HINDUISM IS FASCISM
Surge in Hindu vigilante mobs who ‘attack and kill’ beef-eating Muslims

Samaan Lateef
Sun, April 9, 2023 

Police detain a member of the Hindu nationalist and right-wing federation of cattle protection Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal shouting slogans for the protection of cows - Noah Seelam/AFP

India is seeing a surge in Hindu vigilante groups violently targeting Muslims for eating beef, with one leader vowing to protect cows “as if they are our daughters and mothers”.

The slaughter of the bovine animals – which are considered holy in Hinduism – is already banned in 20 out of India’s 28 states, and police can make an arrest without a warrant.

Most of the states ruled by India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have established vigilante squads made up of government officials and private citizens to implement the ban.

But thousands of informal groups are thought to have sprung up across northern India recently, emboldened by the increasingly anti-Muslim rhetoric of the ruling BJP ahead of elections next year.


There are estimated to be 200 such vigilante militias in the Delhi region alone. They lay ambushes on highways and roads at night, looking for trucks that might be “smuggling” cows across state borders, or patrolling roads into Muslim villages.

“The cow is the symbol of our faith. We will protect the cows like our daughters and mothers,” Davinder Singh, a cow protection activist from Haryana, a BJP-ruled state, told The Telegraph.

A nationwide ban on cow slaughter is among the promises that have been made by Narendra Modi, the prime minister and BJP leader, to court voters ahead of 2024’s elections.

“Obviously people of India will stand with him on this,” said Dharmendra Manesar, a former member of a vigilante squad.

Woman in India feeds a bull - Alamy Stock Photo

In the meantime, civilians are taking matters into their own hands.

Last week, Mr Singh’s team detained two Muslim youths from Haryana’s Noah village and took them to the police for carrying cows.

“In the past two months, I must have handed over nearly 300 Muslim youth to police and rescued over 500 cows from them,” he said.

In the last five years, nearly 2,000 people have been accused of crimes related to the mistreatment of cows.

A lawyer told The Telegraph that many of his clients have paid huge sums of money to these vigilantes just to get their cases dropped in court.

It doesn’t always end so peacefully, however.

Just last month, two young Muslim men were abducted by Hindu vigilantes and burned to death in Haryana.

Mr Singh said he was not involved but understood why it had happened: “Cow slaughter should be banned across the country because there will obviously be a violent reaction to it from Hindus.”
Muslims ‘deprived of dignity’

More than 50 people are estimated to have been killed in similar cases across the country since 2015. The majority are Muslims or people from other minority groups.

These sorts of crimes are usually ignored or covered up by authorities amid an increasingly febrile atmosphere fuelled by the Hindu nationalist government.

“Hate speech by ruling BJP leaders and ideological affiliates has invited violence against Muslims in India – including over allegations of slaughtering cows – as part of their political campaign,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“In the grand scheme of things, this is one of the tools in their long list as to ways in which Muslims are deprived of economic wellbeing, dignity and equal rights as a citizen of this country,” added Syed Umar Aman, an independent research scholar of India’s political history.

“The calls for cow protection in India, which may have initially been made to attract Hindu votes, have now turned into an excuse for mobs to attack and kill members of minority groups violently.”

Opinion

Wind power comes with environmental costs, hazards | ECOVIEWS

Whit Gibbons
Sat, April 8, 2023

Q. While driving through the Texas Panhandle, we saw hundreds of gigantic windmills. By generating free energy, are they the answer to the world’s ever-increasing energy needs?

A. Wind is a source of what's known as renewable energy. People's ability to harness wind for their own use has been around a long, long time. According to an article by United Kingdom scientist Trevor Price and colleagues in the scientific journal Applied Energy, the earliest depiction of wind power as an energy source for humans is “a picture of a windmill on a piece of Chinese pottery” from around 4,000 years ago. No one knows how long ago the first wind-powered boats sailed the seas. Wind can augment our current dependence on the nonrenewable energy sources —natural gas, oil and coal — but will never be able serve all our energy needs.

Jeff Lovich conducts research in the Mojave Desert to 

determine the impact windfarms have on desert tortoises and terrestrial ecosystems. 

[Photo provided by Jeff Lovich]

Although viewed as a clean and sustainable energy source, wind power is not without environmental costs and hazards that should be acknowledged and addressed. Unequivocal documentation exists that windmills kill more than 300,000 birds each year, especially species that fly at night. Fortunately, much progress has been made to minimize and significantly reduce the number of bird and bat mortalities.


