‘We carry on’: How Russia’s youth see their lives and their future

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 

How young people in Putin's Russia see their future as Ukraine conflict grinds on

MOSCOW (Reuters) - On a warm July day in the Russian capital, young couples stroll hand-in-hand along the Moskva river as pleasure boats drift lazily downstream, the towers of the Kremlin poking up from behind the treetops.

During Moscow's idyllic summer months, Reuters journalists interviewed four young Russians living there to hear how their lives have changed since the start of what the Kremlin calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

All four were born around the turn of the millennium, when President Vladimir Putin ascended to power, and have known no other Russia than the one he controls.

Some spoke of study plans and jobs upended, others, of fear of an unknown and unpredictable future. But none of the four said there was much they could do to influence Russia's direction.

Instead, as one young man put it, there was nothing to do but adjust to a new reality and "carry on."


How young people in Putin's Russia see their future as Ukraine conflict grinds on© Thomson Reuters

The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Sabina, 23, born in Moscow of Abkhaz ancestry, who studied data journalism at Moscow's Higher School of Economics

Before 2022 I had thoughts that I could go somewhere to study, enrol in а universitу (abroad). I wanted to enrol in a university in Finland but kept putting it off, though I wanted it so much.Now it seems that I should not go anywhere. Not without my family, at least. Because, OK, I might go away, but who knows what happens next. Something might happen to them if they don't leave the country with me.

It seems that now we are making a choice: on which side of the border we remain. You are either on one side or the other. And it's a final choice.

Maxim Lukyanenko, 20, a student from Krasnodar in southern Russia studying foreign languages and intercultural communication at the Higher School of Economics, and a founder of 'White Raven,' a patriotic, pro-military organisation




I have an optimistic point of view, so for me it's an opportunity to learn something new. Europe has closed down (for us), let's set our sights to Asia. There are lots of great things there.




I plan to study a master's course in China…I think they are very interesting people, an interesting nation. In general, Russia does need to strengthen ties with China. They are top blokes, we need to learn something from them. And to teach them something, of course.

Related video: How Russia's youth see their lives and future (Reuters)

Duration 3:17  View on Watch

Konstantin Konkov, 23, studied biology at Moscow State University, elected last year as an independent candidate to Moscow's municipal council

I'm mostly into public activism, for the most part politics and ecology… We set up neighbourhood clean-ups. We help animal shelters. We collect aid for refugees.

Of course, studying abroad to gain some knowledge and then put it into practice here is a rather tempting idea. But at the moment I feel that I'm needed here. And since I was elected a municipal deputy, for the next five years I plan to stay here, in my district, helping people as much as possible.

Since February last year, a lot of people I know, activists and others, have left Russia. It does have an impact on our campaigns and the quality of horizontal communication. Just think about it: the most active people, people who do care about what's going on in the country, have been ripped out of the country. Very few have stayed. In this situation it makes carrying out any campaigns, public or political, very difficult. But we carry on.Ivan Sokolov, 25, studied economics in Moscow and now works as a data analyst, left Russia briefly for Kazakhstan but has since returned to Moscow




(Talking about his first reaction to mobilisation in Russia) I was in a total state of shock for at least one day, absolutely numb. I didn't understand what it was and why and how to live with it.

The mobilisation was announced, I think, on Tuesday, and my friends and I flew away on Sunday. The route was long. At first we flew to Astrakhan (in southern Russia), then we hitchhiked to Atyrau in Kazakhstan. It took us two days to cross the border.

My plan of finding a job abroad failed…So I had to live on my savings, eating through them gradually.

Now I see that negative developments in geopolitics, for example, don’t have any impact on me. I'm totally cool about them.

My friends are here, my family is here. I was born and grew up in this country. I can't change and fix everything in the country, so I'm forced to come to terms with it, get used to it, and move forward.

(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by William Maclean)

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Canadian Supreme Court won't hear appeal of ex-construction boss convicted of corruption

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from a former construction boss who was convicted of corruption, breach of trust and conspiracy to commit fraud. 

