Labour vows to ‘secure BBC’s independence’ after Lineker row

Toby Helm, Political Editor
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

A root and branch review of the BBC’s operations – including how its chairman and board are appointed – was announced on Sunday by Labour amid growing doubts about the corporation’s political independence under the Tories, and its future as a public service broadcaster.

The move follows bruising rows over Gary Lineker’s suspension from Match of the Day for criticising language used by ministers to describe immigration policy, and the appointment by former prime minister Boris Johnson of Conservative donor and supporter Richard Sharp as the BBC’s chairman.

In recent weeks there have also been reports of the BBC having come under pressure from the government to change its coverage of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic for political reasons.

Labour’s BBC review panel, made up of leading media and business figures, will meet for the first time this week. It is being set up by Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, who said the appointment of Sharp after he had helped Johnson secure an £800,000 loan, epitomised the lack of transparency and “revolving door” culture between government and corporation that had damaged the BBC’s reputation.

“The whole appointment of Sharp stank,” she said. “We need to cherish the BBC as a great national institution at the heart of British life and that involves looking at how we secure its reputation for independence from government and its place in a rapidly changing global media landscape.”

BBC chairman Richard Sharp is questioned by MPs about how he helped Boris Johnson secure a loan. Photograph: House of Commons/PA

She added: “There are serious headwinds. The media climate is changing, with competition from online streaming giants, the switch to digital over linear TV, rising costs and stalled progress on prominence. The BBC consistently finds itself at the centre of culture wars and questions over its impartiality and independence. Continuing the status quo is not an option.”

While Rishi Sunak’s government has toned down the hostile attitude adopted by Boris Johnson’s culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, who seemed intent on scrapping the licence fee altogether, many Tories still see the corporation as having an ingrained leftwing bias that needs to be erased by radical reform. Labour, by contrast, wants to position itself as a supporter of the best traditions of the BBC and its role at home and overseas, while also being open to change, including about the precise form the licence fee should take.

The Labour panel includes TV producer Steve Morrison, a former Granada TV director of programmes and chief executive who has had roles in the BBC; James Purnell, a former BBC director of strategy and culture secretary under Labour; TV presenter June Sarpong, who was formerly the BBC’s first director of creative diversity, and Lou Cordwell, chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, who worked with the BBC on a range of high-profile digital projects.

Labour’s move to highlight the importance of the BBC to the country and its image abroad reflects its determination to stress patriotic themes in the run-up to the next general election. It is also keen to play up the growing impression of Tory influence over the BBC before an election in which it fears an onslaught by rightwing sections of the media, such as the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, and will need to rely on the BBC for impartiality.

The panel’s terms of reference will include how to prepare for the BBC’s next charter renewal in 2027; future funding, including the licence fee and what services the BBC would provide from it; independence and impartiality; and how the BBC can compete and thrive in the digital age.

Related: Stop kicking the BBC on bias. A right turn was needed, but now it’s gone too far | Roger Harrabin

Labour has been planning the review for months as major decisions on funding and the charter approach. But the BBC’s role has come into the political spotlight following explosive claims last year by the former presenter Emily Maitlis that a Tory “agent” was “acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality” from his seat on the corporation’s board. Although Maitlis did not name him, she was referring to Theresa May’s former director of communications, Robbie Gibb, who has denied the claims. Gibb is one of four BBC board members whose posts are in the gift of the government.

Sharp is now the subject of two separate investigations. The appointment is being probed by an “independent person” after William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, recused himself for having met Sharp previously, and the BBC itself is investigating whether there has been any breach of its conflict of interest rules since he joined the corporation.

Last month the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee criticised Sharp for omitting details about his involvement in connecting the Cabinet Office with a businessman interested in offering Johnson financial assistance when he was applying for the post of BBC chairman. It said such omissions “constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals” applying for prominent public appointments. A spokesman for Sharp expressed regret that he had not made information available to the MPs who vetted his appointment.

Labour says it is committed to retaining the BBC as a universal, publicly owned, publicly funded public service broadcaster.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC plays an important part in national life and we look forward to engaging with the review.”

• This article was amended on 26 March 2023 to add a statement from the BBC received after publication.

‘Shaming’ level of misery caused by UK social care uncovered by major survey

Michael Savage
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Photograph: Alamy

Dissatisfaction at social care services among those who have had to deal with them has spiralled to “unbelievably distressing” levels, according to Britain’s most comprehensive study of the public’s experiences.

Two-thirds of people who have used or had contact with social care – for themselves or someone else – were dissatisfied, an analysis of the British Social Attitudes survey has revealed.

And among the public as a whole, only one in seven British people are satisfied with social care services, according to the survey, which is regarded as the gold standard for measuring public opinion.

The findings, revealed by leading health thinktanks the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund, show that unhappiness has been growing since 2018, and come against a background of continued complaints that the system is underfunded, that low pay makes it difficult to retain staff and that a promised cap on costs has been delayed until after the next election.

Andrew Dilnot, the economist behind the plan to cap social care costs, said the results were “something we should be ashamed of”, and that inaction was causing misery – for people delivering care and for the people who need it.

He told the Observer: “The reason British Social Attitudes survey numbers are so important is that they show how miserable we’re making the lives of people who need care and their families at a time when we should be looking after them. We’re just going to get more and more of that. It doesn’t have to be like this.

“Compared with our health service or our education system, the amounts of money involved in social care are small. We have somehow not managed to make it a big enough priority.”

Broken services, demoralised staff and the increasing strain on friends, family create a sobering reality
Laura Schlepper, researcher

The alarming care findings have been released ahead of the survey’s full health and care report later this week. According to the survey,, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in September and October 2022, the main source of dissatisfaction is people not getting all the social care they need. Other issues cited were inadequate pay, working conditions and training for social care workers and lack of support for unpaid carers.

There were 165,000 unfilled vacancies in social care in England last year. Nuffield Trust researcher Laura Schlepper, the report’s author, said the results came after decades of neglect. She added: “Broken, complicated and fragmented services, demoralised staff in short supply and the increasing strain on friends, family and informal carers to pick up the pieces all create a sobering reality. These results are yet another reason for politicians to replace words with action on social care reform.”

