Ontario needs to tackle $16.8B school repair backlog: advocates

STUDIES SHOW POORLY MAINTAINED SCHOOLS NEGATIVELY IMPACT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Humberside Collegiate Institute is one of many schools in Toronto and across the province in desperate need of repairs, according to advocates and the NDP. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC - image credit)


Every time heavy rain hits Toronto's Humberside Collegiate Institute, parts of the high school shut down.

Three floors of stairs get cordoned off due to flooding. Water leaking from the roof makes its way to at least 20 spots throughout the school and collects in garbage bins. In the basement, a corridor lined with lockers is littered with deep puddles.

It's a scene Bhutila Karpoche, the NDP MPP of Parkdale—High Park described in a widely viewed series of social media posts to get the Progressive Conservative government's attention on the state of disrepair of schools in Toronto and across the province.


"Successive governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have not funded school repairs, and now, they are literally crumbling," she told reporters at Queen's Park on Wednesday.

"I do not want to hear any talking points. I want the minister to fix the schools."

Karpoche and advocacy group Fix Our Schools say the provincial school maintenance and repair backlog stood at a whopping $16.8 billion in 2022, and continues to grow each year.

Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools and a parent of a student at Humberside Collegiate Institute, said they've been trying to raise the alarm on the growing problem for a decade.

She said the group has heard from school staff, students and parents about classrooms where temperatures top 35 C during summer and plunge below 13 C in winter. Other concerns that aren't as easy to detect include air quality issues, growing mould and inadequate fire systems that contribute to unsafe learning and working conditions, she said.

"There are countless examples of disrepair across Ontario in our children's schools that are alarming," Wylie told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

"And sadly, even though the example that we've seen this week is visually very alarming ... I wouldn't say it's the absolute worst."

Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools, stands in front of her son's school Humberside Collegiate Institute on Aug. 26, 2021.

Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools, stands in front of her son's school, Humberside Collegiate Institute. The school is facing flooding issues that advocates say pose a healthy and safety risk. (Angelina King/ CBC)

The NDP and Fix Our Schools say the province needs to step up its funding, but the Minister of Education Stephen Lecce says the issue is for school boards to tackle.

Province says school board is responsible

In response to Karpoche's concerns, Lecce told MPPs at Queen's Park that he wants school boards, particularly the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), to "do their job."

"The TDSB is sitting on banked money in their maintenance fund of $315 million ... instead of spending it on that very roof," said Lecce.

He pointed toward the $1.4 billion that's earmarked for school repairs in the provincial budget for the current school year.

"Stand up to TDSB and demand better for your students," he said.

In an email to CBC Toronto, the TDSB said staff are investigating the roof leak at Humberside College Institute, and staff and students will be redirected to alternate stairs and exits.

"Of note, while the TDSB spends millions of dollars each year on roof replacements and repairs, we currently have an overall maintenance and repair backlog of more than $4 billion," the email reads.

The board says it spent about $370 million on repairs and related projects last year — which it says is a record — and it expects to spend even more this current year. It has about $380 million earmarked for similar projects this year but has yet to formally spend it, citing delays in receiving materials, approvals and the availability of qualified of contractors.

Over half of the TDSB's schools are over 60 years old, its website says. The board has identified approximately 23,500 different repairs needed in its school, with 70 per cent of those in critical or poor condition.

It estimates that if current provincial funding changes and no additional money is given, the backlog could hit $4.9 billion by 2027.

Grade 11 student Jack Stone at Humberside Collegiate Institute said he and many other students have gotten accustomed to the flooding and know it means they'll have to take a different route to class when it rains. But he hopes that isn't the case forever.

"I love this school, man. They need to fix it up," he said.

More Ontario school boards join suit against social media giants

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Beginning this fall, Ontario is implementing new and stricter measures to prevent students from using smartphones during school hours. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images - image credit)


Five more Ontario school boards and two private schools have joined an ongoing lawsuit against some of the world's largest social media companies that argues their products have negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn.

"The addictive properties of the products designed by social media giants have compromised all students' ability to learn, disrupted classrooms and created a student population that suffers from increasing mental health harms," said a news release issued Wednesday by Schools for Social Media Change, an umbrella group of the plaintiffs in the suit.

"As a result, social media companies have forced school boards to divert significant resources including personnel, hours, funds, and attention to combat the growing crisis caused by their products," it continued.


The suit was initially filed in late March by the public district school boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa-Carleton, along with Toronto's Catholic counterpart.

They are now joined by:

Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.


York Catholic District School Board.


Trillium Lakeland District School Board.


Ottawa Catholic District School Board.


District School Board of Niagara.


Private schools Holy Name of Mary College School and Eitz Chaim.

The suit seeks roughly $4.5 billion in total damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively.

"The mix of public and Catholic school boards, and private schools in both urban and rural regions of Ontario demonstrate this is a universal issue that affects those from diverse cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds," the news release said.

The allegations have yet to be proven in court, and there is no set date for when they will be heard.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Meta said the company has parents' "interests at heart in the work we're doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online." The spokesperson said Meta has introduced more than 30 tools to give parents control over their teens' use of Instagram and protect users from various online harms.

Meanwhile, Snap said it intends to defend the claims in court and that Snapchat was "intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media."

"Snapchat opens directly to a camera — rather than a feed of content — and has no traditional public likes or comments. While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence," the company said in an email.

Meanwhile, a representative for TikTok said the app has "industry-leading safeguards," including parental controls and an automatic 60-minute screen time limit for users under 18.

"Our team of safety professionals continually evaluate emerging practices and insights to support teens' well-being and will continue working to keep our community safe," the spokesperson said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford publicly criticized the suit after it was filed, calling it "nonsense" and questioning the legal fees the boards could end up paying in a protracted court battle against some of the richest companies in the world.

Neinstein LLP, the Toronto-based firm representing the school boards and private schools, said in March they will not be responsible for any costs related to the suit unless a successful outcome is reached.

Similar lawsuits in U.S.

Hundreds of school boards in the United States, along with some states, have launched similar lawsuits against social media companies.

Last fall, over 30 states accused Meta Platforms Inc. of harming young people's mental health and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that cause children to be addicted to its platforms.

