Thursday, September 08, 2022

Murder At Sea: North Korea Killings Roil Politics In South

By Kang Jin-kyu
09/09/22 
Critics accuse South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol of reopening old cases involving the North for political gain

When North Korean soldiers found a South Korean fisheries official in their territorial waters, they shot him dead and burned the body -- an incident so shocking it later prompted Kim Jong Un to apologise.

Details are sketchy -- and mostly classified -- but exactly how and why the official came to be floating in a life jacket above the sea border known as the Northern Limit Line in September 2020 has become a bitter political debate in the South.

Was the 47-year-old official, Lee Dae-jun, a would-be defector fleeing gambling debts, as the government of then-president Moon Jae-in said citing intelligence it then sealed for 30 years?

Or is that version of events actually a high-level smear campaign and cover-up, as the new government of Yoon Suk-yeol has claimed in raiding an ex-spy master's house and launching legal action over the former administration's handling of the case?

The intelligence services claim that their former chief, Park Jie-won, destroyed evidence showing Lee had no plans to move to Pyongyang.

Park told AFP the charges were "political revenge on the former administration", dismissing the allegations as unfounded.

Seoul's new administration has also reopened enquiries into a second explosive case, in which two North Korean fishermen who confessed to killing 16 crewmates at sea were deported in 2019.

Dramatic video showing the pair being dragged seemingly unwillingly through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and returned to the North was released by Yoon's conservative government.

Moon's government at the time said the brutal nature of the killings meant the men were not entitled to the usual protections afforded to North Korean defectors and could not be considered refugees.

The political fight over the two cases highlights the risks of interpreting classified intelligence and the law in highly partisan ways, analysts say.

Critics argue the hawkish Yoon, who is struggling with record-low approval ratings just months after becoming president, is engaging in old-school red-baiting in a bid to salvage his popularity with disgruntled voters.

"For conservatives, these two cases are an example of liberals taking a subservient approach to the North," lawyer and columnist Yoo Jung-hoon told AFP.

But "the timing of the probe that came right after the change of power raises questions of a political motive behind it," he added.

Supporters of Yoon, a former prosecutor who won a close election in March vowing to get tough on Pyongyang after years of failed diplomacy, say he is simply trying to solve the cases.

"It would be a bigger problem if prosecutors chose to ignore the allegations and bury the cases fearing it would be called a 'political investigation'," Shin Yul, a professor at Myongji University, told AFP.

Legal experts say the cases have exposed contradictions in the country's constitution.

Trying the fishermen in South Korean courts would have been unprecedented, as it was unclear whether local courts had jurisdiction.

One clause of South Korea's constitution describes the country's territory as "the Korean peninsula".

Yoon has suggested that clause meant the men should have been considered South Korean citizens and tried at home.

But the next clause pledges to work for "peaceful reunification" with the North, recognising the reality that there are two distinct countries on the peninsula.

"Seoul has to take a realistic approach when dealing with the North," said Kim Jong-dae of the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies.

Yoon's administration has accused Moon's government of sending the fishermen "straight to death row" by repatriating them to the North.

But critics say the president has prioritised "revenge politics" over dealing with more pressing policy issues such as spiralling inflation and a plunging currency.

Seeking to prosecute officials while not presenting "smoking gun" counter-evidence in either case looks suspicious, said Kim Jong-dae.

"The administration is charging ahead with punitive governance with prosecutors on the forefront," he said.

"It's one thing to raise questions and demand answers about how the former government handled the two cases. But investigating ex-officials is a totally different thing that inevitably raises suspicions of political motives."

The killing of South Korean official Lee Dae-jun prompted a rare apology from North leader Kim Jong Un

One of two alleged North Korean mass murderers (C, in black) appears to resist as authorities try to hand him over to Pyongyang officials in 2019

Park Jie-won, ex-director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, told AFP claims of destroyed evidence were 'political revenge on the former administration'
CLIMATE CRISIS
Heatwave batters Spain's Mediterranean mussel crop

Author: AFP|Update: 09.09.2022 

"There's nothing left," says Javier Franch after a savage summer heatwave decimated this year's mussel crop in northeastern Spain / © AFP

"There's nothing left here," sighs Javier Franch as he shakes the heavy rope of mussels he's just pulled to the surface in northeastern Spain. They are all dead.

With the country hit by a long and brutal heatwave this summer, the water temperature in the Ebro Delta, the main mussels production area of the Spanish Mediterranean, is touching 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

And any grower who hasn't removed their molluscs in time will have lost everything.

But that's not the worst of it: most of next year's crop has also died in one of the most intense marine heatwaves in the Spanish Mediterranean.

By the end of July, experts said the western Mediterranean was experiencing an "exceptional" marine heatwave, with persistently hotter-than-normal temperatures posing a threat to the entire marine ecosystem.

"The high temperatures have cut short the season," says Franch, 46, who has spent almost three decades working for the firm founded by his father, which has seen production fall by a quarter this year.

The relentless sun has heated up the mix of fresh and saltwater along Catalonia's delicate coastal wetlands where the River Ebro flows into the Mediterranean.

On a scorching summer morning in Deltebre, one of the municipalities of the Delta, the mussel rafts -- long wooden structures with ropes attached which can each grow up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of mussels -- should be teeming with workers hurrying around during the busy season.


The heat has wiped out an estimated 150,000 kilograms of commercial mussels and 1,000 tonnes of young stock / © AFP

But there is hardly any movement.

"We lost the yield that was left, which wasn't much, because we were working to get ahead so we wouldn't go through this," explains Carles Fernandez, who advises the Ebro Delta's Federation of Mollusc Producers (Fepromodel).

"But the problem is that we've lost the young stock for next year and we'll have quite a high cost overrun."

- Millions in losses -

The heat has wiped out 150 tonnes of commercial mussels and 1,000 tonnes of young stock in the Delta, initial estimates suggest.

And producers are calculating their losses at over one million euros ($1,000,000) given they will now have to buy young molluscs from Italy or Greece for next year.

"When you have a week when temperatures are higher than 28C, there can be some mortality, but this summer it has lasted almost a month and a half," with peak temperatures of almost 31C, says Fepromodel head Gerardo Bonet.


Producers in the Ebro Delta say they've never known such devastation
 among their young stock for next year / © AFP

Normally, the Ebro Delta's two bays produce around 3,500 tonnes of mussels, and 800 tonnes of oysters, making Catalonia Spain's second-largest producer, although it remains far behind the output of Galicia, the northwestern region on the colder Atlantic coast.

For years now, the harvest in the Delta has been brought forward, cutting short a season that once ran from April to August.

- 'Tropical' Mediterranean -

Hit by coastal erosion and a lack of sediment supply, the rich ecosystem of the Ebro Delta -- a biosphere reserve and one of the most important wetlands of the western Mediterranean -- is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

And this extreme summer, when Spain endured 42 days of heatwave -- a record three times the average over the past decade, the AEMET national forecaster says -- has also left its mark below the surface of the water.

"Some marine populations which are unable to cope with temperatures as high as these over a long period of time are going to suffer what we call mass mortality," says marine biologist Emma Cebrian of the Spanish National Research Council (CISC).

"Imagine a forest, it's like 60 or 80 percent of the trees dying, with the resulting impact on its associated biodiversity," she says.


