Class action seeks compensation for Indigenous day school survivors in Quebec


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

A class-action lawsuit that was approved in Quebec seeks compensation for Indigenous day school survivors who attended provincial institutions. (Matthew Lapierre/CBC - image credit)

A new class-action lawsuit is seeking compensation for Indigenous people who attended day schools in Quebec that were under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

A Quebec Superior Court judge authorized the lawsuit last month on behalf of Indigenous people who allege they received lower-quality education than other Quebecers and that abuse was rampant at these institutions.

The lawsuit differs from a 2019, $1.47-billion settlement between the federal government and survivors of federally run schools. That settlement excluded provincially run schools.

"It is still important to have this class action," Marie-Eve Dumont, a lawyer at Dionne Schulze, a Montreal firm representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in an interview.

"There are actually a lot of people who didn't get compensation for what they suffered in day schools because it was under the responsibility of the province of Quebec or school boards and not under the sole responsibility of Canada."

The class action includes any Indigenous person who attended day school in Quebec on a reserve between 1951 and 2014 or in an Inuit village from 1963 to 1978.

Two lead plaintiffs, who are identified in court documents only by their initials, allege they suffered abuse in the schools.

One of those plaintiffs, A. Je., attended a day school in Lac-Simon, Que., where she suffered "physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of school employees." The court documents say she also witnessed abuse inflicted on other students. She described the school environment as "hellish."

Dumont said the lawsuit seeks $20,000 in damages for each class member for "common experience damages," which include things like loss of language and culture.

However, she said they will seek additional money for Indigenous day school survivors who suffered abuse.

Kenneth Deer, a Kanien'kehá:ka elder and activist who attended a federally run day school, said the class action on behalf of Quebec-run day-school survivors would help right a wrong because they didn't get compensation under the 2019 settlement.

"I think that it was unfair that this group was left off the other settlement and now it's Quebec's turn to face the music," he said.

"Quebec was carrying out the same genocidal policies of the Canadian government so they have to now compensate all those children that they damaged while they were in Quebec schools."

Deer was eligible for compensation under the 2019 settlement, which was set at $10,000 — too low, in his opinion. He said he hoped the participants in the Quebec class action would get more.

"I think it's underestimated the damage that the schools did to us," he said.

The suit could still be appealed by Quebec's Justice Ministry, which declined to comment on the class action's approval.

If it is not appealed, the suit will be heard on its merits, Dumont said.

She said she anticipates there being thousands of class members, considering the number of people who attended the schools in Quebec over the six decades they were operating.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.

Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.

Lily Gladstone Opens Golden Globe Victory Speech in Blackfoot Language: ‘This Is a Historic Win’


Ethan Shanfeld and Valerie Wu

VARIETY
Sun, January 7, 2024 at 9:12 p.


“Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone has won the Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture – drama, making history as the first Indigenous woman to win the award. The evening marked the first-ever Globes nomination for the rising star.

Gladstone opened her victory speech in the Blackfeet language, before thanking her mom, “who, even though she’s not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language into our classroom so I had a Blackfeet language teacher growing up.”

She went on: “I’m so grateful I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here. Because, in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and the sound mixer would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.”

Gladstone continued, “This is a historic win. It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it right now. I’m holding it with all of my beautiful sisters in the film at the table over here, and my mother, standing on all of your shoulders.”

She then thanked her director Martin Scorsese and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. “You are all changing things. Thank you for being such allies.”

Gladstone concluded, “This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream and is seeing themselves represented in our stories told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from within, from each other.”

Gladstone won for her portrayal of real-life figure Mollie Kyle, the Indigenous wife of World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The Scorsese epic tells the true story of the Reign of Terror in 1920s Oklahoma, during which members of the Osage Nation were murdered by a criminal ring eager to secure their oil and wealth.

Gladstone, who was one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees in 2023, previously expressed to Variety her thoughts on awards recognition.

“Awards recognition to me just means that people have seen the film that we were hoping we were making. That people have connected to it,” she said. “‘Cause your character is the conduit for the audience to really be in the story. That’s the best part.”