In April, Ontario's Ministry of Education announced it would introduce new measures to crack down on cellphone use by students in the province's schools.

Starting in September, students in kindergarten to Grade 6 will be required to keep phones on silent and "out of sight" for the entire school day, unless they are granted permission to use it, the ministry said.

Similarly, students in grades 7 to 12, will not be permitted to use their cellphones during class time without permission.

"If they do not comply, they will be asked to surrender their phones or they could be sent to the office," Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at the time.

The new policies were announced after a previous 2019 attempt to "ban" smartphones in Ontario schools floundered, with many boards saying it was unenforceable.

Five Ontario school boards, two schools join legal fight against social media giants

Jordan Omstead
Wed, May 29, 2024 at 12:04 p.m. MDT·4 min read




TORONTO — Five more Ontario school boards and two private schools have joined the multibillion-dollar legal fight against social media giants Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, accusing their parent companies of leaving educators to manage the fallout from their allegedly addictive products.

They join some of Ontario's largest school boards who filed suits in March alleging the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn.

"This increasingly hinders students’ ability to absorb lessons, think critically and thrive in our learning spaces," said Kelly Pisek, the director of education at District School Board of Niagara, one of the new plaintiffs.

"As a result, school staff are required to spend more time working to meet the needs of students who face significant attention, focus and mental health concerns."

The province, however, doubled down on its criticism of the legal action, with the education minister accusing school boards of choosing litigation over co-operation with the platforms.

Filing their own lawsuits this week were the Catholic boards in Ottawa, Dufferin-Peel and York, along with Trillium Lakeland District School Board and District School Board of Niagara. Holy Name of Mary College School, a private Catholic girl's school in Mississauga, Ont., and a private Jewish day school, Eitz Chaim, round out the list of the new plaintiffs.

Together, the seven new schools and school boards are seeking $2.57 billion in damages for disruption to student learning and the education system, on top of the more than $4 billion already sought by the four school boards who filed earlier this year.

In March, Toronto's public and Catholic school boards, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Peel District School Board filed their own cases with Ontario's Superior Court of Justice.

“The addition of these school boards and schools to the ongoing litigation against technology companies demonstrates the widespread disruption to the education system," said Duncan Embury, a lawyer at the Toronto firm Neinstein, which is heading up the litigation.

The allegations in the lawsuits have not been proven in court.

A spokesperson for TikTok has said its team of "safety professionals" continually evaluate practices to support teens' well-being, while Snapchat has said it is happy with the role it plays helping friends stay connected as they face the challenges of adolescence.

A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company for Facebook and Instagram, said it developed more than 30 tools to support teens and their families, including tools that allow parents to decide when, and for how long, their teens use Instagram.

"These are complex issues, but we will continue working with experts and listening to parents to develop new tools, features and policies that are effective and meet the needs of teens and their families," the statement read.

Hundreds of school boards in the United States, along with some states, have launched similar lawsuits against social media companies.

The Ontario suits make a slew of allegations about how negligently designed social media platforms have upturned the education system.

Among them, they say more staff and administrator time is being spent on addressing compulsive student social media use, more money is going into the heightened need for digital literacy and harm prevention, and more resources are being spent on handling issues such as cyberbullying and online sexual harassment.

Students also struggle to spot misinformation, the suits allege, pushing teachers to spend time and resources to help vet what they see on their social media feeds and prevent them from adopting harmful ideologies they are exposed to on the platforms.

The school boards say they will not incur costs for the lawsuits unless they are successful.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was critical of the initial lawsuits, saying in March school boards should put resources into students rather than a legal fight over "this other nonsense."

Education Minister Stephen Lecce backed up those comments Wednesday. He said the government was choosing to "collaborate with these enterprises."

He cited the government's plan to ban cellphone use during class time and block access to social media platforms on school networks and devices, and suggested school boards should have taken those steps themselves, "years ago."

"Instead of talking about it and litigating about, we opt to act decisively with a comprehensive plan," he said.

Teachers' unions have expressed skepticism about the province's move and said staff are hesitant to take phones away in case devices are lost, damaged or stolen.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2024.

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press

Calgary public school board pulling from reserves to pay for operations next year

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Laura Hack, the chair of the board of trustees, said families will start to feel the impact of the lack of funding starting next year. (Jo Horwood/CBC - image credit)


The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) says it's making do with the funds it's been given after finalizing its $1.6 billion budget for next year on Tuesday.

While school board trustees said they've continued to prioritize students in the latest financial plan, they noted a funding shortfall from the province.

According to them, the funding does not go far enough to alleviate ongoing pressures the city's public education system is facing — and the CBE will have to pull $2.6 million from its reserves to pay for operations in the upcoming school year.


Strains such as inflation, increased enrolment as well as challenges in meeting the needs of students with complex learning requirements were mentioned by trustees as they debated the budget, leaving a palpable sense of emotion in the room.

"I will support submitting a balanced budget to the provincial government that is guided by our values and the necessary strategic actions to support student [and] staff success, but it doesn't mean I have to like it," said board trustee Nancy Close.

"Education funding needs to keep pace with student enrolment, it needs to keep pace with who our students are, and it needs to keep pace with rising costs and inflation. It's not one or the other. It is all it is, an investment in our future success as a community."

According to its website, CBE is the largest school board in western Canada, serving more than 140,000 students.

Laura Hack, the chair of the board of trustees, said the system is currently sitting at 92 per cent utilization. It's projected to reach 98 per cent utilization next year with an increase in enrolment of about 9,000 students.

Alberta Education provides at least 90 per cent of the CBE's funding.

This year, the province granted the school board an additional $85 million in year over year provincial funding, allowing it to hire more than 600 new teachers, education assistants and other support staff.

But CBE says it was only able to balance its budget by drawing from its reserve fund, a move that Hack says is not sustainable.

"We know that year over year what we're doing is spending the money that we receive. We're not sitting on it as a nest egg."

'Already triaging'

The CBE has to keep at least one per cent of its operating expenses set aside in reserve funds, about $16 million.

But after this year, that fund is less than $2 million away from the mandatory minimum, meaning the CBE doesn't have the savings to cover a deficit like this next year.

"I still have massive fears that if we keep getting told we receive less, we won't be able to meet the needs of all who come to us," said Hack during the debate.

