Canadian court gives thumbs up on emoji counting as binding contract

A dispute over a flax contract could usher in a ‘new reality in Canadian society’ as emoji make their way into everyday communication, according to a Saskatchewan judge


By Aaron Gregg
Updated July 7, 2023 
The Washington Post 

What started as a run-of-the-mill contract dispute in rural Canada has yielded a unique legal precedent for the internet age: An emoji constitutes a legally binding contract.

In a June 8 opinion that was itself peppered with the little yellow “thumbs-up” emoji, Saskatchewan judge T.J. Keene ruled that a farmer’s emoji response to a contract sent by a grain cooperative did qualify as agreement on the contract terms. He ordered the farmer to pay 82,200 Canadian dollars ($61,000) in damages.

Thanks to technology, Keene argued, emoji have become a common facet of modern communication, something the legal system will have to confront moving forward.

“This Court cannot (nor should it) attempt to stem the tide of technology and common usage — this appears to be the new reality in Canadian society and courts will have to be ready to meet the new challenges that may arise from the use of emoji and the like,” Keene concluded.

Although Keene said the case was “novel” for his district, the ruling plays into broader issues surrounding the use of images in electronic communication.

The ruling arose from a dispute between a farmer, Chris Achter, and a grain processing cooperative in southwestern Saskatchewan. During the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the grain cooperative stopped sending its salespeople to deal with farmers face-to-face and instead handled contracts by phone or email.

The cooperative claimed that both parties entered a deferred delivery purchase contract for 87 metric tons of flax in 2021, with an agreement to pay 669.26 Canadian dollars (about $500) per ton.

According to court records, a cooperative employee drafted a contract that listed “Nov.” as the delivery period, signed it, and took a photo of it on his cellphone. He then sent it to Achter, along with the phrase “Please confirm flax contract.” In response, Achter texted back a thumbs-up emoji.

However, the grain never arrived, prompting the cooperative to sue for breach of contract and insist that the emoji constituted an agreement.

In a deposition, Achter countered that he had not meant the emoji to function as a signature.

“I confirm that the thumbs-up emoji simply confirmed that I received the flax contract,” Achter said. “It was not a confirmation that I agreed with the terms of the Flax Contract. The full terms and conditions of the Flax Contract were not sent to me, and I understood that the complete contract would follow by fax or email for me to review and sign.”

Achter added that he regularly texted back and forth with the salesperson, and many of those texts were informal. As supporting evidence, he presented texts showing a joke that the salesperson had previously sent him.

“I deny that he accepted the thumbs-up emoji as a digital signature of the incomplete contract,” Achter said in the deposition. “I did not have time to review the Flax Contract and merely wanted to indicate that I did receive his text message.”

All about nuance

Emoji are commonly used to emphasize a text message or react to a post on social media. To some, they can take the place of words: The so-called “tears of joy” emoji was named the 2015 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, which said in a statement at the time that emoji “have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.”

In some cases, they have entered the business world as well, as some companies favor the workplace communications platform Slack over more formal methods like email.

Emoji have also sometimes posed complicated legal questions. In a 2014 case, Ghanam v. Does, a Michigan appeals court had to analyze the facts and circumstances surrounding a “sticking out tongue” emoticon in a defamation case. The court concluded that it was a joke, ruling in favor of the defendant.

In other cases, emoji have been used as evidence showing a person’s intent, such as a Pennsylvania drug conviction in which a defendant had used an image of a rat to indicate someone had been disloyal.

In a January 2022 article for the American Bar Association, attorney Heather King advised litigators to focus on “factors such as the sender’s and recipient’s intent, surrounding circumstances and the text accompanying the emoji.”

Culture can be important, too, King wrote, noting that a thumbs up gesture can be considered offensive or vulgar in some Middle Eastern countries.

