UK

'The Post Office Horizon scandal needs making right but this is not the way'

Is the government changing the rules for their own convenience?

 (Credits: Kent Online / SWNS)© Provided by Metro

The prime minister has said new legislation will be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal are ‘swiftly exonerated and compensated’.

There’s no denying that readers want to see the victims of the Horizon scandal receive the justice they deserve. But, as one reader in today’s MetroTalk points out, doesn’t clearing their names via an act of parliament go against the separation of powers?

Meanwhile, if young people can be influenced in favour of the EU, were older voters influenced towards voting Brexit?

Read on to see what readers think about this issue, among others.

Is the government interfering with how justice is carried out?

The decision to use an act of parliament to clear the names and restore the reputations of the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal is not the way to go (Metro, Thu).

The executive and the judiciary are constitutionally separated for good reason – to ensure there is no political interference in how justice is carried out.

This must not change, especially not for the political convenience of people who previously showed no interest in such a major miscarriage of justice. George, via email


Maybe an independent vetting of cases might be in order (Credits: James Veysey/Shutterstock)© Provided by Metro

The monies paid by the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses as they tried to make up non-existent losses reported by the faulty Horizon software went somewhere – where? Who benefited? That money needs returning to the people involved when the compensation is paid. 

Paddy Cawkwell, Doncaster

The Post Office used private prosecutions to punish the innocent sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses.

The chief advantage being that control of cases would be virtually 100 per cent in the Post Office’s favour, mainly because opposition to the PO and its almost bottomless budget would be beyond most defendants’ budget. And remember, some of them had already been bankrupted.

Private prosecutions also suited the company’s machinations very well. They could plea bargain, for instance and easily apply so-called ‘gagging orders’.

Those calling for the PO to be denied future private prosecutions don’t seem to realise they are not just a prerogative of big organisations. Anybody with a few quid can do it.

Famously, the parents of racist murder victim Stephen Lawrence launched a private prosecution against Gary Dobson, Luke Knight and Neil Acourt. The rules are different to those conducted by the Crown Prosecution Service, not least because the burden of proof is generally less.


What is actually required is for businesses to be given no more credibility than individuals.

Maybe an independent vetting of cases might be in order. But it has to be borne in mind that ‘weak’ cases can be perfectly right and proper and should get their day in court.

In this case, it seems the juries were unaware that there was an unprecedented increase in such prosecutions and took an attitude of thinking the PO could not be wrong or the Horizon system be faulty.

 Col Blake, Ealing

How to make sure everyone gets the justice they deserve

Former Post Office sub-postmasters outside the High Court (Picture: Peter MacDiarmid/Shutterstock)© Provided by Metro

Nearly all sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses made good on all sorts of discrepancies with their own money.

The only way to get justice for everyone affected is for every Horizon transaction correction that has ever come through and been settled to cash or cheque between 1999 and 2015 to be paid back
to the relevant sub-postmaster and sub-postmistress.

It seems impossible for the Post Office to prove what was a glitch and what was not while it used the faulty Horizon system. 

Cllr Alastair Redman, Kintyre And The Islands Ward, Former Sub Postmaster For 12 Years On The Island Of Islay

Are we likely to find out how negligent Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey was in not pursuing the Post Office Scandal when he was postal minister?

I think several people could have made a big difference to the outcome had they bothered to stir things up. The evidence was there for the discovering. Molly Neville, Sheffield

I knew that the Post Office senior management culture was malign but even I didn’t imagine that they had in place a system to pay bonuses to the investigators for every internal conviction. 

Robert Boston, Kingshill

Tons of trash clogs a river in Bosnia. It's a seasonal problem that activists want an end to

 Provided by The Canadian Press

VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — With predictable seasonality, tons of garbage floats down a river at least twice a year and ends up near the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad behind a barrier installed by a local hydroelectric plant.

An environmental activist watched as workers removed trash from the river.

“New year, new problems or rather old problems with new garbage floating our way,” Dejan Furtula of the environmental group Eko Centar Visegrad said Wednesday.

Garbage from unauthorized waste dumps dotting the Western Balkans is carried year-round by the Drina River and its tributaries in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro toward Visegrad, and further on to the Danube River, into which the Drina eventually flows.

