Rosalynn Carter Hired a Wrongfully Convicted Murderer to Serve as White House Nanny. They Remained Lifelong Friends

Kathy Ehrich Dowd
Mon, November 20, 2023

Amy Carter playing on the White House grounds with Mary Prince. 

Credit - National Archives and Records Administration/Wiki Commons

Mary Prince, a Black woman who had been convicted of murder, was already a controversial figure at Jimmy Carter’s 1977 Presidential Inauguration.

Although she was incarcerated, Prince was given permission to travel to Washington, D.C. for the event and arrived in a dress made of material given to her by her fellow inmates at the Fulton County Jail and the Atlanta Work Release Center. At the end of the celebration, Prince remembers newly minted First Lady Rosalynn Carter pulling her aside. "Before I left, Mrs. Carter said, 'How would you like to work in this big old place?'" Prince told People that year.

Rosalynn Carter and Prince had known each other for years at that point, and had developed a close bond. Prince had been young Amy Carter's nanny when the family lived at the Georgia governor's mansion, not long after Prince was accused of—and subsequently sentenced to life for—murder. When the Carters arrived at the White House, most political operatives would have advised the family to keep their distance from Prince. But the first couple did the opposite.

After the inauguration, Prince told Rosalynn that she would indeed be interested in working at the White House. And Rosalynn pulled out all the stops: She secured a reprieve for Prince, helped make President Carter her parole officer and officially hired her to serve as Amy Carter's nanny at the White House.

Rosalynn Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 96, and her husband remained lifelong friends with Prince, and were both staunchly convinced she was wrongly convicted in the 1970 shooting death of a man outside a bar in Lumpkin, Ga., after an argument involving Prince’s cousin.

Read more: Rosalynn Carter, Transformative First Lady and Mental Health Advocate, Dies

“She was totally innocent,” Rosalynn Carter told Kate Anderson Brower for her 2015 book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, bristling at the slightest hint of wrongdoing. “She had nothing to do with it.”

Both Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter earned a reputation for decency over the decades, and their relationship with Prince, who grew up in poverty in Georgia and dropped out of school in the seventh grade to care for her younger sister, gives more credence to their interest in helping the most vulnerable members of society.

The Carters first met Prince in late 1970 when Jimmy Carter was serving as Georgia governor, and Prince applied for a job as part of a program to put prisoners to work. Prince quickly made a positive impression on Rosalynn Carter, who asked the young woman if she would be interested in taking care of a then-3-year-old Amy Carter. It was a match made in heaven: the toddler bonded so much with her new nanny that she reportedly cried every time Prince left.

In his 2006 book, Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter wrote about how Prince was unfairly victimized by the criminal justice system because of her race. He noted that Prince only met her court-appointed lawyer on the first day of her trial, and that the lawyer convinced her to plead guilty after incorrectly promising a light sentence instead of the life sentence that was ultimately handed down.

“She was fortunate and could just as easily have been executed,” Carter wrote. “If the victim had been white, we would never have known Mary Prince.” (Prince, who was also known by the name Mary Fitzpatrick before her formal separation from her husband, was eventually pardoned after a reexamination of her case.)

The Carters raised eyebrows with their decision to move Prince into the White House, both from other members of the White House staff, who were skeptical of her innocence, and from the public at large. Saturday Night Live even spoofed the Carters' relationship with Prince, with Sissy Spacek playing a young Amy Carter and Garrett Morris, in drag, as Prince. The cringe-worthy skit includes dialogue that calls Prince’s innocence into question and hints that the Carters hired her for publicity.

After Carter's one term in the White House, Prince moved just a few blocks from the former first couple in Plains, Ga., where she continued to babysit for their grandchildren. President Carter went on to dedicate his 2004 book Sharing Good Times to “Mary Prince, whom we love and cherish.”

Anderson Brower interviewed both Rosalynn Carter and Prince for her book, and told C-SPAN in 2015 that the two women’s bond remained ironclad. "She's still a huge part of the Carter family," she said at the time. "They consier her one of their own, and they just love her."

Whale that mysteriously vanished 30 years ago is found off Canada. It didn’t end well

Mark Price
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Facebook screengrab

A live humpback whale was found beached on a remote Canada island and closer inspection revealed it was a documented whale not seen in 30 years, according to the Marine Animal Response Society.

