It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, December 16, 2019
BILL 21 IS NOT SECULAR IT IS DUPLESSIS CATHOLIC NATIONALISM
Amal Sassi is studying to become an elementary teacher in Quebec, but says she and her husband are considering leaving the province because of Bill 21. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)
Amal Sassi was counting on Quebec's highest court to suspend the province's controversial secularism law, so she kept her head buried in her books Thursday and focused on studying for her final exams.
When she stepped out and heard the news that the Court of Appeal had upheld Bill 21, Sassi was crushed to find out the justices had voted two to one against its suspension.
All three judges had serious criticisms of Bill 21, or the Laicity Act, acknowledging it causes "irreparable harm" to those affected, but the majority ruled the law should be allowed to stand until the constitutional challenges are heard in Quebec Superior Court.
That came as a huge disappointment to those those advocating against Bill 21, who say it's already having serious repercussions on the daily lives of people it affects.
"Some of us have all our future and life at stake for this," said Sassi, 32, who is in her second year of studies to become an elementary school teacher. She moved to Quebec from Tunisia in 2017 to do just that.
"I was really hoping that I could go back to doing my job," said Sassi, who is Muslim and wears a headscarf.
She was hired in April as a substitute teacher by Montreal's second-largest French-language school board, the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys.
However, Bill 21 bars public school teachers, as well as police officers and government lawyers and some other civil servants, from wearing religious symbols — such as hijabs or turbans — while at work.
Quebec's Coalition Avenir Québec government invoked closure to push the law through this summer, including the notwithstanding clause to override sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Teachers hired before March 29, 2019, are exempt from the law, unless they change jobs or are promoted.
Sassi missed her chance by a month.
'I got accepted for a job, and then I was told I could not do it'
"People who started to work one month before me have the right to wear the veil during work," she said.
"I got accepted for a job, and then I was told I could not do it."
Sassi has been avoiding taking substitute teaching assignments because of how uncomfortable she is not wearing her hijab.
She says her case is antithetical to one of the provincial government's main justifications for passing the law: to promote equality between men and women. She now finds herself financially dependent on her husband.
Sassi says she made the decision on her own to wear the hijab, as a teenager.
"People say it's men who make women wear it," Sassi said. "It was against my father's decision at the time.… He did not speak to me for a month because of it."
Nour Farhat wanted to be a Crown prosecutor, but says she won't be able to fulfil that dream because of Bill 21. (CBC)
Nour Farhat is a lawyer helping a major Quebec teachers union, the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, in its court challenge against Bill 21, the latest of four challenges to be filed.
Farhat is also personally affected by the law. She studied law in the hope of becoming a Crown prosecutor but can't work as one unless she removes her head covering.
"To be honest, I'm a little bit disappointed. However, I am happy that the Court of Appeal stayed committed to its independence [in the decision]," Farhat said.
"I'm talking for my clients and for all the people who are affected by this law — we will keep on fighting."
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, a director at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which filed the request for the injunction alongside the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the decision is devastating.
Members of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Mustafa Farooq, left, and Bochra Manai, centre, and Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, a member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, speak to reporters at the Quebec Court of Appeal in November. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
"It changes none of the hardships that were caused to people on June 16th of this year, and they're left in a state of worry and concern and insecurity," she said.
'The battle is not over'
Like Sassi, Hanadi Saad, the founder of Justice Femme, an organization that helps Muslim women fight harassment and discrimination, said she was expecting the judges to suspend the law because of the harm it's already causing Muslim women.
"Actually, I don't know if I still believe in our legal system," Saad said. No one knows how much time it could take for the court challenges of the Laicity Act to wend their way through the justice system — and that means too many more teachers' lives and careers will be left on hold, she said.
She fears that as long as the law is upheld, there will be more hate crimes against Muslims.
"I see what's going on, and it will be worse, but the battle is not over."
Sassi, the education student, says she was comforted by all three judges' acknowledgement that the law causes harm to those affected.
But the Appeal Court's decision to let the law stand has renewed her conviction to leave the province.
