Wednesday, August 04, 2021

NDP calls for support for “net zero” barns for Alberta landowners


Alberta’s NDP have recently put out a call for the provincial government to offer support to farmers looking to become more energy efficient.

“We’re asking the government to invest $15 million in startup money that could then be used to create loan guarantees for our agricultural producers in either doing a retrofit, or a new build for barns, but also all agriculture infrastructure,” said Heather Sweet, NDP agriculture critic. “The idea behind this is that the $15 million will be used to help people get in the door of banks, and then the government would guarantee the loan to build that infrastructure.”

These ideas primarily came from members of industry, said Sweet.


“As the critic, I've been spending a lot of time talking to farmers and ranchers and our producer groups,” said Sweet. “They recognize that we are going to be the leaders in renewable energy. And they've done a lot of research on how they can continue to be environmental stewards. And so one of their recommendations was to look at moving towards net-zero barns. Many of our producing groups have done their own research on these barns, they have looked into how they can move towards this. They're prepared, and they have the information that says that this can be done.”

Beyond just the farms and ranches themselves, this undertaking would also benefit the communities around them.

“We are recognizing that this is a job creator. They know that if they can continue to build and retrofit their infrastructure that will create jobs and local communities,” said Sweet.

Support from the landowners that would receive this support is very high, especially with the record temperatures that have taken place over this summer.

“Looking at even just the weather, and how we've hit such high temperatures, they really want to make sure that they are continuing to take care of their livestock in the healthiest ways possible,” said Sweet. “The energy costs alone have been substantial for our producer. If we look at the hog producers, specifically, the hog producers needed to make sure that the barns were cool and that they had misting systems in place. They're excited about being able to move towards more energy efficient HVAC systems and cooling cooling systems for their flooring, or heating systems in the winter. They are moving towards this anyway. and are looking forward to partnering with our opposition caucus and moving towards a netzero economy."

Anna Smith, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prairie Post East

Alberta farmers compelled to harvest crops early amid heat wave

"It's a bit of a mess down here for sure,' says farmer Kevin Serfas

As of July 27, less than 20 per cent of all crops in Alberta are considered in good to excellent condition. (Paul Dornstauder/CBC)

Many farmers in Alberta are trying to salvage the little crop they've managed to grow amid an ongoing heat wave. 

Farmers in some parts of the province have already started harvesting while others are preparing to begin in the coming days. 

Wayne Schneider, proprietor of Great West Farms in Nisku and a regional director with the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said the crops are nearing the end of their life cycle of what they can actually produce. 

"It is too late," Schneider said Monday. "We're just hoping for the best — that whatever ground moisture there was will help finish off the little crop that there is."

The family-run farm grows canola, wheat, barley and yellow peas on about 728 hectares.

Schneider said he thinks his operation will yield about half the crop he gets in a typical year — about 40 bushels of wheat, down from the usual 70, and 50 bushels of barley down from the typical 90. 

For canola, he typically yields 50 to 60 bushels an acre — this year he's expecting about 30.

"This year, we didn't get the rain when we needed it," Schneider said. "With the exceptionally hot days, everything that was growing got heat-stressed and it can't produce. It just shuts the plants down."

Harvesting normally starts at the end of August, with the majority of the work done in September and October, Schneider noted. 

It is too late.- Wayne Schneider, grain farmer

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), which provides crop insurance, also prepares a crop report. 

According to it, less than 20 per cent of all crops in Alberta were considered in good to excellent condition as of July 27. 

The five-year and 10-year average is 71 per cent, the report shows. 

Bleak year

In southern Alberta, some farmers have already started harvesting, including Kevin Serfas, co-owner of Serfas Farms Ltd. in Turin, northeast of Lethbridge. 

"Things are pretty bleak," Serfas said in an interview Monday.

His operation is producing about a quarter of the typical amount. 

His farm normally yields 75 bushels an acre of cereal grains; this year they're combining five to nine an acre.  

"So it's a bit of a mess down here for sure," Serfas said. "It's going to be a mess for the next 12 months." 

Most of the harvest will be sold to feed cattle, instead of being sold to overseas and domestic grain buyers, he said. 

Schneider and Serfas say governments need to step in. 

Serfas, who is chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said he hasn't discerned the benefits from a provincial/federal AgriRecovery program for crop farmers. 

In a release dated July 22, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau said assessments were underway with Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. 

The federal government will collaborate with provincial governments to evaluate the extraordinary costs producers face and provide joint support as required, the release said.

On its website, the AFSC said it continues to monitor the situation and anticipates a number of claims in the coming weeks. 

"Our team of adjusters are familiar with the current conditions, and they are working to resolve claims as quickly as possible," the site says. 

"Top priority claims include those claims where clients have indicated they need to allow cattle to feed on the crop immediately." 

@natashariebe

Cryptozoology and the Banshee


Once again discovery of an unknown animal, in itself a mystery, resolves a paranormal mystery.


Jim Corbett, the famous hunter who spent many years in India, had discovered the churail, the native variant of banshee, as an unknown bird which has a high-pitched, shrill voice. He located this strange nocturnal bird by means of a pair of powerful binoculars in the Kumaon jungles.

The existence of unknown species and varieties of wild animals may thus explain why ghosts are frequently present in jungle lore; why supernatural fear is so ingrained in people who live near the wild! The myths of werewolves and tigers or lions masquerading as human beings are common in Africa and India — the two famous habitats of the fearsome felines.

See:
Jim Corbett man-hunter of man-killers


Churail is an Indian/Pakistani Urdu term for a female jinn or witch.
A banshee by any other name.

The churail is also a reference to a female ghost , a woman who dies in childbirth, whose feet point backwards. Reminding us of Baba Yaga as well as Lilith.

The jinn succumbed to Mohamed according to Surat 72 of the Koran. In imitation of the earlier legend of Solomon/Suliman who had control over angels and demons.




The Banshee (IPA: [ˈbæn.ʃi]), from the Irish bean sí ("woman of the sídhe" or "woman of the fairy mound") is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. Her Scottish counterpart is the Bean Nighe ("washer-woman").

The sídhe are variously believed to be the survivals of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, spirits of nature, or the ancestors. Some Theosophists and Celtic Christians have also referred to the sídhe as "fallen angels". They are commonly referred to in English as "fairies", and the banshee can also be described as a "fairy woman".

Banshee
The banshee in Irish Gælic, is called 'bean sidhe', which means 'supernatural woman'. She is envisioned with a sunken nose, scraggy hair and huge hollow eye sockets. Her eyes are fiery red from continuous weeping. She wears a tattered white sheet flapping around her. She wails outside the door of someone who is about to die, but only for old families. All the best clans have their own private banshee. They are very closely related to the bean-nighe and cointeach.

