California lawmakers OK bills banning certain chemicals in foods and drinks




SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers are working through hundreds of bills before the legislative session ends on Thursday.

If approved, the bills go to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have until Oct. 14 to decide whether to sign them into law, veto them or let them become law without his signature.

The state Legislature almost never overrides a veto from the governor, no matter what political party is in charge.

CHEMICALS IN FOOD

Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to become the first state to ban four chemicals from processed food and drinks sold in California by 2027.

The chemicals — red dye no. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propyl paraben — are still used in popular products like Peeps, the popular marshmallow chicks most associated with Easter.

Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the author of the bill, said those chemicals have already been banned by the European Union and other countries because of scientific research linking them to health problems, including cancer.

“It is unacceptable that the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety,” Gabriel said. “This bill will not ban any foods or products — it simply will require food companies to make minor modifications to their recipes.”

LOBBYING
An earlier version of the bill would also have banned titanium dioxide, which is used in Skittles. But amendments in the state Senate removed that chemical from the ban.

DISCLOSING FINANCIAL RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The state Assembly approved a bill requiring companies making more than $500 million annually to disclose what financial risks climate change poses to their businesses and how they plan to address those risks.

State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat from Los Angeles who introduced the legislation, said the information would be useful for individuals and lawmakers when making public and private investment decisions. The bill was changed recently to require companies to begin reporting the information in 2026, instead of 2024, and mandate that they report every other year, instead of annually.

The changes would help make it more feasible for businesses to follow through with reporting requirements, said Anne DiGrazia, a spokesperson for Stern.

The bill was among the biggest climate proposals in the state Legislature this year, collecting support from major companies including IKEA and Microsoft, as well as former California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D. Nichols.

Opponents of the bill say it would be too burdensome for companies and is premature. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could approve rules requiring public companies to disclose their direct and indirect emissions, as well as how climate risk affects their business.

The proposed California mandate would apply to more than 10,000 companies, according to Ceres, a policy group supporting it. The vote comes after the state Legislature sent another bill to Newsom that would require companies making more than $1 billion annually to report their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

CLIMATE CHANGE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

 The Senate passed a bill that would require schools to teach students, from first grade through high school, about the causes and effects of climate change. The bill also would mandate lessons on how to mitigate and adapt to the effects of the changing climate.

Proponents of the bill say lessons about climate change are already a part of school curricula in other countries including Italy and New Zealand. Oregon also introduced legislation this year to mandate climate change lessons, but the bill did not advance.

It would still need final approval in the Assembly before ending up on Newsom’s desk.

CANNABIS CAFES

The Legislature sent a bill to Newsom’s desk that could create more so-called “cannabis cafes,” inspired by establishments in Amsterdam where customers can socialize and purchase cannabis, coffee and other products.

The bill would allow local governments to give licenses to cannabis dispensaries to sell non-cannabis food, beverages and tickets to live music events.

Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco, who introduced the bill, said it would give a boost to small cannabis businesses. He said many people want to be able to socialize and listen to live music while consuming cannabis.

“There’s absolutely no good reason from an economic, health or safety standpoint that the state should make that illegal,” Haney said in a statement.

___ Sophie Austin 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. Follow Austin @sophieadanna

Adam Beam And Sophie Austin, The Associated Press

Filmmakers, celebs ask TIFF to cut ties with sponsor RBC over environmental concerns

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Story by globalnewsdigital •8h

A woman walks along the closed-off streets at the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. Hollywood A-listers Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams are among 200-plus film industry workers around the world who signed an open letter imploring the Toronto International Film Festival to end ties with sponsor, the Royal Bank of Canada.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

A group of Canadian filmmakers have joined forces with Hollywood A-listers in asking the Toronto International Film Festival to end sponsorship ties with the Royal Bank of Canada because of the bank's funding of the oil and gas industry.

Organizers of the campaign called RBC Off Screen say the financial institution's track record of investing in fossil fuels runs contrary to the socially progressive values the film festival purports to stand for.

Signatories to the group's open letter to TIFF outlining its concerns include screen stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Joaquin Phoenix, alongside filmmakers and producers including Avi Lewis, Elza Kephart and Jose Luis Gutierrez.

Kephart and Gutierrez started the campaign they say have the support of more than 200 industry workers. The group's statement says RBC is one of the largest financiers of oil and gas projects in the world and supports projects that have negatively impacted Indigenous lands and BIPOC groups.

TIFF's vice-president of public relations Judy Lung said in a statement the festival appreciates the sustainability concerns being brought forward, and that they talking to RBC about them.

RBC spokesperson Stephanie Bannan said in a statement that more action is needed on climate change and the company welcomes the chance to discuss the issues with Indigenous groups and the film community.

Crisis forces Alberta public health leader out from shadows, even if he doubts 'urgency'

Story by Jason Markusoff • CBC

It took 10 months for the Danielle Smith government's replacement for Dr. Deena Hinshaw to speak publicly for the first time. Nearly a year on the job, and nine days into an E. coli outbreak that's sickened dozens of daycare-going children.

Tuesday was chief medical officer of health Dr. Mark Joffe's crisis-time debut, and what moment might Albertans remember from it? How the public health leader said there was no urgency to talk to them up to this point — not the sort of line you'll find in the crisis communications textbook.

