Israeli journalist criticizes West Bank ‘apartheid’ at Berlin film festival ceremony

"I am Israeli; Basel is Palestinian. And in two days we will go back to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said.

By TOBY AXELROD/JTA

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Israel Apartheid Week at Columbia University.(photo credit: Courtesy)

An Israeli journalist says he has been receiving death threats after winning two major prizes at the Berlinale International Film Festival for his documentary about Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians from their West Bank villages.

The prizes were awarded during the film festival’s closing ceremony, during which multiple filmmakers — including a Jewish American — spoke out against Israel’s war in Gaza. Some called Israel’s actions a “genocide,” a common charge among pro-Palestinian activists that Israel vigorously denies and that Berlin’s mayor condemned.

The Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, spoke out about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Abraham was part of the team behind “No Other Land,” about Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages whose land Israel has sought to use as a military zone. In 2022, after a two-decade legal battle, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel had the right to the land and that the roughly 2,000 Palestinians living there could be forced to leave.

'Emergency gov't isn't stable': MK Deri discusses hostage deal, cabinet leaks, and wartime cabine

The documentary, a Palestinian-Norwegian coproduction, focuses on the Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who, together with Abraham, has documented Israel’s demolition of houses in his region. The film does not focus on the conflict’s broader context, concentrating on the view from inside the village.

On Sunday, “No Other Land” won the Berlinale’s best documentary award and the Panorama Audience Award, determined by the votes from 24,000 audience members.

Buildings in the Palestinian village of Nazlat Isa near Tulkarm, West Bank

 (credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)

In his acceptance speech, Abraham, who reports for left-wing publications in Israel and beyond, offered a harsh critique of Israel’s West Bank occupation.

“We are standing in front of you now, me and Basel are the same age. I am Israeli; Basel is Palestinian. And in two days we will go back to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said.

“I am living under a civilian law and Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights. Basel is not having voting rights. I’m free to move where I want in this land. Basel is, like millions of Palestinians, locked in the occupied West Bank,” he continued. “This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end.”

Adra, meanwhile, denounced what he said was Israel’s “massacre” of Palestinians and Germany’s arms sales to Israel.

The documentary received coverage by Israeli media

The Israeli news network Kann, Israel’s public broadcaster, aired a segment about Abraham’s comments in which the network characterized his comments as “antisemitic.” In the segment, the Israeli film critic Ron Fogel said he was uncomfortable because of the criticism dealt to Israel at the film festival.

“Israel’s channel 11 aired this 30 second segment from my speech, insanely called it ‘antisemitic’ — and I’ve been receiving death threats since,” Abraham tweeted late Sunday. “I stand behind every word.”

The award came as Israel has drawn international criticism over its war in Gaza and as Israeli lawmakers approve the construction of thousands of new West Bank settlement homes for the first time in years, despite U.S. opposition.

A “No Other Land” screening at the Berlinale drew protesters who shouted “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free,” a statement criminalized in Germany because it is understood by many as calling for Israel’s destruction.

When another audience member praised the film, made by a team of Israelis and Palestinians, as an effort to “stop this cycle of horrible violence, which includes a horrible massacre of thousands of Jews by Hamas,” he was shouted down.

There were several other anti-Israel protests at the festival. Reportedly, some audience members held up “Free Gaza” signs at the opening gala; and on Feb. 18, a few dozen protesters unfurled a banner at the European Film Market that read, “Lights, Camera, Genocide.” At the closing event, several artists used their speaking slots to denounce the war and call for a ceasefire, including the American filmmaker Eliza Hittman, who won a prestigious prize at the festival in 2020.

“As a Jewish filmmaker who won the Silver Bear in 2020, it is important for me to be here,” she said, adding, “There is no just war, and the more people try to convince themselves there’s a just war, the more they commit a grotesque act of self-deception.”

The American filmmaker Ben Russell wore a keffiyeh, or Arab scarf often used to signify support for Palestinian, to the ceremony, where he won a prize for a film about French environmental activists that he co-directed.

Berlinale organizers rejected calls from some curators and artists to issue an official ceasefire call. But during the festival’s closing, its social media account briefly displayed antiwar messages. Festival officials said the account had been hacked and that they planned to file criminal charges in response to the incident.

“From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present — we have always been on the wrong side of history,” said one message, which was quickly deleted but preserved in screenshots that circulated online. “But it’s not too late to change our future.”

Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, called the comments at the closing ceremony an “intolerable relativization.” He tweeted, “Antisemitism has no place in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene.”