But during the wet weather of winter and early spring the waterways in the region swell and sweep up such a huge amount of trash from dozens of illegal landfills along their banks that it can't escape the hold of the river fencing installed by the Bosnian hydroelectric plant a few kilometers upstream from its dam near Visegrad.

As the result, at least twice a year and for a few weeks, the fencing turns into the outer edge of a floating accumulation of plastic bottles, rusty barrels, used tires, household appliances, driftwood, dead animals and other waste, putting into plain sight the failure of regional authorities to adopt and enforce adequate environmental quality standards.

Related video: Floating waste dump in Bosnia threatens health, tourism (Reuters

“Once again (since late December), between five and six thousand cubic meters of mixed waste amassed here and the hydroelectric plant workers have been clearing it away,” Furtula said. “Last year, the clearing activities lasted for 11 months, which is to say that the waste keeps coming throughout the year.”\

The Drina River runs 346 kilometers (215 miles) from the mountains of northwestern Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. The Drina and some of its tributaries are known for their emerald color and breathtaking scenery, and a section along the border between Bosnia and Serbia in particular is popular with river rafters.

However, the regular, headline-grabbing reemergence of the floating waste near Visegrad makes marketing the town as an outdoor tourism destination a very difficult job.

“The ghastly sight that greets Visegrad visitors at the entrance to the town is a problem that we cannot solve,” said Olivera Todorovic from the Visegrad Tourism Board.

“Judging by what we hear from tourists, that ugly and sometimes unpleasantly smelling site discourages many visitors from coming to Visegrad,” she added.

Furtula agreed, but argued that problem was much deeper.

Each year, an estimated 10,000 cubic meters of waste is removed from the section of the Drina near Visegrad and taken to the city’s municipal landfill to be burned. The smoke and leachate from the “always burning” landfill are an obvious health hazard, Furtula said.

In March, Eko Centar Visegrad will start taking water samples from the Drina and testing them for pollutants at several locations, including in the vicinity of the city’s municipal landfill.

“Through air, soil and water, all the released toxins (from the landfill) return to the Drina River and I expect its pollution levels to be really, really high,” Furtula said.

Decades after the devastating 1990s wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans lag behind the rest of Europe both economically and with regard to environmental protection.

In addition to river pollution, many countries in the Western Balkans have other environmental woes. One of the most pressing is the extremely high level of air pollution affecting a number of cities in the region.

Western Balkans countries have made little progress in building effective, environmentally sound trash disposal systems despite seeking membership in the European Union and adopting some of the 27-member bloc's laws and regulations.

The environmental problem facing Visegrad is “long term and solving it will be neither easy nor cheap,” Todorovic said. “But we must work on solving it.”

Furtula agreed that there were no quick and simple solutions, but said some measures could be easily taken to alleviate the problem.

“All the municipalities upstream from Visegrad should install trash barriers like the one here and establish their own waste collection teams in order to expedite garbage removal, make it more efficient and also to prevent garbage from sinking to the bottom of the river,” he said.

Eldar Emric, The Associated Press

Liberal MP, Tory offside with federal stance on Bangladesh election fairness

© Provided by The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A Liberal MP and a Conservative senator are offside with the Trudeau government's position on Bangladesh's recent election.

As expected, on Jan. 7 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won her fifth term to lead the South Asian nation.

Officials in Bangladesh invited Ottawa MP Chandra Arya and Sen. Victor Oh to observe the vote which the main opposition party boycotted, arguing the state would not hold a free election.

Development experts have praised Hasina's 15 years in office for maintaining relative stability and pulling citizens out of poverty. Yet Freedom House, a Washington, D.C.-based calls the country "party free," citing "sustained harassment" of opposition politicians, critical media and civil-society groups.

At a press conference in Dhaka the day of the election, both Arya and Oh said it was a credible vote, while acknowledging the boycott and some acts of violence.

"We would like to congratulate the Bangladesh election commission for conducting a very successful, free and fair election," Arya said, adding that they did not witness state agents preventing people from being able to vote.

Sen. Oh added "I would like to commend the election commission of Bangladesh; they are doing a great job (in holding) a fair and free and successful election."