"If we don't receive relief ASAP, we will hit a wall and are in crisis mode. Students deserve better, families deserve better and Calgarians deserve to be part of this Alberta advantage now."

Hack said while they've managed to keep central fees at the same rate — prices of student transportation and supplies, and noon supervision — families and students will feel the impacts of the new budget next year primarily through larger class sizes.

In a statement, Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta's education minister noted Calgary's rise in population, saying the government has responded accordingly.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says the latest curriculum revision 'moves the needle' on expert concerns about content.

Demetrios Nicolaides, Alberta's education minister, says more schools that will add space and help tackle ongoing capacity issues are on the way. (Craig Ryan/CBC)

"We're stepping up and investing more in education to help accommodate this historic growth. Over the next three years, we have planned to invest more than $1.2 billion to address classroom complexity, which will go directly to hiring 3,000 more teachers and other educational staff," he said.

Nicolaides noted that both the CBE and the Calgary Catholic School District received over $100 million in new funding this year alone.

"18 new schools are on their way for the Calgary metropolitan region that will add 16,000 needed spaces," he said.

Nicolaides added that his ministry is working closely with school jurisdictions to ensure operating reserves are used appropriately.

"We want as much funding as possible going into classrooms to benefit student learning and supports they need to provide a safe, world-class education for their students."

CBC News asked the province what would happen if the CBE runs out of its reserve fund. The Ministry of Education did not directly answer that, but said they are working with school districts to ensure reserves are used "appropriately."

P.E.I. milk being tested for avian influenza as precautions ramp up

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Dairy farmers on P.E.I. are being advised to tighten their bio security and watch for any sick or dead birds in their area as the province ramps up safeguards against avian flu. (CBC - image credit)


P.E.I.'s chief veterinary officer is keeping in close contact with the Island's dairy farmers and veterinarians to make sure they have the latest information on the ongoing avian influenza outbreak in the United States.

The U.S. identified a second human case of bird flu linked to dairy cows last week. The H5N1 virus that's at the centre of the current outbreak is deadly to birds; in cows, it's resulted in decreased milk production, loss of appetite and fever.

The virus has not yet been detected in Canadian dairy cattle, and all tests of commercial milk for fragments of H5N1 have also been negative, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

P.E.I.'s chief veterinary officer Dr. Jill Wood said the CFIA started preventative testing of cattle entering Canada from the U.S. back on April 29.

A holstein classifier from Holstein Canada scores the cows from poor to excellent. This cow, named Kerry, was rated excellent.

The H5N1 virus has not yet been detected in Canadian dairy cattle, and all tests of commercial milk for fragments of avian influenza have also been negative, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. (Nancy Russell/CBC)

"On that date, they started to require cattle crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada to have a negative avian influenza test before being permitted into the country. And they also started looking at retail milk samples from all across Canada," Wood said.

"They took 303 samples and those all came back negative, so again, good news on that front."

Tightening bio security

Wood said individual dairy farmers are also being advised to tighten their bio security.

"Simple things like asking visitors to to put on boot covers, keeping a visitor log, if they are buying new cattle to isolate those animals for a couple of weeks, milk them last," she said.

"[We're] definitely discouraging any purchases of cattle from the U.S. right now."

Wood said the way the avian flu is spreading on farms south of the border seems to be different from what happened among the bird population.

"If it was being spread entirely by the wild bird population, then that makes it very difficult to prevent," she said. "Birds are migrating and there's nothing we can do to stop them from from flying to Prince Edward Island."

The U.S. outbreak appears to have been spread from farm to farm, she said.

"The original cattle in Texas, we think, got infected by what we call a single spillover event from birds to cattle. And then the subsequent spread from there seems to mostly be because cattle from infected farms moved on to non-infected farms," Wood said.

"We're hoping with the test at the border and with the precautions that our farmers are taking that we can prevent it from showing up in Canada."

This year marked the first time a dangerous form of bird flu was reported in dairy cows. Two human cases linked to the outbreak also involved only eye infections. Were these curveballs from H5N1 (left)? Some scientists say earlier research warned about all these unusual possibilities.

This year marked the first time a strain of bird flu was reported in dairy cows. (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/The Associated Press)

She said there are still questions about how the virus is being transmitted.

"We haven't totally ruled out that that birds could introduce it on another farm," she said.

"So [we're] certainly asking farmers to be aware of that as well, and to report any increased number of dead birds or wildlife on their farms."

The P.E.I. government has an avian influenza page on its website, and the CFIA also provides regular updates.

'We trace every animal from birth'

Gordon MacBeath, a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I., and chair of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island, said the dairy industry has protocols in place already that will help monitor the avian influenza situation.

Gordon MacBeath is a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I. and chairman of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island.

Gordon MacBeath is a dairy farmer from Marshfield, P.E.I., and chair of the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island. (Tony Davis/CBC)

"There's inspectors on farms on a regular basis, and so producers are used to bio security measures, and they're just asked to enhance some so that veterinarians visiting and suppliers visiting ... respect those bio-security protocols," he said.

"One thing that's unique in Canadian cattle is our traceability. We can trace every animal from birth on and off farm regardless of the location where the animal is. So if there ever was an outbreak, we could always trace that animal back through its history. And I think that's very significant in any disease outbreak."

MacBeath said he is supportive of the CFIA's testing.

"I think it's a positive for the industry," he said. "It reassures producers, it reassures consumers and reassures government that our food supply is safe. That we're on top of any potential introduction of the disease to Canada."

A new avian virus has appeared for the first time in southern Ontario — and it's not bird flu

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 


The Ontario Animal Health Network says in April two flocks in southwestern Ontario testes positive for aMPV subtype B. (Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via The Associated Press - image credit)


A virus that can wreak havoc on poultry farms and was until now unheard of in the province has appeared in southwestern Ontario, infecting and killing hundreds of turkeys with its arrival

Avian metapneumovirus subtype B (aMPV B), which attacks the respiratory system of birds, and is especially problematic for poultry, resulted in the deaths of 253 turkeys in southwestern Ontario in recent months, according to the World Animal Health Information System.

The turkeys killed by the virus include 166 birds at a farm in Centre Wellington, north of Guelph, and 87 birds at a farm in Huron-Kinloss in Bruce County.


