CULT OF PERSONALITY
The GOP's devotion to Trump threatens to destroy American democracy

With its cultish devotion to Donald Trump, the majority of the Republican Party is choosing a wannabe-autocrat over the political system that made the United States the world's most powerful nation and its dominant democracy

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN 

.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges people as he gets in his SUV outside Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

The ex-President is showing that he doesn't have to be in the Oval Office to damage faith in US elections and to trash truth, as his movement based on lies and personal homage takes an increasingly firm grip of the Republican Party. The widespread mistrust he continues to foster in the fairness of the US political system among millions of voters poses grave risks to democracy itself.


Trump, using his bond with the conservative grassroots, has effectively made fealty to his false claims of a fraudulent election last year the price of entry for any Republican candidate in any race. Under his influence, one of America's two great political parties has effectively shed its belief in democracy -- a dereliction that is massively significant for the country's future.

As he seeks personal revenge, Trump is also mobilizing to try to destroy the political viability of any GOP office holders who tell the truth about the Capitol insurrection he inspired like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

He is celebrating the boos that Sen. Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, received from activists in Utah over the weekend, after voting to convict Trump over his abuses of power in two separate impeachment trials.

The former President retains an extraordinary ability to dictate the beliefs of his followers and the orthodoxy of the GOP on a daily basis.

"The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!" Trump decreed in a statement Monday, literally reversing the facts about last November's free and fair election that he lost.

Cheney may well be sacrificing her own political career as one of the few GOP lawmakers with the guts to speak truth about Trump's anti-democratic attacks. A new effort is underway among the ex-President's acolytes in Congress to strip her of her No. 3 position in the House only three months after she comfortably retained it in a secret ballot election. Cheney's ability to fight off a pro-Trump primary opponent in her home state of Wyoming is questionable. Her transgression is to simply keep pointing out the truth: that last year's election wasn't stolen by President Joe Biden.

CNN reported Monday that Cheney said at a behind-closed-doors conference in Georgia that Trump's behavior was a "poison in the bloodstream of our democracy." She added: "We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, on Tuesday appeared to open the way for a new vote on Cheney's leadership position, saying that she was no longer capable of representing the party's strategy in the run-up to the midterm elections. That strategy, of course, is closely aligned with Trump's.

"I have heard from members, concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message," McCarthy said on Fox News.


Trump's power grows out of office

Trump is answering one question that was often asked in his dark last days in office -- would he be as powerful in private life as he was with the trappings of presidential office? If anything the former President wields even more control of his party now than he did over the last five years , a fact made more remarkable by the social media silence enforced by bans from major social media platforms.

And there are very clear signs that Trump's assault on American democracy is working. In a CNN poll released last week, only 23% of Republican voters believed that Biden legitimately won sufficient votes to win the election last year. This follows a Quinnipiac poll in February that showed that 76% of Republicans believe that there was widespread fraud in the election.

Court after court threw out Trump's spurious claims of election fraud after his defeat to Biden. There is no evidence that he was unfairly deprived of office. In fact, the only person who tried to steal the election was Trump, with his bid to disrupt Congress certifying the results by inciting a crowd of supporters that mobbed the Capitol, sending lawmakers fleeing.

Trump's manufactured crisis of legitimacy will effectively taint the midterm polls in 2022, which the former President is trying to use to tighten his stamp on the party. And even if Trump doesn't try to reclaim the White House in 2024, his pernicious influence will mean that the idea that the last election was stolen will remain a false article of faith for Republicans going forward.

A flurry of recent developments prove Trump's power in the GOP and his undiminished threat to trust in the electoral system, and show that the fight for American democracy merely entered a new phase when he left office.

A slew of Republican state legislatures have passed laws making it more difficult for Democrats, and especially Black voters, to cast ballots. They often cite voter mistrust in the electoral system as a rationale for those changes. But the chief cause of that mistrust is the relentless campaign by Trump to discredit the election he lost, both before and after voters went to the polls.

In another sign of Trump's malign influence, the state Senate in Arizona is conducting a sham recount of votes in crucial Maricopa County that helped Biden win the state, despite repeated statements and rulings by electoral officials and courts that the President's narrow victory was genuine.

Republican officials who once had the courage to condemn Trump's insurrectionist rhetoric are now seeking to ingratiate themselves with his supporters -- especially those who may run for President in future, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. McCarthy, who at first said Trump bore responsibility for the January 6 riot, quickly visited the former President at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is anchoring his effort to win back the House for Republicans next year on the former President and his movement.

Any idea that the GOP will shed its fealty to Trump was exposed as a pipe dream by the poor showing of Marine veteran Michael Wood, who ran in a special election for a House seat in Texas at the weekend on an anti-Trump platform and lost badly in a jungle primary with only 3% or the vote.

"There is a sickness in our party that must be acknowledged and addressed," Wood wrote in a message to voters after his defeat.

"We are too much a cult of personality and a vehicle for the grievances of Donald Trump. We are too comfortable with conspiracy theories."

The former President sent out a statement claiming credit for the showing of Susan Wright, the wife of Rep. Ron Wright who died from Covid-19, after she moved into a run-off for the seat following the ex-President's endorsement.


Trump sketches a new alternate reality for his followers

The secret of Trump's appeal from the start of his presidential campaign in 2015 was that he channeled the distrust many conservatives felt towards the Washington establishment and the political system itself. He gave people a kind of permission to believe in what they felt viscerally rather than facts and truth. His attempt to destroy trust in the electoral system is creating another false reality with a built-in belief system that is deeply attractive to his voters. The fact that none of it is true does not detract from the power of his appeal.

But it is still extraordinary that the Republican Party, which in recent memory styled itself as the guardian of democracy and boasted about winning the Cold War against tyranny, could transform in this manner.

"It is just mind boggling to me that Republicans could be this way," said Dave Millage, who was forced to resign his post as chair of the Scott County, Iowa, Republican Party after backing Trump's impeachment over the Capitol insurrection. Millage slammed his fellow Republicans for "worshipping at the altar of Trump" during an appearance on CNN's "Newsroom" on Monday.

"He was attacking American democracy itself. Yet they are standing by him. It just astounds me."

The electoral impact of Trump's dominance over his party will be tested next year as Republicans have a historically good chance of overhauling the thin Democratic majority in the House, since new Presidents often get a rebuke. Since most mid-terms, especially House races, are heavily influenced by base turnout, the GOP may profit from Trump's continuing ability to inspire the party's most loyal voters.

But it is less clear that a slate of pro-Trump, Capitol insurrection denialists will help Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's bid to reclaim control of the Senate -- or that this message carried by Trump or anyone else is a winning one in 2024.

After all, the former President managed to lose control of the House, the Senate and the White House with an approach that electrified the GOP base but alienated many suburban voters and those horrified with his handling of the pandemic.

Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who paid with his political career for being an early critic of Trump's presidency, warned that his party was making a huge mistake by not shaping a more compelling appeal to a wider group of voters.

"With the Democratic Party moving more progressive, there is plenty of room there," Flake told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Monday. "And we could do well in the midterms but not if we continue this craziness of questioning the last election and going after those who aren't completely devoted to the former President."

OBAMA WHITE HOUSE 3.0

Samantha Power takes the helm at USAID touting its role in fighting pandemics

By Jennifer Hansler and Nicole Gaouette, CNN 

Samantha Power was sworn in as the new head of the US Agency for International Development on Monday, taking the helm as the Biden administration is faced with humanitarian crises around the globe and the ongoing threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

© CNN samantha power un russia

Power, who becomes the latest member of the Obama administration to join President Joe Biden's team, said that throughout her career as a journalist and then diplomat traveling to places such as Yemen, Syria and Nigeria, she has seen the "USAID effect" in action as the agency "saves and improves lives, engenders goodwill, boosts America's standing in the world and inspires others to cooperate with us."


