Canada, Ontario reach historic $10 billion proposed First Nations treaty settlement

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Leaders of the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund say they've reached a proposed $10-billion settlement with the governments of Ontario and Canada over unpaid annuities for using their lands.

The fund, which represents the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations, announced Saturday that the proposal will resolve claims only tied to past unpaid annuities which stretch back more than 170 years.

The Robinson-Huron Treaty was signed in 1850 and committed to paying the First Nations groups annual amounts tied to resource revenues, but the annuity only increased once in 1875 when it rose from about $1.70 per person to $4 per person. It hasn't increased since.

The proposed out-of-court settlement will see the federal government pay half the sum, while the other half will come from the province.

Spokesperson Duke Peltier, who represents the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, noted the 21 First Nations came together in 2012 to seek a settlement through the courts, but that ultimately one was reached at a negotiation table after talks began in April 2022.

"We know reconciliation cannot be achieved in the courtroom," he said in a statement.

"Canada and Ontario heard us and met us at the negotiation table to make this proposed settlement a reality."

In 2018, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that the Crown had an obligation to increase annual payments under the Robinson-Huron Treaty to reflect revenue derived from the territory.

Related video: Ceremony opens announcement of $10B settlement in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory (cbc.ca)   Duration 0:40  View on Watch

"Our communities have struggled economically, culturally, and socially because of this breach of Treaty," said Chief Dean Sayers of the Batchewana First Nation.

"We see this settlement as an opportunity to show the commitment of both Canada and Ontario to respect and implement our rights affirmed in the Treaty."

Marc Miller, federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, issued a statement on Saturday saying he hopes the settlement marks an advancement in efforts to "address past wrongs and strengthen our treaty relationship for the future."

Sayers said all sides will come up with a deal on how to share the revenues generated from resources in the future.

"We do have the extension of co-operation between Canada, Ontario and our 21 First Nations to sit down and hammer out a go-forward deal in regards to how we're going to share in the revenues generated from the resources, as per an interpretation of the Treaty promise — the new promise," he said in a phone interview.

Sayers said the hope is to have a formal deal signed later this year, but until then communities must hold discussions in order to answer residents' questions.

"There needs to be more awareness in regards to the collectivity of the treaty, the historical perspective of the treaty, how and why we landed where we did with the overall eventual agreement," Sayers said. "So there is a lot of communication that hasn't happened as well."

A series of information sessions will be held with the First Nations community. Retired Ontario Court of Appeal judge Harry LaForme will lead the sessions, with the goal of preparing a report of recommendations within eight months. LaForme is Anishinabe and a member of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation in southern Ontario.

The federal and provincial governments will also conduct a review to seek approval for signing the proposed settlement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2023.

David Friend, The Canadian Press

Australian Senate paves way for landmark referendum on Indigenous voice in constitution

Story by Reuters • June 18,2023

 A depiction of the Australian Aboriginal Flag is seen on a window sill in Sydney

© Thomson Reuters

By Praveen Menon

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Senate passed legislation on Monday that paves the way for the country to hold a landmark referendum later this year on whether to recognise its Indigenous people in the constitution.

In a final vote in the upper house of parliament, 52 voted in favour of the bill while 19 voted against, allowing the bill to be passed with an absolute majority.

The referendum will ask Australians whether they support altering the constitution to include "Voice to Parliament", a committee that can advise the parliament on matters affecting its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

"Parliaments pass laws, but it's people that make history," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a news conference after the bill was passed.

"This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be a part of making history," he said.

Albanese will now have to set a referendum date, expected to be between October and December. It will be the first referendum Australians will vote on since 1999 when they rejected the establishment of a republic.

Aboriginal people, making up about 3.2% of Australia's near 26 million population, track below national averages on most socio-economic measures and are not mentioned in the constitution. They were marginalised by British colonial rulers and not granted full voting rights until the 1960s.