The arrival of the virus in Ontario comes at the same time as concerns continue to mount over a highly contagious form of avian flu, which has made the jump from poultry to cows and even humans.

"For someone in my business, it's very scary because it's a large threat. It's a high risk," said Jorge Cota, the president of Canadian Select Genetics Ltd., a turkey breeder in Putnam, Ont. "We're really tightening things down, and we're on high alert because this can be very devastating."

According to Cota, his job boils down to managing disease risk. That's why bio-security precautions like decontamination of vehicles before they enter his farm property, showers when entering and leaving, and other sanitation processes are the norm for his business and others who supply commercial farmers with their animals.

One of Cota's primary concern lies with how commercial farmers handle news of the outbreak, he said.

Earlier this month, the Feather Board Command Centre (FBCC), which coordinates Ontario's poultry industry in response to disease risks, issued the latest in a number of increasingly urgent warnings to the province's poultry farmers.

It included a recommendation that biosecurity protocols at farms be heightened, and contained a specific nod to increasing concerns for farms in Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties.

Noting the financial impacts the virus has had on farms in the United States, Cota said those warnings should not be taken lightly.

"Commercial farmers tend not to think at as highly a level as we do about biosecurity, but I'm sure they're aware and nervous. They've heard a lot of stories out of the U.S., and know what could happen to them," he said.

"But, you never know when someone or something is going to bring it onto your farm. Everyone learns eventually, but many people never think it'll happen to them."

LISTEN | Bird virus new kills hundreds of turkeys in southwestern Ontario

In a statement sent to CBC News on Tuesday, farming organization Turkey Farmers of Ontario said it has been aware of the arrival of aMPV in Ontario since late April.

The statement also said it is working with government and industry officials, as well as the FBCC.

"Avian metapneumovirus does not present a food safety risk or human health concern," the statement read.

Moving forward, as someone well-acquainted with disease management, Cota said he expects the arrival of the virus to shake the industry, but isn't sure just how much yet.

"I think it's manageable, but as it is with other diseases, I think we're going to go through some hard times here, and we'll be better off once we go through it," he said.

"I think it's going to affect a lot more people than we think it is, and vigilance is the number one thing farmers need to keep it out of their farms."

Alpacas test positive for H5N1 bird flu for the first time

Brenda Goodman, CNN
Tue, May 28, 2024 



Highly pathogenic avian influenza, sometimes called bird flu, has been confirmed in alpacas for the first time, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

The animals that tested positive were on a farm in Idaho where poultry had tested positive for the virus and were culled in May. The alpacas tested positive May 16, the USDA said in a news release.

The USDA noted that the finding of other infected animals on the same farm as the infected birds wasn’t necessarily a surprise.

The gene sequence of viruses isolated from the alpacas shows that it is closely related to the H5N1 viruses that are currently circulating in dairy cattle.

There are more than 264,000 alpacas registered in the US, according to the Alpaca Owners Association.

Scientists have closely watched the H5N1 virus for roughly two decades. For most of that time, it has primarily affected birds. In the past two years, however, the virus has been infecting a wider variety of wild and farmed mammals, raising concern that it could be moving closer to becoming a pathogen that can transmit easily between people.

Human cases have been reported sporadically around the globe over the years, including three in the US, but no person-to-person transmission has been reported in the ongoing US cattle outbreak.

H5N1 bird flu found in alpacas for first time

Miranda Nazzaro
Wed, May 29, 2024




Bird flu has been found in alpacas for the first time, marking the latest spread of the current H5N1 bird flu virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Tuesday.

The infected alpacas were at a farm in Idaho, where the avian influenza virus was detected in poultry that has since been culled, the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories said in a statement.

The alpacas tested positive for the virus May 16, and the USDA noted its detection was not unexpected given the “co-mingling of multiple livestock species.”

The H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds around the world, prompting outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows across the nation this spring. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the current public health risk is still “low,” though it is monitoring the situation.

Since 2022, there have three human cases related to bird and dairy exposure in the U.S. The first was in Colorado in 2022, followed by one in Texas last month and one in Michigan last week.

In the most recent case in Michigan, the bird flu was detected in a farmworker who had mild symptoms and has since recovered, according to health officials.

Bird flu was first detected in dairy cows in March, though data for viral samples show it was circulating in cattle at least four months prior and prompted a drop in milk production.

The CDC has confirmed outbreaks in 67 herds in nine states, and as of Tuesday, the virus has been detected in more than 9,300 wild birds across 50 states. More than 92 million poultry in 48 states have also been impacted, the CDC noted.

Humans are urged to avoid direct contact with wild birds and observe them only from a distance and to not eat or drink raw milk or products made with raw milk, per the CDC.

Study: Development of a vaccine will best protect humans from bird flu

Dennis Thompson, 

HealthDay News
Wed, May 29, 2024 

Vaccines remain humanity's best defense against the threat posed by the H5N1 and other strains of bird flu, according to the research published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News


Humanity's best protection against bird flu will be the development of effective vaccines, a new study says.

The H5N1 avian flu has been raging through cattle and poultry in the United States, increasing fears that the virus will make the leap into humans and potentially cause another pandemic.

Only two people to date are known to have contracted the virus linked to the current outbreak. Both patients were U.S. farm workers, and luckily they only suffered eye symptoms and made a full recovery with treatment, researchers said.

In the first human case, researchers found the strain had mutated to be better at infecting the cells of mammals.

The concern is that if H5N1 continues to spread in U.S. farms, it has the potential to mutate into a form that will easily spread among humans, researchers said.

Vaccines remain humanity's best defense against the threat posed by the H5N1 and other strains of bird flu, according to the research published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.

"The H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2 subtypes of avian influenza virus pose a dual threat, not only causing significant economic losses to the global poultry industry but also presenting a pressing public health concern due to documented spillover events and human cases," said lead researcher Dr. Flavio Cargnin Faccin, a doctoral student with the University of Georgia.

"This deep delve into the landscape of avian influenza vaccines for humans shows vaccination remains the primary defense against the spread of these viruses," Faccin said in a journal news release.

The researchers analyzed a number of different vaccine types -- inactivated vaccines, live attenuated flu vaccines and mRNA vaccines -- and determined they all show promise in protecting animals and people from the avian flu.