Churel
Also called churail, this vicious and vengeful ghostlike female vampire found in India is normally the result of a woman who died while pregnant during the 'Devali Festival' or unclean at any time.

Churels

India. Also known as Jakhin/Jakhai/Mukai/Nagulai/Alvantin. Churels are women who died in childbirth, during the Dewali festival. If a woman had been treated badly by her family, she would return to seek vengeance upon them and dry up the blood of the male family members. Such a woman would become a Dakini an associate of Kali and partake in her vampiric activities. If a young man was tempted by churel and ate the food she offered. She would keep him until dawn and return him to his village a grey haired old man. Churels are said to have an awful appearance; possessing pendant breasts, long sharp teeth, thick lips, unkempt hair and a black tongue. A noticeable feature of the woman is that she would have her feet turned backwards. Seeds affect the churels. A woman who had died in childbirth was buried in a special place with red flowers on top of the grave to prevent her coming back from the dead. Prevention can also be achieved if the woman is buried face down or by filling the grave with thorns or stones. Also called a churail.

*Djinni
(Arabic, also spelled genie) In the Arabian Nights, lived in a rose-domed city called Shadukiam. The oldest genie, by whom they swear, is named Kashkash. Ampharool is the genie who can teach men the secret of flying, according to a medieval grimmoire called The Book of Power.)


The prevalence, classification and treatment of mental disorders among attenders of native faith healers in rural Pakistan

Background: Although native faith healers are found in all parts of Pakistan, where they practice in harmony with the cultural value system, their practice is poorly understood. This study investigated the prevalence, classification and treatment of mental disorders among attenders at faith healers. Method: The work of faith healers with 139 attenders was observed and recorded. The mental status of attenders was assessed using a two-stage design: screening using the General Health Questionnaire followed by diagnostic interview using the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule. Results: The classification used by faith healers is based on the mystic cause of disorders: saya (27%), jinn possession (16%) or churail (14%). Sixty-one percent of attenders were given a research diagnosis of mental disorder: major depressive episode (24%), generalized anxiety disorder (15%) or epilepsy (9%). There was little agreement between the faith healers' classification and DSM-IIIR diagnosis. Faith healers use powerful techniques of suggestion and cultural psychotherapeutic procedures. Conclusions: Faith healers are a major source of care for people with mental health problems in Pakistan, particularly for women and those with little education. Further research should assess methods of collaboration that will permit people with mental health problems to access effective and culturally appropriate treatment.

SESHADRI, B.

The Global Islamic Community Forums - Can Jinn appear to Humans?

I am also interested, are 'churail' the same thing as Jinn ... Churail is a mirpuri style name for jinn, When i was small and i misbehaved they used to say ...

PakPassion - Pakistan Cricket Forum - Jinns and Bhoots


my friend, who i've know since 2nd grade, his mom can see jinn. they have moved about 3 times already because she saw shaytan in that house. my friend tells me that a jinn watches over her and her family. we were playing cricket, i ACCIDENTLY broke his nose with a bat, DO NOT ASK HOW!! ok anyway and afterwards he called home to tell his mom and dad about what happened and his mom said i know that already, the jinn told me( the jinn actually had a name which i dont remember) this happened when we both were in high school in pennsylvania, and our families were in saudia.

In the company of ghosts

Minakshi Chaudhry's "Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills" spins some eerie phantom yarns, says R.V. SMITH

Contained in this 139-page book (pardon the misprints) are a host of stories by the author while wandering around the Shimla Hills in 1999. Minakshi was looking for British ghosts but came across several tales of native ghosts too, whose haunts sometimes merged with those of their dead sahibs and sometimes not. She did not meet any bhoot or churail, maybe just a sudden breeze that brushed past the cheek and tingled the spine, but no unearthly form grinning in diabolical glee at the former Indian Express reporter.

Exploring Pakistan’s ‘Haunted Places’

Haunted Places in Pakistan


In partnership with TheShawdolands.net
For more "haunted" locations click here.
Juicee News Daily does not necessarily support or believe in the existence of ghosts. We are sure that some of these may simply be local legends and folklore, but often these legends do spring out of past events. Never trespass on any of these locations. Always get permission to enter
abandonded or private property.

Kalabagh - Punjab - Here a lady who is very fat and with a small lenght. Her hair are too long. She attacks if gazed by someone.

Karachi - 39-k block 6 - P.E.C.H.S. - Sometimes you will see a white light glowing at night.? Also people have reported seeing a very pale women wearing a white dress walk around for about a minute then disappear at about 3:00 in the morning, it has also been said that this lady had been kidnapped and rapped, after she was rapped she was murdered and buried there.

Karachi - Liari - Witnesses report seeing an apparition of a man badly cut and bleeding, when approached, he vanishes.

Lahore - Defense - T Block - Reports of an apparition of a gil in white clothes.

Beautiful girl with feet pointing backwards

One Qari Muhammad Asghar wrote in the Khabrain magazine that once he was passing by a graveyard when a beautiful girl appeared, crying most movingly and begging to be taken home. He agreed to take her but when she fell to the ground and he bent to pick her up he noted that her feet were pointing backward. He ran away but heard the voice of the churail that, had he not been holding a tasbih, she would have eaten him alive.

‘Churail’ in the car

Writing in Khabrain magazine, Jamal Ashraf stated that he was going in a car from Lahore to Daska with a friend when his car was flagged down by a good looking girl on the road. She was beautiful and spoke most charmingly but suddenly the tyre of the car burst and the friends were stranded. The girl suddenly became churail and said that she would eat both of them. The writer began reciting Ayat al-Kursi on which the churail begged him to stop, but since they kept reading the ayat the churail had to run away.

Are ghosts really there????????

‘Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills by Minakshi Choudhary’. Just read some ghost incidents in Shimla as narrated by local residents and visitors there. A churail walking right besides you, an eerie feeling occurring without any reason, you see some figure in the 1st second that disappears in the 2nd, hear some conversations but you don’t see anyone there, some strange looking person calling out your name …..so many more. Do all these things actually happen? Have what the people narrated, their real experiences, their imaginations or is it simply made up? But on second thoughts, why will they make up such stories? Maybe for its sheer excitement. No one knows and I am one of those 'no one'.


Pakistani police have arrested a man accused of murdering his 22-year-old daughter because he said she was possessed by demons.

Police say Mr Arain told them a "churail' (female demon) had possessed his daughter a few days ago and threatened to kill him and his sons.

Technique to kill lantana
By Ravinder Sood
LANTANA, commonly known as “lal phulnu”, “phulbehri”, “panchphuli buti”, “churail buti, etc, is an obnoxious weed growing in waste lands, grasslands, orchards and forest areas. This weed having its origin in South America and Central America has spread to all districts of Himachal Pradesh except Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur.