This isn't the COVID public health emergency, and for so many reasons Joffe isn't Hinshaw, fired by Smith shortly after she became premier. But Albertans had come to expect a certain level of timeliness, thorough information-sharing and trust-building when it came time for public health leadership.

It's hard to make arguments that the public appetite for answers and context was satisfied in this first effort.

Joffe and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange had spent a week leaving all communications to those at Alberta Health Services closer to the front lines of the rapidly growing emergency. The outbreak at several daycares which share a common kitchen has infected 264 people (mostly children), hospitalized more than two dozen and required six to go on dialysis, the treatment for kidney failure.

Finally taking to a news conference podium Tuesday, Joffe insisted he'd been engaged up until now getting daily updates from AHS, and had new information to share — a kitchen safety inspection report that found several critical violations, including cockroaches and improper sanitizing.

"At this point we felt it was prudent and appropriate for us to appear here and to speak to Albertans and to answer your questions," said the new CMOH (if he still counts as new after 10 quiet months).

"But we didn't feel there was urgency to do that up until this point."

LaGrange quickly took Joffe's place at the microphone after he said this.

"Extremely serious case, I'm a mother myself, grandmother," she said. "Anyone who's had to sit at the bedside of a really sick child knows how devastating this is."

Then, she attempted to further blot out Joffe's words.

"I believe what Dr. Joffe meant was that it was urgent from the very very beginning, and it continues to be urgent until every single one of those children are home and safe with their families and progressing well."

Hours later, Alberta Health communicators sent reporters a clarification statement in Joffe's name: "The issue has been addressed with urgency from the very start. As the chief medical officer of health, my priority has been on the health and well-being of the children impacted, and the progress of the investigation."

Related video: Alberta health minister, CMOH address why they didn’t publicly comment until a week after outbreak (cbc.ca)  Duration 3:51 View on Watch

cbc.caSevere cases of E.coli on the rise
2:03

The Canadian Press  Health violations found after E. coli outbreak
2:14


The clarification concluded: "The priority was first and foremost getting people looked after and then to provide the public with a fulsome update on the situation."

It's not clear what "fulsome update" has been provided, with health officials still unable to pinpoint what the source of E. coli bacteria was (investigations into kitchen items and daycare leftovers are ongoing).

It appears the new information Joffe and LaGrange had to share was AHS' problematic food safety report from Sept. 5. The doctor himself stressed that while it's a "flag" for potential problems at the kitchen, it may offer no direct links to whatever sickened the many little lunchers and snackers it served.

Another new input arrived Monday — criticism from André Picard, the veteran health columnist for the Globe and Mail. "Despite the magnitude of this problem, we have yet to hear a peep from Alberta's chief medical officer of health, who is (checks notes) Dr. Mark Joffe," Picard wrote.

"We didn't really need another brutal reminder of the eviscerated state of public health in this country, and politicians' indifference to it, but here we have it."

One day later, Joffe and the politicians emerged. When speaking about the outbreak, Children's Services Minister Searle Turton mispronounced it "E. co-lee" rather than "coal-eye."

We learned plenty about a CMOH's role during the coronavirus pandemic, and so much of it involves regular communication with the public, sharing helpful safety information, and constant monitoring and understanding of emerging problems.

On that last point, Joffe's debut had another bump. In one of his news conference answers about the Fueling Minds kitchen inspection he shared incorrect information. "What I have been advised is that the violations that were found typically were different from one inspection to the next," he said. "And that there were no critical violations during the earlier investigations or inspections, and that only the most recent inspection has had critical violations that were flagged."

A public health official who was more abreast of the situation may have done as reporters were doing in real time — looked at those inspection reports. In the last seven AHS investigations going back to February 2022, Fueling Minds had critical violations. It had been flagged for repeat violations on equipment sanitation, and this April, inspectors found problems with the same ammonia sanitizer as they did after closure this month.

Joffe could have also shared the publicly available information about new inspections at the Fueling Brains daycares at the centre of this situation. Two of its locations were flagged for not taking the temperature of cold food items, and a third was found to be improperly sanitizing common surface areas (a vital thing to do at the petri dishes known as child-care facilities).

While he has a medical background in infectious diseases, Joffe is not trained in the communications-intensive field of public health specifically.

The Smith government plucked him from AHS's executive ranks in November to fill Hinshaw's role, rather than hiring any of the hospital superagency's many public health officers.

And it's not clear what expertise is supporting him at Alberta Health. Hinshaw's two deputy chiefs both resigned in the wake of her firing, and no replacements have been found despite repeated job postings, the most recent one last Wednesday.


As of Tuesday, 25 children were at Alberta Children's Hospital due to the E. coli outbreak, and six were on dialysis to help their kidneys function. (Alberta Children's Hospital)© Alberta Children's Hospital

One suspects this will not be the last time Albertans hear from Joffe and LaGrange on this front, despite the clarifications needed after this outing. The number of infected children hasn't stopped rising, Alberta Children's Hospital still has 25 patients sick with daycare-borne E. coli, and AHS investigators are still trying to pinpoint which food item the kids were fed caused the severe illness.

And other issues may warrant the top public health official's attention, and public communication. It's unclear if COVID's new variant will surge this fall, and neighbouring British Columbia began treating its opioid and toxic drug crisis as a public health emergency seven years ago, well before the overdose and death rate reached the level of urgency it's now at in Alberta.