In her first remarks to staff at the agency that oversees America's international development and humanitarian efforts, Power offered perspective and encouragement as the agency faces a pandemic made more threatening by the rise of new variants, recalling how the US helped defeat Ebola a decade ago.

Describing what might become a blueprint for US global outreach on the Covid pandemic, Power described how Washington worked to create a unified effort against the highly virulent Ebola virus. "Because America led -- because USAID led -- the United States was able to rally a coalition of 60 countries to contribute on the ground and secure 134 cosponsors for a resolution at the UN Security Council declaring the epidemic a 'threat to international peace and security' -- the largest number ever for any Security Council resolution in UN history," she said.

'Inextricably linked'

She made little specific reference to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 3 million worldwide and is ravaging India, but noted that "with the world battling a different plague, Americans see what you all have long understood: that this country's fate is inextricably linked with the rest of the world's."

"In fact, as you well know, the world's most pressing challenges cast a large shadow over our own lives here at home. A long-simmering crisis of poverty and violence in Central America that sends people in desperation to our southern border," she said. "A rapidly changing climate that sends fiercer storms to our shores and inflicts on our communities droughts, deep freezes and wildfires. Authoritarian regimes growing bolder, strengthening their hands by exploiting vulnerabilities in our democracies."

"The truth is: None of these challenges is distinct. They all feed into and feed off of each other," Power said.

Her remarks offered strong praise for the workforce at USAID.

"It is your dedication that has sustained broad bipartisan support for USAID's budget and priorities in the face of fierce political pressure," she said in what appeared to be a subtle dig at the Trump administration, which maligned and distrusted career government officials.

"You have my profound gratitude for your service, and you have my commitment and the commitment of President Biden that we will spend the next four years empowering you, ushering in changes that give you the flexibility and trust that you deserve, allowing you to take the risks that this moment in history demands," Power said.

Power was confirmed last week in a bipartisan vote. She was ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday morning, joined by her husband, Cass Sunstein, her children Declan and Rían, and stepfather Edmund Bourke.

SpaceX finally nails the landing of the rocket that will take humans to the moon

Nicole Mortillaro 

© SpaceX via The Associated Press In this image from video made available by SpaceX, a Starship test vehicle sits on the ground after returning from a flight test in Boca Chica, Texas on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

SpaceX's Starship, the rocket that CEO Elon Musk hopes will take people to the moon and eventually Mars, completed a test on Wednesday that marked the first time it successfully launched and landed.

The rocket, designated SN15, lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:27 p.m. local time. It reached an altitude of 10 kilometres before beginning its descent in the "belly flop" configuration. Then it fired its thrusters, flipped itself in the upright position, extended its landing legs and touched down softly.

"The Starship has landed," said John Insprucker, a SpaceX web commentator.

A fire at the base of the rocket burned for several minutes after touchdown, but automated water cannons deployed appeared to put out the blaze.

Video: SpaceX launches Starlink satellites into orbit (The Canadian Press)

The four previous tests of the 50-metre Starship launched successfully but ended in spectacular explosions, or "rapid unscheduled disassemblies," as Musk refers to them.

The closest Starship came to a successful landing was SN10, when it touched down and blew up roughly eight minutes later due to a methane leak.

The last test, SN11, exploded before landing through thick fog.

However, there have been modifications to Starship, including to its Raptor engines, as Musk noted shortly after the loss of SN11.

"SN15 rolls to launch pad in a few days. It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine. Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days," he tweeted.

This is just one-half of the rocket that needs to be tested. The Super Heavy, which will have the BN (Booster Number) designation ahead of its number, still needs to be completed and tested before the two are paired together for a complete test of the Starship rocket system. It is currently being built in the facility's high bay, though Musk has said that it will not actually fly.

The next launch will be of SN16. It's estimated that SN20 will be the first orbital test.

ARACHNOPHOBIA TRIGGER, OOPS
New spider species identified in the Florida Everglades

By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN 

An elusive spider related to the tarantula just joined the ranks of recognized spiders.

© From Zoo Miami Meet the Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider, who was recently identified in Florida.

The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider lives in the Florida Everglades and it's a rare breed. It has only been spotted a handful of times since the 1920s and only recently did the clever arachnid get its name for the habitat it lives in, according to Rebecca Godwin, an assistant professor of biology at Piedmont University.


These spiders likely only live in the pine rockland habitat of southern Florida, which is "highly threatened," Godwin told CNN. Their homeland of pines growing on limestone outcrops has slowly been destroyed by mankind.

"Development, urbanization, land clearing, anything that destroys the topsoil could potentially wipe out whole populations and especially for a spider that occurs in such a small range of really threatened habitat, you kind of risk losing the species all together," Godwin said.

The spider is one of 33 new species from the Americas to be added to the genus Ummidia, which are trapdoor spiders. Godwin and Jason E. Bond, an entomology professor from University of California, Davis, co-authored the study, published in April in the journal ZooKeys.

"The fact that a new species like this could be found in a fragment of endangered forest in the middle of the city underscores the importance of preserving these ecosystems before we lose not only what we know, but also what is still to be discovered," Frank Ridgley, Zoo Miami Conservation & Veterinary Services Manager, said in a news release.

Finding and collecting enough examples of the spider has been tricky.

A zookeeper checking reptile research traps at Zoo Miami snapped a photo of the large-bodied spider in 2012 and two years later, another one was found. The mysterious spider didn't match any species on record, the zoo said in a press release.

The zoo sent the data to Godwin, who has been studying trapdoor spiders for almost a decade. The previous samples she had from museums were from the 1920s and 1950s, she said.

"It was really exciting for me," Godwin said. "Even only having one to two specimens, I was already pretty sure it was a new species."

The characteristics of the male trapdoor spiders are what help identify the species, she said. The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider is a black and about one to 1.5 inches across, including the legs. The males have an opalescent abdomen, she said.

"If one were to call spiders beautiful, I find it a very gorgeous looking spider," Godwin said.

No females of this species have yet to be found, Godwin said. Other females in the trapdoor spider group usually have a front end that looks like patent leather, she added.

Trapdoor spiders are related to tarantulas. They tend to be smaller, less hairy, their fangs point a different way and they share some physical features with their tarantula cousins, Godwin said.

Even though large spiders can freak people out, Godwin said these trapdoor spiders are not coming to get you. The spiders live in such a small area and they burrow into the ground, living in it for most of its life. Some female spiders of this group can live to be more than 20 years old.

While they are venomous -- most spiders are -- the venom of the Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider is not "medically important," Godwin said. Translation: The venom isn't dangerous to humans.

Research on the venom could yield interesting applications to humans, according to Ridgley.

"Venoms of related species have been found to contain compounds with potential use as pain medications and cancer treatments," Ridgley said.

When Godwin talks about her work with spiders, she said she typically hears how many spiders a person has smashed that week.

"I feel like working on spiders, you spend a lot of your time just fighting bad press," Godwin said. "It's an uphill battle to point out these are helping organisms, if anything. They don't carry any diseases to give to humans, they are not aggressive and literally live underground."

Trapdoor spiders are known for creating a door to their burrow and staying underground, Godwin said. They stick out their legs and grab small bugs scampering by without having to leave their bunker. When in danger, they shut their silk-spun door and ward off intruders.

The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider and other previously "unknown diversity" are what fascinate Godwin the most about our planet. She wants to keep studying spiders like this one, who lives in a habitat "in peril," before that's lost, she said.

"I'm continually blown away about how little we know about what is out there living on the planet with us," Godwin said. "There are so many species getting lost, going extinct before we even knew they ever existed."

Japanese Town Got Covid-19 Money So They Built A Giant Squid Statue

Brian Ashcraft 

The town of Noto in Ishikawa received millions of yen due to the impact of covid-19. The money was part of a rural revitalization project to help the countryside in the wake of the virus

.

