QUEBEC

Facebook class action lawsuit gets green light to go ahead


CBC
Fri, September 1, 2023 

A class action case against Facebook in Quebec can now go ahead. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters - image credit)

A class action lawsuit alleging Facebook allowed advertisers to discriminate is set to go ahead after the Supreme Court of Canada this week refused to hear an appeal filed by the social media giant.

The case, which could include thousands of Quebec residents, will return to Quebec Superior Court to be heard after the Supreme Court of Canada this week refused to give Facebook leave to appeal a ruling by the Quebec Court of Appeal.

"We're very happy," said lawyer Jean-Michel Boudreau, a member of the IMK LLP team spearheading the class action. "I think this is an important case and now we know for sure that the class action can move forward."

Boudreau's law firm has estimated the class action could lead to $100 million in damages.

Lisa Laventure, head of communications for Facebook's parent company Meta Canada, declined to comment on the Supreme Court's decision or the company's next move.

'Microtargeting' ads

The Supreme Court's decision is the latest development in a case that began in 2019 which centres on the practice of allowing advertisers to "microtarget" ads to Facebook users according to their ages or genders.

The application to launch the class action suit, which had been in the works for a while, was filed days after a CBC News investigation revealed that nearly 100 employers — including government departments — posted microtargeted job ads on Facebook that experts said could violate Canadian human rights law.

Under federal and provincial human rights law, employers aren't allowed to restrict who sees job ads based on age, gender, race or religion, unless the restriction is a bona fide occupational requirement or is part of a specific initiative like a student summer job program.

In December 2020, in response to calls from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Facebook announced it would begin enforcing new rules for advertisers in Canada to prohibit discrimination in ads for jobs, housing and credit services.

But while the new rules are supposed to stop advertisers from targeting those kinds of ads based on such criteria as age, gender or postal code, they do not prohibit microtargeting for other kinds of ads.

Court of appeal clears class action

The application for the class action suit was filed in the name of Lyse Beaulieu, who was between 63 and 65 years old when she was searching Facebook and other sites for a job between 2017 and 2019. It was rejected initially by the Quebec Superior Court on the grounds that the definition of the class involved was too broad and could cover "several thousand if not millions of members."

The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned that decision. It said the case raises questions about new forms of discrimination in the digital world, whether social media platforms can be held responsible for third-party ads they post and whether platforms are able to control the ads on their platforms.

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear Facebook's appeal means the Quebec Court of Appeal ruling stands.

Boudreau said the case now returns to Quebec Superior Court, where a new judge will have to be assigned to hear the case. The official notice of the class action likely will be published this autumn, he said.

Under Quebec law, people who fit the description covered by the class action are automatically included in the class action suit unless they opt out.

Unless there's an out-of-court settlement, Boudreau said he expects to wait 3 to 5 years for a day in court.

He said he hopes the court case and the discovery process also will shed light on how the social media giant has been using algorithms to direct ads to Facebook users.

"Everybody is talking about AI," he said. "There is a component of our lawsuit that is about algorithmic discrimination."

The class action could also have an impact on other social media companies, Boudreau said.

Elizabeth Thompson can be reached at Elizabeth.thompson@cbc.ca

Montreal employee's death sparks call for city to do more about workplace harassment


CBC
Fri, September 1, 2023 

Marie-Hélène Henry was known for her love for animals. She died on Aug. 12, and her death has renewed calls for the city to improve the ways it handles workplace harassment. (Submitted by Marie-Hélène Henry's family - image credit)

Marie-Hélène Henry loved animals and was always in their company.

She was a city of Montreal employee, working at the Botanical Garden. She was also on the autism spectrum and that's why she was regularly bullied at work, according to her best friend.

"We were consoling her almost daily because she found it so hard to go to work," said Marie-Claude Piguet.

Henry took her own life on Aug. 12. She was 47.

Her death comes just a few months after the blue-collar workers' union filed a complaint with the city over the alleged abuse she was suffering at work.

Jean-Pierre Lauzon, president of the Syndicat des cols bleus regroupés de Montréal (SCFP 301), said in a statement that the union is devastated by the turn of events.

"We supported her," said Lauzon, citing the union's effort to file psychological harassment complaints with the city's Division du respect de la personne respect — a department that handles such complaints.

"The procedures are always very long in the city of Montreal."

Lauzon said the union will conduct a thorough investigation to prevent such a situation from happening again and will co-operate with Quebec's workplace safety board (CNESST) as it launches its own investigation.

7 pages of complaints

Henry's father died of cancer last October. And Piguet said the bullying had become worse in recent months.

"There's about seven pages worth of complaints that she gave to her union representative in order to get help. But help did not come," she said.

On Friday, the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) hosted a news conference about the ongoing harassment issues among city workers.

"We have a lot of Black and Arab blue-collar workers complaining about being harassed. Not only are they being harassed, but some are exposed to physical violence and intimidation," said executive director Fo Niemi.

Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) executive director Fo Niemi said Black and Arabic blue collar workers with Montreal are often victims of harassment.

Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) executive director Fo Niemi said Black and Arabic blue-collar workers with Montreal are often victims of harassment. (Rowan Kennedy/CBC)

When these victims file complaints with their immediate supervisors, there is usually no response, he said. Then when they go through human resources, still nothing happens, he said.

In this case, Henry was not a person of colour, but somebody with a disability, he explained.