The scorching temperatures on land have generated a marine heatwave at sea / © AFP

The succession of heatwaves on land has generated another at sea which -- pending analysis of all the data in November -- may turn out to be "the worst" in this area of the Mediterranean since records began in the 1980s.

Although marine heatwaves are not a new phenomenon, they are becoming more extreme with increasingly dire consequences.

"If we compare it with a wildfire, one can have an impact, but if you keep having them, it will probably mean the affected populations are not able to recuperate," Cebrian said.

Experts say the Mediterranean is becoming "tropicalised", and mollusc grower Franch is struck by the mounting evidence as his boat glides between empty mussel rafts in a bay without a breath of wind.

He is mulling an increase in his production of oysters, which are more resistant to high temperatures, but which currently represent just 10 percent of his output.

But he hopes it will help ensure his future in a sector that employs 800 people directly or indirectly in the Ebro Delta.

"(The sector) is under threat because climate change is a reality and what we are seeing now will happen again," he says worriedly.
Crime, far-right set tone in Swedish nail-biter vote

Johannes LEDEL
Thu, September 8, 2022 


Sweden's right-wing parties hope to unseat the ruling Social Democrats in Sunday's general election, relying for the first time on far-right support in a tight race where crime tops the agenda.

The anti-immigration and nationalist Sweden Democrats were long treated as pariahs on the Scandinavian country's political scene, but they have gradually been welcomed into the right-wing bloc in the past few years.

Recent opinion polls have suggested they could surge to become the second-biggest party in parliament -- meaning their backing will be essential if the right wants to form a government.

Sweden, currently in the delicate process of joining NATO, has since 2014 been governed by the Social Democrats which have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s.



Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who took over the post just nine months ago after seven years as finance minister, enjoys strong support among voters.

Some 55 percent want her to remain in the job, compared to 32 percent for her challenger from the conservative Moderates, Ulf Kristersson, according to a poll from late August.

Andersson has earned voters' respect for steering the country with a steady hand, leading it into a long-unthinkable NATO membership application in May following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden had until then been militarily non-aligned for two centuries.

Most polls put the left- and right-wing blocs in a near deadlock, crediting the left with 49.1 to 50.1 percent of voter support and the right with 49.2 to 49.9 percent.


To form a government the Social Democrats can rely on support from the Greens, Left and Centre parties, while the Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and Sweden Democrats make up the right-wing bloc.

Both blocs are however beset by internal divisions that will make the process of forming a government tricky.

- Gang violence -

The election campaign has been dominated by issues close to right-wing voters, with crime, immigration and skyrocketing electricity prices overshadowing the welfare state and the economy.

"Inflation has soared and the same is true for crime and shootings, and these are contextual factors that should benefit the right-wing opposition," Patrik Ohberg, a University of Gothenburg political scientist, told AFP.

Sweden has struggled to combat escalating gang shootings attributed to battles over the drugs and weapons market, and the country now tops European statistics for firearm deaths.



While the violence was once contained to locations frequented by criminals, it has spread to public spaces such as parks and shopping centres, sparking concern among ordinary Swedes in a country long known as safe and peaceful.

Addressing the mother of a 12-year-old girl killed by stray bullets in a gang-related 2020 shooting, Andersson and Kristersson both lamented the soaring violence during a televised debate on Wednesday.

"No other country in Europe has what we have," Kristersson said.

"What we are seeing in Sweden is horrible," Andersson concurred.

Since January 1, 48 people have been killed by firearms in Sweden, three more than in all of 2021. There are also frequent bombings of homes and cars and grenade attacks.

- 'Enormous shift' -

The end of the Sweden Democrats' political isolation, and the prospect of it becoming the biggest right-wing party, is "an enormous shift in Swedish society", said Anders Lindberg, an editorialist at left-wing tabloid Aftonbladet.

Born out of a neo-Nazi movement at the end of the 1980s, the Sweden Democrats entered parliament in 2010 with 5.7 percent of votes.

The party's anti-immigration stance and defence of Swedes' cherished welfare state has appealed to the working class and pensioners.

Its rise has come alongside a large influx of immigrants, with the country of 10 million taking in almost half a million asylum seekers in a decade.

While Kristersson remains Andersson's challenger for the post of prime minister, having the far-right overtake the Moderates as the biggest party on the right would be a heavy blow for him.

If the right bloc were to win a majority, the Sweden Democrats could demand cabinet positions rather than just provide informal backing in parliament.

"We want to have a maximum of influence, so it's clear that our point of departure is to be in the government", the Sweden Democrats' leader Jimmie Akesson told AFP.

"Otherwise it's going to be costly for the government to have us on board."

Opening the door to the Sweden Democrats may turn out to have been a costly gamble for Kristersson.

"If the Moderates lose the election and become the third-largest party, they will change party leader," Stockholm University political science professor Jan Teorell told AFP.

bur/po/jll/pvh
AFRICAN, ARAB, TUNISIAN
Jabeur defeats Garcia, becomes first Arab woman to reach US Open final

NEWS WIRES - Yesterday 

Ons Jabeur executed a stunning 6-1 6-3 demolition of Caroline Garcia in the U.S. Open semi-finals on Thursday, ending the Frenchwoman's hot streak to reach her second Grand Slam final in a row.




Jabeur wrested the momentum immediately, breaking Garcia in the first game before taking the first set in a blistering 23 minutes, with six aces and 11 winners, and will next face either top seed Iga Swiatek or Aryna Sabalenka.

Garcia upped her level in the second set but was without the most reliable tool in her arsenal - her big serve - and struggled on the return, failing to set up a single break point opportunity.

Jabeur, who became the first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final at Wimbledon this year and is known as Tunisia's "Minister of Happiness", shouted with joy after she sent an unreturnable serve over the net for the win.

"In the second set I was trying, she was playing much better but I'm really glad she didn't break me at the end because it was going to be tough," she said after the match.

Jabeur had a rocky run-up to the year's final major, exiting early from San Jose and retiring in her Toronto opener with abdominal pain, but was all smiles on Arthur Ashe, where she has emerged as a crowd favourite.

"It feels amazing. After Wimbledon there was a lot of pressure on me and I'm really relieved that I can back up my results," said Jabeur, the first North African woman to reach the final in New York.

"The hard court season started a little bit bad but now I'm very happy that I made it to the finals here."

(REUTERS)
Canada rampage suspect death prompts fresh investigation
By ROB GILLIES and ROBERT BUMSTED
yesterday

1 of 19
Police and investigators gather at the scene where a stabbing suspect was arrested in Rosthern, Saskatchewan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Canadian police arrested Myles Sanderson, the second suspect in the stabbing deaths of multiple people in Saskatchewan, after a three-day manhunt that also yielded the body of his brother fellow suspect, Damien Sanderson.
(Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press via AP)


ROSTHERN, Saskatchewan (AP) — The last suspect in a horrific stabbing rampage that killed 10 and wounded 18 in western Canada is dead following his capture, but how he died after being taken into custody has prompted fresh investigations.

One official said Myles Sanderson, 32, died from self-inflicted injuries Wednesday after police forced the stolen car he was driving off a highway in Saskatchewan. Other officials declined to discuss how he died .

“I can’t speak to the specific manner of death. That’s going to be part of the autopsy that will be conducted,” Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan, said at a news conference Wednesday night.

The other suspect, Sanderson’s 30-year-old brother, Damien Sanderson, was found dead Monday near the scene of the bloody knife attacks inside and around the James Smith Cree First Nation reserve early Sunday. Both men were residents of the Indigenous reserve.