The film festival was also home to an effort to promote constructive conversation about the Israel-Hamas war, through a “Tiny House” initiative operated by an Israeli and a Palestinian living in Germany that aims to create a safe space for dialogue.

EU’s top diplomat says Israeli government ‘facilitated the development of Hamas’

Josep Borrell questions why Tel Aviv freed Hamas leaders but not peaceful Fatah leaders in 2011 prisoner exchange

Alyssa Mcmurtry |27.02.2024 -

AA

OVIEDO, Spain

The European Union’s top diplomat criticized Israel on Monday for facilitating the Palestinian group Hamas instead of working toward a viable two-state solution.

“I’m not saying he (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) wrote them a check, but he’s facilitated the development of Hamas,” said Josep Borrell, speaking at the Next Educación business school in Madrid.

“Israel has bet on the division of Palestinians, creating a force to oppose (the) Fatah (movement),” he said, saying Netanyahu has publicly stated this strategy.

“When there was a moment of prisoner exchange, the Israeli government released a founder of Hamas and the man who orchestrated the Oct. 7 attacks. But it never released the leaders of Fatah, who want a peaceful and negotiated solution,” he said.

“This is the objective reality. Interpret it as you wish.”

In 2011, the Israeli government struck a deal with Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners.

Borrell also referred to his recent trip to the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Brazil. He said that there, “every single country” said the only “solution to guarantee peace and stability in the Middle East is the two-state solution.”

However, he slammed Netanyahu’s government for doing all that they could to block it for the last 30 years.

“The Israeli government says what it doesn’t want. But it doesn’t say what it wants. What’s their solution besides a security guarantee? But do they want security solely based on military means? Frankly, I think there are better solutions,” he said, pointing to the need for a Palestinian state.

Borrell also expressed the unprecedented nature of Israel’s demands.

“Israel asks Palestine to guarantee its security. Fair enough. But Israel is the occupying force. This is the first time I heard of an occupier asking the occupied country for security guarantees. Usually it's the other way around,” he said.

At the same time, Borrell acknowledged that Israel does need security guarantees in this situation.

“And Palestinians need to have the possibility to organize themselves politically in a territory and sign a peace agreement that’s not just between Israel and Arab states,” he added.

Borrell, 76, is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and has been serving as the EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since December 2019.

UK

Charlotte Church denies antisemitism accusations after leading choir in pro-Palestinian chant

The singer has previously been vocal about her support for Palestine and said she plans to organise more charity events in the future.

Monday 26 February 2024 22:39,

Charlotte Church at a pro-Palestinian protest in Cardiff in January. Pic: AP


Welsh singer Charlotte Church has said she is in "no way antisemitic" after taking part in a concert which featured a controversial pro-Palestinian chant.

Church led a choir of approximately 100 people in a rendition of "from the river to the sea" at a gig she co-organised with a Welsh choir in order to raise money for charity, the Middle East Children's Alliance.

But the singer faced a backlash after using the chant, which is viewed by some pro-Israel supporters as a way to call for the eradication of the Israeli state.

Some pro-Palestinian supporters reject this, saying it is simply expressing the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.

In a live broadcast on Instagram on Monday, Church addressed "alarmist" reports relating to the Big Sing for Palestine event in Caerphilly.

"Just to clarify my intentions there, I am in no way antisemitic. I am fighting for the liberation of all people. I have a deep heart for all religions and all difference," she said.

"It was a beautiful, beautiful event. But unfortunately the powers that be can't have that. [They] can't have such a powerful symbol of resistance as what we worked towards on Saturday."

'I would do it again 100 times'

The 38-year-old confirmed the event had ended with a chant of the words "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" but claimed it is not antisemitic.

She said: "Clearly, if you know the history of it all, [it is] not an antisemitic chant calling for the obliteration of Israel. It is not that in any way shape or form. It is calling for the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians."

Church said "lots of other beautiful songs… of liberation and freedom" were performed at the event, including Arabic songs, Welsh songs, and South African songs from the anti-Apartheid movement, which had lyrics "adapted to the situation in Palestine".

Appearing on the Novara Live political podcast later on Monday, Church said she stands by everything they sang at the event.

"It was a deeply spiritual experience for me and I would do it again 100 times - and plan to," she said.

The singer has previously been vocal about her support for Palestine.

Last month, she said she "is in tears daily" after watching videos that come out of the territory, adding that she would "fight like a lioness for their liberation".

The charity, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, described the chant as "genocidal," as it refers to the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, saying it "only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the world's only Jewish state".

