It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Opinion: While we hope for the best for the lost Titanic-exploring submersible, let’s not forget these other victims
Opinion: Jill Filipovic - CNN
It’s a scenario so improbable it sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller: A submersible watercraft, operated by a pilot and occupied by tourists who paid some $250,000 apiece, descended to the ocean floor to allow its passengers see the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. And then it disappeared.
Now, a massive hunt is on to find the submersible before its passengers run out of oxygen.
The Canadian Armed Forces and the US Coast Guard are searching for the submersible, which lost contact with its parent ship on Sunday morning, off the coast of Cape Cod. OceanGate Expeditions, the company operating the expedition, would not confirm who was on board, but we know that the passengers include Hamish Harding, a British businessman who is based in the United Arab Emirates; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman; and his son, Sulaiman Dawood.
It’s interesting to watch the national fascination with this story, especially compared to, say, the attention paid to the sinking of another boat, this one full of desperate migrants in the Mediterranean last week; dozens were killed, and hundreds of men, women and children are still missing. Many migrants, mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, may be dead.
And the Greek Coast Guard, despite indications that the boat was in distress, did not intervene, blaming the smuggled migrants who they say didn’t want help. Widespread outrage and anguish for the hundreds of souls taking an extraordinary risk in search of a better life, and those who failed them along the way, seems much more justifiable than the frenzy over a small, lost group of hyper-niche tourists, tragic as both circumstances may turn out to be. And yet, while the migrant story is far from being ignored, it’s not receiving the same breathless moment-by-moment updates accorded the lost Titanic hunters.
But human interest, we know, does not at all run proportional to human suffering, and often has little to do with who or what is deserving of significant attention. And the story of a vessel occupied by wealthy curiosity-seekers, lost in the depths of the ocean in its search to find a vessel occupied by wealthy curiosity-seekers lost in the depths of the ocean, has all the component parts of an addictive story: irony, suspense, potential tragedy, potential glory, lifestyles of the rich, aspiration and hubris.
There is, first, the pure spectacle of the rescue effort, with its ticking countdown clock until oxygen runs out. The stakes could not be higher.
And there is the novelty: Who, at least among us plebs, even knew it was an option to take a private “submersible” down to see the wreckage of the Titanic? (Who among us plebs had even heard the word “submersible” used as a noun before this incident?) This story gives most of us a little peek into lives and escapades that we aren’t wealthy enough to even imagine — and with it, perhaps aspiration for some and resentment for others.
The parallels to the Titanic, itself a story that still engenders widespread fascination more than a century after its sinking, add another layer of interest. The sinking of the Titanic sticks with us in part because it’s a story of profound hubris: the grand “unsinkable” ship, carrying wealthy journeyers and stocked with the finest goods, meeting a dramatic (and cinematic) demise — too fast for help to arrive, but slow enough to be captured later in an on-screen play-by-play, and then engulfed by the ocean and not found for decades.
The moral: No human creation is any match for Mother Nature. And now, a small number of ostensibly fabulously wealthy people, paying several times what many Americans earn in a year for the privilege of seeing the century-old wreckage, have now also disappeared in a deep abyss.
And then there’s the element of fear, and fear’s flip side: curiosity. There is often an inherent fear of the unknown and that which lies beyond the land we live on — the depths of the water in our oceans, the infiniteness of space. And there is curiosity about the same — the enduring human desire to explore further and push boundaries. And, of course, there’s a cost that so many explorers pay — their lives — serving as proof that the fear was warranted, and the curiosity had consequences.
I wish we were a better species and that our attention were drawn to events according to their actual importance and scale. But we are a species preoccupied not just with the lives and well-being of others, but with big and often unanswerable questions: What else is out there? How far can humanity go? What are the ramifications of going too far?
A handful of curious and talented people have dedicated their lives to answering those questions. And a handful of the very rich have dedicated at least some of their funds to getting a taste of extraordinary places, whether that’s to the bottom of the ocean or out to space.
The rest of us observe and wait to see how the story will end, and if a moral will emerge for us to examine and learn from. But this is not a parable; it’s five human beings and many more working around the clock to save their lives.
I hope they’re rescued. I hope the very wealthy among them pay back the cost of what is likely a pricey and largely publicly funded search effort. And then I hope we can collectively turn our attention to the stories of those who we can learn arguably more from: the people who courageously set out into the unknown in pursuit of a better life. Those stories may be less cinematic, but they are far more important.
Here’s what James Cameron has said about diving to the Titanic wreckage
Story by Lisa Respers France • 1h ago
James Cameron isn’t just one of Hollywood’s most successful directors ever, he’s also a lover of deep sea exploration.
Those paths have crossed in two of his biggest hits, “Avatar” and “Titanic.”