There's that word again. Joffe will likely be careful how he wields it in future public appearances, but he might now have a better understanding of how the term figures into his role.

Cockroaches, previous violations at kitchen used by Calgary daycares as E. coli outbreak toll climbs to 264

Story by Jade Markus • CBC

Alberta health inspectors have disclosed they found major health issues, including cockroach infestations and unsafe food handling, at a shared kitchen used by several daycares hit by a widespread E. coli outbreak.

This comes after an outbreak of the shiga toxin-producing E. coli, which can cause serious issues. The outbreak has sent children to hospital and some are on dialysis after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease which affects the kidneys.

At a press conference Tuesday, Dr. Mark Joffe, the province's chief medical officer of health, said the kitchen inspection came after a noticeable increase in young children coming to the emergency departments over the September long weekend.

"The emergency department physicians were very astute and quickly recognized that something unusual was happening and they reached out to the medical officer of health on call and to the team," Joffe said.

"From there it was quickly determined that the cases that they were seeing were linked to daycare centres and, in turn, those daycare centres were linked to one centralized kitchen."

Since then, there have been 264 lab-confirmed cases of E. coli connected to the outbreak. The cause of the outbreak has not yet been determined and remains under investigation.

In an environmental inspection report of the kitchen at KidsU Centennial - Fueling Minds Inc., AHS detailed "significant evidence of a pest infestation" at the food establishment on Sept. 5, the date of the inspection, which happened the day after the outbreak was declared.

"Two live adult cockroaches were observed on the sides of stainless steel equipment around the dishwashing area. The tin cat traps by the two separate two-compartment sinks had at least 20 cockroaches on the sticky pads each," the report read.

AHS said the inspection also found instances of food not being handled in a manner that makes it safe to eat, and a lack of appropriate equipment for keeping food cold during transportation.

In total, inspectors found three critical violations and two non-critical violations related to an odour and utensil storage.

The report shows other violations cited on a number of dates ahead of the September inspection.

Joffe said the kitchen is closed and will only reopen once AHS has determined that it is safe.

He added that Alberta Health Services conducts more than 40,000 inspections a year — and it is unusual to have a completely clean inspection.

Prior to the closure, he said, the facility had last been inspected in April. Two infractions were found at that time, and they were corrected. By the end of April, there were no violations in the kitchen, he said.

In a statement to CBC News late Tuesday afternoon, Kent Hehr, vice president of Fueling Brains, said their daycares source food from Fueling Minds, a catering company which also provides food to other daycare centres.

Hehr said that Fueling Minds' kitchen is supervised by a Red Seal chef. While Fueling Brains and Fueling Minds share "similar ownership," Hehr said they are independent entities.

"While the kitchen remains closed, all food will be sourced by external providers," the statement reads.

Hehr added that Fueling Brains took immediate action to shut down affected daycares and communicate with parents when they were notified of the outbreak by AHS on Sept. 4.

"Communicating with our families has been our priority and we have been sending out daily parent and staff messages to help keep our community informed and safe. Throughout this process, we have remained transparent, cooperative, and have taken immediate action wherever possible."

There are currently 25 patients receiving care in hospital, the province said in an emailed media release — 22 of whom are confirmed as having hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is a severe illness caused by E. coli infection.

Six patients are receiving peritoneal dialysis at Alberta Children's Hospital. The children with severe illness are all in stable condition and are receiving the care they need in hospital. Other children and families are receiving care and support at three outpatient clinics set up in Calgary hospitals.

When asked why he and Alberta's minister of health didn't comment on the outbreak sooner, Joffe said he had been following the daily communications from AHS closely.

"We didn't feel that there was urgency to do that up until this point," he said.

In an email sent after the press conference, Joffe issued a clarifying statement regarding that comment.

"This issue has been addressed with urgency from the very start. As the chief medical officer of health, my priority has been on the health and well-being of the children impacted, and the progress of the investigation."

"The priority was first and foremost getting people looked after and then to provide the public with a fulsome update on the situation."

Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said she has received daily updates on the situation, but didn't comment publicly as she's been monitoring AHS and "wanting to really make sure that AHS was focused on what they needed to do."

Katie McLean's daughter, who is almost two years old, attended Fueling Brains McKnight, one of the affected locations, and was recently released from Alberta Children's Hospital after being sick with E. coli. McLean said the report released by AHS was "disgusting" and "hard to imagine."

She said she understands that inspections happen and violations are corrected, but said the lack of appropriate equipment for keeping food cold during transportation was the most egregious part.



Dr. Mark Joffe, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, provides an update to the media about an outbreak of E. coli in Calgary daycares while Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, third from left, looks on. Alberta Health Services says the number of people affected has continued to climb to 264. (Colin Hall/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"If your entire business is transporting food to children, their entire business is catering, why would you not have the safety pieces in place to make sure that that food is safely delivered?"

"It just makes me absolutely sick. I can hardly talk about it without crying. It's so hard to imagine my little girl eating at the daycare — so innocent and not knowing that she was at risk."

Eleven child-care facilities were closed as part of the outbreak investigation.

AHS has since rescinded the closure orders for four facilities — Little Oak Early Education, Almond Branch, Braineer Academy and Fueling Brains Bridgeland — as no one from those sites has tested positive, and public health inspectors have ensured that the sites have taken appropriate measures such as cleaning and disinfection.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is providing support as the source is investigated.