'From the river to the sea' explained

Responding to Church, a spokesperson for the charity said: "Singing From The River To The Sea is not standing up for human rights.

"At... worst Charlotte Church is using the voice for which she is so well known to fan the flames of hatred.

"You cannot stoop lower than using your stardom to teach kids to sing extremist lyrics in a village hall.

"We will be writing to the Charity Commission to ask them to investigate how this was allowed to take place on a charity's premises."

Countless commissions but still no answers on Sri Lanka’s disappearances of Tamils

 26 February 2024

(Tamil families of the disappeared in Kilinochchi are marking seven years of continuous roadside protests, as they demand to know the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared family members)

Marking 7 years of continuous protests by Tamil families of the disappeared, a statement from a coalition of organisations recalled how countless Sri Lankan government commissions have been appointed but none have brought answers or served justice, with many still to publish their findings.

Releasing a statement to mark the anniversary the International Trust and Justice Project, the Center for Human Rights and Development, Women’s Action Network and families of the disappeared noted that “victims say justice and accountability remains elusive”.

“Sri Lankan victims have lost count of the number of government commissions established to look into gross violations of human rights, as yet another one is about to be established,” said the organisations. “The Truth, Unity, and Reconciliation Commission is the latest in a line of at least 36 commissions established by the Government of Sri Lanka to look for the truth.”

The communique lists at least 36 past commissions set up by the Sri Lankan Government – more than a third of which never even published their reports. Additionally, very few are even displayed on any government website, despite being for a large part digitized. The organisations said it found only a handful of copies, approximately half - 11 - of the 22 published reports of past commissions.

“This raises serious concerns about the Sri Lankan President’s latest accountability initiative,” said the statement. “The first step towards truth would surely be for the Presidential website to acknowledge and endorse the content of past government investigations by publishing them online. In the spirit of truth, this should include reports that name the President, like the Batalanda Commission, which concluded inter alia that the torture and detention at the Batalanda torture site couldn't happen without Ranil Wickremesinghe’s knowledge.”

“We remember the 240 relatives who died tragically without learning the truth about their loved one's fate,” said the ITJP. “And we stand in solidarity with thousands of victims, witnesses, and human rights defenders in the country who are exhausted after spending decades already establishing the truth about different atrocities.”

The full statement is accessible here. 

Tamil families of the disappeared held black flags and photographs of their loved ones as they marched in Kilinochchi calling on the government to investigate and prosecute those responsible, as they marked seven years of protest last week. Read more here.

 

Related Articles: 

20 February 2024 : 7 years of continuous protest and still no justice - Tamil families of the disappeared rally in Kilinochchi

 

The Big Story

Why tech companies are laying off thousands

Major technology companies have cut thousands of jobs since the start of 2024 as the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and interest rates upend the tech sector.

© AP Photo

While the U.S. job market remains remarkably strong on the whole, tech companies have cut nearly 40,000 jobs in the first two months of 2024, according to Layoffs.fyi.   Cisco announced plans earlier this month to lay off about 4,250 employees, while PayPal said last month that it would cut about 2,500 jobs.   Microsoft also said it would lay off about 1,900 workers in its gaming unit in late January, shortly after eBay announced that it would cut about 1,000 jobs.   “A lot of this is really the shift and spend toward the AI revolution, which is the biggest tech trend we’ve seen since the start of the internet in 1995,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.    A year of explosive growth in AI is likely a key factor in the latest layoffs, experts told The Hill, as companies invest in developing the transformative technology.   “Every product division … is experimenting with how to incorporate AI into their business model and their products and their functions,” said Daniel Keum, an associate professor of management at Columbia Business School.   “That’s why you’re seeing they’re letting go some of the developers that are not related to AI, and they’re hiring new talents and people with expertise on AI,” he continued, adding, “You’re seeing a lot of reorientation, reprioritizing, repositioning across the board.”   Following the launch of the popular AI-powered ChatGPT tool in November 2022, tech companies have raced to develop and release their own AI models and tools.   Google launched its AI chatbot Bard last February, while Meta released its open-source model Llama 2 for research and commercial use in July.     The tech sector has also been hit hard by whiplash from years of near-zero interest rates and boon in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.   Interest rates, which the Federal Reserve raised to a two-decade high over the past two years, have posed a particular challenge for tech companies, said ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak.   Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

Column: Trumponomics? He would impose the equivalent of a huge tax hike


Doyle McManus
Mon, February 26, 2024

Former President Trump calls himself a "Tariff Man." But economists say his tariff proposals would take money out of consumers' pockets.

