THIRD WORLD USA

How racism undermined a Covid lifeline in Black neighborhoods

Dr. Eugenia South and Diane Regas

4/24/2021 

© Provided by NBC News

One year into the pandemic, we have found ourselves in the midst of a national mental health crisis. Forty-two percent of adults in the United States said in December they had experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, and substance abuse such as opioid overdoses is surging across the country. There are many Covid-19-related factors underlying this crisis, including the harsh economic consequences of job loss, the constant threat of eviction and food insecurity. Minority communities have borne a disproportionate share of these pandemic burdens.

The good news is that relief is coming. Widespread vaccination will allow us to ease social distancing and rebuild the social fabric so vital to our mental health. And the recently passed stimulus bill will provide much-needed economic assistance. But as states and local governments decide how to spend their stimulus money, we urge policymakers to invest in the people and neighborhoods for whom deeply rooted racial inequities have only worsened over the last year.

One way forward is to dedicate a portion of spending on the physical infrastructure of our neighborhoods, specifically targeting green space: trees, parks, trails and schoolyards. Early in the pandemic, it became clear that being outside was the safest place to spend time aside from staying home. Many of us have found solace in nature. In fact, green spaces have seen record usage over the last year.

                                  

Houston churches, parks become virtual learning spaces in pandemic

Last summer in Buffalo, New York, for example, Lory Pollina, an artist and musician without air conditioning, relied on Delaware Park, a block away from his apartment, during hot spells. (The coronavirus kept cooling centers shuttered across the city.)

“There are trees around the lake and there’s usually a breeze,” he told The Trust for Public Land, which one of us leads. “Nature is very healing when the city is hot.”

Unfortunately, many people do not have access to clean and safe parks. According to data collected by The Trust for Public Land, more than 100 million Americans, including 28 million children, do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of home, and studies have shown that parks serving primarily people of color are half the size and serve five times more people than parks in predominantly white neighborhoods. Formerly redlined neighborhoods, subjected to decades of racist policies leading to disinvestment and decline, have the least amount of green space today.

As the economic crisis bears down, park disparities are likely to sharpen, since park agencies are often the first to be targeted in state and local budgets. According to the National Recreation and Park Association, 56 percent of park agencies have seen budget cuts already, and according to the National League of Cities, 71 percent of local governments foresee significant future cuts. And park conservancies, which have the ability to raise private funds for needed park maintenance and upgrades, are concentrated in wealthy, whiter neighborhoods.

Simply put, however, cutting park budgets means deprioritizing health in minority communities. Even before the pandemic, a growing body of research highlights the positive impact of green space on our health, particularly mental and social health. Work from the University of Pennsylvania Urban Health Lab demonstrated that creating new clean and green spaces in low-income Black neighborhoods leads to reductions in violent crime and nearby residents feeling less depressed and more positive about their overall mental health. People report going outside more to socialize with neighbors. Pregnant women with a history of depression or anxiety experience less stress during pregnancy when they live near more trees. And even if you don’t break a sweat, spending time in nature leads to reduced stress; better sleep; lower rates of diabetes and obesity in children; and reduced mortality.

That’s why, as an emergency room doctor and the leader of The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit dedicated to creating close-to-home access to the outdoors, we are calling on policymakers to leverage stimulus funds to promote health equity through local greening projects.

For example, the city of Philadelphia received $3.3 billion from the federal stimulus budget for its city, schools and the transportation system. Some of this stimulus money should be directed to the parks and recreation budget to invest in new and existing parks in the poorest neighborhoods. Local residents could be hired by the city to undertake the work, for example, through job training programs like Power Corps PHL. And a portion of the money for schools should go toward the creation of green schoolyards.

In many American cities, public schoolyards are often nothing more than cracked, asphalt lots that overheat and stifle — rather than inspire — creative play. Top-to-bottom renovations, with design input from students, can turn schoolyards into vibrant green spaces and community assets. In Philadelphia, The Trust for Public Land has already overseen a dozen such schoolyard renovations. Opening all public schoolyards during nonschool hours nationwide would put a park within a 10-minute walk of more than 19.6 million people, including 5.2 million children, who currently lack access.

In addition, we urge Congress to pass the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act. The recently introduced legislation, which has bipartisan support, would make a one-time historic investment of $500 million in local parks. (The Trust for Public Land is leading a coalition of more than 200 organizations in support of the bill.)

Addressing the mental health crisis facing the United States requires an intentional focus on spending for equity. We must, as a nation, make the decision to acknowledge and reverse the historical legacies of disinvestment and physical decay that continue to plague low-resourced, predominantly minority neighborhoods. Directing money from the stimulus and from the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act toward parks and green space will boost local economic recovery while also building needed healthy neighborhood infrastructure.

FEAR & LOATHING USA
Gig workers fear carjacking, other violence amid spike in violence crimes

Many gig drivers carry stun guns, firearms and even wasp spray to fend off would-be attackers.

Willy Solis, an Instacart driver in Denton, Texas, fears for his safety as violence against the industry has spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. Nitashia Johnson / for NBC News


April 24, 2021,
By Cyrus Farivar


Just before Christmas last year, Willy Solis, a 42-year-old residential construction worker-turned-delivery driver, was hired to take a late-night $100 bottle of cognac to an apartment complex in Denton, Texas. Once Solis found the apartment, he met a stocky man who gave a name that not only didn't match the ID he showed, but it also wasn't the name of the person who placed the order. Confused, Solis called Instacart's phone support line.

Solis said that that angered the customer and his three male friends and that they ordered him to hand over the cognac. Even though he had qualms about it, Solis, under the direction of the Instacart supervisor who was still on the phone, gave them the bottle.


Solis sped off in his 2018 Nissan Sentra before the situation escalated. It wasn't the only recent time he had felt unsafe. Solis, who has worked for DoorDash, Shipt, Grubhub and other gig economy companies, said he also delivered to an apartment in Haltom City, outside Fort Worth, where a female Uber Eats driver was murdered in January.

Solis said that since then, he has stopped working after 9 p.m. and has considered carrying a gun. But he fears that if he violates gig companies' rules not to carry firearms, he could risk losing his job.

"I'm very fearful every time I go out," said Solis, who makes $800 to $1,000 a week before expenses and taxes. "I don't want to lose my life over a $100 bottle of cognac or a fast food order."

Solis has considered carrying a gun.Nitashia Johnson / for NBC News

Solis is one of 15 gig economy workers who spoke with NBC News and said they feared for their safety as violence against the industry has spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. Police in several major cities, including Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., say carjackings and car thefts, particularly against gig economy drivers, rose during the pandemic.