CNN has reached out to representatives of Cameron for comment.
Here’s what the director has said in the past about the deep sea exploration. His motivation for making ‘Titanic’
Cameron told Playboy in 2009 that it wasn’t a love story aboard the doomed Titanic that inspired him to make his hit 1997 film.
“I made ‘Titanic’ because I wanted to dive to the shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie,” he told the publication.
“The Titanic was the Mount Everest of shipwrecks, and as a diver I wanted to do it right,” he said. “When I learned some other guys had dived to the Titanic to make an IMAX movie, I said, ‘I’ll make a Hollywood movie to pay for an expedition and do the same thing.” I loved that first taste, and I wanted more.”
Cameron sees his filmmaking and sea exploration as connected.
“I think the through-line there is storytelling,” the director told NPR in 2012. “I think it’s the explorer’s job to go and be at the remote edge of human experience and then come back and tell that story.”
Growing up fascinated
Cameron told National Geographic that while he grew up in Ontario, Canada, hundreds of miles from the ocean, as a youngster he remembers “watching with amazement” sea explorer Jacques Cousteau’s specials.
In his youth, Cameron took a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where he saw an exhibit of an underwater habitat designed by Joe MacInnis that prompted him to write a letter to MacInnis.
To a then 14-year-old Cameron’s surprise, MacInnis responded.
“He actually sent me back the address of his contact at … the Plexiglas manufacturer… . I contacted them, and they sent me a sample of Plexiglas,” Cameron recalled. “And at that point, I had the window [for the underwater habitat]. I just had to build the rest of it! That was important. That creates the sense of it being possible.”
Going past Titanic depths
Cameron has made dozens of deep sea dives since filming “Titanic.” In 2012, he dived to the Mariana Trench, considered one of the deepest spots in the Earth’s oceans at almost seven miles below the surface.
Cameron took cameras to document the entire trek in the western Pacific. In a National Geographic video and essay, he described the experience that began with an early morning descent.
“I took off like a shot, fastest I’ve ever seen. The surface just receded,” he said in the video. “It just went away. I’m looking at the depth gauge and I’m at a thousand feet in the first like couple of minutes. Than it’s two thousand, then three thousand. The sub’s just going like a bat out of hell.”
Quickly, he said, he went past Titanic depth. When he got to 27,000 feet, which was the deepest Cameron said he had ever dived before, there were still nine thousand feet to go to the ocean floor.
As he continued to dive, Cameron said he reflected on the seven years it took to make the trek happen and was enjoying the solitude when his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, who played Lizzy Calvert in “Titanic,” got on the communication system from the surface.
“Here I am in the most remote place on planet Earth that’s taken all this time and energy and technology to reach and I feel like the most solitary human being on the planet, completely cut off from humanity, no chance of rescue in a place no human eyes have ever seen,” Cameron said. “And my wife calls me. Which of course was very sweet.”
“I call it bearing witness. I get to bear witness to a miracle that’s down there all the time,” Cameron told 60 Minutes Australia in 2018 of his deep sea explorations. “This is not just some, you know rich guy ego thing. This is about, you’ve got so much time on this planet, so much life, so much breath in your body. You have to do something. If you should be fortunate enough to make some money and have some capital, some working capital, why not put it into your dream.”
The maker of the lost Titan submersible previously complained about strict passenger-vessel regulations, saying the industry was 'obscenely safe'
Story by insider@insider.com (Mia Jankowicz) • Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions
In a 2019 interview, the Titan's maker lamented "obscenely safe" diving security regulations.
CEO Stockton Rush said he understood the regulations but regretted their effect on innovation.
Rush is understood to be on board the submersible that lost contact with the surface Sunday.
The founder of the company behind the Titan submersible previously described his industry as "obscenely safe" and complained that passenger-vessel regulations held back innovation.
The vessel, which set out with four other passengers to view the wreck of the Titanic, was believed as of early Tuesday to have between 70 and 96 hours of oxygen left, the US Coast Guard said.
Describing the industry in a 2019 interview, Rush said that there had been no injuries in the field for decades, adding: "It's obscenely safe because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn't innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations."
Related video: Former passenger describes what it's like inside the submersible (cbc.ca) Duration 1:35 View on Watch
OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment, sent outside working hours.
Its website describes a commitment to "high-level operational safety" and the Titan's "unparalleled" hull-monitoring safety system.
The profile of Rush, which appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, describes his efforts to expand human exploration of the deep, calling him a "daredevil inventor."
It chronicles Rush's passion for exploring and his efforts to energize the market in private submersibles, which had long been dampened by the number of industrial accidents in offshore submarine work.
A 1993 regulation put strict controls on safety standards and who could pilot a submersible.