Sally Warren, director of policy at the King’s Fund, said the results made the continued delays to reforming the system all the more frustrating. “We can expect dissatisfaction to rise further still if social care provision continues to decline, with people who draw on care and support, their carers and those working in the sector feeling the pain of this,” she said.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said the government “starves the social care sector of money, and individuals who have to pay for their own care are aggrieved because they feel it should be free at the point of need, exactly as the NHS is”. The Guardian revealed this week that a third of care homes across England have considered closing during the past year because of “financially crippling” running costs. Meanwhile, about £480m in public funds is estimated to have been spent on “inadequate” care homes in the last four years.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We recognise the challenges faced by families who rely on social care – and those in the adult social care sector – which is why we are committed to working closely with providers to ensure people receive the highest-quality care. We are providing up to £7.5bn of additional funding over the next two years to support care services, the biggest increase in history. This will help local authorities address waiting lists and workforce pressures.

“We are working to reduce vacancies through a national recruitment campaign, and we have made care workers eligible for the Health and Care visa. We are also making available £15m investment in international recruitment.”

French pension protests: Brav-M, the special police unit accused of brutality

FRANCE 24
Sun, 26 March 2023

© Geoffroy Van der Hasselt, AFP


They ride in pairs, are armed with handguns, expandable batons and tear gas grenades, and have been specially trained to prevent protests from spiralling out of control. But since France’s pension protests began, officers belonging to France’s special Brav-M motorbike unit have increasingly been accused of taking the law into their own hands, intimidating and threatening people, and in some cases, resorting to the use of excessive force.

On Friday, four days after Paris was the scene of one of the most violent demonstrations in years as hundreds of thousands of people thronged the streets to protest the government’s pension reform, French daily Le Monde and online video broadcaster Loopsider published a troubling audio recording.

In the nearly 20-minute-long clip, police officers are heard humiliating and menacing a young man, who claims to be from Chad, telling him that if they see him on the streets again “you won’t be getting into a police van to go to the station, you will be getting into something else, called an ambulance, and go to hospital”.

Two slaps can also be heard in the audio.

Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez immediately condemned the incident, calling the behaviour both “unacceptable” and unethical, telling French broadcaster France 5 that: “Like everyone else, I’m very shocked.”

UK

Climate group call on pension fund to divest from oil and gas


Matthew Norman
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Andrew Finney of Fossil Free Oxfordshire on divestment day, at county hall. 

Credit: Zoe Broughton (Image: Zoe Broughton

Campaigners gathered outside county council offices calling for urgent funding to help tackle climate change.

Fossil Free Oxfordshire marked national divestment Day on Friday by calling on Oxfordshire Local Government Pension Fund to accelerate and broaden the changes it is making in its investments away from oil and gas.

They could be seen outside County Hall in Oxford on Friday (March 24) to call on the county’s pension fund committee to act more rapidly in divesting from climate-damaging investments.

They were joined by Oxford Friends of the Earth and Extinction Rebellion (XR) members to leaflet council employees and sing.

READ MORE: Cars parked illegally outside religious centre in Oxford

Fossil Free Oxfordshire member Andrew Finney said: “This week United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that we all have the tools we need to solve climate change challenges.

"We just have to deploy them, everything, everywhere, all at once.

Oxford Mail: Jo Gill from XR joined Fossil Free Oxfordshire outside County Hall. Credit: Zoe Broughton

Jo Gill from XR joined Fossil Free Oxfordshire outside County Hall. Credit: Zoe Broughton (Image: Zoe Broughton)

“Organisations like the Oxfordshire Local Government Pension Fund, and the larger Brunel Partnership that it’s part of, have the financial levers that can make those changes actually happen.”

In November 2019, the Oxfordshire Pension Fund Committee held a workshop about climate change and investment and heard from experts in climate-friendly investment, representatives from the Brunel Pension Partnership and from climate-concerned NGOs such as Carbon Tracker.

Pension scheme member Pete Wallis said: “After the climate change workshop held in 2019, the councillors on the Pension Fund Committee do seem to have listened to lobbying by Fossil Free Oxfordshire.

Oxford Mail: Councillor Robin Bennett

Councillor Robin Bennett (Image: Zoe Broughton)

"And also from scheme members like me, who don’t want our pensions to be supporting climate-destroying industries.

“But investment changes so far have not been ambitious enough and the fund still has huge investments in companies like Shell that are having devastating effects on the climate.”

Since 2019, the Oxfordshire Pension Fund has set a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its investment portfolio by seven per cent each year.

They have moved most of the scheme’s passive equity investments to funds that are aligned with criteria set by the Paris Agreement.

The Pension Fund Committee has recently decided to investigate moving its UK Equities investment to a UK Paris Aligned fund, which would trigger the divestment of most of its holding in Shell plc.

“Oxfordshire councils have declared a climate emergency and now their actions must be stepped up”, said Mr Finney.

“If we are to keep temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we need rapid, immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

“Major investors such as pension funds have a massive role in making this happen.

"We call on the Oxfordshire Pension Fund to step up changes in its investment policy – everything, everywhere, all at once.”

Deep-sea mining for rare metals will destroy ecosystems, say scientists

Robin McKie
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Photograph: GSR/Reuters

An investigation by conservationists has found evidence that deep-seabed mining of rare minerals could cause “extensive and irreversible” damage to the planet.

The report, to be published on Monday by the international wildlife charity Fauna & Flora, adds to the growing controversy that surrounds proposals to sweep the ocean floor of rare minerals that include cobalt, manganese and nickel. Mining companies want to exploit these deposits – which are crucial to the alternative energy sector – because land supplies are running low, they say.

However, oceanographers, biologists and other researchers have warned that these plans would cause widespread pollution, destroy global fish stocks and obliterate marine ecosystems.

“The ocean plays a critical role in the basic functioning of our planet, and protecting its delicate ecosystem is not just critical for marine biodiversity but for all life on Earth,” said Sophie Benbow, the organisation’s marine director.

Fauna & Flora first raised concerns about ocean mining in a 2020 report. Since then, scientists have intensified their study of deep-sea zones and highlighted further dangers posed by mining there. These form the focus of the organisation’s report. “It has become increasingly clear in the last couple of years that, apart from other dangers, deep-sea mining poses a particular threat to the climate,” said Catherine Weller, Fauna & Flora’s director of global policy.