Some drivers say that despite the companies' best efforts, they are changing their hours, avoiding certain areas and even carrying weapons, like wasp spray, Mace, Tasers and firearms, to protect themselves.

"As the danger grows more and more, that's what's pushing me more towards the possibility of doing it," Solis said about carrying a gun.

It's a pattern that especially affects minorities working in the lower-paying jobs, said Veena Dubal, a professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, who has extensively researched the taxi industry and the gig economy.

"A lot of these workers are subordinated racial minorities, and they are likely to bear the brunt of physical violence, because they are in public doing this kind of work," she said.

The problems have become widespread enough that the major tech companies have been stepping up to address them. Uber recently instituted safety measures to protect drivers, including more verification requirements for people who set up accounts with gift cards or other anonymous payment systems.

DoorDash spokesperson Campbell Matthews said in an email that the company is "deeply troubled by reports of increased crime" and that it intends to add an "emergency assistance button into the Dasher app to help connect Dashers to emergency services."

In a statement, Grubhub spokesperson Grant Klinzman echoed Matthews' remarks, saying the safety of the company's drivers "is our top priority" and that the company was "ready to support law enforcement investigations ... as they take steps to address the unacceptable spike in vehicle thefts."

Lyft spokesperson Ashley Adams said that the company considers safety to be "fundamental" and that "we are working closely with law enforcement to help keep drivers safe."

Instacart expressed similar concerns but said it hadn't "seen an increase in carjackings or assault towards shoppers."

"We take the safety and security of the entire Instacart community very seriously," Natalia Montalvo, a company spokesperson, said by email. "Shoppers have many resources available to them to ensure their safety and protection while shopping and delivering on the Instacart platform."
Rising crime

The attacks on drivers, which appear to have started last year, may be part of a larger trend of a rise in violent crime in major cities, according to research in November by the Police Executive Research Forum.

Chicago police found that there were 424 carjackings from January through March, more than double the 198 carjackings the same time last year. In San Diego, carjackings more than doubled last year, to 97, from 44 in 2019. In Minneapolis, carjackings also more than doubled, to 97, in the first three months of the year, compared to 39 in the first three months of last year. In Washington, carjackings more than quadrupled in the first quarter of this year from the first quarter of last year, to 102.

Such growth has happened elsewhere, too. In Cincinnati, 38 vehicles were stolen from Jan. 1 through March 20 in the "CUF" neighborhood near the University of Cincinnati. Emily Szink, a police spokesperson, said "many of those cars were left running and were delivery drivers," estimating them to be two-thirds of the 38 reports, or about 26.

But the spikes aren't universal: Police in Sacramento, California; Phoenix; Lansing, Michigan; and Dallas say they haven't seen such rises. It isn't clear why some cities are experiencing more of this type of crime than others.

Even before the rise in violent crime against gig workers, being a delivery driver was identified as one of the most dangerous jobs in America — typically as a result of traffic accidents — according to an analysis last year of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

Last month alone, several high-profile events shook the gig worker community. In New York City, Francisco Villalva Vitinio, a DoorDash delivery worker, was killed after he refused to give up his e-bike, which he needed for work, to would-be robbers. Authorities said Mohammad Anwar, 66, an Uber Eats driver, died at the hands of two teenage girls who investigators said used a stun gun on him in Washington. Days earlier, in Chicago, Javier Ramos, an Uber driver, was shot in the head and killed; police said his killer was a passenger he had picked up after 3 a.m.

Child kidnappings

On Feb. 6, Jeffrey Fang, 39, a DoorDash driver in San Francisco, left his silver Honda Odyssey minivan running while he made a delivery — leaving inside his 4-year-old daughter and his 2-year-old son, who speak only Mandarin. When he returned, he found a strange man sitting in the driver's seat.

Jeffrey Fang's mini-van was stolen with his two young children inside as Fang tried to make a DoorDash delivery this past February.Nina Riggio / for NBC News

Fang said he dragged the man, who he said snatched his cellphone, out of the car and chased him on foot to get his phone back. Fang lost the man, ending up a short distance away. When he returned, he discovered that his minivan had been stolen with his children inside. (The children and the car were recovered hours later, unharmed.)

"There are a lot of things that people need to know," Fang said, speaking of gig work in general. "It's not simple, and it's at times dangerous."

Small-town America isn't immune. In Rapid City, South Dakota, a 20-year-old DoorDash driver named Danielle — whose last name is being withheld as she fears reprisal from the company — said she has felt unsafe.

Danielle's two-year-old is a passenger when she works as a DoorDash driver.

She said that last month, when she was making a delivery with her 2-year-old son in the back, five men surrounded her car. As she sped away with her son in the back, "they tried opening my car doors and banging on my windows." The incident left her shaken, and she said she is thinking about buying a handgun, which she isn't legally allowed to do until her next birthday.

"I would feel a lot safer taking my son with me if I were carrying," she said. "In a time of need, I will be able to use it and defend myself and my son."
Deaths

Early on the morning of March 23, Javier Ramos, 46, an Uber driver, was found shot in the head in Chicago's Lawndale section, less than 8 miles north of Midway Airport. Police rushed him to a hospital; he was pronounced dead just over four hours later.

Lenny Sanchez, a longtime ride-share driver and labor organizer based in Chicago, tweeted the next day that Ramos had "tried to fight off his attackers." Ramos appeared to have been left for dead, having been run over by his own car, seemingly after a struggle.

Since the beginning of the year, Sanchez and the Independent Drivers Guild, a union, have been sounding the alarm online and at in-person rallies about carjackings of gig drivers in Chicago. He said many drivers he has talked to are scared and have changed how, where and when they work. Some gig workers are considering taking stronger measures.

"Drivers are brandishing their weapons to us. A lot of them are arming themselves," Sanchez said.

A vigil for slain Uber driver Javier Ramos on April 9.Chris Sweda / Zuma Press

While Sanchez applauded Uber's new efforts this year to keep drivers safer and said his group is seeking additional safety measures, he worried that Lyft drivers in Chicago and elsewhere face renewed threats, pointing to the recent killing of a Lyft driver in St. Louis.

He said he thinks Uber's changes have had an effect. "We know it won't be perfect, but we would like to see more, and we would like to see Lyft do more," he said. "We are seeing the criminals switch over to Lyft."

Lyft didn't respond directly to Sanchez's claim. Adams, the company spokesperson, said by email that it was "working to proactively identify" accounts that "we determine to be high-risk."

