Canada’s West Coast Ports to Lockout Union After Foreman File Strike Notice

Vancouver and neighboring Prince Rupert are threatened with their second shutdown in two years (Vancouver Port Authority)

Published Nov 1, 2024 11:52 AM by The Maritime Executive

 

The long-simmering West Coast labor dispute at Canada’s West Coast ports is set to disrupt cargo operations as the union filed notice of a strike and the employers responded with a lockout notice due to start Monday, November 4. Businesses are calling for the federal government to intervene to prevent the second closure in two years of Canada’s busiest ports.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foreman Local 514 filed on Thursday a 72-hour advance notice of a strike ahead of the expiration of a strike authorization granted by members over the summer. The union had previously attempted to strike at DP World’s facilities but was blocked by Canadian labor regulators who cited the union for singling out DP World in the contract dispute.

The employers represented by the BC Maritime Employers Association responded to the strike notice saying they intend to implement a full lockout calling it a “defensive measure.” The union highlights the strike notice is for a “limited action” consisting of an overtime ban and refusal to implement technology changes. 

“Strike activity can easily escalate, including a complete withdrawal of labor without notice,” BCMEA wrote in its statement explaining the planned lockout. “To facilitate a safe and orderly wind-down of operations, the BCMEA has issued formal notice of its intention to defensively lock out all ILWU Local 514 members on Monday, November 4 at or around 09:00 am PT. Should it be required, this coastwide lockout will shut down all cargo operations of BCMEA Member companies across the province.”

Impacted would be Canada’s busiest port, Vancouver, and Prince Rupert, which is Canada’s third busiest port. Montreal is Canada’s second busiest port and struggling with its own labor problems. The West Coast action would stop containers and general cargo although it would not affect longshoring operations on grain vessels or cruise operations.

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade responded to the latest development saying the strike endangers more than US$500 million in daily trade. In the summer of 2023, the same ports were hit with a 13-day strike which caused widespread disruption and was resolved through pressure from the federal government. The Board of Trade is again calling on the federal government to intervene to prevent the strike/lockout.

“We did not arrive to this decision lightly,” said BCMEA. They are citing the union’s “intransigence” saying it provoked the decision even after Canadian labor regulators last week said the union has been bargaining in bad faith. 

A key part of the dispute centers around work rules, manning, and the use of automation. The local has repeatedly singled out DP World which it says has taken the most aggressive stance to implement technology. The union is demanding the new contract set a better work-life balance. The local which represents about 700 foremen has been without a contract since the prior one expired in March 2023. 

The employers contended that they had met with the local this week making their final offer which included a better than 19 percent total wage increase with a signing bonus and retroactive pay which they said they would accelerate to delivery in mid-December. The union assets the local presented “proposals and positions that took bargaining backwards,” during this week’s meeting.

The federal government and Canadian labor regulators are faced with a bi-coastal problem as the longshore workers in Montreal also started a strike at two container terminals this week. Like their West Coast counterparts, they are focused on work rules and manning. A union lead said if those issues could be resolved the wage increase would be easy. Canada’s federal government has been reluctant to intervene in these labor disputes despite the potential for widespread economic disruption.

Montreal Dockworkers Schedule Strike Against Terminal Operator for MSC

Longshore workers have scheduled a strike in Montreal against the operator of the terminal servicing MSC (Termont)

Published Oct 29, 2024 1:42 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

Dockworkers in Montreal, Canada filed notice of their intent to go on strike starting Thursday, October 31, against two of the primary container terminals as part of their long-running contract dispute. CUPE Local 375 is pressuring the Maritime Employers Association into an agreement saying this would be an unlimited strike but offering to withdraw the notice if an agreement could be reached on the work schedule portion of the dispute.

The local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees has been without a contract for all of 2024 while the dispute over work schedule issues dates back to prior contracts. Union officials however are accusing Termont, operator of the Maisonneuve and Viau terminals, of “provoking longshore workers and their local by using schedules that have negative impacts on work-life balance.” They contend the company modified work schedules “in a punitive way.”

Due to start Thursday morning and continue indefinitely, the strike would impact the two terminals which handle 40 percent of the port’s container traffic and 15 percent of the overall volume handled at the Port of Montreal. Termont highlights that it handles over 500,000 containers annually and has a long-term contract for handling the business of Mediterranean Shipping Company at the Port of Montreal.

The union has indicated it would withdraw the strike notice if an agreement could be reached on the work rules. Leaders told the media that they were confident the wage portion of the dispute could be easily resolved. They said Montreal longshore members were willing to accept a 20 percent increase over four years, which is the same terms given to longshore workers in the ports of Halifax and Vancouver.

The planned strike comes after the union shut down the Port of Montreal on Sunday with a 24-hour strike and since October 10 has been refusing all overtime assignments. Last month, the union also held a three-day strike against Termont.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses, issued a strongly-worded statement on Sunday condemning the union. They are calling for intervention by the federal government, which had offered to establish a special mediator. The offer failed to gain support and was withdrawn by the government, which so far has not taken further actions to end the dispute.

“The only reason the longshoremen are striking is because they can. They have no remorse for the economic harm and uncertainty their actions are causing. Canada's SMEs are once again the collateral damage of the union's irresponsible actions,” said Jasmin Guenette, Vice-President, National Affairs, CFIB, contending that “labor laws are so heavily weighted in favor of the big unions. It's time the federal government made ports an essential service, so that they remain operational at all times. This will protect our supply chain and our SMEs and will make labor actions like we are seeing at the Port of Montreal impossible.” 