 



Burma Banshees, "Angels on our Wings," the call of death to the enemy

February 22, 2005

The 80th Fighter Group, some stories and photos



80th Fighter Group (FG) "Burma Banshee" P-40N "Warhawk," 1944. A painting by Richard Groh, presented by Adam Lewis' "Adam's planes." The P-40 was flown in the CBI by the 88th, 89th and 90th Fighter Squadrons.

The Banshee’s Wail and the Huge Night Prowler

Theatre Banshee


The Black Death, a plague which struck in the years 1348-1350 (the time frame of Red Noses), killed a third of the population of Europe in three short years. From Iceland to India, the highly infectious epidemic spread, striking all segments of society, particularly the young. The Black Death was the greatest and most profound natural disaster in recorded human history. Wildly infectious, the plague struck all levels of society, although the young and the poor were hardest hit. Infected persons were usually dead within five days, sometimes in less than a day. Plague victims were commonly seen to have the famed buboes, egg-sized swellings in the groin and armpits which ruptured and festered shortly before death.


The Black Ravens – the collectors of corpses had a difficult and dangerous job during the years of the Black Death. Some wore bird-like masks, the beaks of which were filled with cloth and sweet-smelling herbs to overcome the hellish stench of rampant decomposition. Also called sextons, corpse collectors lived by helping themselves to the belongings of the fallen.

Morgana of the Dark Moon Night

Onyx bird, bold in flight

Raven, come to us now!

Keeper of the sacred well

Where the faerie spirits dwell

Raven, come to us now!

Guardian of the Blackthorn Tree

Home of the feared Banshee

Raven, come to us now!

Teacher of warriors, and of sex,

spells that heal and spells that hex

Raven, come to us now!

Bean Sidhe by the river bed

Washing shrouds of the newly dead

Raven, come to us now!

Twin birds of memory and thought

Who brought the knowledge Odin sought

Raven, come to us now!

Raven with his bag of tricks

Always getting in a fix

Raven, come to us now!

Stalwart guardian of the Land

The sacred bird of mighty Bran

Raven, come to us now!

Wise One of the Second Sight

Who foretells our human plight

Raven, come to us now!

Raven, Oldest of us All

Watch over us and hear our call

Raven, come to us now!

Cry of the Banshee. English lord Vincent Price destroys a witches' temple, with disastrous results, in Gordon Hessler's scream-a-thon. 1970. 92 min.

Bush Stone Curlews
are predominantly a nocturnal species hunting and vocalizing of a night. They have a diet consisting of invertebrates (eg. Insects, worms) through to small vertebrates (eg. Mice, small snakes, birds). It is their distinctly mournful cry of a night that has also given them the Aussie slang names of 'Wailing Woman' and 'Banshee Bird'.




Climate change will impact future water availability for hydropower and public water supply in Wales

Climate change will impact future water availability for hydropower and public water supply in Wales
Credit: Bangor University

Wales could face public water supply challenges and lower hydro power generation potential in the future according to new research. The findings of a recently published study conducted by Bangor University researchers, as part of the ERDF funded Dŵr Uisce project, shows that water availability in Wales will become more seasonal under future climate change.

Published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, the paper assessed the impact of a worst case scenario of future climate change on the hydrology of two river catchments in Wales: Conwy and Tywi.

Using UKCP18 data, the latest climate projections for the UK from the Met Office's Hadley Centre, the researchers simulated future daily streamflow at Conwy and Tywi for the 2021 to 2079 period with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool. These future flows were then used to calculate the amount of  available each day for abstraction at 25 run-of-river hydropower sites across the two catchments, and a single public water supply abstraction location in the Tywi. For public water supply, three future water demand scenarios were analyzed using the Water Evaluation And Planning system: increasing demand (based on historical relationships between daily temperature and water demand), static demand, and decreasing demand (based on Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water's demand projections).

The study found that under all future demand scenarios, there is an increase in the number of days per year when the river streamflow is too low to satisfy  demand and will require additional releases from upstream reservoir to compensate. For hydropower, there was a reduction in the number of days per year when power generation is possible, as well as a decrease in the annual available water for abstraction, leading to a loss of power generation potential. Changes in water availability were most pronounced in the medium-term (2021–2054), and the rate of change slowed after 2060. In addition, future water availability increased in the winter and spring seasons compared to the present day, but these increases were outweighed by the larger decreases in available water for the summer and autumn seasons.

Dr. Richard Dallison, lead author of the paper and Dŵr Uisce Postdoctoral Researcher at Bangor University, explains: "Given the reliance on surface waters for many sectors in Wales, it is highly important to characterize the nature of climate change induced streamflow alterations as far as possible. Getting a good understanding of how the frequency and magnitude of extreme high and low streamflows will be affected, for example, is crucial for understanding how hydropower operations will be impacted, with these flows playing an important role in when and how much power can be generated. Our results indicate faster rates of change in  in the medium-term, to the 2050s, with the rate of change slowing after this, suggesting that action may need to be taken soon to mitigate against projected changes."

Dr. Sopan Patil, Lecturer in Catchment Modeling and co-author of the paper, adds: "Climate change projections indicate an altered flow for rivers across the UK, not just in Wales. However, the implications of these regional changes at a local level, where all the water abstraction happens, are still not fully understood. Our study's methodology provides a great template for analyzing climate change impacts at specific abstraction locations. Moreover, it is flexible enough to account for variations in the demand projections and water abstraction needs of different water users."

Dr. Prysor Williams, Dŵr Uisce Principal Investigator at Bangor University, senior lecturer in , and co-author of the paper also adds: "We are pleased to see this paper published as it has relevance for so many topics of real concern. Wales is often considered a country plentiful in water supply. However, our work has shown that this may change in the future, with obvious important social, economic and environmental impacts."Future snowmelt from Third Pole may decrease drastically

More information: Richard J.H. Dallison et al, Impacts of climate change on future water availability for hydropower and public water supply in Wales, UK, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100866

Provided by Bangor University iliar and previously accepted.

LOCK HIM UP AS A PUBLIC 
(HEALTH) MENACE 
Maxime Bernier says he won't take the COVID-19 vaccine
RIGHT WING PSUEDO LIBERTARIAN
'We don't have to change our way of life because of a virus'
EUH DOH, OUI, NOUS LE FAISONS

Author of the article:
Postmedia News
Michael Lee
Publishing date: Aug 03, 2021
People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier speaks at a rally in North Bay, Ont., Sunday afternoon. 
PHOTO BY MICHAEL LEE /North Bay Nugget

Stopping in North Bay this weekend as part of his northeastern Ontario tour, People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier took aim at “COVID-19 hysteria” and called on the crowd of about 100 people to speak in defence of their values.