Rush called these developments "understandable but illogical," saying he felt the law was well meaning but lamenting the stifling effect it put on commercial innovation.
His remarks on safety came as part of a wider set of regrets about how little the US government prioritized ocean research.
A 2019 blog post on OceanGate's website cites speed of innovation as one of the reasons the Titan isn't classed according to standard regulatory processes. It said that while the company met standards "where they apply," the slow processes of vessel classification were "anathema to innovation."
Rush's company began to advertise in 2019 commercial trips in the Titan to see the famed Titanic wreck, touting an experimental design whose carbon-fiber hull was considerably lighter than other vehicles.
Trips were postponed, according to the magazine, after the company failed to get the proper permits for its contracted research-support vessel.
As of Tuesday, efforts to locate and contact the Titan were still underway.
Who is on the missing Titanic sub? Crew includes businessman who took spaceflight
The five people aboard the missing submersible in the North Atlantic include the CEO of the company that owns it, a Guinness World Record holder for deep-sea exploration, and one of the leading experts on the Titanic wreckage that the vessel was on the way to visit when contact was lost. Here is some more information on the crew.
Stockton Rush
Rush, CEO of OceanGate, hoped to make the Titanic more accessible with visits to the wreckage aboard his privately owned five-person sub. The initial goal was to take paying guests to the site on weekly visits from May to September, coupling the trips with research efforts that allow passengers to contribute as citizen scientists.
Rush has a degree from Princeton University in aerospace engineering and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Now in his early 60s, he became the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world when, at 19, he obtained his Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981, according to his biography on the OceanGate website.
He worked with Boeing Co. on an early design of the Titan carbon-fibre sub, and then with NASA. He has experienced aborted trips to the Titanic wreckage site in the past — his sub was hit by lightning in 2018, destroying its electrical system and scuttling the mission. A second attempt ended unsuccessfully the next year because of issues with the “mother ship” used to transport the team and equipment.
While he initially targeted space, and modelled his efforts after Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, Rush said he realized that his desire to seek out new life and boldly go where no man had gone before was more likely in the ocean. Hamish Harding
Harding, a 58-year-old Briton, is an accomplished businessman who founded U.K.- and Dubai-based private equity company Action Group in 2002. The business includes Action Aviation, which offers aircraft brokerage, management and financing services.
He holds a Guinness World Record for the longest time at the bottom of the ocean, which came from March 2021, when he spent 4 hours and 15 minutes on the sea floor of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in a submergence vehicle, at a depth of 10,930 metres.
A second record is for the longest distance travelled along the deepest part of the ocean — 4.634 kms, which he did during the same dive in 2021. He also holds the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via both poles, which took 46 hours and 40 minutes in July, 2019. He was the pilot and mission director.
In 2016, the Washington Post reports, Harding went to Antarctica with retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who nearly died after suffering altitude sickness on that trip. Harding also went to the edge of space last year with Blue Origin LLC, the American company founded by Jeff Bezos, on the company’s fifth human spaceflight.
The president of the Explorers Club, Richard Garriott de Cayeux, said in a statement Monday that Harding was on board the Titan.
“His excitement about this expedition was palpable,” said de Cayeux, adding that they had recently spoken. “I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site.”
Harding wrote in a June 18 post on Instagram that this was likely to be the only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023 “due to the worst weather in Newfoundland in 40 years,” adding: “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
Harding graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in natural sciences and chemical engineering. He is married and has two children.
Paul Henry Nargeolet
Nargeolet, 73, is a pre-eminent diver and considered to be the world’s leading expert on the Titanic wreckage and its debris field, which covers 25 square nautical miles. He is director of underwater research for Experiential Media Group, or E/M Group, and RMS Titanic Inc., and has completed dozens of submersible dives to the wreckage site, spending more time there than any other explorer. Known as “Mr. Titanic,” he is thought to be the one piloting the Titan.
Nargeolet was born in Chamonix, France, and lived with his family in Africa for 13 years, completed his studies in Paris and then spent 22 years in the French Navy, rising to the rank of commander, according to his biography on the E/M Group’s website. He led the first crewed expedition to the Titanic in 1987, just two years after it was discovered by an autonomous submersible, and was the first to recover a remnant – a silver plate.
In 2019 he participated in the Five Deeps expedition , exploring the deepest parts of all five of the Earth’s oceans, and breaking the record for deepest submersible dive, at 10,928 metres.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner that year, Nargeolet was asked whether he ever got scared diving 3,810 metres to reach the wreck. He replied: “If you are 11 metres or 11 km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same. When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realize that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem.”
Last year he published a book, In the Depths of the Titanic . The Daily Telegraph reports that he admitted at the time to sometimes pushing the envelope when diving to the wreck.