Gladstone beat out Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) and Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla”).

“Killers of the Flower Moon” was one of the leading competitors at this year’s Globes, scoring seven nominations across all categories, including nods in best motion picture – drama, best director for Martin Scorsese, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio and best supporting actor for Robert De Niro. Gladstone took home the film’s only win.

Marvel's newest superhero Kahhori speaks Kanien'kéha

CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024

Kahhori and Atahraks are newest Kanienkehà:ka characters in the Marvel multiverse. (Submitted by Jeremy White - image credit)

The translation of the protagonist's name and others in an episode of the Marvel series What If…? has sparked some debate online about maintaining the authenticity of a language.

The episode What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World?, which began streaming on Disney Plus in December, features a Kanienkehà:ka (Mohawk) character named Kahhori, and is in Kanien'kéha (Mohawk language).

"People [are] saying online that 'Kahhori' is gibberish. It doesn't mean anything. Well, yes, of course it means something," said Jeremy White, who voices the character Atahraks in the episode.

"Just because it's not spelled the way you would spell it doesn't make it incorrect."

White was born and raised in Kahnawà:ke, a Kanienkehà:ka community south of Montreal. He grew up with his grandparents — both fluent Kanien'kéha speakers — and attended a Mohawk immersion school until Grade 6.

White said he was recruited as a linguist supervisor by Deluxe, Disney's dubbing studio, to dub the project in Kanien'kéha.

Years in the making

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, also from Kahnawà:ke, voices Kahhori whose name means "she stirs the forest." White said Jacobs worked closely with a language coach.

The episode is about what would happen if the power-bestowing Tesseract fell to Earth and landed in the territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy before the colonization of North America.

Devery Jacobs (centre) voices superhero Kahhori whose name means ‘She Stirs the Forest.’ Jeremy White voices Atahraks (right) and Ryan Little wrote the episode.

Devery Jacobs (centre) voices superhero Kahhori whose name means ‘she stirs the forest.’ Jeremy White (right) voices Atahraks and Ryan Little wrote the episode. (Submitted by Jeremy White)

White said the episode was years in the making and that the writer for Disney, Ryan Little, put a lot of "love, care and respect" into the project.

In an emailed statement to CBC Indigenous, Little said it was important to showcase Mohawk people and that it was essential to present the episode in Kanien'kéha to honour and help support work in language preservation in Haudenosaunee communities.

Little said cultural consultants sourced the names Kahhori and Atahraks directly from an extensive list of Mohawk names by Charles Cooke, a famous Mohawk scholar. The manuscript was published in 1952.

White said the names in the manuscript were written phonetically without the diacritical markings used in Kanien'kéha today.

He said it made sense to use the same phonetic spelling for the characters in What If…? to allow a mainstream audience to pronounce it.

Language and culture evolve over time which is why Kanien'kéha went from an oral language to one that could be written as well, White said. He said Atahraks is a real turtle clan name, and means "he gnaws the earth."

"He sees it as his role to lift others up and help them blossom … he's the one that welcomes new people to the Skyworld in the episode. He helps them adjust to the new life," White said.

Although Kanien'kéha is not spoken with the same intonation as in English — generally there is no rise and fall in the speech of first-language speakers — White said he wanted to embody the excitement Atahraks has for life, to bring his character to life.

Respect for naming conventions

Longhouse naming convention allows for one traditional name to be used at a time. When the holder of that name dies, the name becomes available.

White said the traditional names used for the characters are not currently in use as far as he knows — a fact he said cultural consultants were brought in to confirm.

Cecelia King, 74, from Akwesasne, a Kanienkehà:ka community that straddles the Canada-U.S. border about 75 kilometres southeast of Ottawa, translated the episode.

She grew up speaking Kanien'kéha but was discouraged from speaking it while attending St. Regis Mohawk School as a young girl.

Cecelia King, 74, from Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne translated the episode.