© Screenshot: TheTonarinopoti@YouTube

According to Yahoo! News Japan, local governments such as Noto’s would decide how to spend the money, such as infection countermeasures or money to help closed businesses.

Noto is known for squid, and around 25 million yen ($228,181) of the funds were set aside for a huge squid monument to entice tourists to visit the area once the pandemic is over.

The pandemic is not over. Some of the country’s most metropolitan areas, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, are currently under a state of emergency, with covid-19 cases hitting record numbers

.

© Screenshot: TheTonarinopoti@YouTube

The giant squid is 29.5 feet across, 13 feet high, and over 42 feet long. FNN reports that the total cost of the project was 27 million yen ($246,544).

As Chunichi News adds, there have been questions among locals over whether this was necessary or even an effective way to do PR for Noto.

The individual in charge did claim that the funds didn’t need to have a direct relationship to covid-19 and that the town was taking a long, post-pandemic view with the project.

After a watershed moment of violence, Asian Americans begin to speak out
By Natasha Chen 

The first time I felt someone making assumptions based on my ethnicity, I was no older than 7, standing outside my ballet class in Foster City, California. A woman asked me a question about the dance studio, and I hesitated because I was sometimes shy when speaking to strangers.

© Alex Wong/Getty Images Activists march toward Chinatown in Washington, DC after the "DC Rally for Collective Safety - Protect Asian/AAPI Communities," on March 21, 2021.

"Oh, do you not speak English?" she asked.

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I lived in a multigenerational household for the first few years, where only Mandarin was spoken. I didn't learn to speak English until I was in preschool.

But this woman wouldn't have known that. She questioned my language skills because I look Asian, and therefore foreign. If a White girl had paused due to shyness, the woman wouldn't have asked her the same question.

Small interactions like this gave me hints that people like me were looked at as not entirely belonging here. The same assumption was at the root of a more hostile interaction in May 2020, when, in the midst of our Covid-19 coverage, a person yelled at me to go back to my "f***ing country" and blamed me for the coronavirus.

'An awakening'

These moments are common among the AAPI community. And they are shared among many other immigrant cultures.

Our parents raised us to ignore the aggressions. Our task was to excel in school, and to be respected and recognized through our work and our behavior. In some ways, we perpetuated the myth of the "model minority."

At the same time, I felt supported and validated in my community, where being Asian American was normalized, as the population at that time was approaching one-third Asian. Being proud of my culture came naturally in that setting. I learned to read and write Mandarin at Saturday Chinese school, learned Chinese and Taiwanese history and shared our culture -- and a lot of our food -- with our non-Asian friends. I even wrote about my family heritage for an essay contest in 6th grade.

But as a child, I don't remember hearing the term "activism" as it relates to Asian Americans. Speaking out against injustices was something done only in dire circumstances. Being the squeaky wheel would not help us be accepted and embraced by the mainstream.

But over the past few years, younger generations of Asian Americans seem to have shed some of these notions of traditional propriety or habits. Even older generations and immigrants have been thrust into this uncomfortable space of visible anti-Asian hate, culminating in the Atlanta spa killings on March 16.

"It's an awakening moment for Asian Americans to stand strong," Pastor Byeong Cheol Han, of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, told me. "Stand up and raise our voice. And participate in [the] social justice movement. Many Asian Americans tend to avoid those kind of things. It's not our business, we're just focusing on our survival, but this is an awakening for us."

© Megan Varner/Getty Images Flowers and signs adorn Gold Spa on March 18, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia.

In his Korean speech to the crowd in front of Gold Spa, the only English words I picked up were "I can't breathe" and "Martin Luther King Jr." He was referencing not just the plight of Asian Americans but of all people of color.

The "awakening" he described is the result of years of staying quiet, and even occasionally meeting resistance from members of our own community who believe that highlighting one's victimhood can be cause for embarrassment.

The pattern of anti-Asian aggression also barely got a mention in many American history books. Some of us, for example, had to search for information on the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1882 law that prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers, Japanese American internment camps and the story of Chinese American Vincent Chin, beaten to death in 1982 by two White men.

© Natasha Chen/CNN Pastor Byeong Cheol Han, of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.


Cries for help

But in the past year, anti-Asian hate has become so prevalent that it has leapt off the pages of books and into our everyday consciousness.

The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate began tracking incidents of racism and discrimination on March 19, 2020. Since then, the coalition has received at least 3,795 firsthand complaints, with at least 503 anti-Asian hate incidents reported in January and February of 2021.

The combination of escalating rhetoric about Asian people during the pandemic, and the creation of a reporting outlet, has raised the visibility of a long-existing problem. The awareness of anti-Asian hate is finally permeating the mainstream.

And if 2020 was a continuous trickle of individual assaults, the Atlanta spa killings were a watershed moment -- six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

"It finally made it something that was hard to ignore," said Dr. Carol Pak-Teng, an emergency room physician who has built a community for AAPI physicians and raised money after the shootings. "Like I think a lot of Asian Americans kind of at least heard a little bit about the spike in violence...it opened up an opportunity to say like, 'Oh my God. Yeah. Like this is really happening.' And now ending in a mass shooting, which is really...just hard to ignore anymore, and that we needed to just actually do real, upfront work to highlight the unfortunate truth that we were living."

Michael Lai, CEO of Asian Feed, a news and lifestyle publication, told CNN that his team heard many cries for help in the month leading up to the Atlanta killings. As elderly people were beaten and attacked in San Francisco and New York, he said it was almost as if they saw more coming.

"One of the silver linings is that now Asians are almost, you know, ok to speak. I think that was something that was key in all of this ... incidents have gone unreported, especially in the past, but I think now Asians are almost finding their voice," he said.

This activism may still be uncomfortable for many immigrant families that have focused on pure survival for so long, but whose silence shouldn't be mistaken for apathy.

So whether we're adults making sense of tragedy, or children who are simply shy, this is a moment to find our voice.

And it's ok to speak.

© Courtesy Chen Family Natasha Chen celebrates her 5th birthday alongside her parents.

Vancouver lawyer and model battle anti-Asian hate with the practical and the poetic

Zahra Premji 

CBC.CA

© Carl Ostberg and James Mulleder/CBC News Strangers to one another, but acutely aware of the suffering the Asian community has faced recently, both Carlyle Chan and Steven Ngo are finding ways to protect their communities.

Confronted with attacks against Asians in the media and in their own lives, two Vancouver men say they're fighting anti-Asian hate crimes on their own terms.

Lyle Chan, 32, and Steven Ngo, 35, say they're exhausted at being ignored as their community faces hate, racial slurs and incidents where people have been spat on, punched or thrown to the ground.

Both men have separately found ways to help B.C.'s Asian community as it reels from a surge in reported anti-Asian hate crimes — rising from a dozen incidents in 2019 to 98 in 2020, according to Vancouver police.

"There's people every single day now that [are] getting attacked.... Something needs to be done now," said Ngo, a Vancouver lawyer who has created more accessible hate-crime reporting forms for the community.

© James Mulleder/CBC News Ngo says his intent is to not question the police but to help them navigate the best ways to support the Asian community.

An online survey done by the Chinese Canadian National Council's Toronto chapter found that more than 1,000 self-reported incidents of anti-Asian racism have occurred nationwide since the start of the pandemic.

The analysis, which confirmed incidents in every province, found 44 per cent of all cases were reported in B.C.

'This is a clear barrier to justice here'

Ngo came face to face with hate earlier this month when someone hurled racist slurs at him and then proceeded to throw garbage at him.

"I was ... stunned and realized it could happen to anybody. Not just the elderly and those who don't know how to speak English," Ngo says.

That was his turning point.

He tried to report the crime on the Vancouver Police Department website but found the form was only available in simplified and traditional Chinese — not English.

"East Asian doesn't mean Chinese. It also means Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, those who are born here as well," he said.

