Winnipeg Mayoral candidate calls for supervised consumption sites

A second mayoral candidate has come out against a proposed plan to dismantle two Transcona bus shelters as a way to deal with homelessness and due to complaints about drug use.

Mayoral candidate Rick Shone, pictured near a bus shelter on Portage Avenue at Spence Street on Monday, June 13, 2022, is calling on the city to adopt supervised consumption sites to help keep transit riders safe in Winnipeg.

Glen Dawkins - Monday, June 13,2022 Winnipeg Sun   

Rick Shone would like to see the City establish supervised drug consumption sites instead.

“Personally I think we’ve been putting our heads in the sand,” said Shone, standing in front of a bus shelter on Portage Avenue near the University of Winnipeg which had its glass walls, doors, seating and electrical units removed similar to what is planned for two bus shelters on Regent Avenue directly in front of Kildonan Place. “Nobody wants to deal with (the city’s drug crisis). There’s a number of people talking about it but we need someone to actually take some concrete steps.

“We need to try something. We’re not trying anything, instead we’re tearing down bus shelters.”

On Saturday, fellow mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham also dismissed the idea.

“I can’t accept the idea that destroying our own transit infrastructure will accomplish anything but shift homelessness and addiction problems around,” said Gillingham in a statement Saturday. “Bus shelters outside Portage Place were dismantled for similar reasons – but encampments simply moved to other transit shelters along Portage Avenue.”

Shone is proposing the city follow the example of communities such as Vancouver which have had the Insite supervised drug injection site since 2003.


© KEVIN KING

Mayoral candidate Rick Shone is calling on the city to adopt supervised consumption sites to help keep transit riders safe in Winnipeg. Pictured on Monday, June 13, 2022,

“This is the first step to address a really big crisis that we have in the city right now and that is the addictions crisis,” said Shone.

Last June, the City’s Protection Committee released a study on the feasibility of establishing a supervised consumption site, saying that the City could move forward without the province although funding could be a barrier.

Shone considers supervised consumption sites as just the first step in a wider strategy to combat drug use and addiction in Winnipeg.

“I don’t think the city should go on its own,” said Shone, who estimates the cost to be $1.5-2 million a year for the sites. “The province should step in because this is definitely a health issue. The challenge is that we need somebody to take the bull by the horns and get something done.”

These sites increase access to health services for a vulnerable population, connecting these individuals with health services and information on addictions treatment, Shone said.

“I think we have to be realistic here in the sense that we have a drug crisis and it’s not something that is going to go away tomorrow,” he said. “We need to look at what is a bigger plan here.”

Winnipeggers head to the polls on Oct. 26 to elect a new mayor and council.

gdawkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins

L3Harris in talks to buy Israeli spyware firm NSO - reports

TODAY

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. defence contractor L3Harris is in talks to buy Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, U.S. and Israeli media reported, citing sources with knowledge of the deal.

The deal is yet to be finalised and needs to be approved by Israel, the U.S. and L3Harris’ board of directors, according to the joint report by Haaretz, The Washington Post and The Guardian, and confirms parts of a report published in Intelligence Online this week.

It noted that The White House is concerned that any deal with to buy the Israeli firm’s hacking tools would raise serious counterintelligence and security concerns.

NSO declined to comment on the reports.

The surveillance firm, which makes the Pegasus software, has been in the spotlight after revelations its tools had been used by governments and other agencies to spy on people’s cellphones. NSO has said its technology helps catch criminals.

NSO lost many of its existing customers when the U.S. Commerce Department in November banned the company.

The reports said that if approved, the deal could see NSO removed from the banned list – either directly, or by having its assets bought by L3Harris, which will only work with the United States and its allies.

In January, NSO had told Reuters it was in talks with a number of U.S. funds over "various financial moves", confirming media reports that it was discussing a sale of its assets.

Apple is among those to have sued NSO, saying it violated U.S. laws by breaking into the software installed on iPhones.