But the next day Canada's high commission in Bangladesh posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Ottawa had not sent any official election observers.

"Any individual who identifies as a Canadian observer is acting independently. Their views have not been endorsed by the Government of Canada."

Global Affairs Canada later released its own statement, saying the vote was not fair.

"Canada expresses its disappointment that this electoral process has fallen short of the principles of democracy and freedom upon which Bangladesh was founded, and calls on the relevant authorities to work transparently with all parties to move forward towards democracy, respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms," the statement reads.

"Fair elections with a viable opposition, independent democratic institutions and freedom of the press are critical to ensuring a strong and healthy democracy."

Reached by phone Thursday, Arya insisted he was only speaking to what he saw the day of the vote, such as whether rigging occurred.

"My thing is not to discuss the entire political process of a particular country; that was not my mandate," he said.

Arya said he met with Canada's high commissioner to Bangladesh during his visit. But he would not say whether he agrees with Global Affairs Canada's stance on the entire election leading up to ballots being cast.

"My thing was limited to seeing whether the election was held in a free and fair manner," he said. "They're going much broader."

Arya said the Bangladesh election commission invited him because of his work in the parliamentary friendship group for both countries, and he said the commission paid for his travel and accommodation.

He met with Hasina to personally congratulate her on the re-election.

"The people of Bangladesh have opted for the stability and certainty her regime has provided during the last many years," he wrote on X. 

Arya described Canada's statement as the type of frank criticism that friends would offer to each other. "I think this is small, in the long-term relationship between Canada and Bangladesh," he said.

University of Ottawa professor Nipa Banerjee, who has extensively researched Bangladesh, says the country is not a full democracy, but it would be "a one-sided picture" to ignore the country's success in pulling people out of poverty much faster than the rest of South Asia.

She said the country has avoided the intense armed conflict seen in much of the region, to the praise of religious minorities, the business sector and other Asian countries. Though Banerjee said corruption and street violence still occur. 

"We can't deny that Bangladesh has created a supermodel for economic growth and development," she said. "I would rather not throw away the baby with the bathwater."

Banerjee said voter turnout on Jan. 7, officially pegged at 41.8 per cent, is low for a region where people tend to be politically conscious. She said this shows democracy in Bangladesh has not been progressing as much as its economic growth, though she says this is hard to assess with the opposition's boycott of the vote.

"The breakdown of the democracy is something that is preventable," said Banerjee, who suggested Canada could offer more support in building up the country's civil sector.

Banerjee added that Bangladesh does a poor job displaying its achievements on the world stage. She said Hasina instead focuses interviews and speeches to bemoan the 1975 assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while he was president of the country. She has repeatedly asked Canada to extradite a man convicted in absentia for her father's murder.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Politicians have 'no role' in police decisions: Freeland on Rebel News arrest

© Provided by The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday she would not weigh in on the recent arrest of a Rebel News personality because politicians have no say in the operational decisions made by police.

David Menzies, a commentator for the online site, was arrested Monday by an RCMP officer providing security for Freeland while Menzies was trying to ask the minister questions outside an event in Richmond Hill, Ont.

A Rebel News video shows Menzies being told he was arrested for assault because he pushed into an officer. In the video, Menzies can be heard saying that the officer was the one who bumped into him.

York Regional Police said Menzies was released unconditionally after it was determined there was no credible security threat. The RCMP said it is "looking into the incident" and the actions of everyone involved.

On Thursday, Freeland told reporters that Canada is a rule of law country and a democracy.

"Operational decisions about law enforcement are taken by the police of jurisdiction," she said at a news conference in Toronto.

"Quite appropriately, political elected officials have no role in the taking of those decisions and that's why I don't have any further comment."

Menzies said in an interview that he believes he was arrested because the Liberals do not like his outlet or its questions.

"It was a very sad state of affairs and it deserves the global and viral coverage that it is getting," he said.

Menzies has been arrested multiple times in interactions with both Liberal and Conservative politicians.

That includes a 2019 arrest in Whitby, Ont., during a campaign stop by former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who is now Opposition House leader. Menzies was arrested after multiple members of Scheer's staff repeatedly asked him to leave and told him he was not welcome to attend the event.