Tony Accurso was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 30 months and four years in 2018 in what a Quebec judge called one of the worst examples of municipal corruption to come before a Canadian court. 

A jury convicted Accurso of charges tied to a kickback scheme that saw companies receive lucrative public contracts in exchange for bribes to elected officials, including Gilles Vaillancourt, the former mayor of Laval, Que. 

The kickback and fraud scheme lasted between 1996 and 2010 and was run by Vaillancourt, who pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges and received a six-year sentence. 

The Quebec Court of Appeal upheld Accurso's conviction last year, and he was ordered to report to prison.

However, the Court of Appeal said it would not harm public trust in the justice system if Accurso were free on bail during his appeal to the Supreme Court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2023.

The Canadian Press

B.C. judge allows cannabis 'fire sale' to stave off CRA destruction threat

Story by The Canadian Press 

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has approved the bulk sale of more than 1,200 kilograms of cannabis by a company after the Canada Revenue Agency threatened to destroy it. 

In a ruling released online this week, the court allowed Tantalus Labs Ltd. to move ahead with a hasty sale of its remaining inventory of cannabis flower after the CRA planned to destroy the product at its facility in Maple Ridge, B.C. 

The agency had earlier declined to renew the company's excise tax licence due to financial difficulties, which saw Tantalus shed the bulk of its employees at the end of June due to looming insolvency. 

Without the licence, the company would've been unable to sell its remaining inventory and potentially recover more for creditors, including its main lender and the CRA itself. 

As the date of its licence expiry approached, the company had to go to court for approval of the sale of its remaining inventory on what bankruptcy trustee Ernst & Young called a "fire sale basis."

Court documents say the company has more than $14 million in debt, mostly to lender Sungrown Mortgage Corp. and the CRA, and the company was forced to enter insolvency and sell off its remaining inventory under threat of destruction. 

Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick allowed the sale to move forward, but said in her ruling that the circumstances were "unusual" since Tantalus had only filed its insolvency notice less than two weeks before landing in court. 

Fitzpatrick's ruling said the "fire sale" circumstances were unfortunate, arising "somewhat inexplicably from the position of CRA, and CRA’s threat to enter Tantalus’ premises and destroy the inventory and/or its value."

In its report on Tantalus tied to the insolvency, Ernst & Young said an "orderly" sale of the company's remaining product could fetch around $2 million, while a fire sale would net about $300,000. 

Had the CRA renewed the company's licence, an orderly sale would've benefited the agency itself "as a result of the increased tax revenues rather than the reduced proceeds anticipated to be received in a forced liquidation or fire sale scenario," Ernst & Young's report said.

Tantalus CEO Dan Sutton said Wednesday that many cannabis companies are struggling under the weight of regulatory and tax burdens placed on the industry. 

Sutton said he couldn't reveal too much since the insolvency process is still ongoing, but called the CRA's actions "peculiar" because it would've benefited as a creditor had it granted Tantalus more time. 

"The judge was similarly confused," he said.

Sutton and many others have long complained about what he calls the "extreme and burdensome excise tax requirements on top of payroll tax and GST payments in the Canadian cannabis industry."

The CRA, he said, seems to have changed its tune at the beginning of the year and has stepped up efforts to recoup back taxes owed "with a more aggressive tone than it has historically."

Sutton said the ordeal has been "disappointing for everyone," including the city of Maple Ridge, where Tantalus employed nearly 80 people and hoped to create more jobs in the long term. 

"I hope that lessons like Tantalus and many other companies, especially small businesses that are suffering under this grossly miscalculated excise tax, will become a lesson to the federal government to amend these regulations," he said. "It doesn't seem to be a business that, or rather, a regulatory environment that validates small business participation at this time. (It's) super troubling."

The CRA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Cori Bush yells at Steve Scalise on House floor: ‘Your bills are racist

 The Hill

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) yelled at House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) on the House floor on Thursday, calling Republicans’ funding bills “racist,” after GOP lawmakers passed the first of 12 annual appropriations bills.