Blackmore said Myles Sanderson was cornered as police units responded to a report of a stolen vehicle driven by a man armed with a knife. She said officers forced Sanderson’s vehicle off the road and into a ditch. He was detained and a knife was found inside the vehicle, she said.

Sanderson went into medical distress while in custody, Blackmore said. She said CPR was attempted on him before an ambulance arrived and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“All life-saving measures that we are capable of were taken at that time,” she said.

Blackmore gave no details on the cause of death. But an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, earlier said Sanderson died of self-inflicted injuries, without elaborating.

Video and photos from the scene showed a white SUV alongside the road with police cars all around. Air bags had deployed in the SUV. Some photos and video taken from a distance appeared to show Sanderson being frisked.

Members of Saskatchewan’s Serious Incident Response Team went to the arrest site and will review Sanderson’s death and police conduct.

The federal public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, also stressed that the events will be investigated.



“You have questions. We have questions,” he told reporters during a Cabinet retreat in Vancouver, British Columbia, adding: “There will be two levels of police who will be investigating the circumstances of Myles Sanderson’s death.”

Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto police detective, said the police are bound by police service laws that govern the work of internal affairs when there is a death in police custody. Mendelson said police can’t comment yet on how the interaction took place or on what the officers saw or what he said to them.

“They have to at least wait until the forensic autopsy is concluded and hopefully the pathologist will come up with a cause of death. If it’s drugs, then toxicology is going to take sometime,” he said. “If it’s a stab wound that didn’t leak through his clothes then we should hear that. Everybody wants answers.”

His death came two days after the body of Damien Sanderson was found in a field near the scene of the knife rampage. Police are investigating whether Myles Sanderson killed his brother.

Darryl Burns, who lost his sister Gloria Burns to the attack, hugged Damien Sanderson’s widow at a news conference Wednesday, telling her that the family was ready to forgive.

“Damien was caught up in the life,” Darryl Burns said. “He was caught up in a moment. But hearing the stories of Damien. He tried to stop it, he tried to stop it, but he paid with his life.”

Sobbing, his widow muttered, “That’s not my husband.”

Chief Robert Head of Peter Chapman Band said the community was like a “war zone” in the immediate aftermath of the attack. He said four helicopters were swooping down to transport the wounded and dying to medical treatment.

“Right now, we still have 14 families that are in the hospitals there,” he said, noting that one of his first cousins was among the dead.

Blackmore said that with both men dead, “we may never have an understanding of that motivation.”

But she said she hoped the families of the stabbing victims will find some comfort “knowing that Myles Sanderson is no longer a threat to them.”

The stabbings raised questions of why Myles Sanderson — an ex-con with 59 convictions and a long history of shocking violence — was out on the streets in the first place.

He was released by a parole board in February while serving a sentence of over four years on charges that included assault and robbery. But he had been wanted by police since May, apparently for violating the terms of his release, though the details were not immediately clear.

His long and lurid rap sheet also showed that seven years ago, he attacked and stabbed one of the victims killed in Sunday’s stabbings, according to court records.

Tribal leaders at the news conference criticized the decision to release Myles Sanderson back into the community.

“The system itself is broken,” said Chief Wally Burns of James Smith Cree Nation. “The parole board let this young fellow out, this young man. And they didn’t notify any of our community members or our leadership or even our local detachment. All that we knew was that after the fact. This tragedy could have been avoided.”

The leaders declined to answer questions on the crime itself but called for more resources for mental health and substance abuse services and more control to police themselves.

Mendicino, the public safety minister, has said there will be an investigation into the parole board’s assessment of Sanderson.

“I want to know the reasons behind the decision” to release him, Mendicino said. “I’m extremely concerned with what occurred here. A community has been left reeling.”

The Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service said nine of those killed were from the James Smith Cree Nation: Thomas Burns, 23; Carol Burns, 46; Gregory Burns, 28; Lydia Gloria Burns, 61; Bonnie Burns, 48; Earl Burns, 66; Lana Head, 49; Christian Head, 54; and Robert Sanderson, 49. The other victim was from Weldon, 78-year-old Wesley Patterson.

Authorities would not say if the victims might be related.

Court documents said Sanderson attacked his in-laws Earl Burns and Joyce Burns in 2015, knifing Earl Burns repeatedly and wounding Joyce Burns. He later pleaded guilty to assault and threatening Earl Burns’ life.

Many of Sanderson’s crimes were committed when he was intoxicated, according to court records. He told parole officials at one point that substance use made him out of his mind. Records showed he repeatedly violated court orders barring him from drinking or using drugs.

___

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City contributed to this report.
Retailers pull lobster from menus after 'red list' warning

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Some retailers are taking lobster off the menu after an assessment from an influential conservation group that the harvest of the seafood poses too much of a risk to rare whales and should be avoided.


Whales can suffer injuries and fatalities when they become entangled in the gear that connects to lobster traps on the ocean floor. Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its “red list” of species to avoid.

The organization, based at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, said in a report that the fishing industry is a danger to North Atlantic right whales because “current management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species.”

Thousands of businesses use Seafood Watch's recommendations to inform seafood buying decisions, and many have pledged to avoid any items that appear on the red list. A spokesperson for Blue Apron, the New York meal kit retailer, said the company stopped offering a seasonal lobster box prior to the report, and all of the seafood it is currently using follows Seafood Watch's guidelines. HelloFresh, the Germany-based meal kit company that is the largest such company operating in the U.S., also pledged shortly after the announcement to stop selling lobster.

“HelloFresh is committed to responsible sourcing and follows guidelines from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program,” said Saskia Leisewitz, a spokesperson for HelloFresh.

Seafood Watch assigns ratings of “best choice,” “good alternative” and “avoid” to more than 2,000 seafood items based on how sustainably they are managed. The organization's recommendations have been influential in the past, such as when it red-listed the Louisiana shrimp fishery, prompting efforts to better protect sea turtles. The fishery was later removed from the red list.

The lobster fishing industry has come under scrutiny from Seafood Watch because of the threat of entanglement in fishing gear. The North Atlantic right whales number less than 340 and entanglement is one of the two biggest threats they face, along with collisions with ships, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups have said. The population of the giant animals, which were decimated during the commercial whaling era generations ago, has fallen in recent years.

Members of the lobster fishing industry, which is also coping with increased federal fishing restrictions to protect the whales, pushed back against the Seafood Watch rating. The lobster industry in Maine, where most of the U.S.'s lobster comes to land, has not had a documented interaction with a right whale in almost two decades, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.

“Lobster is one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world due to the effective stewardship practices handed down through generations of lobstermen. These include strict protections for both the lobster resource and right whales,” McCarron said.

American and Canadian lobster fishermen target the same species, the American lobster, which is popular as live seafood and in processed products such as lobster rolls and lobster ravioli. The vast majority of the world's American lobster comes to the shore in New England and eastern Canada, and the crustaceans are both a key piece of the economy and a cultural marker in both places.

The U.S. lobster fishery is also one of the most lucrative in the country and was worth more than $900 million at the docks in 2021, when fishermen caught more than 130 million pounds (59 million kilograms) of the crustaceans.

Seafood Watch partners with numerous major seafood buyers on its recommendations. Some of the buyers, such as Compass Group and Cheesecake Factory, did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. A spokesperson for one, Mars Petcare, said the company doesn't have lobster in its supply chain.