Also at the news conference were blue-collar workers who have made their own allegations against the city over harassment. Among them was Maxime Charles, who offered his sympathies to Henry's family.

"This really touches us," he said. "This is happening in every borough."

Charles said he has taken leave from work because of the harassment, and he understands how such treatment can affect a person's mind.

"We are fed up. We are tired. We are scared," said Charles, calling for immediate action.

Complaints of harassment spur vow to change

Harassment among city employees is not a new allegation in Montreal.

A report, commissioned by the city's comptroller general and published in April 2021, described a long-running climate of tension among blue-collar workers.

Workers "almost unanimously report inequitable or discriminatory treatment," read the report authored by Tania Sabia, an industrial relations expert with the Université de Montréal.

A second report that year, produced by an expert hired by the union, documented the same problems as the first. Written by Université du Québec à Montréal professor Angelo Soares, the report concluded the workers' allegations of discrimination were "founded" and urged the city of Montreal, the Montréal-Nord borough and the union to take "urgent" action to correct them.

Marie-Hélène Henry worked for Montreal at the Botanical Garden. She was 47 when she died.

Marie-Hélène Henry worked for Montreal at the Botanical Garden. She was 47 when she died. (Submitted by Marie-Hélène Henry's family)

In June, after months of hearings and public meetings, Montreal introduced a new process for reporting discrimination and harassment while revising its human resources policy.

But Gino Clyford Lubérisse, a Montreal blue-collar union delegate, said it's still not enough and the disciplinary process takes too long.

"We're asking how much longer we will have to wait," he said. "Who will be held accountable for this?"

Mayor says investigation is 'right thing'

Montreal's Official Opposition said in a statement that what Henry went through is unacceptable. Along with the CNESST investigation, the coroner's office is also looking into the circumstances surrounding the woman's death.

Surviving members of Henry's family did not want to appear on camera but told CBC News that her work environment was toxic and a contributing factor in her death.

They are calling on the city to give managers more tools and training to deal with harassment.

In a statement, city spokesperson Hugo Bourgoin said Montreal will respect confidentiality and not comment on the specific case.

However, the city is committed to providing all of its employees with a healthy and respectful work environment and is making every effort to achieve this, he said.

The human resources department is also continuing its efforts to educate and equip stakeholders, as well as all managers, so zero tolerance is truly embodied when it comes to racism, discrimination and harassment, he said.

Employees who are going through difficult times have resources, such as an employee assistance program, available to them, Bourgoin added.

"There is an investigation and I think it's the right thing to be done, we will participate in that," said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante when asked about Henry's death during a news conference Friday.

"And whatever comes out of it, we will take it and act on it."

Greenbelt controversy putting pressure on Ford government, knocking it off message, experts say

CBC
Fri, September 1, 2023

A sign welcomes drivers to the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve, the largest parcel of land the Ford government removed from the Greenbelt last December. 

(Patrick Morrell/CBC News - image credit)

It's been a rough couple weeks for Premier Doug Ford's government.

Two independent, legislative watchdogs — in successive reports released just weeks apart from each other — found major flaws with the province's decision to remove land from the Greenbelt last December to build housing.

On Wednesday, Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake found that Housing Minister Steve Clark chose to "stick his head in the sand" rather than oversee the process of selecting which sites would be removed from the Greenbelt — a vast 810,000-hectare area of protected farmland, forest and wetland stretching from Niagara Falls to Peterborough meant to be permanently off-limits to development.

Instead, Clark left it to his chief of staff at the time, Ryan Amato, whose actions alerted some developers to a potential policy change and resulted in their private interests being improperly advanced, the integrity commissioner found.

That report came just two weeks after Ontario Auditor General Bonie Lysyk's report first revealed how a small group of well-connected developers suggested to Amato many of the sites that would ultimately be removed, providing the landowners with a potential windfall upwards of $8 billion.

Political watchers who spoke to CBC Toronto say the impact of the Greenbelt controversy is putting pressure on the Ford government, and knocking it off its preferred course at a crucial time.

PCs 'caught in a news cycle,' expert says

Mitch Heimpel, director of campaigns and government relations with public affairs firm Enterprise Canada, said the government has been "caught in a news cycle" for the past month that is preventing it from getting its message out.

He said Ford's "big announcement" at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference earlier this month "largely got eaten" by stories related to the Greenbelt controversy. The premier announced there the province would extend "strong mayor" powers to 21 smaller cities and launch a $1.2 billion fund to reward municipalities that meet home-building targets.

At recent events, reporters have asked both Ford and Clark flurries of questions about Greenbelt-related issues, no matter the substance of the announcement.

"It's making it hard for them to get positive news out," Heimpel said.

.Minister of Housing Steve Clark speaks during a news conference at Queen’s Park, in Toronto, on Aug. 31, 2023. Clark is facing calls to step down over his handling of the process that led to protected Greenbelt lands being selected for housing development. (Alex Lupul/CBC)

All three Opposition party leaders have repeatedly called over the past few weeks for the resignation of Clark, who has apologized for the "very real flaws" in the process and for failing to oversee his former chief of staff. Ford has said Clark will keep his job and the government will continue to move forward with its agenda to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Heimpel said replacing Clark right now would come with a cost.

On the one hand, Heimpel said, it would demonstrate accountability. But it would also slow down the government while a new minister gets up to speed on the many initiatives underway to spur housing construction and change planning rules across the province.

"That could really hamstring the government's agenda in the fall if they were to change horses now," he said.

