Ericsson and federal government invest in research, new jobs, at provider’s Montreal and Ottawa facilities

Story by MobileSyrup • Monday

The Government of Canada and Ericsson have entered a five-year partnership focusing on research and development.


Provided by MobileSyrup

The investment is valued at $470 million and will help Ericsson create jobs that center on 5G Advanced, 6G, AI, Cloud RAN, and Core Network technologies.

Funding will go towards the Ottawa and Montreal facilities, which will also help expand the Montreal-based Quantum Research hub.

Related video: Gradual recovery expected in second half of 2023, Ericsson CEO says (CNBC)
Duration 2:41  View on Watch

“We are already seeing the benefits of next-generation technologies such as 5G and AI, yet we are still in the early days of their potential to transform our work, leisure, and social lives,” Börje Ekholm, Ericsson’s president and CEO, said.

“Ericsson’s R&D investment partnership with the Canadian government, supported by world-class talent in Ottawa and Montreal, will boost innovation and ultimately help to improve the lives of millions of people.”

Islamophobia widespread in Canada, early findings of Senate committee study indicate

Story by The Canadian Press • 6h ago

TORONTO — Islamophobia and violence against Muslims is widespread and deeply entrenched in Canadian society, early findings from a Senate committee studying the issue indicate.

Sen. Salma Ataullahjan

Muslim women who wear hijabs – Black Muslim women in particular – are the most vulnerable, and confronting Islamophobia in a variety of public spheres is difficult, the committee on human rights has found.

"Canada has a problem," committee chair Sen. Salma Ataullahjan said in a phone interview with The Canadian Press.

"We are hearing of intergenerational trauma because young kids are witnessing this. Muslims are speaking out because there's so many attacks happening and they're so violent."

The problem is worse than current statistics suggest, Ataullahjan said.

Many Muslims across Canada live with constant fear of being targeted, especially if they have experienced an Islamophobic attack, witnessed one or lost a loved one to violence, the committee found.

"Some of these women were afraid to leave their homes and it became difficult for them to take their children to school. Many were spat on," Ataullahjan said. " Muslims have to look over their shoulder constantly."

Last month, figures released by Statistics Canada indicated police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims increased by 71 per cent from 2020 to 2021. The rate of the crimes was eight incidents per 100,000 members of the Muslim population, based on census figures.

The Senate committee's work began in June 2021, not long after four members of a Muslim family died after being run over by a pickup truck while out for an evening walk in London, Ont. A man is facing terror-related murder charges in their deaths.

The committee's senators, analysts, translators and other staff travelled to Vancouver, Edmonton, Quebec, and across the Greater Toronto Area to speak with Canadians who attend mosques, Muslims who were victims of attacks, teachers, doctors and security officials, among others.

The findings from those conversations are now being put together in a report, which the committee began drafting this week, Ataullahjan said.

Related video: Mosque members call for action after attack (cbc.ca)

Duration 2:02 View on Watch

The final version of the report – set to be published in July – is expected to include recommendations on what can be done to combat Islamophobia and how government can better support victims of attacks, she said.

Among the committee's findings is an observation that attacks against Muslims often appear to happen out on the streets and appear to be more violent than those targeting other religious groups, Ataullahjan said.

Analysts and experts interviewed by the Senate committee said the rise of far-right hate groups and anti-Muslim groups are among the factors driving attacks against Muslims, Ataullahjan said.

The committee looked at the cases of Black Muslim women in Edmonton who were violently assaulted in recent years.

"Some of them sat in front of us and everyone was getting teary-eyed because it's not easy to tell your story especially where you've been hurt," she said.

The 2017 shooting at a Quebec mosque when a gunman opened fire, killing six worshippers and injuring several others, is another example of violent Islamophobia, she said.

The Senate committee's report will also address recent violence against Muslims, including an alleged assault outside a Markham, Ont., mosque where witnesses told police a man tore up a Qur'an, yelled racial slurs, and tried to ram a car into congregants.

The committee will also detail day-to-day aggression against Muslim Canadians, including accounts from hijab-wearing girls in schools who don't feel comfortable reporting instances of Islamophobia to police, Ataullahjan said.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims said the initial findings align with what it has been observing and trying to inform government leaders about for years.

"We're happy that this is being done," said spokesman Steven Zhou. "It's something that everyone everywhere needs to study up on. It's a worsening problem."

The council gets calls every day from Muslims across Canada detailing instances of Islamophobia, Zhou said, underscoring the need for action.

"People don't like to report these things," he said. "It takes a lot out of them to actually go to courts or talk to the police who might not understand exactly what they've gone through."

Zhou said he expects the committee will make recommendations similar to suggestions the council has already put forward, including changes to hate crime legislation, creating policies that would prevent hate groups from gathering near places of worship, and legislation to deal with online hate.

The National Council of Muslim Canadians also hopes the report will help Canadians familiarize themselves with the Muslim community.