Environmental groups said Seafood Watch's decision places a spotlight on the fishery and the need to do more to protect whales.

“Fishery managers must increase protections to save North Atlantic right whales so seafood retailers, consumers, and restaurants can put American lobster and crab back on the menu,” Oceana campaign director Gib Brogan said.

Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
Buffy Sainte-Marie is out of this world

Chris Knight -
National Post

There’s a great story about Canadian First Nations singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie being accidentally quoted in a 2004 edition of the magazine Smithsonian. Lyrics to her famous anti-war song Universal Soldier had been found scratched on a cot in an old Vietnam War troopship, and mistakenly identified as free verse from an unknown soldier.


Buffy Sainte-Marie is the subject of a new documentary called Carry It On.


Scores of readers fired off angry letters to the august publication to say that it was in fact the work of Scottish pop legend Donovan. And then scores more had to weigh in even more angrily with the news that the haunting song had in fact been written and first recorded by Sainte-Marie on her debut album It’s My Way!, a year before Donovan’s admittedly better known cover.

Sainte-Marie isn’t angry about the misattribution. In fact, during a freewheeling Zoom call with the 81-year-old member of Saskatchewan’s Piapot Cree Nation, her overwhelming emotions are joy, wonder and curiosity.

Hearing that my unofficial second beat after movies is space travel, she launches into the story of how she went to the Kennedy Space Center in 2002 to perform in honour of John Herrington, the first Native American astronaut. She sang Starwalker, Moonshot and Up Where We Belong, the last co-written for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. It made her the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar. She’d have gladly spent our half-hour chat on matters astronomical.

Sainte-Marie is the subject of Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, a new documentary from First Nations director Madison Thomas. The film has its world premiere Sept. 8 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Brimming with celebrity interviews including Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal and Robbie Robertson, Carry It On charts Sainte-Marie’s twisty road to success that included a spot on the TV western The Virginian in 1968 – she refused to perform unless all the other “Indians” were played by real First Nations performers – and several years on Sesame Street, where she not only taught young viewers about First Nations people, but helped normalize breastfeeding by doing it on the air with her infant son, in front of Big Bird no less.

But the bulk of her fame comes from her music, an eclectic mix that includes elements of folk, rock, country and more traditional First Nations styles. I ask if she has a name for it.

“I don’t,” she replies. “It just pops into my head. Because I like all kinds of music. I mean, I like Chinese music and Azerbaijani, you name it. And so whatever I hear, I try to reproduce it. But yeah, I write bluegrass and love songs and blues and raunchy stuff, everything.”

Saint-Marie says she listened to everything from Elvis to Tchaikovsky while growing up, though she notes that in Massachusetts (she was abandoned and then adopted as a baby), “it was almost impossible to hear Indigenous music of any kind. However, Kaw-liga the Wooden Indian was real popular. Ugh.” The 1952 country song by Hank Williams has not aged well.

With degrees in teaching and what was then called Oriental philosophy – basically world religions – from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Sainte-Marie planned to become a philosophy professor, and probably would have been among the coolest ones ever in that profession. Instead, she tried her hand at performing in New York’s Greenwich Village, where she quickly found fame (and sold the rights to Universal Soldier to Donovan for $1).


Sainte-Marie in concert. She’ll be performing at the Toronto festival.© TIFF

Sainte-Marie will be performing live on the first night of the Toronto festival on an outdoor stage a block from the TIFF Bell Lightbox. As an entertainer and an activist, she tries to balance her concerts with a mix of messages.

“Somebody might come to hear Until It’s Time For You To Go but they don’t want to listen to that Universal Soldier crap,” she says, tongue in cheek. “Somebody else will come to hear only Indigenous stuff and they think that love songs are kind of a waste of the moment. So for me, because I like it all, I get to choose.”

She continues: “I’m totally aware of the power of a song. And I’m really aware of the diversity in my catalogue. So when I do a live show, I try to guide the audience into hearing the tougher emotional content. I’m not trying to punish them or scold them. I’m trying to inform them, and I wouldn’t ever leave them in that position of heartbreak. So it’s very deliberate that I’d follow a hard-hitting song with something genuinely positive, because I really believe in stability, and helping people to know without having to hurt them.”

Sainte-Marie has some powerful, hard-hitting songs that include Now That the Buffalo’s Gone, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and My Country ’Tis of Thy People You’re Dying. She sings about genocide in that last song, written in the 1960s, and I was surprised to find clips of her talking about the 15th-century Doctrine of Discovery many years before it became part of the conversation in Canada during the recent visit by the Pope.

“I really like Pope Francis, I think he’s just wonderful,” she says. “And I think he could do something really, really important. The Catholic Church feels as though they have already abandoned the Doctrine of Discovery. And they have apologized. But the next step that only he could do would be to go to the United Nations and encourage the nations of the world to give it up. Because it’s still hurting Indigenous people all over the world.”

My time is up, but Saint-Marie wants to tell me something else. After her gig at the Toronto festival she’s off to St. Catharines on Sept. 10 for a concert, and then to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Sept. 16 for a celebration of her music, with performances by numerous musicians. “It’s like a tribute show,” she says. “And [astronaut] Roberta Bondar is going to introduce the song Moonshot! Nobody else will care, but you’ll get it.”

Time to let the legend go and get ready. She’s got a lot of singing, entertaining and educating to do.

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On has its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 8, with additional screenings Sept. 9 and Sept. 17, and a wider theatrical release later in the year. Saint-Marie will perform on the Slaight Music Stage at the festival at 7 p.m. on Sept. 8.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

What we know about the insider trading lawsuit filed against Bed Bath & Beyond just before the death of its CFO

sdelouya@insider.com (Samantha Delouya) - Yesterday 

Gustavo Arnal was the executive vice president and 
chief financial officer at Bed Bath & Beyond 

Bed Bath & Beyond's CFO, Gustavo Arnal, was named in an insider trading lawsuit less than 2 weeks before his death.

The suit alleges that Arnal, along with GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen, conspired to inflate Bed Bath & Beyond's stock for a profit.
 
These types of suits are common when a company suffers big losses, according to a legal expert.



What the suit claims

Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Gustav Arnal was named in an insider trading lawsuit less than two weeks before he was found dead in an apparent suicide on Friday. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of an individual investor Pengcheng Si, names Bed Bath & Beyond, Arnal, Ryan Cohen, and JPMorgan Securities as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Arnal, along with activist investor and GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen, conspired to "artificially inflate" the price of Bed Bath & Beyond's stock and take advantage of the higher price by "illegally engaging in insider trading" from late March to mid-August.

Si personally lost more than $100,000 due to Arnal and Cohen's scheme, and thousands of other investors were also affected, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to hold Arnal, Cohen, and the other plaintiffs responsible for paying back investors like Si.

These kinds of suits aren't uncommon

It's estimated that more than 10,000 class action lawsuits are filed each year, according to a 2020 report from the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Legal experts sometimes criticize these types of lawsuits for placing pressure on defendants to settle even weak claims, the report says.

"Any regular-world company that suffers big losses may be likely to attract the attention of plaintiff's lawyers," said Jason Gottlieb, a partner at Morrison Cohen.

The lawsuit doesn't contain specific evidence of Arnal's involvement in a Bed Bath & Beyond insider trading scheme, though it alleges that there was "heavy communication" about the plan between Arnal, Cohen, and JPMorgan.