Lawmakers supporting the bill clapped and cheered as the final numbers of the vote were read out in the house.

"It is a very simple request....to be recognised in the constitution," Malarndirri McCarthy, an Indigenous woman and Labor Party senator told the house.

"A majority of the Indigenous people want this to happen," she said.

Support for the constitutional change has been wavering in the recent weeks.

Getting constitutional change is difficult in Australia. The government must secure a double majority in the referendum, which means more than 50% voters nationwide, and a majority of voters in at least four of the six states must back the change.

In the past there have been 44 proposals for constitutional change in 19 referendums, and only eight of these have passed. Most notably, a 1967 referendum on indigenous rights saw a record Yes vote.

The government has been backing the referendum and has staked significant political capital on it. Top sporting codes and several major corporations have proclaimed support for the campaign.

Albanese said he is confident that "a positive campaign will produce a positive result."

Groups opposing the constitutional change have argued that it is a distraction from achieving practical and positive outcomes, and that it would divide Australians by race.

"If the yes vote is successful, we will be divided forever," said Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the opposition spokesperson for Indigenous affairs. The main opposition Liberal Party is asking people to vote "no" in the referendum.

Independent Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe, who has also been a vocal opponent of the bill, said the change will only create a "powerless advisory body".

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Michael Perry)

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERIKA
More than 1 million dropped from Medicaid as states start post-pandemic purge of rolls



More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.

Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President’s Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some other states are accomplishing the task.

“Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.

Already, about 1.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press.

Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

By its own count, Arkansas has dropped more than 140,000 people from Medicaid.

The eligibility redeterminations have created headaches for Jennifer Mojica, 28, who was told in April that she no longer qualified for Medicaid because Arkansas had incorrectly determined her income was above the limit.

She got that resolved, but was then told her 5-year-old son was being dropped from Medicaid because she had requested his cancellation — something that never happened, she said. Her son’s coverage has been restored, but now Mojica says she’s been told her husband no longer qualifies. The uncertainty has been frustrating, she said.

“It was like fixing one thing and then another problem came up, and they fixed it and then something else came up,” Mojica said.

Arkansas officials said they have tried to renew coverage automatically for as many people as possible and placed a special emphasis on reaching families with children. But a 2021 state law requires the post-pandemic eligibility redeterminations to be completed in six months, and the state will continue “to swiftly disenroll individuals who are no longer eligible,” the Department of Human Services said in statement.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s process.

“Those who do not qualify for Medicaid are taking resources from those who need them,” Sanders said on Twitter last month. “But the pandemic is over — and we are leading the way back to normalcy.”

More than 93 million people nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid as of the most recent available data in February — up nearly one-third from the pre-pandemic total in January 2020. The rolls swelled because federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the health emergency in exchange for providing states with increased funding.

Now that eligibility reviews have resumed, states have begun plowing through a backlog of cases to determine whether people's income or life circumstances have changed. States have a year to complete the process. But tracking down responses from everyone has proved difficult, because some people have moved, changed contact information or disregarded mailings about the renewal process.

Before dropping people from Medicaid, the Florida Department of Children and Families said it makes between five and 13 contact attempts, including texts, emails and phone calls. Yet the department said 152,600 people have been non-responsive.

Their coverage could be restored retroactively, if people submit information showing their eligibility up to 90 days after their deadline.

Unlike some states, Idaho continued to evaluate people's Medicaid eligibility during the pandemic even though it didn't remove anyone. When the enrollment freeze ended in April, Idaho started processing those cases — dropping nearly 67,000 of the 92,000 people whose cases have been decided so far.

“I think there’s still a lot of confusion among families on what’s happening,” said Hillarie Hagen, a health policy associate at the nonprofit Idaho Voices for Children.

She added, “We’re likely to see people showing up at a doctor’s office in the coming months not knowing they’ve lost Medicaid.”