Microsoft Corp, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Cisco Systems Inc have also criticised NSO or taken legal action.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Editing by Louise Heavens)

Israel is pressuring the US to de-blacklist Pegasus developer NSO

By Walla! AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF - Thursday, June 9,2022
© (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

Israel has asked the US administration several times in recent months to remove the cyber company NSO, developers of the PEGASUS spyware software, from the US Commerce Department’s blacklist, according to Walla, two senior Israeli officials, and a senior American official.

The officials said the Biden administration was considering the Israeli request. However, another senior government official denied the allegations, saying that when Israel raised the request, it was made clear that the White House would not intervene.

If the Biden administration decides to remove NSO from this blacklist, it would be a dramatic change in policy that would likely draw harsh criticism from within the Democratic Party, Congress and the American cyberdefense community.

“We told the Americans that they should not tear down NSO,” a senior Israeli official told Walla. “Even if the company had some problematic customers, it does not mean that the company’s products and capabilities are no longer needed.”

NSO has in recent months hired two US law firms that work with the Commerce Department regarding the commerce list.

The company’s lawyers have appealed the decision to put NSO on the blacklist and asked for a hearing, but so far, apart from an exchange of letters with the Commerce Department, there has been no progress.



In recent years, NSO has become a strategic asset for the Israeli defense community, especially for the Mossad. The company was used, among other things, to promote secret ties with countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, and to strengthen intelligence ties with countries with which Israel does have them.

At the end of last year, after the Biden administration decided to impose sanctions on NSO, an internal discussion took place in the Israeli government regarding the degree of assistance to be provided to the company, and whether Israel should officially contact the US administration on the issue.

NSO heads then sent a letter to the prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister asking for their intervention, and warning of the consequences of the company’s future sanctions.

Initially, a decision was made that Israel would act proactively with the US to change the decision, but at a later stage the policy changed and Jerusalem began to put pressure on the Biden administration.
NSO blacklisting

In November, the Commerce Department added NSO and another Israeli offensive cyber company, Candiro, to the blacklist of companies operating in a manner contrary to the interests of national security and foreign policy.

This was the first time that the US government imposed sanctions on Israeli cyber companies that receive an export license from the Israel Defense Ministry.

The Commerce Department has determined that NSO provided spyware to governments that used it against journalists, human rights activists and diplomats at US embassies around the world.

As part of the sanctions, any American company that wishes to enter into a transaction with NSO must obtain a license from the department.

In July, a series of investigations published in international media revealed that a number of countries – including Hungary, India, Morocco, Mexico and Saudi Arabia – used NSO’s Pegasus software to spy on opposition activists and journalists.

With Marcos Jr.’s election, Filipinos need to brace for a bleak future

© (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Bernadette P. Resurrección, 

Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, 

Queen's University, Ontario -

 Monday, June 13, 2022

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been elected the 17th president of the Philippines, 36 years after his father, the known dictator and plunderer Ferdinand Sr., was ousted in a peaceful revolution.

Marcos Jr. won the presidency with 31 million votes, trouncing his closest rival, Vice-President Leonor “Leni” Robredo, who received 15 million votes.


© (AP Photo/Jess Tan Jr.)

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. poses with his only son Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

 in 1972 in Manila, Philippines.

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. established martial law in the Philippines from 1972 to 1981, a period of brutal repression with more than 11,000 documented human rights violations. Critics of Marcos were imprisoned, tortured, raped and executed. His family and their cronies are thought to have plundered about $10 billion, and they evaded legal claims for the Marcos family’s ill-gotten riches in Philippine and foreign courts even after Marcos Sr.‘s death in Hawaii in 1989.

Critics accuse the Marcos family of whitewashing their family’s crimes and martial law atrocities through social media platforms. In a narrative of denial, Marcos Jr. promises to restore the “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity that his father had begun, raising questions about whether that means a future of martial law.