“The deep sea holds vast reservoirs of carbon which could be completely disrupted by mining on the scale being proposed and exacerbate the global crisis we are experiencing through rising greenhouse gas levels.”

Corals could be destroyed by mining. Photograph: James Cook University/EPA

Recent research has also emphasised that our knowledge and understanding of biodiversity is woefully incomplete. “Each time an expedition is launched to collect species, we find that between 70% and 90% of them are new to science,” said Benbow. “It is not just new species, but whole genera of plants and creatures about which we had previously known nothing.”

This view is supported by David Attenborough, who has called for a moratorium on all deep-sea mining plans. “Mining means destruction, and in this case it means the destruction of an ecosystem about which we know pathetically little,” he said.

Delicate, long-living denizens of the deep – polychaete worms, sea cucumbers, corals and squid – would be obliterated by dredging, researchers have warned. Nor would there be any chance of a quick recovery. At depths of several kilometres, food and energy are limited, and life proceeds at an extraordinarily slow rate. “Once lost, biodiversity will be impossible to restore,” says the report.

The battle over our planet’s deep-sea resources focuses primarily on the trillions of nodules of manganese, nickel and cobalt that litter the ocean floor. These metals are critical to the manufacture of electric cars, wind turbines and other devices that will be needed to replace carbon-emitting lorries, power plants and factories.

As a result, mining companies are now jostling to dredge them up in vast quantities using robot rovers – attached by pipelines to surface ships – that would trundle over the ocean floor, sucking up nodules and pumping them to their mother craft.

But operations like these would devastate our already stressed oceans, destroy their delicate ecosystems and send plumes of sediments, laced with toxic metals, spiralling upwards to poison marine food-chains, say marine biologists.

For their part, mining companies have defended their plans by pointing out that drilling for mineral reserves on land is even more damaging to the planet’s stressed ecosystems. If we focus all our efforts to dig up cobalt, nickel and manganese there, we will degrade the environment ever further. Better turn to the ocean depths instead, it is argued.

The claim is dismissed by Weller. “These companies are presenting deep-sea mining as a new frontier but they really mean it to be an additional frontier – for none of these companies is suggesting that if we started mining the deep seabed then they would stop mining on land. We would just be adding to our woes.”

Ocean experts are concerned about the prospects of deep-sea mining operations beginning in the near future, following the decision of the Pacific Island state of Nauru to accelerate exploitation of the sea bed. In June 2021, it notified the International Seabed Authority (ISA) – responsible for regulating mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction – of its intention to sponsor an exploitation application for nodule mining in the Pacific.

In doing so, Nauru triggered a ‘two-year rule’ – a legal provision which creates a countdown for the ISA to adopt its first set of exploitation regulations for deep-seabed mining and could result in the green light for deep-seabed mining this year. Discussions among the 167 member states of the ISA are now under way.

“This is a critical year,” said Weller. “The newly agreed UN High Sea treaty signifies a clear global recognition of the importance of ocean conservation but collaborative efforts are still needed to keep the brakes on deep-sea mining.”

Italian authorities detain Banksy-funded migrant rescue boat

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Photograph: Elio Desiderio/EPA

Italian authorities have detained a migrant rescue boat financed by the British street artist Banksy after it responded to a distress call in the central Mediterranean.

The vessel, painted in bright pink and named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, was impounded in the port of Lampedusa on Sunday in relation to an alleged breach of new Italian rules for rescue boats operated by non-governmental organisations.

“We know of dozens of boats in distress right in front of the island at this very moment, yet we are being prevented from assisting. This is unacceptable!” the crew from Louise Michel said in a tweet.

On Sunday at least 29 people from sub-Saharan Africa died while trying to reach Italy after two boats carrying them across the Mediterranean sank off the coast of Tunisia.

Over the weekend, Italian authorities instructed the Louise Michel to head to the seaport of Trapani, after it had performed a first rescue operation on Saturday, according to an Italian coastguard press release issued on Sunday afternoon.

Owing to the high number of calls from people in distress, the crew decided to perform another rescue, resulting in a violation of the new protocols introduced by Italy’s far-right government.

“One of the boats capsized, the crew said on Twitter. “And 34 people were recovered from the water at night. A mother and her unconscious baby had to be evacuated, along with another person in a life-threatening condition. An Italian coastguard vessel was also present, but ignored repeated calls for assistance for about 37 minutes before finally supporting, while people were in the water just in front of them.

“Even after responding to multiple mayday relays from an aircraft about boats in distress, the Italian MRCC [Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre] repeatedly pressured the crew not to react accordingly, but to sail north without engaging in another rescue.”

The Italian coastguard complained that the NGO vessel was “complicating a delicate rescue coordination work”, as hundreds of other migrant boats arrived in Lampedusa over the weekend.

The incident comes weeks after an overcrowded wooden vessel carrying as many as 200 people fell apart in stormy seas just a few metres from the beach of Cutro, in Calabria. The bodies of at least 90 people have so far been recovered by the authorities, including dozens of children from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq who were seeking refuge in Europe.

“European authorities are fully aware of people in distress in their SAR zone,” replied the NGO. “Still, they block #LouiseMichel from leaving port and rendering assistance. Several lives were lost in two shipwrecks yesterday. These deaths are not an accident nor a tragedy. They are wanted.”

Featuring a Banksy artwork depicting a girl in a life vest holding a heart-shaped safety buoy, the Louise Michel sails under a German flag. The 31-metre motor yacht, formerly owned by French customs authorities, is smaller but considerably faster than other NGO rescue vessels.

Banksy’s involvement in the rescue mission goes back to September 2019 when he sent an email to Pia Klemp, the former captain of several NGO boats that have rescued thousands of people over recent years.

“Hello Pia, I’ve read about your story in the papers. You sound like a badass,” he wrote. “I am an artist from the UK and I’ve made some work about the migrant crisis, obviously I can’t keep the money. Could you use it to buy a new boat or something? Please let me know. Well done. Banksy.”

