End of an era? Progressive mayors in Calgary and Edmonton to make their exits

Tyler Dawson  
POSTMEDIA 10/5/2021

© Provided by National Post Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi (left) and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson speak during the Mayors' Forum in Edmonton, Alberta on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.


EDMONTON — Both of Alberta’s big city mayors are making their exits come October, leaving a void in Edmonton and Calgary and marking the end of two notably progressive leaders in a province inclining towards the right.

Naheed Nenshi , 49, announced April 6 he would not be running for another term as Calgary mayor in the October 2021 elections. He’s been mayor since 2010. And, last November, Don Iveson , 41, who sat in the Edmonton mayor’s chair since 2013, also announced he wouldn’t be seeking another term.

“Calgary, thank you, for everything,” Nenshi wrote on Twitter. “It’s been the honour of my life.”

For Iveson, who was a councillor before he became mayor, he’s done what he wanted, and says it’s time to move on.

“Fourteen years is a long time and I have accomplished most of what I came here to do,” Iveson told the National Post in an interview.

Over the past decade, both men led their cities through ups and downs, development and pandemic, growth and economic collapse. They were mayors in 2015 when the New Democrats broke the 40-year run of conservative government in Alberta; and they were there when the United Conservatives took over in 2019. Now, after years of strong progressive mayoral leadership, they won’t be around anymore — it’ll be a new era for whoever comes along next.

In both cities, candidates are already lining up, with the elections roughly six months away. Calgary has 10 people vying to replace Nenshi, and Edmonton has six hoping to replace Iveson. While neither Nenshi or Iveson were in power for as long as some others — such as Jim Watson, who’s had two separate runs as mayor of Ottawa, one in the late ’90s, and the other since 2010 or Hazel McCallion, who served as the mayor of Mississauga between 1978 and 2014 — they’ve no doubt made a mark on their cities and a new chapter will soon begin in Edmonton and Calgary.

The pair also had, in Nenshi’s words “been friends for a couple of decades,” before they got into politics, leading to a solid working relationship, even if they didn’t always agree.

“We’ve had some pretty big disagreements behind closed doors,” Nenshi said.

Kate Graham, a political scientist who teaches local government at Western and Huron University College, said it’s an “important moment” for Calgary as Nenshi leaves. His election changed international perceptions of Calgary and Alberta.

“A new mayor often comes in with a big vision for the city and it can be an opportunity for new voices to rise up and for the community to have a campaign about the future,” Graham said. “The departure of Nenshi will leave a very big hole. Nenshi broke the mold.”

Both men also had outsized effects on the rest of the country, she said.

“They’re both very skilled leaders within their own city, but also punched way above their weight, both of them have played major leadership roles in advancing federal-municipal relationships in Canada,” Graham said. “Their departure from that table definitely leaves a big hole.”

© Codie McLachlan/Edmonton Sun/Postmedia Network Then-Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, centre, is flanked by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, left, and Edmonton mayor Don Iveson, right, after a meeting at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, Alta., on Nov. 18, 2015.

For many Albertans, the question of who should replace Iveson and Nenshi is also a question of what political bent the replacement might be. Like most major cities in Canada — the exceptions being Vancouver and Montreal — Edmonton and Calgary do not have parties at the municipal level. However, Nenshi and Iveson were both widely perceived as progressive mayors and they focused on issues like housing, transit infrastructure and urban development.

Now, there’s a palpable desire in Edmonton and Calgary for change — at least according to the small-government types aiming to take over at city hall.

Nenshi’s ride to the mayor’s chair was an unexpected one.

He first won in 2010, a bit of an upset victory as his “Purple Revolution” came from behind — starting out the campaign with just eight per cent support — using viral marketing and social media to win over younger voters. Nenshi’s team wrote pro-Nenshi messages in chalk at transit stations and on sidewalks, they posted signs in apartment buildings and Nenshi himself manned his Twitter account.

It was a noted victory for another reason: Nenshi became the first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city and, he brought further international attention to Calgary in 2014 when he won the World Mayor prize.

© Stuart Gradon Naheed Nenshi speaks to supporters at his downtown headquarters after winning the mayoral seat in Calgary, Alberta on Oct. 18, 2010.

Over his time as mayor, Nenshi received plaudits for shepherding the city through devastating flooding in 2013, but also found himself a booster for the city’s failed 2018 bid to host the 2026 Olympics, which will now be in Italy. He also oversaw substantial property tax increases and expansion of city funding, and by June 2019, Nenshi’s approval rating was 39 per cent, down from a whopping 74 per cent in June 2014.

Iveson, who seemingly had a less tumultuous mayoral tenure than Nenshi, has been criticized for a focus on downtown — on bike lanes and transit, revitalization and infill housing. His career began with two terms as a city councillor, first elected in 2007, before running for mayor in 2013 with a campaign The Canadian Press described as “Kennedy-esque.”

After winning, Iveson said he thought Edmonton had a “more confident swagger,” and a “new sense of optimism,” The Canadian Press reported. Reflecting on his time as mayor, Iveson points to the city’s development plan and climate change vision as his major accomplishments.

“So, it’s time for the city to choose where it wants to go next,” Iveson said.

Still, Iveson has had his share of controversies. While it’s not entirely his fault — it began before he took over — he’s had to wear problems with the city’s Metro Line light-rail system, and there were construction delays on the Walterdale Bridge project across the North Saskatchewan River. The Valley Line — the next leg in the LRT — is already causing controversy and it, too, is likely to be a ballot question for Iveson’s replacement. One candidate, Coun. Mike Nickel, who Iveson defeated in 2007 to first become a councillor, said it should be put on hold in favour of rapid bus transit.

“People are done with, basically, my opinion is, a failed agenda,” Nickel said.

While 54 per cent of Edmontonians give Iveson, and the current council, positive reviews over the past few years, that skews wildly by age, according to Leger polling from October 2020. It shows 61 per cent of voters aged 18 to 34 give excellent reviews, while only 43 per cent of those aged 55 to 64 agree — a differential pollsters attribute to Iveson and council’s handling of social justice issues, such as Black Lives Matter rallies in 2020.


NICKEL ADVERTISES IN THE FAR RIGHT ONLINE PAPER THE WESTERN STANDARD
In both cities, there is perhaps some room for a more conservative, no nonsense mayor: Someone who will cut spending, reduce taxes and reconsider bike lanes and transit infrastructure. But the two top contenders for “conservative candidate” in each city don’t identify themselves by a partisan moniker.

Nickel’s that candidate in Edmonton.

“It’s just a common sense agenda. People are done with these 20 years of tax increases, of red tape, of these almost never-ending virtue signals and processes,” Nickel said.

Don Braid: Naheed Nenshi, who rose from unknown mayoral candidate to a symbol of Calgary, won't run again in 2021

'One of the best': Edmonton's 41-year-old, two-term mayor Don Iveson to step down next year

In Calgary, that title probably falls to Coun. Jeromy Farkas, though there are at least two other candidates who are far to the right of Farkas — and pretty much anyone else in Alberta politics — running to be Calgary mayor.

“This election isn’t about whether Calgarians want a Liberal or Conservative mayor. It’s about jobs and the economy and who’s best positioned to deliver on those things,” Farkas said.

Jared Wesley, a University of Alberta political scientist, argues there are issues on the ballot that could bring more conservative-leaning voters to the polls, a potential boon for candidates such as Farkas and Nickel.

A ballot question on equalization, championed by the United Conservative provincial government, should be one such mechanism that energizes conservative voters municipally

.

© Ed Kaiser Newly elected mayor Don Iveson celebrating with supporters during the city’s municipal election, at the Matrix Hotel in Edmonton, October 21, 2013.

But, the UCP is polling poorly. Polling from the Common Ground project at the University of Alberta shows that, in Calgary, the New Democrats lead on voter intention with 38 per cent of intended votes, compared to the United Conservatives, at 31 per cent. In Edmonton, 45 per cent of voters would cast a ballot for the New Democrats, compared to just 24 per cent for the UCP.

In particular, says Wesley, at the municipal level, school trustees are also up for re-election, and the UCP’s education curriculum rewrite has been tremendously controversial, something that may bring progressive voters to the polls.