It’s Deadline Day for Deep-Sea Mining

The International Seabed Authority had until this weekend to finish drafting exploitation regulations for deep-sea mining. They’re not done. So now what happens?

by Elham Shabahat

July 7, 2023 | 

Two years ago, the Republic of Nauru, a small island nation in the South Pacific, put the world on course for the beginning of a new industry: deep-sea mining in international waters. Nauru triggered a clause forcing the International Seabed Authority (ISA)—the body that governs the seabed in international waters—to finalize the Mining Code, the rules that will dictate where and how countries and companies can mine the deep sea. That two-year timeline runs out this weekend, on July 9. Despite the looming deadline, the ISA is far from finishing its task.

“I don’t see any chance that the regulations will be ready for adoption in July,” says Pradeep Singh, an expert on the law of the sea at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany.

The tight deadline and slow development of the Mining Code’s exploitation regulations have put the world in a potentially tricky bind. Once the two-year deadline passes, the ISA is on the hook to consider mining bids under whatever existing draft regulations it has in place.

Efforts to finish the exploitation regulations by the deadline have been mired by an array of difficult issues ranging from how mining could affect marine ecosystems, to how, exactly, the profits of deep-sea mining will be distributed to benefit all of humankind. That last is a requirement mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gives the ISA its authority.

Earlier this year, the ISA—at Germany’s request—set up a scientific working group to determine thresholds for acceptable environmental risk. Deep-sea mining will generate plumes of sediment on the seabed and in the water column that could affect marine life. But scientists’ understanding of how these plumes could impair marine ecosystems is clouded by uncertainty, making the task of developing thresholds significantly harder.

Along with concerns around sediment plumes, the ISA is also looking to establish limits for other environmental hazards, such as noise pollution, which can affect how animals including dolphins and whales communicate and navigate in deeper water. Another top concern is toxicity. Recent research suggests that the objects of deep-sea miners’ desire—small rocks containing cobalt, manganese, nickel, and copper—are radioactive and pose substantial health risks to people. While there is some research in progress, not much is known about how this could affect marine organisms.

Part of the ISA’s mandate is to protect the marine environment. But with so many uncertainties and scientific gaps, ISA member states are struggling to define acceptable limits to environmental harm.

“Right now, we don’t have any environmental thresholds, which are important to understand when mining might cause serious harm to the environment,” says Jesse van der Grient, a deep-sea biologist at the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute.

With so much still left to negotiate, and the likelihood that the exploitation regulations will not be finalized in time, ISA member states are now being forced to consider what to do if a mining application comes in before the rules are finished. A group of four nations led by Chile has put forward a proposal to reject all mining applications until the rules are complete. There is also a chance that the ISA might appeal to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea for an advisory opinion on the consequences of missing the two-year deadline. These options will likely be the focus of the ISA’s upcoming meeting in Jamaica.

According to Singh, however, Nauru may have good reasons to want to wait before moving ahead with its bid. Nauru’s quest to mine the deep sea is being made in concert with Nauru Ocean Resources, a company that is wholly owned by Vancouver, British Columbia–based the Metals Company. Along with setting thresholds for environmental harm, the Mining Code will also define the liability of a sponsoring state like Nauru in the event that something goes wrong. If Nauru were to apply for a mining license with an unfinished Mining Code, Singh says, it would not be very wise.

“If you put in a [mining] application without the regulations, you’re basically doing so without protection,” he says. “Why would you sign a blank check to expose yourself to liability?”

As the ISA scrambles to finish the Mining Code, 15 countries—including Canada, France, Fiji, Micronesia, and, most recently, Switzerland—have also issued statements against deep-sea mining in international waters.

Elham Shabahat is a writer and researcher interested in conservation, cities, forests, and the climate crisis. Her work has been published by CBC News, Sapiens, Mongabay, and others.

Earth's final frontier: the global race to exploit deep sea minerals • FRANCE 24 English

Jul 7, 2023

Today's FOCUS takes us into the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many of the minerals used in our day-to-day electronic devices can be found on the seabeds, and the global race to exploit them has already begun. However, scientists fear that this will result in long-lasting environmental damage, with major losses for the biodiversity of the world's oceans. A report from our colleagues at France 2 with FRANCE 24's Guillaume Gougeon.