Klemp, who initially thought it was a joke, believes she was chosen by Banksy due to her political stance. “I don’t see sea rescue as a humanitarian action, but as part of an anti-fascist fight,” she previously told the Guardian, making clear that Banksy’s involvement in the operations was limited to providing financial support. “Banksy won’t pretend that he knows better than us how to run a ship, and we won’t pretend to be artists.”

With a top speed of 27 knots, the Louise Michel would be able to “hopefully outrun the so-called Libyan coastguard before they get to boats with refugees and migrants and pull them back to the detention camps in Libya,” said Klemp.

Record-breaking number of migrants reach Italy in 48 hours

The recent controversial speech by the country's President

Euronews
Sun, 26 March 2023 

In the past 48 hours, more than 4000 migrants have reached Southern Italy - a new record - with some 2,000 people disembarking on the island of Lampedusa alone.

According to government figures, arrivals have tripled in the first three months of 2023.

So far this year, more than 20,000 migrants landed on Italian shores. Some 6,500 people arrived in Italy during the same period in 2022.

Crossing the Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Migrants are often crowded into unsafe, rickety rafts, which are prone to sinking, while the Italian coastguard has been accused of deliberately delaying rescues - something it denies.

More than 26,000 migrants have either died or gone missing in the sea since 2014.

30 people drown 'due to non-assistance' by Italy coastguard, alleges monitor

Italy and Malta have seen the number of boats travelling in the central Mediterranean multiply this weekend.

Most of the recent migrants set out from Tunisia, where a recent controversial speech by the country's president against its migrant population sparked a series of violent attacks, pushing people to risk the voyage.

On Sunday, 29 migrants were killed in two shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia.

Another 12 people were killed in shipwrecks on Friday in international waters off Malta.

Tunisia claimed to have stopped the departure of more than 70 boats over the weekend.

Watch the report above to find out more.

Italy detains rescue ship ‘Louise Michel’ in Lampedusa for violating safe harbour migration law

Story by Barbara O’Sullivan • Yesterday 

The maritime authorities of the Italian island of Lampedusa have proceeded to detain the rescue vessel 'Louise Michel' for violating the safe harbor regulations stipulated by Italian law, the Italian Coast Guard has learned in a statement.


Archive - The 'Louise Michel' rescue ship - Europa Press/Contacto/Lmp© Provided by News 360

The detention of the ship occurred during the disembarkation of about 180 migrants saved in at least three operations carried out during the previous days.

The law stipulates in this regard that NGO rescue ships operating in the central Mediterranean must proceed to safe harbor the moment they receive permission to do so and in no way carry out additional rescues thereafter.

On its Twitter account, the NGO acknowledged having received safe harbor on up to two occasions but argued that the gravity of the situation in the area led its crew to make additional rescues.

''The instructions given to the NGO ship, considering its small size,'' the Coast Guard explained, ''were also aimed at preventing it from embarking a number of people that would endanger both its safety and that of the migrant boats it would be assisting.''

The authorities add that the law is aimed, above all, at not overloading the concession permits and thus facilitating the management of new arrivals.

''To this behavior, which already complicated the delicate work of rescue coordination, were added the continuous calls from NGO aircraft that overloaded the communication systems of the national rescue coordination center,'' the coastguards add.

Related video: Record-breaking number of migrants reach Italy in 48 hours (Euronews)
Duration 1:00   Euronews  View on Watch

WIONUK New law to stop small boat migrants
8:33

ReutersOver 700 migrants rescued off Italy’s coast
0:23

ReutersMigrants at sea rescued by Italian coastguard boats
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DailymotionAt least 45 bodies recovered after destroyed migrant boat washes up in southern Italy
0:47


The organization, for its part, denounces that the Rescue Coordination Center put pressure on the ship's crew on several occasions to refrain from further operations and has denounced that an Italian coastguard patrol ignored the migrants' pleas during one of the rescue procedures.

''The European authorities are fully aware of the people in distress in their rescue and rescue waters. Yet they prevent this ship from leaving port and providing assistance. Lives such as those lost in shipwrecks are neither an accident nor a tragedy. They are looking for it to happen,'' the organization lamented.

About 3,000 migrants have been rescued or have reached the Italian coasts since Friday, according to official estimates collected by the RAI channel.

PERSECUTION AGAINST THE 'OCEAN VIKING' On the other hand, the Italian Coast Guard has disavowed any responsibility in the incident that occurred on Saturday around the rescue boat 'Ocean Viking' of the NGO SOS Mediterranée, whose crew members claim to have been chased by the Libyan Coast Guard, who even fired shots in the air, during a rescue operation.

According to the organization's account, a Libyan patrol boat interfered in the rescue of 80 migrants in distress and began to pursue the 'Ocean Viking'. SOS Mediterranée denounces that the coast guard ''fired shots in the air'' to drive their ship away from the area.

The Seabird 2 aircraft, operated by the NGO Sea Watch, captured the entire incident, which ended with the forced return to Libya of the 80 intercepted migrants.

In this regard, the Italian Coast Guard argues that the operation of the Ocean Viking was not communicated to the flag country as required by the safety of navigation regulations, but to the Italian coordination center, continuously ''ending up also by overloading it in particularly intense moments due to the salvages in progress''.

It must be said that the governor of the Italian region of Lazio, Francesco Rocca, has condemned the interception of the Libyan coast guard against the 'Ocean Viking'.

''Shocking and worrying: the Libyan Coast Guard blocked a rescue operation of the 'Ocean Viking', getting dangerously close and firing several shots in the air,'' he has denounced on Twitter, where he has recalled that ''humanitarians are not a target'' and that ''saving lives is a humanitarian imperative and a legal obligation''.

Source: (EUROPA PRESS

UK

Nostalgia: Strikes and protests nothing new as we look back at demos in Colchester


Macaully Moffat

Colchester Evening Gazette

Sun, 26 March 2023

Arrest - police deal with protestors in Wivenhoe in 1984 (Image: N/A)

STRIKES and demonstrations have become part of our daily lives.

From doctors and nurses to teachers and railway workers, they have become widespread as workers protest against real loss fall in wages and highlight concerns about working conditions.

However, these are not a new phenomenon and have always been part of history.