"I've tried other things. I even tried studying biology for a year. I worked at a hospital. But being with kids is what I do best in my life. And this is why I'm not going to stop."
With files from Alison Northcott and Sudha Krishnan
Alberta wants to flip the script in oilpatch's favour — it won't be easy
Premier Jason Kenney's $30-million energy 'war room' is open for business
Premier Jason Kenney, centre, addresses attendees at a press conference Wednesday at SAIT to announce the launch of the Canadian Energy Centre. Energy Minister Sonya Savage, left, and Tom Olsen, managing director of the centre, look on. (The Canadian Press)
When Jason Kenney took to the podium this week to launch his promised energy "war room," he did so under the gaze of college students hoping to one day work in the oil and gas industry.
Alberta's premier explained how the Canadian Energy Centre would respond rapidly to perceived "misinformation," gather and analyze data, and produce original content, like promotional videos.
With an annual budget of $30 million, the effort is well-funded.
But with spending on health and education under the microscope in Alberta, it seems fair to ask what is the expected return on that investment? Will it change minds? Can it help bring back jobs?
The centre is now one of Alberta's most high-profile bodies, aiming to influence global opinion on the country's oil and gas sector. How the government views success is an important question.
On the same day that the war room launched, Tom Olsen, the head of the new centre, found himself answering questions about climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was named Time Person of the Year.
Tom Olsen, managing director of the Canadian Energy Centre, addresses the attendees at a press conference at SAIT in Calgary. (The Canadian Press)
David Taras, a political analyst at Calgary's Mount Royal University, said affecting North American public opinion when it comes to the oilsands and climate change won't be an easy task.
"Iwould say the chances are the same as putting your finger in the dike," he said in an interview.
Kenney said during Wednesday's launch that one way the government will gauge success is with public opinion research, but he added that some things will be difficult to measure.
"We are facing a significant challenge by these same organizations trying to misinform prospective investors about our environmental performance," said Kenney.
"It's kind of hard to measure exactly what impact we can have there."
His hope is that when investors come to make decisions on environmental, social and governance criteria, they will, at the very least, be looking at current and accurate data on the performance of the Canadian industry.
It's his contention Canada generates energy at the highest environmental, human rights and labour standards on Earth.
"My hope is that someday in the future, these facts will be so well-known that we don't need to invest so much in telling the truth," Kenney said. "But right now, we are in the fight of our economic lives."
Environmentalists and others concerned about climate change will undoubtedly challenge what the Alberta government and the energy centre put forward as facts.
Greenpeace Canada didn't waste any time, quickly disputing one of the energy centre's postings on its new website, challenging the notion there will be "increasing demand globally for oil and gas for decades to come."
Andy Kubrin, right, and a group of protesters from Extinction Rebellion sing protest songs outside a press conference Wednesday at SAIT for the launch of the Canadian Energy Centre. (The Canadian Press)
In a world where even basic facts seem polarizing, how will others view the information that comes from the Canadian Energy Centre?
What is clear is this has been a rotten stretch for the people who work in Alberta's oil and gas industry, as layoff announcements continue to sting the sector.
ATB Financial's new forecast anticipates another sluggish year for the provincial economy as the struggles of the oilpatch are expected to continue.
In some ways, Kenney's establishment of the "war room" gives both form and substance to the concerns and frustration of those Albertans who are worried about their future and the industry.
"We are going to stand up for an industry that has done more than any in Canada's modern history to create shared prosperity, social mobility and progress across this country," Kenney said Wednesday.
If Canada doesn't provide the energy others need, he said, "OPEC dictatorships and Vladimir Putin's Russia will."
In Alberta, this may be a compelling argument. His remarks were met with applause Wednesday in a room that included executives from some of the industry's biggest lobby groups.
But can it win over skeptics on Bay Street, Wall Street or in London?
This month, Moody's downgraded Alberta's credit rating, citing the province's continued dependence on oil. It also noted the province's oil and gas sector is carbon intensive and its greenhouse gas emissions are the highest among provinces.
ATB Financial expects Alberta's economy to grow only slightly next year. Calgary has been hit hard by the economic slump. (Rachel Maclean/CBC)
"Alberta is also susceptible to natural disasters, including wildfires and floods, which could lead to significant mitigation costs by the province," Moody's said.