The rediscovery ended tragically when the whale suffered a slow, painful death, the society reported in a Nov. 20 Facebook post.

The cause — like so many other things about the whale — is a mystery.

“Some live animal incidents are really difficult to deal with due to safety concerns, location, logistics and the size of the animal. When all these things collide, response can be nearly impossible, much to the heartbreak of all involved,” the society reported.

“Such was the case on November 2nd when a live, adult male humpback whale was reported ashore on Sable Island National Park Reserve. ... Given the size of the humpback and its location on the south side in dangerous surf conditions, there wasn’t much that could be done to help.”

So dire were conditions on the beach that the whale could not even be “humanely euthanized.”

The whale died “after several days,” officials said, and a necropsy of the carcass was not possible.

A photo of taken by Parks Canada helped the Center for Coastal Studies and Allied Whale at the College of the Atlantic identify the massive creature. They discovered it was one “sighted in 1982 on Silver Bank off the Dominican Republic,” which is nearly 1,900 miles south of the island.

That means the whale was at least 43 years old, officials said.

“Interestingly, the animal hadn’t been seen again since the early 1990s leaving us to wonder where this animal spent the last three decades. Our understanding from CCS is that this animal did not have a name,” the society said.

“From what was able to be observed of the animal, there were no external signs of injury or trauma. As such, we do not know why this animal died.”

Sable Island National Park Refuge is in the northwest Atlantic, about 150 miles southeast of Nova Scotia.

Iowa official’s wife found guilty on all 52 counts of voter fraud charges

SHE IS A REPULICAN!

Nick Robertson
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Iowa official’s wife found guilty on all 52 counts of voter fraud charges


Kim Taylor, the wife of an Iowa county supervisor, was found guilty of 52 counts of voter fraud Tuesday, concluding a months-long case into her interference in the 2020 election.

Federal prosecutors said Taylor attempted to “generate votes” in the 2020 primary and general elections in Iowa in order to help her husband, Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, win the primary for Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) former seat.

Jeremy Taylor lost that primary, receiving only 8 percent of the vote, but prosecutors said Kim Taylor again broke the law in assisting her husband to seek reelection as a supervisor that fall, which he did win.

According to prosecutors, Taylor applied for and submitted false absentee ballots, signed ballots on voters’ behalf without their permission and encouraged others to do the same.

She was arrested in January.

The 52 counts carry a maximum sentence of five years each. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

U.S. Attorney Timothy Duax denounced Taylor’s actions in a statement to local outlet KCAU.

“The right to vote is one of our most important constitutional rights. Ms. Taylor deprived citizens of their right to vote in order to benefit her husband’s campaign,” Duax said. “The guilty verdict is an example of how the justice system works to protect the voting rights of citizens, and ensure fair and honest elections.”

Jeremy Taylor, still serving as a county supervisor, defended his wife in a statement.

“While this was certainly not the outcome we were hoping for, we respect our court system that allowed the jury to hear my wife’s side of the story,” he told KCAU. “While I plan to continue making decisions that are best for our county’s families, my first priority right now is to deal with today’s results as a private matter in order to be there for my own family, my wife and our children.”

Could newly released Jan. 6 footage backfire for Mike Johnson and the GOP?

Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
Mon, November 20, 2023 

Mike Johnson, the QAnon Shaman and CCTV cameras.

When Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finally convinced his fellow Republicans to elect him speaker of the house nearly one year ago, he did so only by agreeing to a Faustian bargain of sorts: empowering any one member of his barely-there majority with the ability to remove him from the role. This, of course, inevitably led to his own ignominious ousting last month. So far, his successor, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), has been granted a measure of leeway and patience from his raucous GOP conference and now grapples with the consequences of his own promise made to secure the speaker's gavel: a vow to make public thousands of hours of footage from the Jan. 6 insurrection on the United States Capitol.

"When I ran for Speaker, I promised to make accessible to the American people the 44,000 hours of video from Capitol Hill security taken on January 6, 2021," Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter, insisting that now "millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media" will have access to footage themselves, instead of relying on "the interpretation of a small group of government officials."