However, another aspect of wind turbines also needs to be considered. How does wind energy development and operation on a commercial scale affect nonflying wildlife? An article in Applied Energy by Jeff Lovich (U.S. Geological Survey) and Josh Ennen (Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute) provides important perspectives on environmental impacts of windfarms.

Wind power is a promising source of renewable energy and has gained popularity among advocates in recent years. Wind is widely seen as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, the costs as well as the benefits need to be considered when adopting windmills or any other energy source.

More: How do we measure an animal's size? | ECOVIEWS

Lovich and Ennen conducted an exhaustive scientific literature survey of research addressing environmental consequences from all aspects of windmill energy production. Their findings reveal some of the downsides of giant windmill farms other than whacking birds and bats out of the sky with enormous spinning blades. Power companies, regulators and politicians advocating wind turbines need to pay attention to the findings.

Following are factors, other than killing flying creatures, that should be considered when assessing the pros and cons of wind as an energy source.

1. Environmental impacts of destruction and modification of habitat at the windmill site: Roads are never environmentally friendly, and the permanent presence of those needed for windmill construction and maintenance can cause lasting ecological damage to animals that must travel between habitats. During construction, heavy machinery may cause soil compaction and erosion that can kill subterranean animals. Wind turbines sit on enormous concrete pads that eliminate native habitat from use by plants and animals.

2. Effects due to air and ground vibration, constant noise, shadow flicker from propellers during the day: Although more research is needed, these disturbances may have negative impacts on ground-dwelling animals. The droning noise of propellers and the near-imperceptible but ever-present vibrations could also be a problem for people living nearby.

3. Offsite impacts related to acquiring, processing and transporting construction materials: Building a wind turbine and moving it to the site requires considerable expenditure of energy before the windfarm itself begins to offer a positive return.

4. Microclimate changes downwind: Natural climate regimes can be altered as far away as 14 miles downwind of a large windfarm. One finding showed that ground level temperatures were higher at night, but lower than normal later in the day. Such changes may be small but they create conditions that native plants and animals have not previously experienced. More studies are necessary to determine if downwind impacts have long-term effects on wildlife.

Clearly, we need more research regarding environmental impacts of windfarms, including consequences from preconstruction and installation as well as routine operations. What is equally clear is that we must find ways to end our dependence on fossil fuels. We obviously have some work to do.

Whit Gibbons is professor of zoology and senior biologist at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. If you have an environmental question or comment, email ecoviews@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Wind power comes with environmental costs, hazards | ECOVIEWS

Chinese fishing crews navigate troubled waters as tensions with Taiwan flare


Fishermen unload shrimp which they caught in the Taiwan Strait as their ship discharges its catch at a harbour on Pingtan Island

Sat, April 8, 2023

By Josh Arslan and Thomas Peter

PINGTAN, China (Reuters) - As China sends warships and fighter jets to the Taiwan Strait after a U.S. visit by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, deemed a separatist by Beijing, fishing crews plying the narrow waterway say they fret more about their livelihood than politics.

For years, Chinese fishermen trawling for fish, shrimp and crab have played cat and mouse with Taiwanese authorities as they closely track boats that near the median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Villagers on Pingtan island in China's southeastern Fujian province, just across from Taiwan, say fishing is their livelihood - and trips to sea are more fraught as China stages new military drills in the strait, just 160km (100 miles) at its narrowest.

"If no fish come to my net, my family will probably starve to death," said Wang, a fisherman in his 40s in Pingtan's Dafu village, where his ancestors have fished for generations. Like the other fishermen interviewed for this article, he gave only his family name because of the sensitivity of the situation.

When Wang's boat sailed on Friday morning to an area half an hour from Pingtan, his crew brought back about 7,000 yuan ($1,000) worth of mainly red shrimp and pomfret. About 20 people worked on that boat.

Each fisherman earns about 200 to 300 yuan for a day's work, far less than needed to raise a family, Wang said.

"Diesel is getting more and more expensive, and our living costs have risen significantly, with the meagre government subsidies just a drop in the bucket," he said.

China launched exercises around the main Taiwan island on Saturday as part of drills that will last until Monday. The Fujian Maritime Bureau also announced live firing drills off the coast of the Fujian capital, Fuzhou, as well as Pingtan.

Those activities won't stop fishermen from heading to sea, but the increased tensions will make them more wary about getting close to the median line.

"We used to travel to the open waters, but now we only fish near the shore, since we are not allowed to cross the red line. There's no point in risking heavy fines," said another fisherman, Yan, who has been working in the strait for a decade.

Wang said he was more concerned about the end of the fishing season on May 1. Islanders, including him, are scrambling to seize every sailing opportunity as they brace for three months of zero income.