“It’s a bit premature to (declare) the death of progressivism in civic politics in two big cities,” Wesley said. “You’re going to see, I think, these litmus tests, for both councillors and mayors on one hand and school trustees on the other: Do you support support the provincial government’s approach to anything they’re doing right now?”

* * *

There’s more to the mayoral races — and the prospective victors — than how the politics of the man or woman in the mayor’s chair happen to skew. One of the strengths of the Nenshi-Iveson years was that, given all the issues cities face that require dealing with the provincial government, the two men were able to put up a united front.

The United Conservative government has had an at-times fractious relationship with municipalities. And, with Iveson and Nenshi leaving, that power dynamic could shift a bit, said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt.

“It’s not unusual for the big city mayors to have problems with the province, that’s an ongoing thing,” said Bratt. “But, under Nenshi and Iveson they were able to put a common front together.”

Calgary, in particular, seems to have had a tougher relationship with the UCP government than Edmonton, most notably during the 2019 municipal budget season. Premier Jason Kenney said Calgary needs “fiscal responsibility;” then-municipal affairs minister Kaycee Madu suggested the city “needs to look after its own house;” and then-justice minister (a post Madu now has) Doug Schweitzer called Nenshi “Trudeau’s mayor.”

© Jim Wells Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi speaks to media outside Council Chambers in Calgary on Tuesday, October 13, 2020.

Bratt said he’s argued the United Conservatives “see municipalities as a form of opposition to this government,” but Ric McIver, the provincial municipal affairs minister, disagreed.

“We’ve got a good relationship now, and I expect we’ll have a good relationship in the future,” McIver said. “The fact that the province and municipalities don’t agree on everything I think sometimes just means everybody’s doing their jobs well.”

Iveson describes the UCP as “hostile to all local governments in Alberta,” a trend that respects no political persuasion.

“Perhaps others will be able to reset what has been at this point a dysfunctional relationship,” Iveson said.

Nenshi takes a slightly different view, citing just two premiers — Ed Stelmach, premier between 2006 and 2011 and Dave Hancock, who was premier for several months in 2014 — as the only two easy premiers out of the five he’s dealt with.

“I long for the day when we actually have a provincial government that understands that it is possible to actually be helpful and friendly to the cities instead of seeing the city governments as their enemy,” Nenshi said.

“I don’t know why, but it’s always been hard for provincial governments to understand that the majority of their seats are in the two cities, or at least a near majority of their seats are in those two cities, and that people who live in cities are in fact Albertans who do in fact have Albertan values and who do deserve support.”

Wesley said the fractious relationship between the UCP and the municipalities is just a return to the norm, “where provincial governments want to keep municipalities under their thumb.”

“I don’t think it matters who’s going to be filling those chairs necessarily, but it certainly didn’t help that they were ideologically different from the party in power in Edmonton.”

THERE WAS ONLY ONE GOVERNMENT FOR 44  YEARS THE PC'S PREDECESORS OF UCP THE NDP CHANGED THAT FOR ONLY FOUR YEARS

NOT ENOUGH TIME FOR A RESET

* * *

For whomever comes next, there will be considerable challenges ahead in both cities.

Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, said after the economic recession — which started in 2014 with a collapse in oil prices and has lingered and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic — the next mayors in the Calgary and Edmonton will need a solid strategy for boosting business and investment.

Legge said “cities around the world are going to be competing for business and investment,” so ensuring Calgary and Edmonton are competitive, solid places to do business is going to need to be “job No. 1.”

“Albertans are looking for some long-term prosperity in their lives,” said Legge. “Mayoral candidates, should have a real good understanding of business, that’s important.”

Calgary and Edmonton underwent substantial changes in the years Nenshi and Iveson were in power. Calgary, in particular, has faced a daunting economic recession, and its downtown core has been gutted by layoffs in energy sector offices.

Transit has been a big issue for both men, and will continue to be for the next mayor of each city.

© SHAUGHN BUTTS Sarah Chan on her bike with her husband, then-city councillor Don Iveson, dressed up for the opera.

For both men, though, they’ll be on the sidelines, watching whatever happens next — at least for now. There’s near-constant and fairly widespread speculation that either, or both, will make an appearance in federal or provincial politics.

Iveson, asked about his future, said he hasn’t even had time to think about it. He has a wife, Sarah Chan, and two children. He does say, though, that he’s “not running for anybody at this point.”

“There’s still so much I want to tidy up and set up for success into the coming years that I haven’t really had a chance to think about that yet,” Iveson said. “But no doubt some decompression after 14 years non-stop will be welcome.”

Nenshi, who thinks of riding a horse at the head of the Calgary Stampede as one of his fondest memories, also has “no idea” what’s coming next, though he expects to remain “a part of the story of Calgary, Alberta and Canada.”

“Right now, I’ve deliberately allowed myself to be open to different ideas,” he said. “The biggest thing is that, I am told, these last 10 years have been an exceptional year for creation in the field of television so, basically, I’ve got 10 years of TV to catch up on. I hear something called Game of Thrones is worth my time.”

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

The unsteady future of food manufacturing in Canada

Financial Post Staff

An industrial complex sprawling across a 67-acre lot in rural Manitoba has more than 60 kilometres of pipe connecting silos, grinders and spray dryers, all devoted entirely to the pea. The plant in Portage la Prairie, Man. — an hour or so west of Winnipeg — is so singularly focused on this one crop that its optical sorting system can spot a soybean in a sea of peas and get rid of it.

© Provided by Financial Post Roqutte's $600M plant in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, is considered by many to be one of the best examples of Canada’s modern manufacturing power.

“We absolutely have a very strict specification about having no soy beans in our peas,” said Dominique Baumann, the chief executive who runs the Canadian operations of France-based food processing giant Roquette Frères SA.


The reason for such vigilance, he said, is that a genetically modified soybean would taint the plant’s non-GMO product.

Roquette chose Portage la Prairie for the more-than-$600-million plant, in part, because peas are grown in abundance in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Peas are big business, especially now that the protein extracted from them has become a main ingredient used by the burgeoning plant-based protein industry.

The pea, it turns out, is not just a mere pea. It is starch, fibre and protein, and each component has a use and a market: the starch can be used for glue in cardboard boxes; the fibre can go into livestock feed and pet food; and, of course, the protein is destined for everything from veggie burgers and dairy substitutes to nutritional bars and shakes.

As Baumann put it, nature has put the pea together and it’s the plant’s job to break it apart.

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The Portage la Prairie operation, expected to be operating at full capacity by early next year, comes up a lot in discussions on the future of how Canada feeds itself. It is considered by many to be one of the best examples of this country’s modern manufacturing power. But it’s also a rare example.

It’s rare, some in the industry believe, because over-regulation, labour shortages and heavy concentration in the grocery business have historically tamped down Canada’s ability to process what it grows, leaving the country dependent on other countries to turn crops into food. That dependence can be precarious, especially in uncertain times that send shock waves rippling through global supply lines and countries grow reluctant to share.

Much of Canada’s food processing infrastructure is aging and understaffed, due in part to a slow procession of multinational manufacturers relocating their Canadian operations to countries with less regulation and longer growing seasons.

More than half of all the crops and livestock produced in Canada are now exported to another country to be processed, according to a report last week by the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture and agri-food.

Processed food, for many, may sound like junk food — say, chicken parts blitzed with additives to form nuggets. But in the agricultural sector, processed food involves anything that adds value to a raw material. For example, crushing canola seeds into oil is processing, as is freezing corn niblets or canning beans.

For a country so rich in raw materials, untapped processing potential means untapped value. But more importantly, it can make the national food chain more vulnerable.

It’s normal for an agricultural powerhouse with a small population to export a lot of its crops. But it’s concerning that Canada then re-imports some of those commodities after they’ve been processed abroad, said Martin Scanlon, dean of agricultural and food sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

“The degree of reliance on imported (processed) foods has been growing steadily for the past 15 years,” he said. “When you’ve got these plants that are rusting out, if I can call it that, we’re not seeing the degree of sophisticated processing reinvestment that you would see in a plant south of the border.”