Cecelia King, 74, from Akwesasne translated the episode. (Submitted by Jeremy White)

She said this was the first time she's ever translated anything for broadcast despite teaching Kanien'kéha for 26 years.

"I'm hearing good responses from some of the community. Their young children really took to it because I think it might help them to learn the language," said King.

King said she had heard about some people being upset over use of the traditional longhouse names and wanted to respect their concerns by not duplicating a child's name.

"We're talking about entertainment here. We're not talking about a documentary," said White.

"We're not trying to change the world. We're trying to change the representation of Natives and Indigenous people in the mainstream entertainment world."

UPEI faculty union says changes promised in university's action plan need to happen now


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

UPEI's five-year action plan to change a culture of harassment and discrimination on campus was drafted by an advisory group made up of staff and students as well as members of the wider community on Prince Edward Island. (Laura Meader/CBC - image credit)

UPEI's draft five-year action plan contains hundreds of proposed changes to address everything from discrimination to sexual harassment to bullying, but the university's faculty association says more could be done immediately to change the culture on campus.

The action plan, released this week, was in response to the June 2023 Rubin Thomlinson report that said a toxic environment had developed at the Charlottetown institution, and looked into how misconduct allegations against a former UPEI president were handled.

In the wake of the report, P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said UPEI's future provincial funding would be contingent on the university committing to change — and proving over the next five years that change was indeed happening.

In the draft action plan, released Wednesday, the university acknowledged it has not lived up to its values and "failed to create a safe, respectful and positive environment."

Margot Rejskind, executive director of the UPEI Faculty Association, said some of the same problems identified by the Rubin Tomlinson report still exist. She doesn't think the changes outlined in the action plan are happening fast enough.

'If we don’t change the structures that allowed those things to happen, it’s hard to see how things will go differently, even with all the goodwill in the world,' says UPEI Faculty Association executive director Margot Rejskind.

'If we don’t change the structures that allowed those things to happen, it’s hard to see how things will go differently, even with all the goodwill in the world,' says UPEI Faculty Association executive director Margot Rejskind. (Laura Meader/CBC)

"If you're not doing the things that need to be done now, to make things better for people on our campus now, what is it about this that's going to be different?" said Rejskind.

"Really, nothing has changed on our campus, and that is a source of frustration for us. We feel there are things that UPEI could be doing right now to fix those problems. There's no time like the present to start being accountable and transparent."

Widespread issues cited

The Rubin Thomlinson report brought to light allegations of sexual violence, bullying, racism and sexism on campus, with both students and staff as victims.

It outlined evidence of what it called a toxic workplace culture, especially during the term of former president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. His sudden retirement in December 2021 came just as a misconduct claim was being filed against him. The third-party review was commissioned a few days later.

The action plan calls for a "cultural shift" at UPEI and includes new policies, offices and staff to address discrimination, harm and violence.

It also vows to improve transparency and accountability. An external auditor will review the plan on a yearly basis to ensure the university is following through on its promises.

Students, staff and community members made recommendations through a series of "listening sessions" in the leadup to the action plan's release.

'We need to change the culture that had historically happened here at the university and this is our roadmap to do so,' says interim UPEI president Greg Keefe about the university's five-year action plan to address discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying.

'We need to change the culture that had historically happened here at the university and this is our roadmap to do so,' interim UPEI president Greg Keefe said Thursday. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Interim UPEI president Greg Keefe said many of the changes are starting to take effect immediately.

"If you look at the plan, it talks about 'year zero' — well that's the year that we're in. So we have not waited until we had the full plan in place to begin the actions, but there are extensive actions through the full five years of the action plan," he said.

"We need to change the culture that had historically happened here at the university and this is our roadmap to do so."



We can put a different face up there, but if we don't change the structures that allowed those things to happen, it's hard to see how things will go differently. — Margot Rejskind

Over the next couple of weeks, there will be more public consultation on the action plan. A final version will be approved by late spring.

Presidential search underway

Meanwhile, a new UPEI president is expected to be hired by June, with a search committee doing its work as the university tries to rebuild trust with its campus community.