Advocates fear that many households losing coverage may include children who are actually still eligible, because Medicaid covers children at higher income levels than their parents or guardians. A report last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forecast that children would be disproportionately impacted, with more than half of those disenrolled still actually eligible.

That's difficult to confirm, however, because the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn't require states to report a demographic breakdown of those dropped. In fact, CMS has yet to release any state-by-state data. The AP obtained data directly from states and from other groups that have been collecting it.

Medicaid recipients in numerous states have described the eligibility redetermination process as frustrating.

Julie Talamo, of Port Richey, Florida, said she called state officials every day for weeks, spending hours on hold, when she was trying to ensure her 19-year-old special-needs son, Thomas, was going to stay on Medicaid.

She knew her own coverage would end but was shocked to hear Thomas’ coverage would be whittled down to a different program that could force her family to pay $2,000 per month. Eventually, an activist put Talamo in contact with a senior state healthcare official who confirmed her son would stay on Medicaid.

“This system was designed to fail people,” Talamo said of the haphazard process.

Some states haven't been able to complete all the eligibility determinations that are due each month. Pennsylvania reported more than 100,000 incomplete cases in both April and May. Tens of thousands of cases also remained incomplete in April or May in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio.

“If states are already behind in processing renewals, that’s going to snowball over time," said Tricia Brooks, a research professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. "Once they get piles of stuff that haven’t been processed, I don’t see how they catch up easily.”

Among those still hanging in the balance is Gary Rush, 67, who said he was notified in April that he would lose Medicaid coverage. The Pittsburgh resident said he was told that his retirement accounts make him ineligible, even though he said he doesn’t draw from them. Rush appealed with the help of an advocacy group and, at a hearing this past week, was told he has until July to get rid of about $60,000 in savings.

Still, Rush said he doesn’t know what he will do if he loses coverage for his diabetes medication, which costs about $700 a month. Rush said he gets $1,100 a month from Social Security.

In Indiana, Samantha Richards, 35, said she has been on Medicaid her whole life and currently works two part-time jobs as a custodian. Richards recalled receiving a letter earlier this year indicating that the pandemic-era Medicaid protection was ending. She said a local advocacy group helped her navigate the renewal process. But she remains uneasy.

“Medicaid can be a little unpredictable,” Richards said. “There is still that concern that just out of nowhere, I will either get a letter saying that we have to reapply because we missed some paperwork, or I missed a deadline, or I’m going to show up at the doctor’s office or the pharmacy and they’re going to say, ‘Your insurance didn’t go through.’”

___

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and DeMillo from Little Rock, Arkansas. Also contributing were AP reporters Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Arleigh Rodgers in Bloomington, Indiana. Rodgers is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

David A. Lieb And Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press

Despite brand boycotts and backlashes, Pride events see solid corporate support

Story by Sara Ruberg • June 18, 2023

Some corporate sponsors have kept lower profiles at Pride celebrations this year, but most have not tightened their purse strings or ditched LGBTQ causes in the face of conservative blowback, event organizers and advocates say.

Many Pride organizers across the country say high-profile brand backlashes, restrictive legislation and heightened threats against LGBTQ people have fueled record crowd turnout this year. While that has often meant spending more to keep attendees safe, the polarized climate has also kept sponsorship dollars flowing to Pride events and the groups they support.

Nearly 78% of U.S. Pride organizers surveyed this year by InterPride, a network of Pride events around the world, said their corporate sponsorships either rose or held steady since last year — higher than the 62% global figure — while 22% reported declines.

Indy Pride, which organizes official celebrations in Indianapolis, faced new difficulties in the run-up to this year’s festivities. One corporate sponsor pulled its logo from an event, and another raised questions about a youth Pride carnival it had agreed to sponsor after getting “blasted” on social media, said executive director Shelly Snider.