Complications in the food chain at the beginning of the pandemic last year, including outbreaks at two meat-packing plants that process the majority of Canada’s beef, have underscored the need to have more smaller plants spread out across the country, he said.

As the pandemic crawls toward a conclusion, Scanlon said it’s time to “look at our food system and say, ‘Is it what we actually want?'”

Canada’s food manufacturing sector lost roughly 40,000 jobs to plant closures in the past decade, while adding only 20 new plants with national processing capacity compared to 4,000 added in the U.S., according to a study last week by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Halifax’s Dalhousie University, one that was commissioned by manufacturing lobby group Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada.

Foreign direct investment in the sector grew by 125 per cent in the past 10 years, the report said, though it also found that a lack of greenfield investments had contributed to “stunted innovation” and aging infrastructure.

“I think the sector, overall, has been undermined for several decades,” said Sylvain Charlebois, the lab’s director.

One executive at a Canadian food processor said state officials from the U.S. frequently offer tax cuts or free government land if a company relocates their operations south.

“I don’t go a week without getting an offer from somewhere in the U.S. to move our facility,” said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. told the parliamentary agriculture committee that “the cumulative effect of regulation” in Canada was a factor in why it chose Indiana to build a US$310-million facility for plant-based protein, according to the committee’s report last week.

The committee also noted that frozen vegetable processor Bonduelle Americas has “given up on projects in Canada” due to a lack of labour in the industry, which has a reported 28,000 vacancies.

Food processors in Canada have also spent much of the pandemic locked in an ugly and prolonged battle over the fees and fines that big grocers charge.

Last year, Walmart Inc. and Loblaw Cos. Ltd. riled food suppliers by charging new fees as a way to help cover investments in infrastructure and online grocery shopping, which has boomed during the pandemic

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© Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press More than half of all the crops and livestock produced in Canada are now exported to another country to be ‘processed,’ according to a recent federal government report.

The retailers argued that suppliers would benefit from sales gains brought about by the e-commerce investments. But the fees marked a flashpoint for processors, who were already frustrated by the charges and fines they were obligated to pay in order to do business with the biggest grocery chains.

Some manufacturers, including Toronto-based dairy processing giant Lactalis Canada Inc., have threatened to stop shipping products if retailers continue to charge fines for short shipments despite pandemic-related hurdles in factories.

Processors have been pushing Ottawa to implement a code of conduct to curtail what they say are bully tactics and unfair fees in the grocery business. Late last year, the federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers group (FPT) decided to investigate the issue.

Last week, the parliamentary agriculture committee delivered another milestone in the campaign for grocery regulation when it released its report on food processing after months of studying ways to boost Canada’s ability “to process more of the food it produces domestically.”

The report endorsed a national code of conduct, calling on the federal government to work with the provinces and territories to make it happen.

“Food processors are dealing with a concentrated retail market in Canada that is dominated by a few large retailers,” the report said, adding that the top five grocery chains control 80 per cent of sales.

The office of Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, who is co-chairing the FPT working group on grocery fees, said her investigation will take the recommendation into account before making its own report in July.

The Retail Council of Canada, which represents the big grocers, said it is currently working with other food-sector trade associations in hopes of proposing their own set of “structured policies and principles” that would reflect the “needs and concerns of small, domestic companies in the supply chain,” spokesperson Michelle Wasylyshen said in an email.

Reining in bully tactics in the grocery business could help preserve the Canadian operations of multinational food processors, according to one executive.

The head of a Canadian division of a global food processor, who spoke on condition he not be named for fear of damaging sales relationships, said his business often underperforms those in other markets, putting Canada at a disadvantage when head office has to make budget decisions.

“They say, ‘Listen, you know what? We can’t invest as much money in Canada because your profit margins are lower. We can make more money in France, U.K., Germany, whatever,’” he said. “When a worldwide organization looks at Canada, they’re gonna say: ‘It’s a small country. Forget about the landmass; 38 million people?’”

The pandemic has proven to multinationals that their workforces can be remotely managed, which puts underperforming divisions with small populations in jeopardy, the executive said, since the company could feasibly manage the country from its head office elsewhere.

“As opposed to having all of the senior marketing managers, logistics managers, maybe even a president out of Canada, I can hire lower staff individuals and run it out of the United States,” he said. The question becomes: “Why do I need you guys?”

But the bigger question, the one now being asked in earnest, is what would it really take for Canada to be self-sufficient, to cut, crush and cook everything we eat? It’s a question that requires an answer before another crisis hits the food chain.

A BONUS IS ONE TIME, UI IS WEEKLY
Sasse will introduce legislation to redirect expanded unemployment benefits into signing bonuses for new hires

insider@insider.com (John L. Dorman) 1 day ago

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 Al Drago/Pool via AP Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) speaks during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, on Capitol Hill. Al Drago/Pool via AP

Sen. Sasse says that expanded unemployment benefits have prevented people from returning to work.

He will propose a bill that would redirect expanded benefits into signing bonuses for new hires.

"We've got to get America and Americans up and running," he said in a statement.

GOP Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska on Saturday said he would introduce legislation to grant signing bonuses to new hires, as the latest jobs report on Friday fell far short of expectations.

In an email, Sasse said that the proposed National Signing Bonus Act would redirect expanded unemployment benefits, which have been a lifeline for millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, into signing bonus payments for new hires.

Under Sasse's plan, individuals who are hired by July 4 would receive a two-month signing bonus "equal to 101 percent of their current unemployment payment."

As part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, expanded federal unemployment benefits provide $300 a week as a supplemental to state unemployment checks.

Republicans have long argued for less generous unemployment benefits, saying expanded benefits only serve to disincentivize people from returning to work. They quickly seized on the April jobs report, which showed that US employers added 266,000 jobs for the month, well below the 1 million jobs that many economists were expecting to be added to the US economy.

The April unemployment rate also rose slightly - to 6.1% from 6% - according to the Department of Labor.

"The emergency UI program is now penalizing people for going back to work," Sasse said in the statement. "Now, as millions of Americans are vaccinated each day, we've got crummy job numbers - 7,400,000 jobs are available but fewer than 300,000 people returned to work last month. We've got to get America and Americans up and running."

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The US Chamber of Commerce, which last week criticized Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill, called for an end to the $300-a-week federal unemployment benefits after Friday's report.

"The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market," the chamber's chief policy officer, Neal Bradley, said in a statement. "We need a comprehensive approach to dealing with our workforce issues and the very real threat unfilled positions poses to our economic recovery from the pandemic."

In February, Biden's first full month in office, the economy added 536,000 jobs. In March, 770,000 jobs were regained.

GOP Govs. Greg Gianforte of Montana and Henry McMaster of South Carolina recently announced that their states will opt-out of receiving the expanded federal unemployment benefits at the end of June.

"I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can't find workers," Gianforte said last week. "Nearly every sector in our economy faces a labor shortage ... We need to incentivize Montanans to reenter the workforce."

McMaster recently echoed a similar sentiment.

"What was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace," he said.

Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque ahead of Jerusalem Day march

Israeli police have stormed the sacred Jerusalem compound that holds the Dome of the Rock amid mounting international concern over the worsening violence in the city.

Following the most serious clashes in the city since 2017, the Palestine Red Crescent reported 305 people had been injured after officers in riot gear clashed with Palestinian demonstrators in East Jerusalem.

The mounting toll from the violence came as Israel’s police commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, intervened at the last moment, following appeals from the Israeli domestic security agency the Shin Bet and the Israeli military to call off a controversial annual march by Israeli nationalists through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City amid fears it could provoke a further escalation.

After Shabtai’s announcement, the approach to the Damascus Gate into the Muslim Quarter was blocked by two large trucks.

Anger had been mounting for weeks among Palestinians ahead of a now-delayed Israeli court ruling on whether authorities were able to evict dozens of Palestinians from the Old City’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and give their homes to Jewish settlers.

Hundreds of Palestinians and several dozen police officers have been hurt in recent days in clashes in and around the Old City, including the sacred compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary – or Haram al-Sharif.

The compound, which has been the trigger for rounds of Israel-Palestinian violence in the past, is Islam’s third-holiest site and considered Judaism’s holiest.