"In doing so, we look at a variety of account attributes, including the use of anonymous payment methods, which are more frequently linked to fraudulent accounts," she wrote. "Actions we take include temporarily and permanently deactivating accounts, as well as requiring additional validation before being able to order a ride."

Hortencia Ramos, Ramos' cousin, said her family has been devastated by his death, particularly his 9-year-old daughter. She described Ramos as an "entrepreneur always looking to set an example for his daughter," an observant Christian and someone who had a daily fitness and workout routine.

She said her family has been very disappointed with how Uber has handled her cousin's death; she said no one from the company had reached out to even offer sympathy, much less anything more substantive.

Jodi Kawada Page, an Uber spokesperson, said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by this news. Our thoughts are with Javier's loved ones and we've reached out to the family to offer our support."

Law enforcement efforts

Law enforcement agencies have been stepping up. Chicago police have expanded a "vehicular hijacking task force" with state and federal agencies. Since the beginning of the year, Chicago police have published 30 news releases describing indictments of carjacking suspects, including those alleged to have targeted gig workers. The police department has even published two-page flyers in four languages — English, Spanish, Polish and Chinese — explaining how victims should respond to minimize harm.

Similarly, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington reported a steady increase in carjackings, as well. In 2019, there were 142; last year they jumped to 345. There were 47 carjacking-related arrests in the first three months of this year, compared to just two during the first quarter of last year.

Police have put out flyers alerting people to the dangers of leaving their vehicles running while making deliveries.

"Over the last few months, we have worked to partner with delivery companies to get the word out to their drivers," Kristen Metzger, a police spokesperson, said by email.

The early efforts by police departments seem to be resulting in change. Last month, Cincinnati police even put up electronic signs to remind drivers to "Lock Car & Take Key," among other safety messages.

"Thefts of delivery driver vehicles left running have started to trend downwards, which means our messaging is working," Szink, the police spokesperson, said by email.

Longer consequences

But gig workers who have been victims may need more time before they feel safe again. Back in San Francisco, Fang has been taking a break from gig work. After the harrowing kidnapping of his children, supporters raised over $100,000 through GoFundMe, and DoorDash donated several thousand dollars to his family directly.

Jeffrey Fang in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco where his mini-van was stolen with his two young children inside.Nina Riggio / for NBC News

Still, Fang remains fearful of going back to work. During his time as an Uber driver, he said, guns were pointed at him multiple times. Nowadays, he carries a Taser in his car.

"Prior to the Taser, I had a knife in the car, but that was stolen," he said. "Especially after the February 6 incident and the spate of anti-Asian violence, I'm looking into getting a firearm."

When the pandemic hit and passenger rides largely dried up, he switched to food delivery, because he thought he would make more money and it would be safer.

"I felt it was OK to take the kids, even though I knew it was a risk, but I had no child care, and I felt the risk was minimized," he said, adding that he tried to stick to wealthy neighborhoods. His car and his children were taken in Pacific Heights, one of San Francisco's richest areas.

The car seat in Jeffrey Fang's mini-van.Nina Riggio / Nina Riggio for NBC News

Fang said he would like DoorDash's and other companies' leaders to consider the needs of working parents, particularly those who feel the need to drive at peak evening dinner hours.

"If they're getting paid six figures with ergonomic furniture and break rooms and all that — if you ask me, how about setting up child care service for dinner hours, like 4 to 10 p.m.?" he said. "So the driver can drop them off? For a billion-dollar company, that shouldn't be too costly."

THIRD WORLD USA
Low-wage Asian and Latinx workers struggled to get COVID-19 information and didn't feel comfortable reporting symptoms, survey finds

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan)

 

© Provided by Business Insider William Perugini/Getty Images

A survey of primarily Asian and Latinx workers in California looked at their pandemic experiences.

Almost half of respondents worried they couldn't support themselves or family if they fell ill.

A third of all respondents didn't feel comfortable reporting COVID-19 symptoms to employers.


Asian and Latinx workers in California making less than the minimum wage were less likely to receive information about COVID-19 from their employers, according to a new report from Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and UC Berkeley.

The report surveyed 636 primarily Asian and Latinx workers in November and December 2020, working mostly in a few industries: restaurants, janitorial and hospitality, and domestic and home healthcare. Broadly, about one in five of those workers reported making below the minimum wage.

Across all income levels, though, 49% of respondents said that, if they fell ill with COVID-19, they worried that they would not be able to support themselves or their families.

In some ways, the findings showed a similar situation to pre-pandemic conditions for these workers, according to Winnie Kao, one of the report's authors and senior counsel at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus.

"I think that there were a lot of ways in which the findings on the information were not necessarily so different from the abuses and issues that we just see regularly," Kao told Insider. But there's obviously a whole new set of circumstances: "I think what was startling to us was to see them happening in the context of a pandemic when the stakes are so high, both for the workers themselves and for the public."

Workers - especially lower-wage women - also found themselves on the other side of negative interactions with people who did not follow COVID-19 protocols, according to the report.

Overall, 29% of workers said that they had these negative interactions with coworkers, customers, or clients. The situation was worse for women earning less; 33% of women in the report's two bottom income levels experienced this.

Research from the advocacy group One Fair Wage found that harassment has become more severe for female tipped workers during the pandemic; according to the UC Berkeley/ALC report, about 49% of respondents who work in restaurants experienced negative interactions with people not following COVID-19 protocols. Two of those respondents said they or a coworker were physically assaulted.

Among workers who were concerned about COVID at work, 41% did not raise it to their employers. Their main reasoning for not doing so: They didn't think anything would change. And a third of all workers didn't feel comfortable reporting symptoms to their employers.

The report recommends, among other measures, increasing access to vaccines, paid sick leave, and healthcare, as well as a clearer path to citizenship and equitable benefits for workers of all immigration statuses. It also calls for structural changes in enforcing labor laws and curtailing labor violations, as well as amplifying employees' voices in the workplaces, including through committees and unions.

"It was striking how few real practical options a lot of low wage workers have. And, particularly during this pandemic, there are some protections out there on paper," Kao said.

"But when you don't know about what those protections are, or what your rights are, or even if you know about them with them if the employer isn't following those requirements - what this survey has shown is that workers have little real practical recourse."
Read the original article on Business Insider

Portland Museum of Art workers in Maine vote to unionize

PORTLAND, Maine — Workers at a museum in Maine's largest city have voted to form a union.