Rejskind said the university's approach to hiring a replacement is a step in the right direction, but she believes UPEI remains in a place of "major instability," with staff feeling a lot of skepticism and mistrust.

"The structures that allowed things to go so, so far wrong under the previous administration have not changed, and a lot of the people who were there for that are still here now," she said.

"We can put a different face up there, but if we don't change the structures that allowed those things to happen, it's hard to see how things will go differently, even with all the goodwill in the world."

OTTAWA
Encampment fire shows need for safe, heated places to sleep, says councillor


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr says people living in Ottawa encampments should have access to heated but safe semi-permanent housing options. (Michel Aspirot/CBC - image credit)

A fire at one of Ottawa's many homeless encampments highlights the need for safe, heated semi-permanent housing options for people living on the street, the local city councillor says.

Other communitiesin Ontario have championed structures like sleeping cabins that contain a bed, sink and offer heat and Ottawans need something like that, according to Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr.

"You're reducing that risk of having somebody using a combustible within [a] tent," said Carr, a member of the city's emergency shelter crisis task force.

Carr's comments on Thursday came one day after a mid-afternoon fire at a cluster of about five tents in her ward near the intersection of Industrial Avenue and Riverside Drive.

The damage wasn't extensive enough to warrant further investigation, a spokesperson for Ottawa Fire Services said.

Recent signs of a fire at a cluster of tents in Ottawa on Jan. 4, 2024.

Recent signs of a fire at a cluster of tents in Ottawa on Jan. 4, 2024. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

There were 23 fires at encampments last year, up from eight in 2022, fire officials told CBC. The city said Thursday it's aware of 45 encampments in Ottawa.

Carr said that because shelters and transitional housing units are full — and because some people choose to avoid them, despite the city doing its best to offer everyone a place to stay — encampments will remain a reality.

They need to be as safe as possible, she said.

"It's a risk to leave the encampments the way that they are."

Hundreds out of work in Terrace Bay, Ont., after pulp mill idles operations

OCCUPY UNDER WORKERS CONTROL


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

An employee loads logs at Ledwidge Lumber Co. in Halifax in 2017 to be shipped to pulp and paper mills for processing. This week, the company that owns the paper mill in Terrace Bay, Ont., announced it would be shut down indefinitely. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press - image credit)

The Terrace Bay Pulp Mill in northwestern Ontario is temporarily shutting down with no opening date in sight.

As the northwestern Ontario town braces for the potential loss of its biggest employer, the mayor and union representing mill workers say they're trying to stay positive.

On Tuesday, the mill's owners, AV Group, which is part of Aditya Birla, announced there will be a "temporary idling of its pulp operations, with immediate effect, due to prevailing market conditions," meaning 400 workers are off the job.

"It's obviously a big blow for Terrace Bay. I mean, we're a population of 1,600 people," said Mayor Paul Malashewski.

The shutdown will be devastating for businesses in the town and ripple through other surrounding communities on the north shore of Lake Superior, he said.

NBSK pulp used in everyday paper products

The type of pulp produced in Terrace Bay is premium grade, said pulp industry analyst Brian McClay, chair of Trade Tree Online and Brian McClay & Associates (TTO BMA).

Northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) is used in items like tissue, toilet paper and paper towels.

"It's really the best pulp fibre in the world," he said. "It's the thing that holds the sheet together."

Terrace Bay Mayor Paul Malashewski says he's disappointed to see the pulp mill shut down again.

Terrace Bay Mayor Paul Malashewski says he's disappointed about another pulp mill shutdown. (Marc Doucette/CBC)

As mills producing NBSK shut down, manufacturers could face greater difficulty and higher expenses in making these products, and consumers could find themselves paying more for flimsier toilet paper.

Terrace Bay, which is about 220 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, was once an economically thriving town. The pulp mill, which was established in the 1940s, grew to employ thousands of people by the late 1970s.

The mill fell on hard times in the early 2000s when the pulp and paper industry entered a period of uncertainty. It went through cycles of shutting down, changing ownership, then shutting down again as different owners found themselves in debt.