Similar anger emerged last year when Canada’s West Coast ports were disrupted by a contract dispute with the longshoremen’s union. The federal government helped to resolve that dispute and promised an investigation.

The latest West Coast dispute, which involves the contract for 700 foremen has also been contentious with the Canada Industrial Relations Board ruling last week that the union had negotiated in bad faith. With the current West Coast strike authorization due to expire on November 2, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association agreed with federal mediators to resume contract negotiations starting today, October 29. Previous efforts by the union to conduct a strike at DP World’s facilities were blocked by the labor regulators. 

CLIMATE CRISIS

Spain flood death toll hits 205, rescuers yet to reach some parts of Valencia

Reuters Published November 1, 2024 

People clean up a mud-covered street next to piled up cars after heavy rains in Alfafar, in Valencia, Spain, on November 1. — Reuters

Spanish rescuers opened a temporary morgue in a convention centre and battled to reach areas still cut off on Friday as the death toll from catastrophic floods rose to 205 people in Europe’s worst weather disaster in five decades.

In Valencia, the eastern region that bore the brunt of the devastation, about 500 soldiers were deployed to hunt for people who are still missing and help survivors of the storm, which triggered a fresh weather alert in Huelva in southwestern Spain.

Officials said the death toll is likely to keep rising. It is already Spain’s worst flood-related disaster in modern history and the deadliest to hit Europe since the 1970s.

In Alfafar, a suburb outside the city of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest, drone footage showed the tangled wreckage of dozens of vehicles strewn across rail tracks.

“It’s all destroyed, shops, supermarkets, schools, cars,” said local resident Patricia Villar. Close by, a boat that had been carried by the floodwaters lay on a muddy street corner.

Emergency services working to clear cars piled up at the entrance of a flooded underpass in the suburb feared finding more trapped bodies.

“We’re trying to remove vehicles bit by bit to see if there are victims,” one rescue worker told state television. “We don’t know.”

With about 75,000 homes still without electricity, firefighters were siphoning petrol from cars that had been abandoned in the floods to power generators to get domestic supplies back on.

“We’re going from car to car looking for any petrol we can find,” said one firefighter who had travelled to Valencia from the southern region of Andalusia to assist rescue efforts, carrying a plastic tube and empty bottles to collect the petrol from the cars’ tanks.
A year of rain

A year of rain fell in just eight hours on Tuesday night, destroying roads, railway tracks and bridges as rivers burst their banks.

The flooding also submerged thousands of hectares of farmland in the region, which produces nearly two-thirds of citrus fruit in Spain — the world’s top exporter of oranges.

“The magnitude of the catastrophe has no precedent,” Transport Minister Oscar Puente told local television.

While the waters have subsided in most parts of Valencia, emergency services have still not been able to reach a few areas due to blocked roads. They included Albal, a neighbourhood close to Alfafar, one resident said.

Supplies of bottled drinking water were running low in some places and residents in the Valencia suburb of Paiporta were taking turns to guard shops after authorities said 50 people had been arrested for looting.

Standing in a churned up street as neighbours and volunteers did what they could to clean up in Paiporta, resident Amber Gonzalez, 72, said rebuilding and recovering from the floods would take time.

“No matter how much help we get it is not enough,” she said. “This is not going to be fixed in a month or two.”

As the death toll rose, a temporary morgue was set up at the Feria Valencia convention centre on the outskirts of Valencia city, emergency services said, and the first bodies started to arrive early on Friday.

The number of deaths has prompted anger as well as grief in Spain, with some people accusing authorities of being poorly prepared and not having warned people soon enough about the dangers posed by the storm.

Valencia resident Hector Bolivar, 65, questioned why a text message alert was only sent out at 8pm when the heavy rain had begun several hours earlier.

The president of Valencia’s regional government, Carlos Mazon, has said all protocols for disaster management were followed and that authorities began warning people from Sunday.

The death toll is the highest from floods in Europe since 1970, when 209 people died in Romania.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.

“Regarding these environmental catastrophes, we pray for the people of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the Valencian Community, swept away by the storm,” Pope Francis said on Friday as he led prayers in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Ultimate price

 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

DAWN
Editorial 

Published November 2, 2024 

AS the world marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists today, the dangers confronting media professionals have become impossible to ignore, especially in regions plagued by conflict. The peril is particularly acute in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, where according to CPJ, at least 134 journalists have been killed since the onset of Israeli hostilities last year. In Pakistan, too, the landscape is perilous, with over 150 journalists killed in the last 24 years. Freedom Network’s 2024 Impunity Report highlights that Pakistan is witnessing a brutal year, with six journalists killed between November 2023 and August 2024 alone. A culture of impunity persists, exposing journalists to relentless threats and assaults. And while journalists continue to fall victim to violence, convictions are almost nonexistent, creating an environment in which perpetrators are rarely held to account.

The annual impunity report reveals the extent of these threats, identifying key actors behind the violence. Of the documented violations, nearly half (47pc) were attributed to government authorities, with political parties involved in 12pc of cases and other identifiable groups responsible for 16pc. Alarmingly, 25pc of these attacks came from unknown actors, underscoring the complexity and opacity surrounding these crimes. It also reveals other distressing statistics: 57 documented violations, including assassinations, threats, and harassment, took place in the period under review. Sindh tops this grim list, with Punjab, Islamabad, and KP not far behind. Journalists from various sectors bear the brunt of these attacks, with TV journalists most frequently targeted, followed by those in print and digital media. Women journalists, too, have faced intimidation, making up 9pc of the affected individuals. There are mechanisms within the law, such as the Sindh Protection of Journalists and Other Media Professionals Act, and the federal Protection of Journalist and Media Professional Act. However, these legal protections remain largely unenforced, leaving journalists vulnerable. The first local Media Impunity Index highlights that while the Sindh government has made some headway, other provinces and the centre are failing to establish active safety commissions essential for protecting media workers.