"We want to address hate," he said. "But also it's about building bridges. For people to learn about Islam, for people to learn about what this religion is actually about, how the community works."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press

Review: 'Pathogenesis' offers different lens on history

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday

“Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues,” by Jonathan Kennedy (Crown)


Great historical changes are often conceived of as being brought about by the genius and tenacity of great men, or occasionally women, but Jonathan Kennedy argues in his book “Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues,” that germs are largely responsible for everything from the decline of the Neanderthals to the current poverty of sub-Saharan Africa.

His quick history of the world from the Paleolithic to the present day offers a different lens to view many of the big events of the past. Some of Kennedy's conclusions are mere speculation, like his idea that deadly plagues in the Roman empire led to the swift rise of Christianity. In the midst of so much death, he argues, the new religion offered a more enticing view of the afterlife than paganism.

Most of his observations are bolstered by more historical research and are more convincing. In showing how pathogens helped the Spanish conquer Central and South America, Kennedy explains that European diseases including smallpox and measles killed or incapacitated most of the native population, which had no immunity to the previously unknown germs. One outbreak in 1545 alone is estimated to have killed up to 80% of the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica.

The death and destruction also accelerated their religious conversion as many of the remaining Indigenous peoples, along with the Spanish, saw it as proof that the Christian God was superior, Kennedy argues.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Kennedy explains how resistance to infectious disease — especially the malaria and yellow fever prevalent in parts of sub-Saharan Africa — boosted the slave trade. Disease-resistant Africans were less likely to die on the new world plantations than Europeans, and much of the native population had already been wiped out. The subsequent association of Africans with slavery contributed to the ideology of white supremacy that continues to impact the way African Americans are treated today, Kennedy argues.

The presence of malaria and yellow fever also prevented Europeans from colonizing the African interior, but only for a time. That changed when quinine was discovered to help prevent death from malaria. But because the rates of death and disease were still high, the colonies attracted desperate and ruthless individuals with a desire to make a quick fortune and get out. It was disease, Kennedy argues, that helped create the harshly extractive colonial economies in places like the Congo, the repercussions of which are still felt in the extreme poverty of those countries.

Poverty, including in wealthy countries like the United States, is a sort of modern plague, killing millions each year with both infectious disease and non-communicable diseases like diabetes, Kennedy argues in the final chapter. These poverty-associated health problems, in turn, have been associated with higher death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kennedy ends with a passionate plea for public health expenditures to eliminate disease. Relying on examples of successful public health campaigns throughout the book, he argues that such an investment will both improve human lives and bolster economies.

Travis Loller, The Associated Press

Iowa Republicans voted just before 5 a.m. to roll back child labor laws, letting teens work on packaging lines and serve alcohol

"Every parent wants their kids to grow up with every opportunity to succeed, not risk an early death by working in dangerous jobs, the legislation passed by the Senate tonight is every parent's worst nightmare."

Story by rcohen@insider.com (Rebecca Cohen) • Yesterday 

The Iowa bill would allow teens to work longer hours, take jobs on assembly lines, and serve alcohol. Luis Alvarez/Getty Images© Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

The Iowa Senate voted just before 5 a.m. to pass a bill that would roll back child labor laws.

The bill, if passed by the House, would allow teens to work longer hours and serve alcohol.

A state labor leader told Insider he thought the bill's early-morning passage was a "disgrace."

Iowa's Republican-led state senate voted in an early-morning session to roll back child labor laws in the state — allowing teens to work longer hours and to serve alcohol at their jobs.

The bill passed 32-17 before 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday with two Republicans — Sens. Charlie McClintock and Jeff Taylor — joining the entire Democratic party in opposition of the bill.

The bill would allow sixteen and seventeen-year-olds to work until 9:00 p.m. during the school year and until 11:00 p.m. over the summer. It also allows same-aged kids to serve alcohol in restaurants if their parents sign off on it.

The bill prohibits fourteen and fifteen-year-olds from any mining or manufacturing work but adds that anyone under the age of eighteen can do "light" assembly line or packaging work — as long as machines aren't involved.

The voting session had dragged into the early morning because supporter GOP Sen. Adrian Dickey refused to answer a question from Democrats about amendments to the bill, the Des Moines Register reported.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for a vote.

A slew of Democrats and labor leaders in the state have spoken out against the bill, noting that it could create unsafe work environments for kids.

According to the Register, Democrats had tried to include additional amendments to the bill to offer additional workers' compensation benefits to any teens that got injured on the job.

Related video: Iowa Senate passes child labor bill in very early morning session (WHO-TV Des Moines) Duration 1:57  View on Watch

Charlie Wishman, the President of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, told Insider in a statement he thought the passing of the bill is a "disgrace," adding that it will "do nothing to attract new Iowans, and puts children at risk of death in dangerous occupations."

"Every parent wants their kids to grow up with every opportunity to succeed, not risk an early death by working in dangerous jobs," Wishman said. "The legislation passed by the Senate tonight is every parent's worst nightmare."