More shoes could drop, says professor

Christopher Cochrane, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, said the integrity commissioner's report settled some issues, like establishing that Clark broke ethics rules, while leaving others unresolved.

Those unresolved issues could keep the controversy alive.

"There are unregistered lobbyists who had contracts with companies that would be in contravention of the [Lobbyists Registration Act]. There are mixed reports about whether, in fact, the chief of staff of the housing minister had been taking orders from others," Cochrane said. "There's certainly plenty of opportunity here for a sequel."

That sequel may even come in the form of another integrity commissioner's report from Wake himself.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who filed the initial complaint that led to Wednesday's integrity commissioner's report into Clarke, has also requested the commissioner look at Ford's daughter's wedding events, which some developers attended.

The integrity commissioner's office told CBC Toronto Thursday it is still considering whether to launch an inquiry into Ford. Work on that was paused during the Clark probe.

Aerial (drone) views of lush farmland in the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve in Pickering, Ont., the largest parcel of land removed from the Greenbelt last December.
 (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)

Another big question is what the RCMP will do. The national police agency is assessing whether or not to conduct an investigation of its own into the Greenbelt land swap after receiving a referral from the Ontario Provincial Police.

Cochrane said it's also possible that the legislature could censure Clark in some way, as the integrity commissioner recommended. Members of Provincial Parliament aren't sitting now but will return on Sept. 25.

Given that the Progressive Conservatives have a majority government, however, it would require members of his own party to vote in favour of any punishment.

"It's ultimately up to the premier to hire and fire the ministers," Cochrane said. "It's the premier's call."

What the government can do pull itself out

The government has already taken some action following the reports.

First, it has pledged to implement 14 of the auditor general's 15 recommendations (the 15th is to reverse the Greenbelt decision, which it has declined to do), and struck a working group to implement them.

Second, it has begun the process of returning two properties in Ajax, Ont., back to the Greenbelt after their landowner listed them for sale. The province says it is willing to reinstate environmental protections on land removed from the Greenbelt if it believes landowners won't be able to meet the government's directive that developers show significant progress on approvals by the end of this year, with construction to begin in 2025.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivers remarks at Lakeshore Collegiate Institute in Toronto, on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford stood by Housing Minister Steve Clark and doubled down on a pledge to build more homes in Ontario amid a flurry of questions about the Greenbelt. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

Going forward, Heimpel said, the government should be able to continue advancing its policies given their control of the legislature.

"They're going to be able to get things done," he said. "The question is, are they going to be able to get their message out about the things they're accomplishing? That's going to be harder because of these reports."

Heimpel said the government will have to "demonstrate results" by getting "shovels in the ground" and "get[ting] those houses built."

"People have to see progress on the housing crisis. That is ultimately, I think, the measure by which the premier thinks he'll be judged," he said.

Ultimately, it's Ontario voters who will get the final say at the ballot box, although they likely won't have that chance for another three years.

Ontario housing minister apologizes for his role in Greenbelt land swap, keeps job




TORONTO — Ontario's housing minister offered an apology Thursday for the way the government removed land earmarked for development from the protected Greenbelt, a process two legislative watchdogs have said was hasty and flawed.

But Steve Clark will stay on in his job – despite repeated calls by critics for his resignation – after Premier Doug Ford backed the housing minister and defended the province’s Greenbelt plan.

"I want to make it very clear to Ontarians that I'm sorry that we didn't do a better job and that I personally didn't do a better job in terms of the oversight," Clark said at a news conference.

The apology came a day after a scathing report from the province's integrity commissioner, who found Clark violated ethics rules during a process that was marked by "unnecessary hastiness and deception."

Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake found Clark's chief of staff — who resigned last week — was the driving force behind the land swap that benefited certain land developers, and that the minister failed to oversee his staff.

Clark said he accepted responsibility for what happened but did not specify what new measures he would take to improve the situation, other than that the "process" would be different going forward.

"I apologize to Ontarians that I did not provide more oversight to my chief of staff — my former chief of staff — and for this process," he said.

Ontario created the Greenbelt in 2005 to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area from development.

Last year, the province took 7,400 acres of land out of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes and replaced it with about 9,400 acres elsewhere.

The move sparked a public outcry and calls for Clark's resignation.

Ford rebuked those calls earlier Thursday when he doubled down on both his Greenbelt plan and support for Clark, who he said will remain part of the team as the government tries to fulfil its goal of building 1.5 million homes over 10 years.

"Minister Clark has a tough job and his goal is to continue building homes," Ford said.

"I saw the report, I read a good chunk of it last night, and, admittedly, the process could have been a lot better – and I agree."

The premier nonetheless said he had "confidence" in Clark.

The integrity commissioner had recommended to the legislature that Clark be reprimanded.

Ford did not say what reprimand Clark might face.

"That's going to go to the legislature and we'll see when we get back into the house in September," he said. The legislature is set to resume on Sept. 25.

The integrity commissioner, like the auditor general in a separate investigation, found the housing minister's chief of staff selected 14 of the 15 sites that were removed from the Greenbelt. He found that neither Ford nor Clark knew what Ryan Amato was up to.

"It may seem incredible that Minister Clark would have chosen to stick his head in the sand on such an important initiative being undertaken by his ministry but I believe that was exactly what he did," Wake wrote.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said in her own recent report that developers who had access to Amato at a developer conference wound up with 92 per cent of the land. The owners of the sites removed from the Greenbelt stand to see their land rise in value by at least $8.3 billion, she found.

