U.S. regulators will review car-tire chemical that kills salmon, upon request from West Coast tribes

Sun, November 5, 2023 



U.S. regulators say they will review the use of a chemical found in almost every tire after a petition from West Coast Native American tribes that want it banned because it kills salmon as they return from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn.

The Yurok tribe in California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Puyallup tribes in Washington asked the Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the rubber preservative 6PPD earlier this year, saying it kills fish — especially coho salmon — when rains wash it from roadways into rivers. Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut also wrote the EPA, citing the chemical's “unreasonable threat” to their waters and fisheries.

The agency's decision to grant the petition last week is the start of a long regulatory process that could see the chemical banned. Tire manufacturers are already looking for an alternative that still meets federal safety requirements.

“We could not sit idle while 6PPD kills the fish that sustain us,” Joseph L. James, chairperson of the Yurok Tribe, told The Associated Press. “This lethal toxin has no business in any salmon-bearing watershed.”

6PPD has been used as a rubber preservative in tires for 60 years. It is also found in footwear, synthetic turf and playground equipment.

As tires wear, tiny particles of rubber are left behind on roads and parking lots. The chemical breaks down into a byproduct, 6PPD-quinone, that is deadly to salmon, steelhead trout and other aquatic wildlife. Coho appear to be especially sensitive; it can kill them within hours, the tribes argued.

The salmon are important to the diet and culture of Pacific Northwest and California tribes, which have fought for decades to protect the dwindling fish from climate change, pollution, development and dams that block their way to spawning grounds.

The chemical's effect on coho was noted in 2020 by scientists in Washington state, who were studying why coho populations that had been restored in the Puget Sound years earlier were struggling.

“This is a significant first step in regulating what has been a devastating chemical in the environment for decades,” said Elizabeth Forsyth, an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the tribes.

She called it “one of the biggest environmental issues that the world hasn’t known about.”

The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association said in a statement that an analysis is underway to identify alternatives to 6PPD that can meet federal safety standards, though none has yet been found.

“Any premature prohibition on the use of 6PPD in tires would be detrimental to public safety and the national economy,” the statement said.

The Puyallup Tribal Council called the EPA's decision “a victory for salmon and all species and people.”

The agency plans by next fall to begin gathering more information that could inform proposed regulations. It also plans to require manufacturers and importers of 6PPD to report unpublished health and safety studies by the end of next year. There is no timeframe for a final decision.

“These salmon and other fish have suffered dramatic decreases in population over the years. Addressing 6PPD-quinone in the environment, and the use of its parent, 6PPD, is one way we can work to reverse this trend,” Michal Freedhoff, an assistant administrator in the EPA's chemical safety and pollution prevention office, said in a statement.

The chemical’s effect on human health is unknown, the EPA noted.

Suanne Brander, an associate professor and ecotoxicologist at Oregon State University, called the decision a great move, but cautioned that the lethal impacts on salmon are likely from more than just 6PPD. She said she is also concerned about whatever chemical tire manufacturers eventually use to replace it.

“As someone who’s been studying chemicals and micro-plastics for a while now, my concern is we’re really focused on this one chemical but in the end, it’s the mixture,” she said. “It’s many different chemicals that fish are being exposed to simultaneously that are concerning.”

__

Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press

As Alberta's record fire season ends, planning begins for next year's fight


CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

Wildfires in Alberta burned 2,214,957 hectares during the 2023 legislated wildfire season. The previous five-year average was 190,000 hectares burned. 

(Kory Siegers/CBC - image credit)

Alberta's 2023 wildfire season saw thousands of people fleeing their homes with only pets and packed bags, and hundreds of hazy-smoke hours in the city of Calgary.

The province's legislated wildfire season ended on Tuesday after fires burned at least 2,214,957 hectares of land — more than ten times the previous five-year average and the most in recorded history.

More than 38,000 residents were evacuated during the season due to some of the official season's 1,094 fires.

"Our province faced an unprecedented challenge this past wildfire season," said Todd Loewen, Minister of Forestry and Parks in a statement on Friday.

"While this season was not without its difficulties, the way Albertans and industry leaders stepped up to support their neighbours was nothing short of inspiring."

Fires destroyed structures on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation, in the East Prairie Métis Settlement, Fox Lake community, and Yellowhead County, per Indigneous Services Canada and community leaders.