On Tuesday, the Alberta NDP called for a full inquiry into the outbreak.

"When we do discover the source of that outbreak, we need to move immediately to a full and public inquiry into how this food handling site was left uninspected for months," Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said in a statement.

Should international students be capped? Here’s what Canada’s provinces say

Story by Uday Rana •

VANCOUVER, Sept. 5, 2020 A student and her family member move belongings to her residence around the campus of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Sept. 5, 2020. (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua) (Credit Image: © Liang Sen/Xinhua via ZUMA Press)© Provided by Global News

As Canada continues to grapple with a housing crisis, the conversation is increasingly turning to international students coming into the country.

But multiple provinces are pushing back on federal suggestions that an international student cap could help solve the problem, and say they haven't been consulted.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc have all indicated that Ottawa is considering a cap on student intake.

Following their comments over the past two weeks, Global News reached out to provincial and territorial governments about how it would impact them and whether they would support any caps.

Three provinces, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, told Global News they had not been consulted on any proposed cap. Only the government of the Northwest Territories said it had been in contact with Ottawa about a proposed student cap.

“The GNWT has been in discussions with the federal government regarding potential changes around international students and, while not the main focus, a proposed cap has been mentioned,” a spokesperson for the N.W.T. government said.

A B.C. government official on background said, “At this time, Provincial officials responsible for international education have not been contacted by IRCC or any other department with a proposal to cap international student enrolment. We will await and review any international student enrolment policy.”

Angela Picco, a spokesperson for the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education, said international students were a crucial part of the province's strategy to address its demographic challenges.

“We are hopeful that we will have the opportunity for consultation before any cap is implemented to ensure that it does not disadvantage our province, given the demographic challenges facing our province and the role of post-secondary education in attracting newcomers to this province,” she said.

Picco added that the provincial government would support post-secondary institutions increasing their international student numbers.

Video: International students want more help in finding affordable housing in N.S.

New Brunswick similarly said international students have been integral to the “province’s economy for a number of years and the attraction and retention of them is critical to our current and future workforce.”

"We have seen the number of international students increase over the past few years and we hope this trend will continue," Judy Désalliers, a spokesperson for the Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Ministry, said.

“The federal government, through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, regularly meets with the provinces and territories but has not consulted with New Brunswick about a proposed cap on international students," the statement added.

The government of Saskatchewan told Global News it thinks the province and its institutions are in the best position to determine the appropriate number of international students since education is an area of provincial jurisdiction.

“As such, we find no justification for implementing such a restriction in our province thanks to the hard work of our institutions ensuring housing and other needs of students are being met," Sam Sasse, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Advanced Education, said.

"Our government has confidence in the ability of Saskatchewan’s designated learning institutions to manage recruitment and support for both domestic and international students.”

Quebec, too, said it is working to attract international students, particularly francophone students and those in “priority sectors."

The Quebec Ministry of Education also indicated it was concerned about the income of higher educational institutions.

Related video: Why a foreign student cap would be ‘disastrous’ for Canada (cbc.ca)

Duration 5:03  View on Watch

Global News'Very difficult to find a house': Concerns grow about post-secondary student housing crisis

1:57

“The ministry will closely follow federal government decisions that could have an impact on the income of higher education establishments in Quebec,” a spokesperson said, writing in French.

Ontario, which is home to nearly half of all international students in Canada, said in a statement that while the federal government was responsible for immigration policy, “all levels of government have a role to play in supporting the welcoming of international students.”

The Ontario government did not clearly state whether it would support any kind of a cap.

A Nova Scotia government spokesperson said while it would be premature to comment right now, “Nova Scotia would want to be given the opportunity to be consulted because international students make a positive impact on our province. We want to help them build a life and career here when they graduate.”

The role of international students in provincial labour markets was also raised by provinces and territories. The N.W.T. was among those, saying the region already caps international students at 30 per cent of an institution’s total population.

“It is important that any federal adjustments to the classes of immigrants which may be allowed into Canada each year, including international students, not negatively impact the NWT’s ability to attract and retain international students and talent, which are important to the territory’s labour market and economic development,” a spokesperson said.

Alberta currently has 90,000 job vacancies across sectors, with many employers looking to international students to fill those labour gaps. A spokesperson for the ministry of advanced education told Global News their labour forecasts show "international students will play a key role in complimenting our efforts in broadening and deepening Alberta’s talent pool."

A spokesperson for P.E.I. said the province was looking forward to hearing the details of any proposed cap on international students, so it can better understand the implications for P.E.I.

A spokesperson for the Yukon said this was an “issue for some of the other jurisdictions in Canada," since the territory only has Yukon University and three registered private training institutions.

Manitoba and Nunavut did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Video: International students’ success a positive for University of Regina and the province, school president says

The growing focus on federal immigration and whether targets need to be reviewed comes as the country struggles to cope with a housing crisis.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters on Monday that it would be unfair to blame students.

“I want to be really clear on this. International students are not to be blamed for the housing crisis we’re in. Over the past decades, both Liberals and Conservatives have not built enough homes,” Singh said.

Singh said the NDP, if elected in the next federal election, would require colleges and universities that have international student enrolment to prove that they can provide them housing.

“If you’re welcoming students in, you should be able to house them,” he said.