Organizers said the votes were counted on Thursday by the National Labor Relations Board. The workers decided they want to be represented by United Auto Workers Local 2110, which organizes professionals and office staff.

Graeme Kennedy, director of strategic communications and public relations for the museum, told the Portland Press Herald that the museum is “dedicated to finding common ground throughout this process and will work with Local 2110 to ensure the museum’s vision and values, which are centred in inclusivity, equity, and transparency, are reflected in any agreement.”

The vote count was 16-10 in favour of joining the union. Meghan Quigley Graham, the learning and teaching specialist at the art museum, said the workers “look forward to building a better PMA for all current and future workers.”

The Associated Press

General strike at Port of Montreal set to begin on Monday, says dockworkers union

MONTREAL — A general strike at the Port of Montreal is set to begin on Monday after the union representing dockworkers issued the required 72-hour notice to the Maritime Employers Association.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Barring a last-minute reprieve, the 1,150 port workers affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees will be in a legal strike position as of Monday at 7 a.m., which would paralyze the port.

The dockworkers have been on an overtime strike and refused to work on weekends since April 17 and 18.

They say the actions are in response to a change in work shifts the Maritime Employers Association wants to impose as of Monday. That would see thwork seven-hour shifts, up from five hours and 20 minutes.

The union said it is responding to "frontal attacks" from the employer "to try to bend" the workers.

"If the employer agrees to lift its measures, we would normally lift our overtime strike, our weekend strike and our Monday morning indefinite general strike notice and operations would resume immediately in the port," said Michel Murray, CUPE union adviser, at a Friday news conference.

He said the Maritime Employers Association does not want to negotiate and is pursuing a position of provocation in order to force Ottawa to react.

The MEA said it was disappointed with the union executive's decision, adding that it is reviewing its options and wants a quick resolution to the impasse.

Quebec's minister of the economy and innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, on Twitter called on the federal government to “intervene quickly,” without specifying exactly what he wants.

The port is "a strategic public service for the revival of our economy," he tweeted. "Now is not the time to cripple it with a strike. Our companies have already suffered enough from this labour dispute.”

Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi wouldn't say if she will intervene in the dispute and her office said she was not available for an interview.

In a written statement, the minister describes the events of Friday as "a very worrying escalation." Businesses and the economy "need to see this situation resolved quickly," she said, adding that "we are currently looking at all options."

In Ottawa, the New Democratic Party called for the Trudeau government to stand up for workers' rights and asked it not to introduce back-to-work legislation.

“Ottawa has already suggested that such a law is in the works; nothing surprising coming from the Liberals who have at heart only the interests of the richest,” said deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice.

Montreal Board of Trade CEO Michel Leblanc, said that "the union is taking the economy hostage," a situation he considers "totally irresponsible and unacceptable."

Meanwhile, the Quebec Employers Council noted that the Port of Montreal is "an essential link" in the supply chain.

“For us it is an essential service that cannot stop functioning. The federal government has all the tools to act," and should do so, president and CEO Karl Blackburn said.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimated that the strike will be "very damaging."

The dockworkers at the Port of Montreal have been without an employment contract since December 2018.

They started a first strike last summer, which ended in a truce that lasted seven months.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2021.

The Canadian Press

NEVER SAY NEVER

Nunavut NDP MP apologizes for comments about fellow politician's Inuk identity

© Provided by The Canadian Press 

LIBERAL MP YVONNE JONES

IQALUIT, Nunavut — The member of Parliament for Nunavut has apologized for comments she made demanding a fellow politician prove her Inuk identity.

In a 33-minute live Twitter video posted Thursday, NDP member Mumilaaq Qaqqaq asks Labrador Liberal MP Yvonne Jones to prove her Inuk ancestry and claims Jones is not an Inuk.

In the now-deleted video, Qaqqaq says that southern Labrador, where Jones has said her family comes from, is not an Inuit region.

Qaqqaq apologized for the comments in a post on her social media accounts Friday.

"I want to fully apologize to everyone for my recent comments on Twitter that personally challenged the identity of Yvonne Jones," the post reads.

"The way that I commented was aggressive and disrespectful. I apologize for how I handled the situation."

Qaqqaq grew up in Baker Lake and worked for the Nunavut government before she elected in 2019.

Jones was first elected as MP for Labrador in 2013 and was mayor of her hometown of Mary's Harbour from 1991 to 1996.

In the Thursday video, Qaqqaq outlines her family tree, names her parents and asks Jones to do the same publicly.

"So Yvonne Jones, who is your family?" Qaqqaq repeats in the video

"I'm not going to apologize," Qaqqaq also says. "I know, until I am proven otherwise, Yvonne Jones is not Inuk.

"Until you can tell me who your family is, and where you come from, and how you're Inuk, and validate your Inukness, you have no space to say you're Inuk. Stop saying you're Inuk."

Last week, Qaqqaq also replied to a 2019 tweet from a blog called Indigenous Politics that referred to Jones as an Inuk.

"Jones is not an Inuk," Qaqaqq replied.

Jones demanded earlier this week in the House of Commons that Qaqqaq apologize for that comment.

"Her domination attitude is the most prevailing one I've heard in some time," Jones told the House of Commons.

She also said Qaqqaq's comments were "laterally viscous" and "threatening" to herself "as an Inuk woman."

Jones also said she is a "descendant of Inuk and white parents."

"I have never seen such disrespect from another parliamentarian in my 25 years of political office," Jones said.

Jones demanded Qaqqaq apologize and "stop committing racial erosion against her own culture."

The Canadian Press reached out to Jones for an interview, but her office said she was unavailable. Qaqqaq did not repy to an interview request.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2021.

Emma Tranter, The Canadian Press

A tortured soul with the voice of an angel

When entertainer Tiny Tim was married live on The Tonight Show in 1969, the television audience that tuned in was the second biggest in history at the time. First place? The moon landing.

© Provided by National Post Tiny Tim's instrument of choice was the ukulele.

That alone should provide a sense of what a star was Herbert Butros Khaury, known at the height of his career and ever after as Tiny Tim. (At an early low point, he performed in a Times Square freak show and flea circus as Larry Love the Human Canary.)

Swedish director Johan von Sydow has to reach back a bit for this portrait of Tiny Tim. He died of a heart attack at the age of 64 in 1996, on stage at the end, with his third wife in the audience. Tiny Tim: King For a Day checks in with her as well as his first wife, and various relatives, friends and musical fans.

We also get some incredible footage of the performer during his heyday, when he appeared on variety and chat shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleanson, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, David Frost and more.