Revisionist history

The revisionist “narrative of nostalgia” has three parts, according to Filipino academic Victor Felipe Bautista:

The supposed glorious past under a benevolent President Marcos;

The fall that interrupted the Marcos regime supposedly orchestrated by Corazon Aquino, the widow of Marcos’s political arch-rival, Benigno Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on the Manila airport tarmac upon his return to the Philippines in 1983;

The dark present, when Marcos is said to be a “victim of black propaganda,” meaning subtle propaganda that does not come from the source it claims to come from.

The Marcos Jr. propaganda operations include collective memory experts who use revisionist nostalgia as a tool for steering public opinion.

Critics suggest massive and well-resourced efforts to change and control the narrative through historical revisionism has been key to Marcos Jr.’s electoral victory. I complement this with a view that the Philippines’ colonial legacy equally influenced the results of the recent presidential election.

Colonial class divides

In many post-colonial societies, colonial powers and their elite, modern-day counterparts maintain class divides. Those divides allow them to control the masses as a steady source of extracted surplus and cheap labour and, for local politicians, a traditional source of votes.

Development in the Philippines has always been tied to colonial relations. Ties with the United States remained strong even after formal independence in 1946, which is evident in bilateral agreements allowing American firms to own and operate public utilities and extract natural resources.

Post-colonial relations with the U.S. and development aid helped generate the fortunes of a Filipino landed oligarchy, dispensed infrastructure and agricultural loans and provided military aid during the martial law years, setting the stage for the Marcos years as the Golden Age in Philippine history.

Returning from their exile in the 2000s, members of the Marcos family were elected to various political positions. Efforts to change the anti-Marcos narrative and alter the political culture in the Philippines via the new technologies of social media grew rampant.

Before long, photos of bridges, roads and buildings built by Marcos Sr. began to flood social media to suggest the Philippines was on par with emerging industrializing nations at the time of his administration.

“If my father was allowed to pursue his plans, I believe that we would be like Singapore now,” said Marcos Jr. in 2011.

Western appeal

To young voters born after the martial law era — the country’s largest voter demographic — Singapore evokes images of globalized progress: glitzy designer malls, savvy digital technology and western-style posh lifestyles that promote capitalist consumption. Young Filipino voters also seemed to delight in the “cool” Marcos vibe of speaking with American accents and stories of the privileges that come with wealth.

The Marcos messaging — also carefully curated in more than 200 BuzzFeed-style posh, familial and cheerful YouTube videos — sought to temporarily bridge the traditionally sharp social divides in the Philippines. This served to momentarily placate centuries-old internalized local racism, self-othering and a deep-seated sense of colonial, racial and class inferiority among Filipinos compared to westerners and their local wealthy counterparts, such as the Marcos family.

For a deeply class-stratified and colonized society, the Marcos propaganda machine has enhanced aspirations for western markers of progress and modernity.

But these efforts haven’t just been an attempt to whitewash the plunder of the Marcos family and the brutalities of martial law.

The propaganda also conjures up a vision of a neocolonial, modernized and consumption-driven future. In a nutshell, Marcos has escalated western aspirations and solidified the racialized and marginalized class identities that capitalism — an economic system organized around a minority class and its pursuit of profit — is dependent upon.

Marcos Jr.’s references to a Golden Age in the Philippines invites a nostalgic look at the past. But it also warns of a darker future.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Philippines: the challenges ahead for the new president Marcos

A member of the Marcos family is returning to power – here’s what it means for democracy in the Philippines

Bernadette P. Resurrección does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

REST IN 'PEACE'

A.B. Yehoshua, Israeli author and peace activist, dies at 85


Yesterday 

JERUSALEM (AP) — A.B. Yehoshua, a prominent Israeli author celebrated for his mastery of the Hebrew language and a leading peace activist, died on Tuesday. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by a Tel Aviv hospital, which said the cause death was cancer.

Abraham B. Yehoshua was born in Jerusalem in 1936. His work was widely translated and adapted to film and stage. His first book, “The Death of the Old Man," was published in 1962, and his most recent work, a novella entitled “The Third Temple” was published earlier this year. His other works include “The Lover," “A Late Divorce" and “Mr. Mani."