At the time, Scheer told reporters that it was the Conservative party's policy to not give interviews to Rebel News, saying his event was for accredited media only. 

In July 2021 in Thornhill, Ont., Menzies was arrested at an event for Melissa Lantsman, who is now deputy leader of the Conservative party. She was the nominated Conservative candidate at the time.

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Lantsman said in a press release following that episode that Menzies was asking her "homophobic" questions that related to her sexual orientation. She ultimately left the event because she felt unsafe, she said.

Rebel News said at the time that Menzies had not made any homophobic remarks and that he was arrested because of the questions he was asking about her work.

In most of those cases, Rebel News crowdfunded following the arrests for money to "save David Menzies."

But Menzies said he did not set out to get arrested.

Menzies said his most recent arrest got the most attention because of social media.

"It was the biggest story in the world for a few hours at least," he said.

Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, weighed in online, as did English personality Russell Brand who commented on the situation as a man in an "adorable fedora" being "slammed" by police.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also shared news of the arrest on his X account.

"This is the state of freedom of the press. In Canada. In 2024. After 8 years of Trudeau," he posted above the video. In a followup post, Poilievre claimed Menzies was arrested for questioning a Liberal minister. 

Poilievre did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Lantsman or Scheer. 

In Canada, journalistic speech is protected under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and there are very few exemptions, such a libel and defamation, that limit what journalists can say and write.

Marilyn Gladu, the Conservative critic for civil liberties, pushed to have the arrest studied at the House of Commons heritage committee. It failed to get support from other parties. 

Menzies said he does not think it's hypocritical for the Conservatives to come to his defence despite him being arrested at their past events. 

"This wasn't Pierre Poilievre shutting down the process of journalism. So until he does it, I can't complain about him or condemn him," Menzies said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024. 

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press

Rebel News personality arrested while trying to question Chrystia Freeland

Guyana rejects quest for US military base as territorial dispute with Venezuela deepens



GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana's Attorney General Anil Nandlall said Thursday that Guyana’s government has reassured neighboring Venezuela there is no plan for the U.S. to establish a military base in the South American country and that it has not made a formal request for one.

Nandlall spoke to The Associated Press days after Daniel P. Erikson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere, visited Guyana and one day after Guyanese officials announced they were seeking help from the U.S. to improve its defense capabilities.

Nandlall and other officials in Guyana have sought to temper tensions with Venezuela over a disputed region known as Essequibo rich in oil and minerals that represents two-thirds of Guyana and that Venezuela claims as its own.

“We have not been approached by the United States to establish a military base in Guyana,” said Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, adding that the government does not conduct public policy at press conferences.

Erikson visited just weeks after a long-standing dispute over Guyana’s Essequibo region deepened, with Venezuela holding a referendum in December to claim sovereignty over the area.

Related video: Guyana says it refuses to bow to Venezuela in territorial dispute 

(The Associated Press)

Nandlall told the AP that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro remains “convinced that Guyana could host” a U.S. military base. He said Maduro raised the issue when he attended an emergency mediation meeting in St. Vincent last month to talk about the territorial dispute with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.

“(Ali) reiterated that this is not so, but we will encourage cooperation with our allies in defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Nandlall said

Guyana and Venezuela have agreed to refrain from using force, but the dispute continues, with Venezuela insisting that Essequibo was part of its territory during the Spanish colonial period, and that a 1966 agreement nullified a brder drawn in 1899 by international arbitrators.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Bert Wilkinson, The Associated Press

Posthaste: What closing door to temporary residents could do to Canada's economy — it's not good

Story by Pamela Heaven • 

A pedestrian walks past a 'Help Wanted' sign in downtown Toronto. Cutting off the arrival of temporary residents to Canada could hurt the economy, Desjardins warns.© Provided by Financial Post

Posthaste: Ontario job seekers are increasingly looking for work in other provinces

Canada now boasts one of the fastest growing populations in the world, but that growth has also brought concerns.

The nation has looked to immigration to boost the economy, replace aging workers and fill labour gaps, but there has also been criticism that this surge of newcomers is straining resources and exacerbating Canada’s housing crisis .

Ottawa has acknowledged these concerns and last November decided against hiking immigration targets and in December, increased the cost-of-living requirement for foreign students .

