Avian flu H5N1 detected in polar bear in Alaska


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

A 2005 file photo of a polar bear on the Beaufort Sea in Alaska. A biologist working in the state's remote North Slope region recently found a polar bear carcass that was later confirmed to be infected with the highly pathenogenic H5N1 strain. 

(Steven C. Amstrup, USGS/Associated Press - image credit)

Wildlife officials in Alaska have confirmed the first known case of a polar bear that died from avian flu — highlighting growing concerns about the H5N1 strain's potential spread among northern mammals.

Dr. Robert Gerlach, Alaska's state veterinarian, said the young bear's carcass was recently found by a biologist working in the state's remote North Slope region. Swab samples from the dead animal confirmed that it had been infected with the highly pathenogenic H5N1 strain.

"We have had birds detected with the avian influenza virus in that area. So we're making the assumption that the bear had come up onto land and had probably scavenged one of the dead or dying birds, and gotten exposed that way," Gerlach said.

The current global outbreak of H5N1 has led to the loss of millions of birds. The strain was first detected in Canada in 2021 and has devastated poultry farms, and spread to some birds of prey as well as some mammals, experts say.

Gerlach said Alaska is trying to monitor the presence and spread of H5N1 in the state, but it can be difficult in such a vast territory.

"If an animal dies, especially in the wild up here, it can be scavenged rather quickly by other animals. And so it really is a challenge, trying to find these cases," he said.

Gerlach said some bird species in Alaska have been "severely" affected by the outbreak, including eagles and magpies, as well as waterfowl.

Chickens are seen at a poultry farm in Abbotsford, B.C., on Thursday, November 10, 2022. Poultry farmers and wildlife officials in British Columbia's Fraser Valley are reporting "extremely high" levels of stress and anxiety as the latest avian flu outbreak puts millions of birds at risk.
 The current outbreak of avian flu has devastated many poultry farms in that province. 

(Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

He said this outbreak seems much different to the last global outbreak of avian flu nearly a decade ago. The previous one "seemed to dissipate rather quickly," Gerlach said.

"In this case, we are seeing it really hang on and being adaptive to stay very influential in wild birds, as well as impacting you know, our domestic poultry."

H5N1 can also infect humans, though such cases are rare and "mostly occur after close contact with infected birds or highly contaminated environments such as poultry farms or live bird markets," according to Health Canada.

Still, Gerlach says it's hard to predict how the global outbreak will evolve. Some scientists worry that it could eventually turn into another pandemic among humans.

"Currently the risk to people is very, very low," Gerlach said.

"But as this virus adapts or mutates, will it change and cause more of a problem? And that's one thing that it's going to be very important that animal health and public health officials work together to study and understand this virus, to go ahead and be prepared."

Tracking infections 'certainly is a challenge,' says Yukon vet

Across the border in the Yukon, territorial veterinarian Jane Harms said she wasn't surprised to learn of the infected polar bear in Alaska given the virus's spread among mammals elsewhere.

Yukon, however, has not seen much evidence of infection in the territory's wildlife so far. Harms said the last known infection was in a wild bird last April. There has also been one known case in a red fox, a little over a year ago.

As in Alaska, it can be hard to track infections in the territory's remote regions, Harms said. Wildlife officials often rely on members of the public to notify them of any sick or dead animals they see while out on the land.

"But it certainly is a challenge," she said.

Harms said the greatest concern right now is for wild bird populations, because it's clear the disease can be transmitted easily from bird to bird.

The risk of widespread, ongoing transmission between mammals is less clear, she said.

"I don't think we've ever seen quite this scope in terms of the number of mammals that have been infected or the range of species. And so we now can add polar bears to that list — but it's already getting to be a fairly long list and that's relatively unprecedented," she said.

"And anytime you have a situation that's sort of unprecedented with regard to wildlife health, that is definitely of concern and something that we are are watching quite closely."

Alberta invests in program to stop grizzlies from wandering onto farms


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

The Carnivores and Communities Program aims to teach farmers how to live alongside grizzly bears and prevent unnecessary interaction. (Anne Woods - image credit)

The provincial government announced Wednesday its spending $700,000 over five years to prevent conflict between ranchers and large carnivores in southwestern Alberta.

Funds will go to the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association's Carnivores and Communities Program to keep predators away from rural properties.

Residents in the area have expressed concern about growing grizzly bear, wolf and cougar populations and their impacts on community safety, says the province.

"Coexisting with wildlife, including large carnivores, is an everyday part of living and working in rural Alberta," said Alberta's Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen in a statement.

"This investment will help protect humans, wildlife and infrastructure."

The majority of human-wildlife conflicts in the Waterton Biosphere region are attributed to wolves and grizzlies, according to the reserve association.

Conflict arises because the animals are attracted to livestock, grain and animal feed, and roam onto farms to chow down.