 (Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

If Donald Trump becomes president again, one of his first moves will take money out of your pocket just as a tax hike would.

Trump hasn't outlined much of an economic program, but he has promised to impose a massive increase in tariffs on imports from almost all foreign countries — everything from bananas and baby formula to computer chips and machine parts.

And that’s the equivalent of a tax hike, because the costs of tariffs are paid almost entirely by the buyers of imported goods, whether they are Walmart shoppers or U.S. businesses that rely on foreign components.

Trump boasts that the tariffs he imposed in 2018 and 2019 brought billions of dollars into the Treasury, and promises a similar revenue increase in a second term. “The United States will make an absolute FORTUNE,” his campaign website says.

Here’s the problem: Contrary to what the former president seems to think, tariffs aren’t paid by foreign companies or governments. They’re initially paid by the U.S. companies that import the goods, but those importers almost always pass the cost on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Read more: Consumers are already seeing price hikes from the last round of Trump’s tariffs

This time, Trump is proposing a “universal” tariff of 10% on goods from every country in the world. He has also mused about megatariffs of more than 60% that he wants to slap on China in hopes of forcing Beijing to lower its tariffs and treat U.S. companies fairly.

Economists say that either of those proposed tariffs would produce price increases and push inflation upward.

That’s why traditional free-trade Republicans like Nikki Haley and Mike Pence think Trump’s proposal is a bad idea, as does almost every practicing economist.

“It’s lunacy,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

But wait — there’s more.

Read more: Trump claims his criminal indictments boosted his appeal to Black voters

Those increased costs would hit low-income people hardest, because they spend a larger share of their income on goods.

“If baby formula goes up 25%, low-income earners will feel it more than people on Wall Street,” Posen said. “The burden of the tax falls disproportionately on poor people.”

And when the United States imposes tariffs, the targeted country almost always reciprocates.

“They’re not just going to roll over,” Posen said. “And they’re going to be strategic; they’ll pick industries where the U.S. will lose huge market share, because the retaliatory tariffs will drive the price of American products up.”

Read more: Trump as the candidate of stability? That's how many voters now see it

We have recent experience with all of these problems, thanks to Trump’s earlier tariffs. Take California almonds, the state’s most valuable export crop.

Until 2018, China bought almost all its almonds from California. But after Trump slapped tariffs on a range of Chinese products that year, China retaliated with tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports, including nuts.

California almond sales plummeted, and Australian growers rushed in to fill the gap. In a report for the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, economists Sandro Steinbach and Colin A. Carter calculated that the episode cost the state’s almond growers about $875 million in lost income.

Other U.S. exporters to China, from soybean farmers to truck manufacturers, took similar hits.

Those costs might have been tolerable if the tariffs had accomplished their main goal, which was to protect and promote manufacturing jobs in the United States.

But they didn’t. A slew of economic studies found that Trump’s tariffs had little or no positive effect on the industries they were designed to protect — and that the negative consequences for the economy resulted in a net loss of jobs.

“Import tariffs on foreign goods neither raised nor lowered U.S. employment in newly-protected sectors,” a team of economists led by David Autor of MIT reported last month.

For example, Trump wanted to protect steel industry jobs from foreign competition, but his tariffs on foreign-made steel didn’t help much. By the end of his presidency in 2021, the steel industry had lost several thousand jobs.

Read more: Trump's steel tariffs were supposed to save the industry. They made things worse

Meanwhile, those tariffs hurt the more numerous jobs in industries that buy foreign-made steel, including automakers and appliance manufacturers.

“For every one steel-producing job, we have about 80 steel-consuming jobs,” Erica York of the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation noted. “All those industries got hit by higher costs, and many of them lost jobs ” — about 75,000 total positions, according to one study.

But Trump’s tariffs had an important side effect, Autor and his colleagues reported.

“Despite the trade war’s failure to generate substantial job gains, it appears to have benefited the Republican Party" in the Rust Belt, the economists wrote.

Trump "may have garnered support from voters who were skeptical about the favorable economic consequences of tariffs, but who appreciated [his] intention to confront Chinese competition and protect U.S. jobs," they wrote.

Trump has long described himself as a “Tariff Man” — convinced, in his words, that protectionism “will always be the best way to max out our economic power.”

He’s wrong about that.