To dismantle this culture of impunity, the state must act decisively. Existing laws, like the 2021 protection act, must be enforced rigorously. Authorities must launch thorough investigations into crimes against journalists and bring perpetrators to justice. Moreover, families of slain journalists deserve financial and legal support to help them seek justice and recognition for their loved ones’ sacrifices. Journalists are the backbone of democratic societies. Their work holds governments accountable, informs the public, and exposes injustices. When they are silenced through violence, the impact is felt across society, eroding public trust and weakening democratic integrity. It is incumbent upon the state to protect journalists and ensure that crimes against them do not go unpunished.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024

PAKISTAN

Trade distortions

TARIFF TROUBLES

Dr Nadia Tahir

Published November 2, 2024

DAWN

PAKISTAN’s exports are not increasing at a fast rate, perhaps because the authorities give incentives to traditional export sectors and restrict imports through tariff walls. We often overlook the link between imports and industry. The unintended consequences of imposing tariffs as a means of revenue collection have eroded our regulatory capacity to collect direct taxes.

In FY2022-23, import duties contributed 13 per cent towards overall FBR collection and some 24pc in indirect taxes, while 73pc of import duties were collected from just 15 product groups. Duties on petroleum products, iron and steel, vehicles and edible oil constitute almost 50pc of all customs duties. The narrow base of dutiable imports is also a reason for high tariff rates.

Our first National Tariff Policy (2019-24) marked a shift in revenue generation methods as tariffs became a tool for promoting trade and industrialisation. It was considered a step in the right direction as it intended to simplify the tariff structure. The NTP also aimed to provide time-bound strategic protection to domestic industries.

The NTP included all relevant stakeholders at a single decision-making forum, the National Tariff Board. This approach alter­­ed the balance between various stakeholders, mainly FBR and the Commerce Divi­sion, making decision-making more com-plex, thus leading to delays and court cases.


Our industrial structure favours those who thrive on subsidies.

The government has decreased tariff rates but by imposing additional regulatory duties has increased the effective and nominal protection rate. Given frequent changes and the import control policy, the dispersion rate and the reduction in the mean tariff rate indicate more policy distortions.

The complexity of our tariff structure goes beyond the variation in rates across different slabs. Rates also vary based on product usage and origin, leading to policies that foster the misuse of concessions, create anomalies, and result in valuation lapses.

In the last five years, regulatory duties have increased by 140pc, and warehouse charges by 64pc. The nominal tariff rate (the total tariff divided by the value of all imports) has gone up significantly.

Let us examine our industrial landscape. Our last Census of Manufacturing Industries for 2015-16 revealed that the industrial sector still consists mainly of textile, food processing units, chemicals, and automobiles — all heavily reliant on imports. The “inexorable and mysterious” growth of these sectors has puzzled policymakers. It was thought that protection and incentives would trigger export-led growth but that did not happen. Instead, we have seen exports increase sluggishly and imports double.

Pakistan’s trade duties have tried to protect industries in the pursuit of growth but industry finds it difficult to compete because exports rely on imports for essential inputs. Our industrial structure is highly skewed in favour of a few who thrive on state subsidies. Heavy indirect taxes such as customs duty and sales tax on imports hinder growth. Industry also finds it difficult to survive and compete with increasing costs of production.

It is the consumer who ends up paying for trade distortions created by subsidies and tariff, over and above inflation and high energy costs.

The WTO’s general principle is that foreign goods must not be treated any “worse than domestic products”, and that “internal taxes or other charges on imports must be no higher than on domestic products, and laws and regulations affecting their sale, purchase, transportation, distribution”. However, we routinely see this principle being violated.

Countries such as the US and China, as well as the European Union, are giving huge subsidies and building tariff walls to lessen competition. Despite sl­­­owing globalisation and rising retaliatory tariffs, technology links markets, and does not fracture economies. Trade is realigning it­­self, with like-minded states trading with each other. We are living in a world which is more connected and interdependent. Isolation and tariffs can be addressed by creating new markets.

For economists, trade depends on differences in cost ratios. As tariff costs increase, aggregate demand and income shrink based on the ‘reciprocal demand’ principle. Low growth imposes a constraint on achieving the objective of ‘decent work for all’. It also creates a set of other regulatory issues, such as the problem of calculating true income because of illegal trade and parallel economies.

Tariff has proved to be a major hindrance in the promotion of trade. Tariff walls are protecting a high-end industry, which is not there. Can we create such an industry out of thin air without collaboration, coordination and exchanging goods and ideas? For industrial growth, we need not just one of these factors but all three.