"That's not the way you typically see it," said Alex Moreno, a partner at Sheppard Mullin, about the absence of evidence shown in the filing.

He said legal filings of this kind are generally required to show evidence that the accused had a "guilty mind" or an "intent to defraud."

Though the lawsuit claims that Arnal conspired with Cohen to "pump and dump" Bed Bath & Beyond's stock in mid-August, The Wall Street Journal reports that Arnal's stock was automatically sold under a prearranged plan set up in April with securities regulators.

Moreno says a prearranged plan to sell shares is not a "100% bulletproof" cover against insider trading, but it could help Arnal's defense.

Bed Bath & Beyond did not respond to a request for comment by Insider, but in a recent filing, the company said it was "in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, but based on current knowledge the Company believes the claims are without merit."

What happens next?

This case is not guaranteed to go to trial.

Moreno says that the lawyers for Arnal, Cohen and the other defendants will likely file a motion to dismiss this lawsuit.

"They'll say this complaint does not have specific facts showing the false statements, why they're false, and why the person who made those statements made with an intent to deceive," he said.

If the motion fails, then a judge would need to "certify the class" part of the class action lawsuit. That means that a judge would need to approve that Pengcheng Si's experience is representative of thousands of investors' experiences.

"If a class gets certified, that typically creates a lot of pressure on the defendant to try to settle the case," Moreno said.
Alberta provincial government expert tells Stettler County 2021 drought was legendary


A precipitation expert with the Alberta provincial government told Stettler County’s Agriculture Service Board (ASB) 2021 may have been one of the worst drought years since the 19th Century. The report was made at the ASB’s Aug. 24 regular meeting.

The ASB is comprised of members of county council and is chaired by Coun. Les Stulberg.

Ralph Wright, manager of agro-meteorological applications and modelling section for Alberta Agriculture & Forestry, presented dozens of maps to board members illustrating precipitation levels for the past 120 years and said that precipitation, or lack thereof, tells a story.

At one point in his presentation Wright looked back at 2021 and compared it to precipitation for the previous 120 years in Alberta and said last year, “...stuck out like a sore thumb.”

Wright continued, “...(2021) is probably the worst year in living memory that we have for widespread drought across the province.”


He began his presentation by showing board members February is typically the dryest month of the year in Stettler County and pointed out that winter in general isn’t the best time to start thinking about drought because of the lack of precipitation.

Wright stated between October and March Stettler County gets about 20 to 25 per cent of its annual precipitation while in June and July it gets about 50 per cent.

He pointed out it was interesting to note that Lethbridge, usually considered a dry area of Alberta, through January to June of this year could beat out most parts of the province for highest precipitation.

He went on to state 2022 started out pretty dry and there was a lot of worry that 2022 would be a back to back drought year.

“But then the taps just turned right on,” said Wright, who added that precipitation levels in this area were above normal by the end of June.

In a 30 day period between June and July Stettler County received between 50 mm and 200 mm of precipitation depending on location and while Wright noted there was some localized flooding in central Alberta that rain really helped some people out.

Comparing to regions east, the Special Areas received 50 to 75 mm, with Wright commenting that this shows Alberta can’t be called a wet or dry province, there is just too much variation within short times or distances.

Wright also showed a map that showed a corner of Paintearth County with rather high levels of precipitation.

He explained the data suggests a dry spell began in southern Alberta in 2017 and culminated in 2021, but ended this year.


“The land was primed for serious, severe drought this year,” he added.

Referring to provincial historical data Wright noted 1902 to 1913 were quite dry but also stated Alberta didn’t have a lot of weather stations at that time, about 30, compared to the roughly 500 Alberta enjoys now.

Data suggests 1905 and 1910 were as bad as 2021 for drought, with 1917 to 18 included as well.


For the period 1926 to 1937 it was quite dry in 1929 which was followed by four more years of dryness. Wright pointed out that “living memory” begins in this time period, as there are residents alive who remember these years.

By 1938 to 1949 he stated wet weather started to creep in and the period 1950 to 1961 enjoyed much more moisture. The period 1962 to 1973 was quite wet followed by the period 1974 to 1985 which didn’t suffer a lot of drought.


As Wright pointed out cycles, he mused aloud which was actually anomalous, the wet weather or the dry weather?

Near the end of his presentation he discussed how data can help prepare for flood planning. For example Wright stated based on data Stettler County could, over a 90 day period, experience up to 500 mm of precipitation.

Wright closed by pointing out the hundreds of maps show that recent weather isn’t a reliable predictor of future weather, adding that the best way to plan is to realize you can’t hedge.

“What’s going to happen in the future?” he asked. “Pretty much anything can happen.”

Stu Salkeld, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, East Central Alberta Review
The northern B.C. pipeline you’ve never

heard of — Enbridge’s Westcoast Connector

The Coastal GasLink pipeline is currently B.C.’s most infamous — with the arrests of Indigenous land defenders and journalists, repeated environmental infractions and celebrity activism from the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Greta Thunberg and Leonardo DiCaprio.

But the list of controversial pipeline projects in the province doesn’t stop there.

There’s Pacific Trails, which would parallel the Coastal GasLink route across Wet’suwet’en territory and Prince Rupert Gas Transmission, a pipeline intended to cut through the Kispiox Valley — a proposal that brought members of the Gitxsan Nation and locals from all walks of life together in opposition. And, of course, there’s the federally owned Trans Mountain pipeline, which continues to be met with fierce opposition from First Nations and allies along the route as construction impacts ecosystems, most recently disrupting salmon runs on the Coquihalla River.

And, waiting in the wings for its chance to ship fracked gas from northeast B.C. to overseas markets, is a project quietly clinging to the dream of a liquified natural gas (LNG) boom that was promised more than a decade ago. It’s called Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission.

If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone.

Owned by multinational pipeline company Enbridge, the project was first proposed in 2012 and approved by the B.C. government in 2014 — around the same time as Coastal GasLink and on the heels of Enbridge’s ill-fated Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline. At that time, it was a Spectra Energy project. In 2017, Enbridge acquired Spectra and all of its assets, including the proposed pipeline, for $37 billion.

That year, Shell scrapped a planned liquefaction and export facility near Prince Rupert that would have received gas from the pipeline and, despite opposition from some stakeholders, Enbridge applied for and received a five-year extension to the project’s approval in 2019. When that extension was granted, the company was told it must have “substantially started” the project by Nov. 25, 2024. To date, that hasn’t happened. With the deadline nearing, stakeholders along the pipeline route received notice of the company’s intent to file for a rare second extension.

According to B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, only two projects have ever received a second certificate extension — Seabridge’s KSM mine on the Alaska border and Taseko’s New Prosperity mine on Tsilhqot'in First Nation territory.

If the extension isn’t granted, they’d need to start the lengthy environmental assessment process all over again.

“There is a ton of new information since 2014 — new information on climate, new information on Indigenous Rights and new protected areas,” Naxginkw Tara Marsden, who works on land use planning and governance issues with the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, told The Narwhal in an interview. “As a whole I can't see all of that being ignored in an extension request, but we'll see.”

In addition to the extension, the company recently asked the B.C. government for permission to shorten the pipeline by removing a section of its proposed route in the northeast, 100 kilometres of which overlaps a First Nations’ territory at the heart of a 2021 B.C. Supreme Court ruling on Treaty Rights.