"We have been fishing since we were very young, and will do so until we are old enough to die - we have no time to think about issues other than our personal struggles," Wang said with a small smile.

MEDIAN LINE

On Saturday, Taipei said more than 40 Chinese planes crossed the Taiwan Strait's "median line", which Beijing does not recognise.

Deteriorating relations have made Chinese fishermen more afraid of approaching the line.

"No one dares to cross that line or even go near it," said Yan, whose boat frequently sails around the resource-rich Niushan Island.

Several times last year, Taiwan's coast guard detained Chinese fishing crew members, citing illegal trawling, according to official statements.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office has in recent years called on Taiwanese authorities to stop treating mainland fishermen "in a violent and dangerous manner" and to stop seizing mainland fishing boats.

"We could be charged hundreds of thousands of yuan by the Taiwan government if found crossing the red line for trawling," Wang said.

Another fisherman, Lin, 53, said he hoped relations would improve.

"If there is a war, Pingtan will definitely be the front line, and I'll enlist if our country needs me," Lin said while fixing his net near their village. "But I feel and hope that the day would never come."

($1 = 6.8681 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Josh Arslan and Thomas Peter; Writing by Ella Cao and Ryan Woo. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Two Nations Are Challenging Russia’s Arctic Shipping Dominance


Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, April 9, 2023 

In a development with enormous consequences both for international trade and for Moscow’s control of its far-flung regions across the country’s northern third—places not linked to the center by roads or railways—the Russian Federation is rapidly losing its historical dominance over the Northern Sea Route to China and Turkey. Indeed, these two countries are now building icebreakers at record rates, as the Kremlin has had to delay, or even cancel, its plans for new Russian icebreakers due to budgetary shortfalls arising from President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, corruption and other problems in the Russian shipbuilding industry. Additionally, the industry is hampered by the competing demands of Russian admirals who want a new aircraft carrier rather than icebreakers and security officials who are more concerned with ensuring Moscow’s links to locations across the Russian North than with keeping the Northern Sea Route (NSR) open (Topwar.ru, November 20, 2020; Window on Eurasia, May 30, 2021).

This development has caught many observers off guard, as they assumed that changes in climate, something that has reduced ice coverage in the Arctic, has reduced the importance of icebreakers as the key element of control for the NSR. But that assumption rests on a misconception about the nature of climate change. It does not proceed everywhere at the same pace and in the same direction. Consequently, while much of the planet is warming, some places are growing colder, at least for the time being. And thus, while much of the NSR has become ice-free in recent years, parts of it now suffer from more rather than less ice. That is the case in the eastern half of this Arctic route, where many of the most important sites of natural resources are located, and Russia does not have the icebreakers or ice-capable ships necessary to cope (The Barents Observer, November 16, 2022).

Three years ago, in the hopes of addressing this problem, the Kremlin announced a new icebreaker construction program that called for the building of three super-sized icebreakers capable of breaking through up to 4 meters of ice—something that no icebreaker currently in service can do. The prospects of such gigantic ships appealed to the Russian imagination, but it soon became obvious that Moscow could not afford to build such vessels anytime soon. In this regard, not only does Russia not have the money, but Moscow lacks the shipyards needed to construct them. As a result, plans to build two of the three vessels have been canceled, and the scheduled delivery date for the third has been pushed back from 2027 to sometime in the 2030s. One reason for the delay is an ironic self-inflicted wound: Russian forces destroyed the Ukrainian factory where parts for the vessel were being made. Now, some Russian observers doubt that the ship will ever be built (The Barents Observer, March 1, 30; Kommersant, March 28).

These Russian problems have opened the way for China and Turkey, two countries with large shipbuilding industries, to become involved in a new race to build icebreakers and thus dominate the NSR—a race in which Russia finds itself at a particular disadvantage because it will not be able to catch up to China or Turkey anytime soon. As a result, Russia almost certainly will have to make concessions to Beijing and Ankara in hopes of convincing them to cooperate on the use of the NSR. These concessions will likely take the form of barter arrangements in which Beijing and Ankara will help the Kremlin maintain some control over the NSR’s eastern half in exchange for long-term access to and control of raw materials in Russia’s north. And these two countries have particular leverage given that the effects of Western sanctions mean that neither China nor Turkey has sent ships across the NSR in recent months (The Barents Observer, August 22, 2022; Newsite.gecon.ru, accessed April 3).

