Descendants of UK slave owners call on government to apologise

Story by Amelia Gentleman • Yesterday 

The Guardian

The descendants of some of Britain’s wealthiest slave owners have launched an activist movement, calling on the government both to apologise for slavery and begin a programme of reparative justice in recognition of the “ongoing consequences of this crime against humanity”.

A second cousin of King Charles and a direct descendant of the Victorian prime minister William Gladstone have joined journalists, a publisher, a schoolteacher and a retired social worker, to create the Heirs of Slavery campaigning body, which will lobby the UK government to acknowledge and atone for its role in the transportation of 3.1 million enslaved African people across the Atlantic.

“British slavery was legal, industrialised and based entirely on race,” Alex Renton, one of the group’s founders, said. “Britain has never apologised for it, and its after-effects still harm people’s lives in Britain as well as in the Caribbean countries where our ancestors made money.”

The group includes the Earl of Harewood, David Lascelles, the retired social worker Rosemary Harrison, businessman Charles Gladstone, the former BBC correspondent Laura Trevelyan, her film director cousin, John Dower, the author and publisher Richard Atkinson, retired schoolteacher Robin Wedderburn, and the journalist Alex Renton. They hope descendants of other slave-owning dynasties will come forward to join them.

Members of the group acknowledge that their families’ wealth was derived in part from the profits made on plantations worked on by enslaved Africans. Their slave-owning ancestors all received compensation from the British government after slavery was abolished in Britain in 1833.

The group supports the plans for reparative justice devised by Caricom – the political union of 20 Caribbean countries. The Caricom Reparations Commission states that European governments instructed genocidal actions on indigenous communities and failed to acknowledge their crimes or to compensate victims and their descendants. Its 10-point plan for reparatory justice asks for a full formal apology, debt cancellation, and calls for former colonial powers to invest in their health and education systems.

Asked if the descendants of families who received compensation from the British government in 1833 should be encouraged to pay some of that money back, Lascelles, whose ancestors received about £26,000, said: “That certainly should be part of the discussion.”

In a written statement, Charles Gladstone said: “I joined this group in an attempt to begin to address the appalling ills visited on so many people by my ancestor John Gladstone.” John Gladstone, father of the prime minister William Gladstone, was paid £106,000 compensation after abolition (worth at least £17m today).


Laura Trevelyan said last month she was leaving the BBC to become a full-time slavery reparations campaigner. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Last month, Trevelyan said she was leaving the BBC to become a full-time slavery reparations campaigner and announced that she and relatives had donated £100,000 to education projects in Grenada.

Renton, the son of a Conservative cabinet minister, said the group wanted to use their inherited privilege to put pressure on the government for change. “As descendants of wealthy families, we inherited disproportionate influence and power in modern Britain. We’re encouraging everybody who finds themselves in this position to look at what they can do to help,” he said.

Renton’s 2021 book, Blood Legacy, investigating his family’s slave-owning past, prompted other descendants of slave-owning families to contact him asking for advice on what they should do. As well as directing people to charities, he hopes that the new group will work to support existing campaigns, seeking apologies and reparative justice.

“We’re keen not to do what people like me are educated to do, which is to take centre stage and try to take charge of things, but instead to offer our skills to support the hard work others are doing,” Renton said.

Richard Atkinson, a publisher with Penguin, has also researched his family’s slave-owning past. “There must be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of families in this country who have a version of that history. Individuals should give money, according to their means and their conscience, but it’s too big a subject to be just down to individuals,” he said. Political parties should be writing commitments to reparative justice into their manifestoes, he said.

Olivette Otele, distinguished research professor of the memory of slavery at SOAS, University of London, was cautiously welcoming. She said: “It is an important initiative and potentially transformative but it needs to be more than half a dozen people. There are many, many other people who ought to be on that list.”

She stressed it was important to make sure the group collaborated with already existing movements, to avoid being labelled white saviours, “trying to tackle racism on their own … But I want to applaud it. It reminds me of the movement to abolish the slave trade, where you had enslaved people in the Caribbean fighting for their own freedom but also you also had abolitionists in European capitals, and it was this collaboration that brought slavery to an end,” she said.

The announcement follows a recent surge in support for the reparations movement. Last December, the Netherlands became the first major national government to apologise for its role in enslaving Africa; Mark Rutte, the prime minister, made a formal apology and pledged to commit £200m of government funds towards restoration work in the former Dutch colonies.

The Guardian has this month published research into its founders’ links to slavery and King Charles has recently signalled his support for research into the British monarchy’s historical links with transatlantic slavery. The all party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations is hosting a meeting on Tuesday to debate “why now is the time for official apologies for African enslavement”.

Sega of America workers want to unionize

Story by Nicole Carpenter • 10h ago

Sega of America workers at the Irvine, California office filed for a union vote with the National Labor Relations Board, workers announced Monday. The union is called the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega — or AEGIS — and partnered with the Communications Workers of America. Its slogan, “to be this good takes AEGIS,” is a play on an old Sega tagline.


Sega of America workers want to unionize© Image: Sega

The unit currently includes 144 roles at the Irvine, California headquarters and across departments — marketing, games as a service, localization, product development, and quality assurance. The Sega of America Irvine office, which opened in 2022, houses up to 235 Sega of American employees. AEGIS-CWA is the first industry union at a major company to span multiple departments, something workers at Activision Blizzard attempted at Boston-based Proletariat earlier this year. The video game industry’s unionization push has largely been led by QA workers and indie studios; Tender Claws Human Union was among the first of these studios to span several departments.