“Your bills are racist,” Bush yelled out, as Scalise touted the passage of the legislation allocating funding for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies.

The comment was met with outcries from Republican lawmakers in the chamber and calls to strike Bush’s words from the official record.

However, the Missouri Democrat remained unapologetic about the outburst, tweeting, “I said what I said,” with a shrugging emoji shortly after the incident.

The Milcon-VA bill passed in a 219-211 vote Thursday, with every Democrat and two Republicans — Reps. Tim Burchett (Tenn.) and Ken Buck (Colo.) — voting against the measure.

The House legislation is virtually dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where appropriators are marking up their own spending bills.

With Congress set to adjourn this week for its monthlong August recess, lawmakers are facing a tight deadline to pass legislation funding the government by Sept. 30 and avert a government shutdown.

The Hill.

SOLITARY IS TORTURE

House Democrats introduce bill to end solitary confinement

The Hill

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) led Democrats in introducing legislation Thursday to end solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails and detention centers. 

The End Solitary Confinement Act would cap the time incarcerated people and detainees are alone at four hours and require prison or jail staff to meet with the inmate within one hour. The separation would be used as a de-escalation tactic in an emergency situation as opposed to punishment. 

“Solitary confinement is a moral catastrophe,” said Bush, adding that the practice is “psychological torture.” 

“This practice is traumatic for people subjected to it, harmful to communities and isolating for loved ones,” she said. “Moreover, it is disproportionately inflicted on Black and brown folks, young people, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities.”

Black and brown incarcerated people are more likely than white people to be placed in solitary confinement. In a 2016 study, Black men made up 40 percent of the total prison population in 43 jurisdictions but 45 percent of those in solitary confinement. Also, 21 percent of incarcerated people in solitary confinement were Latino, even though they made up only 20 percent of the total prison population. 

The United Nations has repeatedly condemned the use of solitary confinement — also referred to as segregation, secure housing, the hole or lockdown.

In 2015, the U.N. issued its Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, on prolonged isolation. Then, in 2020, one of the U.N.’s human rights experts expressed concern over the U.S.’s “excessive use” of solitary confinement in correctional facilities. 

Still, in May this year, a report found that more than 122,800 people in federal and state prisons and federal and local jails were placed in solitary confinement for 22 hours or more on any day in 2019.

Related video: Cori Bush introducing bill to end solitary confinement in federal prisons today 

(KTVI-TV St. Louis)   Duration 0:25   View on Watch

The End Solitary Confinement Act would require incarcerated people to have access to at least 14 hours of time out of their cells each day. Those 14 hours must include seven hours of programming meant to address mental health, substance abuse and violence prevention.

“Solitary confinement is torture, and torture should have no place in our society,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said. “It takes a devastating toll on mental health, heightens the risk of self-harm and suicide, increases recidivism and can lead to severe psychological trauma. We need to lead with restorative justice and recognize the human dignity of incarcerated people by abolishing this dehumanizing practice once and for all.”

There has been a trend over the last few years to end solitary confinement in some capacity. 

According to a report by the Unlock the Box Campaign, 500 bills in 44 states have been introduced over the last five years to address solitary confinement. Though some of these bills call for ending the practice in full, others are selective, with the focus on ending solitary confinement for young people, pregnant people, or people living with physical and mental disabilities.

“We know the clear, irreversible harm that solitary confinement causes to individuals, yet we continue to use this form of torture across the American criminal justice system,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said. “These harms are well documented and lead to increased mental health risks and heightened rates of suicide. Solitary confinement is inhumane, and this form of torture should never be used, period.”

Studies have shown that time spent in solitary confinement shortens lives and has devastating effects on the mental health of incarcerated people.

Although people in solitary confinement make up only 6 percent to 8 percent of the total prison population, they account for nearly half of those who die by suicide, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Research by Cornell University has also found that those who spent time in solitary confinement had an increased risk of committing more crimes after being released from prison. 