As the recent Moscow summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin showed, Beijing is fully prepared to put pressure on the Kremlin, with the expectation that China, not Russia, will be the dominant player in the NSR’s eastern half almost immediately and over the entire route eventually. This position has been underscored by Chinese announcements that its third icebreaker will soon be operational and that others of the same class will follow in short order (The Barents Observer, December 10, 2021; see EDM, March 28). Furthermore, China has been involved in the construction of Chinese docks in five of the most important ports along Russia’s Arctic shoreline—Murmansk, Sabetta, Arkhangelsk, Tiksi and Uzden—along with Chinese rail lines into the region (see EDM, March 9; Sovsekretno.ru, accessed April 3).

Not surprisingly, some in Russia are alarmed by the prospect that China is on its way to becoming not only the dominant power of the NSR but also across much of Russian territory. They hope that Moscow can rein in Beijing through a combination of carrots—access to resources—and sticks—opposition to any grander Chinese designs in the region. Yet, at present, Beijing has the upper hand, and the Kremlin appears to be going along because its officials do not see any effective alternative if Russia is to maintain close ties with China—a status required by Putin’s pivot from Europe to Asia (see EDM, March 28).

If China’s moves have attracted attention, the actions of Turkey, and Russia’s support for them, have not, something all the more remarkable because Turkish shipyards may be in a position to produce more, yet smaller icebreakers than their Chinese counterparts. Maksim Kulinko, the deputy director of Russia’s NSR agency, says that Turkey, like China, will build smaller non-atomic icebreakers for the route. In reporting his words, Russian news agency Rex says Moscow has no choice but to work with the Turkish and Chinese firms because it cannot produce the needed ships on its own. At the same time, however, the outlet adds that the Kremlin must ensure that it can hold the political ambitions of these two countries in check. That will be no easy task—either along the NSR or within Russia’s North—especially as challenges are now coming from two directions, instead of only one (Iarex.ru, March 28).

By the Jamestown Foundation

 Oilprice.com:

Home-based workers became younger, more diverse in pandemic

The Canadian Press
Sun, April 9, 2023 

People working from home became younger, more diverse, better educated and more likely to move during the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In many respects, the demographic makeup of people working from home from 2019 to 2021 became more like workers who were commuting, while the share of the U.S. labor force working from home went from 5.7% in 2019 to 17.9% in 2021, as restrictions were implemented to help slow the spread of the virus, according to a report released last week based on American Community Survey data.

“The increase in homebased workers corresponded with a decline in drivers, carpoolers, transit riders, and most other types of commuters,” the report said.

The share of people working from home between ages 25 and 34 jumped from 16% to 23% from 2019 to 2021. The share of home-based workers who are Black went from 7.8% to 9.5%, and it went from 5.7% to 9.6% for Asian workers. It remained flat for Hispanic workers, the report said.

The share of home-based workers with a college degree also jumped from just over half to more than two-thirds, and people working from home were more likely to have moved in the past year than commuters.

The two industry groups that saw the greatest jumps in people working from home were in information, where it went from 10.4% to 42%, and finance, insurance and real estate, going from 10.8% to 38.4%. Professional and administrative services, also went from 12.6% to 36.5%.

The smallest gains were in agriculture and mining; entertainment and food services; and armed forces.

While every income level saw jumps in people working from home, those in the highest income bracket were most likely to work from home. While it doubled from 2019 to 2021 for workers in the lowest income bracket, it tripled for those in the highest, the report said.

Home-based work also varied by region. By 2021, it was more prevalent in the West and Northeast, making up about a fifth of the workforce, compared to 16.2% in the South and 15.8% in the Midwest. The variation may have been caused by the availability of Internet access, the cluster of information technology jobs on the coasts and the way people commute, whether by car or public transportation, the report said.

The tech-heavy San Francisco and San Jose metro areas had more than a third of their labor force working from home in 2021 — the largest share among metros with more than 1 million residents.

Since most pandemic restrictions have been lifted since the 2021 survey was taken, it is unknown at this point if the growth in work-from-home is permanent.

“If only temporarily, the COVID-19 pandemic generated a massive shift in the way people in the United States related to their workplace location,” the report said. “With the centrality of work and commuting in American life, the widespread adoption of home-based work was a defining feature of the pandemic era.”

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press

Fireball, silver object spotted by dozens across N.B.

CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023 

Amateur astronomer Chris Curwin said it's hard to say what the fireball was, but that it's quite rare to see these in the sky in broad daylight. (Paul Owen - image credit)

Social media lit up Saturday afternoon when dozens of New Brunswickers say they saw a fireball or shiny object falling out of the sky.

Some claimed on Facebook that they saw a fast-moving ball of fire with a tail, or silver object and others saying they heard or felt a loud boom.

It was spotted in Upper Kingsclear, McAdam, Stanley, Fredericton and even in the Saint John area.