Kenney immediately pushed back, saying financial institutions, including Moody's, "are buying into the political agenda emanating from Europe, which is trying to stigmatize development of hydrocarbon energy."
Then there's the debate about the demand for oil in the future and the trajectory of the sector. Regardless of how many decades people believe will pass before oil demand begins to slip, the conversation definitely seems to be shifting.
"About 14 years ago, all anybody could talk about was peak oil supply," Bloomberg opinion writer Mark Gongloff noted this week. "Now everybody talks about the opposite: peak oil demand."
It's one reason why some Albertans, like Duncan Kenyon of the Pembina Institute, a clean energy think-tank, say now is the time to have hard conversations about the future of the province and its business strategy.
The Canadian Energy Centre will now wade into this roiling debate about energy — amid global calls for action on climate change — hoping to turn the tide in favour of the oilsands and the rest of the domestic energy sector.
Success might be hard to measure but, in an attention economy, it's perhaps the struggle to resonate that is one of its greatest challenges.
Tony Seskus is senior producer with CBC's Western Business unit in Calgary. He's written for newspapers and wire services for more than 25 years on three continents. In Calgary, Tony has reported on the energy sector and federal politics.
UNDER KENNEY AND UCP ALBERTA UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS GETS WORSE Calgary
'It just feels pretty dire': What it's like for young Alberta men facing a 20% unemployment rate
Some 33,000 young men in this province are struggling to find work. These are 3 of their stories
Jobs aren't particularly easy to come by in Alberta these days, but it's particularly hard for young men who are looking for work. (CBC file images, Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
At 24 years old, Joshua Leonard is getting used to being unemployed.
He lives in Edmonton with his parents. He graduated with a diploma in IT more than three years ago but hasn't been able to find work in the field, despite applying to more than 100 positions. He's worked restaurant jobs on and off to keep afloat, but currently isn't working.
"Honestly, it's not as bad as it used to be, because I've just kind of gotten over it," he said. "It's been so hard to find work all this time, I'm going to have to think of different routes to take in my life."
Leonard is one of an estimated 33,000 young men in Alberta looking for work but not finding it. That number has doubled in the span of seven months, according to Statistics Canada, putting the unemployment rate for males under the age of 25 in the province at nearly 20 per cent, roughly twice the rate among women the same age.
Alberta hasn't seen these levels of joblessness among young men since 1983, when the province was in the grips of a deep recession. Today, the economy isn't great, but by most indicators, it's better than it's been in recent years, which makes this sudden spike in unemployment — the sharpest the province has seen, outside of a recession — harder to explain.
That doesn't make it any less real.
For the tens of thousands of young men who are struggling to make ends meet, support a family, or forge an identity as they enter adulthood, it's a reality they face every day.
'Every man in my family ... was some kind of tradesman'
Sean Schell is from Fort McMurray. He's 24 and has always dreamed of becoming an electrician.
"Every man in my family, going back to my great-grandfather, was some kind of tradesman, so that was only natural," he said.
After graduating from high school in 2013, he entered into an apprenticeship. The following year, he was laid off, along with half of his company's workforce.
His apprenticeship was put on hold and he spent the next five years taking work wherever he could find it. The job hunt brought him west to B.C., where he did steel framing, and east to Saskatchewan, where he installed security systems.
"I just went all over the place, trying to find whatever opportunity I could. And the reality was those jobs were mostly contracts, and they almost never lasted long enough to receive benefits."
Today, he's back in Alberta but still struggling to find a steady job. On a good week, he says he'll get 35 hours of work, but he's earning about $3 per hour less than a living wage. He's putting off having children because he can't "in good conscience" make that decision until he has a more stable income.
On top of it all, he's troubled by an accusation that is sometimes is lobbed toward young men in his position — that they're entitled authors of their own destiny.
There's a stereotype of the unemployed Alberta man as a high school dropout who took a job in the oilpatch, spent recklessly during the boom times, had no plan for the inevitable bust and is now unwilling to work the jobs that are available to him at a fraction of the salary he used to earn.