Overall, the team suggests "exploring and employing a diverse range of vaccine platforms "will be "crucial for enhancing pandemic preparedness and mitigating the threat of avian influenza viruses."

Work along those lines already is proceeding in mRNA vaccines.

A study published last week reported that an experimental mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu was effective in preventing serious illness and death in lab mice and ferrets.

The lab animals maintained high levels of antibodies a year after infection, and vaccinated animals infected with H5N1 cleared the virus quicker and suffered fewer symptoms than unvaccinated animals, researchers reported in the journal Nature Communications.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the bird flu.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Hydro-Québec's Montreal network is in 'worrisome' state: internal document

FAILURE TO REINVEST CAPITAL

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 

The Hydro-Québec electricity network in Montreal is in a 'worrisome' state, according to an internal Hydro-Québec document from September 2023. (Radio-Canada - image credit)


Hydro-Québec's mostly outdated strategic equipment on the island of Montreal is posing risks to the public, according to an internal document from the company.

In the document from September 2023 obtained by Radio-Canada, the Crown corporation paints a worrisome picture, saying there is an "urgent need to act on the electricity network on the island of Montreal," where there have been successive outages in recent years.

Hydro-Québec notes that its infrastructure is facing increasing risks. At least 70 per cent of the company's strategic equipment in Montreal, such as distribution stations and transformers, has exceeded its useful life.


And the situation is worse in the city than elsewhere in Quebec. More than 20 per cent of equipment is between 61 and 70 years old in Montreal, whereas in other regions, the percentage of older equipment is less than five per cent.

The Crown corporation also notes that much of its equipment is "dilapidated" and that it is increasingly difficult to work on "an overloaded network."

"We knew that the situation was serious, but we did not know that it was that serious," said Jean-Pierre Finet, an analyst at the Regroupement des organismes environnementaux en énergie (ROEE).

In the document, Hydro-Québec also writes that risks to the health and safety of its resources and the public, such as fires, explosions and outages, are high.

Hydro-Québec president and CEO Michael Sabia has mentioned several times that in the last 25 years, 2023 was one of the worst in terms of outages.

Failures, outages and interruptions

Last year, the continuity index — the annual time of service interruption per customer — reached 1,459 minutes in Montreal, an increase of 998 per cent compared to 2022. That spike is mainly due to the ice storm in the spring of 2023, which affected tens of thousands of customers, according to Hydro-Québec.

In its internal document, the Crown corporation does not rule out the possibility of a major failure of strategic equipment in Montreal's electricity network, which could have repercussions on essential services.

"Hydro is playing with fire by exceeding the useful life of assets," said Finet.

"There are even assets that have more than doubled their lifespan," he said, noting that the risk of incidents occurring increases with age.

For example, Finet said, the Montreal Metro could be plunged into a prolonged outage.

Qubec’s auditor general, Guylaine Leclerc, centre, criticized Hydro-Québec in her December 2022 report.

Quebec Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc, centre, criticized Hydro-Québec in her December 2022 report. (Sylvain Roy Roussel/Radio-Canada)

This observation aligns with the conclusions of a report by Quebec Auditor General Guylaine Leclerc, tabled in December 2022. She found that the reliability of the Hydro-Québec network showed "a marked decline."

The Crown corporation also finds the situation of its distribution network to be "worrisome," the internal document shows. Eleven of the 32 distribution stations were over capacity last September.

In 2020, 17 per cent of transformers were overloaded on the island, while that proportion was nine per cent elsewhere. When there is prolonged overheating, risks of failure causing a fire or explosion must be considered.

"It's difficult to conclude anything other than negligence in recent years. And all this because we wanted to keep prices low and dividends high," Finet said.

Adding to that observation is an increasing lack of electricity in Montreal, which is why the Crown corporation is struggling to meet the energy transition needs of customers on the island, says Hydro-Québec in the document.

Finet said what is even more concerning about the "alleged negligence, is that we cannot decarbonize Montreal's economy as we want because of these limitations."

The Hydro Quebec building is pictured Tuesday, June 21, 2016 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Hydro-Québec says major investments are underway. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

But Hydro-Québec was much more reassuring about the state of its network when Radio-Canada contacted the company.

Maxence Huard-Lefebvre, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, told Radio-Canada that major investments are underway and will continue in the coming years.

"The development plan for the island of Montreal primarily targets substations and lines with equipment that is reaching the end of its life," said Huard-Lefebvre.

Hydro-Québec has invested more than $1 billion over the last 10 years to strengthen the network in Montreal, and it will inject $3 billion more by 2035 to improve it.

However, according to internal data, conversion projects to increase voltage and capacity won't be enough to meet the network's needs.

Ongoing operations are expected to improve the situation in several boroughs of Montreal, but certain areas will remain problematic, namely the east end, the city centre and the western tip of the island.

Hydro-Québec agrees, however, that the network is older in Montreal because the neighbourhoods were built long before those in many of Quebec's regions.

"It is normal that all the infrastructure, including the electrical network, are also more recent," said Cendrix Bouchard, a spokesperson for the company.

A Hydro-Québec crew works on a power line following an ice storm in Montreal, Friday, April 7, 2023.

A Hydro-Québec crew works on a power line following an ice storm in Montreal on April 7, 2023. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

However, according to Pierre-Olivier Pineau, HEC Montréal chair in energy sector management, it is disappointing to see the network in such a state.

"It's not just electricity that we're seeing this. We saw this with the Metro, the road network," he said. "Our society thinks a lot about growth and does not think about maintaining its infrastructure."

Pineau said Hydro-Québec must encourage its customers to consume less by adjusting their rates or offering more dynamic pricing.

Refusing to adapt prices to reflect the real cost of infrastructure and production "encourages overconsumption and contributes to a saturated network," he said.

A loss of expertise, an overloaded workforce

Hydro-Québec also emphasizes in the document that its workforce is often overloaded or dispatched to emergencies in Montreal, where there is currently "a loss of expertise" and "a difficulty to attract resources."

Publicly, however, Hydro-Québec says it is not worried about its workers on the ground.

In 2023, Hydro-Québec's total workforce reached 22,806 people, an increase of 22 per cent compared to 2022.