Reports of eyewitnesses have come as far south as Washington County in Maine, according to the Machias Valley News Observer.

Shawn Hamilton of Lincoln, N.B., says he saw it while out on his tractor at 1 p.m. Saturday. He said it came from the direction of the Rusagonis area.

"What I saw was a metallic reflection," said Hamilton. "It had a tail on it, which was also metallic and white. It was amazing to see. It was large for sure."

Hamilton said the object moved quickly and was visible for a few seconds.

He said minutes later he heard a loud boom.

Chris Curwin, an amateur astronomer in Saint John, said it's hard to know what happened.

"There's a hundred tonnes of space stuff that falls out of the sky every day… thousands of fireballs every day," he said.

Curwin said it is rare to actually see this debris fall out of the sky because most of it falls into the ocean or unpopulated areas.

He said it's even more rare to catch a glimpse in broad daylight.

"It's something that would be fairly bright, so a fireball is usually something that's brighter than the planet Venus," said Curwin.

Curwin said the fireball could have been a piece of space debris, like a rock or part from a derelict spacecraft or satellite, or a meteor.

He said a loud sound would be possible depending how large the object was and whether it exploded.

"It's really not an exact science," he said.

He said these fireballs will travel about eight kilometres per second when they impact the atmosphere.

Curwin said one possible explanation is a defunct Starlink satellite, referred to as Capella-4 (Whitney), which had a predicted re-entry time of 11:49 a.m. AT on Saturday.

Lentils, halal meat: Alberta food banks address demand for cultural groceries

The Canadian Press
Sun, April 9, 2023 a



EDMONTON — Jean Claude Munyezamu remembers answering a phone call from a six-year-old boy asking if his non-profit group could provide milk for his newborn sibling.

The boy, who attended Umoja Community Mosaic's drop-in soccer program, was translating for his Ethiopian-speaking mother.

"I asked, 'Do you have food?' The boy said, 'No," recalled Munyezamu, founder of the Calgary-based community group, primarily known for youth programs.

Munyezamu said he went and bought what the single immigrant mother needed for her family — a grocery bag full of ethnocultural food items and milk.

That phone call was three years ago. Since then, Munyezamu said, Umoja has served at least 1,000 immigrant families every two weeks, delivering customized grocery bags, often with dried lentils, corn flour, semolina, kidney beans and donated restaurant meals.

About one in four food bank clients in Alberta self-identified as an immigrant, refugee or visible minority group in a HungerCount report in 2022. Umoja started giving out culturally appropriate food bags after realizing the gap in the system.

"(Many immigrant families) don't know canned foods and they don't eat them," Munyezamu said.

"Can you imagine coming with a bag of food and finding that you don't recognize anything, but you have to eat it because you have no choice? It's dehumanizing."

The organization doesn't accept or give out canned food items unless it's tomato sauce for pasta, which the organization taught families how to cook, Munyezamu added.

Providing culturally appropriate food is important for immigrant families to feel that they belong, he said.

Elizabeth Onyango, a public health professor at the University of Alberta, has noticed the pattern in her ongoing research. People from ethnic backgrounds often feel food bank items are not culturally appropriate when they're seeking assistance, she said.

"If you give them canned food, they have no idea how to make that," she said. "At the end of it all, they throw it away."

In some cases, newcomers stop visiting food banks, Onyango said.

Emergency food programs are not going to address the root cause of food insecurity among newcomers and immigrants, she added.

"I think it all starts from meaningful employment ... new immigrants tend to start at lower-paying jobs,(with) more mouths to feed."

With most of their income going to housing, their families are vulnerable to food insecurity, she said.

The Umoja centre currently serves about 200 families from 49 countries, mainly from Africa and the Middle East. Food items are bought after the group consults families about their cultural roots, Munyezamu said.

He said the group had been serving about 1,000 families during the COVID-19 pandemic because it had government funding.

Recently, it has been seeing a consistent demand from immigrant families, he said. It gets 10 to 15 requests from new families a week but can only accept one or two.

An Edmonton-based multicultural group faces a similar problem with high demand for its food program and a lack of resources to meet the needs of newcomers and immigrant families.

Every Thursday morning, at least a dozen volunteers gather at the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative run out of McCauley School to assemble packs of rationed food for its Grocery Run, an emergency food access program. Some weeks, there is more to offer than others.

This last week, the co-operative assembled 175 bags — down from the usual 200 and what was 500 during the pandemic. They were filled with onions, potatoes, carrots, lentils, pasta, canned tomatoes and peas. There were also 40 loaves of bread for the first families to arrive.

Executive director Yvonne Chiu said the organization is struggling financiallybut stretching its dollars and making cuts so it can provide grocery hampers with culturally relevant pantry staples to those in extreme need.