But that's not the situation Schell sees — in his own life or those of his peers.
"I don't understand how we can be looked at as asking for too much when we can't afford to have a house," he said. "It doesn't make sense to me."
'There's a lot of guys like me'
Tyler Palma is from Warner, Alta., a small village southwest of Lethbridge.
He's a 24-year-old apprentice carpenter and a father of two. After being laid off in January, he struggled for months to find work, until eventually landing a job in Calgary, a three-hour drive away.
"So I was paying my mortgage in Warner, as well as paying rent in Calgary, just trying to make money to survive."
He recently found work closer to home, but says finances are still a struggle.
It's really hard. I'm trying to raise two girls and I just try to make money to make ends meet.- Tyler Palma
"It's really hard. I'm trying to raise two girls and I just try to make money to make ends meet."
He, too, has heard the stereotypes about the entitled Albertan who expects great pay for little work and feels they're unfair.
"I expected nothing, and I worked my butt off, and I got nothing," he said.
Still, if he has one regret, it's not finishing university. He now sees the consequences of that decision both in his own life and those of people around him.
"There's a lot of guys like me," he said. "Our schooling, I don't think it prepares us, even if we do finish high school. Because I did, and I was not prepared for university whatsoever. I dropped out because I couldn't handle it. I was not prepared for the workload."
'No simple solution'
Richard Bucher, a Calgary-based career coach, doesn't want to sugarcoat the situation facing many young men in Alberta today, or offer the same advice they've likely already heard over and over.
"I'm sure everybody in this population has heard from almost everyone in their life: 'Hey, why don't you look at the trades?'" he said. "Like it's the magic pill to solve all our problems."
The reality, for many, is more complicated than that. Retraining is a good option, of course, but hard to afford if you're already struggling to make ends meet.
But Bucher said there are numerous programs at various colleges in Alberta that are publicly funded and aimed at retraining people in fields looking for workers.
In addition, he said, there are ways to earn an income at the same time.
"Often those kinds of jobs have support roles that may not require as much training," he said. "I'd be talking to companies that employ those kinds of people to see if there are more junior positions I could potentially compete for with the experience I already have.
"There is hope," he added. "But this is going to be work. It's not easy. There's no simple solution to this problem."
'It just feels pretty dire'
For Leonard, the plan of building a career in IT seems more and more like a pipe dream. He, too, looks back on his education and feels it didn't prepare him for the realities of adulthood.
"I wish, growing up, in high school or even junior high school, maybe we could have had a much more comprehensive look at this sort of stuff."
He's considering a return to post-secondary education, but wonders if it will be worth the time and expense. The alternative of working in a job he hates but that pays the bills doesn't feel particularly appealing to him either. As he looks to the future, he doesn't see any obvious path toward the type of life he hopes to build.
"It just feels pretty dire," Leonard said.
But he's not giving up.
"Where I go from here is, honestly, I'm just going to try to keep improving my skills … just, you know, keep working on myself, keep trying to improve myself day by day, until I can at least find a sort of life that works for me."
Robson Fletcher joined the CBC Calgary digital team in 2015 after spending the previous decade working as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.
Exshaw School is located west of Calgary, and serves approximately 200 students, most of them Indigenous. (Brian Burnett/CBC)
A school with a student population that is 99 per cent Indigenous may be forced to close its doors due to a budget shortfall, school officials said Sunday.
Exshaw School is a kindergarten to Grade 8 school located in the hamlet of Exshaw, west of Calgary. Of the approximately 200 students who attend Exshaw School, only two are not Indigenous.
The school has been funded by federal dollars since 1973. Under the current agreement, the Canadian Rockies Public Schools authority educates Stoney Nakota First Nation children outside of that community based on requests from parents.
Michelle Wesley said she decided to move her girls to Exshaw School after they had faced bullying at a previous school.
"The Exshaw staff and teachers have been absolutely wonderful and supportive and helped my girls catch up to their grade level criteria and there has been no complaints from my girls about any type of bullying," Wesley said in an email. "If I have any concerns the teachers and staff make sure it's dealt [with] as soon as possible."