NBC News
Majority of Americans comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads, report finds
View on Watch    Duration 6:53

Most of the Pride organizers NBC News spoke with, including Snider, declined to identify corporate sponsors that shrunk their involvement or visibility, concerned about alienating important financial backers. Like Indy Pride, Pride organizations are typically nonprofit organizations that also offer year-round services to the LGBTQ community, such as grants, educational events and support for political activism.

Indy Pride’s security costs have tripled, Snider said, and its events have beefed up their safety protocols.

“We’ve hired extra security, gone through ‘stop the bleed’ training in case there is an active shooter,” she said. “This is new to this year. I didn’t think when I took this job that we would have to [learn how to] use a tourniquet, but here we are.”

Even so, Indy Pride raised a record $641,000 and saw crowds swell to an estimated 60,000 at its festival and parade last weekend, putting the event at full capacity.



A couple kisses Saturday, June 10, 2023 during the Indy Pride Festival at Military Park in Indianapolis. (Clare Grant / IndyStar / USA TODAY)© Clare Grant

The mix of changes Snider and other organizers described paint a more complicated picture than recent headlines around brands’ scrambles to respond to anti-LGBTQ backlash — like that faced by Bud Light and Target — may suggest. While some businesses have walked back their ties to LGBTQ events and causes, including Pride-related marketing, many more have maintained or increased their support.

Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride in Birmingham, said some longtime corporate sponsors dropped out this year, including Wells Fargo. Others have demanded more input on where their branding appears. But donations have held steady this month, he said, in part because more local and regional sponsors have filled the gaps left by larger companies’ retreats.

“It’s been a little frustrating,” Coleman admitted. “Some folks use allyship when they want to.”

Overall, though, “we’ve seen an uptick in support throughout the year,” he said. “More people are showing up and out, including allies.”

In Tennessee, where a federal judge recently rejected a drag ban that state Republicans enacted earlier this year, corporate backing for Memphis’s Mid-South Pride hasn’t suffered.


McKenna Dubbert and Sophie Fuller lie on a blanket during the Franklin Pride TN festival, Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Franklin, Tenn. (George Walker IV / AP)© George Walker IV

“We had issues,” festival director Vanessa Rodley said in an email, but after the judge temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in late March, “we saw a wave of new sponsors that wanted to show support. There are a few we never got back, but thanks to our community stepping up and new sponsors, we were able to make it.”

A handful of major brands, including Kroger and Terminix, didn’t return as Mid-South Pride sponsors after making $7,500 and $3,500 contributions, respectively, in 2022, the group’s public sponsor lists in recent years show.

But others, such as Nike, Ford, Charles Schwab and Tito’s Vodka, either matched or upped their previous-year investments, which ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. And regional businesses, including a mortgage brokerage and a dentistry practice, jumped in this year with $5,000 sponsorships.

A Wells Fargo spokesperson said the bank “is a longstanding supporter of the LGBTQ+ community” and still “sponsoring parades in cities across the country.”

After being contacted by NBC News, a Kroger spokesperson said the grocery chain “discovered a recent retirement left the [Memphis] parade without a contact at the company” and reached out to Mid-South Pride organizers. “We provided a contact from which to request support for this year or a future event.”

Terminix didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Some advocates warn that any pullback in the visibility of corporate support during Pride Month — especially by the most well-known brands — risks signaling that LGTBQ consumers are expendable. Others have long called for fewer rainbow-slathered logos and more substantive, if quieter, support from private-sector allies.

“Visibility is the least important,” said Bruce Starr, CEO of the marketing agency BMF. “What are you actually donating and giving” to support LGBTQ causes year-round matters more, he said.

In Auburn, Alabama, Pride on the Plains President Seth McCollough said one of the group’s three corporate sponsors gave money this year but asked to not be thanked or recognized publicly.

“It was kind of surprising to me,” McCollough said, but added, “I guess I understand where they are coming from.”

McCollough said Pride on the Plains hasn’t lost its biggest corporate backers even though state lawmakers advanced anti-drag and anti-trans bills this year.