Grocery Run, in partnership with Edmonton's Food Bank, has put together a list of favourite food and common staple items from different parts of the world.

While financial constraint prevents newcomers from accessing food, "they also face problems with accessing culturally appropriate food," Chiu said.

"It is a really important component of food security," she said. "Culturally relevant food is more than having adequate food. The food should be nourishing at the level of spirit, more than for the body."

Wood Buffalo Food Bank in Fort McMurray, Alta., has been offering newcomers culturally relevant food, including halal meat, for 10 years.

Executive director Dan Edwards said while the food bank provides culturally relevant staples, "we are still a food bank, and the majority of our product is donated."

"We also offer educational programming in an educational kitchen, where we teach (newcomers) how to utilize foods that are typically given out by food banks," he adds.

Food Banks Alberta CEO Arianna Scott said although food banks have been providing culturally appropriate food for years, they aren't "surprised to see additional demand for culturally sensitive and familiar food items" amid the affordability crisis.

She said there has been a shift toward culturally diverse food donations received at local food banks, but "it’s a supply chain that is often inconsistent and particularly challenging for our rural member food banks."

Scott said donors are encouraged to bring in ethnically diverse foods, including spices, to their local food banks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2023.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press

Giving Canadians the 'right to repair' empowers consumers, supports competition and benefits the environment


Natasha Tusikov, Associate Professor, Criminology, Department of Social Science, York University, Canada
Sun, April 9, 2023

The right to repair means that consumer goods can be fixed and maintained by anyone. (Shutterstock)

On March 28, the Canadian government’s budget announcement introduced a plan to implement a “right to repair” for electronic devices and home appliances in 2024, alongside a new five-year tax credit worth $4.5 billion for Canadian clean tech manufacturers. The federal government will begin consultations on the plan in the summer.

The right to repair allows consumers to repair goods themselves or have them repaired by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or at independent repair shops. Key elements of the right is that repair manuals, tools, replacement parts and services must be available at competitive prices.

Right-to-repair movements have sprung up in the United States, Europe, South Africa, Australia and Canada, encompassing a range of products. Most familiar might be efforts to allow consumers to choose independent shops to repair their phones and computers.

But the right to repair also involves battles over who should be able to fix Internet of Things devices (all physical objects related to accessing the internet), as well as other products that function via embedded software systems, such as vehicles, agricultural equipment and medical equipment.

A volunteer repairs a circuit board in Malmo, Sweden, at a fortnightly repair café as part of an international grassroot network calling for the right to repair.

 (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Discouraging self-repair

For too long the right to repair has been a casualty of the digital economy. Many manufacturers have long discouraged or outright prohibited independent repair. They do this in part by threatening penalties for copyright infringement or by voiding warranties for products repaired by independent shops or using non-OEM parts.

The corporate power to deny repair is possible because companies that control the digital hearts of software-enabled products can use copyright law to restrict their customers or third-party services from fixing these products. Today, this includes everything from laptops to refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, tractors and fitness wearables.

Identifying problems with software-enabled goods often necessitates the use of diagnostic software, while undertaking repairs often requires copying all or part of the product software. However, manufacturers’ licensing agreements typically prohibit any actions, including repair, that copy or alter the product’s software.

The manufacturers contend that such actions constitute copyright infringement. Companies typically cite this provision to prohibit any repairs undertaken by individuals not licensed by the original manufacturer. Companies may not actually sue customers for copyright infringement, but they may target independent repair shops.

Such tactics may discourage self-repair or the use of independent service people.
Consumer pushback

Questions of who can repair products and under what circumstances are fundamental to the nature of ownership and control. In fact, control over intangible forms of knowledge such as intellectual property and software-enabled goods is central to exerting power in the knowledge economy.

The right-to-repair movement can be understood as a consumer pushback against the commodification of knowledge and a battle over who should be allowed to control and use knowledge — to repair, tinker or innovate — and in whose interests.

Battles over the right to repair have particular relevance for Canada. Major manufacturers, often headquartered in the U.S. or Europe, set rules regarding repair that privilege their business models. These rules favour their branded suppliers and authorized repair technicians to maximize control over repair services.

This not only shuts out Canadian third-party businesses that supply replacement parts and repair services, but also disadvantages Canadian consumers.

Effective policy development

As the Canadian government prepares for consultations on implementing the right to repair, I offer several suggestions:

First, policymakers should build upon right-to-repair efforts elsewhere, particularly Australia, the European Union and the U.S.