“You stand down four, five, six, seven eight hours, which is the longest, and even then you don’t really want to come back up,” he said. “Sometimes I go to the end of the (sub) batteries and sometimes even more than to the end. Indeed, I’ve been told off for doing so several times. Then the resurfacing takes just as long, so one can be down between 10 to 12 hours.” Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
The Dawoods – Shahzada and his son, Suleman – are members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families, which released a statement Tuesday confirming they are on board the Titan.
“Contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available. A rescue effort that is being jointly led by multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies is underway to re-establish contact with the submersible and bring them back safely,” it said.
“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time. The family is well looked after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members.”
Shahzada Dawood is vice-chairman of Engro Corp., which has businesses stretching from fertilizers to power generation. He graduated from the University of Buckingham with a law degree in 1998 and from Philadelphia University with a Master’s in textile marketing in 2000. He is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.
With additional reporting from The Associated Press
Missing Titanic submersible posed risk of 'extreme danger' to passengers, OceanGate exec warned in 2018
Story by Dan Mangan •
The OceanGate Expeditions submersible that went missing with five people aboard while trying to visit the site of the Titanic wreckage has only 41 hours or less of oxygen left, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.
Rescuers are searching an area of ocean that is "larger than the state of Connecticut" for the Titan submersible, Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is on board the vessel.
Also aboard are the billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.
The OceanGate Expeditions submersible that went missing with five people aboard while trying to visit the site of the Titanic wreckage has only 41 hours or less of oxygen left, U.S. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, federal court filings from a 2018 lawsuit came to light, revealing that a then-OceanGate director warned that company's submersible posed potential "extreme danger" to passengers because it had not been properly tested for use at very low water depths.
Rescuers are searching an area of ocean that is "larger than the state of Connecticut" for the Titan submersible, Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a news briefing Tuesday.
But there have been "no results" thus far, he said.
"Search and rescue crews are working around the clock to find the submersible and crew," said Frederick, who called it a "very complex search."
The submersible went missing Sunday, less than two hours into its dive about 900 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is on board the vessel.
Also aboard are the billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; and his 19-year-old son Suleman. The fifth person is a crew member of the vessel.
OceanGate began offering trips on the submersible, whose passengers pay $250,000 apiece, in 2021.
"This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary," the company said on its website advertising the trips.
In a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment in November about his trip on the submersible, correspondent David Pogue read out loud the text of a waiver he signed for the excursion.
"An experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death," Pogue read.
Court filings from a 2018 lawsuit between OceanGate and its former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, show that he had "disagreed with OceanGate's position to dive the submersible without any non-destructive testing to prove its integrity."
Lochridge, in a court filing first reported by The New Republic, said the failure to perform that testing would "subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible."
"Lochridge first expressed verbal concerns over the safety and quality control issues regarding the Titan to OceanGate executive management," he said in that court filing. "These verbal communications were ignored."
The filing said that Lochridge had been denied access to information about the vessel's viewport — the section where passengers could look out from the submersible — which revealed that it "was only built to certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters."
"Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to the experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy ('PVHO') standards," the filing said.
"OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters," the filing said. "The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible."
OceanGate had sued Lochridge and his wife in Washington state court in June 2018, alleging breach of contract, fraud and other claims that the company said arose from him discussing OceanGate's confidential information with at least two other people, as well as representatives of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration in purported violation of a non-disclosure agreement.
Lochridge then filed a counterclaim against OceanGate in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
The case was settled in late 2018.
OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
The Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage from England to New York City on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster.
The wreckage of the ship was not found until 1985 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It sits about 13,000 feet under the Atlantic Ocean.
Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent and science writer David Pogue says he was both petrified and excited when he took a deep-sea voyage in the OceanGate Expedition's Titan submersible last year.
This submersible takes passengers to The Titanic wreck. Climb in!
It can take five passengers to The Titanic on the ocean floor, you can pilot it with a gaming controller...and it has a toilet. Climb aboard Titan, a unique submarine used to explore the world's most famous shipwreck.
Billionaire on Missing Titanic Submarine Last Posted About Bad Weather Story by Anna Commander • Yesterday
Captain Hamish Harding posted to Instagram on Saturday about the now missing submarine exploring the RMS Titanic and how this may be the only manned mission in 2023 due to the "worst winter" in 40 years.
OceanGate Expeditions confirmed to CBS News that its submersible is the subject of a search and rescue mission. A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson told The Guardian that five people were on board the vessel when it went missing. Newsweek reached out to the USCG for comment.
The Marine Traffic website reported that three tugboats from a port in St. John's, Newfoundland, were headed to the Titanic site, which is about 370 miles off the Canadian coast. The Canadian Coast Guard referred Newsweek to the USGC's Boston Rescue Coordination Center for comment.