The writer is director, Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies, Lahore.

info@casslhr.com

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024

PAKISTAN/BALOCHISTAN IS A COUNTRY

Mastung bombing

DAWN
Editorial 

Published November 2, 2024 

INSTABILITY continues to haunt Balochistan, as Friday morning’s bombing in Mastung has shown. At least nine fatalities have been confirmed — mostly children — while at the time of writing no group had claimed responsibility for this atrocity. Considering Balochistan’s complex vortex of violence, both separatist militants or religiously inspired insurgents could be behind the act of terrorism, though initial impressions suggest the latter may be responsible. The bombing occurred near a hospital and a school, while a police vehicle, that was reportedly going to escort polio vaccinators, was badly damaged, with a policeman among the victims. Statements from the prime minister and the provincial chief minister suggest that children were the prime targets of the attack. Regardless of the perpetrators’ ideological background, the targeting of children is the worst form of terrorism, and needs to be strongly condemned by all quarters. Sadly, Mastung is no stranger to violence. Last year, an Eid-i-Milad procession in the town was targeted, causing over 50 fatalities. Over the last 13 years, there have also been a number of high-profile sectarian attacks in Mastung. While separatist forces do operate in this area, it is believed to be a hotbed of extremist and sectarian actors. This lends credence to the impression that extremist militants may have carried out the latest attack. At one point Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was believed to have a strong presence in this part of Balochistan, and some believe these LJ cadres may have joined the self-styled Islamic State group.

If it is proved that Friday’s attack was the handiwork of LJ, IS, or similarly inspired groups, the state would have a fresh security challenge to confront. While Balochistan has recently witnessed frequent separatist attacks, extremist outfits have been less ‘prolific’. Countering both a separatist insurgency, and militant onslaughts inspired by groups such as the TTP and IS, is a formidable problem for the state. Despite the considerable presence of security forces in Balochistan, law and order remains poor. This must change as far too many precious lives — of both civilians and security personnel — have been lost in terrorist attacks. With regard to extremist and sectarian groups, the state had in the past ‘decapitated’ such outfits by neutralising their leaders. These groups cannot be allowed to reorganise and further destabilise Balochistan. Thorough intelligence and proactive action is required to check such malign actors.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024

PAKISTAN

TikTok bandits terrorise, transfix Katcha lands

Online gangs lay “honey-traps” to lure and kidnap victims, parade hostages in clips, exhibit weapon arsenals.




AFP Published November 1, 2024

With a showman’s flair and an outlaw’s moustache, the Pakistani gangster dials the hotline on his own most wanted notice — taunting the authorities who put a bounty on his head.

Staring down the lens in a social media clip, Shahid Lund Baloch challenges the official on the phone and his thousands of viewers: “Do you know my circumstances or my reasons for taking up arms?”

The 28-year-old is hiding out in riverine terrain in central Punjab which has long offered refuge to bandits — using the internet to enthral citizens even as he preys on them, police say.

On TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram he fascinates tens of thousands with messages delivered gun-in-hand, romanticising his rural lifestyle and cultivating a reputation as a champion of the people.

But he is wanted for 28 cases including murder, abduction and attacks on police — with a 10 million rupee ($36,000) price on his head.

“People who are sitting on the outside think he is a hero, but the people here know he is no hero,” said Javed Dhillon, a former lawmaker for Rahim Yar Khan district close to the hideouts of Baloch, and other bandits like him.

“They have been at the receiving end of his cruelty and violence.”

This photograph taken on October 9, 2024 shows elite police personnel patrolling on a sandy island along the Indus river, in the ‘Katcha lands’ at Rahim Yar Khan district. — Arif Ali / AFP


Backwater with bandwidth

Baloch is said to dwell on a sandy island in the “Katcha lands” — roughly translating as “backwaters” — on the Indus River which skewers from top to bottom.

High-standing crops provide cover for ambushes and the region is riven by shifting seasonal waterways that complicate pursuit over crimes ranging from kidnapping to highway robbery and smuggling.

At the intersection of three of the four provinces, gangs with hundreds of members have for decades capitalised on poor coordination between police forces by flitting across jurisdictions.

“The natural features of these lands support the criminals,” said senior police officer Naveed Wahla.

“They’ll hide out in a water turbine, move in boats, or through sugarcane crops.” Sweeping police operations and even an army incursion in 2016 failed to impose law and order. This August, a rocket attack on a police convoy killed 12 officers.

“In the current state of affairs here there is only fear and terror,” said Haq Nawaz, whose adult son was abducted late September for a five million rupee ransom he cannot afford.

“There is no one to look after our wellbeing,” he complains.

In this photograph taken on October 10, 2024, Haq Nawaz, whose adult son was abducted by bandits, speaks during an interview with AFP in Rahim Yar Khan district. — Ghulam Hassan Mahar / AFP


But the gangs are increasingly online.

Some use the web to lay “honey-traps” luring kidnap victims by impersonating romantic suitors, business partners and advertising cheap sales of tractors or cars.

Some parade hostages in clips for ransom or exhibit arsenals of heavy weapons in musical TikToks.

Baloch has by far the largest online profile — irking police with a combined 200,000 followers.

Rizwan Gondal, the head police officer of Rahim Yar Khan district, says that his detectives have a dossier proving his “heinous criminal activities”.

“Police have made multiple efforts to capture him however he escapes,” he added.

“He’s a very media savvy guy. Let him say, ‘I am going to surrender before the state to prove that I am innocent’ and let the media cover it.”
‘Beloved brother bandit’

In his clips Baloch protests his innocence whilst casting himself as a vigilante in a lawless land, claiming he chose to fight only after family members were slain in tribal clashes.

“We couldn’t get justice from the courts so I decided to pick up arms and started fighting with my enemies,” Baloch told AFP.

“They killed our people, we killed theirs.” But he also plays off the cycle of state neglect which breeds banditry and in turn relegates the destitute farming communities further to society’s fringes.

“The villagers here are not viewed as human but as animals,” Baloch told AFP.

“If they gave us schools, electricity, government hospitals and justice, why would anyone even think of taking up arms?” In comments sections his viewers call him “beloved brother bandit” and a “real hero”.

“You have won my heart,” claims another.

“He is popular in the mainstream because he is giving the police authorities a tough time,” said former lawmaker Dhillon.