His writing won numerous literary awards including the Israel Prize in Literature in 1995.

Beyond his oeuvre, Yehoshua was a leading voice of the Israeli peace camp, joining fellow authors Amoz Oz and David Grossman in calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict with the Palestinians that would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Yehoshua was “one of the great writers and storytellers of the state of Israel” whose “unforgettable creations will continue to accompany us for generations.”

Tamar Zandberg, a government minister with the dovish Meretz party, wrote on Twitter that Yehoshua “also took upon himself the significant moral role of championing peace and justice.”

Yehoshua will be laid to rest on Wednesday at a kibbutz in northern Israel.

The Associated Press

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

'War is good for business' as drive to arm Ukraine looms over French expo

By John Irish and Lucien Libert

June 13,2022

VILLEPINTE, France (Reuters) - Next to Ukraine's stand at the world's largest arms fair for ground forces on Monday, U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin proudly displays its anti-tank Javelin missile like a big brother protecting its younger sibling.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

The weapon has been key to Kyiv's defence against Moscow's invasion, and as France hosted the annual Eurosatory arms bazaar, the symbolism was not lost on some of the thousands of people who make, buy and use advanced weapons.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

"This year is all about Ukraine. War is good for business, but it's not something I am happy about," one eastern European manufacturer said speaking on condition of anonymity.

Returning after a COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, the exhibition bristles with weaponry from about 60 countries, including tanks, armoured vehicles, riot gear and display cases crammed with guns and ammunition.

This year, the world's second largest arms exporter is absent: three Russian manufacturers were set to come but pulled out. Meanwhile, among the 1,700 exhibitors, the numbers of stands from some Baltic and eastern European countries have doubled or tripled.


Many in attendance spoke of a massive surge in demand as countries ramp up production, both to send munitions to Ukraine and to beef up their own arsenals.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defense and security trade fair in Villepinte

"France has entered a war economy," President Emmanuel Macron said at the opening of the arms show, calling for European powers to learn from their past mistakes and develop the defence industry amongst themselves.

"We have to go much further, much more quickly and more strongly because geopolitics dictates."

Several manufacturers told Reuters there was a shortage of capacity, notably in Europe, which has for years depended on imported - especially American - arms. Some providers said they would not be able to catch up to the demand to arm Ukraine until 2024-2025.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

Elie Tenenbaum, Director of the Security Studies Centre at the Paris-based Institute of International relations, said Ukraine's armed forces were now using more ammunition in a day than Europe's arms industry could produce in a month.

"We now have a European defence industry which is unfit for the warfare we see in Ukraine," he said.

A lack of production capacity both for Ukraine and Russia could eventually slow the pace of the conflict, he added.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defence and security exhibition in Villepinte

Highlighting that urgency, Le Monde newspaper reported on Monday that French authorities were considering legislation to requisition civilian factories to increase the capacity to make weapons.


© Reuters/BENOIT TESSIEREurosatory international defense and security trade fair in Villepinte

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Peter Graff)

Latino activism leads in grassroot efforts on climate change

Sunday, June 12, 2022

PHOENIX (AP) — Students at a largely Hispanic elementary school in Phoenix have long lined up for morning classes on a dusty patch of dirt under a broiling sun.

So when Tony Mada learned of plans to plant 75 young trees at Borman Elementary School, the 30-year-old and his daughter Lilyth, 10, joined scores of volunteers to increase shade on campus.

Desert willows, oaks and mesquites just a few feet tall were among trees planted at the event organized by the local nonprofit Trees Matter and the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy, which is expanding its focus beyond the wildlands to urban areas impacted by climate-fueled heat.

“I’ll do anything to cool things down for my kids in this hot neighborhood,” Mada said one Saturday this spring as he and Lilyth, a student at the school, freed an acacia tree from the wooden box holding its roots.

After experiencing global warming's firsthand effects, U.S. Latinos are leading the way in activism around climate change, often drawing on traditions from their ancestral homelands.

