvest issues.

While this is an important step forward, initiatives like the grocery rebate support only one link in the food supply chain. The people and communities that produce our food should also benefit from the choice, dignity and agency afforded by a reliable standard of living.

Lobster boats, loaded with pots and buoys, head out from West Dover, N.S. for the opening of lobster season in November 2022. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Basic income programs already exist

So, why doesn’t Canada have a basic income program? Well, in part, it actually does.

The Canada Child Benefit and Old Age Security (OAS) are both examples of basic income programs aimed at particular populations.

Before the OAS was created, Canadians over the age of 65 were most likely to be living in poverty. Within a decade of implementing OAS, poverty rates for those older than 65 plummeted.

In a more recent example, child poverty rates fell when the Canada Emergency Response Benefit was launched.

Basic income has been well studied in Canada and other nations, with evidence pointing to improved health, social and financial outcomes.

Some in Parliament are already advocating for a basic income strategy.

The evidence is clear. What’s required now is a fundamental philosophical shift in societal and political will to go beyond grocery rebates and support efficient government programming that supports the choice, agency and dignity of all Canadians, regardless of income.

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

It was written by: Phoebe Stephens, Dalhousie University; Catherine Sweet, Dalhousie University, and Hannah L. Harrison, Dalhousie University.

Read more:


Getting a fuller picture of poverty in Canada: why the government’s official poverty measure is insufficient


Canada must eliminate food banks and provide a basic income after COVID-19

Catherine Sweet is an advocate for Canadian Basic Income and serves as the Secretary of BIGNS — Basic Income Guarantee Nova Scotia, an affiliate of Coalition Canada.

Hannah L. Harrison receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to, amongst other topics, understand the potential impacts of basic income models on fisheries food systems and food producers. She has previously written briefings for Coalition Canada about potential basic income impacts on Canadian fisheries.

Phoebe Stephens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

B.C. ecologists brace for spread of fungal disease that has eradicated bat populations across North America

CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023


An undated photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows little brown bats with the fuzzy white patches of fungus typical of white-nose syndrome.

(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via The Associated Press - image credit)

Ecologists in different parts of B.C. are bracing for the possible spread of a fungal disease which has eradicated bat populations in multiple parts of North America and has now been detected in the Kootenays.

On Monday, B.C.'s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said it had discovered the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bat guano — or bat droppings — in the Grand Forks area of B.C., about three kilometres north of the Canada–U.S. border.

They have not yet found bats in the province with the disease, known as white-nose syndrome, but researchers fear what will happen if it starts to spread.

"It would be devastating," said Paula Rodriguez de la Vega, co-ordinator for the B.C. Community Bat Program in the Okanagan region. "Bats are incredibly important."

White-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats across North America since first appearing in North America in New York State, probably through shipping. It's spread mostly bat-to-bat, although humans can play a role by carrying spores on their clothes or gear.

White-nose syndrome does not affect humans, but it starves bats to death by interrupting their hibernation, draining them of the energy needed to get through the winter. The disease spreads quickly because bats huddle together to keep warm.

The province said staff have been testing for the disease in B.C. since the fungus reached the west coast of the United States in 2016.

Bats are important part of the ecosystems: ecologists

Brian Paterson, a wildlife biologist and bat researcher in Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C., says it comes as a "sad surprise" that the fungal disease has finally arrived in B.C. because he doesn't want to see a negative impact on the ecosystem due to bats' death.

"A little brown bat might be able to eat, say, 600 mosquitoes in a night. They also prey on a number of forest pests, including moths, so their contribution to pest control is immeasurable," Paterson told host Carolina de Ryk on CBC's Daybreak North, adding that the species also plays an important role in pollination.

De la Vega adds that bats are also an important source of food for predators such as owls.

"I've actually sat watching bats coming out of their roost [and] doing bat counts, and an owl was perched just beside there hunting the bats and having a feast," Rodriguez de la Vega said on CBC's Daybreak South.

"They're a really important part of the food chain of the ecosystems."