While Johnson's promise is not the procedural threat to his speakership that McCarthy's motion-to-vacate agreement was, it nevertheless represents a potential risk for the arch-ultraconservative's relatively untested leadership. Like McCarthy before him, Johnson's decision to revisit the events of, and antecedents to, the attack on the Capitol forces his own party to address both the violence of the day itself, as well as the broader effort by former President Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 elections — an area which many Republicans see as a "terrible political strategy" no matter how often they violate their own instincts on the subject, Politico reported this past spring.
What the commentators said

Already, allies of the former president are using the first tranche of newly public footage to "further a debunked narrative" that the insurrection was engineered and orchestrated by federal law enforcement "in order to distract from election fraud," Forbes reported. In particular, "far-right social media users" as well as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have zeroed in on footage of a man they claim is an undercover police officer flashing a badge during the riot.

"That's a law enforcement badge in his hand while disguised as a Trump supporter in a MAGA hat," Rep. Greene wrote in a since-edited post on X, which no longer includes that line but continues to assert that "MAGA did not do this."

Releasing the footage is "part of a larger effort by Republicans to redefine the narrative around the deadly insurrection" after a bipartisan House Select Committee report blamed Trump for instigating the attack, according to The Associated Press. Mindful of his party's extreme right flank, Johnson is working to "curry favor with the group after using a stop-gap bill to keep the government open," CNN reported — a similar move to that which prompted McCarthy's ousting this fall.

By releasing these tapes, Johnson has not only exacerbated a "serious security concern" regarding how rioters were able to enter the U.S. Capitol Complex but has confirmed "his allegiance, like Kevin McCarthy’s before him, is to Donald Trump and the ultra-right-wing faction of the House," former January 6 committee spokesperson Hannah Muldavin told Roll Call. As former Republican Rep. Vin Weber explained to The Hill during last month's speaker turmoil, "Republicans in marginal districts are worried about Democrat opponents running ads that say Congress person-X voted to make Jim Jordan Speaker, and he was involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection." While Jordan did not succeed at grabbing the gavel, vulnerable Republicans remain keenly concerned over their party's associations with the insurrection itself.

Evidence suggests that the insurrection "alienates and could mobilize independent voters in particular," The Washington Post's Aaron Blake concurred this past spring.
What next?

While Rep. Greene has used the latest released footage to call for a new congressional committee to investigate Jan. 6, her demand is a "political stunt to delay resolution and to muddy public opinion on the matter," Northeastern University Professor of Political Science Costas Panagopoulos told Newsweek, which noted that much of the social media response to Greene's call suggested that a "new committee would backfire on Republicans."

TOXIC WORKPLACE
Tesla factory workers reportedly say they're getting in shouting matches — and sometimes even fights break out

Grace Kay
Tue, November 21, 2023

Robots during the production of the Tesla Model Y in the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany. In Tesla's gigafactory plant in Texas, the atmosphere is tense — with near daily verbal fights, The Information reported.

Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

Tesla's Texas gigafactory is home to near-daily worker outbursts, The Information reported.


The police have also responded to multiple calls regarding physical altercations, the report said.


Elon Musk has been known to push workers through "production hell."

Workers at Tesla's Austin gigafactory may be feeling the pressure from Elon Musk's deadlines.

Some workers from the Texas factory told The Information that verbal fights occur at the facility on a near-daily basis — and even some physical fights have taken place, they said.

Local police were called on some occasions, the report said. Police received multiple phone calls about physical altercations, including with a weapon — and some that were categorized as "terroristic threats," the report said.

In one instance, Tesla emailed employees at the site in July regarding an "active attacker" at the gigafcatory, but the Travis County (Texas) sheriff told The Information that they didn't find an attacker or any victims after they searched the location.

The Information's report also analyzed workplace injuries at the factory and found that about one in every 21 workers dealt with some kind of injury at the factory last year, according to data the publication cited from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. For comparison, the median for an automotive factory of a similar size is about one in 30, the publication said.

Tesla employs about 20,000 workers at the Austin factory, and plans to triple the number in the ramp-up for its Cybertruck, a company spokesperson told the San Antonio Express-News in September.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The Information's report comes after Reuters published an investigation into workplace injuries at SpaceX earlier this month. Some workers told the publication that employees were taking Adderall and sleeping at the factory in order to keep up with Elon Musk's deadlines. The news agency looked at 600 work injuries at SpaceX over the past 9 years.

SpaceX didn't respond to a detailed request for comment from Reuters on its article.

Musk has been known to run his companies with high intensity, sometimes calling for work sprints and even sleeping on the factory floor at Tesla.