Australia appears to be moving toward a right to repair. Its consumer watchdog agency, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, studied the effects of restrictive repair practices on the agricultural machinery and the after-sales market in that country in 2020.

The European Parliament adopted resolutions on the right to repair in 2020 and 2021, and is planning a legislative proposal on the matter by mid-2023, building upon several years of working to make manufacturing and product design more eco-friendly.

In the U.S., President Joe Biden strengthened the case for right to repair in July 2021 with an executive order supporting competition. Recently, attorneys general from 28 states called on lawmakers to advance a right to repair federally.

Second, it’s important to effectively counter industry opposition, which has been successful in defeating right-to-repair legislation. Such legislation continues to face stiff industry opposition at the state level in the U.S.

Big companies in the technology, vehicle and agricultural industries have long lobbied against the right to repair. They argue that repairing or tinkering with their software-enabled products raises potentially serious security and safety complications.

Though such concerns may be valid in some cases (particularly when dealing with safety-critical goods such as medical devices), these are exceptions. In many cases, however, independent repair by appropriately trained technicians can be a safe, viable alternative to manufacturers’ “authorized” repairs.

A right to repair supports the circulation of secondhand goods. 

(Jon Tyson/Unsplash)

Third, policymakers should ensure broad engagement with and representation from the people who are most affected by restrictive repair policies. These include small farmers, independent repairers, small retailers of refurbished goods, people who patronize second-hand or reseller stores, and those in the aftermarket industry selling third-party parts.

Input is also needed from people living outside major population centres who must travel to authorized repair shops or otherwise incur costs in time and money in receiving service.

Fourth, it’s time to recognize that the right to repair has benefits beyond consumer rights. Repair bolsters secondary markets, including second-hand stores and resellers that provide their customers with viable used goods, which are important money-savers for economically marginalized communities.

Repair also helps decrease the environmental burden of modern consumerism. This problem is particularly acute in the manufacture of many electronic technologies — once these products no longer function, they are dumped as e-waste, often in developing countries.

Read more: Beyond recycling: solving e-waste problems must include designers and consumers

Finally, policymakers should consider a broad interpretation of the right to repair. This could include requiring manufacturers to make available at competitive prices the necessary items for repair, including diagnostic software and replacement parts. It could restrict manufacturers’ practice of planned obsolescence, that is, letting functional goods be rendered inoperative by withholding essential software updates.

The federal government is offering Canadians a chance to create a right to repair. We should seize the opportunity.

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

It was written by: Natasha Tusikov, York University, Canada.

Read more:

Why can’t we fix our own electronic devices?

Families count the costs as big tech fails to offer cheap phone, laptop and fridge repairs

Natasha Tusikov receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is affiliated with the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

A blood transfusion for a porcupine? 

That's one prickly situation

CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023 

Since receiving a blood transfusion last month, this porcupine is healthy and eating a whole buffet of fruits and vegetables. (Submitted by Carly Lynch - image credit)

An Edmonton vet last month successfully performed a rare blood transfusion, giving an ailing porcupine a new lease on life.

Dr. Darren Mandrusiak works at the Harvest Pointe Animal Hospital, an exotic pet hospital in the southeast of the city, and volunteers with WildNorth, an animal rescue and rehabilitation organization.

"The porcupine actually had a really severe infestation of bloodsucking lice, to the point where it had lost enough blood that it was quite ill," he told CBC's Edmonton AM.

At the time, WildNorth had two porcupines in its care.

The first, smaller animal, was being treated for parasites that had caused anemia and respiratory infection. It wasn't eating, and was very lethargic.

The second, much larger, porcupine had been brought in after being attacked by a dog. It had recovered from severe injuries and was healthy, strong and feisty.

The vet and his team considered multiple treatments for the sick porcupine but none of them helped.

"That was when we decided the only other option we have is to try a blood transfusion to see if we can get its red blood cells up," Mandrusiak said.

Submitted by Carly Lynch

The goal was to get the sick animal moving and eating again.

"We decided because the healthy porcupine was actually so much bigger than the little porcupine that needed the blood transfusion that the risk would be minimal to the donor," Mandrusiak said.

But having never done a blood transfusion on a wild animal before, Mandrusiak was nervous. And the team didn't know if the donor would be a match for the porcupine.

Blood transfusions are quite common for dogs and cats. Most emergency veterinary hospitals and critical-care facilities have access to the Canadian animal blood bank.

There is no blood bank for wild animals, Mandrusiak said, so fresh blood has to be collected from a donor. It was a coincidence that two porcupines were receiving care at the same facility, he said.

"We didn't know we were going to be able to get enough blood. We didn't know that we were going to be able to keep the porcupine quiet enough to keep an IV catheter inside the whole time," he said.