In Colchester and North Essex, there have been some major strikes and demonstrations.

In April 1984, protestors in Wivenhoe clashed with police during miners' strikes that flared up across the UK.

Gazette: Removed - a protestor being dragged away in Winvehoe

Removed - a protestor being dragged away in Winvehoe (Image: N/A)

It was of major industrial action to prevent colliery closures with picket lines and demonstrations led by Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers.

Gazette: Keeping watch - there was a high police presence in Wivenhoe during the miners' strike

Keeping watch - there was a high police presence in Wivenhoe during the miners' strike (Image: N/A)

North Essex became a focal point when miners started picketing the dock gates at Wivenhoe - one of five privately-owned ports along the River Colne estuary.

Gazette: Group - police pictured at Wivenhoe Port in 1984

Group - police pictured at Wivenhoe Port in 1984 (Image: N/A)

Freighters carrying coal had begun to unload and the aim of the pickets was to turn back lorries sent to collect it.

Gazette: Brawl - protestors in Wivenhoe clashed with police during the miners' strikes

Brawl - protestors in Wivenhoe clashed with police during the miners' strikes (Image: N/A)

The miners’ strikes eventually ended on March 3, 1985, nearly a year after it had begun.

In 1990, residents marched and fought in Colchester High Street against the unpopular Poll Tax.

Gazette: Demo - protestors making their thoughts known on the Poll Tax

Demo - protestors making their thoughts known on the Poll Tax (Image: N/A)

The Poll Tax – or community tax – was first unveiled by former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher in 1990.

It was a change in the way the levy, used to fund councils, was worked out.

Gazette: Fight - protestors clash with police during the Poll Tax rally

Fight - protestors clash with police during the Poll Tax rally (Image: N/A)

Instead of being based on a home’s value, the tax was worked out according to the number of adults living in a property.

It became a priority in the Conservative manifesto for the 1979 elections and was introduced in England and Wales from 1990.

Gazette: Tackle - one protestor is taken down during the Poll Tax rally in Colchester

Tackle - one protestor is taken down during the Poll Tax rally in Colchester (Image: N/A)

But opponents said the tax – which was the same for a mansion as a bedsit – was a tax on the poor and they took to the streets to protest.

Gazette: Rise up - protestors climbed onto the Castle Park gates to make their feelings known

Rise up - protestors climbed onto the Castle Park gates to make their feelings known (Image: N/A)

Colchester was transformed in March and May from a shopping centre to the epicentre of running battles between the police and protesters voicing their opposition to the unpopular tax.

Protestors scaled the Castle Park gates, carried placards through the main precincts and shouted anti-Government chants.

Gazette: Protest - people from all walks of life took part in the rally

Protest - people from all walks of life took part in the rally (Image: N/A)

The opposition never abated and, in 1993, the Government relented and introduced the council tax which has been in place ever since.

UK
Health Secretary accused of ‘trying to pinch pennies’ in junior doctors pay row


Lucas Cumiskey, PA
Sun, 26 March 2023

The co-chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors committee has accused the Health Secretary of “trying to pinch pennies” after fresh strikes were announced in a row over pay.

On Sunday, Dr Robert Laurenson apologised for the disruption further walkouts will cause but said he does not think they will put patients’ lives at risk.

It comes after the BMA announced on Thursday that a 96-hour walkout will take place for shifts starting between 6.59am on Tuesday April 11 and 6.59am on Saturday April 15, as it claimed that Cabinet minister Steve Barclay has failed to make any “credible offer”.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has been accused of ‘trying to pinch pennies’ over junior doctors’ pay (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Dr Laurenson told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “We have a healthcare crisis at the moment, we have 500 excess deaths, 500 British people dying needlessly a week in winter, and we’re trying to address real healthcare crises.

“And so we’re trying to approach this from a perspective of doctors looking after patients and wanting to deliver high-quality healthcare, and Mr Barclay is just trying to pinch pennies.

“I think, if you were to ask the ordinary person on the street would they be happy to pay a doctor, 7pm on a Friday night, £19 an hour, I think you’d get a resounding ‘Yes, that’s reasonable’.”

He added: “We’re very happy to get around the table. So, next week will mark six months since we started our formal trade dispute, and Mr Barclay has only come to the table twice.

“It’s really very difficult to be able to talk to someone who doesn’t even want to invite us in, and indeed on Wednesday he left the room.

“He asked us what we would like to talk about, we presented our opening position on what we think would constitute full power restoration and how we’d like to work with him.

“But he didn’t ask us any further questions.”

On demands for a 35% pay rise, Dr Laurenson said: “So, doctors have lost 26.1% over the last 15 years in real terms and what we’re asking for is for that to be restored. So we’re asking for it to go back to a cost-neutral point of view from 2008, and what that looks like is about a £5 to £10 an hour increase.

“At the moment doctors start on £14 an hour and we’re just asking for that to be restored to £19 an hour.”

Asked if their pay demands are too high, he said: “So, I think £1 billion for 75,000 junior doctors, to be able to try and treat the massive workforce crisis and to be able to deliver high-quality care so that people this country, I think that’s value for money.”

He added: “This strike action, yes, it causes disruption and I’m sorry for that, but it just demonstrates that we have 9,000 vacancies in secondary care, we have 6,000 fewer GPs, and it’s very difficult for patients to access healthcare that they deserve.”

On Thursday, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Further strikes will risk patient safety and cause further disruption.

“The Health and Social Care Secretary met the BMA’s junior doctors committee yesterday in the hope of beginning constructive talks to resolve the current dispute.

“The BMA placed a pre-condition on these talks of a 35% pay rise. That is unreasonable.

“Our door remains open to constructive conversations, as we have had with other health unions, to find a realistic way forward which balances rewarding junior doctors for their hard work while being fair to the taxpayer.”

The BMA later denied it had placed a pre-condition on talks of a 35% pay rise.

UK

Heathrow talks break down ahead of airport security staff strike

Simon Calder
Sun, 26 March 2023 

Go slow? Passengers at London Heathrow Terminal 5, home of British Airways (Simon Calder)

The prospect of disruption for airline passengers flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 over the Easter holidays has increased.

Airport bosses say talks aiming to avert a walk-out by around 1,400 security staff belonging to the Unite union have broken down.

The strike is due to begin on Friday 31 March and continue until Easter Sunday, 9 April.


Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Workers at Heathrow airport are on poverty wages while the chief executive and senior managers enjoy huge salaries. It is the airport’s workers who are fundamental to its success and they deserve a fair pay increase.

“Our members are simply unable to make ends meet due to the low wages paid by Heathrow. They are being forced to take strike action due to need not greed.”

No future negotiations are scheduled before the strike begins, and Heathrow’s management says talks can resume only if the stoppage is suspended.

Heathrow says the security staff have been given a 10 per cent pay rise plus “further enhancements”.

Most of the workers who are planning to walk out are employed as security officers at Terminal 5. A smaller number work for the airport’s Campus Security team, who operate control posts that give vehicles access to the airfield.

The action is timed to coincide with the normal summer schedule of expansion, which begins on Sunday 26 March, and the start of the school Easter holidays. The walk-out is planned to continue until Easter Sunday.

Passengers on British Airways, which has a monopoly of flights from Terminal 5, are likely to be worst affected. The Independent has asked BA to comment.

A spokesperson for the airport said: ”We will not let these unnecessary strikes impact the hard-earned holidays of our passengers. Our contingency plans will keep the airport operating as normal throughout.

“We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of this irresponsible action by Unite.

“We are deploying 1,000 additional colleagues and the entire management team who will be in the terminals providing assistance to passengers over the busy Easter getaway.”

Airlines are being asked if they will voluntarily limit the number of passengers: by offering flexible re-booking to customers due to travel during the strike, and by stopping sales of seats on flights departing Heathrow even though there is capacity available.

Pope extends sexual abuse law to include lay leaders








Reuters
Sat, March 25, 2023

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis on Saturday updated rules on dealing with sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, expanding their scope to include lay Catholic leaders and spelling out that both minors and adults can be victims.

The pope issued a landmark decree in 2019 making it obligatory for all priests and members of religious orders to report any suspicions of abuse, and holding bishops directly accountable for any abuse they commit themselves or cover-up.

The provisions were initially introduced on a temporary basis, but on Saturday the Vatican said they would become definitive from April 30 and include additional elements aimed at strengthening the fight against abuse within the Church.

Abuse scandals have shredded the Vatican's reputation in many countries and have been a major challenge for Pope Francis, who has passed a series of measures over the past 10 years aimed at holding the Church hierarchy accountable.

Critics say the results have been mixed and have accused Francis of being reluctant to defrock abusive prelates.

The new norms now encompass leaders of Vatican-sanctioned organisations that are run by lay people, not just priests, following numerous allegations in recent years against lay leaders, who have been accused of abusing their positions to sexually exploit those in their charge.

Whereas the original rules covered sexual acts targeting "minors and vulnerable persons", the new version provides a wider definition of victims, referring to crimes committed "with a minor or with a person who habitually has an imperfect use of reason or with a vulnerable adult".

The Vatican said Church members had an obligation to report cases of violence against religious women by clerics, as well as cases of harassment of adult seminarians or novices.

BishopAccountability.org, a not-for-profit organisation looking to document the abuses within the Roman Catholic Church, said the revision was "a big disappointment" and fell short of the "extensive revamping" the policy against the abuses would have required.

The policy "remains self-policing packaged as accountability", said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, adding bishops remained in charge of investigating allegations against fellow bishops.

The updated provisions have been unveiled a month after the Roman Catholic religious order of Jesuits said that accusations of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse against one of its most prominent members were highly credible.

About 25 people, mostly former nuns, have accused Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, 69, a well-known religious artist of various forms of abuse, either when he was a spiritual director of a community of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years ago, or after he moved to Rome to pursue his career as an artist.

Rupnik has not spoken publicly of the accusations, which have rattled the worldwide order, of which the pope is a member.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Additional reporting by Valentina Za; editing by Clelia Oziel and Jason Neely)

Netanyahu fires defense minister, sparking mass protests

Story by The Canadian Press • Today

JERUSALEM (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets of cities across the country on Sunday night in a spontaneous outburst of anger after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly fired his defense minister for challenging the Israeli leader's judicial overhaul plan.


Netanyahu fires defense minister, sparking mass protests© Provided by The Canadian Press

Protesters in Tel Aviv blocked a main highway and lit a large bonfire, while police scuffled with protesters who gathered outside Netanyahu's private home in Jerusalem.

The unrest deepened a monthslong crisis over Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the judiciary, which has sparked mass protests, alarmed business leaders and former security chiefs and drawn concern from the United States and other close allies.

Netanyahu's dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signaled that the prime minister and his allies will barrel ahead this week with the overhaul plan. Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.

In a brief statement, Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday the prime minister had dismissed Gallant. Netanyahu later tweeted “we must all stand strong against refusal.”

Tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets in protest after Netanyahu's announcement, blocking Tel Aviv's main artery, transforming the Ayalon highway into a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags and lighting a large bonfire in the middle of the road.

Demonstrations took place in Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, where thousands of people gathered outside Netanyahu's private residence. Police scuffled with protesters and sprayed the crowd with a water cannon.

Inon Aizik, 27, said he came to demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s private residence in central Jerusalem because “bad things are happening in this country,” referring to the judicial overhaul as “a quick legislative blitz.”

Netanyahu's decision came less than a day after Gallant, a former senior general, called for a pause in the controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holidays, citing the turmoil in the ranks of the military.

Gallant had voiced concerns that the divisions in society were hurting morale in the military and emboldening Israel’s enemies. “I see how the source of our strength is being eroded,” Gallant said.

While several other Likud members had indicated they might follow Gallant, the party quickly closed ranks on Sunday, clearing the way for his dismissal.

Galit Distal Atbaryan, Netanyahu’s public diplomacy minister, said that Netanyahu summoned Gallant to his office and told him “that he doesn’t have any faith in him anymore and therefore he is fired.”

Gallant tweeted shortly after the announcement that “the security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life mission.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Gallant’s dismissal "harms national security and ignores warnings of all defense officials.”




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Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet security agency, is expected to replace him. Dichter had reportedly flirted with joining Gallant but instead announced Sunday he was backing the prime minister.