At the Austin gigafactory, the electric-car maker is working to deliver its first electric pickup truck. Musk has warned that scaling production of the Cybertruck will be "extremely difficult."

Ahead of the 2017 release of the Model 3, Musk famously pushed workers at Tesla's Fremont factory through "production hell."

And in 2018, Bloomberg reported on safety complaints from workers related to the production ramp, including an instance where workers allegedly walked through raw sewage to keep a factory line moving.

A Tesla spokesperson denied the accusations at the time.

"Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees," A Tesla representative told Insider in 2018. "This is not to say that there aren't real issues that need to be dealt with at Tesla or that we've made no mistakes with any of the 40,000 people who work at our company. However, there should be absolutely no question that we care deeply about the well-being of our employees and that we try our absolute hardest to do the right thing and to fail less often. With each passing month, we improve safety further and will keep doing so until we have the safest factory in the world by far."

Exploding wild pig population on western Canadian prairie threatens to invade northern US states

EXPLODING PIGS USED TO BRING DOWN CASTLES

Tue, November 21, 2023 

'EVIL COMES FROM THE NORTH'

LOG LADY, TWIN PEAKS

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate “super pigs” in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion.

In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a “super pig” that's spreading out of control.

Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, “the most invasive animal on the planet" and “an ecological train wreck.”

Pigs are not native to North America. While they've roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada's problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. The market collapsed after peaking in 2001 and some frustrated farmers simply cut their fences, setting the animals free.

It turned out that the pigs were very good at surviving Canadian winters. Smart, adaptable and furry, they eat anything, including crops and wildlife. They tear up land when they root for bugs and crops. They can spread devastating diseases to hog farms like African swine fever. And they reproduce quickly. A sow can have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year.

That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3% and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal — tougher to track down and eradicate.

Wild pigs already cause around $2.5 billion in damage to U.S. crops every year, mostly in southern states like Texas. And they can be aggressive toward humans. A woman in Texas was killed by wild pigs in 2019.

Eradication of wild pigs is no longer possible in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Brook said. But the situation isn't hopeless everywhere and a few U.S. states have eliminated them. The key, he said, is having a detection system that finds them early and fast, and then responding quickly.

Brook and his colleagues have documented 62,000 wild pig sightings in Canada. Their aerial surveys have spotted them on both sides of the Canada-North Dakota border. They've also recorded a sighting in Manitoba within 18 miles (28 kilometers) of Minnesota.

“Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven't already,” Brook said. “The question is: What will be done about it?”

Brook said Montana has been the most serious about keeping wild pigs out. It banned raising and transporting wild pigs within the state.

“The only path forward is you have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox,” Brook said.

That could include big ground traps with names like “BoarBuster" or net guns fired from helicopters. Some states and provinces embrace crowdsourced “Squeal on Pigs” tracking programs. Scientists have also studied poisons such as sodium nitrite, but they risk harming other species.

Minnesota is among states trying to prevent the swine from taking hold. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is expected to release a report in February identifying gaps in its management plan and recommend new prevention steps. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is using aircraft and drones to beef up surveillance along the northern border.

Minnesota was declared an eradicated state after USDA Wildlife Services shot and killed a group of pigs in 2016 that wandered off a farm and turned feral in the far northwest corner of the state — but not before they began to reproduce and root up a wildlife preserve. Gary Nohrenberg, the Minnesota director of Wildlife Services, said as far has he knows, no truly wild pigs have made their way to his state — yet.

Feral swine have been reported in at least 35 states, according to the USDA. The agency estimates the the swine population in those states totals around 6 million.

Since launching the National Feral Swine Management Program in 2014, the USDA has provided funding to 33 states, said Mike Marlow, an assistant program director. He said their goal is to eradicate wild pigs where populations are low or emerging, and to limit the damage where they’re already established such as Texas and southeastern states.

The program has had success in some states that had small populations like Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Washington, he said. The animals are spotted occasionally and quickly killed off in North Dakota.

“I think we’re making great strides toward success,” Marlow said. “But eradication is not in the near future.”

___

Follow AP news about invasive species at: https://apnews.com/hub/invasive-species.

Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

Canadian Inuk model Willow Allen stuns in Vogue shoot: 'All the way from the Arctic'

The 24-year-old said she's always wanted to be a mother.