Vancouver Police Department Const. Tania Visintin says the "online forms were created as an option for a very specific segment of our population that was targeted by hate crimes last year."

She says VPD is reviewing its process for hate-crime reporting. But says the best way to report a crime is to call 911 or the non-emergency line.

"Our workforce speaks more than 50 languages.... We can usually find someone to speak to a complainant in their preferred language," Visintin said.

© Ben Nelms/CBC Racist graffiti is covered up by duct tape on the lions at the Millennium Gate in Chinatown in May 2020.

On Friday, B.C.'s Ministry of the Attorney General announced plans to develop a hotline for racist incidents in response to the increased number of incidents. Information collected from the hotline will be used to develop anti-racism initiatives, including legislation that will pave the way for race-based data collection.

"The data collected from the hotline will be used to support future anti-racism initiatives, including legislation that will pave the way for race-based data collection. By identifying areas of increased racist incidents through the hotline, government can use the data to inform future actions to combat racism."

Ngo says while he is grateful for the support, he believes more needs to be done.

He has created his own website to report hate crimes for members of the Asian community who speak various languages.

"The website is not meant to replace the VPD website at all, but it's meant to really stop the bleeding," Ngo said.
'Took that pain and transformed it'

For Vancouver-based model Carlyle Chan, seeing Asian women killed in Atlanta in March was his turning point.

"I haven't ever felt like that before.... I took that pain and transformed it into something positive and something powerful,"

He fundraised throughout April, using his strong social media presence on Instagram and other platforms, to tee up Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May. The money is slated for groups that support the Asian community and other people of colour.

He also kept the conversation going online to give victims a sense of comfort.

"You are seen and heard. You matter. You don't have to be subordinate, or submissive or quiet, just because that's the way it was," Chan said.

On top of his fundraiser, he dabbled in his poetic side with a poem called Asian is Human that he posted in restaurants, parkades and apartment buildings.

"Even if you aren't an Asian person, you read it. It's kind of humanizing who we are," Chan said.

Both Chan and Ngo say, exhausted or not, they'll continue to advocate for their communities, using their drive, social media presence and voices to make change.

"I am super exhausted... [But] closed mouths don't get fed. If you don't ask [for help] then it can't happen," Chan said.

As anti-Asian hate spread with the virus, this group uncovered disturbing trends

On Feb. 4, 2020, during the earliest days of the novel coronavirus, a middle school student in Los Angeles County was told by a classmate that he was a Covid-19 carrier and should “go back to China.” When the boy responded that he wasn’t Chinese, he allegedly received 20 punches to the head and ended up in the emergency room.

© Provided by NBC News

The assault, a harbinger of the onslaught of racialized attacks that occurred during the pandemic, helped three Asian American activists who would become co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, the anti-Asian hate reporting center, realize that racism was spreading faster than the virus itself and something needed to be done to track the growing number of incidents against the community.

Led by Cynthia Choi, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, or CAA; Russell Jeung, professor and chair of the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University; and Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, or A3PCON, Stop AAPI Hate is more than a popular hashtag or aggregator of anti-Asian incidents. It’s a rallying cry for a community experiencing the pain and heartbreak of relentless harassment, assaults and even murders.

“What’s really been heartening has been the Asian American community response and having so many people come to support Stop AAPI Hate,” Jeung told NBC Asian America, noting that their volunteers range from high school students to data scientists. “I’m really proud we can be contributing to a global movement, and that’s something that I think will probably be the most significant impact of Stop AAPI Hate — to galvanize the Asian American community and to empower the broader community.”

Stop AAPI Hate formed after Jeung emailed Choi about the hundreds of anti-Asian news accounts he collected in February 2020. She received his email while in the middle of a CAA staff meeting, where they were discussing how to start tracking the growing number of incidents. Jeung and Choi, based in Oakland, California, and San Francisco, respectively, had already worked together in the community and shared many longtime networks, so teaming up made sense.

Around the same time, Jeung saw that Kulkarni’s A3PCON, a coalition of community organizations in Los Angeles led by Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, was already starting to track anti-Asian hate incidents via a Google form.

“We started to notice there was, in fact, a pattern,” said Kulkarni, who is also a lecturer in UCLA’s Asian American studies department. “It was right then that I got the call from Russell that they were thinking of approaching the California attorney general’s office.”

The coalition wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is now the U.S. secretary of health and human services, to ask if his office would track these growing hate incidents against the community. When Becerra’s office said no and explained that it usually gets its data from local law enforcement per California state policy, the veteran activists decided to do it themselves.

Officials at Becerra’s office declined to comment but pointed to the fact that the state was implementing its existing data collection policy, which was packaged into an annual report on hate crimes, and that a policy change would be needed to change the way the attorney general collected data.

“It’s not unusual for communities and organizations to see needs, to sound the alarms, and government is often slow to act and respond,” Choi said.

The trio and their respective staffs quickly developed a website featuring a multilingual reporting form.

Stop AAPI Hate launched on March 19, 2020, without funding. The co-founders were unsure if anyone would visit their website, but within the first week, there were an average of almost 100 self-reported hate incidents. In less than a year, they would go on to track nearly 4,000 instances and discovered disturbing trends, such as Asian American women reporting 2.3 times more than men.

“We knew women would be vulnerable, and I think that’s why Stop AAPI Hate, as a coalition, has been so effective,” said Choi, who previously worked with Kulkarni on gender-based violence at the Center for the Pacific Asian Family. “We have decades of experience understanding how these issues play out and that this has historic precedent. We knew how this would translate in terms of interpersonal attacks and how our own government and U.S.-Asia foreign policies are also a big factor. We also knew that elected officials would, in a heartbeat, exploit the fears of Americans sparked by the pandemic.”

The co-founders believed if they didn’t document these incidents, there would be “a tendency to minimize, to suggest this was not serious to Asian American communities,” Choi said. Stop AAPI Hate’s in-depth data has given media outlets and the general public proof of what so many Asian Americans suspected was happening based on anecdotal evidence.

“I am deeply grateful for the work of Stop AAPI Hate in collecting data about and galvanizing public awareness of anti-Asian racism,” said historian Jane Hong, author of “Opening the Gates to Asia.” “By providing Asian Americans with an accessible way to self-report, Stop AAPI Hate has also given us a community resource, a way to ‘speak back’ and register our outrage.”

Hong noted that research shows Asian Americans are among the least likely to report hate crimes.

“For every incident that gets reported, then, there are many more that we don't hear about,” she said. “So these numbers only capture part of the picture. That is deeply sobering.”

On patrol: Stopping anti-Asian violence one street at a time

The policy and research nonprofit AAPI Data recently reported that 10 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have experienced hate crimes and hate incidents in 2021.

About a year after Stop AAPI Hate was formed, the state of California allocated $300,000 to support the reporting center’s tracking of hate incidents and advocacy, which was championed by members of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, as well as donations from corporations and individuals. The funding will be used to hire more staff, expand in-language resources and continue producing reports so policymakers have relevant data on the community.

“I feel really responsible to steward the resources we’ve been given well and to stop anti-Asian hate,” Jeung said. “That’s for me a real heavy burden.”

In addition to their regular careers and Stop AAPI Hate’s day-to-day work, Choi, Jeung and Kulkarni have conducted hundreds of talks and media interviews over the last year. Being surrounded by unrelenting stories of anti-Asian hate and violence has taken a toll.

“It’s hard, especially after Atlanta, because that was worse than our worst nightmare,” Kulkarni said. “I know we broke down in front of each other.”

Choi said hearing traumatic experiences about children and older people, in particular, was crushing.

“It was hard to be detached and just purely analytical and intellectual about it,” Choi said. “I felt like they were tiny little cuts that were jabbing at me.”

Jeung, a longtime runner, said he’s logged more miles this past year than ever before and plans to start seeing a therapist.