Deep-sea metal rush in doubt as regulatory body meets

Reuters | July 7, 2023 |

Image: The Metals Company

Plans to extract minerals from the ocean floor are expected to be put on hold next week at a meeting of the UN body regulating the sector, with environmental and economic risks threatening to scupper the industry before it begins.


Environmental groups expect next week’s meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, to rule out any immediate permission for mining to begin. Countries will also discuss a moratorium later in the month to ensure projects do not go ahead without safeguards.

Mining companies say the ocean floor is potentially rich in metals like nickel and cobalt used in batteries for electric vehicles, so their extraction will support the global energy transition.

Any permitting delay will hurt the prospects of Canada’s The Metals Company (TMC), which has led efforts to exploit seabed minerals in the Pacific. The company was not immediately available to comment.

Environmental groups warn that the use of heavy machinery to extract “polymetallic nodules” from ocean floors could cause irreparable damage to marine ecosystems, destroying habitats, churning up sediment and disrupting migratory routes.

TMC says that while deep-sea mining will have some ecological impact, it would be less damaging than land-based extraction.

At the heart of the discussions is a loophole known as the “two-year rule”, which says the ISA council must “consider and provisionally approve” applications two years after they are submitted, even though it has yet to finalize related regulations. The Pacific island of Nauru, TMC’s sponsoring state, triggered the loophole in July 2021.

Nauru has indicated it would submit a “plan of work” to the ISA’s technical committee this year but the committee is not expected to formally recommend approval, said Sian Owen of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a non-government environmental group.

“This is a reflection of the growing momentum, globally and also within the ISA Council, of a move towards a pause,” she told a briefing. Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland have called for a moratorium, while France supports an outright ban.

ISA is responsible for exploration in sea areas beyond national jurisdictions, and its decisions will not prevent countries from digging for minerals in their own territorial waters. Norway recently announced plans to open up 280,000 square kilometres (108,000 square miles) to exploration.

Beyond the environmental impact, soaring costs and uncertain economic returns could also turn off investors.

“The fact is no one has ever mined the sea floor in any major commercial capacity,” said Victor Vescovo, an investor and deep-sea explorer who will attend the meeting.

“I think they would end up being stopped not by environmental concerns, not even by political pressure, but by the weight of the financial risk and poor performance that would happen at those incredibly difficult operating depths.”

(By David Stanway, Melanie Burton and Clara Denina; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Underwater mining of high seas inches closer, worrying environmentalists

08 Jul 2023

UNITED NATIONS: Governments will soon likely be able to apply for deep sea mining contracts in international waters, a plunge into the unknown that is worrying conservationists as calls for a moratorium on such digging grow.

States have for ten years been negotiating a mining code to set rules for the possible exploitation of nickel, cobalt and copper in deep seabed areas that fall outside of national jurisdictions.

But agreement has so far been elusive, and on Sunday a clause is set to expire that allows governments to apply for contracts while negotiations continue.

"I think it's a very real possibility that we see an application submitted this year," Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition told AFP.

"So it's crucial for states to be bold and implement the necessary measures to protect our ocean," she said, adding that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is entering "the most critical decision-making period in the history of its existence".

The ISA was established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is responsible for protecting the seabed in the high seas as well as regulating activities related to coveted minerals.

Presently, the Jamaica-based body only grants exploration permits for these areas, which the UN convention classifies as "the common heritage of mankind."

In the summer of 2021, the small Pacific island state of Nauru threw a spanner into the works of the decade-long negotiations for the mining code by triggering a clause demanding that agreement be reached within two years.

With that timeframe now up, if Nauru were to apply for a contract for Naura Ocean Resources (Nori), a subsidiary of Canadian firm The Metals Company, then ISA would have to consider the request - but may not necessarily give the green light.

The Nauru authorities have given assurances that they will not act immediately, but other companies sponsoring states' underwater mining ventures could take advantage of the opportunity, experts say.

"I'm not too concerned," Pradeep Singh, a laws of the sea expert at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany, told AFP.

"I think it would be a mistake to submit an application anytime soon, seeing that states are still negotiating and working towards completing the regulation.

"The indication is quite clear that states are very reluctant and hesitant to allow mining to commence without regulations," he added.