“People like that he says the things they can’t say out loud against people they can’t speak out against.”

This photograph taken on October 9, 2024 shows an elite police personnel monitoring security at a post on a sandy island along the Indus river, in the ‘Katcha lands’ at Rahim Yar Khan district. — Arif Ali / AFP


Robbed of followers

Police have proposed countering bandits by downgrading mobile phone towers to 2G in the Katcha lands, preventing social media apps from loading.

That has not yet happened and would risk cutting communities off further still. But more low tech solutions have had some success.

An anti-honey trap police cell cautions citizens against the gangs with the help of billboards and loudspeakers at checkpoints entering the area, preventing 531 people from falling prey since last August, according to their data.

Baloch scoffs at police. But one problem plaguing his bid for online stardom has his attention.

Copycat social media accounts pretend to be him and share duplicates of his videos — earning thousands more followers and views than his legitimate accounts.

He feels robbed. “I don’t know what they are trying to achieve,” he complains. But for police, his internet hero status is at odds with the toll of his crimes.

“People will idealise Shahid Lund Baloch but when they ultimately get kidnapped by him, then they will realise who Shahid Lund Baloch really is,” said senior officer Wahla.

Header image: This photograph taken on October 9, 2024 shows elite police personnel patrolling on a sandy island along the Indus river, in the ‘Katcha lands’ at Rahim Yar Khan district. — Arif Ali / AFP

PAKISTAN

‘No credible evidence’ of alleged Lahore college rape, says HRCP

Dawn.com 

Published November 1, 2024

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)’s fact-finding mission on Friday said it could not find “credible evidence” regarding the alleged rape of a student at a private college in Lahore which led to widespread student protests in October.

Last month, reports related to the alleged rape of a private college student went viral on social media, prompting the police to arrest a security guard at the college who was allegedly involved in the incident.

Enraged by the alleged incident, students mobilised on social media and staged protests outside different colleges in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.

In a report, HRCP said that it was “not possible to conclusively establish the veracity of widespread allegations that a student was sexually assaulted at a private college in Lahore earlier in October 2024”.

Regarding the allegations, the report said that “a chain of events appears to have created acute suspicion and mistrust among students at Punjab College Campus 10. These events include a spate of social media content making unverified claims of rape, contradictory statements by government representatives”.

Additionally, the mission “strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against hundreds of students at Campus 10 on 14 October, who had launched a mass protest demanding ‘justice’ for the alleged victim of rape but were subjected to police violence”.

However, it cautioned that there was evidence of other parties attempting “to hijack the students’ narrative and use it to amplify their own outreach on social media”.

“The mission observes that students’ response underlines their serious dissatisfaction with the state of security on campuses and perceived frequency of sexual harassment and victim blaming,” the statement read, adding that this was made worse by a lack of motivation of the college administration to address the issue and a “deep mistrust” of the police.

The report highlighted that the “damage wrought by pervasive misinformation is grounds for strong, regular public campaigns on digital literacy and fact-checking”, however adding that the students’ frustration should not be discounted because of the apparent role of misinformation.

Among other recommendations, the report suggested a thorough investigation of the CCTV footage of Lahore’s Campus 10 over the first two weeks of October.

It also recommended “holding the police accountable for violence against student protesters as well as for detaining a person accused of the alleged offence in the absence of an FIR against him”.

Earlier, the police and the Punjab government, following an investigation, maintained that the incident never occurred.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz went on to claim that Imran Khan’s PTI was behind instigating students on social media to create a law and order situation in the country.

TikToker held for false claims in Lahore college ‘rape case’

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter 

Published November 1, 2024

 DAWN

LAHORE: The Organised Crime Unit (OCU) of Lahore police on Thursday arrested a woman TikToker who had claimed to be the mother of the alleged ‘rape victim’ of Punjab College.

She was arrested on charges of making a false claim and inciting public sentiment against the government authorities, urging the people to mobilise for street demonstrations.

The OCU Model Town police acted following a case lodged against her with the Gulberg police station after the woman, Sara Khan, recorded a TikTok video and uploaded it on the social media which went viral, creating another round of controversy over the alleged rape case as the matter was already in the limelight, provoking the students for violent agitation.

OCU DIG Imran Kishwar told Dawn that a special police team arrested the woman on Thursday when she went to Lahore High Court to get bail in another case lodged against her by the cyber crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

He said the police teams were in search of the TikToker following a case registered against her on the complaint of Gulberg police sub-inspector Mohammad Imran under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (PECA) Act, 2016 and other charges. He said as Sara Khan was nominated in the FIR after the controversial video disseminated rapidly across social media platforms, showcasing the anonymous woman who posited an alarming assertion that the female student from the Punjab College, who allegedly fell victim to a heinous act of sexual assault, was her daughter.

During the investigation process, the DIG said, the woman was ascertained to be Sara Khan, a resident of Karachi with her permanent address in Multan.

Following the sensitivity of the matter, the Punjab government had formed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to conduct the probe.

Model Town OCU SP Aftab Phularwan was the convener of the JIT while other members included DSP Faisal Shareef, woman inspector Fiza and one each representative from Intelligence Bureau and FIA.

Mr Kishwar said the arrested TikToker has been handed over to the JIT for further investigation.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024

Ralph Fiennes talks about papal thriller 'Conclave,' women's ordination

(RNS) — While conservatives seemed to think the film’s ending raised the question of women’s ordination, for Ralph Fiennes, it is the marginal role of women in the film that raises that question.

Actor Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence in "Conclave." (Photo courtesy Focus Features)
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
October 25, 2024

This article contains spoilers for the film.