De la Vega said it's important for the public to play a role in tracking bat populations so researchers can have a strong understanding of their health across the province through the Community Bat Program.

According to its website, the Community Bat Program is a network of community bat projects across the province that are carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Environment to monitor the bat populations and protect bat roost sites.

In light of the risks around white-nose syndrome, the program has been asking British Columbians to report a dead or sick bat on its website or via email at info@bcbats.ca or call 1-855-922-2287.

During the white-nose syndrome period from Nov. 1 to May 31, the program recommends people not touch a dead bat with bare hands but instead collect it by wrapping it with a paper towel and putting it into a zip lock bag,

The program also recommends refrigerating or freezing the specimen if it takes more than 48 hours for a program co-ordinator to pick it up.

ANTI ABORTION IS ANTI CONTRACEPTIVES

Iowa won't pay for rape victims' abortions or contraceptives

ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE

The Canadian Press
Sun, April 9, 2023


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Attorney General's Office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception — and in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, a move that drew criticism from some victim advocates.

Federal regulations and state law require Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Under the previous attorney general, Democrat Tom Miller, Iowa's victim compensation fund also paid for Plan B, the so-called morning after pill, as well as other treatments to prevent pregnancy.

A spokeswoman for Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird, who defeated Miller's bid for an 11th term in November, told the Des Moines Register that those payments are now on hold as part of a review of victim services.

“As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” Bird Press Secretary Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”

Victim advocates were caught off guard by the pause. Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said in a statement that the move was “deplorable and reprehensible.”

Bird's decision comes as access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. plunged into uncertainty following conflicting court rulings on Friday over the legality of the abortion medication mifepristone. For now, the drug the Food and Drug Administration approved in 2000 appeared to remain at least immediately available in the wake of separate rulings issued in quick succession.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone. But that decision came at nearly the same time that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice in Washington state, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, essentially ordered the opposite.

The extraordinary timing of the competing orders revealed the high stakes surrounding the drug nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and curtailed access to abortion across the country. President Joe Biden said his administration would fight the Texas ruling.

In Iowa, money for the victim compensation fund comes from fines and penalties paid by convicted criminals. For sexual assault victims, state law requires that the fund pay “the cost of a medical examination of a victim for the purpose of gathering evidence and the cost of treatment of a victim for the purpose of preventing venereal disease,” but makes no mention of contraception or pregnancy risk.

Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, who served as director of the victim assistance division under Miller, said the longtime policy for Iowa has been to include the cost of emergency contraception in the expenses covered by the fund. She said that in rare cases, the fund paid for abortions for rape victims.

“My concern is for the victims of sexual assault, who, with no real notice, are now finding themselves either unable to access needed treatment and services, or are now being forced to pay out of their own pocket for those services, when this was done at no fault of their own,” she said.

___

This story was first published on April 8, 2023. It was updated on April 9, 2023 to correct that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice is in Washington state, not Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press

Maud or fraud? How lab testing is helping to authenticate work by Maud Lewis

CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023 

The painting 'The Blacksmith Shop' by Maud Lewis is up for auction at the Jones Auction House in Saint John. A paint sample was taken from it to aid in the authentication process.

 (Submitted by Jones Auction House - image credit)

Submitted by Jones Auction House

It all started with minuscule chips of paint that travelled from Saint John to Fredericton to be burned, acidified and tested — all in search of one answer: do they have lead?

But these weren't any normal paint samples taken from a peeling ceiling or wall of an old home.

They came from two paintings created by the legendary Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis.

Or, perhaps they weren't. To confirm that the paintings were genuine and not a forgery, the chips were put to the test.

Despite each paint chip's significance, as it went through the lab, the scientists were unaware of the sample's origin, no matter how interesting it might be.

"Almost never do we actually know the story behind anything that we're actually testing unless the customer has reached out to us directly," said Matthew Norman, the interim director of the inorganic analytical services division at the Research and Productivity Council in Fredericton.