"QUESTION OF CREDIBALITY"

In March, the 36 member states of the ISA Council, the decision-making body on contracts, noted that commercial exploitation "should not be carried out" until the mining code was in place.

But they were unable to agree on the process for examining a possible application, or on the precise interpretation of the clause triggered by Nauru.

NGOs fearing that companies may exploit the legal vacuum hope that the Council will make a much clearer decision when it meets in Kingston from Jul 10 to Jul 21.

Meanwhile, Chile, France, Palau and Vanuatu have chosen to take the debate to the political level.

At their request, and for the first time, the assembly of ISA's 167 member states will discuss a "precautionary pause" in mining when it meets between Jul 24 and Jul 28.

"The aim is to put the issue on the table, to have a debate that has never taken place before", French Secretary of State for the Sea Herve Berville told AFP, hoping that this will "encourage other countries to follow suit."

The coalition supporting the moratorium, although gaining ground, currently comprises just under 20 countries.

"The aim is that by 2024, it will be clear to a majority of countries that a precautionary pause in the exploitation of the seabed is the right thing to do if we are to meet the challenges of climate change and biodiversity," Berville added.

He insists it's a "question of credibility" at a time when the world has just adopted the first treaty to protect the high seas and has set itself the target of preserving 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030.

NGOs and scientists say that deep sea mining could destroy habitats and species that may still be unknown but are potentially vital to ecosystems.

They also say it risks disrupting the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, and that its noise interferes with the communication of species such as whales.

"We have the opportunity to anticipate this new extractive industry and stop it before it can do any damage to our planet," said Louisa Casson of Greenpeace.

Source: AFP

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DEEP SEA MINING 

Innovation, collaboration, education emerge as themes of N.W.T. climate conference

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3-day conference intended to inform the territorial government’s next strategic framework

Natalie Pressman · CBC News · Posted: Jul 08, 2023 

Richard Nerysoo, a former N.W.T. politician, is now an "energy champion" with a federal initiative focused on supporting remote Indigenous communities in reducing diesel reliance. (Natalie Pressman/CBC)

To tackle our climate crisis, Richard Nerysoo says we can't be paralyzed by fear.

Nerysoo, a former N.W.T. politician, is now an "energy champion" with a federal initiative that supports remote Indigenous communities to reduce their reliance on diesel. He participated in a three-day conference this past week engaging residents, government representatives and industry on what is working and not working in the territory's plan to address climate change.

Input from the sessions is intended to inform a review of the 2019-2023 action plan, and contribute to developing the next strategy. 

"Because we fear, we don't take responsibility, and because we don't take responsibility — we don't take action," Nerysoo said Friday, on the final day of the event.

Robert Sexton is the director of energy for the government of the Northwest Territories and president of the board of directors of Arctic Energy Lines. He said events like this help channel diverse perspectives into a shared goal. (Natalie Pressman/CBC)

Nerysoo suggested some of that action start with including Indigenous people on boards and renovating homes to be more energy efficient rather than always building new. He said industry is also learning it has social responsibility in remediating sites.     

"To have markets, change has to happen," he said.

Robert Sexton is the director of energy for the government of the Northwest Territories and president of the board of directors of Arctic Energy Lines. Like Nerysoo, he said industry is changing and economics and environmentalism don't need to be at odds. 

"Investors want to see more sustainable mining, lower carbon mining, so the change is going to happen I think and it looks like that's the way it's going to go everywhere."

Sexton said events like the conference help channel diverse perspectives into a shared goal. 

"You have people from around the N.W.T. communities, Indigenous governments, leaders, NGOs, in this type of structured environment, there's a lot of things being said that we would never think of and absolutely need to take into account."

Posters from the event display participant ideas about different lenses from which to approach climate action. (Natalie Pressman/CBC)

As far as how the event will inform the territory's next climate plan, Sexton says it's too soon to say. 

In addition to the conference participants, the territory is collecting feedback from Indigenous governments and the public through an online portal until August 22 — though Sexton said he and his team would be happy to take feedback anytime. 

He said that will then be packed into a report, which will help to inform the territory's next government.   