However, last April, the union of Hydro-Québec trade employees said the size of its membership had declined over 13 years. Meanwhile, the number of subscriptions increased to 4.5 million customers.

The union said the growing number of subscribers and an aging network combined with an unchanged amount of employees is a "perfect recipe for the degradation of service quality."

QUEBEC

Poor management, communication led to construction worker's death, report reveals

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024

Police in western Quebec are seen in this photo from September 2023, responding after a 63-year-old worker from Bouchette, Que., was killed at a construction site.

 (Michel Aspirot/Radio-Canada - image credit)


An investigation into the workplace death of a man who was pinned between two heavy vehicles at a construction site in Chelsea, Que., last year reveals significant shortcomings led to his death — deficiencies in management, organization and communication.

On Sept. 11, 2023, a 63-year-old worker from Bouchette, Que., was pronounced dead at the site managed by Construction FGK.

The man had been fuelling a vehicle and ended up trapped when a colleague driving a 10-wheel dump truck backed into him.


A French-language report released Wednesday by Quebec's workplace standards body CNESST determined that a lack of organization and communication at the start of the work shift was a major factor in the man's death.

The worker was in the reversing path of the dump truck, the report said, and the truck driver didn't see their colleague or the vehicle he was fuelling.

According to Geneviève Cadotte, CNESST's occupational health and safety inspector, the lack of planning for the movement of heavy vehicles on site led to the death.

Cadotte said that "reversing manoeuvres on a construction site must be carried out in a marked area where no one can move on foot."

"Otherwise, they must be carried out with the help of a construction site marshal who guides the driver throughout the manoeuvre," Cadotte said.

This graphic shows how the worker who died after being pinned against a vehicle he was refuelling at a construction site in Chelsea, Que., in 2023 would not have been visible from the dump truck that struck him.

This graphic shows how the worker who died after being pinned against a vehicle he was refuelling at a construction site in Chelsea, Que., in 2023 would not have been visible from the dump truck that struck him. (CNESST)

Clear guidelines needed

The incident happened during repairs on chemin de la Rivière, while the designated marshal had not yet arrived to work. The municipality said at the time that road rehabilitation work was happening in the area.

According to the investigation, Construction FGK workers got no formal instructions at the start of their shift that morning as to when the excavation work would begin.

At around 7:15 a.m., the victim was preparing to start work when he was hit by the truck. The driver thought the work had already started, the investigation found.

According to Cadotte, there was inadequate communication and co-ordination on the part of the project manager when starting the day's activities.

Clear guidelines would allow workers to be on the same page as to when work begins, she said.

Following the collision, CNESST ordered a stop to all work requiring reversing manoeuvres on the site. It also demanded the company submit a safe work plan for co-ordinating and managing reversing manoeuvres of heavy vehicles.

The company complied, she said, adding that Construction FGK co-operated during the investigation.

27 deaths

Steve McCann, director of the Prevention-Inspection Service in the Outaouais for CNESST, said 27 workers have died in Quebec in the past five years after being hit by a heavy vehicle.

At least 577 are also believed to have suffered injuries due to a collision with a heavy vehicle, he added.

McCann said Wednesday's report will be sent to several organizations and companies to inform them of dangers involving heavy equipment, as well as the province's Ministry of Education.

He said the goal is not to blame anyone but to prevent another tragedy.

Radio-Canada contacted Construction FGK for an interview, but has not yet received a reply.

Air Canada wins right to test flight attendant's hair for pot use

THANK THE BLDG. TRADES AND THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY FOR ON THE JOB DRUG TESTING

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. MDT·4 min read


A federal labour arbitrator has given Air Canada the green light to test a strand of a flight attendant's hair for drugs. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press - image credit)

A federal labour arbitrator has given Air Canada the green light to test a strand of a flight attendant's hair for drugs after two of the man's housemates — and fellow employees — claimed he was smoking a bong and making jokes about hijacking.

According to a decision posted last week, the flight attendant — known as CB — was expelled from a home housing 14 Air Canada employees, following a group meeting prompted by his behaviour.

Two of CB's fellow cabin crew members wrote reports which made their way to a Vancouver-based service director manager for Air Canada — sparking a request for a strand of CB's hair along with a battle between the airline and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The decision provides a window into the lives and responsibilities of the cabin crew members tasked with looking after the safety of passengers on the country's largest airline.

It also highlights the question of hair strand testing — which the union was already in the process of grieving when CB's situation arose.

'He referred to hijacking a plane'

Arbitrator William Kaplan was called in after CB had already volunteered a strand of his hair on April 18 for "reasonable cause substance testing."

The union filed what Kaplan called an "extraordinary" motion to prohibit Air Canada from relying on any information revealed by the test until CB got a chance to challenge the request.

WATCH | Cannabis use is still a deal-breaker for some employers:

CB booked off sick in March and was slated to return to work in mid-April.

But his housemates gathered on March 29, voting to kick him out of the shared home as of May 1 and encouraging CB to seek help through the company's employee assistance program.

Unbeknownst to the union or CB, two of them also wrote letters to a supervisor.

"[He] seemed dazed every other day and appeared to be under the influence of substances,'" Kaplan wrote, describing one complaint.

"According to this crew member, [CB] made some disturbing reference to hijacking a plane (albeit 'with the intention of dark humour, but it still raised safety concerns')."

Kaplan said the second crew member said CB owned a bong, was using it to smoke pot and was "reported to have said that if he was caught by the company — using marijuana — that he had other work options available (and he also referred to hijacking a plane, again 'with dark humour')."

CBC

No right to 'control the lives' of employees

Hair strand testing can detect substance use in the past three months — as opposed to saliva testing which can only determine very recent consumption and urine testing which can detect pot use in the last seven days.

The company claimed the hair testing was necessary because more than two weeks had passed between the day CB's co-workers reported him and the day he was ordered in for screening.

The union claimed it was given no notice that Air Canada planned to initiate hair strand testing for suspected substance abuse, arguing the move was in violation of the rules governing the principles of collective agreements.

Kaplan said the union claimed hair strand testing was "an unacceptable intrusion" into CB's personal life and that employees who are not on duty or subject to duty can't be screened for substances unless random testing is part of a contract.