“Working for SEGA is a passion for many of us and it’s been so exciting to see that through organizing, we can make this work a sustainable long-term career,” QA lead Mohammad Saman said in a statement. “By creating our union, AEGIS-CWA, we’ll have a say in the decisions that shape our working conditions and ensure the job security and working conditions we deserve. We’re excited to protect what already makes SEGA great, and help build an even stronger company, together.”

Sega of America workers, who work on franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog and Persona, are looking to secure higher base pay for all unit members alongside raises that meet inflation levels, improved benefits, clearly outlined promotion and advancement plans, balanced schedules, and “adequate staffing” to “end patterns of overwork,” workers said.

Sega Sammy, which is the holding company for Sega and Sammy Corporation after the 2004 merger, announced in February that Japan-based employees would see a 30% salary increase “further stabilize employee income and create a more comfortable working environment, as well as to further strengthen its global competitiveness,” according to GamesIndustry.biz. The increase did not extend outside of Japan, and followed a pattern of wages increases from Japanese studios like Nintendo and Capcom.

Sega of America has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment. Two Sega of America workers and union members told The Verge they hadn’t experienced union-busting from management; they’re hoping leadership will voluntarily recognize the union. A date hasn’t yet been set for the union election.

The union announcement is another milestone for the video game industry’s unionization efforts, which kicked off in earnest when workers at the defunct indie studio Vodeo Games announced its union in late 2021. Since then, unions have popped up all across the games industry, spanning video game studios large and small as well as through tabletop game makers and sellers. Notably, Activision Blizzard houses two QA unions in its Blizzard Albany and Raven Software studios as the company works to push its acquisition by Microsoft through the Federal Trade Commission. Microsoft, for its part, has pledged neutrality toward unions, and from that, ZeniMax Media QA workers voted to unionize, sidestepping the NLRB’s process to vote through authorization cards and an online portal. Should Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition go through, the neutrality deal will apply to all Activision Blizzard studios, too.

Game workers across industries have been historically pushed to their limits through brutal crunch, low pay, and discrimination; it’s been well-documents for years in both lawsuits, on social media, and the press. Workers over the past few years have pushed back on all that, and are looking for a workforce reckoning and a place at the table to negotiate for their working rights. It’s a reflection of a wider movement in the United States as workers take on bosses at major corporations like eBay, Starbucks and Amazon.

House suspends after bill that recognizes Canadian artists fails to get a sponsor

Story by The Canadian Press • 

OTTAWA — The House of Commons took an unplanned break Monday morning after no member of Parliament came forward to sponsor the legislation it was set to debate.


The House was scheduled to tackle a bill that wouldhave recognized the critical role artists and the arts play in every dimension of Canadian life.

"This will be the foundation for developing the necessary policies for the arts, museums and performance halls, art galleries, workshops, publishing houses and more," said Manitoba Sen. Patricia Bovey, the bill's sponsor, during a final debate last year.

The Senate passed the bill in October.

It was intended to be the platform for "much-needed policy revisions, updates and parameters for the creative sector in this country, which is the third-largest employer in our nation and yet one whose creators comprise the largest percentage of workers living below the poverty line," Bovey said.

Bovey's bill was supposed to be sponsored in the House of Commons by Liberal MP Jim Carr.

But Carr died in December and no MP had been found to take his place on the legislation before it came up on the House schedule on Monday.

Speaker Anthony Rota was forced to suspend the proceedings for an hour until MPs were ready to take up the next item on the agenda.

A spokesperson for government House leader Mark Holland says it's up to MPs themselves to come forward to sponsor a non-government bill, and the government has no role in determining who sponsors them.

More than 600 people were involved in Bovey's consultations prior to her bill being tabled in the Senate.

Bovey, who is soon turning 75, is set to retire from the Senate on May 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Court challenge dropped after Chevron surrenders offshore oil and gas permits in B.C. ocean conservation hot spots

Story by The Canadian Press • 

Environmental groups have dropped a court case against Chevron Canada after it surrendered a number of historical oil and gas permits posing risks to sensitive marine conservation areas on the B.C. coast.

Chevron voluntarily gave up 19 permits in the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area north of Vancouver Island and in rare protected glass sponge reefs in Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound.

The fossil fuel giant made the announcement after the David Suzuki Foundation and World Wildlife Fund Canada, represented by the legal charity Ecojustice, launched a court challenge disputing the permits in July 2022.

The groups planned to argue historical offshore oil and gas rights (or “sleeper permits”) granted by the federal government to oil corporations as far back as 50 years ago shouldn’t remain valid — especially in dedicated conservation areas. Natural Resources Canada has continued to extend the permits indefinitely, a move at odds with the Canada Petroleum Resources Act, Ecojustice said.

Chevron’s announcement is a bittersweet win, said Ecojustice lawyer Ian Miron.

The retirement of the permits in question improves the protection of the two fragile sponge colonies and the Scott Islands — which boasts the highest concentration of breeding seabirds on Canada’s Pacific coast. But Chevron’s remaining sleeper permits in B.C. waters pose an ongoing threat to other critical marine ecosystems, Miron said.

“Our focus was on those particular permits in the conservation areas,” he said.

“But, obviously, there are other important and sensitive and ecologically valuable areas up and down the coast.”

Giving up the oil and gas permits ensures the Scott Islands and glass sponge reef marine protected areas (MPAs) can fully count towards Canada’s marine conservation targets, Chevron said.

Canada, along with nearly 200 other nations, promised to protect 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030 at last winter’s global UN biodiversity summit, COP15, in Montreal.