Heavy wildfire smoke has set in throughout the town of Edson and the surrounding area. Air quality on Monday is listed as very-high risk. More than 38,000 Albertans were evacuated from their homes and 48 communities were affected by this year's wildfires, according to the Alberta government. (Town of Edson/Facebook)

Around 60 per cent of Alberta's 2023 wildfires were human-caused, according to provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire Derrick Forsythe, meaning they were caused by all terrain vehicles, downed power lines, or other human activities or infrastructure.

"The fires just were always there," said Forsythe. "There was never really a chance to kind of catch your breath."

Over the winter months, Forsythe said Alberta Wildfire crews will repair and replace the run-down water pumps and hoses used this season.

The operations team will assess the effectiveness of strategies and new technologies deployed this year, like night vision helicopters and drones able to detect hot spots on the landscape, Forsythe added.

He hopes the winter weather will allow many wildfire crews to rest and de-stress after months of long hours and high-pressure work.

"If you've been working, you know, 18 days in a row and three days off, and 18 days in a row and three days off, all summer long … you know it's important [to] take that time," said Forsythe.

Yukon wildfire crews prepare their trucks Wednesday morning before their first day battling the Pembina wildfire complex in west-central Alberta.
 (Alberta Wildfire)

The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs hopes this year's destruction inspires change.

"There's a saying out there that goes, 'Don't ever let a disaster go to waste,'" said President Ken McMullen, who also works as Red Deer's chief of emergency services.

"We cannot forget that we will be facing similar seasons like we have this year, and we need to prepare for that better than we did in the summer of '23."

Since 2016, fewer people have signed on as volunteer firefighters, said McMullen; a role often called into action when wildfires are threatening structures or communities.

He's asking the federal government to increase the tax credit available to volunteer firefighters from $3,000 to $10,000 to boost retention and recruitment.

Alberta's wildfire dashboard showed 72 active wildfires still burning on Friday night.

Alberta Wildfire said several will likely burn through the winter and into the new year.

Residents are encouraged to recreate carefully to prevent unnecessary blazes from sparking.

Baaaad dog: Rez goat roams community with his family pack

CBC
Fri, November 3, 2023 

Bruce the goat with his family pack of dogs in Beaver Lake Cree Nation. (submitted by Mark Gladue - image credit)

Mark Gladue did a double take when he was driving through Beaver Lake Cree Nation, about 170 kilometres north of Edmonton, earlier this week.

"I stopped and I looked. I'm like, that's a goat with a bunch of freaking rez dogs," said Gladue, a community water treatment operator who is Cree and Navajo.

"I made a little noise, like 'baaaa' and got the others' attention, and they looked and I took a picture."

Gladue posted the photo to social media and had people commenting from all over Canada and it was shared as far as Arizona.

"I'm just really happy that I'm able to make people laugh and I think that's a huge thing for Native Americans. Laughter is a really big thing for medicine," said Gladue.

Goats aren't common in the community; Gerald Whitford, the band's chief administrative officer, said you're more likely to see horses or cows in the area.

It turns out the goat's name is Bruce and he belongs to nine-year-old Louise May Lewis, known by her family as Baby May.

May wanted a pet deer for her birthday, but her parents didn't think that was possible. Instead the pair got her a bottle-fed goat that was still in diapers.

"She was just surprised, everybody was," said May's mother April Mountain.

"Everyone was shocked, like, 'Is that a goat in the house?'"

Bruce the goat was bottle fed and wore diapers when he was first gifted to nine-year-old Louise May Lewis.

Bruce was bottle fed and wore diapers when he was first given to nine-year-old Louise May Lewis. (Submitted by Robbie Lewis)

Bruce joined the family that includes five children, three dogs and two birds. Bruce is out with the family dogs in Gladue's photo.

Mountain said owning a goat was an adjustment because they had to put rubber handle bar grips on his horns to stop him from scratching up the place.

And Bruce has quite the attitude.

"He's very stubborn. He won't eat goat food; he thinks he is a dog," said Mountain.

Bruce is a stubborn little goat that thinks he's a dog said his owner April Mountain.

Bruce is stubborn and thinks he's a dog, says April Mountain. (submitted by Robbie Lewis)

When he roams with his pack, neighbours call concerned that he's out with dogs, but Mountain said they just laugh and go and pick him up.

"We love him," said Mountain.

Nurse tells B.C. hearing she's not transphobic, but calls gender identity 'metaphysical nonsense'


CBC
Fri, November 3, 2023 

B.C. nurse Amy Hamm is facing a disciplinary hearing over her public statements about transgender people. (Amy Hamm/X - image credit)

A B.C. nurse accused of making numerous "derogatory and discriminatory" public statements about transgender people took the stand in her discipline hearing on Friday, telling the panel considering her case that she is not transphobic.