“I do still have my spiritual practices, where I pray regularly with people and go to church,” said Jeung, a fifth-generation Chinese American who chronicled his own family’s history with racism and his decades of work with refugees in his memoir, “At Home in Exile.” “I’ve always had a strong sense of calling towards working for justice and a sense of how things aren’t right in society.”

Choi, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, saw how challenging it was for her Korean immigrant parents to navigate their new life in the U.S. When her family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in nearby Orange County, someone vandalized their home with eggs and slashed her father’s tires.

“I do remember my parents in hushed tones talking about how they believed it was because we were Asian,” she said.

While growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, Kulkarni, who came to the U.S. with her family from India when she was 2, was one of few South Asian faces. In fifth grade, Kulkarni’s mother applied to be a physician at a hospital, but during the interview, a panel of white male doctors told her that foreigners like her were “coming here and stealing our jobs.” Kulkarni’s parents decided to sue the hospital and individual physicians, which she said progressed to a class-action lawsuit and successful settlement that led to policy change.

“That very much shaped my belief in the American legal system,” said Kulkarni, who testified at hearing in March before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on discrimination against Asian Americans. She noted that Asian Americans hadn’t been a topic for the subcommittee since 1987. “The fact that no issue involving our community came up from ‘87 to now is ridiculous,” Kulkarni said.

While people are finally paying attention to the community, Stop AAPI Hate’s co-founders don’t expect anti-Asian sentiment to disappear anytime soon, so their efforts will continue beyond Covid-19. They believe multiple solutions are needed, from culturally competent resources for local communities to expanding ethnic studies and education and stronger federal civil rights laws.

“It’s really easy for hurt people to hurt others or abused people to become abusers and then for Asian Americans who’ve been treated racistly then to become racist themselves,” Jeung said. “It’s really important to hold perpetrators accountable and call out racism but also be able to forgive and work on the broader issue. Asian Americans now have an opportunity to become the racial healers of America rather than the victims.”

WW3.0
South China Sea dispute: Philippine foreign minister tells China to 'Get the F**k Out'
Story by Reuters

The Philippine foreign minister on Monday demanded in an expletive-laced Twitter message that China's vessels get out of disputed waters, the latest exchange in a war of words with Beijing over the South China Sea.

© Carlo Gabuco/Bloomberg/FILE Teodoro Locsin, Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, speaks during an interview in Manila, Philippines, in 2019.

The comments by Teodoro Locsin, known for blunt remarks, follow Manila's protests for what it calls the "illegal" presence of hundreds of Chinese boats inside the Philippines' 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see... O...GET THE F**K OUT," Locsin tweeted on his personal account.

"What are you doing to our friendship? You. Not us. We're trying. You. You're like an ugly oaf forcing your attentions on a handsome guy who wants to be a friend; not to father a Chinese province ..." Locsin said.

China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chinese officials have previously said the vessels at the disputed Whitsun Reef were fishing boats taking refuge from rough seas.

Responding to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for the US State Department reiterated a March 28 statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying the US "stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of (China's) maritime militia pressure in the South China Sea."

"As we have stated before, an armed attack against the Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will trigger our obligations under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty," the spokeswoman added.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year. In 2016, an arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled the claim was inconsistent with international law.

In a statement on Monday, the Philippine Foreign Ministry accused China's coast guard of "shadowing, blocking, dangerous maneuvers, and radio challenges of the Philippine coast guard vessels."

On Sunday, the Philippines vowed to continue maritime exercises in its South China Sea EEZ in response to a Chinese demand that it stop actions it said could escalate disputes.

As of April 26, the Philippines had filed 78 diplomatic protests to China since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, Foreign Ministry data shows.

"Our statements are stronger too because of the more brazen nature of the activities, the number, frequency and proximity of intrusions," said Marie Yvette Banzon-Abalos, executive director for strategic communications at the Foreign Ministry.

Duterte, for the most part, has pursued warmer ties with China in exchange for Beijing's promises of billions of dollars in investment, aid and loans.

"China remains to be our benefactor. Just because we have a conflict with China does not mean to say that we have to be rude and disrespectful," Duterte said in a weekly national address.

"So, kindly just allow our fishermen to fish in peace and there is no reason for trouble," Duterte said, addressing China.

© Maxar Technologies/AP Chinese vessels seen anchored at the Whitsun Reef in the disputed South China Sea on March 23, 2021.

Myanmar charges Japanese journalist over 'fake news'

AFP 

The Myanmar junta has charged a Japanese journalist under a "fake news" law, a report said Tuesday, in the latest blow to press freedom since the military seized power.

© Handout Myanmar has been in turmoil since civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government was ousted

Freelance reporter Yuki Kitazumi was arrested last month and charged on Monday -- World Press Freedom Day -- with spreading fake news, according to a report by Kyodo news agency.

He is one of 50 journalists currently held in Myanmar as part of the junta's crackdown on widespread protests against its February 1 coup.

The country has been in turmoil since civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government was ousted, with more than 750 people killed as security forces struggle to quash near-daily demonstrations against their rule.

Kyodo cited an unnamed Japanese embassy official saying Kitazumi had no health problems, despite spending several weeks in Yangon's Insein prison, which has a long and unsavoury reputation for holding political prisoners.

Kitazumi has been in custody since April 18 -- the second time he had been arrested since the coup.

In February, he was beaten up and briefly held during a crackdown on protesters but was later released.

Japan, for years a top aid donor to Myanmar, has been pressing for his release.

"Naturally, we will continue to do our utmost for the early release of the Japanese national being held," Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told Japanese journalists during a trip to Britain, according to national broadcaster NHK.

A total of 766 civilians have been killed in the military crackdown on protests, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local monitoring group.

Kitazumi is the first foreign journalist to be charged since the coup. A Polish photographer arrested while covering a protest in March was freed and deported after nearly two weeks in custody.

As well as arresting journalists, the generals have sought to clamp down on news of the crisis by shuttering independent media outlets and throttling internet speeds.

The AAPP says there are 50 journalists in custody at the moment, 25 of whom have been prosecuted, while arrest warrants are out for another 29.

Despite the dangers, protesters continue to take to the streets, with early-morning demonstrations on Tuesday in the second-biggest city Mandalay, as well as northern Kachin state.

In the southern region of Bago, five protesters were killed and another was injured when they tried to plant a bomb in Pyi township, state media said.

Thet Win Hlaing, a 35-year old former MP for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was among those who died in the blast, state media added.

Bombs have exploded sporadically across the country in recent weeks, including with increasing frequency in Yangon.

The military has defended its seizure of power, pointing to fraud allegations in the November election, and condemned protesters as rioters and terrorists.

burs-pdw-aph/je

Pakistani journalists' group vows to fight for press freedom

ISLAMABAD — The media is facing growing censorship, attacks and harassment in Pakistan that are threatening freedom of the press, a committee of journalists said Monday  WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY.

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The government said there are no curbs on journalists in the country.

But Pakistan has long been a dangerous place for journalists. There were 148 documented attacks or violations against journalists in Pakistan from May 2020 to April 2021 - an increase over previous years, according to The Dawn, the country's English-language newspaper. It said these incidents included six murders, seven attempted assassinations, five kidnappings, 25 arrests or detentions of journalists, 15 assaults and 27 legal cases registered against journalists.

In an editorial marking World Press Freedom Day, the paper said the space for journalists in Pakistan was shrinking, and “a media in chains cannot hold the powerful to account and serve public interest as it is meant to do".

Pakistan has long been a deadly place for journalists. In 2020, it ranked ninth on the Committee to Protect Journalists' annual Global Impunity Index, which assesses countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free. According to the CPJ, Bangladesh, Russia and India are ahead of Pakistan. Although the Pakistan government says it supports freedom of speech, rights activists often accuse Pakistan’s military and its agencies of harassing and attacking journalists.