Aniekan Etuhube/CBC

He led the testing on the Maud Lewis paint chips, but was none the wiser of where they came from.

During the testing, Norman doesn't even see the client's name because once it's in the system, a number is assigned to it.

Norman said sometimes a sample will come back as having a high lead content, which will pique his curiosity, sometimes making him wonder where it's from. But rarely does he find out.

WATCH | How science is cracking the case of possible art fraud:

"Every once in a while you do hear good stories about a lighthouse or a painting that you get to be involved with."

And that's the case for these particular samples.

Backing up an authentication

They came from the Jones Auction House in Saint John, which recently had two Maud Lewis paintings come into their possession.

And while Sarah Jones, co-founder and curator for the house, is an art historian with particular expertise in Maud Lewis paintings, she wanted multiple sources to back up her authentication.

CBC

She said when an artist is no longer alive and there's no designated person with the estate, such as a child of the artist, to verify the work, other steps need to be taken.

Jones said this includes a series of examinations and tests taking into account different perspectives.

"One thing alone kind of doesn't rubber-stamp it as authentic," she said. "It's kind of the combination of all of these perspectives, all these examinations, all of these tests, that then together we can answer the question: does this work align with what we would expect of a Maud Lewis artwork?"

Along with her own examination of the painting, she also sought another Maud Lewis expert in Nova Scotia for his opinion.

There have been some fraudulent Maud Lewis paintings showing up in the marketplace, said Jones, which means institutions, like auction houses, need to have a rigorous authentication process in place.

Aniekan Etuhube/CBC

Three of the fakes even duped the Nova Scotia government. The province purchased the works in 1982, but only recently received confirmation that they were fakes.

Extra steps

With some Maud Lewis paintings selling for more than $100,000, Jones said taking extra authentication steps helps to increase buyer confidence.

Which is why the auction house added another step to the process after receiving the Maud Lewis artworks this year: a pigment analysis.

Aniekan Etuhube/CBC

Jones said Maud Lewis often used house paint for her artwork.

Lewis died in 1970. Up until the 1980s, Jones said, house paint often had lead in it.

So Jones collected the samples from the paint drippings on the side of the painting and they went off to the lab, where Norman and his team began.

They take an extremely small paint sample, weigh it out, put it in an over-500 C furnace to burn off any drywall or back materials, put it through an acid digestion using nitric acid and heat, and then run it through a special spectrometer to see how much lead is in the sample.

Aniekan Etuhube/CBC

Jones said in this case, the lab confirmed there was lead in the paint. While she said getting that result isn't necessarily conclusive, combined with the other authentication methods, the auction house was confident that the Maud Lewis paintings were real.

She said the auction house hopes to add another scientific authentication step in the future using infrared technology to see the underdrawing beneath the paint.

"It's important that we… treat this work with the same kind of respect and due diligence that we would treat a work by one of the Group of Seven or by, you know, a serious European artist," said Jones. "So, that's what we're trying to do."

‘That’ll do pig. That’ll do’: James Cromwell names ‘saved’ piglet who fell off meat truck after Babe character


Isobel Lewis
Sun, 9 April 2023 

Succession star James Cromwell has helped “save” a piglet who fell off a meat truck.

The 83-year-old, who plays Logan Roy’s brother Ewan in the HBO series, is known for taking part in high-profile protests about the mistreatment of animals.

Cromwell first went vegetarian in 1974, then became vegan in 1995 after playing Farmer Hoggett in the film Babe.

On Friday (7 April), Cromwell met a piglet who had been rescued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), which claimed the animal fell off a truck as he was being taken to be fattened for slaughter.

The animal was found scraped, bruised and covered in mud, and was named Babe by Cromwell in honour of the film that inspired him to go vegan.

In a statement shared with Peta, Cromwell said: “Having had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing pigs’ intelligence and inquisitive personalities while filming the movie Babe changed my life and my way of eating, and so I jumped at the chance to save this real-life Babe.

“Every pig deserves to live in peace and joy at a sanctuary, choosing when to frolic, where to forage, and how to spend their time, yet few do.”