Ford said Thursday that he was ultimately responsible for the Greenbelt process.

"The buck stops with me," the premier said, although he didn't explain what that meant or how he or Clark would take responsibility.

The opposition parties said the comments from Ford and Clark fell short.

"The buck's not stopping anywhere," said Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.

Fraser called for a legislative committee investigation into the Greenbelt land swap.

He said the Liberals have written to the chair of the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy to begin that work. Fraser said he wants Ford to waive cabinet privileges for legislators so they can participate.

New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles said Ontarians deserve better than "fake apologies."

"His words are meaningless without any action to back them up," she wrote in a statement. "Ontarians have lost all trust in this minister and he needs to go."

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the Greenbelt swap is not about housing.

"It's about a government that is denying ordinary Ontarians access to the homes they need because wealthy elite insiders came calling," he said.

All three opposition leaders have demanded Clark resign from his post, as have all the chiefs of Ontario First Nations, who said they were not consulted on the development of lands on their traditional territory.

Ford and Clark have been at the helm of the government's pledge to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years. They have repeatedly said that the 50,000 homes slated for development on land removed from the Greenbelt are needed to achieve that goal.

But the province's housing task force and three regions where the land was removed have said the Greenbelt land was not needed to achieve that target.

The RCMP is reviewing information to determine whether it should investigate the Greenbelt land swap. Ford has said he is confident nothing criminal took place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2023.

Liam Casey and William Eltherington, The Canadian Press

China's new national map has set off a wave of protests. Why?

Fri, September 1, 2023



BANGKOK (AP) — China has upset many countries in the Asia-Pacific region with its release of a new official map that lays claim to most of the South China Sea, as well as to contested parts of India and Russia, and official objections continue to mount. What is the map, and why is it upsetting people so much?

WHAT IS CHINA CLAIMING?

China's Ministry of Natural Resources released the new “standard” national map on Monday, part of what it has called an ongoing effort to eliminate “problem maps.” In it, China clearly shows its so-called nine-dash line, demarcating what it considers its maritime border, claiming almost the entirety of the South China Sea. The current, and other recent iterations of the annual map, include a 10th dash to the east of Taiwan.

In the far northeastern corner of China on the border with Russia, it shows Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, an island at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, as Chinese territory, even though the countries signed an agreement nearly 20 years ago to split the island.

Along the southern border with India, it shows Arunachal Pradesh and the Doklam Plateau, over which China and India have long feuded, clearly within Chinese borders, along with Aksai Chin in the western section that China controls but India still claims.

HOW HAVE COUNTRIES REACTED?

China's longstanding claims in the South China Sea have brought it into tense standoffs with Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, all of which have competing claims. China and India fought a war over their border in 1962, and the disputed boundary has led to a three-year standoff between tens of thousands of Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Ladakh area. A clash three years ago in the region killed 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese.

After the release of the map, India fired back first, saying China's claims have no basis. Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said “such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question.” It lodged a formal complaint on Tuesday through diplomatic channels.

Malaysia then rejected China’s “unilateral claims” and added that the map is “not binding” to the country. Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines have since followed suit.

Vietnam said the claims violate its sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands and jurisdiction over its waters and should be considered void because they violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Illustrating how provocative the nine-dash line is considered by Hanoi, Vietnam in July banned the popular “Barbie” movie because it includes a view of a map showing the disputed Chinese claims.

The self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, also rejects the nine-dash line and Beijing’s South China Sea claims.

The territorial claims at times lead to direct confrontation. A little more than a week ago, Philippine boats breached a Chinese coast guard blockade in a disputed area of the South China Sea to deliver supplies to Filipino forces guarding a contested shoal.

In its response to the map, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs cited a 2016 ruling by an arbitration tribunal in The Hague under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that largely invalidated China’s claim to virtually the entire South China Sea and upheld the Philippines’ control over resources in a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Russia, for which Chinese support in its war against Ukraine has been critical, has not yet responded.

WHAT DOES CHINA SAY?

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin sidestepped questions Thursday about specifics of the nine-dash line and why China has been using a 10th dash in recent years, telling reporters only that “China's stance on the South China Sea is consistent and clear.”

He also didn't directly address the protests over the map, saying that the update was “routine practice every year” with the aim of providing standard maps and to “educate the public to use maps in accordance with rules.”

“We hope that the relevant sides can see it in an objective and rational way,” he said.

WHY NOW?

The national map is an annual production that could be released any time, and China knows well that its claims are contentious, even though they are not new.

It seems significant, then, that Beijing chose to release the map on the heels of a late August meeting of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- and just before China is to participate in top-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.

At the BRICS meetings, the China-Russia relationship was broadly seen as strengthened as the group voted in favor of a proposal pushed by Beijing and Moscow to invite Iran and Saudi Arabia, along with four other countries, to join. On the sidelines, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping even talked about their disputed border, agreeing to intensify efforts to de-escalate tensions.

Most of the governments with which China has disputes in the South China Sea are ASEAN members, and India is hosting the G20 talks.

In releasing the map now, Beijing is widely seen as signaling it has no intention of backing down on any of its claims and is making sure that its positions are fresh in the minds of other countries in the region.