During a hearing at the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives, Amy Hamm of New Westminster testified that her advocacy on social and other platforms is meant to protect women and children from what she described as dangerous infringements into sex-segregated spaces.

"I'm not transphobic. I don't have any issue with trans people — it's the infringement on women and children's rights," Hamm told the college disciplinary panel.

She said she is fighting against what she described as a "fringe" movement of activists influencing official positions on transgender rights and access to gender-affirming care.

"It's a movement that is infringing on the rights of women and pushing institutions to adopt what are false and delusional beliefs," she said.

Hamm faces allegations of unprofessional conduct for making "discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people" while identifying herself as a nurse, according to a citation from the college.

Hamm frequently refers to transgender women as "men" in social media posts, videos and podcasts, implying they pose a danger to cisgender women and children. She has referred to the disciplinary proceedings as a "witch trial" and suggested the college "would love for me to suicide myself."

She has also said she rejected a proposed settlement from the college that would have seen her agree to a two-week licence suspension and social media training.

Hamm testified Friday that she became aware of the college's investigation in 2021 after she co-sponsored the erection of a billboard on Hastings Street in Vancouver reading "I [heart] J.K. Rowling" in support of the author, who has made public comments that have been criticized as anti-trans by LGBTQ groups and other advocates.

'It feels as though people don't seem to care'

She told the panel she is particularly concerned about transgender women having access to women-only spaces including prisons and change rooms. She pointed to examples like Madilyn Harks, a transgender woman with a history of sexually assaulting young girls who has been housed in women's correctional facilities.

"It makes me extremely, extremely angry, and it feels as though people don't seem to care what happens to these women," she said of female inmates.

She said she completely rejects the concept of gender identity, calling it "anti-scientific, metaphysical nonsense."

 A person holds up a flag during rally to protest the Trump administration's reported transgender proposal to narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth, at City Hall in New York City, U.S., October 24, 2018. Nurse Amy Hamm says a fringe group of activists are pushing Canadian institutions to accept 'false and delusional beliefs.' (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Nonetheless, Hamm told the panel that she always uses people's preferred pronouns at work, because that is her employer's policy.

"Whether or not I agree with certain policies, I limit my advocacy for changing policies to outside of work," she said.

On social media, Hamm has tweeted sentiments such as "we have eyeballs and we will continue to use them to misgender you." She has suggested adults who identify as non-binary are making "an extremely embarrassing display of narcissism and low intelligence."

Hamm acknowledged to the panel that some of her social media posts might come across as offensive or shocking, but her objective is to engage people in conversation.

She also testified that she has faced numerous death and rape threats in response to her activism and is currently on stress leave from her job at a Metro Vancouver hospital as a result.

Expert questioned about research supporting claims

Earlier in the week, Toronto psychologist James Cantor, who is testifying as an expert witness for Hamm's defence, addressed what he saw as the potential social value in Hamm's statements.

He said her comments might actually help transgender people by exposing them to diverse opinions, saying they reflect "a large chunk" of public thought on the issue.

"When a person is able to escape and simply not deal with uncomfortable ideas … one fails to develop the skills anyone needs to live in a diverse society," Cantor said.

Since 2021, Toronto psychologist James Cantor has testified in more than 20 cases in the U.S. involving transgender issues. (Craig Chivers/CBC)

Cantor, a popular expert witness for American states defending anti-trans laws, faced cross-examination by college lawyers and the discipline panel on Thursday and Friday.

Panel members questioned Cantor on Friday about the research supporting some of the claims he's made during his testimony.

Cantor has repeatedly asserted that social media is responsible for an increase in the number of adolescents identifying as transgender since 2012. Panel member Sheila Cessford asked whether he could point to any peer-reviewed research confirming that theory, and Cantor suggested it would be impossible to conduct a proper randomized trial on the question.

When asked if there was any other published, non-randomized research on the subject, Cantor pointed to a single 2018 study based on a survey of parents who reported what they believed was "sudden or rapid onsets of gender dysphoria" in their teen or young adult children.

Panel member Jackie Murray then asked about the research supporting his claim that many people who claim to be transgender actually have borderline personality disorder. Cantor acknowledged that there is none, but said the symptoms are similar and the possibility should be investigated.

Cantor then claimed that scientists are "not being permitted" to do this type of research because of the "current culture."

Murray again asked for research supporting that claim, and Cantor said he was not aware of any.

The hearing is scheduled to resume on Monday with more testimony from Hamm.