“Chevron is continually assessing its portfolio and has been in communication with Natural Resources Canada since 2020 on the opportunity to contribute to … Canada’s international marine conservation targets,” said Christopher Mazerolle, Chevron Canada president, in a press statement.

However, Chevron’s remaining sleeper permits could continue to hinder Canada’s ability to meet its ocean conservation targets, Miron stressed.

The federal government recently confirmed new minimum standards for any future MPAs that prohibit oil and gas activity, along with mining, dumping and destructive bottom-trawling fishing.

So Chevron’s permits could still limit or complicate the creation of new conservation areas, including a massive proposal to create a network of marine protected areas along the B.C. coast, or the Indigenous-led effort to protect ocean waters adjacent to the Great Bear Rainforest, Miron said

“The fact that there are still permits out there can impede designating new protected areas,” he said.

“If a company has a claim [in a given location], the government might think twice about whether they want to protect that area.”

Other oil and gas companies, including Shell and Exxon, have relinquished all their permits on the West Coast, which has been under a federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas activity since 1972.

It’s unlikely the provincial and federal stance on offshore drilling will change in the immediate future, Miron acknowledged, but he stressed oil and gas exploration on the B.C. coast is not off the table.

The moratorium is a policy decision not supported by law or legislation and so is vulnerable to changes in the political climate, he said.

When in power, the former B.C. Liberal government committed to developing offshore oil and gas in its 2007 BC Energy Plan and lobbied the federal government to reverse the moratorium, stating it would do the same with the provincial moratorium.

“The moratorium is just a policy, and can be changed by the government of the day,” Miron said. “It's not legally binding.”

All outstanding offshore oil and gas permits on the West Coast are at odds with Canada’s promises to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet its 30x30 pledge to protect nature, he added.

“We’d like either the industry or government, or both, to give up remaining permits or cancel them,” Miron said.

“I think that’s well in keeping with those [government] commitments.”

Chevron Canada did not reply to a request for comment before publication deadline.

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Experts say PCs’ proposed Bill 97 is a sprawl inducing ‘full frontal assault’ on Ontario agriculture

LONG READ

The GTHA has a seemingly ideal mix of land use: dense urban centres surrounded by some of the world’s most fertile soils. The Greenbelt acts as a shield, surrounding Canada’s largest population cluster with clean air, naturally filtered water and thousands of acres to escape the limitations of city life.

Some of Canada’s most fertile agricultural lands sit along and above the Great Lakes sub-basin where some 10 million residents live across the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The urban megapolis includes Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton and dozens of other municipalities where once fertile farmland was the breadbasket of a giant new country.

Don Mills, a northeastern neighbourhood of Toronto, retained most of its rural characteristics until the end of the Second World War, dotted by family farms supplying food to the surrounding communities. Population growth at the end of the war created immense pressure to expand, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, the landscape was permanently altered. Where once existed vast farmland checkered by a range of multi-coloured fields, single detached homes with fenced yards and paved roads angling their way around new neighbourhoods rapidly emerged.

Don Mills was called Canada’s “first subdivision” bringing with it the birth of sprawl.

It was soon followed by similar patterns in Bramalea and Mississauga, as some of the most valuable agricultural land in the country was turned over to make way for the post-war baby boom and its suburban demographic shift.

As development policies, attitudes and governments have since changed, growth patterns across Southern Ontario began to do the same about 20 years ago. Vertical growth seen across much of the GTHA, in the form of condos that pop up like mushrooms, has dominated cities such as Mississauga, Ottawa and Brampton, while other forms of more dense housing have also populated real estate offerings over the past decade.

In March, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the GTA saw 402 single-detached housing starts, compared to 2,780 new home starts in all other categories including condos, townhouses and apartments.

It also reported that last year was the first time Ottawa saw more apartment starts than all other housing types combined.

These types of statistics are the direct result of anti-sprawl legislation and policies first contemplated after the PCs lost power in 2003. The Places to Grow Act was passed in 2005 and ushered in two decades of density to push back on the effects of sprawl across Southern Ontario.

But despite efforts to control the constant spread outward, farmland continues to be gobbled up to make way for more subdivisions. Vertical growth seen across much of the GTHA, in towering condos, has been accompanied by more townhouses, row-houses and apartments while the construction of new single-family homes has slowed but not stopped.

The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) has long advocated for a return to subdivision housing and for more than a decade pushed back against the Places to Grow Act, which forced the construction of more dense housing in the hope of containing the footprint of growth across Southern Ontario.

The current PC provincial government under the leadership of Doug Ford has adopted many of BILD’s recommendations, to address the housing crisis while following the planning approach of the ‘80s and ‘90s, when subdivisions ruled supreme.

This return to the past has been solidified over the past six months with the introduction of Bill 23, the amendments to the Greenbelt Act and, most recently, the proposed Bill 97.

The Greenbelt consists of 2-million acres of protected land to maintain for perpetuity the agricultural, natural heritage, and watershed ecosystems found throughout the arcing expanse that circles the most heavily populated part of Canada. The Greenbelt was only created in 2005 — the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine were created in 1985 and 2002 respectively which came together under the Greenbelt Plan — when most of the GTHA’s urban boundary had already been developed.

Had the Greenbelt been created 50 or even 20 years prior, it would have included much more land in the southern reaches where instead we now have the northernmost outcroppings of suburban sprawl.

As is evident from the example of Don Mills, much of what is not built up in the GTHA was once vital farmland. The Greenbelt holds what remains.