The landmark ruling, often referred to as the Yahey decision after former chief Marvin Yahey, found the province guilty of infringing on Blueberry River First Nations’ rights by permitting and encouraging widespread industrial development.

Here’s what we know about the project and its proposed changes.

The 850 kilometre pipeline — roughly 700 kilometres if B.C. approves the amendment request — would tap into existing infrastructure in the northeast and transport fracked gas to the west coast for liquefaction and export.

The project, as approved, is described as “a pipeline system consisting of either one or two adjacent pipelines” and would be capable of moving 8.4 billion cubic feet of fracked gas daily. That’s four times the amount Coastal GasLink plans to transport during its first phase of operations.

The Westcoast Connector pipeline would not traverse Wet’suwet’en territory — where Hereditary Chiefs oppose the Coastal GasLink project. Its route would cross the province further north, including transecting Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories and crossing the Skeena and Kispiox rivers — both important salmon and steelhead rivers.

Enbridge noted in its recent letter to the environmental assessment office it is “actively developing the project” to build the first Westcoast pipeline and “continues to work on development opportunities for the second pipeline in the future.”

But the company told The Narwhal in an email the “project is in the early stages of development” and final decisions haven’t been made on whether it will proceed, or when.

“The Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission project is not yet approved — we still require additional permits,” a spokesperson wrote.

The environmental assessment approval is the major hurdle for projects but, when construction is imminent, the pipeline will require permits issued by the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Permitting is a regulatory process and applications can be submitted for multiple activities at one time. Those applications draw on technical studies conducted during assessment.

The project was originally slated to deliver gas to one of several proposed liquefaction and export facilities near Prince Rupert, none of which are still on the table. Now, the project is listed as a potential supplier for the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG plant on Nisg̱a’a territory. Ksi Lisims is a partnership between the Nisg̱a’a Nation, a consortium of Canadian gas producers called Rockies LNG and Texas-based Western LNG.

Enbridge hadn’t filed an extension request with the province prior to publication, but it is signaling that this will be the next step.

In July, Enbridge made a presentation to Terrace city council citing the main reasons for extending its certificate as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Blueberry River First Nations court decision. The company told the council it spent $10 million on the project in 2022 and noted it is actively engaging potential LNG terminal developers and gas producing partners.

“At this point we’re still engaging with Indigenous nations to better understand their perspective and we have not confirmed any commercial partners,” Enbridge told The Narwhal in an emailed statement. “If this project proceeds, we will be completing an environmental protection plan that will specify the measures required to protect wildlife.”

The company said it is considering applying for the extension but does not know when that might happen.

Gavin Smith, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, told The Narwhal he’s concerned an extension could pave the way forward for a flood of related requests.

“We have seen both with Taseko’s New Prosperity and with KSM in recent years willingness from the provincial government to effectively bend the rules about how long [environmental assessment] certificates are supposed to remain valid,” he said. “Those rules exist for a good reason, which is that … certificates are granted on a lot of complex information, input from communities and so on, that can become stale-dated if left for too long.”

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy told The Narwhal every request is carefully reviewed and the context of the request considered.

“For any extension request, the environmental assessment office and statutory decision-maker consider it on its own merits and its specific circumstances through a robust and transparent process,” the ministry wrote in an emailed statement.

Marsden said an additional concern is how the province handles feedback from communities.

“When they came to us with the KSM extension, they said, ‘What's changed? Is there new information you'd like to share?’ ” she explained. “We shared new information — there's climate change, there's new recognition of Indigenous Rights and requirements for consent. And [the province] came back and said, ‘Well, that's not how we define new information.’ ”

“There's no definition of what new information is, it's this really circular argument of whatever you say doesn't really matter but we are going to go through this process of seeing if you have anything new to say.”

The ministry argued the KSM decision did reflect input from First Nations and other stakeholders, noting the extension included extra conditions that provide the province with “an additional level of regulatory oversight to require that management plans remain current and reflect the best available science and management practices.”

Smith said by extending approvals past legislated guidelines, B.C. could be setting the stage for future conflicts.

“Look at the changing legal realities around implementation and recognition of the [United Nations] Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that were not at the forefront 15 to 20 years ago,” he said. “Those types of changes are relevant to how environmental assessments are carried out.”

In a word: no.

While the extension request would buy Enbridge breathing room until 2029, it’s not the only way to keep the proposed pipeline alive. If a project is deemed to be “substantially started” — a determination made by B.C.’s environmental assessment office partly on sunk costs and on the scale of work completed — it effectively locks in the approval indefinitely.

For example, the Pacific Trails pipeline, that Enbridge bought from Chevron and Woodside Petroleum in early 2022, received “substantially started” designation in 2016. This means its certificate — which was granted in 2008 based on studies conducted in the years prior — remains valid regardless of any changes on the land.

“It's good for forever, essentially,” Marsden said. “It's a big investment of money, but then they're safe in terms of not having to ever re-apply.”

She said the KSM extension and the imminent request from Enbridge show how companies “want to keep riding the market — they want to keep waiting for that sweet spot where they're going to get the prices and they're going to be able to build this thing.”

With governments worldwide pledging major emissions reductions as part of climate commitments, the fossil fuel industry continues to pivot to different business models. The push to export gas from B.C. reserves was initially pegged as a means to “transition” from other fuels such as coal.

But prevailing science now agrees that methane — the main component of natural gas — poses even more of a threat to the climate than conventional fossil fuels. In an April press release, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that methane emissions need to be reduced by more than 30 per cent by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

“Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible,” Jim Skea, with the panel, said.

But open market prices for natural gas remain high, in part because of the energy crunch caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Companies like Enbridge still see potential profits from developing projects like Westcoast Connector.

“Given how completely crazy the global LNG markets have been this year, I can imagine that Enbridge may see some real upside to keeping the project alive,” Clark Williams-Derry, energy finance analyst with the Ohio-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told The Narwhal.

“In my view, Enbridge is making an economic calculation: there's a benefit to keeping the project alive, there's a cost to keeping it alive and there's a cost to letting it die,” he explained. “They're weighing the costs and benefits — and seem to be deciding that the benefits are worth the costs.”

He said keeping the project on the table is low-risk, financially.

“If you declare the project dead, development costs have to be written off and recognized as a loss,” he said. “Plus there also can be ‘soft’ costs for letting a project die — costs to executives' reputations, to investors' views about a company's future prospects, etc.”

“Meanwhile, it often doesn't take a whole lot of money or effort to keep a project alive,” he added. “A bit of paperwork, a bit of staff time now and again.”

Marsden said the province needs to ask some tough questions about where B.C. is heading in terms of its economy in light of climate change.

“Do you want to risk a bunch of other things that are at play to ensure this industry is prioritized? Or do you want to take a pause and reconsider things?”

The request to remove a section of the pipeline route seems like an example of a fossil fuel company adapting to minimize conflict on Indigenous Rights issues.

In a letter to B.C.’s environmental assessment office in May, Enbridge wrote that “removing the first 138 kilometres of the pipeline from the project as certified will reduce potential cumulative effects on Treaty 8 territory, including those within Blueberry River First Nations territory.”

However, a spokesperson for the company told The Narwhal in an email that “the removal of a 138 km [section] of the pipeline route … is not related to the Yahey decision.” Enbridge did not respond to follow up questions apart from noting the company determined the section “would no longer be required.”