Safe supply supporters march after arrests of Vancouver drug activists

The Canadian Press
Fri, November 3, 2023 


VANCOUVER — Activist and podcaster Garth Mullins has been advocating for safe supply of illegal drugs for years, but says he started feeling a "moral panic brewing" recently against the idea.

Mullins was among hundreds of safe-supply supporters who gathered in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Friday to protest against the recent arrests of the founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, which had been providing cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine it said had been tested for safety.

The group's website says it provided users up to 14 grams of the substances each per week, distributing a total of three kilograms of drugs "at cost."

Vancouver police raided the group's office and other addresses last week and arrested Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, saying the organization had publicly admitted trafficking illegal drugs.

"The climate to harm reduction and safe supply has been getting increasingly hostile over the years," Mullins said, walking down Hastings Street with hundreds of people, behind a banner calling for action on the toxic drug crisis.

Mullins said others who work on the front lines of the drug crisis have been "timid" in the face of a police crackdown and new laws against public drug use passed by Premier David Eby's NDP government.

He said that after the election of a new city council under Mayor Ken Sim, who promised to hire more police and had Hastings Street swept of tents months ago, "you could just see them (the police) strutting down the street with a confident swagger."

"I just thought it can't be long before they're coming for us," he said.

On Oct. 26, police announced that multiple search warrants had been executed in an ongoing investigation into the Drug User Liberation Front.

Inspector Phil Heard, commanding officer of VPD’s Organized Crime Section, said at the time in a statement that although DULF was trying to reduce harms caused by toxic drugs, "we have always warned that anyone who violates the Criminal Code or the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act could face enforcement and criminal charge."

"This group has knowingly operated illegally in the Downtown Eastside and we have now taken action to stop it," Heard said.

Those at the rally and march said the group's work saved lives by providing drug users with safe substances instead of having to risk purchases on a deadly illicit market.

Nearly 13,000 people have died of drug toxicity and overdoses in B.C. since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.

Leslie McBain, with the group Moms Stop the Harm, said DULF was doing work that should be done by government, but it had to resort to civil disobedience.

"We know that the government should be doing this, but we're so far away from that and DULF had the courage, the compassion and really the love to go ahead and do it," McBain said in an interview. "For some reason, after two years, the Vancouver Police Department moved in and did what they did."

The raids came after weeks of pressure from the Opposition BC United for the government to investigate the activities of DULF, saying in a news release in September that it was "unacceptable that public money is being used to purchase illicit drugs" on the dark web.

Vancouver Coastal Health's website says the Drug User Liberation Front Society received $200,000 of public money in 2021-2022, funding the government says has now ended.

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said in the legislature last week that the contract was for "drug testing," not to buy drugs.

McBain, who lost her only child to an overdose, says policymakers have been slow to take the kind of action needed to keep parents like her from losing more loved ones.

"Civil disobedience is really the only way things change," she said. "We've lost kids. We're in it for the long haul here. We don't want other people to lose their kids."

Before the march, former city councillor Jean Swanson told the crowd that founders of DULF were motivated to act "because they've seen too many deaths."

"I've seen Jeremy crying because of the death, and Eris is somewhere beyond crying," Swanson said. "It's those absolutely human and loving emotions that motivate their work."

Swanson said DULF had applied for an exemption from federal drug laws in 2021 to carry out their work, but it was denied by Health Canada.

Scott Archondous, who volunteers in the neighbourhood, said drug users continue to be marginalized long after the declaration of the public health emergency.

"We're a vilified population down here," he said.

He said he's known more than 100 people that have died in the last few years, including two he tried to resuscitate after finding them overdosing in an alley.

"There's traumatic repercussions that come with that, and it just created an angry little bee in me," he said. "It's going to take legislation to actually treat drug users like human beings, to treat impoverished people like human beings."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2023.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

B.C. minister, Opposition critic reject calls to expand non-medical safer drug supply


CBC
Fri, November 3, 2023

A man holds boxes containing cocaine, meth and heroin that was given out during a safe supply event in Vancouver in July 2021. The B.C. Coroners Service's death review panel report recommended that non-medically-prescribed safer supply be given to eligible people to help curb toxic drug deaths. (Ben Nelms/CBC - image credit)

Both B.C.'s mental health and addictions minister and her Opposition counterpart are rejecting calls to expand prescription-free distribution of a safer supply of opioids and stimulants, a key recommendation in a recent report from the B.C. Coroners Service to help stop deaths from toxic drugs.