"I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic," Harding said in his Instagram post.
"Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do," he wrote.
"The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet. More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!"
Related video: Sub missing at Titanic wreck site: Boston-based Coast Guard admiral coordinating search (WCVB Boston) Duration 6:15 View on Watch
Harding is the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation and in his Instagram bio he says he "buy[s] and sell[s] business jets." Harding is also a skydiver, was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation in 2022 and is a trustee of the Explorers Club, according to The Guardian.
Harding has made many trips to the South Pole, including with astronaut Buzz Aldrin in 2016, who became the oldest person to reach the South Pole at 86. He also went into space last year with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company.
The Titanic was the world's largest ship when it sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew members on board, more than 1,500 died.
The passenger liner, which wasn't discovered until 1985, lies in two parts at 12,500 feet below sea level. Last month, the first full-sized digital scan of the wreck provided viewers with a 3D view of the ship using deep-sea mapping.
For $250,000, OceanGate Expeditions offers tourists the opportunity to "become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes" with an eight-day trip, according to its website. The expedition to the Titanic wreckage was planned from June 12 to June 30.
FedEx to fold Canada contractor-based Ground unit into Express and convert contractors into employees
By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -FedEx on Tuesday said it will merge its contractor-based Ground delivery operations in Canada into its company-operated Express unit and convert contractors into employees.
The move, set to be phased in starting in April 2024, comes as the global delivery company is revamping its business to boost profits and better compete with rivals like United Parcel Service, Amazon.com and regional delivery firms.
Company executives will discuss the change with investors and analysts in a conference call on Tuesday, following the release of the firm's latest quarterly report.
FedEx made a similar change in the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii last year.
Still, the company said there will be U.S. markets where packages shift from Express to Ground, its outsourced delivery arm. In those cases, the company said it would continue to use delivery contractors as part of its "hybrid" worker model.
Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx in April said it planned to combine the two delivery units as part of its wider effort to slash $4 billion in costs by the end of its 2025 financial year. That announcement came almost a year after activist investor D.E. Shaw pushed for change and won two additional board seats.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)
CANADA
Indigenous artist's design chosen for Afghan war monument
Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday
OTTAWA — Veterans of the war in Afghanistan were influential in choosing the final design for a monument that will memorialize Canada's contributions in the conflict.
After narrowing it to five choices, the federal government asked a jury to select the winner and asked the public for input.
More than 10,000 people responded to an online survey, and a great many of them served in Afghanistan or were family members of those who served, said Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay.
They overwhelmingly preferred a design put forward by Team Stimson: a circular space inspired by an Indigenous medicine wheel, sectioned into four parts, with an inner sanctuary featuring four bronze flak jackets hanging from crosses.
So when the jury made a different selection, it was overruled.
Artist Adrian Stimson, a member of Siksika First Nation in Alberta, is perhaps uniquely qualified to create such a monument.
A former member of the Armed Forces, Stimson joined the Canadian Forces Artists Program as a civilian in 2010 and spent time in Afghanistan, observing how the troops lived and interacted with their surroundings.
"While I was there, I became interested in the physical materiality of the bases, the industrial nature of embedding troops into the theatre of war," Stimson said Monday as his design was unveiled at the Canadian War Museum.
"Mimicking this, the monument is a place to be discovered and to be revealed. The monument enlivens as you approach on a meandering pathway, revealing itself slowly, with purpose."
Three quadrants of the monument will include the names of the 158 Canadian military members who were killed in the conflict. The fourth, which faces in the direction of Afghanistan, is meant to honour Canada's relationship with the Afghan people.
The monument is set to be built in the Lebreton Flats area across the street from the War Museum, near the National Holocaust Memorial.
It could take another two or three years to finalize the design and construction, Stimson said, adding to what has already been a years-long process.
"We have sought guidance from Indigenous elders, made connections with both past and present military personnel and families," he said.
The monument was promised by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2014, and on Monday the Tories accused the Liberal government of stalling the project.
The 13-year mission in Afghanistan involved more than 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces members.
MacAulay said Monday he "cannot imagine" what it was like for the families of those members who waited at home.
"(The monument) will be a place to capture your memories, a place of reflection, and a place to gather to remember those who never returned," he said.
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, who served as a lieutenant-colonel in Afghanistan, said the design captured "the essence of that mission."
"This is not the future that we had hoped for Afghanistan," he said, referring to the 2021 takeover of the country by the Taliban.
"But despite the current conditions in Afghanistan, we must not lose sight of the fact that Canadian and international efforts helped a generation of Afghans."
