First Native American woman in space awed by Mother Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The first Native American woman in space said Wednesday she is overwhelmed by the beauty and delicacy of Mother Earth, and is channeling “positive energy” as her five-month mission gets underway.


First Native American woman in space awed by Mother Earth© Provided by The Canadian Press

NASA astronaut Nicole Mann said from the International Space Station that she’s received lots of prayers and blessings from her family and tribal community. She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California.

Mann showed off the dream catcher she took up with her, a childhood gift from her mother that she’s always held dear. The small traditional webbed hoop with feathers is used to offer protection, and she said it's given her strength during challenging times. Years before joining NASA in 2013, she flew combat in Iraq for the Marines.

"It’s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home and that when things are difficult or things are getting hard or I’m getting burned-out or frustrated, that strength is something that I will draw on to continue toward a successful mission,” Mann told The Associated Press, which gathered questions from members and tribal news outlets across the country.

Mann said she's always heeded her mother's advice on the importance of positive energy, especially on launch day.

“It's difficult for some people maybe to understand because it's not really tangible,” she said. “But that positive energy is so important, and you can control that energy, and it helps to control your attitude."

Related video: Watch: SpaceX mission brings first Native American woman to space
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Mann, 45, a Marine colonel and test pilot who was born in Petaluma, California, said it’s important to recognize there are all types of people aboard the space station. It's currently home to three Americans, three Russians and one Japanese astronaut.

“What that does is it just highlights our diversity and how incredible it is when we come together as a human species, the wonderful things that we can do and that we can accomplish,” she said.

While fascinated with stars and space as a child, Mann said she did not understand who became astronauts or even what they did. “Unfortunately, in my mind at that time, it was not in the realm of possibilities,” she said.

That changed later in her career. Now, she's taking in the sweeping vistas of Earth from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up and hoping to see the constellations, as she encourages youngsters to follow their dreams.

As for describing Earth from space, “the emotions are absolutely overwhelming,” she said. "It is an incredible scene of color, of clouds and land, and it’s difficult not to stay in the cupola (lookout) all day and just see our planet Earth and how beautiful she is, and how delicate and fragile she is against the blackest of black that I’ve ever seen — space — in the background.”

Mann rocketed into orbit with SpaceX on Oct. 5. She'll be up there until March. She and her husband, a retired Navy fighter pilot, have a 10-year-old son back home in Houston.

The first Native American in space, in 2002, was now retired astronaut John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN MAN IN SPACE

Poverty remains an ever-present problem in Lethbridge: report

IN RICHEST PROVINCE IN CANADA

Wed, October 19, 2022 

The Social Health Equity Network of Lethbridge and Area (SHENLA) has released a report that identifies the rates of child and family poverty in Lethbridge and surrounding areas.

The report, titled 2022 Lethbridge Child and Family Poverty Report: Laying the Groundwork for a Just Recovery, considers the relationship between poverty and social determinants of health, identifying a variety of recommendations for collective action.

The report was prepared by HELPSEEKER, with partnership from the City of Lethbridge, the United Way of Lethbridge and South Western Alberta, and SHENLA. To date, according to information from Statistics Canada cited in the report, poverty rates among all family types in the city decreased from 15.4 per cent to 12.4 per cent between 2000 and 2019. In 2019, approximately 15.2 per cent of youths were considered to be living in low-income housing in Lethbridge, and children aged zero to five experienced the highest rate of poverty among all age groups.

“The numbers are certainly alarming that poverty is where it is,” said Jacki Zalesak, executive director of United Way Lethbridge. “Poverty went down slightly due to the policies of the provincial and federal governments, with efforts on taxes and cost of living. But barriers are still out there and we still want to be able to support the efforts, and the data is important in helping find out what the barriers are and what the solutions are.”

AB LIVING WAGE $21 PR HR

Zalesak also expressed advocacy for the Alberta living wage, with the higher cost of living adding to higher costs for food and electricity.