The new tariffs he’s proposed won’t save the economy. But they may help Trump win industrial states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin — and that may have been the point all along.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Canadian cities 'not gatekeepers': Head of mayors' group pushes back on Poilievre

The Canadian Press
Mon, February 26, 2024 



OTTAWA — The president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities says his members are community builders and not gatekeepers, a term Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has commonly used to attack municipal bureaucrats.

Scott Pearce made the comment at a news conference the federation held in Ottawa ahead of the spring budget, as the group calls for more federal infrastructure spending.

In response to a question on Poilievre's proposed housing plan, Pearce appeared to reject the Conservative leader's accusation that cities are standing in the way of home building.

He says regardless of who is in power federally, municipalities will need more infrastructure spending to ramp up home construction.

Municipalities have been warning that their communities can't build enough homes to match population growth without more money for things like pipes and roads.

In his housing plan, Poilievre has promised to tie federal dollars to the rate of home building and withhold funding from cities that fail to ramp up construction by 15 per cent each year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Extremely rare’ treasure found at forgotten ancient Roman settlement in UK. See it

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, February 26, 2024 

Scoop by scoop, archaeologists sifted through the tan-brown dirt of the United Kingdom and dumped it into a bucket. They were excavating the ruins of a medieval coastal community.

But their search revealed a different lost settlement — one with an “extremely rare” treasure.

Archaeologists unearthed the ruins of a forgotten ancient Roman settlement while excavating a medieval shipyard in Smallhythe Place, National Trust Archaeology said in a Feb. 23 Facebook post. The settlement was over 1,700 years old, dating from the first century A.D. to the third century A.D.

“We found tiles stamped with the mark of the Roman fleet (the Classis Britannica), ceramics including an intact pot, and evidence for buildings, boundary features and pits,” archaeologist Nathalie Cohen said in the post.

National Trust Archaeology and National Trust South East shared photos of these artifacts in Feb. 23 posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

But one artifact stood out: a roughly 2-inch tall head carved from clay.

Archaeologists identified the head as part of a pipeclay figurine of the ancient Roman god Mercury, the organization said. A photo shows the creamy white carving.

“To come across a head of a figurine of Mercury, in pipeclay, is incredibly rare,” Cohen said.

Mercury was the ancient Roman deity for fine arts, commerce and trade. “While he is the most common god for metal figurines, pipeclay examples are extremely rare, with less than ten so far found from Roman Britain,” archaeologists said.

Matthew Fittock, an expert of ancient Roman ceramics, explained that “pipeclay figurines were mainly used by civilians for private religious practice in domestic shrines and occasionally in temples and the graves of often sick children.”

“Rather than pieces being discarded because they were broken, there is evidence to suggest that deliberately breaking some figurine heads was an important ritual practice,” he said in the post. “Whole figurines are usually found in graves.”

Archaeologists did not find any other fragments of the Mercury figurine.

“This complete figurine probably would have depicted Mercury standing, either draped with a chlamys (a short cloak), or naked, holding a caduceus (a staff with two intertwined snakes),” the National Trust wrote in a Feb. 22 news release.

The pipeclay head and other ancient Roman artifacts will be on display at Smallhythe Place starting Feb. 28, the organization said.

Smallhythe Place is in Kent, a county along the southeastern coast, and about 50 miles southeast of London.

Alberta wants to opt out of national pharmacare program

CUTTING NOSE TO SPITE FACE

CBC
Mon, February 26, 2024 

Adriana LaGrange, minister of health for Alberta, says the province will opt out of a federal pharmacare plan. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The Alberta government will opt out of the federal government's pharmacare program covering diabetes medication and birth control.

The deal is part of a supply-and-confidence agreement between the federal NDP and the governing Liberals.

In a press conference Monday, Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the province is unhappy the deal was reached without consulting with the provinces first.

LaGrange said Alberta has "robust" coverage of medications through programs like Alberta Blue Cross, even though the plan has limits and requires people to pay for coverage.

She wants Ottawa to give Alberta per-capita funding to bolster its own program instead of forcing the province to sign-on to a national program.

"Give us the dollars," LaGrange said. "Allow us to enhance the programs we actually have now, rather than create more bureaucracy."

Doctors, health-care advocates concerned

Alberta's decision to opt out even before seeing details of the agreement is frustrating for physicians, anti-poverty organizations and medicare advocacy groups.

Dr. Shelley Duggan is a nephrologist in Edmonton who is the president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association.

In an interview with CBC News, Duggan said the cost of contraception can be costly to women with low incomes who lack coverage meaning they could end up with unwanted pregnancies or children they can't afford.