The fast pace of the documentary, which runs to just 75 minutes, leaves a few questions. I’m still not sure what (if any) connections he had to the mob, and whether his FBI file contained anything more incriminating than his obsession with women. This is spite of his mannerisms and trademark falsetto singing style, which led many to label him as gay. His widow calls him half-gay, straddling a grey zone between identity and sexual preference.

But what comes through in his diary entries (read by Al Yankovic, toning down his usual weirdness) is a tortured soul, religious and horny and hungry for fame. “My greatest unfulfilled ambition,” he once said, “is to be one of the astronauts or even the first singer on the Moon. But most of all, I’d love to see Christ come back to crush the spirit of hate and make men put down their guns. I’d also like just one more hit single.”

Tiny Tim: King For a Day is available April 23 on demand through FilmsWeLike.com.

3.5 stars out of 5

Chris Knight 

POSTMEDIA

4/23/2021

Italy's Uffizi discovers lost frescoes during COVID shutdown


MILAN — The Uffizi Gallery in Florence used the winter COVID shutdown to push ahead with renovations, discovering lost frescoes that will greet visitors when the leading repository of Italian Renaissance art reopens on May 4.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Uffizi director Eike Schmidt said the six months of closure were put to good use: renovating 14 new rooms that will open to the public next month, and discovering frescoes that would otherwise have remained hidden.

But he hopes that the most recent reopening — the third during the pandemic — will be the last.

“We very much hope that now we will be able to open stably and without further closures. We hope so for the museum, but we hope it also for the world and for human society,? Schmidt said.

The previously hidden frescoes include a life-size figure of a young Cosimo II de Medici — part of the Renaissance family that commissioned the Uffizi — dating from the 1600s, as well as decorative plant motifs from the 1700s on the walls and ceiling of nearby rooms.

They are located in the museum's west wing, which is where the new visitors' entrance will be when the Uffizi reopens.

Schmidt said the new entrance facing the Arno River would provide “a glorious introduction” for visitors. Classic statuary will be added to the entrance in the future.

Workers also completed restoration on new rooms dedicated to 16th Century high and late Renaissance art from central and northern Italy, beyond Tuscany. They complete the sweep through art history from the Middle Ages with Giotto, to the Renaissance masters Botticelli, Raphael and Michelangelo, beyond to the counter-reformation and Venetian galleries.

"You can now seamlessly walk through, or hike through, art history if you wish to do so,'' Schmidt said.

Under the Uffizi's new entry system, visitors will buy tickets, deposit coats and bags in the west wing and cross through a courtyard to the east wing, where they will pass through metal detectors and pick up audio guides before starting their rounds of the museum.

The number of visitors at the museum last year dropped to about a quarter of those in 2019 due to the COVID lockdowns in the spring and fall, with some 1.2 million people visiting in 2020, down from 4.4 million a year earlier.

Booking requests have already started coming in for the summer months, which the museum will be able to satisfy now that an opening date is official, Schmidt said.

With prospects for the resumption of international tourism only beginning to come into focus, Schmidt expects the gallery will operate at about half its capacity for the foreseeable future. Pre-pandemic, peak visitation reached as many as 12,000 people a day.

“Actually to visit the museum now and over the next few months will mean you will really feel even more as if you are part of the de Medici family,’’ Eike said. “Especially if you come in the early morning, you might be in the Botticelli room to yourself for two or three minutes before someone else arrives. That never, ever happens.”

The Uffizi has been closed since Nov. 5 except for two weeks in January when Tuscany was under Italy's lowest level of restrictions. Italy on Monday begins a gradual reopening. Along with museums being allowed to open their doors, restaurants in low-risk zones on Monday will be allowed to offer outdoor dining before a 10 p.m. curfew.

Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

4/23/2021

U.S.A. could declare first-ever water shortage declaration

Duration: 00:49 

Man-made lakes that provide water for millions of people in the western U.S. and Mexico are expected to drop to record lows in the next few months. This could force the nation's first-ever water shortage.

More from The Weather Network

PURE SPECULATION
'Black Swan' author Nassim Taleb says bitcoin is an open Ponzi scheme and a failed currency

A currency not backed by a government is "just speculation" and a "game," the author said.

ilee@insider.com (Isabelle Lee) 4/23/2021

© Photo by Anton Novoderezhkin\TASS via Getty Images Nassim Nicholas Taleb at the Synergy Global Forum on November 27, 2017. Photo by Anton Novoderezhkin\TASS via Getty Images

Nassim Taleb doubled down on his view that bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme and a failed currency.

Some analysts view the cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation.

A currency not backed by a government is "just speculation" and a "game," the author said.

The "Black Swan" author Nassim Taleb doubled down on his view that bitcoin is an open Ponzi scheme and a failed currency in a CNBC interview on Friday.

"There's no connection between inflation and bitcoin," Taleb told CNBC, adding that everyone knows bitcoin is "a Ponzi."

Some analysts view the cryptocurrency, often referred to as digital gold, as a hedge against inflation, highlighting its similarities with the precious metal.

"If you want to hedge against inflation, buy a piece of land," Taleb said. "The best strategy for investors is to own things that produce yields in the future. In other words, you can fall back on real dollars coming out of the company."

He also said bitcoin had failed in its supposed role as a replacement for government-backed money, mainly because of its volatility. The author said he'd been "fooled" into thinking it could be a viable alternative to fiat currency but realized that a currency not backed by a government is "just speculation" and a "game."

"I was told it was going to be a currency," he said, but "you don't replace the currency with something that's so volatile that you can't really commit to a transaction in it."

Bitcoin's price has swung wildly recently. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization inched near $65,000 ahead of Coinbase's listing on April 14. Less than 10 days later, bitcoin slid below the critical $50,000 level, extending losses for the seventh day in a row.

The decline below $50,000 has bitcoin testing a new technical support level that could signal continued weakness, especially after its 50-day moving average failed to hold as support.

The broader crypto market has come under pressure after reports said this week that US President Joe Biden would look to double the capital-gains tax rate for wealthy investors.

Read the original article on Business Insider

CANADIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS APPROPRIATE ANARCHIST SLOGAN #EATTHERICH

It’s also a platform where hashtags like #eattherich and #abolishbillionaires proliferate, and those posters and viewers would seem to be receptive to the NDP’s policies.


The federal NDP are heading into the next election betting their strategy to target the “ultra-rich” will resonate with younger voters. But whether Millennial and Gen Z’s online posts to “abolish billionaires” will translate into votes remains to be seen.