But a new report by Desjardins cautions that there could be economic repercussions if the arrival of newcomers is cut off too quickly.

“Closing the door to temporary newcomers would deepen the recession expected in 2024 and blunt the subsequent recovery,” Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics, wrote in the report.

Much of Canada’s population growth comes from non-permanent residents, temporary foreign workers and students. In 2022 their numbers outpaced permanent residents for the first time, said Bartlet

Desjardins’ baseline case assumes there will be half as many non-permanent residents in 2024 as last year, and half as many again in 2025. The numbers begin to gradually rise in 2026.

The working-age population will grow an average of 1.8 per cent a year from 2023 to 2028 with real GDP growth averaging 1.5 per cent a year.

While the slowing economy will naturally lead to a decrease in temporary residents, the numbers could also change abruptly due to government policy, said Bartlett.

“Some of this is playing out in real time now, with new restrictions on foreign student admissions and work permits announced recently,” he said.

With this in mind Desjardins calculated two alternative scenarios: one in which non-permanent residents fall to zero in each year of the projection and one in which they arrive at double the pace.

In the first scenario, population growth slows to 1.5 per cent between 2023 and 2028, and real GDP falls “considerably” below the baseline. The short and shallow recession that Desjardins expects in the first half of 2024 is doubled in length.


In the second scenario, population growth averages 2.1 per cent a year and real GDP rises above the baseline, leading to a milder downturn and possibly avoiding a recession altogether.

One downside would be elevated inflation, which could keep the Bank of Canada holding interest rates higher for longer.



Desjardins

The wildcard in Canada’s population growth is non-permanent residents, said Bartlett.

“While we anticipate the flow of these newcomers to slow, how much it slows will have material impacts for Canada’s economic growth, both in the near and long term,” he said.

“Caution is warranted on the part of policymakers to minimize the economic downside of slowing the pace of newcomer arrivals too quickly.”


However, Bartlett acknowledges that it is a difficult balance to achieve and provincial and municipal governments carry the brunt of the burden because of their direct role in delivering services to the growing population.

“Maintaining the current pace of newcomer arrivals will erode housing affordability further in the absence of a monumental increase in the supply of homes,” he said.


Posthaste: Canada's housing market headed for 'historic correction,' says RBC

BMO Economics

It’s no secret psychology plays a big role in real estate, and today’s chart from BMO maps Canadians’ moods over some turbulent times.

Surveys show expectations of home price gains have ebbed and flowed along with the Bank of Canada since the pandemic, says BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic — from the euphoria of “rates will remain low for a long time” in 2020 to the crushing onset of interest rates hikes in 2022.

The Bank’s hiking cycle is widely seen as over now, which Kavcic says is an important milestone because buyers know the worst case scenario on rates and can plan accordingly.

Market psychology will also get a boost from markets and pundits predicting rate cuts this year.

“If the job market holds up, we could see housing activity firm up notably this spring,” said Kavcic.

Penny Black: ‘First’ piece of mail sent using a stamp could fetch up to $2.5 million at auction

Story by By Issy Ronald, CNN •

The first known piece of mail sent using a prepaid stamp — “one of the greatest leaps forward in human communication” — could fetch between $1.5 million and $2.5 million when it comes up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York next month.

If the piece realizes its estimate, Sotheby’s said it would become one of the most valuable pieces of postal history to have ever been auctioned

Dated May 2, 1840, the letter’s original recipient was William Blenkinsop Jr., the 35-year-old manager of a Victorian iron works in Bedlington, a town in the north of England. Sotheby’s state that all that’s known about the letter’s sender is that they posted the missive in London — about 300 miles to the south — and paid for it with the Penny Black stamp.


The envelope was resent as a Mulready. - Sotheby's© Provided by CNN

After receiving the letter, Blenkinsop Jr. turned the envelope inside out and refashioned it as a “Mulready” – an ornate wrapper embellished with images representing the British Empire that acted as another method of prepaid payment introduced at the same time as the Penny Black.

That second envelope reached a Mr. Blenkinsop, most likely his father, who lived 75 miles away in Dalston, Carlisle and kept it, although the contents of both letters themselves have been lost.