 

Vince Teddy, a hamlet councillor in Tuktoyaktuk, said he's thinking about how best to communicate the issues to get the help his community, and the North has been asking for. 

He said leadership in Tuktoyaktuk and the Inuvialuit region have been proclaiming the dangers of rising sea levels and permafrost thaw for over a decade. 

"Finally over the last two years, there's been some action taken by the federal government and finally they've come across to say 'We hear you, we understand where you're coming from, we'll help you out to do mitigation, to look at ways to continue to live where you're living today as best as possible.' 

But we know the reality is we gotta move 50 years from now. We have to be out of there. So that's the stage we're at."

Vince Teddy, left, and Zain Ali, right, said that coming out of the conference, they're thinking about education. (Natalie Pressman/CBC)

Zain Ali, the education program manager with the environmental non-profit Ecology North, said educating on climate change is an important step in motivating people to take action. 

"Finding a way to take all of this information and make it digestible not only for the general public but also for youth and children that will end up using this as kind of a pathway to careers that they might take on to address this."

Ali also emphasized that through continued teamwork, it is possible to move toward a greener world. But it has to be ongoing. 

"We all can enact change," he said. "We've talked a lot about collaboration and coordination, it just needs to continue. It can't just happen just at conferences where we see each other, we make great relationships and then we don't see each other again for a certain amount of time. 

It'll be really nice if there was a way to kind of coordinate all the relationships that have been built."

STEEL CITY

Air monitoring shows high levels of cancer-causing pollutant in neighbourhoods across Hamilton

Citywide pollution-tracking found unhealthy levels of common steelmaking pollutant benzo(a)pyrene at monitoring sites from Dundas to Stoney Creek.

By Matthew Van Dongen Spectator Reporter
Saturday, July 8, 2023

The study, funded by Health Canada, measured several air pollutants last year at 60-plus sites using devices attached to utility poles. The air samplers were spread across the lower city — but also on the Mountain and in outlying communities.

The Hamilton Spectator file photo

The largest air-monitoring experiment in city history has found unhealthy levels of a cancer-linked contaminant across Hamilton — including in neighbourhoods kilometres away from polluting bayfront industries.

The results suggest coal-fired steelmaking pollutants like benzo(a)pyrene travel far beyond the lower city and pose “an even greater (health) impact than we may have expected,” said Matthew Adams, an urban air-quality expert who is co-ordinating the study alongside city staff.

A promised cut in coal use by Hamilton’s biggest steelmaker should eventually help clear the air — but not before 2028.

In the meantime, Adams said it’s up to governments to do more to regulate and reduce such dangerous pollutants. “It’s not the sort of risk an individual can realistically do much to protect themselves against.”

The study, funded by Health Canada, measured several air pollutants last year at 60-plus sites using devices attached to utility poles. The air samplers were spread across the lower city — but also on the Mountain and in outlying communities like Binbrook, Winona and Freelton — allowing the city to track air quality by neighbourhood and ward.

Results from the study will be shared in a public online meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. that residents can access via a link from project partner Environment Hamilton’s website by visiting bit.ly/airmeeting.

As expected, levels of pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide were generally worse in the lower city near industry or busy roadways, while rural air was cleaner, said Adams, a professor at the University of Toronto.

But nearly all of the 26 air monitors that tested for benzo(a)pyrene recorded summer concentrations above Ontario’s standard for air quality. That included samplers kilometres away from the industrial bayfront in Dundas, on the central and east Mountain, and in Stoney Creek.

The chemical compound, which studies link to cancer, is created by incomplete combustion of organic material. It can come from smouldering wood, cigarette smoke or even burning steak — but the biggest emissions come from coal-fired steelmaking.

Two of the top industrial emitters of benzo(a)pyrene in Ontario are steelmakers in Hamilton: ArcelorMittal Dofasco and Stelco’s bayfront coke plant.

Adams said neighbourhood air testing showed the highest levels near industry. “But what we saw is that most of the city, certainly the urban areas, (were) also above the guideline,” said Adams.

The results appear to ground truth past provincial models that suggest lifetime cancer risk due to benzo(a)pyrene and benzene is higher for Hamilton residents compared to the rest of Ontario.