An estimated 47,245 Afghan civilians were killed in the conflict between 2001 and 2021, along with 66,000 national police and military members and more than 51,000 Taliban and opposition fighters.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2023.
-- With a file from The Associated Press
Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
Vatican document highlights need for concrete steps for women, 'radical inclusion' of LGBTQ+
VATICAN CITY (AP) — An unprecedented global canvassing of Catholics has called for the church to take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles, for a “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority.
The Vatican on Tuesday released the synthesis of a two-year consultation process, publishing a working document that will form the basis of discussion for a big meeting of bishops and laypeople in October. The synod, as it is known, is a key priority of Pope Francis, reflecting his vision of a church that is more about the faithful rank-and-file than its priests.
Already Francis has made his mark on the synod, letting lay people and in particular women have a vote alongside bishops. That reform is a concrete step toward what he calls “synodality,” a new way of being a church that envisions more co-responsibility in governance and the key mission of spreading the Catholic faith.
The document highlights key concerns that emerged during the consultation process, which began at the local parish level and concluded with seven continent-wide assemblies. It flagged in particular the devastating impact that clergy sexual abuse crisis has had on the faithful, costing the hierarchy its credibility and sparking calls for structural changes to remove their near-absolute power.
The synthesis found a “unanimous” and “crucial” call for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance. Without raising the prospect of women’s ordination to the priesthood, it asked whether new ministries could be created, including the diaconate – a reflection of a years-long call by some women to be ordained deacons in the church.
The document noted that “most” of the continent-wide assemblies and “several” bishops' conferences called for the diaconate question to be considered by the synod.
The document also asked what concrete steps the church can take to better welcome LGBTQ+ people and others who have felt marginalized and unrecognized by the church so that they don’t feel judged: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled, as well as those who by tribal or caste feel excluded.
Perhaps most significantly, the document used the terminology “LGBTQ+ persons” rather than the Vatican’s traditional “persons with homosexual tendencies,” suggesting a level of acceptance that Francis ushered in a decade ago with his famous “Who am I to judge” comment.
Even the seating arrangements for the synod are designed to be inclusive. Delegates are to be seated at round tables, with around a dozen laity and clergy mixed together in the Vatican’s big auditorium.
Previously, synods took place in the Vatican’s theater-like synod hall, where cardinals and bishops would take the front rows and priests, nuns and finally lay people getting seated in the back rows, far from the stage.
Unlike past working documents, the synthesis doesn’t stake out firm points, proposals or conclusions, but rather poses a series of questions for further discussion during the October assembly. The synod process continues in 2024 with the second phase, after which Francis is expected to issue a concluding document considering the proposals that have been put to him by the delegates.
The working document re-proposed a call for debate on whether married priests could be considered to relieve the clergy shortage in some parts of the world. Amazonian bishops had proposed allowing married priests to minister to their faithful who sometimes go months at a time without Mass, but Francis shot down the proposal after an Amazonian synod in 2019.
It called for more “meaningful and concrete steps” to offer justice to survivors of sexual abuse. It noted that the faithful have also been victims of other types of abuse: “spiritual, economic, power and conscience abuse” that have “eroded the credibility of the Church and compromised the effectiveness of its mission.”
It suggested that the church must reevaluate the way authority is exercised by the hierarchy, suggesting structural, canonical and institutional reforms to eradicate the “clericalism,” or privilege that is afforded to clergy.
It acknowledged the fear and opposition that the synodal process has sparked among some bishops who see it as undermining their authority and power, but said transparency and accountability were absolutely necessary and that bishops should even be evaluated as a way to rebuild trust.
“The synodal process asks them (bishops) to live a radical trust in the action of the spirit in the life of their communities, without fear that the participation of everyone need be a threat to their ministry of community leadership,” it says.
Even before the synod began, the document and the consultative process that preceded it were already having an effect.
Sister Nadia Coppa, who heads the umbrella group of women’s religious orders, said anyone who exercises governance in religious orders was being called to develop a new way of exercising authority.
“It will be important for us to propose a style of governance that develops structures and participatory procedures in which members can together discern a new vision for the church,” Coppa told a press conference.
Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press
Europe, US urged to investigate the type of AI that powers systems like ChatGPT
LONDON (AP) — European Union consumer protection groups urged regulators on Tuesday to investigate the type of artificial intelligence underpinning systems like ChatGPT, citing risks that leave people vulnerable and the delay before the bloc’s groundbreaking AI regulations take effect.
A transatlantic coalition of consumer groups also wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden asking him to take action to protect consumers from possible harms caused by generative AI.
Europe has led the world in efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, which gained urgency with the rise of a new breed of artificial intelligence that gives AI chatbots like ChatGPT the power to generate text, images, video and audio that resemble human work.