“Living wage allows people to meet their basic needs with dignity, and to participate in society,” said Sharon Yanicki, spokesperson for SHENLA. “When we calculate the living wage, it includes opportunities for recreation for children, and opportunities for education for a single adult. It is being able to participate and to learn, not just about being able to keep yourself housed and have food.”

Speaking about the negativity of child poverty, Yanicki notes the fallbacks have a rippling effect.

“Child poverty is associated with a cascade of negative impacts on health and well being,” said Yanicki. “Early life, it’s critical for children’s learning and development. If you are experiencing crowded housing, a lack of food, all of these things have impacts negatively towards children’s health.”

Looking to help towards the cost of living, SHENLA and United Way are working together to help those in the city.

“We have asked city council to consider, and we presented to the Community Safety Standing Policy Committee, asking them for low-income bus passes,” said Yanicki. “Because that’s really essential for low-income people to be able to participate in community life, and to be able to get to work and children to have access to recreation.”

With reports helping outline the risks toward poverty and how they can help, the work of United Way and SHENLA will continue in Lethbridge as they advocate for those in need. “We want to address what poverty looks like and be able to end that,” said Zalesak. “We want to come together as a group and continue on our work. Our work doesn’t stop until we have ended poverty, so we will continue on and make those recommendations.”

Ryan Clarke, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lethbridge Herald

Vancouver task force on Indigenous rights releases report for city council

Wed, October 19, 2022 

Vancouver could become the first city in Canada to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with a plan developed alongside the three First Nations on whose territory the city is located.

A joint task force with city officials and members of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations has produced a report with 79 calls to action aimed at implementing the United Nations declaration in Vancouver.

The report has passed through the councils of the three nations and it will be considered by city council on Oct. 25 with a recommendation that it be endorsed.

The release of the report today was marked with a ceremony, with attendees including outgoing Mayor Kennedy Stewart; the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, RoseAnne Archibald; and B.C. regional chief Terry Teegee.

Squamish council chairperson and task force co-chair Khelsilem told the gatheringthe strategy came about because of a "genuine, mutual respect" between those involved, and a desire to create a meaningful pathway for reconciliation in the city.

The recommendations are sorted into themes: social, cultural and economic well-being; ending Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination; self-determination and inherent right of self-government; and rights and title of Indigenous Peoples.

Among the calls to action are prioritizing access to cultural sites for the nations' members and developing a policy to assess industrial infrastructure development through the lens of Indigenous rights and environmental racism.

The report also recommends the Vancouver Police Department work with Indigenous Peoples to integrate into its operations the principles of the United Nations declaration and recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Vancouver city council unanimously adopted a motion in March 2021 to create an UNDRIP task force in partnership with the nations, which produced what officials say is the first co-developed strategy to implement the United Nations declaration between a municipality and Indigenous governments in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Windsor West MPP calls for 'urgent' repeal of Bill 124 in wake of Essex County state of emergency

Wed, October 19, 2022 

Windsor West NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky says, 'Hearing that Essex County went almost three consecutive hours without a single ambulance available is simply horrifying.' 

(Jason Viau/CBC - image credit)

NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky is calling for the "urgent" repeal of Bill 124 in response to news of a state of emergency declared in Essex County, due to persistent delays and wait times for ambulances in the region.

The law was passed in 2019 and limits wage increases at one per cent per year for Ontario Public Service employees as well as broader public sector workers, including nurses and teachers.

The provisions of the bill were to be in effect for three years as new contracts were negotiated, and the Tories had said it was a time-limited approach to help eliminate the deficit. Critics have long called for the bill to be repealed, saying it has contributed to a severe nursing shortage.

"Hearing that Essex County went almost three consecutive hours without a single ambulance available is simply horrifying," said Gretzkey, in a news release.

It's stressful and it adds to a lot of heart ache for county workers. — James Jovanovic, president of the paramedics union, CUPE Local 2974

"A critical and systemic lack of hospital funding, staff, and access to primary care physicians are forcing them into impossible situations. Doug Ford has not acknowledged the depth of this crisis. It's clear that in Essex County, Ford's lack of health care funding has reached an emergency level," she said.