The current owner, Aditya Burla, stepped up to buy the idled pulp mill in 2012. The mill was fined $250,000 after pleading guilty in 2015 to seven offences under the Environmental Protection Act, and was temporarily shut down in wake of an explosion that killed a worker in October 2011.

Malashewski said he's optimistic the mill will reopen as it has after previous closures. It will be kept in a state of warm idle to allow for a potential future restart of operations, leaving the mayor hopeful.

"It's a positive sign," he said. "I mean, they just didn't shut it down, and turn the heat off and all that."

Union mill workers also hope the market conditions cited as the reason for closure will improve.

"The markets change. There's really good reason to keep that place operating. It's an efficient mill," said Cody Alexander, staff representative for the United Steel Workers (USW) in Thunder Bay.

Workers 'kind of in shock,' union says

The union represents approximately 275 of the mill's steelworkers who are now without employment, said Alexander.

"Everybody's kind of in shock right now about it. It's a really small community and that pulp mill is the anchor."

A worker guides toilet paper on a conveyor belt at the Tissue Plus factory, Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in Bangor, Maine. The new company has been unexpectedly busy because of the shortage of toilet paper brought on by hoarders concerned about the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A worker guides toilet paper on a conveyor belt during the manufacturing process. An industry analyst says continued closures at pulp and paper mills could lead to higher prices for common consumer items like toilet paper. ((Robert F Bukaty/Associated Press) )

Currently, pulp prices are low and demand is weak, said McClay.

"We went through a couple of pretty volatile years where prices reached record levels and now they've come back down," said McClay.

Pulp mills are expensive to operate and maintain, he said, and inflation has exacerbated this. Some mills have closed even when pulp prices are high due to the sheet capital investment required to operate.

"It's not just a question of where the market is today; it's what companies have to spend to keep the mills in decent running order."

McClay said he couldn't predict whether the Terrace Bay mill will reopen.

Large group of harp seals spotted near Kamouraska, Que., as ice floes become scarce


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Seals typically spend time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but can venture further west when there is good ice. (Tourisme Rivière-du-Loup/Facebook - image credit)

Eric Leclerc could not believe his eyes when he saw around 10 chubby harp seals slowly drift down the St. Lawrence River on an ice floe near the town of Rivière-Ouelle, Que., where he was staying for the holidays.

"They were all lying down, taking in the sun … enjoying the nice weather," said Leclerc.

Though he's from the area, this was his first time seeing a seal.

Harp seals migrate from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the fall, attracted by the ice that forms there. They rest on the ice and build up fat before pupping season begins in March, said Mike Hammill, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO.)

Usually they hang around the Rimouski and Tadoussac areas, he said, though they can venture further west in search of good ice — which has been harder to come by in recent years.

"Looks like this year the only ice available is closer to the Kamouraska area," he said.

The seals will make their way back to the gulf in a couple of months to give birth.

Harp seals were spotted along the Saint-Denis-de La Bouteillerie, Que., in the Kamouraska area. (Marc Lamarre)

Hammill says the DFO is researching how the formation of less ice year after year on the St. Lawrence might affect the harp seals. He suspects that in 30 or 50 years, when there's no more ice in the gulf, the seals will probably continue to visit the Estuary of St. Lawrence to feed but will carry out their pupping season along the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

In the meantime, he says the population is "very abundant" and there are no conservation concerns. People can enjoy observing the animals but shouldn't approach them as they can leave a "nasty bite."

The owner of the cottage Leclerc was renting told him the seals might be a sign of good things to come.

"He told us [the sighting] would probably bring joy in the year 2024," said Leclerc. He's holding onto that thought with optimism.

ONTARIO
How the tiny western chorus frog could stop Doug Ford's Highway 413

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

The western chorus frog is listed as a threatened species in Quebec, as well as eastern and southern Ontario.

 (Canadian Wildlife Federation - image credit)

The western chorus frog is about as small as your thumb, but it could prove to be a large obstacle to Premier Doug Ford's plans for building Highway 413.