It also found that time spent in confinement could affect a returning citizen’s probability of employment, with the impact to mental health most likely being the driving cause of this trouble. 

Senate Democrats last fall introduced a similar bill that would reduce the use of solitary confinement in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, though Bush’s law would end the practice completely.

As part of his 2020 campaign, President Biden promised criminal justice reform, including “ending the practice of solitary confinement, with very limited exceptions.” 

“Someday, we will look back and ask why we ever subjected people to prolonged solitary confinement and expected anything other than trauma, violence and death as a response,” Bush said. 

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

Larry Nassar survivors sue Michigan State over alleged 'secret decisions' on releasing documents

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Women who were sexually assaulted by former Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar filed a lawsuit Thursday saying school officials made “secret decisions” about releasing documents in the case.

The group of survivors and parents says the lawsuit seeks accountability — not money — from the university. They say the school refused to give the state attorney general’s office more than 6,000 documents for an investigation into how Nassar was allowed to get away with his behavior, and later wouldn't turn over emails about the board of trustees' decision-making. The school has said the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege.

“It’s really, really hard to heal when you know there’s still answers to a lot of your questions out there,” Nassar survivor Elizabeth Maurer said at a press conference Thursday in East Lansing.

Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in prison after he admitted to molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment. He was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women and girls.

Michigan State has been criticized for its handling of the Nassar investigation and its dealings with survivors in the aftermath of his arrest and conviction. The school has settled lawsuits filed by Nassar victims for $500 million.

Mark Bullion, a spokesperson for Michigan State, said in an email Thursday that the school does not comment on pending litigation, and that the school has not seen or been served with the new lawsuit

Related video: Nassar victims sue Michigan State over documents (The Associated Press)
Duration 1:10  View on Watch

India TodayWhy Larry Nassar is so controversial

2:34

The civil suit names the school and its elected trustee board, saying the decisions and “secret votes” by a public body skirted Michigan's open meetings laws and the state Constitution.

“We contend that board members made a behind-closed-doors secret decision not to release the records in blatant violation of the Open Meetings Act,” victims' attorney Azzam Elder said in a release.

Elder said at Thursday's press conference that he has asked an Ingham County judge for a jury trial and that video deposition of the board members be allowed. “If you’re going to lie about it, at least have the guts to do it publicly,” Elder said.

The suit wants the school to turn over emails and other communications about decisions trustees may have made out of the public eye and to have a court declare that Michigan State violated the Freedom of Information Act, and to compel the university to comply with both FOIA and the Open Meetings Act going forward.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has asked the school to release the more than 6,000 documents to help shine a light on what the school knew about the abuse. She ended her investigation in 2021 of the school's handling of the Nassar case because the university refused to provide documents related to the scandal.

“This is about who knew what, when at the university,” Nassar survivor Melissa Brown Hudecz said in a statement read Thursday. “We can’t heal as a community until we know that everyone who enabled a predator is accountable. By protecting the 6,000 secret documents and anyone named in them, the board is adding to survivors’ trauma with their lack of institutional accountability.”

Earlier this month, Nassar was stabbed multiple times by another prisoner in his federal penitentiary cell in Florida. The prisoner said Nassar provoked the attack by making a lewd comment about wanting to see girls play in the Wimbledon women's tennis match while they were watching the tournament on TV, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and did so on condition anonymity.

___

Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Corey Williams And Joey Cappelletti, The Associated Press

Church sex abuse revelations are unwelcome distraction as Pope Francis visits scandal-hit Portugal

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — When a panel of experts read aloud some of the harrowing accounts they had collected from recently discovered victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the country’s senior bishops squirmed in the auditorium's front-row seats.

During a live television broadcast, the experts reported in February that at least 4,815 boys and girls had been abused since 1950, most aged 10-14.

Before the stunning findings, senior Portuguese church officials had maintained there had been only a handful of cases of clergy sex abuse. They lost even more credibility with a response so clumsy and hesitant that victims were inspired to form Portugal's first survivor advocacy group to press for compensation.