He and his team worked swiftly to sedate the donor animal and were able to collect about 80 millilitres of blood. They performed the transfusion on March 2.

Carly Lynch, the director of WildNorth's rehab centre, said the shelter often sees porcupines coming in, but has previously been involved in a porcupine blood transfusion.

"I know a lot of people would think it's just a porcupine, why bother?" she said.

"She was suffering. It's about compassionate care for those individuals and not necessarily only dealing with endangered or listed species."

Porcupines are native to Edmonton's ecosystem and next to the beaver are the second largest rodent species in North America.

As tree pruners, they eat barks and parasites off of trees and also are an important prey animal for others.

The donor porcupine was released into the wild on March 27.

The smaller porcupine is healing at WildNorth's rehab centre, gaining weight and eating a whole buffet of fruits and vegetables, Lynch said.

Mandrusiak and his team are currently writing about the procedure for publication in a wildlife veterinary medicine journal.

CRT

After more than a century, Vancouver's 'bloody' anti-Asian riot still resonates

CBC
Sun, April 9, 2023

Businesses in the 500-block of Carrall Street in Vancouver have broken windows boarded up, after a 1907 race riot targeting Chinese and Japanese people and businesses tore through the neighbourhood.

(Vancouver Archives - image credit)

More than a century ago, rioters smashed windows and destroyed the shops and homes of Asian Canadians in Vancouver.

The anti-Asian riot of 1907 involved a mob of about 9,000 people, according to Canadian Encyclopedia, and lasted two days and nights.

Now, a new book examines the 1907 anti-Asian violence in Vancouver and aims to provide context for the current wave of anti-Asian prejudice.

White Riot is based on an immersive, self-guided walking tour created in 2019 by Henry Tsang, who teaches at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Rafferty Baker/CBC

No lives were lost during the riot, according to Tsang's White Riot, but "there were close calls."

The book notes that "only five rioters were eventually found guilty and given jail terms of one to six months."

'Bloody battle'

In 1907, the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council, a labour movement organization, helped found a local chapter of the Asiatic Exclusion League, which began in San Francisco. Its first public event was a parade and demonstration on Sept. 7, 1907, to create awareness and lobby the federal government to pass laws to exclude Asians from Canada.

Then-Vancouver mayor Alexander Bethune and his wife took part in a cavalcade, along with city councillors, labour leaders, and leaders from church groups, that went through downtown Vancouver and stopped at City Hall.

Speeches inside City Hall were relayed outside to a crowd of thousands.

"Estimates [are] up to one third of Vancouver's population came out for this parade," Tsang said. "It was kind of crazy popular."

Guest speakers from the U.S. and New Zealand stoked the crowd, Tsang said.

"A mob broke out," he said. "That mob went down to Chinatown, which was nearby, and started attacking people."

Tsang says the streets of Chinatown were largely quiet as residents concerned about the parade barred their doors and hoped things would blow over.

When things didn't calm down, members of the community took up arms.

"They brought out all the guns and ammunition and they set up patrols and they started to take back their streets," he said. "So hand-to-hand combat happened for two days."

The riot moved toward a community of Japanese Canadians on Powell Street.

"The Japanese had more time to set up," Tsang said. "They had barricades ready by the time the mob went into the area. It was a bloody battle."

Following the riot, Chinese Canadians went on strike for three days and "effectively shut down the city," Tsang said.

THE VANCOUVER BRANCH OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IWW OPPOSED THE TRADES AND LABOUR MOVEMENT OF THE AFL CIO OVER THE ISSUE OF ASIAN WORKERS IN NORTH AMERICA, LEGEND HAS IT THAT TERM WOBBLIES AROSE DURING THIS GENERAL STRIKE WHEN A CHINESE WORKER SAID HE WAS A:

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Recent rise in anti-Asian hate

The book comes in the wake of a rise in anti-Asian hate in Vancouver.

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, police said anti-Asian hate crimes in Vancouver increased from 12 incidents in 2012 to 98 in 2020 — a 717-per-cent spike.

In Richmond, south of Vancouver, police said they've recorded 46 hate crimes and incidents in 2021, up from 34 in 2020; 67 per cent were related to racial discrimination, and of the people targeted, 61 per cent were Asian.

Lawyer and advocate Steven Ngo told CBC that figures reported by any jurisdiction should be taken with a grain of salt.

"The reality is people have just given up [reporting]," he said.

Examining the historic roots of racism in Canada, Tsang says, can help us better understand where we are today.

"I was shocked that I didn't learn about this until I was later in my 20s," he said. "Why wasn't this brought up in school?"