Dead livestock disposal and electric fences

To keep the carnivores away, the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association has helped farmers manage attractants by picking up dead farm animals for free and pointing people to carcass-disposal bins in their area.

"Across the region, I'd say we've seen a generally positive trend," said Carnivores and Communities Program co-ordinator Jeff Bectell. "But it's not perfect and not 100 per cent [successful]."

The CACP also advocates for strategies to keep away grizzly bears based on landowners' specific needs, like livestock guardian dogs or horseback herd supervision.

If necessary, the program also helps farmers pay for electric fences or more secure grain bins to quash access to food sources.

"We don't do the same project on every property because different people have different needs in terms of the amount of stuff they're storing, how they access it," said Bectell.

"There's just lots of differences from one farm to another and so it is pretty customized."

A Grizzly bear and cubs were spotted alongside Highway 40 in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park on June 15, 2021, the day the road to Highwood Pass reopened for the summer.

Wildlife ecologist Andrea Morehouse said some bears are being found further east in southern Alberta, in areas previously considered outside grizzly territory. (David Gray/CBC)

Grizzlies moving further east

In the past several decades, grizzlies bears have been recorded farther east in southwestern Alberta, outside their expected range.

Wildlife ecologist Andrea Morehouse, who has worked under contract for the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association, says the easterly bears are exposing more farmers to the potential for human-wildlife conflicts.

"If you're not used to ranching with grizzly bears, it's certainly a new problem that you need to figure out how to deal with, and learn ways to share the landscape with those critters," she said.

"That's part of what the Carnivores and Communities program is doing … helping to find creative solutions so that people are able to maintain their business, ranchers can still do what they need to do, but bears are also maintained on the landscape."

Morehouse said the most current data on grizzly bears in the Waterton Biosphere region, collected from 2011 to 2014 for her Southwest Alberta Grizzly Bear Monitoring Project, showed the population was growing, which could be why some are ranging farther east.

Bectell said the funds will help rural ranchers feel supported and appreciated for their contributions to the province.

"Landowners dealing with these kind of problems sometimes feel alone," he said.

"When funding like this is provided, that does come out of the public purse, I think it demonstrates to agricultural producers that they're not being left alone and ignored."

The Alberta government has supported the Carnivores and Communities Program through different grants since 2009.

Court decision barring Chinese student sends message about espionage risk, experts say

CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

A spokesperson for the University of Waterloo says the post-secondary institution is reviewing the language of the court's decision to help it assess applicants in future. (Nicole Osborne/Canadian Press - image credit)

In a decision that could have ripple effects on universities across the country, a Federal Court judge has denied a Chinese resident permission to enter Canada, arguing the engineering student could be pressured by Beijing into spying.

The case centres on Yuekang Li's visa application to study at the University of Waterloo and take his knowledge back to China to improve its public health system. Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton ruled Li's proposal falls under the definition of "non-traditional" espionage.

"As hostile state actors increasingly make use of non-traditional methods to obtain sensitive information in Canada or abroad, contrary to Canada's interests, the court's appreciation of what constitutes 'espionage' must evolve," he wrote in his December 22 decision, made public this week.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a board member with the China Strategic Risks Institute think-tank, said she expects to see more such rulings in future.

"[Canadian] visa officers in Beijing and likely in other cities in China have been given some guidance as to what to watch for, potential military connections with students and professors who want to come from China to Canada and work with our own professors," she said.

"This is new and I think it's something then that universities themselves need to be watching, [to avoid] admitting students who may be a security risk."

According to the decision, first reported on by the Globe and Mail, Li applied for a study permit in 2022 after the University of Waterloo accepted the PhD candidate into its mechanical and mechatronics engineering program.

He was deemed inadmissible. A visa officer later stated he had multiple concerns with Li's application, citing his anticipated field of study while in Canada and China's use of students as "non-traditional collectors of information" to boost China's research into new technologies, including military tech.

"The officer further noted that Mr. Li has a strong interest in microfluidics, a branch of micro/nanoscale science and technology, and that he indicated in his study plans that he wanted to dedicate his career to improving China's underdevelopment of the application of advances to point-of-care technology in the field of public health," says the Federal Court decision.

The visa officer, who was not named in the decision, pointed to China's strategic interest in certain high-tech industries, including biopharmaceuticals.

The officer cited an article titled "Why is China Becoming a Microfluidics Superpower?" — which says microfluidic devices are important for new medical research — in support of his decision to reject Li.

Judge sided with visa officer

Li asked a judge to review that ruling. He argued the officer went with an overly broad definition of "espionage" and relied on speculation, says the Federal Court decision.

Justice Crampton sided with the visa officer and said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Li may be recruited or coerced by the Chinese government as a spy.