Victor Doyle, best known as the architect of the Greenbelt Plan, told The Pointer its boundaries were not arbitrarily decided. The landscape was carved out by the retraction of the Laurentide ice sheet approximately 10,000 years ago, leaving with it deposits of nutrients creating rich soil suitable for agriculture. Much of the rest of Ontario lies within the Canadian Shield with very different geologic characteristics and poor farming potential.

“Things are where they are for a reason,” Doyle said. “If you keep removing land along the south side of the Greenbelt, for instance, and adding land on the north or west, eventually the Greenbelt is going to be in a far different location than it was. And that makes no sense in terms of protecting the value of the landscape.”

In a push to build more homes across the province, the Ford government is proposing to do just that, removing land from the Greenbelt and pushing urban boundaries right to its edge, or, in some cases, within the protected corridor, despite fact-based direction from scores of urban planners — including the government’s own housing task force — that land is not the issue behind the current housing crisis.

“High level, what's happening is the government is dismantling land-use planning and environmental legislation policy regulation across Ontario, but particularly in the Golden Horseshoe under the guise of providing for housing,” Doyle said. “And it's a completely false narrative, because there's tons of land approved for housing.”

In November, Bill 23 was enshrined, “cutting through the red tape”, as the PCs put it, that is supposedly hindering development.

The numbers do not support the claims.

According to the CMHC, in 1995 there were about 37,000 housing starts across Ontario, by 2011, under Places to Grow, there were roughly 60,000 starts, and 2021 and 2022 (which reflect the planning process in place before the recent changes took effect) saw the highest number of housing starts in more than 30 years, with an average of about 97,500 new starts each of the last two years.

The facts show the PC claim of red tape hindering the development industry, a narrative long pushed by BILD, simply is not true.

Nonetheless, Ford, who has been in lockstep with BILD, has pushed through his legislative changes to make it even easier to get houses built, with hardly any public oversight or input from communities.

These changes include an overhaul of the mandate of conservation authorities, limiting their ability to comment on development applications; changes to the wetland evaluation system which in turn make it easier to build around and even in sensitive ecosystems; and the downgrading of planning authority from upper to lower-tier municipalities.

Bill 23 was quickly followed by changes to the Greenbelt Act which cut out 7,400 acres of land making it suitable for development and replacing it with 9,400 acres elsewhere. The newest change to provincial development legislation comes in the form of the proposed omnibus Bill 97, the sweeping Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act. Currently in its second reading at Queen’s Park, the proposed Bill was referred last week to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy.

To achieve their goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031 (which is about three times more than the historic rate) the PCs want to amend various statutes with respect to housing and development, and create a new Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), which will be called the Provincial Planning Statement, with changes including:

“These are all extremely regressive actions that have nothing to do with housing,” Doyle said.

The changes proposed in Bill 97, to support Bill 23, will effectively allow agricultural land to be turned over for development much faster and without density requirements meant to control sprawl.

Martin Straathof, executive director of the Ontario Farmland Trust, said the changes from the old PPS (the PCs want the new PPS to be in effect before the end of the year) look minor at first glance, but the connotation of particular words is what makes the legislation so significant.

“Something like changing the words from ‘shall’ to ‘should’ or ‘encouraged’. It really restricts any requirement from a municipality standpoint, to do any sort of an assessment that says, ‘No, don't go out onto prime agricultural land’,” he said. “Even the option of using an agricultural systems approach is ‘encouraged’, when really, it should be required.”

Ahmed Mirza, a coordinator with the Peel Food Action Council, and Straathof stressed that Bill 97 is only the tip of the iceberg, building on Bill 23, and the changes to the Greenbelt Act that came before it. Both experts agree these changes will exacerbate farmland loss and have devastating consequences for the agricultural sector in Ontario.

Farming in Peel is already under grave threat due to climate change. The threat urban sprawl poses to farmland loss is another layer that compounds the looming problem. Based on the 2012 Municipal Property Assessment Corporation assessment, approximately 45 percent of the region’s total land base was used for farming, mostly within the Town of Caledon. But this farming base has been in sharp decline over the past few decades. In 2011, there were 440 farms across Peel Region. According to the 2021 Census, there are 377 farms, a 14 percent decrease in one decade.

As of July 1, 2017, amendments to the Ontario Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) began which included new policies to better manage and protect farmland in GGH growth areas. The document highlights that agricultural areas “will provide a significant contribution to the region’s resilience and our ability to adapt to a changing climate. Unique and high quality agricultural lands will be protected for the provision of healthy, local food for future generations. Farming will be productive, diverse, and sustainable.”

If Bill 97 is passed, it will infringe on these protections.

“We're going to see that rate of farmland [loss] increase,” Straathof said. “When we should be seeing higher protections to decrease that rate of farmland loss, this is going to do the absolute opposite to it.”

“It's not something to be taken lightly,” Mirza said. “We would be developing on the Greenbelt, we will be taking away space that is meant for our local growing, and our local food system.”

He is an urban agriculturalist by trade and works with community garden programs. His own program, called Happy Plant, has been running for a couple of years and works with community members to grow food and take it to farmer’s markets where they collaborate with other community gardens. He joined Peel Food Action Council in 2021 as a core member where he works as a food justice advocate pushing for food security across the region.

Local food security is under threat, he fears.

“From a food systems perspective, you always want to have local access to food. From an economic perspective, you always want to have food that's accessible nearby,” he said. “Once you start purchasing food from far away, and especially for millions and millions of people, the cost of food goes up a lot.”

Mirza worries that as the region’s population continues to increase, and sprawling communities continue to be built to accommodate this growth, there is no telling what the ultimate impact will be on local food security.