Gretzky added that the Ford government should direct money from its $2.1 billion surplus into health care to ensure critical care is available to Ontarians when they need it.

In the first two weeks of October alone, Essex-Windsor EMS issued more than 500 Code Black alerts, to notify community members trying to access care about delays and wait times.

Photo courtesy of @CupeMedics2974 on Twitter

Contributing factors

On Monday, EMS Chief Bruce Krauter said the issue is caused by offload delays at hospitals, saying, "The causes of off-load delays are complex and relating to long-standing issues of hospital capacity, patient flow, a lack of local primary care providers, which causes increased usage of [the] 911 system."

But James Jovanovic, president of the paramedics' union, CUPE Local 2974, told CBC Windsor that there are other contributing factors that need to be addressed.

"Such as increase in call volume, in EMS specifically, due to such things as an increasingly aging population," Jovanovic said.

Jacob Barker/CBC

"Ultimately it's a bottleneck of, again, those increasing emergency calls, increasing volumes of patients going to the hospital and not enough beds, not enough staff to care for them and properly process them," he said.

Jovanovic added that the situation has contributed to poor morale among the county's paramedics.

"When we are faced with these conditions where no matter what we do we're unable to help the situations we're seeing - that weighs heavily on health-care workers and the emergency responders, so it certainly adds to a decrease in morale, the level of burnout," he said.

"It's stressful and it adds to a lot of heart ache for county workers."

Jovanovic said the union is in full support of the state of emergency. Hopefully, he said, the declaration will motivate different levels of government to take action.

He said more staffing and increased funding is critical in addressing the issue in a meaningful way.

Some P.E.I. businesses and workers feeling overlooked by Fiona wage rebates

Wed, October 19, 2022

The 5th Wave Espresso & Tea Bar in downtown Charlottetown, P.E.I. had its power restored the Monday after Fiona, but owners say it could only operate at 30 per cent capacity with limited hours due to issues with the district heating system. 

(Steve Bruce/CBC - image credit)

Despite more government supports being announced Wednesday for those who lost income after post-tropical storm Fiona, some businesses and workers on the Island say they're being overlooked.

The 5th Wave Espresso & Tea Bar in Charlottetown just opened about eight months ago, and now co-owner Laura Noel said they're trying to figure out how to make up for losses suffered after Fiona because they don't qualify for the province's wage rebate programs — something she said is "discouraging."

"The government support is lacking a little bit," said Laura Noel. "I find we fall between the cracks."

Steve Bruce/CBC

Noel said the cafe's power was restored the Monday after the storm, but the building is old and part of a district heating system that was still having issues, meaning they couldn't use their dishwasher or espresso machine.

They were only able to function at about 30 per cent of their usual capacity, said Noel, but decided to open anyway with limited hours so that staff would earn some money working reduced hours and customers would have a place to get hot coffee and Wi-Fi.

Mid-week following the storm, the P.E.I. government announced a wage rebate program meaning businesses that had to stay closed due to power outages or major damage could apply to have their workers' wages covered.

But since The 5th Wave didn't shut down entirely, Noel said she's had no luck getting wage help for staff who only worked about half of their regular hours that week.

Steve Bruce/CBC

"We were trying to be open, accessible, inclusive to the community," she said. "And it didn't get us anywhere. In fact, it kind of put us back a few steps."

CBC News has heard from other small businesses in similar circumstances. Noel said for a relatively new business, the lost revenue could mean "making or breaking it."

"This could unfortunately take out a company similar to ours," she said. "We're going to stay positive and push through this. But I can see how some people would want to give up with all the struggles."

New relief announced Wednesday

On Wednesday, the province announced that people who typically work remotely for off-Island companies, but couldn't do so without power — or workers who had to take time off to look due to child-care issues — can now apply for a one-time $500 payment.

"It's one of those programs where you try to help as many as you can, and as quickly and as simply as you can," said Bloyce Thomson, Minister of Economic Growth, Tourism, and Culture. "We figured 500 [dollars] was a fair value."