He added that "the majority party's inability and unwillingness to answer any questions about this legislation disenfranchises Iowans from the political process and takes away their elected representatives' ability to get them answers."

"If the Iowa Senate wishes to operate in this fashion, democracy dies in our state," Wishman told Insider.

Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls in a statement to Insider called the bill "dangerous" that "will allow Iowa kids to serve alcohol, work in roofing and demolition, and inside industrial freezers – and they passed it in the dead of the night when they thought they could dodge democratic accountability."

He continued: "If this legislation becomes law, Iowa kids will be exposed to dangerous working conditions that violate federal law and threaten their health and wellbeing. This bill is immoral, illogical, and it will lead to more kids getting injured and killed in workplace accidents. While Iowa is facing a workforce crisis, Senate Republicans shouldn't try to solve it on the backs of children."

Gov. Kim Reynolds has previously spoken in favor of the bill, telling reporters this month she doesn't think "we should discourage" kids wanting to work and to earn money, the Des Moines Register reported.

At an April 4 press event, Reynolds, speaking about the bill, pointed to her own experience working as a teen babysitting and waiting tables, according to the Register.

"That's good experience," Reynolds said. "You know, it teaches the kids a lot and if they have the time to do it and they want to earn some additional money I don't think we should discourage that."

Reynolds did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Other supporters of the bill, including Dickey, have argued that the bill will teach Iowa's children important skills in workforce training programs, the Register reported.

"While the responsibility of having a job might be more valuable than having a paycheck, the reward of the paycheck will allow these youth who want to have a job to possibly save for a car, maybe buy a prom dress, go to a summer camp, take a date out for the weekend," Dickey said, according to the Register.

In addition to rolling back child labor laws, Republicans in the state have voted to restrict SNAP food benefits.

This month, legislators passed a bill that adds hurdles for those wanting food assistance, including banning anyone with more than $15,000 in liquid assets or savings from getting benefits and requiring state agencies to run identification checks on beneficiaries.

An earlier version of the bill banned people on the food assistance program from buying staples like white bread or American cheese, but that was stripped from the final bill.

BC

Fairy Creek old-growth protesters celebrate as contempt prosecution has 'collapsed'

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Prosecution Service says it has withdrawn contempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters accused of breaching a court injunction during blockades at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island.


Fairy Creek old-growth protesters celebrate as contempt prosecution has 'collapsed'© Provided by The Canadian Press

Spokesman Gordon Comer says prosecutors were in court Tuesday to enter the withdrawals, and the service is reviewing other cases in the wake of a ruling that acquitted protester Ryan Henderson earlier this year.

Comer says the Crown is reviewing remaining cases that were impacted by the Henderson decision, which tossed out the charge because of the RCMP's failure to properly read the injunction to people arrested during the protest.

A lawyer defending protesters says the Crown is expected to withdraw charges against as many as 150 people because police used a short-form script to inform people of the injunction instead of reading the whole thing to those accused of breaching it.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Karen Mirsky, who has several clients facing contempt charges for protests at Fairy Creek, says police didn't follow long-standing legal principles when they failed to read the full injunction.

Mirsky says the RCMP spent millions of dollars during the protests on Vancouver Island and the force's failure to properly enforce the injunction highlights how provinces should re-think the kinds of policing they're getting for their public dollars.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Inflation drops below 5% for the first time in more than a year: What that means to Canadians

Story by Kevin Carmichael • Yesterday 

Statistics Canada's consumer price index increased 4.3 per cent from March 2022, the smallest year-over-year increase since August 2021.© Provided by Financial Post

Canada’s primary gauge of cost pressures suggests inflation dropped to its slowest pace since the summer of 2021 in March, reducing the odds of more interest rate increases, at least for now. Here’s what you need to know:

Statistics Canada’s consumer price index increased 4.3 per cent from March 2022, the smallest year-over-year increase since August 2021.

Excluding food and energy, the year-over-year increase was 4.5 per cent, down from 4.8 per cent in February. Excluding mortgage interest costs, the index increased 3.6 per cent, compared with 4.7 per cent the previous month.

On the month, the consumer price index rose 0.5 per cent from February, compared with a month-to-month gain of 0.4 per cent in February.

The two measures of “core” inflation that the Bank of Canada watches to avoid being distracted by volatile prices, CPI-median and CPI-trim, slowed to 4.6 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively.

The speed of price increases has slowed, but the cost of living remains elevated, as the consumer price index was 8.7 per cent higher in March than 18 months earlier.

Backstory

Year-over-year increases in the CPI surged to 8.1 per cent in June 2022, representing the peak of the worst inflation scare since the early 1980s. The Bank of Canada — like every other central bank — was initially complacent, assuming the cost pressures were the result of idiosyncratic events such as post-pandemic supply-chain snarls and Russia’s war in Ukraine. But the central bank eventually realized that a significant amount of the cost pressure was also coming from domestic demand.