Bernier served as the main speaker at the Sunday afternoon rally in Lee Park, hosted by the Northern Freedom Alliance, which has organized previous anti-lockdown rallies at the waterfront.

Decrying what he described as the “rapid” loss of freedoms and traditional western civilization values, Bernier said, “If we don’t reverse that trend we can all say goodbye to our way of life, to our freedoms, to our prosperity.”

The People’s Party leader criticized lockdowns and vaccine passports, calling the reaction to COVID-19 a “failed experiment.”

Bernier has not received a COVID-19 vaccine himself, and will not get one, saying he is not anti-vaccination but pro-freedom, adding as someone who is in shape and relatively younger his chances of survival are “99.95 per cent.

“COVID-19 is a real virus, it’s everywhere and it will be everywhere for a long time. We have to deal with it, we don’t have to change our way of life because of a virus,” he told reporters.

During my tours, I’m often asked if I’m vaccinated and what’s the PPC stance on taking the covid vaccine. Here’s the answer👇 pic.twitter.com/fTd7cQxfdw

— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) August 1, 2021




Last week in Timmins, Bernier said he was against vaccine passports. “They’re going to create two classes of citizens — ones who are vaccinated and ones who are not vaccinated I don’t want a society where some people can go to a baseball game, or a football game or a restaurant, and others can’t.

BULLSHIT

“We live in a free country. If you decide to have the vaccine or not, that’s your own private health information.”

During his speech in North Bay, Bernier criticized the “dysfunctional” United Nations for imposing its “socialist policies” through actions such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and Global Compact for Migration, saying he believes in sustainable, not mass, immigration unlike the other political parties.

“The only climate that we must change is the climate of the public opinion,” he said.

Bernier also pushed back against Bill C-36, something the Liberals argue will address online hate but which critics say will censor speech, and accused the Conservative Party of Canada of not being conservative anymore.

“But you can count on the PPC, you can count on us, we will never, never do any compromise with what we believe,” he said. “It’s too important for the future of our society.”

Bernier, a former cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s government, founded the People’s Party in 2018 following his loss in the Conservative leadership race to now former leader Andrew Scheer in 2017.

The People’s Party would receive about 1.6 per cent of the popular vote nationally, winning no ridings. Bernier also would lose his seat in the Quebec riding of Beauce, which he had won four previous times for the Conservatives.

With a federal election potentially being held later this year, the party is looking to have a full slate of candidates across the country.

Speaking to reporters, Bernier said he intends on running again in his former riding and believes he will be able to win it back.

“We just need that voice to challenge the government, to be out there to use all the tools that we can have when you have a person elected in Parliament,” he said.

But while he hopes to become prime minister, Bernier said he is realistic and doesn’t believe that will happen after the next election.

“We are building a movement for the long term,” he said.

He also spoke about his arrest in Manitoba and charges under the Public Health Act for allegedly gathering at an outdoor public place and failing to self-isolate.

Bernier described the gathering as not a rally but an outdoor, socially distanced meeting with a local riding association, saying he will be back in Manitoba.

In a video taken of his arrest, a police officer asked Bernier if he had any weapons, to which he replied saying, “Only my words.”

“And yes, my words are my weapons and today, I want you to use your words like me,” Bernier told the crowd in North Bay.
#ENDTHEDEATHPENALTY



Alfre Woodard: 'We want all those with a stake in the death row business to see this film' 

Alfre Woodard photographed in Santa Monica, California for the Observer New Review. 

Photograph: Saroyan Humprey/The Observer

The star of the award-winning film Clemency talks about the US prison system, her enslaved great-grandfather and her hopes for Black Lives Matter

Read Mark Kermode’s five-star review of Clemency

by Tim Adams
Sun 19 Jul 2020 
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/19/alfre-woodard-we-want-all-those-with-a-stake-in-the-death-row-business-to-see-this-film-clemency

The focus of Black Lives Matter protests has inevitably fallen on the most visible injustice - instances of police brutality. More systemic racial disparities in the American penal system are too often hidden from plain sight. The US incarcerates more of its citizens – 2.2 million people – than any other country on Earth. African American adults are nearly six times more likely to receive a prison sentence than white adults. Nearly half of the 206,000 people serving life sentences in 2018 were black, though black people represent only 13.4% of the population; almost equal numbers of white and black prisoners are currently on death row – just over 1,000 of each ethnicity – but as the prosecution of capital punishment has declined, so the racial imbalance has increased.

If ever a film could bring home the buried trauma of those latter statistics it is Clemency. The film, which won a grand jury prize at Sundance last year, has been instrumental in catalysing again urgent debates around mass incarceration, capital punishment and race.

It was written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, born in Nigeria, raised in Alaska, who became, at 34, the first black female director to receive the Sundance award. Chukwu was inspired to write the film after the widely protested execution of Troy Davis in Georgia in 2011. She embarked on six years of immersive research that involved not only interviewing numerous death row prison wardens, but also running a film programme for inmates in Ohio, and advocating for retrials in unsafe convictions. There have been other movies about death row, of course – Dead Man Walking, last year’s Just Mercy – but they invariably end with redemption. Clemency refuses that Hollywood trajectory. Instead, more than any other film I have seen, it looks hard at the mechanics and emotional fallout of state killing. At every turn, it asks that most relevant question: not “Does this person deserve to die?” but “Do we the people deserve to kill him?”
Advertisement


The nuance and force of the film are carried in the performance of Alfre Woodard, who plays the prison warden, Bernadine Williams, through whom the story is told. For nearly 50 years, Woodard has been one of those actors who has illuminated – and often stolen – dramas from a line or two down the credit roll. She has had lead roles – from 1994’s Spike Lee film Crooklyn, through Winnie Mandela in HBO’s Mandela to How to Make an American Quilt and See, the launch vehicle of Apple’s streaming service last year; she also has a record 17 Emmy nominations for work in 16 different TV series, including wins in roles as diverse as Hill Street Blues and Miss Evers’ Boys. When Woodard first came to Hollywood in the 1970s people told her there were no film roles for black actors. “I’m not a fool. I knew that,” she says. “But I was always confident that I knew my craft.”

In Clemency, Woodard gives the performance of her life. Having overseen one botched execution, Bernadine, full of steely integrity, has started to question the ethics of her role. Through Woodard’s eyes, the film examines the dehumanising act of deliberately strapping a living body to a bed and ending a life.