Steve Bruce/CBC

But for some workers who spoke to CBC News while in the lineup for Red Cross relief payments this week, this wage relief program doesn't apply.

Some lost hours and wages because, like The 5th Wave, their workplace was open but not fully operational, or in some cases, not busy enough to keep regular staffing levels.

Those people will still get the $250 relief payment from the province for every household impacted by the storm, and some will qualify for the additional $500 payment from donations to the Red Cross Hurricane Fiona in Canada Appeal.

Although there isn't a specific government program to cover lost income in those situations, Thompson said there will be more to come, and his department welcomes feedback and suggestions from small business owners and workers.

"These are tough situations and we're trying to continue to evaluate as best we can all the one-offs and the situations out there," Thompson said.

"There will continue to be other programs as the weeks go along ... we hope we can help as many people in these financially troubling times as we can."

Estimate puts hurricane Fiona insured damages at $660 million

Wed, October 19, 2022

An initial estimate by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. suggests hurricane Fiona caused $660 million in insured damage.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the storm was the most costly extreme weather event ever recorded in Atlantic Canada in terms of insured damages based on the estimate provided by CatIQ.

It added that many of those affected by the storm were located in high-risk flood areas and floodplains where residential flood insurance coverage is not available.

As a result, the bureau says the overwhelming majority of costs for the disaster will be borne by government.

The storm made landfall in Nova Scotia on Sept. 24 and ripped through the region, knocking out power to more than 500,000 customers in the Maritimes.

The bureau says the storm also washed at least 20 homes into the ocean.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Another P.E.I. health-care union enraged over selective retention bonuses

Wed, October 19, 2022 

Tracy Robertson is president of IUOE 942, which represents P.E.I workers from sectors like construction and healthcare. (Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC - image credit)

Union leaders came to the P.E.I. legislature Wednesday to discuss scope of practice, but those discussions were overshadowed by the $8 million in bonuses the province announced on Monday for a select group of health-care workers.

On Tuesday, CUPE spoke up for its members who work in health care but will not be offered the bonuses and on Wednesday, it was IUOE with strong words for the government.

"Sorry, I'm getting a little upset here, it was just such a slap in the face, and such disrespect that only nursing would be recognized," said Tracy Robertson, president of IUOE Local 942.

IUOE represents hundreds of health-care workers including lab and X-ray technicians, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC

The provincial government announced the $8 million incentive program Monday, offering thousands of dollars in bonuses if people keep working in the province for one year.

Registered nurses and nurse practitioners will get $3,500 for a one-year return in service agreement. Licensed practical nurses and paramedics will receive $3,000 and residential care workers, home support workers and patient care workers will receive $2,500.

Workers feel 'insulted'

IUOE members are not included in the retention incentive program, and Robertson said workers feel "insulted."

"Lab worked above and beyond, completely excluded. Respiratory therapists, the people who would have looked after you if you had COVID — completely excluded. People who make sure you walk after a stroke, physiotherapists, occupational therapists — completely excluded," she said.

"So, I'd really like to see Premier King and Minister Hudson go back and explain to everybody why their work is not worth [a bonus]."

Michele Beaton, Green Party MLA for Mermaid-Stratford, said she has heard from many IUOE and CUPE members about this issue already.

"I wholeheartedly agree with you, that if we're going to look at retention, we have to look at the entire team," Beaton said.

'Pick and choose' will create 'unease'

Robert Henderson, Liberal MLA for O'Leary-Inverness, agreed and said it will likely be bad for morale.

Mary-Helen McLeese/CBC

"All of a sudden to pick and choose some professions for certain bonuses and certain retention initiatives will obviously create some sense of unease amongst many of these professions," Henderson said.

Union leaders said the government's decision could lead to health-care workers leaving the Island, and said some are already looking for work elsewhere.

"I mean, this would create a lot of toxicity in the workplace — 'You got the bonus, you didn't.'" Robertson said.

Government response

The Department of Health and Wellness said it has reached out to other unions to hear their concerns, and meetings are planned for later this week.