Karla Renic
·Lifestyle Editor
Updated Tue, November 21, 2023 

(Instagram/@willow.allen)

An Inuk model from the Northwest Territories has graced Vogue with her pregnant belly front-and-centre.

Willow Allen, 24, shared screenshots of the article to her Instagram on Monday, thanking Vogue for the opportunity.

"This little Inuvialuk made it all the way from the Arctic into Vogue," she captioned the post, in part, along with a heart emoji.

The first photo in her carousel was an adorable snap of Allen as a child in Inuvik, bundled up in traditional winter attire, holding a fish of the same height. Another photo showed young Allen with to elders from her community.

A more recent photo in the carousel pictured the model — and mom-to-be — outdoors in athleisure, showing off her belly. She now lives in Saskatchewan.

In the article, Allen shared she's incorporating Inuit culture in her motherhood journey. She admitted being a mother is something she had always wanted.

"I always saw myself having a big family, because I saw so much love and nurturing in my parents and grandparents; Family gatherings have always been the most fulfilling times of my life," Allen told Vogue.

In Inuit culture, she explained, the parenting style is gentle.

"We treat babies and young children with a lot of autonomy... There's a respect, and there's no need to control a child's life. If they want to do something, that's their choice," Allen said in the article, adding that's how she was raised.

"What I was taught by my family in the north is to always be grateful, and to have so much respect for the animals and the land that provides for us," she continued.

Allen also opened up about struggles in her pregnancy, having been diagnosed with Hyperemesis gravidarum — severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

According to Vogue, the model said she's looking to her cultural traditions for help.

"When I went home, I talked to my [grandmother] about it, she said that something that always helped with sickness was fish eggs," Allen told Vogue. She then reflected on the "disconnect" between Western and Indigenous remedies for pregnancy, like doctors recommending to not eat raw fish or raw meat.

"That's all of our traditional diet in the north... I was like, ‘That can’t be right,' because all of my family has eaten it raw," she said.

Allen's followers and fellow Indigenous influencers rushed to congratulate her on appearing in Vogue.

"This is amazing! Congratulations," one person commented on her post.

"The content you share is a breath of fresh air from the fast paced life and the over-consumerist society we live in," another added.

"This is both so beautiful and inspiring! Thank you for sharing your story and good luck on your next chapter," someone chimed in.

"I'm so happy for you and proud of you! You're a woman and great example to many people — keep shining your light!" another wrote.

Yukon government approves more mineral exploration in Whitehorse

CBC
Wed, November 22, 2023 

An area on the Whitehorse copper belt. The Yukon government has approved a new permit allowing Gladiator Metals to do up to 10,000 metres of diamond drilling around the Whitehorse Copper Belt. The company still needs a development permit from the city.

 (Leslie Amminson/CBC - image credit)

An mineral exploration company fined earlier this year for mining infractions at a site just outside Whitehorse has received a new permit to pursue more exploration in the city.

The Yukon government approved earlier this month a class 1 exploration permit allowing Gladiator Metals to do up to 10,000 metres of diamond drilling around the Whitehorse Copper Belt. The areas — Little and Middle Chief as well as the Arctic Chief area — are within city limits, close to Mount Sima and Copper Haul Road.

The approval come only a few months after Gladiator Metals was fined $43,700 for violating its permit near Cowley Creek, another part of Whitehorse Copper Belt where the company was drilling to measure for copper levels. The company's work at that site had sparked concerns among several Whitehorse residents last spring, who complained of a "horrific mess" being made in the area.

The Yukon government believes the fine was enough to put Gladiator Metals back in line for current and future projects.

Todd Powell, director of mineral resources at Yukon's Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, said the earlier infractions didn't affect the government's decision to issue a new permit to the company.

"They've made some mistakes ... Of course, once you get a direction from an inspector, you comply and fix whatever you've done wrong," Powell said.

"A company that returns to compliance after making those mistakes is always a promising thing. And this company has done that."

Powell also said the Gladiator's new exploration area is not near any homes unlike at Cowley Creek where the work caused concerns for local residents. He said the government also consulted with Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council, on whose lands the area sits.

Neither First Nation responded to a request for comments.

Gladiator Metals included this plan map of the Whitehorse Copper Project in his release about the permit on Nov. 16, 2023. It shows the area the company is interesting in exploring.
 (Gladiator Metals )

B.C.-based Gladiator Metals is relatively new to the Yukon and has been operating in the territory since March.