 With Danny Glover in Mandela (1987).
 Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Woodard conveys a history in those eyes. She has seen some things. Her personal political activism began with protests against segregation in Tulsa when she was 14 and has never wavered. The actor first met Chukwu when they were both working on a successful clemency appeal for Tyra Patterson, wrongly convicted of murder and eventually released after 23 years. I spoke to Woodard about some of that history a couple of weeks ago, on the same day the US supreme court voted to resume federal executions after a break of 17 years. At her home in Los Angeles it was eight in the morning, but Woodard, a barely believable 67, was at full wattage in her living room, laughing loudly as she struggled with her Zoom feed. I apologised for getting her up so early. “Oh God! I’m happy to do it!” she said. “The more we talk, the more people get to see Clemency!”

Woodard describes working on the film as a campaign as much as a movie. The 17 days in which they eventually shot the film, in a defunct jail in East Los Angeles half an hour from her home, were as intense as anything she has done: “‘Walking through the valley of the shadow of death’, for anyone who reads the Bible, that phrase comes to mind,” she says. In preparation for the film, Chukwu took Woodard on extended visits to five prisons in Ohio, where she had been working: men’s maximum security, women’s medium security, death row. “To see that, the caging of human bodies on a mass scale, is arresting for the human soul,” Woodard says. “And then to see that they have sectioned off the ones that they want to ritualistically murder, in the light of day… that’s when you start to talk about the scar on the soul of a nation.”

When Chukwu first thought of writing a film based on Troy Davis’s execution – Davis had been convicted of murder in 1991 without forensic evidence; seven of nine witnesses from the original trial had recanted their testimonies prior to his execution – she decided her film would focus on someone intimately involved with carrying through the death sentence. It was that that intrigued Woodard.

“As an actor, I like adventure,” she says. “I don’t like to do things I know how to do. When the producer called, she said she had this script by this young, dynamic film-maker and she had written a film about death row. I thought: OK. And then she said: ‘She wants you to play the death row warden.’ And my ears really pricked up. I mean, what little girl imagines her future and says: ‘You know what I want to do when I grow up, I want to be a death row warden’? I just couldn’t imagine who that person would be. Is it someone who grew up dismembering frogs?”

Woodard talked in depth to six wardens and the director of prisons for the state of Ohio, all women. She discovered that they were not monsters but “people you might have in your book club or that you might know through your PTA”. They came from a background in social work or mental health. “You could not imagine anyone better to deal with these damaged boys who have grown up,” Woodard suggests. And then: “I say damaged boys, because even though inmates might be 70 years old and have been inside all their life, you still see the boy in them; you see it in their faces and the way they walk.”

 
Woodward in Clemency. Photograph: Paul Sarkis

One of the prime motivations for Chukwu’s script was an unprecedented open letter that six former prison wardens had written as a plea to halt the execution of Troy Davis. It gave a unique insight into the psychology of those who oversee death row: “Like few others in this country,” the wardens wrote, “we understand that you have a job to do in carrying out the lawful orders of the judiciary. We also understand, from our own personal experiences, the awful lifelong repercussions that come from participating in the execution of prisoners… Living with the nightmares is something we know from experience.”

Where we shot, they hadn’t cleaned it – the scratches and blood were still on the walls. You could feel the pain there

The wardens Woodard interviewed did not speak in such candid terms about that trauma, but they emphasised their responsibility to the condemned, to give them as much dignity as possible. “Everyone is referred to as Mr and Ms,” Woodard says. “They give people respect, the kind of respect that many of these people would never have had in the outside world, especially in that week before the person has to make that walk to the [death] chamber. It takes at least 10 years to exhaust appeals, so the relationship becomes like someone you have worked alongside for a long time in an office. It is a kind of covenant between them.”

In the film, that integrity and careful emotional engagement are set against the industrial starkness of the prison building itself and its embedded silences – the drama plays out with no background music. “The prison was one of those old-fashioned places,” Woodard says. “New prisons look like a poorly funded public school, very bland – but it’s like: ‘If you are going to take my life I want drama, I don’t want it to look like a health clinic’. Where we shot, they hadn’t cleaned it up and all the scratches and the scrapes and the blood were still on the walls. You could feel the anxiety and the pain there.”

Some of the most affecting scenes are where Woodard as Bernadine fills the silences with talk about end-of-life protocols with the death row inmate Anthony Woods, played with haunting power by Aldis Hodge. It is hard to imagine any proponent of capital punishment not being troubled by the believable surreality of those conversations. It feels the challenge, as ever, would be to get those people to engage with the film in the first place. Twenty-eight states retain the death penalty in statute; 28 executions have occurred since Clemency won its Sundance award.

To avoid preaching to the converted, Woodard says, she and Chukwu and the film’s producers have done all they can to reach out. “We started last summer, screening it for groups of public defenders, prosecutors, journalists, law colleges, social workers,” she says. “We want everyone to see this film, obviously, but in particular we wanted those people who have a stake in mass incarceration and the death row business to see it.” She did upwards of 70 on-stage events prior to lockdown. And what was the response? “Often it is easy for people to think it’s not about them – it’s like: ‘They are always killing people in Texas or wherever.’ We wanted people in Iowa, where they haven’t killed anyone in 20 years, to think, this is a national malaise. As long as you are paying taxes then you are complicit in this; or at least if you remain silent you are complicit.”


 With Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave
(2013).
 Photograph: Fox Searchlight/Everett/Rex
Advertisement


Woodard believes one unexpected effect of lockdown – when we spoke California was reintroducing restrictions – is that people have been drawn to things that they might not normally watch. The film is available on streaming services. “I think a lot of people are seeing it who would not necessarily have done if we were busier. And because they are often watching alone, they are really receiving it.”

Perhaps surprisingly, given the drift of Trump’s America, recent polls suggest that a record low percentage of people believe the death penalty to be morally acceptable. And in some ways, of course, the film’s focus on racial injustices could not have come at a more defining moment. Woodard has been energised by the Black Lives Matter protests. “There is a great upheaval happening in this country and those of us who work in social justice are trying to move into that space with specific actions, demands, ways forward,” she says. She knows from long experience as a campaigner that the opening may quickly close again.

Woodard is a board member of the Democratic party and an organiser and advocate for several human rights charities. Her interest in politics stretches back to when she was a little girl in Tulsa, five years old, and her father insisted she watch the news every night.


What makes it feels different this time is that everybody’s kids are in the streets, all colours and ethnicities

“I was around for the anti-war movement in the 1960s and when they killed Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King. I saw that every time people stood for fundamental change they were killed,” she says. She retains hope that this wave of protest will produce lasting change. “During the 1960s, it was the youth mainly on the streets. What makes it feel different this time is that everybody’s kids are in the streets, all colours and ethnicities, but lots of their parents and grandparents who were protesting back then are still there too. The [George Floyd] video of callous disregard for human life, the eight minutes 46 seconds, that brought out the Sunday school teachers, the ladies who lunch, everybody got up and came out.”