(RNS) — Despite constant buzz about Pope Francis’ age and health, the only conclave — the gathering of the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals to elect a new pontiff — on the horizon is in theaters: A cinematic flocking of red-hatted, red-robed princes of the church portrayed in a star-studded thriller in theaters Oct. 25.

“Conclave,” Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, dramatizes the Catholic process for choosing a new supreme leader in a film that has already won top prizes at multiple film festivals and seems well positioned for awards show season.

Despite the barrage of the improbable, telenovela-worthy plot twists, the film’s tone is serious, with artistic shots of the cardinals and the Vatican and a string-heavy score backing theological discussions about doubt and power.

Director Edward Berger, who comes to “Conclave” after winning an Oscar for 2022’s “All Quiet on the Western Front,” told RNS he was drawn to the world of Harris’ novel both because of its “theatricality,” as well as the avenue it takes to explore what happens in an “institution where a top job is empty.”

“Conclave” film poster. (Image courtesy Focus Features)

While Berger was raised Protestant, he remembers visiting a friend’s Catholic church and being curious “because I thought it was so much more interesting than my service where I went, because of the theatricality, in a way, and all the rituals.”

But he also remembers being a little frightened by those rituals. The director explained, “They intimidated me because I always thought I would do something wrong.”

Ralph Fiennes, who stars as Cardinal Lawrence, the dean of the College of Cardinals, said the “human questions” are what he loves about the film.

“The church is peopled by human beings, and it’s interesting to reflect on their motivation,” said Fiennes, best known most recently for a lead role in “The Menu” and for playing the arch-villain Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies.

“I thought this script did not seek to satirize or somehow cynically exploit the Catholic church,” he told RNS. “I thought it was a very human look at a particular aspect of the Catholic Church, which is huge and complex.”

He also explained that those making the film had done their best to be “accurate to the details of ritual” with a religious adviser on set. “I hope at a physical, practical level, it’s accurate. I’m sure there’ll be people to tell us where we did things wrong, but that was the aspiration anyway,” he said.

Fiennes, who was raised Catholic but now describes himself as “lapsed,” said he still has “a very keen interest in what it is to have a spiritual guide or sense of a path” and described the Catholic church as “an object of great interest” to him.

“There’s much in the Catholic teachings and rules that I find very resistible, but the teachings of Christ are always, I think, going to have relevance,” Fiennes said, explaining that “all kinds of spiritual teachings” interest him.

Fiennes described a few negative experiences with the church. When he was young, “certainly in schools in Ireland, the sort of discipline was ferocious, with priests taking sticks out of their robes to hit young boys over the hand,” the actor said.

In his youth, he also encountered “elitist priests who insisted on saying the Mass in Latin when it might be good to say it in English to encourage a younger congregation,” but nevertheless Fiennes emphasizes that “these were all human beings.”

“I’ve talked to priests whose intellectual viewpoint and wisdom I really respect,” Fiennes said.

RELATED: Transgender and intersex Catholics ask pope to rethink church stance on gender-affirming care

“Conclave” has already drawn the ire of Catholic conservatives because of a final revelation about the newly elected pope.

After a scandal-riddled conclave, at which several factions of cardinals describe themselves as “at war” over ideological divisions that more closely mirror European and U.S. political debates than those in the Vatican today, the cardinals elect Cardinal Benitez, whose status had been under wraps until the conclave in order to keep him safe as he led the church in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Benitez stays out of the fray of the cardinals’ bickering and subversion of each other and instead demonstrates a humble leadership style. But there is something else that sets him apart from his cardinal brothers. At the movie’s final twist, Lawrence learns after Benitez’s election that the new pope had recently discovered he is intersex — a person whose anatomy fits into neither male nor female sex categories.

Most of the conservatives enraged by the movie seem to misunderstand the condition. “In reality, the cardinal they elected was born a woman and raised as a male by her parents because she was born with an intersex condition,” Jonah McKeown, a staff writer at the EWTN-owned Catholic News Agency, writes, before interviewing a priest about why women cannot be ordained.

In his interview with RNS, Berger seemed to recognized that Benitez’s revelation would touch a nerve in today’s church. He recounted a story Harris told him about a cardinal who had written the author after the book was published to tell him that, while he enjoyed the novel, when it came to the ending he told himself “it is ultimately just a story.”
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For Fiennes, it is not Benitez who raises the question of women’s ordination, but Sister Agnes, played by Isabella Rossellini, who is the only female star in the film, reflecting the lack of women leading the church.

“It does seem odd that the church sticks so forcefully to its tradition of male celebrants. I think the Church of England has proven that (having) women as priests is very effective,” Fiennes said, adding he didn’t “feel comfortable making pronouncements on the church” because he’s “too ignorant.”

“I know lots of Catholic women who would be curious to know what the future might be,” said Fiennes.

Berger said that, while his opinion was subjective, “I do think the movie explores a wonderful topic of femininity versus masculinity that is perhaps an interesting dialogue that could be the future of any religious organization, not just a Catholic one.”

Ultimately, Fiennes said, “What I like about the script is that I think it takes seriously the notion of who is the right person to be pope, who has the right spiritual integrity to hold that position.” He continued, “And what I love about it is that I feel we do have someone at the end of the film who has a profound spiritual essence to lead the church.”

If you wanted to change the world, would you start with laundry?

(RNS) — In 2019, Sawhney left a comfortable job to move to South India to start a new life and career, grounded in a vision of meaning and service. We talked with him about his choice.