"Non-prescription models for the delivery of pharmaceutical alternatives are not under consideration," Minister Jennifer Whiteside wrote in a letter to Chief Coroner Lisa LaPointe on Nov. 1.

The coroners service's third death review panel report on the toxic drug crisis, released Wednesday, recommended that non-medically-prescribed safer supply be given to eligible people to help stop deaths, while the province works on expanding access to substance use treatment and prevention support systems.

B.C. United's mental health critic, Elenore Sturko, said the party rejects the idea of non-medically supervised safe supply.

Jennifer Whiteside, B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, is pictured during a January 2023 announcement regarding the decriminalization of people who use hard drugs. In a Nov. 1 letter, Whiteside said non-prescription models for safer drug supply is not being considered. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

"We need to continue to address it as a medical issue, and recognize the importance of continuing to include medical practitioners, particularly those with significant expertise in addictions … in forming our treatment plans," Sturko said.

Sturko cited a report by B.C.'s Select Standing Committee on Health, released last fall, which acknowledged there were merits of non-medical safer supply but that connection with a health-care provider remained an "important safeguard."

B.C. United MLA Elenore Sturko said her party rejects the idea of non-medical access to safer supply. Sturko spoke to reporters at the B.C. Legislature on Nov. 2, 2023. 

(Michael McArthur/CBC News)

The death panel estimates that 225,000 people in B.C. are currently at risk of death or injury from using illicit drugs.

Its report says about 5,000 people have access to provincially-regulated prescribed safer supply, and warns that B.C.'s struggling health-care system isn't capable of scaling up the current program to meet the need.

"To further overload that system in a timely manner to address this public health emergency, I don't think is realistic … which is why the recommendation is for a non-prescriber model," said Michael Eglison, chair of the death panel review.

Corey Ranger, president of the Harm Reduction Nurses' Association, said the current prescriber-based safe supply model is inaccessible for many and the province's failure to take more urgent action is "shameful."

"We need a full continuum of options available to people who use drugs," Ranger said.

"And that continuum includes an investment in non-medical, non-prescriber options for safe supply."

While non-medical access to safer supply is off the table, Whiteside said work is underway to expand health-care-prescribed pharmaceutical alternatives to illicit drugs, and that a report and recommendations on the topic, led by Dr. Bonnie Henry, are due in the coming weeks.

Activist group did what panel recommended: advocate

The politicians' rejections come as drug user advocates plan rallies in Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto in support of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), an activist group that has admitted to distributing illegal drugs to substance users deemed at risk of overdosing.

Two people were arrested in a raid on DULF's Vancouver office on Oct. 25.

Bags of tested meth and cocaine for sale at DULF headquarters in Vancouver on Sept. 28, 2023. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

Garth Mullins, DULF co-founder and organizer of the Vancouver rally, said the Friday event is in response to the arrests of fellow co-founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, and protests what he calls an "ongoing attack" on harm reduction initiatives.

Mullins said since the arrests, people who were receiving tested drugs from DULF have turned to the black market.

The organization sought an exemption from Health Canada to run their program in 2021 and were denied, but they went ahead anyway. Mullins said the scale of the crisis justifies the organization's actions.

"Just like every other time in history, when marginalized people are faced with a law that leads to their further marginalization or even death, you've got to disobey that law."

Flags that represent the lives lost due to drug overdoses are pictured during a Moms Stop The Harm memorial on the sixth anniversary of the opioid public health emergency in Vancouver on April 14, 2022. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Harm reduction organizations across Canada, including the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and Moms Stop the Harm, have pledged support for DULF and for the decriminalization of safer supply initiatives.

Leslie McBain, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, said DULF is providing "what governments should have been providing all along."

"Many of our kids and other loved ones would be with us today had they had the service of safe substances," McBain said in an emailed statement.

For Ranger, DULF's work bridged the gap between the coroners' death panel recommendations and what's allowable under provincial and federal law.

"Groups like DULF have done exactly what the coroner's death review panel report requested," Ranger said.

"They assumed the biggest burden, and the biggest risk, to keep their communities safe, and to keep them alive."

Bank of Canada voices concerns about variable rate mortgage products -Bloomberg News

Reuters
Fri, November 3, 2023 

Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada Carolyn Rogers takes part in a press conference in Ottawa

(Reuters) -The Bank of Canada has urged banks to reconsider offering variable rate mortgages with fixed payments, concerned about the number of borrowers faced with negative amortization of their loans.