Pope Francis will wade into the quagmire of Portugal’s reckoning with its legacy of clergy abuse and cover-up when he arrives in Lisbon next Wednesday to participate in World Youth Day, the international Catholic youth rally. While there is no mention of the scandal on the pontiff’s official agenda, he is expected to meet with victims during his visit.

Francis will also visit the shrine at Fatima, a rural Portuguese town that is one of the Catholic Church’s most popular pilgrimage destinations. In 1917, three Portuguese shepherd children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary above a tree there, a singular event of 20th century church history.

Antonio Grosso, who says he was sexually abused at a former religious shelter for boys in Fatima in the 1960s, chafes at the contrast in the church’s approach.

Church officials “don’t believe what victims tell them, but they do believe little children who say they’ve been listening to the lady above (a tree),” the 70-year-old retired bank employee says.

Portugal is the latest country to confront decades of abuse by priests and cover-ups by bishops and religious superiors. Yet Portuguese church leaders seem to have learned little from their fellow bishops in the U.S., Europe and Latin America who faced similar crises.

Since the report’s release, the Portuguese hierarchy has flip-flopped over the possible — and still unresolved — issue of payment of reparations to victims. It has balked at suspending active members of the clergy named in the report.

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S. group that maintains an online archive on abuse in the Catholic Church, said Portugal's bishops had expected the independent commission would help them restore trust by revealing the history of abuse and cover-up while allowing them to “apologize, give assurances of reform, and move on.”

“Their plan backfired terribly,” she said in an email. "With its finding of nearly 5,000 victims and its startling claim of accused priests still in ministry, the commission turned out to be more independent than the bishops bargained for ... It was a disastrous miscalculation.”

With the shocking results, church authorities at first argued that possible reparations were a matter for the courts, which in Portugal are backlogged and notoriously slow to reach decisions, often taking many years. Lisbon Cardinal Manuel Clemente said the church would do only what courts determined it must do.

“Everything that can be done in accordance with the law will be done according to the law,” Clemente explained. “But don’t expect us to do anything else, because we can’t do anything else.”

He and other officials also remarked that under Portuguese law, the perpetrator is liable for any compensation payments — not the institution to which that person belongs.

Clemente said it would be “insulting” to offer reparations to victims. Furthermore, he and other church officials claimed that none of the victims in an online questionnaire created by the commission of experts said they were seeking reparations. The commission told The Associated Press that’s not true.

By April, the church had softened its position, saying it didn’t rule out reparations. It promised to “make help available” for victims and said if convicted perpetrators couldn’t pay, the church would. Officials have not elaborated on those plans.

Clemente also claimed the Independent Committee for the Study of Child Abuse in the Catholic Church, a group of experts set up by Portuguese church authorities, had handed the church just a list of names of alleged abusers that was not backed up by factual evidence.

That comment irked the experts, who said they took pains to ground their findings and provide supporting documentation, including witness statements admissible in court.

Also, church authorities said active clergy named as alleged abusers could be suspended from their duties only after due legal process where they could present their defense, presumably in a courtroom. Officials, under public pressure, later suspended four of the two dozen priests identified in the report.

The church promised last March to build a memorial to the victims that would be unveiled during the World Youth Day celebrations. A few weeks before the pope’s arrival, in another embarrassment, it scrapped that plan and said vaguely that something would be done later.

Grosso, the abuse victim, says he and others were so “outraged and deeply upset” by the church’s response that they created a lobby group, called the Silenced Heart Association, to help victims obtain reparations. The group is also to provide psychological support and pro bono legal aid.

Grosso’s personal journey has taken him from would-be priest studying as a child at a Portuguese seminary to co-founder of the first church sex abuse victim association in Portugal. As a child, he says, he enjoyed Mass so much that he re-enacted it at home.

But between the age of 10 and 12, studying away from home, Grosso says he was sexually abused first by a priest and later by a Franciscan friar.

Wracked by guilt and trauma, for 10 years he never spoke to anyone about what had happened. As a teen, he had episodes of “rage, humiliation, shame,” he says. The upshot: a boy who wanted to be a priest became an adult atheist.