"In developing our most recent workforce stabilization programs, our government began with the areas where human resource needs and vacancies were most pressing," Minister of Health and Wellness Ernie Hudson said in a statement.

"We were very pleased with the programs developed to date and we look forward to meeting with representatives of P.E.I.'s remaining health-care unions in order to hear their concerns and do our best to support them and their members."

Robertson said her members have been without a contract since March, and this is not the way she wanted to kick off contract talks.

Ultimately, opposition MLAs and union leaders both say it will be Islanders who are going to suffer, especially if more health-care workers decide to leave the Island.

IUOE ineligibility for management positions

Robertson said another issue is that her members, including occupational and physiotherapists, cannot apply for management positions within Health P.E.I. She said these positions are only available to registered nurses, which leads to even more RN shortages.

She said this is not the case in other provinces and has asked for changes in P.E.I., with no results yet.

Health P.E.I. said its leadership is aware of this concern and is exploring options to address it.

"While some management positions do require the position holder to be an RN, Health P.E.I. is looking at ways to ensure areas that where nursing expertise is not required are able to filled by professionals from other backgrounds," spokesperson Everton McLean said in an email.

"There are many system-wide concerns that are being worked on, and this is one of them."

LET'S BECOME A REPUBLIC
Quebec opposition party refuses to swear oath to King, reopens constitutional debate

LEFT WING QUEBEC SOLIDARE

Wed, October 19, 2022 



MONTREAL — The debate over Quebec's power to unilaterally change the Canadian Constitution has resurfaced as members of an opposition party refused Wednesday to swear allegiance to King Charles III.

The 11 members of Québec solidaire declared their loyalty to the Quebec people, but they did not swear loyalty to the King, as required by the Constitution.

Describing the oath as "colonial, archaic and out-of-date," Québec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said after the swearing-in ceremony that he's been told his party's members won't be able to sit in the legislature until they swear the full oath — though they will have access to their offices and funding.

Nadeau-Dubois told reporters he now wants to work with the other parties to find a way for his members to sit when the legislature reconvenes Nov. 29 without having to swear the oath.

"It's our responsibility as parliamentarians to find a way out of this current cul-de-sac," he said.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said earlier this week that the three members of his party elected Oct. 3 will also refuse the oath when their turn comes Friday.

Constitutional experts are divided on whether the legislature can allow members to sit without swearing the oath and whether Quebec has the ability to change the oath on its own.

Patrick Taillon, a law professor at Université Laval in Quebec City, said the Constitution is clear that members of all legislatures have an obligation to swear allegiance to the monarch, but that the consequence of not swearing the oath — and whether those members will be able to sit in the national assembly, participate in debates and vote — is up to the legislature itself.

While Taillon acknowledged in an interview that constitutional law experts are not unanimous, he thinks the province could unilaterally change the oath through its power to change elements of the Constitution that affect only Quebec.

In 1968, he noted, Quebec unilaterally eliminated its upper house, a body whose existence and structure was provided for in the Constitution. More recently, Quebec passed language legislation in May changing the Constitution to declare that Quebecers form a nation and that French is the province's only official language.

Taillon said the oath is not a declaration of personal loyalty to King Charles, but rather to what the Crown represents. Replacing the name of the monarch with “our laws and our institutions" would create an oath with essentially the same meaning, he said.

“I think that would be a very minor constitutional change, quite in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution, and I don't see how the courts could overturn it," he said.

But Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo who studies the Constitution, said he doesn't believe the province's legislature can allow people to sit without swearing the oath.

"It means they are constitutionally ineligible to sit in the legislature," he said in an interview. "The Constitution is quite clear that this particular oath is required."

Macfarlane said that unlike the elimination of the upper house, which applied only to Quebec, the oath is a requirement of the Constitution that applies to all members of provincial legislatures and Parliament.

"It is not a feature of the provincial constitution of Quebec. It is a feature of the federal Constitution and so it's out of reach for the Quebec national assembly to unilaterally change," he said, adding that it would require a constitutional amendment.