Speaking at the Yukon Geoscience Forum & Trade Show in Whitehorse for the first time on Nov. 19, company president Marcus Harden didn't mention the issues at Cowley Creek. He said community engagement is "equally as important as the exploration aspects."

"It's going to be a busy busy next six, six to eight months," Harden said.

"And by that stage, we should have all of these areas ranked in terms of what their resource potential might be, and which area is going to be cheapest to start putting resources on the books as well."

Mineral exploration in Whitehorse

City of Whitehorse administration says Gladiator will need to obtain a development permit before it starts drilling within city limits. However, it says Gladiator has not applied for one yet.

"There's been no application for a development permit to do that," Mike Gau, the city's director of development services, said.

"Once we receive that application, we'll go through our technical review and apply conditions as appropriate. We'll be dealing with them the same as any other exploration company."

Meanwhile, the prospect of a potential mining project in Whitehorse has already raised concerns among some residents.

John McCleod is one of them.

He spoke to Whitehorse city council on Monday on behalf of a group called Yukoners Concerned. It's the same group that voiced concerns over Gladiator's exploration work near Cowley Creek last spring.

Now McCleod is warning against the potential repercussions of having mineral exploration in the city. He asked council what steps the city would take to prevent future conflicts between residents and mining companies, as well as managing use of the land.

"If Gladiator discovered a world-class copper mine ... A deposit of that size would require tailings dams, waste dumps, and a mill that could potentially cover Whitehorse," McCleod told council.

"To give you a mental picture of what this might look like, imagine a hole 4.3 kilometres long, three kilometres wide and 900 meters deep. How many councillors think this would be a good idea?"

NFLD
NIMBY
Government mute as Port au Port Peninsula residents say wind project will eradicate towns, destroy culture

"The main thing is the people do not want it. Essentially it is the government going against the will of the people."

CBC
Wed, November 22, 2023 

Tami Park-Tighe lives in Piccadilly. She runs her hair salon business there and says the amount of construction required to build hundreds of wind turbines will destroy the roads on the Port au Port Peninsula. (Colleen Connors/CBC - image credit)

Tami Park-Tighe's house is just off the twisty narrow road through Piccadilly, N.L., on the Port au Port Peninsula. Her front lawn is lined with fire wood, stacked in a perfect line.

She has lived here in this big house for 14 years: her hair salon on the left; her dad's apartment on the right.

"My dad is an 82-year-old man. This is his home. He was born and raised down the road from where we are right here," Park Tighe said.

She and her father are Mi'kmaq, and she says since she got word of the potential wind-to-hydrogen project slated for her area, she feels she'll lose touch with her history and culture.

World Energy GH2 plans on erecting 164 wind turbines, all of them 200 metres high. The company will also construct 197 kilometres of access roads behind Park-Tighe's house.

"He still cuts his trees and gets his wood. That's how we get our heat in the winter months," Park-Tighe says.

"We collect our berries on these mountains. Our water comes from these mountains. Everything is gravity-fed. When you disrupt this, there are definite repercussions that are going to happen to us."

Red and white signs plastered on dozens of garbage boxes in some communities on the Port au Port Peninsula. (Colleen Connors/CBC )

As you drive along the twisting Route 463, you'll spot large red and white signs plastered on garbage boxes at the end of people's properties. In communities like Piccadilly, Mainland, Campbell's Creek and Felix Cove, residents have posted signs that say "Protect our health," "Protect our wildlife" and "No windmills."

Inside Park-Tighe's hair salon, she wraps a curling iron cord around and around. She has clients that come to her salon from nearby Stephenville regularly. She's worried ongoing construction will destroy her business.

The company's environmental impact statement says both the Port au Port Peninsula and the Codroy Valley construction sites require 7 million kilograms of bulk emulsion explosives to install the turbines.

"Our roads are already really damaged. It is hard for us to fathom ... these heavy trucks on our roads," she said.

"It's going to affect us because we are going to have heavy trucks coming over our centre line and our roads are very narrow. There is no way people are going to make the trek out."

Mass exodus?

In Mainland, Timothy Collier sits and stares at the enormous waves out the window of the Culture and Heritage Centre. He sips his coffee and watches the whitecaps and the sea foam float up and coat the windows.

"A project of this scale, I am sure, will cause a mass exodus from this community," said Collier.