On Monday, President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists Shahzada Zulfiqar and Secretary-General Nasir Zaidi said freedom of the press is their hallmark and they “will not surrender this cause at any cost.” They said journalists were also facing cuts in pay and thousands had become jobless.

Mazhar Abbas, who often reports for Pakistan’s independent Geo Television, told The Associated Press that curbs on media and attacks on journalists increased in recent years. So far, he said, it's not known whether the state has punished those linked to the abduction or harassment of journalists.

He said the country's media regulatory body issued more than 12,000 notices to media people, newspapers, and news channels. Abbas said media in Pakistan was facing censorship for which the state uses different tactics, including telling media through the media regulatory body what can be reported and what cannot be reported. News channels are taken off air by the media regulatory body if press advice is not complied with, he said.

However, Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan's information minister, said in a statement that Pakistan's government regards the freedom of the press as a “fundamental, democratic and constitutional right."

He did not address the allegations by the leaders of the journalists' association.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press

Cambodia bans media coverage from Covid lockdown 'red zones'

Cambodia on Tuesday ordered journalists to stop reporting from blockaded coronavirus "red zones" and from chasing ambulances as the country battles against a record surge in infections.

© TANG CHHIN Sothy Soldiers have been transporting sacks of rice to people in red zones in Phnom Penh

The country has seen Covid-19 cases surge since February, when an outbreak was first detected among its Chinese expatriate community.

On Tuesday, officials announced a record 938 new infections, bringing the total cases to 16,299 with 107 deaths.

Authorities have transformed schools and wedding party halls into covid treatment centres as hospitals are running out of beds and Prime Minister Hun Sen warned the country was "on the brink of death" from the virus outbreak.

Phnom Penh and adjacent city Ta Khmau have been under lockdown for 20 days and the government has announced the blanket would end from Thursday.

But authorities said areas with high infection rates would remain under lockdown.

Police have set up blockades around red zones barring residents from leaving their homes, except on medical reasons.

On Tuesday the information ministry ordered journalists to immediately stop reporting from the red zones, warning they would face prosecution.

The ministry said some journalists had reported from red zones and banned areas such as treatment centres and hospitals.

It also said some had "chased ambulances" and caused confusion and unrest.

The order comes as residents living in red zones complained about food shortages and took to social media to appeal for essential aid.

Rights group Amnesty International issued a strong condemnation of Cambodia's lockdown measures last week, saying they had left many people to go hungry and humanitarian groups had been barred from distributing food and other essential aid.

"The Cambodian government's outrageous mishandling of this COVID-19 lockdown is causing untold suffering and sweeping human rights violations across the country," said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director.

"Right now, residents of 'red zones' and others in Cambodia are going hungry because of fundamentally unreasonable policies."

Cambodian authorities have asked residents in the red zones to apply for food aid and said they distributed rice and canned fishes to tens of thousands of household each day.

suy/pdw/je

Alberta justice minister hikes fines, promises renewed effort on COVID-19 scofflaws


EDMONTON — Alberta has doubled fines for disobeying public health measures meant to fight COVID-19 and Justice Minister Kaycee Madu is promising a renewed effort to stop public health scofflaws will succeed

KENNEY THE PAPER TIGER

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“Enforcement will be done, and Albertans will see it being done,” Madu told a news conference Wednesday.

“It has become clear that there are a small few who refuse to comply with reasonable and legitimate public health orders"

The United Conservative government passed an order in council Wednesday that doubles fines for public health violations to $2,000.

Madu said there is also a new protocol for health officials, police and government to co-ordinate and target repeat individuals and groups that flout the law.

He said he discussed with police chiefs this week what further tools and resources they need to step up enforcement.

Premier Jason Kenney on Tuesday announced stronger measures to reverse soaring COVID-19 cases that threaten to overwhelm hospitals by month’s end and to force doctors to decide which patients get life-saving care.

UCP MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS

Kenney’s government has been criticized for being a paper tiger on lawbreakers. In January, it allowed some restaurants to flout dine-in restrictions. GraceLife church, in Spruce Grove, Alta., west of Edmonton, was able to hold Sunday services for months that officials have said ignored rules on masks, capacity limits and physical distancing. Police physically blocked off the church just a month ago.

The enforcement issue made headlines again on this weekend when hundreds of people gathered near Bowden in central Alberta for a pre-advertised maskless "No More Lockdowns" protest rodeo.

Edmonton and Calgary have also seen maskless mass protests against health restrictions.

Action was taken Wednesday against one accused repeat offender. Alberta Health Services announced the Whistle Stop Café in Mirror, Alta., had been physically closed and access barred. The café had been flagged for repeatedly breaking COVID-19 health restrictions by staying open and serving customers.


Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Kenney’s government set its enforcement policy up for failure from the get-go by stressing education first and enforcement as a last resort.

Referring to the protocol Madu outlined, Notley said: "The fact there is a protocol to tell them to talk to each other is not new. It is a policy dressed up to look like action, but it is not significant, and that’s why we're calling on them to do more."

She criticized the plan to target only repeat offenders: "(That) says to me their plan is to give everybody their first rodeo free, which is in effect what they did with the Bowden rodeo.

"This has to stop because that Bowden rodeo will turn out to be a super-spreader. People will get sick from that rodeo. People will get seriously ill."

Kenney announced tighter rules Tuesday, some of which came in effect Wednesday. Outdoor gatherings, which had been limited to 10 people, are now capped at five. Worship services, which were allowed at 15 per cent capacity, have been reduced to 15 people maximum.

Retailers, which had been open at 15 per cent customer capacity, are restricted to 10 per cent.

On Friday, all kindergarten to Grade 12 students will learn from home. On Sunday, restaurants must close their patios and offer takeout service only. Personal wellness services, including hair salons and barber shops, will have to close.

Indoor social gatherings remain banned. Entertainment venues, including movie theatres and casinos, also remain closed.

As of Tuesday, Alberta had 23,623 active cases of COVID-19, with 671 people in hospital. It has experienced the highest infection rates in North America in recent weeks.

There are almost 1.7 million Albertans who have received at least one dose of vaccine. About one in three adults have had a shot.

Kenney said the vaccination rollout will be expanded drastically, with everyone in the province 12 and older to soon be eligible.

Every Albertan born in 1991 or earlier will be able to book vaccinations starting Friday. On Monday, appointments will be offered to anyone born between 2009 and 1992.

Earlier Wednesday, Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as 12.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

RIP
Billie Hayes, Witchiepoo in ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ Dies at 96

Ellise Shafer

VARIETY

4/5/2021

  

© Courtesy Everett Collection

Billie Hayes, the actor who portrayed Witchiepoo on NBC’s “H.R. Pufnstuf,” has died. She was 96.

Hayes’ death was announced on her official website.

Hayes is best known for her portrayal of the comical witch Witchiepoo on Sid and Marty Krofft’s show “H.R. Pufnstuf” from 1969 to 1970. From there, Hayes reappeared as Witchiepoo on “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special” and the series finale of “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.” Hayes also appeared as a witch in several other shows, including “Bewitched,” “Weenie the Genie,” “The Monkees” and “Lidsville.”

Marty Krofft paid tribute to Hayes in a statement to Variety: “In addition to being a very talented and special person, Margret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West/’Wizard of Oz’) once told me that Witchiepoo was the best witch ever. And as far as I’m concerned, there was no one better than Billie Hayes. She was a home run for us and ‘H.R Pufnstuf.'”

Hayes is also well-known for her theater work, including starring as Mammy Yokum in the original 1956 Broadway production of “Li’l Abner,” as well as the 1959 film adaptation and a 1971 TV special.

Born in DuQuoin, Illinois in 1925, Hayes started in the entertainment business at the young age of nine as a dancer, and continued to perform as a teenager in Chicago before moving to New York City. But Hayes’ acting career didn’t begin until she went on a blind audition for theater legend J.J. Shubert.