The chorus frog – so named because of the sound males make during mating season – is listed as threatened on Canada's official registry of species at risk.

Consultants working for Ontario's Ministry of Transportation have identified the frog along the 59-kilometre preferred route of the proposed Highway 413, across the northwestern fringes of the Greater Toronto Area. And while the frogs' presence along the route may not necessarily stop the project altogether, it could force the province to change the proposed highway's route to preserve habitat.

Building Highway 413 was one of Ford's central promises in his 2022 re-election campaign. The PCs won every seat in Peel and York, the two regions the highway would connect.

"We're going to make sure that we follow environmental protections that we have very vigorously put in place, but it's our priority to build the 413," Ontario's Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said during a news conference in early December.

Ontario's Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria, right, during a news conference with Attorney General Doug Downey at Queen's Park.

 (Mike Crawley/CBC)

The western chorus frog typically breeds in what are known as vernal pools: temporary ponds that form in early spring and dry up three to four months later, says David Seburn, a wildlife biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

"The reason that chorus frogs prefer these temporary ponds is they want to avoid ponds where there are fish that can eat their eggs and their tadpoles," said Seburn in an interview.

"These ponds might be only five or 10 metres across, maybe only half a metre deep," he said. "Typically there's a number of ponds within close proximity to each other, and the chorus frogs might not be successful in all of those ponds in all years because some ponds may dry up too quickly."

Habitat loss a big factor in population decline: biologist

Seburn says habitat loss is a big factor in the the decline of western chorus frog populations in Ontario.

"Many of these temporary ponds are not highly valued or thought of as being important habitats, so they're often the first kind of habitat that gets drained and developed," he said.

Ryan Norris, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of Guelph, says threatened species are typically composed of small populations found in locations that are geographically separated from each other.

The Ontario government's proposed route for Highway 413 would run through parts of the Greenbelt between the existing 400 and 401 highways in the northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

The Ontario government's proposed route for Highway 413 would cross the northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area, creating a new link between the 400 and the 401. (Hailley Furkalo/CBC)

"As those species have smaller populations and fewer populations, we increase the risk of extinction," Norris said in an interview.

"In this case, we increase the risk that they disappear altogether from Ontario," Norris said. "The more species we lose, the more our natural food webs here that we have in southern Ontario fall apart."

The presence of the frog's breeding grounds in Montreal's south shore suburbs halted a housing development there in 2016 and more recently, forced changes to a road construction project.

Who controls environmental assessment could be key

A key factor in the fate of the Highway 413 project may be whether it's the federal or provincial government that controls the environmental assessment on the project.

The environment minister in the Trudeau government, Stephen Guilbeault, has ordered the project undergo a federal impact assessment. However, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling in October that the legislation behind that order exceeds the bounds of federal jurisdiction.

The Trudeau government has since indicated it will rewrite the legislation and intends to continue with its impact assessment of Highway 413. Ontario recently launched a court case to try to get the federal assessment quashed.

"We want to get shovels in the ground and I think Minister Guilbeault should respect that and the prime minister should also respect provincial jurisdiction on this matter," Sarkaria said.

29 at-risk specifies identified along proposed route

Norris led a study commissioned by the activist group Environmental Defence that identified 29 federally listed at-risk species along the highway's proposed route. Those species included the western chorus frog and other amphibians, as well as birds, reptiles, fish, insects and trees.

He says construction of the highway would result in water runoff, changes in water chemistry and sedimentation in streams that could affect the peripheral wetlands where the western chorus frog lives.
The rapids clubtail is a dragonfly that is listed as endangered in Canada and in Ontario. One of its few remaining habitats in the province is in the path of the proposed Highway 413. 

(Environment and Climate Change Canada)

"Western chorus frogs are particularly sensitive to changes in the quality of their environments," he said. "It's got the potential to be very susceptible across a quite a wide geographic range around the highway."

Another species that Norris says could face an even greater threat from Highway 413 than the western chorus frog is an endangered dragonfly called the rapids clubtail.