Seven of the injured from Monday’s clashes were in serious condition with local media reporting that a seven-month-old Israeli had been injured by stones thrown at her family’s car.

Monday morning’s early-morning incursion by Israeli police firing teargas and stun grenades into the Haram al-Sharif compound, site of the al-Aqsa mosque, had raised tensions significantly given the huge historical sensitivity over the site, not least during the Holy month of Ramadan.

The latest violence occurred as the UN security council scheduled closed consultations on the situation in Jerusalem on Monday. Diplomats said the meeting was requested by Tunisia, the Arab representative on the council.

The decision to cancel the part of the annual Jerusalem “flag march” that enters the Muslim Quarter Old City followed concerns from senior Israeli security officials that it could worsen the already dangerous situation.

Palestinian residents of the Old City have long complained that the flag march, to mark Israel’s capture of the Jerusalem and its Jewish holy sites in 1967 during the Six Day war, is deliberately provocative.

Confrontations continued until after dawn, when police moved in to an Old City compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, and fired stun grenades at worshippers, who threw stones. Footage from the scene showed crowds of people running in front of the mosque through clouds of smoke.

As fears mounted of Jerusalem descending further into chaos, police published dramatic CCTV video from a road near the Old City of a white car being pelted by Palestinians with stones, before the driver reverses and rams into one of them. The downed man gets up and limps away while an armed Israeli police officer runs in to protect the driver, believed to be Israeli, who faces more rock-throwing.

The late-night skirmishes raised fears about further clashes on Monday during the Jerusalem Day celebrations, which mark the anniversary of when Israeli troops captured the city in 1967.

Related: Israeli settlement ruling delayed as Jerusalem tensions run high

Israeli police gave the go-ahead for the parade despite days of unrest.

Addressing a special cabinet meeting before Jerusalem Day, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel “will not allow any extremists to destabilise the calm in Jerusalem. We will enforce law and order decisively and responsibly”.

“We will continue to maintain freedom of worship for all faiths, but we will not allow violent disturbances,” he said, adding: “We emphatically reject the pressures not to build in Jerusalem.”

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, expressed “serious concerns” about the violent clashes in Jerusalem in a phone call on Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, the White House said.

There were also signs the violence was spreading. Late on Sunday, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four rockets towards Israel, setting off air raid sirens in southern city of Ashkelon and nearby areas, the Israeli military said. One rocket was intercepted, while two others exploded inside Gaza, it added. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

Earlier in the day, Israel carried out an airstrike on a Hamas military group post in response to another rocket attack. People in Gaza also launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel during the day, causing dozens of fires.

Israel has faced mounting international criticism of its heavy police response and the planned evictions. Last week a UN rights body described the expulsion of Arabs from their homes as a possible war crime.

On Sunday, Jordan, which has custodianship of Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, called Israel’s actions against worshippers at al-Aqsa “barbaric”.

On Saturday night, 120 people were injured, including a one-year-old child, and 14 were taken to hospital. The violence came a day after more than 200 Palestinians were wounded around the al-Aqsa mosque.

Israeli police said 20 officers had been injured in recent days.

In East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, Palestinians feel an increasing threat from settlers who have sought to expand the Jewish presence there through buying homes, constructing buildings, and court-ordered evictions, such as the case in Sheikh Jarrah.

Nabeel al-Kurd, a 77-year-old whose family faces losing their home, said the evictions were a racist attempt to “expel Palestinians and replace them with settlers”.

Under Israeli law, Jews who can prove a title from before the 1948 war that accompanied the country’s creation can claim back their Jerusalem properties. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs were displaced in the same conflict but no similar law exists for Palestinians who lost their homes in the city.

“This an attempt by the settlers, supported by the government, to seize our homes with force,” Kurd told the Guardian. “Enough is enough.”

On Sunday afternoon, in light of the tensions and after a request from the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, the supreme court agreed to delay the hearing. It said it should be held within a month.

Still, the hiatus may not be enough to end the crisis. At previous Jerusalem Day marches, participants have harassed Arab residents and banged on shuttered doors as they descended through the Muslim quarter.

Palestinians have also complained of oppressive restrictions on gatherings during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Nir Hasson, a writer for the left-leaning Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, accused Israeli authorities of making a series of bad decisions recently, “including the unrestrained freedom given to police in [Jerusalem’s] streets, where on Friday they acted as if they had been sent to fan the flames, not to extinguish them”.

He added: “In the end, half of Israel’s capital city is occupied, and 40% of its residents are non-citizens who view Israel as a foreign, oppressive regime. The police and other authorities must recognise this and act to restore calm.”

© Provided by The Guardian A Palestinian man helps a wounded fellow protester during clashes with Israeli security forces at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Jerusalem has long been the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, with its holy sites revered by Jews and Muslims.

The Old City’s Western Wall forms part of the holiest site in Judaism – the Temple Mount. It is equally part of the al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, however, with the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque above it.

Palestinians have held nightly protests in Sheikh Jarrah. A reporter for Israeli public TV tweeted footage of a Jewish driver whose car was attacked with stones and windows shattered at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah on Saturday.

The Islamist movement Hamas, which is in power inside Gaza, urged Palestinians to remain at al-Aqsa until Ramadan ends, saying: “The resistance is ready to defend al-Aqsa at any cost.”

CANADA

Proposed federal justice reforms could reduce number of Indigenous, Black people in system, say advocates

Olivia Stefanovich 
10/5/2021
© Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press A protester holds a Black Lives Matter sign behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as people take part in an anti-racism protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 5, 2020.

Advocates for justice system reform are welcoming new proposals from the federal government to address the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous individuals and other racialized groups in the criminal justice system.

In the recent federal budget, the government pledged $216.4 million over five years, and $43.3 million each year after that, to divert Black and Indigenous youth and young people of colour from the courts.

The government also is proposing to give $21.5 million over five years to organizations that offer free public legal education and services to racialized communities, and to spend $26.8 million to help provinces maintain immigration and refugee legal aid support for asylum seekers.


Raphael Tachie, president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, said he's encouraged by Ottawa's approach. The key, he said, will be how the measures are implemented.

"You worry that these are just election promises and after elections, they might not come through," Tachie said.

"But for the most part, the conversations that we've had have been promising."

Advocates say the funding will help chip away at the disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous individuals and other people of colour in Canada's corrections system.

Indigenous people make up more than 30 per cent of the prison population, according to the Correctional Investigator of Canada, but account for only 5 per cent of the wider Canadian population. Black Canadians comprise seven per cent of federal offenders but only represent three per cent of the general population, according to government statistics.

"The fundamental goal is to make the system fairer and more just for all Canadians," Justice Minister David Lametti told CBC News.

Aaron Bains, president of the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto, also praised the budget measures but said Ottawa should not act alone. He said municipal, provincial and territorial governments also need to step up.

"It will take a multi-tiered and multi-party approach to completely eradicate racism, if that's even possible," Bains said.
Access to justice, pardons

For Indigenous people specifically, the budget sets aside $74.8 million over three years to improve access to justice and create a national Indigenous justice strategy, which would be modelled after a similar plan in British Columbia.

The $74.8 million includes:

$27.1 million to help Indigenous families navigate the family justice system and community family mediation services.

$24.2 million for Justice Canada to consult Indigenous communities and organizations about an Indigenous justice strategy and possibly other legislation.

$23.5 million for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to increase prosecutorial capacity in the territories.

Drew Lafond, president of the Indigenous Bar Association, said he hopes Ottawa's approach leads to an increase in the number of Indigenous courts and better representation for Indigenous people in all levels of the justice system.

"What the current budget is reflective of, I think, is a commitment on the part of the justice minister and shows there are people within his staff who are very alive to the issues," Lafond said.

The budget also sets aside $31.5 million over two years to co-develop an action plan with Indigenous partners for Bill C-15, proposed legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The budget includes $88.2 million over five years and $13 million each year following that period to create an online application portal for pardons, to reduce pardon application fees and to support community organizations helping people with the pardons process.

Ottawa also plans to set aside $40.4 million over five years, and $10 million each year after that, for 25 new drug treatment courts, which help non-violent offenders access addiction services instead of facing charges for simple drug possession.