Governor Tiff Macklem raised the benchmark interest rate 4.25 percentage points between March 2022 and January 2023, the most aggressive series of rate hikes in the Bank of Canada’s history. Now that headline inflation is quickly slowing, the central bank has decided to pause, but Macklem last week warned that increases could resume because he’s worried inflation could still get stuck above the central bank’s two-per-cent target.

What’s driving the decrease

Simple math explains much of the slowing of inflation. By convention, year-over-year changes in the CPI — a compilation of the costs of obtaining hundreds of goods and services — is the standard way of defining inflation. A year ago, amid the worst outbreak of inflation in four decades, the index surged higher. Now, Statistics Canada is comparing current prices against that elevated base. The index jumped an outsized 1.4 per cent in March 2022 from the previous month. Prices are no longer increasing at such a pace, so the headline number is falling.

Life is still expensive

Headline inflation closer to four per cent than eight per cent is a relief, but it might not feel like it for a lot of households. The Bank of Canada’s interest rates increases are biting harder: mortgage interest costs increased 26.4 per cent from March 2022, an acceleration from 23.9 per cent in February and the biggest increase on record, Statistics Canada said.

The cost of food purchased at stores slowed, but was nonetheless 9.7 per cent higher than in March 2022.

Gasoline costs were offsetting some of the pain from food and shelter, as prices dropped 13.8 per cent from a year earlier, when the war in Ukraine had caused oil prices to skyrocket essentially overnight.

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Core of the matter

Inflation data often are messy because the headline number is influenced to an outsized degree by items such as gasoline and fresh fruit, costs of which are influenced by the vagaries of international markets and the weather. So, the Bank of Canada and economists manipulate the CPI to reduce the influence of volatile items by creating “core” measures that aim to detect “underlying” inflation, or what might otherwise be described as the trend.

The Bank of Canada’s two preferred measures of core inflation slowed to about 4.5 per cent from about 4.9 per cent in February. The improvement is notable, but those figures imply that trend inflation is still elevated.

Headline inflation slowed to about 2.1 per cent when calculated as a three-month annualized rate, according to Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at Alberta Central. That aligns with the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent. However, the three-month average of the CPI when food and energy are removed was about 3.1 per cent, still outside the central bank’s comfort zone of one per cent to three per cent.

Macklem is paying particular attention to services prices since they are more influenced by domestic demand than the prices for goods. The services’ component of the consumer price index increased 5.1 per cent from March 2021, compared with a 5.3 per cent year-over-year increase in February.

What it means for interest rates

The Bank of Canada last week predicted that headline inflation will average 3.3 per cent in the current quarter and the sharp drop to 4.3 per cent means that projection remains on track. More important will be where we go from here: will a lower headline rate cause expectations of where prices are headed to drop, or will businesses and workers continue to base decisions on where inflation has been? More increases remain on the table.

Inflation hits lowest level since August 2021, but BoC not expected to back off yet

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is expected to keep interest rates elevated for some time even as the country's annual inflation rate falls rapidly.


Inflation hits lowest level since August 2021, but BoC not expected to back off yet© Provided by The Canadian Press

Inflation in Canada dropped to 4.3 per cent in March, Statistics Canada said in its latest consumer price index report released Tuesday.

The headline rate eased from 5.2 per cent in February as higher mortgage interest costs were offset by lower energy prices.

The country's annual inflation rate is mostly tracking along the Bank of Canada's forecast of reaching three per cent by mid-year. Its preferred measures of core inflation, which the central bank uses to look through volatility in prices, also trended downward in March.

"Today's report shows that all roads do indeed point to three per cent inflation in the months ahead," said BMO chief economist Douglas Porter in a client note.

The continued slowdown in inflation since last summer has now brought the annual rate down to the lowest it’s been since August 2021.

But the Bank of Canada has said it won’t rest until inflation gets back to its two per cent target, even if the deceleration in inflation has been encouraging. That means expect interest rates to stay high for the next while.

While testifying at the House of Commons finance committee on Tuesday, governor Tiff Macklem acknowledged that the latest CPI report shows inflation is heading in the right direction.

"We are encouraged by that, but we are also seized with the importance of staying the course and restoring price stability for Canadians," Macklem told MPs.

The central bank is particularly concerned that getting from three to two per cent might take a while. According to its latest forecasts, the Bank of Canada is expecting inflation to return to its two per cent target by the end of 2024.

The central bank's concern about sticky inflation largely stems from persistently high wage growth and service price inflation.

In March, service prices were up 5.1 per cent from a year ago. Meanwhile, wages were 5.3 per cent higher than a year ago, growing at a faster pace than inflation.

In a client note on Tuesday, TD managing director and senior economist Leslie Preston said the latest data speaks to the challenges Macklem has highlighted.

"The Bank of Canada needs to remain vigilant to inflation pressures, and may need to hike again if momentum in the domestic economy does not cool as expected," Preston said.