“There has been a real national uprising in Latino activism in environmentalism in recent years,” said Juan Roberto Madrid, an environmental science and public health specialist based in Colorado for the national nonprofit GreenLatinos. “Climate change may be impacting everyone, but it is impacting Latinos more."

U.S. Latinos often live in ignored, lower income neighborhoods that are degrees hotter than nearby areas because they have a higher population density and limited tree canopy. Hispanics are also disproportionately affected by chronic health conditions aggravated by extreme heat, like diabetes and heart and kidney disease.

Latino activists are now sounding the alarm about the risks of global warming for their neighborhoods and the world. They include a teen who protested every Friday for weeks outside U.N. headquarters in New York, a Southern California academic who wants more grassroots efforts included in global climate organizing and a Mexico-born advocate in Phoenix who teaches young Hispanics the importance of protecting Earth for future generations.

“Many members of the Latinx community have Indigenous roots," said Masavi Perea, organizing director for Chispa Arizona, a program of the League of Conservation Voters. “A lot of us grew up on ranches, so many of us already have a relationship with nature.”

Walking through rows of kale, corn and squash at Chispa's plot in a south Phoenix garden, the 47-year-old said he works to increase the group’s base and educate young members about environmental issues like climate change.

Perea, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Mexico, said Chispa members include Central Americans he calls “climate refugees” who fled countries battered by hurricanes and droughts.


Recent research shows most Latinos in the U.S. consider climate change an important concern.

A Pew Research Center study released last fall showed about seven in 10 Latinos say climate change affects their communities at least some, while only 54% of non-Latinos said it affects their neighborhoods. The self-administered web survey of 13,749 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.

Colorado College's Conservation in the West Poll published this year showed notably higher percentages of Latino, Black and Indigenous voters in eight western states concerned about climate change, pollution and the impact of fossil fuels.

Latino and other communities of color are disproportionately affected by climate change, such as more frequent, intense and longer heat waves in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and other arid western communities.

A study by researchers from the University of California, Davis and the American University of Beirut concluded last year that poor and Latino neighborhoods in 20 metro regions around the Southwest endure temperatures several degrees higher on the hottest days, creating greater risks for heat-related illness.

Phoenix, the hottest big city in the U.S., in recent years has seen some of its hottest summers, with a heat wave a year ago pushing temperatures up to 118 degrees (48 Celsius).

The city earlier this year worked with the conservation nonprofit American Forests to create the first of 100 “cool corridors” by planting shade trees for pedestrians and cyclists alongside a south Phoenix park named for the late Latino activist Cesar Chavez.

“It's much hotter here now than when I first moved here,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who lives nearby, said as he toured the 259 newly planted drought resistant elm, ash, sissoo and Chinese pistachio trees.

Gallego, who was born in Chicago and raised there by his Colombian mother, said segregation in Phoenix once forced Blacks and Latino residents to live in the city's south, which meant fewer trees and other investments there.

He has teamed up with fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, of New Jersey, on a bill to create $30 million in federal grants annually for several years to ease the effects of urban heat, especially in low-income communities of color.

While many Latino activists focus their climate advocacy on their own neighborhoods, teenager Alexandria Villaseñor takes activism to the world stage.

Inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Villaseñor spent many Fridays outside United Nations headquarters in New York in 2019, protesting global inaction on climate change.

Now 17, she is a co-founder of Earth Uprising, a climate change education group.

Climate policy scholar Michael Méndez, author of the book “Climate Change from the Streets,“ said grassroots organizing is equally important.

Méndez grew up the son of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles County’s Fernando Valley, where he saw Latino neighbors fight against air pollution and dumping of toxic waste.

“It's not an abstract idea for us,” said Méndez, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine. "For Latinos, climate change is about how to protect our families, our children.”

Anita Snow, The Associated Press

TORONTO NOT SO GOOD

Clarence Square encampment cleared out

Liz Braun -

 Sunday, June 12,2022

 Toronto Sun

Some of the homeless people who have occupied at tent encampment at Clarence Square Park -- a parkette at the east end of Spadina Ave. at Wellington St. W. -- mill about after residents there were evicted by city officials on Sunday, June 12, 2022.