Cromwell also shared a clip to social media of him meeting Babe over Zoom, telling the piglet: “Hello there, little man. I understand your name is Babe. I knew a pig named Babe. What a smart little pig she was. Bet you are too.

“I hear you’re rather an extraordinary pig… So you jumped off a truck so you wouldn’t be Easter’s dinner. What a great thing to do. Nobody should have any animal for dinner. ‘Invite the animals to dinner,’ that’s what I say.”



“This sweet little guy is NOT Easter dinner,” he captioned the post. “He jumped off a transport truck and will now be traveling to an animal sanctuary to live a peaceful life. That’ll do pig. That’ll do. ⁦⁦@peta⁩.”

In the coming weeks, Cromwell will help transfer Babe to a local animal sanctuary.

In Succession, Cromwell’s character Ewan decides to give the entirety of his grandson Greg’s (Nicholas Braun) inheritance to Greenpeace.

Cromwell has long been an activist for animal rights and has also been known to lead anti-capitalist sit-ins. Last month, he admitted to “losing track” of the number of times he’s been arrested.

Speaking to The Independent in 2022, Cromwell said: “Laws against legitimate, constitutionally guaranteed protests in this country are becoming more and more prevalent, and they are doing it not to stifle the right but the radical left.

“I can’t say I’m a revolutionary because that would mean total commitment. But I’m on the cusp, and my time will come when my voice is required again and my presence will make a difference.”

AOC urges Biden to ignore Texas ruling suspending approval of abortion drug

Sam Levine
Sun, 9 April 2023 

Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

The New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday there was “an extraordinary amount of precedent” for the Joe Biden White House to ignore a Friday court ruling suspending federal approval of a drug used in medication abortion.

Those remarks from the Democratic US House member quickly prompted a threat by the Texas Republican congressman Tony Gonzales to defund certain programs under the federal agency which oversees medication approvals if Biden’s administration did as Ocasio-Cortez suggested.

The Biden administration has already said it plans to appeal a Friday ruling from Texas-based federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a conservative appointed by the Donald Trump White House, that blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the drug mifepristone. The FDA approved the drug in 2000, a move that is now being challenged by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group.

In urging the Biden administration to decline to enforce the ruling, Ocasio-Cortez noted that the Trump administration had ignored court rulings on immigration issues. She also pointed out that there was a contradicting ruling from a federal judge in Washington state on Friday which blocked the FDA from taking any action to limit access to the drug, virtually ensuring that the US supreme court would settle the matter at some point.

“There is an extraordinary amount of precedent for this … The Trump administration also did this very thing. This has happened before,” she said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.

“The courts rely on the legitimacy of their rulings. And when they make a mockery of our system, a mockery of our democracy and a mockery of our law, as what we just saw happen in this mifepristone ruling, then I believe that the executive branch, and we know that the executive branch has enforcement discretion, especially in light of a contradicting ruling coming out of Washington.”

CNN host Dana Bash said Ocasio-Cortez was offering a “pretty stunning position” and pressed the congresswoman on whether the Biden administration should ignore the ruling if the US supreme court eventually upheld Kacsmaryk’s decision.

“I think one of the things that we need to examine is the grounds of that ruling,” she said. “But I do not believe that the courts have the authority … over the FDA that [Kacsmaryk] just asserted. And I do believe that it creates a crisis. Should the supreme court do that, it would essentially institute a national abortion ban.”

During a later appearance on State of the Union, Gonzales told Bash that there would be consequences if the Biden administration ignored the ruling.

“The House Republicans have the power of the purse,” Gonzales said. “And if the administration wants to not live up to this ruling, then we’re gonna have a problem. And it may become a point where House Republicans on the appropriations side have to defund FDA programs that don’t make sense.”

Bash also asked the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, whether ignoring the ruling was “off the table”. Becerra declined to say specifically what the administration would do if appellate courts, including the supreme court, upheld the decision.

“Everything is on the table,” he said on CNN. “We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision.”