Diabetic medication, including insulin, lipid-lowering and blood pressure medications, can run up to hundreds of dollars each month, she said.

Duggan said she's puzzled by the province's assertion that everyone has a benefit plan that can cover the drug costs.

She cited a Statistics Canada study that found 7.5 million Canadians — or one in five — lack any kind of drug coverage. Others have plans where they have to pay a deductible.

"What we do know is that people who don't have drug coverage are two and a half more times likely to miss medications than those who don't worry about the cost," Duggan said.

"We could potentially improve the health of Canadians by making sure that cost is not the reason that they're not taking their medications."

Meaghon Reid, executive director of anti-poverty group Vibrant Communities Calgary, echoed Duggan's concerns.

She said people who live in poverty will frequently skip buying medication in order to afford rent and food.

Reid said there was a lot of optimism and relief when pharmacare was first announced but that's now changed.

"What we're hearing today is that there's a lot of people who don't have that sense of hope because they don't know what the alternative is going to be for them," she said.

Fighting with Ottawa

The full details about the program along with legislation is expected to be released in Ottawa later this week.

The Alberta government has fought with the federal Liberal government on issues like child care, the carbon tax and an emissions cap.

Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, said the provincial government is using pharmacare as another way to pick a fight with the federal government.

Gallaway said he's frustrated the government is rejecting the agreement before even seeing any of the details, which could help Albertans lower their health-care costs.

"To not see the details, to not know what we're even talking about, but to already say we want to opt out and not participate, it's irresponsible," he said.

LaGrange said she has asked to meet with federal Health Minister Mark Holland to discuss her concerns.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BAIT & SWITCH
H&R Block deceived users with ‘free’ online tax filing ad, feds say in lawsuit

Tanasia Kenney
Mon, February 26, 2024 

Tax preparer H&R Block “deceptively” pushed ads promising free online tax filings, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Now, it’s the subject of a federal complaint.

The commission is suing the tax prep giant over claims it deleted users’ tax data when they opted for less-expensive products, forcing them to restart the filing process from scratch, per a Feb. 23 news release.

Further, H&R Block is accused of marketing its online filing products as “free” — though that wasn’t the case for many users, the FTC said.

“H&R Block designed its online products to present an obstacle course of tedious challenges to consumers, pressuring them into overpaying for its products,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the release.

“Today’s action demonstrates that companies using coercive techniques that harm consumers can expect to hear from the FTC.”
‘Fair and transparent pricing’

H&R Block responded to the complaint, saying it provides filers with “unmatched tax expertise, and fair and transparent pricing.”

“The multitude of resources we offer to all filers via educational resources, free tools, and calculators, and The Tax Institute demonstrates our commitment to making filing your taxes more accessible and more transparent for all,” Dara Redler, chief legal officer for H&R Block, told McClatchy News in a statement.

In its complaint, the FTC accused H&R Block of forcing filers to pay for pricier products they didn’t need or that weren’t required for their particular tax situation.

Once users realized they didn’t need that particular product, H&R Block made it difficult to “downgrade” to a cheaper service, federal officials said.

 In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo, H&R Block signs are displayed in Jackson, Miss. Congressional Democrats are accusing big tax preparation firms including Intuit and H&R Block of undermining the federal government’s upcoming electronic free-file tax return system, and are demanding lobbying, hiring and revenue data to determine what’s going on. 

(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

The complaint further alleged that customers looking to switch to a more budget-friendly option offered by H&R Block were required to call the company’s customer support line. All their tax information submitted up to that point was erased, the FTC said, and users were forced to restart the tax filing process.

“This stands in contrast to the upgrade process, where consumers’ data seamlessly moves to the more expensive product instantly,” according to federal officials.

What’s more, the FTC said H&R Block promised “free” online filing for users with simple returns but “has changed its definition of a ‘simple return’ multiple times in recent years.”

In a statement, Redler said H&R Block gives users the option to switch to a cheaper DIY Product “via multiple mechanisms while ensuring the preparation of accurate tax returns.”

It’s just the latest lawsuit against the tax prep company. In 2023, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued H&R Block after it was accused of sharing Missourians’ sensitive tax data with tech giants, including Meta, the Kansas City Star reported.

More recently, the tax giant agreed to pay $141 million to settle claims it steered some users to upgrade to its paid tax filing service when they qualified for a free version offered to those who earned less than the IRS’s income limit, according to The Los Angeles Times.

H&R Block denied any wrongdoing in that case, the newspaper reported.