The Washing Machine Project team studies how their Divya manual washing machine will be used in different parts of the world. (Photo courtesy The Washing Machine Project)

Simran Jeet Singh
October 25, 2024

(RNS) — Nav Sawhney had made it. He was working as an engineer, developing new technology for one of the world’s most innovative companies. What more could he want out of his profession?

The answer, it turns out, is a lot. In 2019, Sawhney left his comfortable life and job in the U.K. and moved to South India to start a new life and career, grounded in a vision of meaning, purpose and service. He helped make cookstoves with Engineers without Borders, an experience that transformed him as much as it transformed the people he served. During his time there, he met a woman, Divya, and through learning about the difficulties in her life, he decided to make her life easier by building her a washing machine.

Upon returning to the U.K., he built a prototype, which led to Sawhney’s net initiative and his new passion: The Washing Machine Project. Sawhney has dedicated the past five years to building and growing this effort. He has since refined his prototype, named Divya, in honor of the woman who inspired his journey. Their model saves 50% of the water of a normal machine and 75% of the time women globally spend on handwashing laundry.

Nav’s work is growing in reach and impact. The Whirlpool Foundation recently committed a large grant to the organization, and Nav’s project has been featured on prominent outlets, from the BBC to The Times of India, and now, with RNS. I sat down with Nav to discuss his path, including how his Sikh faith fits into the story. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to begin this work? How did it come about?

My inspiration to begin The Washing Machine Project stemmed from a combination of my engineering background and a desire to create tangible, impactful solutions for those in need.

After I graduated, I worked for a well-known vacuum and hair dryer company. I was bored, frustrated and unfulfilled. I later took a secondment working with Engineers without Borders in South India making cook stoves; this is where I met my nextdoor neighbor, Divya. I was struck by how much time Divya would spend doing back-breaking chores, including hand washing clothes for up to 20 hours each week. I made a promise to return to Divya with a manual washing machine and help make her life a little easier.


Nav Sawhney. (Photo courtesy The Washing Machine Project)

I returned to the U.K. and started the Washing Machine Project. So far we’ve impacted 30,000 lives and have a presence in 13 countries. We’re planning on impacting 150,000 people over the next 3-5 years.

Seven years later, after many different versions of the machine and now with a team of 11, we finally returned to India and we gifted Divya a machine.
How did your Sikh background inform your decision to take on this project?

From my personal interpretation of Sikh values, what really resonates with me is the value of “seva” (selfless service and giving). This central tenet, along with growing up in a household that emphasized giving back and recognizing the human race as one, influenced my outlook on life.

These values, instilled in me by my family, gave me a commitment to address systemic issues and prioritize the needs of others, which naturally led me to create a solution that could help alleviate the struggles faced by many.
What Sikh values or teachings do you lean on?

The Sikh value of seva is very universal — being selfless and giving back to the community in which you serve. We listen to our users so carefully, making sure that their needs are met. It makes us quite unique in the methodology we use to go about this, which is always with dignity.

We’re also aligned with the Sikh teaching of recognizing the human race as one. That guides our approach to this problem. The majority of people in the world handwashes clothes, so we focus on the common humanity we all share and work towards solutions that benefit the broader community.


The Divya manual washing machine. (Photo courtesy The Washing Machine Project)
There are plenty of needs among Sikhs, especially in Punjab. Why not look to serve just your community?

This issue goes beyond cultural and geographic boundaries. Although this is a massive problem in Punjab, we always go where the need is most. The issue of washing clothes spoke to me because of its pervasive impact on daily life for everyone and its potential for tangible, immediate relief.
What keeps you going in this work? It’s arduous and grinding and takes a lot of risk and commitment. What inspires you to continue giving in this way?

Delivering a washing machine to someone like Divya and seeing the immediate improvement in her life, and those like her. Quality of life is incredibly motivating. I am driven by the belief that engineering can change the world, and by surrounding myself with people who inspire me, I stay committed to this challenging yet deeply rewarding journey.

Opinion

Debates about Columbus’ Spanish Jewish ancestry are not new − the claim was once a bid for social acceptance

(The Conversation) — Claims about Columbus being Sephardic have bubbled up for decades. Early in the 20th century, some immigrant groups hoped proving ties to him would improve their own social standing.

Devin Naar
October 28, 2024

(The Conversation) — In connection to Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, media from the BBC and Fox to Reuters and Haaretz reported on new DNA evidence about the holiday’s original namesake. According to research revealed in a recent Spanish documentary, Christopher Columbus was not Italian, as widely assumed, but Sephardic: of Spanish Jewish lineage.

About 1 in 5 people in Spain and Portugal today may indeed be of “converso” origin: descendants of Jews or Muslims who converted to Catholicism, often under threat of death or expulsion. Regardless of whether Columbus was genealogically Jewish, though, there is scant evidence that he considered himself to be Jewish in any meaningful way. After all, he wrote approvingly of the Spanish king and queen’s decision to expel Jews from Spain in 1492.

The claim that Columbus may have been of Spanish Jewish descent is by no means certain; the “new” research has not yet been published in any academic journals. What’s more, it’s far from new.


The debate over the origins of the New World’s “discoverer” stretch back more than a century, to a time when Columbus was more routinely hailed as a hero – whereas today, he is remembered as the man who initiated European settler colonialism in the Americas and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. For decades, some Spanish and American Jewish activists claimed that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew.
One of their own

At the turn of the 20th century, new immigrant groups in the U.S. were seeking acceptance as part of dominant white American society. Spaniards, Jews, Italians and Greeks seized claims that Columbus was one of their own, hoping to combat prejudice that they faced. By linking themselves to the progenitor of white “civilization” in the Americas, they sought to secure their own position on the white side of the color line, with the privileges and protections that status bestowed.