The insect has been seen in only five locations across southern Ontario over the past 25 years, one of which is the upper reaches of the Humber River between Bolton and Kleinburg, directly in the proposed path of the highway.

WTF?!

Russian antiwar activist could lose Canadian citizenship bid over conviction abroad


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 


Maria Kartasheva, a Russian activist who lives in Ottawa, has had her application for Canadian citizenship held up due to a conviction under a Russian law that has been used against critics of the Ukraine invasion. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC - image credit)

A critic of the Kremlin could be barred from obtaining Canadian citizenship because she has to prove to immigration officials here that it isn't a crime in Canada to criticize the Russian army.

Maria Kartasheva, who has lived in Ottawa since 2019, has been convicted under a Russian law passed shortly after the invasion of Ukraine which bars "public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

Kartasheva says she was surprised Russian prosecutors pursued her over two blog posts she wrote while living in Ontario.

But what was most jawdropping for the 30-year-old was when a Canadian officiant motioned for her to step aside in the middle of her citizenship ceremony last spring, just moments before she was supposed to swear her allegiance to the Crown.

"I felt betrayed because I was hoping I was safe here in Canada," said Kartasheva, who's a tech worker in the national capital.

Under Canadian immigration rules, if an applicant is charged with a crime in another country that could be indictable under Canada's Criminal Code, their application can be revoked or refused.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada offices in Montreal. The department told Kartasheva in a letter the crime 'would equate to false information under subsection 372(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada.' (Ivanoh Demers/CBC)

According to a December letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the crime she committed in Russia "would equate to false information under subsection 372(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada."

Originally enacted in 1985, the Canadian law makes it illegal for individuals to intentionally injure another person or convey false information through telecommunication means.

Historically, it's been invoked to address cases such as a person spreading untrue rumours or evidence about a cheating spouse. It carries a maximum sentence of two years behind bars.

"Based on the information currently available to me, it appears that you may be subject to prohibitions under the Citizenship Act," read the IRCC letter, which was signed by a citizenship officer in Montreal.

The official gave Kartasheva 30 days to explain her case.

Kartasheva said it's bewildering that anyone would interpret her eight-year imprisonment sentence in Russia as having any moral or legal match here.

"This is a normal country," she said of Canada. "[You would think] no one would consider me a criminal for being against the war — but I guess they would. For me, it just doesn't make sense."

Jacqueline Bonisteel, an Ottawa-based immigration lawyer, said the IRCC process is meant to filter out applicants who are ineligible due to their criminal past, but in this case she felt the principle was misapplied.

"It looks relatively straightforward that this isn't a provision that has an equivalent in Canadian criminal law," said Bonisteel, a lawyer with Corporate Immigration Law Firm.

Blog posts led to conviction

Kartasheva's convictions stem from two blog entries from March 2022, when she posted photos and wrote in Russian expressing horror at the Bucha massacre.

"Tell me that before the Russian troops came there, all these people were alive, riding their own damn bicycles. I don't know why it was so ingrained in my memory that there were bicycles everywhere, and the dead people who were riding them, apparently, they were going somewhere," a translation of one of the posts reads.

Russia's foreign minister has rejected allegations of atrocities in Bucha.

Kartasheva said her arrest in absentia was approved by Russian judge Elena Lenskaya, then tried in the Basmanny District Court of Moscow — both of which are still subject to Canadian sanctions for human rights violations.

She said her Russian lawyer wasn't able to file a defence, and in November of this year she was sentenced to eight years in a Russian prison.

Kartasheva heard of the charges in late 2022 and learned of her arrest in April 2023. She was in the midst of applying through the regular citizenship stream in Canada, but decided to notify the IRCC of the foreign charges right away.

BUCHA, UKRAINE - APRIL 06: People walk through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 06, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25km northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town.

 (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

A few days later in May, she received an invitation to her citizenship ceremony, so she assumed the Canadian government had understood her situation. However, just as she was about to take the oath of citizenship, the officiant asked the room a routine question about whether anyone had criminal charges.