It has been estimated Peel will grow to a population of 2.2 million, up from 1.5 million, by 2051. But under Bill 23, the region is expected to build 246,000 new homes, mostly in Mississauga and Brampton, which could push the population close to 2.5 million in just eight years, by 2031, which is the target under the legislation to get 1.5 million homes constructed across Ontario. Caledon might not be able to control its own growth under the PC legislative agenda, and its vast tracts of available land could see its population explode the way Brampton’s did over the past thirty years. Developers have already assembled much of the farmland between the Greenbelt and Caledon’s southern border, and if the 413 Highway is built it will only speed up subdivision-style growth across the municipality.

While all that local farmland is lost, it is estimated the cost of food will rise another seven percent this year with vegetables anticipated to rise between six and eight percent, and fruit between three and five percent. Apollo insurance company estimates the average cost of groceries for a single person living in Toronto would be around $360 per month. The costs would be similar for those living in Peel. With the average Ontarian bringing home $3,250 per month (based on a $39,000 salary), food would take up 11 percent of their pre-tax earnings.

“All of this affects the people that are the least enfranchised, the least fortunate,” Mirza said.

Bill 97 would make it more difficult for the next generation to farm on the agricultural land that still exists.

Straathof said Ontario has already been seeing an increase in farm amalgamation which has made it more difficult for smaller farms to compete, and “this notion that in order to be able to remain viable or competitive is that the farms need to get bigger”. Simultaneously, the allowance for farm lots to be severed, if Bill 97 is passed, will dramatically up the prices of the properties, keeping them out of reach for local farmers who might want to expand.

The Region of Waterloo has a bylaw that was established in 1973 that prohibits carving out and selling off farmland that results in farms of less than 80 acres. Bill 97 will overrule this legislation.

If Bill 97 is passed, a farm lot could be severed three times.

“So we're seeing a lot more people who are not farmers buying farmland to be able to put their money into an investment…with the hopes that they can turn it around and sell it for a profit,” Straathof said. He worries it will never “be farmers who own farmland anymore?”

“This seems like a full frontal attack on the agricultural sector…and the eroding of the agricultural food system, with the very foundation being our farmland.”

Some organizations are hoping public consultations on Bill 97, lasting until June, after Bill 23 was rammed through alongside changes to the Greenbelt Act, will force reasonable amendments to the proposed legislation. But Straathof said he fears the government still isn’t listening.

The PCs ignored widespread public backlash to its aggressive housing plan late last year.

“‘Is the government listening to us?’ is a major concern. Will they make changes? That's yet to be seen,” Straathof said.

A report by registered professional planner Kevin Eby, for The Alliance for a Liveable Ontario, concludes there is more than enough land within existing urban boundaries across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate the unprecedented housing targets imposed by the provincial government, a sentiment that has been shared by other planners, politicians and environmentalists. Eby’s analysis shows there is significant land in the GGH that could provide upwards of two million units, greater than the government’s target of 1.5 million for all of Ontario.

“When I see something like that [the report], that doesn't have anything to do with the planning systems at play,” Straathof said. “And yet, what this legislation is doing is completely turning good planning practices that we have been developing for decades in order to prevent things like sprawl, and environmental degradation, and farmland preservation, turning it on its head, permitting all those things again.”

“You have to stop and wonder, ‘what is it that either they're not seeing, or why is it that they feel like agriculture is an industry to be going after this way?’”

Doyle agreed the PCs seem determined to use a heavy handed approach.

“What they're doing then is basically overriding municipalities and silencing citizens by restricting their rights to appeal, to participate, to consult,” he said.

Doyle said his hope is that Bill 97 does not pass, at least in its entirety. But even so, the PCs have already enshrined dangerous development legislation with very little hope of it being repealed.

“Hopefully we'll get a more progressive mind elected in the next election. But this government has approved so much land,” Doyle said. “And there's no turning back.”

Email: rachel.morgan@thepointer.com
Twitter: @rachelnadia_
 Brampton and Mississauga 
Rachel Morgan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

Montana transgender lawmaker silenced again, backers protest

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana Republicans persisted in forbidding Democratic transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from participating in debate for a second week and her supporters brought the House session to a halt Monday — chanting “Let her speak!” from the gallery before they were escorted out.



Zephyr defiantly hoisted her microphone into the air as her supporters interrupted proceedings for nearly half an hour in protest of Republicans denying her requests to speak on a proposal that would restrict when children can change the names and pronouns they use in school and require parental consent.

The interruption — hours after supporters rallied on the Capitol steps — was the latest development in a standoff over Zephyr's remarks against lawmakers who support a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Zephyr, a first-term Democrat from Missoula, hasn’t spoken on the Statehouse floor since last Tuesday when she told Republican colleagues they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.

Law enforcement escorted Zephyr's supporters from the gallery above the House floor, including several by force. Seven were arrested for criminal trespass, the sheriff said. They were going to be booked and released.

The disruption drew the ire of Republican leaders, who described it as a “riot” and an “insurrection.”

Leaders cut the sound on the video feed, and Zephyr remained on the floor holding her microphone as supporters also chanted “Whose House? Our House!” The sergeant-at-arms asked Zephyr to help settle things down — a request he said she rebuffed.

Zephyr did not return the the floor after lawmakers reconvened. She told The Associated Press she was headed to the county jail with the protesters who were arrested. She tweeted that she went there to show “support for those who were arrested defending democracy.”

Supporters of the ban saw Zephyr’s admonishment as unprecedented and personal, yet most have refrained from commenting publicly.

House leadership declined to comment to journalists Monday but released a statement saying they “condemn violence and will always stand for civil debate and respect for our processes of government.”