But in late August, CRPS received word from the federal government the agreement would be terminated and a new agreement would need to be negotiated with the Stoney Education Authority and the government.
$1.6M shortfall
"All of this is fine, but in the interim we received an email of possible funding levels that we would receive," said Christopher MacPhee, superintendent with Canadian Rockies Public Schools. "And it was significantly different from the total operation of a school facility, as opposed to just funding per student."
According to MacPhee, calculating numbers based on students from last year left an approximately $1.6-million shortfall in the school's upcoming budget.
That cut funding would mean closing or re-purposing the school, MacPhee said.
"Either way, that means that we would not be able to provide services for our federally-funded students who are with us, which we would loathe to do," he said. "The results we're getting with those students has been fantastic to date."
Staff found this piece of graffiti inside a washroom at Exshaw School, located west of Calgary. (Submitted)
Exshaw School is currently seeing attendance rates around 86 per cent, MacPhee said.
"That's very high. And I've worked in a number of Indigenous schools across this country," he said. "I think the rates are high due to the resources we are able to put into place that the federal government has granted in the agreement that was in place for some amount of years."
One-year extension
According to MacPhee, communication with the federal government has been difficult — but after months of trying to secure a meeting, the school division was offered a one-year extension to keep the school open.
"Just recently, we've got a communication that they have permission to extend the agreement for one more year. While on the face of it it sounds wonderful, but it absolutely isn't," he said. "I have a large number of staff who are, for lack of better words, in turmoil at this point because they're wondering if they're going to have a career."
MacPhee said the school division told Indigenous Services the offer was "not optimal" due to the added pressure and stress it would cause on the system.
"We said, it's November, and we haven't even had a sit down at a table to negotiate. But you gave us the letter at the end of August," he said. "Why, with six months left in the school year, are we not sitting down, in January, and getting to an agreement that best supports these children and utilize the funding levels that they've done in other parts of the province?"
The Indigenous Services ministry was not able to provide a statement as of press time.
MacPhee said CRPS has provided three potential dates for meetings with the federal government.
"For me, it's disappointing that the [government], which made Truth and Reconciliation a mandate … that their actions are not matching their words, especially when it comes to a situation like this," MacPhee said. "If you're going to talk the talk, then walk it."
Concern from parents
While Exshaw School's future remains uncertain, some parents say those being most affected are the kids — who Isabella Goodstoney, a parent and educational assistant, said "are not being heard."
"I feel like that these kids need to have a voice. This is their future," she said.
Upon hearing Exshaw's future was uncertain, Goodstoney wrote a letter regarding her concern for her daughter's future.
"That's why I chose to transfer my child to Exshaw School from Nakota Elementary School as I know the experience and educational value Exshaw School provides," the letter reads. "I know this as a fact because I've attended both schools as a child myself, and have had the opportunity to work at both schools as an adult.
"What will happen if we take this away from them? Are we setting them up for failure? I want my child to grow, learning that her education is the key to success."
When Robert Munsch first dreamed up The Paper Bag Princess, he had no idea what was coming.
In 1973, long before Robert Munsch was a world-renowned children's author, he and his wife, Ann Beeler, worked at a daycare in Coos Bay, Ore. At naptime, he often told the children stories about dragons.
But in his stories, Beeler pointed out, the prince always rescued the princess.
Robert Munsch with his wife, Ann, in their Guelph, Ont., home. (Alisa Siegel/CBC)
"[She told me], 'You may not have noticed, but in this town, princes are in very short supply. Most of the women in the daycare centre are single parents because their princes turned out to be bums,'" Munsch told The Sunday Edition.
On her suggestion, Munsch switched the story around.
It was to become The Paper Bag Princess — the book that launched Munsch's career, changed the face of children's literature in Canada, and inspired generations of young readers to think differently about independence and happy endings.
The book is about a princess named Elizabeth, who is supposed to marry a prince named Ronald. A dragon kidnaps him and burns down her whole castle — including her clothes. So dressed in nothing but a paper bag, Elizabeth bravely sets out to rescue Ronald.