Only as a young adult did he begin to broach the subject with friends. He told his girlfriend, who became his wife. They had two daughters.

When Grosso publicly recounted his story in a 2002 Portuguese magazine interview, having felt encouraged to do so by revelations of church sex abuse emerging around the world, his then 27-year-old daughter Barbara sent him a handwritten letter. He has kept it folded up in his wallet for the past two decades. The letter salutes his courage and tells him his daughter is proud of him. Reading it aloud, he tears up.

He feels moved to act now, he says, because the church reacted with “contempt” to the torment of victims and is still trying to cover up the truth. He would like to see Pope Francis speak about the issue while in Portugal.

The church in Portugal has apologized for the abuse. It is working with Portugal’s main victims’ support association and is establishing procedures and tailoring its responses to sex abuse in the church. Staff at the World Youth Day are receiving specific training on how to prevent and spot abuse.

The problem, however, extends far beyond Portugal, says Barrett Doyle.

Portugal’s reckoning lags behind what has already happened in the United States, Australia, France and Germany, she said, but is on a par with the church responses in Spain and Poland and most countries in South America, Central America, and Africa.

“In other words, and sadly, the Portuguese hierarchy is not an outlier; it’s representative,” she said.

___

Helena Alves contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Barry Hatton, The Associated Press

Partial settlement reached in lawsuit against Calgary Stampede over abuse of boys

Story by The Canadian Press • Wednesday, July 26,2023

CALGARY — A partial settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede that alleged the organization allowed a performance school staffer to sexually abuse young boys. 

Phillip Heerema received a 10-year prison sentence in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges including sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child pornography and luring. 

Heerema admitted to using his position with the Young Canadians School of Performing Arts, which performs each year in the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, to lure and groom six boys into sexual relationships. The school is operated by the Calgary Stampede Foundation.

The offences took place between 2005 and 2014, as well as in 1992. 

In court Wednesday, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the Stampede announced the settlement. It involves an admission of negligence and breach of duty, but it must still be approved by a judge. 

The Stampede would pay damages that are to be worked out later this summer.

"The Calgary Stampede takes responsibility in the hopes of helping the victims to heal," the Stampede said in a statement Wednesday.

"We can’t change the events of the past, but we are deeply sorry for how the victims have been affected."

It said it has taken meaningful steps to enhance the safety and wellness of its young participants.

"Our commitment to those impacted is to do everything possible to guard against anything similar ever happening again."

The statement of claim alleged the performance school failed in its hiring and supervision of Heerema, that it created or permitted an atmosphere tolerant of inappropriate sexual behaviour, and that it didn't adequately investigate and act on one or more complaints.

Lawyer Gavin Price appeared in court on behalf of the three dozen plaintiffs, all men who were students, employees, contractors or volunteers with the performance school.

"We are resolving a significant portion of the class action, but not the entirety of it, so we resolve what I would call the liability phase," he said.

"We're trying to resolve what we can for the class and move on. There's an incredible amount of complexity when we're dealing with historical sexual abuse and sexual assault."

Price said working out the damages will be "a fight for another day."

Court of King's Bench Justice Alice Woolley set a hearing for Sept. 25 to determine whether to approve the deal after all the plaintiffs are notified and have a chance to object, if they wish.

"I really want to commend counsel for their work on this," she said. "It is no easy task to reach agreement on a case like this, when there's so much at stake for everyone involved."

About a dozen people were in the courtroom, including some of Heerema's victims.

"It was good to see the resolution on the issues of liability. It saved us having to go through a fight," one of the men said outside the courtroom.

"It's something that never should have happened and we go to take steps to address it and make sure it never happens again."

Another man said the settlement is "a relief and a long time coming."

However, he said he's not sure the performance school has been made safer.

"We're just supposed to take their word that they've made changes to these programs to address the culture that allowed what happened to happen for almost 30 years, and personally I don't really trust their ability to make changes without being held accountable."