“I think that product needs a close look and I think it’ll get a close look,” Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. “I think you’ll see the industry reflect on how much they want to offer that product,” she added

Many variable rate mortgages in Canada require borrowers to make regular payments in fixed amounts. So when interest rates rise, a greater share of the payment goes toward paying interest on the loan rather than paying down the principal, resulting in the amortization period being extended.

The rapid pace of interest-rate hikes by the Bank of Canada since last year has pushed some mortgages into negative amortization, which occurs when interest on a loan exceeds the fixed payment on the principle -- resulting in borrowers adding to the principle on their loans.

"It is concerning. You don’t want a big portfolio of negative amortizing mortgages," Rogers said. "It's not good for the banks and it's not good for the mortgage holders."

On monetary policy, Rogers said, "A rate hike is on the table until we are really confident that we are clearly on our way" toward lowering core inflation toward target.

The latest inflation data, for September, showed some progress on the central bank's favored measures of underlying price pressures, but they remained far above the 2% inflation target.

Money markets see little chance of further tightening by the BoC and have moved to price in a rate cut by June.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru

Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)

'A sad day' as new Toronto food bank forced to open after overwhelming demand, CEO says


CBC
Fri, November 3, 2023 

Use of the new Hillcrest food bank has grown from 50 families to nearly 200 in the three weeks it's been open, according to John Tilly, a teacher at the school.

 (Tina Mackenzie/CBC - image credit)

As food bank use across the country reaches record levels, a new food bank has opened in midtown Toronto after high demand left another in the area overburdened.

The Hillcrest Community Food Bank, which is part of the Daily Bread network, opened on Oct. 15. The new food bank is a partnership between Hillcrest Christian Church and Hillcrest Community School, located in the church's basement and partially staffed by grade five and six classes who volunteer once a week.

Neil Hetherington, Daily Bread's CEO, hosted an official opening of the food bank on Friday. He said the food bank nearby, which is also a Daily Bread member, simply hit capacity and can't support more than 300 families an evening.

"Today is a sad day, we have to open up a new food bank," Hetherington said. "Over the course of this past year, we've seen food bank usage grow at rates that are unprecedented."

The opening of the new Hillcrest location reflects a broader national problem. An October report from Food Banks Canada found food bank usage reached its highest level since the survey started in 1989. According to the Daily Bread Food Bank's most recent annual report, it saw a 63 per cent year-over-year increase in use fom July 2022 to June 2023.

The opening of the new Hillcrest location is indicative of a national problem. An October report from Food Banks Canada found food bank usage reached its highest level since the survey started in 1989. (Tina Mackenzie/CBC)

Use of the new Hillcrest food bank has grown from 50 families to nearly 200 in the three weeks it's been open, according to John Tilly, a teacher at the school. Hetherington expects use to double in the coming weeks.

Aside from providing an important service to the community, Tilly says volunteering at the food bank can make a difference for the kids too.

Annie Love is a sixth grade volunteer at the food bank, where she helps keep track of inventory.

"I just sometimes think like, when you're eating dinner or having a snack at school, that maybe not everybody has this," she said. "It makes me feel like I'm actually doing something to help.

Food bank leaders calling for government aid

Food bank leaders recently told CBC Toronto the outlook for 2024 will be grim without serious government action to reduce poverty as demand is expected to increase.

One glimmer of hope, they and Hetherington say, is the Canadian Disability Benefit, which is part of a bill that passed in Parliament in June. The benefit, which will provide federal money to low income, working-age people with disabilities, isn't accessible yet, however.

The benefit would top up incomes so that they reach a set level. The government has a year from the bill's passing to establish what that level will be

A spokesperson for the federal Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities previously told CBC Toronto the benefit is still in the consultation phase. The public will eventually be able to provide input on the draft regulations, they said.

Air Canada summoned to Ottawa after multiple incidents involving passengers with wheelchairs


CBC
Fri, November 3, 2023 

Canada's Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez said Air Canada representatives must present a plan to improve the experiences of people with disabilities on the airline. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Canada's minister of transport has summoned representatives from Air Canada to Ottawa, following three high-profile events involving passengers with disabilities.

Representatives from the airline will meet with the minister and Kamal Khera, diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities minister, next week, a statement from Pablo Rodriguez said, noting he was "horrified' to learn of yet another incident on Thursday.

"All Canadians must be treated with dignity and respect. Full stop," he said in the statement. "They must present a plan to address this. Canadians expect Air Canada to do better."

The call from Rodriguez comes a day after the airline said it violated Canadian disability regulations in the case of 50-year-old Rodney Hodgins.