The judge pointed to Li 's studies at a Beijing university with ties to China's defence industry, the fact that Li's field of study could benefit China's biopharmaceutical industry and China's well-known history of targeting scientists and students.

Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), David Vigneault, adjusts a translation aid as he waits to appear before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. David Vigneault has raised the alarm over China stealing Canadian intellectual property and research. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

Dick Fadden, former national security adviser to the prime minister, said the decision offers Canada a new tool to "get a grip" on a growing problem.

"Whether or not Mr Li is or could be a spy is neither here nor there. I think that it's beyond reasonable debate that the Chinese, both in Canada and in allied countries, have used universities as a means of acquiring intellectual property of use to their military," he said.

The decision comes as concerns mount over China's interest in Canadian universities and research programs.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has been sounding the alarm publicly. Just last month, the spy agency's director David Vigneault warned in a speech that no one should underestimate China's efforts to steal Canadian research and meddle in its affairs.

"They are stealing the intellectual property of Canadian businesses, universities and governments – the very essence of our future prosperity," he said in a speech delivered at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

"No one should be under any illusion about the breadth of [China's] efforts to infiltrate our political systems, our private sector, government institutions, universities and communities from coast to coast to coast. This is not just a Vancouver or Toronto issue. It's an all-of-Canada one."

Fadden, a former CSIS director, said it's past time to consider sealing off some areas of study from foreign adversaries, including nuclear technologies, high-level optics and space research.

"We should promote bringing other country's students to this country as much as we should encourage Canadians to study abroad, but surely there must be a certain number of critical areas where we and our allies have decided we do not want to share with a strategic adversary," he said. "I think this judgment will make it easier to do this.

"I also hope we are not going to do it holus-bolus and start banning everybody. But I come back to my point about the ten or 15 critical areas, dual-use and military, where I think if you give individual visa officers and individual security officers the capacity to check people doubly in the context of these decisions and these areas, it is a good thing for Canada."

Canada an easy target: China expert

The federal government has introduced national security reviews for academics seeking federal funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and has promised to clamp down on Canadian universities collaborating with Chinese scientists, especially those with links to China's military.

"I still think we're behind," said Fadden. "Because we were very slow in coming to this. I think probably one of the biggest challenges that we face is to acknowledge that national security is no longer the sole purview of the federal government. You have to involve the provinces, you have to involve civil society and the private sector."

McCuaig-Johnston said China has targeted Canada's campuses for years because "we are easy to get into."

"We don't want to be attracting military scientists to work in Canada, partnering with government funded programs to learn our innovations and use them for their own military applications," she said. "That's not very wise. And so, we need to close that back door."

David George-Cosh, a spokesperson for the University of Waterloo, said the university is reviewing the language of the court decision "as it contains helpful guidance on the government's interpretation of risk that will help us in assessing applicants in future."

Currently, CSIS is restricted to sharing classified intelligence only with the federal government. CSIS has long argued that its enabling law needs to be revised so it can better warn other institutions, including universities, businesses and Indigenous governments, of national security threats.

The federal government is in the midst of consulting on potential amendments to the CSIS Act. George-Cosh said Waterloo hopes an amended CSIS Act could "allow the service to share more information with institutions like universities ... so that we can more effectively evaluate our activities."

Neither Li's lawyer nor the Chinese embassy responded to CBC's request for comment.

In the past, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa has told CBC News there is nothing to fear from scientific collaboration with China.

"China believes that international cooperation is an inevitable requirement for scientific and technological development," an embassy official told CBC back in 2020.

Fadden said China doesn't respect its own rhetoric on international scientific cooperation.

"There's another principle involved here. In international relations it's called reciprocity — that if we allow them to do x, they should allow us to do x," he said.

"If you look into what the Chinese allow, I think you'll find that very few westerners are allowed to study at Chinese universities looking into those 10 or 15 categories I'm looking at."

Retail collectives are changing how young entrepreneurs access storefront selling space

ITS CALLED A FLEA MARKET


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Moonlight, located in Dragon City Mall in downtown Calgary, is a retail collective that rents its shelves to local vendors, creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. (Jo Horwood/CBC - image credit)

Collective retail spaces are changing the way young entrepreneurs are getting their brands in front of customers.

One local business owner says the retail collective model is helping Calgary's artist and creative community break into the physical retail space.

Five years ago, Alice Lam opened her first collective store called Tigerstedt and Friends, on Centre Street North, and she says this has been a successful model.

"Two of the businesses there grew so much that they ended up taking over the entire store."

Collective retail spaces are shops where local entrepreneurs can rent a shelf or sell their goods in a consignment-style arrangement, which many vendors say eliminates some of the biggest barriers of opening a business — especially for young people.

But the idea of a collective retail space isn't a new invention. Collective retail stores are popular in many major cities, which is what inspired Lam to bring it closer to home.