Just how far reaching the impacts of the Yahey decision will be is still unknown but in the short-term, B.C. has put the brakes on any new development on Blueberry River First Nations territory. In October, the province and nations reached an interim agreement that allows projects approved before the court ruling to proceed, but pauses any new authorizations or permits as the nation negotiates a final agreement with the province.

That means if those “additional permits” Enbridge said it needs to move forward are for work on the territory, the project could be tied up for an unknown amount of time.

Blueberry River First Nations opposed the Westcoast Connector from the outset.

During the project’s environmental assessment, the nations’ lands and resource department flagged numerous concerns, submitting a comprehensive report on cumulative impacts. In one of multiple letters filed to the province, the community expressed frustration around the consultation process, saying the few opportunities given to provide feedback were “no more than opportunities to blow off steam.”

That October 2014 letter continues: “Aside from the [environmental assessment] process, there has been no engagement by the provincial Crown in consultation with [Blueberry River First Nations] on the project or on the larger LNG development proposed in B.C., including on the very significant development that will be induced in our territory as a result of the construction and operation of LNG facilities on B.C.’s coast, serviced by pipelines from [our] territory.”

Earlier, in a June 2014 letter, the nation wrote that it was “deeply troubled by the conclusion that there are no identified potential effects of the project on … habitation, hunting, fishing, trapping or gathering practices.”

Despite Enbridge’s statement that its desire to shorten the pipeline is not related to the Yahey decision, that June letter was echoed in its amendment request. By removing the section, the company wrote, the project would reduce or eliminate potential impacts on critical caribou habitat, 50 wetlands, 135 water crossings and “hunting, trapping, fishing and plant gathering locations, trails and travelways, habitation sites and gathering and sacred sites.”

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy confirmed it is reviewing the request and told The Narwhal it will “provide an opportunity for federal, provincial, and local governments, and First Nations and Indigenous people to provide advice and inform the … review.”

The ministry said responding to a request like this typically takes three to six months.

In the era when Westcoast Connector was first proposed, it was just one of many LNG projects brought to municipalities and First Nations across northern B.C. The province cast its net wide to gain support, signing agreements with numerous band councils and other forms of First Nations governments under John Rustad, the former minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation. (Rustad was recently removed from the Liberal caucus for publicly promoting climate change denial.)

Enbridge told The Narwhal it was “pre-emptive” to ask questions about its relationships with First Nations and did not supply any information about agreements it may have with communities along the pipeline route. However, a provincial government webpage shows that six Indigenous governments have signed benefits agreements in support of Westcoast Connector or associated infrastructure — though many of them signed before Enbridge was in charge.

“Spectra was a very well established company in B.C.,” Marsden said. “They had many natural gas pipelines that were sort of familiar to people and had really dedicated a lot of time and resources to building quite strong relationships.”

But, she said, Enbridge is a different company.

“Many of the nations, including Gitanyow, opposed the oil pipeline that Enbridge proposed with Northern Gateway. With the reputation of Enbridge and what their interests have been in trying to get oil to the west coast, that's a huge concern for me, personally, and for others as well at Gitanyow. Is this an attempt to try and get another oil pipeline through? We don't have that certainty and until we do, it’s still a potential threat.”

The pipeline also faces potential opposition from the Gitxsan Nation.

In early August, a Gitxsan house group, Wilps Gwininitxw, declared 170,000 hectares of territory an Indigenous Protected Area, where it will prioritize maintaining an intact watershed that’s home to mountain goats, wolverines and grizzlies. The area is just upstream of the Westcoast pipeline route and TC Energy’s Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line. In a statement released following the announcement of the protected area, the house group noted both pipelines would “directly affect Wilps Gwininitxw by crossing our salmon-bearing rivers and streams.”

“In the absence of meaningful provincial or federal government action to protect the Skeena watershed from industrial development, Wilps Gwininitxw is unilaterally declaring their territories protected.”

It is unclear how the Indigenous Protected Area will impact the pipeline project should it proceed to permitting and construction.

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal
THE MONARCHY IS OVER
The Crown Apparently Costs Canada Over $58 Million Each Year & Here’s How It Breaks Down

Helena Hanson - 
by Narcity



If you've ever wondered how much the queen and the crown cost Canada year-on-year, we've got you covered!

Back in 2021, the Monarchist League of Canada issued its triennial survey on the cost of the Canadian crown and, well, it sounds like a lot.

According to the League, Canadians shelled out $58,749,485.52 in 2019-2020 for the crown, although this is apparently a 5.95% decrease from the last survey.



While that sounds like an eye-watering amount, the League says it works out to be approximately $1.55 per individual Canadian.

Of this amount, it's the governor general's office that costs the most at $1.27 per person, per year. Lieutenant governors and their offices to the queen cost an additional $0.27 per capita.

If you were curious what the governor general's job is, it's to be the monarch's representative in Canada. Since they're the monarch of 14 other realms, they "cannot be present in each."


In Canada, the governor general is appointed on the advice of the prime minister and often will carry out ceremonial duties on the royal family's behalf.

The survey says the overall cost is "far less" than what other national institutions cost the average Canadian each year, including the House of Commons ($13.30), the Senate ($2.57) and the CBC ($31.86).

At the time, League Chairman Robert Finch described the queen's contribution in Canada as "incredible value," and noted that none of the royal household's costs are covered by Canadians.

"The expense of official Royal Homecomings, as we're expecting during Platinum Jubilee Year, is modest," he added.

Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. Here's the impact it may have in Canada.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.





BioRescue consortium announces 5 new embryos created after 10th oocyte collection in northern white rhinoceroses

Reports and Proceedings

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR ZOO AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH (IZW)

BioRescue: 10th OPU_Northern White Rhino Fatu (left) and Southern White Rhino Tauwo (right) after oocyte collection in Fatu 

IMAGE: BIORESCUE: 10TH OPU_NORTHERN WHITE RHINO FATU (LEFT) AND SOUTHERN WHITE RHINO TAUWO (RIGHT) AFTER OOCYTE COLLECTION IN FATU view more 

CREDIT: JAN ZWILLING

Three years after starting its ambitious programme to save the northern white rhino from extinction through advanced assisted reproduction technologies, the BioRescue consortium draws a positive interim conclusion: Following the 10th event of harvesting immature egg cells (oocytes) in the northern white rhino female Fatu, the international team produced 5 additional embryos – bringing the total to 22 sired by two bulls. This nourishes the hope to eventually succeed in producing new offspring and give a keystone grazer of Central Africa a new future. At the same time, the consortium places the highest value on respecting the life and welfare of the individual animals involved. Regular veterinary and ethical assessments of oocyte collection procedures show that Fatu handles the procedures well and shows no signs of detrimental health effects. BioRescue is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The 10th oocyte collection in northern white rhinos (NWR) was performed by a team of scientists and conservationists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Safari Park Dvůr Králové, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) & Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) on July 28, 2022, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The BioRescue team was able to collect 23 oocytes from Fatu, the younger of the two remaining NWR females. Oocyte collections from Najin, Fatu’s mother, were ceased in 2021 following an in-depth ethical risk assessment. The oocytes were immediately air-lifted to the Avantea laboratory in Cremona, Italy. Following maturation, 7 of the oocytes were fertilized using cryopreserved, thawed semen from the deceased NWR male Angalifu. Eventually, 5 embryos of Fatu were successfully produced and cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen.