Among them is Target, which drew national attention for pulling some Pride merchandise last month after store employees were threatened. The retailer continues to be a top sponsor and provides volunteers to Pride on the Plains, McCollough said. But while big businesses can often contribute larger sums, the group relies on smaller companies for most of its funding anyway.


Pride month merchandise at the front of a Target store in Hackensack, N.J.

 (Seth Wenig / AP file)© Provided by NBC News

Many Pride celebrations facing difficulties are in the Midwest and South, regions that have seen a wave of Republican-led anti-LGBTQ legislation this year. Organizers in bluer states haven’t experienced much difference.

Pride officials in New York City, home to the first Pride March, in June 1970, said this year would be on par with last in terms of arranging sponsors and security. But Pride organizers in Charleston, South Carolina, said they’ve seen a significant drop in funds and sponsorships post-pandemic, after setting records in 2019.

Kendra Johnson, executive director of Equality NC, said threats against the community and Pride events have risen dramatically throughout North Carolina.

“I’m 52 — I’ve never seen it like this,” Johnson said, citing threats of violence and cases in which she said organizers were doxed. Johnson’s LGBTQ advocacy group doesn’t plan Pride festivities, but she said some organizers in the state have told her of sponsors pulling out of local events.

Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, an umbrella group representing nearly 100 organizers across the country, acknowledged that many groups face growing challenges.

“We’re hearing that there are a few organizations that have made their own decision to modify their programs or cancel based on legislation, out of fear of government action” by some state authorities, he said.

But many sponsors remain committed after years of support for the LGBTQ community, despite the criticism that often comes with it. Tense political climates, as well as presidential election years, tend to drive enthusiasm and attendance at Pride celebrations because many people become more engaged, deHarte said.

“This certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen,” he said, “and we’ve continued to survive for decades.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

How 'the ineluctable rise of worldwide free market capitalism' has been a 'stunning failure': columnist

OXFORD, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: A protester holds a sign criticizing the inequality of 15-minute cities as protesters gather in Broad Street on February 18, 2023 in Oxford, England. The concept of 15-minute cities suggests that all services, amenities, work, and leisure are accessible a 15-20 minute walk or cycle from a person's front door. Protesters argue that the measures will ghettoise areas and restrict their freedom to move around as they want to. Car journeys will be restricted at certain times of the day and will be policed by number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and fines 

(Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images).

Maya Boddie

June 18, 2023

Writing in Sunday's New York TimesNew York Times, global economics correspondent Patricia Cohen broke down how financial globalization proves that "almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong."

Cohen notes the stark contrast between "the world's business and political leaders'" optimistic outlook on the global economy during the 2018 "annual economic forum in Davos," to "now, as the second year of war in Ukraine grinds on and countries struggle with limp growth and persistent inflation, questions about the emerging economic playing field have taken center stage."

The columist points to the "heady triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991," adding, "Associated economic theories about the ineluctable rise of worldwide free market capitalism took on" a sense "of invincibility and inevitability," as "open markets, hands-off government and the relentless pursuit of efficiency would offer the best route to prosperity."

READ MORE: The world economy is changing. People know, but their leaders don't

During that time, Cohen continues, "There was reason for optimism," noting, "During the 1990s, inflation was low while employment, wages and productivity were up. Global trade nearly doubled. Investments in developing countries surged. The stock market rose."

She then emphasizes, "It was believed that a new world where goods, money and information crisscrossed the globe would essentially sweep away the old order of Cold War conflicts and undemocratic regimes," but "there were stunning failures as well," as "globalization hastened climate change and deepened inequalities."

Cohen acknowledges even though "the financial meltdown in 2008 came close to tanking the global financial system," it wasn't until the Covid-19 pandemic, that "the rat-a-tat series of crises exposed with startling clarity vulnerabilities that demanded attention."