While pollution levels in the city have dropped significantly since the 1990s, the latest test results show residents must “continue to push” for changes to protect their health, said Environment Hamilton head Ian Borsuk.

Some improvements — like factory pollution controls, but also electrified transportation and cleaner fuels — will have the double-barrelled benefit of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

One critical example is a “green steel” project by ArcelorMittal Dofasco, which has vowed to end the use of coal by transitioning to electric arc steelmaking furnaces as early as 2028. Both federal and provincial tax dollars are committed to the project, which is expected to dramatically slash both carbon emissions and air pollution.

Stelco has not publicly committed to ending coal use in Hamilton by a particular date, but lease documents suggest its polluting coke-making plant could shut down before 2030.

The province has also recognized the unique local health risk posed by benzene and benzo(a)pyrene by introducing tighter regulations for new industries seeking to set up shop in Hamilton.

Still, local politicians have expressed frustration with provincial air-quality exemptions routinely provided to the city’s big steelmakers that allow them to exceed standards for pollutants like benzo(a)pyrene.

City council voted earlier this year to send a letter opposing further exemptions after learning Dofasco’s latest “site specific standards” for various pollutants were about to expire.

The latest experiment just reinforces those concerns, said Mountain councillor John-Paul Danko. “This (pollution) is obviously a serious issue for people living near industry. But it is also a wider concern.”

Dofasco general manager of environment Gas Gebara said Friday the company is working with the province to develop a “technical standard compliance approach” for the steel industry. He added the planned green steel transition will “eliminate or vastly reduce” problem pollutants like benzene and benzo(a)pyrene.

Gebara also said the overall trend for benzo(a)pyrene emissions from the steelmaker is downward. National Pollutant Release Inventory data shows Dofasco’s annual emissions have dropped by more than half over the last decade.


Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com


Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton Spectator reporter. He lives in Hamilton and started working at The Spectator in 2011 after journalism stints in Peterborough and Niagara covering everything from arts to health to the environment. He has been recognized with awards for coverage of hidden pollution threats in Hamilton and historic flooding in Peterborough, among other projects.

What is port automation — and why are striking workers concerned about it?

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Canada lagging on industrial automation; union fears it 

could lead to significant job cuts

Nick Logan · CBC News · Posted: Jul 08, 2023 

Striking International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada workers march from the port to a rally, in Vancouver on Thursday, as talks remained stalled between the union and the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, which represents the province's ports. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

More than 7,400 unionized employees at more than 30 ports along British Columbia's coast are off the job in a labour dispute that concerns, among a number of issues, how automation will affect the future of work at vital maritime gateways for Canadian imports and exports.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU), which represents the striking workers, has warned for years automation will be a threat to current and future jobs at the province's ports. 

There are now more than 50 terminals around the world with some degree of automation, according to a report from the International Transport Federation (ITF), incorporating equipment such as automated stacking cranes, gantries and guided transport vehicles controlled from remote operating centres. 

British Columbia has two semi-automated container terminals: Global Container Terminals' (GCT) Deltaport, which is located at the Roberts Bank Superport, 37 kilometres south of downtown Vancouver in the city of Delta; and DP World's Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert on the North Coast.

• What you need to know about the B.C. port strike

• Justin Trudeau, Danielle Smith call for B.C. port strike resolution

But a proposed third terminal, the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion project, which recently received federal approval, has the ILWU warning of what could come.

Weeks before the contract talks broke down and the strike began, on July 1, ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton warned of the "domino effect" a new automated terminal could have on the Port of Vancouver — Canada's busiest port — possibly forcing conventional terminals to automate as well. 

While port workers walk the picket lines to demand protections against what the union describes as the "devastating impacts" of automation, others warn slow movement on automation may pose its own risks to the industry and Canada's economy. 

WATCH | Breaking down what the B.C. port strike means for you, Canada's economy: 

Workers at ports across B.C. are on strike. We break down why it's happening and what it means for you and for Canada's economy.