About eight tents were removed from an encampment in a small park area near Spadina Ave. and Wellington St. W. on Sunday morning.

City workers, with police standing by, cleared out the area of Clarence Square at about 9 a.m. According to witnesses, four to six people were living in the park at the time.

One wood structure and one tent remained as of Sunday afternoon.

There is a bylaw in Toronto that prohibits sleeping or camping in city parks.

Eviction notices were issued earlier in June, as is the usual procedure. The notices advise people that they have three days to leave, and city staff offer rehousing spaces indoors at shelters and respite centres.

Some residents of the encampment in Clarence Square accepted spaces indoors.

However, as a street worker said Sunday afternoon, the spaces offered to people sleeping in our parks are often in shelter hotels or other spaces that feel neither safe nor permanent.

Many people facing homelessness have attested to the fact that tenting in a park is preferable to staying in one of the city’s shelters.

Theft, overcrowding and violence are cited as reasons the shelters can be undesirable places to sleep.

Toronto Sun photographer Jack Boland spoke to Devin, who did not give his last name; he is one of the residents of the park space in Clarence Square.

“People are staying in parks because it’s safer than the shelters,” Devin said.

He said he has been in shelters, parks, in jail and on a psych ward, and shelters are by far the more dangerous option.

As for Sunday’s clearance action, he said, “ The solution to homelessness isn’t policing. It’s housing.

“You don’t want people sleeping in a park? Give people housing.”

Wildlife Haven hosting fundraiser with goal of raising $20K by end of month

Winnipeg Sun - Sunday, June 12,2022


The Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre is hosting a fundraiser with the goal of raising $20,000 by June 30, it was announced last week.


© Provided by Winnipeg SunA veterinarian tends to one of Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre's injured patients.

Donations made this month will be matched up to $10,000 by Cypher Environmental.

From June 20 to 26, Wildlife Haven is inviting Manitobans to participate in the new Summer for Fun Wildlife online auction . Prizes include Winnipeg Blue Bomber game tickets, a top-of-the-line Yeti Cooler, a kayak, yard games, Wildlife Haven merchandise, Winnipeg attraction tickets and original art pieces by Wildlife Haven Ambassadors.

To receive auction notifications and updates, participants are encouraged to register at www.wildlifehaven.ca/summerauction .

The $20,000 goal will go towards providing medical care and hand-rearing for orphaned baby songbirds, owlets, fox kits, bunnies and more. Supporters can help raise critical funds by participating in this event or by donating directly on Wildlife Haven’s website at www.wildlifehaven.ca/donate , by sponsoring a patient or by purchasing an item from the Wildlife Haven online store .

Located in Île des Chênes, Man., Wildlife Haven is Manitoba’s largest wildlife rehabilitation center, and the only wildlife veterinary hospital in the province, providing medical treatment for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife for their return to the wild. Wildlife Haven does not receive government funding for its operations and relies on the generous support of donors to rehabilitate wildlife and educate about the awareness, appreciation and peaceful coexistence with wildlife.

Cypher Environmental is a leading global environmental solution provider for dust control and road stabilization, with their head office located in Winnipeg.

Cats that are allowed to roam can spread diseases to humans and wildlife

Amy Wilson, Adjunct Professor, Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia

Scott Wilson, Adjunct Professor, Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia -

THE CONVERSATION

 Sunday, June 12,2022

For decades, scientists have warned that ecologically destructive activities increase the risk of diseases spilling over between wildlife and human populations. Examples of these drivers include climate change, habitat loss, wildlife trafficking, environmental contamination, expansion of anthropocentric activities and invasive species introduction.

Domestic animals also contribute to the movement of diseases between species. Free-roaming domestic animals, like cats, can facilitate the spread and transfer of diseases, impacting both humans and wildlife.
Infectious parasites

Free-roaming cats — which include feral, stray and house cats — present a particularly compelling case because of their large population sizes and their central role in the life cycle of a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) that infects both wildlife and humans. Most people may have only heard of toxoplasmosis from their doctors during a pregnancy or in articles on “brain-altering” parasites.