"Today’s riot by far-left agitators damages our discourse and endangered legislators and staff. Their actions did not represent Montana values,” House Speaker Matt Regier, Speaker pro tempore Rhonda Knudsen and Majority Leader Sue Vinton said in the statement.

The conservative Montana Freedom Caucus, which called for Zephyr to be censured after her comments last week, issued a statement condemning the actions of “the violent protesters” in the Capitol. It said a small minority of people disrupted the legislature’s business, showing “why we must enforce the rules of decorum when engaged in public debate.”

“Zephyr encouraged these actions by standing in the middle of the floor encouraging an insurrection after all members were told to move to the sides,” and people in the gallery were told to leave. The caucus, which includes 21 of the legislature’s 102 Republican lawmakers called for immediate disciplinary action against Zephyr.

Related video: Rally attendees urge Montana House Speaker to recognize transgender Representative (KRTV Great Falls, MT)  Duration 0:46  View on Watch

KRTV Great Falls, MTProtest at Montana Legislature over silencing of trans Representative

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Scripps NewsMontana transgender lawmaker silenced again as backers erupt

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Zephyr and her supporters say her statements accurately illustrate the stakes of the legislation under discussion, arguing that restricting gender-affirming care endangers transgender youth, who studies suggest are at greater risk of depression and suicide.

Earlier in the day, Zephyr spoke from the Capitol steps, telling supporters that she planned to continue speaking forcefully against legislation that members of the transgender community, including herself, consider matters of life and death.

“I was sent here to speak on behalf of my constituents and to speak on behalf of my community. It's the promise I made when I got elected, and it's a promise that I will continue to keep every single day," Zephyr said.

She also connected the transgender community's struggle against gender-affirming care bans to political fights animating other marginalized groups throughout the United States.

“When those communities who see the repercussions of those bills have the audacity to stand up and say, ‘This legislation gets us killed,’ those in power aren’t content with just passing those hateful, harmful bills," she said. “What they are demanding is silence. We will not be complicit in our eradication,” she said.

Those gathered held signs of support, cheered and waved Pride flags.

After the rally, a 21-year-old teared up as he told Zephyr about his fears of coming out as transgender in his a small town in southwestern Montana. Others hugged the lawmaker, thanked her for fighting and apologized for the fact that she had to do so.

Katy Spence, a constituent who drove in from Missoula, said the standoff was about censoring ideas, not decorum.

“She’s been silenced because she spoke the truth about what these anti-trans bills are doing in Montana — to trans youth especially,” Spence said.

The standoff is the latest example of emergent discussions around civility, decorum and how to discuss political issues many perceive as life and death.

Zephyr was silenced and deliberately misgendered by some Republican lawmakers in response to her charge last week. Republican leaders have demanded she apologize and said they won't let any lawmaker speak whom they don't trust to uphold decorum — regardless of party or gender. Misgendering is using pronouns that do not match a person's gender identity.

Months after Zephyr became the first openly transgender woman elected to the Montana Legislature, the state joined a long list of legislatures passing new restrictions on transgender children. Proposals this year have addressed issues ranging from the health care they can access to the sports teams they can play on to the names they can go by.

Though proceedings have been heated in more than a dozen statehouses, Republican efforts to keep Zephyr from speaking have given such legislative battles newfound attention.

Lawmakers passed the gender-affirming care ban last week, and Gianforte has indicated he will sign it.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal have vowed to challenge it in court before it takes effect in October.

Metz reported from Salt Lake City.

Amy Beth Hanson And Sam Metz, The Associated Press

Fascist sympathizers take to street as Falange founder's body exhumed

Story by By REUTERS • 

Three people were arrested on Monday after police clashed with sympathizers of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Spain's fascist Falange movement that supported the Francoist regime, whose body was exhumed from a mausoleum near Madrid

Supporter of the founder of Spanish fascist Falange party, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, gesture outside the San Isidro cemetery, where his remains exhumed from the Franco-era monument known as "The Valley of the Fallen" were transferred, in Madrid, Spain, April 24, 2023© (photo credit: Juan Medina/Reuters)

Spain on Monday dug up the body of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the fascist Falange movement that supported the Francoist regime, and removed it from a mausoleum carved into a mountainside near Madrid as sympathizers gave fascist salutes.

A handful of supporters gathered outside the gates of the complex formerly known as the Valley of the Fallen made the gesture and held up banners saying "Jose Antonio is present" or shouted "Long live Spain" as his hearse drove past.

Police struggled to hold back a larger crowd of about 150 Falange supporters gathered outside the San Isidro cemetery in southern Madrid, where he was to be reburied. They gave the fascist salute and sang the Falangist hymn "Facing the sun."

His exhumation, which follows the 2019 removal of the remains of dictator Francisco Franco, is part of a plan to convert the complex built by Franco, which last year was renamed the Valley of Cuelgamuros, into a memorial to the 500,000 people killed during Spain's 1936-39 civil war.

Presidency Minister Felix Bolanos on Friday hailed the exhumation as another step in giving the valley new symbolism.



Supporters of the founder of Spanish fascist Falange party, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, wait to pay tribute outside the San Isidro cemetery, where his remains exhumed from the Franco-era monument known as ''The Valley of the Fallen'' were transferred, in Madrid, Spain, April 24, 2023. (credit: Juan Medina/Reuters)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostSupporters of the founder of Spanish fascist Falange party, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, wait to pay tribute outside the San Isidro cemetery, where his remains exhumed from the Franco-era monument known as ''The Valley of the Fallen'' were transferred, in Madrid, Spain, April 24, 2023. (credit: Juan Medina/Reuters)

"No person or ideology that evokes the dictatorship should be honored or extolled there," he said at the time.