READ MORE: A Pride Month reminder: Corporations are not allies

Furthermore, she notes "the consulting firm EY concluded in its 2023 Geostrategic Outlook, the trends behind the shift away from ever-increasing globalization 'were accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic — and then they have been supercharged by the war in Ukraine.'"

Cohen adds:

The economic havoc wreaked by the pandemic combined with soaring food and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine have created a spate of debt crises. Rising interest rates have made those crises worse. Debts, like energy and food, are often priced in dollars on the world market, so when U.S. rates go up, debt payments get more expensive.

She emphasizes, "as the dust has settled, it has suddenly seemed as if almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong, referencing a recent World Bank analysis, saying, "Nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades are fading," adding, "The result could be a lost decade in the making — not just for some countries or regions as has occurred in the past — but for the whole world."

READ MORE: Washington's $849 million capital gains windfall shows 'taxing the rich is a really good idea'

Cohen's article continues at this link (subscription required).

Donnie Creek wildfire in B.C. now the largest recorded in province's history

Blaze southeast of Fort Nelson covers nearly 5,344 square kilometres, remains out of control

CBC
Published on Jun. 18, 2023

The Donnie Creek wildfire in northeastern British Columbia has now surpassed the 2017 Plateau fire as the largest individual fire, by area burned, ever recorded in the province's history.

It was sparked on May 12 by lightning, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), and covers an area of 5,343.88 square kilometres as of 10 a.m. PT on Sunday. It is still not responding to suppression efforts and remains out of control, according to the BCWS.

Before this year — which has seen an unusually early start to fire season — the largest single fire was the 2017 Plateau fire near Williams Lake, an amalgamation of several smaller fires that burned a total of 5,210 square kilometres.

The wildfire is burning 136 kilometres southeast of Fort Nelson, and 158 kilometres north of Fort St. John, in the province's Peace River region.

RELATED: We know the human costs of wildfires, but what about our wildlife?

BCWS fire information officer Marg Drysdale said the blaze was "extremely active" on Sunday and that in some pockets, the fire was so aggressive it was burning the tops of trees — what is called "Crown fire" behaviour.

"We have cooler conditions today," she said on Sunday morning. "But this fire is so large that there's different weather patterns and different weather conditions on different parts of the fire."

Drysdale said that if the 948-kilometre-long perimeter of the fire was stretched out, it would go from Fort St. John in northeast B.C. all the way to Kamloops in the Central Interior.

While the blaze isn't burning near major population centres, it has resulted in evacuation orders for a sparsely populated region primarily used by the forestry and oil and gas industries.

It was burning two kilometres away from the critical Alaska Highway route at a point north of Trutch, B.C. Evacuation orders and alerts are in place for a 160-kilometre stretch of the road.

"Our objectives are to protect and keep the Alaska Highway open because we understand what an important corridor that is for many people," Drysdale said.

Crews conducted planned ignitions around the perimeter of the fire, near the highway, on Friday. The BCWS says the fire perimeter is currently holding at that spot, but warmer weather conditions are expected to return on Thursday.
Drought, high temperatures are factors in fire size

The Donnie Creek blaze is not as large as the 2018 Tweedsmuir complex of fires, nor the 2017 Hanceville-Riske Creek complex, which burned 3,015 and 2,412 square kilometres, respectively. However, wildfire officials say because those complexes consisted of multiple fires burning in separate but nearby areas, they are not considered a single blaze.

The Plateau fire complex in 2017, which also consisted of nearby fires, burned an area of 5,451 square kilometres.

The Donnie Creek fire now covers an area 1.8 times the size of Metro Vancouver. Drysdale said the Peace region began early May facing drought conditions, and there hasn't been the precipitation that would have helped ward off large fire starts in the spring.

"The fire started in May, which is during what we call spring dip. So, the area hadn't greened up and vegetation hadn't accepted the moisture that it normally does," she said.