What her own first marches were about?

“In Tulsa, the first protests were around access, being able to go into the restaurants you wanted to. When I started, I was in charge of helping make the signs, then I would get the coffees. I went away to Boston University when I was 17 and I was majoring in acting and when I came home that summer it was like: ‘You are an actress, you get up and read out the press statements.’”

 

Alfre Woodard photographed for the Observer New Review near her home in Santa Monica, California, July 2020. Photograph: Saroyan Humphrey

Ironically, partly because of segregation the community she grew up in was incredibly vibrant, she says. “Everyone lived together – doctors, lawyers, ballerinas, pole dancers. You could go to the well-off white part of town, but not to the white working-class areas. The butting of heads was between well-off black people and working-class whites. Classism was as important as racism in some ways.”

Woodard’s family was on that particular frontline. Her father was self-made, “an interior designer, a property developer and an oil man. That’s what people did back then. My paediatrician had two side hustles. It was in the blood.”

Just how much that was the case was revealed in Woodard’s journey into her past in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2015. The programme uncovered not only the fact that her great-grandfather was enslaved in Georgia – “he showed up in records as ‘property’ when he was eight years old” – but that after emancipation he went on to be a landowner with his own acres. “There was a period of reconstruction right after the proclamation. These people had only the rags on their backs, but they got out there and did it for themselves,” Woodard says. “That story rarely gets told, but what a great lesson it would make. We had more black representation in the legislature in that period, before lynching and the Jim Crow laws, than we had up until about a decade ago.” In the programme, in tribute to Alex Woodard’s climb from bondage to landowner, Alfre poured a libation of water on the land that he acquired.

That story ran deep with her father. “From as early as I can remember he would say: ‘Never forget there is no man above you, but also that you are not above any other human being.’” By the time she was 14, her father would invite her to speak in his place to the business club of which he was a member. “He was a most excellent man,” she says

.
 With her husband, the actor and writer Roderick Spencer. 
Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Activism was always linked with acting for Woodard. At her Catholic high school in the early civil rights period, faith mixed with politics. “We were encouraged to discuss things, so we would say, you know: ‘Jesus was on a rampage, he was so radical’ and they would have to agree. We would say, ‘Jesus would be marching right now’ and they would let us go on that basis, but as long as we didn’t wear school uniform.”


I believe stories are healing. You don’t follow the money or the adulation. You follow the story

Brother Patrick taught film studies and once a month students would be bused to an arts cinema. “At first it, was like: ‘Great, we are going to a movie!’ But then when we got there, and we were sitting in the dark, it would be subtitles, and we would be transported by something magical like Sundays and Cybèle. There you were, 14 and in the dark in Tulsa and identifying with a middle-aged French man. That is when I decided I wanted to be an actor. I think I sensed you could change the world with this medium. I got in my first play at 15.”

Fifty years on, Chinonye Chukwu has said that she knew finally that her film would be made because Woodard, “one of the great actors working in America”, had agreed to be part of it. Watching the performance she gives as Bernadine Williams, it feels something of a travesty that Woodard has not had the lead roles over the years that her talent merits. For the past 11 years, she has hosted a pre-Oscars party at her Hollywood home – she calls it the “Sistahs’ Soirée” – “for those black women who have been nominated in the acting category by the Academy, as well as those who, in a perfect world, should have been”. Does she feel that frustration? She smiles. “You can say that. But for me, that cannot be my focus. Because that is imprisoning. Here’s the thing: I came to LA to have a film career, to tell stories, because I believe stories are healing. You don’t follow the money or the adulation. You follow the story.”


The Sistah’s Soiree that Woodard hosts every year before the Oscars, with (among others) Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Mary J Blige, Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith and Janelle Monae, February 2018. Photograph: Gabriel Olsen/WireImage

The stories have never gone away. Before lockdown derailed everything, Woodard was working on the second series of See (set in a future pandemic) and the sequel to last year’s Netflix film Juanita that her screenwriter husband of 37 years, Roderick Spencer, wrote for her (“like giving me a field to play on!”). She is anxious to get back to both.

“To answer your question. Would I like to have been given the career choices that my contemporary Caucasian sisters had? Hell, yes. But not having them is not an option for the great-granddaughter of a striver who walked out of bondage and built for himself an incredible life, which carries on through me and my two children. So if the story is being told on the street corner I am going to do guerrilla theatre. I have had a very satisfying time. I have done what has been offered me.”

She casts her mind back to early performances at school and at film school and in off-Broadway theatre. In one strange sense, Clemency has brought her career full circle. The first professional lead acting role she had in Los Angeles was in the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide. Coincidentally, they took the play to the prison in which Clemency was filmed and performed it for the female inmates.

Watch the trailer for Clemency


“You know, when I started to act I realised that I had been walking around all my life doing the breaststroke on dry land,” Woodard says, “and suddenly somebody had tipped me into the water. There was a freedom and a connection that I never wanted to lose. And to this day I go through all the bullshit of the business just to get to that bit between ‘action’ and ‘cut’. That is why I came in the first place,” she says. And that is why she is, triumphantly, very much still here.

• Clemency is available now on Curzon Home Cinema and bohemiamedia.co.uk/clemency/


LIKE CARBON CAPTURE THIS IS A THEORY
Small module reactors can help Canada meet sustainability goals, expert says

SMRs could allow Canada to meet net-zero emissions goals while leveraging nuclear expertise for a growing global market, says CNA President John Gorman


Author of the article: Daniel Johnson
Publishing date: Aug 03, 2021 •
Point LePreau nuclear station in New Brunswick. The province is currently examining the prospects for a pair of new Candu reactors, which would make it the largest nuclear province in Canada after Ontario. PHOTO BY PHOTO BY SHAUN POLZER, CALGARY HERALD

Small module reactors (SMRs), are a nuclear technology vital to achieving Canada’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, says the president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA).

In an interview with the National Post, John Gorman said that SMRs are smaller, cheaper and more scalable than traditional nuclear reactors. Where traditional reactors are large infrastructure projects, SMRs can be mass manufactured and assembled elsewhere, allowing for drastic reductions in costs, Gorman said. The reactors possess advanced safety and automation features, he said, that allow them to be operated with no human intervention.

A recent study by the association concluded that between 2035 and 2050, small reactors could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s heavy industrial sectors by 216 megatonnes, the equivalent of eliminating emissions from the oil and gas sector for one year in Canada.

“Our sustainability goals really have everything to do with hitting our GHG targets, but also with the type of product that we produce,” Gorman said. “And whether that product is competitive on the international market, not just from a cost perspective, but from a carbon intensity perspective.”