At its last interest rate decision on April 12, Macklem addressed speculation that the central bank would move to cut rates toward the end of the year. He said that didn't look like "the most likely scenario."

Instead, the central bank has signalled interest rates may have to stay higher for longer to get there. Its key interest rate currently sits at 4.5 per cent, the highest it's been since 2007.

In the months to come, the headline rate is expected to continue to fall rapidly in part due to base-year effects. A base-year effect refers to the impact of price movements from a year ago on the calculation of the year-over-year inflation rate.

Porter said base-year effects explains part of the deceleration last month, noting March 2022 saw the fastest monthly increase in prices in three decades.

But the deceleration hasn’t brought much relief to homeowners with new mortgages or renewing their mortgages at high interest rates. Mortgage interest costs rose at the fastest pace on record last month, up 26.4 per cent from a year ago.

Grocery prices are also still rising rapidly, but at a slower pace. Grocery prices were up 9.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis in March, down from 10.6 per cent in February. Statistics Canada said the deceleration was driven by lower prices for fruits and vegetables.

Economists have long been expecting slower price increases up the food supply chain to filter down to slower prices increases at grocery stores.

"I don't think we're gonna get a lot of relief from from high prices, they just won't be rising as quickly as what we've seen over the past year," Porter said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press

Getting inflation below 3% won't be easy: Frances Donald

Story by Larysa Harapyn • Yesterday 


Frances Donald, chief economist at Manulife Investment Management, talks with Financial Posts Larysa Harapyn about how getting below three per cent inflation wont be easy.

ALBERTA 

Chronic wasting disease a growing threat, even to soil

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

In Alberta, Chronic Wasting Disease is present in mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose. It’s a significant concern to wildlife managers and hunters in the province but, at this point, there is no solution to the problem. Data for the 2022-23 hunting season shows a province-wide contamination of 23.4%.

Joel Nicholson, senior wildlife biologist with Fish and Wildlife in Medicine Hat, said, “There are pockets of prevalence that are unbelievably high (in Saskatchewan). We are headed in the same direction. We’re pushing one in four from a mule deer standpoint. The prevalence only seems to go one direction without major intervention.”

The leading edges of the known distribution are being monitored, along the westward and northern spread. Since CWD was first confirmed in Alberta in 2005, the level of control, from aggressive to less so, has varied.

The head collection program is currently focusing on the leading edge of the disease as well, with the number of freezers provided decreasing. Online information (https://www.alberta.ca/chronic-wasting-disease-information-for-hunters.aspx) states that opportunities for submitting heads outside the target areas are limited.

“We did have freezers in the Medicine Hat area last year at a lower number,” stated Nicholson. “I don’t know what the status of the program will be this fall.”

While it is recommended that any animal infected with a prion disease, such as CWD, not be eaten, some are not concerned about it said Nicholson. CWD spreads by animal-to-animal contact and through bodily fluids. As it can take years to kill off an animal, there is significant opportunity for the disease to spread.

Debora Voll, who lives on an award-winning multigenerational farm in Saskatchewan, is concerned about soil contamination from CWD.

“I’m very passionate about this and I’m watching the devastation of the deer. We have 55% base of contamination or infection in mule deer. That is a risk to our soil and why I started my research. The more I research, the less I know. I think we need to drive home that soil contamination is a potential devastating outcome to the environment and the agriculture community. Not just for Saskatchewan but for Western Canada.”

Soil becomes contaminated with the CWD prion via saliva, urine and feces from infected animals.

“Studies show plants uptake the prion responsible for CWD. Tomatoes, corn, alfalfa, and wheat. Who is going to buy produce grown in potentially contaminated soil? That is not being addressed,” stated Voll.

A 2021 paper states the CWD prion can persist in a bioavailable state for years and certain soil microparticles enhance the transmissibility of the disease (https://veterinaryresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13567-021-00986-y). When deer consume soil, particularly in areas adjacent to mineral licks, they can ingest the CWD prion.

A plant sprayed with urine from an infected animal will also remain infectious for two years or more. The paper states that results regarding the uptake of prions by plants are not conclusive. One study showed grass plants do uptake prions from the soil and transport them to above ground vegetation and another showed wheat does not.

The first reported case of CWD was in 1967 and it is now confirmed in 30 states and four provinces, according to March 2023 information from the US Geological Survey. Norway’s first documented case was in 2016 with Finland and Sweden also reporting cases in wild Moose. The disease was shipped to Korea from Canada through imported deer in 1997. Given the impact on wildlife management, studies into CWD are ongoing.

SAMANTHA JOHNSON, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Medicine Hat News

ONTARIO

Health Coalition fighting privatization plans for health care

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Ontario’s Conservative government is “pushing forward with plans to privatize the province’s public hospitals,” the Ontario Health Coalition said in a release, and the organization is fighting against that plan.