The son of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who governed Spain from 1923-1930, Jose Antonio was shot by firing squad in November 1936 by left-wing Republican forces in Alicante.

Exhuming the leader's body

It is the fifth time his body has been buried and the fourth time it has been exhumed.

In 1939, after having lain in two different mass graves in Alicante, his coffin was paraded 500 km (300 miles) from the eastern coastal city to San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a town near Madrid where Spain's royals are buried.

His remains were moved again on the completion of the Valley of the Fallen monument 20 years later and buried under the altar of the basilica, where Franco would join him on his death in 1975.

Franco, a conservative general, and Primo de Rivera, a flamboyant playboy, had little love for each other, according to Franco's biographer Paul Preston.

Franco sabotaged several efforts to organize a rescue or a prisoner swap that would have saved Primo de Rivera's life, Preston wrote in his biography.

His death allowed Franco to eliminate a rival and take control of the Falangists, subsuming them to a broader far-right movement that supported his dictatorship.

The government is carrying out works in the mausoleum to permit access to the crypts where 34,000 people's remains, many of them victims of Franco's regime, are buried anonymously, allowing families to identify their relatives.

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Scotland's Stone of Destiny gives up tantalizing details under new scans

Story by Chris Knight • 

A curator cleans a 3D model of the Stone of Destiny during a press event at The Engine Shed in Stirling, Scotland.© Provided by National Post

Ahead of the May 6 coronation of King Charles III, scientists in Scotland have discovered “previously unrecorded markings” that might be Roman numerals on the Stone of Destiny, the centuries-old sandstone block that is a centrepiece of royal succession in Britain.

The news comes in a recent release by Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the charitable organization that oversees hundreds of Scottish buildings and monuments as well as documents and photographs. The group created a new digital 3D model of the stone, allowing it to be viewed from different perspectives and in higher detail than ever before.

Among the discoveries were previously unrecorded markings “which have the appearance of Roman numerals.” Scientists were also able to get a better look at tooling marks from the original working of the stone, and at repair that was done after the stone was stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1950 by several Scottish university students.

“It’s very exciting to discover new information about an object as unique and important to Scotland’s history as the Stone of Destiny,” said Ewan Hyslop, Head of Research and Climate Change at HES. “The high level of detail we’ve been able to capture through the digital imaging has enabled us to re-examine the tooling marks on the surface of the Stone, which has helped confirm that the Stone has been roughly worked by more than one stonemason with a number of different tools, as was previously thought.”

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The scan was also used to create an exact-scale 3D printed replica of the stone, in preparation for placing it in the coronation chair to be used in King Charles’ coronation ceremony.

Historically, the Stone of Destiny, also known as the Stone of Scone or, in Scots Gaelic, “clach-na-cinneamhain,” was used in the crowning of Scottish monarchs, and was kept in Scone Abbey near Perth, Scotland. But in 1296 the invading forces of Edward I seized it and took it to London. Edward then commissioned the construction of a coronation chair — still in use today — with a shelf to hold the roughly 150 kg slab.

The stone resided at Westminster Abbey until, in 1950, Scottish students stole it, accidentally breaking it in two while trying to get it back to Scotland. It was recovered the following April, and in 1996 — 700 years after its seizure by Edward I — it was returned to Scotland, on the understanding that it would travel back to Westminster for future coronations.

The last major investigative work on the stone was in 1998. The new scans, including X-ray fluorescence analysis, found traces of copper alloy on the top surface that coincides with a dark stain near its centre, suggesting that a bronze or brass object has been in contact with or placed on the Stone at some time in its history.

Microscopic traces of gypsum plaster were also found, infilling pores in the sandstone at various places, which scientists think could be the remnants of a plaster cast that was taken some time in the past.

“The scientific analysis we’ve been able to undertake using cutting-edge techniques that weren’t previously available to us have offered some intriguing new clues to the history of the Stone,” said Ewan. “We may not have all the answers at this stage, but what we’ve been able to uncover is testament to a variety of uses in the Stone’s long history and contributes to its provenance and authenticity.”

The 3D model of the stone can be viewed online at sketchfab.com .

Posthaste: Albertans hit hardest by inflation as 'Alberta advantage' melts away

Story by Pamela Heaven • 15h ago   Financial Post

Since 2019, Albertans' purchasing power on average has declined by 3.6 per cent, while it has increased by 3.3 per cent in the rest of the country

Rising prices have been a thorn in our sides going on two years now, with inflation hitting lofty heights not seen since the 1980s.

But no where in the country are Canadians feeling the impact of that inflation as much as in Alberta, says a new report by Alberta Central .

“We find that Albertans have seen the most significant underperformance in their purchasing power since 2019 of all Canadian provinces,” writes chief economist Charles St-Arnaud.

The study finds that since 2019, Albertans’ purchasing power on average has declined by 3.6 per cent, while it has increased by 3.3 per cent in the rest of the country.

“This is an underperformance of 6.9 per cent relative to the rest of Canada, which is quite considerable given the relatively brief period of about three years,” said St. Arnaud.

Are prices higher in Alberta?

Inflation has been a roller coaster over the past few years, says the study. Back in 2019 it sat comfortably around the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent. It dropped to zero early in 2020 as the pandemic hit and energy prices plummeted . Then it started to rise when the economy reopened in early 2021 as commodity prices rebounded and supply chain disruptions led to shortages. It peaked at about 8 per cent in the middle of 2022 when energy prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukrain

After the Bank of Canada rapidly hiked interest rates, the rate of inflation has slowed and in March sat at 4.3 per cent.