John Struthers, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, said he would have liked to see the government offer a complete pardon for simple possession.

"There are some things missing, but it is some excellent first steps," he said.

UNION YES
Food couriers take risks so others can stay home during the pandemic

AT THE BEGINING OF THE PANDEMIC UBER CUT THEIR WAGES BY 50%

VIDEO
Food couriers take risks so others can stay home during the pandemic | CBC.ca

Duration: 06:11

Food couriers say they're doing essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic - making deliveries and taking risks so other people can stay home. 

Many think a union would give them the protection and pay they deserve.

 cbc.ca

Worst-paying blue chip employers bolstered CEO pay in pandemic, report says

By Jessica DiNapoli 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than half of 100 companies with the lowest median employee wages in the S&P 500 Index boosted CEO pay by changing the rules for assessing executive performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by a left-leaning policy group published on Tuesday.

© Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte FILE PHOTO: A delivery staff member wearing a protective mask enters a KFC fast food outlet after a delivery in Colombo

The report from the Institute for Policy Studies found that 51 of these 100 companies, including beverage and snack maker Coca-Cola Co, cruise ship operator Carnival Corp and fast food corporation Yum Brands Inc, reduced median worker pay by 2% to $28,187 on average in 2020 compared to 2019, even as the median compensation for their CEOs rose 29% to $15.3 million.


The findings offer ammunition to investors opposing executive compensation hikes in non-binding votes held at the annual shareholder meetings of companies. More companies are facing shareholder backlash against their CEO pay this year than last, Reuters has reported.

The companies studied in the report bolstered executive compensation by lowering performance targets, giving retention bonuses and swapping out stock awards linked to financial results with time-based share grants, the report found.

A Carnival spokesman said in an email that CEO Arnold Donald received no cash bonus in 2020 and his total compensation in last year was down 29% versus 2019.

A Coke spokesperson referred comment to the company's proxy statement, which notes that roughly 1,000 employees received special share awards, in addition to executives.

Gallery: McDonald’s CEO Made 1,100 Times What His Workers Did (24/7 Wall St.)


"We can't rely on corporate boards to fix the problem of excessive CEO compensation," Sarah Anderson, a co-author of the report, said in an interview. Anderson suggested in the report that companies with the highest CEO-to-average worker pay ratios should be taxed more.

The CEO-to-average worker pay ratio for the 51 companies in the report was 830-to-1.

The Yum Brands board authorized discretionary adjustments to bonus programs resulting in a $1.4 million bonus for CEO David Gibbs he otherwise would not have received, according to a securities filing. He also received a one-time stock award of $882,127, for a total 2020 compensation of $14.6 million, according to the filing.

The company's board said the compensation boost was appropriate given that Gibbs and other executives helped stabilize the business and positioned it for success coming out of the pandemic.

In a prepared statement, Yum Brands said Gibbs gave up his base salary and used it to help fund one-time $1,000 bonuses for nearly 1,200 restaurant general managers. The company also awarded special bonuses to team members in company-owned restaurants globally.

Yum Brands identified a part-time worker at its fast food chicken chain KFC as its median employee, with a total compensation of $11,377, in the filing.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Opinion: Corporate responsibilities on climate are changing
Margot Hurlbert

© Provided by Leader Post Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, right, speaks during the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate in a video screenshot on Thursday, April 22, 2021.

While a ‘black swan’ is a term for an event that no one imagined or anticipated, COVID-19 and approaching climate change risk is a Gray Rhino, something that people foresaw, but may or may not have planned for.

As the availability of vaccines increases and the existential threat of COVID-19 reduces, the omnipresent crisis of climate change is top of mind for many as we think about a sustainable financial recovery. However, building back better not only applies to our infrastructure and businesses, but our practices and rules around climate change risk management.

What better time, after the eye-opening COVID-19 risk management experience?

The re-entry of the United States into the Paris Agreement not only strengthens global climate change response, but provides incentive for Saskatchewan and Canada to harmonize and standardize management of business climate risk with other jurisdictions in order to create a level playing field and certainty, a requirement for attracting and retaining capital investment in Canada.

Former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney refers to the climate crisis as the ‘tragedy of the horizon’ as the effects of climate change will be felt well beyond most government and businesses’ traditional horizons and impose a cost on future generations that we in the current generation have little incentive to fix.

However, this state of affairs is changing. Corporate, legal and reputational responsibility is increasing.

Directors and advisors of corporations have a duty to act honestly and in good faith in the best interest of their enterprises, exercising care, diligence and skill. Legal opinions in Canada and elsewhere have made it clear management of climate risk is a core part of their duties.

Climate risk includes failure of businesses to take action to adapt to climate change impacts (drought, flood, extreme events), financial losses surrounding infrastructure, failure to incorporate climate risks in corporate investments (such as infrastructure that is carbon intensive and assets that may be ‘stranded’ in the future), and failure to report climate risks and for issuing disclosure that is misleading, weak or lacking in rigour.

For example, three lawsuits have been brought by shareholders against ExxonMobil alleging executives and board members misled investors about how much risk climate change poses to the company’s assets, resulting in faulty asset valuation.

The 2017 Report of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has buttressed the call for disclosures in existing financial filing requirements. Organizations are required to disclose governance around climate-related risks, a strategy identifying climate-related risk, the resilience of the organization’s strategy taking into consideration different climate related scenarios including a 2 C or lower scenario, and processes for managing these risks.

Included is the impact of climate change on their businesses and strategy in areas of products, services, supply or value chain, adaptation and mitigation activities, investment in research and development, and operations.

Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance recommended adopting the TCFD’s recommendations, beginning with large companies and Crown corporations, and eventually being phased in for smaller enterprises. Canada’s 2021 budget includes requirements for climate disclosures from Crown corporations in line with TCFD, while in the United States the SEC announced the creation of an Enforcement Task Force focused on climate and ESG issues.

Arguably, based on legal standards of reasonableness, these requirements apply to Saskatchewan businesses, pension funds, Crown corporations and credit unions. However, Saskatchewan should be taking proactive action clarifying this through legislation. Not to do so risks first uncertainty in respect to director and management responsibility giving rise to costly and time-consuming litigation, but secondly, and most importantly, business and financial losses for Saskatchewan investors, citizens, and taxpayers.

The transition to a net-zero economy requires that businesses realign their strategy to prepare for risks or take advantage of opportunities associated with climate change. Taking meaningful action also requires that a business set measurable goals and targets related to carbon emissions and other environmental indicators.

These types of changes to a business’s strategy and direction require the board of directors (or trustees) to provide oversight, engagement and leadership and to understand their evolving fiduciary obligations as they relate to climate change.

Margot Hurlbert is a Johnson Shoyama Graduate School professor and Canada Research Chair in climate change, energy and sustainability policy.

Thousands around world still plagued by impact of Trump Muslim ban, says N.Y. Rep. Ritchie Torres

Chris Sommerfeldt, Shant Shahrigian


Former President Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban is finished, but thousands of people around the world are still suffering the consequences and unable to come to America, according to Bronx Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres.

The first-term lawmaker planned to introduce the “Keeping Our Promise Act” in Congress on Monday to smooth the way for nearly 21,000 would-be immigrants by giving them a year to claim their green cards or resume applications that were put on ice under the Trump policy.

President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that ended Trump’s ban, which prohibited residents of nearly a dozen Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S

.

© Andrew Harnik A protester held up a sign reading

A protester held up a sign reading "No Muslim Ban" during a rally against former President Donald Trump's immigration policy in Washington in April of 2018. (Andrew Harnik/)

But data from the State Department show that 20,900 green card lottery winners are still struggling to claim their immigration papers, Torres said.

They live in Burma (Myanmar), Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to the State Department.

“Even though the Trump Muslim ban has been repealed, the victims of the travel ban were never made whole,” Torres said.

© Adam Hunger Ritchie Torres spoke to the media on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, when he was elected to the House of Representatives from the Bronx borough of New York.

Ritchie Torres spoke to the media on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, when he was elected to the House of Representatives from the Bronx borough of New York. (Adam Hunger/)

His legislation will “fully reverse the discriminatory and destructive legacy” of Trump’s ban, he said.