He's from this community, and says he can't sleep well unless he can hear the waves and the ocean. He's training to be a doctor and wants to open a family medical practice in the community where World Energy GH2 plans on building up to 70 wind turbines.

The waves crashing in Mainland, on the Port au Port Peninsula. (Colleen Connors/CBC )

"People don't live here because they wish to live inside an industrial development. They live here because it's rural Newfoundland," he says.

"They like to be self-sustaining to a degree. They like to have their privacy. The size of this, and the scope of the project, will just drive people away. It will lead to the death of the community. Which will be a shame."

He and Park-Tighe would like to see public hearings in their communities that include a visit from Premier Andrew Furey, so he can hear their concerns about the project.

But Furey has told CBC News he isn't privy to any of the company's inner workings, and has no control over what applications they submit or are approved for.

"I have a full wall with respect to World Energy," Furey told CBC last week.

"I don't have any insight into their activities whatsoever. With respect to the environmental process, even if I did, that's a quasi-judicial process that has input from all stakeholders. It's wrong for politicians to interfere with that process."

Timothy Collier is from Mainland on the Port au Port Peninsula. He believes the wind-to-hydrogen project slated for his backyard will cause an exodus. (Colleen Connors/CBC )

The Department of Environment and Climate Change sent a statement to CBC in response to a question about officials visiting the Port au Port Peninsula and holding a public forum.

The statement cited the ongoing environmental impact statement review and said that all public comments submitted during that upcoming process are used as part of the decision making process.

World Energy GH2 is currently amending its impact statement with government. Once the amended statement is submitted to government, there will be a 70-day review process, which includes space for public comment.

Both Collier and Park-Tighe submitted letters during the first public comment process and plan on sharing their concerns a second time.

"When that first turbine goes up, it will be the death knell of this community," said Collier, who believes the provincial government will approve the project.

"The main thing is the people do not want it. Essentially it is the government going against the will of the people."

Polls show Canadians want ceasefire in Gaza, placing Trudeau at a crossroads

Since Oct. 7, nearly 13,000 people have been killed as Israeli bombardment rocks the Gaza Strip

Joy Joshi
·Writer, Yahoo News Canada
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a statement on Israel and Gaza in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle (The Canadian Press)

November 20: House Of Commons petition calling for ceasefire breaks record

The House of Commons petition, started by Maëva Gaudrault Valente of Montreal, demanding Trudeau call for an immediate ceasefire reached 280,000 signatures, a record for e-petitions, which have been around since 2015. It is set to close on Nov. 23.

As the war in Gaza enters its sixth week, Canadians and world politicians' attention remains on the region, as public opinion polls show the views of citizens of the West are trending increasingly far away from where their leaders are.

In Canada, the most recent polling available, from Mainstreet Research on Nov. 7, found 71 per cent of all Canadians were in support of a ceasefire. Even by party affiliation, a majority of voters said they support a ceasefire, though Conservatives supported it the least, at 55 per cent.

To contrast, just four weeks earlier on Oct. 12, 62 per cent of Canadians polled approved of the "Canadian government’s support for Israel and its right to defend itself."

In the last month, thousands have shown up to rallies calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in cities across Canada, including Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa. As well, a record-breaking petition has collected 280,000 signatures calling on the Canadian government to support a ceasefire.

Though the increasingly unpopular Trudeau has not yet called for a ceasefire, as of Nov. 21, we examine below the evolution and apparent softening of his stance on Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza, which has killed nearly 13,000 people since Oct. 7, according to figures from CNN.

October 7: Trudeau 'supports Israel's right to defend itself'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement in support of Israel within hours following the declaration of war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Hamas. The attack by militants left "around 1,200" people dead, according to revised government figures, and more than 200 people were taken as hostages.

October 9: Trudeau denounces rallies 'in support of Hamas' attacks

The prime minister reiterated Canada’s support for Israel at a vigil he attended in Ottawa’s Soloway Jewish Community Centre on Thanksgiving Day, a day which also saw an outpouring of support by pro-Palestinian demonstrators across Canadian cities.

A rally took place at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto, which was denounced by the city's mayor, Olivia Chow, who later apologized.

In his address at the vigil, Trudeau expressed solidarity with Israel while condemning the “terrorist attack” and appeared to reject the pro-Palestinian rallies across Canada with comments about the "glorification of death and violence and terror."