Kartasheva raised her hand, and she was told to step aside.

She never made her oath.

"I know Canada doesn't support the war. I know that they agree Russia silences people who are against the war. I thought that this is such a clear situation that all of this just shouldn't be happening," Kartasheva said.

Kartasheva has participated in other activism against the war besides her blog, including protesting at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa and co-founding a group called the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance.

"The worst-case scenario is that I will be deported back to Russia," she said.

Matthew Light, an associate professor of criminology and European studies at the University of Toronto, said the Russian false information law has been covered in western media for its impact on high-profile opposition politicians and journalists.

"It's also used on a much larger scale against less well-known members of Russian society who've uttered criticisms of the war, often in contexts that aren't highly political," Light said.

In those cases, the penalty may be a fine, but Light said Kartasheva's eight-year sentence suggests the Russian government is taking her case seriously or could be part of a larger trend of trying to tighten its grip on Russians abroad.

"They seem to wish to make her a lesson for others. I assume they don't expect that she will be returned to Russian custody, but they may well mean to intimidate others," Light said.

Light said if Kartasheva does have to return to Russia, she could face additional prison sentences, harsher conditions as a political prisoner and continued surveillance upon her release.

"We can assume that as long as the Putin regime is in power, it would not be possible for [her] to have a normal life in Russia," Light said.

"This is an appalling error, and I hope it is resolved in [her] favour promptly."

The IRCC says successful refugee applications have ramped up again in recent months but the pandemic still has a lingering effect on processing numbers. When Kartasheva told immigration officials at her citizenship ceremony that she was facing charges, she wasn't allowed to take the oath.

 (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Exemptions for political dissidents

Bonisteel said IRCC regularly bypasses the criminal equivalency requirement to help applicants flee political persecution in their home countries.

"This comes up often with refugee cases and political dissidents," Bonisteel said.

"So long as they can establish this is a trumped up, politicized charge that has no equivalency in Canada, then they're going to be able to get their status here."

Bonisteel said she hasn't seen this kind of issue come up in the regular citizenship stream. She said it's part of the process for the onus to be on the applicant to explain the context of any legal issues, but IRCC could develop some policy that flags obvious cases.

In a statement to CBC News, IRCC said "foreign convictions are carefully examined to see whether the act committed would have been an offence under Canadians laws if it had occurred in Canada."

It said people who are investigated for potential foreign criminal activity are given the chance to explain their situation.

The department said it will review the documents Kartasheva has sent to make her case to determine the outcome of her citizenship application.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to CBC's inquiries.

Federal workforce in the Ottawa area continues to grow


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Part of the Place du Portage federal government complex in Gatineau, Que., a major hub for federal workers in the National Capital Region. (Christian Patry/Radio-Canada - image credit)

The National Capital Region's public service ranks grew by 8,360 people over the most recent fiscal year to sit at 130,611 workers as of the end of March 2023, according to an annual report.

Government employees make up nearly half of the workforce in the capital region, which has a population of about 1.5 million and covers Ottawa-Gatineau and other nearby communities such as Almonte, Chelsea, Pakenham and Val-des-Monts.

They're 47.6 per cent of the region's 274,219 workers — including students and both casual and long-term staff — covered by the Public Service Employment Act. That share of Ottawa-area workers has edged up four of the last five years.

Overall, the national civil servant workforce grew by more than 16,600 people in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the Public Service Commission of Canada's report.

If you just look at hires, 71,200 people were brought in from outside the public service in 2022-23, up about 10 per cent or 6,400 hires from the year prior.

The report notes Indigenous people and people with disabilities were underrepresented in its applicant pool. This was before changes in July 2023 that try to create "a more inclusive and diverse public service" by removing barriers in the hiring process.

A few days before the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the federal budget included cutting $15.4 billion in spending over five years through "targeted reductions."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has long been telling voters he'll run a smaller, more limited government.

THE HARPER CONSERVATIVES INCREASED THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE AS WELL