Hodgins, who has cerebral palsy, was forced to drag himself off an Air Canada flight in Las Vegas when he was told no wheelchair assistance was available. The incident garnered international attention and triggered an investigation by the Canadian Transportation Agency.

The story also prompted Ryan Lachance, a B.C.-based comedian with spastic quad cerebral palsy, to come forward with his experience on the airline.

In early May, Lachance was dropped and injured by Air Canada staff while attempting to disembark a flight in Vancouver, after crew declined to use the eagle lift he depends on to leave his seat.

Video of the incident captured by his care assistant shows Lachance on the ground and crashing into airline seats as crew members try to lift him.

The move also comes after Stephanie Cadieux, Canada's chief accessibility officer, said her wheelchair was lost by Air Canada on a recent flight.

Ryan Lachance, who lives with quad-spastic cerebral palsy, is pictured in his apartment in White Rock, British Columbia on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

In a statement, Air Canada said was conducting internal reviews in all three cases.

"In each case, we reached out to these customers to apologize, listen to their concerns, and offer compensation. More important to each of them though was that we commit to improve our services so that others do not have similar experiences," the statement read in part.

The statement said in June the airline finalized a three-year plan to increase accessibility for both customers and employees, and said it "fully supports the federal government's Accessible Canada Act and its aim to realize a barrier-free Canada by 2040."

Air Canada said it devotes "considerable resources" to make travel accessible, and employs 180 employees in Toronto whose primary role is to assist with mobility.

"In light of this, we are deeply disappointed and sincerely regret when there are mobility service lapses that result in inconvenience and travel disruption," the statement read.

In a written apology to the Hodgins, Air Canada acknowledged the experience was "very inconvenient and humiliating. "The airline offered Rodney and Deanna Hodgins a $1,000 flight voucher each. Lachance was offered a voucher worth $500.

Rodney Hodgins said he hopes to meet with Air Canada personally to offer his suggestions to improve accessibility.

"I want you to stick whatever you were going to give me back into your company to develop a program to make people with disabilities have an easier time travelling with your airline," he said.

Lachance said he believes staffers need more training on the equipment available to them, including eagle lifts and aisle chairs.

"I know this happens to people all the time," he said.

RETURN OF THE COMMON FRONT
How did we get here? Quebec public sector unions take page from past to fight today's labour battle


CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

Thousands of public sector workers with the common front took to the streets in 1972 to demand better wages and working conditions. On Monday, several thousand workers with the common front are expected to hit the picket line. (CSN archives. - image credit)

One thousand. That's how many students Quebec psychologist Janet Strike-Schurman has in her care.

Every week, Strike-Schurman puts in hundreds of kilometres on the road, travelling from school to school, from Châteauguay all the way down to where rural Quebec meets the American border.

When she started the job over 20 years ago, she used to spend her time figuring out ways to help children struggling with learning disabilities like dyslexia. These days, it's one crisis after another, a surge of a children dealing with trauma and suicidal thoughts.

"We just don't have the resources to deal with these cases," she said.

For the past decade, full-time psychologist job openings have gone unstaffed because few people are lining up to replace Strike-Schurman's colleagues who have burned out or gone to work in Ontario for double the pay, she said.

"If I didn't do my job, these kids would get nothing … The children and families don't have the resources or even the ability to go for private support and sometimes the CLSC will have waitlists of, like, years," said Strike-Schurman.

"It feels belittling that the premier puts the work of saving children as a low priority," she said.

Fed up, Strike-Schurman is picketing on Monday under the banner of the common front — a collection of four different union federations representing some 420,000 public sector workers — in what is expected to be the largest mobilization since the common front was founded a half century ago, to demand better wages and working conditions.

Armando Rafael will also be joining the picket lines. As an orderly at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital, he has fed, changed and cleaned up after countless sick and vulnerable patients.

"You're the gofer of all the medical staff," said Rafael.

In some parts of the hospital, patients are ringing the bell, waiting more than an hour because there aren't enough orderlies on staff — a situation that will only deteriorate if the government doesn't raise wages, he said.

Squeezed by the rising cost of living and low pay, he says the few orderlies on staff are tired of working on their days off for the overtime pay to make ends meet.

A nun protests the jailing of the three common front union leaders jailed in 1972. 

(CSN archives)

Common fronts of past and present

Turn back the clock to 1966. It's a time of upheaval in Quebec society — the Quiet Revolution.

During the province's first major public sector strike, workers win big at the bargaining table. They walk away with provincewide pay scales, rights to vacation time and greater job security, said Jean-Claude Bernatchez, a professor of labour relations at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

In 1972, the common front formed to negotiate with Quebec, uniting government, education and social service workers. A 10-day general strike followed, capped off with the imprisonment of three union leaders who called for workers to defy back to work injunctions. Thousands of workers in the province walked off their jobs.