© Provided by National Post Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh:

A part of that game plan to target youth rests on social media and leader Jagmeet Singh himself, whose embrace of TikTok grabbed attention in the last election campaign, and who has been using the video platform and its memes since to promote his party’s ideas.


Singh said in an interview the NDP is working on “building a big team” around social media. “People want to be reached out to and spoken to where they are, and young people are on social media, and they are frustrated with the injustice going on,” he said.

Singh said he took it as a “personal initiative” to double down on social media as a way to reach voters. The effort extends to other platforms popular with younger Canadians. In November, he streamed a game of “Among Us” with U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitch.





How much of the social media content is posted by Singh and how much is by his team depends on the platform. Singh said he is behind most of his TikTok videos, since “it’s a platform I really understand.”

It’s also a platform where hashtags like #eattherich and #abolishbillionaires proliferate, and those posters and viewers would seem to be receptive to the NDP’s policies.

At its policy convention two weeks ago, the party voted in favour of a marginal tax rate of 80 per cent for personal incomes over $1 million, a one per cent tax on “fortunes over $20 million,” and a tax on “pandemic and disaster excess profit.”

Singh’s line of attack on the Liberals has been to paint the party as being in bed with billionaires, in contrast to the NDP, which would make the “ultra-rich” pay “their fair share.”

To what extent hashtags translate into political support isn’t exactly quantifiable, but that kind of messaging is more likely to resonate with younger voters, pollsters say.

“I wish we had specific data saying X per cent of young Canadians say ‘eat the rich,’ ” said Angus Reid Institute president Shachi Kurl.

There is a trend where younger people are “definitely” — though not exclusively — “of the view that either increasing taxes on high-income earners, like $250K-plus, or on corporations or on businesses, is the way to pay for things,” she said.

“These types of eat-the-rich statements have always been popular with youth,” noted Christian Bourque, executive vice-president at Leger.

But what is new is that younger Canadians are more concerned about fairness, he said. “I believe that the way people frame this issue of the ultra-rich needs to be about some form of fairness,” he said, giving the example of the government’s recent Air Canada bailout that caps compensation for executives.

Singh said the notion of making the ultra-wealthy pay resonates among all voters, but youth are more open to it because they’re facing a more difficult reality than their parents did.



“They are the first generation ever that has less opportunities than the previous generation,” he said. They saw their parents be able to buy homes and have jobs that supported families and now “young people don’t have that same opportunity,” given how much housing costs have increased in proportion to income, he said.

“There is very clearly an extra burden on young people, that they’re feeling that the system is really rigged. They’re feeling even more frustrated, so young people are certainly even more open to this message, because they’re feeling the impact in their lives right now, that this rigged system means that they can’t find a good job that will help them earn a good living, start a family, find a place to live.”

Singh noted Millenials and younger voters make up a large portion of the electorate and said they could “make history” in the next election.

“I see the frustration that they’re feeling. I see how engaged they are politically, how engaged they are on social media platforms, and how engaged they have been” in organizing big protests in real life, he said.




The COVID-19 pandemic has also played a role, Kurl said. She noted it has “stressed younger Canadians in a way that it hasn’t necessarily stressed older Canadians.”

One of the reasons the NDP plans to double its campaign spending in the next election is Singh’s polling numbers. Mainstreet Research president Quito Maggi said Singh’s performance in the last election, in which he came across as authentic and likeable, is the reason the party didn’t get nearly wiped out.

Of course, things could shift. The Liberal government outlined more than $100 billion in new spending in this week’s federal budget, which extends pandemic supports and includes a promise to implement $10-a-day child care.

A post-budget Leger poll also found voter intention for the Liberals and Conservatives remained the same, while the NDP’s inched up from 18 to 19 per cent. But Maggi noted, “the budget would appear to address most of those economic anxieties that could increase support for those NDP policies.”

The next election will also come at a time when younger voters may be less enamoured with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Young people haven’t completely abandoned Justin Trudeau but, he’s not the bright young thing that he was six years ago,” Kurl said. “Jagmeet Singh does have appeal among young voters.”

Bourque said there are opportunities for the NDP to target that demographic, given that the “Conservatives are in trouble with younger voters in Canada,” and Trudeau no longer has that “newness” and “freshness” element he did in 2015.

But while there is an opening for the NDP, that spot could also get taken up by the Green Party, he warned.

Gaza militants fire rockets after clashes flare in Jerusalem

Violence in Jerusalem spiked on Thursday night as hundreds of far-right Jewish Israelis marched down city streets chanting “death to Arabs” and confronted Palestinians.

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem 

4/24/2021

Militants in Gaza have fired at least 35 rockets into Israel in one of the most intense flare-ups in months, seemingly triggered by days of tensions in Jerusalem in which far-right Jewish groups and the Israeli police have clashed with Palestinians.

Hours of sustained rocket launches early on Saturday – and Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the strip using fighter jets and attack helicopters – broke a months-long lull along the frontier with the coastal enclave.

The rockets, some of which were claimed by a small military group affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, caused no injuries. They appeared to be a response to several nights of unrest in mostly Palestinian east Jerusalem as well as protest across towns in the occupied West Bank.

Violence in Jerusalem spiked on Thursday night as hundreds of far-right Jewish Israelis marched down city streets chanting “death to Arabs” and confronted Palestinians. Mounted police in riot gear attempted to keep the two sides apart but Palestinian medics said that by the end of the night 100 people had been injured, with 21 taken to hospital. Israeli police said they had made 50 arrests without specifying if they were Israelis or Palestinians.

© Provided by The Guardian Smoke and flames rise after Israeli war planes carried out airstrikes over Gaza city. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

One video shared on social media showed what appeared to be several Jewish boys throwing stones at an Arab house as children screamed. Another filmed a group of Palestinian youths kicking a person on the ground as a voice off-camera shouts “break the settler”, a reference to Israelis who have taken land in the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, Palestinians have accused Israeli police of brutality in their handling of nightly protests, which erupted in response to restrictions on gatherings during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Fears of a further crackdown were raised on Friday after Israel’s public security minister, Amir Ohana, posted on Facebook that police forces had his “complete backing to use all means, force and the necessary power to restore law and order”.

Later that night, police again used stun grenades to disperse Palestinian crowds, including young men who hurled stones and firecrackers at officers and set fire to rubbish bins. However, due to the weekly Jewish Sabbath, most of the far-right Israelis from the night before were at home.