"Simply put, the company does not, union counsel argued, have any right to control the lives of its employees when they are not on duty or subject to duty," Kaplan wrote.

By contrast, Air Canada argued that the company did not normally request hair strand tests: "this case was an exception, and one fully justified by the facts."

"The risk of returning an employee to work in circumstances like those presented here far outweighed any of the identified interests of either the union or the grievor," Kaplan wrote, stating the company's position.

"Those results needed to be known and, if they indicated substance use, the company needed to take action."

CBC/Radio-Canada

'An entirely legitimate safety interest'

Kaplan said the union was right to safeguard the privacy interests of its members, but sided with Air Canada.

The arbitrator said the company had "an entirely legitimate safety interest to protect."

"Indeed, in the face of those reports from the grievor's colleagues and housemates, it would have been derelict of the company to ignore the information it had received," Kaplan wrote.

He said the company faced a "quandary" because only hair strand testing would have revealed whether CB was using drugs at the time when the reports against him were filed — two weeks before he was screened.

Kaplan pointed out that Air Canada's policies prohibit cabin crew from using illegal drugs and marijuana "at all times, even when not on duty or not in the workplace" except when prescribed as medication.

He noted that the union can still fight management's handling of the case and any associated discipline, but said in the meantime "the hair strand test results will yield useful information."

In a statement, Air Canada said "we are pleased this decision confirms that safety is essential in our business."

 

Nova Scotia Teachers Union elects new president

CBC

Wed, May 29, 2024 

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union has elected Peter Day as its new president.

Day defeated Shawn Hanifen in a second ballot election held on Wednesday, receiving 60.6 per cent of the vote.

In a news release, the NSTU said Day has been a teacher for 22 years and is currently a technology mentor for the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education. The union said he has taught grades 3 through 12 across schools in the Strait and Cape Breton-Victoria regions.

Day is a member of the provincial executive and serves as the secretary-treasurer for the union.

The first round of votes by the 10,000 members of the union was done electronically last week, but did not produce a winner.

The union said 69 per cent of its membership voted in the runoff vote held Wednesday.

Day's first day of being president will be Aug. 1, 2024. He is replacing Ryan Lutes, who has been president since Aug. 1, 2022.

Trudeau must more publicly support ICC decisions amid Israel-Hamas war: ex-ministers

The Canadian Press
Wed, May 29, 2024



OTTAWA — A group of prominent former politicians and current academics is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to change his tone on the possibility of arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders.

Former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy and former attorney general Allan Rock are among 375 signatories taking issue with Trudeau suggesting the International Criminal Court committed a false equivalency by requesting charges against leaders of both Hamas and Israel.

"To assert that there is something objectionable about holding Israeli officials to the same standards of international criminal justice as Hamas officials is to promote a double standard, and to suggest that the rights of Palestinians matter less than those of Israelis," reads the letter.


"That is a racist, dehumanizing and discriminatory approach to international justice which Canada cannot countenance in any way."

The ICC's chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants last week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, as well as three senior Hamas leaders.

Canada has avoided taking a clear stance on the issue, but Trudeau has raised concerns about what he called "an equivalency between the democratically elected leaders of Israel and the bloodthirsty terrorists."

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly made similar comments, which the letter argues has undermined a motion the Liberals passed in March that included a pledge to support the work of the ICC.

Joly has recently avoided saying whether Canada would arrest Israeli officials if they did end up subject to an international arrest warrant and visited Canada. She has said that this is a theoretical situation, while noting that senior Hamas leaders are already barred from Canada due to terrorism and sanctions laws.

The Wednesday letter calls on Trudeau to issue a statement of "unwavering" support for the court, including a pledge to co-operate with any requests, including for arrests, and to condemn threats of personal sanctions against the court's personnel.

The letter includes 11 former Canadian ambassadors, numerous lawyers and activists. One of the signatories, University of the Fraser Valley criminology professor Mark Kersten, a global expert on the ICC, has noted that the court laid different charges against Hamas and Israeli leaders.

The letter notes that the court considers charges based on suspected breaches of international law, instead of comparing the actions of warring parties.

"Strong support is vital at this time given that the prosecutor, ICC staff and the ICC as an institution are facing considerable political pressure, unfounded and inflammatory criticism (and) attacks on the Court’s independence," the letter reads.

"This is clearly no time for champions of international justice to waver or to be ambiguous."

The charges stem from the Israel-Hamas War, which started when the militant group killed 1,200 people in Israel last October, which the ICC prosecutor says included rape, torture and murder that amounts to crimes against all of humanity

In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip, saying it is trying to defeat Hamas. The group, which Canada deems a terrorist organization, runs the territory's health ministry, which says 36,000 people have been killed, including combatants.

The ICC prosecutor says Israel has been starving civilians as a method of warfare and intentionally directing attacks against civilians, which are war crimes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2024.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Trudeau 'in no way' supports Israeli offensive in Rafah, but is mum on taking action

The Canadian Press
Tue, May 28, 2024 




OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is "horrified" by Israeli strikes that killed civilians in Rafah earlier this week, but walked away from reporters when asked what he will do about it.

His comment comes two days after gruesome images emerged of children injured in airstrikes and fires burning among encampments of displaced people in Rafah.

Trudeau says Canada "in no way" supports the attacks on Rafah, which had become a safe haven for more than a million Palestinians fleeing Israeli attacks elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

Canada supported Israel's right to defend itself following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, but Trudeau says Canada urged Israel not to proceed with an offensive in the southern city.

Israel says Rafah has become a Hamas stronghold and is crucial to routing the militant group that killed 1,200 people in Israel last October, and it described Sunday's carnage as a mistake.

Humanitarian groups including the Mennonite Central Committee say the area is far too crowded for any safe military operation, pointing to the scenes that occurred Sunday.

"Canada in no way supports the military operations by Israel in Rafah. Indeed, we have been calling for a ceasefire, including at the United Nations, since December, and we’ll continue to," Trudeau told reporters Tuesday on Parliament Hill.

"We need to see much more humanitarian aid flow into Gaza, and we need to see all hostages released."