Another man, who came forward with his story of abuse in 2013, said it has been a long process for all the victims.

"It's been 10 years and the Stampede has done nothing for me," he said.

"The criminal investigation and criminal trial took less time than the civil proceedings. This has gone on for so, so long."

Heerema is also named in the lawsuit but is still incarcerated, said Price, so the claim against him will be dealt with at a later date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2023. 

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

'The Kerala Story': How an Indian propaganda film ignited violence against Muslims and challenges to interfaith marriage

Story by Wajiha Mehdi, PhD Candidate, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia

 • Yesterday 

The Conversation

A controversial low-budget Indian feature film The Kerala Story, about a discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory, has been causing a political storm, going all the way to India’s Supreme Court.

The movie has helped circulate the idea of “love jihad,” a right-wing conspiracy theory that Muslim men are predators and out to marry and steal Hindu women. These ideas date back to the British colonial era and have far-reaching implications for people’s everyday lives.

The trailer claimed 32,000 Hindu girls had been converted to Islam by Muslim men with the intent of recruiting them to ISIS.

Once the film came out, citizens tried to get it banned by sending a petition to the India’s Supreme Court.

“Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men are converting Hindu and Christian women to Islam. Allegedly, the men feign love, get the women pregnant and eventually traffic them. The motive? To increase the Muslim population of India, perpetuate fanaticism and ultimately establish an Islamic state.

According to a recent Pew Report, 99 per cent of married people in India share the same religion as their spouse. Muslims account for approximately 14 per cent of India’s population.

There is no such thing as a “love jihad” and an investigation by India’s National Investigation Agency has said there is no evidence of “love jihad” taking place.

Political fallout

The figure of 32,000 women in the film’s trailer was immediately challenged by Indian political leaders and also debunked by fact-checkers from the website, Alt News.

The filmmakers agreed to change the number and a new trailer was released. It removed and replaced “32,000 girls” with “the true stories of three girls.”

And the movie went forward with its release, which according to some news reports, was successful at the box office.

Challenges in the Indian Supreme Court

Some politicians decried the propagandist nature of the movie and in West Bengal, it was banned by the government. Politicians there said the film “manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes” and they banned the film to “avoid violence and hatred.”

The Indian Supreme Court lifted the state ban though agreed that a disclaimer on the film was necessary. The disclaimer indicated that the film provides “no authentic data” to support the 32,000 figure and that it presents fictionalized accounts.

Other politicians, including some from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, promoted the film. Some of them even offered complimentary tickets or organized free screenings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed the movie, assigning to it a distinct legitimacy.

Islamophobia from the 19th century

The idea of “love jihad” is both current and historical with notions coming from Indian and Hindu nationalism as well as 19th-century British colonial narratives. Both streams constructed Muslim men as hypersexual and hyperaggressive.

In the 19th century, Hindu scholars and new religious organisations (like Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha) began producing a new Hindu-centric version of Indian history. This history grew in response to British colonialism but at the same time, shared similarities with British colonial ideas.

The British portrayed themselves as just rulers, partly by contrasting themselves with their casting of Muslim kings as hypersexual fanatics.

They pointed to a medieval darkness marked by the lust and tyranny of Muslim rulers. Mughal rulers were portrayed as rapists attacking both Hindu women and “Mother India”. This portrayal included the Muslim Prophet Muhammad who was portrayed in some places as sexually perverse.

These ideas became part of the curriculum in certain Indian states and elite Hindu scholars, educated at colonial schools, perpetuated these narratives in their writing. And the idea of a type of “love jihad” became part of the discourse created through pamphlets, novels, newspapers and magazines — especially in North India.

By the late 19th century, India was constructed around Hindu heterosexual relationships and family values in opposition to Muslim sexual deviance and rampant Muslim sexuality.

In 1923, Madan Mohan Malaviya, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha said in a speech, “hardly any day passes without our noticing a case or two of kidnapping of Hindu women and children by not only Muslim badmashes (rogues) and goondas (hooligans), but also men of standing and means.”