The Associated Press

Statue believed to depict Marcus Aurelius seized from Cleveland museum in looting investigation

Thu, August 31, 2023 



NEW YORK (AP) — A headless bronze statue believed to depict the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius was ordered seized from the Cleveland Museum of Art by New York authorities investigating antiquities looted from Turkey.

A warrant signed by a judge in Manhattan on Aug. 14 ordered the seizure of the statue, which the museum acquired in 1986 and had been a highlight of its collection of ancient Roman art.

The warrant was secured as part of an ongoing investigation into a smuggling network involving antiquities looted from Bubon in southwestern Turkey and trafficked through Manhattan, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. No details of the investigation were provided.

The 76-inch (1.9-meter) statue dates from A.D. 180 to 200 and is worth $20 million, according to the district attorney's office.

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported that the statue was removed from view more than two months ago and that the museum changed the description of the piece on its website, where it now calls the statue a “Draped Male Figure " instead of indicating a connection to Marcus Aurelius.

Turkey first made claims about the statue in 2012 when it released a list of nearly two dozen objects in the Cleveland museum’s collection that it said had been looted from Bubon and other locations. Museum officials said at the time that Turkey had provided no hard evidence of looting.

“The enduring dispute surrounding this matter has kept him separated from his hometown,” Zeynep Boz of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said of the statue.

In an emailed statement, Boz said the seizure "provides a strong sense of hope, long-awaited, for the rectification of a willing wrongdoing.”

Todd Mesek, a spokesperson for the museum, said in a statement Thursday that the museum could not comment on the Marcus Aurelius statue while it is the subject of litigation.

Mesek said the museum “takes provenance issues very seriously and reviews claims to objects in the collection carefully and responsibly.”

The Manhattan district attorney's office has worked in recent years to repatriate hundreds of objects looted from countries including Turkey, Greece, Israel and Italy. It was unclear who might be targeted in the investigation of the statue seized in Cleveland.

Marcus Aurelius ruled as Roman emperor from A.D. 161 to 180 and was a Stoic philosopher whose “Meditations” have been studied over the centuries.

The seized statue shows a man in flowing robes holding one hand in front of him in a regal pose.

Karen Matthews, The Associated Press

Will updated COVID vaccines work against latest variant? Canadian scientists monitor global research


The Canadian Press
Fri, September 1, 2023 

Federal scientists will be monitoring global research to determine the effectiveness of updated vaccines against the latest COVID-19 variant, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada say.

Canada's first known case ofthe Omicron variantBA.2.86 was detected this week in British Columbia as the country became the seventh in the world to report its presence.

Health Canada is currently reviewing applications for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's new mRNA vaccines, developed against the dominant XBB.1.5 variantahead of a vaccination campaign set for the fall.

As of this week, there were only 13 sequences of the highly mutated variant BA. 2.86 available to analyze across six other countries — four in Denmark, three in the United States, two in Portugal, two in South Africa, one in Israel, and one in the United Kingdom, Health Canada and PHAC said in an email.

"Scientists are looking for signs that BA.2.86 lineages would change disease severity or spread, or impact the effectiveness of diagnostic tests, vaccines or treatments for COVID-19," they said.

"As this new variant was just detected in Canada, it is difficult to have an understanding of its prevalence. As laboratories' and clinical data is reported to PHAC, a more accurate picture will begin to emerge."

COVID-19 cases involving the XBB.1.5 variant are currently at a low to moderate level, with stable or increasing trends in all reporting provinces and territories, Health Canada and PHAC said.

However, a hospital in Windsor, Ont., and another in Montague, P.E.I., announced outbreaks of the illness this week.

The BA.2.86 variant was detected in a B.C. resident who had not recently been outside the country, provincial authorities said this week.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a joint statement that there doesn't seem to be increased illness severity with the strain and the infected person was not in hospital.

Federal figures show that, as of mid-June, 80.5 per cent of Canadians had received their primary series of COVID vaccines. The highest uptake, at nearly 92 per cent, was in Newfoundland and Labrador. The lowest, at 75.5 per cent, was in the Northwest Territories, followed by Alberta, where 76 per cent of people were vaccinated.

Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, said it's understandable that people are tired of COVID-19 amid a mostly normal return to social activities, but the mutating virus puts vulnerable populations, including the elderly, most at risk of infection.

However, only about 21 per cent of Canadians aged 80 and over have received boosters or completed a primary vaccination series in the last six months, she said.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has recommended Canadians roll up their sleeves for a booster in the fall if it has been at least six months since their last dose or COVID-19 infection.

Bowdish said anyone starting chemotherapy or having major surgery may consider getting a booster before the reformulated vaccines are available but it's otherwise best to wait.

Parts of the Southern Hemisphere have faced a triple threat during its respiratory season, which usually starts in April and ends in September in that region.

"They had a lot of influenza, they had a lot of RSV. They had a lot of COVID and they reported a lot of health-care worker absences, which means care for all things is impaired," she said of Australia's recent experience.

However, Australians had access to the current bivalent COVID vaccines, not the reformulated ones.

"What I worry about is it doesn't need to be any worse or as bad as last year to still majorly impact health care for Canadians," Bowdish said of a respiratory season that saw shortages of children's pain relievers and long waits in emergency rooms.

Bowdish is hoping Canadians won't hesitate to get a booster this fall, when they could be vaccinated against influenza at the same time.

For people over 60, a vaccine for RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, may also be available. Earlier this month, Health Canada announced the approval of a vaccine for RSV for those aged 60 and up, but it's up to the provinces and territories to decide if and when Arexvy will be included in their vaccination programs.