Tuesday, the local chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition hosts an information session in North Bay at the OPSEU hall 150 First Avenue, at 10 a.m.

“On January 16, the Ford government announced it is moving forward with plans to ‘substantially,’ in their own words, expand for-profit clinics and hospitals to take the surgeries and diagnostics out of our local public hospitals,” the coalition said.

“In response, thousands of Ontarians have taken to the streets of their communities to organize a mass citizen-run referendum.”

Related video: Health care workers rally for better pay and conditions with help from union (News 12)

Duration 2:08  View on Watch

The Ontario Health Coalition’s goal is to “improve our public health care system.” The coalition is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest activist coalition and network, as outlined in its mission and mandate statement.

Bill 60 – set to pass this week – will “have a detrimental effect,” on health services, said Henri Giroux, chair of the North Bay Health Coalition. The government has contracted the first three for-profit clinics in Windsor, Waterloo and Ottawa, “and is allowing for-profit corporations to run surgeries out of under-used public hospital operating rooms already,” the coalition detailed.

“The Health Coalition has vowed an unprecedented fightback to match the unprecedented privatization of Ontario’s core public health care services.”

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

David Briggs, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, BayToday.ca

GREEN INDUSTRY HAS SIDE EFFECTS

Former consultant to wind industry warns of turbines' toll on migrant birds in N.S.

Story by The Canadian Press • 

HALIFAX — Environmental researcher John Kearney says the whirring blades of a proposed 13-turbine wind farm in Nova Scotia may cut greenhouse gases, but the risks they pose to migrating birds are too high.


Former consultant to wind industry warns of turbines' toll on migrant birds in N.S.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The 74-year-old former consultant to the wind industry has in recent years set up acoustic monitoring in southwestern Nova Scotia, documenting species ranging from black-capped chickadees to spotted sandpipers as they call out during autumn flights.

"I'm speaking from the perspective of a person who supports both the objectives of wind power and preserving biodiversity, and here they come in conflict," he said in a recent interview, shortly after submitting written submissions to the province objecting to the proposed project on a peninsula west of Yarmouth.

"To me, it's quite clear this wind farm should never happen."

Kearney has a PhD in environmental anthropology — which involves relationships between humans and nature. He came to his conclusion after finding that bird calls just south of the proposed Wedgeport Wind Farm averaged 538 per hour after sunrise.

He says this is nearly equal to the intensity of Brier Island, N.S., located further west, which was recently cited in the Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science as "one of the migration hot spots of northeastern North America."

To Kearney, rejecting the project would help preserve the avian songs, but industry proponents counter that there's limited evidence to show the proposed coastal location threatens bird populations.

In an email, Daniel Eaton, the project director at Vancouver-based Elementary Energy, noted the firm and its partners, Stevens Wind and Sipekne'katik First Nation, are responding to the Nova Scotia government's goal of a 53 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2023.

Eaton said that in 2025, the first year of potential operation, the project is anticipated to offset 112,750 tonnes of carbon emissions — which is roughly equivalent to the yearly output of 25,000 gasoline-powered cars.

"We agree there are a variety of habitat types in southwestern Nova Scotia that are important to migratory birds and are appreciative of the work that Mr. Kearney has undertaken to collect information on migratory bird activity across a number of sites in southwestern Nova Scotia," Eaton wrote on Monday.

However, he added, "we stand by the work done by our consultants, including their work to estimate potential bird mortalities associated with our project." The company's submission in the environmental review argues once "standard industry mitigation measures" are in place, the impact of the turbines on the birds is "not significant."

It notes their own field survey identified 100 bird species within and outside the project area, and about 16,000 individual birds. The proponents predict the project will cause about 36 bird deaths a year, citing a model developed in 2016 from Scottish Natural Heritage, an environmental advisory body.

Kearney is critical of the model and questions why theoretical data is being used when the proponent could be asked to study functioning wind turbines near the site to obtain mortality rates occurring along the windy and foggy Nova Scotia coast.

And he returns to his acoustic data, saying it gives compelling, comparative evidence that the proposed farm is in the middle of a migration corridor.

The Nova Scotia Bird Society has also objected to the wind farm, saying its members have observed the concentrations of birds passing overhead, "feeding on berries in the barrens and capturing insects in the trees."

"We understand first hand the interconnections between terrestrial and marine habitats, which result in a high species richness," wrote Anthony Millard, president of the society.

Mikaela Etchegary, a spokeswoman for the provincial Environment Department, said the minister, Tim Halman, "will consider the facts, science, and comments from the public and Mi’kmaq," and render a decision by May 4.

Scott Leslie, a naturalist and the author of "Woodland Birds of North America", urges the Progressive Conservative government to take Kearney seriously.