In the end, the common front emerged from talks with boosted wages and pension plans. Today's public sector workers are looking for similar gains, from salaries indexed to the cost of living and access to retirement to manageable workloads, said Bernatchez.

But the two sides remain far apart.

According to the Quebec Treasury Board, the government has offered a package worth almost $8 billion to be paid by taxpayers, and it must respect its plans to balance the budget in the next five years. It told CBC its offer — including premiums and additional increases available to some workers — puts salaries above projected levels of inflation.

Jim Stanford, an economist and the director of the Centre for Future Work, isn't buying the government's math.

Stanford says the current deal the government has tabled — a 10.3 per cent base pay increase over five years — coupled with historic high inflation, means workers are effectively being offered a pay cut.

"They're actually getting paid less than they were two years ago," said Stanford, adding that inflation has boosted revenue for Quebec's coffers.

"The Quebec government has the biggest surplus in Canada of any provincial government, measured against its GDP, so there's no argument that the Quebec government cannot afford to make better wage increases that would keep up with inflation," said Stanford.

Janet Strike-Schurman is assigned to 1,000 students from the ages of four to 21. 'It feels belittling that the premier puts the work of saving children as a low priority,' she said. (Submitted by Carla Shaw)

New era of labour militancy

Barry Eidlin, a professor of sociology at McGill University, says the standoff echoes the 1970s. Quebec has the "strongest labour movement in North America," he said, and the current mood is one of greater militancy as workers want to make up for "decades of losses."

Issues of forced overtime, stagnating salaries, unpredictable schedules, job insecurity, eroding pensions and a lack of family-leave policies have all piled up, especially after the pandemic, he said.

"The cognitive dissonance between the rhetoric of hailing these public sector workers as essential workers and heroes, but then the reality of being treated as disposable when they show up at work, really stuck with people," said Eidlin.

But Quebec's labour dispute isn't happening in a vacuum.

It comes at a moment when unionized workers, from British Columbia ports to Manitoba liquor stores to automobile plants in the United States, are putting strikes back on the agenda in a way that hasn't been seen in decades.

However, the success of the strikes starting Nov 6. will depend, in part, on how the public reacts.

"The way that unions exert power is through mass mobilization. It's ultimately based on disruptive capacity, the capacity to make everyday, day-to-day life grind to a halt for people. In the public sector, that basically creates a political crisis for the state that the state has to respond to," said Eidlin.

Although the public has expressed more scepticism about striking workers in recent years, he thinks the unions are raising issues that are resonating with workers across all sectors, in Canada and abroad.

"People understand that quality public service depends on quality working conditions for public sector workers," he said, adding that for many, maintaining the status quo — whether that means waiting hours to see a specialist at the hospital or an overworked nurse making a mistake in caring for a patient — is more disruptive than a strike in the long run.

Barry Eidlin, professor of sociology at McGill, says the current mood is one of greater militancy as workers want to make up for 'decades of losses.' 

(Submitted by Sarah Mongeau-Birkett)

Unions shaken up

Andrea Talarico, a professor of labour law and labour relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal, says, 20 years ago, Quebec started to shake up the way the province's unions collectively bargain.

The government forced unions — which had previously negotiated with their local school boards, hospitals and other workplaces — to deal directly with the provincial government on monetary issues.

"When you lose your ability to negotiate locally, what you're doing is you're effectively relinquishing control," said Talarico.

"Workers lost their representatives. They effectively lost their union structures. So that was a feeling of disenfranchisement."

And the shakeup hasn't gone unnoticed by the International Labour Organization, which she says has repeatedly criticized the Quebec government for "excessive intervention" in public sector bargaining.

However, unions across the country scored a major victory in 2007 when the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the right to bargain collectively as protected under freedom of association.

Then in 2015, the court ruled that the right to strike for public sector workers was protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Manitoba government had to pay nearly $20 million in damages to faculty for interfering in a strike at the University of Manitoba.

Public sector workers, especially those that provide care, are often talked about by politicians as if they are "lay nuns" who are expected to sacrifice themselves in the line of duty, she said, a framing that is not applied to workers in other sectors when they strike.

"We look at them and we say, 'well, why are they doing this? Don't they care about the work that they're doing?'' said Talarico.

"We see this discourse come forward every time these professionals exercise their constitutional rights to either bargain or to strike."