Just hours after Biden took office on Jan. 20, when he ended the ban, he called it “a stain on our national conscience ... inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.”

Trump issued his self-described Muslim ban seven days after he took office in 2017, claiming it would protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks.

The ban went through several iterations after courts struck down some of its provisions as unconstitutional.

China rocket crash: US blamed for hyping fears of uncontrolled rocket reentry as space race heats up
Analysis by Nectar Gan and James Griffiths, CNN

For a week, China's Long March 5B grabbed global attention, as space agencies and experts closely tracked its trajectory, speculating where debris would fall upon the rocket's uncontrolled reentry

.

© STR/AFP/Getty Images TOPSHOT - People watch a Long March 5B rocket, carrying China's Tianhe space station core module, as it lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan province on April 29, 2021. - China OUT (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

In China, however, the country's space administration stayed silent for days amid criticism that allowing such a large rocket stage to free fall towards Earth was irresponsible and posed a safety risk -- albeit a small one -- to many countries.


Finally, on Sunday morning Beijing time the China Manned Space Engineering Office broke its silence, confirming the remnants of the rocket had plunged into the Indian Ocean near the Maldives, after most of it had burned up in the atmosphere.

For many who have followed the rocket's return, the news came as a big relief. In China, it was not only seen as a vindication of the rocket's design, but also used by state media to argue that the intense global attention was merely a Western effort to discredit China's space program and thwart its progress.

"Their hype and smears were in vain," the Global Times, a state-run newspaper, said in an editorial Sunday, accusing US scientists and NASA of "acting against their conscience" and being "anti-intellectual."

"These people are jealous of China's rapid progress in space technology," the paper said. "Some of (them) even try to use the noises they made to obstruct and interfere with China's future intensive launches for the construction of its space station."

While Beijing has long accused Western countries and media of holding China to a different standard, Chinese officials also routinely have a nationalist response to any criticism, branding it an ill-intended attempt to "smear China."

Such fierce defensiveness is particularly evident when it comes to China's space program, an important point of national pride for the Chinese public and a source of prestige for the ruling Communist Party.

China was a latecomer to space exploration, launching its first satellite only in 1970, 13 years after the Soviet Union and 12 years after the United States. But in recent decades, it has swiftly become a frontrunner in the space race -- it was the first country to land on the far side of the moon in 2019, and successfully brought back lunar rocks last year.

The defensiveness to criticism from the West, especially the United States, is partially born out of what Beijing perceives as Washington's hostility to block its progress beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Since 1999, the US has imposed export controls on satellite technology to China. And in 2011, Congress passed a law that imposed restrictions on NASA engagement with China.

Consequently, Chinese astronauts are barred from the International Space Station (ISS) -- the only space station in orbit and a collaboration between the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

© Sipa Asia/Shutterstock Alibaba was hit with a record fine earlier this year for behaving like a monopoly.

As a result, China is building its own space station, the Tiangong (meaning heavenly palace in Chinese). Last month, it successfully launched its first module with the Long March 5B -- the rocket that drew the world's scrutiny.

In blaming the West for their "smear campaign," however, Chinese state media and space experts omitted to explain why the Long March 5B had caused anxiety among global scientists.

Rocket stages are often dropped before they reach orbit along trajectories that can be predicted before the launch. And when they are designed to reach orbit, they usually come with devices that allow more controlled reentries and aim for the ocean. Or they are left in so-called "graveyard" orbits that keep them in space for decades or centuries. The Chinese rocket, estimated to weigh over 20 tons, is the largest space object to return uncontrolled to Earth in nearly three decades -- and a major deviation from the practice of other space agencies.

© Fuyang District Government This partially sedated juvenile leopard was captured on May 8, having escaped a week earlier from a safari park in Hangzhou, China.

There are also worrying precedents for what happens in such incidents: the US Skylab space station broke up over the Indian Ocean and scattered debris across Western Australia when it returned to Earth in 1979. More recently, a piece of debris from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landed on a farm in Washington state, after the second stage of the rocket broke up on reentry.

But amid deepening political mistrust of the US, and a lack of technological exchanges, meaningful scientific international exchanges with Beijing are being sidestepped in favor of fanning the flames of nationalist anger.

China fires back after NASA criticism of rocket debris reentry

Dominick Mastrangelo

THE HILL 10/5/2021

The Chinese government is firing back at NASA officials who criticized the country's space program following reports of debris from an uncontrolled rocket falling into Earth's atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean over the weekend.

© Getty Images China fires back after NASA criticism of rocket debris reentry

"China has been closely tracking its trajectory and issued statements on the re-entry situation in advance," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, according to The Associated Press. "There has been no report of harm on the ground. China also shares the results of re-entry predictions through international cooperation mechanisms."

On Saturday, U.S. Space Command confirmed the event and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson blamed China for a failure to "act responsibly and transparently in space."

"Spacefaring nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations. It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris," Nelson said in a statement.

Hua on Monday shot back at Nelson and U.S. officials for what she described as a double standard China is being held to when it comes to space.

"American media used romantic rhetoric like 'shooting stars lighting up the night sky,' " Hua said. "But when it comes to the Chinese side, it's a completely different approach."

Hua said China is "willing to work with other countries including the United States to strengthen cooperation in the use of outer space," but added "we also oppose double standards on this issue."

Liberal MP questions Justice Department's legal advice on fired scientists

OTTAWA — A Liberal MP is advising the Public Health Agency of Canada not to rely on legal advice from the federal Justice Department because it is not always right.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Toronto MP Rob Oliphant, parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Affairs minister, gave the advice late Monday at a House of Commons committee that is trying to find out why two scientists at Canada's highest security laboratory were fired.

PHAC president Iain Stewart told the special committee on Canada-China relations that revealing details would breach the Privacy Act and jeopardize national security and an ongoing RCMP investigation.

He says that advice was given by the Justice Department.

Committee members, backed up by parliamentary law clerk Phiippe Dufresne, insist they have the constitutional authority to order the production of any documents they please and that their authority takes precedence over any other laws.

But Christian Roy, director and senior general counsel of health legal services at the Justice Department, says the department has never recognized the power of committees to compel documents in violation of the Privacy Act or other laws.

Oliphant questioned Roy's legal opinion.

"Lawyers are not always right and Justice lawyers are particularly, in my mind, not always right," he told the committee.

He noted that Justice lawyers were wrong in claiming a law banning genetic discrimination was unconstitutional, after fighting it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Moreover, Oliphant said he was "horrified" to discover that Justice lawyers had advised the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to illegally keep potentially revealing electronic data about people over a 10-year period.

"I have learned to now question of Department of Justice lawyers," Oliphant said, suggesting that Stewart get "a second opinion because the Justice Department is not giving you the best advice."


The committee voted unanimously later Monday to give PHAC 10 days to turn over unredacted documents about the fired scientists, which the parliamentary law clerk is to review and advise committee members as to what needs to be blacked out to protect privacy, national security and the police investigation.

If the agency continues to refuse to disclose the unredacted documents, the committee will seek an order to do so from the House of Commons.

PHAC formally terminated the employment of Canadian scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, in January.

The pair was escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in July 2019 over what Stewart has described as "relating to possible breaches in security protocols."

The Winnipeg lab is Canada’s only Level Four laboratory, designed to deal safely with deadly contagious germs such as Ebola.

PHAC has previously said the pair's escorted exit had nothing to do with the fact that four months earlier, Qiu had been responsible for a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Stewart has released some redacted documents to the committee about that virus transfer, which he said show that all laws and protocols were followed.

He also assured the committee Monday that there is no link between those viruses and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan province.

That didn't stop Conservative MP Michael Chong, who referred to the two fired scientists as being Chinese when they are in fact Canadians.

"There is no doubt that (Qui) trained technicians at that very institute of virology to establish a Level Four lab, the only Level Four lab in the People's Republic of China, and there is no doubt that the coronavirus emerged ostensibly in Wuhan a number of months later," Chong said.

He dismissed suggestions that he was peddling a conspiracy theory, citing various experts who've posited that the coronavirus may have been inadvertently released from the Wuhan lab.