In an unusually strong rebuke, Ned Price, the US state department spokesperson, seemed to condemn the anti-Arab chanting without mentioning it specifically. “We are deeply concerned by the escalation of violence in Jerusalem,” he tweeted. “The rhetoric of extremist protesters chanting hateful and violent slogans must be firmly rejected,” adding that Israeli authorities should ensure the “rights of all in Jerusalem”.

In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, condemned the “police and settlers’ attack on Palestinians in Jerusalem” but called on worshippers to remain calm.

Neighbouring Jordan blamed Israel for the violence. “We strongly condemn the racist attacks on Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem and urge prompt international action to protect Jerusalemites,” foreign minister Ayman Safadi tweeted.

Since Ramadan began on 13 April, Palestinians have complained that police have prevented them from gathering on the steps near Damascus Gate in the Old City following night-time prayers, a long but unofficial tradition. Authorities have blocked access by erecting metal barriers in the plaza.

At the same time, videos of street harassment and several attacks between Jews and Palestinians during the past two weeks have inflamed the situation. One photo, taken in the coastal port area of Jaffa in Israel and widely shared domestically, showed an Arab man kicking a rabbi who local media reported was in his 60s.

Jerusalem has always been the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, with its holy sites revered by both 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, where ten of thousands of Muslims pray nightly during Ramadan.

The unique sensitivity of the complex has been a focal point of previous violent episodes. A period of intense Israeli-Palestinian violence, known as the second intifada, began in 2000 when Israeli politician Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the site. In 2017 the installation of security cameras and metal detectors there led to days of clashes and fatal incidents.

Related: The US media is touting Israel's Covid recovery. But occupied Palestinians are left out | Yara M Asi

Israeli forces captured the whole of Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, claiming the entire area as its “undivided” capital. Palestinians hope the eastern parts of the city will become the capital of a future state to include the occupied West Bank and Gaza, although a decades-long effort to end the Israeli occupation has floundered.

An increase in clashes is common during the annual Ramadan month of fasting, usually at night but calming down in the daytime. Incidents in Jerusalem are often closely linked to Gaza, which is about 40 miles away but whose roughly 2 million Palestinian inhabitants cannot travel freely to the holy city due to a crippling Israeli blockade.

On Saturday, Hamas, the Islamist group that rules inside Gaza, did not claim it fired any rockets, but its armed wing voiced support for east Jerusalem Palestinians. “The spark you light today will be the wick of the explosion to come in the face of the enemy,” it said in a statement.

Israel said its air force had bombed several “military targets in the Gaza Strip” belonging to Hamas. The country has fought three wars with Hamas and holds it responsible for all rockets fired out of the enclave.

Crown, OPP fail to stop $16.5M lawsuit by former brewery owner

The former owners of the Molson brewery property in Barrie — where the country’s largest indoor marijuana grow operation was discovered in 2004 — have the go-ahead to move forward with their $16.5-million lawsuit against the federal government and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

In the latest twist following a decade of legal wrangling, an Ontario Court of Appeal panel has unanimously upheld a lower court’s finding that the limitation period had not expired for the malicious prosecution lawsuit filed by Fercan Developments Inc. and GRVN Group Inc., dismissing the Crown’s attempt to put an end to the case.

Lawyer Brian Greenspan says it’s no longer about Fercan and its owner’s insistence that he had nothing to do with the illegal grow-op in which his brother and others were convicted.

“It’s not just our claim anymore. There’s been a determinative finding that the Crown engaged in prosecutorial misconduct, (and) should never have brought the application for forfeiture,” Greenspan, one of the lawyers representing Fercan, said shortly after the appeal court released the decision Thursday.

On Jan. 10, 2004, police uncovered “one of the largest and most sophisticated indoor marijuana-growing operations in Canadian history" in the 450,000-square-foot former brewery alongside Highway 400 in Barrie's south end.

Inside they found 20,000 plants, 300 pounds of cannabis and extensive growing equipment located behind concrete block walls, which was all protected by a series of locked doors and surveillance equipment. Nine people were arrested.

Fercan had purchased the 35-acre site three years earlier and was developing a coffee and a bottled water business on the site and renting out sections of the building to small businesses. The former brewery building has since been demolished.

The series of lawsuits began with the federal government’s attempt to take ownership of the property through a lengthy criminal forfeiture hearing under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

When that failed eight years ago, the investigator took it to the provincial government, which then launched its own forfeiture proceedings under the Civil Remedies Act. That also failed, as did an attempt to revive it in appeal.

Fercan and GRVN were awarded $570,000 in costs, which the Crown also tried to appeal, after winning the forfeiture case.

They now want the government to make up for the earnings lost through that process which they say amounted to civil conspiracy, claiming malicious prosecution, negligent investigation and misfeasance in public office.

“It’s become a rather strange approach. You can’t prove your case criminally, so you then try to seize assets civilly,” said Greenspan. “It’s bizarre that these two pieces of legislation can live together. But they tried both here.

“What more decisive conclusion can you reach than Fercan, the owners of the property, were absolutely blameless," he added.

Marg. Bruineman, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, barrietoday.com

CANADA

'A landmark decision': Sinixt First Nation react to Supreme Court ruling confirming existence

 "We're not going back to the museum and standing next to the dinosaurs."

© Submitted by Mark Underhill Richard Desautel went to the Supreme Court of Canada with the goal of proving the Sinixt First Nation's existence in Canada.

"We're not going back to the museum and standing next to the dinosaurs."

That's how Richard Desautel of the Sinixt Nation reacted Friday morning after Canada's highest court upended the federal government's 65-year-old claim that his Indigenous nation from southeastern British Columbia was extinct.

Desautel, the man at the centre of the case, is a member of the Lakes Tribe of the Colville Confederated Tribes based in Washington state, a successor group of the Sinixt people..

In 2010, he purposely shot and killed an elk in the traditional territory of the Sinixt in the Arrow Lakes region in B.C.'s Kootenay region in order to challenge the extinction claim. Desautel phoned the B.C. Conservation Officer Service after his successful hunt to report himself and was charged with hunting without a licence.

Lawyer Mark Underhill, who represented Desautel and the Sinixt, said it's been a long journey for him.

"He was the one willing to step up and get charged to bring Sinixt rights to the forefront. So he was very emotional this morning," Underhill said.

"I welcomed him home."© Rob Easton/CBC The majority of the Sinixt's traditional territory is in British Columbia.

The Sinixt live on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, Underhill said, and many Sinixt people are now members of other bands in Canada, principally the Okanagan, and the Colville Tribes in the U.S.