But when pressed for information on what Canada might do, he walked away from the scrum.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reports 36,000 people have been killed in the war, including combatants.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Police clear road, arrest one pro-Palestinian protester on University of B.C. campus

The Canadian Press
Wed, May 29, 2024



VANCOUVER — Police have arrested one person during the clearance of pro-Palestinian protesters who were blocking a main intersection at the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver.

But there was no obvious move against a protest encampment that has occupied a sports field at the campus for a month.

A statement from the RCMP says the clearance involved officers from the University and Richmond detachments, RCMP critical response officers, Vancouver police and the B.C. Highway Patrol.


It says police were called to the intersection of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall where protesters were "impeding access" to the main entrance into the university.

The statement says demonstrators were given the opportunity to get off the road but police action was required to clear the intersection.

It says one person "did not comply with police direction" and was arrested.

The intersection was clear by 12:15 p.m., though several unoccupied RCMP vehicles remained nearby.

"The intersection has reopened to the public, however the RCMP will continue to monitor the situation and take necessary action should there be any criminal activities that pose a threat to the safety of individuals and/or property," the RCMP statement said.

UBC said in a statement that the protest at the intersection had "created difficulties and traffic delays."

"The safety and security of our community members and visitors remains our foremost priority. Any protest actions must be conducted with respect for others and within the boundaries of UBC policy and the law," it said.

It added that graduation ceremonies were proceeding as scheduled.

Video posted shortly after 11 a.m. by an Instagram account associated with the protests showed dozens of uniformed officers walking down the main route into the university.

The account called "People's University for Gaza at UBC" had earlier posted an update asking people to gather for a rally at the intersection.

Footage provided by a protester who did not want to be identified showed RCMP officers standing over a woman sitting on the road, her hands behind her back.

A voice over a loudspeaker tells protesters: "This is the RCMP. You need to clear the area immediately or you will be under arrest."

The protest occurred during spring graduation ceremonies at UBC that have been going on since last week.

After police cleared the road, a few dozen demonstrators marched across campus from the Rose Garden near the ceremonies to McInnes Field, the site of the protest encampment established April 29.

Cst. Tania Visintin with the Vancouver police said the department was asked to go on "standby," and video posted by the protest group showed Vancouver police vehicles near the intersection, but Visintin said they did not deploy any officers.

Organizers behind Wednesday's rally issued a statement saying an "autonomous coalition" of student protesters had blocked the intersection on campus.

It said that over the past week, "thousands of graduates have walked the stage on this unceded Musqueam land," and this was in "stark contrast" to the current situation in Gaza "wherein there are no graduation ceremonies whatsoever."

The pro-Palestinian encampment at UBC was the first of three similar camps to spring up in the province in response to Israel's actions in its war with Hamas.

Protesters at UBC as well as the University of Victoria and Vancouver Island University have called for the schools to end financial and academic ties with Israeli companies and institutions they say are complicit in the "genocide" of Palestinians.

At an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Premier David Eby said the protests require a "difficult balance" for post-secondary institutions to strike between the right of free speech and the need for people to feel safe at school.

"They need to feel comfortable in their classes, they need to be comfortable on campus and everyone needs to feel welcome there," Eby said.

"I would encourage everybody to do their best to ensure those twin values are respected on our campuses."

A spokeswoman for UBC said earlier this week that the school had no update to its May 16 statement from president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, which called for "productive dialogue with members of the encampment to work toward a peaceful resolution."

The letter from organizers on Wednesday called on Bacon to condemn the "clearly documented genocide (and) scholasticide" in Gaza in order to start a dialogue.

The camp had about 60 tents on Wednesday, fewer than during its early days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2024.

Nono Shen and Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press


1 arrest after pro-Palestinian protesters block UBC intersection

CBC
Wed, May 29, 2024 


Pro-Palestinian protesters march during a demonstration at the rose garden at the University of British Columbia. (Ethan Cairns/CBC - image credit)


RCMP say one person was arrested after pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of British Columbia ramped up action in their month-long demonstration on Wednesday by blocking off a major intersection at the Point Grey campus.

Since late April, demonstrators have camped on MacInnes Field to protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, hanging up signs calling for "Freedom for Palestine" and urging Canada to "stop arming the genocide," referencing the sale of arms to Israel.

On Wednesday morning the protesters moved to the road, with about 100 of them blocking the intersection of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Mall, about 250 metres east of the camp.

Chants of "we will not stop, we will not rest" and "no peace on stolen land" could be heard.




In a press release, an RCMP spokesperson said its Critical Response Unit responded, along with officers from the Vancouver Police Department, Richmond RCMP and B.C. Highway Patrol.

Officers formed a line before walking into the intersection, clearing it by around 12:15 p.m. PT.

Police said they arrested one person.

"Demonstrators were given the opportunity to relocate off the roadway to avoid enforcement action," RCMP said in a statement. "Despite attempts to facilitate communication with protesters, police action was required to clear the intersection."

The protesters moved off westward, still chanting.

Const. Tania Visintin with the Vancouver Police Department said the department was asked to go on "standby" but added that no officers were deployed.

Pro-Palestinian protest encampments have been set up on university campuses across the country, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues in the Middle East.

Police block pro-Palestinian protesters from entering an area with recent graduates at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Police block pro-Palestinian protesters from entering an area with recent graduates at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (Ethan Cairns/CBC)

Protesters have called for schools to end financial and academic ties with Israeli companies and institutions.

A spokesperson for UBC said earlier this week that the school had no update to its May 16 statement from president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, which called for "productive dialogue with members of the encampment to work toward a peaceful resolution."

On Monday, Bacon joined the presidents of Concordia University, McGill University and the University of Toronto to tell a committee of MPs that they are working to combat antisemitism on their campuses.

Demonstrators at the University of British Columbia protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict moved to Wesbrook Mall and University Boulevard on Wednesday.

Demonstrators at the University of British Columbia protesting the Israel-Hamas war blocked off the intersection of Wesbrook Mall and University Boulevard on Wednesday morning. (CBC News)

The meeting comes after claims that Jewish students have experienced a rising number of incidents of antisemitism since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked communities in southern Israel.

The militants killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage in the surprise attack, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Protestors chanted "we will not stop we will not rest" as they moved onto the road.

Protesters chanted 'we will not stop, we will not rest' as they moved onto the road. (CBC News)