The consumer price index has increased by a cumulative 13 per cent since the end of 2019, said St-Arnaud. But it actually rose the least, 11.4 per cent, in Alberta. (Prince Edward Island suffered the worst rise at 16.6 per cent.)

If not inflation, what?

St-Arnaud says the problem is that wages and income growth in Alberta have not keep up with the rest of Canada. Since 2019, nominal wages and income in Canada have risen by 16.5 per cent, while in Alberta they have increased by only 8.6 per cent, an underperformance of almost 8 per cent, said the study.

Meanwhile, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario have outperformed on wages and income over the past three years.

While the first culprit that springs to mind is the 2020 oil slump , St-Arnaud says the underperformance is broad-based across industries.

Rather his early analysis suggests other factors are at play. First, strong migration to Alberta, both from within the country and without, has kept the supply of workers in the province higher than in other regions, reducing the pressure to raise wages. This is backed up by the comparatively lower job vacancy rate in the province.

Second is an adjustment after the energy boom-bust cycle. In the 2000s and early years of the 2010s, high demand for labour drove wages in Alberta well above the national average. What is happening now is a return to normal with wages more in line with the rest of the country, said the economist.

Back in 2019, hourly wages and weekly earnings in Alberta were 6 to 9 per cent higher than the rest of the country, with disposable income 20 per cent higher — a situation that became know as the “Alberta advantage.”

Even today as Albertans see the biggest drop in purchasing power, they still earn more on average than households in the rest of the country.

But that is fading fast with hourly wages now on par with the rest of Canada and weekly earnings only 3 per cent higher.

“The underperformance means that the “Alberta Advantage is melting away rapidly, to a point where it has disappeared based on some measures,” said St-Arnaud.

ALBERTA
Smith declines to disavow comments urging out-of-pocket payments for health care

Story by The Canadian Press • 

EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith is declining to say whether she stands by or is disavowing earlier comments she made proposing Albertans pay out-of-pocket for medically insured services as a way to keep the health-care system sustainable.



Smith has declined four times over the past nine days to say whether she stands by a policy paper she wrote in 2021, which urges Albertans to begin paying for services covered by medicare, including visits to a family doctor.

Smith’s United Conservative Party government has committed not to delist any current medically insured services or to having Albertans pay for services or prescriptions currently covered by medicare.

At a news conference Monday, Smith, when asked again where she stands philosophically on Albertans paying out-of-pocket, pointed to a long-term health funding deal Alberta recently signed with Ottawa.

“I believe actions speak louder than anything,” said Smith.

“One of the first things I've done as premier is sign a 10-year, $24-billion health-care agreement with the federal government, where we jointly agree to uphold the principles of the Canada Health Act.

“One of those main principles is no one pays out-of-pocket for a family doctor, and no one pays for hospital services. That's in writing.”

The reporter was not allowed to challenge the answer, as Smith has instituted a rule that she be asked one question per reporter per news conference with no followups.

The Opposition NDP said Albertans need to know what Smith believes, given she is seeking a four-year mandate in an election campaign set to begin next week with voters going to the polls May 29.

"Danielle Smith wants Albertans to pay to see their doctor,” NDP health critic David Shepherd said in a statement.

“She has published a detailed plan and described it on the record many times. Smith had many opportunities to disavow this plan, but she’s refused.

“When we proposed universal coverage for prescription birth control, Smith said Albertans should pay out-of-pocket for private health insurance.”

Smith, in turn, said the NDP needs to explain why it continued government practice of charging $40 a day for addiction treatment beds when it was in power from 2015 to 2019.

“(NDP Leader Rachel Notley) needs to answer for whether or not she'll bring that back because she certainly didn't remove it when she had the chance,” said Smith.

Smith has faced questions, even from supporters, on where she stands on paying for medicare.

On April 15, on her Corus radio call-in show, Smith was asked three times about her views.

A self-described party supporter named Jeff called in to say he’s OK with out-of-pocket payments but doesn’t know where Smith stands.

“I’m really confused,” the caller told Smith. “It seems to be changing all the time.”

Another listener said he didn’t believe Smith had changed her views, saying in a text message read aloud by host Wayne Nelson: “Let me ask you directly: do you now categorically reject what you wrote in that (policy) paper? Yes or no?”

Smith declined to answer and pointed both questioners to her proposal to create health spending accounts. The accounts would give Albertans $300 in seed money with incentives to help them grow the funds to pay for non-insured medical services like therapists and dentists.

When Nelson asked Smith where she stands, Smith said she takes her marching orders from her caucus and party membership.

“It’s a very grassroots process, and I can tell you there is not a single UCP cabinet member, caucus member or (party) member that I have talked to that says they want to make people pay for a family doctor,” said Smith.

Health spending accounts are the fulcrum of the debate.

Smith has pledged to bring in the accounts but only for non-medically necessary services.

However, in the 2021 policy paper she wrote for the University of Calgary before she re-entered politics, and in interviews she did around that time, Smith described health spending accounts as a gateway to get public buy-in to discuss a new way of funding health care, including services currently paid for by the public purse.

"Once people get used to the concept of paying out-of-pocket for more things themselves, then we can change the conversation on health care,'' Smith wrote at the time.

"Instead of asking what services will the government delist, we would instead be asking what services are paid for directly by government and what services are paid for out of your health spending account.''

She added: "My view is that the entire budget for general practitioners should be paid for from health spending accounts.''

Smith wrote that from health spending accounts, the government could move to broader reforms like co-pays and deductibles based on income for things like surgeries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press