Underhill said it's been illegal for members in the U.S. to come up and practice their culture in British Columbia since 1896. The ruling — which only focuses on hunting rights — sets up the Sinixt as rights holders, no matter where they live.

"This is about reclaiming their identity," said Underhill. "It really, really, really means everything to them."

Rodney Cawston, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Sinixt Confederacy, said the ruling is a first step.

"We're going to continue that work of addressing our aboriginal title again back in Canada and also recognition of all of those areas for our people of where they once lived that are very sacred to us still today.

"This is a landmark decision."

Supreme Court affirms American Indigenous man's right to hunt in Canada

The Supreme Court's recognition that rights are rooted in historical ties to a region has implications for other First Nations who have been forced from traditional lands

OTTAWA — An American Indigenous man has a constitutionally protected right to hunt in British Columbia given his people's historic ties to the region, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The top court's 7-2 decision Friday upheld the acquittal of Richard Lee Desautel, a U.S. citizen who was charged with hunting without a licence and hunting big game while not a resident of B.C. after shooting an elk near Castlegar in 2010.

Desautel defended his actions on the basis he had an Aboriginal right to hunt protected by section 35(1) of Canada's Constitution Act of 1982.

Desautel is a member of the Lakes Tribe of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington state, a successor of the Sinixt people, whose ancestral territory extended into what is now B.C.

The trial judge found the sections of B.C.'s Wildlife Act under which Desautel was charged had infringed his constitutional right to hunt in the province.

The decision was upheld by the B.C. Supreme Court and the province's Court of Appeal, prompting the Crown to take its case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

A central issue in the case was the interpretation of the Constitution Act's affirmation of the rights of "the aboriginal peoples of Canada," namely whether the phrase includes only Indigenous Peoples who are resident or citizens of Canada, or also those whose ancestors occupied territory that became Canada.

In writing for a majority of the high court, Justice Malcolm Rowe said the scope includes the modern-day successors of Aboriginal societies that occupied Canadian territory at the time of European contact.

"As a result, groups whose members are neither citizens nor residents of Canada can be Aboriginal peoples of Canada."

Rowe cautioned that, beyond this central issue, he would say little more about what that means for the exercise of rights protected under section 35(1).

"First, questions of law are better resolved in cases where there is a dispute that requires the answering of those questions," Rowe wrote. "And, second, the defence of a prosecution for a provincial regulatory offence, while it may serve as a test case (as here), is not well-suited to deal with such broader issues."

When Europeans first made contact in the early 1800s, the Sinixt were engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering in their ancestral territory, which extended into what later became Washington state to the south and B.C. to the north.

Due to a variety of reasons, the Sinixt moved to the United States, though not voluntarily.

Until 1930, members of the Lakes Tribe continued to hunt in B.C. despite living in the U.S. Periods followed when no hunting took place in the province, but the tribe maintained a connection to the land.

Meanwhile, by the early 1900s, only 21 Sinixt still lived on their traditional territory in Canada, in the Arrow Lakes Band reserve. The band was declared extinct after the death of the last member in 1956, and the reserve lands reverted back to the Crown.

The Crown had argued the Lakes Tribe might be able to establish common law Aboriginal rights in B.C., but this would not include the right to cross the international border into Canada.

In his arguments, Desautel stressed the Sinixt people's long-standing ties to the West Kootenay region of B.C.

"The Sinixt were here in Canada first, long before the assertion of sovereignty and the imposition of an international border which artificially divided their traditional territory in a manner foreign to their Indigenous perspective," said his written submission to the high court.

"The honour of the Crown requires that their prior occupation be reconciled with the assertion of sovereignty through the constitutional protection of their hunting rights in Canada."

Desautel travelled to Kettle Falls in Washington state, in the southern portion of the traditional territory, where he received word of the Supreme Court decision Friday through a video call from his lawyer Mark Underhill.

"I am at the end of my own journey through the court system, and at the beginning of the new journey of reconciliation for our people," Desautel said in a statement.

"I am grateful to the ancestors for their guidance and in helping our rights, traditions and natural laws prevail. I look forward to the hard work ahead together with the people of British Columbia."

The Supreme Court's recognition that rights are rooted in historical ties to a region has implications for other First Nations who have been forced from traditional lands, Underhill said Friday.

"It's a really important decision in that way, to affirm where rights come from and that they're not going to be lost by various forces of colonialism."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2021.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Kids of those exposed to Chernobyl nuclear disaster show no genetic damage

By HealthDay News

A sign declaring "Halt! Prohibited Zone" is seen in the exclusion zone around the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ilinci village, April 5, 2006. File Photo by Sergey Starostenko/UPI | License Photo

There's no evidence of genetic damage in the children of parents who were exposed to radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, researchers say.

Several previous studies have examined the risks across generations of radiation exposure from events such as this, but have yielded inconclusive results.

In this study, the investigators analyzed the genomes of 130 children and parents from families where one or both parents were exposed to radiation due to the Chernobyl accident, and where children were conceived afterward and born between 1987 and 2002.





There was no increase in gene changes in reproductive cells of study participants, and rates of new germline mutations were similar to those in the general population, according to a team led by Meredith Yeager of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, in Rockville, Md.

RELATED Researchers: NYC cancer cases may be tied to Chernobyl disaster

"This is one of the first studies to systematically evaluate alterations in human mutation rates in response to a man-made disaster, such as accidental radiation exposure," the authors wrote.

The "study does not provide support for a transgenerational effect of ionizing radiation on germline DNA in humans," the researchers concluded.

The study is one of two related to the Chernobyl disaster published Thursday in the journal Science.

RELATED Health effects of Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombs not as dire as thought

In the second, a team led by Lindsay Morton of the U.S. National Cancer Institute sought to learn more about the development of radiation-induced papillary thyroid cancers in Chernobyl survivors. These are among the most common cancers seen after the disaster.

The researchers compared thyroid tumors, normal thyroid tissue, and blood from hundreds of survivors to those of people who weren't exposed to radiation.

No unique radiation-related biomarker was identified, according to the report.

But the researchers did find radiation-related increases in DNA damage in human thyroid cancers of Chernobyl survivors. Radiation-related genomic changes were more pronounced in those who were younger when they were exposed to radiation.

The findings suggest that thyroid tumors that follow radiation exposure result from DNA double-strand breaks in the genome, the researchers said in a news release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The study findings have implications for radiation protection and public health, particularly for low-dose exposure, the authors said.More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on radiation exposure.

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