Netanyahu’s government is pushing ahead for a parliamentary vote this week on a centerpiece of the overhaul — a law that would give the governing coalition the final say over all judicial appointments. It also seeks to pass laws that would grant parliament the authority to override Supreme Court decisions with a basic majority and limit judicial review of laws.

Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.

But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets over the past three months to demonstrate against the plan in the largest demonstrations in the country's 75-year history.

Leaders of Israel’s vibrant high-tech industry have said the changes will scare away investors, former top security officials have spoken out against the plan and key allies, including the United States and Germany, have voiced concerns.

In recent weeks discontent has even surged from within Israel’s army – the most popular and respected institution among Israel’s Jewish majority. A growing number of Israeli reservists, including fighter pilots, have threatened to withdraw from voluntary duty in the past weeks.

Israel's military is facing a surge in fighting in the occupied West Bank, threats from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and concerns that archenemy Iran is close to developing a nuclear-weapons capability.

Violence both in Israel and the occupied West Bank has escalated over the past few weeks to heights unseen in years.

Manuel Trajtenberg, head of an influential Israeli think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies, said that “Netanyahu can dismiss his defense minister, he cannot dismiss the warnings he heard from Gallant.”

Meanwhile, an Israeli good governance group on Sunday asked the country’s Supreme Court to punish Netanyahu for allegedly violating a conflict of interest agreement meant to prevent him from dealing with the country’s judiciary while he is on trial for corruption.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a fierce opponent of the overhaul, asked the court to force Netanyahu to obey the law and sanction him either with a fine or prison time for not doing so. It said he was not above the law.

“A prime minister who doesn’t obey the court and the provisions of the law is privileged and an anarchist,” said Eliad Shraga, the head of the group, echoing language used by Netanyahu and his allies against protesters opposed to the overhaul. “The prime minister will be forced to bow his head before the law and comply with the provisions of the law.”

The prime minister responded saying the appeal should be dismissed and said that the Supreme Court didn’t have grounds to intervene.

Netanyahu is barred by the country’s attorney general from directly dealing with his government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, based on a conflict of interest agreement he is bound to, and which the Supreme Court acknowledged in a ruling over Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption. Instead, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant of Netanyahu, is spearheading the overhaul.

But on Thursday, after parliament passed a law making it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, Netanyahu said he was unshackled from the attorney general’s decision and vowed to wade into the crisis and “mend the rift” in the nation. That declaration prompted the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to warn that Netanyahu was breaking his conflict of interest agreement.

The fast-paced legal and political developments have catapulted Israel into uncharted territory and toward a burgeoning constitutional crisis, said Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

“We are at the start of a constitutional crisis in the sense that there is a disagreement over the source of authority and legitimacy of different governing bodies,” he said.

Netanyahu is on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs involving wealthy associates and powerful media moguls. He denies wrongdoing and dismisses critics who say he will try to seek an escape route from the charges through the legal overhaul. —— Associated Press journalist Tia Goldenberg contributed from Tel Aviv.

Ilan Ben Zion, The Associated Press

As deadly fungus expected to hit bats in Alberta, experts call for public to be on the lookout

Story by Lisa Johnson •   Edmonton Journal

Yesterday 

A little brown myotis bat in hibernation. 

Photo by Jason Headley/Supplied© Provided by Edmonton Journal

As a fungus that has devastated bat colonies around North America is expected to infect bats in Alberta soon, experts are calling on Albertans to be on the lookout and help protect key habitats.

While the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome was found in guano, or bat droppings, in southeast Alberta last summer, the disease hasn’t yet been confirmed in bats. Most people don’t often see the nocturnal mammals, but they perform important ecological work by eating things like mosquitoes and agricultural pests.

Scott McBurney is a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in Atlantic Canada, at the Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island. White-nose syndrome emerged in Eastern Canada in the late 2000s.

McBurney told Postmedia it’s likely Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia will see a “huge population collapse” of their bat species.

However, McBurney pointed to the importance of regular surveillance by wildlife professionals at winter hibernation sites. He also pointed to the work of citizen scientists, where in P.E.I., they helped report dead bats on the landscape, allowing researchers to map the progress of white-nose syndrome and come up with important mitigation or recovery efforts.

“That was a huge piece, because there’s no way any of us that are either hired by the government or within universities or other scientists can be the boots on the ground all over the place all the time,” he said.

People can also help by building bat boxes or other bat-friendly habitats on private property, or being careful to remove bats from buildings with the help of pest control operators at the right time in the fall without harming vulnerable pups, he said.

“Anybody and everybody can partake in these things.”

‘People can play a really big role’

Lisa Wilkinson, senior species at risk biologist at Alberta Fish and Wildlife and the provincial bat specialist, said it’s important for residents across the province to better understand bats and their importance to the ecosystem.

“We know we can’t stop this disease from decimating our population, so the best thing we can do is maintain the best environment,” said Wilkinson, noting that it’s easier for bat populations to recover if they have good, safe places to roost and forage for insects.

“People can play a really big role,” said Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said the government is going to continue to support the Alberta Community Bat Program, which offers information and resources on its website, www.albertabats.ca , and helps collect guano for testing. Wilkinson said it’s important to focus on surveillance, outreach and education.

“We’re probably in the early stages, so it will take a year or two for the fungus to be in hibernation areas, for it to grow and reach a capacity where it’s really going to start to infect the bats. We may see bats this year with white-nose syndrome.”

In the spring, provincial officials will be looking to catch and release some bats on their summer route in southeastern Alberta to try to detect traces of the fungus, and investigating two primary hibernation caves.

Wilkinson said she’s also keeping a close eye on a project piloting probiotic treatments that could slow or prevent the spread of the fungus.

“If some of these solutions such as the probiotic seem to be successful, and if they will work in our situation and the places where we can apply them, we’re absolutely going to do that,” she said, adding that there may come a need for more resources to expand the government’s work.

McBurney noted that while various treatments are being tried, “in all reality, there has been no silver bullet found yet.”

In Western Canada, McBurney suggested that it’s possible the dispersed population of bats that live beyond well-known large caves and mines, which are more common in Eastern Canada, might help slow the spread of the disease.