“At a chance encounter in New York Billie was urged to go to an audition. She went not knowing who or what she was auditioning for,” the statement on Hayes’ website reads. “Already a seasoned nightclub performer she danced and sang routines she had choreographed. In the dark and otherwise empty theatre there were only a few people seated. Billie first heard a chuckle then laughter. It was the legendary J.J. Shubert.”

From there, Hayes began working in theater, appearing in the revue “What’s New With Paul Lynde” and in Leonard Sillman’s “New Faces.” After moving to Los Angeles, Hayes began to pursue a career in television, leading to her role in “H.R. Pufnstuf.” In the 1980s, Hayes appeared on “General Hospital” as O’Reilly and pivoted more to voice work, including “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Johnny Bravo,” “The Batman,” “Rugrats” and “Shrek Forever After.”

Later in life, Hayes also became the president of Pet Hope, a non-profit animal advocacy organization dedicated to finding homes for abandoned animals. Donations in her memory can be made here.

WONDER WHICH BATHROOM SHE USES

Israel's first transgender referee takes field as woman

HAIFA, Israel — Israeli soccer's first transgender soccer referee took the field Monday for the first time since coming out publicly as a woman last week.

Sapir Berman blew the whistle as head referee to kick off the Hapoel Haifa vs. Beitar Jerusalem match.

She was greeted with little fanfare by the sparse crowd at Sami Ofer Stadium. A Haifa fan held up a sign “Sapir Berman super woman.”

In pre-game warmups and during the match, it was business as usual for the players. Some chatted and laughed with her before kickoff. Beitar Jerusalem fan Omer Weiss told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster that “we have nothing personal against anyone. Everyone should live their own way.”

Monday evening's game in the northern port city of Haifa had been postponed by a day after Israel declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the 45 people killed in last week's stampede at a religious festival.

Berman has worked as a soccer referee for several years in Israel's Premier League and announced last week that she has publicly come out as a woman. She said that she had received the support of family, fans, soccer officials and players.

Berman follows in the footsteps of British soccer referee Lucy Clark, who came out as transgender in 2018.

The Associated Press

Proud Boys Canada's demise could stiffen resolve of members, expert warns


OTTAWA — Targeting the Canadian chapter of the Proud Boys with anti-terror legislation has led to the group's apparent demise, but a leading expert says it might have little effect on the broader far-right movement.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The development could simply harden the resolve of former members, prompt them to join other groups or spawn an increase in individual online activity, said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University.


Proud Boys Canada announced Sunday it was dissolving after the Liberal government listed it as a terrorist organization following the January assault on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Being on the list means the group's assets and property are effectively frozen and subject to seizure or forfeiture.

A statement posted to the Proud Boys channel on the app Telegram and attributed to the Canadian chapter of the white nationalist group said it thought about pursuing a legal case, "but we have no financial support."

In a separate statement, the group said those in its Canadian chapter have to consider their livelihoods and "fighting this in court will prove to be expensive and time consuming."

But it said the "fight for liberty" isn't over.

"They will continue to fight for western values ... but now ... as individuals."

Perry said while Ottawa's listing of the Proud Boys could deter some members, it might stiffen the resolve of others.

"It reinforces their victim mentality," she said in an interview Monday. "Now they can claim that they're the targeted ones, they're the ones that are being silenced."

Video: B.C. government proposes anti-racism hotline (Global News)

It is possible that some local chapters of the Proud Boys would continue to operate in Canada, given their independence, Perry said. In addition, the "real diehards" will morph into a different group or take up with an existing one, she predicted.

"I think that that many of them will continue to engage in the movement in some way," said Perry, who pegs the number of far-right groups in Canada at about 250.

Some extremists in the movement will try to advance causes on their own in cyberspace, she added, noting "a lot of individuals who are threading their way in and out of different social-media platforms associated with the far right without necessarily affiliating with with a particular group."

Perry also flags the next general election as a rallying point "that is likely to bring folks out of the woodwork again" as members of the far right try to amplify their messages.

Mustafa Farooq, chief executive of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, cautiously welcomed the Proud Boys' announcement.

"Obviously, we do not take the words of this violent Islamophobic organization at face value," he tweeted. "However, this is an important step."

Farooq said there is still "a lot more work to do" to dismantle the many other white-supremacist groups in Canada.

"Let's make the flags of hate come down. Together."

Race-based, white supremacist violence is a tragic reality in Canada, said Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair.

"We have taken significant action as a government to end such violence in our communities. We also know there is more to do, and we are committed to doing that work," she said.

"Intolerance and hate have no place in our society."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

Stephanie Taylor and Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Montreal comic creators suing Marvel, say Iron Man suit looks 'strikingly' familiar


MONTREAL — When Montreal-based comic book company founders Ben and Raymond Lai watched the 2018 Marvel movie "Avengers: Infinity War," they said they knew they had to sue Marvel Entertainment — again.

The Lai brothers, founders of Horizon Comics Productions, claim the armour worn by Iron Man in the movie is too similar to the outfit sported by Maxwell, a character they developed for their Radix comic series in the early 2000s.

"After years of legal dispute and substantial sums of money, they continue to copy our characters," Raymond Lai said in a statement to The Canadian Press. “It causes us significant damage and has an impact on our ability to make a living as artists. Clearly, this repeated behaviour cannot be accepted.”

The brothers had sued Marvel Entertainment and its owner, The Walt Disney Company, in 2013. They claimed the outfit worn by Iron Man in a poster for Marvel's "Iron Man 3" looked too much like a suit for another Radix character, Caliban. The brothers, however, lost that legal case.

Ben and Raymond Lai say Marvel has copied their designs again. And their lawyers say they have a case because the brothers' claims involve new Marvel costumes in different Marvel movies.

On April 22, lawyers for the Montreal comic book company filed a motion in Quebec Superior Court against Marvel Entertainment and Disney for alleged copyright infringement. They say Marvel's Ant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man characters have body armour strikingly similar to the clothing they created for their superheroes.

The plaintiffs are suing for compensatory damages yet to be disclosed, and they are asking the court to issue a permanent injunction against Marvel and Disney to “put an end to this deliberate and persistent infringement,” according to the lawsuit.

Several interview requests to Marvel and Disney were not returned. All the allegations by the Lai brothers have not been proven in court.

Julie Desrosiers with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, one of the brothers' lawyers, says the alleged similarities between her client's work and Marvel characters are causing a lot of headaches. She said when Ben and Raymond Lai present their work to the public, people often think they copied Marvel.

“It’s the other way around," she said in a recent interview.

The brothers created their comic book company in 1995. In 2001 and 2002, they published a three-volume comic book series called Radix.

“It was with Radix that we became known and that our work was recognized in the American comic book industry,” Raymond said in the statement. “We made a name for ourselves.”

Around March 2002, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Chester Bror Cebulski, approached the Lai brothers for their unique, highly futuristic designs — but they turned down the offer, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said that around the same time, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology copied illustrations from the Radix series for a $50-million research grant to create what is now the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

MIT issued a public apology to the Lai brothers, however, acknowledging the unauthorized use of images, the lawsuit said.

“We decided not to take legal action against MIT because they publicly apologized and admitted their mistake,” Raymond wrote. “But with Marvel, it's repeated infringement.”

The brothers' company gained notoriety with the MIT controversy and were once again approached by Marvel. In September 2002, the brothers agreed to be part of a new creative team and worked for Marvel's Thor and X-Men comics, the lawsuit said.

In the brothers' failed 2013 case against Marvel, Justice Paul Oetken of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded there was no infringement because of the "distinctive features between the characters."

But according to the new lawsuit, the distinctive features previously identified to justify the dismissal of the brothers' claims no longer exist in the new superhero outfits created by Marvel. The suit alleges “several striking similarities exist between the new Iron Man suit depicted in Infinity War and the suit worn by the Radix character Maxwell.”