“Surviving over 180 years, the ornate Mulready envelope sealed with a Penny Black revolutionized the way people from all walks of life correspond, exchange ideas, share news and express themselves,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, said in a statement.

“At the dawn of the AI age, this remarkable object speaks to our innate human desire for connection and the ways in which it has evolved to new heights in the two centuries since.”



The Penny Black stamp revolutionized the postal service. - 

Sotheby's© Provided by CNN

Both sides of the envelope still bear the stamped dates on which they were sent, the first on May 2, 1840 and the second on May 4, two days before the official start date of the Penny Black.

Teacher and social reformer Sir Rowland Hill conceived the idea for the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive stamp, to standardize the complex, expensive and unpredictable postal rates at the time, that were paid for by the recipient.


The system was unwieldy for both those using it and the postal service, who could sometimes not recover the costs of delivering items if the person receiving them did not pay.

While the stamp was wildly successful and subsequently adopted worldwide, the Mulready envelope was withdrawn after it was ridiculed by the public.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Tesla is raising factory worker pay as auto union tries to organize its electric vehicle plants

DETROIT (AP) — Factory workers at Tesla have been told to expect pay raises this year, a move that comes as the United Auto Workers union tries to organize the electric vehicle maker's U.S. plants.

The UAW said Thursday that Tesla workers have told the union about company statements on the raises, which did not give details about the size of the increases.

After winning strong contracts with Detroit's three automakers last year, the union has embarked on an effort to organize all nonunion auto plants in the U.S., including Tesla's assembly and battery factories in Texas, California and Nevada.

The Tesla raises come after nearly all companies with nonunion auto plants announced worker pay increases shortly after the UAW contracts were ratified.

The UAW said its organizing drive will target more than a dozen U.S. plants run by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo. Tesla also is on the list, along with EV startups Rivian and Lucid.

UAW President Shawn Fain has called the raises at nonunion automakers the “UAW bump," saying that they were given in an effort to thwart union organizing efforts.

“As great as these raises are, they still fall far short of what the companies can afford and what autoworkers are worth,” Fain said in a statement Thursday.

Related video: Tesla Hiking Pay for All US Factory Workers (Bloomberg)

A message was left Thursday seeking comment from Tesla, which is based in Austin, Texas.

Tesla production workers, material handlers and quality inspectors will get a “market adjustment” pay raise, according to Bloomberg News, which reported the raises early Thursday.

The UAW said this week that over 30% of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have signed cards authorizing a vote on union representation.

The action at Mercedes comes after more than 1,000 workers at Volkswagen’s Tennessee factory signed similar cards authorizing a vote.

The union says its strategy includes calling for an election at factories when about 70% of the workers sign up. A union can seek an election run by the National Labor Relations Board once a majority of workers support it.

The UAW pacts with General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis include 25% pay raises by the time the contracts end in April of 2028. With cost-of-living increases, workers will see about 33% in raises for a top assembly wage of $42 per hour, plus annual profit sharing, the union said.

Tesla also has found itself locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with union workers in Sweden and neighboring countries. The electric car maker’s CEO Elon Musk is staunchly anti-union.

The Associated Press

Virtual ERs are controversial, but in rural Newfoundland, one has saved a life

 The Canadian Press

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The 12-bed hospital in New-Wes-Valley, N.L. — population 2,000 — found itself at the centre of a heated debate about staff shortages in rural health care when the province signed a contract to staff its emergency department virtually.

Mayor Mike Tiller, a paramedic, is not completely sold on the idea of having doctors hundreds of kilometres away responsible for urgent care of his town's residents, but a recent experience has convinced him the virtual ER can save lives.

Tiller says a patient who came to the Dr. Y.K. Jeon Kittiwake Health Centre in cardiac distress was able to get a life-saving injection thanks to a virtual emergency doctor, who teamed with on-site health professionals such as nurses or paramedics to provide treatment. The injection broke up blood clots and kept the patient alive so he could be transferred to a larger hospital in Gander, about an hour and a half away, and then airlifted to St. John's, Tiller said in a recent interview.

Without the virtual emergency room, the hospital would have been closed, Tiller said.

"It will save lives," Tiller said about the town's virtual emergency room. "It's not ideal. It's not what we hope is a permanent solution … but it's saving lives, which is what it's there for."