Oliphant accused Chong of "drawing two threads that are completely unrelated together," calling it "absolutely irresponsible" and "cheap politics."

Bloc Quebecois MP Stephane Bergeron agreed that Chong's language was inflammatory.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2021.

The Canadian Press

The fight for racial equity, legalization from within the marijuana industry

Nearly a decade ago, Linda Greene was having dinner with some of her friends when she heard that marijuana had been legalized for medicinal use in Washington, D.C. Having lived through the 1960s counterculture, she saw an opportunity.

Greene opened Anacostia Organics in 2019. The push to open the medicinal marijuana dispensary began after Greene saw that of the 15 original cultivator and dispensary licenses issued by the district’s Department of Health, none had been awarded to residents of the U.S. capital, and only two had been awarded to people of color.

Anacostia Organics became the first medical marijuana dispensary east of the Anacostia River, located in a poverty-stricken area that was also home to the majority of the city’s patients registered to buy marijuana for medicinal purposes. Greene, who aims to uplift the community in which her dispensary is located, said the drug has been misunderstood.

“This is not a stoner industry,” she told ABC News. “It’s been misconceived. ... It’s the industry of healing.”

© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE Linda Greene, founder of Anacostia Organics, listens to speakers at the ribbon cutting ceremony of Anacostia Organics, the first medical marijuana dispensary east of the Anacostia River, on Jan. 24, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

Greene is one of over 320,000 Americans who work in the cannabis industry. The drug, which has been legalized for recreational use in 17 states and Washington, D.C., accounted for $17.5 billion in sales in 2020.

Yet, even as revenues from cannabis continue to grow across the country, the drug remains a federally prohibited Schedule 1 controlled substance -- in the same category as heroin, ecstasy and LSD.

That may change, though. Ninety-one percent of Americans surveyed believed marijuana should be legalized, according to a Pew Research Center survey from last month. Of those participants, 60% said it should be legalized both recreationally and medicinally. Only 8% said it should not be legal for any adult use.

The survey was conducted amid a heightened push by lawmakers to decriminalize the drug at the federal level and provide restorative justice to those who’ve been incarcerated for certain marijuana offenses. The House recently passed the SAFE Banking Act of 2019, which would make it easier for cannabis companies to operate in states where sales of the drug are legal.

During a press briefing on April 20, widely considered to be an unofficial holiday for marijuana users, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden supports “decriminalizing marijuana use and automatically expunging any prior criminal records. He also supports legalizing medicinal marijuana.”

© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE Mayor Muriel E. Bowser makes remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony of Anacostia Organics, the first medical marijuana dispensary east of the Anacostia River, on Jan. 24, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

But while Biden’s position may fall short of full recreational legalization, Andrew Freedman, the former director of cannabis coordination for the state of Colorado, said now may be one of the best chances to legalize the drug.

Freedman was widely known as Colorado’s cannabis czar. He spearheaded the state’s framework for recreational marijuana use legalization -- the first in the country. Since 2014, the industry has amassed $10 billion in sales and over $400 million in tax revenue that has been used in part to fund the state’s school-related projects.

He said the state has had legal marijuana for long enough now that it’s not even taboo anymore.

“If you go to Colorado right now, and you have conversations about cannabis, it’s the most normal thing in the world,” he said. “It stands right alongside alcohol. It stands right alongside the Denver Broncos as just a thing to have a conversation about.”

© Leigh Vogel/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE Andrew Freedman, Director of Marijuana Coordination, Office of the Governor, State of Colorado, speaks during the Aspen Ideas Festival 2015 in Aspen, Colo., July 3, 2015.

Freedman, who went on to advise other state governments about how to establish cannabis regulations, is now the executive director of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education and Regulation. The think tank represents stakeholders including big tobacco, big beer and security companies, among others.

With more states legalizing it, Freedman said the think tank’s goal is to focus on the “hows” of marijuana legalization rather than the “ifs.”

“Our strategy is really to stop focusing on if legalization should go forward, recognizing that legalization has gone forward,” he said. “It’s a reality for almost half of America.”

Virginia became one of the latest states to legalize marijuana for recreational use last month. But while it’s the first state in the South to do so, it’ll take three years for people to be able to sell the drug legally. Gov. Ralph Northam recently pushed the state legislature to speed up the timeframe to legalize simple possession in an effort to limit marijuana-related arrests.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Americans are nearly four times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite similar rates of use.MORE: New York legalizes recreational marijuana, expunges former pot convictions

Shanita Penny was charged with possession nearly a decade ago. She said she believes her encounter with the law is an example of the racial bias often seen in policing minorities who are caught with marijuana.

“It’s personal. I was on [Interstate 95] in Virginia when I was pulled over and arrested for cannabis possession,” she told ABC News. “Born and raised in Virginia, I didn’t think that would happen.”

Penny paid nearly $3,500 to expunge her record after being charged with possession. She said she believes it was only because she was able to get the help of an attorney. It was a difficult process, she said, even “for someone who’s reasonably resourced.”

“But for someone who’s not, this becomes a game-changer in the worst way,” she said.

© Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE Workers trim the flowers of hemp plants at Hempire State Growers farm in Milton, N.Y., March 31, 2021.

Penny worked for several Fortune 500 companies as a consultant before founding cannabis consulting firm Budding Solutions. She said she thinks wielding her skills in compliance and business development will not only help cannabis businesses thrive but will also balance the scales of justice for minorities.

“It lit a fire under me to make legalization happen in a way that people who were not interested in consuming this plant or being part of this industry would fully understand why legalization is so important and how equitable legalization can impact your life, whether you’re touching this plant or not,” she said.MORE: Legal marijuana movement builds as more states change laws

Decriminalizing marijuana possession first and foremost is important, she said, because if legalization is “truly going to prioritize racial equity and the harm that’s been done, then we needed to stop the harm as soon as possible.”

Like in Colorado, other states are increasingly seeing the revenue from their cannabis sales as a source of funding to pursue racial equity and economic opportunity, Freedman said.

“A lot of the conversation now is, how do you make sure that the economic opportunities available from a new economy are there for the communities most harmed by the war on drugs?” he said.

A resolution passed in Evanston, Illinois, in March would provide reparations to the communities hit the hardest: A portion of tax revenues from cannabis sales would go toward a $10 million fund over 10 years to help pay for home repairs or down payments for Black residents who’ve faced historically unfair housing practices.

In Virginia, the law to legalize cannabis includes the so-called Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, which would direct 30% of tax revenue to communities that have been overpoliced for marijuana-related crimes.

“We have a lot of hopes on the commercial market here, particularly in Virginia,” said activist Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of the group Marijuana Justice. “But it is going to be a hard push to truly make that equitable, and we would like to really say that this is a first step forward. This is a progressive step forward.”

In Washington, D.C., Greene says she also feels compelled to reinvest the fruits of her labor into her community. Along with opening Anacostia Organics in her own neighborhood, she also employs people who live there and teaches them the inner workings of the industry so that they, too, can one day build up.

Review of federal prison isolation units 'not adequate,' new study says

OTTAWA — A study has found shortcomings with the process intended to serve as a check on new units for isolating federal prisoners from the general jail population.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In response to criticism of solitary confinement, the government ushered in "structured intervention units" for inmates requiring isolation to allow better access to programming and mental-health care.

Prisoners transferred to the units are supposed to be allowed out of their cells for four hours each day, with two of those hours engaged in "meaningful human contact."

According to the Correctional Service, personnel known as independent external decision makers review inmate cases on an ongoing basis, and provide binding recommendations related to their conditions and length of confinement.

However, a new study by academic experts says the reviews are "not adequate," and it points to a lack of information about the nature of the information used by the decision makers, the logic behind their findings and the timing of the implementation of their decisions.

The study, made public Monday, was prepared by criminologists Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott and law professor Adelina Iftene using data provided by the Correctional Service.

The prison service said it was reviewing the report.

"We continue to work hard to help inmates take advantage of the opportunities for time out of cell and meaningfully engage in diverse activities and programs, especially during the pandemic," said spokeswoman Isabelle Robitaille.