Challenges to interfaith marriage

Today, it’s not just The Kerala Story that has circulated the “love jihad” myth. Reportage in Hindu nationalist media continues to make headlines.

Organiser, a magazine run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a network of Hindu nationalist organizations, recently reported that three cases of love jihad following the same pattern as those in ‘The Kerala Story’ were reported in a month.

Love jihad’s centrality to Hindu nationalist politics has led to specifically stringent laws focused heavily on sexuality and marriage.

Read more: India’s 'love jihad' anti-conversion laws aim to further oppress minorities, and it's working

Hindu vigilantes, in partnership with the police, launch missions to separate interfaith couples. Muslim men have been brutalized, killed, forced into hiding and incarcerated using historic anti-conversion laws.

One response to the chatter about “love jihad,” is an Instagram channel called India Love Project launched to celebrate stories of interfaith love and marriages.

This photo of a newlywed couple is from the Instagram account called the India Love Project. The groom is Muslim and the bride is Hindu-Punjabi.© (India Love Project)

Hopefully, such efforts continue to address Islamophobia and broaden to include a larger public discourse looking at transnational Islamophobic interlinkages, both past and present.

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

Read more:

• Listen: Indian PM Modi is expected to get a rockstar welcome in the U.S. How much is the diaspora fuelling him?
• India’s new citizenship act legalizes a Hindu nation

Wajiha Mehdi receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Public Scholars Initiative UBC, International Development Research Centre Canada and the University of British Columbia

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

Jordan lawmakers move to criminalize some online speech. Rights groups accuse kingdom of censorship


JORDAN IS PALESTINE UNDER HASHEMITE RULE

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The lower house of Jordan's parliament passed legislation Thursday to punish online speech deemed harmful to national unity, drawing accusations from human rights groups of a new crackdown on free expression in a country where censorship and repression are increasingly common.

The measure makes certain online posts punishable with months of prison time and fines. These include comments “promoting, instigating, aiding, or inciting immorality,” demonstrating ”contempt for religion" or “undermining national unity.”

It also punishes those who publish names or pictures of police officers online and outlaws certain methods of maintaining online anonymity.

The legislation now heads to the Senate — where it is expected to pass — before going to King Abdullah II for final approval.

Lawmakers have argued that the measure, which amends a 2015 cybercrime law, is necessary to punish blackmailers and online attackers.

Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh insisted during Thursday's deliberations that the bill did not run afoul of Jordan's “clear and balanced” constitution, Jordanian media reported.

But opposition lawmakers and human rights groups cautioned that the new law will expand state control over social media, hamper free access to information and penalize anti-government speech.

“This law is disastrous and will lead to turning Jordan into a large prison,” opposition lawmaker Saleh Al-Armoiti said after Thursday’s vote.

In a joint statement ahead of the vote, 14 human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, called the law “draconian.” They said the law's "vague provisions open the door for Jordan’s executive branch to punish individuals for exercising their right to freedom of expression, forcing the judges to convict citizens in most cases.”

The president of Jordan's press association also warned the language could infringe upon press freedom and freedom of speech.

Jordan is a key U.S. ally, seen as an important source of stability in the volatile Middle East.

But ahead of the vote, the U.S. State Department criticized what it said were “vague definitions and concepts” in the law, warning it could "further shrink the civic space that journalists, bloggers, and other members of civil society operate in Jordan.”

The house speaker in parliament said the law was approved by a majority, but a final vote tally was not immediately released.

The measure is the latest in a series of crackdowns on freedom of expression in Jordan. A report by Human Rights Watch in 2022 found that authorities increasingly target protesters and journalists in a “systematic campaign to quell peaceful opposition and silence critical voices.”

All power in Jordan rests with Abdullah II, who appoints and dismisses governments. Parliament is compliant because of a single-vote electoral system that discourages the formation of strong political parties. Abdullah has repeatedly promised to open the political system, but then pulled back due to concerns of losing control to an Islamist surge.

Omar Akour, The Associated Press