"We saw 30 degree temperatures in the spring. And we've had high and continuous winds throughout."

More than 80 fires are burning across B.C. as of 12 p.m. PT on Sunday, and 25 of them are considered out of control.

Thumbnail courtesy of B.C. Wildfire via CBC.

The story was written by Akshay Kulkarni and origially published for CBC News

Visit The Weather Network's wildfire hub to keep up with the latest on the active start to wildfire season across Canada.

REVANCHIST REACTIONARIES ATTACK HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL
A majority of Republicans now say same-sex relations are immoral after a year of 'groomer' attacks on the LGBTQ community

Charles R. Davis
Jun 18, 2023, 

Overall, 64% of Americans say that gay or lesbian relations are "morally acceptable," according to Gallup. 

Only 41% of Republicans say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, according to Gallup.
That is a 15% drop from 2022, the largest single-year change since Gallup began asking the question.
The drop comes amid a right-wing campaign to link LGBTQ people with "grooming" and pedophilia.

The right-wing campaign to tar the LGBTQ community with false allegations of pedophilia appears to be having an impact on Republican voters, a majority of whom now say that same-sex relations are immoral, according to a poll by Gallup.

In the survey conducted last month, just 41% of Republicans said that gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, a 15% drop from 2022. It was the largest single-year change in the past two decades.

Democratic approval also fell from 85% to 79%.

Independents who say same-sex relations are morally acceptable has remained steady in recent years, with 73% expressing approval in 2023 compared to 72% the year before, according to Gallup.

The sharp drop in support among some Americans follows an especially aggressive year of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and politics.

Over the last year, right-wing activists and politicians have increasingly attacked the LGBTQ community, claiming that public school teachers are "grooming" students by acknowledging the existence of gay or transgender people.

The attacks have led school districts across the country to pull books from libraries over claims that depictions of gay or transgender relationships are "pornographic."

Last year, the crisis monitoring group ACLED found that right-extremists had held at least 55 protests explicitly targeting LGBTQ people, with the rise in such actions correlating with a spike in violence against the community.

The rhetoric has also been picked up by conservative news outlets, with Fox News last week reporting last week that "critics" were accusing the Biden administration of promoting "grooming and pedophilia" for flying a transgender-inclusive Pride flag at the White House.

Overall, 64% of Americans still say that gay or lesbian relations are "morally acceptable," including 79% of Democrats and 73% of self-described independents, according to the Gallup poll.

Americans have come a long way since 2001, when just 40% of respondents to the same poll expressed approval of same-sex relations.

Approval of gay and lesbian relations hit a record high last year, when 71% of Americans told Gallup that such relations were morally permissible — including 56% of Republicans.

AMERIKA

White communities prefer to risk repeat flooding rather than move to safer but more diverse neighborhoods

by Amy McCaig, Rice University

Distribution of owner–occupant FEMA HMGP participants, 1990–2017. 

Credit: Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Even after suffering flood damage, homeowners in mostly white communities prefer to accept higher risk of disaster repeating itself than relocate to areas with more racial diversity and less flood risk, according to new research from Rice University.

James Elliott , professor and chair of sociology, and Jay Wang, a senior spatial analyst at Rice's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, are the authors of "Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks," published today in Environmental Research Letters.

To conduct their research, they tracked where nearly 10,000 Americans sold their flood-prone homes and moved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program—the largest managed retreat program in the country—between 1990 and 2017. The data included address-to-address residential relocation information, flood risks of different addresses, community-level racial and ethnic composition, average housing values and more.

"We found that across the U.S., the best predictor of the risk level at which homeowners voluntarily retreat is not whether they live in a coastal or inland area, or whether they live in a big city or a small town," Elliott said. "It is the racial composition of their immediate neighborhood."

He and Wang found that homeowners in majority-white neighborhoods are willing to endure a 30% higher flood risk before retreating than homeowners in majority-Black neighborhoods, after accounting for the various types of areas people live in (coastal, urban, rural, etc.).