A poster for the Italian-American Exposition of 1892 in Genoa, Italy – often thought to be Columbus’ birthplace.
Twice25 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

U.S. President Benjamin Harrison instituted Columbus Day in 1892, initially as a one-time holiday. The event was meant to celebrate Italian American contributions to society – partly as an apology, following the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans. Decades later, in 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt rendered Columbus Day a federal holiday, even as the U.S. government continued to impose a quota on Italian immigration.

Early claims about Columbus or members of his entourage being Sephardic Jews also emerged in 1892 – the 400th anniversary of the conquerer’s arrival. Oscar Straus, a Jewish American diplomat, commissioned Meyer Kayserling, a rabbi and scholar, to research Jews’ role in the age of conquest. While Kayserling’s book did not say Columbus himself was of Jewish origin, it claimed that many people connected to his voyages were, including an interpreter named Luis de Torres and funder Luis de Santagel. Straus hoped that highlighting Jewish contributions to American society would curtail rising antisemitism in the United States.
Spanish strategy

In contrast, Spanish claims about Columbus as a Sephardic Jew sought to elevate Spain’s own international image. After its 1898 defeat in the Spanish-American War, Spain lost its possessions in the Western Hemisphere and ceased to be a major European colonial power. A cohort of Spanish writers and artists, known loosely as the Generation of ’98, produced an outpouring of cultural creativity grappling with Spain’s new position.

Some politicians and intellectuals drew on economic and cultural arguments to court descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, whom they viewed as having preserved the Spanish language, and thus providing a new source of influence in the Mediterranean region. Ultimately, the Spanish government issued a decree in 1924 that rendered these descendants eligible for citizenship – an offer it renewed from 2015-2021.

Raquel Venitura and Moise Cohen were wed in Madrid in 1930, the first Hebrew marriage ceremony in Spain since the Inquisition.
Bettmann via Getty Images

Spanish intellectuals became the first to claim that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew, hoping to further elevate Spain’s status, in the wake of the losses of 1898, as the trailblazer of European civilization in the Americas. By World War I, scholar Celso Garcia de la Riega published a theory that not only some of Columbus’ crew had Spanish Jewish origins, but Columbus himself. Nobel Prize nominee Salvador de Madariaga endorsed the theory of Columbus’ Jewish origins in his 1940 book on Don Cristobal Colón.
Crucial moment

The rise of Nazism heightened discussion among American Jews about Columbus and brought Sephardic Jews themselves into the debate – hoping that a connection to the explorer would temper rising antisemitism.

Sephardic Jews also hoped that if Columbus were recognized as one of their own, Ashkenazi Jews, the dominant Jewish group in the United States, would be more likely to treat them with respect. Sephardic Jews coming from the Ottoman Empire – one of the primary places their ancestors sought refuge after Spain – were often maligned as “uncivilized” and “uncultured” due to their associations with the Muslim world.

As Spanish and Portuguese Jews were the first practicing Jews to come to the Americas, Sephardic Jews arriving from the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century hoped to hitch their story to the grandeur of the country’s first Jewish communities.

In 1933, American Jewish writer Maurice David purported to offer Spanish archival evidence to demonstrate Columbus’ Spanish Jewish bona fides. While David was not Sephardic himself, the Sephardic Jewish community in New York advertised his book’s “sensational” claims in La Vara, a newspaper written in Ladino, the main Sephardic language, also called Judeo-Spanish.

Sephardic men in Seattle, around 1918.
University of Washington via Wikimedia Commons

The most prominent Sephardic exponent of the theory was the former editor of La Amerika, the first Ladino newspaper published in the U.S. During the Second World War, Moise Gadol published a booklet in English called “Christopher Columbus was a Spanish-Jew.”

Gadol sought to elevate the status of his own community of Jews from the Ottoman Empire. By demonstrating links to Columbus, he hoped that all Sephardic Jews – not only those early Spanish and Portuguese Jews who came to the Americas during the colonial period – would be associated with Europe rather than the “Orient,” and with being “white” rather than “brown.”

Gadol also sought to exert pressure on the American public and government to loosen the quotas preventing Jews fleeing Nazi persecution from entering the United States. Two years before, in 1939, the government had rejected all 900 passengers aboard the SS St. Louis, who were forced to return to Europe – an infamous manifestation of the policy.

Gadol’s dubious claims about Columbus, however, did not produce the desired results. Sephardic Jews continued to be marginalized within the broader American Jewish community. Meanwhile, immigration quotas based on nationality – in effect until 1965 – continued to prevent Jewish refugees from finding safe haven in the U.S.
Then … and now

A century ago, embracing Columbus – and the sweeping colonization he represents – was a way for marginalized immigrant groups to claim a sense of belonging as part of the dominant white caste in American society.

Today, it provokes uncomfortable questions. especially claims about Columbus as a Jew. Fixating on his ancestry reinforces the racial blood logic of the Spanish Inquisition, according to which a person was considered Jewish or Muslim based on descent alone – to say nothing of the racial logic of Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow South.

What’s more, the emphasis on Columbus’ personal genealogy distracts from the actual geopolitical forces at play, such as empire building and resource extraction, that propelled Europe’s conquest and mass violence.

As discussions about antisemitism intensify in the U.S. and across the world, perhaps the idea that Columbus was “Jewish” – a conquistador who initiated the destruction of Indigenous peoples – only aggravates the problem.

(Devin Naar, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies and Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program, University of Washington. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)