“Maybe they’ll be spared from white-nose. I don’t know. Maybe I’m really clutching at straws and rooting for the bats here — but it’s a possibility,” he said.

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Opinion: Who is minding Alberta’s fish and wildlife?

'Cloaked in so much secrecy': Staffing split will hurt Alberta fish and wildlife management, critics say

Wilkinson agreed. “If there’s bats that winter in cracks and crevices in small numbers, it might slow the spread,” she said, adding by the same token, it makes bats harder to track.

Deni Cameron works in agronomy and has been aiming to raise public awareness about how losing bats in Alberta will impact the ecosystem, noting that without them to eat and control insects, farmers will be forced to use more insecticides, affecting important species like bees.

“Insecticides are indiscriminate. They’re going to kill the good bugs and the bad bugs,” said Cameron, adding that she’d like to see more public awareness campaigns, resources, and boots on the ground from the Alberta government.

The province has been participating in the North American Bat Monitoring Program’s acoustic research that helps detect bat activity levels since 2015, and is now also working on a recovery plan with biologists and stakeholders, Wilkinson said.

It’s also working to update its communications efforts.

‘The first sign’: early emergence from hibernation

Jamie Rothenburger, University of Calgary associate professor in Veterinary Medicine and co-regional director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in the Alberta region, said bats infected with the syndrome could have a fluffy white coating on their nose, feet or wings.

With the fungus, bats can be forced out of their hibernation earlier than usual.

“The first sign is actually seeing bats out flying at the wrong time of year, like when it’s still winter. Then, there’s nothing for them to eat. So of course, they’re out of hibernation, they have reduced fat stores, and they often die of dehydration and starvation,” said Rothenburger.

“This is the most severe infectious disease we’ve ever had affecting wildlife in Canada,” she said, noting in some parts of North America 90 to 95 per cent of bat populations were lost.

She said some research suggests that in areas where there is white-nose syndrome, the loss of bats has led to an increase in insecticide and fungicide use.

“At a larger ecological scale, often we don’t fully appreciate all the things that a species does for us until it’s gone.”

Some bats can live more than 30 years, but they generally only have one pup each year, making it difficult to reverse population decline.

In Alberta, it is illegal to enter a cave where bats are hibernating between Sept. 1 and April 30. For those exploring caves, the provincial government also encourages the careful disinfection of equipment because while people aren’t known to be susceptible to the fungus, they can spread it around.

The Little Brown myotis bat, the Northern Long-eared Bat, and the Tri-coloured bat are listed as endangered species in Canada.

Alberta may have to return $130M in unspent federal funding for oil and gas well cleanup

Story by Kyle Bakx • Friday

The Alberta government may have to return $130 million in leftover funding to the federal government after not spending the money to clean up old oil and gas wells.

The cash is part of the federal government's $1.7-billion program in 2020 aimed at addressing the environmental risk of the aging oil and gas infrastructure, while also providing jobs to the beleaguered energy services sector after the pandemic began and oil prices crashed.

The federal money was divided between B.C. ($120 million), Alberta ($1 billion) and Saskatchewan ($400 million). Alberta's Orphan Well Association received a $200-million loan to support the cleanup of wells left over when companies go bankrupt.

Initially, Alberta's program ran into problems as government staff were overwhelmed by a flood of applications. Eventually, tens of thousands of projects were approved to use up all of the federal funding.

Alberta requesting funds stay in province

However, some of the money has still not been spent as some of the approved cleanup work was not completed. The government did not provide a specific reason why.

CBC News has learned Alberta is expected to return about $130 million, which the provincial government has confirmed as a fair estimate.


An aerial view as a well pipe is pulled up out of the ground during the decommissioning of a old natural gas well in Alberta in 2020.© Kyle Bakx/CBC

In total, after almost three years since the funding was announced, Alberta approved 37,589 applications, although 3,445 of those were not completed, according to the government's website.

Final invoices from oilfield service companies are still being received.

"A few other ministers and I have written to the federal government to keep the left-over funds here in Alberta. We are still awaiting a response," wrote Energy Minister Pete Guthrie in an emailed statement.

According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, the province still has tens of thousands of inactive oil and gas wells, which pose an environmental risk because of the potential soil and water contamination, in addition to the release of methane gases.

First Nations lobby for left over funds

Last week, officials with the Indian Resource Council (IRC), which represents more than 100 First Nations with oil and gas reserves, met with the province's environment and energy ministers to lobby for the $130 million to be spent on the continued remediation of wells on First Nation land.

"It's a challenge," said Stephen Buffalo, president of the IRC, pointing out how the federal funding included a clause that required the provinces to follow a specific timeline and noted that any unspent money had to be returned.



Indian Resource Council president Stephen Buffalo said the group met with the province's environment and energy ministers to lobby for the $130 million to be spent on the continued remediation of wells on First Nation land.© Kyle Bakx/CBC

As part of Alberta's program, the government allocated more than $100 million for cleanup projects for First Nations.

"It was very beneficial and very positive. So, we're doing what we can to keep that program going," said Buffalo, noting that about 350 community members received skills training.

Removing the aging wells and pipelines can free up land for First Nations to use for housing and other purposes, he said.

"Our community land mass is not getting any bigger, but their populations are," Buffalo said. "So we have to start looking at protecting the land, cleaning the land, so we can use it for the needs of our communities."



More than a dozen oilfield workers work in the middle of a farmer's field to decommission an old natural gas well in 2019.© Kyle Bakx/CBC

To date, the federal government says that more than 7,135 full-time jobs in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan have been supported, and over 49,000 wells have been addressed.

"The Department of Finance is in contact with all participating provinces as they wind down their respective well closure programming," said spokesperson Benoit Mayrand, in an email, about whether the federal government will allow Alberta to keep the leftover funds.

Saskatchewan's Accelerated Site Closure Program wrapped up last week and spokesperson Natosha Lipinski said, "We are confident that all $400 million in program funding has been spent in the province in support of Saskatchewan businesses and workers. No program dollars will be returned to the federal government."

About 8,800 wells were reclaimed, in addition to some pipelines and other infrastructure, Lipinski said.

A B.C. government spokesperson said the province will release final numbers for its well cleanup program in the coming weeks.