"He is one of the pioneers of using the latest bio-acoustical listening technology in Nova Scotia .... This is a powerful tool for assessing small migratory birds, and one of the most cost effective ways for people to establish whether or not a particular place is important for small migrants," he wrote in an email.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Refugees claim gas flaring cancer link in northern Iraq

Story by Alannah Travers, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, Stella Martany, Christina Last, Tom Brown • Yesterday 

Erbil, Iraq – Shireen*, a 53-year-old Syrian refugee living at the Kawergosk Camp in Erbil, Iraq, started to have cancer symptoms in March 2020.

Flaring is the process of burning off petroleum gas by setting alight any excess in a jet of fire 

IT RELEASES METHANE 

[File: Hussein Faleh/AFP]© Provided by Al Jazeera

“In the beginning, I had a lot of pain in my breast, back and arm. I ignored the pain because I thought it could be muscle spasms or an infection,” she said.

The only option for her to seek treatment was the camp’s health centre, where services were limited. She could not leave the camp due to a COVID-19 lockdown, and private clinics were too expensive for a jobless refugee.

It was only in the summer of 2020, when she was finally able to visit a doctor in one of Erbil’s biggest hospitals, that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My nipple was bleeding, and I had to get a biopsy immediately,” she said. She later underwent surgery and started chemotherapy, which, although completed, she continues to feel pain from.

Shireen is not alone. Nine other women in her block at Kawergosk have been diagnosed with cancer.

Doctors operating in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq and residents believe that flaring – the process of burning off petroleum gas by setting alight any excess in a jet of fire – by a nearby oil refinery may be contributing to a rise in cancer rates. The refinery is operated by KAR Group, Iraq’s largest private-sector energy company. The KAR Group did not respond to a request for comment.

A study published last year in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention (APJCP) found that the number of patients with cancer doubled between 2013 and 2019 in Erbil and Duhok, also in northern Iraq, correlating with a resumption in production at oil facilities in the region following the end of the conflict with ISIL (ISIS).

Several residents shared their health records, with diagnoses ranging from respiratory disorders to cancer.

Shireen’s life has changed in the last decade. “We were happier in the village because everything we ate was organic, and our life and mental health were better when we lived there,” she said, referring to the village of Sheir in Qahtaniyah, Syria where she had been living.

ISIL attacked the area in 2013, forcing villagers such as Shireen to flee, leaving their livestock and farmland, to the Iraqi side of the border.

Exposure to chemicals

About 1,200 tonnes of ammunition were dropped on Iraq during the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003, making it difficult to distinguish between cancer cases caused by flaring and those originating from the depleted uranium left by the bombing.

But experts were still very concerned that the 8,000 refugees living at Kawergosk were exposed to dangerous chemicals such as benzene because of the flaring.

“[Benzene] is a potent carcinogen that causes leukaemia,” said Laura Cushing, presidential chair in Health Equity at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “I do think it is concerning that people are being exposed nearby.”

Pregnant women living near natural gas and oil wells that burned off excess gas through flaring were 50 percent more at risk of premature birth than women with no exposure, a 2020 UCLA study headed by Cushing found.

“We were able to say that people exposed to 10 or more flares during their pregnancy had a 50 percent increased odds of preterm birth, when a baby is born too early – fewer than 37 completed weeks,” said Cushing. “The earlier you are born can result in severe health impacts.”

Long-term exposure harms the bone marrow. Those exposed feel increasingly weak and tired as their red blood cell count decreases. Bruising and bleeding become more common, with healing taking longer.

According to research by the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in partnership with University of California Los Angeles scientists and in which Cushing was involved, women living near natural oil and gas wells that burn off excess gas through flaring had a 50 percent higher risk of giving birth prematurely.

Cancer and premature births are not the only concern. A study by Global Paediatric Health found respiratory viruses to be almost twice as prevalent among children under the age of 15 in areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) compared with neighbouring Iran. With residents suffering deteriorating health, the KRG issued oil and gas companies a directive to phase out all flaring by 2023, giving them 18 months to comply.

Flaring levels, however, appear to have remained largely the same based on satellite data from 2018 to November 2022, which was analysed as part of a collaborative investigation funded by the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC).

The investigation also identified Erbil and its surrounding villages, including fringe communities living in Kawergosk and Lalish, as having the highest incidence of flaring.

Winter months normally show a drop-off in flaring, as most of the gas produced at processing plants is sent directly to houses, as opposed to the summer, when gas use slumps. However, historical data revealed that flaring levels have not decreased compared with 2018 and 2019. Flaring levels began to creep back up again during the summer – with less gas consumed during the hot months.

Unable to meet flaring deadline

A KRG official, speaking under condition of anonymity, said “headaches” with the Iraqi government made meeting the flaring deadline difficult.

Iraq has been planning to set up a new state oil company to negotiate the KRG’s oil contracts, a deal reached after a political standoff between Erbil and Baghdad.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled in February 2022 that the KRG negotiating its own oil and gas contracts was “unconstitutional”, a claim strongly rejected by the KRG.

Early proposals seen by local Kurdish media suggested that Iraq was willing to re-form the State Organisation for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) company that oversees the country’s oil contracts to include a Kurdish veto, smoothing over the regional dispute.