However, T. gondii is one of the most common zoonotic parasites globally and is estimated to affect about 30 to 50 per cent of the global human population. T. gondii infections can have severe and life-threatening consequences; especially for immunocompromised people and infants infected during pregnancy.


© (Shutterstock)Pregnant women are often advised to avoid interacting

 with cat feces because of the risk posed to their unborn children.

Toxoplasma gondii forms a permanent resting tissue cyst in the muscle or nervous tissue of a host, so even healthy infected people are impacted. Chronic toxoplasma infections have been linked with illnesses including degenerative neurological diseases, schizophrenia and brain cancer.

Domestic cats or wild felids — like lions, jaguars or cougars — intermittently excrete millions of T. gondii eggs (called oocysts) into the environment through their feces. These oocysts persist under favourable conditions for years in water and soil, with the capacity for long-distance dispersal.

If any warm-blooded animal ingests an oocyst, it can become infected with T. gondii. This can happen if a person or animal ingests oocysts in contaminated water or food, or through eating another animal that has already become infected.
Spreading diseases

Although both wild felids and domestic cats are sources of toxoplasma, domestic cats outnumber wild felids by several orders of magnitude. We recently tested whether mammals living in environments with greater densities of domestic cats would show higher infection rates of T. gondii.

While there are no global data sets showing domestic cat densities, domestic cats are closely associated with humans, and therefore, measures of human population density can act as a surrogate for the density of free-roaming cats. Using data from over 200 studies, we demonstrated that indeed, wildlife living in areas of higher human density had higher infection rates of T. gondii.

We concluded that this higher infection rate occurred due to a combination of two phenomenon: high densities of free-roaming domestic cats producing infected feces, and the loss of natural habitats. Natural ecosystems have important roles in filtering, sequestering and removing T. gondii and other pathogens from human, livestock and wildlife exposure pathways. Breaking the lifecycle by preventing cats from hunting and landscape restoration are key preventative measures.

If wildlife have an increased risk of exposure to T. gondii in certain areas, then humans and livestock can also be unintended targets. Public health researchers have shown this repeatedly by sampling soil, vegetable gardens and playgrounds.
Rabies risk

Rabies is another disease whose risk is increased by free-roaming cats. In the United States, cats are the most common rabies positive domestic species, with cats posing two-and-a-half times the rabies exposure risk compared to bats in Pennsylvania. In Canada, we recently found similar public health concerns of free-roaming cats when we examined patterns of rabies submissions of bats in Canada.

In Canada, free-roaming cats were associated with 10 times more bats being submitted for rabies testing compared to indoor cats. In fact, in our dataset, there were five records of free-roaming cats bringing bats into the house that subsequently were found to be rabies positive. This hunting activity by cats is obviously dangerous for people in the household, and is a very simple explanation for cases of cryptic rabies infections (rabies cases without an identifiable source).


© (Jared Hobbs)

In areas with large numbers of free-roaming cats predating bats, the risk that a human will be exposed to rabies is expected to increase.

This risk is directly proportionate to the frequency of free-roaming cats killing bats, which is unfortunately common. Single cats have been known to kill a hundred bats in a week.

In our dataset, one free-roaming cat killed nine endangered little brown bats in one month, with another record of a cat killing 14 bats in a single evening. Many bat populations have undergone severe declines, especially due to an introduced fungal disease. Bats are long-lived with low reproduction, so this additional source of mortality can severely impact bat populations.

Since cats only bring home 20 per cent of what they kill, prey returns and rabies submissions only provide a tiny glimpse of the true cat predation rates. It is therefore apparent that although natural rabies prevalence in bats is low — less than one per cent — in areas with cats killing large numbers of bats, rabies exposure risks will increase.