Like many rural hospitals across Canada, the New-Wes-Valley health centre has been plagued by closures because there were no doctors or nurses to keep it open. It currently has one doctor on staff who does not cover the emergency room, Tiller said. Normally, the facility would have six doctors, all sharing emergency duties.

Tiller said the hospital was closed so much at the beginning of last year, he was worried it would be shut down for good.

In an effort to keep these centres open, the Newfoundland and Labrador government has offered more money to doctors working in rural hospitals, flown in temporary doctors, and introduced virtual services where patients in smaller, unstaffed hospitals could speak to physicians in larger facilities.

In November, the province signed a two-year, $22-million contract with Teladoc Health, which is headquartered in New York state, to build a more robust "virtual care solution" for rural emergency rooms and for patients who need primary care but don't have a family doctor. 

The move signalled that virtual care would play a more prominent role in the government's efforts to keep rural hospitals open. The contract, obtained by The Canadian Press, says Teladoc would offer its services in up to five rural emergency rooms beginning in November, and up to 20 rural emergency departments beginning in March. It began operating in the New-Wes-Valley hospital in late November.

In its proposal to Newfoundland and Labrador health officials, the company says it has a pool of 350 physicians licensed to practise in Canada. Doctors working virtual emergency rooms will reside outside the province but be licensed to work there, the company said. They will keep rural emergency departments open seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

"Teladoc Health’s vision is to make virtual care the first step on any health-care journey," the document said.

The company has since expanded its virtual emergency services into two more rural hospitals, said a statement Thursday from Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. As of Dec. 31, 172 patients had sought urgent or emergency care across the three facilities, and ten were transferred to larger hospitals.

Staff shortages are driving a record number of rural emergency room closures across Canada, and more provinces are turning to virtual care to keep them open, said Dr. Trevor Jain, an emergency physician in Prince Edward Island and a spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. The approach is not without its risks, he said.

"I've heard this argument before, that some care is better than no care. But some care can cause harm if not done properly," Jain said in an interview. Virtual care is "extremely expensive," he added, and officials often turn to it as a "quick fix" without addressing the larger problems.

Ultimately, virtual care would work best in a hybrid situation, alongside on-site emergency physicians in well-staffed hospitals, Jain said. He added that provinces must keep working to train and recruit physicians and nurses who will work in rural emergency rooms and to shore up health-care systems outside of emergency rooms.

Dr. Jan Sommers agrees. In an ideal system, she said, virtual care would be primarily used to help during surge times in emergency departments that are already well staffed. Sommers is the head of emergency at Nova Scotia's Colchester East Hants Health Centre, which piloted the VirtualEmergencyNS system. Like the Teladoc system, it uses virtual physicians with on-site health professionals who act as the doctor's hands.

However, the physicians with VirtualEmergencyNS either work in Nova Scotia or have experience there, she said.

Virtual care as it's used today in Canada is relatively new — it emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic — and there are still questions about its use, Sommers said.

"Virtual care will never replace face-to-face care, and nor should it," she said. "But I do think that it definitely is going to be a piece of the solution for health care going forward."

In New-Wes-Valley, Tiller said he's grateful the hospital is open and saving lives, but virtual care still has its drawbacks. For example, patients who arrive at the town's virtual emergency room and need extended care still have to be transferred to Gander, and patients using virtual care for regular checkups see a different doctor for each visit.

"We want to have our doctors here," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

'Cutting the heck' out of Canada's boreal forest has put caribou at risk

Story by Benjamin Shingler • CBC

Canada is home to the largest boreal forest in the world, a vast expanse of wilderness rich in biodiversity that stretches from coast to coast.

But a major new study examining nearly a half century of logging in Ontario and Quebec warns that clear-cutting has left forests in the provinces severely depleted — and puts woodland caribou at risk.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the academic journal Land, found that logging practices between 1976 and 2020 have resulted in the loss of more than 14 million hectares of forest, an area roughly twice the size of New Brunswick.

There are only 21 million hectares of older forest (defined as forests 100 years or older) remaining in the region.