"Hamas terrorists aren't a resistance, they're not freedom fighters. They are terrorists, and no one in Canada should be supporting them, much less celebrating them," he said.

October 12: UN warns Israel is violating international law; Trudeau announces $10 million in aid

Following the total siege of the Gaza Strip, as described by Israel, halting the entry of food, fuel and medicine, the United Nations warned Netanyahu’s government violated international law by making essentials inaccessible for civilians caught up in the war.

Trudeau announced $10 million in humanitarian aid to Israel and the Gaza Strip, but "refused to say whether he agrees with a United Nations warning that Israel is violating international humanitarian law," according to the Canadian Press.

October 14: Trudeau calls for 'unimpeded humanitarian access' for aid to Gaza

Palestinians were warned and forced to evacuate northern Gaza and head south as Israel's impending ground invasion loomed.

Trudeau used his first speech to Parliament since the Oct. 7 attack to call for the release of hostages and create a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow through.

He acknowledged the worsening crisis and called for "unimpeded humanitarian access and a humanitarian corridor so that essential aid like food, fuel and water can be delivered to civilians in Gaza."

"It is imperative that this happen."

October 17: Trudeau takes ‘necessary time’ in probing Gaza hospital attack

The Gaza health ministry accused Israel of an airstrike that killed hundreds at the al-Ahli hospital. In response, Israel blamed it on a Palestinian barrage causing the blast.

Instead of rushing to assigning blame, Trudeau said Canada was working with allies to determine "exactly what happened" in the blast at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza hospital, and that Canada was taking the "necessary time" to probe the blast.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Netanyahu the attack appeared to have been carried out by the "other team, not you," during his Israel visit about the same time.

On Oct. 21, The Canadian defence ministry announced the results of an independent analysis conducted by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, stating “Israel did not strike the hospital on October 17, 2023.”

October 24: Trudeau calls for 'humanitarian pause,' rather than ceasefire

Trudeau officially announced the support for a humanitarian pause in the conflict after an hours-long meeting with his cabinet.

This followed the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s push for "humanitarian pauses" during his speech to the UN Security Council and Biden underscoring the need to sustain "a continuous flow" of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, a day before.

Linking the two events, Canadian politics and government expert Nelson Wiseman told Yahoo News Canada Trudeau’s position in the matter has to be in line with that of his allies.

“The Canadian position will continue to be in line with that of its allies. The Canadian position has shifted for the same reason the American position has shifted. Biden called for a humanitarian pause and then followed Trudeau. The call for a ceasefire, too, is likely to follow the same pattern,” Wiseman said.

Meanwhile, A House of Commons petition, started by Maëva Gaudrault Valente of Montreal and addressed to the prime minister of Canada, demanded Justin Trudeau call for the bombing to stop in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

November 4: Petition calling for a ceasefire reaches a milestone

The House of Commons petition, sponsored by NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice who represents the Montreal riding of Rosemont-La Petite Patrie, demanding Justin Trudeau call for a ceasefire reached more than 123,000 signatures. A majority of signatures are residents from Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

In Canada, an electronic petition must have at least 500 signatures before it can be certified and tabled in the House of Commons, warranting a response from the government within 45 days.

November 6: Polls find Canadians want government to call for ceasefire

A new poll from Angus Reid found 65 per cent of Canadians in support of a ceasefire — 30 per cent wanting a full ceasefire and 35 per cent wanting a temporary one to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

A separate poll by Mainstreet Research reported 71 per cent of Canadians either strongly support or somewhat support Canada calling for a ceasefire so that humanitarian aid can reach Gaza.

Across both the polls, less than one in five Canadians either strongly opposed or somewhat opposed the calls for a ceasefire.

November 9: Trudeau reiterates 'need' for 'humanitarian pauses'

Trudeau stressed the importance of humanitarian pauses lasting long enough for people to leave the area and for aid to arrive.

"They need to be significant, they need to last long enough to get people out (and) to get supplies in. And we have to start using them to start thinking about what the medium term and long term is," he said.

November 14: Trudeau calls for 'maximum restraint,' Netanyahu responds

Justin Trudeau called on Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” after the IDF raids Gaza’s largest hospital.

Netanyahu swiftly responded on X, formerly known as Twitter, and blamed Hamas for putting civilians "in harm's way."