Protecting health and wildlife

There is broad consensus among veterinarians, ecologists, public health experts and animal rights activists that free roaming by domestic cats is detrimental for feline welfare, wildlife welfare, conservation and human health. Wildlife have the same capacity for distress and pain as domestic animals, and perform irreplaceable ecosystem services with tangible economic benefits, making their predation unjustifiable from an ethical or economic perspective.

Free-roaming cats suffer from increased mortality through traumatic injury, disease, neglect and abandonment. This marginalization of cats needs to be replaced with progressive enrichment resources and responsible management that does not foster an inhumane and biased disregard for feline welfare standards, wildlife welfare, conservation and human health.

David Lapen, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, co-authored this article.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Cats carry diseases that can be deadly to humans, and it’s costing Australia billion every year

How we found coronavirus in a cat

Amy Wilson has done research contract work for Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Scott Wilson works for and receives research funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada

KINSELLA: If Sandy Hook massacre failed to change U.S. attitude on guns, nothing will

Warren Kinsella - Saturday, June 11,2022
Toronto Sun

Dear America:

For starters, let me say this: I love Americans, and I love America.

Mostly. Sometimes.

There’s lots to love. Your people are open and gregarious and irrepressible. Your country is bountiful and diverse and full of promise.

And some of us Canadians become Americans, or have family and friends in your country. Personally, I lived there, in Dallas, Texas. Can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Can still remember my family’s Dallas phone number (FL1-6325). In no small measure, we are part of you, and you us.

For us Canadians, in the big drafty room above yours, we are immensely grateful that you shield us from the despots and monsters found in other places, with increasing regularity these days. You protect us. We know that.

But when it comes to protecting yourselves? You’re not so good at that.

And I don’t just mean the insurrection provoked by Donald Trump, now being documented at the House of Representatives’ House Select Committee investigation of the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Or the cleavage in your politics, wherein Left and Right are orbiting ever-further apart. Or your class wars, which are happening all the time, about everything.

Because we Canadians, if we are being honest with ourselves — and we often are not — have had violent attacks on our places of governance, too. We had one in 2014, when a madman killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo, and stormed Parliament, and shot the place up. And we have a cleavage in our politics, too — with a Liberal Prime Minister who has crafted a crypto-socialist Axis of Weasels deal on one side and, on the other side, a Conservative Party in a headlong rush to the outer reaches of the fringe Right, where conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and Pierre Poilievre congregate.

And class wars? We have those too. We fight about stupid, inconsequential stuff, too, and we miss out on the big picture. Guilty.

But in one thing, America, you have us beat. In one thing, you are the undisputed world champions. And that thing, of course, is ritual suicide by firearm. In that category, you are Number One — with a bullet, you might say.

Reciting the grim statistics to you is a waste of time. It hasn’t stopped or even slowed down your descent into the slaughterhouse. Appealing to your better nature hasn’t worked, either: forests have been felled in the United States, to print up well-meaning and heart-rending pleas for sanity.

And you keep doing what you do. Which is kill each other.

Ask Jesse Lewis.

Jesse Lewis had wanted to be in the army. He was tough, but with a gentle side. Whenever he could, he favoured ripped jeans and a T-shirt — nothing fancy. He was raised on a farm, after all, with horses, dogs, and chickens. He was brave, too.

When the shooting started, on Dec. 14, 2012, Jesse Lewis saw the killer pause to reload. He yelled at those around him — nine of them — to “run.” They did.

The killer saw, reloaded, and shot Jesse Lewis in the head, killing him.

Jesse Lewis’ name should be familiar to you — because Jesse Lewis was just six years old. He was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut. On the day Jesse was murdered, 19 other first-graders were slaughtered. Six women, too.

Here’s the thing, America: you cannot claim to be the leader of the free world – you cannot claim to be “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” – when something like the Sandy Hook massacre happens, and you do precisely nothing about it. You can’t.

The rest of us mostly admire you and like you. We do. But if you didn’t change after Sandy Hook?

If you didn’t change after that — you never, ever will.

Yours sincerely,

Etc.