Eric Arts, a virologist at Western University in London, Ont., noted many Canadians are getting to the one-year mark since their last booster so it will be important to get vaccinated in the fall.

The updated vaccines' formula will be a minor change from current vaccines but with better protection against circulating Omicron variants, he said.

"Hopefully, the bureaucracy will be fast to get them out."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2023.

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

Camille Bains, The Canadian Press

Online News Act could see Google, Meta pay combined $230 million to Canadian media

The Canadian Press
Fri, September 1, 2023



The federal government has put a price tag on how much it would like to see Google and Facebook spend under legislation that requires the tech giants to compensate media companies for Canadian journalism.

Federal officials estimate Google would need to offer $172 million and Facebook $62 million in annual compensation to satisfy criteria they're proposing be used to give exemptions under the Online News Act, a bill passed over the summer that will force tech companies to broker deals with media companies whose work they link to or repurpose.

Draft regulations released by the government Friday outlined for the first time how it proposes to level the playing field between Big Tech and Canada's news media sector, and which companies it will apply to.

"The goal of it is to make sure that those that benefit the most from the Canadian market fall under the bill," newly minted Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said in an interview after the proposal's release.

The government said companies will fall under the legislation if they have a total global revenue of $1 billion or more in a calendar year, "operate in a search engine or social media market distributing and providing access to news content in Canada" and have 20 million or more Canadian average monthly unique visitors or average monthly active users.

For now, Google and Meta's Facebook are the only companies to meet the criteria, though officials said Microsoft's Bing search engine is the next closest to falling under the act.

Veronica Langvee, head of communications for Microsoft in Canada, said the company "intends to comply with the legislation as it applies to our products."

Instagram and Threads won't be captured by the proposed legislation because they have yet to reach 20 million or more monthly Canadian users, officials added.

"We know how technology evolves or how the market changes, sometimes at a rapid pace, and we want to make sure that this bill is relevant in five and 10 years," St-Onge said.

Companies meeting the criteria can receive an exemption from the act if they already contribute an amount laid out by a government formula to Canadian journalism.

The formula is based on the tech company's global revenues and Canada's share of global GDP. The government believes the calculation will deliver a contribution that is within 20 per cent of the earnings of full-time journalists working in a Canadian news organization.

Companies would be able to satisfy the criteria with both monetary and non-monetary compensation. While the draft does not specify what non-monetary contributions would count, officials said training and advertising could wind up meeting criteria.

The draft regulations will be subject to a further 30-day consultation, but Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, which blocked news on its platforms in anticipation of the law coming into effect at the end of the year, immediately expressed its disappointment with the proposal.

The draft is based around a "fundamentally flawed premise," said Rachel Curran, head of public policy at Meta Canada.

"As the legislation is based on the incorrect assertion that Meta benefits unfairly from the news content shared on our platforms, today’s proposed regulations will not impact our business decision to end news availability in Canada," she said in a statement.

Google, which St-Onge has painted as more co-operative than Meta, has also threatened to pull Canadian news from its offerings.

"We’re carefully reviewing the proposed regulations to assess whether they resolve the serious structural issues with C-18 that regrettably were not dealt with during the legislative process," Google spokesperson Shay Purdy said in response to the draft.

The two companies have long lobbied against the legislation, with Meta claiming news is a tiny fraction of its business and removing it would result in little revenue loss for the social networking giant.

Google's president of global affairs Kent Walker, meanwhile, has said the legislation "exposes us to uncapped financial liability" and claimed the company being targeted just because it shows links to news, "something that everyone else does for free."

But St-Onge maintained the legislation is a "reasonable and predictable path forward for both media platforms and newsrooms.

"This is what we have said that we do," she said. "I think we delivered on finding a way forward that should please everyone."

The government said it is pushing forward with the act because Google and Meta have a combined 80-per-cent share of the $14 billion in online ad revenue seen in the country in 2022.

At the same time, news outlets have seen their advertising revenues shrink, forcing layoffs, a loss of media coverage in small and rural communities and 474 closures of Canadian news businesses between 2008 and 2023.

The government says 69 per cent of Canadians access news online but only 11 per cent pay for it.

After Meta made good on its threats to remove Canadian news, the federal government pulled $10 million in annual advertising spend from Meta's platforms. News and telecommunications businesses Quebecor, Bell Media, Torstar Corp., Cogeco, and Postmedia Network Canada Corp. replicated the move.

Paul Deegan, president and chief executive of News Media Canada, praised St-Onge's deft approach to the "tricky" issue and was pleased it provided "clarity and predictability."

"No regulatory framework is ever perfect, but clearly she has strived to be extremely fair and balanced to all stakeholders, he said in an email.

"This is something everyone acting in good faith should be able to live with."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2023.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

After nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania will end state funding for anti-abortion counseling centers

TAXPAYERS FUNDING ANTI ABORTION CULT

Fri, September 1, 2023 



HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For nearly 30 years, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have approved millions of taxpayer dollars for an anti-abortion program. Now the state's new governor plans to end the contract as the organization that distributes those funds and other groups like it gain attention since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Pennsylvania plans to end on Dec. 31 its longstanding contract with the nonprofit Real Alternatives, the first organization in the nation to secure significant state and federal subsidies to support anti-abortion counseling centers. Under the program, Real Alternatives distributed the state and federal funds to dozens of Pennsylvania centers, including Catholic Charities, anti-abortion counseling centers and maternity homes, which provide support and housing for pregnant women.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement his administration would not “continue that pattern” of subsidizing the organization, saying he was steadfast in defending abortion access.