The EU is putting the finishing touches on the world’s first set of comprehensive rules for the technology, but they are not expected to take effect for two years.
The groups called for European and U.S. leaders to use both existing laws and bring in new legislation to address the harms that generative AI can cause.
They cited a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council outlining dangers that AI chatbots pose, including providing incorrect medical information, manipulating people, making up news articles and illegally using vast amounts of personal data scraped off the internet.
The consumer groups, in countries including Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece and Denmark, warn that while the EU's AI Act addresses some of the concerns, they won't start applying for several years, “leaving consumers unprotected from a technology which is insufficiently regulated in the meantime, and developing at great pace.”
Some authorities have already acted. Italy's privacy watchdog ordered ChatGPT maker OpenAI to temporarily stop processing user's personal information while it investigated a possible data breach. France, Spain and Canada also have been looking into OpenAI and ChatGPT.
The Associated Press
UK Parliament approves report that Boris Johnson misled parliament
Story by Luke McGee • Yesterday
The UK parliament has voted to uphold a finding that Boris Johnson knowingly misled lawmakers when he said that Covid lockdown rules had been followed at all times in Downing Street while he was prime minister.
The House of Commons Privileges Committee report, published last week, found that Johnson “committed a serious contempt” of parliament when he told lawmakers that rules were followed, despite revelations of illegal parties in Downing Street during a national lockdown. Many people working inside Downing Street, including Johnson and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, were fined by police.
Not only did the committee report that Johnson had knowingly misled parliament, they also said that in giving evidence to their inquiry he had continued to misled the committee itself when he was giving evidence in his defense.
The vote passed the House of Commons by 354 to 7. It was expected that the vote would pass, because a number of Johnson’s fellow Conservatives were not present and abstained.
Johnson’s most vocal supporters, who defended him throughout and heavily criticized the committee, were reportedly encouraged by Johnson not to vote so as not to lend the decision credibility.
Johnson would have been sanctioned with a lengthy ban from parliament and denied a pass to access the building, a right afforded to former members of parliament. But Johnson has already stood down as an MP, so will neither serve the ban nor face the by-election that would have been triggered as a result of the ban.
Sunak and the rest of the Conservative Party will now hope the issue of Johnson and the scandals that brought down his government can be left in the past as they move forward. However, Sunak and his party currently trail in the polls.
Sunak came to power after Johnson’s immediate successor, Liz Truss, made controversial spending and budget cuts that caused an economic meltdown.
Sunak’s pitch was that he would bring calm to what had been a chaotic political scene. He has to some extent achieved that, but his poll numbers have only marginally improved, which is making his own MPs nervous.
Countdown to Paris: Will leaders rise to the urgent climate challenge?
Opinion by Michael Sheldrick, opinion contributor • The Hill - Yesterday
This week all eyes will be on Paris, as French President Emmanuel Macron hosts his pivotal Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, an urgent gathering for the world’s nations to shake up the global financial system and drastically increase funding for developing and climate-vulnerable countries.
Already, thanks to Macron’s leadership and that of Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, some heavy hitters are set to attend, including U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, World Bank President Ajay Banga, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
To truly live up to its name, this summit must produce more than mere photo ops for political glad-handing and self-imposed congratulations. The event is a make-or-break moment — both for Macron’s legacy and for millions of lives around the world. Its outcome will determine if he becomes a transformative force for change, or just another Western leader making aspirational promises amid crumbling credibility.
The summit arrives at a crucial juncture. The impacts of climate change are increasingly evident, particularly in the poorest and smallest countries that have contributed least to the problem. These nations face the dual challenge of having insufficient funds to invest in infrastructure for clean energy, and limited resilience against natural disasters which, when they arrive, can knock entire percentage points off their GDP. Compounding these developmental hurdles is the unfortunate reality that many of these countries are burdened by high-interest debt repayments, which often surpass their budget allocations toward essential needs like education, healthcare and basic infrastructure, let alone climate action.
We know no summit can achieve everything. But we want to see President Macron and attending leaders deliver the following, at a minimum.
The United States, in particular, plays a significant role in meeting this goal. Without U.S. leadership and a clear roadmap on how they will pay their fair share of climate funding, any claims that the $100 billion target has been met will be laughable. The success of this summit depends on Yellen, the U.S. Treasury secretary, announcing concrete plans to fulfill the United States’s climate obligations.
Another country that can make a significant impact is the United Kingdom. Eyes are on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who recently opted out of attending the Paris Summit, in hopes that the UK will be one of the first to reallocate more of their Special Drawing Rights via the Africa Development Bank and other multi-development banks. These reserve assets, predominantly allocated to wealthier nations, should not just be pledged but be urgently redirected to benefit low-income and climate-vulnerable countries. Despite numerous promises and pledges to date, so far only Rwanda has actually received any SDRs from the International Monetary Fund’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust.