Singh said that while provinces had a “role to play” in easing the housing crisis for students, he was “not interested in playing a blame game.”

The NDP leader said student housing needed to be a part of any national housing strategy.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre last month called Canada’s immigration system “broken” and said, "I'll make sure we have housing and health care so that when people come here they have a roof overhead and care when they need it."

Video: Canadians must be ‘very careful’ not to blame international students for housing crisis: Trudeau

After last month’s cabinet retreat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians should be “very careful” about blaming international students for the housing crisis.

“We have to be very careful. Over the past years, we’ve seen a lot of different people and a lot of different groups blamed for the housing crisis. At one point it was foreign homebuyers. At another point it was developers being super aggressive. Another point, it was under-investments by various orders of government. Now it’s people saying, ‘Oh, it’s international students,’” Trudeau said.

Many of the provinces told Global News they were investing significantly in building student residences. At the same time, Fay Faraday, a law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and immigration law expert, said Canadian universities depend on international students for a large chunk of their revenue.

She said this is because of declining provincial support for post-secondary education over the last few years.

“The international student population is critical to the functioning of the university because the fees that they pay, which are significantly above domestic fees, fill the gap in the underfunding for the public education system and secondary public education system,” Faraday said.

Last month, Universities Canada also pushed back against a potential cap on international student intake.

“Recent comments conflating international students and the housing crisis are deeply concerning to Universities Canada and our members,” Lisa Wallace, a spokesperson for Universities Canada, said in a statement.

“International students bring important knowledge, diversity and skills to our campuses, communities and workforce. We must continue to welcome them to study at Canadian universities.”

According to a recent survey by the Daily Bread food bank, which was released on Wednesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s estimated living expense used during the application process is nearly half of what a student in Toronto typically spends.

Ontario paramedics see number of patients rushed to hospital related to opioid use quadruple in decade: study

Story by Samantha Beattie • CBC


A new study reveals the mounting toll the opioid crisis is having on emergency departments and paramedic services in Ontario, and should serve as a "wake up call" to policymakers, says the report's author.

Patients going to emergency departments due to opioid use more than doubled between 2009 and 2019, said McMaster University PhD candidate Ryan Strum, the lead researcher.

But it was paramedics who experienced the largest increase in demand for service, Strum found. The number of patients they transported to hospitals because of opioid use quadrupled across that decade.

"This research really underscores the need to increase our support and resources for these patients who are struggling," Strum said.

The Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand and Brant region was one of the "major hubs" that experienced a staggering surge in people needing help due to opioid use, he said.

Paramedic transports increased seven-fold, from 217 to over 1,600 and emergency department visits quadrupled from 500 to over 2,200.



Emergency departments have also seen a surge in patients needing help dealing with not only overdoses, but also withdrawal symptoms and opioid-related mental health disorders. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

It's unknown why exactly these municipalities saw more demand, but it could be that there's more people using opioids like fentanyl and the even more potent carfentanil compared to other areas, Strum said. For example, Hamilton had the third highest opioid-related mortality rate in Ontario and the highest rate in southern Ontario, according to city data from 2018.

The McMaster study is the first of its kind in Canada that looks at not only people accessing the health-care system for opioid overdoses and deaths, but also for withdrawal and dependence symptoms, and related mental health disorders such as psychosis, said Strum.

The peer-reviewed study was published Sept. 8 with the Public Library of Science journal, Plos One.

Related video: Ontario's long-term care inspection system wasn't ready for first COVID-19 wave, ombudsman says (cbc.ca)  Duration 1:09  View on Watch

The study also shows that the majority of patients who went to emergency departments weren't admitted to hospital, but rather discharged. That indicates they could receive effective treatment and help through community programs, which, with more funding, could ease the burden on emergency services, Strum said.

In the coming months, he will be publishing the same data for more recent years, with every indication the results will be even more striking as the opioid crisis has only worsened, he said. He's calling for action from policymakers "sooner rather than later."

"We've known about the opioid crisis for almost two decades now," he said.

"So we've got a surplus of data. We've got a lot of experts in the field that are specializing in how to treat and manage these patients. I think we just really need to put all these resources together and come up with tangible solutions."
Minister announces funding for Hamilton supports

According to recent city data, Hamilton has seen a rise in opioid-related overdoses and deaths since 2018, prompting it to declare a state of emergency earlier this year.

On Monday, the federal government announced $1.8 million for local substance use projects at St. Joseph's mental health campus.The money is not new but rather was pledged in the 2022 federal budget.

Minister Ya'ara Saks, who oversees mental health and addictions, said the funding will be divided between the city for more harm reduction outreach and peer support workers, the AIDS Network to bolster its existing safer supply program, and St. Joseph's to improve patient treatment, diagnosis and care.


Ya'ara Saks is the federal minister of mental health and addictions and associate minister of health. 

(Sarah Law/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"We know people who use substances need a fuller range of services and supports," Saks said at a news conference. "Whether it's from prevention to harm reduction to treatment and recovery, we all need to show up for them."

These types of announcements do little to actually help the city tackle the many crises it's facing including opioids, homelessness, mental health and affordable housing, said Hamilton Coun. Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2), whose downtown ward is home to a major hospital emergency department and safer use spaces.

Hamilton needs "massive amounts of funding" from the provincial and federal governments to take "bold serious action today," he said.