“We will ensure women in this Commonwealth receive the reproductive health care they deserve,” he said.

The news shocked Eileen Artysh, the executive director of St. Margaret of Castello Maternity Home, which receives money through Real Alternatives to provide housing, materials and parenting counseling. While it's not their entire budget, the loss of funding will impact the center’s longevity, she said.

Artysh said many pregnant women who come to the maternity home have already made their choice to have the baby.

“Until there’s that last penny left, I’m in this for the long haul,” she said. “And the moms that we help — I can’t imagine deserting any of them.”

Pennsylvania was the first state to enact an official abortion alternative program in the mid-’90s. Helmed by then-Gov. Bob Casey, an anti-abortion Democrat, the state began funding alternatives in tandem with a preexisting program that subsidized Planned Parenthood’s services for women’s health. The funding for both programs had continued under both Republican and Democratic governors in the years since.

Real Alternatives’ network of centers has seen about 350,000 women at 1.9 million office visits in Pennsylvania, the organization said in a statement. Last year, Pennsylvania sent about $7 million to the group, which distributed those funds to more than 70 centers.

At one point, Real Alternatives was overseeing programs in Indiana and Michigan, and it inspired other states to find ways to fund organizations like it using taxpayer money. Even as Pennsylvania is poised to stop funding the program, the state's move continues to have an impact nationwide.

Michelle Kuppersmith, the executive director for Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group that has filed complaints against Real Alternatives' use of taxpayer dollars, said Shapiro did the right thing by ending the contract.

“Now, just as many states unfortunately looked to Pennsylvania as a model for letting these programs into their states, we urge other states to follow suit in eliminating this spending that is not just wasteful, but actively harmful to the health of their citizens," she said.

Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars across the U.S. have been sent to such organizations, which are typically religiously affiliated. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion last year, Republican-led states have sent more tax dollars to what are sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers,” while Democratic-leaning states apply more scrutiny to them.

In Tennessee, which has a near-total abortion ban, legislators approved $20 million in funding for a grant program. Republicans said the money would support struggling families because women could tap into the centers’ parent counseling classes, diaper banks and other services.

Similarly, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed doubling the funds for a state program designed to help fund the centers, which launched last year with $500,000 just before Roe was overturned.

In Florida, lawmakers upped the amount the centers could seek from $4.5 million to $25 million for the 2023-24 fiscal year. And governors in Arkansas and West Virginia signed off on spending $1 million on the centers over the next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Democratic-led state have tried to thwart the centers, which for years have been accused of providing misleading information about abortion and contraception — for example, suggesting that abortion leads to mental health problems or breast cancer.

Colorado lawmakers made it a “deceptive trade practice” for an organization to advertise that they offer abortions or emergency contraceptives when they do not. But a similar law in Illinois was blocked by a federal judge, who said it violated the First Amendment.

Massachusetts set aside $1 million to launch a public education campaign focused on warning the public of potentially misleading claims from the centers. And in Vermont, pregnancy centers will now be subject to the state’s existing consumer protection laws – which prohibits false and deceptive advertising.

Even with the scrutiny, the centers have received strong support from those who benefited from their services.

Alyssa MacAfee, 26, was one of them. She was homeless, jobless and in early recovery when she found out she was pregnant. She came to St. Margaret’s in Pennsylvania six months pregnant and stayed until her daughter was around 5 months old.

“Everyone was definitely looking at my situation like, ‘You cannot bring a baby into the world right now,’ but I knew that I wanted to,” she said.

MacAfee said she found the organization to be welcoming; she felt it was for people that had already decided to pursue parenthood.

Since she's left, MacAfee has a job, an apartment and even some of the diapers provided by Saint Margaret.

“It turned out to be the biggest blessing life has ever given me,” she said.

About $8 million in state subsidies hangs in the balance this year as Pennsylvania completes its budget, with the Shapiro administration looking to send the money to other women’s health providers. Abortion opponents called Shapiro’s decision harmful, and Republicans said the option of using the money for other anti-abortion programs will have to be part of continued budget negotiations.

“It’s sad because this is a great program, and you take this program away, abortions will substantially increase in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” said Kevin Bagatta, president and CEO for Real Alternatives.

Defunding the program was a key budget priority for some Pennsylvania Democrats, and abortion rights groups like Planned Parenthood PA Advocates hailed the decision.

Concerns over abortion access now outweigh the good intentions centers tend to tout, said Laura Antkowiak, a political science professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

It’s “not so much about the substance of the work anymore, but who they’re aligned with and what their position is on abortion” that has politicized the centers, she said.

“In terms of the political context, I think this is part of a much larger phenomenon in which both sides of the abortion debate are battling over which service providers are going to gain access to public funding,” she said.

___

Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tenn. Brooke Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Brooke Schultz And Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press

In Mississippi, a tiny fish is reintroduced to the river where it disappeared 50 years ago

Fri, September 1, 2023



PINOLA, Miss. (AP) — A species of tiny fish that once flourished in a river running hundreds of miles from central Mississippi into southeastern Louisiana is being reintroduced to the Pearl River after disappearing 50 years ago.