It is critical that all commitments not just be empty overtures. President Macron must require countries to be transparent and accountable, and present clear plans with time-bound deliverables.
The World Bank is under immense pressure to better respond to global challenges such as climate change, pandemics and conflicts, while also staying true to its anti-poverty mandate. While the Bank has significantly increased its climate portfolio in recent years, a recent study showed that hundreds of its “climate” projects appear to have little to do with climate change mitigation or adaptation.
Building on this momentum is crucial, and next week’s summit presents new President Ajay Banga with an opportunity to show he’s serious about reform. One such measure he can drive is the offer of “natural disaster and pandemic clauses” in loans to developing countries. These clauses would provide temporary relief from repayments in the event of devastating hurricanes, floods or pandemics, for example, allowing them to allocate funds towards recovery instead of servicing debts. Although it does not directly tackle the pressing issue of existing debt, which requires an urgent solution from the G20 countries, such clauses will aid countries in their recovery from ever more frequent natural disasters. In turn, as well as driving further reform, World Bank shareholders should commit to a capital increase. Transition to a low-carbon future
Reducing the world’s emissions by half by 2030 is crucial to mitigating the severe consequences of climate change on humanity. The private sector holds significant responsibility here, with 10,000 publicly listed businesses alone accounting for 40 percent of global emissions. Reducing carbon emissions not only benefits people and the planet, it also makes good business sense. Many investors and business leaders continue to make this argument.
The Paris summit is also an opportunity to accelerate the pace of action among industries moving too slowly. A case in point is the shipping industry, which accounts for over a tenth of transport CO2 emissions. Here, Macron is looking to form a coalition of willing countries to implement a levy on the industry. The funds generated can be used in part to decarbonize the sector, but must also be redirected toward vulnerable countries. Agreement on this latter point is critical.
In addition to reducing their emissions, businesses should also explore transformative investments in emerging economies and countries facing the worst impacts of climate change and support their transition to a low-carbon economy. After all, funding the clean energy transition in developing nations requires trillions of dollars, a responsibility that cannot be shouldered by governments alone. The Bridgetown Initiative outlines a number of solutions to help scale up private sector financing that next week’s summit should endorse.
An emerging concept gaining traction among businesses is the establishment of a “corporate buyers club,” to commit to procure high-quality carbon credits from reputable sources in low-income countries. Given there are currently no real guardrails on carbon markets, best practice would be credits that are aligned with the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMIi), in order for corporations to address their residual emissions. Provided businesses have committed to the Race to Zero and have set science based targets in addition to sourcing credits of high integrity, this approach has the potential to facilitate substantial wealth transfer to developing nations.
There are a number of reasons for Macron and public- and private-sector leaders gathering for this week’s summit to act that are in the world’s collective interest — not least, investing in a green transition for poorer countries has economic benefits for G7 nations. To view this as a choice between helping poorer countries develop and boosting their own economies is a false dichotomy; these goals are intertwined. By investing in long-term climate resilience projects in developing nations we improve lives, create jobs, enhance energy and food security, and promote stable prosperity in the world.
The clock is ticking. It’s crucial we take action now to avoid a potential humanitarian crisis — without it, experts anticipate there could be 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050. By addressing climate challenges and promoting sustainable development, we can protect human life, strengthen economies and build a brighter and more equitable future for all.
Michael Sheldrick is co-founder and chief policy, impact and government relations officer at Global Citizen.
Heavy June snow wallops Alberta mountain region one day before summer
Story by Digital Writers •
The Weather Network Heavy June snow wallops Alberta one day before summer View on WatchDuration 1:06
Although summertime snow is not completely unheard of across Western Canada, up to 60 cm of it just a day ahead of the official start to the summer season can certainly catch most off guard.
A significant low pressure system is bringing high precipitation amounts to west-central Alberta. Most of the precipitation has been falling as rain, however, western areas have also seen significant accumulating snow.
"Northerly winds are accompanying this persistent low that has set up over central Alberta, ushering in much colder conditions," says Matt Grinter, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. "Pacific moisture has been drawn into the low and has brought an abundance of spring snow to the northern foothills and the mountain regions."
Snowfall warnings, which were first issued on Sunday, remain in place over higher elevations, including Jasper National Park where between 20 to 40 cm of snow is forecast to fall. Some areas may even exceed the 60 cm mark through the day on Tuesday.
At lower elevations, wet snow will create slushy conditions and accumulations will likely be below 10 cm.
Drivers have been urged to consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.
"Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow," says Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in the snowfall warning. "Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow. Road closures are possible. Heavy snowfall accumulation may cause tree branches to break."