While Macfarlane said there's nothing wrong with debating the wording of the oath, it remains part of the Constitution.

"We should be deeply concerned any time the Constitution is flagrantly ignored by elected officials. It's dangerous. It's corrosive to our existence as a democracy," he said.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters it is up to the Quebec legislature to decide how it manages the swearing-in process.

Later in the day, he closed the door to any constitutional change. "I won't speculate on what the national assembly can or cannot do. What I can tell you is that there's not one Quebecer who wants us to reopen the Constitution," he told reporters.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2022.

— With files from Émilie Bergeron in Ottawa.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

ONTARIO

The Issue with Tissue connects Indigenous history with industrial exploitation

“The forest is alive, the land wants to talk to us – we have to train humanity to listen.”

Wed, October 19, 2022 


On September 18, The Issue with Tissue: A Boreal Love Story made its world premiere at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. The documentary by award-winning actor and filmmaker Michael Zelnicker draws a connection between colonial violence and unfettered extractive industrial exploitation.

While its catchy title springs from a 2019 report exposing how major US tissue brands degrade boreal forests for throwaway products, the film serves as a launching point for a group of First Nations leaders to talk about the importance of these forests for both cultures and the entire world.

“It has evolved into a much deeper story that runs from trees to toilet paper to treaties, from carbon to climate change to caribou to colonization, from water to birds to Indigenous stewardship,” Zelniker told the Nation.

Zelniker says the 600 First Nations communities inhabiting Canada’s boreal forest need to be front and centre of any story about the world’s largest forest ecosystem. It’s why he embarked on an epic 42-day, 16,000-km journey to meet with more than 50 Indigenous leaders and conservation scientists.

Despite pandemic protocols, Zelniker was able to conduct outdoor interviews exploring the stories his subjects wanted to tell. With the Kamloops residential school discoveries fresh on people’s minds, these often-emotional discussions probed the painful legacy of colonization while transmitting generous cultural wisdom.

“They shared their stories with an honesty and candour that is surprising to most people who see the movie,” said Zelniker. “When I met Senator Michèle Audette, after three minutes she was talking about feeling she didn’t have a place on Earth in 2013. I’m humbled by the fact these people trusted me the way they did.”

Framed as a talking circle, numerous Indigenous storytellers speak intimately about their “umbilical” connections with their traditional territories. As Kaska Elder Dave Porter said in the film, “The forest is alive, the land wants to talk to us – we have to train humanity to listen.”

“Our identity is embedded in the land and expressed through the trees themselves,” explained the late Anishinaabe Elder Dave Courchene. “The boreal forest carries that identity of who we are as a people. The trees hold the memory of our creation. It is said if you want to hug the Creator, hug a tree.”

Introductory segments break down the basic science of how trees have evolved, the photosynthesis process and the symbiotic forest ecosystem. Viewers learn the boreal forest contains a quarter of the world’s wetlands and more freshwater than anywhere else on the planet. It stores more carbon than any other ecosystem, including twice the amount available in remaining oil reserves. However, forest destruction turns it into a deadly carbon source.

With vivid glimpses of the region’s wildlife, the film shares that about two billion birds nest in the boreal each year, although that number has declined 30% in the last 50 years. Parallels are inferred between species loss, like the 99% decline of the George River caribou herd from 1990s levels, and industrial motivations.

“As scientist Martin St-Laurent said, no more caribou on the land, no more constraints to get at the resource, which you could substitute for no more Indigenous peoples on the land, no more constraints,” Zelniker asserted. “So much of this genocide against the First Peoples was to get at their land to auction it off for industrial exploitation.”

According to Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, southern forests are lost at a rate of 1% each year, a pace matching the tropical rainforest’s destruction. Another study by Wildlands League found an average of 14% of clear-cut areas surveyed showed no tree regeneration decades after logging, exacerbated by roads, slash piles and other logging infrastructure that inhibit vegetation.

The film implies we are complicit in flushing our forests down the toilet by purchasing toilet paper brands sourced from virgin boreal. In 2020, activism led to a Procter and Gamble shareholder revolt, yet the corporation’s biggest tissue products remain unchanged, and its supplier even launched lawsuits against Greenpeace to silence the protests.