"Upper levels of government spend far too much time thinking about re-election cycles than they do about dealing with issues," Kroetsch said.

"Meanwhile every single day we get further and further and further behind."

Guatemala President-elect suspends transition after agents raid election facilities, open vote boxes



GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo said Tuesday he was temporarily suspending the transition process and called for the resignation of the attorney general following raids on electoral facilities during which government agents opened boxes of votes and photographed their contents in what experts called an unprecedented violation of the law.

Arévalo said he had notified outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, who just a day earlier had promised a smooth handover of power, and would only return to the process when the necessary conditions were met.

It was not immediately clear if it could affect the constitutionally-mandated transfer of power Jan. 14.

Agents from Guatemala's Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday again raided facilities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, but this time raising the stakes in Guatemala's democratic transition by opening dozens of boxes of votes.

Luis Gerardo Ramírez, spokesman for the tribunal, said the body had not given permission to open the boxes and said the raid was being carried out by the Attorney General’s Office with the order of a judge.

The Attorney General’s Office had asked to review at least 160 boxes of votes from various parts of the country, Ramírez said. Guatemalan law permits only personnel of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the teams that count the votes at polling places on election day to handle the secret ballots.

“This is unprecedented, the law does not establish a process for this,” said Gloria López, electoral director of the tribunal. She said only the receiving authority at each polling place on the day of the election is supposed to review the marked ballots.

López said that votes in the opened boxes do not have a digital backup. She said by handling them, the Attorney General’s Office was breaking the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s chain of custody.

Related video: Progressive outsider wins presidency in Guatemala (The Associated Press)


“We would no longer be able to ensure what exactly are the votes that are inside the electoral boxes and what is the number of signatures and fingerprints on the (polling place tally sheets) that are going in the boxes,” she said.

Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, condemned Guatemala Attorney General’s Office actions Tuesday via X.

“This unprecedented action undermines the democratic transition and the will of the Guatemalan people,” he wrote.

The Organization of American States electoral observation mission to Guatemala expressed deep concern at the actions.

“The opening of the electoral packers by people and institutions other than those identified by law represents a frontal attack on the integrity of the vote and an affront to the popular will,” the mission said in a statement. It said it was further evidence of the Attorney General’s Office attempting to intimidate electoral authorities and question the electoral process.

The mission had already reported that prosecutors’ accusations against the electoral process lack any foundation.

Ovidio Orellana, former president of Guatemala’s bar association, said that there is no legal basis giving power to a judge or prosecutors to touch the electoral boxes or votes. “It is an arbitrary act,” he said.

The raid was apparently part of some of the various ongoing investigations related to the national elections that culminated last month with the election of Arévalo.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who has been investigating Arévalo’s Seed Movement party, was leading the operation. Curruchiche has been sanctioned by the United States government for allegedly obstructing the fight against corruption.

The Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday's raid, but declined to say to which case it was related. Judge Fredy Orellana issued the order to carry it out. He has also been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Under Giammattei and the attorney general he appointed, Consuelo Porras, the government has targeted criminal investigations not against corruption but against those who investigated and punished it.

Sonia Pérez D., The Associated Press

Biden’s ambitious efforts to strengthen the social safety net are fraying

By Tami Luhby, CNN
Tue September 12, 2023

US President Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan on March 11, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
CNN —

For a few fleeting months in 2021, it looked like President Joe Biden was making great strides in his promise to even the playing field for more Americans.

Even before his inauguration, he laid out a $1.9 trillion vision that called for bigger stimulus checks, more aid for the unemployed, the hungry and small businesses. As part of his American Rescue Plan proposal, Biden wanted to increase the child tax credit and make it available to more lower-income families, as well as help make child care more affordable. And he called for greatly expanding subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and reinstating pandemic paid sick and family leave benefits.

With the Democrats in control of both chambers and the White House, Biden felt he could push for big steps he said were needed to address immediate needs. But it also would put in place – if even temporarily – many unprecedented social supports that party leaders had been trying to institute for years and might, they hoped, be hard to unravel.

In mid-March of that year, Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that mirrored much of what he had proposed with a few notable changes, including leaving out the paid sick and family leave provision and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“This plan is historic,” he said that month. “Taken altogether, this plan is going to make it possible to cut child poverty in half. Let me say that again – it’s significant, historic. It will cut child poverty in half.”

And it did – for a year.

On Tuesday, the Census Bureau reported that the child poverty rate skyrocketed from a record low 5.2% in 2021, when families were receiving the enhanced child tax credit and third round of stimulus checks, to 12.4% last year. What’s more, the share of children in poverty is roughly back to where it was prior to the pandemic in 2019, based on a broader alternative measure developed by the Census Bureau. It was the largest jump in child poverty since the Supplemental Poverty Measure began in 2009.

Overall, the supplemental poverty rate was 12.4% last year, up from 7.8% last year and higher than it was prior to the pandemic. It’s the first increase in the rate since 2010.
Temporary measures and internal resistance

Although the federal government spent a record amount of money in 2020 and 2021 to help the nation contend with the Covid-19 pandemic, there were limits. The hefty price tag of the Democrats’ ambitions forced them to make many of their measures temporary – notably the enhancement to the child tax credit, which boosted payments to as much as $3,600 per kid and made more low-income parents eligible.