As of this week there were 188 inmates in a structured intervention unit at federal prison facilities across Canada, representing about 1.5 per cent of the inmate population, she said.

An earlier report by Doob and Sprott, released in February, said 28 per cent of the stays in the units could be described, given international standards, as solitary confinement and 10 per cent could be considered to be torture.

The latest study examined data dealing with decision makers' reviews of the length of a unit stay.

It found cases were often referred to decision makers within 67 days. However, there were 105 cases in which the person stayed in a unit for at least 76 days with no record of the case ever being sent to a decision maker.

The study also found:

— Although the decision maker may have "independent" authority to decide that someone should be released from a unit, the prison service can arrange the timing of that release to meet its own needs;

— Black prisoners' stays in units were longer than the stays of other groups;

— The review process did not help remove those with mental-health issues more quickly.

The study concluded that the decision makers' reviews "as they currently exist are not adequate."

"Without access to considerably more information about the manner in which these reviews are carried out, it is difficult for us to know whether this system of oversight can be made adequate," the authors wrote.

"Most disturbing to us, however, is not the fact that we were not able to examine in detail how the (decision makers') process actually works, but that nobody seems to be doing this."

Based on the new findings and previous analysis of data about the units, "it is clear that change is desperately needed," the study said.

"Our findings also point to the importance of there being an oversight body that can look systematically not only at the kind of data that we, as volunteers, have been looking at, but also at other more detailed data related to the operation of the (units) and the practice of solitary confinement."

Robitaille said the prison service is working with stakeholders and values their feedback on ongoing enhancements to the new model.

"While there is more work to do, we remain strongly committed to the successful implementation of SIUs as we work to safely and successfully rehabilitate offenders."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2021.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

UCP FAILS BLAMES OTHERS

Opposition, Ottawa, media looking for COVID-19 disaster: Alberta justice minister

EDMONTON — Alberta’s justice minister says a COVID-19 disaster is what the provincial Opposition, the federal government and the media "were looking for and want" in the province

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Kaycee Madu, in Facebook comments posted Friday, said the province can't risk giving the disease a chance to "overwhelm our health-care system, then create public panic, and see Albertans in field and makeshift hospitals gasping for breath because we have run out of ventilators, manpower etc.

“I don’t think it will be responsible to simply wait until we have a disaster on our hands,” he added.

“That’s what the NDP, the media and the federal Liberals were looking for and want.”

Madu was not made available for an interview Monday.

His spokesman, Blaise Boehmer, said in a statement: “The minister was referring to the increasing tendency of different groups, including the NDP, to exploit the pandemic for their own political purposes.

“We see this every day with the NDP’s overcooked and incendiary rhetoric both in the legislative assembly and on social media.

“The minister won’t apologize for stating the obvious.”

NDP health critic David Shepherd said "what we want, and what we've wanted for the last 14 months, is to see responsible action from (the United Conservative) government … so that we would not be in the position now of Alberta being the worst jurisdiction in North America for COVID-19 new cases."

Political scientist Jared Wesley said Madu's comments raise concerns about the line in politics between respecting opponents while trying to defeat them politically versus trying to delegitimize them altogether.

"When you start accusing your opponents of literally wishing death on Albertans, that's a bridge too far,” said Wesley, who's with the University of Alberta.

"When it comes to being a minister of the Crown, when you are governing on behalf of the entire population, there's an extra onus on you to rise above that type of tribalistic rhetoric and behaviour."

Kenney’s government, in recent weeks, resisted calls for new health restrictions as Alberta COVID-19 cases climbed to record levels and doctors were given guidelines on how to triage patients should the health system become overwhelmed.

Kenney acted last Tuesday, sending all schoolchildren home to learn online while imposing sharper restrictions on capacity in businesses and in worship services.

The province also promised a renewed effort at enforcement. On the weekend, police made arrests and handed out violation tickets in Calgary and in central Alberta for public gatherings that violated health rules.

Madu's comments came days after Kenney, facing criticism that his government waited too long to react to the third wave, said no one should point fingers and politicize the fight against COVID-19.

Kenney and his minsters have repeatedly accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government of hamstringing the relief effort and, as late as April 29, Kenney blamed Alberta's entire third wave on Ottawa for a slow vaccine rollout.

Trudeau reached out last week, offering extra help if needed. Kenney declined the offer.

On Monday, Alberta recorded 1,597 new COVID-19 cases for a total active case count of 25,438. There are 690 people in hospital. Of those, 158 patients are in intensive care — the highest since the pandemic began.

Also Monday, Alberta opened up vaccine bookings for those as young as 12, with thousands getting processed soon after the online bookings went live at 8 a.m.

Alberta Health Services said it had booked almost 130,000 appointments by 4 p.m.

The expanded eligibility means that 3.8 million Albertans, out of a population of 4.4 million, are eligible to get vaccinated.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

Air pollution: Animal-based food production on farms linked to 12,700 deaths each year, study says

By Isabelle Chapman, CNN

Air pollution from food production in the United States is linked to an estimated 15,900 premature deaths each year, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

© Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images Beef cattle eat grain-based rations at a ranch in Texas. A new study links thousands of premature deaths to particle pollution generated by agricultural production.

Of those, an estimated 12,700 deaths -- around 80% -- are connected to production of animal-based foods.

Scientists have known for years that farming contributes to harmful air pollution, but experts say this study offers the first full accounting of deaths connected to the production of certain types of food.

"When we think of the big sources of air pollution in the U.S., our imagination usually turns to smokestacks and tailpipes," said Joshua Apte, an assistant professor at the University of California-Berkeley, who was not involved in this study. "But it turns out that agriculture is also a major contributor to our air pollution and therefore we should care about it for our health."

The study focused on a specific type of tiny pollution particles known as PM2.5.

They linger in the air we breathe and measure barely a fraction of the diameter of a human hair. But despite their small size, the particles have been linked to millions of premature deaths globally, as well as serious cardiovascular and respiratory problems, especially in children and the elderly.

PM2.5 particles kicked up into the air by tilling and fuel combustion in farm equipment are part of the problem, but the study found the majority of premature deaths are linked to ammonia emissions from livestock waste and fertilizer. Airborne ammonia reacts with other chemicals to form dangerous particulate matter.

"(It happens) mostly through ammonia, which is released when farmers use nitrogen fertilizer -- which they use a lot of -- or is released from animal manure," said Jason Hill, a professor at the University of MInnesota and a co-author of the study.

The premature deaths connected to pollution from agriculture are heavily concentrated in California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and along the Upper Midwest's Corn Belt, the study found.

The researchers identified ways that both consumers and farmers can help reduce this type of pollution.

Eating less red meat and shifting toward plant-based diets could have huge health benefits, the study shows.

The study found that substituting poultry for red meat could prevent roughly 6,300 of the annual deaths tied to farming air pollution, and even larger reductions of 10,700 to 13,100 deaths could be achieved each year with large-scale shifts toward vegetarian, vegan, or flexitarian diets.

"It's probably healthy for them (to switch) and healthy for other people, because other people are not breathing polluted air," said Julian Marshall, another co-author of the study and a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Washington.

The study points to a few ways for farmers to cut down on the production of ammonia. Using fertilizer more precisely in order to maximize crop production can help. Farmers can also reduce the amount of ammonia produced from manure by covering animal waste and injecting manure into fields instead of spraying it.

Ian Faloona, an associate professor at the University of California-Davis, who published a study in 2018 on agriculture's production of nitrogen oxides -- another type of air pollution -- said that making these changes can also be good for farmers' bottom lines.

"In the end, it's going to be cost effective because you're making the process more efficient," Faloona said.

A spokesperson from the American Farm Bureau Federation questioned the study's results.

"On first review, it seems filled with data gaps and giant leaps to stretch the definition of cause and effect," the spokesperson said. "US agriculture is continually doing more using fewer natural resources and we're proud of that progress."

Hill said that he hopes that the report will show consumers and farmers alike that there are ways to reduce this problem.

"That's the message of hope here -- that we can actually do something about this," Hill

 said.

© Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images Eating less red meat is one of the biggest ways consumers can help reduce the pollution generated by agriculture, a new study finds