On Nov. 19, 2020, the minister of environment and climate change, Jonathan Wilkinson, tabled the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act in the House of Commons. The act legally binds the government to a process to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The study by CNA indicated that utilizing SMRs in Canada’s heavy industries could reduce the costs associated with reaching net-zero emissions by more than five per cent, while contributing up to $5 billion towards annual GDP by 2050.

“People are just not appreciating the size of the challenge that we have in front of us from an electricity generation point of view,” Gorman said.

In Canada, 80 per cent of our energy generation is non-emitting, said Gorman, but we need to clean up the last 20 per cent. However, Gorman said Canada also needs to double or even triple electricity generation. The Government of Canada said that generating electricity across all economic sectors by 2050 will require Canada to produce two to three times more non-emitting power as it does at present.

“So how do you produce two to three times as much electricity generation as we currently have, without bringing all of the tools you can to the table?” said Gorman.

SMRs can be paired with renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, Gorman said. Where wind and solar technologies are dependent on the sun shining or the wind blowing, Gorman said, SMRs could provide support as other renewables go through cycles of production.

In Canada and abroad, SMR implementation is gaining traction.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG), stated that it is planning to integrate an SMR at its Darlington site as early as 2028, depending on regulatory approvals and licensing.

“We recently announced our goal to site an SMR at our licensed Darlington site as early as 2028, cementing OPG and Ontario’s role as a world-leader in this technology, and in turn, creating job opportunities and economic growth,” said Ken Hartwick, the president and CEO of OPG in a press release.

In November 2018, the Canadian government released its SMR Roadmap. The roadmap is a 10-month nationwide study of SMRs developed in response to markets looking for smaller, simpler and cheaper forms of nuclear energy. It outlined next steps towards further development of the technology in Canada. It also states that Canada has a domestic market with great potential and a window of opportunity to lead the industry.

The World Nuclear Association said that in October 2020, OPG announced it would bring forward design work with three developers of grid-scale SMRs, in an effort to support remote energy needs. In November 2020, New Brunswick Power and Moltex Energy were supported by ARC Canada, a clean energy technology company, to set up an SMR vendor cluster located at Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear power station located about 40 kilometres southwest of Saint John, N.B. In March of 2021, the Canadian government announced $56 million of support, mostly for the Moltex Stable Salt Reactor Wasteburner project, which looks to build the world’s first 300 MW Stable Salt Reactor at the Point Lepreau Generating Station.


“But they’re (SMRs) here now, well past the drawing board and into the licensing process in front of the regulator here in Canada,” said Gorman. “We have got 12 different technologies that are being reviewed and licensed right now, some of them in the last stages.”


Outside of Canada, Gorman said SMR technology is being unilaterally developed in China and Russia with the U.S. and U.K. “very close behind.”

According to the World Nuclear Association China has the most advanced SMR project, in which the country is starting to build a 210 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled reactor-pebble bed module, consisting of twin 250 megawatts thermal (MWt) high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTRs). China is also developing small district heating reactors with capacities of 100-200 MWt. According to the World Nuclear Association, SMR research and development is very active in China, with competition occurring between companies, and innovation shaping the region.

With the global development of SMR technology, Gorman said that Canada needs to press its nuclear advantage. Gorman said that despite being a small nation, Canada has expertise in nuclear technology, with more than 60 years of experience and innovation in the safe and responsible management of nuclear facilities.

Gorman said an example of this can be seen in Canada’s CANDU technology. The CNA states that CANDU reactors are heavy water reactors developed by Canadian scientists and engineers. The Government of Canada states that there are 18 CANDU reactors in Ontario, one in New Brunswick and another 10 operating outside the country.

Canada exports its CANDU technology to seven other nations, said Gorman, and Canada is widely regarded as a world leader in nuclear technology. If Canada continues to be a first-mover on SMRs, Gorman said Canada can use new and existing technology to hit GHG reduction targets while meeting the growing global market demand for SMRs.

According to Natural Resources Canada, the SMR technology market is expected to reach $150 billion to $300 billion by 2040.

“I think, Canada has a choice to make right now, which is does it want to capitalize on this expertise and our first-mover advantage here, to create new homegrown technology and be able to benefit from that economically,” Gorman said.

“Or are we going to end up buying that technology from the U.S. and the U.K., which I think would be a real shame.”

UK Government progresses demonstration of next generation nuclear reactor


The UK government’s plan to have the latest nuclear technology up and running within the next decade has moved a step closer today as part of the drive to reach net zero emissions.

From:Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MPPublished29 July 2021



Ministers consider high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) for £170 million Advanced Modular Reactor Demonstration Programme
as well as producing low carbon electricity for the grid, advanced modular reactors (AMRs) could produce clean hydrogen and high temperature heat to decarbonise heavy industry
government also announces pilot of new Advanced Nuclear Skills and Innovation Campus, as UK harnesses new and advanced nuclear technology to help UK reach net zero by 2050

The UK government’s plan to have the latest nuclear technology up and running within the next decade has moved a step closer today as part of the drive to reach net zero emissions.

A Call for Evidence, published today (29 July), sets out the government’s suggested approach to building the first advanced modular reactor (AMR) demonstrator. This will specifically explore high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) as the most promising model for the demonstration programme, which ministers are investing £170 million into delivering by the early 2030s.

AMRs are typically smaller than conventional nuclear power stations, more flexible, and could be built at a fraction of a cost. It is hoped that as well as safely creating electricity to power homes on the grid, HTGRs will also be able to generate low-carbon hydrogen. In addition, thanks to also generating extremely high temperature heat, they could help decarbonise industry and potentially power district heating networks by the 2040s
.

Around a third (37%) of the UK’s carbon emissions come from heat, with a significant portion from heavy industrial processes. By generating heat at between 500 and 950°C - higher than other types of AMR - HTGRs could significantly cut emissions from processes such as cement, paper, glass and chemical production in the UK’s industrial heartlands.

Ministers are today inviting views from industry and the public on the government’s preference to explore the potential of HTGRs for its AMR demonstration project.

Minister of State for Energy, Anne Marie Trevelyan, said: 

While renewables like wind and solar will become an integral part of where our electricity will come from by 2050, they will always require a stable low-carbon baseload from nuclear. That is why, alongside negotiations with the developers of Sizewell C in Suffolk, we are pressing ahead with harnessing new and exciting advanced nuclear technology.

Advanced modular reactors are the next level of modern nuclear technology and have the potential to play a crucial role not only in tackling carbon emissions, but also in powering industry and driving forward Britain’s economic growth, as we build back greener.