"In sum, not only are the distinctive features raised by Justice Oetken in the American proceeding no longer present in the Infinity War suit, but several additional strikingly similar features to the Radix suit were added."

The brothers say Marvel and Disney are "deliberately" creating costumes that look similar to their Radix character "knowing that Horizon’s means to defend its copyrights were scarce."

"This behaviour is oppressive, malicious and highly reprehensible," the lawsuit said. "It offends the public’s sense of decency."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 4, 2021.

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press

HIP CAPITALI$M

Tilray-Aphria deal closes, company to control biggest share of Cdn pot market


NANAIMO, B.C. — Tilray Inc. and Aphria Inc. say their merger deal has now closed after receiving approval from shareholders of both companies.

Provided by The Canadian Press

Tilray shareholders voted Friday in favour of issuing stock to Aphria's shareholders, but the Nanaimo, B.C.-based company has yet to reveal how many supported the proposal.


About 99 per cent of Aphria shareholders voted in favour of the deal in April.

The two cannabis companies announced in December that they will merge under the Tilray name with Aphria CEO Irwin Simon at the helm and Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy joining the board.

The new company is expected to have a pro forma revenue of $874 million and will control more than 17 per cent of the retail cannabis market — the largest share held by any Canadian licensed producer.

While Tilray shareholders at Friday's meeting supported the Aphria deal, they voted against increasing the company's authorized capital stock from more than 743 million shares to 900 million shares.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:APHA)

After criticism over Bill C-10, Liberals vow to make it clear CRTC won't regulate social media posts

Anja Karadeglija
POSTMEDIA

3/5/2021

The Liberal government is promising to change broadcasting Bill C-10 following a week of controversy that an amendment to the legislation infringes Canadians’ rights to free expression.

© Provided by National Post Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault speaks via videoconference during question period in the House of Commons Monday, May 3, 2021.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said a new amendment would make it “crystal clear” that social media posts by Canadians would not be subject to regulation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Guilbeault said the government wants “to make sure that the content that people upload on social media won’t be considered as programming under the [Broadcasting Act] and that it won’t be regulated by the CRTC.”

Critics who had sounded the alarm over the bill expressed caution over Guilbeault’s move.

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist said Guilbeault’s announcement Monday came after the minister had been arguing the amended bill did not affect user-generated content.

He said Guilbeault was now acknowledging “what was obvious, namely that government changes resulted in regulating the content of millions of Canadians. Many will be waiting to see what is proposed this time as the government tries to patch up a deeply flawed bill.”

On April 23, the Heritage committee removed an exemption for user-generated content from C-10, the bill that updates the Broadcasting Act and sets up the CRTC to begin regulating online companies like Netflix.

Liberals shut down debate on Bill C-10 amendment allowing regulation of social media content

'Full-blown assault' on free expression: Inside the comprehensive Liberal bill to regulate the internet

Experts feared the exemption would bring online posts by Canadians, including video posts on social media like YouTube and TikTok, under the CRTC’s authority.

Earlier Monday, Liberal MPs on the Heritage committee agreed to send Bill C-10 back to the justice minister for a second review of the bill’s compliance with charter rights, despite shutting down debate on that motion Friday.

Parliamentary secretary Julie Dabrusin told reporters Monday the government still believed the bill didn’t infringe free expression rights. “There’s no change on the view that we’re not concerned about the freedom of expression aspect. It’s just if it provides greater comfort to get the charter review, then so be it, get the charter review,” Dabrusin said.

On Friday, a Conservative motion in the Heritage committee asked to send the bill back to the justice minister to issue an updated “charter statement.” Charter statements are issued by the justice minister and review the impact government bills could have under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The initial charter statement for C-10 specifically cited the exemption for user-generated content that was removed.

Conservative MP Rachael Harder called for the committee’s clause-by-clause consideration of the bill to be suspended until after it had received an updated charter statement and until the heritage and justice ministers appeared at committee to answer questions about the amended bill.

The Liberals on the committee, backed by the NDP, voted Friday to shut down that debate. Over the weekend, NDP MP Heather McPherson defended the amendment in a TV appearance, saying C-10 had other safeguards protecting Canadians.

But then at Monday’s Heritage committee meeting, McPherson proposed an amendment to the Conservative motion, calling for the charter review and minister’s committee appearances to happen within 10 days.

Dabrusin proposed the committee wait until the committee had finalized amendments to the bill — more than 100 have been proposed by the various parties — before it sent it to the minister. “A charter review halfway through is not a proper charter review,” she said.

The committee didn’t vote on the motion or the Dabrusin’s amendment Monday. That vote is set to happen when it meets again on Friday afternoon, though Dabrusin indicated the government wanted to agree on a compromise before then. “I would suggest that we actually take some time, we have until Friday, to talk among the parties and see if we can arrange for resolution,” she said.

Critics of the legislation were not convinced the latest moves would fully address their concerns.

“At this point anything that provides for a pause and sober reflection is welcome,” former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies said in an email. “But if all that comes out of it is deflection and further name-calling, it won’t help. The problems with C-10 are fundamental.”

Geist, who has said the best course of action would be to scrap the bill and start over, said the committee should have moved to the charter statement immediately.

“The solution lies in stopping [clause-by-clause] review until an updated assessment can be conducted and the responsible ministers can respond to questions about the changes,” Geist wrote in an email.

He added “it’s hard to understand why the Liberals instead chose to delay moving rapidly to a charter review.”

Youth protection report calls on Quebec to create charter of children's rights


MONTREAL — A commission investigating Quebec's youth protection system released its final report Monday, calling on the government to create a charter of children's rights.

The commission's 552-page report included numerous other recommendations, following a two-year investigation that was prompted by the death of a seven-year-old girl in Granby, Que., in April 2019. Quebec's human rights commission concluded the child had been failed by the province's youth protection system.

Led by Régine Laurent, the commission recommended Quebec create a charter that would enshrine the right of a child to develop in a caring family environment. It also called for changes to the Youth Protection Act to ensure the continuity of care.

"It’s clear the biological family must be accompanied and supported to provide this stability,” Laurent told reporters Monday after releasing the report. “But if the biological family cannot respond to the needs of the child, and knowing time is of the essence, the child must be able to take root quickly in a family that will take care of them for life.”

Laurent's commission also recommended the government shift toward a prevention approach to reach families before they end up in the system. That kind of culture shift, the commission said, should include better services in schools, for example.

“We want to be clear: counting only on youth protection to stop the suffering and distress of children constitutes an error and leads up to an impasse — history teaches us this,” Laurent said.

The 2019 death of the seven-year-old girl in Granby sparked outrage in the community east of Montreal and raised questions about the province's ability to protect vulnerable young people. The girl was found in critical condition in her family home and died in hospital.

Video: Quebec’s youth protection system needs ‘severe shift’ to help vulnerable children, inquiry finds (Global News)




Laurent said the girl's death was a collective failure of Quebec society.

"We must move from indignation to dignity," she said. "We must turn our anger into action. We must move from a Quebec that is 'crazy about children' to one that is 'worthy of its children.'"

The report recommended the appointment of an independent commissioner to oversee the welfare and rights of children, something that already exists in other provinces. It also called for an assistant commissioner specifically for Indigenous and Inuit children.

The report recommended better support for social workers and a review of their workloads to free them from administrative tasks so they can focus on children and their families. It called for better funding for different community groups that specialize in domains such as domestic violence, food security and the transition of youth into adulthood.

In a preliminary report in November, Laurent had recommended the province hire a youth protection director to oversee the system. The Quebec government has already implemented that recommendation and filled the job in March.

Premier François Legault says junior health minister Lionel Carmant has been leading a review of the youth protection system and will oversee the implementation of the commission's recommendations.

“We vowed to put the kids first and that's what we're going to do,” Legault tweeted on Monday, thanking the commission members for their work.

Carmant and Families Minister Mathieu Lacombe will respond to the report on Tuesday in Quebec City.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press