Wildlife experts say a number of factors likely contributed to the disappearance of the pearl darter from the Pearl River system, including oil and gas development, agricultural runoff, urban pollution, and dam construction. All are deemed detrimental to the pearl darter's habitat and survival.

And even though pollution and other threats to habitat remain today within the Pearl River, more than 400 miles (644 kilometers) long, officials say the 1972 federal Clean Water Act has helped make it cleaner. Clean enough, in fact, that Mississippi and the federal government wildlife experts say there are signs that the pearl darter may be able to thrive there again.

“This site has some of the highest species diversity in the entire Pearl River,” said Matt Wagner, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who last month joined workers wading into the Strong River, a headwater tributary of the Pearl. They dipped bowls into buckets full tiny pearl darters from a private hatchery and eased them into the water.

“There’s more species here than most other places, and a lot of the species that we find here are what we call sensitive species. They are species that are not very tolerant of things like pollution, high disturbance and things of that nature.”

The presence of those species bodes well for the return of the pearl darter to the Pearl River, Wagner said.

The pearl darter is a bottom-dwelling fish that measures about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) long. It is named for the iridescent coloring around its gills, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which listed it as a threatened species in 2017.

It had not vanished completely by 1973. It was still found in Mississippi's Pascagoula River system. But that accounted for only about 43% of its historic range.

Wagner is optimistic about its future in the Pearl River.

“This is the biggest win of my career as a biologist so far,” Wagner said. “It's very seldom that you get to restore a species back to its historic range. As a biologist, when you go to school, this is the type of day you're all dreaming about.”

There will be regular sampling of the waters to see how the species is surviving. The hope is that they will thrive and spread throughout the Pearl system and federal protection will some day no longer be needed.

“They should, ideally, get delisted from the Endangered Species Act,” Wagner said.

___

McGill reported from New Orleans.

Stephen Smith And Kevin Mcgill, The Associated Press

Ongoing cost-of-living crisis should trigger another housing benefit payment: NDP's Singh

The Canadian Press
Thu, August 31, 2023

OTTAWA — The federal government needs to issue another $500 benefit payment for low-income families struggling to keep a roof over their heads, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Thursday.

Singh was in Sooke, B.C., on a cross-country summer tour where the national housing crisis and ongoing anxiety about the cost of living is taking centre stage.

In an interview, he said the federal Liberals have done an "abysmal" job dealing with the housing crisis and he intends to make the upcoming fall sitting of Parliament all about getting more housing built.

"They're a failure," he said bluntly of the Liberals.

He said the NDP have a long list of policies they want the government to implement, but chief among them is a second top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit targeting low-income Canadians who spend more than a third of their income on rent.

The first $500 top-up, which was announced in September 2022 alongside a temporary boost to the GST rebate, was rolled out just before Christmas.

The government budgeted $475 million for the program. Statistics reported by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. say 815,190 individuals and families applied for the benefit for a total cost of $402 million.

The one-time housing benefit payment was among the items in the supply-and-confidence agreement reached between the Liberals and NDP in March 2022. The agreement lists policy items the two will collaborate on in exchange for the NDP supporting the Liberals on key votes to prevent the minority government from being defeated.

The agreement says the government should consider a second round of the housing benefit payment if cost-of-living issues continue.

When asked if he thinks that applies now, Singh said: "Yes, absolutely."

Singh said the agreement has worked the way he had hoped it would, allowing for progressive NDP policies to be implemented, including a dental care benefit for children in low and middle-income families. He also agreed that the recent trouble the Liberals have had in the polls increases the leverage the NDP have to push for even more than was spelled out in the deal.

The Liberals have fallen below the Conservatives in most polls, and some have the Conservatives verging on majority territory. The change would suggest the Liberals have more at stake — such as losing their governing status altogether — if they don't keep the NDP onside.

Singh said the deal was never meant to be a complete list of what the NDP would demand, and he does anticipate pushing for more in the months to come.

He said he wants more co-operation between Ottawa, provinces and post-secondary schools to build student housing, as well as a fund to buy-up affordable homes that are at risk of being sold to developers and builders who won't keep them affordable.

Singh said the "housing acquisition fund" would "prevent us from losing the affordable homes that we do have."

"That would prevent a building being bought up by a developer and then the tenants being renovicted," he said.

"Instead, that building that does have affordable rent could then be kept in the hands of the community with this fund, and that would allow for a community group, a not-for-profit or even the residents to turn it into a co-operative."

The Liberals have said housing is their chief priority right now, as millions of Canadians face rising rents and increased mortgage costs on top of a housing market that has seen house prices soar in the last few years.

A recent cabinet retreat in Charlottetown was heavily focused on the issue, but the government did not announce any new policies there.

Many housing experts and economists say the main problem is a basic lack of housing supply. There are not enough houses in almost any category to keep up with demand.

Singh said he recently spoke to a family in Alberta with two good-paying jobs who were going to lose their home because they could not afford the rising rent.

He said for the Liberals to leave their cabinet retreat without any solutions on the table is not acceptable.

In an emailed response, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's office said the housing accelerator fund is "incentivizing municipalities to build more homes faster," and cited the new tax-free first home savings account program introduced in the federal budget.

"We knew we needed to provide important relief to the most vulnerable, particularly last year when inflation was elevated," said spokesperson Jessica Eritou. "While inflation has fallen to 3.3 per cent, down from its peak of 8.1 per cent in June of last year, we remain focused on making housing more affordable for Canadians."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2023.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press