“Accumulating more and more is only lining pockets of the corporate world and destroying our planet,” Zelniker said. “What were we hording at the beginning of Covid? Toilet paper, of all things!”

Environmentalists emphasize the boreal forest’s role in stabilizing the climate and mitigating global warming. This “boreal love story” takes Courchene’s words as its motto: “What we do to the land, we do to ourselves.”

The Issue with Tissue concludes with potential solutions, particularly Indigenous-led environmental stewardship. By becoming aware of where our products come from, consumers can choose more sustainable options.

As Sturgeon Lake First Nation Elder AJ Felix suggests, the way forward may be to emulate a forest’s mutually supportive methods. Understanding our shared connection to Mother Earth and respecting all life as family could help humanity escape its existential crisis.

“The larger systemic issue is one of disconnection, which allows us to do things like colonization, exploiting resources without concern of how we’re impacting the rest of creation or our children’s future,” said Zelniker. “Trees have existed on the planet almost 400 million years. Surely, they have something to teach us about longevity and sustainability.”

When crossing the border once again at his journey’s end, Zelnicker explained his film’s message to a border guard. She told him he could avoid the two-week quarantine and she would promise not to use Charmin toilet paper again.

Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/10/trees-help-protect-planet-from-climate.html

https://www.ursulakleguin.com/the-word-for-world-is-forest

The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin 

The Word for World Is Forest was originally published in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions in 1972. It was published as a standalone book in 1976 by ...

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-word-for-world-is-forest-1

The Word for World Is Forest | The Anarchist Library 

Written in the glare of the United States' war on Indochina, and first published as a separate book in that war's dire aftermath, The Word for World is Forest ...

MANITOBA

AMC must create 2SLGBTQQIA+ council, says advocate


Wed, October 19, 2022 

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) will elect a new Grand Chief next week, and one long-time advocate says he hopes whoever is chosen to lead AMC immediately takes more action to fight for the rights of First Nations 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.

“We cannot continue to invest in old patriarchal systems that are ineffective or not willing to change,” Albert McLeod, a Winnipeg-based 2Spirit elder said on Wednesday.

“We still see a lot of male-dominated attitudes in leadership, and we see homophobia and transphobia because we still see things running under that patriarchal system.”

McLeod, who took part in Manitoba’s very first Pride Parade back in 1987, and who helped write the MMIWG 2SLGBTQQIA+ National Action Plan, says that after the AMC chooses a new leader next week during their Annual General Assembly he wants work to begin to create a 2Spirit/First Nation LGBTQI+ Council at the organization.

He said that council would give a voice to 2SLGBTQ people, and “change the conversation” at AMC.

“It forces people to think more broadly in terms of service delivery, and who they are serving,” he said.

McLeod has successfully lobbied for similar councils to be formed in the past, as he and others successfully advocated for a 2Spirit Council at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) which was officially added to AFN’s charter in December of 2021.

AMC currently represents and advocates for 62 First Nations communities across the province, but McLeod said he believes Indigenous leaders at all levels in this province need to do more to both help 2SLGBTQ people, and also to understand the specific issues that matter to and effect that community.

“Why are we still electing chiefs and band councillors who have no knowledge or training to prevent gender-based violence, and homophobia and transphobia in our communities, or in the workplace?” he said.

“People need training and education, and as far as I am concerned we are still electing people without that kind of experience and that truly boggles my mind,” he said.

There will be seven candidates on the ballot during next week’s AGM, including former journalist Sheila North, and current AMC First Nations Family Advocate Cora Morgan.

Also running are Eugene Eastman, Jennifer Flett, George Kemp, Cathy Merrick and Darrell N. Shorting.

The AMC's AGM and election for Grand Chief will be held in Winnipeg Oct 25-27, with an all-candidates forum scheduled for Oct. 25, and then the vote scheduled for the next day.

The AMC did not reply to a request for comment from the Winnipeg Sun.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun