Nova Scotia mom wants policy change for organ, tissue donors after gay son's death

The Canadian Press
Fri, April 28, 2023 


When Liam Dee began receiving hospice care shortly after starting his nursing career, he knew the rare cancer that had ravaged his body meant his organs were too damaged to donate. But the 26-year-old was grateful his tissues, including skin, corneas, tendons and bones, could still go to people who needed them.

However, his tissues were rejected when he died last November, said his mother Cindy Gates-Dee, who learned from reading her son's medical records that his "homosexual status," as noted on a screening form by a tissue specialist, meant he was declined as a high-risk donor because he'd had sex with another man in the last five years.

But neither she nor Dee's husband was asked any questions about Dee's lifestyle to determine the probability of high-risk behaviour that specialists believe lead to increased risk of HIV or hepatitis B and hepatitis C, Gates-Dee said from Aylesford, N.S.

"Huge assumptions were made. I know that my son would have been upset," said Gates-Dee, adding he'd registered as an organ donor long before 2021, when Nova Scotia became the first province where residents are presumed to agree to donate their organs and tissue when they die, unless they opt out of the program.

"It is obvious that Liam had been discriminated against," she said.

Her mission now is to file a case with the Canadian Human Rights Commission so others are not stigmatized, she said, and people on long wait lists for organs and tissues are not deprived of them.

"If he couldn't leave a legacy in helping other people with his tissues, then at least I could try to help change some of these policies."

Jacob MacDonald said he and Dee married in March 2022, but nine days later his husband was diagnosed with an aggressive liposarcoma, which formed a large tumour in his chest.

"Liam and I were in a monogamous relationship for more than four years," he said. "I take a lot of offence to the assumption that just because we were in a homosexual relationship that we were having high-risk sex," MacDonald said.

"I would like to see a change that would reflect more on people's behaviours rather than just their sexual identity. Because they're writing off an entire group of people that could be donors."

A spokesman for Nova Scotia Health said men who have sex with men are asked about any high-risk behaviour over the last 12 months if they want to donate organs, in keeping with a national standard, even for those in a monogamous relationship.

But the abstinence requirement in that province is even longer when it comes to potential tissue donation from that group, Brendan Elliott said in an emailed response.

"We follow the American Association of Tissue Banks regulation, which includes a five-year timeline," he said of the province that sends its tissue to the United States for processing.

Grant-Dee said she was not made aware of any such policy when her son was in a hospice.

Screening a potential cell or tissue donor typically involves reviewing medical records, an interview with the donor or a close family member or physician, in addition to laboratory and medical testing.

Health Canada, which is responsible for enforcing regulations on human cells, tissues and organs for transplantation, said all potential donors must be assessed to ensure they would not be transmitting any infectious diseases to recipients.

Regulations are based on standards set by the Canadian Standards Association. They include an assessment of any high-risk behaviour and "are not intended to be discriminatory against specific groups," Health Canada said in an emailed response.

"Health Canada will engage the CSA technical committee in 2023 to discuss the potential for changes to the (men who have sex with men) donor screening criteria."

Organs such as heart, lungs and kidneys are labelled as coming from "increased infectious risk donors" if those organs have been donated by a man who had sex with a man in the last 12 months. But the organs can be transplanted with the consent of a recipient who may have been on a long wait list, based on Health Canada's "exceptional distribution process."

"This abstinence period doesn't make sense, it's too long," said Dr. Murdoch Leeies, an organ donation specialist and researcher at the University of Manitoba.

Tissues are routinely rejected due to the same abstinence criteria, but in provinces such as Nova Scotia, where the tissues are sent for processing in the U.S. and the criteria is set by the Food and Drug Administration, men who have sex with men must have been abstinent for five years, amounting to a "more discriminatory process," Leeies said.

Overall, those policies lead to stigma against LGBTQ people, even if they are in a monogamous relationship, use condoms and do not have anal sex, which is associated with a higher chance of transmitting HIV, he said.

Leeies's report on current "discriminatory" policies was published this week by a Vancouver non-profit called the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), which promotes the health of people from diverse sexualities.

In an interview, Leeies said the abstinence period should be lowered to 30 days for men who have sex with men because HIV can be detected through the Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) about seven days after someone is exposed to the virus. The test is not regularly offered to organ donors but is currently mandated by Health Canada for "increased risk donors," he added.

A cheaper antibody/antigen test is routinely used to screen for HIV and in most cases the virus can be detected 35 days after someone is exposed though it is possible for HIV to go undetected by this test for up to 12 weeks after exposure, Leeies said.

CBRC's recent recommendations to Health Canada include revising current eligibility for organ and tissue donation to be behaviour-based and not identity-based, and mandate that Nucleic Acid Testing be used for any donors who are considered to be an "increased infectious risk" based on "updated, evidence-informed, risk-based criteria."

Last year, Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services' proposal to remove blood donation eligibility criteria specific to men who have sex with men, prompting the organization to update its screening questions to focus on higher-risk sexual behaviour for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.

Leeies said it's time the organ and tissue transplant system is also revised so potential donors are not unnecessarily restricted based on their sexual orientation.

A 2019 federal standing committee on health, made of up members of Parliament, issued a report calling for an end to organ and tissue donor policies it said discriminate against LGBTQ people because of inequities that community experiences.

One of its 23 recommendations called on Canada to end discriminatory practices related to organ and tissue donation for men who have sex with men and to adopt donor screening policies that are based on evidence and behaviour.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2023.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Camille Bains, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly stated that Health Canada changed blood donation eligibility criteria for men who have sex with men. In fact, Health Canada approved Canadian Blood Services' proposal to change the criteria.

A gay Ukrainian military couple engaged only days ago is being pulled apart to face the fear and heartache of combat alone

Chris Panella

Sat, April 29, 2023 

Vladyslav (left) and Pasha (right).Pasha Lagoyda

• A gay Ukrainian military couple that got engaged only days ago is heading off into combat.

• Pasha, 21, and Vladyslav, 30, met a year ago and fell in love as war consumed their homeland.

• The couple told Insider that while war is tough, they haven't let go of hope.

Throughout the past year, thousands of Ukrainians have left their homes and former lives to fight against Russia's invasion. They've had to say goodbye to families and friends, unsure if they'd ever see them again. And as bloody battles rage on, Ukrainians have been forced to watch in horror as the war tears apart the country they once knew.

One couple has navigated much of the war with an added layer of concern: They're both fighting in the Ukrainian military.

In this war that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, tragedy can strike in an instant. Pasha and Vladyslav, a newly engaged couple, are on their way into combat, but they won't be together. It's a tough time for the pair as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his campaign, though it faces struggles, to break Ukraine's defenses and enforce his unwanted vision for the country's future.

They worry for each other's safety, partially because they serve in separate battalions and areas. "It is very difficult," Vladyslav told Insider, but if they were able to see each other more, or possibly fight alongside one another, it'd make the days a bit easier. Currently, Vladyslav's trying to switch to Pasha's unit. "We'd like to do the job together," he said, but "it's hard to change battalions."

A military land vehicle lies wrecked by a shelling on April 12, 2023 in Bakhmut, UkraineViktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

The young gay couple began dating last year after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

They told Insider, courtesy of translator Maxim Potapovych, that they met on a dating app. That's pretty common for many modern couples, and at first glance, Pasha and Vladyslav's relationship is like any other.

They share pictures together on Instagram, some selfies of them making dinner and cuddling. In the past year, they've celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. Vladyslav turned 30 last September, with Pasha commemorating 21 just a few weeks later. "You're already 21 years old, what can I say..." he wrote on Instagram, "So as not to be dead by 22."

The harsh realities of their situation in a war-torn country are hard to miss.

One picture, posted by Pasha, shows the two holding hands while wearing their military uniforms. Another post details a vacation they took together. Pasha wrote, "These 10 days of my vacation have been better than half of my life before the war! You know when you weren't around before, I didn't care about life or death, whether to be shot or shoot."

Just days before the pair deployed for combat operations, Pasha and Vladyslav got engaged. Pasha said there was sort of an ultimatum in play: it was either get engaged or leave one another. They chose to stay together, and they celebrated as much as possible before the war called them back.

On Friday, their last day in Kyiv, Pasha and Vladyslav told Insider it's been difficult to fight in the war because it constantly tries to pull them away from one another.

And the combat is intense, no matter how much time you've spent on the battlefield. Pasha says the fighting feels like entering a "volcano." He said that "if he could describe it simply," he would say that a "normal, city person" has suddenly been thrown into a new environment where the heat, pressure, and sweat of battle can be overwhelming.

Vladyslav and Pasha got engaged just days before returning to combat.Pasha Lagoyda

Pasha joined the military in 2021 and is now a gunner. Vladyslav joined last year. Though neither told anyone they were gay, Pasha recalled experiencing homophobia and discrimination from the other soldiers in his first few weeks at a training camp.

Before Russia invaded, Ukraine's stance on LGBTQ rights was murky. Gay marriage and adoption weren't legal, and although they still aren't, President Volodymyr Zelensky has since suggested same-sex civil partnerships could be revisited after the war. There was also varying public opinion on gender and sexual orientation, although anti-discrimination laws offered some protection, and homosexual relations weren't legal in Ukraine until 1991.

The atmosphere, especially in the military, has improved, the couple told Insider. There's a mutual respect of sorts, a realization that they're all fighting for the same cause regardless of sexual orientation.

That said, LGBTQ personnel don't have the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts. When Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun submitted a draft to legalize same-sex partnership in early March, she noted that if an LGBTQ person is injured in combat, their partner can't make decisions about their medical treatment.

Ukrainian soldiers fire targets on the front line in the direction of the city of Ugledar, Donetsk, Ukraine as Russia-Ukraine war continues on April 18, 2023Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Pasha and Vladyslav have talked about this issue, too.

In a post for LGBTIQ Military — an organization of Ukrainian LGBTQ active military members, veterans, and volunteers fighting for equal rights — the couple expressed their support for legalizing same-sex partnerships. They wrote that while they want to be able to marry, have children, and live happily together, there are also more immediate concerns about not being legally recognized as a couple. If one of them is injured, the other has no say in their hospitalization and care. If one dies, the other won't be able to claim their body, they said.

It's a stark reality of both the war and LGBTQ rights. But Pasha and Vladyslav said they're hoping for a better future for themselves. They see the war as a fight against how Russia oppresses people, how it treats its LGBTQ people — "full of discrimination, killing activists," Vladyslav said.

Winning the war would mean winning freedom, both for Ukrainians and LGBTQ people like Pasha and Vladyslav. When Insider asked about the coming months of combat and how the couple is feeling, Vladyslav held Pasha closely and said: "We strongly believe Ukraine will win."

Tom of Finland exhibit celebrates Nordic country’s gay icon

April 27, 2023

Kiasma museum director Leevi Haapala poses at the exhibition of Finnish artist Tom of Finland during the media day of his retrospective exhibition 'Bold Journey' at the Finnish National Gallery Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, April 27, 2023. A new exhibition showing the works of Touko Laaksonen, better known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, adds a personal touch to the late Finnish artist whose homoerotic drawings of muscular men gained a following in the gay community starting in the 1950s. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)


HELSINKI (AP) — A new exhibition showing the works of Touko Laaksonen, better known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, adds a personal touch to the late Finnish artist whose homoerotic drawings of muscular men gained a following in the gay community from the 1950s.

“Tom of Finland — Bold Journey,” which opens Friday at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, features Laaksonen’s drawings, archive material, personal clothing items as well as memorabilia, letters, publications, magazines and films.

Laaksonen’s cheerful, sexually explicit works made an impact in the art world at a time when homosexuality was illegal or classified as a disease in countries around the world, including his native Finland. The Nordic country has since embraced the artist, who died in 1991, as a national icon.

“Tom is one of our national heroes who deserves to be seen as one of the most well-known Finnish artists of the 20th century,” said Kiasma museum director Leevi Haapala.

He said Tom of Finland had emerged as one of the country’s best known pop culture brands, along with the Moomins, the comic strip characters created by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson.

“His art has been liberating and empowering for countless gay men and sexual minorities for decades,” the museum said in a statement.

The chiseled male characters depicted by Laaksonen, including lumberjacks, bikers, sailors, soldiers and policemen, “exude vitality, joy and pride,” Kiasma said.

The retrospective of Laaksonen’s works is compiled by the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles and the Kiasma museum, which is part of the Finnish National Gallery. It is the largest exhibit of his works ever shown in his native country.

“There are sort of two different men; Touko had his own biography and Tom had his own biography, and they sort of paralleled,” said Durk Dehner, the president and co-founder of the Tom of Finland Foundation.

Haapala said Laaksonen’s works had directly influenced several well-known artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Weber and David Hockney, and may have even inspired music acts like the Village People.

In Finland, his art is now embraced far beyond the gay community.

“In this polarized time, I think we need iconic figures like Tom to remind us of tolerance,” he said.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 29

A TOM OF FINLAND MEME

ONLY THE HEADS ARE NOT TOM'S 

CANADA

'Enhanced' wages part of latest government offer to striking public servants

CBC
Sat, April 29, 2023 

PSAC members have been striking for eleven days. The latest counter-offer by the federal government promises an enhanced wage package, but more details have not been released. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The federal government has presented a new "enhanced" wage package to striking Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members as part of its latest counter-offer.

The proposal put forward Friday is part of a "final comprehensive offer" tabled by the Treasury Board that addresses "all remaining PSAC demands," according to a Saturday afternoon statement released by the office of Treasury Board President Mona Fortier.

While details about the offer still remain scarce, Fortier's office said it includes an enhanced wage package building on the recommendation of the third-party Public Interest Commission.

"This is a fair, competitive and reasonable final offer, with wage and non-wage improvements, and we believe that employees should have an opportunity to review the details of it," the statement from Fortier's office said.

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The federal government also presented solutions to other PSAC concerns relating to telework, seniority, and contracting. Specific details about those solutions are being kept to the negotiating table and are not being released by either party.

The offer covers the larger Treasury Board group of about 120,000 workers. Talks are ongoing for the Canada Revenue Agency group of more than 35,000 workers, the union said.

Fortier's office said the government hopes to reach an agreement and bring an end to service disruptions as soon as possible.

Since the start of the strike on April 19, about 30 departments have been disrupted and a range of services are affected, including processing of income tax returns and passports.

PSAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Friday a union spokesperson told CBC there are plans to bargain through the weekend.

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Wages, remote work are key issues in negotiations

The union and government have been working on a new deal since 2021. The union says its members need help with the rising cost of living and the government has said it needs a deal that's fair for the union and taxpayers.

Both sides agree members should get a raise, but they differ on how much. At least publicly, the government has said it won't give a raise of more than nine per cent over three years, while the union wants a larger raise.

The other key sticking points during negotiations include who sets remote work rules, contracting and seniority during layoffs, according to what's been shared publicly.

In danger abroad? The Canadian government says it isn't obligated to rescue you

CBC
Sat, April 29, 2023 

British nationals walk to board an RAF flight to Cyprus at Wadi Seidna airport in Sudan on April 26, 2023. Experts say Canada doesn't have the same resources countries the United Kingdom and United States have to evacuate citizens abroad. 

(Photo Arron Hoare/UK MOD/Reuters - image credit)

The evacuation of Canadians from Sudan is raising some thorny questions about the federal government's obligations toward citizens in danger abroad — and its ability to help them.

As of Friday, Ottawa had evacuated 250 Canadians from Sudan, which is currently in the throes of a bloody new civil conflict. Ottawa says some of the evacuees have left on flights organized by Canada's allies, while 117 got out on Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) transport aircraft. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has deployed troops to support the effort.

The government has received hundreds requests for assistance from Canadians and their dependents in Sudan.

But even though the government is evacuating Canadians from Sudan now, it has argued in the past that it's not actually required to do so.

"Traditionally, the Canadian government has taken the position that it does not have a legal obligation to repatriate Canadians abroad," Yves Le Bouthillier, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said in an email.

Section 6(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms says every Canadian citizen "has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada."

That right doesn't necessarily mean the government has to rescue Canadians in distress around the world.

"At the very least, the Canadian government has a legal obligation not to create obstacles to the return of Canadians from abroad," Le Bouthillier said.

Whether the government is required to repatriate Canadians is a question now before the courts.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court ruled that Canada must repatriate four Canadian men from Syria. The government has been reluctant to do that because the men are suspected of having joined the terrorist group ISIS.

The government appealed the decision, saying in its notice of appeal that the Federal Court judge erred in "effectively" creating "a right to be returned."

Le Bouthillier said the Federal Court of Appeal likely will decide on the matter within months.

Evacuations test Canada's diplomatic, military capabilities

While the Canadian government doesn't believe it has a legal obligation to evacuate citizens abroad, it usually makes efforts to do so in cases where Canadians find themselves trapped by war, severe civil unrest or natural disasters.

But practical difficulties can get in the way even when the government wants to help.

Evacuation operations often require prudent diplomatic and military involvement, according to foreign affairs experts. Canada's ability to evacuate citizens depends on a wide range of factors, including geography, Canada's relationship with the country where citizens are in danger, and the availability of Canadian or allied military resources.

Colin Robertson, a Canadian Global Affairs Institute Fellow and former Canadian diplomat, said Canadian embassies abroad ask Canadian citizens living in potentially dangerous places to register with them in order to make assistance efforts easier when disaster strikes.

"Only about five or 10 per cent of people actually take up this offer, and the lists are usually woefully out of date when catastrophe happens," Robertson said.

Robertson said that in a crisis situation, diplomats will focus on securing air clearance for evacuation flights, working with allies and communicating with local authorities.

These efforts require a robust diplomatic presence on the ground — and Robertson said that's not something Canada can always guarantee.

"We have not invested in our diplomatic capacity for about 20 years. In fact, we've reduced it," he said.

Robertson said that while Canada has increased the number of diplomatic staff over the years, staffing hasn't kept pace with the demand for consular assistance. That's largely because Canada's population is more diverse and Canadians are travelling and living abroad more than in the past, he said.

"Is it increased sufficiently? Well, you'd have to judge by recent incidents and you would probably conclude no, we need to put more emphasis, and that means more people — to use the military term, more boots on the ground — for desperate situations," Robertson said.

Denis Thompson, a retired Canadian Army major-general, said the military faces a different set of problems when it evacuates citizens stuck abroad.

Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

"Sudan is over 11,000 kilometres from our principal air base, which is [in] Trenton, Ontario. So we have to remember that Canada does not have permanent bases overseas like some of our allies do." Thompson said.

"If this happened in Haiti, yes, we can get there overnight. But it didn't happen in Haiti — it happened in Sudan, and that's a long way from home."

Thompson said that while a network of global military bases would ease logistical challenges, the cost to Canadian taxpayers would be enormous. He said Canada is wise to rely on close allies like the U.S. and U.K., which do have bases around the world.

The government has said it has tasked up to 200 CAF troops to assist the evacuation effort in Sudan, but a defence official told a technical briefing Thursday that the number doesn't include the air crew, special forces or naval personnel involved in the operation.

While Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre recently has voiced concerns about the military's overall operational readiness, Thompson said CAF is well prepared for operations of this nature.

"The army keeps a noncombatant evacuation operation company in readiness at all times, just as they do the DART, the Disaster Assistance Relief Team," Thompson said. "The RCAF does the same thing in terms of aircraft."

But Robertson said he worries about Canada's ability to respond to crises around the world, especially as the country's population grows more diverse and the world more dangerous.

"We probably do need more people on the ground," he said.

"We need to have the capacity to be able to deal with both our growth as a country and the changing geopolitical situation."

Ottawa wants to automatically file taxes for low-income Canadians — and perhaps eventually for everyone


CBC
Sat, April 29, 2023 

Canada's tax system places the onus for filing on citizens, with some paying for-profit tax preparers for help. But that's not the case in other countries. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg - image credit)

With Monday's deadline for Canadians to file their income taxes for 2022, experts say a new pilot program for the government to automate the process for low-income Canadians is a long overdue step on the road toward doing them automatically for everyone.

In the recent federal budget, the government announced the creation and expansion of a couple of pilot programs aimed at getting millions of low-income Canadians to file their taxes, and giving them access to benefit programs they are entitled to.

The government says as many as 12 per cent of Canadians don't file their taxes every year, most of whom are low-income Canadians. It's estimated that non-filers missed out on more than $1.7 billion worth of government rebates and programs they were entitled to in the 2015 tax year alone.

To fix that, Ottawa is beefing up an existing program called File My Return that allows Canadians to file their tax returns by answering a series of simple questions over the telephone. The goal is to triple the uptake on that program to 2 million people annually.

The government will also pilot a new automatic filing service for even more low-income Canadians, including many who would be entitled to government benefit programs like GST rebates and the Canada Child Benefit were they to file.

Elizabeth Mulholland, CEO of Prosper Canada, which works with low-income Canadians, says it's an idea that's long overdue.

Evan Mitsui/CBC

"We're excited about it. We had asked for them to do it," she told CBC News. Not only will Ottawa's plans help millions of people directly impacted, but she says it's also good news for Prosper Canada and other agencies because it frees up their time and resources to do other things.

The automated system will allow her group to spend more time helping low-income earners with other issues, as "tax planning is often a gateway to other financial health services," Mulholland said.

A better way

It may come as a surprise to many Canadians scrambling to file their taxes this weekend, but the Canadian system whereby the onus is on tax filers to assemble their documentation and submit it to the government for verification is the exception, not the rule.

Several dozen countries including Slovenia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Chile, Portugal, New Zealand and Australia already have systems that are largely automated.

Though they're all a bit different, in those places filing taxes basically consists of governments filling out information on behalf of filers with what they know of their income and deductions, and then asking them about any other pertinent information that might reduce their tax burden. In some cases, the process takes minutes.

Antoine Genest-Gregoire, a tax policy researcher and PhD candidate at Carleton University, says other countries with more automated tax systems generally have fewer credits and deductions.

"Most people have very simple returns so if we created some kind of automated system, we're not going to reach 100 per cent of Canadians, but we're first going to reach those that have the lowest incomes, which have the most to gain," he told CBC News.

"And then we're probably going to reach a very large portion of ordinary middle-income Canadians who have fairly simple situations ... but right now need to go through filing the whole return, just because of those small steps of complexity in their return."

Chris Young/The Canadian Press

Filing taxes automatically for low-income Canadians is not the same thing as filing them automatically for everyone. But Genest-Gregoire says the new program targeting the first group is a slam dunk. "The CRA probably already has most of the information it needs to file for those people. And there's probably a lot to gain for them if we did so."

Jennifer Robson, an associate professor of political management at Carleton who authored the paper that came up with the 12 per cent figure noted above, said Canada's tax filing system hasn't evolved much since it was set up decades ago.

"We were actually one of the first countries to start doing a pay-as-you-earn model," she said in an interview. "We switched over to that during the middle of World War Two."

Taking deductions from paycheques instead of collecting them all at once helped the government stabilize revenue through the year, she said, and it was good for taxpayer "because they didn't have a big tax bill that they had to save up for and pay at the end of the year."

Other countries soon copied the model, "but what those other countries did, as they move to pay as you earn, is they also updated their systems so that they could actually do tax returns where ... the vast majority of the work is actually done by the tax agency," Robson said.

As anyone currently riffling through a shoebox full of crinkled receipts can attest, in Canada the onus is on the taxpayer to do the heavy lifting, and pay for help if they need it.

"We've kind of inherited this decades-old system that we've just gotten used to [but] there's a big industry that kind of likes this current system," Robson said. "The CRA is basically the agency that verifies what you've told them ... but the for-profit tax filing firms are the ones that are there to help you maximize the size of your refund."

Moving the burden

Ottawa had launched previous initiatives aimed at automating more of the tax filing process, before backing down with little explanation.

Saul Schwartz, a professor of public policy at Carleton who co-authored the report with Robson, says they filed Access-to-Information requests to identify interactions between the tax preparation industry and the government, but those attempts didn't bear fruit.

"It took several years to find out that almost everything was blacked out," he said. "We tried to find out if there was intensive lobbying by that industry, with the federal government, but we don't have any direct evidence that there was."

Schwartz says any moves to automate the tax filing process should be welcomed. "Our research suggests that two thirds of social assistance recipients have returns that CRA could complete today," he said. "Why not just do that?"

That would be a great development for the people Mulholland at Prosper Canada works with every day. But she's not holding her breath for a largely automated tax filing process for everyone, any time soon.

"This pilot is a really good move and I'm hoping that it's something that they'll execute successfully so that we can try to expand over time to more people," she said.

"I think everybody would appreciate a break from the work of doing their taxes."

Fisherman’s photo of weird catch oddly looks like a painting

David Strege
Thu, April 27, 2023


The image of a weird-looking fish caught by a commercial fisherman in Russia had some people thinking it wasn’t real.

“Is this a drawing?” one commenter on Instagram stated. “The hand looks real, but the fish/organism does not.”

“Looks like a painting,” another commenter stated.

“Me thought exactly the same!” one replied.


The photo was taken by Roman Fedortsov, whose trawler boat is based out of the port city of Murmansk in the northwest part of Russia.

A few years ago, he began photographing the bizarre catches made by his trawler and started posted them online. He now has an Instagram following of 652,000.

Fedortsov’s latest odd catch is what he called a big-eyed Macrurus, though perhaps it is a Macrourus berglax, as listed in the World Register of Marine Species.

Also on FTW Outdoors: 112-pound halibut caught through the ice in a unique fishery

Among the other reactions to the image on Instagram:

“Looks like a creature from a Tim Burton Movie.”

“You mean it’s a real fish? I thought it was computer fantasy.”

“I thought it was a drawing.”

It should be noted that the deep-sea creature doesn’t actually have eyes as big as depicted in the photo. While it has large eyes, they bulge out when brought up from the depths because of the change in pressure.

But commenters are right, it does look like a painting.

Photo courtesy of Roman Fedortsov.

Story originally appeared on For The Win

Celebs like Aubrey Plaza and Emma Roberts are getting slammed for Big Milk ad campaigns: 'I thought we left the cow milk propaganda in the 90s'

Jordan Hart
Sat, April 29, 2023 

In the spoof commercial, Aubrey Plaza can be seen hugging trees and promoting fictional wood-flavored "slime" called Wood Milk.

Courtesy Of The MilkPEP

Actor Aubrey Plaza took heat after starring in a campaign that mocked plant-based milk with the fake brand "Wood Milk."

Social media users have been quick to call out Plaza, as well as others like Emma Roberts, for recent collaborations with Big Milk.

Last year, Gen Z purchased 20% less cow's milk than the national average, market research shows.

Big Milk is once again enlisting the help of celebrities to sell its products, but unlike the iconic "Got Milk?" ads of the 1990s and early 2000s, these new campaigns are sparking outrage in the era of plant-based milks.

Social media users are slamming celebrities like Aubrey Plaza and Emma Roberts for participating in what some are calling "cow milk propaganda" after starring in recent campaigns led by the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), the organization that created the "Got Milk?" ads and turned milk mustaches into a cultural phenomenon.

Their frustration comes as MilkPEP tries to curry favor with younger consumers who are increasingly turning to milk alternatives: In 2022 alone, Gen Z bought 20% less cow's milk than the rest of the US.

Plaza was the latest to take heat, after ads surfaced last week of the "White Lotus" star mocking plant-based milk in a promotion for a fake product called "Wood Milk." The rollout features social media accounts dedicated to the spoof company, a website, and even actual Wood Milk T-shirts.

"Is Wood Milk real? Absolutely not," Plaza said in the satirical commercial. "Only real milk is real."

The following disclaimer is featured at the bottom of Wood Milk's site: "Our eco-friendly shirts are legit and we will be planting real trees in the ground, but please be advised that Wood Milk is 100% fake and completely made up. Only dairy milk is real milk. Paid for by America's Milk Companies."

Just one week after the viral video was uploaded to Instagram the comments have been disabled off after it was flooded with outraged users commenting on Plaza promoting the consumption of animal milk over plant-based alternatives.

Even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chimed in to echo the disdain in her Instagram comments. According to screenshots of the comment section before it was closed shared by PETA, users called the ad "pathetic" and "disgusting."

"I'm not mad just disappointed," one comment read, per PETA.

"Oh my god. I thought we left the cow milk propaganda in the 90s lol," another wrote.

"American Horror Story" actor Emma Roberts was also recently enlisted for a paid promotional Instagram post of milk in March, part of MilkPEP's "Gonna Need Milk" campaign. Like Plaza, she was also criticized on social media for the ad.

"Fun fact!! I've been a lifelong milk drinker because of its essential nutrients that many milk alternatives don't have, and not to mention it tastes delicious (especially) in my latte," the caption read.

The comments of her ad are also disabled, thought that didn't stop Twitter users from both calling out the actress for her participation in the campaign, as well as voicing support.

"emma roberts sponsored by the dairy industry to promote cow milk," wrote one Twitter user. "girl….. in 2023?"

"Are people seriously canceling Emma Roberts....for a milk ad??" wrote another. "Out of all things? You all people need to get off the internet and get a life cuz this is embarassing."

Representatives for Roberts, Plaza, and the MilkPEP did not immediately respond to Insider's request to comment.

Big Milk has been struggling to find its footing since the heyday of the "Got Milk?" campaign. Yin Woon Rani, chief executive of the MilkPEP, told the New York Times earlier this month the organization is trying to "reclaim milk's mojo."

"We sometimes refer to milk as the O.G. sports drink, powering athletes for 10,000 years," said Rani.

Astronomers just found 25 more mysterious repeating radio signals from space

Scott Sutherland
Sat, April 29, 2023 

CHIME radio telescope Canada

Repeating fast radio bursts remain a mystery for astronomers, but these new discoveries could lead to key answers about them, and provide insights about other mysteries of the cosmos as well.

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are brief, powerful pulses of radio waves detected from space. Some can last up to three seconds long, while others appear and disappear in a fraction of a millisecond. However, their origin is a mystery. Given the amount of energy they carry, researchers speculate that they are produced by some of the highest energy events in the universe — supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, or collisions between neutron stars, pulsars, or black holes. The only thing that is known for sure is that most FRBs originate from outside our galaxy.

Fast Radio Bust - Artist's Impression - eso1915a

This artist's impression shows a fast radio burst travelling between its source in a distant galaxy (top left) towards Earth in the Milky Way (bottom right), passing through the halo of a massive galaxy along the way. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

It's been over 15 years since the first FRB was detected from space. In that time, hundreds more have been found, but still, astronomers are no closer to figuring out exactly what causes them.

Even more puzzling are the few FRBs found that periodically repeat. Until now, of the hundreds of FRBs detected, only 25 belonged to a particular class known as repeating FRBs.

Finding what was missed

In new research, a Canadian-led team of astronomers turned up another 25 repeating FRBs, doubling the number already discovered.

The researchers found them by performing the very first delve through all of the data gathered between September 2019 and May 2021 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. CHIME is a unique, highly-sensitive radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton, British Columbia, located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan people.

The four 'cylinders' of the CHIME radio telescope sit fixed in place, staring up at the sky from the floor of southern B.C.'s Okanagan Valley. Credit: CHIME Collaboration

"Many apparently one-off FRBs have simply not yet been observed long enough for a second burst from the source to be detected," said Dr. Ziggy Pleunis, a postdoc researcher at the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics who is one of the nearly 60 scientists involved in this new study.

"We need a longer observation time because some repeaters could repeat every 10 years. We just don't know. They don't play by our time scales," added co-author Adam Dong, a Ph.D. student in the University of British Columbia's department of physics and astronomy.

Of the 25 newly discovered repeating FRBs, most were spotted two or three times during CHIMEs observations. During that same time, one of them — FRB 20201124A, first spotted in 2020 and found to originate from a nearby galaxy — was seen to repeat a total of 12 times!

Repeating-Fast-Radio-Bursts-Locations-Northern-Sky-CHIME-FRB

This map of the sky, taken from the new research study, shows the locations of all repeating fast radio bursts detected so far. Credit: CHIME/FRB Collaboration/The Astrophysical Journal

Picking out these signals required the team to develop new statistical tools to sift through CHIME's data.

"We can now accurately calculate the probability that two or more bursts coming from similar locations are not just a coincidence," Pleunis explained. "These new tools were essential for this study, and will also be very useful for similar research going forward."

One of the challenges of studying FRBs is that there's no predicting when one will appear. In most cases, astronomers can only point their radio telescopes at the sky and hope that they pick up one or more of these signals during their observation time. Some researchers have predicted that thousands could be going off every day over the entire sky. However, we only detect a small number due to the limited amount of the sky current radio telescopes can scan at any time.

Finding repeating FRBs is even more tricky. This is because radio telescopes must be pointed at the same portion of the sky during each repeated signal. So, without knowing the timing of the repeats, it becomes even more dependent on luck.

CHIME sweeps for FRBs

In operation since 2017, CHIME observes the entire sky above it all at once, ready to intercept any signals from space that appear in its field of view. Also, while optical telescopes typically need to wait until dark to observe, radio astronomy can be conducted day or night. Thus, as Earth rotates, CHIME can sweep through the entire northern half of the celestial sphere each day.