The cost and concerns about swiftly rising inflation ultimately cratered the party’s attempt in the fall of 2021 to push through Congress a sweeping $3.5 trillion package that would have massively broadened the nation’s safety net as envisioned in Biden’s jobs and families proposals. It would have established a universal Pre-K program, further boost support for child care, make community college tuition-free for two years, create the first federal paid and medical leave benefit and extend the expansion of the child tax credit and other credits.

The Democrats wanted to pay for it by hiking taxes on the companies and well-off Americans, but the plans were scuttled by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a key moderate who worried about the legislation’s impact on inflation, and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who later left the party to become an independent.

A whittled down version of the proposal passed in August 2022, which extended a key Affordable Care Act subsidy enhancement through 2025, provided for a record investment in the climate and made major changes to Medicare, including allowing it to negotiate the prices of certain drugs for the first time.

More blows in 2023

More supports that helped Americans get by during the pandemic are expiring this year.

Already more than 6.4 million people, including at least 1.3 million children, have lost their Medicaid coverage since April, when states were once again allowed to start trimming their rolls of residents they deem ineligible, according to KFF. At least 15 million enrollees are expected have their coverage terminated by the end of the process next spring – undermining Biden’s pronouncements that more Americans have gained health insurance under his watch.

Also, a pandemic boost to food stamps ended nationwide this spring, and work requirements for certain recipients will kick in this fall. The expiration of the emergency allotments, along with the hike in grocery prices, has sent more Americans to food banks in an effort to feed themselves and their families.

And $24 billion in child care stabilization grants expires on September 30. More than 70,000 programs could close and about 3.2 million kids could lose their spots, according to The Century Foundation.

What’s more, in October, as the pandemic-related pause on federal student loan payments expires, borrowers will be required to pay their monthly bills for the first time in more than three years. Biden extended the payment pause six times since coming into office, but Congress has prohibited him from pushing back the date another time.

Though Biden’s administration has canceled more student loan debt than any other, the president’s signature effort to forgive up to $20,000 for millions of low- and middle-income borrowers got blocked by the Supreme Court this summer.
Selling Bidenomics

The steep rise in poverty – coupled with a drop in median household income – will make the president’s 2024 campaign message that his policies are helping Americans a tougher sell.

Already many people are not buying his “Bidenomics” pitch. They have a dour view of the economy in part because of the toll high inflation has taken on people’s finances, though the pace of price increases has slowed.

Some 51% of the public say they think the economy is still in a downturn and getting worse, according to a CNN poll released last month.

What’s more, only 24% of US adults said Biden’s policies have improved economic conditions, according to another CNN poll released last week, while 58% said his policies have worsened economic conditions.

Biden and some congressional Democrats are still trying to build support for restoring the enhanced child tax credit, a task made much tougher by Republican control of the House.

The president responded to Tuesday’s grim poverty report by blaming the GOP.

“The rise reported today in child poverty is no accident – it is the result of a deliberate policy choice congressional Republicans made to block help for families with children while advancing massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and largest corporations,” he said.

CNN’s Katie Lobosco contributed to this report.

New York City’s pension funds and state of Oregon sue Fox Corporation over 2020 election lies

Story by By Oliver Darcy and Liam Reilly, CNN •


New York City’s pension funds and the state of Oregon took legal action on Tuesday against Fox Corporation, alleging in a lawsuit that the Fox News parent company failed shareholders by allowing the right-wing channel to recklessly spread lies about the 2020 election that opened it up to a pair of historic defamation cases.

The lawsuit, which was filed under seal in the Delaware Court of Chancery and named Fox Corporation board members and its executives as defendants, accused the media company of having chosen to “invite robust defamation claims, with potentially huge financial liability and potentially larger business repercussions, rather than disappoint viewers of Fox News,” according to an excerpt of the complaint provided by the state of Oregon.

The lawsuit represents the most serious shareholder legal action taken against Fox since it settled a historic defamation lawsuit brought by election technology company Dominion Voting Systems earlier this year for a record $787.5 million. Fox, which has maintained it is proud of its dishonest 2020 election coverage, still faces an even larger, $2.7 billion lawsuit from election technology company Smartmatic.

“Fox’s board of directors has blatantly disregarded the need for journalistic standards and failed to put safeguards in place despite having a business model that invites defamation litigation,” Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, said in a statement on Tuesday. “A lack of journalistic standards and a proper strategy to mitigate defamation has clearly harmed Fox’s reputation and threatens their bottom line and long-term profitability.”

“The board of Fox Corporation took a massive risk in pursuing profits by perpetuating and peddling known falsehoods,” Ellen Rosenblum, attorney general of Oregon, said in a separate statement. “The directors’ choices exposed themselves and the company to liability and exposed their shareholders to significant risks. That is the crux of our lawsuit, and we look forward to making our case in court.”

A spokesperson for Fox Corporation declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit did not specify a damages figure. A spokesperson for the New York City Comptroller’s office said the pension funds held 857,000 shares of Fox Corporation stock valued at $28.10 million. The state of Oregon held 226,315 shares of Fox stock valued at $5.2 million.

Legal and corporate governance experts have long warned that Fox Corporation would be subject to shareholder lawsuits for irresponsible management decisions that left the company vulnerable to legal action.