But after she saves him, Ronald criticizes her appearance. Elizabeth is having none of it. "You look like a real prince, but you are a bum," she replies.
Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis is awaiting Health Canada approval to launch its line of edible products, which include cannabis-infused chocolates. (Marcus Oleniuk/ Aurora Cannabis)
If you're hoping to buy a next-generation cannabis product — like infused beer or gummy bears — as a gift for the holiday season, you may be out of luck.
It will be legal to buy derivative cannabis products — often referred to in the industry as "cannabis 2.0" — on Tuesday, but three of Canada's largest provinces won't have a single one available until January.
That's because the long-awaited expansion of sales for cannabis derivatives have gone through a gauntlet of regulatory checkpoints and cumbersome logistics, dashing hopes of last-minute gift purchases with its late arrival.
"Frankly, we would have preferred to have it [up and running] six weeks ago," said Harrison Stoker, a vice-president with Donnelly Group, the parent company of retailer Hobo Recreational Cannabis.
Stoker says staff at Hobo, which owns stores in Ontario and B.C., still need time to understand the new products.
"We would have preferred to position it for the holidays with a little more time," he said.
Harrison Stoker, vice-president of the parent company for Hobo Recreational Cannabis, says it would have been nice to have been able to sell cannabis derivatives during the 2019 holiday season. (Brady Strachan/CBC)
Delays, stricter regulations
Ontario, Quebec and Alberta run their own distribution systems, rather than allowing producers to ship directly to retailers, and regulators in all three provinces have said no derivative products will be available before mid-to-late January.
The first retailers in Ontario are scheduled to receive the new products on Jan. 6, after they are tested for quality, according to a spokesperson for the Ontario Cannabis Store, the province's only legal wholesaler.
In Quebec, the issue is more complicated, since the province approved stricter regulations in late November which, for example, banned some kinds of candies and chocolate that are legal elsewhere in the country.
"We just want to give the industry time to adapt these new regulations," said Fabrice Giguère with provincial retailer Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC). "It's possible that we won't have any products on Jan. 1."
Alberta is similarly aiming for a mid-January launch, according to a spokesperson with the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
'We've been handcuffed'
The industry has been counting on this next phase of legalization to bring in customers who might be reluctant to smoke pot.
"I think it's going to bring a whole new demographic out of the woodwork," said Stoker, adding it's been hard to compete with the online black market and illegal stores, both of which offer a big selection of cannabis derivatives.
"I think that bringing on these new formats gives the legal format a fighting chance … we've been handcuffed this year."
Cannabis edibles on the way, despite delay in some provinces
2 days ago
0:52
Rade Kovacevic, president of Canopy Growth, says the company's cannabis-infused chocolates will be sent to distributors around Canada starting this month — but they won't be sold in Ontario until January. 0:52
One major pot producer, Quebec-based Hexo Corp., downgraded its 2020 sales forecast, with CEO Sebastien St-Louis blaming the slow rollout in part on "regulatory uncertainty … and jurisdictional decisions" limiting the availability of cannabis derivatives.
But the head of another producer, Canopy Growth Corp. of Smith Falls, Ont., is putting a positive spin on the regulatory delays.
President Rade Kovacevic said the slow rollout helped with buy-in for legalization and "allowed Canadians as a society to say that legalization was a good idea. We're going to stick with it."
The company hopes that in provinces that have direct producer-to-retail sales, such as Saskatchewan, the products can start rolling out before Christmas.
Another large producer, Alberta-based Aurora Cannabis, says it's pulling out all the stops to make sure that happens.
"Our teams are having sleepover parties at the office to be ready to receive and process orders for shipment when they start to come in at 12:01," on Monday, when middlemen can place orders, said spokesperson Laura Gallant.
"[It's a] nice way to have some fun with this industry milestone, given that we are ready to go right out of the gate," she said, adding that "availability across provinces will vary."
Stoker said Hobo's stores in British Columbia have been told by some licensed producers they have worked out a distribution system fast enough to arrive on store shelves before Christmas Day.
"Obviously having it in time for all the last minute Christmas shoppers is pretty great," he said.