Following the KRG’s declaration, the Iraqi government announced in December that it set 2024 as a target for the elimination of gas flaring. It was unclear if the KRG will fall under the 2024 deadline once the new state oil company is set up.

The ERC has reached out to Iraqi government officials for clarification, but they have not yet responded to a request for comment.

According to World Bank data, Russia burns the most amount of natural gas globally, flaring off 24.88 billion cubic meters per year as of 2020, with Iraq following closely with 17.37 billion cubic meters.

But an analysis by the ERC showed that Iraq’s population, on average, lives much closer to flaring sites than Russia’s.

Since October 2018, we found that 1.19 million people in Iraq had lived within a one-kilometre radius of more than 10 flaring events. In Russia, only 275,000 experienced the same level of exposure across the same period.

Russia’s oil refineries are often in remote locations and spread across the arctic tundra, unlike in Iraq where major cities and towns are more commonly situated close to the flares.

Companies serious about phasing out flaring would need to implement infrastructure to capture or sell the gas, reducing the amount they burn. In certain countries, companies use filters to stop the smoke from reaching towns or villages. In Iraq, there is no pressure to do the same, making operational costs cheaper than in other parts of the world.

“In most places, we try to capture the natural gas and use it, burn it for heat, in this case, it is just being burned off as a waste product,’ said Cushing. ‘The [energy] boom happened so fast that [the Iraqi regions] don’t have the infrastructure to bring this to market or the resources on site to capture the gas.”

‘Cancer rates fears’

It was not until COVID-19 hit the region that its residents realised how bad asthma rates had become, said Iraqi environmentalist Rebin Mohammed*.

Doctors in rural areas of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, such as those working in the Kawergosk refugee camp, almost always referred residents to a hospital in Erbil, the nearest city with basic health facilities, but many cannot afford the transport due to rising fuel prices.

The Enabling Peace in Iraq Centre reported that Iraq’s public health sector has fallen into steep decline after cycles of war, sanctions, funding shortfalls, and neglect for 30 years.

“The government is not forcing them [the oil companies] to start giving back to the environment and the community,” said Mohammed.

Environmental activist Salah Saed Goran said that the situation could be worse in a decade. “All the damage it’s doing now is going to be five times more in 10-11 years after they surround us with oil fields.”

“[We are concerned that] cancer rates are going to increase in the future because of the flaring spots surrounding here,” Mohammed added.

Almost every oil field in KRG-administered territory in northern Iraq has a 20 percent stake held by the KRG, which negotiates its own oil contracts, overseen by sitting Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Officials were evasive when asked about the issue.

Local municipality official Rebaz Qasim Mirani, who represents the Khabat district in Erbil, blamed the pollution on traffic from the nearby road, dismissing flaring as the leading cause.

On the Global Paediatric Health study, a senior KRG official, who asked not to be named, said that the government remained committed to the policy to end gas flaring by the start of 2023 and that Barzani was personally encouraging the policy, but could not say what consequences companies who continue flaring into the new year might face.

Meanwhile, the government has applied strict procedures for hospitals to issue public health data in the region. Several health officials and doctors who had agreed to speak about respiratory problems from gas flaring dropped out at the last minute. Many would be putting themselves at personal risk, they said. “People are scared,” said Mohammed, with refugees fearful they would be removed from the camps if they speak publicly about the flaring, and medical officials worried about their job security.

Companies such as the KAR Group, whose processing plants were photographed flaring gas earlier this year, do not disclose how much gas they lose due to flaring and do not publicly provide updates on their efforts to phase out the practice.

The KRG has said that it stands by its commitment to phasing out flaring by 2023, but so far oil and gas companies in the region it governs – none of which responded to requests for comment – are projected to have a similar output as the last two years, based on an ERC analysis.

On July 13, 2021, the KRG’s Minister of Natural Resources Kamal Atroshi issued a decree giving energy companies in KRG-administered territory 18 months to put a complete end to flaring, with the deadline falling in January 2023.

That deadline has now passed, but Lawk Ghafuri, the KRG’s head of foreign media affairs, said that the directive was “still in effect”, but that some “minor extensions” had been provided to some companies who had “proper justifications”.

“This project is a costly one and needs proper design and planning, which, in turn, takes time,” Ghafuri said.

In May, however, the minister who issued the order, Kamal Atroshi, resigned from his role as minister of natural resources, a role covered in the interim by the KRG’s Minister of Electricity Kamal Muhammad Salih.

A flare gas-to-power project recently completed in the southeast of KRG territory could provide a path forward. The plant, built by energy firm Aggreko, has cut flaring by a third.

Locals hoped the government establishes healthier and safer camps for refugees, but regardless of whether the situation improves, many have no choice but to remain in the area.

“Our ancestors lived here, and we love this land so we have to stay here. We are sadly used to it,” said Goran.

*Real name not used