Fox Corporation, led by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, has kept the current Fox News leadership team that oversaw the network’s lie-filled 2020 coverage in place. But last month, the company abruptly announced that Viet Dinh, its chief legal officer who oversaw the company’s legal strategy combatting the election lawsuits, would exit his role at the end of the year.

In addition to the two lawsuits brought by Dominion and Smartmatic, Fox News has also been slapped with a cascade of defamation lawsuits from others taking action against the network.

Ray Epps, an Arizona man that conspiracy theorists falsely claim led an FBI plot to orchestrate the January 6 insurrection, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News in July.

Earlier this year, Fox News settled a defamation case with a Venezuelan businessman who had filed a lawsuit against the company over its 2020 election coverage. And Fox settled a lawsuit brought by former producer Abby Grossberg, who accused the network of fostering a toxic workplace environment, for $12 million.

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Balzan Prizes recognize achievements in study of human evolution, black holes with $840,000 awards

MILAN (AP) — An American literary historian, a French paleoanthropologist, a Danish evolutionary geneticist and a German-Dutch astrophysicist have been named the winners of this year’s Balzan Prize. Their work in the humanities and natural sciences advances the study of comparative literature, human evolution and black holes.

David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University's comparative literature department, was recognized for “his creative approach to world literature as a translational circulation of works that remain alive because they are embraced and changed,’’ the Balzan Foundation said in its citation.

Frenchman Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max-Planck-Institute for evolutionary anthropology in Leipzig was cited for his discoveries of the oldest Homo sapiens in Africa, contributing to the study of human evolution. The citation also praised his ability to synthesize data, organize scientific teams and his qualities as a teacher “and popularizer.”

Also awarded for contributions to the study of human evolution, Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark was cited for studies of human DNA, focusing on population migrations to “transform our understanding of human history.” The citation said he used ancient DNA from teeth to identify human pathogens and retrieved DNA from environmental samples “opening a new scientific field.”

The final individual award went to Heino Falcke, an astrophysicist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, for his role in producing high-resolution images of what surrounds black holes as leader of the Event Horizon Telescope. The work validated “Einstein’s General Relativity in situations where gravity is so strong that spacetime is significantly curved,’’ the judges said.

The Balzan Foundation awards prizes in the sciences and humanities each year, rotating specialties to highlight new or emerging areas of research and sustain fields that might be overlooked elsewhere. Recipients receive 750,000 Swiss francs ($840,000), half of which must be used for research, preferably by young scholars or scientists.

This year, a special prize for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples was made to the Francesca Rava Foundation, an Italian organization that helps responds to humanitarian and natural disasters in Italy and Latin America. The prize, also worth 750,000 Swiss francs, is give out at intervals of at least three years.

The prizes will be awarded in Bern, Switzerland on Nov. 17.

The Associated Press

Environmental activists killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022 – report

Colombia was the deadliest country and a fifth of the 177 recorded killings took place in the Amazon rainforest, says Global Witness

An environmental protest in Brasilia, Brazil, April 2022. Almost 90% of all killings were recorded in Latin America. Photograph: Andressa Anholete/Getty Images


Patrick Greenfield
@pgreenfielduk
Wed 13 Sep 2023 


At least 177 people were killed last year for defending the environment, according to new figures, with a fifth of killings taking place in the Amazon rainforest.

Murdered by organised crime groups and land invaders, environmental defenders were killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022, figures from the NGO Global Witness show. Colombia was the most deadly country, recording 60 murders.

Indigenous communities were disproportionately represented in the figures, making up 34% of all murders, despite representing about 5% of the world’s population. The new figures mean that at least 1,910 environmental defenders have been killed between 2012 and 2022, according to Global Witness, with most of the murders going unpunished.

Brazil, Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines were the most deadly countries in 2022 after Colombia. Nearly 88% of all lethal attacks were recorded in Latin America, including the killings of the Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira and the journalist Dom Phillips in July.

The figures are a drop from the 200 killings recorded in 2021 but remain high, prompting Global Witness to call for special protections for environmental defenders of climate-critical ecosystems.

The report highlights the scramble for resources in Latin America, Asia and Africa as a driver of the violence, including the extraction of rare earth minerals used in the production of electric cars and wind turbines.

“For too long, those responsible for lethal attacks against defenders have been getting away with murder,” said Shruti Suresh, the co-director of campaigns at Global Witness.

“Despite being threatened by irresponsible corporate and government actions, this global movement of people, united by determination and a commitment to defending their homes and communities, are standing firm – and they cannot and will not be silenced.”

The report has been produced annually for the past 11 years by Global Witness, which is urging governments to enforce existing laws to create a safe environment for people trying to protect their lands and ecosystems. It called for businesses to ensure their supply chains and activities are not involved in driving the violence.

Underreporting of attacks around the world means that the figures are likely an underestimate, especially for Africa and Asia. Non-lethal attacks to silence environmental defenders were probably far higher, but hard to record, Global Witness said.


Honduran environmental defenders shot dead in broad daylight

Laura Furones, a forest governance expert who advised on the report, highlighted attacks against Indigenous communities as a particular cause for concern.

“Research has shown again and again that Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the forests and therefore play a fundamental role in mitigating the climate crisis,” she said. “Yet they are under siege in countries like Brazil, Peru and Venezuela for doing precisely that.

“If we are to keep the forests standing, we must recognise that this relies upon the protection of those who call the forest home.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features