In its first year alone, CHIME picked up over 500 FRBs. According to the CHIME Collaboration, by mid-2020, the telescope had detected well over 1,000.

Watch below: A time-lapse of one full day of CHIME observations

CHIME is an excellent tool for detecting FRBs, but it does have its limitations. Since it is tied to the rotation of Earth, the telescope's field of view sweeps around space, a bit like the cone of light from a lighthouse. Thus, while it can cover the entire northern celestial sphere in a day, how many FRBs it detects and how many repeating FRBs it finds depends on exactly what part of space it is observing at any one time. If the timing of an FRB — repeating or not — is off by even the smallest amount, such that the source is below the horizon from CHIME when the signal arrives here, the telescope will still miss it.

However, if there were more telescopes like CHIME, astronomers could cover much more space at once, thus catching far more FRBs and discovering more repeating ones.

READ MORE: Canadian telescope spots bizarre 16-day pattern in signals from deep space
Why is this important?

The researchers believe their new techniques will help find even more repeating FRBs. Other telescopes can then observe those discoveries at just the right time to pick up the repeat signals.

"FRBs that repeat are great targets for other telescopes, including those that can measure their positions very accurately, and let us know which galaxies they come from," said co-author Dr. Ingrid Stairs, a professor in the University of British Columbia's department of physics and astronomy, according to UBC News. "In the long run, we hope to learn a lot about their origins."

"FRBs are likely produced by the leftovers from explosive stellar deaths." Pleunis said, referring to neutron stars, pulsars, and black holes, or phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. "By studying repeating FRB sources in detail, we can study the environments that these explosions occur in and understand better the end stages of a star's life. We can also learn more about the material that's being expelled before and during the star's demise, which is then returned to the galaxies that the FRBs live in."

Also, detecting more repeating FRBs can help astronomers discover the answers to other questions about the universe.

"One exciting avenue of research is utilizing them to measure the amount of matter between galaxies, or the intergalactic medium," Adam Dong explained in the UBC press release.

Additionally, besides the 25 confirmed repeating FRBs found in this study, the researchers identified another 14 possible candidates. While there were significant enough differences between repeated bursts for these candidates — in position, dispersion, timing, etc. — if they can be confirmed as actual repeaters, it could reveal even more about these mysterious phenomena.

Watch below: Distant baby star solves mystery origin of Earth's water
Click here to view the video

Bi-state sage grouse considered for threatened status, again

April 28, 2023

 In this March 1, 2010 file photo, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a bi-state sage grouse, rear, struts for a female at a lek, or mating ground, near Bridgeport, Calif. For the third time since it first proposed listing the bi-state sage grouse as a threatened species in 2013, U.S. wildlife officials are considering again whether the bird found only along the California-Nevada line deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday, April 27, 2023, it is reopening a review of the status of the hen-sized bird that's a cousin of the greater sage grouse found across 12 western states from California to South Dakota.

 (Jeannie Stafford/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP, File)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — For the third time in a decade, federal wildlife officials are contemplating whether the bi-state sage grouse deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Conservationists blame “political gamesmanship” for leaving the bird in regulatory limbo since 2013. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday it’s doing a fresh review after a federal judge ruled last May that the Trump administration acted illegally when it withdrew the most recent proposal to list the species as threatened.

The hen-sized flightless bird can be found in just two states — Nevada and California — in the high desert along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front. A formal listing could bring restrictions on development, as well as prevent livestock and off-road vehicles from entering the bird’s habitat.

“Maybe the third time will be the charm for getting this population segment the protection it so clearly deserves,” said Laura Cunningham, California director of the Western Watersheds Project.

“None of the science shows that the bi-state birds have benefited from the service’s dithering,” she said.

The population is down to some 3,300 birds, about half what it was 150 years ago, and conservationists say they likely suffered additional losses as a result of one of the snowiest Sierra winters in modern history.

The bi-state grouse is a cousin of the greater sage grouse found across 12 western states from Oregon to South Dakota. Threats to its survival include urbanization, livestock grazing, wildfires, climate change and ravens who eat their eggs.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comment through June 23 and intends to make a new listing determination by May 2024.

The new review is a step in the right direction, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The center, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians had filed the lawsuit accusing the government of violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to respond to the bird’s dire condition.

“The political gamesmanship surrounding the bi-state sage grouse’s listing status is, sadly, not unique to this imperiled species,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians.

The service rejected listing petitions in 2001 and 2005 before proposing the bird be declared threatened in 2013. But it withdrew that proposal two years later.

In 2018, a federal judge found the agency had illegally denied the bird protection and ordered a reevaluation of its status.

The agency again proposed protection, but withdrew that proposal in 2020 based on its conclusion that the bird’s population had improved.

A different federal judge ruled last May that the agency had based that decision on flawed assumptions. She reinstated the original 2013 listing proposal and ordered the service to issue a new decision.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its formal notice published Thursday it will be initiating an entirely new species status assessment.