"Being a business owner myself, I know it's very hard to take on all the financial risk of opening a storefront by yourself, and so I really was attracted to this community model," said Lam.

Javier Cob, top left, Sumin Choi, top right, Lucy Tan, bottom left, and Deni Hui, bottom right, are all local vendors with spots at Moonlight.

Moonlight houses a variety of products from a variety of vendors. Javier Cob, top left, Sumin Choi, top right, Lucy Tan, bottom left, and Deni Hui, bottom right, are local entrepreneurs with shelves at the retail collective. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

Following the first storefront's success, Lam then co-founded Moonlight — a second collective retail space, but this time in downtown's Dragon City Mall — which opened in November.

"It's just a chance to build up the entrepreneurial community among young Asian makers in Calgary, and it's a way for us to also revitalize Calgary's Chinatown and contribute to this community that we grew up enjoying so much."

According to the co-founder, the median age for Moonlight's vendors is under 30.

Lam says the name "Moonlight" came from the idea that collective retail could help young entrepreneurs test their business model, products and passions before diving head first into the career path.

"I think it allows them to moonlight as something that they'd like to try," said Lam.

"It allows you, whether you're in school or you're working full time, to kind of have a platform to pursue one of your passions and figure out, 'is this something that I want to pursue in the future?'"

Alice Lam, co-founder of Moonlight, says the collective retail experience helps local vendors get their products into the spotlight.

Alice Lam, co-founder of Moonlight, says the retail collective is in the Dragon City Mall to 'build up the entrepreneurial community among young Asian makers in Calgary.' (Jo Horwood/CBC)

Lam says she was shocked by how many people wanted to participate — from tea and trinkets to ceramics and candles, the collective retail spaces house goods from nearly 50 local vendors.

One of the vendors at Moonlight is 19-year-old Deni Hui, who owns Dear Bearie, a business that specializes in handmade polymer clay trinkets, earrings, charms and more.

Hui says the collective retail space is a game changer for small businesses, especially when it comes to the overhead capital that young entrepreneurs might not have access to.

"To invest in a store is a very big risk to take, especially if I'm just selling little things like this. Like, how am I going to make enough to cover all of these shelves and fill up an entire store?"

One of the things that makes this experience so unique is being able to meet other vendors and share the highs and lows of being a small business with one another.

Deni Hui, a 19-year-old small business owner, sells her handmade items at Moonlight in the Dragon City Mall.

Deni Hui, a 19-year-old small business owner, sells her handmade items at Moonlight in the Dragon City Mall. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

"I think a shop like this brings together so many people and it's just one solid place that we can all meet," she said.

"It's like a little library of people."

And it's not just about the other retailers. Hui says it also gives customers better insight into what they're buying before their purchase, something she believes e-commerce lacks.

"Actually seeing people go, 'Oh my God, it's so cute,' is what really makes me so in love with this kind of place," she said.

Right now, Hui is selling her products only at Moonlight, but she says collective retail is groundbreaking for small businesses and she hopes to get into more collective storefronts in the future.

But the collective retail space isn't new to every small business owner. Lucy Tan owns Lavish the Label, a handmade jewelry company, and she sells her products in two of Calgary's retail collectives.

Tan's jewelry is sold in both Moonlight and another retail collective located in Chinook Centre. She says the collective retail format takes some of the burden off of small business owners.

"It also kind of allows me to grow like the channels at which I distribute, which makes it easier on me," said Tan, adding that not having to spend a whole day standing at a market selling her product is a key benefit of the collective model.

Local business owner Lucy Tan's handmade jewellery is on display at two retail collectives in Calgary, which is something she says helps her save time and money.

Local business owner Lucy Tan's handmade jewelry is on display at two retail collectives in Calgary, which she says helps her save time and money. (Jo Horwood/CBC)

But it's also about growing a business and connecting with people who may not know your products exist.

She says collective retail expedites the process of gaining brand recognition "because there are shoppers who just come into the store already."

And Craig Patterson, the founder and publisher of Retail Insider, agrees.

"People are still physically going into the malls or stores.… So these smaller brands can get a physical presence in a place where people may already be looking for those things."

And the in-person experience offered by a retail storefront is something Patterson believes is making an important comeback.

"More people shifted online during the pandemic to shop, but we've seen online shopping levelling off and we've seen people still going into stores over the holidays," he said.

He says collective retail shops function like a department store. It's like a collaboration involving different products, brands and businesses. However, instead of mass production and big conglomerates, what's attractive about the retail collective is its local vendors with one-of-a-kind products and a low environmental impact, says Patterson.

"A lot of people are kind of tired of the mainstream products you can just get anywhere. If you're looking for something unique, you can go to one of these smaller retailers that's a bit more localized and find something you may not be able to get anywhere else."

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.