"We have been cutting the heck out of the boreal forest," said Jay Malcolm, a professor emeritus of forestry at the University of Toronto, and one of the authors of the study, conducted by researchers in Canada and Australia.

The researchers calculated that older forests make up only 42 per cent of the forest area, and most of the remaining older forest is in the remote north.

"It's very frightening. It was startling to see how little is left and how badly fragmented it is," said Malcolm.

Caribou herds under threat

Using satellite imagery and government data, the study found that only eight patches of older forest greater than 500 square kilometres are still intact in Ontario and Quebec.

The patchwork of remaining older forests threatens the survival of woodland caribou, which require large areas of undisturbed habitat for their survival.


Nearly all remaining caribou herds in Ontario and Quebec — 19 of 21 — are considered at "high risk" or "very high risk" because of disturbances to their habitat.

Environmental groups have been calling for more stringent measures to protect the dwindling caribou population.

"This paper shows that our logging practices are not, in fact, sustainable," said Rachel Plotkin, boreal project manager with the David Suzuki Foundation.

"What caribou need is to have the habitat that they depend upon protected and where it's already been degraded, to have it restored."



An aerial view shows an area of the boreal forest in Quebec where trees were felled during salvage logging efforts following an insect outbreak near Baie-Comeau, Que., in August 2022. A recent study, published in the academic journal Land, found that logging practices since 1976 have resulted in the loss of more than 14 million hectares of boreal forest, an area roughly twice the size of New Brunswick. 

(Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)© Provided by cbc.ca

Caribou feed on lichen, which grow on the floor of older forests. Plotkin said the disappearance of those feeding grounds and an expanding network of logging roads that make it easier for predators like wolves to track caribou have contributed to their decline.

According to Plotkin, the federal government hasn't done enough to manage the problem.

"Even if only one per cent of a forest is cut annually, Canada will say, 'Don't worry, we're unlocking one per cent of our forest every year.' But in 100 years the entire forest is going to be logged," she said.

Forests planted after logging are more limited in the variety of species they contain and don't have the attributes that favour caribou, like a floor rich in lichen, she said.

"We're not managing our forests so that they have old growth, and the roads that are used by forestry operations will be the lasting legacy that impact wildlife species like caribou."

In a statement, Natural Resources Canada said it is "committed to the protection" of at-risk species, including caribou.

"The government continues to work with provinces, territories, Indigenous peoples and stakeholders," the statement said.



A map prepared for the study features orange areas to indicates places that have been logged in Ontario and Quebec since 1976. The turquoise represents areas where the forest is at least 100 years old.

 (Griffith Climate Action Beacon/Griffith University)© Provided by cbc.ca

Quebec plan coming

Logging practices fall under provincial jurisdiction, but provinces must comply with federal environmental regulations.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has been critical of Ontario and Quebec for not doing enough to protect caribou habitat. He has threatened to use the Species At Risk Act, which includes a seldom-used provision that allows Ottawa to impose stricter rules on provinces.


Amélie Moffet, a spokesperson for Quebec's environment minister, told CBC News a caribou protection plan is coming soon, with the goal of reducing human disturbance on herds.

In Ontario, forestry companies are required to demonstrate that their operations will not adversely affect the amount and arrangement of caribou habitat over a long period of time, said Marcela Mayo, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources.

"Forest management activities are required to follow a comprehensive forest management plan."
'The most magical animal'

Valérie Courtois, executive director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, a national conservation and stewardship organization, questioned whether the current management practices are enough.

"We have a tendency as a Western culture to want to maximize our economic opportunities when we engage with natural resources," she said.



A caribou is seen in Gaspé, Que. The province has promised a stronger approach to protecting the animals, which require large areas of undisturbed habitat for their survival. 

(Denis Desjardins/SEPAQ)© Provided by cbc.ca

"What we're seeing with caribou is an early warning sign, and it behooves us to listen to that warning sign because the reality is that this will happen to other species."

Courtois is a member of the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, located on the shore of Peikuakami, or Lac-St-Jean, Que., about 200 kilometres north of Quebec City. She has seen the George River caribou herd, which roams between eastern Quebec and Labrador, up close.

"They're beautiful," she said of caribou. "It's not an accident that it's featured on our quarter. I think caribou is the most majestic, the most magical animal I know."