"But, there are also some universal tendencies," Wang said. "One is that, regardless of location, most retreating homeowners do not move far."

Nationwide, the average driving distance between people's bought-out homes and new destinations is just 7.4 miles. Nearly three-quarters—74%—stay within 20 miles of their flood-ravaged homes.

"In other words, homeowners are not migrating long distances to safer towns, states and regions," Elliott said. "They are moving within their neighborhoods and between nearby areas."

The research also showed that despite being short-distance, these moves do reduce homeowners' future flood risks. Nationwide, the average reduction is 63%, from 5.6 on First Street's flood factor at origin to 2.1 at destination.

"This shows that sustained community attachment and risk reduction can go together," Wang said. "But, these dynamics remain deeply divided by race, especially for those living in majority-white communities."

More information: James R Elliott et al, Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks, Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Journal information: Environmental Research Letters 

Provided by Rice University 

When homes flood, who retreats and to where? The average move is only seven miles, and race plays a role

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity

Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.

“This book is a marvel. It manages to quietly excoriate the insidious, entrenched attitudes that continue to sow racial hatred and division and to show the large and small ways that they continue. Devoid of moralizing, this powerful, heavily researched and annotated book is a must-read for religious leaders and academics.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)

“A concise yet comprehensive combination of deeply documented religious history, social science research about contemporary religion, and heartfelt memoir. . . . An indispensable study of Christianity in America.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“A refreshing blend of historical accounting, soul-searching reflection, and analysis of white supremacy within the American Christian identity. . . . Jones’s introspective, measured study is a revelatory unpacking of influence and history of white Christian nationalism.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Robert P. Jones’s searing White Too Long brilliantly argues that his fellow white Christians must dissent from their received faith and embrace a theology of racial justice. White Too Long is a prophetic call of redemption for folk who have too often idolized whiteness and worshipped America instead of the God of Martin, Fannie Lou and Jesse.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University; author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“White Too Long is a powerful and much-needed book. It is a direct challenge to white Christians to finally put aside the idolatry of whiteness in order to release the country and themselves into a different possibility.  With clarity of moral vision, historical nuance, and the sensitivity of an artist’s pen, Jones has written a critical book for these troubled times.”
—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University; author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lesson for Our Own

“In White Too Long, Robert Jones offers both searching personal testimony and a rigorous look at the facts to call white Christians to account for the scandalous ways white supremacists have regularly distorted and manipulated a faith dedicated to love and justice to rationalize racism. Jones is a rare and indispensable voice in our public conversation about religion because he combines painstaking data analysis with a sure moral sense. May this book encourage soul-searching, repentance, and conversion.”
—E. J. Dionne Jr., Columnist for The Washington Post; author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country

“White Too Long is meticulously researched and compelling throughout. It’s also a damning moral indictment of the way white supremacy has infected the white church in the United States from its very beginnings—which lays bare the need, now more than ever, for white Christians to systematically repent of white supremacy.”
—Jim Wallis, Founder and President of Sojourners; author of Christ in Crisis? Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus

“With integrity and vulnerability, Jones exposes the subtle but profound compatibility between white supremacist ideology and white Christian theology. This remarkably courageous, must read book helps white Christians in America finally face the question Jones had to ask himself, “Can you be “white” and Christian?”
—The Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary; Canon Theologian, Washington National Cathedral

“Robert Jones combines the passion of a memoirist, the rigor of a social scientist, and the tenacity of a historian to produce this piercing exploration of the dark ties that bind aspects of American Christianity to the nation’s original sin of racism. For anyone hoping to understand the cultural, racial, and religious fault lines that divide America today, White Too Long is timely, insightful and indispensable.”
—Ronald Brownstein, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Senior Political Analyst for CNN

Synopsis:

As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians—from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast—have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.

With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough—accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.

White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.