UK
It’s again time to tackle reckless water firms, just like in the 19th century

The Guardian
Sun, 9 April 2023 a

Photograph: Maureen McLean/Rex/Shutterstock

At the launch of her department’s cleaner water plan (Thérèse Coffey accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ over sewage scandal, 4 April), the environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, suggested that to overcome the water pollution crisis we would have to return to the “natural state of our rivers from the year 1840”.

This is ironic, as it was then that the limits of privatised water services were becoming increasingly clear. Rather than being in some kind of “natural state”, British rivers were being polluted on an industrial scale in the early 19th century, and private water companies were one of the main culprits, especially in London.

Like today, water companies behaved recklessly, paying out big dividends to investors rather than investing in infrastructure, and the consequences were devastating. In the capital, a series of cholera epidemics and increasing water activism eventually resulted in water services being brought under public control.

The current crisis demands a similar response. But the Conservative government remains wedded to privatisation and the Labour opposition is too timid to argue for nationalisation. We will all pay a heavy price for this, as water companies continue to pollute our rivers and place private profit over the public good.
Dr Geoff Goodwin
London

• At long last we now have some true, proven, huge numbers illustrating what is happening on ministers’ watch concerning something we all care about (Starmer accuses government of ‘turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer’, 31 March’). Raw sewage: 1.75m hours of it pouring into our rivers and seas last year in 800-plus locations every day. Water companies are to be given 25 years by the government to sort it out. This will cost the nine companies £56bn, which sounds a lot, except that it is only £2.24bn a year. A small figure for the polluter to pay for the huge damage being wrought on this government’s watch.

Who is ultimately responsible for this huge, foul, stinking, unhealthy mess – the polluting water companies or the Tories, whose former ministers privatised the water industry, or both?
John Robinson
Lichfield, Staffordshire

• You state in your report that water companies have been “consistently accused of failing to take action”. What people are failing to take account of is that these sewage dumps are their action. Even with fines levied, they can “justify” their action as financial expedience. It is much cheaper for them to dump the untreated sewage than to clean it. Enough is enough.
Pete Lavender
Nottingham

• Water companies discharging sewage into rivers is only part of the problem caused by privatisation of the water industry. Public sewers in our towns are no longer maintained.

Our house has a Victorian sewer running across the corner of our front garden. It is clearly shown on maps as a public sewer that we have no access to. Adjacent land was sold to a property developer by the council to construct a house. The sewer was blocked by debris, causing a void under our drive and pavement and road. All our services disappeared into the void, making the house uninhabitable.

While homeless, we were told that we had to pay for repairs to the sewer and damage to the developer’s wall. We were sent a bill for approximately £65,000. We had spent our life paying for our house and we will never recover from the trauma caused by the privatisation of the water industry.
Pauline Morbey
Macclesfield, Cheshire

• So the environment secretary is planning to remove the current cap of £250,000 on fines against water companies because they still haven’t cleaned up their act (pun intended). It’s a disgrace that such a low limit exists when it has been obvious to the whole country for many years that water companies have been paying more attention to maximising dividends than investing in sewage processing infrastructure. Over £50bn has been paid out in dividends over the past 20 years, while raw sewage has been pumped into our rivers and inshore waters.

Privatisation was certainly a good move for shareholders; but alas not for fish, wildlife, swimmers and tpublic health. It is outrageous that criminal charges have not been sought against the greedy and uncaring board members.
Paul Garrod
Portsmouth

Hundreds of Tunisians protest opposition arrests

AFP
Sun, 9 April 2023


Hundreds protested in the Tunisian capital on Sunday for the release of about 20 opponents of President Kais Saied arrested since February.

Around 300 demonstrators from opposition parties waved Tunisian flags and carried signs with the images of detainees at the rally organised by the main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, according to AFP journalists.

Since early February, authorities in the North African country have arrested more than 20 political opponents and personalities including politicians, former ministers, businessmen, trade unionists and the owner of Tunisia's most popular radio station, Mosaique FM.

Local and international rights groups have criticised the arrests.

At Sunday's rally, Samir Ben Amor, an official with the Al-Joumhouri (Republican) party, called for a "national dialogue in order to draw up a roadmap to save Tunisia and return to the democratic path".

Saied, who has seized almost total power since he froze parliament and sacked Tunisia's government in July 2021, claims those arrested were "terrorists" involved in a "conspiracy against state security".

Opponents accuse him of reinstating autocratic rule in the North African country which was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East region more than a decade ago.

British-based Amnesty International last month said authorities should release the detainees arrested on "unfounded accusations".

The political situation in Tunisia comes alongside mounting debt and rising prices worsened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last month that Tunisia urgently needs to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund, adding to dire European Union warnings about the country's future.

bur-fka/ila/noc/it

UK

Government warned of consequences of not reopening education pay talks


Rebecca McCurdy, PA Scotland
Sun, 9 April 2023 

A union chief has warned the Education Secretary to heed the “consequences” of failing to reopen negotiations on teachers’ pay.

NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach made a plea to Gillian Keegan in his address at the union’s annual conference in Glasgow on Sunday.

He said the Secretary of State needed the “ministerial competence” to address the pay dispute after teachers in England rejected the one-off payment of £1,000 for 2022/23 and an average 4.5% salary increase for 2023/24.

Mr Roach confirmed Ms Keegan had been put on “formal notice” of the union’s intention to ballot for strike action.

He told the conference: “I’ve been clear to the Education Secretary that you started the negotiations, so now you have to see the process through.

“We’re saying to Gillian Keegan she cannot leave unfinished the job of settling this dispute. Neither should she abrogate her responsibility to fix the problems created by her predecessors.

“And I also say this to Gillian Keegan: that if you think you can rely on the pay review body in England to do your bidding and recommend yet another below-inflation pay award for our members for September, then you’re mistaken.

Patrick Roach is NASUWT general secretary (Yui Mok/PA)

“Get back around the table whilst there is still time, negotiate a proper deal or deal with the consequences.”

Mr Roach also said: “I’m not necessarily saying that Gillian Keegan has outstayed her welcome but she certainly hasn’t yet passed her probation.

“And she won’t unless she pulls her finger out and gives teachers a proper pay rise and one that is fully funded.”

The NASUWT union is the fourth in the education sector to reject the Westminster pay offer, joining the National Education Union (NEU), the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was urged to complete negotiations (PA)

Its consultative ballot turnout was 52.4% of the 130,000 eligible membership in England, with 87% of those rejecting the offer and 77% in favour of strike action.

Union chiefs also hit out after the Government said the bulk of the 4.5% increase should come from existing school budgets.

Speaking to journalists after his speech, Mr Roach said Ms Keegan “could be facing industrial action on a pretty significant scale before the end of the academic year”.

“That will be regrettable,” he said, adding: “But our view is that industrial action is not inevitable.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: “After costing children almost a week of time in the classroom and with exams fast approaching, it is extremely disappointing that unions are re-balloting for more strike action.

“Following a week negotiating in good faith, the Government offered teachers a £1,000 payment on top of this year’s pay rise, a commitment to cut workload by five hours per week, and a headline pay increase of 4.5% for next year – above both inflation and average earnings growth.

“The offer was funded, including major new investment of over half-a-billion pounds, and helps tackle issues teachers are facing like workload. NEU, NAHT, ASCL and NASUWT’s decisions to reject this offer will simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers today.”

UK
Strike CALLED OFF at AWE Aldermaston after deal struck

Reading Chronicle
Sun, 9 April 2023 

AWE Aldermaston, Berks

A planned strike by electricians employed by contractors at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has been cancelled after a pay deal was agreed.

Members of Unite at the site in Berkshire were due to walk out on April 12.

The union said the deal is worth an increase of 9.4 per cent or around £6.50 an hour.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members at NG Bailey secured a substantial increase in their hourly wage because they were prepared to take collective action through their union.”