Canada lagging on automation

The legitimate concerns for job loss have to be weighed against the greater benefit to consumers and the economy, said Joel Bilt, an economics professor at the University of Waterloo who has researched automation and the future of work.

He said it's "worrisome" how much Canada is falling behind when it comes to automation, in general, and the country is going to pay a price if it doesn't start catching up, noting Canada is now the second-least productive economy among its Group of Seven partners, with Japan in the bottom slot. 

"I really do see both sides," Blit said. "But we can't, as a country, allow the interests of one particular group to sort of stall the technological advance and the productivity advance of our economy." 

ILWU's Ashton, speaking to CBC Vancouver's Early Edition, pointed out that there is already some automated equipment in use at conventional container terminals and the union has worked with terminal operators to procure technology that can "help make the workers' job easier."

But he said it's a different situation entirely when it comes to automation that will take away jobs. 

An automated crane picks up a shipping container at a port in Tianjin, China, on Jan. 16. It's one of more that 50 automated container terminals worldwide. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)

Ashton referenced an ILWU-commissioned study, released in 2019, that estimated semi-automating work could lead to the elimination of 50 per cent of the workforce and as much as 90 per cent in the case of full automation — even when factoring in positions created as a result of automation.

Lessons from Long Beach and Los Angeles

While ports in other countries have already travelled further down the path to automation, they don't necessarily provide clear answers on whether it will kill jobs or keep people working.

In California, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles offer both possibilities, depending on which report you reference.

A report commissioned by the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents terminal operators and shipping lines in labour negotiations, found that from 2015, the last year before automated operations, through 2021 paid hours at the automated Long Beach Container Terminal and Los Angeles' TraPac Terminal grew 31.5 per cent – more than double the growth in paid hours at non-automated terminals. 

However, a separate report underwritten by the ILWU found that in 2020 and 2021, automation eliminated 572 full-time-equivalent jobs annually at the two terminals. 

Autonomous electric vehicles carry shipping containers at the Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) in Long Beach, California, on April 20. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Automation can't solve every problem

The Port of Vancouver is Canada's busiest port but also one of the least efficient in the world, according to the most recent Container Port Performance Index from the World Bank and S&P Global Intelligence, ranking second to last out of 348 international ports, right behind Long Beach. 

"[An] inefficient port acts like a tax on any kind of trade," said the University of Waterloo's Blit, who is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, explaining it not only drives up costs for consumers but also make companies less competitive.

• Fears over supply-chain disruption grow as B.C. port strike talks remain deadlocked

• Port union warns Ottawa to 'stay out of our business,' as strike talks fail to reach deal

But automation may not be the solution when it comes to solving backlogs at container ports, according to Peter Turnbull, a professor at the University of Bristol's School of Management who has studied port labour relations since the 1980s.

He told CBC News one of the shortfalls of automation may be less flexibility and decreased ability to solve problems happening in the moment.

"If I'm on the terminal with a scanner, and I realize it's the wrong [container] box … I can work out where I can put it," he said, explaining a misplaced container can have a ripple effect leading to more work and delays.

He said other complications, like ship delays, weather factors and equipment repairs, may also be more easily managed when workers are on the spot rather than operating equipment. 

A longshoreman watches over the automation software running equipment at the Long Beach Container Terminal in Long Beach, California on February 9. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

A 2018 survey from the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company not only suggested productivity at automated ports fell seven to 15 per cent, but cost reductions were actually less than expectations. 

Turnbull said there can be new opportunities borne out of technological change but he explained there is a sense of "pride" port workers have in everyone doing their part to keeping everything moving smoothly but "machines take that away" when greater automation is introduced. 

Although Blit believes there is a need for more automation, he said steps need to be taken to protect livelihoods, noting robotic automation is more likely to displace people at the "lower end of the scale of distribution" while computerization tends to impact mid-scale jobs. 

"If it is a small group that is bearing the cost, we need to make sure that we're helping those folks again to retrain, maybe with other kinds of support, and not just leaving them, you know, hanging them out to dry," he said.

Container ships are pictured moored in English Bay near the Port of Vancouver on July 5, days after port workers walked off the job. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

With files from Reuters