Today’s step builds on the commitment made in the Energy White Paper and the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for £170 million of investment in an R&D programme for Advanced Modular Reactors, as part of a £385 million package to accelerate the development of more flexible nuclear technologies.

AMRs use new types of fuel and coolants compared to conventional reactors, which tend to use water for cooling. Internationally, there are 6 main types of AMR technology, which could play a role in achieving net zero, with some potentially re-using spent nuclear materials as new fuel. However, with one of the highest temperature outputs, HTGRs are being considered for the demonstrator programme.

Independent research from the University of Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute, Royal Society and the Energy Systems Catapult have concluded that AMRs could play a vital role in supporting a future clean energy system.

While today’s reactors are already extremely safe, AMRs also seek to build even further on the high safety features of conventional reactors.

Fellow at the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dame Sue Ion, said:


This proposal is extremely welcome news and demonstrates the tremendous potential of advanced nuclear power, which could be expanded safely to improve the overall efficiency of our energy system, but also help decarbonize difficult to help heavy industry, to help meet the UK’s net-zero goal.

This Advanced Modular Reactor demonstration plays to the UK strengths in nuclear fuel and gas cooled reactors in building a technology platform for HTGRs for the UK to exploit and potentially export internationally.

The government continues to support the development of a wide variety of nuclear technologies, and is today also announcing the piloting of an Advanced Nuclear Skills and Innovation Campus, being developed by the National Nuclear Laboratory. Located in Preston, it will serve as an innovation hub, bringing together industry and academia to collaborate on projects which help develop and commercialise advanced nuclear technologies.

Meanwhile, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is preparing to submit a summary of evidence on nuclear energy to the Energy Working Group (EWG), which will help inform how to address nuclear energy in the Green Taxonomy.

The Green Taxonomy will be a common framework setting the bar for investments that can be defined as environmentally sustainable, helping clamp down on greenwashing – unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims that an investment is environmentally friendly. It will make it easier for investors and consumers to understand how a firm is impacting the environment to encourage greater investments in funds that will help the UK achieve net zero.
Notes to editors

This Call for Evidence seeks to strengthen the government’s evidence base around the potential of advanced modular reactors (AMRs) and high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs) in particular, to support net zero by 2050, as committed in the Ten Point plan and Energy White Paper. Feedback will be used to support the development of an AMR R&D demonstration programme.

There are many possible types of AMRs but 6 have been selected by the Generation IV International Forum for further research and development:
gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR)
lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR)
molten salt reactor (MSR)
supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR)
sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR)
very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR/HTGR)

Read the Royal Society’s report on the benefits of AMRs and HTGRs in particular.

AMRs are one of 2 types of advanced nuclear technologies being explored by the government. The other is small modular reactors (SMRs), which use existing pressurised water reactor (PWR) technology, and which are likely to be able to be mass-produced and transported, flat-pack-style, to parts of the country that need them.

The government is also to extend the Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme, delivered in co-operation with the National Nuclear laboratory (NNL). This will continue to build world-leading capability in advanced nuclear fuels for use in more near-term SMRs and AMRs.
Calgary Indigenous community rallies as calls continue for special prosecutor to investigate residential school abuse


Mark Villani
CTV News Calgary Video Journalist
Published Saturday, July 31, 2021 




A group of Calgary's Indigenous residents, along with their supporters, called on the government to investigate residential schools.


CALGARY -- Hundreds of Canadians marched on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and across the country Saturday in an effort to put pressure on the federal government to investigate abuse against Indigenous peoples at residential schools.

The march for ‘truth and justice’ was organized by a pair of NDP MPs – Mumilaaq Qaqaaw, who represents the riding of Nunavut and Charlie Angus, who represents Timmins-James Bay.

A rally at Calgary’s city hall saw a small group of people turn out to show their support and solidarity, including Indigenous advocate Nicole Johnston from the Piikani Nation.


Related Stories
'This is about our children:' Ottawa march calls for independent investigation into residential schools

“We cannot trust the federal government, because of the evidence that they are sitting on and hiding behind, most notably the policy of the genocide against Indigenous people,” Johnston said.

“I’m done hearing apologies. I want action and I want justice.”

Other supporters like Melanie Fiddler from the Cote First Nation also stood up for change at the Calgary rally.

Fiddler told CTV News the story of her great-grandmother, who went to jail because she didn’t want to send her children to a residential school. She says for decades, her family has lived on the foundation where Indigenous people suffer immense intergenerational trauma.

“They weren't allowed to comfort each other, or support each other, they were totally divided, so they were complete strangers and so for our generation, it was the same way,” Fiddler said.

“There’s always been a government policy to kill off the Indian in this country. We’re human, we want our dignity back, we want our self respect back, we want justice and we deserve it and if people don’t start listening to us, we’re on the brink of not having a planet or a world anymore for your children or our children.”

The frustration and deep sadness from the Indigenous community extends across Canada as thousands share their tragic stories, but the Liberal government insists it doesn’t have the power to initiate a criminal investigation into residential schools.
ATTORNEY GENERAL RESPONDS

In a statement to CTV News, Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti said he has held frank and productive discussions with Indigenous leaders about the next steps the government has to take to provide support.

He most notably said survivors of the residential school system and their families must be included in the conversation following the discovery of graves in Kamloops and Marieval.

"Our government is committed to working with affected Indigenous communities across Canada to protect graves and burial sites using all available measures, including the criminal law,” the statement read.

"We are listening and will ensure that all responsive measures are Indigenous-led, survivor-centric and culturally sensitive. While I do not have the authority to initiate criminal investigations, as this is an exclusive power of the police, we will consider all options that will allow the survivors, their communities and the country to move forward on the path to healing and reconciliation."
A 'SLAP IN THE FACE'

The above statement was read aloud at Calgary’s ‘truth and justice’ rally on Saturday and it instantly sparked outrage and deep sadness amongst attendees.

Johnston began to cry and couldn’t immediately find the words to express her emotions.


“I’m speechless, I just want to scream and yell because the attorney general’s statement is such a slap in the face,” she said as tears streamed down her face.

“We're not going to stop, so the government can go back and forth all them want amongst themselves, but there's going to be justice and they need to be held accountable especially for the kids and all the innocent children that were taken from their parents.”

At the time of writing this article, nearly 70,000 Canadians have now signed a petition to put an end to the legal battle between the federal government survivors of the St. Anne’s residential school.

Another petition started by Angus and Qaqqaq has also garnered more than 20,000 signatures, outlining the demands to hire a fully funded special prosecutor to investigate abuse and violence in Canada’s residential school system.

The petition calls on an independent prosecutor to additionally seek advice from the International Criminal Court, and subpoena documents from Ottawa and church institutions so that may be made available to the public.