This collection followed on from the 9th oocyte collection held at the same location and by the same team on April 24th. Out of 16 collected oocytes, 3 embryos were produced in the Avantea laboratory, again using the semen of Angalifu. Successful results of both procedures raised the total number of NWR embryos produced to 22 – all of them from female Fatu, with half of them sired by the deceased male Suni who was born in Safari Park Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic, and the other half sired by Angalifu who lived in San Diego Zoo Safari Park, USA.

Once the protocol to transfer the embryos to surrogate southern white rhino (SWR) female recipients is optimized, the embryos will be the foundation of a new NWR population, eventually destined to step back into their ecological role as keystone grazers in Central Africa.

To set up suitable conditions for a successful embryo transfer, the team has been carefully following the interactions of the sterilized SWR bull Owuan, who serves as the oestrus detector, with the possible surrogate females that share an enclosure with him. Once the conditions allow it, the BioRescue team will attempt to conduct an embryo transfer – first with SWR embryos to demonstrate that the whole procedure works properly before the team uses the extremely valuable NWR embryos. The team is currently considering whether adding more SWR females to the program might increase the chance of achieving the first successful embryo transfer.

 

Quotes

Thomas Hildebrandt, BioRescue project leader and head of Department of Reproduction Management at Leibniz-IZW:

“In 2019, one day before our worldwide first oocyte collection in NWR I said – tomorrow we will change the world. Today I can say, we did: The 5 new NWR embryos created in one set of procedures are a new record in our mission to save the NWR from the brink of extinction. In total, we managed to produce and cryopreserve 22 pure NWR embryos from 158 oocytes collected during 10 collections: 148 from Fatu and 10 from Nájin. Our next aim is to successfully produce viable offspring by inventing and using new scientific embryo transfer methods and techniques. The ground breaking scientific work we are establishing here will lay the groundwork for future conservation rescue initiatives.”
 

Jan Stejskal, Director of International Projects at Safari Park Dvůr Králové: “Obtaining 22 northern white rhino embryos in three years is a fantastic achievement. However, we have to continue in producing NWR embryos as more embryos simply mean a higher chance to see a NWR baby born in the future. Thanks to the cooperation with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, we have southern white rhino embryos available for our next embryo transfer attempts. While we would love to have a NWR calf as soon as possible, it is necessary to proceed carefully and use the unique NWR embryos only after we achieved a pregnancy with the more easily accessible SWR embryos.”

Cesare Galli, Director of Avantea: “The new results and the continuous successes of the previous series of collections show that we have developed a remarkably reliable process from the harvesting of the oocytes via transport to maturation, fertilization, embryo culture and freezing. Following these routines, we can expect a similar number of oocytes harvested and embryos produced in the upcoming three years.”

Frank Göritz, Head veterinarian of the Leibniz-IZW, and Stephen Ngulu, Head veterinarian of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy: “During the oocyte collections, we closely monitor all vital parameters of Fatu and examine her reproductive tract for any detrimental effects of our procedures. Fatu shows no signs of reproductive fatigue and keeps responding well to both the anaesthesia and the hormonal protocol. Following the recent oocyte collection, Fatu was up and immediately walking after the anaesthesia was reversed and started grazing normally a few hours later like always.”

Susanne Holtze, Scientist at the Leibniz-IZW: “The new results are also reassuring and promising in a different way. We see absolutely no signs of detrimental health effects of repeated oocyte collections in Fatu. The outcomes of the procedures are constant, but the last collection with 23 oocytes has been the most successful in terms of numbers of harvested oocytes that our team ever conducted in northern white rhinos.”

Barbara de Mori, Director of the Ethics Laboratory for Veterinary Medicine, Conservation and Animal Welfare at the University of Padua: “Keeping a careful watch of the welfare of the animals involved and balancing these aspects with conservation benefits is crucially important to our mission. Similar to our decision to retire Najin from the programme – owing to a misbalance of welfare risks and conservation benefits – we are very certain that for Fatu the combination of highly valuable outcome for the conservation of the species and low risks of adverse health effects for her as an individual animal justify the continuation of the oocyte collections.”

Dr. Patrick Omondi, Director/CEO, Wildlife Research & Training Institute: “We are delighted with the milestones of the project to date. The project demonstrates the success of multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary partnerships and collaborations in saving this iconic species from extinction. The collection of 23 oocytes during the 10th cycle of oocytes collection and production of five (5) pure northern white rhino embryos from them demonstrates the continued optimisation of the field and laboratory procedures.”

Brig. (Rtd) J.M. Waweru, Director General Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), “We are delighted as the State Agency in Kenya mandated with the conservation and management of wildlife and its habitats and as partners in the BioRescue consortium to celebrate the achievements made in recovery efforts of the Northern White Rhino’s with 22 embryos developed so far. We shall continue to give the required leadership and support to ensure the recovery efforts succeed and to look forward to the 1st northern white rhino calf being born on the Kenyan soil after a long period of uncertainty to revive the hopes of saving the species from imminent extinction”.

 

 

Media Package

A collection of photographs can be accessed through the following link:

https://hidrive.ionos.com/share/x-cbsg7wzb

The photographs shall only be used for the news segment of media work and in direct connection with the story depicted in this press release and credit must be “Ol Pejeta / BioRescue.

Boilerplates

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW)

The Leibniz-IZW is an internationally renowned German research institute of the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. and a member of the Leibniz Association. Our mission is to examine evolutionary adaptations of wildlife to global change and develop new concepts and measures for the conservation of biodiversity. To achieve this, our scientists use their broad interdisciplinary expertise from biology and veterinary medicine to conduct fundamental and applied research – from molecular to landscape level – in close dialogue with the public and stakeholders. Additionally, we are committed to unique and high-quality services for the scientific community.
www.izw-berlin.de

Safari Park Dvůr Králové

Safari Park Dvůr Králové is a safari park in the Czech Republic. It’s one of the best rhino breeders outside of Africa and the only place where the northern white rhino bred in human care - both remaining females, Najin and Fatu, were born here. Safari Park Dvůr Králové coordinates efforts to save the northern white rhinos.
https://safaripark.cz/en/

Kenya Wildlife Service

Kenya Wildlife Service is the principal government institution that conserves and manages wildlife for Kenyans and the world. It also enforces related laws and regulations.

http://kws.go.ke/

Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Ol Pejeta Conservancy is the largest black rhino sanctuary in east Africa, and is the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees. It is also home to the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. Ol Pejeta’s cutting-edge wildlife security includes a specialised K-9 unit, motion sensor cameras along its solar-powered electric fence, and a dedicated Rhino Protection Unit.
www.olpejetaconservancy.org

Avantea

Avantea is a laboratory of advanced technologies for biotechnology research and animal reproduction based in Cremona, Italy. Avantea has over twenty years of experience and the know-how in assisted reproduction of livestock developed through years of research conducted in the biomedical and animal reproduction fields.
www.avantea.it/en/

University of Padua

University of Padua in Italy is one of the oldest in the world, celebrating 800 years. Its Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science is developing leading research and education in the field of wildlife conservation and welfare with a special focus on ethical assessment and evaluation of research projects and educational programmes.
www.unipd.it/en/

Wildlife Research and Training Institute

The Wildlife Research and Training Institute is a state corporation established under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act No. 47 of 2013 to undertake and coordinate wildlife research and training through innovative approaches to enable provision of accurate and reliable data and information to inform policy formulation and decision making.
wrti.go.ke

Contacts

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW)